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

Chapter 3 - Student

Walking to the entrance of the base was a lengthy process as all the Autobots encountered wished to inquire about Joe's health. At first Joe was a little put back at having several dozen giant alien robots showing genuine concern for her. Ratchet watched with obvious amusement as she explained for what seemed the hundredth time that yes she was doing better and that no her injuries did not pain her much. They had almost made it outside when they encountered Sunstreaker and Sideswipe.

Sunstreaker glanced down at the human female walking beside Ratchet and raised an optic ridge. "It's loose again."

"I told you, it's a she, not an it" replied Sideswipe. Sunstreaker merely shrugged indifferently in response. Sideswipe frowned at his brother but quickly replaced it with a wide smile as he kneeled before Joe. "So how's the mini Hatchet doing anyways? What's the score at now?"

Ratchet blinked at the question and was about to ask what Sideswipe was referring to when Joe answered. "Score is seven to five with me in the lead though someone keeps cheating and using the internet to win the arguments. And I am doing much better. Apparently, I am well enough to go play outside for a bit."

Ratchet gave up trying to feign innocence at the suggestion of cheating and smirked down at Joe. "I said I'd give you a lift to your residence, not play. You still have a bone in your arm that is not fully operational, hence the splint. I suggest not doing anything stupid until it is completely healed."

Joe silently mimicked Ratchet's speech then returned her attention to the twins. "Is he like this with you when you get hurt?"

Sideswipe shrugged and offered a sympathetic smile. "Well it doesn't take long for us to heal; we just get fixed up. But yeah, we end up with an aft load of lectures too."

"At least you don't get a wrench chucked at your head from across the med bay." Sunstreaker folded his arms across his chest and glared at Ratchet. "I've lost track of how many times I've had to touch up my paint after a so called lecture about my health you hypocrite."

Joe spun around to face a bored looking Ratchet. "You throw a wrench at me and I will weld your ankles together while you recharge."

"Like you even know how to handle a welding torch. And you can't get to me in recharge if you aren't let back into the base" Ratchet countered smugly.

"You're kicking her out? Why?!" Sideswipe interrupted. "This is prime entertainment right here. I've never thought of attaching a mech's ankles together before."

Ratchet rubbed a hand across his face plates imagining the twins making good use of Joe's idea. "Sideswipe, she is a human and we are in a war with the Decepticons. She was initially brought here to help her during an emergency. We cannot endanger her further. Letting her wander in and out of our base is a risk."

Joe took a step back from Ratchet and frowned up at him. "A risk" she deadpanned. "So it's ok to compliment in private but outside with your buddies looking on I become a risk. So glad to see that pig headedness is not unique to this planet."

Ratchet scrunched his optic ridges together detecting Joe's sudden apprehension. He hadn't meant for this subject to be brought up like this and certainly not in the presence of others.

*Ratchet, has anyone ever told you that your people skills suck?*

Ratchet glared at Sideswipe who stood and brushed some dirt off his legs as if he'd never sent the private comm. line.

"He's right you know."

Ratchet turned his glare from red twin to yellow. He hated it when they tag teamed across that Pit forsaken bond of theirs. "You, of all mechs have no room to speak about this topic!"

Sunstreaker snorted. "Yeah?" He yanked a thumb to the side indicating further outside the base. "At least I can say I've never chased off a human."

Ratchet looked back down noticing that Joe was indeed gone. He whipped his head around in the direction of Sunstreaker's thumb and saw Joe walking off into the distance. He quickly jogged after the retreating human ignoring the snickers of the two mech's he'd left behind. A short time later he skid to a stop in front of Joe and planted his hands on his hips. "Just what exactly do you think you are doing?!"

"I am going home to clean up… as per you're your instructions" was Joe's stiff reply.

"Look, Joe… "

"No, I understand. I am a liability; a risk. I do not wish to endanger others with my presence." Without another word Joe calmly stepped around the wall of yellow plated feet in front of her hoping that she was at least not walking in the wrong direction.

