"Daddy," Cybershock said, as she looked up at her carrier, from her place sitting in his lap, while he sat on his mobility cart. Little coolant tears appeared suddenly in the corners of her optics, and she sniffled loudly, making it clear in doing so that she was trying hard not to cry. "I don't think I ready ta do dis ta-day..."
"It's okay, my girl," Knockout said slowly, hugging his youngling closer against his frame as he looked around the medbay with growing unease he hid from the little one.
"No it not!" Cybershock answered loudly and fast. The tears she'd fought back so hard spilled over the edges of her optics. And her head dropped, to rest against the front of his frame.
Knockout was sitting still, close to the back of the medbay underneath an open window high above. But his left hand went at once to the hand control of his cart anyway. And slowly, carefully, he bumped the control back and forth with his hand, causing the machine to roll backwards and forwards just slightly, just as he had so often done with his youngling when she was still younger, and he was disabled enough that he could do so little else for her.
He thought a moment, while he looked up toward that little open window above and rocked with his child on the cart, of times a few years before. The youngling who so seldom cried and fussed at all would cry at random, in the middle of the day, and for no clear reason at all. And Arcee - flustered after she'd tried everything they could think of together and to no avail - would plop her down onto his lap, with no place left to put her. He'd rock her slowly, because what else could he do, while he held her just as well as he could so as not to let her fall. And of course she would stop her crying because it seemed quite clear she'd simply missed him and wanted to rock like that with him awhile.
"Daddy," Cybershock said, wide optic'd and slow, blinking back more tears., and still not lifting her head. "I'm... afraid..."
She genuinely was. That was all to obvious in the stiffness of her tiny body, from the moment she'd scrambled helplessly up onto his lap a while before. The youngling, who the whole Autobot team so often joked was not possibly afraid of anything, who was in generally far too bold for even her own safely or good, was almost trembling from anxiety.
"I know, my girl," Knockout said gently. He moved his left hand, still the just slightly the weaker of the two, away from his hand control. And gently he placed its fingertips in his child's little hand. With the right hand he moved to gently touch the top of his little one's head piece. The youngling's tiny hand held tight to his at once. But slowly her optics half closed and fewer tears spilled out from either one of them. "What is it you're so afraid of?"
"Whole parts... dis... dis-con-ect-ed...," Cybershock slowly tried to use the word she'd heard her creator use days before. And it was a very big word for a very small youngling, to even try to get right. She looked back up at him, optics open wide again. And she cringed a little before more tears fell. "I think that might hurt!"
"You will be powered down," Knockout reminded her as he smiled his assurance. "You won't feel anything."
"Wass it like to be power-down?" Cybershock asked. She was asking questions now. Trying hard to understand. And that was good.
"Just like recharging," Knockout answered quickly. And he kept his hand where it was, resting gently on the top of her head piece, rubbing it lightly because she whimpered slightly in panic as soon as he tried stopping. "And of course you do that every night."
"I wish I was more like you. You not afraid of anything..."
"You're wrong about that," Knockout admitted slow, still comforting his child all the while. And he silently remembered so many times of his own weakness and terror. "There are a few things I'm afraid of. I might in fact just be scared of way more than you are."
"Where's Mama?"
"She's talking with Ratchet and 'Bee in Ratchet's office. She'll be right back."
"You sure she coming right back?"
"Of course I'm sure."
"Do I have ta do dis taday?" Cybershock asked, a tiny moment later.
"Yes. You certainly do," Knockout answered calmly as ever. But he smiled a little at his child as he answered. And thoughtfully he added, "best, don't you think, to get this over today? Then you won't need to be afraid anymore."
With her little body still pressed tight against her creator's armour, and her tiny hand still holding tight to his fingertips, Cybershock appeared to consider for a second, and then for another. Slowly, she nodded her head just a little.
"Good little bot," Knockout said quietly. He smiled his assurance again, even though she clearly she not exactly see him do it while her little blue face-plate was against his armour plating.
It was probably no secret to anyone, that he had once never planned on creating a youngling at all It wasn't that he'd ever exactly disliked them per say. How could he dislike them when until still recently, he hadn't even seen a youngling bot since he was nearly still one himself. It was more that he had his own ambitions to pursue, and that had once meant everything. But he'd loved Cybershock more then he loved any ambition he might have had, from the second she was born. That was hardly a secret to anyone either. And to see his youngling cry, to sense her panic in the way her hand held onto his, it made his spark drop.
"Cybershock, look," he said slowly, turning his head to look toward the door of Ratchet's office, as it slid open once again across the medbay. Gently, by tugging a little with the hand she still clung onto, he tried to coax her into lifting her head to look for herself. "Mama's back."
"That works just as well for her as it always did for you," Arcee said, in hushed tones. She gave a tiny little, though clearly anxious laugh, and gestured with her optics toward Knockout's right hand, which still brushed gently against the little one's head piece.
"Yeah," Knockout answered back slowly and quiet. He remembered then, the endless nights wide awake with his bondmate after hours it seemed of endless horrid nightmares.
Sitting down in a chair she quickly pulled over from nearby so that she could easily be at their youngling's level, Arcee moved to gently hold onto the little one's free hand, which was at present, shoved tightly between her own frame and her creator's. With a slight dismayed shake of her head she mumbled sadly, "She was just fine not long ago. She's just not a happy little girl right now..."
"She got a bit upset not long after you left," Knockout explained, still gently comforting the youngling. "It quickly got worse. The reality of why we're here is catching up to her now.."
"Mama..." Cybershock whined lightly, and she listed her head for just a second from agaisnt her creator's frame, to look at her with teary optics
"Frame upgrades are usually pretty horrible with bots this young," Ratchet explained, walking over quickly to stand near the pair with their child. He carried a tool kit with him, from somewhere inside a cabinet, and grabbed presumably on his way over. And he set it down on a work table nearby, next to a repair table the little bot would eventually be moved on to. The rattling noise it made clearly scared the youngling, because she began to whimper and cry louder again. "It's a bit of a very necessary evil, I'm afraid."
