Chapter Text
“Hey, kid! Grab me some transistors from the supply closet, would ya!”
Bumblebee whined in response to Ratchet’s yell, “Aw, c’mon, I’m in the middle of a game! Can’t someone else get it?”
“Everybot else is either on patrol or picking up Sari, so no, they can’t! Now get up off yer lazy aft and get me those transistors!”
Bee groaned as he paused his game. He set his controller to the side and glared at nothing for a moment. He really didn’t want to get up, and not because he was a ‘lazy aft’ or ‘undisciplined fool’. No, he didn’t want to get up cuz his legs hurt like the pits. Sure, they hurt basically every day, but today they decided to act like he’d done a thousand transform-ups right before getting pounded into the dirt by Megatron.
Maybe he let them rest long enough so he could actually go do stuff now. He sprang up from the couch and nearly collapsed from the pain that shot through his legs. Nope, Nope, NOPE. Still hurt like a fragging glitch. He sucked in an intake before moving as fast as his legs would allow to get to the supply closet. Didn’t want to anger the ole Hatchet by taking too long to get his stuff. Plus, the faster he got it, the faster he could go back to relaxing on the couch and being off his pedes.
After what felt like forever, he finally reached the stupid supply closet. He pushed the door open and searched all over for the transistors. Moving as little as he could while still being thorough, but he couldn’t find the slaggin’ things anywhere! Just as Bee was about to comm Ratch and make sure they were actually in the supply closet, he spotted the box of them. On the top shelf.
Whoever put them up there was gonna get zapped. Hard.
After glaring at it like it owed him a million shanix and giving it a rude earth gesture to boot, Bee began to put together a rickety tower for him to climb up to get it. Yeah, climbing would suck, but it was better than jumping and causing probably double the pain in his legs just to miss and have to do it over again. He paused halfway through building his tower to take a break. His legs were sparking from how much they hurt. He was even starting to feel dizzy and lightheaded.
Primus, he hated it when his stupid legs made him feel like this. At least back when they were just a space bridge repair crew, he could just sit down and blast some rocks while waiting for the pain to die down to a manageable level. That or up and disappear for a bit if it was one of the “tougher” jobs. Now, he couldn’t hide away when the pain got too much. He had to make sure to protect and defend the people of Detroit from fellow humans or the Decepticons. He had to be a tough bot, and if that meant running around even when his legs felt like they were gonna collapse at any moment, so be it. He quickly rushed to finish his tower and grab the box he came here for. He was gently pulling the box down so he could adjust for the weight and-
“I do believe that what you are doing is called an OSHA violation.”
Bee definitely didn’t shriek at the sudden appearance of Prowl. Absolutely not. No, instead, he stumbled and fell straight onto the floor, with his tower following right after him. White filled his optics as pain lanced through both of his legs, wrenching a scream from him as it felt like everything landed directly on top of his legs. He was gritting his denta hard as he waited for his audio receptors to stop ringing and for his vision to clear enough for him to leave. Heaving large amounts of air through his vents to try to offset the pain. The last thing he expected to see was Prowl and Ratchet throwing boxes off of him like his spark was about to gutter at any moment, with Sari looking like she was two seconds away from crying.
Scrap, he probably scared her with his stupid scream. He quickly shoved the last few of the boxes off by himself. Ratchet was at his side, grabbing his helm and checking for any damage, which was probably a good idea. After all, the only thing he could feel at the moment was the pain from his legs, so he couldn’t tell if anything else was actually broken or not. Still, he needed to reassure them before they got too worked up over nothing.
“Calm down, ya old geezers. It was just one itty-bitty tumble. I’m not made of glass, ya know! I’m fine!”
“Kid, I could hear yer yell from the med-bay and yer legs are sparkin’! Like scrap yer ‘fine’!”
“Why didn’t you just get a ladder instead of stacking all the boxes like that, or were you too lazy to go look for one?”
Bee looked away so he didn't have to see the glare Prowl was for sure sending his way. Sure, he could have gotten a ladder, but that would have meant more strain on his legs, which was what he was trying to avoid. It would have worked too if somebot hadn’t snuck up on him. Jerk.
“Uhh, Ratchet?” Sari piped up, drawing all the optics in the room to the small girl as she spoke, “Bee’s legs were already sparking before he fell.”
Now all the optics were back on him. Scrap. He thought they’d have stopped by now. Ugh, he was gonna get such a lecture from Ratch over absolutely nothing!
“What in Primus’s name were ya thinkin’, kid!? Climbin’ up an unstable tower while yer hurt! Why didn’t you tell me sooner!?! Prowl, help me drag him to the med-bay so I can fix ‘im! Sari, I need you to wait in the living room, ‘kay?”
