Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Nnngh, I can't fit any more knowledge into my cranium!”

“Come on, Blades, I know you can do this,” Dani encouraged, holding the (in her hands) massively over-sized tablet with Blades' study material on it. “What are the steps for dealing with a low energon patient?”

“Uh... check their optics... then have them lay down? And then... refuel.”

“Have them lay down first, then check their optics. Also, you forgot a step.”

Blades grabbed his head in his hands, wailing dramatically.

“I'm going to fail, I just know it! And then Ratchet will take away my medic's license, and I'll be a disgrace to the Rescue Bots!”

“You'll be fine,” Dani assured him. “Remember, I'm going along for moral support.”

“And some helpful hints when I get stuck?” Blades asked hopefully. Dani gave him a stern look.

“I'm not helping you cheat,” she scolded. “You are going to ace this test all on your own.”

“Blades, it's time,” Boulder called from the other room. Blades and Dani walked to the designated spot, the bot tapping his fingers together nervously.

“Ohhh, what if the GroundBridge doesn't work and I can't get there in time? Then I'd have to take a makeup test, and I'd have to endure this agony for even longer! I can't survive any more suspense!”

The swirling green of the GroundBridge appeared in front of them exactly on time. Dani gave Blades an amused look, and he pouted. They walked through the portal together, Boulder calling after them, wishing Blades good luck.

“Good, you're not late,” a white and red bot said to them, turning abruptly before Dani had even had a chance to get a good look at him. “Follow me. Your test is in here. I hope you've been studying, Blades, I don't like wasting my time.”

Blades was too nervous to make a reply. Dani mentally apologized to him for assuming he'd been exaggerating Ratchet's reputation for grumpiness. The room he led them to had what looked like a giant operating table in the center of it. From her perspective Dani could barely make out something on the table, but she couldn't tell what it was. She spotted a higher platform atop a set of stairs that would give her a good view and she ran up, reaching the top in time to see Ratchet make a sweeping gesture, indicating what looked like a bot lying on the large table.

“Well?” he said, clearly not planning to elaborate. Blades, wide-eyed, looked at Dani, and she made an encouraging motion with her hands.

“Um... what am I supposed to do?” he asked. Ratchet sighed deeply.

“This is a medical dummy. Haven't you seen one before?”

“Oh!” Blades exclaimed, studying the dummy more closely. “Ours weren't so, um... lifelike at the Academy.”

“I know,” Ratchet scoffed. “That's why I built this one myself. It has every system and structure that a real bot would possess, right down to the tiniest energon capillary. Your test is to diagnose it.”

“Oh,” Blades said, clearly intimidated. He gulped, and reached inside his cockpit for his medkit. Taking out a scanner, he waved it over the dummy, frowning. Dani was starting to get creeped out by the thing. She would swear it had moved several times already, though she couldn't be sure. Blades deactivated the scanner, looking almost frightened.

“Um... there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it,” he said slowly, looking apprehensively at Ratchet. The bot raised an eyebrow.

“Well, now,” he said, “I guess that's all there is to it, then. Your scanner shows nothing wrong, so clearly nothing is, is that what you're telling me?”

Blades stuttered incoherently. Dani decided she really didn't like Ratchet, despite all the times he'd patched up her team.

“But—but I—”

Ratchet sighed, and appeared to take pity on his student.

“I made it to be as realistic as possible. That means it has a rudimentary consciousness. Try seeing if it's awake.”

Blades stared at his mentor in complete shock.

“It can talk?” he exclaimed. He turned his gaze back to the dummy, now with more apprehension in his face. “Um... hello?”

The dummy opened its optics, turning them on Blades, who shrieked and leaped back several yards. Ratchet took him firmly by the arm and walked him back to the table.

“It's not going to eat you. Try again.”

“W-w-w-what's y-y-your n-n-name?” Blades asked, trembling.

“Dummy,” the dummy replied in an artificial voice that sounded like Ratchet's with all the personality taken out. Blades turned to Ratchet, looking outraged, fear apparently forgotten.

“You named it Dummy?” he demanded. Ratchet looked perturbed.

“That's what it is,” he said. “It doesn't actually have a name.”

“Aw, poor thing,” Blades said, turning to the dummy and asking sweetly, “What's wrong with you, Dummy?”

“My heel strut hurts,” the dummy said, and wiggled its right foot. Dani shuddered at the movement. It was straight out of the uncanny valley, and she was proud of Blades for taking the foot in his hands without hesitation and looking it over.

“It... looks fine to me,” he said hesitantly, looking at Ratchet, who only raised an eyebrow.

“It hurts. And my exhaust port is clogged.”