Ratchet kneeled on the floor beside the beside the youngling on her creator's lap, for a moment. And he grinned a silly grin at her, while he gently shook her arm. So clearly, he was trying hard to make her laugh, or at least smile a little. But even then, the usually so happy small youngling would have none of it at all.
"She won't remember this forever," Bumblebee pointed out helpfully. He hurried over to the group, and stood to one side, so obvious by the uncertain look about him, that he was still trying hard just to be of use instead of in the way. "Think about it. Do any of us remember our first upgrades?"
"'Bee," Ratchet said almost in the very same second. And the young student looked in his direction at once, optics intent and paying obvious attention again, as Ratchet fell quickly into teaching mode. "What we need to do now is attach her to a simple energon line. We can use that in a minute for the medication I mentioned in the office." The old medic paused then, still kneeling on the floor, and looked intently at the youngling bot again. Finally he continued on, with compassion, "We'll leave her right where she is for the moment, in Knockout's lap. I think this is working. Her little frame is so small... we want to use equipment in the smallest size possible..."
"Na'uh.. I... I... no..." Cybershock said mumbled into her creator's plating before ever that simple language dissolved into wordless and loud whimpering.
"Cybershock," Arcee said firmly. Her hand still held her child's smaller one. But the other moved to hold the shoulder panel of the little one's other arm gently. "Remember your words, baby."
"...Gonna hurt me?" Cybershock managed to verbalize, just enough of her question that it made sense after more mumbling.
"Just for a second my girl," Knockout said slowly, not willing to create a new set of problems by lying to her, while his youngling clung harder to his fingertips, and she lifted her head now, looking all around the medbay with wide open optics quickly filling up with tears again. "That's the only bit of pain you'll feel. Promise. Look at Mama, okay?"
"Ouch!" the youngling screamed loudly. And immediately she was fighting so hard to pull away while Ratchet tried to attach the line to her upper arm. And he struggled harder himself because if it, clearly causing him to inevitably hurt her worse.
"No no. Hold still," Knockout told his youngling. He wrapped an arm round her little body, pulling tighter against him in an effort to keep her from moving "You're making it harder by moving too much. Keep holding our hands. Good little bot..."
"Ratchet," he heard Arcee say over his own words to the little one. And it was sadly obvious from the tone of her voice that her own spark was breaking for their child, even as she tried to hide her own despair. "Couldn't you do that once you've got her already into power down...?"
"That won't work unfortunately." Knockout answered her himself, to allow his fellow medic to keep on working as quickly as possible. Cybershock, much to his sparkbreak, gave a loud shrieking scream. "She needs the medication first. Get her good and calm and sleepy, otherwise she'd likely panic and fight hard against a power down. That could be just as horrible for her..."
The child may have been struggling, and putting up a good fight – though her creator's words of patient encouragement did seem, thankfully, to make her squirming just a little less, and she was pressing her tiny frame against his, instead of struggling to wiggle away, as he'd feared she may have done. But the old medic was well experienced in doing exactly what he did. And he'd managed to work fast despite the struggling of a youngling so clearly unhappy with him. Quickly, he got up from his position kneeling on the floor
"Are we..." Cybershock started to ask through loud sniffles. "Are we done?"
"All done, my girl," Knockout answered. He shifted her body carefully on his lap, so that she sat now facing mostly forward, her little legs dangling over his bent knees. And with the hand she was not immediately trying to grab for again, he pulled her tight against him. "Sit back. You're doing so good."
"I'm sorry I had to do to you that, missy," Ratchet said, speaking to the still sniffling little one. He leaned forward to look her in the optics, and he studied her a moment with an intent expression, before he turned away to give her medication through the energon line. "Think you can forgive me? We still gonna be friends?"
"Yeah," Cybershock said though sniffles. And she sat looking up and pouting with her head on her creator's shoulder panel. "But I still mad at you!"
"You'll start to get a bit sleepy now.," Knockout told his child, chuckling – however nervous – at her answer to the old bot, in spite of himself. "You're okay. Do you want to go to your Mama? Do you want to stay with me? Or, do you want to lay down?"
"I wan' Mama," Cyberhsock answered slowly, after she'd appeared to sleepily consider for a second. She was calmer now.
"Okay," Arcee said, standing up to lift the youngling into her arms, before she carefully back down with her, in her chair, and clearly mindful of the energon line. The youngling's optics half closed again, as she lay in her carrier's arms, reaching again for a hand to hold onto. "Just hold still now."
"Mama?"
"What it is, baby?"
"I dun' wike tiss. Feel wierd... scary..."
"It's okay, Cybershock," Arcee answered quickly. And her voice was still calm, but Knockout saw her dread and despair easily regardless. And he reached out to grab her free hand quickly. "Ratchet is going to power you down now. Later tonight, We'll have you a surprise, okay?"
"And... that's that!" Ratchet exclaimed, backing up from where's he'd been just a second before, leaning over the little bot in order to complete her power down sequence. He turned quickly to look in the direction of his young student. "Get her ready, laying flat, at our repair station..."
"Knockout," Arcee cried, as soon as her young teammate had taken the youngling from her gently. She stood up quickly from her chair. And to Knockout's dismay, his so typically collected bondmate burst promptly into coolant tears as she threw her arms around his upper frame. "That was... absolutely horrible."
Knockout simply hugged her close against him, because he could not think of much else to do. And silently he agreed with her entirely.
"Remember before our little one was born?" he said when his mate finally looked back up again. "We talked one morning in our room. You worried you just couldn't love her enough, because you'd never learned how..."
Arcee nodded slowly, and still she looked sad. "It was so silly to think that once."
