Your favorite sadistic writer is back! :D I know it's been quite a while, but yeah, as always, I'm continuing this story until my very last breath. With each chapter we're nearing the 100 chapter perimeter! I can't wait to continue writing this, so I'm going to skip these Author's Notes and start writing the real thing!
One day later…
She was still in 'sleep' mode, as Ratchet would call it. He was checking on her the whole day yesterday and today, too. At certain times, she was having difficulties breathing, so he would take an instrument that looked like a pump, and pump oxygen gently into her lungs, to keep her going.
The Autobots on the property were restless. Every single one of them was thinking about Mel and about her health. Even the most self-centered of them let their thoughts drift to her. Her ongoing battle was difficult to ignore. It was, actually, impossible to ignore.
Everything was crucial at this time. If something didn't work the way Ratchet had planned, it would be over. All of their efforts and struggles would have been in vain. Which is why they needed Mel to survive. The prayed to Primus and God that she would.
During the whole day yesterday, and today as well, Ratchet had been injecting diluted energon and the Separator into her, which is one of the main reasons why she had stopped breathing for mere seconds.
"How long is she going to be like this?" Ironhide asked, sitting at the sofa with his forearms on his knees, his hands interlocked at looking at Mel from a distance. Ratchet was sitting on a chair next to Mel, studying her every breath and motion.
"Since I am injecting the energon aggressively into her, it should be mere days, Ironhide." His wise voice said. "Time for another dose." He said, checking his internal chronometer and standing up, taking two needles into his hands and injecting both of them into an IV. The IV was connected to Mel's vein, sending the purplish substance into her system.
"That's good. The sooner we do this, the better." Ironhide slowly nodded, not moving from his current position.
"Yes." Ratchet confirmed, looking at how her body was reacting to it. It seemed to take the diluted energon in quite well. "I've connected this IV to her, simply because her body needs nutrients and proteins to survive. She is not awake at this time and I don't want to interrupt the body's processes. She needs to be strong now, stronger than ever, to survive."
Ironhide checked the room temperature. "Sarah, put on the heating again. We need to keep the room temperature stable at all time." He said as Sarah was leaning on a wall, looking at all of the people in the room.
"Alright." She answered, walking to the radiator and setting up the heat. "How is she doing, Ratchet?"
"For now, everything seems stable." He answered. "It seems that her body is adapting to the diluted energon. This is quite good."
Everyone in the room sighed in relief. And everybody was in the room, sitting at any place possible. "When are the rest coming?" Nicole, who was sitting on the floor, asked.
"Should be in a day or two. They do need to gather everybody, human and Cybertronian, and get them to these coordinates safely." Ratchet answered.
"Nicole, come here." Bumblebee, who was sitting on a comfy sofa, stood up. "Don't sit on the floor."
"I want to be close to Mel." She denied.
He sighed and instead of dragging Nicole to the sofa, Bee dragged the sofa to her. "Could you sit here, then?"
She turned around to see the sofa right behind her back. He offered her a hand which she took gladly, helping her get up and sit on the sofa. "Where are you going to sit?"
"I don't matter." He dismissed her question with a small smile, backing away to stand next to Ironhide.
She smiled in thanks. "I just hope she makes it through this." She sadly sighed. "I don't want to lose her."
"None of us do, Nicole." Ratchet reminded.
After a couple of minutes spent in silence, Sideswipe suddenly voiced. "Does anybody remember the time Bumblebee lost his voice?"
Everybody looked at him, surprised and shocked. Bumblebee's voice dropped to a deep tone, a rare and unheard one, almost threatening. "Sideswipe…"
"We all just watched, looked at him suffering. And nobody could do a thing." Sideswipe continued, looking at Mel as if she was, metaphorically, Bumblebee.
"Your point?" Nicole interjected, annoyed by the fact he was talking about something that wasn't supposed to be said. It was a closed case, something nobody ever spoke of.
"We all knew it was a tough time for Bee and-"
"Are you going to make a death speech for him or what?" Nicole raised her voice a notch, aggravated by the fact that he was still talking on that matter.
"I'm saying that nobody really knew how he felt. Same way none of us know how Mel really feels right now."
"Sideswipe, we have no way of knowing it either."
"But Hide can-"
Ratchet whacked him on the head at the speed of light. "Shut that Primus fragged mouth of yours. Just because I don't have a wrench here, doesn't mean I can't hit you."
"Hide, what?" Will said, asking for an explanation.
"Nothing." Sideswipe groaned, rubbing the side of his head. "My processor was… malfunctioning." He glared at Ratchet. "Ratchet fixed it, though."
