A/N: Every time I try to move the story forwards, the characters insist on talking instead. We shooould be getting somewhere... slightly... maybe in the next chapter. -pokes Will- Hopefully.

If Ironhide had been stuck with less of a processor-ache, he would have been bemused at just how fast it was possible to forget how annoying certain things could be and just how fast you got used to things being normal again – or as normal as they would ever get with their new Seeker-human around. As it was he settled for what he was sure Epps would have called his own personal little thundercloud trailing him as he tracked down Ratchet by a Cybertronian-sized table, working on one of the test crash dummies with a thoughtful frown.

"Explain," he growled. "Now."

Ratchet looked decidedly unimpressed as he glanced at Ironhide and then down at the dummy, and Ironhide could feel the sarcasm coming before the medic even answered.

"It's a crash test dummy, Ironhide. It's a fake test subject that the humans use when they don't want to hammer one of their own into brick walls at eighty miles an hour. They have a marvellous thing here called the internet, bolt-brain. It might take you a little while but I'm sure a big, strong front-liner like you can figure it out."

Anger flared through his systems but was gone a moment later, and Ironhide made an annoyed sound instead. It wasn't even their own fault and that was probably the worst of it. He knew it and it still didn't help one slagging bit when every bit of his processor and spark was overrun by a lot more emotion than he'd felt since sometime before the War began. "Not that pile of scrap. Will. The winged pest of a fragger out there!"

Ratchet made an identical sound of annoyance and then he finally turned to actually look at Ironhide. "You've already felt his lack of shielding. Let's agree that since I've managed to block my side of it, you'll do the same with yours, and maybe we'll both be able to have something that could pass for coherent thoughts again."

Ratchet's presence lingered on the edge of their own bond to silently remind him how a calm, stable presence should feel – even if it was more than a bit tainted by whatever-the-frag their Seeker was currently going through – and with a mental curse that would have made even some lesser 'Cons pause, Ironhide slugged his way through the heavy mass of emotions until he was painstakingly able to shield it again. Some still seeped through but he could deal with that and at least it gave him some idea of Will's state of mind.

He vented slowly, took his time to let his processors clear, and then he turned his attention back to Ratchet. "What the frag was that? He wasn't even that bad when he first came online."

There was a ghost of amusement in Ratchet's features but it was gone before Ironhide could do more than notice it, even if some of it lingered in his voice. "Looking back, I would say it's about the same. What happened? One young, rattled Seeker courtesy of Starscream. He'll get himself back under control again soon. Until then..." A shrug to convey a silent 'suck it up and cope', and Ironhide sighed.

"'Rattled'," he repeated.

"Rattled," Ratchet confirmed and then sighed as well. "Your heard the recording he brought back. You have ground-bound programming and a War of hatred to view Starscream through and that keeps him from having any kind of effect on you beyond that usual urge of yours to tear out his vocaliser. William carries Seeker programming. They hear Starscream's voice differently than the rest of us do and he is well aware of what buttons to push. You know what Megatron can do. You are old enough to have seen him raise an army on little more than the sound of his voice and words. Granted, he rarely uses those skills anymore but they remain nonetheless. What most non-Seekers fail to consider is that Starscream has much the same effect on his own kind. Will has talked with him before but this is the first time Starscream put that degree of persuasion into his voice."

Rattled. Now that Ironhide's processors could work mostly normal again, he could also push the memory of those emotions enough away to see them for what they were – a chaotic mass of anger, confusion, determination, possessiveness; raw fury and blind panic and the desperate need to fly, and underneath it all a heavy streak of blind fear at everything that happened in the Seeker's body that he didn't understand and never knew how to fight. All in all, Ironhide could find much less kind words than 'rattled' to use but for now, it would have to do.

"You have Seeker programming," he stated as the emotions being pushed aside let other things resurface again. He wasn't sure what kind of reaction he had expected from the comment – and if his processors had been completely clear, he probably wouldn't have made it at all – but Ratchet just snorted in response.

"A gross simplification. My programming adapted to Seeker programming. There is a difference."

He was evading the unspoken question, both of them knew that just fine, and Ironhide nodded.

"It adapted," he agreed with a voice that said he didn't particular care what Ratchet wanted to call it and that he wasn't going to argue, either, but had much bigger issues to poke. "So why don't you tell this plate-head of a front-liner what the difference is, in terms I can understand. You got the same effect going when you hear him, too?"

Silence.

