Finally Stopping By

[Deleted]

Characters: Ratchet
Location: Med Bay
Content Warnings: N/A
Plot Summary: Dylan finally musters up the courage to visit his newly dubbed “older brother” after being very nervous following the birth of his kid.

[Deleted]

Dylan knew Ratchet probably wondered what was up by now.

It had been a while, and he’d of course seen his partner, now brother, in passing. But he’d still yet to come in and pester him as he was known to prior to Ratchet having Nightshade. It wasn’t that he’d not missed him, on the contrary, he’d missed him a lot. He just didn’t want to butt in or interfere, especially not before he actually became a member of his family. He’d wanted to give Ratchet, and indeed, Wheeljack, their space and not feel like he was butting in constantly.

He’d finally convinced himself it was probably stupid to think that. And moreover, Ratchet might have missed his presence too (even if he didn’t admit it).

So he’d done what he usually did, enter the med bay uninvited. Not like that was really anything new - but it seemed there weren’t any patients right now so there was that. “Yo, Doc Bot, you around?” He called out, knowing Ratchet probably was somewhere around there.

[Ratchet]

Another day in the medical bay, and one in which Ratchet was saddled with Nightshade.  He honestly didn't mind, and she behaved fairly well for the most part when he had to take care of the daily patients that came in.  He'd simply given her a set of toy medical tools he made himself, though she seemed a bit more interested in watching all the patients come in more than anything.

...that and laughing every time something funny would happen in her mind.

Ratchet had set his daughter in a playpen with her toys as he prepared to get to work, only to stop when he heard the voice of Dylan.  With a split second of hesitation, he turned around.  "As you can clearly see, I am around.  What do you need?"

[Deleted]

Dylan was a bit focused more on the sparkling - his niece he guessed now, than on Ratchet for a moment. Dang, she definitely looked a lot like her parents. Dylan had to admit, now that he didn’t feel a pang of jealousy anymore - he couldn’t help but melt a bit. “So this is Nightshade, huh? She’s pretty cute,” he explained, trying to keep cool as he didn’t normally melt. “Man you and ‘Jack made a cute kid, Ratchet. Congrats.”

He took a step forward hesitantly. “I, uh, just figured I should take a stop by. See how you were doing - and I kinda...”

Dylan pursed his lips, he definitely owed his friend an explanation for his distance lately. He hadn’t even shown up to congratulate them or anything, and he didn’t know if that had hurt Ratchet. “I’m sorry I didn’t come by sooner or anything. I just figured you had this little girl to take care of. A lot more important than the foster kid that you’re keeping out of trouble,” he hesitated a bit, swallowing. “Well I mean, I guess that’s a crap excuse now that I’m pretty much your brother now, but...”

His eyes fell to the ground a bit. “Well I mean, I just missed you and thought I’d drop by and see how you and the Sprocket were doing.” He didn’t want to admit to Ratchet he’d been a bit jealous - or worried he didn’t want him around anymore. He hated turning vulnerable like that, even if he trusted Ratchet the most.

[Nightshade]

Nightshade was always more than happy to tag along with her papa to his work, though she didn't get much out of it aside from playtime with her toys in the playpen.  She's see all sorts of bots, mechs and femmes alike, all wondering into the medical bay for check ups or whatever, and would giggle when her papa got mad at them for not taking good enough care of themselves.

No one else as in the medical bay at that moment but the two of them, and so Nightshade decided to set up a stack of blocks she'd recently gotten her servos on.  She stacked them up into multiple groups, and then tossed her toy wrench at it, laughing as the blocks all fell down.

...Someone had clearly gained Ratchet's wrench throwing skill.

However, the laughter immediately stopped as the non-robot creature walked into the room.  She'd never seen a human before, and Nightshade was curious.  It was almost her size!  The human thing seemed to be talking with her papa, so she simply stared curiously.  Just what was this strange creature?

[Ratchet]

Ratchet turned back for a moment just to see what the noise had been, only to see Nightshade with a mess of blocks and the toy wrench somewhat buried underneath.  Was she mimicking how he threw wrenches at those who made him mad?

With her laughter, Ratchet chuckled right along.  "That's my good girl~."

He returned to his work, only to be pulled back from it with Dylan's.. awkwardness.  He was apologizing for being away for various reasons, though it hadn't exactly been a lie that Ratchet had been excessively busy.  "Not just Nightshade, but Pharma as well.  He's been through so much and I needed to be there to take care of him and Nightshade as well.. plus helping with Sagitta and-."

Wait.. what had he said?

...Brother?

"Go back to what you just said.  Brother?"  What even?  How was this even a thing?  Was this another one of his pranks?

[Deleted]

Dylan’s eyes bulged.