"Alright now that is enough!" Ratchet snapped, his large hand slamming down in front of Joe. "You do realize that I am just trying to protect you? You have no idea what you've been brought into. You heard Sideswipe! With the exception of worse case scenario destruction or direct spark injury, we can repair ourselves. You on the other hand, not so much. If you were cybertronian your arm injury could have been repaired within fifteen minutes instead of the… " Ratchet stared off into space for a moment obviously searching the internet an answer "…four to six weeks for full repair." Ratchet took a deep breath through his intakes and removed the hand that had been blocking Joe's path. "Look, I am sure you are a wonderful human medic. You also seem to have the intelligence and instinct that's on par with an Autobot medic; with the proper training. But the fact is that you are human, not an Autobot. This is not your war."

"Then what was with all that back in your office?!" Joe snarled back. "Why even bother tolerating my questions?! I thought maybe I could learn a little something and get back at those sons of bitches responsible for this! I lost my partner to your war on my planet! Kevin was all I had left! I have no family which you so kindly pointed out! My partner, Kevin, he was like a brother to me! Didn't your precious Google search tell you that?!"

Joe realized that she was losing the battle of keeping her tears back and averted her gaze to the ground in front of her. "I owe Sideswipe for carrying me still pinned in that truck all the way back to base. I owe Prowl for making the decision to have me brought to base. I owe Optimus Prime for even allowing me into his base."

Ratchet kneeled in an attempt to get a better look at Joe. "Joe, you don't owe us anything."

"And I owe you for taking care of me" Joe continued over Ratchet's comment. She scrubbed angrily at her eyes trying to ignore the huge blue optics watching her with concern nearby. "And why the frag can't I stop crying?!"

"Ever the fast learner, though it was our own fault for not watching our language around you" sighed Ratchet. "What do you suggest we do then?"

Still not meeting Ratchet's optics Joe whispered, "I don't know."

Ratchet transformed into his alt mode and opened the driver side door. "Well can I at least give you a ride or do you still insist on walking?"

Joe looked over at the open door and slumped her shoulders in defeat. She gave Ratchet her address and climbed in.

___________________________________________________________________________

It was a quiet drive with Joe apparently uncomfortable with her emotional outburst earlier and Ratchet thinking things through in his processor. Not since his academy days had he felt this… uncertain about anything he did. The war had an unfortunate way of forcing you to learn very quickly. Those who did not learn fast enough or were unable to adapt did not last long. Ratchet had learned, had adapted, and had earned his right to the title of Chief Medical Officer to the finest crew the Autobots had ever constructed. He had been lucky. He'd seen more than his fair share of apprentices, junior medics, and even seasoned medics go down and go down hard; Ratchet's last apprentice included. How could he even begin to consider a fragile human as a possible candidate?

Eventually Joe told Ratchet to pull off onto a dirt road within a thickly wooded area well east of the Autobot's base. A small cabin came into view and Ratchet was surprised when Joe confirmed that this was her place. Joe quietly exited his cab and unlocked the cabin's front door. He transformed and examined his surroundings admiring the peace and quiet of the nearly untouched area.

"This place was my grandfather's before he died. It isn't much and it's a bitch of a drive to work, but the quiet is nice. I'd invite you in but I kind of like my doorframe where it is; and my roof."

Ratchet blinked and grinned a little in return. He was glad to see that some of Joe's humor had returned even if it was a weak attempt for her standards. "Well if the invite stands, I think I can manage something."

Joe only just barely held back a yelp at suddenly seeing an adult human male standing between herself and Ratchet. "What…?"

"Hologram. It tends to look a little conspicuous driving around with no one behind the wheel so we developed these."

Joe stepped away from her front door and did a slow walk around of the hologram. He was a very average looking caucasian brown haired man; someone who not jump out in a crowd. The paramedic uniform he was dressed in was nearly identical to hers. She stopped just in front of him and grinned pointing at the brass pins decorating the lapels on his uniform. "According to this, I outrank you."

Ratchet smirked. The hologram blurred for a moment and his single brass bars became the several clustered brass bugles of a chief. "Better?"