"You could have had her connected to a line and ready for power down, while I was still in my office with Arcee," Ratchet softly admonished, shaking his head just a little, as he set about sorting tools in a usable order on his little work table.
"I... I'm afraid I don't quite trust the steadiness of my hands for that," Knockout answered, too quickly and he knew it.
"Your hands are plenty steady enough," Ratchet huffed. "We both know it." But he turned away from his work a second, and looked back with understanding on his face-plate. "The only trouble is that she's your baby."
"I just can't be the bad guy," Knockout said. And he smiled a little when Arcee lifted her head again to look at him. "I couldn't stand the thought of hurting her. Even if I could have been quick about it."
#####
He sat a short time later, parked on his cart with his back to the wall of a small waiting area, made cozy with well matched benches fitted with light neutral coloured cushions, data pads for causal reading, and a large window looking out to the street beyond the courtyard. Arcee sat beside him, on the far end of a padded bench, with her optics staring down toward the clean white floor.
"Hey," Knockout smiled assurance as he gently grabbed his mate's hand in his, and shook it gently to make her look at him. "Cybershock is fine. Frame upgrades are really nothing to write home about."
"I know," Arcee answered, smiling a little, before she shook her head, dismayed and sad again. "But... she still seems so little. I can't believe this day actually came so fast."
"Life moves fast when everyday is about more than endless warfare," Knockout pointed out. Because he'd quickly come to notice it himself.
"We've all survived our frame upgrades," Arcee mused, still shaking her head. "I know that. Though I don't remember many of mine at all..."
"Same for me," Knockout answered her. And he laughed out loud then as he added seriously, "though my own creators never did grow tired of telling the story of how I actually punched a medic in the faceplate, on the day of my very first one." He paused a second, thinking, before he added slowly, "...The series of a events is quite lost in endless repetition by now, but this may have been not long after I kicked her... twice." Arcee laughed then - though the look on her faceplate made it instantly clear that she questioned whether she should have been laughing at all over such a thing. And Knockout smiled slightly as he went on with his musing. "Of course, Cybershock would never even think to behave that way. We're doing a far better job with her than my creators ever did with me, if I may say so."
He saw his mate open her mouth, just as though she was going to say something. But she didn't, and for a second both of them just sat, silent and reflecting.
"What are you thinking about?" Arcee questioned slowly, after a while. And Knockout knew she'd clearly seen the sad uneasy look, he'd tried hard to hide the very second it had appeared on his face-plate.
"Nothing really," he quickly lied. And instantly he saw her shake her head, dismayed.
"It doesn't look much like nothing..."
"I understand just how it is for little bots and frame upgrades. Her body just won't work quite right at first... Yes, I know she'll pick it up again fast and be walking by tomorrow, and running in no time. But still... being me and knowing exactly what it's like to think my own body should work as I think it should... when it just doesn't..."
"I think..." Arcee answered slowly. And she paused in mid statement, contemplating a moment before she finally finished her thought. "I think all that makes you the perfect bot to help her later."
"Uh... excuse me..." said a young bot from the the hallway and just around the corner. The bot peeked quickly around the archway leading into the small alcove of the waiting area, and with a nervous look he stepped in. Knockout was sure he recognized him after a second, as one of the group of three new medical students to have arrived still recently. He'd met him so far only twice in passing. But the young bot did certainly seem to be a nervous fellow.
"I.. I... Um... Ratchet sent me..." the student stammered, and he fidgeted with the finger tips on his right hand. And his optics, though darting around the room a bit too much, looked otherwise in Knockout's direction. "An... an emergency just came in, needs to be seen right... right away, and he's still busy with your daughter..."
"It sounds like you had better go," Arcee said. Her look was sad, but at the same time understanding.
"I ready did want to stay with you and wait..." Knockout looked for a moment at his bondmate, regretful. But she only smiled her assurance.
"Hurry," she said firmly, holding his fingertips for just a second before she let go again. "Somebody needs your help."
"Knockout," said the medical student, who had come to fetch him. "I... I'm sorry to have called you away from... from your family. Today is your youngling's frame upgrade and..."
"Stuff happens," Knockout answered quickly. "You'll learn fast in this field, that on call means 'no mercy.'" He rolled the cart at a decent pace for an indoor space, beside the young student, from the place he had met him, close to the medbay doors. He tapped his right fingertips lightly against his arm rest as he rolled forward, just trying hard to recall the bot's name. And he wondered if he'd ever learned it yet at all. The student really was close to brand new. "So, what's the deal?"
"A bot managed to walk in on his own, bleeding energon badly from his right shoulder," the medical student explained fast. And he kept up his hurried walking. "He's in a bad state. Aside from the shoulder, he's got head to foot dents, and may well have cracked his head somewhere."
"What happened to him?"
"I... I honestly have no idea. He wouldn't tell us anything."
"Head to foot dents? Could have been a fight..."
"I asked him if someone beat him up," the student answered, as the pair approached the medbay doors. "He said he didn't know, and then he lost consciousness."
"Alright." Knockout pulled a quick intake of air into his system, and steered the student gently toward the doors as they slid open in front of them. The young bot may well have been the newest of he students. But some help was better than none, and he knew well he might just need it.
"It's the... guy right over there," the medical student said, pointing toward a bot laying on a repair table at the right hand side of the room. And Knockout resisted the urge to shake his head at that, because of course, aside from Ratchet and his team, who were working at present in a curtained off section of the far back wall, the medbay was otherwise empty.
"Sorry," the student muttered a second later. And clearly he'd recognized the ridiculousness in his statement of the obvious.
The injured bot, Knockout saw as soon as he rolled close to the repair table, was still very young. An adult likely. But still just barely so. And he was, sure enough, bleeding energon from a gash clean across the front of his right shoulder panel. It was bad. One fast glance was enough to be certain of that. Energon had soaked the entire upper arm, and the top of the table the bot lay on, but Knockout managed to catch a reflection of the overhead lighting against what could only have been the bot's inner structure, beneath the gash.
