AN: First off, Thanks for all the reviews! I'm pleased that everybody (Hopefully) liked the way the chapter turned out. I was worried that Jazz was too out of character, but not alot of people seemed to think that. I'm glad.
Specifically to Elita One, pl2363, Mirage Shinkiro, Blood Shifter2, TammyCat, Deepseadolphin11, PrancingTiger86, Lola Hard, xStarSaber, Hot Rod's Girl, marleypup14, Independent.C., Jessie07, and DitzyMusicLover. As always you guys really inspire and motivate me. Thanks for all the ideas and support. You're the best.
And to everyone else who read the story. Thanks as well.
I know that I said this wouldn't be up for awhile, but it just wouldn't stop nagging at me till I typed it up, seven page paper or not. Ah well, apparently this is more interesting than homework. *Bangs head on desk*
In any case, I hope this will ease a little of the frustration that some of you feel at the lack of any real romantic action going on. Don't worry; we'll get there, slowly but surely.
And now, Chapter Nine.
Making Sense of the Illogical
Chapter Nine
Klick- About One Earth Second
Breem - 8.3 Earth minutes
Cycle-One Earth Hour
Joor – One Earth Day
Orn - About Two Earth Weeks
Vorn - About 83 Earth years
Autobot meetings were, by their very nature, the bane of Jazz's existence. There was just something about sitting still for three cycles and doing nothing but listening that made Jazz particularly twitchy.
He was a mech that like action and movement. He took words at face value and awarded bots for their behavior. So forcing him to voluntarily give up his preference for mobility for any length of time was slow torture of the worst kind.
Or at least it had been, until it presented the perfect opportunity to be in the same room with Prowl and not have him dash away as if he had the entirety of the Decepticon elite on his heels.
This was one of the few times that Prowl had been on the same level of the base as him in orns. Every single time before this that he had tried to corner the tactician Prowl had managed to evade him, make an excuse and slip away from him, or just plain run away from him!
And Jazz was now sick and tired of it. What had started out as a simple chase after a seemingly troubled friend had turned into an all-out mech-hunt of the highest proportions.
And the worst part was that he still didn't know the reason!
Which was why he was more grateful than ever that he was third-in-command because it afforded him a seat right across from Optimus and Prowl, and the perfect vantage point to surreptitiously study the SIC.
Jazz began with the tactician's face. He traced Prowl's red colored chevron with his optics from the tips to where they intersected harmoniously with his forehead. Letting his sight linger for a moment, Jazz slowly allowed his optics to travel down further and caught just the barest hint of blue beneath Prowl's slightly jutting white helm.
Contemplating the fact that Prowl hadn't even glanced his way at all during the meeting, Jazz continued his observations, gaze falling even lower towards Prowl's face plate and his perpetually neutral expression.
Jazz's optics stopped on Prowl's faceplate features for a few long breems. For some reason that Jazz couldn't explain, he had the feeling that Prowl wasn't very happy these joors.
It wasn't anything to do with his outward appearance either. To the casual observer Prowl was just as stoic and unfeeling as usual, but to someone as skilled in observation as Jazz was, Prowl seemed to be continually miserable lately.
And Jazz was seriously beginning to wonder if he didn't have something to do with it after all. As far he was aware he hadn't done anything wrong, but none of this seemed to start until he had returned to the base after his last mission.
Maybe something had happened while he was gone? But no, he would definitely have heard about it if that was the case.
So it had to be something that had happened since Jazz had returned, but he had only (officially) seen the tactician three times since then and all of those meetings had ended with Prowl offline, pulling a disappearing act on him, or battle.
Though come to think of it…just why had Prowl fallen offline when he had him in the medical bay after the battle?
Jazz mentally frowned. It wasn't something that he had thought to ask before (being too frantic for his friend) but maybe he should have.
Well it would be something to talk to Ratchet about anyway.
-TRANSFORMERS_TRANSFORMERS_TRANSFORMERS_TRANSFORME RS-
Jazz walked into the medical bay hoping against hope that Ratchet would be in a chatty mood. He knew that the medic was short on both supplies and temper lately (having been almost forcibly dragged to the med. bay every other joor for the last three orns), but he really needed the information he was seeking, and so he was praying to Primus that Ratchet would talk to him instead of threaten him.
Approaching the muttering medic cautiously, Jazz called out a hesitant greeting.
