Haven ✔️

Ch. 40 Ratchet's Findings

Sunstreaker's P.O.V.
Watching Ratchet examine Jamie, I phased out Jolt until he shook me.
"Are you injured?" He asks, probably for the third time.
"Do I look injured?" I snap.
I know I am, but I refuse to leave.
"I know it's hard, but he will be doing every test possible; it will be a while. Knowing a ground bridge is possible, I know you didn't choose to drive six hours."
"Fine! That glitch damaged my comlink and both mine and Jamie's cell phones."
I don't want to leave, but Jolt is right; Ratchet will do every test possible.

After my comlink and audio receptors are repaired, I talk to Prime about my encounter with Jadin.
"...I want to find that glitch!!" I rage.
"Stay here," Prime orders, "you'll get you're chance; she'll be back when she realizes her plan failed."
"How can you be certain Jamie will be ok?"
"She's a fighter. She's survived much already."
I know Prime is worried he's wrong, but how the frag can he think positively?

I transform and activate my holoform. Hating I can't return to the medbay.
Sideswipe is in our room. I thought he was distracted with his video games, but I should have known he'd stop playing them once he knew I was in the room since he's felt my sadness through our bond. I wasn't told not to talk about what happened, but all I say is Jamie is in the medbay. Apparently, Sideswipe knows Mirage is as well.
"That fragging bastard found her!!" He rages, "how else would Jamie be back five hours later than Mirage? And Mirage is in stasis lock."
We can't do anything but wait...

Two hours pass before Ratchet is finished examining Jamie. It's time to tell Crosshairs and Drift their charge is in the medbay again. There's no way Crosshairs will be able to stay strong for Drift. I still don't know how he does that. I don't like how Ratchet had Lightning join us as well. Prime is also here. Ratchet's office is cramped with eight of us in here. 

Drift passes out after hearing what happened, and Ratchet saying he's not sure how to treat this. We all can tell Crosshairs isn't going to last much longer; either he'll pass out or panic and need to be sedated. He's taken to the same room as Drift and told to lie down.
I didn't think Lightning would hug me or cry as she hugs me.
Was this Jadin's plan all along, or one of many plans?

"We're likely going to see a repeat of their response to Jamie in a coma after Paul and his friends attacked," Ratchet frets after he and Jolt had to sedate both Crosshairs and Drift. It's only been an hour since they were told the news. Lightning, oddly, is still staying by my side, watching the two Cybertronians and one human she calls family suffer. 
"They need to know the rest, no matter how devastated they'll be," Jolt tells Ratchet.
"What, more scrap?" Lightning frets and hugs me tighter.
Why Lightning? I've caused Jamie so much mental pain. It's looking like I didn't get her to Ratchet in time.

Ratchet's P.O.V.
I only gave Crosshairs and Drift a small dose of relaxant, enough to knock them out for an hour, hoping to reset their mood so they'll focus on planning.
While they're out, I tell Prime the rest of my findings, and we make a plan. We included possibly putting Crosshairs and Drift in stasis. Breaking standard procedure, but we know they'll neglect themselves to the point of being in stasis from low Energon levels.
"What about Lightning?" Jolt asks.
"She hasn't watched Jamie fight for her life like Crosshairs and Drift have. She just needs support...for now," Prime replies.
"It's interesting how she's choosing Sunstreaker," I point out.

Lightning's P.O.V.
Sunstreaker has been an aft to Jamie, but he went to find her. Maybe at first, he wanted to fight Jadin, but it sounds like he didn't get his chance. He could have left Jamie to die, but he got her to Ratchet as fast as he could. He wouldn't do that if he didn't care.
"She'll be ok," he tries to assure me, but it's obvious he's uncertain. 

Crosshairs and Drift wake up an hour later. Prime has Ironhide, Bumblebee, and Hound come to the medbay, which worries Crosshairs, Drift, Sunstreaker, and me.
Ratchet shows us his findings from the CT scan.
"What is that?" Ironhide asks, referring to a black spot on the image.
Ratchet sighs, "some kind of device. I won't be able to know what it does until...I do surgery to remove it."
This horrifies all of us. We know the human brain is like our processor, and it's dangerous to do surgery on our processor.
"There has to be a different way?" Hound asks.
"There is; find Jadin, find out what controls that device, and deactivate it," Jolt explains.
"But Jadin likely has backup plans to activate this device," Prime adds, "we have to remove it."
We know he'd say leave it if there wasn't a chance for Jadin to use the device as a weapon again.
"How did she get that in Jamie's head without us knowing?" Bee asks.
"The day of the explosion," Drift says, "Jamie had a head wound."
"No way that glitch removed part of Jamie's skull without leaving noticeable evidence," Ironhide argues, "also, doesn't that take hours?"
"The only thing I can think of is a brain biopsy needle, but I doubt —."
"Enough!" Drift snaps, "I'm going to find that glitch and disable the device."
"Are you sure?" Crosshairs asks worried Drift isn't mentally fit for this mission.
"I failed to protect her that day. That glitch must pay!"
This is unusual for Drift, but Jamie is his femme. He loves her, and like anybot with a partner, he struggles to decide to have Jolt and Ratchet remove the device once disabled.
"You're both her guardians," Prime says, "Crosshairs, what's your say in this?"

Crosshairs' P.O.V.
I know Drift is worried about the complications of such a surgery, and what Prime said about Jadin having a backup plan if we disabled the device. Visions of Drift crushed that Jamie died in the middle of surgery and that we realize Jadin reactivated the device — even though we don't know what the device does — play in my mind.  
"Yeah, do it," I nervously say. 

We make a plan for how to find Jadin and our attack. I didn't think Drift would want to go or tell me to stay with Jamie. I know he's not going to change his mind, even if I tell him he should be here spending time with Jamie in case the surgery is too much for her. Thinking of the possibility that Ratchet can keep the poison's pain at bay while he treats her.
We'll have our search system try to find Jadin tonight, and hopefully, the team will leave tomorrow morning.

Drift's P.O.V.
I worry I'm making mistakes that'll cost Jamie her life — even if it's her life here and she's still alive in other dimensions. I worry I should stay here, but I want to find that aft. 
"I want to hold you...i-if it'll be m-my l-last t-time," I sob and fall to my knees. I thought everyone had left until I felt Crosshairs' and Lightning's hug.
"I don't think you should go," Crosshairs says.
"No," I sob, "I'm going."
I know the risk I'm taking; I want to know what that device does. I want to fight Jadin. I just hope Jamie is strong enough to fight this attack. She's stable for now — sedated to help with the pain — but the poison is slow acting. Even when that's cleared, there's still the surgery. 
"She's a strong fighter. You know the scrap she's been through," Lightning reminds me. 
Crosshairs and I sleep in an in-patient room down the hall. Lightning and Crosshairs argue about Lightning sleeping in the room with us, even on a cot. Eventually, Crosshairs gives in.