Return (A Ratchet TFP Fanfiction Story)

Prologue

A whole week. It had been a whole week. Ratchet had gone missing the previous Tuesday. Optimus, Arcee, and Bulkhead were on the hunt for Energon. Bumblebee, who had previously been injured, remained at base, recovering. The children were on a field trip at school. Scheduled patrol time had come, so Ratchet volunteered for Bumblebee. 

A whole week later, he still hadn't come back.

Jack, Miko, and Raphael were returning from their field trip today. The Autobots were worried about telling them. 

Miko, of course, came rushing out of the school first. She raced to Bulkhead with a story ready to tell. Bulkhead opened the door for her, and drove off without a word.

Miko paused in the middle of her tale, a bit confused. "Bulk?" she asked cautiously. "What's up? This is a funny story. Are you listening to me?"

"Uh, yes. Sorry, Miko." He paused. "Listen, I gotta tell you something."

She sensed the tense mood. "What? Did you guys go on a super fun adventure without me? Was it super big? How many 'Cons were there? Did you give them a hard smack down? How-"

"Slow down!" Bulkhead sighed, a rare edge of annoyance in his voice. "You're jumping to conclusions."

She went silent, a hurt look on her face.

Bulkhead sighed again. "Look, I'm sorry, Miko. It's been a rough week."

"Why?" she asked gently.

"Ratchet went on patrol... and never came back."

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Raphael was not far behind Miko when she rushed out. 

"Hey, Bee," he said happily. He had missed seeing his yellow Autobot friend.

Bumblebee strangely had no reply. A little worried, Raf got in the car without another word. For most of the ride he waited for Bee to say something. He was unused to Bumblebee's silence. Usually he at least asked how school had been.

Finally, Raf built up enough courage to say, "Did something happen?"

Bumblebee sighed and said something only Raf could understand. "<I'm really sorry. I should have gone on patrol that day>."

"Patrol? What are you talking about?"

"<Ratchet went on patrol for me Tuesday, and we haven't had any sort of contact with him since.>"

Raf went into shocked silence. "You don't think he..."

"<We don't know.>"

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Jack glanced down at Arcee for the third time during the drive. Arcee had been completely silent on the way to work, and had so far had said nothing on the way to base, either. He was definitely worried. Her silence could only mean something bad.

"Okay, Arcee," he sighed. "I'm getting anxious here. Could you please tell me what's going on?"

Stopping at a red light, she got straight to the point. "Ratchet's missing."

"What?! What happened?"

"We aren't sure."

"Since when."

Since last Tuesday."

"...That was a week ago."

"I know."

Uneasy silence held for the rest of the ride.

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Yep.

I'm really writing this. I only have seven chapters posted in my other story, and I've already started this.

Sorry, just couldn't wait, could I?

Oh well.

I hope you guys will like it! I don't know how much I'll be able to update this and my other story over the course of this weekend. (Maybe longer.) I have a lot of homework coming up because my current term is almost over. Papers and finals.

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

So, I hope you guys don't mind waiting for a little while.

See ya!

*waves*