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“Uh, Mom? I think I might need to go the emergency room.” June Darby was enjoying the hot Nevada sun in her back yard on a rare day off, but jumped out of the battered lawn chair at the sound of the pain in her son’s voice and tried to take a calming breath. Her heart lurched for a beat then settled down into a more normal rhythm. Fear, then annoyance, then chagrin flicked through her mind as she surveyed the scene, all finally gave way to the skills and instincts of an experienced trauma nurse and mother.
Jackson Darby stood clutching his right shoulder with his left hand. Blue/grey eyes tight with pain and black hair damp he hunched over his right arm cradled protectively against his chest. The sleeve was missing along with a good portion of his shirt, some looked scorched and some looked cut away. A rapidly drying towel was wrapped around the arm, which June could see was badly burnt.
“Jack, get in the house and run your arm under the shower. Cold water. Don’t worry about getting the rest of your clothes wet and don’t take the towel off. How are you feeling?” The woman gently but firmly steered her son toward the back door while continuing her diagnosis. There were a few red spots on the boy’s face, the hair on the side of his head was singed, and his entire right side showed signs of being wet recently but was drying in the hot desert air. She stood him under the shower head and turned on a gentle flow of cool water over the burned areas. The pain in his face relaxed as the water flowed over him. June carefully considered her next words before she spoke.
“Jack,” she looked him straight in the eyes, “Was anyone else hurt?” His face never flickered when he answered no. The mother let out a silent sigh of relief.
“Now that the towel is soaked let’s see what’s under it. Gently now.” She carefully unwrapped the soaked cloth and examined her son’s arm. First and second degree burns wrapped completely around his forearm and reached up toward his shoulder. She frowned, the burns were odd. As a trauma nurse she had seen more burns than any human should have to, but she and never seen a pattern quite like this. From the first she had suspected illegal fireworks. With the 4th fast approaching the burn ward was more often than not full, but there was no smell of gun power on the boy, and these certainly weren’t powder burns. But first things first.
“Yep, you need to go the E.R. all right.” She smiled wryly, “but I think you’ll be fine except for some possible scaring.”
“I’m so sorry Mom. It’s your day off.” Guilt swept across Jack’s face. June shook her head and turned to go. “It’s fine Jack, as long as you’re safe. Leave your arm under the water while I go start the car and get things ready. Come out when I honk.” June walked to the garage. Jack’s blue motorcycle was leaning against the house wall, ‘Almost like it’s worried about Jack and listening in,’ the woman thought with a smile but dismissed the fantasy.
When the car horn sounded Jack turned off the water and headed out to the driveway. He murmured, “I’ll be fine. See you when I get home later tonight,” as he passed Arcee. The Autobot gently nudged his thigh in support as he walked by. He climbed into the car and carefully buckled the lap belt. His mother handed him a spritzer bottle of cool water.
“Keep your arm damp as we go,” she instructed. With a sigh she pulled out of the driveway. “Jack, how did this happen?” Jack felt relieved when the question finally came. Over the past months he had told his Mom more lies than he had in his life. One of the few good things about this situation was that as long as he was careful, the truth would do just fine.
***
Six hours ago at the Autobot base.
Ratchet winced and rolled his eyes as Bulkhead swung into the Autobot base with a squeal of tires. The walking forces of chaos had returned. The smaller force exploded out of the larger, unleashing a series of small explosions. What… the red and white Autobot turned toward the small human quizzically, medic instincts alert. Those noises she was letting out were out of the ordinary from what he had seen of humans. But his train of thought was derailed by the bulky green warrior striding up to him and demanding, “Hey Ratchet! You got anything to clean my interior? Miko leaked all over on the way in today.”
There was a series of poorly suppressed snorts and coughs form the humans’ area. The medic caught the furious look Miko shot in that direction and sighed. He carefully handed a sonic mesh cleaner to Bulkhead and warned his dourly not to break it, but his attention was on the human female.
“Miko come over here for a moment would you?” The girl was already halfway up the stairs to her friends and turned to look at the medic. He held out his hand and she climbed slowly in. Ratchet felt a twinge of worry for the first time. In his experience unquestioning obedience was rarely a good sign in someone of Miko’s temperament. He gave her a careful visual examination and then ran his scanners deeper.
