I am Broken (TFP) *Rewrite*

Chapter 12

Upon waking up from a very deep sleep and stretching out her arms and legs, Dahlia opened her eyes slightly and found she was still within the small cave in the autobot base. She still had hoped she would wake in the drain, finding that she had been having a very long and crazy dream. But she was accepting that each day she would wake in the same place now. Dahlia looked around at the blankets and pillows she had placed around to create the space. She still could not believe she was here, but she didn't feel like she should be upset or ashamed of it. She had given the autobots a lot of trust by giving them the pages of drawings she had made of her past, and she hoped that she would not regret it.

She stared at the end of the cave for a while before she felt her stomach growling suddenly. She sat up in surprise, as she had not expected to feel hungry. But it has been a couple days since she has eaten, and she did not like being hungry. Dahlia grumbled a little, knowing she would need to find another rat, or convince the autobots to take her somewhere to get some food. She knew quite a few places where prickly pears were in high abundance, and where to get fish. She didn't want to rely on rodents as her main source of food here.

But she had to use the bathroom first. She stretched her limbs again before she crawled out of the cave and looked towards the consoles. She smiled when she saw Ratchet at one of the consoles, reading information on the screen, and it seemed her was reading intently. However, she noticed he did not have the cast on his arm anymore. It actually looked like it had been repaired or healed, which was good, because it had no damage to it like the day before. Dahlia guessed he had some repair done during the night.

She turned her head to see Optimus by another console, and had had the three pages Dahlia had given them. It seemed he was doing research or something, but Dahlia did not want to ask about it. She noticed Arcee was not present, but Dahlia just thought that Arcee was in recharge. She took a deep breath and approached the stairs to head up to the bathroom, though she had yet to make herself known to them, even though she doubted that she would surprise them easily. But she was very light footed, so it was easy for her to sneak up on someone.

As she reached the stairs, Ratchet turned his head and seemed surprised for a moment before he smiled upon seeing Dahlia. "Morning, Dahlia. I wasn't expecting you to be up for a little bit longer." She shrugged and continued to walk up the stairs. "Though I guess you probably need the bathroom. I am very glad we autobots don't require such thing. I already shudder at the very thought of it."

Dahlia chuckled lightly as she did understand. "You are not from this planet, so that is completely fine. But..." She turned towards the medic upon reaching the platform. "I am hungry." Ratchet seemed concerned briefly. "Not for human, just in general." The medic let out a light sigh, which was unsurprising to her. "And I don't really like being hungry, so I am hoping that one of you could take me somewhere to get food. I know where to get it, but I would like one of you to take me."

"I will take you, Dahlia," Optimus offered as he listened in on the conversation. "Will we require the bridge?" She shook her head and turned to keep making her way up to the catwalk. "Very well. I shall await your return...though I should I prepare?" Dahlia frowned and looked at him in confusion. "In case we find an animal. I do not want to particularly have a mess within my chassis, as the blood would take a bit to wash out completely. So should I prepare?"

Dahlia chuckled a little as she understood and shook her head. "No, no, no. The only animal I might want to get is fish, and that's pretty clean once out of the water. The other option is prickly pears, and I know where to find them. Along with some juicy cacti, though I can't bring that back. But I don't have to bring it back here to eat either, Optimus. Don't worry."

Dahlia was certainly amused by the autobots not wanting to deal with a mess, and she did understand. She didn't want them to be mad at her. Optimus was glad to hear that she wasn't going to get anything that would make a mess when she would eat into it. Of course, Dahlia would not want to burden them with that. They already had to deal with a lot of bloody messes she had created, intentionally or not, so it was understandable that they didn't need any on the inside of their chassis.