Knock Out was not amused and left in a huff after completing the examination. Mirage subsided into the berth letting his systems rouse without trying to hurry them along. There was nothing urgent, no deadlines or critical missions. He would lie there staring at the unattractive ceiling until he felt more himself. He would also be very terse with Jazz when next they spoke.
"No!" Tempest's voice came before the whoosh of the door then repeated. "No!" As Thundercracker carried him into the room. The Seeker shut out the noise in the hallway, vented, and approached the berth as quietly as was not possible with a fretful sparkling.
"He really misses you." The Seeker said unnecessarily as Tempest reached for the Autobot, wriggling like an electro-eel.
"Just put him on my chestplate. He'll settle." Mirage advised, not wanting to sit up. Thundercracker placed the little jet gently before sitting on the stool beside the berth. His wings drooped. Mirage sympathised. "Problems?"
"Yeah." He watched his bitlet pat his conjunx as though checking for damage or more likely trying to magnetise. "Every mech and his deployer is bitching, sounding off on comms, or lodging complaints. Soundwave alerted High Command on the quiet about your abduction. But that didn't suit 'Screamer, oh no. He did an all-call and cancelled leave. Denied transit too. Shut down everything he could shut. Still missed that fragging spy."
"How did Jazz get us off planet?" The noble could think of a few ways but if the 'Con 2IC was throwing his authorisations around, it wouldn't have been easy.
"On a garbage scow. Sneaked into the cargo bay then ejected himself and you out an airlock once the ship hit space. Had a new sensor baffler Soundwave isn't happy about." Thundercracker leaned against the wall, his helm tilting back with a thump. "Not a trick anyone can use again. Must've really wanted you."
"Or Tempest." Mirage mused. The Seeker snapped up to MAXIMUM ALERT.
"Did they hurt him? Hook said the Hatchet said no but I'll smelt anyone who touches my winglet." He snarled.
"No." The assurance was hasty, glyphs heavy with calming markers. "No one got anywhere near. Tempest was inside me for almost the entire time then I was holding him. Ratchet did one scan and was hissed at." He put a hand on Thundercracker's arm. A little risky if a Decepticon was running combat subroutines but he would be able to sense that Mirage was not. "I meant, they might have been trying for medical data. Something's wrong on Earth."
"Something." With visible effort, Thundercracker relaxed. Tempest beeped at him, waving a hand, placid now the big people had stopped shouting. "The 'Bots we brought in were interrogated too. Reports still pending. 'Screamer is throwing a fit over the shuttle, like always."
"Does he love Skyfire or is it a sense of injustice? Existential angst?" Mirage wondered if Starscream himself knew. His performance on the return journey might have been wind-down from tension. All Seekers were highly strung, it came with their precision mods. Fro what Gyre had said, an eternity ago, the high caste scientist was an exemplar of the stereotype.
"Unicron knows." The blue jet's wings waggled in a shrug as he tried to ease servos. "He doesn't share. And Skyfire rejected him. And and and." Thundercracker rolled a hand in a very human gesture. Tempest grabbed for his carrier's fingers, which he was allowed to catch and nibble on. "You've done great with the bitlet. I wanted to say that." The glyphs were quiet, heartfelt. "He's so much better."
"We've done great." The reply was calculated and although Mirage felt wretched that he was being strategic about this, he wasn't lying. Tempest's rehabilitation was a group effort. "I am very fond of him but he is your sparkling. And Skywarp's, and Starscream's. He's a Seeker." The Towerling petted Tempest's helm affectionately. "He may even have your carrier's chatoyant variant. Ratchet mentioned something about structural iridescence delaying colour nanites."
"I'd like that." Thundercracker said wistfully.
"I was worried you'd think I'd conspired with Jazz," The truth left his vocaliser powered by empathy not logic. Mirage didn't want to start dodging recriminations until he had all his diodes firing. Whatever they'd found in his helm wouldn't have been entirely compliant or flattering. Assuredly Vortex hurt more but Soundwave was thorough. He found secrets.
"It was mentioned." His glyphs made it clear he had not done the mentioning.
"I didn't." Mirage said so it was said.
"Yeah, we know. I was sure, but Soundwave confirmed it and no one is calling his telepathy into question. Last mech who did that got a personal demonstration." He grimaced. No 'Con forgot that example. "I was sure." Thundercracker repeated. "I didn't see what that fragger did but I saw you hit the ground boxed. We don't do that, Seekers, I mean. It's claustrophobic. It's regulation and grounders do but, no. Not twice, anyway. So if you were a cube, it was 'cause there was a threat."
