"You have been working far too long, Prowl."

Startled, Prowl looked up from his work to see Optimus standing in front of his desk. He hadn't even noticed the Prime enter the room. "Optimus. I-"

"I think you deserve a break." The big mech's optics crinkled slightly, showing he was smiling behind his battlemask. "And I wished to speak with you. May I sit down?"

"Certainly." Prowl said stiffly, setting aside several of his datapads.

After taking a seat on the other side of Prowl's desk, Optimus steepled his fingers and peered at the tactician curiously. "How are you? I was told that your Decepticon companion has returned to his faction."

"With all due respect sir, I have no wish to talk about this." Prowl said stiffly, doorwings twitching.

With a nod, Optimus eyed him carefully. "I understand. But I'm afraid that since your friend was never officially here, I would take it as my own personal failure if I were to not find out exactly what happened. I am sure you can understand that."

There was a lengthy pause before Prowl's doorwings drooped miserably. "I understand."

"So would you please explain to me the circumstances of his departure?"

Slowly, Prowl nodded. "Yes, sir. He left last week. I.. I'm not sure why. He never said.."

"Hmm... I see." Optimus tilted his head in thought. "He never said why he was leaving?"

Despite Prowl's stoic and emotionless face, his doorwings fluttered with suppressed emotion. "No, sir. Everything seemed fine - until he left, of course. There was no warning, my calculations never showed any sign of- but then, he's always been unpredictable." Prowl murmured to himself, frowning. "He has always taken me by surprise."

"Someone take you by surprise?" Optimus looked amused, as much as he was trying to hide it.

"Yes. Jazz was unique like that." A frown creased the smooth metal of Prowl's forehead as he looked out into the distance. He didn't even seem to realise he had zoned out.

Optimus' smile dimmed slightly, and he tilted his head. "Jazz? I thought his name was Rumble." The Autobot leader noticed Prowl tense, and he frowned. "Prowl? I hope this Jazz is not the same Decepticon saboteur that has been such a danger to our own forces that our spies are afraid to infiltrate the Decepticon base lest they be captured and tortured by him?"

The startled look on Prowl's face was almost comical. "Ah..."

"Prowl." Optimus frowned. "That was very important information. You absolutely should not have left such an important detail out."

"I am sorry." Prowl's doorwings drooped even further. "I accept whatever punishment you deem necessary."

With a sigh, Optimus leaned back in the chair. "I have no wish to punish you. But for reasons I will explain in a few moments, I need a certain degree of trust with you."

"I understand, sir. What I have done is unforgivable; I should not have lied to you about something so serious."

Optimus made a small noise of acknowledgement. "Tell me more about this 'Jazz'. Our database is severely lacking in information."

An uncharacteristically dreamy look crossed Prowl's face as he thought about the Decepticon in question. "He is intelligent. Very much so. Possibly one of the most intelligent mechs I've ever met. He is rather... unstable, however, although he was getting better before he left." He didn't see Optimus' optics crinkle with another smile as he continued talking. "He found Bumblebee outside Simfur, in a battle we went to a few weeks ago. I suppose something about Bumblebee reminded him about himself as a youngling, and he was absolutely adamant about keeping him. I have grown rather fond of him; it's been a while since Bluestreak was a youngling, and I had forgotten what it was like to have one around."

"It seems as though Jazz improved your life greatly." Optimus observed calmly. "But why did he leave?"

The tactician's hands clenched subconsciously. "I do not know. I have been running everything I did in the days running up to him leaving through my logic centre, but I have not yet come up with what I have done wrong. He... he told Bumblebee to tell me that he's sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

"I do not know." The tactician murmured, running a hand over his faceplates.

A thoughtful rumble escaped Optimus' chassis. "Prowl, you must not blame yourself. And while I admire your work ethic, you must not lock yourself away in your office as though you are punishing yourself. Raising Bumblebee is a very brave thing to do, particularly on your own, and you need to know that every Autobot will do their very best to assist you in any way they can."

"I.. appreciate that." Prowl said, nodding slowly. "Thank you, sir."

