Chapter 43 dd1
The Diego Diaries: "Home is over there."
=0=In the conference room off Ops Center later that afternoon
They huddled around the table looking at the plans that Prime had laid out. He had called the senior Autobots to the meeting finally deciding in light of all that was happening that it was time to discuss what he had come to see as the only solution to their tenuous residence on Earth.
Perceptor and Wheeljack were silent and absorbed as they perused the schematics of Prime's dream. Prowl stood beside Prime watching and waiting for questions. He had been over the entire format three times that morning alone and he was ready with counter arguments if there were any.
There weren't.
Ironhide musing over the step-by-step process involved glanced at Prime who was sitting in a chair silently watching. "You're going to need a few scouting parties. I think a review of sites is in order. Even though you picked some good places, no one has been there to look things over yet."
Prime agreed. "We will send out scientific teams with security to explore the feasibility of the sites I have chosen. If they do not meet our needs we can then go from there."
"Then we better get going," Wheeljack said smiling at Prime. "This is going to be a real challenge. Our people will have a place to come. We can be a people again."
The comment gave everyone pause, then they bent their heads together to work out the plan for exploration, site identification for resources they could use and the effort they would have to expend to make sure no humans got even an accidental heads up on what they were going to do.
=0=Med Bay, a little later
"And that's what Prime wants to do," Ironhide explained.
Ratchet himself unable to go to the meeting due to a taped deposition about Ironhide's injuries nodded. "That would be almost too much to hope for, Ironhide. Think of it. Our sparkling could be the first sparkling born there. You would make the history books."
Ironhide snorted. "I see you're still in your delusional phase."
"A mech can try." Ratchet smiled as he crossed his arms to stare at Ironhide with a calculating expression. "You know, you haven't 'faced for more than 60 cycles. Two months as the humans say. How's that working out for you?"
"I'm managing." Ironhide smirked. "You know, I've gone longer than that during the Fall of Iacon."
"We need to hold negotiations tonight."
"You're wearing down?" Ironhide asked with a snort.
"No," Ratchet said moving closer to Ironhide, giving him a smoldering optic. "Prime's plans change everything."
For a moment Ironhide basked in Ratchet's smoldering optic, then he stepped back wary as ever. "You can give me your gimlet eye, Ratchet but it won't change a thing."
pause. Access. Gimlet, ?. Beep. Warning... access shutting down...
"Okay, give me a clue here. Gimlet as in a drink? As in surface-to-air missile? Or am I to take it that you just referred to my optic as a drill that makes tiny little holes?"
Ironhide, his own optics twirling, considered that. "I heard a soldier refer to someone as having a gimlet eye."
"A gimlet eye," Ratchet referred quashing a smirk. "You hang out with the soldiers too much."
"Well considering you put a padlock on your privates, it makes it hard to hang out with you."
"So you only want me for my chassis?" Ratchet asked feigning hurt as he cast a gimlet optic at his big hulking Only One.
"And a few other parts too," Ironhide said with a smirk. "Not that I can really remember them. Maybe I better borrow one of your med pads and catch up on such things."
"I would prefer to show you," Ratchet said slipping his arms around Ironhide's neck to lean in for a kiss. They kissed a moment, Ironhide moving forward to press Ratchet into the wall.
"I would too," he said giving Ratchet his own gimlet optic. "How about you and me making The Sexy and calling it a good faith gesture to future negotiations?"
"How about you and me making a sparkling. Now."
Ironhide looked closely at Ratchet's face, looking for the tel. "Now?"
"Now."
"Negotiations..."
"Can be had afterward."
Pause.
"Ratchet, I have to ask something."
"Ask." (Kiss)
"Well, you have this idea..."
"Yes?" (Kiss. Kiss)
"That I would carry."
Pause.
"Continue."
"I don't mind carrying..."
"WHAT!" Two BIG gimlet optics fixed on two optics that suddenly lost the will to live.
"Ratchet!" Ironhide's voice disappeared under a nearly five ton yellow hug as Ratchet grabbed him squeezing so hard he could almost feel the impressions of digits on his helm. Ratchet kissed him deeply and smiled. "I'll get the berth ready. Come right away, Ironhide."
With that Ratchet ran out the door of the Med Bay. Ironhide mentally counting his fingers turned to look at the door, the one that led to He Who Must Be Avoided At All Cost Now and finally finished his sentence. "... a sparkling after you have it."
He shuddered. Life had taken a nose dive and he was being dragged by a ped directly into the Pit.
"Slag."
=0=On the way to his quarters
"Hey, Ironhide!"
He turned to wait as Jazz caught up with him. "What's up with Ratchet?"
A wary optic fastened on Jazz. "What do you mean?"
"He was bounding, hopping and saying 'I win! I win!" Jazz smiled. "What exactly did he win?"
Ironhide shifting from ped to ped stared at Jazz with optics as big as dinner plates. "Nothing. I don't know. Don't ask me. I don't know nothing about bonds. I don't know nothing about nothing." Then he walked as fast as he could to his quarters.
=0=In the rec room
"I saw Ratchet practically doing cartwheels down the hallway just now," Jazz said sitting with the twins and Hound.
"I don't know what it means," Hound said shaking his head. "Sometimes those two scare me."
=0=In the hallway to the arsenal
"Did you hear about Ratchet? He ran to his room screaming. I think he's lost his mind at last. Ironhide would do that to a mech."
"Really? I thought they were crazy for each other."
"I think they're just crazy."
=0=Near the hangar door to the complex
"Here's your energon. Did you hear that Ironhide made Ratchet cry? He ran down to their quarters."
"What? I don't believe that."
"Believe it. Someone who saw him said they saw it. Real tears."
=0=In the Ops Center
"What?"
"Yes."
"Oh no. Ironhide is going to die? I thought his injuries weren't that awful."
"Ratchet was crying. He ran through the hall and barricaded himself into his quarters. Prime is as low as it gets."
=0=Outside Ops Center
"I'm sorry, sir."
"Sorry?" -Prime
"Yes. My condolences. I just found out."
"Found out? Condolences?" -Prime
I have to go. I can't talk."
"What?" -Prime
=0=In the hallway near to the indoor workout space
"I don't know what we're going to do. When a bond goes, the other follows."
"This is terrible. Think about it. No doctor, no weapons specialist." -appalling angst
"I wonder what that means to the seniority list?" -seething ambition
=0=In Prowl's office
"I don't know. I was just told. What are they talking about?" -Prime
"I don't know. I'll ask." -Prowl
=0=In the hallway
"Jazz, what is going on?"
"What?"
=0=Ironhide outside Ironhide and Ratchet's quarters
"Hide? I'm so sorry?"
"About what?" -Ironhide
"Yeah. We didn't know. I don't know what to say. But I want you to know you aren't alone."
"What?" -Ironhide
"I won't keep you. I understand that time is short. But remember, you will never be forgotten."
"What?" -Ironhide.
=0=Walking to the rec room
"I don't understand a thing today." -Prime
"I am sure there's a logical reason for all of this." -Prowl
=0=Outside Ironhide and Ratchet's quarters
He paused fearing to open the door and fearing not to as well. The crazy was as deep outside as he was sure it was inside. He had no home to go to no matter which direction he turned.
He turned.
At the end of the corridor standing in a quiet knot five Autobots stared at him, their faces betraying intense emotion. One of them raised his servo and waved gently to him. He paused then raised his own servo waving back. For a moment he was immobile, then without a backward glance, his processor spinning, he opened the door and stepped inside preferring the Doom of Ratchet to the dumb outside the door.
=0=TB c2010 (11) edited 1-1-17