Not Quite Gone

Welcome to The Inbetween

When Sam awoke, the first thing that greeted him was a black leather seat. He felt immense pain, and a burning feeling in his chest. He made a small, pained whimper when he felt his body being even slightly jostled. Somehow, his fragmented mind managed to piece together that he was inside Ironhide, although Lennox shaking him might have had something to do with that. The man was yelling at him about something, but... he couldn't hear anything. He tried reading his lips, but that only made his head hurt. He felt a wave of tiredness and numbness wash over him, and he realised too late that Lennox was yelling at him to stay awake. He tried to stay awake, going so far as to claw his arms, which didn't feel like his own, but it wasn't enough. His body was done. It didn't have any more fight left in it. He really wished he could have stayed awake long enough to apologize to Lennox when he saw the desperate look on his face as he screamed something that Sam still couldn't hear...

"Sam? Sam! Don't you dare die on me kid!" Lennox yelled, desperately trying to get the teen to just open his damn eyes. He could feel Ironhide begin to shake slightly as Sam's heartbeat slowed, its weak beats becoming stiller and quieter with every passing moment.

"No. No no no no. Come on kid, come on!" He whispered, starting to preform CPR even though at the back of his mind he knew it was too late.

"What are you DOING?! Do you WANT his chest to cave in?!" Ironhide snarled, his spark churning.

"I'm preforming CPR! I need to jumpstart his heart!" Lennox spat back, not bothering to turn away from his task.

Ironhide forced himself to go faster, feeling his engine and wheels starting to heat up. He nearly crashed when he felt Sam's fragile heartbeat stop completely, feeling as though some sort of bond had been brutally severed. His spark keened in despair, flickering sadly. It made his tanks flip and a sense of despair invade his system. Sam, tiny, kind Sam, who had risked his life to help them, had just died inside his cab. It left a cold, heavy feeling in his spark.

"Will. Will he's... he's gone. There is nothing more you can do." He said, his voice low.

Lennox stopped pushing on the teen's chest only for a moment, before resuming once again.

"No. The human body can survive at least 4 minutes after the heart has stopped beating. 15 in rare cases." He said, his tone revealing his determination.

Ironhide rumbled sadly, unsure of how to explain.

"No Will, he's gone. Like gone gone. I, I can't feel his soul anymore Lennox, Cybertronians can sense that sort of thing." He explained.

Lennox froze, looking at Ironhide's dashboard. The mech's voice had sounded so sad, that Lennox was convinced that he couldn't be lying. Slowly, he sat back, covering his face with his hands. One of the worst feelings in the world was watching someone die in your arms and knowing that if you'd got to them faster, they probably would have lived. Why. WHY did it have to be Sam? He was still just a kid, and yet he had been forced to grow up so fast. He couldn't even fathom the fact that he would have to tell the kid's parents- "

His thoughts stopped as he came to the horrifying realization that Sam's parents weren't the only guardians he'd have to face.

"Hide, how the hell are we going to tell Prime and Bumblebee?"

When they had returned to base, Ratchet had immediately pulled them into the med bay, bringing them to a surgical table.

"Quick, hand me Sam, who knows how bad the external bleeding is!" The medic demanded, already stress pacing.

"Ratchet..."