If Ramjet had been anyone else, that punch might have taken his helm right off.

It sent him sprawling backwards, limbs flailing, and impacted the ground with a crunch that made most people wince.

…but not Celerity. Fired up and with murder in her optics, she pursued him across the dirt, already pulling back for another blow.

Ramjet made an ungainly effort to scramble away from her on all fours, mostly on his aft.

Finally galvanised into action, Skywarp leapt for her, joined from the left by Nightsun. Thundercracker could only watch, intentionally paralysed by the sparkling in his hands.

Celerity was forged tough – and strong. It took the combined strength of both mechs to make any dent in her forward motion, and even then she dragged them across the dirt with her.

"Ease up, eh, Lara?" Skywarp growled, with no small amount of effort. His thrusters scraped along the ground, throwing up sparks. "He brought her back of his own accord."

"After taking her in the first place-!" Her snarl was hard and discordant, and she almost managed to jerk her arm free of his grip.

She was almost in range for another punch when between them the two mechs finally succeeded in wrestling her down to her knees. It unfortunately put her on the same eye-level as Ramjet. That didn't put either of them in a better mood.

Thundercracker slotted himself in between them, blocking the blazing cyan glare from burning any holes into Ramjet, and braced stabilising hands on her arms. "It's fine. It's fine." He let his helm bump against hers. "We've got her back, and she's alive, and she's not hurt."

Dash took the opportunity to climb clumsily along his arm to her dam's shoulder. "Arrgie bring," she said, seriously, wriggling up against the side of her neck. "Find ama!"

Celerity's gaze finally found the steady crimson of her partner's. "But she could have b-"

"I know. But she wasn't. She's fine. She's absolutely amazingly fine." His voice softened and he smiled. "That was a great punch." Privately, he added -But maybe let's make it the only one, for now?-

Celerity leaned into his hands. –I'm allowed to be angry.–

-absolutely! but he's still armed and surrounded by the enemy and I don't want him shooting anyone if he feels threatened.-

For several very heavy seconds, they just… stared at each other.

Skywarp took the opportunity of the lull and leaned closer. "I'm gonna let go, now. So long as Mama Bear doesn't feel like trying to take anyone else's head off?"

Celerity glanced sidelong at him, optics narrow and hot, and for an instant Skywarp thought she was about to try and wallop him, as well. He let go of her shoulder, anyway, and put both hands up, palms out; Nightsun quietly backed off as well.

…Then her gaze found Skywarp's hands, and his dented plating and shattered cockpit, and the heat rapidly faded. She looked away (with an entirely predictable flutter of guilt).

Thundercracker found a vague smile for him, and caught his hand before he could retreat completely out of reach. Thanks, he mouthed, squeezing his fingers.

Skywarp touched his brow in an offhand salute, then backed off, to give them a little space. Another tickly drip of energon crept around under his chin and plopped against his chassis as he straightened up. He swiped it away, then sighed his annoyance at the shimmery film it left on his fingertips.

…probably wouldn't hurt to go and get that looked at, he figured. He wasn't keen on leaving Ramjet to his own devices, but there were more than enough sets of optics here to watch over their prisoner once he'd left.

The conehead spotted Skywarp watching him, and glared defiantly back – he'd scooted a little further away across the dirt, but it looked like it was more to get out of immediate range of any long blue arms than any specific determination to escape.

He probably couldn't go anywhere until his gyroscopes rebalanced, to be fair.

Slipstream and his collection of dents hadn't got very far, either – he sat on his knees at the epicentre of a little swirl of anxious colleagues, who all appeared to be trying to help but were doing nothing but get in each other's way. His sergeant had apparently given up trying to wrangle any order out of them and stood just to one side, watching and waiting for a medic.

"Skywarp!"

The snap made him jump. He lurched around to find Starscream – unexpectedly late to the party – bearing down on him with a face like thunder.

"You useless, aggravating, pit-glitched fragging idiot!"

Skywarp puffed himself up, defensively. "Hi to you, too, I guess?"

Starscream delivered a frustrated punch to his wingmate's shoulder, which looked like it was going to be the first of many, but the second swing unexpectedly turned into a hug.

"Don't you ever do that to us again," the scarlet mech snapped, equal measures furious and relieved. "I can't believe you'd put us in such a ridiculous position. We had no idea how to get you back out of there! You could have died. Again! And properly, this time!"

Skywarp stood frozen for several alarmed astroseconds – a public display of affection from this wingmate left him feeling like he'd slipped into a parallel universe, again – before hesitantly returning the gesture. He winced at a twinge in his chassis, like someone had taken a screwdriver to his spark chamber, but it rapidly faded. "…I'm bleeding on you. Sorry."

