Detained

Chapter 17

Barricade pulled up at the N.E.S.T. base with Bumblebee nowhere to be seen and got worried for a second.

The police car was ready, since he been practicing all night for this and he didn’t want to screw up. He had the barrel of race car oil in his subspace, the plac fresh in his processor because Dorothy was going over it on their way over to the base, and Barricade wasn’t about to chicken out on this. He let Dorothy get out of the driver’s seat before transforming and walking further into the main hangar to look for the yellow scout. He scanned the room and didn't see the Autobot anywhere, which worried him slightly.

“You think Bee’s out on a mission?” Barricade asked his human friend as she walked over to the catwalk.

Dorothy looked around the room and quirked an eyebrow in confusion. “I don’t know...hey, Optimus?”

The leader of the Autobots was currently looking at the main monitor since he was reading over some recent reports. The mech snapped back to reality for a moment and turned to see Dorothy and Barricade had arrived. “Yes, Dorothy?” he asked back, wanting to know what the woman’s question was.

“You have any idea where Bee is?” she asked, leaning against the railing of the catwalk.

“No, sadly I do not.” the Prime replied, his face turning concerned when he looked around the room. “I do not think he is with Sam, since the boy is away for vacation, so he should still be here. I will comm him that you are here.”

Barricade and Dorothy both nodded. The woman looked over at Barricade and saw that his digits were fidgeting again. The mech leaned back against the catwalk and continued to look around the room for things that he could focus on while he was waiting for Bee to show. No one else was in the main hangar, besides Optimus and Dorothy of course, but the police car started to get really nervous about the plan. It was simple, but Bee was young and very emotional, so one wrong word and it was be over.

Suddenly, the sound of heavy footsteps echoed from the hallway leading into more of the main hangar as Bumblebee appeared with dim optics. He was in the washracks all last night after he had his moment purging all the energon in his tanks. The scout had woken up that morning with an empty tank and still in the washracks. The Autobot was actually on his way to the storage room, but had to cross the main room to do so. The youngling look up from the floor and saw Barricade standing there with a big smile on his face.

::...'Cade?:: Bee asked, slightly surprised. He wasn’t expecting Barricade to be here, since he only come to visit during the evening. He wasn’t here last night, and Bee was thankful for that since it meant that the police car did witness him sobbing and purging himself in the washracks. ::What are you doing here? Doesn’t Dorothy have work?::

“Dorothy’s off today.” Barricade explained, making his way over to the shorter mech. “It’s Thursdays, if you haven’t forgotten, since that means we can hang out all day. Well, maybe not because you do look so good. Did something happen last night?”

The police car was right. Bee looked like he had just crawled out from the Pits and Unicron was calling him to go and die again. The mech’s structure was slagging, his backstruts not as straight and upright when he was normally standing. The scout usually bright blue optics were now dimmed and flickering a bit from the amount of fatigue and energon he was lacking in. Lucky, Bee had remembered to place his mask back onto his face, so Barricade didn’t see it.

::No...nothing happened.:: Bee muttered, turning his helm away so he didn’t have to look Barricade in the optics when he said something.

“Okay…” Barricade answered, not really sure the mech was telling the truth, but let it slide for now. “Anyways, I wanted to give you something, since you’ve been nagging everyone about it for the past two weeks.”