The bot, covered in head to foot dents, and scuffs, just as had been described, was awake again, or at least mostly so. And he he turned his head slowly, to stare at Knockout with wide open, though confused, nervous optics.
"Grab me a sanitizing sprayer, a medium duty welder, and an internal line repair kit," Knockout ordered the student, who stood beside him, looking just slightly like he might just panic and run.
"Hey. You got a name?" Knockout quickly asked the badly inured bot, mostly to hold his focus on not losing consciousness again. But also because of course he needed to know. Reaching around to a cupboard, which he'd kicked open with his strong foot, he hurriedly reached into it with his grabbing stick and fetched a pile of clean rags, all but one of which he dumped quickly onto a work table just within his reach. One one he still held in his head, he promptly used to hold over the bleeding gash, in an effort to clean it up a little and hopefully see what it was he was working with.
"Streetlight..." The patient mumbled an answer, before his optics blinked again, and he tried, still in clear confusion and fright, to sit himself up. Knockout stopped him with a gently shove back down. "You're a medic?" the bot's optics blinked again, and travelled in dismay to the mobility cart.
"I like to think, a pretty decent one," Knockout answered quickly. And only his past few years of experience in dealing with civilians – many of them nervous and edgy – allowed him to speak so calmly, and even to laugh just a little. "I can't do it all anymore. But I can certainly do this."
"That's light duty." he said, turning to the student, who had come back to stand next to him again, with his hands full of tools. "I don't think that's going to work. I'll never get a wide enough beam on it."
"S... sorry, Knockout" the student mumbled.
"Don't apologize," Knockout said, sure he was a bit closer to needlessly snapping than he would have liked. And quickly, understanding a need for mercy on a panicked student who didn't know better, because he had not yet learned, he added quickly, "Medium duty welders are the blue handles. Light duties are green."
"Hey," he said, speaking urgently to his patient then, as he saw the injured bot's optics half close and his head tilt horribly to the side. "Wake up. Can you tell me what happened?"
"I... I dunno," Streetlight mumbled. His optics were wide open again and coming back into focus. "I... don't remember."
"I'm fully convinced you're lying," Knockout said at once, because the look on the young refugee's face-plate told him that indeed he was. But he kept his tone gentle, understanding. "We can wait a bit to talk about this. But I really do need to know what's going on." He pulled back the rag, now soaked through with oily energon, and grabbed the welder the nervous young student hand brought to him. This time a blue handled medium duty and set it on the work table beside him. A quick look at the gash without all the mess covering it, told him that sure enough it was cut through the frame beneath the body armour, and to the wiring beneath even that. Quickly he grabbed the sprayer and turned it on.
"Please... please d.. don't hurt me," the patient mumbled wide optic'd and now clearly close to horrified.
"Not going to hurt you," Knockout answered fast. And he resisted the urge to shake his head with dismay at the rampant fear, among so many of the returned refugee. neutrals, caused by their tragic lack of exposure to proper medical care. "It's just a bit of warm water and disinfectant. It might sting a fair bit, and there will be some pressure from the spray... I'll make sure you're not feeling anything before I start repairs, okay?"
"'Kay," the injured young bot said quietly, and he nodded his head a little. But he was immediately to move his badly damaged arm, struggling to pull away, just as soon as the lightest spray of water touched it.
"I do hate to say it, but you're half as bad as my youngling," Knockout said lightly, joking for the sake of trying to make the bot calm down. "I'd think nothing of that, except that she''s still tiny."
"Sorry," Streetlight mumbled. And his frame relaxed at least a little bit, as he chuckled slightly at the comment. "I'm just... I'm kinda scared of medical stuff."
"Most bots are these days," Knockout said, if only to encourage him in his efforts to keep still by telling him he understood.
He struggled with the sprayer far more than he would ever have let anyone know that he was actually struggling. Sitting on his cart, the reach was terrible, even leaning forward as much as he could. He was reaching up higher than would be comfortable for anybot for long, and his left arm was still not great with reaching past the height somewhere far below his shoulder. The weight of the sprayer, held tightly in both of his hands, the right taking the slack for the still weaker left while he pressed the trigger on the handle, was making matters far worse still. He knew he would have just as much difficulty in welding, for all the same reasons – though a welder was thankfully a fair bit lighter. He had done repairs on his own before in the time since his second processor failure. But, he realized quickly that none had been serious yet. Small cuts mostly to the armour of bots who sat in chairs in front of him, and let him hold their lightly bleeding hand or foot, while he worked on them carefully.
Still he persevered, determined.
"Terribly sorry," he said to the medical student, when his patient jumped in obvious fright again, the second the sprayer was turned up to a level high enough to do any good. And Knockout could not ignore the damaged young bot's look of pain, as he clearly struggled not to yell, or even cry. "I don't believe I ever caught your name."
"Starsong," the student answered hesitantly. And he was backing away, too quickly.
"Starsong, I need your help." Knockout saw the young student shake his head at that, as he took another step back.
"I... I'm brand new. I've only been a med student for five days... I don't know how to do anything yet!"
"Anyone can do this," Knockout said quickly. And indeed, it was only by chance at this point that the bot happened to be a medical student at all. "I need you to chat with this fellow. Doesn't matter what about. Just keep him calm, while I work."
"I can do that," Starsong answered quickly. And he sounded confidently now as he stepped closer again and looked the damaged bot in the optics.
"Knockout's right ya know," he said to him. "You're so not the only one with a fear of medics. I myself would probably collapse from terror if I was in here as a patient instead of helping with one. You're doing ten times better than I would. So, what are you into?"
Knockout did not even hear the patient's answer to the student's question. And the rest of a steady ongoing conversation was only background noise to him, as he worked, intently, still struggling more then he knew might have been safe for him or the injured bot - but doing the very best he could regardless.