“Oh no!” Blades immediately felt around the dummy's exhaust port, then frowned, and took out a small tool from his kit and probed the area more delicately. He removed the tool and held it up to the light, frowning deeper.

“It doesn't look like there's anything in there,” he said, sounding confused. The dummy merely sighed and turned its head away to study the ceiling. Blades looked at Ratchet worriedly. Ratchet gave him nothing, only continued to raise his eyebrow. Blades, lost, turned to Dani, who could only shrug.

“There's nothing wrong with it!” Blades finally exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. Ratchet gave a cold smile.

“Precisely,” he said, causing Blades to turn to him, mouth agape.

“What do you mean 'precisely'?” he demanded.

“I mean I wanted to test your confidence in your diagnoses, including diagnosing a lack of symptoms,” Ratchet said, but something in his optics made Dani say,

“I bet you just didn't have time to simulate a real injury,” and she was pleased when Ratchet's optics darted from side to side nervously. He harrumphed.

“That... may have had something to do with it,” he mumbled. Then he rallied, pushing Blades gently but firmly out of the room. “But it gave me a good look at how you respond to uncertainty, and I can definitely say I am not pleased. Your next test will be a good deal more stressful, so I suggest you prepare. Your written exams are acceptable, barely, but all the book-learning in the world isn't going to do you any good if you can't keep your head in a crisis.”

Dani followed them on foot as best she could, for Ratchet was moving at some speed.

“I was only barely able to fit you in to my schedule today, so I'll please ask you to leave with all haste, but next time I will be able to devote much more time to your evaluation. Goodbye.”

He activated the GroundBridge, and barely spared them a glance as he began typing on some screens. Dani and Blades shared a look, and then walked through the GroundBridge together.

“How was it?” Boulder asked as they reentered. Blades threw himself down on a crate and cradled his head in his hands.

“I failed!” he wailed. “Ratchet hates me and I can't keep my head in a crisis.”

“Yes, you can, Blades,” Dani told him sternly as Boulder patted him on the shoulder gently. “I've seen you keep your head in a crisis. Ratchet was just playing mind games.”

“No, he wasn't. If I can't be confident in my diagnoses I'm no good as a medic. I might as well just give up.” Blades flung his hands up in a defeated gesture. “Boulder, you can take my place. I'll do my best as a mechanic.”

“I don't think switching jobs would be good for either of us,” Boulder said, humoring his friend. “My fingers aren't nearly as dexterous as yours.”

Blades appeared to mull that over.

“I guess that's true.”

“And can you even imagine Heatwave's bedside manner?” Dani joked. She was gratified to see Blades finally crack a smile.

“Or Chase's?” he added, grinning.

“See?” Boulder said. “You're the only bot for the job.”

“You're right!” Blades exclaimed, jumping to his feet. “I can't give up. Someone has to patch you guys up. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go study.”

He ran off, leaving Dani and Boulder.

“So how did it really go?” Boulder asked her. Dani made a face.

“Ratchet's winning personality did not get any exaggeration in the telling, that's for sure.”

Boulder chuckled.

“He can be pretty gruff.”

“That's putting it very nicely, Boulder. I don't know how anyone can stand to work with the guy.”

“Optimus respects him. He must see something in him.”

Dani shook her head slowly.

“I'd sure like to know what,” she said. “It was almost like he wanted Blades to fail.”

“Maybe he just came off that way. I'm sure he's trying to help.”

Dani smiled. She didn't often get a chance to talk to Boulder one on one, and she was reminded now of what she admired about him: his insistence on seeing the best in everyone.

“Maybe, Boulder,” she said, giving him a wave as she followed Blades to the other room. She'd give Ratchet the benefit of the doubt... for now.

Chapter Text

As soon as they entered the base in Jasper, Ratchet greeted them brusquely, indicating that Blades would not be accompanied by either Dani or himself this time.

“We'll be watching your progress from here on the monitors,” he said, indicating a few screens. “Head down that hall and stand in front of the door marked with the medical symbol. Don't enter until I tell you.”

Blades gave Dani a panicked look, but she nodded encouragingly and he walked down the hall with his head held high, though he was unconsciously wringing his hands. Ratchet, seeming to forget about Dani entirely, took up his station at the monitors, so Dani scaled a nearby platform to better see what was going on. He turned on the screens and Dani gasped, hands flying to her mouth.

“Is that—?” she breathed, willing it not to be so. Ratchet spared her a glance and then scoffed.

“Of course not,” he said. “That's what the dummy was supposed to be last time, but I had other matters to attend to and couldn't finish on time.”

