So why'd you really do it?

by Dreamingsinger

The last thing the Autobots expected was that Knockout would ever switch sides to join them. But why'd he do it? It's out of character. There are bound to be a few trust issues. But when he is badly injured, saving his team without even thinking about it, the 'bots begin to discover that their suspicious defector is far less confidant than they thought, and far more broken.

13. Chapter 13

Note/ Hmmm…. Well this is a strange chapter. Not sure why I wrote it like this exactly but lets see how this goes, hey?

Thanks again to those still reading and reviewing. I'm still quite amazed by that, and the comments are making my days. There was a guess reviewer that left a very long review on chapter 12, and I felt like I really should specifially reply to that one. Sorry to hear about your Mother's illness and her passing.

Knockout looked around the room, at well washed, shining walls of metal pained in lovely perfect chrome, and hints of pastel violet. He glanced up to a wonderful and high slopping ceiling, and the dangling simple little blue shaded lights that lit the room. There was no door that he was perfectly certain he'd slowly circled the entire room once before decided that it was indeed more definitely missing. Knockout had to admit to himself then that he had no idea in the least how he had actually gotten in there in the first place. He knew only that he had just sort of woken up wandering slowly around the pretty little room, and that seemed not very long ago at all. He also knew that while there was clearly no door at all, he somehow didn't care about the absence of one.

"Hey… er, Knockout, Ya just gonna wander around like a confused bot without a processor, or ya gonna come sit down a second?"

Knockout had no need to ask who had spoken. He knew the voice well. He knew too that he should not be hearing it, not anymore. But that too he considered and decided in a second that he didn't care. It made no sense, and he didn't mind that it made none, because on some other level it all made perfect sense too.

"Breakdown!"

His old friend sat in a seat at a table in the corner of the room, much like any that might have been seen in the common room on board the warship. He sipped from an energon container and looked around the room a bit, with an almost grin barely formed on that as usual serious face of his. Without questioning it too much yet, Knockout occupied another of the chairs and joined him as he so often had for a simple fueling break.

So… where are we?" he asked. His logical mind began to shout that he was being all to casual and too accepting of the whole thing, but he tuned it out, strangely curious and determined instead to just watch everything unfold.

"Cybertron," Breakdown answered with a shrug of his huge heavy shoulders. "Well Cybertron as it was before the war, back in the great days of our world, long before it fell into ruin.This is the kind of place, you're helping rebuild. I dunno what this exact building is. Some kind of meeting hall or something. I just picked it because you'd prob'ly think it looked pretty cool in here."

"You realize of course, Breakdown, that that joke of yours was positively in bad taste don't you?" Knockout questioned, making his tone into one of seriousness. But all the while he was on the verge of laughing anyway. "A confused bot without a processor? Really?"

"Oh, so do know about your own state?"

"Of course I know!" Knockout wondered in that second how he knew exactly and why even that didn't exactly bother him in the slightest. He only shrugged and leaned back in the chair, with his hands resting for a while with his hands behind his head and a grin on his face-plate. He knew his tone was likely a little more casual than he might ever have imagined it ever could be when he said honestly, "so I must admit I'm slightly unsure. Have I, or have I not completely off lined?"

"Not just yet." Breakdown laughed a little, making light of something that all of a sudden seemed like it would always been taken a little too seriously. "Believe me, if you had gone off line and fallen into the well of the allspark, you'd know it. Don't get me wrong. It isn't scary like some bots seem to fear it will be. Actually it's peaceful and quite beautiful. Even empowering in a way. I'm just saying when and if you do take that last fall, you'll know it, and its more than just this."

Knockout slid even further back in his chair and turned to prop his feet up on the empty one closest to him. He caught a glimpse of his right arm, and for a moment he stared at his front fender, just admiring his paint-job. The thought crossed his mind that someday he might like to change his color scheme. Funny, he's always imagined he'd never want to give up his bright shade of red. But what color might just suit him? Green? Oh no no, absolutely not! Blue? Perhaps. A lighter shade of metallic blue.

"Hmm," he said, still almost too casually and he knew it. "I wonder what I look like now, physically speaking."