No sooner did the words leave his intake that Prowl was already picking him up bridal style and trudging for the med-bay with Ratchet right behind. By the time Bee registered what was happening, he was already on the med-berth with Ratchet, getting out his tools. Frag. He didn’t want Ratchet to waste their already limited resources on something that couldn’t be fixed.
“Whoa, chill out, Doc-bot! I’m good, honest. You don’t have to bother with checking my legs at all. I swear they just do that sometimes.”
“Wait, Bumblebee, do your legs usually spark like that?”
If Bee didn’t know any better, he’d swear he heard concern in the ninja-bot’s voice.
“I mean, they don’t usually spark like that for long, but when the pain gets pretty high, they do. B-But it stops eventually, then it just goes back to its normal pain levels, you know!”
The old bots shared a look between them. They were probably both thinking of some injuries of theirs that still hurt after all this time, and would let him go back so he could cheer Sari up with some games. He definitely wouldn’t be doing any form of racing for the rest of the day if he could help it.
“Kid, how bad would you describe your normal pain levels from one to ten, and how often do they feel like that?”
First, a concerned Prowl, and now a gentle Ratchet, maybe he did hit his helm.
“Uh, I dunno, probably about a two or three? They feel like that basically every day. I mean, some days are worse than others, like today, even before the whole closet incident. Like I said, it’ll eventually go back to normal again.”
Prowl raised an optic ridge at that, “Your normal, which is a two or three?”
Bee just nodded as Ratchet cursed before pulling out the hardline from the medic computer. Before he could even attempt to protest, it was shoved into his medical port and began feeding his data into the terminal. Ratchet probably wanted to make sure he wasn’t lying, but still. Rude.
“Prowl, go give Sari some company. Poor bitlet’s probably worried sick. When Prime gets back, inform him and Bulkhead of the current situation. I’ll update you all later if need be.”
Prowl said nothing as he slipped out of the room, leaving just Ratchet and Bee in complete silence as they waited for the computer to get done. It dinged, indicating the results to Ratchet, but all Bee could see was a jumbled mess of red around his legs as none of it made sense to him. Whatever it said clearly upset Ratchet, considering the grip the other suddenly had on the console.
“Bumblebee, I’m going to put you in stasis for a bit. I’m gonna fix you. I promise I’ll fix you.”
With the way Ratchet was speaking, you’d think Bee was about to join the Allspark or something. The medic kept muttering about how he’d fix Bee even as the minibot slowly drifted off into stasis. His last bit of awareness was him looking at Ratchet, who somehow looked both pissed and sad at the same time.
Bee slurred out a tiny ‘M sorry’ before everything faded to a blissful black.
When Bee came back online, everything felt a little fuzzy. Ratchet probably just gave him some pain patches once he figured out his legs couldn’t be fixed. After all, the medics back at boot camp just told him he needed to toughen up when he tried to tell them about his legs hurting. Longarm even said that it was a normal part of growing up. Parts got outdated and started hurting. Nothing to do but deal with it for the rest of his functioning like everybot else. It just happened to him a lot sooner than most.
“Can I go sit with Bee, Ratchet? I promise I won't try to wake him up or anything, really,” Sari's voice filtered in through the crack in the med-bay door.
“I know you won't kid, but I think it'd be for the best if me and Prime talked to him before anybot else. Just so we can figure out the root cause of this slaggin’ mess! I mean for Primus' sake his-”
Optimus cut off Ratchet before he could go on a rant about how reckless Bee was, as he stated, “Nothing you need to worry about. It's just so we can prevent anything like this from happening in the future.”
“W-Why didn't my key fix him? I mean, I've used it on him a bunch, so why didn't it? Did I do something wrong o-or…”
It broke Bee’s spark to hear Sari sound so upset. He wanted to run out there and hug her until all of her sadness went away. But that would mean having to talk with the Hatchet and Boss-bot sooner, which he wanted to put off for as long as possible. Thank you very much! Plus, his legs never really worked right after coming out of stasis, so he’d probably just end up face-planting on the floor if he even tried to move.
Thankfully, Ratchet also seemed to dislike hearing Sari sound so upset as he said, “Sari, kid, look at me. None of this is your fault. There are just some things your key can’t fix. I mean, look at my chevron. You’ve used your key on me before, and the dang things still busted. Your key probably has some sort of time limit on injuries, and well, if my guess is right, then this happened way before we even found Prowl, let alone the Allspark.”
