hooked on a feeling

[Deleted]

Characters: Wheeljack, Ratchet
Location: The Autobot Base - Outside
Content Warnings: Allusion to violence; Injury; (Robot) Blood + bleeding
Plot Summary: Wheeljack comes back from blowing a Decepticon energon mine sky-high and has a bit of a problem.

[Deleted]

Wheeljack waited until dark to mosey on over to the base in Nevada. While he usually didn’t worry too much about the Jackhammer being spotted out near Jasper on account of the remote nature of the base, he figured this time around it might have been a bit wise for him to make the approach after sunset; the Jackhammer wasn’t exactly flying straight at the moment, and he didn’t want any humans getting the wrong idea about his expert piloting skills.

He called in ahead. “Hey, Doc? You got a minute?” Even asking for help rankled him, but… well.

The ‘mission’ he’d run earlier that day had gone a bit sour at the very end. Oh, he’d completed it no problems, of course -- if he’d gotten totally tripped up on a simple raid on a Decepticon energon mine, he would have voluntarily handed in his grenades and his Wrecker status and retired! He’d taken out the Decepticon workers and thoroughly sabotaged the place Wrecker-style, taking glee in depriving Megatron of a source of energon. Just as he’d been leaving with his new stash, however, one of the Vehicons had managed to get the jump on him, and got in a very lucky hit with some sort of vibro blade before he neutralized the threat.

That hit had gotten between the armour plates where his leg met his hip and nicked a major energon line. Such a tiny nick, and yet it bled like an absolute glitch. Energon had gotten all over the place while dragging himself to the ship, but his pride was more bruised than anything else as he tried to get a rough patch in place and berated himself for such a rookie mistake. Once the patch was on, he blew the joint sky-high, and celebrated by drinking a precious cube of mid-grade while the mine put off fluorescent blue fireworks.

At first, Wheeljack had been entirely unconcerned with the injury as he’d lived through worse in the past. He’d lost a decent amount of energon, but again, he’d had worse before, and he figured he’d gotten the patch on quick enough that there was no worry of actually bleeding out. And then he’d gone and passed out at the controls of the ship. Whoops. That hadn’t quite been quite the triumphant end to the day he’d planned at all, but luckily he’d pre-programmed the ship to return to the base should his lifesigns dip below a certain point. That was a bit handy, as he’d come back around somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, with little recollection of how he’d gotten there and the human song “Hooked On A Feeling” by Blue Swede playing on the radio. A quick look at his thigh revealed that the field patch hadn’t stuck, and he’d actually been bleeding out all along.

Once he’d gotten in range of the base, he realized it would be incredibly rude not to call ahead and let someone know he was in-bound. Perhaps it was a testament to how much energon he’d truly lost that he actually was worried about appearing rude. Likewise, as the Jackhammer made the approach and put herself merrily down in the valley just around the corner, he spared a spacey thought towards how his piloting skills would be perceived.

Woozily, Wheeljack looked around at the cockpit. It looked a bit like a murder scene. “Just, uh, one thing, Doc? Excuse the mess.”

And then he tried not to pass out again. On the radio, the human crooned.

“When you hold me
In your arms so tight
You let me know
Everything's all right…”

[Ratchet]

If there was anyone he was expecting a spontaneous emergency call from, it sure as heck hadn't been Wheeljack.

Ratchet still wasn't sure how he felt about the Wrecker.  He was a loose cannon, didn't take orders from anyone, was prone to wrecking things he needed when he actually did come over to do the 'hanging out' with Bulkhead and Miko, and worst of all..?  He had a blatant disregard for names.  Each and every time he called him 'doc' or 'sunshine' it just made him want to scream!  Yet there was that very same part of him that had to admit that he knew his stuff when it came to sciences, no matter how absurd it seemed.

It didn't take long for a single groan to emit from his voice box, glaring into nothingness as he responded to Wheeljack's call.  "Wheeljack, I told you not to call me that.  What is it that you need?"

Whatever it was, it did sound a bit urgent.  Minding the mess implied that perhaps he was injured in some way, or he just needed some advice on something and had left his ship a filthy mess.  Either way, as a medic, he had to assume the worse of the two scenarios.  Quickly he packed up his medkit with anything he might need before responding.

"Just stay where you are.  I'm coming to you, and for the love of Primus don't do anything reckless before I get to your location!"

Once he was all set, he placed his medkit into his subspace before transforming into his vehicle mode.  In a hurried pace, he made his way out to the coordinates he'd gotten, inspecting the outside of the ship before returning to his root mode.  Everything seemed fine, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary.. until he reached the entrance.  Oh, it was a mess indeed, and it'd been the mess he'd hoped not to encounter.  Given the trail of energon that had leaked, it was only a safe bet that the Wrecker had been inside.  The Autobot CMO boarded the ship, his optics trained on the energon trail until he found the source.

"WHEELJACK!"

The elder mech rushed over to him, ignoring the spilled energon on the floor and inspecting him.  Good.  He was still online, but that leg wound needed to be repaired quickly.  "Wheeljack, I need you to prop your leg up so I can seal the leak.  Mind telling me what happened to cause this?"  Promptly, Ratchet pulled his medkit out of his subspace, pulling out the medical tools he would need in order to repair the energon line before soldering the wound shut.  This was a bad one.. and he was going to have to work fast.  He'd been so focused that he barely even noticed the strange music that had been playing at the time.  Ratchet would question him about it later.

"This may hurt a little, but I promise you I'll work as fast as I can."

[Deleted]

Well, the Doc didn’t sound all that pleased, but it wasn’t in his nature to be contrite. “Alright, Sunshine…” He mumbled in a pacifying tone, before trailing off. One could interpret it as a thoughtful pause, but in reality, Wheeljack was having a bit of a dizzy spell and had problems stringing words into coherent thoughts. How much energon had he even lost? “... When did you tell me that again?”

His forgetfulness could probably be chalked up to the fact that he’d just unintentionally tried his hardest to bleed to death without knowing it, but try as he might, Wheeljack could not remember when Ratchet had ever told him not to call him ‘Doc’. Oh, he knew there was a definite occasion because he remembered there being one, but when he tried to focus on the details surrounding it he found the memories were fuzzy and indistinct. He could not remember the exact incident. Something about… searching for something? In a forest? And a grenade had been involved.

“You say ‘reckless’ like it’s a bad thing,” He uttered, squinting hard at one of his grenades, as if it could reveal the secrets of his suddenly faulty memory. He spent the time waiting for the medic trying to work out just what grenades had to do with forests and searching for something, puzzling over how it was all somehow related to Ratchet and the nickname ‘Doc’. It was a good thing he had the foresight to disengage the hatchway before his energon-loss induced tangent, otherwise Ratchet would not have been able to come in up the lowered entry. He did not respond immediately when his name was all but yelped, but eventually lifted his gaze to stare blearily as Ratchet flew into action. Honestly, he’d been expecting more of a dramatic response to the energon splatters.

Normally, Wheeljack would put up an absolute fuss about being treated, and about being ordered around in general. The fact that he actually did as he was told and propped his leg up was a sure sign that something was terribly wrong. His optics were also pale and dimmed, an indication of dangerously low energon levels. He’d come out of worse situations before… but this was shaping up to be one pit-damned close call, and he wasn’t out of the woods yet.

“Slaggin’ ‘Con got me with a vibro blade,” The Wrecker slurred, “Thought I’d patched it up, but it didn’t stick. Usually I have no problems patchin’ myself up.” The Doc hadn’t been lying - it did hurt. It hurt a lot, in fact, Wheeljack screwed up his face in response and endured it with gritted dentae, averting his optics to avoid having to watch. Plating would have to be pried back for this one, he just knew it, and he’d never quite been comfortable with seeing his own plating removed to expose the delicate workings beneath. “Work as fast as you want, I know you’ll fix it. You’re a masestro.”