Starscream snorted. "It'll wash off. Unlike you, the idea of taking a bath doesn't fill me with a spark-deep dread." More softly, he added; "a little leak is a small price to pay. You're looking surprisingly intact, for that video he sent us. Thank Primus."

Skywarp just held him, quietly. It felt… unexpectedly good. Familiar and safe. "Feeling surprisingly intact, too," he said, at last. "Bodily, anyway. Kinda want to pass out and recharge forever."

"That's fine. We'll pass out with you."

It took Skywarp a few seconds to work out what the subtle background noise was, and finally pinned it down as coming from his wingmate, which was… a surprise…? Starscream didn't often hum because he didn't really have the vocaliser for it – like his voice, it was usually a little scratchy and discordant and never particularly nice to listen to, and… well, since soothing and reassuring was the whole point? He didn't bother.

This was soft and barely audible, and deep – sort of a purr rather than a hum. (Perhaps he'd been practising with Skyfire.) That he was even bothering to try spoke volumes about his mindset.

Skywarp pitched his own hum to harmonise with his wingmate's, and for the first time in orns, felt his defensive protocols dialling down, deactivating. That low, constant ache of constrained weaponry in his arms began to fade. He hadn't really been aware of how much tension he'd accumulated until feeling his wings sagging, all on their own.

Doctors could wait. It was only a bunch of dents. The leak would stop on its own eventually. It'd be nice to just… stay here, like this, for a bit longer. Maybe a vorn or two.

…shame it wasn't going to last.

Half a district away when her missing family arrived back, Footloose had finally succeeded in ditching her duties and made it to the scene, teleporting through the protective circle as though it didn't even exist. The pre-existing crowd around her brother only left her with the option of going to her sire – not that she needed the encouragement.

She leaped bodily at him and landed on his back with enough force it would have sent all three of them crashing to the ground, had Starscream not clocked her approach with a millisecond to spare and braced for impact. He muttered frustrated invective, but didn't try and shoo her away.

Skywarp let her thread her long arm around his neck and squeeze up against his back, and sighed, patiently. "…hey, Button."

Footloose bonked heads with him, gently. "Primus, Day. You sure know how to put us through the mill." Her voice was still subtly crackly. "Can-can I do anything? Do you need anything fixed? I can get you to hospital, maybe-? I know who's on duty, we can skip triage."

Skywarp grimaced and stretched his shoulders. The absence of tension reminded him how sore everything else felt. Having his (now very heavy adult) sparkling crash into him hadn't precisely helped. "…you could get off my back." He glanced sidelong and met Thundercracker's gaze. "Please don't say you're coming to join in because I think Screamer's gonna fall on his aft if we add any more weight."

"Too many wings in the way already," Thundercracker joked, and snickered at the obvious relief in his wingleader's expression. "We'll catch up properly later. Once I've dealt with our, ah, 'guest'… and you're looking slightly less like you're about to fall apart."

Skywarp snrk-ed softly. "Might be waiting a while."

"Only so long as it takes you to get to hospital, mech." The blue jet waggled a warning finger. "You're not escaping me embarrassing you in public as well. So long as you're nicely mummified in structural tape, I think you'll survive a hug."

Skywarp feigned his best melodramatic swoon. "I'll never cope."

Footloose finally relaxed her deathgrip a little and slid back to the floor. "You feel funny."

He looked back at her. " 'Funny' how?"

"I'm not sure. There's just something about your field that I don't recognise."

Skywarp sighed, tiredly. "You don't think it's maybe because you just body-slammed my poor wings with your entire weight, or anything."

Starscream's optics had narrowed, subtly. "…no, she's right."

Skywarp glanced back his way.

"There is something… off." The red jet took a single step back, to examine the battered chassis a little better. "Very subtle. I'm not surprised it took a medic to spot it."

"Like what?"

"If Footloose doesn't know, I doubt I'd be able to define it." Starscream shook his head. "But the last time you 'escaped' from Nemesis with another not-entirely-trustworthy 'Con's help, you had a beacon in you, telling them exactly where you were at all times."

Skywarp grunted his displeasure. "If you don't trust Ramjet, fine. But I wasn't with him long enough, and can either of you even feel a beacon?" He put up with Footloose running her hands over his wings for a few astro-seconds before jostling her off. "Not like that, dummy."

The little paramedic waved her palms in his face. "I can hear a harmonic with these, I'd be able to hear a beacon too. And I can't hear anything."

"It wasn't a bad idea." Starscream came to his niece's defence. "But you'll need a tighter focus if Soundwave's locked the frequency. And we'll need a better sensor array to pick it up."

Skywarp deflated against him with a long sigh. "Fine, whatever. Guess I'll get the doctors to take a peek when I get the rest of this fixed."