“What do you mean you found Prowl? W-What was he like, a stray cat or something?”
Bee smiled as Sari’s soft laughter filled the air. OP sent her off to go bother Prowl for the story of how the ninja-bot had really joined their team. He was sure she’d get a kick out of it, technically, being all Ratchet’s fault for their team adding the fifth member. Bee was so lost in thought, he didn’t hear the door to the med-bay fully open until Ratchet started talking.
“Ah, glad to see you awake and aware again, kid. Just in time too, cuz me and Prime have-”
“Have a lecture to give me about responsibility and taking better care of myself and setting a good example for Sari, yeah, yeah, I know. Especially since I’m ‘officially a big bot now’ to you guys with,” he gestured animatedly towards his legs, “this whole situation. So, can we just skip to the part where you send me back to my hab with a few pain patches for when the pain gets in the way of me properly doing my duties, and just forget about this being a thing in a few cycles. Heck, if you want, we can even skip the pain patch part. They've always given me weird side effects anyway, so I never use ‘em.”
As Bee finished, a tense silence settled over the med-bay. Frag. He probably pissed them off by interrupting their speech. Don't think of Starscream's claws, don't. If he was gonna have to be a big bot again, he had to remember all the rules he learned at boot camp thanks to Longarm. He quickly tampered his field down and put his arms out in front so they were gently lying on his thighs. Optics downcast and dimmed. Vocalizer manually muted so he didn't accidentally speak out of turn and anger them further. He sat waiting for the reprimand and eventual punishment to be hurled his way. He'd do whatever they asked, no matter what, to stay on their good side. Just like Longarm taught him. Just like Sentinel wanted him to.
“Bumblebee, what are you-”
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN PAIN PATCHES GIVE YOU WEIRD SIDE EFFECTS?!? WHAT THE FRAG DO THEY DO TO YA?!”
Both Bee and Optimus jumped from the strength of Ratchet’s yell as Bee quickly scrambled to placate the medic, “I mean, they do a lot of different things to me! Make my processor lag, makes everything all fuzzy, causes me to blackout and forget stuff, and one time they even paralyzed me!”
“B-But that makes no sense! It should do the same thing every slaggin’ time, not…ugh!" The medic whirled on Bee, pointing an accusatory digit at him. "Where the frag were you gettin’ those pain patches from?!”
“A friend back at boot camp would sneak me some from the medics cuz they refused to treat me! Said I was just being a sparkling and needed to toughen up. Even after a training exercise gone wrong, they didn’t do slag! Heh, I think one even shortened my rations for bothering them.”
The laugh he let out was bitter. He knew he should be better than holding a grudge against the bot, but he couldn’t help it. They always went on about how he didn’t need so many rations due to being a mini, while in the same breath scolding Bulk for refueling so often cuz of his big frame. They both went into recharge with a near-empty tank back then more times than they could count. It’s a part of the reason they adjusted to using oil as an energon substitute faster than the rest of the team. Guess he owes the stupid medic for that at least, but they were still a fragging glitch!
While Doc-bot was busy fuming from the, in his own words, sheer incompetence of those stuck-up elitist waste of training ‘medics’, and pacing around the med-bay, Optimus decided to ask his own clarifying question.
“Bee, while at boot camp, did you have any injury that required your legs to be removed?”
He looked at Boss-bot like he’d grown a second head. “Uh, kinda? I mean, my legs did get removed once, but it wasn’t cuz of an injury or anything like that.”
What did his legs have to do with any of this?
Optimus’s expression darkened, “So the medics were the ones to put your legs on wrong, then. Did Sentinel know about this?”
“Oh, when I get my servos on those slaggers I’m gonna-”
“Wait, what?! What do you mean, put my legs on wrong?!? They never touched my legs! Refused to even listen to me when I tried to tell them about it!”
Bee’s spark was racing. The frag were they talking about? Did his fall mess up his legs that badly? Oh, scrap, he was so fragged if it did. Who knows when the next time he’d be able to drive again would be? He was supposed to be the fastest thing on four wheels! How was he supposed to help the team with his speed if his legs were basically useless? He couldn't be useless. Being useless was bad. Being useless meant-
"Hey, kid," Bee jumped when Ratchet started talking. When did he get that close? "Sorry, didn't mean to spook you. Think you can hold this for me?"
Ratch handed him some weird-looking datapad thing. It was bright orange, squishy, and kinda rubbery. It even smelled a bit like rubber, too. It had a bunch of bubbles randomly scattered over it. When he pushed on one, it made a little pop noise as it popped out on the other side. Bee spent a few minutes messing around with the thing. Eventually, he got bored with it and set it to the side.