"Heya doc bot." At his words, Ratchet immediately turned around from his inventory work and assessed his newest visitor (though Jazz's processor automatically replaced it with victim).
"Jazz." Ratchet nodded his head and gestured for the saboteur to sit on the nearest empty berth.
Jazz willing complied and hopped up onto the berth just as Ratchet pulled out his scanner and directed the beam in his direction. Jazz shivered slightly as the scanner trailed over his energy field.
Finally the piece of medical equipment chirped and Ratchet frowned down at the displayed information before pressing a button and setting the device aside.
Visually scanning Jazz, Ratchet nodded, apparently satisfied with the readings.
"Arm." Ratchet said without preamble, and Jazz obediently held out his left arm (the one that Ratchet had had to completely replace) and started flexing the various digits of his hand together.
"Does it hurt at all?" Ratchet inquired while inspecting Jazz's newest outer plating.
Jazz shook his head.
Ratchet nodded and ticked off a box on his always present data-padd.
"Alright," Ratchet said and next instructed Jazz to lift his knee joint to so he could see how the welds were holding together.
It was fifteen breems before Ratchet was finally done going through his check-up procedure (the medic was nothing if not extremely thorough) and finished with Jazz.
Checking one last box in his medical records Ratchet set them aside and dipped his head at Jazz.
"Well it looks like you're ready to be cleared for full duty again." The medic announced. Jazz acknowledged Ratchet and slid of the berth.
"Thanks Ratch-man." Jazz said, but the medic waved it off, already engrossed in his files.
Jazz headed for the door, but hesitated at the entrance.
Turning back to look at the red and white bot, Jazz called out.
"Hey Ratch?" Ratchet looked up from his reading.
"Did you need something else Jazz?"
"Yeah…" Jazz trailed off.
"Well?" The medic prompted.
"Ah…it's…well…do you remember the last time Prowl came to visit me?"
"How can I forget? Especially after all the fuss." The medic answered dryly.
Jazz put his hand on the back of his head, slightly embarrassed.
"Eh heh. Right. Anyway, do you know what caused Prowl to fall offline like that?"
Ratchet looked at Jazz for a moment before nodding.
"Yes. It was a combination of stressed systems, coupled with a conflict with his processor."
"What conflict?" Jazz tilted his head to the side.
"Apparently he saw something he didn't expect and it was too hard for his processor to handle."
"Saw something he didn't expect?" Jazz asked in a quiet tone, causing the medic to look at him in surprise.
"You really don't know?" Ratchet stared at the saboteur for a moment before shaking his head.
"Know what?" Jazz questioned, eager to finally solve his Prowl mystery. Ratchet frowned at the sub-commander for a moment before turning back to his data-padd resolutely.
"No. You have to figure it out yourself." Ratchet said firmly. Jazz almost wilted at the medic's refusal to share information.
"But Ratch…" Jazz began in a pleading tone.
"Out!" Ratchet pointed to the door and Jazz (unwilling to be at the mercy of the medic's ire) beat a hasty retreat.
-TRANSFORMERS_TRANSFORMERS_TRANSFORMERS_TRANSFORME RS-
Later on, sitting in the mess hall, Jazz was mulling over his meeting with Ratchet and was silently cursing the bot for not telling him what was wrong with Prowl.
It would be like Ratchet to withhold information just to annoy him.
And he really was worried about Prowl.
If, as the medic hinted, he really did have something to do with what was wrong with Prowl, then why weren't either of the two telling him? It wasn't like he wouldn't fix the situation if he could.
And he couldn't if he didn't even know what was wrong! Jazz thought fiercely while looking unseeingly at the table.
Jazz was interrupted from his continued contemplations about Prowl when someone made a vocalizer-clearing noise. Jazz looked up from his half consumed energon cube to see who was intruding on his thoughts.
Somehow he wasn't surprised to see Mirage (who had just joined his team after transferring from one of the Autobot's resistance cells in Crystal City) standing there but he was surprised to see who had tagged along as Mirage's companion.
Acknowledging them the Saboteur wordlessly gestured for the two to sit down. Hound promptly threw himself into a chair and proceeded to get comfortable while Mirage elegantly seated himself, still retaining his hard-wired manners even after all the time he had spent with the army.
"So…" Hound began in his strong accent, looking at the saboteur appraisingly "wanna talk about it?" the scout offered gently.
Jazz looked at the green and gray mech curiously, unable for the life of him to comprehend what Hound was referring to.
