Crash and B'awwww

"Home, FINALLY," Ratchet said as he transformed into robot mode in the base's garage. It had been raining the whole drive back. He made sure to dry off before entering the 'home' area of the factory. Bumblebee and Bulkhead sat watching TV They paid no mind to the old medic. Ratchet huffed and went to his room.

He was surprised not to see Wreck-Gar there. He was pretty certain his young sparkbond would be spending every waking moment there, probably watching medical vids to pass the time. He left his room door open knowing as soon as Wreck-Gar sensed he was home he would be busting through it. He put a small box of the items he needed for the Autobot com on his desk. Ratchet saw his note had been found, but the second page rested on the floor face down, slightly under his berth.

'P.S,' the letter read in Ratchet's handwriting,

'This is the first time I've been this far away from you. Your spark might feel a little off because of it. If you just stick to places I'm at a lot it won't be as bad. I promise to make it up to you.'

Ratchet placed the second half of the note on his desk. He heard someone stand in the doorway behind him. The old bot was expecting Wreck-Gar. He turned with a light smile, but saw Optimus instead. He crossed his arms and had his usually moody, 'what do you want?' look.

"I got your message from Prowl about where you were. Next time you go out of town talk to me first. I understand a human mapping program said it was fifteen Earth hours," Optimus said in an authoritative but not angry tone, "Two Earth days Ratchet! What if we needed you and Wreck-Gar with fighting Decepticons?"

"What do you mean?" Ratchet raised an optic brow confused, "I left Wreck-Gar here. Sure he's no fully trained med bot if something serious happened but..."

"Wreck-Gar wasn't with you?" questioned Optimus. Ratchet felt a sudden drop in his spark chamber. He finally registered that Wreck-Gar wasn't in the base at all.

"PRIMUS, where could that kid of gone to?" Ratchet brushed passed Optimus to the livingroom where Bee and Bulkhead were still glued to the TV The two young bots were flipping through previously recorded movies on the digital system. They were the youngest bots in their team not including Wreck-Gar. The three of them sometimes 'hung out' if Ratchet's memory processors served him correctly, "YOU TWO! Did Wreck-Gar tell you bots where he went?!?!?!"

"Uh, wasn't he with you?" Bee repeated the same thing Optimus assumed. He didn't even look up at Ratchet as he flipped through recorded movies. The yellow bot then clicked on one to see it was a news program instead, "Man, we need to teach him how to use the TV. He keeps saving over stuff!"

"Once paramedics came to the scene, they were shocked to find no one was in the wreck," the news program started to explain. Bee was about to flip through it but Ratchet grabbed the young robot's wrist before he could. The old med bot had noticed the wrecked ambulance on the TV screen, "They then found out the paramedics driving the ambulance had bailed out miles before. There was a brake malfunction that left the vehicle unable to stop. The two paramedics had notified police before bailing out that-"

"Hey!" Bee complained as Ratchet then hit the off button on the controller.

"Slaggin... kid, he couldn't of..," Ratchet muttered as he took in all the same facts Wreck-Gar had done two days prior, ".... I'll be right back."

"And don't take TWO ORBITAL CYCLES this time!" joked Bee as he turned the TV back on. Bulkhead looked up to see Ratchet leave after that strange outburst. The med bot went to his vehicle mode and drove out to Sam and Son's Towing and Junkyard.

There didn't seem to be any human at the gate so he drove right in. Ratchet drove a little ways until his tires became stuck in the mud. He changed to bot mode and suddenly felt a pull in his spark. Wreck-Gar was nearby. He felt like some young bot chasing on spark feeling when he could just verbally call for the boy. He decided to change that.

"WRECK-GAR!" Ratchet called out as he gazed around. He walked to where his spark pulled him. He tried to make his yelling tone not angry. He was worried not angry at his sparkbond. But his yelling voice could come off the wrong way, "WRECK-GARRRRRR!"

Ratchet had been annoyed traveling in the rain most of the day. The only thing he could find more annoying would be being in the rain in bot mode. And now here he was doing just that. Before he could mutter complaints about Earth's weather he saw the back of a wrecked ambulance. It was the exact style Ratchet had his alt form in, at least what was left of it. As he walked to the other side of the back bumper he saw Wreck-Gar.

The Junkion was sat with his back towards the med bot. He was slumped against the broken front bumper. His optics were obviously offline. His arm closest to the ambulance was around the front tire in a semi hug. His outer arm was resting limp, palm up. By the way his body was slightly sunk into the mud Ratchet could tell Wreck-Gar had been there awhile. His first instinct should have been to yell to wake the kid, but that didn't cross his processors.

As the old medic took a step closer to the mech what did come to mind were horror stories from the Great War. He was glad he had never witnessed the phenomena as a field medic, but he had heard the stories. How when a bot's bond died they would literally rip their own spark out of their casing. It wasn't a conscious suicide, but a glitch some bots had. The spark would cause them an immense pain, and the glitch would cause them to get rid of that pain at any means necessary. Ratchet was not dead, but the sight of the destroyed ambulance and him being out of town could trigger such a glitch.