Pharma hadn’t said anything? Dang it, was he for real? He sucked in a breath, he really wanted Dylan to open up to Ratchet didn’t he? Taking a deep breath he put on a smile at Nightshade. “Heya cutie, I guess I’m your uncle Dylan,” he attempted to brighten himself for a moment, knowing how heavy this conversation would get. Because to have it he had to admit... Something. “Probably no idea who or what I am, huh? Don’t worry you will.” He spoke with a softness he rarely showed - if only around little kids.

He then stood from his crouched position. “Uh your probably gonna want to sit down for this whole thing.”

He put his hands together - where to start? He decided to start with the good, which he knew Ratchet would be happy and scared about. “So I, uh, I met Pharma a few weeks ago. Well him and Sagitta, she kinda almost ran into me,” he paused a moment. “We got to talking about some stuff. You, the basic my group home... And... We kinda got into what happened to him.”

Dylan frowned a bit, trying to hide his emotions. Knowing that was probably useless with how well Ratchet knew him but still. “The good news is he decided he wants to adopt me. Like I don’t knows if you noticed since I avoided you but I’m living here now,” he paused again. “The thing is though, it’s not because it’s not a reason. And look... I told him so it’s not right not to tell you. You’ve done so much for me. And you’ve always been like my big brother... I know I haven’t said that before. But you are, I’ve always loved you like one.”

Again he sucked in a breath. “Part of the reason we connected... Was because my dad did the same thing to me, back when I was a kid...” his hand was shaky, not sure what Ratchet would say or do. “We connected because I know what he’s going through - and I’ve been avoiding you ever since it happened because I didn’t want to tell you. And I knew if I saw you I’d have to. And I didn’t want you to look at me different. Until I told Pharma, and this other friend of mine... I had people stop talking to me, not even look at me.”

There was a deep pause. “I was really worried Pharma might have told you. And you’d be even more mad I’d kept it from you. Hell, I wouldn’t blame you if you’re mad now. That I wouldn’t tell you even after all I already had,” he explained. “I just didn’t want to lose a friend and a brother at the same time.”

[Nightshade]

Nightshade blinked curiously, tilting her helm a bit as she looked to Dylan.  She was trying to figure out just what he was, but whatever he was, he did know her name.

She didn't understand what it was that they were talking about, but it must have been something important if Dylan needed to say as much as he did.  The only bits she was able to pick out had honestly just been Sagitta's name, as well as her Grandpa's.  Whatever it was, they were involved in some way, shape or form.  It made her wish that she could understand more of what they were saying, but if she pretended it was something good, then it was, right?

Aah the innocence of a sparkling.

Nightshade sprawled out on the ground, reaching for her blocks so that she could stack them back up while the two talked.  If nothing else, she could at least play with her toys some more.

[Ratchet]

Ratchet did admit he was curious as to why he didn't know that Pharma had taken Dylan in, but knew that if anything his adopted sire would have had a reason to not tell him.  Pharma wasn't the type to just keep information from the CMO without having reason to.

With a sigh, he sat down while staring the human child down.  He honestly wasn't sure what to expect when it came to his story..

..but it certainly wasn't the one that was told.

Mixed emotions went through Ratchet, but none of them were directly towards Dylan or Pharma aside from some form of pity.  With that story alone, he perfectly understood why the Seeker wouldn't have told him about Dylan.  There were things Pharma didn't like to talk about, and if the human could compare in terms of history, then it made sense.

"Listen.. There's a lot I know about Pharma, but you telling me what you just did.. that explains why Pharma hadn't said anything.  He doesn't like to talk about the things that happened to him, and even I don't know the full story, but I'd never force him to tell me.  The fact that he told you something like that?  That means he trusts you greatly.  It's something.. he really needs."  A flicker of sadness shone on Ratchet's optics for a brief moment, but then he resumed talking.  "I'm sorry for what you had to go through, but I'm glad that Pharma has someone he can talk to about those things.  I'm not making light of your situation.  I'm just saying you both can take comfort in one another on the hard days."

[Deleted]

Dylan looked up at Ratchet.

His facial expression said it all - he was confused. Ratchet wasn’t even mad at him? He understood what he meant? He thought it was good for them? Dylan must have been hearing things because no one talked to him like that. Everyone always got weird when he mentioned this, or just shut him out completely. But Ratchet... Ratchet understood? Was this some sort of game? Too many people were doing that and the fifteen year old didn’t understand why.

As he let those thoughts enter his mind he turned to Nightshade and smiled. God she was cute, and totally unaware of what they were saying. Thank god, the last thing he wanted was to scar the child.

As he looked on though, his face fell in the smallest way. His eyes returning to look at Ratchet. “Yeah... He’s been really good to me and I’m hoping I’ll be good to him. It’s been, a weird adjustment but I think it’ll be good for all of us,” he explained - honesty in his voice. “But you’re... Not mad? I mean I get why he isn’t... But I thought you’d be like the others. Why aren’t you turning your back on me or angry because I didn’t tell you, I don’t get it?”

