By the time Wheeljack returned to base, Ratchet had done as much as he could for Vesper's back. Now, she and Optimus were sleeping on separate medical berths, with the Prime on life support and the femme unable to move. Ratchet was grateful for one thing, however; Vesper had movement in both of her arms, which indicated that she wasn't a quadriplegic, or even a semi-quadriplegic. However, there had been no indication that she could even more – let alone feel – her legs, which made the medic quite disheartened.

"Where've you been?" Bulkhead asked quietly as Wheeljack walked over to him, but the white Wrecker simply shook his head sadly and refused to answer, looking over at Vesper with a miserable expression on his face. Bulkhead, realising that he wasn't going to get an answer from his friend, just put his servo on Wheeljack's shoulder and said, "She'll be fine. Ratchet did the best he could."

Wheeljack scowled angrily. "Well it's not good enough!" he hissed, not realising that his voice had been loud enough for everyone to hear. Ratchet stiffened and clenched his servos. "It's obvious that she's never going to walk again!" the Wrecker growled, and the medic looked away, gritting his teeth and forcing his emotions down. He felt like screaming at Wheeljack, yet he also felt like running away and crying. He had done what he could, and he already knew that it wasn't enough. But to hear it out loud? It hurt him worse than anything he'd ever felt before.

"Wheeljack!" Ultra Magnus scowled, causing the Wrecker to turn to the furious lieutenant. "You are out of line," the warrior hissed, his optics narrowing, but Wheeljack's scowl never changed. Instead he crossed his arms over his chassis and glared at Ultra Magnus.

"For what?" he scowled. "Speaking the truth?"

Ultra Magnus said nothing in response to this. Instead, the lieutenant pointed to the upset medic, who was looking away from everyone, including Alice, who was now desperately trying to get Ratchet's attention. Wheeljack looked over, then seemed to finally realise the consequences of his words, and he immediately regretted saying what he had.

But the damage had been done. Ratchet, ignoring all attempts Alice made to get his attention, turned on his heel and stormed off, leaving his sleeping patients alone with the others. He stormed to his own room, opened the door, then stepped into his quarters and over to his berth as the door closed behind him. As he sat down, he buried his face in his servos. He couldn't believe that Wheeljack had said what he had so openly. Ratchet knew that he hadn't been able to do much, but for someone else to believe that it wasn't enough? The medic couldn't remember the last time he'd been so wounded by such a thing.

"Nyah!" he heard suddenly, and Ratchet looked up to see Alice worming her way through his slightly ajar door, and she appeared to be stuck. In all other circumstances, the medic would have smiled and would have gone to help, but in this case he didn't move and he looked away. Alice didn't expect him to help, either; she knew that something was bothering him, and she knew that it was what Wheeljack had so thoughtlessly said.

When she finally managed to get through the tiny gap she'd managed to force open, the door closed and she walked over to her guardian. He looked down at her, mouth set in a thin line, and stonily asked, "Is there something you want, Alice?"

The girl nodded. "Just want to chat. Help me up?" she asked, and after a few moments of deliberation, Ratchet leaned down and held out his hand so that she could crawl onto it, then gently tipped her onto the berth so that she was sitting next to him. "Ratch," she said softly, putting her hand on his leg, "I have no idea how you're feeling right now, but—"

The medic furiously shook his head. "Don't tell me that it's alright, Alice, because it's not." He looked away from her. "If I had more tools or even a triage kit… I could do a lot more for both of them. But I can't help them anymore than I have, and it's not good enough."

Alice scowled. "Don't say that!" she exclaimed, removing her hand from his leg and instead using it to point at him, which caused him to look back at her. "You did all that you could for them!" Her face was pulled into a furious scowl, one that Ratchet didn't like seeing. "I hate it when people think they're not good enough or they didn't do enough when they did!" Alice screamed, and Ratchet flinched. Then he realised that Alice wasn't just talking about him when she'd said that; there was something else there.

"Alice, you speak so though… something else has happened, something similar," he said, frowning, and as Alice buried her face in her hand, Ratchet knew that he was correct. "Who… who else said that they weren't good enough?" he asked.

The girl shook her head, then looked up at him, tears running down her cheeks. "Don't try to make this about me!" she sobbed, but Ratchet refused to let it go that easily.

"Look, Alice, something about my… lack of faith in myself is bothering you. I care for you, more so than I care for myself. You have to tell me what's wrong," he said, reaching down and gently touching her with his fingertip. Alice looked away, initially not wanting to tell him, but she turned back when he said, "Come to think of it, remember when I asked you what you would call killing yourself?" He shook his head as Alice opened her mouth to speak. "I never asked you why you seemed so… upset when you told me the word."

