Summary: Ratchet gets a visit from Starscream.
Author Notes: I've done some editing here 'n there.
Author Notes #2: Ratchet is based on my mother, a career nurse. One of these days I'll get around to telling her she's a giant alien robot on the internet. :)

Thirteen hours after returning from the battleground of the latest Decepticon attempt to steal energy, Ratchet was still grumbling his way through his tool-check. His apprentices kept everything in the repair bay in top condition, but each medic was responsible for their field kit, including the CMO. He was cleaning dried Energon off the handle of a patch welder when the repair bay doors opened. Ratchet looked up to see Starscream striding into his repair bay. There was a faint scowl on his face; though that may have been because Ultra Magnus quietly loomed behind him.

"Ratchet," he said without preamble. "I need to speak with you."

"Spike said you would be dropping by," Ratchet said. Packing his kit away, he gestured towards his office. Ultra Magnus moved to follow but stopped when Ratchet told him. "Privately, if you please, Magnus."

Magnus nodded and cast Starscream a warning look before he settled himself outside the office, which was not only soundproofed but was as heavily safeguarded as Prime's office. Starscream flicked his optics around the room; not that there was much there to look at. Ratchet didn't like spending time in his office and it showed. The computer, which was incorporated into his desk, was kept separate from Teletraan-1, so a nosy parker would have a hard time getting to his medical records. That was also why he had a monitor instead of holoscreens; one could read a holoscreen from behind with a little effort.

Aside from the desk and comfortable chairs, there were pictures drawn by the younglings on the cabinet doors. Ratchet refused to keep those pictures in the repair bay proper as there were more than a few times where the bay looked like a massacre had happened. He didn't want the younglings' pictures destroyed.

Securing the door, Ratchet gestured to a seat. "Is this about the monitor installation? Spike said you had questions."

"Why would a spark change color?"

Ratchet blinked in surprise, rapidly recalling Spike's medical report. "Several reasons... What color did his spark change to?"

"Mine."

Starscream folded his arms and glared defiantly at him. Defiance and a little fear, Ratchet noted; Starscream hid it well but Ratchet had been observing mechs for almost as long as the Seeker had been online, and he could tell this disturbed him greatly.

"Yours?" Ratchet straightened, the beginnings of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "That's, that's excellent."

Starscream scowled. "How so?"

"Oh, stop looming and sit down," Ratchet said, waving a hand at him. He seated himself in his own chair, twisting to open the bottom drawer of his desk. "He's fine, you're fine, nobody's hurt."

"You will be if you don't explain yourself!"

Ratchet vented a laugh, and pulled out a cube of high grade and two smaller, empty cubes. "You obviously didn't know this, but it's possible to establish a creation bond with a sparkling not your own."

Starscream looked shocked. "How?"

"The backing definitely helped, assisting the connection of your spark to his." Ratchet poured some of the high-grade into the empty cubes and handed one to Starscream. He took it somewhat gratefully, quaffing it. Ratchet refilled the cube and continued his explanation. "All it takes is deep affection between adult and sparkling and time, and it's no secret the kid loves you."

Starscream frowned down at his drink.

"And from what I've seen, you love him just as much," Ratchet told him gently. He swirled the energon around in his cube, regarding Starscream pensively. "It must be difficult for you. Skyfire's told me what happened to your family-"

Starscream's frame stiffened in defense. "Skyfire told you that?"

"Patient confidentiality, Starscream." Ratchet took a drink of his own. "He told me in strictest privacy."

"...And you intend to keep that privacy?"

"Yup." Ratchet leaned back in his chair. "But back to the spark-change; it's rare but it happens. Creation bonds are more likely to form with younger sparklings but I once saw one form with a youngling of 12 vorns. The color of both sparks change, indicating a bond's formed; if we checked, yours would be bluer. The usual effects of a creation bond -"

"I am familiar with those bonds," Starscream said flatly.

"I'm certain you are." Ratchet let that subject drop. "But as I was about to say, as far as your sparks are concerned, you created Optronix."

Starscream fell silent for a moment.

"Do you," Starscream began quietly, looking into his cube, "intend to put that in your medical report?"

"I should." Ratchet took a sip of his high-grade. "Do you not want me to?"

"I- " Starscream suddenly looked lost. "I don't know."

