Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or Iron Man. I do not own the rhyme "Nelly the Elephant" either.

Summary: NEST contact Tony Stark, who comes to help them take down the Decepticons. He brings Pepper and Rhodey along with him. Set after Revenge of The Fallen, and after the first Iron Man film.

Warnings: There may be bad language and hints of slash in later chapters, though nothing explicit.

Co-operation

Chapter 8:

"RHODEY!" Tony screamed, dragging himself over to the hole in the ice. "RHODEY, WHERE ARE YOU?" Tony snarled and impulsively dove into the ice hole to look for Rhodey. He then realised what a stupid idea it was as he began to sink rapidly. "Jarvis, can you activate the boot jets?"

"No response from the boot jets sir. The Iron Man armour was not designed to operate in this environment."

"Shit."

"I may be able to get them working, but it will take some time sir."

"How long?"

"Maybe three minutes. You have two minutes of oxygen remaining."

"Life is a bitch."

"Precisely, sir."

xXx

"IRONHIDE, WE NEED YOU OVER HERE!" Lennox's voice called. "WE'RE GETTING HAMMERED BY BARRICADE!"

Ironhide knew that Lennox needed his help, but so did Tony and Rhodey. Lennox would be able to cope... there were plenty of other Autobots that could help out. Tony and Rhodey couldn't wait, not in the icy water. Ironhide looked in the direction of the sound of Lennox's voice, and then at the black water, lapping at the edges of the ice. Ironhide jumped into the ice hole and into the black water. He lit up his headlights which were on his armoured chest-plate and began to scan the area for signs of Tony and Rhodey. He spotted Starscream a few metres away and charged at the Decepticon. Starscream activated his jets and smashed through the ice, making an escape. Ironhide cursed. He picked up a faint life sign on his scanners, and guessed it was Rhodey. Ironhide started to head towards it, intent on saving the human's life.

xXx

Rhodey realised it was no use. He couldn't break the ice above him and the freezing water had made his whole body go numb. His lungs felt as though they were going to burst. He was going to die. He was going to die alone, under the ice. He wondered if NEST would be able to recover his body as unconsciousness began to reach for him. Rhodey had always wanted a military funeral and he wanted his mum there. He wanted her to be proud of him. There was nothing he wanted more right now than to just go to sleep. He felt his eyelids growing heavy and he didn't struggle anymore.

Ironhide saw the human drifting just below the ice. He gently reached out and grabbed Rhodey in one of his large hands, then smashed through the ice sheet above them. Ironhide laid Rhodey on the ice, wishing he knew more about the human anatomy. Was there anything he could do to help the human? He didn't want to leave Rhodey to find Tony... but what if Tony was in trouble?

"Hang on, Rhodey. I'll get –" Ironhide was interrupted by Tony blasting the ice with his repulsors and landing beside Ironhide. He retracted his mask and took several big gulps of air. "Tony, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Tony panted, resting his hands on his knees. "Had a bit of a close call – I had less oxygen than the time it would take to activate the boot jets underwater. I need to make some serious modifications to my suit. I didn't realise how long I could hold my breath until now."

"Rhodey needs help."

"How long was he in the water?" Tony asked, kneeling beside Rhodey.

"I don't really know."

"Right." Tony hovered his ear over Rhodey's lips and began to search his neck for a pulse. "Not breathing –! Recovery position. Water in lungs..." Tony began to pat Rhodey on the back. His friend began coughing and spluttering, spitting out water. Come on, Rhodey. You have to be okay. Tony began to check his airways and then took a deep breath. "Still not breathing. Right. Mouth-to-mouth. Compressions. Nelly the Elephant."

"What?" Ironhide asked.

"Nelly the Elephant. It's a children's rhyme. The pace of it matches the pace you're meant to do compressions." Tony took off the Iron Man suit gloves and laid them in the snow behind them. He knotted his fingers together and began compressions. "Nelly the Elephant packed her trunk and said goodbye to the circus..." Tony was counting the compressions in his head. He lowered his ear to Rhodey's mouth. "Still not breathing. Okay. Mouth-to-mouth."

