Chapter Text
The past day or so had been eventful to say the least. Bulk got kidnapped, the team met the most annoying bot on four wheels, found out who the spy on Cybertron really was Wasp was innocent, thwarted Bucket-head's takeover plan, lost Omega Supreme, found out Sari is part Cybertronian, he got flung across the galaxy, eaten by a rock monster, Sari upgraded herself to save him then nearly killed him, the key doesn't work anymore, had to fight a Decepticon controlled Omega Supreme, proceeded to lose him again, and Sari moved back in with her father. Primus below Bee didn’t want to do anything for the next week, at least. Unfortunately for him, his position of being sprawled out across his berth had stopped being comfortable a few hours ago. It wasn't cuz of how he was lying. No, it was because of his stupid legs protesting everything he'd been through. Oh, and his chassis stung like a glitch, too.
Bee hit his helm against his berth. He'd really wanted to get some actual recharge, since Ratchet was putting him on mandatory berth rest for the next solar cycle or two. But NOPE! His frame decided pain was the name of the game. It wasn't like he could do anything about the pain anyway. All they had on servo was some pain patches.
Bee looked at his chronometer.
3:37 AM
He groaned out his frustration. Slag it all, he might just be desperate enough. Maybe he could deal with whatever random side effect the patch gave and get some fragging sleep in before the sun rose. Maybe he'd even get lucky, and it'd knock him out cold for a few hours. That or the universe would decide to kick him while he's down and make his pain ten times worse instead. Who knows! He certainly didn’t! For Primus sake, he hadn’t even tried a pain patch since…
Since…
Since boot camp.
Since Longarm he gave him one.
Had he ever had–
Bee was now wide awake for a different reason. Had he really not tried a single pain patch since boot camp? That–That had to be wrong. Surely he had used at least one, right? Surely Ratchet forced him to take one. Yeah. Yeah! He just needed to think back on all his injuries post-boot camp.
There was that time he fell off a big pile of rocks!
The most he got was a dent or two…
How about when Prowl threw his ninja stars at him!
They barely even nicked him, and Ratch said he deserved it for being annoying…
When he tripped while running to get a part for Bulk?
All he got was a bruised ego…
OH! That time, they stopped at a space port to refuel, and he got into a fight with some locals who were talking shit about the repair crew! Not his best idea, considering it was a 5 v 1, but like he was just gonna let what they were saying slide! Doc-bot had definitely given him some pain patches after that!
Pain patches that he didn’t use and slowly snuck back into the med-bay with each supply shipment…
Frag.
Bee sat up on the edge of his berth with his servos gripping tightly to the sides.
Frag.
Bee didn’t remember getting hurt badly enough to need one pre-boot camp, and up until now, they had Sari's key while on Earth, which had fixed them up perfectly fine. At boot camp, it wasn't any better. The medics were so slagging stingy with giving out any form of treatment, it was basically common knowledge that if you needed something, it was probably best you just steal it and return it later, that way at least you wouldn't be in pain during your lecture.
Bee hadn’t wanted to steal any med supplies from them, but well... he was fragging desperate, okay! He remembered how he practically begged Longarm to grab him something, anything to make the pain go away. Bee even swore he'd take the fall for it. Longarm agreed and snuck him a bunch of differently colored pain patches. None of them worked quite right, but he didn’t want to upset Longarm by making him waste his free time getting Bee things he didn't even use. He'd even gone out of his way to get him some before he even asked for them.
Why, if anything, Longarm seemed almost eager to sneak him the patches!
…
Neither the medics nor Sentinel ever mentioned anything about pain patches going missing.
…
Longarm always offered to stay by Bee’s side "just in case"…
His grip on the edge of his berth tightened.
He was rushing down the halls of the base before he could even blink. Just one. He'd just try one patch. He'll try the patch. It won't work right like all the others. Then he'll never try it again. He just has to get one patch. Just one. All he has to do is confirm it. That's all he has to do. Just get one tiny little pain patch. Just one. Just grab it. It's so simple. All he has to do is get it. It'll do something weird to him. Then he'll never touch one ever again. That's it. Just-
Something grabbed his shoulder.
Bee immediately activated his stingers and turned them on his attacker. Before the electricity could connect, they grabbed his wrists and pulled them above his helm. He quickly lashed out with his legs. The hit connected, but it just knocked the air out of their vents with an oof. They still held onto him, and in fact, the hold on his wrists tightened. Before he could try anything else, they maneuvered one of his still active stingers right next to his sensory horn, causing him to shock himself. His vocalizer crackled as he entered a soft reboot.
