Work Text:
The ride through the ground bridge was quiet, though you both knew what the other was thinking: “Optimus stayed behind”. You reached over and lightly brushed your fingers over the driver’s seat armrest, hearing a sigh in response.
“Do you need something?” Ratchet asked, trying and failing to keep his tone level.
“I just wanted to make sure you were okay,” you replied, pulling your hand back.
“Okay? Do you think I’m okay? Optimus just-” he tried to hide the tremor in his voice. You still heard it.
“I know, Ratchet. I know.”
The two of you went silent again. Ratchet’s engine and the light pattering of rain on his windshield was the only sound between you for nearly half an hour. How fitting. Rain on the absolute worst day of either of your lives.
After a while of driving around, Ratchet found a highway.
“Do you have money on you?”
You didn’t register the question at first. “What?”
“Do you have money? You’ll have to eat at some point.”
Oh, right. You couldn’t go home, Jasper was probably obliterated at this point. Shit, were your friends okay? Your coworkers? Had they managed to evacuate everyone in time? Probably not, the Decepticons swooped down pretty quickly. How many casualties were there? How many people died because you and the kids got captured? Did anyone survive?
Ratchet was saying your name. “Find something red.”
You blinked and felt something wet. When had you started crying? “What?”
“Find something red and say it out loud.”
You looked out his rain-streaked windshield, absently noticing that Ratchet had parked at a gas station. There was a red truck at one of the pumps.
“Uh… that truck over there?”
“Good, now something orange.”
Part of you recognized what he was doing as a calming technique. You found something orange, then yellow, then green, so on and so forth. You felt marginally better once you hit purple—at least, it didn’t feel like the world was caving in on you anymore.
“Where’d you learn that?” you finally asked.
“June taught me,” he said calmly, but there was a hint of concern hidden in his words. “…Are you alright?”
“I’m-” you stopped yourself from saying “fine,” because you weren’t fine. Your home was gone and you had no idea what happened to anyone else, including the rest of Team Prime. Not only that, but most of what happened could definitely be blamed on you.
“This whole thing is just… a lot,” you finally muttered.
The ambulance seemed to settle around you, as though it was relaxing. You hadn’t noticed before how expressive the bots could be, even in vehicle mode.
“I know,” Ratchet sighed, “but Optimus would want us to push through, if not for him, then for the others. They’re just as lost as we are right now, and they don’t know where anyone else is.”
“You say that as though we do,” you replied, a bit harsher than you intended. “We’re just as lost as everyone else, Ratchet.”
Ratchet seemed to perk up, which was a surprise to say the least. “I bridged everyone out. And if I had to guess, I’d say that most of them are heading back to Jasper as we speak. It’s only a matter of figuring out how far they’ve traveled.”
“And then somehow getting to everyone before they make it back to Jasper,” you mumbled. Then a thought struck you, “Hey, where was Starscream staying all that time? When he wasn’t with the Decepticons?”
Ratchet thought for a moment. “He not only had access to a ground bridge, but he also had a place to refine red energon, implying some kind of shelter. One would assume the Harbinger, it being the only downed Decepticon vessel you can access without some digging.”
“Why don’t we go there, then? Having access to a bridge and an energon-refining thingy would probably be helpful, wouldn’t it?”
“That’s… not a bad idea,” the ambulance mused. “It’s a long drive; do you have money on you?”
Right, money. You checked your pockets and found your wallet.
“Yep. How convenient you parked at a gas station.”
“How convenient indeed,” Ratchet agreed as you got out of the ambulance.
You spent a few minutes in the store, filling a basket with food, drinks, and snacks, silently hoping that your journey wouldn’t take more than five days. As the cashier was ringing up your items, you noticed the TV behind the counter was tuned in to a news station doing a segment about nuclear testing.
“Hey, what’s that about?” you asked, pointing to the TV.
The cashier glanced at you, then back at the screen. “Oh, you haven’t heard? The government was testing some bombs in Arizona or something, and it irradiated a nearby town. No one died, but it scared the shit out of a lot of people.”
You nodded slowly, only half listening. The TV was displaying a sign reading Jasper, NV.
“Yeah… I think I did hear about that.”
No one died.
You clung to that thought like static to wool as you paid for your food and exited the store. To say that Ratchet could feel your relief when you climbed back into his cab would be an understatement.
“What happened?”
“No one died.”
Silence. Then, “What kind of answer is that?”
“No one in Jasper died. They were able to evacuate everyone in time.”
Ratchet made a noise halfway between a scoff and a laugh, apparently just as relieved as you were. “Thank the Allspark.”
You slouched in your seat, the guilt and fear for the citizens of Jasper melting off you in waves. No one died. You didn’t kill anyone by getting captured and being used as a ransom. No one died.
“Well then,” Ratchet began, drawing your attention back to him, “we have a long drive ahead of us if we want to get to the Harbinger in a timely fashion. Put your seatbelt on.”
You did so, a small smile on your lips. It didn’t fix the situation, but it was a start. “Do you think we’ll find everyone?”
“Only one way to find out.”
As Ratchet pulled out of the parking lot and began driving south, you stared out the window, hopeful for the first time since you left the base.