"Mouth-to-mouth?"

"Kiss of life."

"You're going to kiss him?" Ironhide asked.

"Well, technically I'll be breathing into his mouth... but... yes, basically I am going to be kissing him to get the oxygen flowing again." Tony replied, adjusting his position.

"Humans have some strange practices." Ironhide mumbled, shaking his head.

"Ironhide, can you shush?" Tony asked. "I can't concentrate with you mumbling in the background." Tony took a deep breath and pressed his mouth to Rhodey's. Ironhide watched out of curiosity, wondering if humans really did use this method of resuscitation. Rhodey's made a contented sound and his eyes flickered open. The widened in surprise and he pushed Tony away, coughing.

"Good to see you're back with us, Rhodey." Tony grinned.

"Dude... what the hell was that?" Rhodey asked, wiping his mouth with the back of one of his gloved hands.

"Me saving your life. You can thank me anytime."

"Thank you." Rhodey said, shivering.

"Now, let's see what we can do." Tony sat back on his heels and began to examine his best friend. "He's probably hypothermic. We need to get him a change of clothes because he's going to start taking his off because something happens with the blood flow and makes you think you're overheating."

"Hello, you're talking about me as if I'm not here." Rhodey waved his hand in front of Tony's face. Tony slapped his hand away.

"We don't have a change of clothes." Ironhide said.

"I do." Tony said. "I'm still wearing my combat gear under my suit. I need to take my suit off, we'll dress Rhodey in my clothes and then I'll just put the suit back on. It's heated so I won't have any problems."

"So you kissed him to bring him back to life... and now you're both going to strip and switch clothes?" Ironhide asked. "Humanity makes no sense to me."

"Ironhide, humanity doesn't make sense to us most of the time, even those of us that are humans." Tony said, beginning to remove his armour and pile it up. "Come on, Rhodey. Strip. If you don't, I'll take your clothes off for you."

"Surely Rhodey will get even colder if he takes all of his clothes off?" Ironhide asked.

"Well there isn't any way we can prevent that." Tony replied. "There isn't really much shelter in the Arctic."

"You seem to forget that I am a transformer." Ironhide said, and he changed into a truck in front of Tony and Rhodey. Ironhide opened the topkick back door. "Get in." Rumbled through the topkick speakers. Tony shrugged and gathered up his armour, dumping it on the backseat. He helped Rhodey onto the backseat of the topkick and began to finish taking off his combats.

Rhodey was a little more reluctant.

"Rhodey, you need to change or you're going to get really sick." Tony said, taking off his thermals and throwing them at Rhodey. "Don't make me come over there, because I will take your clothes off and put mine on you."

"Tony... isn't this kinda weird for you?" Rhodey asked.

"What, getting naked with you?"

"No!"

"Then what?"

"That we're getting undressed inside of a truck that has a mind of its own!" Rhodey hissed.

"Careful Rhodey, you might hurt his feelings." Tony cautioned with a smirk. "Did he hurt your feelings, Ironhide?"

"No, you get used to being treated like a boring machine eventually." Ironhide said.

"See, Rhodey? You did hurt his feelings. Now, strip." Tony ordered, using that same tone Pepper always used with him when he was being stubborn and acting like a child. Rhodey grumbled to himself and stripped down to his boxers. "Oh no, the boxers have to go if they're wet. Come on, Rhodey. You can wear mine."

"This... this is wrong on so many levels..." Rhodey grumbled, covering himself with his shirt and pulling off his underwear, then quickly pulling Tony's on. "Okay, pass me the rest of your clothes, Tony."

xXx

Ironhide drove back towards the NEST team. They were gathering up equipment and tending the wounded. The Decepticons had gone. It seemed that they hadn't been able to find what they wanted in the Arctic. Ironhide stopped where Lennox was. The Major walked towards the topkick and slammed his hand down on the hood in rage.