‘You’re a maestro’. Why did he feel such a strong sense of deja vu at that phrase? Wheeljack gave a weak shake of his head, and the feeling was gone.

“So, uh, does it look like you’re gonna have to switch out that line?” He waved an uncharacteristically uncoordinated hand in the vague direction of one of the storage compartments. “I’ve got a few spares in… somewhere.” Nevermind the fact that Ratchet clearly had some on hand, which were likely superior to whatever bits and bobs Wheeljack had lying around on account of being medical grade. He blinked once, twice, before saying, “Anyone tell you lately you’re good with your hands?”

In his defense, Wheeljack’d completely forgotten how shameless he could get when he’d suffered major energon loss.

[Ratchet]

And there it was, the switch from 'doc' to 'sunshine'. Quickly Ratchet groaned, choosing not to respond to the nickname. He kept his glare going, looking at nothing in particular when his attention was drawn back to the Wrecker when he questioned when he'd even said not to call him that.

"What do you mean 'when did I tell you'? Ugh..! Just forget it.."

While Wheeljack might've forgotten through his condition, Ratchet still remembered. Maybe not every specific instance he told him not to call him by those nicknames, but he did recall that first time in the forest when they'd been on a mission together. How odd.. When they'd started that mission, he couldn't even stand Wheeljack, but by the time they were finished he found him a bit more tolerable. He could work with him if he could get the younger mech to cooperate long enough to do so. That, however, was the challenge.

"Of course it is. I know you. Now you stay put until I get there. I mean it."

The Autobot CMO made his way to the Jackhammer, wanting to get this over with as quickly as possible. If he'd known the extent of Wheeljack's condition sooner, he would've been impressed by the fact he'd remembered to at least get the hatch open for him. He made his way inside the ship, rushing to the Wrecker's side as soon as he spotted him. Primus he was losing a lot of energon, and quickly. He asked him what had happened, inspecting the damaged leg once Wheeljack had propped it up.

A vibro blade from a 'Con..? "Wheeljack, you went up against a bunch of Decepticons again didn't you?" Primus, why couldn't he just get past his pride for two fragging seconds and call for back-up?! "You're going to get yourself killed if you keep this up. Do you think Bulkhead and Miko would enjoy hearing that sort of news? Do you think that I would?" Wait.. I? Ratchet paused for a moment, startled. "Sorry. It's just.. I've lost enough patients over the vorns. I don't need another one being added to the list."

He watched as Wheeljack's face screwed up as he began to work, the medic himself wincing at the pained look. "Just.. can you do two things for me? Two very simple things? First of all, don't watch me while I work. You'll find it hurts less when you aren't watching. Secondly, whatever you do.. don't fall into recharge. I don't care if you need to rest your optics, but if you do keep talking to me. I need to know you're awake and that you're alert." Once he'd said what he felt needed to be said, he slowly began to remove the armor plating around the wound. Now he could get a better look at the damage, as well as access the damaged energon line easier.

To be honest, he himself had to grin at being called a 'maestro'.

"Yes, the line is going to have to be replaced. It's no wonder you've been bleeding so much. This line's cut nearly all the way through!" Ratchet watched as Wheeljack waved in a direction, stating he had some extra lines somewhere. "While I appreciate the offer, I have some on hand. It'd be best if I used mine, not only because I can access them here and now, but I don't have time to go looking for yours. You're at risk of bleeding out and I need to replace the energon line as soon as possible. But again.. I thank you. Now hold still." Promptly he pulled a spare line from his medkit, holding it carefully with one hand while he reached for the damaged line. He had to time it just right, otherwise the younger mech's bleeding would only worsen for the short time the line itself was removed. He took a deep intake, making the switch between the lines quickly, discarding the severed one.

"...What?" Ratchet honestly wasn't sure what to make of Wheeljack's comment. His face flushed as he returned his gaze to the leg. "You've lost too much energon.." Had he really meant that though? He blinked a few times, cleaning up the energon mess with a cloth.

"Do you have a berth on your ship that you can rest on? If not, I'm going to need to take you back to the base once I'm done here. You need to lie down for awhile, if not just to heal your leg and let my repairs set." Setting down the cloth, he reached into his kit and pulled out a small cube of energon. "I want you to drink this while I finish the repairs. This is medical grade, and it will help make you feel better. Do you.. need me to hold it for you or do you have enough strength to hold it on your own?"

[Deleted]

The Wrecker was taken by surprise by the vehemence of the medic’s words, and his brow plates rose up in unison before he took on a defensive look at Ratchet’s harsh scolding. “This was nothing but a freak accident! Usually I’m in and out, no prob, and blowin’ the place sky high before Megatron’s goons even realize it. The ‘Con just got lucky today, is all.” He felt a bit offended at the very implication that he couldn’t handle himself -- what happened today had been an utter fluke, but luck had been on his side and he hadn’t ended up being offed in such an embarrassingly ridiculous way as a vibro knife to the thigh. No self respecting Wrecker would go out like that!

Still, he could not shake the niggling guilt in his spark. Ratchet was right: he had not taken into consideration Bulkhead or Miko’s feelings in the slightest. And Ratchet? The way the medic spoke made Wheeljack pause. “Didn’t… Didn’t think you cared that much, Doc.” Under normal circumstances, he’d crack off some sarcastic one-liner and then perhaps slink off awkwardly for several hours, but the energon loss had taken its toll, and he had even more trouble focusing on one single thought. Nearly dying had put him into an odd mood, and so he felt compelled to quip in the best reassuring tone he could come up with, “I ain’t that easy to take out, I promise. I’ve lasted this long, haven’t I?”

Besides, it was Wheeljack’s nature not to think about the impact his reckless actions might have on others… which was why he preferred to do things alone. It was easier that way. Less complicated, just the way he liked things to be.

He was given two very simple tasks then. Still feeling off-balance from the oddly attached way Ratchet had professed his worry, Wheeljack did not put up much of a fuss. Besides, ‘don’t look’ and ‘don’t conk out’ were a given in this situation, and so he told himself he was obeying because it was common sense, and pointedly forced himself not to think about the tight anxiety he’d seen in the older mech’s optics. He didn’t need to be told twice not to look -- the Wrecker stalwartly turned his face away and stared at the wall, his hands curled into loose fists that tightened whenever the pain and discomfort spiked.

Not falling into recharge would be trickier. He was down to such critical energon levels that he’d started to feel drowsy ages ago (as evidenced by him passing out at the wheel, not that Ratchet knew that), and now that Ratchet had given voice to the danger of powering down, it was almost impossible to resist it. It was so tempting just to let his optics close and take a few moments to drift off… but he couldn’t. He couldn’t, couldn’t do that to Ratchet. It suddenly became very important to not do that to Ratchet.

“All the way through? It was just... a nick when I patched it,” Keep talking, he’d said, and so Wheeljack did, but like magic, now he had trouble doing that, too. “Must’ve… must’ve torn…”

Had the world always been this fuzzy? He blinked again, once, twice, three times, and then proceeded to space out into the blessed realm of no thought processes, entirely missing the effect of his almost-flirty words. He completely missed the quick burst of fresh energon as Ratchet’s expert hands swiftly switched out the old line for the new, but finally, the bleeding had been staunched. Now came the task of bringing his energon levels back up to something a little less deadly.

