A/N: Aaand we're back in business, with less of an update delay than I'd feared. Yay, NaNo! ;)

Waking up was not a pleasant experience but not nearly as a bad as Will had feared. The debriefing had been all business by Ratchet's orders – Will was in no condition to sit still and focus for any prolonged periods of time – but it had still been a bit more than Will's overcharged brain had been willing to handle and by the time he had finally gone back into recharge, he had been tired and drained and grouchy and the Seeker had fared little better.

Recharging, as it turned out, had only marginally improved things. His body was still humming with excess energy, the Seeker part of his brain still clouded and confused when he didn't forcibly make it focus, but at least he wasn't tired anymore, and he felt marginally less grouchy about life as well. The Seeker part was unusually silent, still asleep in the back of his mind, and that left the human side to be in charge for the morning. He felt unfocused and annoyed and somewhat out of sync with his body, but the world was not an entirely miserable place this morning and he could work with that, at least.

That, of course, had lasted all the way until he'd had his Energon and found himself outside with Ironhide on the training ground, staring at the grey sky above and feeling the urge to take off again and knowing damn well Ironhide would have his aft if he tried. The mech hadn't said much during the debriefing at all, letting Optimus and Will do most of the talking, but he hadn't exactly given off the impression of being particularly pleased with Will's stunt.

"You skipped training yesterday," he had drawled when Will arrived, and it had only gone downhill from there. Two hours of training was what he'd skipped the day before and when the daily two hour mark approached and Ironhide gave no sign of letting up, Will realised with a sinking feeling in his stomach that the mech fully intended to make up for the missing training session.

The Seeker would have objected, would probably have fought, but its processors were too clouded, too unfocused to really do much, and so Will was stuck dealing with it instead, and it was a testament to Ironhide's relentless training that there wasn't as much as a flicker of arousal from the Seeker. It had been overcharged, willing to do just about anything to get rid of the energy they could only barely keep in check through their collective stubbornness... even now there was still the feeling underneath it all of energy straining to be released, and still there wasn't as much as a flicker of mental images from the Seeker. Not of Starscream, not of Optimus, not even of Ironhide.

It was three hours into the training session that Ratchet showed up and ordered a halt to it with all the unyielding stubbornness of a CMO who had spent most of his career at war, and Ironhide had arched what passed for an eyebrow at Will, kneeling on the ground and still trying to find the energy to get up again after the last throw had sent him flat on his back, and then he had nodded once, sharply, and held out a hand for Will.

Will eyed him for a moment, then Ratchet, and finally decided to just go with it and trust him, and said trust was rewarded as he was pulled to his feet again without some sort of dirty trick bringing him right down again in the name of training.

"See me in the infirmary when you're done here, Lennox," Ratchet said firmly, making Will shift slightly and bite back a soft hiss as the motion made several sensor nodes near one hip flare up in pain and no, he wasn't going to argue with that order. Like it or not, he was quickly coming to accept that no, Seekers weren't meant for close combat and no, being a human mind in a Seeker body didn't make a slagging bit of difference in that, either.

"Yes, sir," he responded and straightened slightly, and Ironhide finally let go of his arm, probably because he was finally somewhat convinced Will wasn't going to fall right back down and earn them both a chewing-out from the medic.

Ratchet watched both of them for a moment, silently promising pain for both of them if anything happened, and then he turned and left and Will's intakes vented softly. Every part of his body was sore, he had dents in place he didn't even know he had, and his paint needed a serious touch-up after three hours of close combat training with a pitch-black mech... and underneath it all he realised to his surprise that the excess energy wasn't quite as bad as it had been before, a soft hum beneath it all but his head felt clearer and the Seeker's still half-asleep processors felt a good bit less clouded, too.

"Feeling better?" Ironhide finally asked, and Will gave him a startled look, prompting a snort from his instructor. "You need to learn to shield that bond, Lennox. I got to go along for your whole flight yesterday and let me tell you, I really didn't need those images of 'facing with Starscream and Megatron."

Oh. Will's optics shuttered for a moment, too tired to really feel embarrassed, and he did what he could to shield the bond at the reminder and probably failed miserably in the process.

