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"Hey, Ron, is it normal for me to be so tired?" I yawned as I lay over his lap, settling myself comfortably.
"Hmm, probably because you've lost blood and your blood cells need to regenerate. I'll tell Ratchet about it." He said as I could feel his hand caressing my head. I felt like a sleepy kitten in gentle hands.
"Okay then. Could you get me to the living room? Will might be worried where I wandered off."
The truck door immediately opened as Ron took me into his strong arms and got me out of his alt mode. I locked my hands around his neck so I wouldn't fall, though I knew he would never let me. He carried me into the house and stopped. "Do you want to sleep in your bedroom?"
"No, the mattress is on the floor, Ironhide. The couch is bigger and that way Nicole can get better sleep in the bedroom."
"Alright." He carried on carrying me towards the couch, where he settled me comfortably. After settling me, he settled himself right next to me, putting the covers over my knees. "You'll get better." He found my hand under the duvet and brought it to his chest.
"I don't know." I had a bad feeling when it came to my health.
"What do you not know?" he was clearly confused.
"I don't know if I'll get better." I shrugged.
"And just why wouldn't you get better? Is there something you hadn't told me or Ratchet?"
"And what was there to tell, exactly? Ratchet basically came and poked me with the damned needles. I didn't have a saying in what he was doing."
"You're right, but you're also worrying me." He was faced towards me as we lay in front of each other on the couch-turned-bed in the quiet living room. "It's not making things easier if you continue thinking you won't get better."
"I didn't say I won't get better." I corrected him. "I said I don't know if I'm going to get better."
"Well then, let me tell you that you will get better. And that's non-negotiable." he moved closer to me and gave me a hug. He was like a pillow. A soft, wide, loving pillow.
"Okay, okay, I will get better. I promise."
"Good. Now get that rest you still seem to be lacking. Ratchet's on his way."
"What?" I jerked up. The remembrance of the knee pain was still all too clear in my mind. "What for?"
"I told you, you are worrying me. I'm not letting it go unnoticed. Besides, he has the results done."
"Are they good?"
"I don't know. You keep on sleeping." He soothed as I went back to the previous position, using Ron as a pillow to get some sleep.
Ironhide POV
I immediately comlinked Ratchet to get those results as quickly as possible. She wasn't supposed to be this tired, not even because the blood loss. I only told her that so she wouldn't worry herself.
"Ratchet, get your aft and the results on the Lennox property right now."
"The results are done, you glitch, I just have to get there. It's going to take a cycle or so for me to arrive."
"Status on the results?"
"…Not good." The very tone of his voice told me it wasn't good.
"What do you mean 'not good'?"
"I mean they are NOT GOOD, Ironhide. I'll break the news when everybody is there. It might be for the best. How is Melissa doing? Is she tired more than usually, having any nausea?"
"Yes, Ratchet, she is tired more than usually. No nausea signs. But at one moment…" I didn't know if I should tell him this.
While I was caressing her hair and then removed my hand, it was so strange to see a very large amount of it come off. It was never like that. And I've been around humans far too long to not notice something like this. Even though Mel's hair was considerably short, she was losing her hair. At the age of twenty-three.
"Ironhide, whatever you are keeping from me may be crucial for her well-being."
He doesn't have to know how I found out about it. "She is losing a lot of hair, Ratchet."
"And just how did you come to notice that? Never mind. This only confirmed it."
"Your ETA, Ratchet?" I asked, exhausted, for he can keep the mumbling to himself.
"Half a cycle." I prepared to cut off the comlink, but Ratchet wasn't done talking. "And Ironhide? Research the five most common terminable diseases for humans. Prepare yourself." With that he cut off the comlink.
I returned to my holoform to check on Mel. She was calm. A little pale, but that must have been from the blood loss.
Frag, who am kidding? It's not because of blood loss.
Without having much else to do, I started to research the terminable human diseases. Did Melissa have a terminable disease? Why would Ratchet want me to research them? Unless… she is going to die of something.
The thought made my alt shiver. I started to read the terminable diseases. I just don't know what caused her to get a disease like that.
Smoking, one of the deadly habits. But Melissa doesn't smoke.
Alzheimer's, constant memory loss with old age. Melissa isn't old and all her memories are restored.
Drugs, another deadly habit. She doesn't do drugs.
Car accidents, the incapability of humans handling vehicles. Mel doesn't need to worry about that, she's got me.
Cancer…
Cancer…
Cancer.