Ratchet was saying… something? “Wha…?” The Wrecker re-focused, turning to squint at the medic and let his mind do double-time to try and work out what he’d just missed. There was a pause as his processor slowly tried to make sense of the words that had been spoken. A fuzzy mind combined with the energon loss was fertile ground for things not quite translating properly, and some rather interesting semantic connections were made. He slurred back, “Doc… I’m flattered?... But the berth in here ain’t big enough for the two of us.”

That... had been what Ratchet said, right? Something (the medic’s expression) told him that it hadn’t been. It didn’t quite make sense. He furrowed his brow plates and tried again. “Berth is… somewhere?” There we go, that made more sense! There was indeed a berth on his ship, but half the time Wheeljack recharged in the pilot seat and so the space was currently used for storage. If he were in a coherent state of mind, he’d be utterly mortified at the nonsense coming out of his mouth, but luckily he was spared the shameful burn of embarrassment by way of having a delightfully fuzzy mind.

When offered the cube, Wheeljack shakily took it, though it seemed more of an automatic action than one he’d consciously thought about, given his tanks were probably running on fumes what with the amount he’d lost. “I can do it,” He said firmly, offended at the thought of having to be hand-fed like some sort of sparkling, and then proceeded to miss his mouth entirely. He tried again, and had a bit more success. "You've got good hands," He repeated, as if that somehow was an explanation for almost spilling the cube all over himself. 

[Ratchet]

It took every fiber of Ratchet's being to not smack Wheeljack for what he'd told him. He wasn't quite sure how he'd managed to suppress the urge, but he'd managed all the same. Instead he'd settled for a light glare, his optics fixated on the Wrecker's dimmed ones. "You're lucky you're injured right now.. I can't have the conversation I'd like to have with you right now. If I did, you'd surely bleed out and it would be my fault." Just because he'd been unlucky this one time didn't mean that he couldn't potentially be killed the next time.

Even Ratchet had been caught off guard by his sudden feelings that had erupted from within. "I guess.. I do. Just... don't tell anyone you heard me say that." He couldn't deal with the others making fun of him if he'd let something like that slip. It wasn't that he was in love with him. At least.. not to his knowledge anyway. He was just good company sometimes when he was cooperative. Hard to get him to do, but it wasn't impossible. "I suppose you're right, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't take caution. You never know what's going to happen, and I might not be here to save you next time.." Ratchet hadn't even meant it in a threatening manner. It was the truth. He was an older mech, after all.. and even if age wasn't a factor, what if he wasn't free to come to his aid the next time for one reason or another?

If there was anything he did know, however, it was that it was likely going to be difficult for Wheeljack to stay awake. He'd force him awake if that's what it took, but just as long as he was talking he'd be fine. Ratchet didn't even care what he ended up having to talk about just so long as it proved he hadn't passed out from the pain or the lack of energon in his systems. He examined the wound, determining what had caused the bleeding to be as bad as it was. Seemed that even with it temporarily patched up.. the wound still worsened. "If that's the case, you're lucky I'm here then. After you patched it, what exactly did you do?"

The Autobot CMO focused on switching out the energon lines, but it didn't fail to catch his attention that the Wrecker had managed to space out. Scrap.. That wasn't good. Once he'd replaced the line, he waved a hand in front of him just to be sure he was still with him "Wheeljack?" Of course, when he had come back to Earth, he'd mentioned how good the elder mech was with his hands, causing him to flush. He hadn't known how to respond to that, and it seemed to only confuse the younger of the two. It had to have been the lack of energon talking.. right?

It only became more awkward when Ratchet had asked him about a berth while touching up the wiring in his leg before preparing to replace the armor plating. While he had gotten an answer about there being a berth, Wheeljack seemed to.. take his response in a direction he hadn't quite been prepared for. Ratchet's flush only grew larger, his optics widening. He stammered for a moment, relaxing his optics before trying to speak once more. "I, uh.. I meant for you, not for me. You're the one who needs to lie down, but.. I'll stay with you. You need me here to keep an optic on you while you rest just in case something happens. Not so much in the event of a Decepticon attack but in the event you take a turn for the worse." Seemed even Wheeljack had eventually caught onto his own mistake, the elder's surprised look changing into a much more relaxed expression.

He softly smiled in a saddened manner, pulling out the medical grade cube of energon for Wheeljack to drink. As much as Ratchet wanted to argue, he let the Wrecker take the cube on his own, watching as he attempted to drink it. "Careful..!" He'd come close to reaching out to catch the cube in hopes of preventing any spills, but thankfully Wheeljack had gotten it under control for the time being. Letting out a sigh of relief, he stayed close while the injured mech drank the energon. "I have a second cube that you may have as well, but I want you to finish this cube first. Be sure to take it slow. While your body desperately needs the energy, drinking it too quickly will only make you sick. You're weak enough as it is, and you don't need the extra strain on your body." And there was that comment about his good hands again. He sighed for a moment, but then chuckled softly. It was his weakness talking, and he couldn't properly judge what he was saying right now. "I know. You told me earlier, but thank you for the compliment."

Once he was convinced that Wheeljack could handle the cube on his own, he went back to his leg, finishing his work and placing the plating back on. Good as new, at least for the time being. Now he just needed to be sure Wheeljack got enough energon for the time being and got plenty of rest. After he had placed all of his tools back in his medkit he stood up, holding out a hand. "Let's go find that berth and lie you down. I'll help you over to it, but be sure not to walk with that injured leg. Lean against me and hop along side me, or I can try to carry you. Whichever you feel most comfortable with. Either way, once we get you to the berth you can recharge all you want. You should be safe now that the energon line's been replaced and you have some more energon in you."

[Deleted]

Perhaps if he’d been a bit more lucid, he would have latched on to the strange reluctance in Ratchet’s voice and ruthlessly teased him for such a ‘sparkfelt confession’. Such was his usual automatic reaction to the mushy and sentimental stuff -- brush it off, play it cool, and pretend that he had the ability to process honest emotional declarations. Besides, winding the medic up was becoming a favorite sport of his when he thought he could get away with it, which was always, because Ratchet responded so beautifully to it. Fortunately for Ratchet, though, energon loss had taken quite a bit of the edge off his sharp wits.

“I patched it up and then sat down.” Blearily, he tried to recall just what had happened after he’d applied the field patch. He had indeed sat down at the controls in order to launch a few missiles at the energon mine, and once the place had been obliterated, he’d… what? What had he done? As far as he could remember, he hadn’t done anything at all except sit on his aft. “Wasn’t jumpin’ around or anything like that, I’m not that stupid.”

Wheeljack seemed utterly unbothered about the other mech’s spluttering embarrassment at his rather blunt mistake, concerned more with the fact that his sluggish processor had gotten some semantics mixed up than for the faux pas he’d accidentally committed. One part of his mind slyly said that he wouldn’t mind sharing even if the berth wasn’t big enough, but before he could properly process the thought, it had already faded away. “Won’t turn for the worse,” Wheeljack said with utter confidence. Logically, what should have come next would be some comment about his toughness as a Wrecker, but his fuzzy mind helpfully supplied something completely different. “You’re here, which means I won’t. And if I do… well, you’re here.”

He was completely earnest about it, too, which meant he had complete faith in the medic. He felt a burst of fondness for the medic in his spark then, and it came completely out of nowhere. If he were sober and coherent, he would have violently suppressed the feeling on principle, for he couldn't allow himself to be fond of Ratchet. The Wheeljack who had suffered major energon loss, however, was quite content to enjoy it, at least until the woozy nature of energon loss made him blissfully forget about it.