When he opened his optics, he realized he was in the med-bay with Ratchet holding him in place mid-air. Ratchet, who now has a dent from where Bee kicked him. Oh.
"Uh…oops?"
Ratchet raised an optic ridge, but his grip on Bee’s wrists loosened a bit.
When the medic didn't say or do anything else, Bee took that as his cue to talk, "Oh-um-I meant-I'm-I-sorry about trying to attack you Doc-bot. You just snuck up on me, is all. Has Prowl been giving you lessons or something?"
He meant for it to sound teasing, but considering how Ratch was looking at him, all concerned like, he probably failed on that front. Thankfully, he seemed to at least convince Ratchet he wasn't about to start attacking him again since the medic finally let go of his wrists and set him back down on the ground. Bee idly rubbed at where Ratchet had been holding him, not because it hurt but just for something to do while the medic gathered his thoughts.
"Kid, I'd been trying to get yer attention for a few minutes before I even touched ya. Did you really not hear anything I said or notice me turning on the light?"
Now that Ratchet mentioned it, Bee did notice that the med-bay lights were on. Huh. How long had they been on? How long was he standing in the dark for? He checked his chronometer.
3:51 AM
Oh. Primus, he must have really zoned out. When he looked at Ratchet again, the old bot was starting to look worried. Right, he still hadn't said anything back to Ratchet. Scrap.
"Oh-uh-yeah, I guess I didn't. Sorry, must've zoned out pretty hard there."
Ratchet gave him this look that Bee really didn’t have the processing power to try and figure out before the medic said, "Yeah, I'd say so. So any particular reason yer in my med-bay at this time of night or what?"
Oh. Yeah. Bee should probably tell Ratch about why he came in the first place. Preferably before he gets too annoyed at him for well, everything.
"I kinda-I sorta-I-My-" Bee paused to spit static out of his vocalizer for a moment. Why did words have to decide now to be difficult?! "My legs were hurting, and I couldn't sleep cuz of it, so I figured I might as well bite the bullet and try a pain patch, you know?" He paused for a moment before mumbling, "Oh, uh, my chassis is also hurting, too, I guess."
Ratchet looked at him sadly for a moment before nodding and walking off to go grab something, leaving Bee alone. As Bee looked around the room, he finally realized that his battle mask was activated. He must've done it when Ratchet spooked him. Probably. He quickly transformed it away as he rubbed at his optics with the heels of his servos. Slag. He really needed to get some fragging sleep and soon.
As Bee was contemplating whether or not he wanted to just lie face down on the med-bay floor, Ratchet returned with a single pain patch in his servo. It looked exactly like all the other pain patches he's seen, except for the color. He'd never seen a light blue one before. He felt his throat tighten.
Bee coughed some stray dust out of his vents and idly patted himself down before he reached for the pain patch.
"That was fast! Sorry for waking you up, but thanks for-"
Ratchet swatted at him before his digits even so much as grazed the patch, "Ep ep ep! There's no way I'm just gonna give this to ya and let you go on your merry way! 'Specially not after what you told me after I fixed yer legs! Now sit down on that med-berth or else I'll weld ya to it!"
Too tired to even attempt arguing with the medic, Bee did as he was told. Though he made sure Ratchet could feel the annoyance in his field.
Ratchet just scoffed before gesturing for him to hurry up.
Once Bee was sitting on the med-berth, Ratchet started his speech, "I'm gonna give you this pain patch, but you have to do as I tell ya. No ifs, ands, or buts about it! Yer gonna spend the night in here on that there berth. I'm gonna hook you up to a monitor that'll tell me if somethings goin' wrong with ya. The patch'll only last for about an Earth hour or so, but should be just strong enough to dull the pain enough so you can recharge. I'm not gonna risk anything stronger than that. If something starts happening to ya that the monitor can't detect, just press this button on the side of the berth, and it'll send me an alert. If you make it through this patch fine but still can't recharge, I'll give ya a longer lasting one, 'aight. Now the monitor…"
Bee nodded along as Ratchet droned on. A part of him understood and was glad Ratchet had actually remembered what he said about his experiences with pain patches. The rest of him wanted to zap himself into another reboot so he could get some carrier-fucking recharge!