"To a degree," Ratchet finally admitted. "More than I used to before the current... circumstances but less than when I lived among them. I haven't heard much of Starscream since I left but the effect was nowhere as strong as it is now and not all of it can be attributed to Starscream showing an extra effort in his attempts to convince Will." Another pause and an echo of something over their bond that Ironhide recognised as the medic trying to put something into words a normal mech would understand. "The difference between their coding and what I have is the depth and strength of it, you could say. The adaptation in my coding is at surface-level for the most parts. There are minor changes to deeper programming but most of it will never match a Seeker's code. Theirs is far stronger and exists in every part of them, every single line of coding. Mine is... camouflage, I suppose. A way to fit in, adapt, and survive. Yes, I hear the appeal in Starscream's words and yes, my programming very much understands what Will is going through. Strong enough to spark nostalgia for what used to be before the War but never more than that."

Which had probably been intended to sound reassuring, even just a little, but that wasn't the way it settled in Ironhide's mind.

"And Will?" Who was stuck with a newly-onlined Seeker with no common sense or much in the way of loyalty, and they'd all seen just what the two of them were capable of when they got pushed enough... and being a Seeker, it didn't even take that much of a shove for the most part.

"The Seeker would listen," Ratchet said quietly. "It's in its programming. There is no chance it could ignore it. Will would hear it in much the same way he did as a human – in Starscream's grating voice and with all the arrogance and mercurial moods he has learned to expect from him. The Seeker has no choice but to listen to some degree. William can – and will – refuse. That is why, while they are clearly rattled now, they will settle down again soon. Whatever else that Seeker might be, the part of it that is William is still an Autobot."

Which was... good news, Ironhide supposed. Better than before, at least. Of course, that brought up a whole new string of questions but Ratchet didn't sound ready to kick Ironhide out just yet so he shrugged and went for it, before the medic got too much time to think.

"That's the third time Screamer's gone chatty on him. I don't remember any of the fraggers doing the same for the Seekers we used to have. They were 'Bots, too. I didn't like all of them but I knew some of them enough to know that if Screamer had approached them, we would have been told."

"I doubt he did," Ratchet responded in the same, quiet voice. "The Autobot Seekers made their choice and were for the most part obvious about it. They made no secret of their new loyalty or the fact that they had turned their backs on Starscream to give their loyalty to Optimus. To be brutally honest, from a Seeker's point of view the majority of the Autobot Seekers were damaged. They were not proper Seekers. They all had their reasons for refusing the Decepticons and I don't doubt that Starscream knew every last one of those reasons. They made their choice to betray him and he would not have cared to make them reconsider when they were obviously damaged in the first place. Will is... different. Starscream doesn't know him. My guess is that he assumes we found a Seeker youngling or had one in stasis. To the best of his knowledge, Will was never given the choice and he has so far seen no credible reason why Will should choose to remain with us. Had it been in the start of the War, I doubt he would even have cared, much less bothered. Now? There are too few of them left to risk it and he will go a long way to ensure that youngling Seeker ends up on what he perceives to be the proper side in the War."

"And now they're mobilising to lure him out or steal him from right under our noses," Ironhide finished. "It would be easier if he came along voluntarily but if he won't, they'll deal with that, too. Since Will told them to frag off... what've we got? A few days at the most before the 'Cons make their move?"

"Presumably. Seekers were never known for their patience and Starscream is no exception to that." Ratchet fell silent and Ironhide didn't interrupt, familiar enough with the medic to know that the slightly darkened optics meant his friend and occasional berth-mate was far away in his own thoughts and the whisper of emotion he managed to pick up from him under the still-lingering presence of the Seeker confirmed that. "How well do you know his human... mate?"

Good question. Ironhide's optics narrowed slightly as he considered it. He hadn't been around the small family that much but he'd heard his human brother-in-arms talk about her often enough and he'd met her a few times himself as well. She had coped well with the whole 'giant robot' thing, he figured. Better, he supposed, than some of the NEST team had but she had also had a husband to ease her gently into the thought. She didn't trust their small offspring around Ironhide unsupervised but he saw that as common sense more than anything. Human sparklings were small, fragile, and had nothing in the way of survival instincts at all. Keeping an eye on the thing made it a lot less of a tense situation for Ironhide, too.

"Some. I think she trusts me. I've spent most of my time with NEST but I've met her a few times before this. She's coping well."

"She is, I suppose," Ratchet murmured. "I owe you an answer. You asked me something and I told you to ask me again if it became relevant."

It took a moment to figure out what he meant and when he did, Ironhide's optics brightened for a moment in curiosity. "If they managed to pull it off."