Breakdown shook his head as a look of something near dread covered his face-plate. "Yeah, you prob'ly don' t wanna know"

"I would think you're quite right actually, my friend. Ah frag it, I think I like this better. I can only imagine reality is only complete despair for now. Last I remember, things were getting pretty slagging scary. Say… breakdown…?"

"Yeah?"

"Am I going to go off line?" He still wasn't scared and still thought that a bit odd and yet a relief as well. He was simply asking.

"Er… I think that's left to you for now. You kind get to pick this one yourself. I can't lie. I never could. And they all thought the 'cons were nothing but dishonest, eh? Coming back from this will be pretty bad. Circuits are all fried and trashed, and everything is trying to rework itself into new pathways. Yeah it's not good. But then you're a medic. You would have imagined that already and how could I stop you from doing it. You know it'll be painful and prob'ly completely terrifying. Scrap, just living will be scary as it always was." The big blue bot took another sip from his container. "That said, if you chose to go, I think you'd leave behind some genuinely saddened Atutobots."

Knockout's optics lit up for a moment. "You know then that I'm an Autobot now?"

Breakdown grinned a rare grin at him. "Sure. And for the record, I'm not against the idea."

"If someone, anyone at all really, had told me not so long ago, that one day I'd actually do such a thing and that I'd truly want to more than anything, I would simply have hit the floor." Knockout gave a laugh and waved his hand in the air dramatically.

"Sorry about laughing once when you tried to say you might have done it one day."

"Mah, I got over in it minutes. Thanks for not turning me in on that one. You always were my protector. Protecting me from Starscream, and his rage. You were big enough, no one would argue with you about leaving me alone."

"You know… it won't scare you forever. That past I mean. The violence, the guilt, the rage. Oh, it'll take a while I guess, yeah. But you've got a good team now, and some decent friends if you'd let them be."

"I… I think I want to."

"Wake up and go back?"

"Yeah," Knockout leaned forward again in his chair. He took a quick intake of air though he knew in that state he didn't physically need to, and steadied himself as his anxiety began to rise up even away from his own body. "I think I'm ready for this."

"Err.. hey Knockout" Breakdown said slowly. "In all our years serving together on the warship, and the years before that, you refused to think I was stupid. I know most bots thought I was pretty dumb, but you refused to think so."

"What does that possibly have to do with anything now?" Knockout questioned. He forced a laugh and tried not to get scared at the thought of what might soon await him. He thought he would much rather stay longer and chat with his old friend.

"You refused to believe I was dumb," Breakdown said, grinning now. "And at the same time I always refused to believe you were really just some slaggin' coward that only know how to run away."

The grin left his face-plate again and he got to his feet. After a second or two he spoke again, his tone once again completely serious. "I was told to tell you that you have no real idea just what exactly it is you think you are ready for. Your medical knowledge is vast and detailed and all, but it's all just textbook information until you've experienced it yourself in some way or other."

Knockout shrugged with arrogant boldness, and knew his arrogance was all just for show now. "Oh I've been through worse. Just a couple of months ago in fact… ended up quite perfectly scrapped then, and well I lived to tell..."

Breakdown only shook his head and laughed a nervous little laugh through a serious look. "That was nothing. But the wonderful news in all this is that this time the horrible part might just be over so much quicker..."

"Oh Primas..." Another intake to steady himself yet again. His old friend was the furthest thing from joking abut any of this. "Surely you'll be with me… at least for a..."

Breakdown shook his head. He didn't look sad. Didn't look happy. Didn't look like any feeling really at all. "You don't need me, and I have places to be. Life hardly ends when you take that fall, you know. You have others who you need now and you've got them."

Knockout glanced around the room again as it all faded away slowly.

"Remember to hold that ready. And step back a little more for a second." A voice was speaking somewhere, but Knockout could not place it or it's location. He was aware only of how loud it sounded, and just how much pain was instantly present in every point of his body. Sharp stabbing, burning pains shot through this systems, threatening to tear him to pieces from both the outside and in. Certain places ached and ached worse, and there were so many of such places that he couldn't tell which each was at all.

