Work Text:
When the human children were not present, the Autobot base was actually rather quiet. Before, that wasn’t always a good thing, but now it brought a peace Ratchet craved. The kids had grown on him. Miko’s music had not. Even the absence of Raf’s video games was a blessing. Just the clicking of his digits on the keyboard. He had another two hours of blessed silence.
Or so he thought.
At least it was only Jack and Arcee that arrived first. They were definitely the most quiet of the group, save maybe Optimus or himself. Still, it wasn’t a pleasant surprise. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in school?”
“Hello to you too, Ratchet.” Arcee said first, her tone as cool as ever.
“It was a half day today.” Jack rubbed the back of his neck. “I think Miko convinced Bulkhead to take ‘the scenic route’ and Raf had to pick something up from home, but they’ll be here soon.”
Shaking his head, Ratchet sighed, “Bulkhead is going to be spreading sand everywhere again.”
Jack awkwardly laughed. Ratchet decided to take whatever time he had left to continue on his work while he still could. Unfortunately, while Jack wasn’t loud, he was still distracting. Normally, he would spend time with Arcee, sometimes in her quarters or on patrol. However, currently he was sitting on the couch, glancing from his phone to Ratchet repeatedly. He could only see this out of the corner of his Optics, but given how unusual it was he couldn’t not take note of it.
Eventually the strange behavior evolved to Jack standing near the railing by Ratchet. He still never held his gaze for long, but Ratchet still felt watched. The feeling of eyes not quite on him made Ratchet’s typing slower, his work sloppy. He sighed, but if Jack noticed he gave no indication. After several more agonizing minutes of this Ratchet snapped, “You clearly want something, what is it?”
Jack opened his mouth to answer but before he could BumbleBee came skidding into Base. Ratchet heard Raf whoop and Bee chirp excitedly about some new personal record. He decided he didn’t want to know.
To his relief Jack went over to Raf. Ratchet breathed deeply. He could finally focus again. That is, until Raf let BumbleBee go on patrol, opting to stay with Jack. More strange behavior, causing more distractions.
It didn’t help when the boys started speaking in hushed tones. Ratchet’s typing slowed once again when he felt two sets of eyes not quite staring at him. This time it was Raf to approach him, with Jack following a step behind.
This time Ratchet wasted no time getting to the point. “Yes, yes, what is it?”
Rafael adjusted his glasses, “Well, we were wondering, is your name a direct translation from what it is in Cybertronian?”
Ratchet shook his head. He didn’t know what he expected, but it wasn’t this. “No, not quite. Our names would be too difficult for any human to pronounce and Cybertronian does not translate well into English, or any other Earth language.” He raised a brow at the boys, “Why do you ask?”
“How exactly did you choose your name then?” Jack spoke up, still awkwardly hanging back.
Exasperated, Ratchet sighed, “When we first had to have contact with humans here on Earth, I did a search on the Internet, it was much more crude back then-not that it's very good now- and Ratchet was associated with tools. It seemed fitting. But why are you bothering me with these questions? Couldn’t you ask Arcee or BumbleBee?”
The boys shared a knowing glance. This only frustrated Ratchet more.
“When was it exactly you came to Earth?” Raf asked.
“Pfft, not that long ago by my standards. By yours though, you wouldn’t even have been sparklings yet.”
“Yeah, but like what year?” Jack said.
Ratchet shrugged. “I don’t know. I think around what you’d call the 1980s. Are we done now?”
“Yeah, that’s what I was afraid of.” Jack said. Fist covering his mouth, he looked to Raf who was shuffling his feet.
Eventually the younger one spoke. “We just started a book in English today. It's called One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and your name sounds a lot like a Nurse character.”
“Well, that just works out then doesn’t it.?” Ratchet said. The boys traded glances at each other, seeming to ask the other to continue instead. “Or not?” Ratchet crossed his arms, thoroughly done with this game.
“Not really,” Jack answered. “See, it’s about a psych ward, and there’s this one character Nurse Ratched and….” his mouth hung open, starting to form words, then abandoning them.
“She’s not exactly a good guy…” Raf finished for him.
“Yeah, what Raf said.” Jack rubbed the back of his neck again, “We just thought you should know. Just in case you didn’t.”
“In what way?” Ratchet was utterly flabbergasted now. His name had a bad reputation? And they thought he would care?
“I’d just google it if I were you,” Raf said. “We’ll leave you alone now…” hastily, the boys went back to the couch and hooked up their video game. They kept the volume very low.
On a whim, Ratchet decided to follow through with their suggestion. How bad could it be?
Oh.
This character the boys referred to was nothing short of a monster. Humiliating patients? Torture? The woman didn’t deserve to call herself a medical professional. He supposed that was the entire point. Then to find it actually became used as a term for corruption. It sent a shiver through his body. The name was fitting of a Decepticon.
Still, the names weren’t exactly the same. A ratchet was still a tool. He fixed things. It worked. The connection to the medical field was disturbing though. What must Agent Fowler have thought when he first introduced himself? Ratchet shook his head.
There was no time to worry about such things. Besides, it's not like he could just change his name. It had been far too long for that, and that would only be confusing. There was nothing to be done about it Ratchet told himself.
He went back to work, diligently typing away and calculating problems. Still the thought nagged at his processor. Lobotomies? Triggering Patients? A single letter was still far too close for comfort.
To make matters worse, Bulkhead drove into base, Miko’s music blaring. Ratchet pinched the bridge of his nose. “Go wash off this instant! I will not have you treading sand through here like last time!”
Bulk chuckled awkwardly, “On it, Ratchet.”
Ratchet winced. He didn’t humiliate his teammates, did he? Despite Miko loudly greeting the boys, he still found himself diving far deeper into this thought then he should’ve. No, they would tell him if he stepped out of line. At least Optimus would? Right?
“What’s wrong with you Doc Bot?” Miko snapped him out of his thoughts. She was sitting on the railing, legs dangling.
“Get down from there. If you fall, I have to put you back together.” Ratchet said, not taking his eyes from the screen. He didn’t feel like talking to another human right now.
“Did the guys tell you about the book thing? I think its dumb myself.” Miko said, still kicking her legs over the edge.
“It is a rather unfortunate coincidence.” He grumbled.
“Pfft please, it's not even the same name.”
“It's too close for comfort.”
In his peripheral, he could see Miko tilt her head. “This is really under your skin, huh?” Ratchet refused to answer. “Listen Doc Bot, it's just a name from a stuffy old book. Besides, you're nothing like her.”
“Oh? Just a stuffy old book it seems all human children are required to read?”
“Yeah, required, as in forced to.” There was a brief pause. Ratchet looked at her, silence somehow terrifying when it came from her. He could see the mischief shining in her eyes, but couldn’t figure out what she was planning.
He didn’t have to wait long.
With a wink she pushed herself off the railing. Ratchet put a servo underneath her, making sure to move with her to slow her descent instead of stopping it abruptly. Humans were fragile, squishy things. Miko never seemed to understand that.
“Miko! Are you alright?” Ratchet cradled the girl in his servos. Doing a quick scan he couldn’t find anything wrong with her. “You could’ve been seriously hurt! What were you thinking?”
She was smirking at him now. “I’m thinking Nurse Ratched didn’t care about her patients but you do. You act like you don’t but that's part of the fun.”
Ratchet blinked at her. “You threw yourself off a railing, into a free fall twenty feet off the ground, risking serious injury, to prove a point?”
“Yep.”
The two stared at each other, Ratchet still dumbfounded and Miko still smiling.
“Don’t do that.” Ratchet carefully placed her on the ground, kneeling to maintain some eye contact. “But thank you, I needed that.”