"Both of you, get out now." Lennox ordered. Tony jumped down from the back of the topkick and helped Rhodey down. He was too big to fit inside wearing his Iron Man armour.

"Can one of the medics bring a blanket over?" Tony called, giving Rhodey's shoulder a quick squeeze to reassure him that he was going to make it all better. "Rhodey fell through the ice." One of the medics, ran over carrying a tin foil blanket. Tony draped it over Rhodey's shoulders and pulled it around him.

"What the hell were you three doing?" Lennox exploded, looking at Ironhide, Tony and Rhodey in turn. "All three of you disobeyed my orders! Ironhide – I was calling for you because we needed help. Luckily, there were no fatalities but people still could've died!"

"And if I hadn't helped Rhodey, he would've died!" Ironhide protested.

"Tony, you went to engage Starscream in air-to-air combat. You were to remain on the ground and support NEST. Rhodey, you went to help Tony. I'm afraid I'm going to have to inform General Morshower about this." Lennox said. "Rhodey, you're a military man. You know there will be consequences."

"With all due respect," Rhodey said through chattering teeth. "I am a higher rank than you."

"We tend not to stick to rank structure too well at Diego Garcia." Lennox said. "And you're rank was vetoed when you placed yourself under my command. I'm sorry Rhodey, but that's just the way things work around here."

"I understand." Rhodey said.

"You –" Lennox turned to face Tony and glared at him. Tony glared straight back at Lennox, trying to stare him down. "– After our return to Diego Garcia you will be sent home. You're impossible to work with. You don't listen to orders. You go off on your own and get yourself into hopeless situations. You don't understand the lives I have at stake. Keeping these men alive in the most important job I have."

"You think I don't understand that?" Tony asked, balling his hands into fists. "All my life I've been building weapons. It took me getting blown up, kidnapped by terrorists and watching the one man who helped me getting killed to realise the mistakes I've made and try to help people!"

"Whoa! Lennox, Tony – stop it!" Epps said, running between them both. "We have to get out of here. Both of you, back off." Tony and Lennox stepped back, still glaring. "That's better. I got through to Morshower. We need a pick-up zone for the choppers they're sending."

"Jarvis just informed me that there's an old Stark Industries Research Station round here somewhere." Tony said. "We used it for arc-reactor technology and sensitive experiments. We had to abandon it eventually because some of the experiments became unstable."

"And you want to take us there now?" Epps asked.

"It's fine now." Tony assured him. "We just haven't recovered it because of the storms. Come on, I'll lead the way." He began to trudge through the snow. Epps shrugged at Lennox and began to follow Tony.

xXx

"What's Lennox's problem?" Tony asked as they packed up the kit in the Research Station to take back to Diego Garcia. Tony and Epps were watching them load the casualties into the helicopters. "Nobody died. The person most at risk of dying was Rhodey. I just think he doesn't like me."

"It's not that." Epps said. He looked away, realising he had said too much.

"Oh really?" Tony raised an eyebrow. "What is it then?"

"I shouldn't say anything."

"Why not?"

"Let's just say... Lennox and Ironhide are very close." Epps said. "I don't know all the details, and I don't want to. We all know what's going on, but we don't talk about it. It's like some kind of unwritten rule. Don't say anything about it, or they'll kill me."

"So Ironhide and Lennox are...?"

"Yes."

"How do they do it?" Tony asked. "Lennox is a human and Ironhide is a... giant robotic killing machine. Isn't that just... just... odd?"

"I don't know, man." Epps said. "I think Lennox mentioned holoforms or something once."

"What's a holoform?" Tony asked.

"Some sort of solid hologram they project. I don't know. I don't care about the details." Epps shrugged.

"Hmm... solid holograms..." Tony said thoughtfully. "I might have to look into that one day."

Another chapter finished!

And DarknessintheCorners, I hope you enjoyed the Lennox/Ironhide... well, Epps explaining their relationship. I'll leave the rest up to your imagination ;)

Thanks for all of the reviews guys! I'll be sure to try and have chapter 9 up soon!

I Caught Myself.