Obediently, he drank the medical grade energon as Ratchet finished up the repairs, going slow as instructed. Like any cocky warrior, he’d chugged cubes after taking major injuries before and had paid the unfortunate price of having to immediately purge his tanks due to his hastiness, and wisely did want to end up doing it again. Once he finished the first cube, he gladly accepted the second, and slowly drank that, too. The fuzzy incoherent cloud gradually lifted from his processor as his tank levels slowly climbed back to an acceptable level, and one by one, the annoying little warning alerts on his HUD blinked off.

Now that there was energon in him, Wheeljack seemed to perk up a bit. At the very least, his optics had brightened up considerably, and his posture had gone from ‘vaguely slumped’ to ‘mostly alert’, though he could not deny that this whole nearly bleeding to death business had utterly exhausted him.

“I think I know how to walk on my own, Sunshine,” he drawled, but wisely refrained from putting weight on the injured leg. Hauling himself up onto one leg, however, brought a delightful round of dizziness that made him sway dangerously, but he stubbornly tried to power through it. To Wheeljack’s credit, he hobble-hopped a good four steps before the dizzy spell forced him to grab and lean on Ratchet’s shoulder. “You won’t be carryin’ me, so don’t even try it. I can do this,” Wheeljack warned stubbornly, his face revealing exactly how pleased the very idea of being carried anywhere made him… nevermind the fact that Ratchet likely could easily do so. Luckily the remaining hop-hobble dance to the berth was uneventful.

With an uncoordinated shove, the various boxes and crates (hopefully not filled with explosives) stacked within the bunk space in the ship’s wall went tumbling to the floor. Wheeljack half-crawled half-dragged himself into the alcove and unceremoniously collapsed downwards onto his belly (apparently his favored recharge position, when he wasn’t just sleeping at the controls of his ship), limbs akimbo and slender doorwings drooping. By the time his head pillowed on his arms, he was out by a light.

Perhaps if Ratchet looked closer, he would find a stark contrast between the mech currently passed out on the berth and the sarcastic bot that liked to rile him up. Though he certainly wasn’t a young bot anymore either, sleep softened Wheeljack’s features. He hadn’t allowed himself to be in such a vulnerable position around another bot like this in ages, and while the near-critical energon loss had wiped out most of his admittedly few inhibitions, there was one thing that still remained: Any Wrecker who knew him knew that he did not allow himself to recharge around others that easily, unless he trusted them completely. This privilege had historically been reserved only for his fellow brothers in arms. It spoke a great deal about how much he truly trusted Ratchet to watch over him, when so few had been trusted as such before.

Wheeljack recharged through the night, straight through the morning, and past noon. It wasn’t until mid-afternoon that the Wrecker finally, finally began to rouse himself. With a low groan, his optics slowly flickered open, and he blearily stared at Ratchet in clear confusion until the happenings of the previous cycle slowly filtered in. Getting stabbed, almost bleeding to death… and something about a berth? And good hands?

Slowly, slowly, the memories began to register, and Wheeljack fought the urge to whack his head against the wall. While his usual preference was to shamelessly make inciting comments to rile people up, it was a bit different when his energon-deprived self did so, mostly due to the fact that most inciting comments were made because he meant them. He promptly shoved the memories and the surprise corresponding feelings of fondness for the medic away to a place where he did not need to think about them or address them ever. It was much easier to pretend there was nothing wrong, after all, than face one's feelings. 

“I feel like scrap,” he announced. He was not exaggerating in the slightest: he had a thumping processor ache worse than any hangover he’d ever had (and he’d had quite a few of those) and his leg took the moment to helpfully inform him that yes, it hurt too. He groaned again, before his gaze refocused upon the rather incredible amount of dried energon splattered on the floor. If he happened to look down at himself, he would also notice that his legs were also covered in dried energon. He was secretly impressed with himself for somehow surviving it, because any other bot probably wouldn’t have. It wasn't hard to see that he'd gotten extremely lucky this time around. "Wow," he said, "That was a close one, wasn't it?"

[Ratchet]

From what he could remember he'd done nothing more than sit down? Hmm.. Perhaps he'd done something while sitting that he didn't recall such as stretching his leg out, or maybe it worsened as he was putting the patch on and hadn't realized it. As lucid as he was at the moment, there was truly no telling what had caused the damage to get as bad as it was, but it didn't matter now. The damage had already been done and it was now Ratchet's job to fix it as the Wrecker was in absolutely no condition to do it himself.

He'd sputtered at Wheeljack's mistake, flushed with optics wide open. He wasn't prepared to call him out on his misunderstanding as he knew full well why it had even happened to begin with. Wheeljack was weak and tired. He needed energon and he needed rest, so things weren't entering his audio receptors correctly.. let alone leaving his voice box. Once he'd had those two things, everything would be relatively back to normal. "And how do you know that, Wheeljack? How do you know that it won't get worse while you're recharging?" He couldn't help but let out a soft smile at the Wrecker's explanation. He really trusted him that much with his health? Granted, it wasn't like he had many other options at the moment, but to know that he actually had this guy's trust like that.. Or was this another lucid statement..? "You're right that I will be here if anything goes wrong. You're not dying on me tonight."

The medic let they younger mech drink the two cubes of energon, proud that he'd actually listened and drank them slowly. He didn't need Wheeljack purging on him. It'd only make his situation that much worse if he did, but if anything he did seem more 'with it' than he had previously. His optics looked so much better and he was visibly more alert. Finishing the work on his leg, Ratchet had to smile at his own handy work before getting up and extending a hand.

"Oh you have to be.. Wheeljack!" Naturally the guy would refuse the offer of help to get to his berth, trying to get there on his own. "I just fixed that leg of yours, Wheeljack. It needs time to heal before you start doing stuff like that. I don't care how much weight you're putting into it, if that energon line loosens up on you before the repairs set, you're going to lose all that energon that we just got back into you!" It didn't take long for the Wrecker to get dizzy, putting his weight into Ratchet's shoulder as the elder placed an arm around him to steady him. His actions didn't come without a grumble, especially when Wheeljack resumed to go about his short travels alone. Primus what was he going to do with this guy?!

One way or another, he actually managed to pull it off, shoving everything he'd had on the berth off and climbing into it before passing right out. Ratchet knew that he would likely fall into recharge the moment he got in, but at least he didn't have to worry about him trying to pull something crazy for awhile. He returned to his medkit, pulling out his scanner, and made his way over to the berth, kneeling beside it. He powered the device on, using his scanner to run a diagnostic on the Wrecker. He could still do with some energon, but he was no longer in danger of running on fumes, or on nothing at all. Setting it aside, he folded his arms on the edge of the berth, resting his helm on his arms.

"...Why do you have to be so difficult..?"

Ratchet stayed that way for awhile, occasionally blinking while running so many things through his processor. Had he really meant all those things he'd said, or was it all just crazy talk due to the lack of energon? If he had.. did that mean that he.. no, that was just insane. There was no way he'd be interested in some old bot like the Autobot medic. Besides, they lived entirely different lives. Just how would something like that work out?

...Better still, why was Ratchet even concerning himself with such a matter? He knew full well it was the lack of energon, and nothing more. It would've been the same if Wheeljack had been drunk, right? There was no point on dwelling on it, but he just couldn't get it out of his mind. As if to distract himself, he powered the scanner back on to run another diagnostic. It'd been a couple of hours since the last one, so it was best to check again. Everything seemed fine for the moment, and his life signs weren't dropping any. Ratchet let out a sigh of relief, setting down the device before letting his optics close.