"No, I mean, a good sensor array; not one that's thirty vorns out of date and has been beat to slag in service of the local hospital. I'm going to see what I have at home." Starscream fixed the teleport on a particularly intense stare. "And don't let anyone get any bright ideas about code patches while you're getting fixed. I want all your sensor data before you go and overwrite it."

"You already saw him beat the slag out of me. D'you really want to have all my sensor readouts as well?"

Starscream winced and looked away. "No. Not really," he rasped. "I've been on the receiving end enough times that I can imagine it without needing to feel it as well."

Skywarp let his helm bump against his wingmate's. That previous sense of closeness and safety had bled away, replaced by a subtle, untethered anxiety.

"I just need to know how strong he is, so I can… try and figure out…" A sigh. "You're the only one who's had the misfortune of being close to him recently. You're the only one with any experience I can base some predictions off."

"You still think he's gonna come after us?"

"Of course he is. There's never been any doubt about that." Starscream shook his head and straightened, drawing himself up to his full height and tightening his hands into fists in an effort to reassert his self-control. "As soon as you're done at the hospital, come and find me." He waved a finger to underline the point, then turned on his thruster and took to the air.

Skywarp watched him depart, not sure he liked the turn this seemed to have taken. So much for 'escape, get home: all back to normal'. He allowed himself a long, cooling intake to settle the heat in his core before turning to investigate what chaos might be going on behind his wings.

Thundercracker had coaxed Celerity back to her feet (out of range of Ramjet, and with her back to him), and the two of them were quietly discussing something with Nightsun – too far away for Skywarp to eavesdrop.

Ramjet was doing a fingertip examination of his dented helm, hissing to himself in pain, not paying any attention to the cloud of the junior officers who'd drifted steadily closer to him, knowing they wouldn't stand the remotest chance of stopping him if he took it upon himself to leave.

Footloose had already switched her attention to Slipstream and had barged her way to the front of the crowd, and was now kneeling in front of him, doing some gentle preliminary checks. Slipstream was canting so far forwards, he was almost in her lap. Their flight back over the ocean might have washed off some of the crusted energon, but now he was covered in salt-spots instead. (Skywarp took a look at his own fuselage and noticed he was freckled with white as well. He curled his lip in annoyance.)

Leaving his deputies to continue chatting, Thundercracker drifted over, apparently directed by the enthusiastic pointing of a very small bot.

The instant they were close enough, Dash launched herself into the air, and landed with a squeak on one of Footloose's wings. After almost sliding all the way straight back off, she managed to secure a handhold and scrambled up to her cousin's shoulder.

"What do you want, squirt?" Footloose gave her cousin a playful glare.

"Come with! Day say can," Skydash replied.

"Oh really." Footloose gave Thundercracker a loaded glance. "You don't want to stay with him and Ama, after all this time?"

"Stay with Unnol Seem. Look after."

"He might not want you coming with us anyway. Not a fun place for tiny sparks who might get bored and cranky."

Thundercracker just quirked a brow. "Depends where the three of you are going? As if I couldn't guess."

"Just taking my bro to hospital." Footloose shot Ramjet an unusually intense glare, and added, "while it's still there."

Ramjet curled his lip in a sneer and shrugged, but didn't challenge it. He was already getting up; his little assembly of would-be police guards collectively took half a step backwards, apparently only just now remembering how big he actually was.

Footloose gathered her twin against her, securely, and coaxed him up to his feet, as well. "We're gonna have to fly, all right? It'll take too long to walk there."

Slipstream leaned his head against her shoulder, optics offline. "Just don't go too high," he whispered, shakily. He sounded exhausted.

"C'mon, Day. You too." Footloose gave Skywarp a hard look. "Don't think I've not seen how smashed that nose is."

Skywarp gingerly touched his face. "See, I thought I'd not done a bad job on this," he complained.

Footloose's glare deepened.

"Fine, fine." Skywarp waved his hands, defeated. "I guess if Lara doesn't mind getting bled on a little, I can carry her to hospital, as well."

At the back of the crowd, Ramjet rebooted his vocaliser with a little cough, drawing attention. "Much as I've enjoyed being a participant in this cosy little family reunion, I think I'll be taking my leave now," he drawled. He bowed deeply, then took off. The low, dispirited drone of his engines rapidly faded behind the rooftops.

"Sir? Should we go after him? Sir!"

Thundercracker glanced around to find two excitable junior officers looking back at him, already gearing up for a chase down the back roads.

He waved a hand, amused. "Stand down. He won't go far." And neither of you have wings. "I'll handle this."

They visibly sagged, disappointed, but obediently backed down, grumbling to each other.