Something in my processor told me this was going to be a problem. I immediately researched the symptoms. Severe lack of energy, hair loss, hard to treat, high death rate, pale skin, nausea…
By the time I was finished researching, I went back to my holoform. Only to see Will, Sarah and Annabelle standing in front of me.
This is going to be awkward. Mel is lying in a very comfortable position and Will does not know of our relationship.
I need a smooth getaway and I need it now.
"Ironhide, just what are you two doing?" Will asked, looking confused on the outside, but on the inside he wanted to tear me apart. I knew his anger.
"Nothing, she is resting and I am monitoring her."
"With her resting on you?"
"Oh Will, stop it. At least she isn't in pain." Sarah helped me.
"Ratchet is going to come." I said.
"The results are back?" Will asked.
"Yes." I said shortly. "It's not good news." I shook my head. I couldn't know for sure if it was this human cancer, but if it was, Ratchet had better had a good enough reason for it to be, or it's his life on the line as well.
The lights of blue and red flashed into the living room as we all knew it was Ratchet who arrived here. "It would be best if Annabelle was not present." I said as Sarah nodded and walked Annabelle up the stairs. She came down a moment later, just when Ratchet got into the house.
"She'll be playing upstairs. I just hope it's not something really bad going on with Mel."
"Greetings everyone." Ratchet said, while being in his holoform. He also noted the position me and Mel were. I was nowhere in pit moving from that position. Other than the part that I enjoyed it, it kept her asleep. "The results are in. Ironhide, would you wake her up? She needs to hear this."
"She is recharging, Ratchet, why would I wake her?"
"Because she needs to hear this. Are you having audio problems?"
"No Ratchet, my audios are just fine."
"Enough, you two," Will interfered, "What's going on with Mel?"
At this point I knew that I had to wake her up, whether I liked it or not. And I did not like it. Ratchet gave me a sharp look. There was no defying him this time. I was sure he had a wrench hidden somewhere and I'd rather evade it. Ratchet has his ways of carrying things.
I shook her gently until her eyes opened.
Frag, I felt so guilty at this moment.
Melissa POV
I was being shook awake. It was Ironhide who was doing the honors. "Hmm?" I looked at him.
He smiled, but I could clearly see there was something wrong. "The results are back."
"And?" I was anxious.
"Ask Ratchet." He sighed as we both sat up. I turned around. I didn't notice my uncle, aunt nor Ratchet here.
"Ratchet?" I was expecting to be told what was wrong with me. "Hi. The results are back? What do they say?"
"Melissa, I know this is going to be very hard for you. And it is certainly going to be hard for everyone." He looked towards my family members and Ironhide. "It's not easy for me to say this to you, but you have to know." The intense feeling in my stomach grew. "You have cancer."
At this point I could only stare at him, while my brain was trying to process the information.
Cancer.
I have cancer.
Blinking hard and looking up at him, I could barely voice out anything. "How?" I wanted to cry. And die. My whole world just fell apart. I felt Ironhide's hand on my back, my uncle, aunt nor Ratchet couldn't see it. It was a silent reassuring action.
"After doing to blood tests, I discovered your blood wasn't entirely pure."
My uncle, who by now was silent and as shocked as everyone in the room, resounded in the deafeningly silent room. "What do you mean 'not entirely pure'?"
"Primus, it's like I'm talking in another English." Ratchet shook his head. "It was not 100% human blood. I found traces of energon in the blood."
"How did energon get there? I thought it was something you guys ran on?" as far as I knew, and I remember Ironhide explaining to me how the Transformers work, they ran on energon.
"You remember?" Ratchet was shocked.
"Yeah, but how did it get to me?"
"Apparently, somebody had to be bleeding for you to get it into your system."
"Ironhide!" Will angrily filled the room with shouting. "You did this to her! You did this and this is all your fault! You ruined her life, you-" I hadn't ever seen such rage in my uncle.
"Captain Lennox, that is enough. Nobody is pointing fingers here and neither should you start doing so. The energon is not from Ironhide."
"What?" we were all confused.
"It's Starscream's energon."
I couldn't believe this. "I have Decepticon energon in my body? Am I going to turn into one now? Wait, what does me having Starscream's energon have to do with cancer?" There were just too many questions!
"You should all sit down." Ratchet said as the people who were standing took their seats, basically, Will, Sarah and Ratchet. "First of all, if one of our race wanted to scan for energon activity, Melissa over here, would come up on our scans."