"Alright, I get it! Stay in the med-bay, tell you if something goes wrong, and don't do anything that might frag up the monitor to cause a false alarm! Now, can you please give me that so we can both sleep!"
Ratchet glared at him, but the usual heat behind it was replaced with a tiredness that seemed out of place on Ratchet’s usually grumpy faceplate.
"Okay. Here ya go, kid." Ratchet placed the patch right below his spark. "Remember. Comm me or press the button if something goes wrong. G'night."
With that, Ratchet hooked him up to the monitor, shut off the lights, and walked out the door to his own hab. Bee stared at the closed door in the dark as he felt the patch beginning to work. The pain in his legs and chassis dulled until it was more like how he felt when he did one-to-many transform-ups back in the early days of boot camp. Still hurting, but a lot more manageable. He slowly leaned back until he was lying flat on the med-berth. Wide awake and waiting for something to go wrong or for him to pass out. Whichever came first. He just had an hour.
4:03 AM
5:28 AM
Ratchet exvented as he closed his chronometer. Despite what the kid thought, Ratchet had already been wide awake when he got the alert of somebot being in his med-bay. The only way he'd be able to recharge after today was with a few cubes of high-grade. Unfortunately, the Elite Guard didn't think that was a high priority or bare necessity item, so he was scrap outta luck. He grabbed a nearby datapad and began readin' it. Normally, when he can't sleep, he goes to the med-bay to catalog and reorganize his supplies, but that wasn’t exactly an option at the moment. Not unless he wanted to wake up and then have to deal with a very tired and very angry minibot.
He was glad the kid was able to get some recharge. He'd check in on the little glitch before sunrise, and if everything was still all good, he'd make sure nobot bothered him unless absolutely necessary. Maybe he'd even get to see how good his wrench-throwing still was. Heh, if the kid did wake up, he'd probably get a kick out of that at least.
Ratchet sat in silence readin' over his datapad. 'Parently, he stole one of Drift's cheesey romance novels meanin' the ex-con likely had one of his old textpads from med-school. He snorted at the description of the main character's "one true sparkmate". A broad-shouldered, rugged, med-bot with a gruff exterior who could carry multiple bots with ease. He could see why Drift picked this pad in particular. He just hoped the novel's attempt at depicting a day-in-the-life-of a medic wasn't anything like those popular human shows he's heard about, with all their blatant malpractice. Why, in one of them, he's pretty sure the doctor-
* WARNING! WARNING! ELEVATED SPARK RATE DETECTED! *
Ratchet jumped at the alert. The frag was it talking about? His spark rate wasn't elevated! He hadn’t even gotten to the good part yet, so what in Primus’s name was it-
"BUMBLEBEE!"
Scrap! The kid must be havin' a bad reflux! Please, just a bad reflux. Ratchet quickly tossed the pad to the side and began making his way out of his hab, but right as he got to the door-
* WARNING! WARNING! SPARK RATE NOT DETECTED! *
Ratchet felt his own spark stop. No, no, no! NO! He couldn't lose the kid! Not now! Not after everything! No! He wouldn't lose the kid. Not as long as his spark still spun!
He sped his way to the med-bay, not caring if he woke up anybot else. They'd understand, and if they didn't, they could frag right off. He slammed his servo on the button to open the door once he got there. He rushed in and-
Where was the kid?!
He wasn’t on the med-berth turning grey at all! The standing monitor was though, and it was currently screeching out with the one sound of the med-bay he couldn’t stand! He walked over and smacked it to shut it up. He sat there seething for a moment. So help him, Primus. If the kid just got up to get some energon or go to his hab, he was gonna snuff the little fragger's spark out himself!
He was just about ready to comm the glitch to yell at him when he heard the clacking of the main med-bay terminal behind him. He turned, and sure enough, the tiny yellow pain in his aft was right there!
Ratchet growled as he marched over to the mini, "For Primus sake, kid ya gave me a fraggin' spark attack! What part of 'don't cause a false alarm' didn’t ya get! I swear you better have a good reason to 'ave done that or else I'm welding you to the most uncomfortable berth in existence for the next vorn!
Bumblebee flinched and curled in on himself at Ratchet’s yell, but hadn’t turned to face the medic or stop whatever it was he was doin'. Ratchet could just barely hear something being mumbled out underneath the kid's vents. He couldn’t make it out.