"I'm a grounder. Protective cubing doesn't bother me. Well, not much. Losing tactile is disorientating, of course." The noble felt duty bound to remind his conjunx wheels not wings. Seekers, indeed most Aerials, were blinkered.
Thundercracker nodded. But did he hear? Mirage opted to not call him out on it.
"You promised you wouldn't take Tempest." He shifted a little, more uncomfortable than restless. Deliberately, the noble made optic contact and the Seeker shifted again. "He was happy. I could feel that through the bond. My bitlet was safe." Thundercracker looked away. "I felt you. I think. You weren't happy. You were scared. And you're Spec Ops. If you were on mission, you'd've had your bolts tightened down. Not rattling."
"I was indeed quite rattled." Mirage half-smiled. His conjunx mirrored his expression.
"Yes?" Tempest asked, patting sanitised white plating. "Mine."
"Mine?" That was not an unexpected glyph though the noble wished 'please' had taken priority.
"Mine." The sparkling agreed and continued on with beeps and chirrups, being chatty without quite being conversant. It wouldn't be long until he was a little mimic.
"The cassettes are trying to teach him human swear words." Thundercracker grumbled. "Skywarp's encouraging them. He thinks it's funny."
"It's not funny." Mirage was very firm. Regardless of Tempest's sire's dented sense of humour, Tempest was not going to be cussing. "How is Skywarp?" Would he be even more unbearable now he had tangible proof Autobots were endangering his sparkling? "He seemed alright, I suppose. I don't know him well enough to assess."
"He's unbearable." The grumble morphed into a slow vent. "He's okay." Thundercracker watched Tempest investigate his own peds. "He saw you get carted off, armoured around our sparkling. That gave his sire coding a jolt." Hook had scanned all of them post-mission and had made a lot of notes. About 10% was intelligible to lesser mechanisms. "He's reassigned you as protection for Tempest. I don't think he likes you any better but you're useful now."
"I strive to fulfil my function." That was a very old quote.
"Yeah." Thundercracker grimaced. The sparkling of course copied him and stuck his glossa out. "No, Tempest, we don't make rude faces. No." Tempest blew a raspberry at his carrier. "I'm going to shoot 'Warp. But at least he'll ease up about you. You're not the one trying to steal his sparkling. Jazz is going to need an armed guard if we ever catch him."
"I am unsure if catching Jazz will do anyone any good, philosophically." Mirage mused, diverting Tempest from licking him. He had his glossa out so the noble caught it lightly between his fingers, not pinching. That convinced the sparkling to retract it. "Jazz doesn't do well when restrained. He can't even manage long debriefs without fidgeting. Having him in detention is just a challenge. Prowl never assigned him brig time for infractions."
"Soundwave's got a lot of footage of him cleaning the Ark with human tools. A toothbrush once." The Seeker didn't agree but he followed his conjunx's reasoning. Whether Megatron would just let the saboteur swan in on his own whim was unlikely. Maybe if Prime asked real nice. "For what it's worth, Ratchet'll get instant parole. Hook's already sulking."
"You need him. We, the Cybetronian people, need him." Perhaps there was a doctor of comparable qualifications among the Neutrals, but if so, they had get to repatriate themselves. "He will need all the data, though. Highest clearance." Mirage considered how best to assist. "I will avoid him, if that influences a security assessment."
"Deadlock's asked to guard him." Thundercracker had not been included in that briefing. He had overheard it from the hallway. Easily. "He has it hot for the medic."
"Ratchet will disassemble him." That got Mirage sitting up. He shifted Tempest onto his lap, where the sparkling sat up too as though they were having a staff meeting. "Drift defected. I don't know if Ratchet knows but the instant he sees red optics on his whatever-he-is, it's going to be sirens and wrenches." It would be awful. The ambulance would be devastated. "You can't do that to him."
It would've been amusing to ask if Mirage meant 'him' Ratchet or 'him' Deadlock except Thundercracker could see this was not a moment for levity. He couldn't give the 'Bot much but he could at least try to head off this. "I'll tell Starscream. He'll be delighted to thwart someone else's messy Autobot crush. Misery loved company."