"Coming, TC?" Skywarp nudged into his attention.

Thundercracker turned to find Footloose had already turned into a little airborne speck in the distance. Celerity had Skywarp's hand folded into both of her own, and looked like she was on the cusp of dragging him to the hospital, anxious to follow her sparkling.

He looked at them for several seconds, torn. His brother's injuries made his own wings ache, and after having only just got Skydash back, the last thing he wanted was to let her fly away without him again. But then again… it wouldn't be for long. And they had a potential new ally right on their doorstep and he didn't want to immediately trash the potential by letting Ramjet overthink himself into a towering inferno of rage and regret.

He smiled, albeit vague and apologetic. "Soon. I think I probably ought to follow our guest and check out what he's up to. Just to be sure."

"I don't think it's a trick."

"And I trust you. I just… I think I'd like to give him the chance to convince me. Go on; I'll catch you up."

Skywarp tilted his helm in acknowledgement, and with a frown of concentration (and a little effort) took to the air.

Thundercracker watched them go, then brought his weaponry online, ensuring the plasma coils were good and hot, and took off in the opposite direction, in pursuit of the errant conehead.

oOoOoOoOo

Ramjet was not – at least, not yet – causing chaos.

He hadn't even got that far, actually. The white jet had taken the chance to get out of range of anyone not a seeker, but any momentum he might have had quickly failed him, and now he sat on the roof of a derelict skyscraper on the Rustig side of the Rift. With the enormity of his self-inflicted situation only just sinking in, he looked very lost, and quiet, and sad.

Spotting Thundercracker gliding closer, the walls visibly went up and the lost, sad mech dissolved hastily into a more familiar sneeringly aggressive one. He came up into a subtle crouch, hands fisted. "What do you want."

"Just to talk?" Thundercracker alit carefully on the far side of the roof, cannons lowered and just far enough away that he wasn't an immediate threat needing attacking. "You're in our territory now and I'd like to get a feel for whether I should let you go, or call for backup."

"And what if I don't want this spark-to-spark chat you're aiming at?"

"Well I can arrest you, if you'd rather. But I'd prefer not to get into a firefight just yet, and I can't see you coming quietly."

"Huh." Ramjet eyed his weaponry. "Good to see at least one of you three hasn't lost his sense of self-preservation. Fine. Let's talk."

Thundercracker noticed that in spite of his bluster, Ramjet hadn't actually charged his own cannons yet. Boldly, the blue seeker settled alongside him, and offered a cleaning rag, which Ramjet took warily in his fingertips, as though scared it might bite. "You did this to get our attention. You have it."

"I don't want your attention." Ramjet dabbed carefully at the lubricant still oozing from his damaged cheek. "But thanks for the cloth."

"Right." Thundercracker stared out over the small city.

"What?" Ramjet glared at him. "I don't. I don't need you going all magnanimous and charitable on me. I just need you to leave me alone. Ask your questions, then go away."

Thundercracker snorted. "All right. Why did you let them go?"

"I didn't. They snuck out for themselves because they're a slippery fragging pair of pitglitches."

"…you know that's not what I meant."

Ramjet shrugged. "Didn't have a lot of options. There was more of them than me."

"Warp can't get his cannons online, and you slagged Seem well enough he'll probably take half a vorn to get back to full capacity. And you were 'outnumbered' by them? You could have easily called for backup."

"Well maybe I did? And they were just slow as slag, and didn't get there in time?" Ramjet let his hands plop into his lap and si-ighed, frustratedly. "I don't know, okay? I was trying to wing it. I figured if anyone broke Tiny, I'd be exiled forever, and yeah, sure, fine: I wanted to come home someday. I was gonna get her out of immediate range, then think about what the frag I was gonna do. But your two idiots came along and fragged that plan pretty well."

"And why did Megatron let them go?"

Ramjet's glare tightened. "Are you trying to catch me out, here? Didn't we just go through this literally not even an astro-second ago?"

"Not you. Megatron."

Ramjet opened and closed his mouth a few times but no words emerged. "Your idiot wingbro is still a teleport, right?" he finally managed. "He does still have that ability to walk through walls, right?"

"…and got out of a locked, baffled cell that he's never escaped from before?"

"Yes? I guess he must have? I don't know how he did it! Go ask him!" Ramjet waved a frustrated arm in the vague direction of the spacebridge. "I never knew how he does any of that sneaky quantum slag he does! I just figured it was yet another thing you guys had learned how to do without telling us about it."

Well, Ramjet's exasperation sounded genuine enough. Perhaps he really didn't have an ulterior motive.