"Of course. Having that said, I feel quite guilty to ask you this. But, as you know, the position of Second in Command recently opened up with the retirement of Greenwire. I could think of no better mech than yourself to take the position."

Prowl's processor almost stalled as he stared at his Prime. "What?"

"I know the workload is enormous, and I am sorry for putting this pressure on you. If you wish to decline the position, I would understand entirely."

"I- no, I-" Prowl straightened his shoulders. "I would be honoured to accept the role of your Second in Command, sir."

With a genial nod, Optimus stood and shook his newly stated SIC's hand. "I look forward to working closely with you, Prowl."

"And I you, sir."

"But, I must insist that you do not work unreasonable hours, particularly as you are raising a youngling."

"I understand sir." Prowl nodded, walking with Optimus to the door of his office.

"Very good. You are dismissed from duty for the rest of the day." The Prime said, allowing Prowl to leave the room first. "I will see you first thing tomorrow."

"Yes, goodbye sir." Prowl watched, still feeling slightly dazed, as his superior disappeared down the corridor. After a moment of allowing his logic centre to catch up with the events of his meeting with Optimus, the tactician finally returned to his quarters.

Bumblebee had clearly been waiting for his return - as soon as the tactician walked in the door, the youngling squealed and ran to him. "You're back! How was work? I got scared earlier because I was alone and I couldn't figure out how to open the door, but I didn't want to comm. you in case I interrupted your work-"

"Calm down, Bumblebee." Prowl said patiently, allowing the youngling to grasp at his leg armour. "You should have called. Are you okay now?"

Bumblebee simply nodded. "Can we play chess again?"

With a fond smile, the tactician nodded and carried the youngling over to the couch, where Prowl's chess set was on the table. "Do you remember the rules?"

"Yes." Bumblebee beamed proudly.

"Very well. You may make the first move."

...

"Second in Command, hmmm?" Jazz hummed, frowning thoughtfully.

"Yeah. Boss thought ya might wanna know." Rumble kicked his feet up on the table.

The saboteur hummed again and pushed the cassette's legs off the table, before picking up his energon cube and draining it. "Where is Soundwave? I thought he would'a wanted t' tell meh this himself."

"He don't like the rec. room." The little mech stretched. "So, why're you so interested in a boring mech like 'Prowl'? Me and Frenzy have seen him in battle; he doesn't even do anything!"

A small smile quirked up the edges of Jazz's lips as he shrugged. "He does lots. Ya just never see it. Anyway, Ah'm gonna go."

"Boss says you ain't allowed to beat Erratic up again." Rumble said casually as the saboteur got to his feet.

"We'll see how Ah feel." Jazz said shortly, before marching out of the rec. room. Once he was in the hall, however, he didn't know where to go. So he stood there for a long moment, simply feeling lost.

"Jazz."

The saboteur whirled around, tensing, but he relaxed minutely upon seeing the red and white mech striding towards him. "Deadlock."

The swordsmech stopped in front of Jazz and looked him up and down closely. "Haven't seen you in a while."

"Tell me 'bout it."

Clearly noticing the smaller mech's lost look, Deadlock gestured for him to follow. "I am returning to my quarters for the night, and I could use some company." There was a pause, and Jazz said nothing. Casting a sidelong glance at the saboteur, Deadlock continued. "I heard you fragged an Autobot and never quite got over it."

A snarl hissed through Jazz's lips. "This is how ya plan t' get meh into yo' berth?"

"Let me finish." The bigger mech sneered. "I think I can help you get over him. A good overload should help."

Jazz was silent for a moment. He didn't WANT to get over Prowl. But he simply sighed. "Tough day, huh?"

"Nothing a little interfacing can't fix." The swordsmech said with a rough throaty chuckle, gripping the smaller mech by the arm and practically dragging him to his quarters.

The moment the door shut, Deadlock punched the lock. Jazz barely had a moment to pause before the larger mech had grabbed him and hauled him over to the berth. "Hm, eager." Jazz snorted as Deadlock began mouthing at the saboteur's neck cables and pawing at his interface panel.

"Shut up." Deadlock snarled, pushing the smaller mech down on the berth.