"Well, don't just mumble it under yer vents! If yer gonna say somethin', say it to my faceplate. So you gonna explain yerself or am I gettin' my welder?"
He stood there staring at the kid for a minute or two. Neither of them moving an inch nor saying anything.
Just as Ratchet was about to go grab the kid, he heard a small, emotionless, "It worked."
He narrowed his optics, "What worked?"
"The pain patch. It worked. No side effects, nothing. Just did what it's supposed to."
"'Kay, that's great, and all. Still doesn't explain why you gave me a spark-"
"The ones at boot camp didn't. Never did. Not the ones I had."
Ratchet paused at that. Just what was the kid going on about? Maybe the patch impacted his processor instead of his frame?
"They always did something different. Hardly ever did the same thing twice."
Ratchet noticed just how stiff Bee was as he said, "Hey, how about you let me-"
"Only thing they did more than once was knock me out."
He was gripping the terminal so hard it left dents. Something was clearly wrong with the kid. But what? What could have been in the pain patch to cause this kind of-
"You know I never had a light blue one before."
Ratchet's spark dropped to his tank.
"I've had all kinds of other colors, though. Red, pink, black, green, scrap, even dark blue! But nope, never had light blue before!"
Ratchet cringed at the slightly manic edge the kid's voice had now.
"Hahaha! Nope, he never gave me light blue! Never even seen a light blue one before today! Can you believe that?! Never saw a light blue pain patch!"
Bee finally turned towards Ratchet, letting the medic see his front for the first time since he'd entered the med-bay. His chassis was heaving with the effort of his fans trying to take in cold air to cool his frame, yet he was shaking like crazy. His optics like pinpricks. Coolant cascaded down his faceplate. His expression looked like some combination of horrified and absolutely crushed.
"All the pain patches here are light blue. All the ones in your database are light blue."
"Kid…"
Ratchet moved to wrap Bumblebee in a hug. The mini attempted to escape, but was too tired for anything more than a half-sparked attempt.
"Do-Don't come near me! For all we know, I-I could have a virus or he could remote activate my stingers or-"
Ratchet just pulled him closer. "Let him try. I stopped you earlier, didn't I? I think I can stop him twice as easily."
Bee keened, and that seemed to break the last bit of his resolve as he clung to Ratchet. Heaving sobs racked his small frame. Ratchet just held him close and rubbed soothing circles into the back of his helm. He made sure to remotely lock the med-bay door so the others wouldn't disturb them. They could only get in if it was a medical emergency, letting Ratchet focus on the little yellow bot holding onto him like a lifeline.
It was a few minutes before Bee could vent at least a bit more normally. He smooshed his faceplate into Ratchet's windshield, mumbling something.
Ratchet jostled him slightly, "Hey now, don't go wiping yerself off on me! Now what was that you were trying to say?"
"…Longarm was the one who got me the pain patches, after he put my legs back on."
Ratchet felt his grip on Bee tighten. Primus. He hadn't wanted to think about it and hoped the two were just acquaintances, but no. Bee had been friends with the Mad Scientist's disguise. The two had been close enough that the kid trusted him to fix what was broken when the medics around him wouldn't. He should have recognized it when he worked on Bee's legs. He'd tried and failed to fix too many of Shockwave's experiments to count. If bots had a run-in with Shockwave and survived, they tended to wish they hadn't. He'd break you piece by piece, find out what made you tick, just so he could put you back wrong. He enjoyed watching you struggle to perform even the most basic things, while to everybot else you looked healthy as could be. He should've seen it sooner, should've checked in with the kids right after they found out, should've-
Bee suddenly pulled himself out of Ratchet’s grip but still held on tightly to the medic's arms as he said, "Check me for spyware! For viruses! Anything! Everything! Oh, Primus, what if that's how they knew we found the Allspark?! H-He could be listening in right now! He could…"
The kid's panicked rambles snapped Ratchet out of his own spiral. He was about to tell the kid just how silly it'd be for Shockwave to install spyware on a space bridge repair bot when he remembered training with Red Alert during the war. How the femme was always paranoid she'd mess something up or do something wrong. Their teachers would always tell her to get over it, but he found that what helped her was figuring out what she needed to do if something went wrong. Preparing for the worst somehow made it more tolerable.