"You think I wanted them?" he settled for instead, one clawed hand lingering on a still-sore bruise on one wing where the sensor nodes hadn't blocked it yet, and too tired to really muster much in terms of emotions at all. "Slag it, Ironhide. They scare the frag out of me and no one seems to be able to do a goddamn thing to help me. Ratchet is going to have my aft if I go flying like that again and it didn't even help that much at all, just took off the edge of it. It took three hours of hard training now to even get out the worst of the energy to a degree where I can actually think again without forcing myself to."

Maybe he had expected Ironhide to get angry, maybe he'd expected annoyance at Will's inability to control himself, but whatever it had been, what Ironhide finally did was not it.

"I know," the black mech said, quietly and seriously. "And I will keep my promise if it's ever needed. Watch your back, Lennox. Starscream is a treacherous spawn of a glitch. Even Megatron can't control him. Don't turn your back on him. He'd turn on his own trine if it could get him what he wanted."

Will wasn't entirely sure of that but he didn't argue but simply nodded in agreement instead, too tired to try and defend the Seeker and not sure why he would even want to in the first place, either. It was the enemy, a brutal killer who would gladly tear apart every ally, friend, and family Will had, and why in the name of all that was holy he'd gotten the thought to even try and argue against Ironhide's words, however quick the thought had been to vanish again, he had no idea.

Seeker, the voice in the back of his processors murmured, finally roused from its clouded rest. Kin. Protection.

It's Starscream, Will snapped back but it lacked its usual heat, the tiredness draining to both of them. He's the enemy.

Kin, the Seeker whispered, more to make a point than anything, because a moment later it was gone away, resting away in the back of his mind and Will got the clear impression that for the moment, it didn't mind at all letting the human part be in control while they tried to handle what remained of the pent-up energy.

Ironhide was watching him, clearly waiting for an answer, and Will finally got a grip on himself again and nodded tiredly. "I'll be careful."

A long moment of silence as Ironhide kept watching him, looking for something that Will wasn't even sure what was and then the mech nodded. "Good. We'll test out your weapons tomorrow. After that, we'll try to see about letting you train with someone other than me. Now get your aft to Ratchet before he makes both of us miserable. Dismissed."

The Seeker stirred uneasily in the back of his mind at the thought of Ratchet, a strange mix of apprehension and respect, and then that strange feeling of mental recharge claimed it again and Will was left to his own thoughts and reactions again. For the first time in a long while, he found himself honestly looking forward to a trip to the infirmary – if nothing else, it was a lot better than another hour of training at Ironhide's hands.

"You look better than I'd feared," Ratchet greeted him as he stepped inside, still feeling absurdly clumsy on the ground, with broad shoulders and even larger wings that stretched far beyond anything that was reasonable and kept threatening to catch on doorways or get stuck in palm trees.

"Training helped," Will admitted and sat down before Ratchet could even tell him to, making a few sensor nodes complain at the motion. "It got rid of some of the energy. It's still there but I can sort of control it today. It's better than yesterday, at least."

Ratchet nodded, already focused on Will's wings, and silence fell as the medic worked, fixing dents where it was needed, handling damaged sensor nodes and joints, and leaving the rest to heal itself. A minute of lingering on the NEST etchings on his wings, examining the marks that Will could feel were almost healed, and then the feeling of hands against his wings moved on to the next injury. It wasn't too different from being a human. He had been used to various scrapes and bruises. He was special ops and NEST came with its own kind of training, so working through scrapes and bruises had been normal for him. Being a Seeker hadn't changed it much. At the most, it made it easier since mechs came with the ability to turn sensors off if needed, although Will had no doubt that Ratchet would have his aft if he as much as thought about doing that outside of emergencies.

"I'm impressed you lasted as well as you did," Ratchet finally said. "Most mechs would have problems keeping up with Ironhide's training for three hours. Being a Seeker has nothing to do with that. He's a demanding teacher but he is competent and simply wishes to give you the best chance of surviving. He just isn't always aware of the limitations of other mechs, which is why I stepped in when I did. He would have kept pushing you until you hit the four-hour mark or you couldn't get up anymore, but that's Ironhide, too."