Setting down the sprayer, he picked up the spot welder from inside the kit, open on the table beside him. And holding it in his hand, knowing he would surely need it, he looked closely as the bleeding gash, spotting two tone lines under the torn body armour. That he knew at once, explained the profuse bleeding. He managed, with a now slightly shaky hand, to clamp a gushing line. And carefully, he powered up the spot welder. The torn line inside the bot's body, was a major hose – one that carried energon and oil from the behind the spark chamber to the rest of the body. And it had spurted just a little with every pulse of the spark, until it had finally been clamped. But Knockout, despite his own condition, and the full understanding that the task was almost still beyond him, took on the task of repairing the line, because somebot had to and quickly. It took him longer than he wanted it to take. But when he had finished, he was satisfied it would hold just fine.
He needed to rest for a very brief moment as soon as he'd finished that task, because his left hand, still a fair ways from full function, was shaking too badly from the strain he'd put on it. But he didn't rest long. He couldn't. And forcing his fingers to steady themselves just a bit more, confidant that the hardest task was done with, he grabbed the larger welder, and supported his left hand again slightly with his right, as he began to weld the edges of the wide gash together.
The conversation between Streetlight and Starsong continued on all the while, the two chatting a while just like they could be friends. And Knockout dared to think, to his amusement that perhaps they would be. But only seconds after he'd begun the welding work on the body armour, the injured bot began to pull away again in obvious anxiety.
"You're okay," Knockout assured him. And he rested a hand for a second on the patent's chest panel to steady him. "Do you feel any pain?"
"N... no," Streetlight answered shakily. "Just... a...a bit unpleasant."
"A bit of discomfort can't be helped, of course," Knockout said, understanding. "But yell at me if anything actually hurts, okay? It shouldn't. I've been working all this time, and the pain sensory network for that arm is offline."
"'Kay..." Streetlight mumbled, nodding a little, still shakily and so obviously trying so hard just to calm himself down again. He took a slow intake without needed any prompting to do so, and turned his head to look away from the medic and the welder in his hand. Knockout surmised quickly, to his dismay, that the device, with it's shiny tip and bright blue handle, had simply scared the already edgy young refugee a bit too much.
Starsong, with no need for prompting either began to quickly chit chat again. Something about racing this time and the new racetrack, that was newly finished just outside of the city. Now that was a subject Knockout knew maybe too much about. And Streetlight, it happened was far more a possible spectator than an interested racer, but he was certainty into some good talk about it. Knockout joined in their conversation, chiming in here and there while he held his focus mostly on his work, because it seemed that talking with him as well was even more useful distraction for the unfortunate injured young bot.
It still took a while and a fair bit more work. After the welding was done there were dents to be assessed, and two smaller far more minor cuts to the bot's lower arm to be cleaned and bandaged. He needed scanning, and there was still that worry for a bump to his head. But the scans showed nothing, and it was easy from there to be sure the early lack of consciousness had come only from energon loss. Knockout taught the young beginner student how to help him in securing the newly welded arm against the young bot's chest, with a heavy mesh bandage, just to keep it still long enough to let the repairs take hold. And the young patient sat up a moment on the repair table, looking dazed and scared, and thankful... and well beyond exhaustion, as the shock of whatever it was that had actually happened to him in the first place so clearly began to catch up to him.
"Lay back down for a bit," Knockout told the kid calmly. "I'm admitting you to the ward for today. From there we'll see what happens. Someone will be along to get you in a bit. I just need to work out where to put you." And he nearly jumped out of his body armour, when he turned around to see someone standing behind him, a metres away.
The bot was a very large framed fellow. And tall too. Painted mostly light blue in colour with some dull white and a hint of faded red.
"I'm sorry," Knockout said quickly. "I... didn't hear you come in." Indeed he hadn't, and it was clear the young student hadn't either. Knockout took one more quick look at his patient, recharging already, and turned his cart to roll toward the stranger. "Is there something I can do for you?"
"So, you must be Knockout," the large stranger said at once. And Knockout only nodded.
"I am working now as head of law enforcement in this new city," the blue bot explained. He gestured with a waving hand, toward the resting refugee on the repair table. "I came to have a word with that that patient of yours. But he seems to be a bit worse off than I'd hoped he'd be. I'll let him rest a while and see if he'll talk once he's awake again."
"I tried to make him tell me what happened," Knockout said. He began to roll toward the medbay doors, with the newcomer walking beside him. "He tried to lie to me... said he didn't know. No surprise at all, I suppose, that law enforcement is involved."
"That kid is most likely a victim, not a perpetrator," the big blue bot explained. And Knockout nodded, relieved. He would have assumed so of course, because the young bot had sustained such damage. But then that didn't always mean much at all, and he knew this too well from his time on the warship filled with near savages.
"A medical student guessed he'd been beaten up somewhere," Knockout supplied, trying to be helpful. And that certainly made some sense when it came to the scuffs and dents on the bot. But that was clearly only a small part of the story given the gash and the energon loss. The medic only shock his head, helpless and shaken by it.
"At this point, it looks like somebot, or bots, broke into the guy's apartment. It seems he lives alone, but neighbours on his floor in building six heard a lot of noise and screaming. He got away, bleeding, and someone was seen fleeing over his balcony rail two floors up. I haven't sent the patrol down there yet. I can only imagine the place is an energon soaked mess."
"I expect the kid will be in decent shape by this evening," Knockout said, still trying to be helpful, and trying hard to hide his concern over the fact that he lived in building six himself, with his family. "I can't promise he'll feel ready to talk of course. But physically he'll be alright."
