Okay first off I have absolutely no reason as to why this took so freaken long. I had no writers block, this chapter and the next one has been sitting in my mind for a while now. I could say I was busy working on a Transformers/My Little Pony crossover (If you wanna check it out go to my profile page) but that only took me a day to complete. Okay I admit it! I was lazy, Summer makes me lazy! Sue me!

I do not own Transformers Prime but this story is all mine!

Chapter 13

Arcee awoke with a groan, she had a terribly restless sleep last night. The poor recharge gave her a splitting processor ache, she just knew it was going to be another one of those mornings. As much as she didn't want to, Arcee managed to will herself out of her berth. As she got up she walked over to a large mirror in her room, she looked at her reflection to try and look presentable. Why? She didn't know. A few days after Starscream became a resident of the Autobot base she found herself self-conscious about her appearance. This was obviously new for her, she never cared about how she looked even in front of Cliffjumper and Tailgate. It's not like it mattered, most Cybertronians looked the same throughout their entire lives, it's not like she's human. But now that Starscream was gone she truly had no reason for this.

Arcee had a look of dread evident in her eyes, if she could she would be crying. It has been only a day since Starscream rejoined the Decepticons but she feels like it was just happening. The image of anguish and aggression was branded in her processor, she just couldn't get him out of her head. Shaking off the painful memories Arcee exited her quarters and headed towards the main control room.

Ratchet was in the control room examining the Synthetic Energon, thanks to Starscream's impute Ratchet managed to get a few steps closer to the Synth-En's completion. Ratchet was sure that the side effects were less severe now but there was no way he would do something as reckless as testing it on himself again. Ratchet shuddered remembering what happened last time he did something that foolish. He acted like an immature youngling, something he would never let happen again. Sure at one point in his youth he may of acted like that, but he would never admit it out loud.

Ratchet heard foot steps from down the hall coming closer, he turned around and was greeted by Arcee who had a blank expression on her face. Ratchet was extremely worried for the two-wheeler, she was devastated after watching Starscream's departure back to the Decepticons. When they returned to base it only got worse seeing the expectant looks they got from the kids, Arcee just stormed off to her room ignoring the world around her. No matter what they did she would not come out of her room she wouldn't even talk to them, it was deathly silent in her room that night. Optimus finally ordered everyone to give her some space, he also ordered Ratchet to drive Jack home much to his chagrin.

"Morning Ratchet," Arcee said stifling a yawn.

"Afternoon," Ratchet said back.

"Where is every-? Wait did you say afternoon?" Arcee asked not sure if she heard him correctly.

"Well to answer your first question Optimus and the others went out on morning patrol already. And yes, you managed to sleep through the entire morning," Ratchet answered.

"Scrap! I can't believe I slept in. Optimus is gonna kill me!" Arcee said in panic.

"Arcee calm down. Who do you think let you sleep in in the first place?" Ratchet inquired. "After what happened yesterday Optimus believed you needed a break, after how long you slept it seemed like he was right."

Arcee began to sulk at the mention of of last night, Ratchet knew full well of the cause of her sudden drop in mood. He laid a comforting servo on her shoulder attempting reassurance.

"I know how you feel Arcee, this has been strenuous on all of us. Everything will work out in the end, I have faith in Starscream. You should too."

That managed to make Arcee feel a little better but she still had a nagging feeling in the back of her head, things were only going to get worse.

"Thanks Ratchet," Arcee managed a smile.

"I know what will make you feel better. Jack will be let out of school soon, sometime together will do you some good," Ratchet said.

"Yeah you're right. Thanks again Ratchet," Arcee said heading towards the exit of the base.

"You're welcome."

Ratchet turned back to his work with a frown, he was getting too old for this. Why everyone came to him for help and advice nowadays was beyond him.

'If you only knew how your decision has affected her.'

Later...

Arcee was parked in front of Jack's school in vehicle mode waiting for her partner to exit from school, she observed as Bumblebee and Bulkhead finally arrived. Both were holding back the temptation to ask if she was alright, she understood why they were so concerned but she just didn't want to deal with it right now. Arcee was getting sick of waiting for so long, she was used to being forced to stay put for long periods of time waiting for Jack but she wasn't in the mood.

She was relieved to hear the school bell ring signaling that classes were done for the day, Arcee watched as various humans exited the building ready to go home. She saw Raf and Miko already heading to their respected charge ready to head back to base, but where was Jack? She watched Jack exit the school building talking to a familiar red headed girl, Arcee could faintly hear her asking for yet another ride.

'Figures,' Arcee grumbled to herself.

Arcee anticipated that seeing Jack and Sierra talking to each other, Vince wouldn't be far behind. Ding ding we have a winner! The school bully quickly arrived pointing an accusing finger at Jack saying something along the lines of, 'What do you think you're doing with my girl Darby?' or something like that. Jack, as foreseen, began to deny any and all of Vince's accusations coming up with very poorly thought out explanations. Jack was no coward but he hated these confrontations the most and just wanted a quick way out of it.

Arcee grew more irritated as seconds turned into minutes of arguing that even Sierra gave up on trying to stop. Arcee couldn't take it anymore, she activated the alarms and cranked it to the loudest setting forcing everyone nearby to cover their ears.