Will shrugged slightly. "I've had drill sergeants like that. They do it for your own good. The Seeker hates it but it knows it's good to learn and it likes being around Ironhide. I'm in charge during the training but it does pay a little attention to Ironhide, too. Tries, at least." A soft snort. "In between fantasising about him, but it was too tired to do that today, at least."

Ratchet turned his attention to the prominent dent near one of Will's wings and it still surprised him how much of a relief it was when something wing-related was fixed. It had to be a Seeker-specific thing, the large amount of attention spent on the wings, because it didn't draw nearly the same reaction when the medic handled the dent on his hip.

Silence again. Ratchet worked and Will waited quietly, and finally the medic stretched again and put the tools aside.

"I patched up what needed it. The rest will fix itself." A long look at Will, looking for something in just the same way Ironhide had and Will forced himself to stay still even as the Seeker stirred uneasily in its haze. "You seem stable today," he finally remarked.

Will shrugged again. "It... works. I think we managed to compromise. The energy-thing is Seeker-specific. I think we managed to burn off enough that the Seeker's dealing with what's left and I'm left mostly clear-headed again. Mostly. It's still there, just... less than before. I can deal with it."

Another tool appeared, scanning one optic in what looked like a perfect echo of a human doctor checking a human patient, and Will just watched him with bemusement.

"Interesting concept," Ratchet finally said and lowered the tool. "It's still there?"

"It's still there," Will confirmed. "Just... almost asleep. Distracted, I guess." It was hard to put into word but he tried, anyway, fumbling for ways to describe concepts he wasn't even sure about in the first place. "I think it's because human brains aren't wired the same way Seekers are. It's trying hard to keep those compromises and I was willing to try just about anything but interfacing to handle that energy-problem. It picked up on it and when flying didn't help... I guess this was its solution. I don't have the same flight-or-frag reaction going on that it does, so it went into a sort of mental recharge for a while to let me try and deal with it. I don't think it's going to last for long, though, not if the energy doesn't go away completely. Then the problem is just going to get worse until something snaps."

A stay of execution, Will didn't say, but the words hung in the air, anyway, and Ratchet nodded.

"I would like to tell you that I have a solution, but I don't. It's a Seeker-specific problem and Seekers deal with it in their own way. If any of them have ever gone to a medic to find a solution, it hasn't been recorded anywhere. They consider it a part of them. It's programming and they instinctively know what to do about it."

"Interfacing," Will said and resisted the urge to rub his face tiredly. The words did bring up another question to the forefront of his processors and Will asked before he could stop himself. "How do you know so much about them?"

Ratchet arched an optic ridge and Will elaborated. "I get that Cybertronians have a lot less hangups about these things than humans do, but I'm pretty sure it's not standard medical knowledge to know that much about Seeker programming, much less how to interface with Seekers, and especially not for an Autobot medic."

"It could be. I was a medic before the war ever started," Ratchet pointed out but his amusement betrayed the words, and when he continued, it was more thoughtful, more serious. "I have had Seekers as interface partners before the war. They were fairly aloof and generally not too tolerant of ground-pounders in those days... still are, for the most part, but these days they have become forced to work with ground-bound mechs and have become moderately more tolerant compared to what they once were. In those days they were quite a bit more trine-focused and elitists, but there were exceptions – among them and among the lowly ground-pounders. Medics are respected in any army I have known of and I took an interest in the particular medical issues of their breed. That particular combination was enough to bring me in contact with them, and draw the interest of a few as well." He tapped lightly on Will's wings. "For one, Seekers have sensitive wings and medics have sensitive hands. It's a useful combination."

It wasn't even a caress of his wings but it was still enough to send a shiver through Will's processors and he could definitely see Ratchet's point. Sure, the Seeker was overcharged and in desperate need of an overload, but it had still been a lot stronger of a reaction than Ironhide's touches had gotten as he had forcibly instructed Will and corrected his stands. The touch hadn't been much but between it and Will's musings, it was enough.

With a soft whirr, Will's heating fans turned on, and it took him several long seconds to realise what had even happened, much less turn them off again, and he snapped at the presence in his mind as soon as it was under control.

We agreed on Ironhide. This is Ratchet.

The only response he got was vague annoyance, displeasure as being torn out of its rest again, and the words that followed were distinctively miffed.

I recharge. You reacted.

