Infected- A Transformers Prime story.

"I needed that!"

As the Medic walked through the main base doorway, all eyes (and optics) were on him. When no one followed him Raf frowned, "Where is Optimus?" Ratchet, not making eye contact, walked over to his medical area and started to gather the supplies that he needed. "He is re-charging." He hated lying almost as much as the Prime, although technically this wasn't a lie. As he was gathering up, he heard metal footsteps come up behind him. He picked up the last of his supplies and turned to see an angry Arcee scowling at him. "Don't you lie to me Ratchet!" He calmly turned from her and said, "I am not. If you don't believe me then go, see for yourself." He started to walk to the doorway, but he turned to the femme and added, "although I wouldn't advise it. Optimus doesn't like it when bots enter his berth uninvited." The smaller bot sighed and then said, "fine but don't hide things from us. What is all the medical supplies for?" she asked pointing at the supplies in Ratchet's servos. Ratchet thought about it for a second. Optimus wouldn't want him to lie for him, but the Medic has known the Prime for a long time and he knew he wouldn't want his team to worry about him either. So, Ratchet was as vague as possible and said, "I am just going to give him a medical scan. I want to make sure that he has repaired properly after the fight." With that the Medic turned and walked back to Optimus' berth room.

The six heads, bot and human alike, just stared at The Medic's back as he disappeared through the doorway. The atmosphere in the Bunker was think with worry. "Hey." Raf shouted, getting everyone's attention, "Why don't we...um.... play a game... to you know," he gestured the doorway. One by one, they tore their eyes away from the direction that Ratchet left and looked at the boy. They all nodded at him in agreement.

---

15:00

Ratchet was angry. No, not just angry. Frustrated. Sad. Infuriated. He had done every single medical test he could think of on Optimus, but nothing came up. All Cybertronion tests said that he was medically fine, but Ratchet knew that they must be wrong. The Prime's bright red and blue colouring was almost grey, his eyes were dull and glossy, and his core temperature was steadily increasing despite his constant shivering. Ratchet sat with him for hours, to keep an eye on his vitals but also mainly just because he didn't want to leave his side. Ratchet sat next to the Prime's burth with his head in his servos. More and more questions just kept piling up. At first, he thought it was a Cybonic Plague of some kind but not all the symptoms or results matched. He wracked his memories, but no other answers came to mind. After two hours of watching Optimus shake and moan from the pain Ratchet decided that he had to do something. He left the room to go get some energon from storage, 'perhaps some energon will give him some energy' Ratchet thought as he walked. As he walked past the doorway to the main area, he heard snoring. Baffled, he peered in. Both the bots and the children were asleep, scattered about the place, obviously tired from playing all afternoon. Getting what he needed, he headed back to The Prime's room. He shut the door quietly and turned to his old friend. He sat hunched over, looking confused. "Wh..what happened?" he choked. Ratchet thought for a moment and then walked towards the Prime. "You're very sick," He started, "you passed out and have been asleep for a few hours. What can you remember?" Optimus' faced contorted and then he murmured, "Agent Fowler... he was shouting at me about something," he slowly shook his head, Ratchet just smiled slightly and nodded. " Yeah, he did do that." Sensing his distress, he changed the subject. "Here," he handed Optimus a cube of energon. "Drink these, it will help." Optimus took them with shaking servos and brought them to his pale lips.

16:06

Ratchet watched as The Prime pushed the half full cube to the side. 'At least he has kept the energon down' Ratchet thought. It might have taken a while, but he did it. Looking at the Prime now The Medic realised that he looked better really, he did. Less pale and less like he was about too offline. He did, however, look tired. Just as Optimus started to drift off there was a loud bang from the Main base, his optics shot open. He quickly sat up and moved to get up, but Ratchet pushed him gently back down, "Wait here, I will go check it out." Seeing the terror in his optics he reassured the Prime that, "Bulkhead probably just dropped something." Sitting back, he nodded but his shoulders stayed tense. Ratchet left, walking a little faster than normal. Anxiously, he waked into the main base and saw that one of the communication towers was knocked over. "Sorry Ratchet," Bulkhead awkwardly apologised when he saw the Medic walk in. All his pent-up emotions came to the surface as he shouted, "Bulkhead, I needed that!" They all looked down, ashamed. Ratchet's face softened, "Just help me repair it." He signed. They all nodded and got to work lifting it back into place. Ratchet stared up his welding machine, the noise and sparks caused to children to take cover behind some crates. After around fifteen minutes the sparks stopped. The bots stood back and gave Ratchet some room, not wanting to be in strangling reach. "Alright, no more playing lob ball in the base. You want to act like childr..." Ratchet hesitated and have a side glance to the actual children who were giving him angry looks. He hummed under his breath and looked away, "... if you want to act like... idiots then take it outside!" The bots and the children looked down. Ratchet opened his mouth to speak but he quickly shut it again when he saw their faces. He just signed and headed for the door, "I need to go and check on something. Don't break anything while I'm gone!" He tried to smile on them, but it ended up looking more like a grimace. All eyes and optics were suddenly on him. "Is it Optimus?" Raff dared to ask. Ratchet ran through all the possible ways he could answer, he was torn. He didn't want to tell them the truth because then it would mean that it was real and he wasn't ready for that. However, he also didn't want to lie because he knew that Optimus would hate it if he lied on his behalf. So he did the only thing that made sense. He broke down. He went over to his work bench and picked up one of his tools, the other just looked at him confused. The field Medic, who had seen enough wars to last a lifetime, smashed everything in sight. He only stopped when something grabbed his arm. All three bots, who together were holding his arm back from breaking anything else, just looked at him with concern. The old bot straightened up and moved out of their tight grasp. The children, who were coming out from behind some crates, looked terrified. After a long breath of silence Arcee finally found her voice, "Ratchet, are you... is Optimus...?" she struggled to find the right words, "...what's wrong?" Ratchet didn't answer. Bulkhead had had enough, "Just tell us! He is our leader and our friend as much as he is yours! Don't hide how he really is from us!" The Medic just sighed and mumbled something under his breath.  "What?! I didn't understand you!" He screamed. "Ratchet. Tell us... please." Jack pleaded to the orange bot. Ratchet looked away from their sad faces and admitted, "I don't know."

"What do you... what do you mean you don't know?" Bee beeped. The Medic just shook his head. "Is he sick?" Miko asked. Silence. "We don't have an immune system like humans do," Arcee explained, "So we can't get sick like you do." Everyone thought about that for a moment. Ratchet shuffled on his peddles and hummed something. "Right! Ratchet?" He looked at the female bot, "We can't, can we?" The Medic sighed, "I just don't know anymore."