Normal, ::cybertronian::, emphasized, thoughts, *comm. line*, //bond//

Chapter 2 - Learning

Despite the large battle the day before, no Autobot sparks were extinguished much to the relief of their CMO. There were however, a large number of wounded. Most of the injuries were minor but with the numbers involved it was time consuming seeing to everyone's repairs. Ratchet had finally released the last of the repaired mechs out of his med bay and was in the process of cleaning when his audio receptors detected a barely audible noise from his office. "Oh wonderful" he muttered sarcastically "it's awake again." He sighed and set down the cleaning solution before opening the door to his office. A component he had been working on at his desk the other day flew through the air and smacked him in the dead center of his chest. "Now knock that off! I was trying to fix that you know?"

Joe spread her arms indicating the surface of the desk she was standing on. "Well it was the only item you had on your desk that I could throw that far. You know if you'd just let me leave you wouldn't have to put up with this harassment."

"According to your own county's protocols any patient suspected of having a concussion must be observed for no less then forty eight hours; of which we are sadly only on thirty nine hours and fifty two minutes. And since you live alone with no one to watch you I get to have the oh so charming honor of babysitting you… Lieutenant."

Joe growled slightly at the way Ratchet threw her rank in her face. "What do you know of our protocols Chief Medical Officer? And how do you know I don't have someone to watch me?"

"The internet is my new friend" Ratchet replied with a smug grin. "You really should be more careful with what information you humans just let float around out there. The pictures your colleagues posted on the internet from your fire department's last banquet for example. Tell me, exactly how much alcohol did you consume at that party before you decided it would be a good idea to dance on a table?"

"Low blow" Joe muttered. She silently made a promise to herself to chase down everyone at her fire house and terrorize every last one of them until all the pictures were retrieved. She turned away from Ratchet and walked back to where she was seated before the CMO's entrance.

Ratchet grinned and mentally added a point to his score as he realized that he had won this particular battle. Joe had won the last two arguments and it was starting to grate on him. He rather enjoyed their little fights and despite having just met her, he found himself actually enjoying her company. It was not often that Ratchet found someone capable of standing up to him and holding their own in an all out verbal duel.

Ratchet walked around to the other side of the desk curious as to what had drawn Joe away and stared in disbelief. Scattered across his desk were several datapads containing everything from cybertronian anatomy to physiology. What really made his optics go wide was the fact that it seemed as though Joe was actually studying them! "Where did you get those and what are you doing with them?!"

"I took them from your desk since you decided to make me a prisoner here; and I am learning from them. You're a medic, you know just as well as I do that our education never ends. I saw an opportunity to learn about your procedures so I took advantage of it. You accessed our internet and learned from our fire/rescue and medical sites; well now it's my turn."

"Those datapads are in a cybertronian language, how are you learning from them if you cannot read them?"

"Its tricky but the diagrams clear up a lot of the confusion. And despite the fact that you all are machines, I am seeing a lot of similarities with human anatomy. We have a heart beat, you have a spark pulse. We have blood, you have coolant and energon. We have arms and legs, you have…well most of you have arms or legs or something close enough to them."

Dumbfounded Ratchet dropped into the seat behind his desk and stared at Joe. "You have to be the most interesting human I have encountered to date Joe." Humans never ceased to amaze him; or perhaps it was just this human. Here he was faced with an alien species (an organic one at that!) who shared the same ideals as he did. He envied her curiosity and her ability to cope with the situation at hand; he was quite sure he would not have handled this as calmly had their positions been reversed. "Which information files have you not been able to understand? Perhaps I can explain them to you."

Joe happily dragged a datapad out of the pile and sat down. "I'm ready when you are professor."

Ratchet eagerly answered every question the human medic tossed his way. After awhile he switched to just reading the datapads out loud to her. This went on for some time until Ratchet noticed that Joe had fallen asleep. He cursed to himself knowing that he should of kept a closer eye on his patient. Her wounds were still very fresh and she still had a lot of recovering to do. A knock at his office door brought his optics up from the sleeping woman.

Wheeljack poked his head inside the door and flashed his voice indicators happily. "Hey stranger, long time no see."

"Keep your vocals down slagger" Ratchet whispered fiercely and indicated to the sleeping human on his desk.

Wheeljack blinked and his voice indicators flashed a light lavender with embarrassment. "Sorry Ratch" he whispered. "How is she?"