In a moment of panic that tensed Ratchet's circuits he had forgotten he had already felt the boy's spark when entering the junkyard. The half a second of memory processor lapse did not do well on Ratchet's spark. The horrible feeling quickly left as he got closer to the mech. He did let out of sound of relief. The old med bot stayed on his feet but bent his knees at Wreck-Gar's side. He looked over the offlined mech and saw no outer damage. Ratchet smiled good to see Wreck-Gar in one piece, but carried a heavy sadness. He couldn't begin to imagine what Wreck-Gar thought in the last two days.

The old med bot used one hand to balance himself. He not concerned that he was touching the mud he was trying to avoid. His free clean hand let a finger trace one of Wreck-Gar's black cheek marks. Rain water framed the young bo's optics in a way that looked like how a human would cry. Not knowing what Wreck-Gar's reaction would be to seeing him, Ratchet tried to gently coax him awake.

"Wreck-Gar," Ratchet said as softly as his audios would let him. The young bot's optics blinked a few times before coming fully online. His box shaped head turned a bit awkwardly to face Ratchet. Ratchet smiled lightly a little more genuine this time. His tone of voice was still soft, "Hey there sweetspark."

The next thing Ratchet knew he had been knocked back in the mud by the most forceful hug Wreck-Gar ever gave him. He opened his mouth to yell at the boy to stop. He could imagine all the work it was going to take to get the mud cramming into his seams out. He bit his lip to keep from yelling as he heard almost sobs come over Wreck-Gar's audio.

"What took you so long to come back!?!?" the young bot cried as he hugged and snuggled his older sparkbond close. He cleared a few chocking back sob static before speaking again, "I'm sorry I made you wait so long for ME, I didn't know it was this BAD!"

Ratchet paused before putting his slightly muddy arms around Wreck-Gar slender waist to hug back. He started to realize the kid was heavy with the full weight on him. He grunted but did his best to ignore it. Right now his young bond needed to be close to him, and he wasn't going to spoil the moment.

"It's alright now Wreck-Gar. I'm here," Ratchet said as he computed what exactly Wreck-Gar meant by what he said. Did the young bot think he had been dead but came back? With things such as the Key and the Junkion's miraculous coming back the boy probably thought all dead things would return. Ratchet knew he would have to correct that notion. However, now was not the time. Wreck-Gar sat up with his legs still straddled over Ratchet. His muddy hands now rested on the old bots windshield. The young bot looked over his shoulder at the trashed ambulance.

"But if you're here, who's that?" asked Wreck-Gar, "shouldn't we.. um, notify the next of kin?"

With the last few nanoclicks before waking Wreck-Gar being filled with such stress Ratchet couldn't help but laugh at the now opposite situation. Wreck-Gar looked back at Ratchet with a raised optic. He didn't feel like that was an appropriate response from Ratchet at all.

"Its just a vehicle, it isn't a bot like us. It is my alt mode, so I can understand the confusion," Ratchet said while still keeping his smile. Wreck-Gar smiled unsurely at first, but then beamed bigger as he understood. He leaned back down and kissed Ratchet lightly. The old med bot returned the kiss while his optics offlined a moment. When Wreck-Gar pulled back he had them online again.

"Lets go hommmmmme," Wreck-Gar whined with a pout, "I like the rain but not THIS much."

"Alright sweetspark," Ratchet chuckled again and loosened his hands so his young bond could get off of him. Wreck-Gar then offered his hand to help the med bot up, "It was too muddy for my tires getting in here. We'll have to walk till we get to the road."

"I don't mind," Wreck-Gar smiled as he hooked his arm around Ratchet's. The old med bot 'hehed' as Wreck-Gar's other hand crossed over to rest on his. The Junkion then rested his boxy head on Ratchet's shoulder as best as could be done. Ratchet thought he would feel strange walking out like this, but it worked.

"Gar....," Ratchet started to speak as they walked. Wreck-Gar lifted his head and received a kiss on the cheek from the older bot, "I know I don't say it often, but I love you kid."

Wreck-Gar smiled and snuggled the the med bots arm that he had hold of. He was so glad Ratchet wasn't gone at all. The young bot knew he would really miss talking to Ratchet the most. He always liked hearing the older bot's voice, even when yelling at him.

"I love you too Ratchet!" Wreck-Gar beamed. As they got to the entrance of the junkyard Ratchet wormed his arm away from Wreck-Gar. The young bot pouted. The old med bot wanted to give him a pat on the cheek but remembered the muddy state most his body was in. He instead gave Gar another kiss on the cheek.

"We'll be home soon enough. Primus... this mess," Ratchet spoke as he looked over the mud caked on him and Wreck-Gar, "We're going to have to clean up in the garage before even stepping foot in the hideout."

Wreck-Gar watched as Ratchet changed to his ambulance mode. It was dirty, but undamaged. After seeing a trashed ambulance for two days, He couldn't help but hug Ratchet in his ambulance mode. His arms clumsily wrapped around the front of the med bot's vehicle mode. Wreck-Gar got an annoyed mutter response from Ratchet that only made him hug harder.

"Alright, Alright! I get it kid. Now transform and lets get out of his slaggin rain," ordered Ratchet. Wreck-Gar nodded and saluted the command right before turning into his dumpster mode. The two drove off to the base in the rain.