It was about mid-morning when he'd awoken, panicked at the realization that he'd not only dozed off, but fell into recharge with Wheeljack resting right there as well. He flushed hard, his optics wide before he realized the Wrecker was still fast asleep. Thank Primus he hadn't seen that.. He checked once more with the scanner, the younger mech's health in much better condition than it had been when he'd previously checked. There was still room for improvement, but he'd get there eventually. This wasn't a one day fix, after all. The medic got up for a moment, spotting a couple cubes of energon and bringing them back over to the berth. Reluctantly, he drank one for himself, but left the other for Wheeljack. "You're going to need this when you wake up. As for the one I just took from you.. you owe me at least that, if nothing else."

He spent some time leaned against the berth, looking to the mess of energon throughout the ship. Primus he wanted to clean that up so bad, but it was going to take time with how much had been lost here, and he didn't feel comfortable leaving the sleeping Wrecker's side for too long. With his luck, something would go wrong right when he reached the seats at the front of the Jackhammer. It wasn't long as he stared at the mess that he finally began to hear signs of life from Wheeljack once more, the other finally beginning to wake up once most of the day had passed. Immediately, Ratchet turned his attention to him, letting the Wrecker adjust before badgering him.

And of course, his first reaction was that he felt like crap. "I'd imagine you do after what happened. You slept well from what I could tell, which is a good thing. You're going to need as much rest as you can get." The medic watched carefully as Wheeljack took the situation in, finally coming to a realization as to what had happened. "Close..? Close doesn't even begin to describe it. If you hadn't called me, you would have died." Ratchet grumbled to himself a bit, grabbing the second cube of energon that he'd snagged earlier in the day and handed it to Wheeljack.

"Trust me. You needed that."

[Deleted]

Fortunately for Ratchet, Wheeljack was inherently a stubborn mech and being ‘difficult’ in this case was a boon. If he hadn’t been offed by a stab wound to the thigh and the resulting energon loss, his condition certainly wouldn’t nosedive in recharge. He’d taken worse injuries in the past and managed to come through it without croaking, so a little sleep wouldn’t hurt him. By the time Ratchet woke from his doze, Wheeljack was even letting out soft snores. If anything, his read-outs improved with the rest, though even with the repairs performed by an expert doctor, it would be a few days before he returned to optimal health.

Though he felt like he’d been run over by a dinobot herd when he slowly returned to consciousness, it was vastly preferable to not waking up at all, and so there was at least one silver lining to the situation. ‘Close call’ was perhaps a vast understatement. Now that he was getting a good luck at the sheer amount of energon spattered all over the place, Wheeljack was beginning to realize that it had been just short of a miracle that he’d survived long enough to reach Ratchet much less make it through the repairs without bleeding dry. He remembered vaguely telling Ratchet that the medic was ‘good with his hands’ last night at some point, a truly cringe-inducing attempt at a compliment, but Wheeljack certainly had a new appreciation for the medic’s talents: he most certainly would have died if Ratchet had not

Wheeljack owed his life to the medic, and he knew it. It wasn’t in his nature to admit to being sentimental about such a thing, though. “Well, it’s a good thing I called you, then,” He said, casually. It was easier to brush it off instead and make some sort of joke, and so that’s what he did. “Least I didn’t need to come for an overnight visit this time. Wouldn’t want to get underfoot and all.”

It wasn’t really Wheeljack’s thing to ever be embarrassed about the things he said. His words were usually always honest and straight to the point, and he was unafraid of being blunt. He only said things if he meant them… but he clearly remembered his out-of-it self saying some things the night before that were a little too honest. It was so delightfully ironic in the worst way possible that he was now mentally kicking himself as the memories filtered through.

True, he actually could stand to be around Ratchet for longer periods of time than most other bots, and the medic only drove him up the wall half the time compared to the less desirable ‘all the time’, but that hardly could account for the sudden fondness he felt for the medic. Not outright detesting another’s company did not warrant affection, after all. Which meant this had been building for a while, and only now was coming to the surface, breaking through as soon as his barely-there filter had been removed with his inhibitions after the injury.

(Wheeljack especially remembered the comment about the berth. Perhaps it was more accurate to say he was embarrassed not because he made the comment, but because he actually considered it, and thought the idea of sharing to be a not so bad after all. It was then that he started to get the inkling that he might be in trouble.)

This was the sort of thing he always tried to avoid, because it made things unnecessarily complicated. Wheeljack tried once more to shove the thoughts out of his mind, determined to suppress them and ignore them before he was forced to actually deal with it. The more he tried to avoid thinking about it, however, the more his traitorous mind helpfully focused upon the matter.

For Primus’s sake, it wasn’t as if Ratchet had done him some great and profound deed! He’d saved his life, yeah, but that had been more out of professional obligation as a doctor sworn to heal and do no harm than any imagined affection. And yet… He could vaguely remember Ratchet’s sharp words from the night before and of not wanting to lose another patient. Of not wanting to hear that Wheeljack had gotten unlucky and hadn’t made it out of a mission. Though he’d been barely coherent at the time, he could still clearly remember the emotion in Ratchet’s voice. He could remember making the decision not to die on him, because he hadn’t wanted to do that to Ratchet.

He gave his head a subtle shake. There was no need to go maudlin. He was likely reading too deep into the situation and imagining things. Besides, he didn’t do mushy stuff like this. Better to pretend it never happened. He accepted the cube, being only mildly surprised that Ratchet had gone and helped himself to his stash. Ah, well. After saving his aft, the medic sort of had the right to help himself… besides, this stash was nicked from the ‘Cons before he’d blown the energon mine to smithereens, and so he had no qualms sharing it far and wide.

The Wrecker let out a static hiss as he tried to swing his legs around to that he could sit up and drink the cube, taken aback by the difficulty he suddenly faced. It took him three times as long to wiggle around, for each move sent pain straight down his leg. “Fraggit, is it still supposed to hurt like this? Wasn’t it just the line that got nicked?” Wheeljack complained, “Feels like some of the circuitry got damaged.” As it just so happened, that was exactly what had occurred.

He finally took a deep swig from the cube, his gulps long and hearty, swallowing nearly half of it all in one go before finally relenting. Once he was done, he wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand and casually asked, “So how long is this gonna take to heal, exactly? I got places I gotta be and things I gotta do.” That was a lie. He had no set schedule at all, and Ratchet likely knew it, too; this was as indirect as Wheeljack ever got in asking, ‘How long am I going to suffer by sitting in one place’?

[Ratchet]

While he'd been startled by the fact that he'd managed to slip into recharge right beside Wheeljack, even if while kneeling next to his berth, he'd managed to find the sound of his soft snores.. actually soothing in a way. It reassured Ratchet that Wheeljack was still alive and that he was on his way to recovery. At some point or another, he lost himself in the soft snores, smiling tiredly. Normally this sound would grate on his every last nerve, but for once he'd been able to use it to be sure his patient wasn't about to jump into the Well.. or the Pit.

Eventually he snapped out of his daze, quickly shaking his head. Ugh.. Just what was wrong with him? First it was the snoring, and now he found he couldn't stop thinking about the things he'd said last night. Why was this bothering him so much? He didn't even like Wheeljack like that so why in the name of Alpha Trion's beard could he not get him off his mind for two astroseconds? Thank Primus Wheeljack was asleep, or else he might've gotten the wrong idea if he'd known what the medic had been thinking, but who was to say?

