Medical Personnel

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Characters: First Aid & Prowl
Location: Autobot Outpost
Content Warnings: N/A
Plot Summary: Prowl hears that there is a new medic on the Autobot team and comes to check him out.

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Prowl

First Aid hadn't been at the Autobot Outpost for very long. Maybe a week or a little more. But he hadn't met too many mecha yet. Ratchet, definitely. He had at least seen some of the members of Team Prime. Blaster, because First Aid was the one to heal him.

But no one else. First Aid was keeping to himself a bit today, working on organizing some stock and marking it in his datapad.

He definitely did not notice that someone had come up from behind him. He was too engrossed in his work.

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If there was something Prowl did, it was assessing new arrivals. In his early days as a law enforcer of Praxus, he had pulled bots over and checked their credentials. After becoming an Autobot, he had ran extensive background checks on recruits to minimise the possibility of an infiltration. Nowadays, he struck up casual—though that word was a stretch with him—conversations with whomever he wasn’t personally acquainted with.

Today, his target was the young medic who had joined Optimus’ unit at the Omega Outpost. First Aid. Prowl’s file on him was brief but promising. He wanted to interact with the bot face-to-face and see if he would be a good addition to the Earthforce, or if Prowl should transfer him off-world to preserve their scarce resources.

Not knowing how to start the casual conversation, Prowl stood behind First Aid for a moment before asking, “Are you authorised to be rifling through the base’s supplies unsupervised?”

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Prowl

First Aid gasped when he heard his voice. He knew instantly who he was. First Aid whirled around, thankful his mask shielded his shocked expression to see Prowl here.

"Yes sir!" First Aid exclaimed. "I'm just taking stock of the materials we have and checking to see what we need! Ratchet authorized me!"

Was his voice a little rushed and squeaky? Yes. But this was Prowl and First Aid had no idea why Prowl was talking to him.

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The medic was clearly flustered. Prowl let his doorwings droop a little, trying to put the other mech at ease. He didn’t want to make the young bot feel uncomfortable; that would incur Ratchet’s wrath, and Ratchet’s wrath was something Prowl liked to avoid.

Perhaps a friendlier approach was needed. An inquisitive question such as the one he had made wouldn’t have sounded very amicable. Something more casual needed to be said. Maybe mentioning the meteorological conditions for the day would be enough to put First Aid at ease? Though a compliment might work just as well.

“Ratchet must really trust you then,” Prowl said. “I hear he’s taken you on as his apprentice.”

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Prowl

First Aid would kick himself later for getting worked up like that. However, Prowl's attempts to calm him did work. His tensed up shoulders relaxed and he tried not to be too squeaky sounding when he spoke again.

"Yessir," First Aid said, his voice still a little squeaky, but an even pace at least. "He took me on after admitting me into the medical team here."

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Prowl nodded. He had heard as much from Ratchet and Jazz. The stories matched, which pleased Prowl, but he knew that it was too soon to fall complacent. He moved, stepping up next to First Aid and peering at the things the medic had been organising. It was an assortment of random things, nothing that could be combined in a harmful or destructive way.

A part of Prowl was tempted to offer help with the sorting and filing, but another—the stronger part—wanted to have a chance to simply observe the young trainee. He waved for First Aid to continue with what he had been doing before being interrupted, then leant against a rack.

“Have you got any previous experience as a physician?” he asked, keeping his tone light.

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Prowl

"Yes," First Aid stated. "I was-- am-- a field medic throughout the war. I was trained by a senior medic who brought me online during the combiner projects and taught me to be a medic. Ratchet is furthering my training now that there is more time for me to expand my knowledge."

First Aid was by no means a newbie medic. But his specialty was field repairs and First Aid appreciated being able to learn how to do more beyond wartime repairs.