"I better have." Ratchet glared back, sending a threat to him through the comlinks, just in case Sideswipe forgets to keep his mouth shut again.
"Ratchet," Sarah caught his attention. "Is it 100% sure that Mel will make it out of this safely?" she was worrying sickly, as if Mel was her own daughter.
Ratchet could only sigh, "Sarah, unfortunately, nothing is 100% sure with her." He looked at Mel once more. "At least she isn't reacting negatively to the diluted energon and the Separator. This is good."
"When are you going to put in the next dose?" Will asked.
Ratchet checked his internal chronometer one more time. "In about 20 minutes."
"That soon?"
"I need to be aggressive in this matter. She needs to be constantly under the pressure of more blood injection and less energon injection. The body will cleanse completely thanks to the Separator." Ratchet nodded at his words.
"When is she going to… dispose of the energon?"
"Whenever she wakes up."
"Which will be?"
"Primus knows."
"Ratchet!" Will angrily exclaimed. "This is my niece for God's sakes you're talking about!"
"And what exactly do you expect me to do, Major Lennox? To magically make her healthy?" Ratchet bit back, all of his years of arguing with a lot of patients were certainly lessons well learned, knowing when and how to stop a situation threatening to get out of control. "That's not possible. Six months ago, I didn't have a cure and I have it now. And it's working."
Will calmed down at Ratchet's words.
Ratchet continued. "Just be patient, that's all I can tell you at this moment. Nothing is for sure here and we don't want to rush with anything, for if we do that, there may be quite unbearable consequences later." He gave him a wise look in the eyes.
"I suppose you're right." Will looked away. Then he looked at Sarah. "Let's go to the town, Annabelle could use some fresh air."
"And so could you, Will." Ironhide, who had been silent all this time, resounded. "The rest of the team will be here tomorrow. Take your time in thinking over on where to reside them."
"Thanks Hide." Will said as he went upstairs with Sarah to gather Belle and go to town. After what seemed mere minutes, the trio came downstairs. "Any of you guys up for a ride to town?"
"I'll take you." Ironhide said, even though deep in his spark he felt tugging pain towards Melissa. He looked at her. He didn't want to leave her at all. Not at such a crucial time like this. He wanted to be by her side every step of the way.
"I need you here, Ironhide." Ratchet exclaimed, as if understanding him. "Bumblebee can take you." Bumblebee looked towards Will, Sarah and Belle with a smile.
"Sure." Will said, getting outside along with his wife and daughter.
Bumblebee walked over to the sofa Nicole was sitting on, pressing a kiss to her lips. "I'll be back in a couple of hours."
"Take care, Bee." She kissed him back as his holoform fizzed out of existence.
Ironhide caught himself staring at the scene for quite a while. He quickly got out of it. "You alright, Hide?" Sideswipe asked, being the only one who noticed it. "You were kind of staring at-"
"Will you ever shut up?!" Ratchet banged him on the head again. "Your words are not needed in the presence of others!"
"What others?" he rubbed his head once more as Ratchet motioned with his eyes over to Nicole. She didn't catch the look, for she was too concentrated on Mel. "Oh. I didn't know-"
"Of course you didn't, you imbecile. You don't know the pain he is going through every time he sees them-" Ratchet opened the comlink, finishing his sentence to Sideswipe only, "exchanging affection."
"I didn't think of it, Hatchet." Sides said in his deep voice. "And how could I? We haven't been around a single femme in quite a while. We forgot our manners."
"You didn't have any manners to begin with, fool." Ratchet huffed air out of his nose. "And my name is not Hatchet." How he hated being called 'Hatchet'. He had a designation for a reason.
"Doc-bot, I've a question." Jazz suddenly said.
"Again with the nicknames." Ratchet groaned and glared at Jazz. "What is it?"
"I was thinkin', if she doesn' wake up on her own, will you wake 'er up? 'Cause that would be a way to dispose of 'er bodily fluids, right?"
Ratchet thought it over. "That is actually quite a good idea. I'll need time to calculate when to wake her up to dispose of anything needed to be disposed of."
"You said you can't wake her up." Ironhide interjected. "Not while the body is processing the energon."
"True." Ratchet nodded. And a minute later he sadly sighed, his shoulders dropping. "Which is why I need a human machine to help her with that."
"Help her with what?"
"She needs tubes to be connected to her vaginal area-"
"Ratchet, we needn't know that."
"And the tubes will cause her to dispose of anything she needs to disposed of. That way we can tell if her body is surely processing the energon the way it should be, as in disposing of the energon and keeping the blood, or keeping the energon and disposing the blood. I should ask Prime to give me permission to get one of those machines and install them here. She will need that machine now." Ratchet sent a message to Prime immediately, asking for permission.