He was aware of fighting back the pain for a second or less he nearly succeeded. But it only came right back again, new bursts of agony through the same circuitry and a few new ones added to the mess, as connections fired and misfired, only to do the same again and again. He head hurt as though it had been crushed flat beneath an entire downed building. The connections between processor and body continued trying to fire and short and rework themselves and it never felt any better for a second. The firing of faulty connections created more of a constant burning ache, which spread quickly over his form until his whole form felt like it was burning with acid rain and filled with nothing but pain.

Knockout was only vaguely aware of moving, and he knew he was not doing on on purpose. It might have been simpler, easier to just stay still. But on another level his own body and processor made itself move, and somewhat violently so, in an effort to shake off and push away pain and the natural growing panic that went with it. A body and mind, he knew well, would always try even if in vain, to escape from such suffering, to move, to fight, to raise it's arms up in front in self defense.

"What should I do to help him?" This voice was different from the first, and over it, he was aware of his own horrible moans that bordered closely on erupting into full on screaming.

"Not much you can do, I'm afraid. As horrible as it is, his processor has just got to get itself re-calibrated, and find each connection through the frame." The first voice spoke again. Knockout forced himself to concentrate of what it was saying, while still fully aware of fighting against the pain that would not end and aware of still being unable to help that.

"I… I think he's disconnected one of the lines..." the second voice sounded like he was getting scared.

"He certainly did. I need that line for a second round of pain medication. That will hopefully do a fair bit of good. Frag it! This is hardly the best circumstance under which to be trying to reattach lines!"

"He… he's bleeding..."

"Damaged himself when he pulled that line free. It's not much. I'll fix it later."

Knockout knew that his optics were closed, and he knew he didn't want to open them if he even could. That would explain well the darkness, but didn't understand the painfully bright flashes of colors blinking and flashing sometimes fast and sometimes slower in front of him. He only knew the lights were tearing through his optic connections so badly he made him fight back more screams. He was barely conscious of raising his hands toward his face-plate, and in desperate and growing panic, he was just slightly aware of frantically trying to wave away lights that he knew he could not physically touch. A pair of hands firmly grabbed his arms. He felt both of them hold tightly and he could hear his own screams of terror at being held, echo through the air.

"Whoa, hold on. It's alright. You're fine, you're okay. We just need to help you hold still for a bit so you don't damage yourself." One of the voices was addressing him now, and he knew he knew that voice. He knew both in fact. He understood that they would never mean any harm, but all the same the pain was still tearing him apart and when he finally thought to speak without even an idea of the message he wished to convey he heard only noise. "Try to keep you intakes steady. Keeping venting air, nice and slow."

"I always refused to believe you were really just some slaggin' coward."

In the back of his processor, that line spoken by a now long dead old friend played and replayed again.

"His armor is too warm. He... he's overheating pretty bad." The voice of whoever was still holding into him still sounded nervous.

"He's alright," the first voice answered at once. "His processor still needs to work out how to kick on the cooling fans again. If it doesn't trigger in a few minutes we'll need to grab cooling packs for now, but let's give this a minute first."

"The wonderful news in all this is that this time the horrible part might just be over so much quicker..."

This surely had to be what that meant. He heard his own moaning screams of terrified pain die out slightly, and then much more, and it was only then that he realized it didn't hurt nearly so much now.

"Think you can open your optics and look at me?" The first voice was speaking to him now. The old Autobot medic. Knockout slowly looked out of open optics at a room he recognized. Nearby, and still holding his arms down against his chest-plates as gently as he could, was the smaller black and yellow bot.

Knockout managed a weak little grin at both of them, but he was sure it looked nothing like a proper grin at all. Everything still hurt and quite badly. He was burning hot and freezing cold shivering all at once. The bright flashes had mostly stopped but once in a while, even with open optics he would still see one of any random color.

"Can you just look a tiny bit to the left?" Ratchet was questioning him patiently, but with his usual serious firmness as well. Knockout understood that without bothering to even try protesting that the old bot would not back down until he had at least attempted his assessments. Slowly and still fighting the great discomfort of reworking connections, he shifted his optics a little to the side of his field of vision.

"Ohhh…." the old Autobot chuckled a little out loud, and it was clear he was trying to lighten a mood of seriousness. "Other left."