"I'm visible on your scans?"
"Not entirely you, but the energon within you." Ratchet explained. "And this isn't the first energon encounter you've had, is it?"
He was right. It wasn't my first encounter. Only now I realized that the humanoids were actually the Transformers. Red eyes were Starscream's and the blue ones were Ironhide's. It was such a sudden realization.
I nodded my head as I heard silent gasps. Ironhide continued to rub my back silently behind me and still nobody noticed him.
"You see, your first energon encounter occurred many years ago and your body was able to fight it. It was in excellent shape, young and strong, but it could never purge the energon out. It didn't stop your body from functioning properly. Once the second dose of energon, a much larger one at that, entered your body, it triggered the 'old' energon that was still left within you."
"One question, Ratchet." I brought up a finger, signaling how many questions I had. He nodded for me to continue. "Why are my knees purple?"
Ratchet moved the covers to check on the knees. They were as purple as they were ever going to be. "It's discoloration is because of the mix of energon and blood. While energon is blue, blood is red. Together they form the color violet and that is why your knees are like that." he put the covers back on.
"And how is that connected to the cancer?" Will voiced.
"The cancer was going to happen anyway." Ratchet started explaining once more. "It wasn't because of the energon. It was genetically transferable."
"What the hell does that mean?" Will was frustrated. I hated seeing my uncle like this. Sarah could only do so much to help him cope.
"Common English for the humans, Ratchet." Ironhide told him as he continued to gently scratch my back.
"Someone in your family had cancer and offlined because of it."
"My grandmother died because of breast cancer." Will looked to the ground.
"Great-grams? I didn't know she died like that." This really was weird. Such revelations. "Wait, does that mean I have breast cancer? I thought you tested my blood for bacteria and viruses and not for cancer?"
Who was lying to whom now?
"I checked it for everything it could be checked for, for Primus' sake. What if there was something wrong with you and I hadn't tested your blood and bone structure for it? Not only would I be feeling remorse for the rest of my already long life, but Ironhide would hunt me down and shoot me on sight."
"That's right." Ironhide nodded.
"Although, this kind of cancer is extremely rare. I did check the blood for bacteria and it has shown me a certain type of bacteria that causes cancer. It's called the Rachobillis Caelus and it spreads through the entire body."
Could this get any worse? I was beginning to get a headache from all this. "And? What now? I have entire body cancer? Where does that leave me, Ratchet?"
"I still haven't told you the point. Even though it is quite rare, the cancer is not strong, it's is in fact, benign."
"What do we do now? There is only chemotherapy for cancer and it's pretty difficult to go through." Sarah voiced.
"I'll try to administer a cure. But I'll need to invent the cure. One is needed to get the energon out of her body before it clogs her heart and the other-"
"Wait, it's going to clog my heart?" I almost screamed at that point.
"You must not get excited. The more your heart beats, the faster the energon travels towards your heart."
"But why?" I couldn't comprehend this much.
"The human heart responds to electrical shocks. Our sparks work much like the same. Each time the spark beats, it sends electrical pulses through the body to move the energon. The same does the human heart. While it not only moves the blood, it moves the energon as well, but at a much slower pace, for it is a foreign matter, even though they run on same electrical impulses."
"But how will it clog it?" Will asked.
"Her body can't possibly tear apart the energon inside her, instead it must move it. Once it gets to her heart, it will continue to build up there, because the electric shocks are highest there."
"But we can get it out, right? Before it… you know… does that." Will couldn't say it, but I knew he was afraid to say 'clog her heart'. I didn't understand why everything had to be so complicated. I was a good person. I didn't ever killed anybody and God shouldn't be punishing me with irreversible diseases and foreign matters.
"We should be able to, after I've discovered a cure. Luckily, things at the base are running smooth and I have my entire time devoted towards finding the right medicine."
"Thank you Ratchet. Thank you so much." I was really grateful to Ratchet. There were still good people ready to sacrifice themselves and their time to help others.
"You can thank me when you are cured. I'll be on my way now, I need to work." He got up and saluted everyone on his way out.
The flashing red and blue lights faded away as Ratchet went away to find a cure to help me. My gaze fell onto the people who were present with me in the living room.
Will came towards me and took my hand in his. "Mel, we're going to beat this bastard, you understand?"
"Starscream?"