"I'm not going to pretend that I like any of this." Thundercracker measured his words carefully. "…or that I trust you… but. I am willing to try. You took a risk, and it feels like it might not have worked out so well for you. So against my better judgement, I won't stop you leaving, if that's what you want." He looked up to meet the other mech's hostile stare. "And I should cautiously add, if you ever need anything-"

"See, you're doing exactly what I said you would." Ramjet gave him a shove. "I don't need your pitfragged charity. All I wanna do is go wallow in self-pity for a while. Maybe I'll go hide out under a rock in Vos or something, if there's still any decent rocks left out there."

Thundercracker put his hands up and edged just out of reach along the rooftop. "Then just let me say this – and I mean it, genuinely. Thank you for bringing Skydash back. I'm not sure what Lara and I would have done if she'd been hurt."

Something clicked. Ramjet turned to stare at him. "Wait. That scrappy little grounder's yours?"

Thundercracker summoned up a small smile, and nodded.

"Well, frag me. I assumed Skywarp had just had another accident."

"Let's say we weren't feeling inclined to re-educate you, at the time."

Ramjet considered it for a few seconds longer. "That would explain why she wasn't just loud. She's got your sonics, too."

Thundercracker quirked a brow. "I can't say we knew that. She's never used them before." His expression grew more intensely suspicious. "What were you doing to trigger those to come online."

"Well, one of my idiots decided that maybe it'd be fun to get in a fight, which frightened her. Perhaps you've conveniently forgotten what Nemesis is like on an average day. The only way to make your point is to hammer it home with the closest heavy object." Ramjet elected not to mention the bucket. "Wait, hold on. Doesn't that mean…" He did a double take. "You're with a fragging dirtbot? You, of all the slagging people that could possibly-… You? And- come on, you're not telling me that great fragging white tank is-" The words momentarily departed him.

"Less of the 'tank', please." Thundercracker gave him a hard look. "You didn't think our behaviour was perhaps a little strange for uninvolved strangers? And she almost took your head off, but you still have to question who Dashie's bearer was?"

"Frag me. This is just. What. What the absolute frag have I missed." Ramjet covered his face. "A lifetime of flying into slag must have affected my perception. Perhaps something's come loose. Hit me again and it might jog it back into place."

Ramjet looked so blindsided, Thundercracker couldn't help the tiniest pang of sympathy. Deciding the Decepticon genuinely had no ill intent, and willing to extend a little trust, he let his plasma coils go cool. "Honestly? Why did you bring her back?"

"Because she's a sparkling, and it's a warship, and I wanted to come home, and she was a good excuse for me to leave. Even if it didn't pan out the way I figured." Ramjet stared out over the rooftops and shrugged, tightly. "And it was looking more and more like someone was gonna break her, and I didn't want it to be one of my two idiots."

The unspoken words hung in the air like a bad vapour: Which is why you betrayed Megatron and left them both there, to take the fall for you.

"Did your trine know what you were planning…?"

Ramjet took a while to answer. "No. Kinda generous to call it a plan, to be fair. And I woulda told 'em," he said, softly, but it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself, "if I thought I could trust them not to blab. But the trine's been a bit… fraught, lately. I've not really been much of a wingleader. Dirge has been looking for a fight at every turn. Thrust usually sides with him, because it means they're in Megatron's favour. And I mostly just pretended I couldn't see what they were doing in the hope they'd eventually quit being glitches, so I could just… talk to them again." He sighed, and studied his knees. "They're a pair of hopeless morons, but they're my morons. You know?" He thought about it for a second, and revised the statement; "Were mine."

Bravely, Thundercracker patted his shoulder. "Give them time. Take it from me; after vorns at heel, it's a big step."

"Feels like it might be too big, and I'm just clutching at contrails, thinking they'll see someone worth chasing after." Ramjet smoothed the dirty cloth between his thumbs. "But if Starscream can figure out a second chance, frag it. You guys weren't exactly the triniest of trines when you jumped ship, either, and you still figured slag out and found a way to make it work." He wafted a hand in Thundercracker's general direction. "And you're not just some starving empty, either. Or in prison." He paused and looked down at his own scuffed plating. "Then there's me. One of the last to crawl back home, and on my own. I'll be a laughing stock."

"Nobody's laughing, Ramjet. I'm glad you found the drive to do it. And they'll follow you."

Ramjet looked at him and it occurred to Thundercracker how genuinely tired the mech looked, now he wasn't posturing and hostile. "Aw, come on. What's the hope of that. Honestly?" He blew a sigh through pursed lips. "I left them with Megatron. I betrayed him, fragged his plans, left him torqued in the dust, and abandoned my bros there with him to get almighty slag kicked out of them on my behalf. They might never get the chance to come here. And even if they survive, they probably won't forgive me. They were supposed to be my trine, for Pitsake."