Knockout looked in the other direction, convinced he'd been correct the first time, out all the while second guessing that. Bumblebee looked far too concerned, as he stood nearby, but Ratchet only shook his head a little as he went over more assessment checks and Knockout struggled a little to comply.

"He's likely still just a little sleepy, 'Bee. Bound to mix up a couple of directions."

The poor little black and yellow bot was generally good at jumping into the role of medical assistant. It even appeared that he was even genuinely interested in the work. But so clearly this was far too much for the still very young and inexperienced bot. As soon as he had let Knockout's arms go, he stepped back against the wall and stood for a moment still in his field of vision, wide eyed and clearly almost trembling.

"Hey Knockout," Ratchet placed a hand gently on one of his shoulder panels. "I can only imagine you must still feel pretty horrible. Your processor was nearly in completely shut down and that meant pretty well every connection within your framework had already shut down. As soon as I brought you out of a power down, every broken connection started find the rest of the network, which is good news, but it's also pretty horrific. You know that now of course."

Knockout just looked up at him, his vision clearing and the flashes nearly stopped, and listened, understanding his words as the old medic went on talking to him. "It'll hurt quite a bit for a while. And your head probably feels like someone very big and mean stomped right on you. I was able to repair the cause of the glitches and you haven't had any more since, which is very good news. I've rewired as much as I could. Your own systems will take care of things from here, and it looks like its already working for you. Hmm… can you try talking to me for a second? Yeah, I know you're pretty unhappy at the moment." The old medic gave another little mood lightening laugh again. "Ha! Go ahead and complain for a second about all this."

Knockout looked up at him for a second, suddenly more than willing to tell him just how right he was. His thoughts had been coherent all along and he knew that was good, without being told. But somehow the thought he was clearly forming in his processor just didn't seem to translate well into a vocal process. For a more then a couple of seconds he struggled with this and in another second he was first frustrated and then downright anxious. The pain had still not left him, and in fact it seemed to be growing worse again.

"Fragging scrap this!" he said, speaking, but mostly just mumbling as pain tore through his processor again and his head went to steady banging.

"That probably sums this up pretty well, now doesn't it," Ratchet answered back in understanding. He gently took Knockout's arm and turned it over to inspect part of the lower section of it's underside. "You're bleeding just a tiny bit here. One second, just let me..."

That simple of a thing didn't bother him in the least. He had in fact barely noticed it at all. But so much had happened to scare and confuse and overwhelm him. And it had all been so sudden and far beyond any real control. Knockout tried to stop the stream of washer fluid as it poured suddenly from both of his optics, but it was as far beyond his control, as so much else had been. Within second, his frame shook with with terrible sobs of pain and despair, and a state he could not even understand. The pain banging and tearing through his head was only worsened by his outburst of emotion, and with his optics still open, and blurred with the spilling fluid, the room appeared to spin around him faster and faster as the lights began to flash and blink again. The old medic just barely managed in time to quickly pull him into one side, before he violently purged his fuel tanks, probably in part from strain the terrible crying had put on his own weakened frame.

It was mostly out of completely exhaustion, and still shaking from uncontrollable emotional reaction, that Knockout eventually dropped into recharge.

Scene Break Scene Break Scene Break Scene Break Scene Break Scene Break

Miko was outside the base, sitting with her knees neatly folded under her on a wooden bench. She held her sketch book on her lap and killed time working on a drawing that was far from her best work. A quick glance at her cellphone, before she pocketed the device again and went back to her art, told her it was just after six in the morning. Metal footsteps against the concrete walking path made her look back up again, and she set down the sketchbook and her pencils.

Arcee wondered up closer and when the human said nothing, she sat herself down on the ground beside the bench. In her hand, the bot held a human sized plastic water bottle from inside the kitchenette mini fridge. Miko could only giggle at that, because it really did look funny, the clear plastic bottle held between a thumb and finger of a much too big metal hand. The bot somehow did not manage to flatten the bottle, simply trying to carry such a thing around.

"Thanks, Arcee," Miko said when the bot handed her the bottle. She opened it and took a drink. "I guess I was thirsty,"

"You couldn't sleep either last night I see," Arcee commented.

Miko shook her head and drank more water.