Ratchet let Starscream contemplate his energon for a few minutes. "I don't mean to change the subject, but the monitor Spike installed shows that Optronix's lisp is not going to correct itself; software problems."

Starscream seemed grateful for the distraction. "Is it correctable?"

"Uh-huh, simple software patch," Ratchet said. "One that Optimus didn't have; I checked his records."

"Hmmn." Starscream leaned back into his chair, finger tapping his cube. "Is it possible the patch wasn't entered?"

"Unlikely," Ratchet informed him. He set his now-empty cube on the desk and began queuing up medical files on the monitor. "He was under the care of the same youngling-medic until maturity; that medic also built him."

"Intriguing." Starscream's optics dimmed and lost focus. "Did you-"

"Compare the test results with those of Optimus at the same age? I did." Ratchet called up the results and turned the monitor so Starscream could read it. "They're nearly identical."

Starscream leaned closer, finger tracing a line on a graph. "The differences are miniscule," he murmured, mostly to himself. Placing his cube out of the way, Starscream pulled the keyboard close and paged through the results, until he came to something that obviously belonged to Optimus.

The Seeker started, hands freezing on the keyboard, then pushing it towards Ratchet. "My apologies."

Ratchet rearranged the keyboard so that both of them could access it. "None needed; you are, after all, his creator."

"Optronix's creator; not Optimus Prime's."

"Mmn." Ratchet raised an eye ridge at him, calling up a picture of Optimus as he had been before becoming Prime. "Part of those differences is due to the differences in frames; Optronix is going to resemble Optimus when he finishes 'growing'."

"He was reformatted? Before becoming Prime?" Starscream gaped at the screen. "This is him?"

"Orion Pax," Ratchet said softly. "Back before the war started."

Starscream leaned forward to get a closer look, fingertip touching the screen. "I have seen this mech."

Ratchet felt his optic ridges rise. "You have?"

"An outing, near the spaceport. A moment's inattention and my sparkling wandered off." Starscream was so intent on the picture that he didn't seem to realize how open he was being. He gestured at the picture. "This mech returned her."

Ratchet shook his head in wonder. "Orion was a dock worker before the Council profiled him as a candidate for Prime. He was damaged in an attack; an attempt to take an energon shipment. He was pretty much completely rebuilt."

"And then he became Prime."

"Uh-huh." Ratchet grinned. "I think the Council of Ancients thought he'd be easier to control than the older candidate. He was very young."

They shared a look; if Optimus Prime had been as biddable as the Council wanted, the war would have been over practically as soon as it started. With Megatron holding the Matrix.

"But back to the topic at hand; I can have the patch ready a day after tomorrow. When did you want to bring Optronix in?"

Starscream gazed at the monitor for a few klicks, then said thoughtfully. "In three orns; that will give me time to explain the situation to Optronix and for him to adjust."

"All right. Do you want Spike to do it?" Ratchet grinned wider at Starscream's baleful look. "Kidding. Unless something happens, I'll be on duty."

"Hn." Starscream stood, pushing the monitor back into position. "We will be there."

"Allrightythen." Ratchet nearly snickered at the look that flashed across Starscream's face, then remembered. "Oh, wait."

"Now what?" Starscream grumped.

Ratchet retrieved a toy car from his office desk and rose to hand it Starscream. "Found it earlier. Optronix has been the only youngling to come in the last few days."

Ratchet flipped the toy car out of the way when Starscream reached for it. "I've been wondering if you had given any thought to upgrading Optronix for a subspace pocket. He's at the right age and it'll keep him from misplacing his things."

Starscream's optics flickered in surprise. "I... had considered that upgrade but discarded it due to the picotrons."

"They shouldn't interfere; I've asked the others to make certain and we all think the picotrons would adapt. It's easily removed if something happens."

At Starscream's skeptical look, the flier really did love the kid, Ratchet continued. "First pocket generator's pretty much a plug-in; the pocket is small - Thing wouldn't fit, for instance - and doesn't have much of a power draw. You noticed the hatch below Optronix's cydraulic access?"

Starscream nodded. "Yes. On the right side of his torso. I opened it and saw attachment points-"

"-for the subspace generator. I can install it along with the patch." Ratchet offered the car again. "I can send you the others' findings to double check, if you'd like."

