Irreplaceable you || TFP Ratchet x Femme reader

2. Confrontation

"Mornin' sleepyhead, you're up nice and early at 12 pm."

Ratchet looked over to the silver wrecker with unamused optics. I guess someone stopped by to say hi today.

"Wheeljack, when did you arrive at base?" Ratchet questioned, groggily going over to the monitors and started to run the reports from the night.

"Uh, about an hour or so ago. I was in the area, figured I'd stop by for a minute to see Bulk and the team."

Ratchet nodded to the wrecker from the monitors' glass refection.

~
(Timeskip)
~

Miko came prancing on the metal railing after a few hours of being with Bulkhead and Wheeljack. Now she was free, and the first thing that she went to go do was "talk" to the teams fellow medic.

"Ratchet" Miko called his designation, Ratchet internally cringing once he heard her voice. He already knew what was to come, and boy was he not going to have it. His middle designation must be "Recluse" since he seems to hate any confrontation nowadays...

"I'm busy" He lied, pulling up a tab on the monitor he already worked on. It was better than the current work he was doing, which was filing, something that can so easily be multi-tasked.

"Bull" Miko muttered, leaning on the rail. "Well, I'm going to talk to you anyway."

Ratchet sighed to himself, keeping quiet.

"What happened this morning?" Miko asked. Ratchet froze for a second, mindlessly thinking about how to respond.

"What do you mean? You seen me recharge. That's it."

"Now you're just dodging my question..." The Asian girl said unamused, looking up from the railing to the orange medic.

"What. Would. You. Like. Me. To. Say?" Ratchet muttered through his denta. He continued to work on the monitors, yet his helm wasn't there focusing.

"Why was your spark all glowy and bright under your chest cover metal plate thingy?" The girl finally called out, sulking deeper in the railing until Ratchet's unpleasant movement got her to stand back up.

"None of your business, young lady." Ratchet warned, trying to push the girl away from him intentionally.

"No one else's spark does that. C'mon Ratch, I'm asking because I care."

"If you cared you'd leave me alone-" The cranky medic yelled back. "Now let me do my job."

Instead of being sad by Ratchet's fear of not opening up or his latching out, Miko was mad. Fuming even. She knew if she continued to be a "bother" by caring she'd only make things worse, so she walked out, keeping this whole thing in the back of her mind to discuss later.

Optimus came over now, seeing the mad girl stomp away as he then looked at Ratchet, piecing both together. He frowned.

The gentle leader walked up to him, putting his servo on his shoulder before he flinched, relaxing once he seen it was Optimus from the reflection.

"We need to talk, Ratchet."

The team's medic frowned, knowing he couldn't get out of this one.

"When everyone is away for the day, I will do so."

~

Soon after, The base departed for the busy Saturday planned with their charges, Wheeljack joining both Miko and Bulkhead.

"What are you going to do, Prime?" Jack asked, getting ready to leave with Arcee.

"I have important business to attend to." He smiled down to the boy, before walking the opposite way.

"Busy Prime stuff, got it." He said to himself, before he hopped on Arcee and took off.

Optimus then came over to Ratchet again, patiently waiting for him to finish up his data run.

"Ratchet" Optimus' voice was low, pushing himself up to stand back straight, walking over to stand next to the shorter doctor.

He sighed, but knew his friend only meant well. "Optimus, I-"

"It is okay" He stopped him. "But please, I need to know how long your spark has been like that."

Ratchet took a venting breath that wasn't needed nor necessary. "The bond's growing stronger every day that passes, and I don't know why. It's been like this for a few, maybe two years now."

Optimus' optics grew, settling down after processing the information. "And you never told me?"

"Pfft, I didn't want to worry you, you already have a whole young team to look after."

"Ratchet-" Optimus stopped, before Ratchet waved his servos, yapping for him to stop. "No, I know you mean well Optimus, but there's nothing I can do about it anyways."

"What do you mean by that?" Opimus asked.

"I don't know why or how it's happening." Ratchet said, feeling the strong tingle come back as he tried to look like he was fine.

The leader thought for a second, not wanting to say what the elephant in the room was. "Do you think she's...still online somehow?"

Ratchet was pulled into the constant thought of her, quickly snapping out of it before he shook his helm. "There's no possible way, I seen her ship blow up right before my optics."

Optimus hummed, remembering the sad thoughts of his offlined friend and what Ratchet had to go through all these years, especially in the beginning.

"She's gone. There's no other life signal besides ours that popped up on my radar for years now, even after my spark started to glow."

He clenched his spark chamber, Optimus cringing, knowing how painful it is.

"-And I can't, I won't cut the bond off. I, I can't lose the only part I have left of her..."  Ratchet said, pained. "So I'll take the hurt."

Optimus was close to tearing up. He knew his old friend missed his love more than anything, putting up with the worst pain everyday so he could just still be connected to her in some way.

"Do you still feel her?" He asked. Ratchet was at a loss of words for a second, before they naturally found him.

"Every day, yes. Her spark is of course...shunned, but I still feel the bond, picking up every time I think about her, or us."

Optimus felt guilty now, not wanting him to be in any more pain for the day.

"Ratchet, I do not know what to do." The words were foreign to Optimus, never thinking he would say such thing. He always knew what to do, even if he, or his team, winged it.

"There's nothing you can do. Even if my spark glows a little brighter or stings at times, it won't offline me. I've dealt with it for a while now, so I'm used to it."

Optimus didn't really know how to respond, as his helm hung low.

"I'll be okay, I promise." Ratchet said, turning back to fully put his thoughts back into his work. "Go relax for a minute, Optimus. I don't think I remember the last time I seen you sit down." He chuckled.

~