"He may well have been threatened, told by a perpetrator that'd he'd suffer for it if he talked. It's all in the hands of law enforcement now. But he'll be alright, thanks to you," the big blue bot said. And surprisingly he reached out to place a hand firmly on Knockout's shoulder panel, as he continued to walk beside the mobility cart. "I watched you work for a while on that kid. Didn't disturb you, because you were of course working... let me be the first to say that was impressive. Still recent 'Con defector. Physically damaged. Still, you might just have saved that kid's life. I'm no medic obviously. But I do know full there's far more to doing it decently well then just patching up broken bots and mopping up energon afterwards. That kid was obviously sacred half to death and you helped him not be."
"That comes from some experience," Knockout said lightly. "It wasn't always my strongest suit – patience and calm in the face of shaking patients. Then I became a creator to my very own youngling..."
"Cybershock," the newcomer said, surprising him in knowing that. Quickly he want on to explain. "I met your daughter the other day. I'm an old friend of Arcee, who brought the little one to meet my arriving ship. I must say your daughter is wonderful child. Though too smart for her own possible good already... And Arcee could barely stop talking about you and your own accomplishments."
"Ultra Magnus, I would assume," Knockout ventured then, cluing in. He'd known full well he'd run into the somewhat infamous Autobot eventually.
The large blueish bot nodded confirmation, and he stopped in the hallway a moment to lean against a wall behind him. And he looked Knockout in the optics just as soon as he too had stopped. Slowly he spoke again, his intent look leaving no doubt at all, about the seriousness of his words. "I'm not one to mince words and 'beat around bushes' as I beleive the expression goes. I've known Arcee for at least two centuries. And like most on this base, I've made it my business to protect and care for her, regardless of course of the fact that she can take care of herself and would scrap anyone who doubted it. When I learned from her that her chosen bondmate was a still recent former 'con, the news was both upsetting and baffling to me. I could never in all the time I once served beside her, once imagine that she would sympathize with a defector, enough to from a friendship. I will admit, I told her outright that I figured she'd been foolish to let herself fall in love with the lost ex'con she'd sought to help."
Ultra Magnus gave a short laugh, and continued on slowly, after shaking his head, just as though his own slight amusement was somehow not half as obvious as it was. "In typical stubborn Arcee fashion she only told me I didn't understand. That she didn't love a recent former 'con, but a new Autobot instead. She insisted up and down, again typical of only Arcee, that there is indeed a difference. She called you compassionate, just like any one of us. You can't fake compassion. Not the true sort that makes any real difference. And seeing you with that young patient, understanding from the look on your face-plate that you wanted him to be okay, not for the heroic status of having done something great, but because you knew he mattered..."
"That truly means a lot," Knockout answered, meaning it.
Cybershock came out of recharge, well aware at once of something strange beneath her body. Bouncy! She decided, considering a moment, with her optics still closed. The surface she was lying on, was bouncy. She moved just a bit and sure enough the surface bounced just enough to make her smile at the motion. But the surface was firm too. She liked it. She recognized it well. And n her little processor, with her optics still closed tight, she took a moment to make a game of guessing exactly where she was - because the world really was, it seemed to her, a very different place with one's optics closed.
She certainly was not in her own recharging basket, she guessed quickly. And she knew she was right about that. Her own little recharging pad inside the basket was much harder than this. And inside the basket she always felt closed in... confined by the sides. Cybershock giggled a silent over just how well she could get out on her own and how her creators both knew it well. Slowly, she extended an arm out into nothing but the air of whatever room she might have been in, and knew at once she liked to wake up in that openness far better.
Giving up her guessing game as quickly as she'd started to play it, Cybershock opened her opics, and blinked a second at the light metal greyness she found herself laying on half sideways. Of course! She giggled to herself again, and felt like she should have guessed at once. The large and comfortable sofa in her family's living room. It certainly was bouncy. She always did love to bounce on it – much to her carrier's dismay, and her creator's chuckling under quiet intakes as he so clearly pretended he'd never once seen her do it.
The youngling rolled herself over slowly onto her back. And she lay a moment, on the big comfortable 'bouncy' sofa, wondering why simply moving had felt different to her. And then she remembered the morning. Her very first frame upgrades! Moving felt different because her body was different. Well parts of it anyway, and it was more than enough to matter a lot. She remembered only a little bit of coming back home that day with her creators. She remembered that she'd tried to walk a little bit, though that might still have been back in the medical unit of the Autobot base. And she knew she hadn't even started then to figure it out. She'd been brought home, quiet possibly carried because she was so tired out. And she understood quickly that she must have dozed back into recharge, left to lay on the sofa for awhile.
A quick glance to her right and across the living room, and she saw on the viewing screen mounted to the wall, that a holovid had ended. She remembered asking her carrier to turn on one for her to watch. And she'd picked out her favourite youngling science show, but might not have made it to the opening theme song. She thought again back to standing badly in the medbay, Working hard to sleepily take steps with, balancing on feet that stumbled badly and knees that wanted to turn badly to one side or the other, while Ratchet stood behind her holding her hands firmly, and her little body still fell forward and then to the side, regardless. She remembered that her carrier had stood in front of her, somewhere across the little section of the room, cheering loudly, when the youngling managed to take just one tiny stumbling step, as the old medic supported most of her weight with his large hands wrapped around the sides of her body.
Still laying flat on her back on the family sofa, Cybershock bent her left leg, and then quickly her right. She turned her feet to the left then the right, and wiggled both for a second, before she decided firmly that she felt much stronger by then... and far more coordinated too. Deciding just as quickly that there was truly, only one way to find out for sure just how right she was, the youngling sat herself up. So far so good. She smiled to herself and turned to point her feet toward the floor, but she couldn't make her legs work half that well.
At that moment she felt a flash of fear, as she knew for sure she would not be able to stand up to walk anywhere. But she wanted to move, to be off the sofa, to restart the holovid on the player so that she could sit or lay on the floor close to the screen, and this time she could watch it play. The fear left her just as quickly as it had come, and boldly, she wiggled across the sofa and close to it's edge, where finally she dropped – quite recklessly, and she knew it – over the edge and onto the floor.