Ratchet put his servos and Bee’s shoulders, startling the minibot as he began to speak, "Alright, kid, I'll check ya. I'll have to do a pretty thorough processor scan, so you'll be in here for a few megacycles, unable to move too much. I'll have to knock you out at some point, too, to see if there's any difference between your processor while online versus while recharging. If you want me to stop at anytime just tell me. That sound good to ya?"
Bee nodded and walked his way over to the med-berth. He hopped up on it and began making himself comfortable while Ratchet got to work setting up for the processor scan. If they went through the full thing, it'd take up most of the day with the kid recharging for about half of it. Ratchet could technically stop it at anytime before the kid recharged, but they couldn't just start it back from where it left off. They'd have to restart the whole process, and he made sure to tell Bee as such. The mini stayed quiet the entire time Ratchet was hooking him up.
Just as he was about to start the scan, Bee spoke up, "Hey Doc-bot, you'll tell me if you find something, right?"
The kid sounded small in a way he never should, "Of course! Why wouldn't I? What d'ya take me for? One of Sentinel's gaggle of idiots?"
Bee let out a small laugh. Ratchet smirked at the kid as he finally started the scan. If anything was wrong, he'd fix it. He'd fix it.
Ratchet's struts protested as he moved away from the terminal. The kid was currently about a fourth of the way through the recharge part of the scan. The process had been slowed down a bit, as it had actually ended up finding a few bits of malware. Thankfully, no spyware or Primus forbid a Trojan, but that didn't mean it was good. There was a keylogger that recorded all the moves the kid used while fighting, a virus or two that messed with his processor randomly, and something almost like ransomware that encrypted a few of his memory files. Ratchet immediately started programs to get rid of them the moment they were detected.
It hadn't detected anything for a while. This was probably a good time for him to get some energon. He rubbed at his optics as he remotely unlocked the door. As the door began to open, he heard a bunch of shuffling right outside it. Oh yeah, the rest of the crew was definitely up and moving around by now. Maybe he could get one of them to get him some energon or-
"Ratchat, what happened?!"
"Is Bee okay?!"
"What do you need?"
Ratchet stumbled back in surprise at the simultaneous yelling. What were they going on abo-
Right, he and Bumblebee had been holed up in the med-bay for several megacycles. Not exactly a reassuring sight after the kid nearly died yesterday. He probably didn't help anything by running through the hall like a mad mech last night. They all looked just as tired as he was.
"Whoa, whoa, calm down! The kid's fine! Physically, at least. He's restin' and will come out when he wants to. Got it? Good. Bulkhead," the green bot perked up at his name, "I need ya to answer something for me. I'm not gonna get mad, I just need to know. When you were at boot camp, did anybot steal any pain patches for ya?"
Bulkhead cocked his helm to the side, "Uh, no. It was kinda hard for any of the bots there to really hurt me that bad, considering well," he gestured to his frame. "Though Longarm did offer me one just in case. Never really used it though. Like I said didn't need to. Oh, I think I still have it in my subspace! I should probably get rid of that!"
He pulled out a pain patch that looked tiny in his big claws. It was a deep purple color. Prowl snatched it from Bulkhead's servos before Ratchet could even attempt to.
The ninja-bot held it as if it were poison. Glaring at it and shifting it to see how the light reflected off it. Ratchet could hear his usually silent engine revving slightly.
Prime, on the other servo was looking at it with slight horror, "Bulkhead. When did it turn purple?"
"What do you mean? It's always been purple? Is it not supposed to be? Does that mean it expired or something?"
Ratchet had finally managed to get the thing away from the ninja-bot as he said, "No, that means it ain't a pain patch! As soon as Bumblebee gets done, I'm draggin' yer aft in there for a processor scan! I ain't gonna risk anything after this has been in your subspace for Primus knows how long!"
"You are performing a processor scan on Bumblebee."
Ratchet turned to Prowl. Scrap. That bot was too perceptive. "Yes, I am. I went to give him a pain patch, and we realized that he'd never used an actual one before. I decided to run the scan to make sure he didn't end up with any viruses or anything, considering how the kid apparently has zero fragging clue what him being healthy actually means! That's all I'm sayin' about it. He can decide if he wants to tell y'all anythin' else."
Ratchet began walking away to finally get himself some energon when he heard Optimus hiss out, "Shockwave did this, didn't he?"
Ratchet bitterly scoffed, "Trust me. If I ever see that 'Con he's gonna get a reminder of why my nickname during the war was 'The Hatchet'."
From what he could feel of the other's fields, they agreed with the sentiment.