A/N: first of all, a BIG, MASSIVE thank you to optimusprime007 who messaged me with all these plot points I could use and boy oh boy did my muse latch on and not let go. Thank Primus for that! This is the 3 years in future one.

However, this chapter is a bit dry, but next one is a hell of a lot better.

Family is Forever – Chapter 13 – Growth

"Wow," murmured Spike, watching as the white sparkling moved about the rec-room. "It's amazing she's still that small."

"Well," began Ratchet, optics also trained on Harmony, playing with her musical blocks and her SunSun with Bumblebee, "Growth rates for sparklings are vastly different for our kind. For the past three…almost four years, Harmony has been a sparkling, but her intelligence is very high because of those years. She hasn't had her official lessons yet, but she learns by observation. Her frame will change in about a year's time, so she'll be taller and she'll have harder, more protective plating."

"So…how long does it take for a Cybertronian to mature?" asked the young human.

"Five human years for the sparkling stage, 40 years for the youngling stage, and another 40 years for the young adult stage. Just over a Cybertronian vorn. That's not including academy years. Of course, that's if you chose to have a sparkling, whether by spark to spark or by Vector Sigma. Mechs or femmes that came fully formed out of Vector Sigma had skipped all that and came forth as individuals, completely learned and conscious. They never get a younglinghood, which is unfortunate, but they are not drastically different from others in society," the medic informed, smiling as he watched Harmony flap her little doorwings, and jump up and catch the plush toy of Sunstreaker.

Spike stared in wonder at the small white being. "She's so smart…" he mused aloud.

"Mental growth is far faster than body. It's mainly the set of mindset…conscious, that comes into awareness and as the processor becomes more organised and figuratively expands."

"Jeez," muttered Spike. Imagine if he had a son who was talking and walking six months after birth, like Harmony had. He would have hailed it as some super genius, but Ratchet had explained it was normal.

Ratchet merely chuckled and looked at the spectacle once more, feeling a tug in his spark. He couldn't wait for the day that he and Wheeljack had their own.

A/N: I'm uploading Chapter 14 straight after this. It'll be better, this was just to explain, really.