"Talk about what?" He asked after a moment of silence.
Hound shrugged and downed a third of his energon ration. "About whatever it is that's making you act so fragging…" Hound trailed off as Mirage put a placating hand on his arm which caused the scout to subside (jazz mentally filed that fact away for later perusal).
Mirage shifted so that he was facing his commander. "What Hound means" Mirage began in his cultured accent. "is that you have been a bit…out of sorts lately." Here Hound snorted and Mirage sent him a quick glare to silence him.
Jazz shuttered his optics, too stunned to speak. He hadn't been that bad had he? Though now that he stopped to think about it, he had been a bit distracted lately.
"Prowl still getting to you?" Hound offered when Jazz didn't say anything. Mirage turned and frowned at his fellow, and Jazz just stared at Hound, clearly startled.
"How did ya…?" Jazz half questioned the modest bot.
Hound waved off the question. "Jazz the whole base knows that you've been chasing after Prowl."
Jazz frowned into his cube, considering that piece of information carefully. "Do they now…" he said (Chasing? A small part of his processor whispered).
"Don't take it personally Jazz." Mirage quipped from his seat, clearly amused at how uniformed his commander seemed to be. "It makes for some great entertainment!"
Hound promptly began choking on the energon he had just swallowed.
Ignoring his green companion the spy turned back to Jazz.
"I just want to know one thing though." Mirage faced his superior seriously. "Why Prowl?"
Jazz looked at the blue and white bot while picking up his own cube and taking a sip. "Why Prowl what?"
"Why do you like him?" The former towers bot asked as if it was the most natural thing in the world and this time it was Jazz that choked on his energon.
-TRANSFORMERS_TRANSFORMERS_TRANSFORMERS_TRANSFORME RS-
Did he like Prowl? Could that be it?
Jazz tried to wrap his mind around the concept as he walked back to his quarters.
He had known the black and white tactician since the time that they had both been recruited at the beginning of the war with Megatron.
At first he had thought that Sentinel Prime must have the patience of Primus himself to put up with the tight-afted tactician.
As he had gotten to know him though he had been able to see the many different sides that Prowl possessed and had come to appreciate the SIC as a friend and close confidant.
But like him, as in attracted to him? The thought hadn't even crossed his processor until Mirage had mentioned it to him.
But now that he stopped to consider it, maybe he did harbor some feelings like that after all.
It was a shock to say the least, though it probably shouldn't be.
And how to proceed with it?
It wasn't like he could just walk up to the tactician and tell him that he thought that he might like him, and would Prowl please consent to going on a date with him so that Jazz could see whether he actually did have any feelings for Prowl that ran along those lines?
Or could he? Jazz stopped walking, turning that thought over in his processor before just as easily dismissing it.
No of course he couldn't, he thought as he resumed his trek down the hallway.
And another thing, even if he felt this way, who was to say that Prowl liked him back?
And what about Trailbreaker? They had been in a relationship for over six orns now. It would be mean spirited just to drop the mech just because he might like Prowl. He couldn't do that to the warrior.
Jazz let out a breath of air and entered his quarters. He would have to consider this carefully.
-TRANSFORMERS_TRANSFORMERS_TRANSFORMERS_TRANSFORME RS-
-BONUS SCENE-
Hound finished clearing his intakes of energon and turned around to look with bright optics at the rapidly disappearing back of the third-in-command before turning back to the spy.
"You didn't tell him that Prowl likes him as well." The green and gray scout said, calling out Mirage on his information omission.
Mirage shrugged delicately and took a measured sip of his low-grade. "Didn't I?" Mirage asked in a mischievous voice.
Hound considered the blue and white bot for a moment.
"Alright Mirage, just what are you up to?"
The towers bot stood up from his seat prompting Hound to do the same.
"And what" Mirage said as he made his way to the trash receptacle "makes you think I'm doing anything."
Hound snorted and stared incredulously at the spy. "Ah, come on Mirage, I know you better than that."
Mirage laughed. "So you do."
Disposing of his cube Mirage turned back to Hound. "As I told Jazz before, this thing between them is very entertaining." He said bluntly.
Hound stared at the spy for a moment, stunned. Then he broke into uproarious laughter.
"So it is," he chuckled. "So it is."
Mirage just let the scout laugh for a moment before grabbing one of his hands and tugging him along towards the doors and out into the hall.
*Edited for content, grammar and spelling on June 27, 2013*-Reposted on November 4, 2013*