Cybershock's small metal body, hit the floor of the living room with a little clanging thump, and that made her giggle for a second. She cheered to herslef silently, when she realized she had landed exactly as she;d been trying to, face down on the floor, with her arms in front of her. From here she knew that even with her frame's limited motion, she could sit herself up. It was some work to do it. As much work as it had been on the sofa, but she did it easily. And slowly, with some hesiation, she began to wiggle quite fast across the living room, using her arms – just slightly stronger than her legs, and just good enough for the job, to move her even faster.
She was going, of course, right for the holovid player, right under the large screen on the far wall. But an open door leading out to the large patio beside her, caught her attention quickly instead. And changing direction, with a pause between, to catch an intake, and cheer herself on again, she made right for the open door that led to the railed in section of 'outside,' reaching it surprisingly quick with her awkward backside shuffling and propelling herself forward with her hands.
"Cybershock?" the voice of her creator said from outside somewhere on the patio, just as soon as she had rattled the door a little while trying to hold onto it and peek around it. She saw him at once, sitting on his cart outside, with a datapad on his lap. And he turned around to look at her when she grinned up at him, sleepily.
"I'm so sorry, my girl," he said, addressing her as he so often did because she'd come to love it. Instantly she saw a sad look on his face-plate. Regret? She thought that word might have been right. "I'd fully expected you'd recharge much longer, so I left you for a while. How... how did you get off the sofa?"
"Can I come out?" she asked instead of answering his question. And she watched carefully as he nodded his permission. But still he looked at her confused, and still regretful.
"Hold on, Cybershock," he said, when she started to move in her awkward improvised way, toward him. His hand moved at once to his cart's hand control. "Stay still right there. Let me come and get you."
"I can do it, Daddy," Cybershock answered back, smiling. And she saw him stop with hesitation clear on his faceplate, while she kept on moving.
"That's very good, my girl," her creator said. And she sensed his pride in her at once while he chuckled with amusement. She stopped, coming to rest in front of him. And for a moment she just sat on the patio's smooth floor, facing toward him and looking up. It seemed to her then that the perspective was just a little different somehow.
"Thanks," she said, grinning. But slowly her grin faded, as questions set in. And still looking up at her creator, who sat smiling down at her the fear of moments before returned and this time it did not instantly fade away again. "Daddy... I... I can't stand up at all. My legs won't let me, and I want to run again..."
"You've just got to keep on trying." She saw him appear to think a second, before he questioned her slowly. "Cybershock, you've seen me stand up a bit a few times now, right? You remember how I do it?"
When she nodded eagerly, he continued with a tone of encouragement. "Here. Reach up for me. Both hands." When she complied, reaching just as high as she could with tired stiff and resisting arms, to grab his outstretched hands, she felt him pull against her just a little and lightly.
"Hold on to my arm rests," he urged slowly, placing her little hands around the little support bars of the cart's armrests, before he reached forward a little and grabbed her gently around the middle of her body, while she stayed sitting on the floor.
"Ready?" He asked. His tone was cheerful, and he grinned, making her giggle at him. "Pull up. Pull up!" He yanked her body gently to its feet, at the same moment she did so the very best she could.
"Yay!"she cried, grinning right back as soon as she was on her feet. And she stayed there, holding onto his cart working harder than she ever remembered having to before, just to stay up like that. But she wanted to stand. She was determined to be able to.
"Where's Mama gone?" she asked calmly, still standing up well enough while she held on. She had seen no sign at all of her carrier since she'd woken up And carefully she turned to look through the open patio door, to be sure that she still saw no sign of her inside their apartment.
"She's gone downtown real quick," her creator answered, smiling as he sat parked, and she stood still using his armrests to support herself. The wires in her legs pulled too hard and it almost most hurt they did, but she pleased just to be sanding so well, and it felt like it was easier by the second to keep on doing it. she saw him grin the little grin that most everyone seemed to think was funny somehow. And he very gently tapped her on the front of her chest panel. "You remember, before you were powered down today? Mama told you she'd have a surprise for you?"
"No," Cybershock admitted slowly, because the entire morning was to her mostly still a blur, and the only thing she remembered well was being held while she was crying. Her optics lit up at once and she grinned, excited. "A surprise? For me? From you and Mama?"
"It was all her idea far more than mine. But yes. And she's gone to a shop, because she forgot something she said was important."
"What is it?"
"Well," her creator laughed, shaking his head. "It wouldn't be a surprise if you told you, now would it?"
"No..."
"High five," he said happily, after she'd laughed. And with a quickly that made her all but forget her questioning he held up his right hand so that she could smack his lightly with hers - a silly little thing she knew he'd learned once from humans on the world called Earth.
"Other hand," he cried quickly, just as soon as she'd done it once. His left hand was held much lower, out to the side of his body. And she reached out fast to tap just like she had the first.
"Look at you go," he said laughing then. And she grinned and cheered when she realized that in smacking his hands, she'd let go of his armrests and was standing up all by herself.
She felt bold then, tried to take a step all on her own without even a word. And she stumbled, catching herself with both of her hands on his knees, before she took one more step, closer to his frame, while she held on like that. Her creator's hand moved again to is hand control and this time he reversed very slowly across the patio, with her walking in very slow and hesitant steps forward as he went. She thought after a couple of steps she might just want to stop, because walking was suddenly a very hard thing to do. But after those couple of steps, she just wasn't pleased enough with herself, and wordlessly she took one more. So he kept on reversing. He backed the cart up, with her walking toward him, and of course never quite catching up, until he reached the far railing of the patio, and the youngling felt like it was getting easy now. But she couldn't walk backwards yet, and so he couldn't go anywhere.