"It's that bad?" Sideswipe, who was very curious about this matter, always had questions to ask.
"It's going to be a lot worse for you if you keep asking idiotic questions." Ratchet glared at him.
"I have the right to ask, you know."
"I don't give a frag."
"You love me that much, huh Hatch'?" Sideswipe irritated him on purpose.
"Get the frag out of this house."
"And if I don't want to?"
Ratchet's glared intensified. "I'll make you regret every word you said."
The two of them glared for a moment. "Fine, I'll be quiet. I'm just concerned for her, is all." he shrugged.
"I appreciate your concern, but you've no say in this, which is why you need to be quiet." Ratchet explained it as Sideswipe nodded in understanding.
"Time for another dose before I leave." Optimus approved of Ratchet's message, granting him permission to get that machine and save Melissa's life. Ratchet put in a dose of diluted energon and the Separator into Melissa's IV. "This will do for today. She had at least 6 doses today. We should give her body time to process it."
"Ratchet, just where do you think you're going?" Ironhide asked.
"To get that machine, of course."
"Did Prime approve?"
"Yes."
Ironhide nodded. "We'll be waiting."
Ratchet nodded in confirmation as he shut off the holoform and started his engine. He drove off to get that machine from a local hospital. The government could do wonders for Ratchet.
The room fell silent for a couple of minutes. "We're just gonna sit here and wait, aren't we." The ever silent Sunstreaker exclaimed.
"Do you have any better idea?" Ironhide groaned.
"I do, but it isn't a matter of life and death." He answered easily.
"So where are we going to put the rest of the team?" Jazz focused on the more important things at the time being. "Since that garage of yours is big enough to store at least two more 'Bots and I think Arcee and her femmes can sleep there as well."
"So who do you want to put in that garage? This fragged winter will be coming as well in a couple of weeks and we need immediate shelter."
"There is going to be quite a lot of us on the property. Not to mention we need to keep everyone under control, Skids, Mudflap, Sideswipe…"
"Why me?"
"Because you are just too fragging annoying." Jazz smirked. "There's gonna be 15 of us on tha property and clearly there won't be enough room for everyone inside a warm garage."
"Prime had better got a deal with the government, otherwise we're all fragged to the Pit."
"And not to mention the humans. There ain't enough space for 'em 'ere."
"We will find a way, Jazz." Ironhide exhaustedly said. Too many things were going on at the same time.
"Hide-" Nicole quickly said. "Mel's breathing heavily."
Ironhide got up from his sofa immediately, reaching for the oxygen pump and gently pressing it onto her mouth. He squeezed the pump gently, getting the oxygen into her. He notified Ratchet of what was going on. "She'll be alright." He assured her, and secretly, himself too.
Ratchet answered over the comlink. "She shouldn't have had difficulties this soon." there was a slight pause. Ratchet had thought about what was possibly making her breathing stop from time to time. And the answer was evident, the energon she had to dispose of was going to kill her if it wasn't out of her system immediately. "She needs to dispose of the energon quickly, that is making her breathing uneven. Tell Jazz, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker to appear here at the speed of light! We need to get that energon out of her system, otherwise her breathing will cease completely!"
He needed Jazz and the twins to appear by Ratchet's side as soon as possible and get the machine back here. Their alt's had a lot of torque and stability, not to mention strong engines with hundreds of horsepower.
Ironhide sent the twins and Jazz Ratchet's coordinates. "Appear at these coordinates at once, Ratchet will explain everything to you on the way.
The trained soldiers obeyed the orders, their holoforms fizzing out, engines roaring to life and wheelspinning out of the property. Their mighty engine roars could be heard miles away.
"Hide, what's going on?"
"The twins and Jazz need to get to Ratchet, for Mel is having problems breathing because of the energon still inside her body. The machine is needed to take out the energon and we need that machine now. The twins and Jazz are fast enough to get there, take the heavy machine and come back in less than an hour. Hopefully, Mel will be alright during that time." Ironhide patiently explained, still giving her the much needed oxygen.
Nicole nodded in understanding, staring at her best friend, sadly watching her struggle to live through her disease.
Could Jazz and the twins make it back in time? And even if they do, how are they going to connect the tubes? Ratchet can't make it in time, not with his alt.
Cutting it here. Because I've no idea what to type next. XD That's me, writing as I go. But yeah, stories do tend to be quite good with this type of writing, even if it's quite risky. ;)
I hope you found this chapter interesting, because a race against time is about to begin in the next chapter! Read and review until, then guys! :D
And one more thing too, please go to Facebook and like my page! It's called Ninnasims3|Photography, and much needed support would be greatly appreciated!