Joe rolled her eyes and walked back to the house. "So are you able to come in or what? How far can you wander from your… um… real body? How solid is that thing? Can you feel?"

The hologram silently followed Joe into the cabin while Ratchet stretched out on the ground of Joe's front yard. "Back to endless questions again, much better then the silent treatment. Anymore then fifty feet or so stresses the system, though we are working on increasing the distance. As for being solid or feeling, this is only a hologram. Sensors allow me to see through the hologram but not much more."

Joe studied the hologram out of the corner of her eye as she dug through her mail. It was weird having the hologram human Ratchet walking around in her living room while the real Ratchet answered her questions from outside through the open door. "So, basically a fancy camera, slash light show on legs. Gotcha."

The hologram glanced around the inside of the small cabin and nodded with approval. Several medical certifications hung on the walls behind a desk as well as several awards and a burned up fire helmet. A couch, an entertainment center, and other small pieces of furniture made up the rest of the front room. He could make out a kitchen through one of the doors at the end of the room and what he assumed was her recharge room through another door.

"It won't take me long to get cleaned up. Did you want to wait or did you need to return to base?" Joe asked from the door to her bedroom.

"I'll wait if that's ok; I am not on shift for a few more hours." Joe nodded and disappeared into her room. The hologram continued to wander around the main room reading the various certifications and awards. He took note that several seemed to be from the United States Army. He made his way to a large bookshelf and became frustrated at not being able to physically look through the various medical books. He looked up the various titles on the internet and downloaded them for future reading. He gave his head a little shake as he considered the fact that he might be addicted to the web.

___________________________________________________________________________

Joe took a quick shower and got dressed as fast as she could not wanting to make her unique guest wait long. She peaked into the living room and smiled as she noticed Ratchet staring at her medical books. "Now you know how I felt when I found your datapads" she laughed as she stepped into the room.

"Like you said…" Ratchet called from outside "…a medic never stops learning."

Joe jumped when Ratchet's face suddenly appeared from the open front door. She sighed at his serious expression. Well you knew he was probably going to want to talk about earlier eventually.

"Joe, about what I said earlier. I've been thinking."

"Don't hurt yourself" Joe muttered.

"Funny. How serious are you about wanting to learn cybertronian medicine?"

"Honestly?"

"Always."

"Very serious. Why?"

"Because, well, if you really wanted to, Optimus wouldn't really mind all that much if you stayed at the base, from time to time, to learn. As long as you didn't participate in any of the battles, and mostly stuck to the med bay of course. I just, thought that, maybe having a human medic around the base could be beneficial… to our human allies of course." Ratchet knew he was rambling enough to put Bluestreak to shame but was unable to stop. Joe walked to the front door and leaned on the door frame folding her arms across her chest and fixing him with an amused expression. "And your hands are small and able to assist with delicate circuitry procedures…" Joe continued to just stand there and stare at him. "Oh fine! So I miss teaching! It's been vorns since I've had an apprentice alright?!" Joe suddenly put on the biggest smile Ratchet had ever seen. He was not aware humans could do that. How did her face not hurt from being split in half like that?

"You would be willing to teach me? You'd let me help?"

"No, I am raising your hopes and then waiting for the opportune moment to completely crush you" Ratchet said dripping with sarcasm. He quickly adopted a more serious expression. "I wouldn't have asked you if I wasn't sure Joe." Ratchet blinked as Joe did what could only be described as one of those ridiculous victory dances he had seen done after a goal was achieved in the American game of football.

"You won't regret it! I promise I will do my best to learn everything you are willing to teach. And I won't get in the way at all."

"Just so long as you remember who is the boss. As of now I am the teacher and you are the student. Got it?" Joe nodded back and saluted him. A tiny warning flashed in his processor when he noted that he had seen Sideswipe salute him like that once… right before he pulled one of his more spectacular pranks. What in the name of Primus had he gotten himself into?

***I really have no excuse as to why it's taken me so long to get this chapter done. I blame Perceptor's belly shirt looking armor on TF Animated. Seriously though, last episode showed some much needed Ratchet love. Fuck yeah!***