He went and grabbed a couple of the energon cubes, drinking one for himself until eventually the Wrecker did wake up. Ratchet allowed him some time to gather is bearings, watching carefully just to be sure he was alright. "It was indeed. I'm also glad that I made it in time.. and that I was able to replace your energon line before it was too late. Next time, please give me more advanced notice.. such as when it happens, or at least the soonest you can. Don't try flying from wherever you were and then call. We have a ground bridge for that very reason, you know." It'd been far too close. Any later and Wheeljack might not have been having this conversation with the medic, even if Ratchet had made it before he bled out. He listened as Wheeljack attempted to joke about the whole thing, nodding. "To be honest.. I'm glad that you didn't come to the base. You need the privacy, and you would have had far too many around you for me to properly work even if I did eventually get them to back off. Even then.. they likely would have hassled you when you needed the rest, as you do now." Joking or not, Ratchet had been serious. Wheeljack needed rest, and as much as he knew the others would have wanted to see him, he knew full well that quiet was what the Wrecker needed.

Quiet.. and some space. Ironically Ratchet had breached those two things, but as the doctor it was necessary.

What had been even more ironic was that the elder mech was enjoying this 'quality time' with Wheeljack, even if it had been spent worrying over his health and caring for him when he needed it.. much to his chagrin he could imagine. He couldn't possibly handle everything alone, and Ratchet wasn't about to let him to. Not with the injury anyway. He handed him the energon cube he'd grabbed from before, watching as Wheeljack attempted to sit up.. but not before hearing him hiss in pain. The noise alone made Ratchet cringe. "Do you need help..?" Seemed it worked it out on his own, but was he alright? He listened intently to the Wrecker's concerns, taking note of what he thought might have been the problem.

"Last night I'd been more concerned with the bleeding, as well as getting you refueled and letting you rest. Now that you're feeling better, would you like for me to take a look for you? I don't mind. It shouldn't be hurting this much if it was just a 'nick' as you put it. Some discomfort perhaps, but not to this degree."

Finally getting up from the floor, he sat down beside Wheeljack on the berth, watching as he finished his energon before asking him about his recovery time. He needed to go places his aft. Ratchet knew that was a blatant lie, and that he just wanted to get away. He never did like to stick around, and here he was.. stuck in a situation where he was forced to stay. "You're not going to like my answer, but.. I would say three days, four tops. You need to let your repairs set as well as allow your systems to recover from the loss of energon. It will take time, and you're going to need plenty of recharge for a day or two to compensate, as well as plenty of energon. I know this all sounds like it's obvious, but I can't stress it enough."

Ratchet glanced aside for a moment, pondering to himself. As much as Wheeljack was going to want to be alone, he very well couldn't leave him without someone to aid him should something go wrong. While the worst was over, who knew what could happen. This was a Wrecker prone to blowing things up after all. "Would you.. like for me to stay with you while you regain your strength? I can't leave you out here by yourself, and while it would be more convenient for me if you returned to base, I don't want you to be surrounded by various factors that could impede on your recovery. No offense to Bulkhead or Miko. You need quiet and you need to rest." He returned his gaze to Wheeljack, staring him down. "Let me stay and take care of you, at least until you're well enough to do things on your own again. I promise at that point I'll get out of your way and you can call me back if you need me."

[Deleted]

At least Ratchet had given him over half a day to recharge before he started the nag cycle. Ah, yes, now he remembered why he rarely dropped by the base -- the incessant nagging! If it wasn’t about playing by the rules, it was about getting this immunization booster or that diagnostic, and it usually came from the resident Autobot medic. How he’d forgotten about this, he had no clue, but Wheeljack thought it completely unfair to jump on a mech when he was clearly unable to get away.

“Well, I’ve done this sort of thing loads of times before, so it ain’t exactly my first rodeo. I thought I was fine at the time.” The Wrecker argued back. “I got the patch on as soon as I dragged my sorry aft back in here, didn’t I?” Nevermind that the patch either hadn’t worked in the first place, or somehow got dislodged after he'd applied it. Defensiveness helped cover up the mild sense of humiliation he felt at realizing that calling for a ground bridge should have been one of the first things he should have done instead of deciding to try and fly himself across half a world. Admittedly not the smartest thing he’d done in the last while, but, in his defense, major energon loss did rather funny things to one’s thought processes.

What made him then say, “-Fine! Next time, I’ll call you. That make you happy, Sunshine?” was a mystery, for Wheeljack had been ready to stick in his heels and toss words back and forth about it. Perhaps it was the memory of Ratchet’s voice from the night before, sharp and tight with emotion. ‘Do you think that I would...?’

It took him a few more moments to finally comprehend that the medic was significantly shorter than he ought to be compared to Wheejack’s current height on his berth. When he figured it out, his brow plates briefly rose in surprise. He’d heard rumors of Ratchet’s legendary bedside manner. Most of these rumors involved the medic’s unorthodox tactics in ensuring patient obedience (and he’d been on the receiving end of some of them), but there were also stories of the great lengths that he would go to ensure that his patient was thoroughly cared for, even at his own expense. Ratchet had clearly spent the entire night and most of the day sitting on the floor at his side, watching over him, even when he could have taken a much more comfortable seat in the cockpit.

Something rose up in his chest, tight and delicate and unfamiliar. He dealt with it in his usual way: pretend he wasn’t affected by it.

He pointedly ignored the question about needing help as he awkwardly tried to get himself repositioned, his pride smarting at the insinuation that he might actually need help - and at the fact, which was beginning to sink in, that he probably did. “If you wanna take another look at it, be my guest,” The Wrecker said once he was sitting up, waving a hand at said injury that still had the gall to ache, even though he’d stopped moving. His voice was just a tad bit more rough than usual, nearly betraying the not-emotion he was not-having, but a quick vocalizer reset did the trick and cleared it up. “Not tryin’ to besmirch your doctoring skills or anything, but something still doesn’t feel right. I’ve taken wounds like this before, and it feels like the circuitry got damaged.”

It would mean that the Doc would have to open his leg up again, but circuitry damage was not something that could be ignored. As it was, Wheeljack was already hazarding a guess and saying that he’d not be able to put any weight on the leg until whatever was wrong was fixed up. He wasn’t too worried, though, because if Ratchet could keep a bot from offlining even after losing so much energon, he could repair a fritzing circuit.

(He didn’t stop to think just when he’d developed such faith in the medic’s abilities. He figured it was sort’ve a given, anyways: Ratchet was good with his hands, after all, which seemed to be an incontrovertible fact just as ‘the sky is blue’ and ‘Ultra Magnus has a driveshaft up his tailpipe’.)

Ratchet was certainly correct: Wheeljack did not like his answer at all. “What, you saying I can’t take care of myself?” Was the first thing that came out of his mouth, followed by, “What’d’you mean, four days?!” For someone such as Wheeljack, the very thought of being stuck in his berth doing nothing for four days already made him want to preemptively start clawing his way up the walls. “Doc, that’s ridiculous, I can’t stay in one place that long…!” But Ratchet’s face and his tone made it very clear that he would have to grin and bear it, for he’d have no choice.

Other patients would have quailed under the stern and unwavering gaze of Ratchet the Hatchet, but not Wheeljack. The Wrecker stubbornly stood his ground, meeting the medic’s stare with a steely one of his own.

Being told what he could and could not do rankled him enough to get his plating flared, but even he could not deny that Ratchet was right. He loved Bulkhead and Miko, he well and truly did, with all his spark, but… they would indeed make it hard for any resting and healing to get done. Besides, he’d spent so long on his own that he’d become accustomed to it, and he found that he could only handle the presence of others in small doses. He very much preferred to have his own space and a good amount of distance between himself and others, especially when he was stuck licking his wounds. The prospect of having Ratchet as a live-in nurse was about as appealing as watching paint dry -- or, at least, it ought to have been. To the obstinate, headstrong part of him, the idea was one he wanted to outright reject, but another part of him actually thought it wasn’t a bad idea at all. That part of him liked the idea of having Ratchet around. Would it be so bad?

