Ghosts of the Present (Rescue Bots AU)

4. Out of Sorts

When Heatwave and Boulder rolled back into the firehouse, they were covered helm to heelstrut in sand, and their joints ached. They were clearly out of practice from their absence, and that irritated Heatwave to no end. Heatwave brushed more of the sand off of his chassis before looking up, and found Chase sitting on top of a crate, and Blades carefully examining his left shoulder.

"What happened?" Boulder asked.

Blades sighed, "Chase hit a railroad spike trying not to hit a crazy jay-walking pedestrian."

"It was not a railroad spike, just a-ow ow ow...!" Chase fought his own reflex to reach back and cover the wound with his hand. "Careful, Blades...!"

Blades pulled back just a little, "I'm sorry, Chase. I'm not trying to make it worse."

"I know...Just do it."

"Okay...One, two...three!"

Chase's optics widened and then tightly shut as he whined through gritted teeth and a long, metal spike was pulled loose of his wheel. "There... It's out."

"Thank you..."

Chase rolled his shoulder in the socket a little, "...That's much better."

Blades examined the protrusion, now coated in the officer's energon. "What something like this would be doing in the middle of the road is beyond me... Though with how you said you had to stop, I'm not surprised it went in so deep."

"Yes..."

Chase covered his faceplate with his hands, "I still can't believe I swore in front of the Chief...!"

"You swore? Ooh..." Heatwave leaned closer to the officer, "...Was it a good one?"

"Heatwave!" Boulder scolded, elbowing the firetruck.

"Oh come on, don't you miss being able to properly articulate how angry you are?"

"Boulder doesn't get angry." Chase responded, "The closest emotion he expresses to anger is intense disappointment."

Boulder grinned at the officer, and then shook his helm. "Honestly, Heatwave. What would Professor Cogwhirl say?"

"Don't treat Cogwhirl as some sort of saint, every third word out of her mouth was a swear word!"

"I didn't even know cybertronians had swear words..."

They all looked over to Cody as he stood in the corner, how long had he been standing there?

"C-Cody, we-"

Cody waved a hand in dismissal, "It's fine. You're not actually swearing right now, right? No need to cover my ears." He placed his hands into his pockets, "Besides, I'm practically an adult now."

Blades then turned back to tending to Chase, "I'm going to put some disinfectant on your shoulder to be safe."

"Very well..."

Chase looked up at the sandy pair, "How was your assignment?"

Heatwave chuckled as he crossed his arms, "Aside from Milo accusing us of wanting to eat the townsfolk, not bad."

Blades paused in his work, "We don't eat."

"That's what I said!" Boulder added, "But it seems that not everyone's up to being friendly with us."

"Heh." Heatwave shook his helm, "You'd think three years would settle some of that disconcertion."

Chase sat up a little straighter, "Not if they thought we were dead and would never have to encounter us again... Still, it seems we still have a long way to go in order to be considered complete citizens of the town."