Ratchet shrugged. "As well as can be expected. The websites I have searched are rather vague on specific recovery times. I assume it just varies from human to human and obviously based on the actual scenario at hand." He reached over and grabbed the blanket from the berth he had dragged in earlier and placed the fabric over the sleeping figure curled up on his desk. He offered her a small smile as he managed to slide the datapad she was half lying on out from under her.

"Whats with the datapads?" Wheeljack asked as he joined the CMO next to the desk.

"She wanted to learn about the cybertronian version of her job, so I was reading them to her. She is quite intelligent for a human. A very capable medic in her own right."

Wheeljack raised an optic ridge at his friend. "You don't say. Not often the Hatchet offers up praise to anyone not to mention an organic."

Ratchet would of smacked the other mech upside the head if he wasn't worried the noise might wake up Joe. "Don't you have something to blow up in your lab?" He stood and walked over to the door leading to the med bay proper.

Wheeljack followed and gently closed the office door behind him. "Always with the blowin' up jokes. You need some new material Ratch."

"Well maybe if you didn't have your own personal repair berth in the med bay right next to Sideswipe's and Sunstreaker's..."

Wheeljack chuckled. "Ok so I've had a few setbacks in my attempt to make our lives a little better and help our cause. But at least my berth wasn't earned through failed jet judo attempts like those two hellions."

Ratchet grinned. "Touché." He walked over to one of the equipment tables and resumed his earlier cleaning. Despite his friendly banter with Wheeljack his processor was still working overtime trying to make sense of the current resident of his office. Ratchet was not easily surprised and yet this human had surprised him more then once in a short time. Not just the ability to stand up to him and toss back insults that could make even Ironhide stutter; but her desire to learn cybertronian medicine had well and truly shocked him. None of the apprentices he'd had in the past showed even half her eagerness to learn.

Wheeljack grew concerned as he watched a multitude of expressions flitter across Ratchet's face plates as he cleaned. He was beginning to think that the distracted medic had forgotten he was there. "So, shall I get Inferno?"

Ratchet paused at the sudden question and blinked over at Wheeljack. "What?"

"If anymore smoke pours outta that overworked processor of yours it will only be a matter of time before you set off the smoke detectors anyways. I figured I'd get a head start an call Inferno down to reset the detectors. Wanna save me the trouble an tell me what's goin' on?" Ratchet glared at him and Wheeljack thought he was going to give him the usual 'go frag yourself' comment. He was surprised when the medic leaned back on a table and began to speak.

___________________________________________________________________________

Joe opened her eyes and for a brief panicky moment forgot where she was. Aches and pains throughout her body gave her a quick reminder. She stretched and bit back a few choice words at the resulted stiffness and pain. She smiled down at the blanket that had fallen to her feet. Ratchet wasn't all that bad for an overbearing grouch of a robot medic. As if thinking his name had been a summons the CMO walked into the office.

"How are you feeling?"

It was amazing how much feeling could be expressed on the metal plates of these robots. The expression combined with the surprising amount of concern conveyed across Ratchet's voice threw Joe for a loop. "About how I should feel after having my ambulance shot out from under me." They had given her a hell of a briefing the other day bringing her up to speed about the whole alien sentient robots warring on earth thing. The brief had also included the fact that it had been a Decepticon named Starscream who fired on Joe's ambulance. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and her partner had paid the price. Sadness crossed Ratchet's face and Joe knew what he was thinking… or processing, or whatever it was that he did. "Stop. I don't blame the Autobots for what happened Ratchet. Kevin and I were doing our job responding to an emergency. We knew the risks of our job just like you know the risks of yours."

Ratchet nodded and tried to lighten his expression. "You would of made a fine med bot."

"Oh God, you're not going to get all sentimental on me now are you?"

Ratchet grinned. "Well fine then, you can just sit here and I will go out for a drive by myself."

"Whoa now, is the warden actually saying I can step outside for a bit if I behave?"

"The warden is saying that you seem to be in no danger from your injuries and that you are well on your way to recovery and that if you wanted a lift to your residence…"

"Oh hell yes! I need a shower and some real food like there is no tomorrow!"

"Well sorry about not being able to give you real food your royal highness. All we had to offer were MRE's that the military had left behind when the base was built. And I am glad you agree that you need a shower. My office is starting to smell a little… strange."

"Wise aft."

Ratchet laughed at the use of the cybertronian insult from the human. "Fast learner. I'll make you an Autobot medic yet. Now lets hit the road shall we?"

***Alright, first two chapters done. The changes are small for now but will increase later on and will become VERY obvious in some chapters. I even have two new chapters already that will be added between older chapters. Working as fast as I can...please don't hurt me!***