"I don't think anyone slept or recharged well last night," Arcee said, she gave a little laugh. "Well except for Bulkhead. That's one bot that knows how to pass out cold and rest for ages, and through anything. Well anything except maybe a scraplet in the walls."

For a second Miko cringed at the mention of scraplets. She'd encountered the critters herself. It had not been good. Though they were pretty well harmless to a human, she still shuddered from time to time, just remembering what she'd seen a swarm could do to a bot's armor. A second later though she laughed at the remark.

"I'm pretty sure Bulk' would wake up screaming like a girl if he had scraplets in his room." Miko giggled again, and that quickly turned to full on loud laughter. "You shoulda' heard him shriek like a girl, when he stepped under those cables in the basement of the old base. If there's one thing Bulk's afraid of..."

"It's gotta be scraplets." Arcee finished, laughing pretty hard too. "Oh, I've seen him scream like nothing on Cybertron, whenever even one turned up."

Miko drank more of the cold water as they both let their laughter die away. A good laugh did them both a little good.

"Hey Miko," Arcee said after a moment.

"Hmm?" the little human finished the last of the water in the bottle and looked at the bot again.

"I just wanted to tell you impressed I've been with you these last few days. Yeah I know you're Bulkhead's partner, but you know how he's just not good with words. This whole visit has been nothing but the unexpected, and you've handled it all the best of all on the human front I think."

"Thanks, I guess. But I'm just doing what I always did."

"Well I for one think it's pretty cool to see. I think the others would all agree, that you've grown up so much, even in the short time since we left for home. You know, Ratchet's been quite impressed apparently too. He hasn't had time to say too much, because of course he's had a very sick bot on his hands. But he says you've been a lot of help with all this."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he really said that," Arcee laughed again. "He actually told me to tell you that too, instead of that usual old pretend to be grumpy, and dislike the presence of the human routine of his. Hey, it looks like Raf is cooking breakfast if you want some. He couldn't sleep either. I've gotta say I was a bit worried at first, imagining he'd set himself on fire. But before I came out here, it looked like he was doing okay."

"Raf has something like six or eight brothers and sisters. His house is in constant chaos. It's either cook for yourself by the age of like seven or you're done for. I think he's got this, Arcee."

"Well if you want some, it looks like he's making a lot."

"I'll grab some in a bit." Miko turned herself on the bench so that she was leaning her elbows on the armrest, and with her chin in her hands, she looked up at the bot still sitting on the ground. "Hey, has Ratchet said anything yet about Knockout? He must be alive, because I think he'd tell us quickly if the worst happened, right? How is he?"

Acree smiled a little. "I checked in on them not long ago, yes. That's when Ratchet told me he was impressed with you. Bumblebee's been helping him in the medbay. Anyway, it looks like the repairs were nearly complete and soon Ratchet is going to try bringing Knockout back out of power down for a while, see how he does."

Miko grinned over her sense of relief at the news. For a moment she thought back to her time the year before, sitting with a badly damaged Bulkhead, and the worry that he too might nearly have died. She wondered, in her still young innocence, if it ever did get easier to see a friend in such a bad state, and to know how to be of any help to anyone.

"I've often thought 'Bee would make a good medic," she said, changing the subject a bit, because her own thoughts were starting to make her somehow a bit sad, and Miko always had liked the positive so much better.

Acree nodded, with another little grin on her face. "I've so often thought that. I've even told 'Bee that. So has Ratchet actually. The kid's sure got the compassion and intelligence for it. But there was always a war going on, and he's never even put much thought into doing much else but fighting on the front lines. You never know, Miko. Maybe someday..."

Arcee went quiet and tipped her head very slightly to one side. Clearly she was listening to her comm unit. She never did say anything in reply to whomever had been speaking to her, but in a minute she stood up from the ground.

"Ratchet just called me. He'd like both of us back to the medbay right away." When Miko looked horrified for a second, the bot paused and looked down at her, as the human stood up herself. "Oh no, it actually sounds like it was good news, not bad at all."