"Yes." He glanced towards the exit of the large hangar, where both human and former-human were talking. Not a glance Ironhide could readily identify, even after so long around the medic, and their bond offered no hint at all, either. "I will tell you the same thing I told Optimus when we heard that recording. Find a way to tie her to NEST. Keep her here, get her clearance, get her a home, get their offspring schooling, hire her, relocate her – just keep her here. Alive, safe, unharmed, and firmly on our side."

Ironhide's optics narrowed slightly. "She's already on our side," he said and didn't need to add the unspoken 'And I don't appreciate you insinuating otherwise, to me or anyone else'.

"She's on William's side," Ratchet corrected him, clearly unfazed by the implied threat... not that Ironhide was actually surprised by that. Their medic had always shown an utter lack of respect for anything their weapons could do but hearing his background, it made sense. Ironhide had never been around an injured Seeker much before but if it was anything like their normal behaviour, you either had to be mad or a saint to deal with them... and Ironhide didn't believe Primus intended a wrench to be used quite like that.

"She's on his side. He's on our side. That makes her one of ours." He didn't even try to keep his annoyance out his voice at that and it wasn't a coincidence that he straightened slightly to give his cannons better room in a silent reminder of who he was and what he did. "I don't know where you're going with this, Ratchet, but you better have one Pit of an explanation for it."

And Ratchet, frag it all, didn't so much as pause at that but only gave an unimpressed snort. "Your shield is weakening again."

Frag.

Ironhide sighed and forced the annoyance aside along with a heavy streak of possessive-protective instincts and that still-nagging fear and then he turned his attention back to Ratchet when he felt his own emotions settle again.

"Practice," the medic responded to the unspoken question. "I'm used to them... or used to be, at least. I have experience to draw on. You are still adapting to him. Spend enough time around them and you become used to the level of emotions they show."

Ironhide wasn't particularly convinced that anything short of insanity would be helpful in getting used to living with pests like that but he wasn't going to bring that up now and settled for a small, non-committal nod instead. "You still owe me an explanation"

It was silent for another moment as Ratchet seemed to consider his approach. "William made you promise to take the shot before allowing him to turn Decepticon." He held up his hand before Ironhide could even try to interrupt and continued, still unfazed. "I am aware that William is loyal to our side but we both also know that he would not have asked that of you if he didn't genuinely fear what his Seeker half might do. I'm also aware that they have come far in the time since you made that promise to him but the fact remains that while he has defied Starscream before, he remains a Seeker, with all that it implies."

"So you're... what? Worried he's going to go 'Con on us and she's going to go with him?" Ironhide's optics shuttered in bewilderment. "I know it's not nice to say but she's a human, Ratchet. His mate, sure, but human. She's a non-combatant. She doesn't even know a fraction of the classified stuff he's got in those processors of his. I might get worried if you said the same thing about a NEST team, but..."

"NEST doesn't have him wrapped around their little finger," Ratchet said flatly and glanced at the exit of the hangar again, at the dark, winged shape silhouetted by the light outside. "He transferred the recording of his conversation with Starscream in-flight. His first action on the ground was to seek her out the moment we removed that test dummy and it became clear that I had no medical reason to keep him. Furthermore, that dummy came back practically unharmed and I can guarantee you that no proper Seeker would have done the same and I very much doubt that our lectures on human fragility did a thing to rein him in. Her influence leashed him. Before all of this, you were the one of us she had encountered the most and I doubt even that was more than four or five times. Her only link to us is through him. In a better situation, we would have all three of his claimed mates on our side against the lure of Starscream and his kin on the other and if so, the scales would have tilted in our favour. As it is, we have two claimed mates against Starscream and his kin – and one neutral who will very likely go wherever he settles for, faction insignia be damned. Seekers only reluctantly abandon a mate but in this case his programming would deem him in the right. We are not Seekers. As such, it should be our duty to go with him."

"Megatron wouldn't tolerate a human," Ironhide stated just as flatly. Keep them as a pet, maybe, like the fragger had taunted Sam with – and like they didn't all know the 'Cons could be sick fraggers when the mood got them – but not tolerate one of them for any longer than it took to step on it or charge a cannon.

Ratchet laughed briefly, harshly and with no humour in it and even through their shields, Ironhide felt the flare of emotion that accompanied it.

