Healing Hearts

Chapter 21

Thank you so much to everyone who gave me feedback! It was very helpful in deciding the next few steps of this story!

Optimus watched the small human healer silently as he listened to the steady beeps of a machine, letting him know that Harry was still online. Ratchet had procured it from the military's med ward quite easily with his holoform.
The last few days had been a strange time for Optimus, as the gentle mech had never truly contemplated his death and just what it might do to his team. Bumblebee had immediately asked after him when the scout awoke from his healing recharge. Ratchet had told him that Bumblebee had gone silent when Bulkhead had finally told him the truth- that Prime had died, only to be brought back online by Harry. The whole team had been somber ever since he had come back to life. It touched Optimus' spark in more ways than one. It hurt to think of what he had almost done to his soldiers, soldiers who relied on him more than he had originally thought, but he was glad to note that his team respected him and enjoyed having him as a leader. However, the day when he wouldn't have Harry or Ratchet there to save him would destroy his team. Of that, the leader no longer held any doubt.
Optimus knew he had to somehow prepare the Autobots for the inevitable, but, looking down at the human that had risked his life to save him, the leader couldn't find it in himself to wall off his spark completely.
Harry looked peaceful and innocent sleeping on the giant berth that could fit even Optimus' twenty-eight foot frame. It was hard to even think of being cold and aloof towards his team when something so radiant and pure sat before his very own optics, warming his energon lines with its radiance.
Optimus didn't know what the right course of action was, so he continued to stew in his thoughts and watch over Harry.

-

"Alright, that is enough," Ratchet proclaimed one day, slamming his wrench down on the table near his medical station. "Optimus, Harry is stable, get that aft of yours off of that seat and come over here. We're going to talk about what happened."
"Everyone into the main hangar. It's time for a debrief," Ratchet broadcasted over the open Autobot channel.
Optimus frowned lightly at his medical officer, but nodded his helm in acceptance when Ratchet threw a glare his way. They needed to go over the events of the battle, even if Optimus still wasn't sure how to deal with his team just yet. He could always work on distancing himself later if he deemed it an appropriate action.
Casting one last glance at the recharging healer, Optimus vented as he stood up with a few creaks and pops of his locked joints. He had been sitting for over twenty hours, it made sense that his cold joints would protest any sudden movement.
Ignoring the pain coming from his receptors, Optimus followed the smaller mech out of his medical room, a neutral expression on his faceplates.
"Optimus!" Sam and Bumblebee both cried as they dropped their video game consoles and ran towards the startled mech. The Prime couldn't have stopped the small smile from appearing on his faceplate even if he wanted to as Bumblebee wrapped himself around his legs and Sam hugged his ankle.
Patting a quietly keening Bumblebee gently on the back between his door wings, Optimus used his other servo to offer Sam a lift.
"How are you feeling, Sam?" Optimus asked, his optics focusing in on the bandages wrapped around several different appendages on the human as he climbed into the palm of his servo.
Sam smiled and patted one of the leader's digits. "Much better now that we've finally been able to see you," he confided. "Ratchet is scarily good at keeping people away from his patients."
Optimus chuckled as he glanced at the irritated mech in question. "Yes, he is quite fiercely protective of his charges."
"I- Is it true that you actually died?" Sam asked uncertainly. "How did you come back to life?"
Optimus vented as Bumblebee started keening again. Kneeling down carefully to keep Sam steady in his hand and not knock his scout over with his knee struts, the Prime hugged Bumblebee to his chassis, resting the younger bot's helm against his spark chamber. "My spark still beats, Bumblebee. I am here."
It seemed he had vastly underestimated just how much Bumblebee depended on him. It made sense, Optimus shamefully admitted in the privacy of his own processor. He had practically raised Bumblebee when the small bot had been saved from his destroyed nursery back on Cybertron. No other bot had had the ability to protect a young, untrained mech without even his outer armor while still successfully fighting off the Decepticons.
"Yes, Sam," Optimus vented as Bumblebee quieted again. "I did not know I had offlined until Ratchet was offering me his servo." The Autobot leader noticed the rest of his team were listening to him intently. It would be easier to tell them now instead of bringing it up later. "Once Bumblebee had been sent back here, I battled both Grindor and Starscream successfully for a time. Grindor eventually opened up his guard, and I took advantage to finish him off quickly. However, I foolishly underestimated Starscream." Optimus shook his helm in self-loathing as he gently released Bumblebee and stood back up, unknowingly showing off the barren parts of his chassis where his vibrant paint job had been burned off and blackened. "By the time I turned my attention back onto him, he had charged up his newest weapon, a Gatling cannon."
Bulkhead grunted in surprise.
"For an odd 7 kliks, the cannon's beam was stopped by an unknown silvery shield of energy," Optimus continued resolutely, "but it then cracked and was forcefully dispersed. The remaining energy beam stayed its course and rained down on me. I attempted to use my gauntlets to block the beam, but it did little good. I remained online for a portion of the attack, but my CPU stopped responding until it was powering back online to find that my systems had been shut down and my spark left cold."
Silence reigned in the hangar for a few moments before Bumblebee's voice box warbled and the mech looked up at his leader and quasi-sire figure. "I'm sorry for not following your orders, Optimus," the yellow scout apologized, his door wings jittering with thinly-veiled emotion. "If I had left when you told me to, this would never have happened..."
Optimus rested his large servo on Bumblebee's shoulder plate, looking into the yellow mech's shining optics. "It is not your fault, Bumblebee. The blame lies entirely on myself. I should have gotten out of there as soon as I knew you and Sam were safe, but what you said was right. It was a good chance to hurt our enemies without putting the rest of the team at risk. However, I misjudged the tenacity of my opponents."
Optimus vented quietly and turned to look up at the hangar ceiling, quickly analyzing his memories of the battle with the two Decepticons. "I believe that I would have made the same mistake at perhaps an even worse time should it not have happened now," the Prime confessed quietly. "The fact that everyone is still online is very fortunate. I shall not make the same mistake twice, and I hope you all can also learn from me."
Optimus looked down at each and every one of his comrades and was pleased to see that they all had determined looks on their faceplates. He would not lose them to his own foolishness.