"I would, yes." Starscream took the toy, looking at it before tucking it into a subspace pocket. Ratchet slipped past him to the door, but hesitated before unlocking it. He turned back to Starscream.

"The creation-bond needs to go in his records but there is no reason to inform anyone else. I'll lock it under my codes; no one else will see it when they call the file up."

Starscream eyed him, gauging his sincerity, before nodding. "Thank you."

Opening the door, Ratchet stepped out. Magnus caught his optic, blipping a questioning tone to Ratchet's comm; Ratchet sent back the standard "everything-fine/stand-down" tone.

Starscream merely strode past them both, heading for the exit. Magnus managed to convey rolled optics without doing so to Ratchet and hurried to catch up.

Ratchet watched the doors close behind them before returning to his toolkit.

ooOO0OOoo

The next day, Starscream had looked over the Autobot scientists' report and found that he agreed with Ratchet; it should be safe to upgrade Optronix. The speech patch should integrate smoothly and the subspace pocket would cause only a few problems until Optronix's power systems adapted.

Now to explain to Optronix. They were in the process of getting Optronix ready for his bath when he broached the subject.

"Why I have to go see 'atchet?" Optronix whined. "Had test. Got montuh."

"I know you have," Starscream told him patiently from his crouched position. "But the tests have shown that your speech programs are not working properly. Ratchet is going to fix that."

Optronix thought for a few klicks. "Will I have be offline?"

"No. It is a simple download; it will go better if you are online."

"'kay." Optronix looked apprehensive.

"And," Starscream said, "he will upgrade you for a subspace pocket."

"Eally?" Optronix brightened. "Get pock't?"

"Yes. I think it is time."

Optronix ran forward to throw his arms around Starscream's neck. "Yay!"

Thrown off balance, Starscream managed to sit down before he fell. He wrapped his arms around Optronix and hugged him; the sparkling squeaked, chortling at the tightness of the embrace.

Levering himself to his pedes, Starscream tucked Optronix under his arm, his helm down and pedes up so the sparkling was hanging upside down, and headed for the washrack. Optronix giggled the entire way, squealing when Starscream gently dropped him in his bath, trusting Optronix's safety systems to shut down his air intakes.

Optronix surfaced, wiping at his optics. "Do 'gain!"

"Not tonight." Starscream picked up a brush and started on the small helm, making Optronix squirm.

"Hold still," he said firmly. "Or do you wish to grow crystals on your antennae?"

"No kystals!" Optronix giggled, hands covering his audios.

"Then hold still," he said.

Washing Optronix generally didn't take long; it was just happening more often now that he was in daycare and had access to all the art supplies. Optronix frequently ended his daycare time looking like someone's art project. Someone color-blind, with a love of adhesives.

After scrubbing away the last blob of glue, Starscream handed Optronix a bucket of bath toys, a gift from Jazz. Optronix happily occupied himself while Starscream took care of his own cleansing.

Afterwards, and after setting the bath to recycle, Starscream wrapped Optronix in a drying towel and settled on the couch; Starscream himself was already dry but Optronix's delicate dermal plating needed gentler cleansers and those needed more time to dry.

Or assistance. Optronix used the towel to dry himself off while Starscream retrieved the polish.

"All done!" Optronix grinned at him, a streak of cleanser gleaming on the bill of his helm.

"So you are." Starscream took the towel, using it to swipe Optronix's helm dry before spreading it out across his lap, giving Optronix a soft place to lay while being polished. Optronix flopped across it on his front side, pedes kicking in the air as he watched Starscream pour some polish on a cloth.

"Your front first, Optronix."

A put-upon sigh and Optronix rolled over. Starscream raised an optic ridge at the theatrics but didn't say anything; it would just encourage the sparkling.

Optronix shuttered his optics tight when Starscream started to polish his face. He relaxed when Starscream continued to his helm, letting the Seeker reposition him without resistance, slowly falling limp as the polishing motions relaxed him.

By the time Starscream turned him over to polish his back, Optronix was well into the first stages of recharge, optics half-shuttered and one hand curling lightly around Starscream's knee guard.

Once finished with Optronix, Starscream gently shifted the small frame to lay beside him. He opened his own can of polish and began to smooth out the day's nicks and scratches.

All the while listening to his sparkling whirr and click softly as his presence hummed in his processors.