The bot and the little human were both cautious and quiet when the entered the medbay after waling quickly through the base. For a second they both just stood in the doorway, Miko peeking out around Arcee's knees still so uncertain of what to say when obviously she had been specifically called on. Ratchet stepped toward them both at once, and tried to look down at Miko once in a while as he spoke, so that he could properly include a tiny human being in the conversation.

"I've done everything I possibly can." The old medic bot looked so tired, and yet he also had about him a look of cautious confidence, that he hadn't shown earlier. "I let Knockout wake from power down a while ago. His condition is not exactly good. But it's better than I may have expected. Waking a bot from a state like his is never easy on anyone, and in this case, yes it was pretty bad. He was pretty well inconsolable for a while sadly. I let him fall into rechange on his own and I would imagine he'll rest a while now.

"You need to recharge yourself," Arcee said, in a serious tone. She looked toward Bumblebee, who was standing nearby. "Both of you. Miko and I can sit with Knockout a while."

Bumblebee was quicker to agree, but Ratchet stood around for several minuets, so obviously ready to protest. He opened his mouth and closed it again, saying nothing. He had no excuse and he clearly knew it. Arcee gently took him by the arm and led him toward the door, with a shake of her head at his usual and persistent stubbornness.

"A quick little nap and I'll be back to check again," he said, obviously reluctant to leave a patient, but just as obviously almost unable to stay on his feet. "Comm me if I'm gone for a couple hours at most. By then I'll need to wake him to make new assessments."

Miko climbed back to the top of Ratchet's work table in the far corner of the room again. She sat down comfortably on top of the flat surface, and swung her legs over the edge as she had done before. Arcee stood near her, leaning lightly against the edge of the work table.

"May not seem like it to you yet," the bot said, keeping her voice low, "but he is looking a little better than he did last night."

Miko looked to see what Arcee had meant. Knockout had been disconnected from some of the monitor wires, and now slept soundly in recharge laying on one side facing toward them. Clearly he'd fallen into recharge like that and had simply been left to sleep that way. Dried up streaks of the cleaner fluid she knew could spill from a bot's optics as a human might cry tears, still staining his face-plate. But Arcee was right when she'd said he looked at least a bit better.

"Remember when Bulkhead was hurt not so long ago?" Arcee asked, still quiet. Miko nodded silently.

"Of course," she said, keeping her own voice low as well. "That was a terrible couple of weeks. And the day I walked through the ground bridge to find him on the floor, with Ratchet yelling something about critical injuries; that was the day I really understood that you guys can die too. Just like us humans can. I knew it was possible I guess, but I never gave it much thought. That was the day I saw your guys had your breaking point too, just like us. I still worry sometimes about Bulk' getting hurt like that again. I worry about all of you really."

"Miko, it was never your job to worry about us…."

"I know that! But I do sometimes anyway. It's just what I do. Raf and Jack do too."

"My point though was that you were so much help to Bulkhead back then." Arcee said, giving the human a gentle pat on the back with one of her metal hands. "I will admit there was a time I would have thought it was far from possible, but Miko I think one of your gifts to the team is a talent for working with sick bots. I would bet that gift would transfer so well to humans too."

"Me? In a job helping sick people? I've always thought I'd do something with music."

"Maybe you can do both somehow."

"Hmm… maybe..." the little human was intrigued. She considered things she never had before.

Miko pulled her legs up onto the work table and rested her elbows on her knees. Any conversation died and she just stayed for a while, looking around the room with carious interest at monitors, some in use and others simply stored against the back wall, and other strange pieces of Cybertronian medical equipment.

"Hey, Arcee….?" she said after a while.

"Hmm?"

"Tomorrow morning I ground bridge back home to Tokyo. Yeah, it sounds strange to me too, to think tomorrow afternoon I'll be back in my old normal life. Raf is leaving too and Jack is starting a new job. Wasn't the plan for you guys also to bridge back to Cybertron tomorrow afternoon sometime?"

The bot nodded, and Miko went on. "I guess that's not gonna work now."

Arcee stayed leaning as she was against the work table. She shook her head with a sigh, and for a second let her face-plate show just how overwhelmed she was with planning for the unforeseen. "In truth, we're not sure what to do yet. Knockout is still far too sick to be moved, even if Ratchet came back with us again. Of course we've got that new ship bound for Cybertron, and it should be there in a couple of Earth days. Bulkhead needs to get construction moving again and now he'll have more help, but that will also mean training them.

