Firehoses and Tiny Noses (Rescue Bots Fanfiction)

3. Your 'Fine' and My 'Fine' Are Different

Heatwave didn't want to admit it, but he was in more pain than he was letting on. Every time he would almost get comfortable to rest, a spur of pain would shoot through him, making his joints and insides tense up. More than a few times he almost cried out, but he kept silent. He wasn't going to let his team know how much he was struggling.

By the dawn, every one of his joints ached and he didn't feel like getting up and moving. He felt worse than when he'd refocused his energy to scan another form, but he forced himself to get up. He was the leader, he couldn't let some pain keep him from his job.

It was later than he'd realized. When he entered the main portion of the bunker, everyone was already up and moving. "Morning..." He greeted, grimacing upon hearing how tired he sounded.

"Good morning, Heatwave." Blades greeted, "How're you feeling?"

"Fine." Heatwave lied, looking down at Snowblast as the sparkling gave a peep out from under a towel. "You get a bath, Snowy?"

"I was wanting to make sure it wasn't him stinking up the bunker."

Heatwave raised an eyebrow, taking a whiff of the air. There was an odd scent floating about, but he couldn't identify it or its source. "...Yeah, what is that?"

Boulder shrugged, "Chase and I don't smell anything unusual. Just you two."

Blades scooped up his son into his arms, rubbing the tiny bot's helm with the towel and earning a purr in response. "You missed the series finale."

"Trust me, it wasn't that good...!" Blurr hissed, yelping as Blades tossed the towel at his faceplate. "Hey!"

"How can you say it wasn't good!? I had no idea that twist would come at the end!"

"I'm still trying to wrap my processor around it." Salvage admitted, "I mean, I know human customs are still foreign to me, but how could Geraldo's sister actually be his half-brother's cousin's nephew's daughter?"

Heatwave was quiet for a moment, and then shook his helm. "I don't have the energy to think about that either... What's on today's agenda?"

"You are taking it easy."
Chief Burns stepped out of the elevator into the bunker, "Until we can determine the extent of how your carrying will effect you, it's just too risky to send you out into the field."

"But Chief, it was just a little dizzy spell. I'm perfectly..."
He paused as his helm began to spin, and he had to catch himself on the wall.

"This is exactly what I mean... Trust me, Heatwave. You need to rest and not strain yourself until the carrying is over."

Heatwave growled softly, stumbling over to the couch to take a seat. "...I just don't feel useless, like I'm not doing my job as leader if I'm just sitting here."

"Everybody has times when they need to step back and take care of themselves first, Heatwave. You'll be back in the field soon, just like Blades is."

"But what if you need me? We have more fires around town than anything else!"

"As true as that is, Kade does have his old truck. It'll do until you're back to running on all cylinders."

Heatwave sighed, leaning his helm back against the wall. "...Fine."

"Good. Holler if you need help with anything, and I mean that."

Heatwave grumbled something under his breath, but Chief seemed assured enough to leave the pouting firetruck alone.

"Sure... I'll just sit here and do nothing today..."

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Doing nothing didn't last long.

Heatwave was only sitting there a few minutes before getting antsy. When the rest of the bots went upstairs to run patrol, he found himself pacing back and forth, muttering things to himself. He caught himself pausing in front of the door to the tunnels every time, looking at it before continuing. He had this weird urge to go into the tunnels for some reason, and that smell; that weird smell wouldn't go away no matter where he went.

"What!?" He hollered into the dark passage as soon as the door was open. "What do you want from me!?"

Only his own voice replied, but he stepped into the tunnel and wandered a little ways into it, keeping the door back into the bunker within sight. "Dirt. That's all that's down here. Brown, soft... Malleable dirt."

His processor went back to the nest Blades had built. He'd mentioned just having an urge to build it, without any knowledge of why he would need it at the time. Heatwave didn't want to weave a nest out of scrap metal though...He wanted to dig. A lot.

"Scrap, I'm turning into Boulder... Or maybe Servo." He muttered as he shuffled his foot back and forth in the dirt. He looked back at the door, then at the dirt. "There's nobody down here...and if it'll make this itch go away...!"

He dug his hands into the dirt, pulling it back and smoothing out the sides as he went. He never dug too deep, just enough that when he was finished, he could lay down in the pit, and he did so, staring up at the ceiling of the tunnel.

The dirt was cool against his metal, and the tunnel was quiet, a nice break from the non-stop rescue work they'd been doing.

And that was another thing. He'd been pushing himself a lot lately, which they'd thought would prevent the carrying programming from activating. Was it false? Was the occupation and lifestyle of the parent not a factor?

Another sharp twinge pulsed through him, and he shifted position in his little hole. "Ugh...What am I doing...?" He mumbled.

"You tell me."

Heatwave jumped, sitting up and turning around to see Cody standing on the edge of the hole. "Cody...What're you doing down here?"

"Looking for you... What're you doing in here?"

Heatwave groaned, laying back down and folding his hands together across his chest. "Nesting, apparently...I don't even know...Did you need me?"

"I was just coming to check on you...You okay?"

Heatwave shrugged, "Just frustrated that I can't hold myself together enough to do my job..."

Cody slid down the slope into the hole, taking a seat beside the firetruck. "...Mayor Luskey passed that law my Dad suggested."

"The Autobot Protection Law?"

"Uh huh. We now have a law that states 'Any human convicted of harming or endangering the lives of a cybertronian on Griffin Rock soil or in its waters will be charged and spend jailtime.'"

Heatwave gave a slight smirk, "...That won't stop some people from trying."

"Maybe, but since like, every enemy we've had all came after Snowblast and were arrested, it means that there won't be any of them here to attack us for a while."

"Right..." Heatwave grimaced as another pulse of pain surged through him.

"I'm sorry you're in pain."

"It's fine... I'll just be glad when it's over." The firetruck was quiet for a moment, "...Of course, then I'll have a tiny bot to keep an optic on."

"It'll be okay. Everybody will help out, just like you help out with Snowblast."

"I suppose... If they wind up being as stubborn as me, though..."

Cody grinned, patting Heatwave's shoulder. "You'll be fine... You want me to keep quiet about your little hiding hole here?"

"For now... I mean, it's not like anybody's gonna come down here."

He finally sat up and collected Cody up into his hand. "Come on, we'd better get back inside before they all wonder where you are too..."