Finding Sunny

Chapter 9

Nichole hadn't left Diesels side since he's been brought to the Nest base. She slept in the cab of his truck most nights. Not caring that everyone else wanted her to go to her room and get proper rest. She wouldn't have it. She found out that they knew about Diesel being alive. She chose not to through a fit or scream. She just chose to ignore everyone, especially Lennox and the Autobots. A week after he came, they were both woken by a knock to his cab door. She sat up and rubbed her eyes before rolling down the window and looking out to see who had the audacity.

"What?" She growled. Epps stood outside the door.

"Today you got to get your stitches taken out. You need to go see Ratchet." He told her, trying to be nice about it. He wasn't the only one tired of her attitude, but it wasn't like she didn't have a reason for it.

"I'll take them out myself." She fired back. He gave a sigh and looked away for a moment. As he was about to say something, Diesel spoke up.

"Nichole, go to Ratchet. I'm not letting you take them out yourself." She looked like she wanted to defy him, but instead she gave a huff and opened up the cab door and hopped out. She walked away from the two and headed to the med bay, muttering curses under her breath.

Diesel transformed to follow her, but not without apologizing to Epps for her.

"I apologize for her attitude. I had hope to help her with it, but it seems nothing I do can change it." His head bowed, and arms crossed, watching her storm down the hallway.

"You shouldn't be apologizing for her. Why is she like that anyway? I mean I've never seen anyone that...that mean before."

"There are things that happen to some people that can never be unseen. There is a lot that I wish I could tell you, so you and everyone else would understand her. But I can't lose her trust. She needs someone to trust. It's the only way to try and help her now." And with that, he walked off to make sure Nichole wasn't harming Ratchet. Epps stood there a moment, thinking about what he just heard. Then went back to work.

The two entered the med bay and Ratchet was waiting beside the hospital bed in his holoform.

"Come take a seat." His low voice commanded. Nichole was hesitant on moving closer. Diesel gave her a soft push and she moved.

"Come on, lets go. I don't have all day." She complied and moved with a quicker pace. She always hated anything to do with doctors. She sat down on the bed. Ratchet scanned her over, checking to make sure everything looks good. Then he made a sound, she really didn't like to hear, like a low growl but never escaped his lips. She thought about asking but didn't want to make more conversation than needed.

"This may hurt, I'm going to slowly take out the stiches. If you think you need some pain reliever, let me know." Straight forward he told her. She gave a nod and let him get to work.

With every snip of the suture and pull on the thin thread holding them together, Nichole felt it all. She stayed deadly still, eyes staring at nothing, letting Ratchet complete the job. It was a lengthy process and Ratchet was taking his time. There were over a hundred stiches to pull out, leaving a nice long deep scar. A few soldiers that happened to walk past, stopped to take a look. Now instead of seeing black stiches on her face, they would only see the deep red scar. Lennox and Epps made there way in, to see how things were going, as well as Optimus, even Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. Though the two had totally different reasons than everyone else on why they were there. Nichole never acknowledged anyone that came and stopped by. Ratchet only told them it was going well. Nichole could hear a hesitant sound in his voice whenever he talked. He seemed to be hiding something and she was going to find out. When he scanned he found something, something that wasn't good.