"Honestly we could only come up with the idea of splitting up the team for a short time. Smokescreen, the wreckers will go home, leaving Knockout here with Ratchet. 'Bee would stay behind as well, to be a little extra help. Bumblebee would bring Knockout back home soon enough. As for me, I'm not sure yet which team needs me more. It's hardly ideal, but its the best we've got. Someone needs to meet that ship, and there's still so much to do."

It was a short time later, than Miko glanced up toward Knockout, to see his optics partly open, and gazing sleepily around the room a bit. She gently tapped Arcee's arm, and the bot looked over at once. Miko was concerned to see Knockout wake on his own before Ratchet could have known to come back, and one look at Arcee told her the bot shared her concerns.

"Miko, I've got to comm Ratchet. Why don't you go and make sure Knockout is alright."

"Me?" the human started to protest, uncertain as ever. But she somehow found her confidence and quickly climbed down from the work table, so that she could run across the room and climb up near the still very sick bot.

"Arcee's on the comm with Ratchet. She'll let him know you're awake so he can come back and check on you," she said. She gently sat herself down beside him and looked him in the still half closed optics. She watched, with a sinking feeling that she tried hard to keep from showing on her face, as she understood the look of pain in his still sleepy expression. She reminded herself that Knockout could probably only get better again from there, instead of worse, but if it was at all possible, she was sure he showed far more discomfort now, in his recovering state, than he had while his systems were in the process of shutting down.

"Can you talk?" she asked, as she forced back panic and wondered what exactly it was that was scaring her. She remembered that she had known what to do before with more than one sick or injured bot and she knew she could only do what seemed right again. "Do you want to talk with me for a bit? Or you could just listen and I'll talk to you, okay? Tomorrow I'm going home to Japan. I'll miss you just about as much as I'll miss Bulkhead again. Wow ya just gotta love terrible timing huh? You'll be going back to Cybertron too, soon enough. I told Bulk to come visit me one day in Tokyo. You should visit too. Ha, just remember to drive on the other side of the road. It's pretty darn crowed over there, but there's gotta be some place you could still go fast, right."

"Never... seen Japan... Someday… I should... like to," Knockout said. His voice was so quiet, and shaky, probably from the obvious pain. He spoke very slowly, and it was clear that words took a moment to consider and put together into sentences. But he could speak, and far better than she might have expected. Arcee stood near the door, busy on the comm unit. But Miko clearly saw her faceplate turn up in a smile of surprise and then relief at hearing him speaking too.

"The other bots have learned to send messages to us little humans' phones using their comms. I'll add your comm, and then when you get better you can talk to me too," Miko said. Knockout said nothing back, and he looked so tired and still unhappy with pain and discomfort. But his optics showed his happy agreement with her suggestion.

Ratchet hurried into the medbay, and for a brief second he stopped it he doorway. Miko saw him out of the edge of her field of vision, as he exchanged an approving look with Arcee before he walked closer. He held out a hand for Miko, and she quickly hopped onto it. She gave a laugh of surprise as the old bot reached up to plop her down gently on his left shoulder panel.

"That'll work for a bit," he said, obviously speaking to both of the other bots in the room. He shook his head a bit, and in a tone so obviously meant to only pretend to be cranky about it he added, "The trouble with humans is they are so tiny. At least if they're sitting on you, you know you won't step on one."

"Looks like you're feeling at least a little bit better," he addressed his patient.

"A bit," Knockout nodded his head slightly.

"You fell into recharge laying like that. I left you to rest that way. Do you want to move now?"

"I… no no, this feels… better..."

Ratchet held out a hand instructing slowly, "Touch your left hand to my fingertips for a second."

Knockout gave a barely audible groan of complaint at first. It was sadly clear the last thing he wanted to do was to move even a little bit. After a moment he reached out to comply. He touched the tips of his fingers to the old medic's just fine, but it as with the wrong hand.

Note/ Letting Knockout die, after trying so hard, would have been just unfair. I did think about it for a few seconds, but noooooooooo. I wasn't gonna kill him off.