The medic humphed and set her gently down by her now slightly worried looking friends.
“I think Miko needs to see a human medical doctor immediately,” he stated firmly. There was a chorus of worried murmuring as the Autobots gathered around the humans’ area, that was quickly interrupted by an explosive, “NO!” from Miko followed by a string of sneezes. Jack handed her a suspicious looking rag to blow her nose on. After a few loud blasts she continued.
“Whad, oo know boud humans andyway? I jus godda code.”
“Look Miko,” the medic growled, “as an Autobot medic it’s my duty to be able to help every one of the members of my unit. I’ve been researching human medical conditions since you showed up here. In addition to what general knowledge I’ve found, I keep personal records on each of you, and you are well out of the bounds of a normal healthy human.”
“I’m fide!” Miko insisted. The medic gestured towards where Bulkhead was still running the sonic cleaner over his interior.
“Oh really? It’s normal for humans to spew liquid contaminants all over their friends?” Optimus Prime bent over at this point and spoke gently to the girl.
“Miko, Ratchet has dealt with many species over the years, organic and mechanical alike. If he says you are in need of medical attention, it would most likely be wise to heed his advice.”
“I’m just find!” Miko threw herself into a chair and crossed he arms firmly across her chest. The Prime glanced at Jack who seemed about to speak, but Ratchet beat him to the punch.
“While your temperature is within normal limits, it is on the high side, your skin is inflamed, your internal membranes are inflamed and producing copious amounts of mucus, and your internal water content is dangerously low. This looks like the effect of a virus.” There was a worried murmuring around the group. The girl hunched her shoulders and tried to sink into the chair. Bulkhead came over and extended his hand.
“Common Miko, let’s go. We can listen to your favorite songs on the way.” The warrior offered coaxingly.
“Whoa, everybody. Let’s back up a step here.” Jack finally interrupted the Autobots. “I’m with Miko on this one.” Everyone turned toward the oldest human in surprise. “Ratchet,” he continued, “My mom is a medical professional so I know a bit about this. There is no need to take Miko to the hospital. There’s just not that much they could do. This is just a common cold virus.” Jack saw the worry in the robots’ eyes and hurried to assure them. “Look, this isn’t the Cybonic plague. The hospital my mom works at has been seeing a lot of these cases, and all they can do is tell the infected to go home, get lots of rest, eat right, and drink plenty of liquids. Her immune system will handle it naturally.” Jack paused and handed Miko another rag. “It usually clears up after about seventy two hours. So she could either go back to her host parents house or stay here I guess.” Ratchet frowned a little deeper.
“Well, what you say does confirm some of my research, but doesn’t your being in proximity put you and Raf in danger?”
“Well not me. I never catch colds.” Jack glanced at the younger boy. Raf quickly shook his head. “I’ve already had this bug. Remember I stayed home last week for a day.” Bumblebee whistled in conformation. “It wasn’t that bad. Mom let me watch cartoons all day and I drank a lot of Seven Up.” Miko glared, blurry eyed at the boys.
“I hade oo both. Oo and your imude systems doo! I ged awfull codes ebrey year.”
“What did she say?” asked Arcee.
“She hates us both, and our immune systems too,” Jack said with a smile. Optimus reached out a hand and gently touched the girl on the back.
“Don’t hesitate to ask if there is anything we can do to help,” he said. Miko nodded and slouched back in the chair.
“Just leave everything to me,” Jack said. The Autobot leader nodded and turned back to his tasks. “Bulkhead, Bumblebee, there are a few new energon signatures I’d like you to examine today.” The three Autobots walked off toward the ground bridge controls with Bulkhead throwing a last worried look over his shoulder. Raf trotted over to commiserate with Miko over the cold. Ratchet stared at the two of them for a moment then held out his hand silently to Jack. The human climbed up and the medic carried him over to the monitor. Arcee followed.