"So why'd you give me this thing, doc-bot?"
"Hm?" Ratchet didn't even bother looking at Bumblebee from his place at the monitor. "Oh, I needed something to keep ya still long enough for this thing to run its scan on ya. Kinda surprised it worked that well, honestly."
Bee gasped in mock offense, "Do you really think I couldn't stay still for one exam?"
Boss-bot let out a surprised laugh, "You and staying still don't tend to go together unless the word 'won't' is in there somewhere."
The three of them laughed at that as the last little bit of tension left the room. Just as Bee was about to lie down on the med-berth, the monitor dinged. Bee looked up at it, and there was a bunch of red around his legs. However, it was a lot less than before. He still had absolutely zero clue what it meant, but he figured the less red the better, right?
Optimus didn't seem to share that sentiment as he said, "Ratchet, I thought you said you fixed his legs?"
Ratchet glared at the Prime for a moment, "No, I said I did what I could. Considering all the tools we got on servo and just how long his legs were like that, this is the best I could do! If you want, I can talk to you more about that later. As I was about to say, it looks like your legs are taking to my fixes pretty well. Now I don't want you doin' anything too strenuous, but that don't mean ya gotta just lay around doin' nothin'! I want ya to walk and drive one lap around the base each day. Take as many breaks as ya need. That should get yer frame used to how your legs feel now. You'll still feel some pain in yer legs, but it shouldn't be anywhere near enough for them to start sparkin, so if they do let me know immediately! Got it?" Bee nodded his helm before Ratchet continued. "Good. Also, until I say so, if you get hurt, no using Sari's key to fix ya up. Yer body needs to readjust to yer legs, and I don’t want to risk that key undoin all my hard work just cuz yer legs aren't like it's used to."
Normally, Bee would argue that Sari's key was perfectly fine and safe, but Ratchet was right. For all they knew, Ratchet could fix his chevron, have the key used on him, and all the sudden his chevron is broken again cuz his frame wasn't used to it. The key was magical, but that meant they really had no idea what it could or couldn't do.
"Alright, I'll try my hardest not to get hurt, Doc-bot! So I'm good to go? Don't want to end up lagging behind you all for too long!"
Ratchet just laughed, "Oh please, like we could keep you down for long. I'm sure you'll be drivin' circles around us within the next few days at most!" Just as Bee was about to launch himself off the med-berth, Ratchet yelled, "Ep ep ep! That don't mean yer free to go crazy! I still want ya to rest for the rest of the day. No arguin' about it or I'll weld ya to yer berth myself! Now head on back to yer hab, and if you see Bulkhead, tell him I need to see him. I need to make sure he's all good, too."
Bee slid off the med-berth and made his way out the door, waving as he said, "Whatever you say, Ratch! One big green giant coming your way shortly!"
Bee had just left the room when he stopped to take notice of his legs now that he was out of their sight. They felt weird. Not in a bad way or anything like that. Just weird. He kicked out in front of him and was surprised at how he didn't have to put nearly as much focus into doing it as he used to. In fact, it even felt a lot better to do it too! He crouched down and found that his legs weren't immediately protesting against it. It actually took a minute or two this time! Heh, Sari's key may be magic, but Ratchet was clearly a miracle worker!
Just as he was about to go grab Bulkhead, he heard Optimus ask Ratchet a question about his legs, which was apparently the wrong thing to say to the medic, as he went off, "The kids' legs would've been less of a mess if they were put on backwards! Seriously! For Primus sake, it was like each thing had been connected to cause the most amount of damage possible! Energon lines mixed up, gears rubbing against the wrong ones causin' them to strip, conduits that went nowhere! I'm surprised the kid could even move 'em, let alone do half the things he's done! Whoever he got to fix his legs before did it all wrong! Why if I didn't-"
Bee sprinted away from the med-bay and back to his hab as quickly as possible. Barely remembering to tell Bulkhead that Ratchet wanted to see him when he ran past the others' room. He closed the door to his hab as he sank to the floor, processing what Ratchet had said about his legs.
His legs hadn't been messed up from them getting taken off? It was from them getting put back on? But…how? Why?
Why?
Why would Longarm put his legs on wrong? Longarm…Longarm was one of his only friends back at boot camp, so why would he…? Wait, they were at boot camp! They were still learning. Yeah. Yeah! That had to be it! He just got some things mixed up in his training, that’s all. His friend would never hurt him like that! No way! It had just been an unfortunate accident. That’s all.
Longarm would never hurt him.
Longarm would never debilitate him.
But Shockwave would.