Thundercracker remained silent, for a while. "This isn't the end, Ramjet," he said, at length. "I know it might seem like it, but anything can be repaired, and it's only the end if you let it be."

Ramjet made a dismissive noise.

"I mean it! Nobody says the decisions you just made are now some… holy immutable truth. This is…" Thundercracker wafted his hands in an attempt to magic up the words he wanted. "A lull in the battle, maybe. For you to recharge, and take stock, and figure out what you need to do."

"Until you change your mind and come back to arrest me."

Thundercracker swallowed anything else he might have said. "If you want a place to go that isn't just a boulder, New Vos is probably a good idea. You'll have to contribute to the work, and you might get a hostile reception for a while, but I'll put in a word with Acid Storm-"

Ramjet grimaced. "Maybe not right now, yeah? Don't really wanna start out on the wrong foot, with everyone resentful 'cause they've been told to accept the traitor and behave themselves." Pre-empting an argument, he put his hands up. "I kinda just want to go get lost somewhere, for now. Before Megatron tracks me down and finishes your femme's job at taking my helm off my shoulders. The fewer people as know where I am, the better."

"Then here's one final bit of advice for you: keep away from Deixar. That wasn't Pulsar that Dirge slagged, but one of her sisters. Vector is out for his main power regulator, and you might look like a suitable enough alternative if she can't get to him."

Ramjet squinted, evidently trying to access the district registry. "Annnd… Which is Vector?"

"Celerity's twin. Celerity is the one that punched your nose in." Thundercracker hesitated for a second then added; "And she's usually the calm one."

"Ah. Right. Okay, yeah." Ramjet felt his hand creep involuntarily up to his face before he realised what he was doing and snatched it back down. "Maybe I'll take your advice."

oOoOoOoOo

By the time Thundercracker got to the hospital and tracked his nephew down, a significant proportion of the extended family had arrived to camp out on the ward.

Someone – probably the same someone as had black enamel and a famous disregard for both rules and basic hospital cleanliness – had scooted the two berths together. Pulsar was precariously stretched out over the join between the two, with Slipstream curled up under her arm on one side, his head as close to his dam's spark as he could get it, and Longbeam on the other. Pulsar in turn had one arm stretched around each and looked like it was perhaps only that which was preventing her sliding away down the gap between the furniture. Footloose was on Slipstream's free side, half-on half-off the berth with her feet on a stool to keep her there, a comparative giant next to the rest of the family.

Slipstream's roommates hadn't made it to the ward yet, so at least there was a little breathing space.

On the far side of the room, with his back to the big window looking out over the district, Skywarp sat on the floor with his long legs stretched out in front of him – optics dim and tired, but vaguely comfortable. Celerity had her head on his shoulder – they appeared to have been comparing paint scrapings. Vector was sitting opposite with her back to Longbeam's berth, so her bike could keep a hand on her shoulder, but she had one folded leg pressed very obviously into Skywarp's.

It looked like the teleport had decided, as usual, to forego repairs in favour of energon. A wide stripe of bright green structural tape stretched incongruously over the bridge of his nose, and a few other spots and scraps of support film were visible – mostly obscuring the obscenity hacked into his chassis enamel – but that looked about the extent of any repairs so far.

Skywarp acknowledged Thundercracker with the remains of his cube, but otherwise stayed where he was.

Someone had evidently been listening out for him to arrive, because no sooner had Thundercracker taken in the scene, a little head bobbed up, and squeaked at him.

Thundercracker couldn't help the grin; he obediently scooped her up and let her scramble up to his shoulder. Skydash squeaked her glee and rubbed cheeks with him. "Hello, bitlet," he rumbled, softly, like a relieved stormcloud. "I cannot even put into words how worried I was about you. It's so good to have you back."

"Miss Day!" She chirped her agreement, clinging around his neck. "Scary Nem'sis. Bad bucket!"

He craned his neck to look down at her. "Bucket? What does that mean?"

"No bucket!" She seemed disinclined to define it any further. "Miss Day."

"Well, I guess you'll have to tell me and Ama all about it when we get home…"

His incomparable relief at having the sparkling back in one amazing piece was slightly marred when she looked over his shoulder and wondered, "Arrgie come?"

"Arr-… Ramjet?" Thundercracker followed her line of sight, but the doorway was empty and he realised it was a question. He swallowed the sigh and smiled sadly instead. "I don't think he'll want to come here, spark. We're… not really friends."

She made a glum noise. "Arrgie bring, find ama."

Thundercracker gave her a subtly brows-raised look. "Didn't RJ take, as well?"

Skydash stared back, defiantly, and corrected: "Mean Blue took. Arrgie bring." She snuggled back into the crook of his neck. "Bored. All off. No play."