“Are you sure there’s nothing we can do for Miko?” the medic asked softly. Jack glance up at the old bot in surprise. Worry was etched across the wide planes of his face. The human shook his head.
“I didn’t say that, Ratchet. Just that there wasn’t much the hospital could do. We can make her as comfort as possible, make sure she eats right, gets plenty of water, avoids sugar…There are lots of ways to fight a cold. Mom says just to treat it like an invasion, support the defense forces and the rest will take care of itself.” The medic seemed to brighten up a bit.
“So what do we need?” Jack thought about the question for a minute and then nodded toward the computer bank.
“Can that thing put a call through to Japan?”
***
“Okay, so Miso soup with tofu and daikon radishes, hot nettle tea with honey, big pink fluffy fleece blanket, Nausicaa cartoons, and ice cold lemon water. Oh, that’s okay Mrs. Nakadi. Miko’s a friend. I’m sure she’d do the same for me. Thanks for everything, goodbye.” Jack nodded to Ratchet who cut the connection. The boy held a list of ingredients and odds and ends.
“So, Mom says the most important part of fighting a cold is to keep the spirits up. According to Miko’s mom, thanks for the translation program by-the-way Ratchet; this is how she treats Miko during a cold.” Jack flourished the list and beckoned Raf to come join them. “Now I can bring over my old camp stove to cook the soup on. Raf, can you get these anime episodes to play on the TV for Miko?” The smaller boy nodded. “If Ratchet can help me rout my Netflux subscription through the main system.” The Autobot nodded and scooped up the human to go begin.
“Well Jack, I guess that leaves you and me with currier duty.” Arcee said.
“Yep,” Jack replied, “and we’re going to need to do some searching to find some of these ingredients. We’d better stop at my house first and make sure my old camp stove still works.” From the humans area a series of sneezes exploded followed by a low groan. Arcee glanced down at Jack. “Let’s take the ground bridge.”
A bright green flash faded from the windows of a nondescript garage. Inside Jack immediately began digging through a pile of camping gear in the far corner of the garage.
“Ah! Here it is,” he said triumphantly. “Oh, but it has a new dent.” Arcee examined the battered metal curiously.
“Hmm,” she said, “That must have been what made that crunching sound last week.” Jack gave a little snort.
“What?” The Autobot shrugged, “Your garage is small.”
“Well, if it’s broken Ratchet can fix it.” Jack concluded, “But we’re out of Propane and will have to pick some more up.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Arcee asked.
“Of course, we need the gas to work the camp stove,” Jack replied.
“No, I mean letting Ratchet fix the stove. Can’t you just cook the food here and bridge it to Miko?”
“Nah, Miko’s mom said the smell of the cooking soup was as important as the soup itself. Besides what’s wrong with letting Ratchet fix the stove?”
“Two words Jack, science project.” Jack let out a shudder at the memory. His shop teacher still wouldn’t let him near the power tools.
“You’ve got a point Arcee, but I get the feeling that Ratchet really wants to do something to help Miko. This seems to have disturbed him.” The Autobot nodded in response.
“You’re right there Jack. Ratchet watched a lot of good bots die because of viruses during the war. On Cybertron there was no such thing as a naturally occurring virus. If a bot came down with one it was meant to kill. Leaving it to nature meant letting a friend die”
“Then he’ll enjoy doing this to help Miko,” Jack said. Arcee nodded reluctantly and called for a return ground bridge. Four hours and five ground bridges later the human and Autobot pulled into the missile silo with saddlebags bulging. Miko was curled up shivering in the same chair they’d left her in, wrapped in a rough brown blanket. Arcee transformed and gently placed the bags on a makeshift table. Jack started up the stairs toward the table but stopped and smacked a hand to his forehead.
“We forgot Propane!”
“Not to worry! I have improved your cooking device!” Ratchet’s voice vibrated with pride from across the silo. Arcee cast a quick, ‘I told you so”, look at Jack before turning her attention to a contraption in a corner of the humans living area. Near the top she thought she saw the camp stove but it was pierced and contorted with various tubes and wires. Jack looked at it nervously and backed away a few steps.
