Object of Affection

Chapter 2

Laserbeak chirred happy. She had been afraid at first, but when she noticed the freedom she had in the shadow zone, she was relieved. She didn't always need to hide, stay on her master's chest or run errands. She liked the freedom of flying around whenever she felt like it. She only had hoped her master would feel just as happy. He was happy... for her and that's not what she wanted.

She noticed how her master was always staying close and watching one mech in particular. She liked the red medic too. Other medics forgot she was there, part of her master, but this one hadn't. He had always cared for her and her master and if she'd been good, he gave her a treat.

Whenever her master looked at the medic recharging, she could feel his longing, his sadness. It wasn't the first time she felt these emotions coming from her master. She chirred softly at him and he moved his helm to her, softly nuzzling each other.

"I'm sorry," he said over the bond. She chirred. She worried about him. If he loved the mech so much, why hadn't he told him already?

"I'm afraid it's not that easy," Soundwave said, making Laserbeak realize she thought out loud. "Besides, we're stuck in here," Soundwave said. His helm turned back to the medic as said mech groaned loudly.

Knockout began to move more, a frown on his faceplates. Laserbeak chirred worried. The medic didn't look like he was comfortably recharging. With a loud gasp, Knockout sat up straight in his berth. He put his servo over his optics which had been wide with fright.

Soundwave could hear a sob escaping Knockout's lipplates. His spark swirled wildly. Knockout composed himself and left his quarters, going to his washracks. Laserbeak wondered why they didn't follow. She hopped off of Soundwave's shoulder and waddled after the medic. Soundwave thought it was inappropriate to follow Knockout into the washracks.

Though he did like it when Laserbeak send him some snaps of the medic, though not completely dirty, they were making his core temperature rise slightly. He called Laserbeak back and the birdlike Cybertronian came waddling back into the room, giggling softly. He tsk-ed, but laughed.

Once Knockout was finished, he left his quarters. Soundwave followed him, of course. Knockout entered the medbay, putting up a smile. He greeted Ratchet, who rumbled something back. Not soon after he set his stuff up, came the first wounded mechs. Apparently, there had been an accident with one of the freshly build buildings, it had collapsed and wounded dozen of Eradicons and Vehicons, but also Smokescreen and Wheeljack.

The wrecker got hit the worst. Both medics had their suspicion of what caused the building to collapse. All Eradicons and Vehicons were helped at the beginning of the evening. "You help Smokescreen, I'll take this stubborn piece of scrap," Ratchet told Knockout, pointing at Wheeljack.

"Hey!"

Knockout sighed, he actually felt too tired for the bickering of medic and patient, even though he'd normally laugh about it. Smokescreen seemed to notice too, as he climbed on the medberth. "Hey, Knocky, you okay?" he asked. "Don't call me that," Knockout snapped," I'm fine."

His voice had more venom than he wanted, but he just felt so tired. "Ok," Smokescreen said softly, giving him a small smile. Knockout felt guilty for snapping at the rookie, but said nothing. He started to patch up Smokescreen, not long after he was finished. Ratchet was still working on Wheeljack, as well as still bickering. Knockout shooed the rookie out of the medbay and left after him.

He actually should get some energon, but he just didn't feel like it, so he went to his quarters to work on some medical reports. Knockout worked until late in the night. He sighed and rubbed his optics tiredly. He was tired, oh so tired, yet he didn't want to recharge. He sighed.

"It's the fact that I need to recharge or I wouldn't have," he mumbled to himself. He was unaware of the mech close by, hearing what he said. Soundwave looked worried at Knockout as he fell into recharge. Even if it was no comfort for Knockout, he'd wake over his recharging form.

~~~~~~~~

Soundwave woke from recharge as he heard groaning, not remembering falling into recharge. Knockout was moving around in his berth, moaning in distress. Soundwave was confused to what caused the medic to recharge so uncomfortable. He seemed to do well with the other Autobots, it could not be that, Soundwave was sure.

Knockout awoke, chassis rising and falling quickly. He held his helm in his servos, shaking badly. After a moment, he calmed down. But instead of going back to recharge, as he should have at such an early time, he went out of the berth.

Soundwave watched as the medic sat at his desk and resumed working on the datapads he had used before. Soundwave kept watching as Knockout worked through the night and left his quarters hours before his medbay shift started.

As he strolled after the cherry red mech, he realized that the medic had skipped his morning ration of energon. Never before had Soundwave wished to use his voice more than now. He wanted to question Knockout, order him to take his energon and scream at the others for nor noticing anything.

"Knockout?" Ratchet asked surprised, when the medbay doors opened to let the mech in," What are you doing here?" The cherry red mech put on his usual smile and shrugged. "I thought I'd help you out," he said. Ratchet gave him a are-you-kidding-me-look as he motioned for the empty medbay.

"Go back to berth, you look like you could use some recharge," Ratchet sighed. As he looked the medic over, he thought something had changed, he just couldn't tell what. "No!" Knockout snapped," Ahem.. I mean, I'll check if I can help the others instead." He fumbled awkwardly and turned around. Ratchet cocked an opticridge as he watched Knockout hurry away.

He wondered why the young mech had snapped, but decided to let it go. He shrugged and resumed cleaning and ordering his tools. On that moment, Soundwave had wanted to hit the mech on the helm. Apparently it wasn't obvious enough that something was wrong with Knockout.

Rubbing his optic, Knockout walked into the main room. "Hey, Knockout!" Bumblebee greeted," Wow, you look tired. Shouldn't you go to your berth?" Knockout instantly put on his façade, hating himself for dropping it in the first place. "No. no, my optic just had a bit of dust in it, I was trying to rub it out because it wouldn't calibrate correctly," Knockout lied quickly.

"Oh, does Ratchet need to take a look at it? I could comm. him if you want," Bee suggested. Curse Bumblebee for being so kind. "Haha, no. No need to call in the grumpy old medic," Knockout laughed," I can fix myself."

Bumblebee looked him over. "Are you sure?" he asked," I know that sometimes I need others to help fix me, even if it's something small." That seemed to have struck a nerve, because Knockout suddenly looked away shamefully. "But, what are you up to anyways. Your medical shift doesn't start in at least 4 hours and you're never one to be up and running this early in the morning," Bumblebee said.

"What do you mean 'early', it almost feels like it's already past midday," Knockout jokes. "when it's 8 o 'clock in the morning?" Bumblebee asked confused. Knockout seemed surprised at hearing which time it really was. "I thought maybe there is some patrol I could go on?" Knockout said carefully. Bumblebee stared blankly at him.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Bumblebee asked, looking worried," I know you much rather stay here then go on patrol." Knockout averted his optics. "I'm fine." Bee did not look like he believed it. After some awkward silently staring at the other and at the wall, Bee walked to the groundbridge controls.

"How about you and me check out that building that needs to be checked if we can renovate it or if we have to demolish it?" Bee said and put in the coordinates. Knockout nodded, but stayed silent. "At least you won't be alone and we could chat a little," Bee said smiling. He started up the groundbridge," After you."

Knockout smiled, transformed and drove into the green vortex. Bumblebee's smile fell and made place for a worried look, right before he transformed and followed Knockout.

Laserbeak chirred and Soundwave agreed. If anybody could sense that Knockout wasn't as fine as he seemed, it would be the scout.