His almost conversational tone in the face of the monstrosity lying on the table in the room her partner was about to enter, completely unprepared for what was to come, made Dani feel slightly ill. She had gone through basic EMT training, of course, all of them had, and part of their training had involved real people with wound makeup. But though she wouldn't have been surprised if Heatwave had volunteered for such a duty, and the skid marks, soot, dings and scrapes on the lookalike's body could conceivably have been faked somehow, she doubted even Cybertronians would be fine with having both their legs removed to make a learning experience more realistic. They hadn't been removed neatly, either.

“What happened to him—it?” she asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

“I placed it in an explosion, such as might happen if one of your gas stations were to catch fire. I know you've dealt with situations like that before.”

“Wait, you— you actually put that poor thing in an actual explosion and then dragged it back here?” 'Grumpy' she had already confirmed, but Dani wondered why nobody had thought to describe Ratchet with words like 'psychotic.'

“It's not a 'poor thing,' it's a training dummy. It doesn't even have pain receptors.” Ratchet was rolling his optics, and it made Dani want to slug him.

“So the plan wasn't to trick him, it was to traumatize him,” Dani summed up icily. Now Ratchet gave her his full attention.

“I suppose you would rather I coddle the boy, as you seem to do,” he answered nastily.

“I do not coddle him,” Dani retorted. “Mister, you have no idea how much I don't coddle him.”

“Then you should understand the value of teaching him how to deal with seeing his comrades injured before he has to face the real thing. If he chokes out in the real world, people could die.”

Dani was livid. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been this angry at someone who wasn't related to her.

“You think I don't know that?” she spat. “You don't think every single one of us knows that? Including Blades?”

“Then what is the problem?” Ratchet demanded, gesturing widely. Dani was shocked into dropping her jaw, but was saved from spouting what surely would have been multiple expletives at her partner's mentor by Blades himself.

“Um... can I go in now?” he was asking, and both of them turned their gazes to the monitors, where Blades was visible, standing in front of the door obediently, alternately fidgeting and trying to be still. Ratchet leaned forward and spoke into the com.

“Yes, Blades, you may enter.”

Dani felt her heart constrict as she watched Blades open the door and walk in. She couldn't see his face from this angle, but she could read his body language as well as any of her brothers' by now, and his voice was expressive enough on its own.

“Heatwave! Ohhhh, Heatwave. Ohhhh no. Oh no. Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. You're bleeding—your legs! Agghhhh I can't look! Your legs are gone! What happened to you?! Why are you here?!?”

They watched, Ratchet impassively and Dani with her hands over her mouth, as Blades proceeded to flail and exclaim, panic clearly taking over. Soon his babbling gave way to wordless sobbing, and Ratchet sighed. Dani was ready to either run to Blades or go ahead and give in to her impulse to give Ratchet one on the jaw (though she knew perfectly well that neither of these actions would have done anyone any good) when suddenly, to her immense pride and not very great surprise, Blades stood stock still and slapped himself on the cheeks several times.

“Okay, Blades, stop it, you can do this, come on, think,” he said. “Ratchet wouldn't blow up Heatwave just for a test (I'm pretty sure). It's probably just a training dummy. It only looks like Heatwave. You're freaking out over nothing. Right? You're not Heatwave... are you?”

The thing on the table shook its head, causing Blades to shriek in surprise. After only a moment, he laughed nervously and approached the dummy again.

“See? What would Ratchet say if he could see you now? Oh, wait... he can...” he added in a murmur.

Ratchet gave a tiny snort of amusement.

“First things first,” Blades said, and Dani was unsure if he was narrating for his benefit or theirs. If she knew him he probably wasn't even aware he was speaking out loud. “Scanner. No! See if he's awake. No, scanner. Which is it...?”

“Scanner,” she heard Ratchet mutter, and she realized he was watching as intently as herself, if with less apparent emotion. She could almost persuade herself that Ratchet didn't want Blades to fail, though she wasn't in any sort of mood to give him even that much credit. Blades finally decided on scanner and waved it over the dummy, wincing.

“I really hope that's not you, Heatwave,” he said. “I don't think it's you. If it is I'm sorry. Okay, energon levels are low. Where's the energon patch...?”

Muttering to himself, he located the patch and placed it gently on the least damaged spot he could find. Ratchet was shaking his head.

“Stop the bleeding first, then apply the patch, you idiot.”

“Oh!” Blades exclaimed, “You're still bleeding! Oh no. Oh no. Clotting gel, clotting gel, there's the clotting gel, here you go, clotting gel for you. Oh, you need a lot of it, ohhhhh, ewwww.”