With a nasty laugh, Jazz spread his legs obligingly. "Make this quick, okay? Ah wanna recharge." He demanded as the bigger mech began to grind against him.

A humourless laugh escaped Deadlock's throat as his interface panel retracted. "I'm sure it won't take long." He growled, lifting Jazz around the waist and hauling him up.

A clang echoed around the room as silver backplating was slammed into the wall. A grunt escaped Jazz's vocaliser as strong fingers triggered the manual release on his interface panel. The second his valve was bared, Deadlock thrust a finger in. Jazz yelped irritably. "What, no preparation?"

"You wanted this quick." Deadlock snarled in his audio horn.

"Ah don't want it painful, you aft."

"Whatever." The larger mech sneered, but began playing with the rim of Jazz's valve.

Mild pleasure trickled through the saboteur's sensornet, and he tilted his head back against the wall. He gasped as blunt fingers massaged a particularly sensitive node on the inside of his valve. "Hurry up!"

Deadlock snarled again. "Stop telling me what to do." As the first drop of lubricant slid down Jazz's silver thigh, Deadlock sighed "Finally!"

With a sharp hiss, Jazz arched up as he felt the other Decepticon's spike press into his valve. As the lining of his valve was stretched, Deadlock lifted the saboteur off his feet in order to get a better angle to thrust upwards. Jazz looped his legs around the other mech's waist as Deadlock began to pump his hips. "Harder!"

With a snarled laugh, Deadlock obliged. He smirked as the saboteur yowled after a particularly rough thrust. "Like that?"

"Don' be so smug." The smaller mech grunted, shifting his hips to meet Deadlock's thrusts.

The swordsmech laughed again, although it sounded more real this time. "Don't be so grumpy."

"Don' be so hypocritical."

With a snicker, Deadlock thrust so hard he felt the lining of Jazz's valve actually bend. A howl echoed through the room, and Jazz slapped his interfacing partner across the face. Deadlock paused, staring at the smaller mech in shock. "Did you just SLAP me?"

"Yes! That hurt, you fragging slagfaced aft-" Jazz ranted furiously, hardly noticing when Deadlock rolled his optics and continued pumping his hips.

"Oh, hush." The bigger Decepticon commanded, slamming their hips together. His thrusts seemed to be becoming jerkier and losing their rhythm, signalling that he was approaching his overload.

Irritated that Deadlock was probably going to overload first and forget about him, Jazz circled his hips so the larger mech's spike rubbed off all the best nodes in his valve. Pleasure spiked through his sensornet, and he gasped. "Yes! There!"

"Shut up." Deadlock insisted, leering as he hit the ceiling node of Jazz's valve and the saboteur bowed backward into the wall.

As he was slammed into it again and again, Jazz's back was scraped up and down the wall, scratching his paint horribly. But his pleasure was swelling, and he couldn't care less as long as he got his overload. "Almost... Almost..." He gasped, valve contracting wildly.

Deadlock reached his overload suddenly, and his red optics flickered as he roared his completion. Jazz winced, the harsh shout hurting his sensitive audio horns and the sudden burst of transfluid spurting into his valve doing nothing to help his discomfort. He scowled irritably as the larger mech slumped relaxedly and trapped the saboteur under his body. "Hey." Jazz growled, wiggling even as he was stuck against the wall. "Hey, Ah didn' overload."

"Mmmm."

"C'mon mech, just another bit!" Jazz growled. "C'mon!"

Finally, the red and white Decepticon raised his head. "Fine!" He said impatiently, and began thrusting his hips again.

"Has your spike gone soft?" Jazz sneered. "Harder! Ah wanna overload!"

"Do not order me around!" Deadlock snarled again, thrusting harder.

Jazz's vision began to become staticky, and he circled his hips. "Good! Yes! More!" He was almost there, just hanging onto the precipice. "So close.."

Obviously beginning to get impatient, Deadlock slammed up into Jazz's ceiling node one more time, hard.

Jazz's optics whited out as overload washed over him, and he threw his head back and shouted in pleasure. "Oh, PROWL!" He screamed, his processor blanking as pleasure raced through his circuits. After the haze had faded from his processor, he rebooted his optics behind his visor and squinted around.