"It's—" she went to say, but Ratchet cut her off.

"Don't tell me it's nothing."

This caused her to look away and sigh sadly. "Do you really want to know?" she asked, not looking at her guardian. She didn't wait for his response. "I… I once had an older brother. Josh, his name was. He was my everything; the one who cared for me, protected me, listened to me when I was sad… He was there for me when Mum and Dad weren't." She shook her head as more tears began to run down her cheeks. "One day, the day after my tenth birthday… Josh had been depressed for about five months, yet he still put aside everything that could have made him happy… for me." She turned to look back at Ratchet, who was listening intently, biting his lip. "I remember going to go find him after my parents had beaten me. He hadn't left his room at all that day – the night before, he'd not come out for dinner – but I would have never thought…" She turned away, squeezing her eyes shut, her throat closing up.

"Never would have thought what?" Ratchet prompted.

Alice shook her head. "I never would have thought that he… would have killed himself."

Ratchet stiffened. "Wh-What?" he choked out, horrified.

Alice nodded. "Yeah… and I had to cut him down." She sighed. "For years after, I believed that it was because he didn't want to take care of me anymore… but then I found his suicide note. In it, he said that he loved me, that he felt that I needed better, and that there was someone coming to take me away from our parents. He killed himself because he didn't think he was good enough to take care of me, to let me do all the things that I would have wanted to later in life!" She looked up at Ratchet. "That's why I despise it when people say that they 'could have done better' or that they're 'not good enough'!"

Ratchet was speechless. He couldn't think of anything to say, so he turned away and tried to collect his wild thoughts. He listened as Alice quietly sobbed, and he felt his spark throb painfully within its chamber.

Finally he managed to choke out, "Alice… I… I'm sorry."

"For what?" Alice sobbed.

"I… I don't know what else to say," the medic sheepishly admitted. "I just… I can't believe you went through that…" He shook his head. "Losing a sibling is not something I can say I've experienced. I can't even imagine what it's like."

"But can you see what I'm saying?" Alice abruptly asked, and again Ratchet was stunned into silence. He mutely shook his head, and Alice sighed. "I'm saying that if you give up, if you say that you're not good enough, then you never will be good enough."

Human and bot alike fell silent, letting Alice's words sink in. Ratchet was stunned by the magnitude, the raw power, of her sentence, and he couldn't even begin to comprehend it. But he knew that they were true; he could see that now. So it was with great difficulty that he said, "How do you think I can help Vesper and Optimus even more?"

Alice frowned. She'd not been expecting such a question. However, she didn't let Ratchet catch her off-guard like that so easily. "Somehow, we need to get to Cybertron. You mentioned something about a triage kit?"

Ratchet looked absolutely dumbfounded. "How do we get to Cybertron though?!" he exclaimed. "The Ground Bridge is barely able to get into—"

"Ultra Magnus has a ship. We'll 'borrow' it." The human girl smugly looked up at the medic, who gave her a horrified look.

"I'm not stealing a ship!"

"It's not stealing, it's borrowing without permission."

Ratchet shook his head. "I don't care. I'm not taking Ultra Magnus' ship without his permission. Besides," he said, snorting and crossing his arms over his chassis, "It would take us years before we reached Cybertron."

Alice's face fell. "Then…"

"We're not getting to Cybertron. Not easily." He shook his head. "Unless you happen to have another silly plan in that head of yours."

Alice thought for a while, then grinned evilly. "Actually… I do," she said, before telling Ratchet her plan. When she was done explaining, Ratchet decided – probably against his better judgement – to go along with it, and the two went to chat to the only one that would be able to help them with their possibly stupid plan.

Ultra Magnus was keeping an eye on the other Autobots when Alice and Ratchet emerged from having their chat. The warrior was keeping a close eye on Wheeljack, who was keeping to himself, probably trying to figure out how to apologise to Ratchet. So he didn't notice when Alice and Ratchet strode over until the medic cleared his throat, causing the lieutenant to whip around and face them.

"Can I help you?" he asked, keeping his voice calm and neutral.

Ratchet sighed. He didn't want to ask what he was about to, but he knew that – unless he wanted Vesper to be permanently crippled – he had no real choice. "We need your help."

Ultra Magnus raised an eyebrow. "For… what?"

Alice grinned. "For taking a Space Bridge from the Decepticon forces, sir!"