Healing Hearts

Chapter 16

"Ratchet!"
The sudden relay of Bumblebee's voice over his comm channel jarred Ratchet out of his musings, irritating the older bot.
"Ratchet, open the bridge!"
Ratchet's energon lines chilled at the panic he could hear in the young scout's voice. Something had happened.
"Of course Bumblebee," Ratchet soothed, keeping a tight hold of his own emotions as he stalked over to the bridge controls. "It'll be there in a klik."
Quickly locking in on the small bot's coordinates, Ratchet opened a swirling blue-green portal into the base. Moments later, Bee came flying through in his alt mode, drifting to a stop with a loud squeal.
"Bee," Ratchet called. "What's happened?" There appeared to be no real damage to the scout's alt mode. But why wasn't he changing back?
Turning on his low-level scanners, Ratchet cursed colorfully as he realized Bumblebee's energon was almost completely depleted. He'd barely have any energon left to transform.
"Knockout went to Sam's house. I followed him away and then attacked. He hit a human. The human is in my cab."
The medic cursed again as he grabbed a few tools and clambered to kneel besides the camaro's driver side door. "Open the door for me, Bee. I'll get then out and then you transform and lay down on the table, okay?"
The door silently opened, and Ratchet expertly used a long, thin rod to slide the human out of Bee's cab and onto the floor. Quickly glancing over the being revealed that it was a male and that he was alive and unconscious. There appeared to be no life-threatening issues at the moment, so Ratchet reluctantly left the man on the floor and focused on the camaro still sitting there.
"Ratchet, I'm really tired..."
The medic grimaced and nodded. "I know Bee, but you need to transform, okay? I can sit you up on the table."
"Mmkay..," crackled over the comm link before the young scout slowly shifted back to his main form. Ratchet swiftly scooped the light mech up and walked the few steps to the scanning table. Placing his patient down as gently as he could, Ratchet then moved to grab a few of their energon cubes stacked in the cabinet in the back of the room, only for five to be held out to him by a large servo.
"Optimus-" Ratchet hissed.
The prime cut his medic off with a small shake of his helm. "It is alright, old friend. I can go without for a few days."
Growling in a mixture of frustration and anxiety, Ratchet snatched the cubes and turned back to Bumblebee, propping the dozing Autobot up with an arm to servo-feed the cubes to him.
"That's it, Bumblebee. You'll be good as new in no time."
The young scout let out a soft buzzing as he continued to chew on energon.

-

Once Bumblebee had eaten all the cubes- a good weeks worth of energon, gotten his energon levels back to a safe amount, and fallen into recharge, Ratchet turned on his leader and friend. "I hope you know what you're doing, Prime. Because I swear to Primus, if you get hurt because of low energon, I'll never forgive you."
Optimus vented as he nodded, his shoulder plates sagging under the weight of their millennias-old war. "I know, old friend. However, I cannot let us lose any more Autobots. Jazz is still fresh in all of our processors."
Ratchet vented as well as he went about double-checking Bee's health. "There was nothing you could do, Optimus. The blame for all of this lays at the peds of Megatron."
"Yes," Optimus conceded slowly, his processor eons away, lost in memories. "It seems you are correct."

-

Harry came to with a soft groan. His head was pounding. What had he been doing last?
Harry stared at a white ceiling for a moment before his brain began to work again. He had been slammed by a car, wished for it to stop, and it did. He was knocked unconscious, and now he was... wherever he was. At least the tugging had stopped. His magic must have saved whoever was in that car while he was unconscious. That still did not explain where he was now.
Sitting up with another soft groan, Harry reached for the side table, hoping his glasses were sitting right there. If he had lost them, he wasn't really screwed, but it was nice to have their familiar weight resting on his nose. Padma had even given them some nice upgrades before he left.
Sighing in relief when he felt them on the nightstand, Harry quickly popped them on his face and inspected the room. It was a standard empty white room, only furnished with a bed, an IV drip, a set of chairs, and the nightstand.
A voice broke Harry out of his musings as a darker man in military uniform walked through the doorway to the room. "Good morning, sir," the soldier greeted.
Harry smiled lightly. "Good morning," he returned. "What can I do for you, sir?"
The bald man nodded. "May I have your name? We couldn't find anyone that recognized you in the area you were found."
Harry rubbed his neck sheepishly. "Yeah, I wouldn't think you could. I'm originally from England, but I've been traveling around the world by myself for the last couple of months." The wizard turned a trained eye to the man as he gave his name, "I'm Harry Potter."
No surprised reaction. The Arcane Healer relaxed minutely.
"I see," the man said stoically. "Thank you for the information. Do you remember what happened? We are in the process of straightening out the events of that day."
Harry frowned, but shook his head. The people he had apparated in to save were alright. There wasn't any tug from his 'spidey sense' that matched the previous pull. "Sir, how long have I been unconscious?"
The tall man sat down next to him with a small grunt, running a hand over his bare scalp. "The name's Robert Epps. Mr. Potter, you've been out for the last two days."
Harry nodded as he turned to look through the open doorway. He was used to losing random days here and there due to injuries. It was a bit depressing, but the wizard knew he'd never change his lifestyle for something less dangerous.
"It's been a busy couple of days for you then, Mr. Epps?" Harry tried to lighten the mood. Then his brain stuck upon something he had heard in passing back in France. "Err, should I be calling you by a different title, sir?"
The man waved him off with a chuckle as he sat back in his seat. "No, you are not a soldier. However, I do hold the rank of Technical Sergeant." Epps sighed as he rested his hands on his thighs. "And you could not be more spot on. There has been a bit of a stir in the base, as one of the injured parties is a well-liked soldier here."
Harry's head whipped to look at the black man. "'Parties'? Does that mean it was a two car collision?"
The Technical Sergeant nodded. "Our solider wasn't as hurt as you and the driver of the other car was. He was able to call for some medical officers nearby before climbing down the cliff to save you both before the destroyed car was completely submerged."
Harry sighed as he leaned back on the headboard of the bed. At least there was no mention of any weird circumstances. The soldier must not have seen his magic.
"The other driver is okay then?"
Epps nodded at Harry's question. "Yes, he woke up yesterday, and his family was notified. He didn't suffer any severe injuries, but his family wanted him checked into a hospital just in case. He should be released sometime soon."
Harry slumped a little bit in relief. It was always nice to get clarification that he hadn't failed his duties as an Arcane Healer.
"We were actually the most concerned about you, Mr. Potter. You didn't seem to have many injuries at all, but nothing the medical officers gave you would wake you up."
Harry blinked in surprise. He hadn't known he had an immunity to drugs. That could raise some uncomfortable questions.
"I'm sorry for worrying you then. I don't know why I didn't wake up, but I feel pretty good right now, if that helps," Harry shrugged, trying to hide his inner panic. "I had a headache when I woke up, but it's feeling better already."
The Technical Sergeant looked at Harry skeptically for a moment before he asked, "Are you sure you don't need anything? Perhaps water and some painkillers?"
Harry turned to look back out the doorway in consideration for a few moments before he locked eyes with Epps again. "If I could get this IV taken out and maybe some water, that'd be nice."
The black man nodded and got up to leave. "Of course. I'll be right back."