“Well, aren’t you going to try it out?” Ratchet asked eagerly as he came over. Jack glanced at Arcee then took a deep breath.
“Sure, I’ll just put a pot of water on to heat up.” He approached the device wearily. There were two knobs on the front, one for each burner. Both explicitly marked by F0 in Raf’s carefull handwriting. Jack filled a pot with bottled water and placed it on a burner, then carefully turned it on medium. A clear blue flame leapt obediently to the bottom of the pot. Jack let out a long breath and placed the lid on the pot. He smiled in triumph at Arcee who simply shrugged her shoulders.
“So if it doesn’t run on Propane what does it run on?” Arcee asked curiously. Ratchet pointed to a small box at the base of the structure.
“Energon!”
“But aren’t you guys like, chronically low on Energon?” Jack asked with concern. “There’s no need to waste it on us.” Ratchet frowned.
“I would not call helping Miko recover from a virus a waste,” the medic said firmly, “Now what about the rest of the treatment?” Jack pulled a bright pink fleece blanket out of the saddlebags.
“Here Miko, lean forward.” The young man gently wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and the exhausted girl snuggled down into the comfortable fabric. Jack placed a new box of tissues next to her and slipped a soft cap onto her head. While Raf squeezed a few lemons into a pitcher of ice-water, Jack began chopping the ingredients for the miso soup.
Ratchet watched the proceedings from a slight distance. Arcee came over and laid a hand on his shoulder. He glanced at her and gave a tired smile, then turned his attention back to the humans.
“Ratchet?” Arcee asked quietly, “Is it just me or does Miko seem worse that she did when we left?” The old bot nodded and replied,
“Yes, but not to worry. I managed to scan the genetic profile for the virus that is causing all this. According to my research, it is following a fairly standard set of symptoms for someone of Miko’s age. She should be fine.” Ratchet hesitated, “I would like to keep her here for further observation though.” Arcee nodded and walked over to the children.
“Miko, how would you like to spend the night here?” But the girl was fast asleep, snoring loudly and drooling out one side of her mouth. Raf came over to look at her, and grinned.
“Jack, are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Jack smiled as he pulled out his phone.
“Pictures for posterity!”
Twenty minutes later the soup was done and several gallons of nettle tea brewed. Miko had woken up just enough to call and inform her host parents that she was staying the night at a friend’s house, and then promptly dropped back off to sleep. Jack turned off the modified camp stove and closed the lid.
“Well, I better head home…” Just then there was an odd sound from the stove. Jack turned curiously and reached out to make sure it was off. Ratchet suddenly let out a shout and lunged for the device. But before he could reach it a stream of blue flame shot out and wrapped around Jack’s arm.
“Jack!” Arcee gasped. Ratchet grabbed the stove and wrenched the energon fuel cell off of it. The blue flames sputtered and died. Jack’s shirt had vaporized on direct contact with the energon flame and caught fire along the edges. Raf grabbed a gallon bottle of water and poured it over the flames. Jack crouched against the wall gasping in pain. The two Autobots and Raf stared in silence at him for a stunned moment, Miko was still sound asleep.
“”Well,” Ratchet finally broke the silence, “I know for sure he needs human medical attention now.” Arcee shot him a venomous glare and transformed.
“Jack, can you ride?”
“I. Think. So.” He gasped. Raf came up with a wet towel and gently wrapped it around Jack’s arm.
“Here this should help.” Ratchet was curiously examining the broken stove and muttering something about faulty human tech.
“Bridge us to Jack’s house,” Arcee barked, “his mom is home and should know what to do.” Raf looked up worriedly at Jack.
“What are you going to tell your mom?”
***
“So you were cooking soup for a sick friend, on our camp-stove, when it malfunctioned and scorched your arm?” June Darby stared at her son and let out a little laugh. Jack looked a bit offended. It was just so very much like him, she thought. He was always the kind to fall out of a tree rescuing a kitten. As they walked into the hospital June smiled at the young man and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead.
“Well I’m proud of you for trying to help your friend out anyway.” Neither of them saw the blue motorcycle that pulled up into the emergency room parking lot and angled itself for the best view into the hospital.