"Well, bit, it's a hospital," he chuckled, turning towards the window. "It's where people come when they're hurt, not when they want to have a fun time. Let's go sit with Uncle Warp, shall we?" Thundercracker picked his way over the carpet of legs, and squeezed in at the end, slotting his wing in behind Skywarp.

Skywarp flashed him a grin, then grimaced and stretched his shoulders. At Thundercracker's concerned glance, he explained; "S'just a twinge. Been getting them since we came through the space bridge. No big deal." He elbowed him and joked, although it didn't feel terribly funny; "I hope it doesn't mean Hook's made me allergic to you guys." In spite of his efforts to the contrary, there was just a subtle undercurrent of anxiety threading through his manner.

"Well, maybe this will help desensitise you." Thundercracker claimed his hand and folded it into both of his own. "You aren't nearly taped enough for a hug, so this'll have to do for now."

Skywarp snrk-ed. "Yeah, sorry. They scanned the worst bits and decided I wasn't about to spontaneously fall to pieces, so." He interlaced his fingers with his wingmate's. "This is good, though."

"You know I might not let you go again, now."

"I was only gone a coupla orns, mech."

"And could have died, at the hands of our mortal enemy." Thundercracker offered a gently withering look. "Have you forgotten how many times you've disappeared on us, recently? None of this is any good for my emotional wellbeing."

"Ha!" Skywarp leaned on him.

They sat quietly together for a little while. Eventually Slipstream's roommates finally made it through the defences of the ward clerk, and the comfortable quiet rapidly dissolved into bawling and hiccups of static as the youngsters were reunited.

"Getting crowded in here, huh." Skywarp watched with a resigned weariness. "Might take this as my cue to go." He carefully pushed himself to his feet, subtly anchored by Thundercracker, reluctant to relinquish his grip on his hand.

The blue seeker knew he didn't precisely mean in terms of physical space; the sudden appearance of several highly-emotionally-charged electric fields were making him uncomfortable as well. "They'll calm down again soon."

"Maybe? I figure I ought to check in with Screamer. He thinks I've got a beacon again." A roll of the optics. "And you two need some time with the tiny spark without my big aft in the way."

"I need some time with my wingbro, as well."

"It's not like I'm gonna cease to exist, TC. It's fine." Skywarp's nose crinkled in a lopsided smile, and he carefully unlaced his fingers from Thundercracker's grip. "Plus, I kinda want these back where I can access them?" He tapped the little spots of solder on his weapons bays. "Just in case anyone else comes knocking, if you know what I mean."

oOoOoOoOo

Starscream was bustling around setting up equipment, when Skywarp finally made it home. He could sense Skyfire in the periphery of his field, probably in the small laboratory, helping set up the chaos of scanners, but he and Starscream were otherwise the only two present.

It looked rather like someone had picked up the lab and shaken the contents out right across the lounge.

Skywarp made his way across the atrium with a wary, high-stepping stride, not wanting to immediately intersect with the Starscream-coloured tornado setting up equipment, or trip on any of the spiderweb tangle of cables spread across the floor.

"Where did you get to, earlier, anyway," he challenged. He tossed his hospital discharge note onto the nearest table; it had a big hostile red spot in the corner, discharged against medical advice. Eh. He could deal with that later. "Just Fashionably Late?"

Starscream shot him a dirty look, but continued work. "I was checking who was coming through with you. A handful of bikes wouldn't have stood up to much if the worst of the Decepticon army had decided to follow you."

"You mean, you were checking if Megatron was anywhere behind, as you haven't schemed your way to the perfect solution to keep him off-world yet."

Starscream took visible offence to the implication he'd been hiding from Megatron, wings bristling. "It was a reasonable precaution!" he corrected, hotly. "After our supposed allies missed those coneheaded idiots using the spacebridge uninvited twice. I didn't want any extra unpleasant surprises."

"Even they woulda been able to spot Megatron, don't you think?"

"I wouldn't like to accuse them of having any capability, right now." Starscream picked up the bent discharge letter and skimmed over it, making no effort to hide the blatant change of subject. "Just your nose, Skywarp?" He waved the wafer, threateningly. "You were actively in the hospital, and couldn't even get any of that lot fixed?"

Skywarp lounged back against the table and found an interesting spot on the roof to glare at. "You told me not to."

"I think you'll find, I said 'don't let them patch your code'. I didn't say, 'carry on bleeding all over everything'."

"So I wanted to go sit with our family for a while? Not go straight into a repair bay and spend a vorn getting a zillion harmless dings patched up that I can do literally any other time." Skywarp spread his hands, dramatically. "And I've stopped bleeding now. Thanks for asking." Good to see his wingmate was back to normal, at least; hiding his anxiety under bluster and impatient bad temper.