Wheeljack rather violently tried to suppress that thought before it came to further fruition. That was not what he needed at all. It absolutely would be so bad, he told himself fiercely.

How Ratchet succeeded in wearing him down and getting him to yield so quickly was another absolute mystery in what was shaping up to be a series of mysteries. It took even Wheeljack by surprise when he was the first to break the stare-off and look away. “Fine,” he said, shortly, “But three days only. And no- None of that hovering stuff. I’ve survived worse before and came out of it, I think I can handle a little cut and some circuitry damage.”

He tried to tell himself that it was the only thing that really made sense. His leg wasn’t even capable of supporting his own weight just yet and he would be shaky from nearly bleeding out for at least another day or so. This time he really would need help, and though he’d rather swallow sour Engex than actually admit that he did, at least an actual doctor was volunteering to keep an eye on him while he healed, instead of anyone who might try to pity him or treat him like an invalid, or possibly even think less of him for his injuries, which was always a secret fear.

Wheeljack took another deep swig from the cube in his hand then, mostly to cover up the conflicting emotions he was experiencing. “I’m a Wrecker,” he added, as if Ratchet did not know this. He then felt stupid, because of course the medic knew it.

[Ratchet]

Had he been nagging him? Ratchet honestly hadn't even noticed that his tone could've been taken in that direction. It hadn't been his intention to nag. He'd merely been concerned and wished that Wheeljack would have called sooner than he had so that he wouldn't have suffered as badly as he had during the time it had happened and the time he'd arrived here. Ratchet nearly cringed as Wheeljack argued his case, realizing that maybe he had been right.. that he had honestly thought it wasn't as bad as it was.

Was he happy now that the Wrecker would call sooner? Honestly.. the answer had been yes and no at the very same time. Why was he feeling so guilty over this? He hadn't even said or done anything wrong aside from speak his own feelings about this. Maybe he was a bit harsh. "...A little." Ratchet glanced aside, huffing as he closed his optics. "I think maybe.. I'm being a bit unfair with you. I'm not trying to be. Honest. I should know you know how to take care of yourself.. and if that's what you had thought at the time.. I can see why you didn't call sooner."

Ratchet stayed quiet for awhile, attempting to work off this sudden guilt that came absolutely right out of nowhere as he'd thought. Had it just been the way Wheeljack had said it? But that made no sense whatsoever. Why would it be bothering him, and not even in a way that would anger him no less? If it'd been anyone else, he would've gone off the deep end, but now? Maybe it was the fact that the Wrecker was injured and he felt the need to take it easy on him.. For now that's what he would tell himself just to get his mind off of the matter. It hadn't even come to his attention that Wheeljack had only just now realized he'd stayed by his side all night long and through most of the day.

He'd offered help getting the Wrecker into a sitting position before sitting next to him on the berth, but wasn't surprised when the offer was silently declined. Really he wished for once in his life he'd accept his help over something small like this, but he knew he couldn't force the younger mech into doing so. However, he did agree to having his leg checked out, which brought Ratchet's mood back up. "You have? If that's the case.. I wonder if this has been a lingering problem for some time, and your injury yesterday was just the final straw before it couldn't take anymore. I'll take a look at it in a moment. I'll have to get my medkit first anyway." It hadn't just been just that reason, but also to give Wheeljack some time before he went tearing into his leg again. While he didn't need to rush to fix the damage this time, he did want to take care of it relatively soon.. provided he had the tools on hand to do it. Otherwise Wheeljack was going to have to wait just a bit longer.

He'd been right on the money with his assumption, and the Wrecker wasn't taking this very well at all. The younger mech would have to rest up a few days before he took off again, and now he had no choice but to take it easy. "I didn't say you couldn't take care of yourself, Wheeljack. After how much energon you lost, you need someone here with you to help you when your body refuses to do what you want it to. I know you're stubborn, and I know you want to do what you want, but trust me.. if it were me in your position and you had to take care of me, I would be the very same way. I'd want to do everything normally, but you can only do what's within your body's limits. Ignoring that is only going to hurt you further down the road."

What had surprised him, however, was Wheeljack allowing him to stay for the next three days to help him heal from his injury. Ratchet looked to him in surprise, but relaxed only moments later. To be honest, he was more than happy to stay here for a little while, if only to get away from the constant noise at the base. It'd be a sort of 'mini-stay-cation' or something, only aboard the Jackhammer. "I promise I'll try not to hover. If I do.. just know that I don't mean to. I care about you and your health, and I only want to help you. I don't mind giving you your privacy from time to time, but just know that it's never my intention to hover. Just tell me that you need some alone time and I'll leave for awhile.. then come back. If you need me to do anything for you, just ask me and I'll do it. I'm not your enemy in this, and you aren't my prisoner. All I want.. is to help you."

Ratchet frowned for a moment, placing a hand on Wheeljack's knee of his good leg. He could use that 'I'm a Wrecker' excuse all he wanted, but the both of them knew that he could only make that excuse go so far. "Listen.. I know you're a Wrecker, and I know you can handle yourself, but you can't possibly do everything on your own. That's why I'm here right now. That's why you'd called me here to begin with. I'm not going to judge you for this any more than I probably have, and for that I am sorry. I just want you to recover, and I'll do everything I can to make this as fast and as painless as possible." At that he smiled softly, looking Wheeljack square in the optics. "Now how about we check that leg of yours out? I'll reverse all the damage I can, and then tomorrow.. we can see about getting you walking again, even if it's just a few steps at a time, a couple more steps the next day."

[Deleted]

Ratchet had gone quiet for a long while, which gave the Wrecker time to think. Now that there was indeed a moment to reflect, Wheeljack felt a bit guilty for having gotten so prickly. Ratchet was only doing his duty as a medic, and every point he had brought up had been valid. He’d only wanted to help, and he’d had repaid that kindness by wanting to snap his head off. The Doc might have thought he himself had been a bit unfair, but Wheeljack started to think he too had been unfair… but his prickly demeanour was his default, and wasn’t really something that he could change easily.

His leg hurt like the Slag-maker himself even when he wasn’t moving, though staying still definitely took the edge off. “Doubt it’s from an older injury. It’s been a while since I took a hit there.” Well, in truth, Wheeljack hadn’t ever gotten an injury quite like this specifically at the junction between his thigh and hip, but he’d had plenty of joint dislocations and more than his fair chair of blaster bolts and mangled limbs, but none of them should have caused long-standing and underlying damage if repaired properly in the first place. Considering the wound this time round had nearly kicked his aft and launched him headfirst into the Well, he felt a bit cheated that the scar he’d end up with wouldn’t even be in a place where he could show it off.

Wheeljack was just as surprised as Ratchet was at his apparent willingness to accept his fate. Well, it looked like he’d have at least three days of doing absolutely nothing under the watchful optic of the biggest fusspot on this planet. It was better to have some down time while a doctor was around, he reasoned with himself. Ratchet didn’t seem all that bad right now, anyways, so maybe this would be a bit more tolerable than he’d originally thought. Wheeljack decided he would at least try not to lose his mind quite yet, for the medic’s sake. It did not mean he would be a happy host, though, for he was still disgruntled about having to share his space with another.

Ratchet was even offering to give him time alone when he needed it, too, which Wheeljack thought was… well, he hadn’t actually anticipated the other to be so accommodating. He didn’t seem like he intended to hover or excessively fuss, which was also promising. It was almost as if the medic understood his need to just be on his own away from others.