Lifting her by himself was a tricky thing for him to do. And she understood that. He could do it. He had done it a few times in her life. But his body lacked the shoulder strength to do it very well or very often – and so she'd be climbing onto his knees on her own since the day she first could. But that moment, he reached out again, leaning froward just a bit, so that he could lift her up, at least the very best he could. And slowly, with the determination to safely do it, clear on his face-plate, he lifted her onto his lap, while she grinned, laughing. Carrying her now, he made his way quickly back to roughly where he'd started out.
"You're so much heavier now," he said, laughing as he shifted her gently, pulling her up to sit a little straighter. And Cybershock realized only then, when she really took notice and thought about it, that she really was bigger with the upgraded parts. It only made sense to her than that she would be much heavier too.
"Do you feel any pain in your arms or hands?" her creator asked slowly. And he tapped her left elbow gently, and made a silly little show of grabbing for her fingers, as he questioned her. Cybershock shook her head.
"How about your legs or feet?"
Cybershock shook her head again. And this time, on to his game, she pulled her still uncoordinated leg back from him, before he could grab her foot.
"Daddy?" she asked curiously, in the next moment. And she sat up straighter again on his knees while gesturing a bit with her hand toward the data pad he'd been looking at before, and now lay on a currently unused patio chair close by. "What's on that pad?"
"This?" her creator picked it up and held it in his hand. "It's... a few photofiles."
"Can we look at them?" Cybershook was sure she loved photofiles just as much as her carrier was known to love them. And the idea of looking at some now, sitting outside in the evening, with her creator, made her smile with excitement. Her excitement faded a little when she realized just how hesitant he had sounded at her question. And she looked up at him, now with concern.
"We'll look them over one day soon, okay my girl?" he said back. "I'll explain all of them to you."
Cybershock nodded firmly in agreement. And she was about to reply, when she heard the apartment door slide open, followed quickly by footsteps and the sound it it closing again with a click.
"Mama's home!" she exclaimed. And her creator was already driving the cart forward again, moving quickly toward the door, to carry the youngling inside.
"Daddy," she said quickly, when he'd rolled back inside and had made it partway across the living room. And she managed all by herself, to get off his lap and land standing up holding the cart. "Drive backwards 'gain. I wanna show show Mama what I can already do!"
"Cybershock," her carrier exclaimed, her expression shocked, impressed and smiling, the second she came into the room to see her youngling's careful steps. And she bent forward a little, watching her intently as she so often did, with patient encouragement. She held out a hand, and the youngling watched, listening as she further encouraged her. "Can you let go and stand on your own yet?"
"Yep," Cybershock said nodding. She could. She had once already. She did it again"
"Can you take a step on your own now?"
The youngling considered for a second, because of course she'd tried that once already. And she'd stumbled in trying it. But that was different, she decided quickly. She hadn't even walked at all yet before she'd stumbled, and she certainly could now.
"Yep," she said again, with confidence. And just like that she took three careful, albeit shaky steps in her carrier's direction, before her wires pulled far too hard and she stopped again in sudden slight pain from trying.
"Come on," her carrier said. And she sounded so happy, as she hurried over, and lifted the youngling into her arms, with a remark similar to her creator's about how she'd gotten so heavy. There was a very short discussion between her parents, where they decided her weight must have increased by about one hundred pounds... that seemed to her like a lot because she was pretty sure her frame had only weighed a few hundred pounds all along. "We have something to show you." And with all of them laughing while they hurried, the little family headed down apartment's wide hallway, and to her recharge room at the far end of it.
"My... recharge basket is gone..." Cybershock realized out loud, looking around her little room. Indeed the basket was no longer where it had always been, in it;s place in the middle of the room. She was set down again, and once again she was determined to stand up awhile, which she did by holding on to her carrier's hands to assist herself, because her small legs were still almost too tired to do it completely on her own again.
Looking around the room again quickly, her optics fell at once, on simple recharging station against the wall, beneath her window. It was 'youngling sized.' But to her that was still very big. And the bedding that covered it was a black and white checkered patern, to match the flags that hung on her walls – the bedding she would have easily chosen all along if she'd had the option, she decided giggling to herself.
"You're too big to fit in the recharging basket now," her carrier said. And she held her up,with one hand on a shoulder panel and the other holding her wrist, so that she could walk slowly toward the recharge station and take a better look at it.
"And..." she added slowly, as she reached to open her storage compartment, to retrieve the thing she must have run downtown for in the first place. It was a small table lamp – much like the ones used in the rest of the apartment, but a little smaller. And this one was pink. Cybershock was happy with the color, because she was almost a little sad at giving up her old decor scheme completely. She watched her carrier set the lamp up nicely on the little table beside the recharge station... where Cybershock knew for sure she could turn it on and off all my herself now.
"You're going to recharge with us tonight," her creator said, still siting parked just inside the doorway. "Just because your frame is still weak. But tomorrow you can recharge in here."
"I wanna recharge in here tonight... in my new recharge station," Cybershock argued. She felt her determination welling up quickly through her frame. And letting go of her carrier's hand again, she continued to stand up. "I can do it. I'll be okay. If I need help I'll just... call."
She watched while her creators exchanged the kind of looks that grown bots so often did when they were considering... or concerned about younglings. And it felt like it was minutes. But finally she saw them both slowly nod their agreement.
Notes/ So there we have it. Another one down. Yes a lot of this chapter clearly has little to do with the overall plot of this story. It's mostly a filler chapter (which I don't exactly need to be writting, because I already have probably TOO many ideas for this project. This one was interesting to write, and I'm happy with how it turned out. I really wanted to start to give tiny Cybershock her own personality, and let her become a character in her own right.
I've seen bits and pieces in other fanfictions, relating to exactly how the idea of growning young bots would actually be handled. It makes sense that Cybertronians would obviously not grow up like we do, because they are metal and wires – things that can't change all that much. And to me, the mechanics of the whole matter, could well be complicated and even extremely challenging to deal with as a part of "youngling-hood." The concept ended up making a chapter almost of its own.