Chapter Text
Raf tugged at the wiring with a careful precision, quickly separating the connectors and stripping the insulated casing, before brushing some of his hair out of his glasses.
"Now?" Asked Blades, hesitantly, hefting the welder behind him. Raf shook his head and leaned further in, up to his elbows in circuitry, using a handheld soldering iron to replace the fried wiring below.
"No, hang on, I just need to-" Raf trailed off, distracted, before kicking his tiny organic legs and pulling himself out of the open hatch, "Yeah, alright, you’re good."
Blades shuffled forward as Raf dropped down to the platform below, scooting back and out of the immediate way. Blades leaned over the patient’s head, reattaching the sawed off plating with the welder, while Raf shimmied down the ladder beside the operating table and back down to the floor to basin his size to wash the various mechanoid fluids from his blue-black dripping arms.
"No, no, slow down, you’re going to miss- ahhh, there you go, just like I showed you, lovely," Knock Out chastised above, watching over Blades’ weldwork. Raf pulled himself up the other ladder to the databank to monitor the patient’s vitals, a careful tiny eye accustomed to the fluctuating inner mechanisms of Cybertronian systems far more than likely any other organic that had ever lived.
"Hey, KO, how’s her EM field?" He said, leaning back over his shoulder to look at the red mech leaning over the operating table, who waved a hand at him inconsequentially.
"Nothing abnormal, a bit tight, but she is somewhat unconscious at the moment, so I’m not worried."
Raf nodded as Blades finished the weld and backed away to let it cool while Knock Out prepared his own array of specialty tools for sanding and buffing the scar clean, something he preferred to do on his own.
"Did I do okay?" Blades asked hesitantly, clutching the welder to his chassis and looking hopeful.
"Vitals are good, so I’d say you did a satisfactory job," Raf chuckled, leaning against the databank with a sigh, "What would you say, KO?"
Knock Out snorted, “Well, it will hold, but I’ve seen better.”
Raf rolled his eyes, “Quit whining, Breakdown can start his apprenticeship in a half cycle. You’re not exactly in danger of anyone else snapping up his mentorship, half the medical community is afraid you’ll eat them and the other half is eating out of your hand as it is.”
Knock Out seemed to swell some at this and smirked, “An astute observation for one with such low resolution optics,” he purred, the usual banter over Cybertronian superiority more of a habit than anything these days.
Raf stood up and stretched his arms, before tapping his glasses, “Which is why I got an upgrade.”
He took another look at the monitors, holding stable, and turned back to Blades, “Alright there, buddy, looks good, but we best leave Knock Out to his work before he shoos us out of here with a rotosaw.”
Blades perked up, before looking bewilderedly down at the welder in his arms and then around for somewhere to put it, before setting it on a nearby table with needless tenderness, before trotting over to Raf’s table and offering him a metal palm to clamber up, before sitting himself on one shoulder.
Knock Out didn’t spare them a wave as they made their way out of the operating room and back into the hospital general, tiny organic surgeon and his very large scooter-alt escort. The very concerned blue mech in the waiting room looked up at them as they stepped out, wordless with worry.
"Don’t worry, she’ll be fine," Raf said, sitting straight, "It was just a little fried wiring glitching her systems- a simple fix. She’ll only be a little longer and we’ll pull her back out of stasis."
He sagged with relief, “Primus, thank you, doctor.”
"That’s what I’m here for," Raf said, nodding, before he gestured towards the hall and Blades turned down it.
"I need to drop by my office and do some paperwork, but Bee said he would drop by to see how your first day in surgery went," he said, tapping Blades’ audial fin and stretching again.
"Oh! He did?" Blades said, perking up again, and Raf chuckled, that even after nearly a decade, Blades still lit up like Christmas around Raf’s brother.
"Yep, commed him before I scrubbed down to let him know I’d be skipping racing. Here we go, just- yeah, go on, drop me off right here, that’s fine. Catch you later, Blades, tell Bee I said hey," he said, slipping down with a practiced motion and calloused hands to the floor to key open his office door, the small one.
"Kay!" Blades said, waving as the doors slid shut, pedes papping excitedly at the floor.