"Darby control your bike!" Vince yelled over the loud blaring alarm.

Jack ran over to Arcee and the moment he sat down the alarm turned off and he was immediately heading to the Autobot base at top speed.

"Was that really necessary?" Jack questioned.

Jack wasn't given an answer, the only reason he believed Arcee even heard him was that she began to slow down a bit minding the speed limit.

"Arcee, are you alright?" Jack asked concerned.

"Yeah why wouldn't I be?" Arcee lied.

"Well for starters what happened back there! And you know, what happened last night," Jack flinched fearing the worst.

Arcee sighed expecting something like this to happen, "I'm fine Jack, I'm already over what happened last night."

"What? How can you be over it?" Jack asked shocked.

"Jack it was inevitable. You know what Starscream was like before, it was bound to happen eventually," Arcee said surprising Jack even further.

"How can you be so calm? He was a teammate, a friend, you can't just ignore your feelings for him!" Jack yelled then widened his eyes.

"What are you insinuating?" Arcee demanded catching Jack's accidental slip up.

Jack sighed, "Look Arcee, I see how you two looked at each other. You looked so happy, I barely ever see you laugh and Starscream made it look easy getting you to open up like that. You can't deny that you two had a connection."

"Jack," Arcee growled not liking where this was going at all.

"You have to hear this! You have to do something to get him back or you'll become as distant as you were after Cliffjumper's death-"

"Don't you dare bring him into this! You know what he did to hi-"

"You know it's true!" Jack practically screamed silencing Arcee. "You forgave him a long time ago, do you know how I can tell?"

"Jack please..." Arcee whimpered.

"Because you love him. I can tell it in your eyes, they were full of color and life whenever Starscream was around. But now they're as dull as they were when I first met you." Jack finished.

"You can't avoid the unavoidable," Arcee choked.

"I know."

Later...

After their argument the rest of the ride back to base was filled with silence, Arcee was mulling over what Jack said in her head over and over. When they entered the base as Jack got off, Arcee transformed and began walking down the halls of the base in a random direction. Jack watched her go not even trying to stop her, he knew full well that she needed some time alone. As Arcee was walking she contemplated what Jack said in her head but mainly one sentence.

'Because you love him.'

The thought was absurd, Arcee the tough as nails Autobot scout falling in love with the back stabbing, cowardly, second in-command of the Decepticons Starscream. The thought was almost sickening, falling for the same mech that killed her last partner and friend. He probably wronged more people aside from her, but why can't she find a reason to hate him. A few weeks ago if someone asked her what her opinion was about the seeker they would have had to clean her mouth out with soap for all the obscene things she would've said. But now, now that she actually had a chance to get to now him she couldn't find herself to hate him.

As Arcee walked her thoughts began to switch over to an incident that occurred just a day after they discovered Starscream.

Arcee, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Optimus exited the ground bridge as close as they could get to Starscream's last known location. They could hear explosions and blaster fire, they made pursuit towards the area where they heard all the noise. As they ran the sound of the battle silenced, as they exited the forest they found themselves over looking a cliff. Right below them in a cavern was the remains of mining drills and a small number of Vehicons huddled over something beating it mercilessly. Familiar screams of agony came from inside the Vehicon pile.

"Starscream!"

Something in Arcee snapped that day, with an angry war cry she charged at the cons wrist blades extended. She jumped in the middle of the huddle crouching protectively over Starscream's unconscious beaten frame. The Vehicons looked at each other confused but thought nothing of it, one Vehicon tried grabbing the Autobot but quickly found his arm cut clean off. Arcee found that foolish Vehicon who approached her all the reason to tare away at the rest of the cons.

After dispatching the rest of the cons she examined Starscream's wounds, he was covered in dents from the beatings and scorch marks. But what was worse was that his wound from Megatron's fusion cannon reopened. Arcee quickly demanded for a ground bridge as the rest of her team arrived on the scene.

Ratchet worked on stabilizing Starscream all night, Arcee was there watching hoping that Starscream would pull through. Ratchet demanded her presence to be scarce saying that she would be a distraction, she grudgingly complied. When Ratchet managed to stabilize him and completed repairs Arcee was quickly on the scene. Ratchet allowed her to stay not being able to say no to her when she was so determined. For the next couple of hours she sat next to Starscream's unconscious form carefully caressing his hand, hoping that he would just wake up. She ended up falling asleep there holding his hand all night. The next morning when Ratchet found her like that he demanded her to take a break and reassured her that he would watch over him.

Arcee was brought out of her flashback at the sound of the base's alarms blaring and flashing emergency red. Arcee ran to the control room where everyone else was already at, they huddled around Ratchet who was typing away at the monitor.

"What's the problem?" Arcee asked.

"We have Decepticon activity in the northern sector," Ratchet said already activating the ground bridge.

"Autobots, roll out!" Optimus commanded.

The Autobots, excluding Ratchet, entered the ground bridge and exited the other side finding themselves in another cavern as usual. They could hear the familiar sounds of drilling in the distance, they ran out into the open, guns ready, not even caring about subtlety. They faced various Vehicons manning drills excavating for energon, nothing surprising there. But what was surprising was who was leading excavation. The sleek gray mech with wings protruding from his back turned around his eyes wide at seeing the unwanted company.

"Starscream?"