It probably sounded silly to a mech like Ratchet - but to Dylan it was a question that honestly perplexed him.

[Nightshade]

As the two continued to talk, Nightshade stopped what she was doing to look over at Dylan when he looked at her.  She still had no idea just what he was, but she wasn't going to let that worry her.  She figured she'd find out eventually anyway, plus he wasn't hurting her papa any.

Her attention drawn back to the blocks, Nightshade began to stack them back up into a tower.  With all of the different sizes and shapes, she had to be careful if she wanted the tower to actually stand.  It took trial and error, but she did eventually get the tower up to a fairly decent height.

That was.. until she accidentally bumped it while putting the last piece up, the entire tower falling down.

"Aww.."  Nightshade looked to the mess of blocks sadly.  Looked like she'd have to start all over again.

[Ratchet]

Ratchet raised an optic ridge at Dylan's reaction to his words.  While the boy couldn't understand why he wasn't mad, the medic couldn't understand why Dylan thought he had to be.  For what reason was he supposed to be mad that he didn't speak up about something that was extremely personal and hard to talk about?  It was his life, wasn't it?  It wasn't any of Ratchet's business to understand things that he didn't need to know about.

"Am I supposed to be?  Why would I be mad for something like that?  Why would anyone for that matter?  You can't control what does and doesn't happen to you, and it isn't anyone's right to judge.  Now if you had hurt someone intentionally, maybe then I would have a reason to be mad, but because you suffered from something that harmed you?  That's nothing to be mad about.  I don't know much about humans I admit, but from the sounds of things.. the others you speak of sound incredibly foolish."

The sound of crashing caught his attention, only to spot his daughter's disappointment.  "Uh-oh.  Would you like some help rebuilding your blocks, my little one~?"

[Deleted]

Dylan looked at Ratchet dumbfounded.

Ratchet had always given him good talks. Whether it was simple shooting the slag or whatever. But what Ratchet said... It hit him right in the heart in a way he hadn’t understood before. Sure he always assumed Ratchet cared about him - he was one of the few humans he didn’t kick or of his med bay regularly but still...

Hearing Ratchet say that really hammered home that the mech didn’t care about any of that.

He gave a half smile a little at his partner - his brother at that. “I guess I should have figured that... Probably. I mean you were the first person I told anything about my... About my bio dad to who didn’t treat me any different,” he explained, and it was true. He had told Ratchet first that he was abused a long time ago. “I don’t know - sometimes it’s just hard to trust.. Not just you, everybody. I guess I’m just not used to having people who actually care yet.”

After he’d finished, he added with a grin. “Though I still hate having to be the bearer of bad news. You’re stuck with me now,” he added impishly, in an attempt to lighten the mood. “Can’t even get rid of me for college, I have to come “home” sometime.”

He turned as Nightshade knocked over the tower, noticing the disappointed look. Dylan casually approached the little sparkling and gave a big smile. “Hey! It’s ok. I bet we can make one even better.” He noted in a friendly manner wanting to waste no time getting to know his niece. “I can help if you want. Blocks are pretty fun.” He added gently holding a hand out.

[Nightshade]

Nightshade focused on the blocks, thinking about how to set them back up after they had fallen on her.  She was still sad that she had knocked them over by accident, but there was no use crying over spilled Energon, was there?  Of course.. being as young as she was, that was a concept that she wouldn't come to terms with until she was a bit older.

The sparkling looked up as both her Papa and the human both offered to help her remake the tower, the human even offering to help make it even better.  She stared at the both of them for a moment, as if to think on it.

And then she smiled.

"Hep~!"

[Ratchet]

Even now Ratchet was still completely baffled.  Why did Dylan think Ratchet would be so angry with him for what it was that he had to say?  It was something important and hard for the guy to talk about, not to mention something that the human had no control over.

"I would know all too well when it comes to trust.  I'm having to re-learn how to trust others after.. my own situation.  When one of your closest friends decides to kidnap you right out of nowhere and you nearly die from it multiple times.. it's a little hard to trust others after that.  You think to yourself 'who else is lying to you?'  I think I'm finally reaching a point where I'm able to trust most people in the base again though.  It's just getting past that first hurdle."

And now they were even.

The medic did roll his optics a bit as the human who now called him brother said there was no getting rid of him, but he did so more in a playful manner at best.  "I suppose you can stay.. if you behave yourself that is."  In the end it was all Pharma's choice given that he was the one who wanted to adopt Dylan.  He did have his concerns about the whole thing, though.  Humans didn't have the same life spans as a Cybertronian.

He knelt down by playpen Nightshade was in, picking up a block.  "Alright, sweetspark.  Let's build you that tower~."