"No-well, yeah, but I meant the cancer." It would have been funny, but cancer was a pretty wrong thing to laugh at. "Ratchet is the best doctor in the universe, literally, there is nothing he can't treat. He's Ratchet." He really emphasized how great he was.
"Okay, Will." I didn't want him seeing me cry over these news, so I held the tears that were coming back for as long as possible.
"If you ever need anything, all three of us are here for you, so don't worry." He smiled.
"Thanks. But right now, I'd just like to be alone for a moment with Ironhide."
"Of course Mel, anything you say." Sarah came and kissed my forehead. I sighed as both my uncle and aunt went up the stairs and into their bedrooms.
I turned around to face Ironhide. He looked pretty down himself. I could only imagine how he was feeling. Could he imagine how I was feeling?
"Ironhide?" this is where the tears couldn't be fought anymore. They went on their own. He looked at me. "Am I going to die?"
He hugged me softly as I quietly cried into his chest, sobbing. "Of course you are not going to die. Don't ever think that." he kissed my head and cradled me closer. I hugged him around the neck, for I needed all the embrace from him I could get. I loved him so much I couldn't go on without him.
I don't know what I would have done now if Ironhide and I didn't get back together. If I had been told the news and he wasn't here by my side… I probably wouldn't have survived the first five minutes after Ratchet had left.
"I just don't understa-and, why did I-I have to be the one with the c-cancer? Why do I have to be the one who dies in the end? Why did we have to break up then and-"
"Listen," he broke the hug to look into my teary, red eyes. He took my face in his hands and made me look at his face. The face I've grown to love looking at. "I will tell you something that may not help you much. But you will know your worth. And that is what matters to me."
I nodded, not having the strength to talk. He kept on wiping the tears that kept coming with his thumbs. I looked into his eyes.
"God gives the hardest battles to his toughest soldiers. For someone who is far smaller than me, I have never seen so much spark in them, such as you, so much life and so many emotions. I have seen bots sacrificing themselves, but never someone like you. And you are one of a kind, Melissa. Deep down, you know that. And you are the only one there is and that will ever be for me. You mean everything to me and we are not letting a disease take you away from me."
His encouraging words and soothing voice earned him an amorous hug from me. I felt so safe with him, when he was here. I kissed him on the neck, for it was as far as I could reach from my sitting position.
I lay down on the bed, settling myself on my side with him following close by. I was in his embrace, tucked away safely from anyone daring to take me away. I snuggled close, but not close enough that I couldn't angle my head up to look into his face, as we lay on our sides.
He leaned his head forwards and rested it on mine, as he closed his eyes. I closed mine as well, as we settled down like that, basking in each other's presence. At that moment, I opened my eyes, only to meet his gentle blue ones.
At this moment, I knew we were always going to be there for each other. And he would never leave me. I could see it in his eyes. I could feel it in his touch.
There was this deep connection again, it was always there when our foreheads touched. I knew it was a Cybertronian kiss.
Ironhide spoke up, my eyes falling to look at his lips. And then coming back to gaze into his eyes. His hand touched my cheek.
"I love you, Melissa." He breathed air out.
I brought up my hand to his face and stroked his cheek softly. "And I love you, babe." His body relaxed. A whine escaped my voice as my fingers traced his lips. "I'm so tired…"
"I know, Mel. Rest. Rest then and get some sleep." He kissed the tips of my fingers as he sat up.
"Please don't." the same hand who's fingertips he kissed barely touched him, begging him not to leave me. Not at this moment.
"Of course." He came down on the bed again, embracing me into his chest as my back was turned towards him. His hand looped over me. I could feel his head lowering, for his lips to whisper into my ear. "And what do we do if your uncle comes in and sees us?"
I shrugged. "You're older. You figure it out."
He chuckled deeply and kissed me behind the ear.
I think the fluff factor just went to a whole 'nother level! I've never written something that held so much romance in it. (and it only gets better)
Yeah, I know you're all going to hate on me right now, because of the cancer thing, but hey, this was all planned in the story. You'd be surprised where I'd go with a story like this. ;)
Also, we're nearing the 60 chapter perimeter! Can I break it? I think so!
But the real question is, do you think I can make it through 100 chapters? It's always been my dream to have a 100 chapter story.
And I spent around 5 hours on this chapter, from 12:00 am to 05:00 am.
I need reviews, my sparklings. The more, the merrier! If you have any questions on how, why, what and stuff like that, you can put them in the review or you can PM me.
Oh yeah, the bacteria thing, it's totally made-up.