"Spare two humans and leave their home untouched in return for the only Seeker Optimus has left? He would call them 'pets', allow one of the stupider 'Cons to threaten them, and unleash Will to teach the mech a lesson in return. Prove that 'Bot Seeker isn't worthless, be satisfied he had a good hold on Will, and then sit back and laugh at us. Humans live for a very short time, even outside of combat zones, and I know you know it, too. Put up with two humans for the rest of their natural lifespans in return for the only Seeker Optimus has left? He would do it, Ironhide. With Starscream's advice or without it."

Ironhide was about to object when he stopped himself and the words died before they could ever be fully formed. When Ratchet put it that way... he didn't really know the human femme that well and when it came down to it, he didn't doubt that she would side with her new Seeker husband, even against the rest of them. She'd been willing to argue with Ratchet and challenge him for a round two, at least, and she seemed to trust their new Seeker a whole lot more than anyone else did. If Will felt they'd be safe, there wasn't really anything to stop her from going with him...

Like a proper Seeker mate, his mind bit out. Frag it.

"He's human. Used to be," Ironhide clarified, grasping for straws and well aware of it and not giving a frag for the moment. "They're going to figure it out sooner or later. They're not going to put up with something that used to be..."

Used to be human.

He trailed off before he could finish that thought and sighed before Ratchet could even think to argue. "I know Megatron wants to get his claws on him, so he'd accept it, at least, but the rest of the flying fraggers... he used to be human, Ratchet. If they're that much into how superior they are, they're not going to put up with someone tainting the programming like that."

Ratchet just nodded. "On Cybertron, you would have been right." A shrug. "Now, none of them are stable. They've been reduced to a fraction of what they used to be and it's not natural for any of them. The longer they stay like that, the harder it is on their programming and none of them want to spark in the middle of a war. None of them want their sparkling to be the last Seeker left. It won't matter that Will used to be human, it won't matter who may or may not have sent him back here in a Seeker body – what matters is the fact that he's a Seeker and with the number of times Starscream has contacted him, I would say he has passed whatever tests still remained. He wouldn't claim Will unless he considered him a proper Seeker and that is exactly what he has been trying to do. What happened up there today was the last offer of a peaceful defection. Starscream intends to claim him regardless of what we do and he let Will know that. Since he didn't accept the offer, they will just have to resort to more hands-on methods to get him away from us."

Silence. Ironhide wanted to argue but nothing came up and instead he only turned his head to watch the silhouette of the human and the Seeker outside and considered what he had just been told. He wanted to argue but he knew damn well how worried Will had been about turning 'Con on them and that he wouldn't have been so relieved at Ironhide's promise if he hadn't thought it had been a serious concern. And his human mate...

"That's not a healthy human reaction to what she's gone through, is it?"

"I am not an expert on human psychology," Ratchet responded quietly, "and nothing like this has ever happened before. That said, she lost her human husband and got him back, if in a very different shape. That she was willing to accept him at all like this, much less be so stubborn about it... she was given her mate back, Ironhide. To refuse to follow and refuse to trust him if he chooses to leave would mean to lose him again and she never allowed herself to grieve properly in the first place." He paused and looked like he was rapidly developing a processor-ache. "I have had my clash with her. It will not be the last, either. She... seems to have some degree of positive feelings for you so you may have better luck than I. Talking her out of staying with him would be a lost cause, so give her a reason to stay with us instead. Get to know her. Talk with her. She is going to be a companion mate, after all. Let her get to know you, give her incentive to stay through that, and William and the Seeker will notice, too. For now, I suppose that's the best thing we can do."

Frag.

Ironhide suppressed a sigh and resisted the urge to comment that he wasn't Bumblebee. He got along just fine with the NEST team but civilians were something else entirely. "One of these days, I'm going to have a long discussion with Primus about the way that fragger runs things."

There was a flicker of amusement through their bond at that, almost hidden under the emotions from the Seeker. "Not any time soon, you're not, or I'll haul you back myself." Then, more serious- "We need her, Ironhide. We need every hold we can get on him."

He could have argued that he was a front-liner, that he didn't deal with problems he couldn't fix with the right amount of weapons, that he really wasn't the best person to make friendly with a civilian, and any of a dozen other excuses that flickered through his processors, but in the end he just nodded. It was Will's life on the line, the human femme wasn't bad for her kind, and Ratchet did have a point. If she was going to remain a big part of their new Seeker's life, then Ironhide needed to get to know her beyond the short and still slightly awkward conversations they'd held.

One last look at Ratchet and then he turned and headed out of the hangar again, towards their Seeker and its human mate.

Life, he decided, had been so much easier with Will Lennox as a human.