Mechanical love

Chapter thirty-six

"Are you ill?" Ratchet asked conversationally, waving a wrench in her general direction as he spoke.

Carolina looked up at him with a confused expression, "No...why; do I look sick?" The vibrant yellow medic bot shook his head in response before he spoke again.

"Not particularly. You just seem...unusually quiet today; is there something wrong with learning how to wire an Energon gun?" his tone was relatively serious, but she could hear the underlying concern in his voice; he was trying to make sure she was right without lowering his gruff and professional exterior.

She gave a smile at his adverse humor and looked up at him.

There was a moment of dim quiet as her voice trailed off; the two of them working on the firearm (one of Mudflap's basic weapons) before she heard Ratchet clear his vocal processor awkwardly.

"I thought about your research for the temperature weapon; while you and Optimus were gone..." he said conversationally; hoping to distract her from her misery.

This got her attention, and suddenly she looked up at him with a bewildered and curious expression.

"Really? What about it?"

"You won't be able to create any sort of valid prototype unless you perform some controlled tests on reactive subjects."

She looked a little bit confused, so he decided to explain it in a little more detail.

"If you're going to try and create a weapon that will either kill or handicap a Decepticon; you will first need to test it to see if it works on them. I was thinking about this while you were away, and I've decided that the next time we hunt Decepticons; I'm bringing you back some samples."

"...Samples?" she echoed, "You mean like...body parts? But if they're not alive...how do I test them?"

Ratchet found her naivety amusing. For all her ingeniousness with mechanics and fusion engineering; she still knew so little of how their species functioned.

"The body parts of a Decepticon are still reactive after they have been amputated; still living, in a sense. A similar process, I suppose, to an earth spider. The detached limb of a Decepticon will still react to heat or cold if we expose it to it. I will make sure to try and secure some samples for you the next time we have a mission. Perhaps you and I can run some controlled tests on them then."

Carolina suddenly laughed and shook her head in disbelief. "This is hilarious!" she exclaimed, "Most people bring back a t-shirt as their souvenirs, but you Ratchet..." she paused to laugh again before continuing, "...you bring back body parts."

He shrugged nonchalantly, clearly not bothered by his own apparent, cold-blooded attitude; after all, this was in the name of science.

What had to be done, simply had to be done; and that was the matter of it.

"If you don't want me to..." he said seriously, an underlying cheeky tone lacing his voice; Carolina scoffed and picked up a bolt that was strewn on the table before throwing it at him playfully.

It hit him in the chest before bouncing off and rolling away somewhere, "Oh don't you even, Ratch! I appreciate the gesture; it would be an incredible help, thank you."

She smiled up at him before stretching her arms high above her head and arching her back; feeling her spine crack in several places as she unbent herself, "I'm gonna take five and go get some M&Ms. I'll be back soon to help you finish, okay?"

Having already delved back into his work, the medic nonchalantly waved her away as somebody would a small, pestering child.

She smiled at the motion and jumped down from her chair; heading towards the barracks hangar so that she could get the Skittles from her locker.