Starscream muttered something that could have been reluctant acceptance. "Well. That's good, at least." He cast a suspicious optic over the battered chassis. "I'm assuming they didn't find the beacon."

"…I guess not? They didn't say they had. I guess they were more interested in finding actual damage to worry about."

"How well did they scan you?"

Starscream did a single orbit around him; slightly unnerved, Skywarp backed off and put the table between them. "I don't know? I'm not a medic?"

"Surely you'd know if you had a full body sc-"

"Then I guess not! Are we gonna get to the point of me being here sometime this vorn, or what?" Another twinge made him grimace. "Either you want my sensor data, or not."

Starscream clocked the wince. "Come over here and let me scan you, first. I don't like the way you keep doing that."

"It's just a twinge. It's what happens when you get beat to slag, remember?" Skywarp stayed put, arms folded. "Why is all this such a big deal, right now?"

"Because they let you go, Warp. I want to know why. And don't say you escaped, because they didn't follow you either, did they? Now come and sit down so I can scan you." Starscream used one thruster to scoot a stool out into the little clear patch at the epicentre of the spiderweb.

Something made Skywarp feel weirdly twitchy, but he couldn't quite pin down its origin. "It's only a beacon. Does it even matter if they know I'm home now? They're all on the wrong side of the bridge, remember?"

"They didn't know where our home was, in the first instance. Now if they get through, HERE is precisely where they will come first. So yes, it does matter. And I want to know what you've not had assessed yet because you want to avoid having to talk to the doctors about getting a slagging."

Skywarp shifted his weight from one thruster to the other. Why did he feel so antsy. "I've gotta deal with these as well, remember?" He flattened his palms over his soldered weapon hatches. "Either you want me back at fighting strength for when Old Buckethead comes calling, or you want me to be target practice for him."

"If you weren't using it as a convenient excuse to avoid me, you could have had the doctors do that already." Starscream's voice had eased into that maddeningly reasonable tone he used when he was suspicious. "Why is it such a problem, Warp? It's just a scan."

Skywarp couldn't help feeling like he was trying to catch him out. "I don't know! What do you want me to say? This is all making me weird and anxious and I don't even know why?"

For several seconds, the two seekers just glared at each other, trying to stare the other into submission.

"It's just. A scan."

"I know." Skywarp's voice took a softer edge. "I don't know why the idea of it is making me so twitchy. I just feel like… you need to stop asking, and I can stop thinking about it, and it'll go away."

"Did anyone do anything to you while you, were on Nemesis?"

"Hook took some samples."

"…and?"

"…I don't know?" He felt hollow. Jigsaw pieces were slotting together into a picture he couldn't quite see, but knew wasn't going to be of rainbows and energon candies.

This is weird. There's something going on that you can't see. Stop being a glitch and let him scan you, already.

Swallowing the unease, Skywarp backed down with a beleaguered sigh. "All right. Fine." He put his hands up in defeat and plopped down onto the little stool, which creaked ominously but somehow held up under his weight. "Get it over with."

It took half a breem longer to finalise the last few calibrations; the scanner was a hefty piece of kit, plastered with warning symbols for high-energy radiation.

Skywarp eyed the instrument with suspicious distaste. "Why do you even have a gamma camera here? That one's better than the one in the hospital."

"They're not just for medical purposes. Sometimes I want to see inside something without cracking it open." Starscream peered down at the screen and twiddled the dials. "Plus I do live in hope that one day, I might find some brains inside your thick helm with it."

"Oh ha ha." Skywarp demonstrated his knowledge of Earthly gestures by waggling certain fingers in the way of the lens. "You might want to go looking for that spanner up your exhaust while you're at it. Not that you should need a gamma camera to find something so huge."

They glared at each other for an astro-second or two before Skywarp's lips twitched into a strange lopsided pout, betraying the smile he was trying very hard to bite down on.

They snrk-ed at each other.

Starscream swatted him gently with the back of one hand. "It won't take long. Surely even you can sit still for half a breem."

Another of those weird twinges. Skywarp sat on his hands. "I'll try." It felt like his head was full of sirens he should have been able to hear.

The camera's unblinking single lens reminded him of Shockwave. The high-energy scan prickled where it intersected with his field. He felt it run slowly all the way to the ground, from the very crown of his helm, lingering over his chassis.

Starscream squinted at the readout, and adjusted the angle, slightly, and repeated the scan. Then a third time, from a third angle.

The little noise Starscream made got Skywarp immediately straightening up, alarmed. "What, what is it?"

"No, you don't have a beacon. You have a bomb."