“... Sounds fair, I guess,” The Wrecker acquiesced sulkily, “I’ll be holding you to that. Besides, you’ll probably need time alone too. I’m not exactly that much of a people person, if you haven't noticed already.” Wheeljack knew for a fact that he was not a people person at all. He knew that he got to be downright prickly at the best of times, and outright cranky when injured. He hadn’t unleashed his sharp tongue and full sarcastic repertoire on Ratchet yet, but he’d hazard a guess in saying that the medic might be less than enthusiastic about hanging around when the three days were up.

It was odd, though. When he had been with the Wreckers, Wheeljack had always been one of the worst patients after being injured on the battlefield, and had always been an utter menace to care for. By all accounts, he ought to have lived up to his own reputation by now, but Ratchet… Well, Ratchet was Ratchet. Wheeljack told himself it was the aftereffects of the energon loss that kept him from living up to his surly potential, and not anything else that might be hampering him.

He hadn’t expected Ratchet to put his hand on his knee, but managed to catch himself before he actually started at the touch. It had been a very long time since anyone had offered comfort by simply putting their hand on him, a very long time indeed, that Wheeljack had actually forgotten what you actually were supposed to do when it happened. The touch wasn’t the biggest distraction, however, for then Ratchet was staring at him straight in the optics and smiling at him with such a gentle smile that his processor helpfully blanked out and his spark skipped a beat.

And wasn’t that just dandy.

“I’ve been on my own for so long that it’s all I know how to do, Doc,” Wheeljack finally admitted, once he remembered how words worked again and his mind had stopped hyperfocusing on the shade of blue of Ratchet’s optics were. He rubbed at the back of his neck awkwardly to cover up the odd pause in the conversation on his end, and hoped whatever mental stumbling he’d done went entirely unnoticed. “Even when I couldn’t do it all on my own, I still had to, ‘cause no one else was there. It’s hard to unlearn that. I know my limits and I know when I can push past them, ‘cause I’ve had to do it before.” The surprises kept coming, it seemed, as he apparently was happy enough to admit to Ratchet something that he’d not told anyone in all his life. Why he had the sudden urge to spill such intimate spark-felt information, he had no clue, and it was a little mortifying. “Look, I can’t make any promises, but I can try.”

It was a relief to be given a chance to extricate himself from the unexpectedly emotional moment, and he did so with great speed. “Like I said, be my guest,” Wheeljack said, taking on a rather forced-sounding casual tone to mask just how off-balance he felt by the sudden sentimental mushiness that had just occurred. He’d just straight up revealed one of his weak points to Ratchet, of all mechs, when he’d spent centuries keeping such things close to his chest and depending on no one but himself. Where these rogue feelings had come from, he had no clue. He resolved to try even harder to suppress them, for the sake of everyone involved. Primus almighty, there was a reason he avoided these sorts of things! Luckily, Ratchet seemed to be none the wiser, and Wheeljack intended to keep it that way.

(There was no way in the Pit that Ratchet would ever even pay any attention to a bot like him anyways. Might as well nip whatever this was in the bud now before it grew into something more complicated.)

Wheeljack shuffled his leg forward (and winced when the pain arched down his leg -- he ought to have seen that coming) and leaned back, as if to invite the medic to go ahead. “I promise this time I won’t be bleeding to death, at least, so that’s one less thing for you to worry about,” he joked, glad to use dry humor as a shield once more, “I won’t even try and pass out on you, though I can’t promise I’ll be a fun conversation partner. It does fraggin’ hurt a lot, so if you could just fix whatever it is that’s makin’ it do that, that’d be really great.”

[Ratchet]

Wheeljack didn't seem to think that this had been an underlying problem, that this attack alone had been the cause of the circuitry damage. It was plausible, and Ratchet wasn't prepared to discard the notion quite yet, but he still couldn't help but wonder if that was indeed the case. He'd taken hits there previously according to his statement, so it was also possible that the previous hits were the start of this damage. Either way, Ratchet wasn't going to argue what may or may not have happened. "Alright. I'll take a look at it, and then I can determine from there when this was caused.. in theory."

The medic had meant what he said about trying not to hover over Wheeljack and to give him his space when he needed it. He knew far too well that being around him for four days straight would drive him insane, and that he'd need his down time. Even Ratchet needed his own private time. While he'd leave him alone, he wouldn't wander too far away from the Jackhammer just in case. The furthest he would go would be back to base, and even then it would just be for a brief moment to get supplies and then come right back. He'd wait until the Wrecker could at least get around on his own before pulling something like that, however. Even if he was willing to give him his space, he didn't want to leave him alone for an extended period of time.

"I know you aren't, which is why I want to let you have time alone while I'm here, but.. you'd be right in saying I would need time away too. Not because of you, but just to desensitize myself for a little awhile. To be honest, staying here with you for just a few days is some odd kind of vacation. It's much more quiet here, and I don't have to worry about my tools being broken within my line of sight.. right when I need them. Not to make light of your injuries, but I appreciate you letting me stay here." Ratchet chuckled a bit, smiling. It didn't mean that Bulkhead wasn't at the base right now, breaking something, but he wouldn't even have to know for a few good days. He didn't have to worry about it just yet.

Ratchet had been more than happy with the fact that Wheeljack was cooperating, even if just a little. It would make his just that much easier and he wouldn't have to intentionally nag at him for not listening. He'd expected that, to be truthful. He fulled expected Wheeljack to get up, or try to, from this berth and attempt to go about life like nothing had ever happened. The CMO wasn't having it, and he was going to do everything in his power to make sure the younger mech healed properly.. so that he was back to his full strength as soon as possible so he could go back to being the insane Wrecker he was.. putting his life in danger just for the thrill. At least, that's what Ratchet had assumed his reasons for doing this were.

By no means was he happy with the idea, but he'd be prepared to take Wheeljack in for the next time he was injured. That's just what he did. Maybe giving him a personal medkit wouldn't be a bad idea, so that he had that extra little bit of help in the meantime. It wasn't that Ratchet didn't trust him, but he wanted to do anything and everything he could to help out when possible.

He placed a hand on Wheeljack's knee comfortingly, just to let him he was there for him, that he wasn't being judgmental over his feelings. It had seemed that Wheeljack himself hadn't been quite sure what to do with that, but instead decided to speak up about how he'd managed to do things alone in the past because he'd had to. "That's the thing, Wheeljack.. You aren't alone. Not anymore." The elder mech closed his optics for a moment, chuckling softly. "Even if you don't stay with us at the base, that doesn't mean you don't have those who want to help you anytime they can. I can name three names right now. All you have to do is say the word, and they'll be there, just as I came for you when you called me yesterday." Bulkhead and Miko should've been obvious ones for the Wrecker, but would he easily pick up on Ratchet being the third?

Now he was ready to check out Wheeljack's leg once more, nodding before he finally got up to grab his medkit and come back. Ratchet knelt down beside the berth, allowing him to access the leg better. Prying the armor plates off once more as carefully as he could, taking a look at his handywork from the night before. "I just want to check up on the energon line first, and then I will look at the circuitry. Just want to be sure everything is still in place and working properly, not that I expect it to fail so suddenly. Better to be safe than sorry." Everything had looked just fine, and he moved around the leg. Now to find the exact location of the pain.

"There's definitely some circuitry damage here.. and I think you're right that it was from this attack. I'm sorry, but.. I may need to cause a minimal amount of pain in order to properly find the correct connections. Please, just bare with me while I do this. I'm not trying to hurt you. Also, don't worry about passing out on me. You're no longer in danger of bleeding out, so if you absolutely need to rest, don't let me stop you. I'll take good care of you, and I'll fix the damaged circuits." Once more he gave him a reassuring smile, just in an attempt to relax him. There was something about doing that that made him feel.. better about this whole situation.