Irreplaceable you || TFP Ratchet x Femme reader

6. After all these years

Optimus trudged along through the sky-line of disapearing trees in the horizon, before they all found the spot of activity, courtesy of the femme sitting on the rock in the distance. Her helm was facing the opposite direction, watching the slight breeze pick up the fallen leaves on the mountainside.

"Maybe we oughta-" The Prime silenced the bulky ex-wrecker with his servo as they parked themselves by a nearby tree, a good length away from her still.

"What's the game plan?" Bumblebee beeped through his pattern of whirrs and click-like noises. The energetic young bot didn't know how to sit still.

Optimus thought for a moment, stealing the thunder as he stepped forward and made his way wearily to the femme just in case she was a Decepticon of sorts, no matter what Ratchet's dotted map told them.

As soon as he got close enough, he picked up the familiar color scene in a mere second, gasping in surprise. The femme turned her helm to his gasp, going wide-eyed herself.

"Y/D?" Optimus questioned the fem a few feet away. She stumbled over the rock as she pushed herself to stand, the dust from the rock setting back to the ground. "Optimus? Is that really you?" She equally said to the prime almost in sync with his own questioning.

"Where are we? Did we crash here together?" She asked the mech, in which was too excited to properly answer her as he immediately opened his comm to the medic. The two other mechs caught up with the gentle giant.

"Ratchet" Optimus exclaimed. "She is alive."

He knew what the Prime meant immediately, dropping his datapad in a split second, wasting no time in opening the groundbridge for all of them to plummet through.

The groundbridge opened now bright and wide, Y/D covering her optics at the sight.

"Come with us, Y/D. I promise you I will explain everything in the safety of our base."

Y/D looked to his out-stretched servo beckoning for hers. She seen the Autobot insigma still properly shining on all the mechs and made her mind up on that. Her guard was still set high but she grabbed Optimus' servo anyways, walking over to the groundbridge.

"Woah" He gaze was on the huge colorful portal. "What is this fo-" Optimus lead her to the mouth of the portal before she planted her pedes softly to the ground. He turned around to see her refusal into the portal.

"NO nononono I am NOT going into that swooshing-thing. What is it even for?" She fought him on it, Optimus having to look outside of the picture. She's been missing for eons and eons, and by the looks of it she's never seen a groundbridge, thank Primus. That must mean the Decepticons never seen her, either.

"Y/D, please trust me. I am bringing you back to base, back to Ratchet."

"Ratchet?" She questioned, in which Optimus nodded. "Please, we have little time."

She fought her urge to run away, walking into the new experience. Besides, meeting up with your own kind was a good step in the right direction.

~

The portal fizzled away as every bot and human in the hangar had their sight glued to the groundbridge exitway. Bulkhead and Bumblebee moved, and so did Optimus, which revealed the small femme looking around to the foreign world of objects and machinery. Ratchet quivered, covering his dropped intake. Optimus smiled, even pulling the strings himself upon holding his lubricated tears back.

Her gaze went to the devices in the Autobot base, up to the rafters, and finally to the optics and eyes that were staring at her. She met her gaze with the orange medic, puzzled as to why he was tearing as bad as he was. "Ratchet?" She questioned, looking to Optimus to confirm.

Optimus grew confused, nodding without a second thought. "Do you, perhaps, not remember the doctor?"

She didn't answer, but instead started to slowly walk over to him. He scanned her body's decayed frame, remembering the exact details from the first time she walked into his life, to the last time he seen her laying still in that cave.

She walked up to him, tilting her helm innocently upon staring. "Excuse my gaze, but you look so familiar. Why are you sobbing for me?"

Ratchet smiled, mistaking her statement for her usual sarcastic replies as he pulled her to him, crying into her neckcables.

"By Primus Y/D, is it really you, after all these years?" He sniffled, holding her tight. He had so many questions it was starting to overwhelm his hard-drive.

"Possibly?" I mean I think so." She said seriously, not really hugging back. By this time Ratchet started to notice something was wrong. He pulled back, holding her shoulders. She kinda avoided optic contact as much as she could as he studied her.

"Wait, Didn't Ratchet tell us he seen her die?" Miko asked from the rafters. "So how is it that she's standing right in front of us?" Jack and Raf didn't dismiss her this time, it seems that they were equally as curious to know the truth. Ratchet heard the girl, turning to explain.

"Yes, I said that because I felt too guilty to admit I...I was with her in the crash."

"What?!" Everyone, including the Autobots and Y/D, immediately said in response. Looks like he hid the truth from everyone.

"She wouldn't have left without me, I had no choice left except risking a one-bot pod and taking our chances for her safety. It was always for her, and when we crashed and I walked away I couldn't deal with the guilt of knowing I offlined her. There, are you all happy?"

The room grew silent if it already wasn't. He then looked to the femme, seeing the confusion in her optics swarming.

"Do you remember me?" He said low as she looked back into his optics. The femme took her time answering, looking for the right words.

"...Should I remember you?" She said with remorse, not wanting to admit her true thoughts. She so desperately wanted to lie and say 'yes' to make whoever this was smile again, but she knew that would cause too many problems to count. There's been enough lying for one day. "I don't remember you at all, I was alone in my pod when I crashed. But from the looks I'm getting thrown, you were important to me."

"Y/D, you have no idea."

~