Transformers Short Story

Take Your Kid To Work Day

Rose (Golden Prima) studied the figures and symbols in front of her, tilting her head to look at Ratchet's work from a new angle. The Cybertronian text swirled and she was able to understand the script, moving over the words in her head to make sense of it all. Ratchet worked nearby, his back facing her as he prepared a batch of Energon for the patient currently occupying the berth nearest. The clinic on Cybertron was more advanced, filled to the brim with mechanical instruments and portable tools, the likes of which Rose had ever seen litter the base med bay back on Earth. Ratchet conversed with the patient, a green racer, in muted conversation before checking the Energon dispenser, which looked similar to the human version of an I.V. drip, nodding in satisfaction at what he saw before turning toward her. He seemed surprised to see the soldier in her "human form" but played it off quickly, focusing on moving the rest of his tools to the side so he had ample workroom on his wrap-around counter. Rose lifted her head from the depictions, watching Ratchet curiously as he powered on a datapad, going over the patient's records with pursed lip plating. She turned away, remembering patient-to-doctor privacy, and instead alighted her eyes on the green racer. The bot caught her stare and smiled at her sheepishly as if the reason he was admitted was rather embarrassing, or maybe it was his current state. Both his arms were broken, hanging uselessly in metal slings that were welded to his side plating to keep the setting arms from damaging even further. Rose could see wires poking out of the left shoulder plating and dyeing current run from the exposed metal to his sling and back again. Rose blinked before sending him a small smile in response, turning her attention back to Ratchet as he motioned in her direction, "Charge, this is...Rose, Rose this is Charge...are you comfortable with having her here?" He eyed her in warning, convening over their shared bond that she wasn't to corner him in the med bay again, especially when he was seeing patients. The green racer, Charge, seemed to try and shrug his shoulders nonchalantly but flinched at the stern look he received from the medic, stilling his frame, "Sya'll good...I don't mind it a bit doc." Ratchet studied the mech with a sigh, tapping the metal sling closest to him, "Don't call me doc...if she bothers you, kick her out." Rose rolled her eyes at his harsh tone but Charge seemed more interested than annoyed at her sudden appearance, "I've never met a human before...do ya live on Earth or here? Do ya like Cybertron so far?" Rose crossed her legs to sit crisscrossed on the workbench counter, "I go back and forth between the two planets, Cybertron's...it's amazing, so I'd say I like it." She chuckled at her statements before throwing a couple of questions at the mech, "What part did you grow up in? What's your job classification?" Charge smiled goodnaturedly, motioning to his arms with his helm, "Aren't ya going to ask about these bad boys? I guess it goes along with yere second question anyway...Imma a postmaster, born and raised in the Rust Sea, so near the neutral territories...well, I guess there ain't no reason to call it that anymore with the war being over and all." Ratchet snorted as he cleaned away at the spotless stations but Rose ignored him, "What's it like? I've only ever been to Iacon and Crystal City." The mech mulled over his thoughts as Rose caught the ends of Ratchet's EM Feild before it coiled around himself again in a practiced manner; regret. Charge finally found his words, "Red Sea...you've got one on Earth? But ours is better...got ports and docking stations which house all kinds of ships, I like the area...the further away you get from the sea the clearer the view cause of the fog...I guess you have to live there to love it." Rose nodded politely, still concerned about the slight slip from Ratchet's field, but the mech wouldn't meet her eye, so she instead directed her attention to the postmaster as he went into great detail about his most recent shipment from the racing planet. Charge sighed after explaining his long-winded story, "It wasn't so great looking during the war but neither did any other place on Cybertron...but with the reform, everything seems to be as it was before the slagging attacks." Ratchet cleared his throat but the mech talked on, oblivious to Ratchet's sensitivity on the topic, "All so strange seeing the place...as if nothing ever happened after the core went out." Rose glanced at Ratchet, who was fully watching the patient with an indescribable expression on his face and in his field, "...makes me wonder about the power that brought it all back ya know? My apologies, I'm not sure if you even know what I'm yapping about." Rose smiled, strained at the corners when Ratchet stiffened, "I think I get the gist of it." Charge nodded before suddenly shutting his intake, watching the medic with a confused expression before he seemed to come to an understanding and he mumbled quietly, "Sorry Ratchet, didn't mean to stir up bad memories on ya...must be hard...losing something even when we gained back so much." Ratchet shook his frame, relaxing his defensive plating, and answered briskly, "Not even bringing back Cybertron was worth losing what I had." The mech nodded thoughtfully, turning his optics on the human before him with a kind twinkle about his field, "You're her aren't ya?" Rose smiled, uncrossing her legs to swing them off the counter, jumping to the ground but Ratchet caught her before she made the impact, his gaze stern, "Do you know the kind of damage you could do to your knee joints?" Rose smirked, patting his servo as it unintentionally squeezed a little tighter, "Got it Ratch, I was just going to stretch my legs." Charge watched the interaction between the two with an amused look, "Ya got a good Creator there Golden Prima...don't make 'em mad." Rose shook her head as Ratchet set her on the floor of the med bay, "I'll try not to."