Somehow, he had ended up on Deadlock's berth, and the larger mech was looking down at him with a raised optic ridge. "You called out his name."

Jazz groaned in embarrassment and buried his face in the berth. "Oh Primus.."

"Yes, quite mortifying." Deadlock said pleasantly. "So I suppose the chances of you getting over this mech aren't so high."

Without looking at the other mech, Jazz pulled his face out of the berth and sighed. "No, Ah don't think they are."

"So he's not just another one of your obsessions, huh?"

The saboteur couldn't help the small smile that crossed his face. Deadlock was possibly the only mech that knew him well enough to spot something wrong when Jazz was trying to hide it. Well, other than Prowl. "He is, but he ain't no ordinary obsession."

"Have you fragged him yet?"

"Yeah..."

"And he's still alive?"

"Yeah..."

Deadlock raised both his optic ridges. "Wow. He must be pretty special."

"He is." Jazz sighed, staring at the ceiling.

As always, overload had mellowed the ordinarily temperamental Decepticon, and Deadlock relaxed on the berth. "Hmm. Maybe you could convince him to defect."

A short, humourless laugh escaped Jazz. "Prowler ain't like that. He's an Autobot, and he's gonna stay an Autobot."

"Pity. You would probably be a lot more bearable with him around."

Jazz snorted and shoved him. "Shut up, mech."

"I'm just saying, you screamed his name out in overload. You NEVER scream a mech's name during overload."

"Shut up." Jazz hissed irritably.

"So Vortex was telling the truth." Deadlock sounded cruelly amused. "You did the same with him."

That made Jazz snort. "Please, Vortex couldn't make me scream if he tried. Ah may have murmured somethin' when Ah hit overload, but it obviously wasn' Vortex's name considerin' Ah had t' do most o' the work mahself."

With a roll of his optics, Deadlock kicked Jazz out of his berth. "Whatever. Get out."

Jazz hissed as he got to his feet, baring his denta at the other Decepticon. "That's how ya treat someone ya just fragged?"

"Just get out Jazz, I'm tired."

Feeling furious, he saboteur whirled around and stormed out of the room. He made his way to his quarters, swearing up a storm. The 'quarters' he had claimed was more of a small closet, but he made do. It was better than rooming with Vortex and the other Combaticons, in any case.

Once he had shut the door behind him, he let out a frustrated groan and sank down onto the floor. His interface components were sore, but he ignored the ache and crawled onto the hard and uncomfortable berth. He missed Prowl.

...

"Do you think he'll ever come home?"

White hands clenched on a datapad, and Prowl sighed. "I don't know, Bumblebee."

The youngling twisted the makeshift doll Spectrum had given him. "Me and Pixel miss him."

Prowl barely resisted the urge to correct the mechling's grammar. "I know, Bumblebee."

Silence fell as the youngling began adjusting the doll in his hands. "Can we see Spectrum again? He was nice."

There was a long pause as Prowl considered the request. Jazz would be furious if he brought Bumblebee to spend time with the other silver Special Ops mech. "Yes. I believe I will be able to arrange something." The tactician allowed a wry smile to creep upon his lips at the thought of Jazz's expression of he were to know that Prowl was willingly inviting Spectrum into his life. His smile faded almost immediately. "I will speak with him tomorrow."

Bumblebee nodded with a smile. "Okay. He was a nice mech."

"Yes, you mentioned that." The older mech said wryly. "For now, I believe it's time for recharge, yes?"

"I'm not tired." Bumblebee protested, hugging Pixel closer to his chassis.

"Yes, you are." Prowl chided, carrying the youngling over to his small berth and laying him down on it. "Now, it's time to recharge and you know it."

A pout crossed the yellow mechling's face. "Not tired." Barely a second later, his lips rounded in a yawn.

"Yes, you are." Prowl pulled the heating blanket over Bumblebee's small body.

"Promise we'll see Spectrum tomorrow?"

"If you want to."

"I do."

"Very well then." Prowl stepped back and made his way over to his own berth. Jazz would be furious indeed.