Definitely miffed, as much as from being roused to being accused of breaking its word and potentially invoking Ratchet's wrath in a fear that was very real in the back of its mind, even half into recharge as it was. Will blinked mentally, watching in stunned silence as the Seeker part returned to its rest and he noticed with no small bit of discomfort that the insistent reaction from the heating fans remained even as he tried to keep them under control.

The Seeker had been in recharge. He hadn't noticed it until then, but looking back, it was true. It hadn't just been resting during the training with Ironhide. It had continued throughout the medical check-up, which meant that it hadn't actually been aware enough to react to Ratchet's touch.

Slag.

"Will?" Patient, amused, and Ratchet was watching him, and Will groaned softly in response.

"I can't even blame the Seeker for that one. Sorry, Ratchet. It... I can't even tell you it won't happen again. Slag it. You're a giant alien robot. I'm not supposed to be attracted to you."

"Not that giant," Ratchet reminded him, a bit amused. "You're a good bit taller than I am these days. To remind you of a comparison you once made yourself, Will, you could be said to have been brought back to the mental equivalent of your teenage years. You may not care much for it but your body will react entirely independent of you at times. Perhaps there is genuine attraction. Perhaps it is merely a physical response. Either way, the Seeker itself seems without blame in this case." Will's sudden urge to groan must have shown because Ratchet offered him a sympathetic look and changed the topic. "You do seem to have been dealing decently with all of this in the past few days. Would you feel comfortable being around humans?"

Sarah, his immediate reaction was, and his instant agreement died on his lips before he could quite form the words.

Would he really, he wondered, and the way Ratchet kept watching him, he suspected that immediate agreement would not necessarily have been a good thing. Humans were small and fragile and delicate, and his claws alone could tear apart a decent-sized truck. Did he really have enough self-control and self-awareness to keep anything from happening without forcing himself to stay thirty feet away and be completely still to keep from doing anything wrong? It was Sarah out there, his once-wife and the mother of his child. He was a Seeker now, as big as Optimus Prime and with a lot stronger primal instincts to drive him, and there was really no room at all for mistakes around humans.

Was he really going to be comfortable around humans after only a week in his new shape?

Ratchet kept watching and finally Will looked up, voice quiet and serious.

"I'm not sure, but I want to try. I don't think I'll ever stop worrying about hurting someone on accident, but I'm never going to get used to anything if I stay hidden away here. I have a wife out there, Ratchet. I have friends. I want to try. Maybe I'll fail and spend the whole time in a corner of the room to keep from doing any kind of accidental damage, but I have to try. It's the only hold I have on my humanity anymore."

It had obviously been the right response, because the medic relaxed fractions of an inch and nodded slowly. "I would suspect that your bonded would very much like to see you, too. She has been insistent in her enquiries about you."

Sarah.

"I would like that," he agreed quietly.

The medic nodded again and gesture for Will to get off the infirmary bed again. "I will let her know. Another thing... Optimus will make it official later today, but effective immediate, the restrictions on you have been lifted." Will's optics widened slightly in surprise and even the Seeker reacted to that, torn out of its clouded rest as Ratchet continued. "You are a Seeker and they have never responded well to being grounded. Just keep in mind that Starscream and his trine are still out there and we will have no reliable way to assist you if you encounter them. You are free to fly but I will have your aft if you get yourself offlined."

Flight, the Seeker whispered joyously, the thrill of the flight coursing through Energon lines and processors, the instinctive desire to take off and never, ever land, tear through clouds and rain and until the sky was blue turned dark turned black and there was nothing but him and stars and the endless emptiness of space at the edge of the atmosphere, and Will took a tight grip on it and willed it to calm down again.

Sarah, he repeated; quiet and firm and unrelenting, and the Seeker paused and relented and backed down, and Will's frame slowly released the sudden tension in it again.

"I appreciate it," he said quietly. "But I have to talk to Sarah."

The medic nodded, and if there was a slight touch of pride in his features at his words, Will didn't mention it. Seeker or not, he was still a goddamn human, and he had a wife he adored, and if there ever came a day when flight won over spending time with his loves ones, he slagging well didn't deserve them anymore.

And the Seeker, resting quietly in the back of his mind, paused and wondered and finally, bemusedly, murmured its silent agreement.