Despite his monologue Blades was moving quickly and efficiently, placing gel and welding holes shut, and Dani began to relax. She knew when the cards were down and it was time to get serious that Blades was perfectly capable of focusing. The trick was acting confident that he would. Knowing that people believed in him was Blades' greatest source of strength.

“Okay, you're stable now. Now to see about your legs.”

Blades took out a long, sharp instrument of some kind, gulped, and then bent over the dummy, preventing Dani from seeing what he was doing clearly. There were sparks, and a few clangs, and when Blades straightened the mangled nubs of the dummy's legs were cleanly severed, leaking energon that Blades quickly patted with clotting gel and then welded shut. He ran his scanner over the dummy one more time and then sighed deeply, stepping back. Ratchet seemed to deflate as well.

“He did better than I expected,” he murmured to himself. Dani humphed, and he turned to her, seeming to remember she was there. He studied her, and she knew that her expression was forbidding. She didn't care.

“I know you think I'm being cruel,” he said finally, turning away. “Believe me, Ms. Burns, if I was interested in realism over basic decency I would have had the dummy screaming for its mother and thrashing around in pain. But I don't get my jollies from terrorizing young bots. I'm just trying to make him a better medic.”

Dani opened her mouth to speak, but she was interrupted by Blades.

“How are you feeling, Heatwave?” he was asking the dummy, having apparently put his tools away while Ratchet was talking. The dummy stirred, and opened its eyes.

“It hurts,” it said, in a voice that sounded like Heatwave's if Heatwave really were a mindless robot. Blades bit his lip.

“I'll get you some painkillers,” he said, opening his medkit again. Both of them watched as he tenderly placed the patch on the dummy's chest plate. It sighed and relaxed.

“Is that better?” Blades asked.

“Yes.”

“Do you need anything else?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“I am sure. Thank you, Blades.”

“You're welcome, Heatwave,” Blades murmured tenderly. Ratchet cleared his throat and leaned into the com.

“That's enough, Blades. The test is over.”

Blades startled as though he'd forgotten Ratchet was watching, and then made his way shakily out of the room.

Dani studied Ratchet closely, and perceived that he was as worn out as she felt. She said, more to see how he would react to speech than because she wanted to know,

“You made everything else so realistic, why not the voice?”

Ratchet turned away and busied himself at the monitors.

“I can no more duplicate another bot's voice than I could yours.”

Dani thought for a moment.

“Is that why Bee still can't talk?”

Normally she might not have noticed the way Ratchet's fingers hesitated for a moment over the keyboard, except that she was watching him very closely, trying to get a read on him. He also did not answer her question.

“You,” she said, realization dawning. “You had something to do with that.”

Ratchet ignored her. She pressed on, certain she was on to something.

“You made a mistake. Or you didn't have the expertise, or something. But you feel responsible.”

Still no answer, which was as good as one. Dani felt startled as she realized something else.

“That's why you're doing this. You don't want Blades to ever have to feel that way.”

“If you're done with your armchair analysis,” Ratchet said, turning to face her, annoyed. Blades entered the room, and Dani let the matter drop.

“You did… alright,” Ratchet eventually said to Blades, who brightened. Then, as though he were incapable of giving unqualified praise, Ratchet added, “But you made a mess for the poor doctor who would have had to see to your patient after you. Those welds were atrocious. You took no thought to how I might attach new legs to him afterward. Why, I wouldn't be surprised if I'd have to replace his entire lower superstructure.”

Had he been human, Blades would have had no color left in his face. Ratchet continued grimly.

“You hesitated too many times and did too many of the wrong things in the wrong order. It's a miracle your patient made it out alive.”

Dani cleared her throat, and Ratchet hesitated. Then he gave a little sigh and said in a low tone, as though it cost him,

“But he did survive, and for a physician, that should always count as a success.”

Blades' smile returned, hesitantly, ready to be scared away again.

“Now go,” Ratchet told him, waving his hand dismissively. “I'll send you your new study materials later.”

As they crossed the threshold of the GroundBridge, Dani turned and gave Ratchet a wave, to which he responded with a grunt and turned away. She smiled anyway.

All three of the other bots were waiting for them this time, and upon seeing Heatwave, whole and well, Blades ran to him and flung his arms around him, nearly knocking him over.

“Heatwave! You're okay! Thank the AllSpark!”

Heatwave stared, stunned, apparently unable to think of a response for this. Blades released him and skipped away.

“I have no time for congratulations,” he called over his shoulder. “I need to study!”

“What got into him?” Heatwave finally asked.

“Something tells me we would be better not to ask,” Chase said, peering after their friend. Dani chuckled, and followed after her partner.