Energon is Thicker Than Water (RID2015 Fanfic)

Chapter 10 - Apologies Exchanged

When Raf woke a few hours later, Pilar had already left for work herself. He got up from the couch and peeked into the garage and saw with relief that not only was Flashdrive still there, but she was still fast asleep. He closed the door again, and then turned as he heard his phone buzzing. He ran over and picked it up. "Hello?" he asked, not even looking at the caller ID.

Raf! You're never gonna guess who we ran into last night! Miko's voice squeaked on the other side of the phone.

Raf looked towards the garage door. "...Bee?" He guessed quietly.

Excellent guess! He got into a hit-and-run last night while he was out looking for-

"A hit-and-run? Is he okay?"

Oh yeah! A little banged up, but he's okay. He's out looking for a little baby bot that ran off from his group.

"I see... Where is he now?"

We got him to rest and recover in an old warehouse outside of the base's perimeters. He's still here, if you wanna come see him.

"Absolutely. Don't let him leave until I get there."

Will do.

Raf hung up the phone, then grabbed a toaster pastry and a bottle of water before going out into the garage. "Hey Flashdrive..."

The little bot stirred, her optics fluttering open before widening and looking around for a brief moment. Her optics finally fell on Raf, and she relaxed. "...Rafael." She murmured.

"Uh huh...My friend just called. Bumblebee's out here looking for you."

"Bumblebee...?" Her face lit up just a little. "...Looking for me...?"

"Uh huh..." Raf came over. "I told you he couldn't be that mad at you...I'm gonna take you to him...Okay?"

Flashdrive nodded, getting up immediately. "Take me." She agreed.

"Good...Come on, we need to get you out of town before anyone else sees you..."

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Bumblebee was still aching when he woke up, but he'd rested long enough. He'd lost a few hours on the search, and that was plenty of time for something to have happened to his child.

"Good morning, Bee." Jack replied. "How're you feeling?"

"Well enough." Bumblebee murmured, transforming into robot mode and grimacing as his joints all popped as he moved. "Ah...! Stiff. I'm stiff."

"You sure you're up for moving around?"

"I don't have much choice... I need to find Flashdrive before something happens to her. She doesn't know this planet like I do."

"So what exactly happened that made this baby-bot run off?" Miko asked.

Bumblebee sighed. "I...I ignored her. She's my responsibility, and I wasn't paying attention to her, I was treating her like I do the rest of the team...But I can't. She's not a soldier, she's a baby, for Primus' sake! You can't just ignore it when it cries, even if you don't know what to do, you have to do something!"

Bumblebee sat down on his knees. "This is my fault... I was too focused on being what I've always been that I didn't even realize it can't be like that anymore... I just hope she's okay..."

He turned as he heard the door of the warehouse open, and for a moment he panicked, before seeing a little and familiar robot come running up from outside, crashing into him and wrapping their arms around his waist. "Flashdrive...!"