Bee My Love

Chapter Ten

Bee continued to stand and gape at Ultra Magnus until eventually he grew irritated and said, "Are you going to just stand there like a moron, or are you going to get on?" He gestured impatiently, "We came all this way to get you."

"Forgive me..." Bee stumbled onto the ship and the hatch snapped closed behind him. "Haven't...seen you...in a long time...sir," he paused. "What do you...mean...'we'?"

The familiar helm of a medic popped out from behind the pilot's chair, "You didn't think he'd have been able to find you without me, did you?"

"...Ratchet!" Bee said happily.

Ratchet grinned, "Good to see you, scout" He noticed Magnia in Bumblebee's arms, "Primus, what happened to her?" Bee glanced down, seeing Magnia had fallen unconscious, and made a series of urgent beeping noises.

"Right," Ratchet said hastily. "Ultra Magnus, if you would be so kind to take the wheel, so I can care for these two?" Ultra Magnus nodded and stepped forward, but as he did Magnia shifted in Bee's arms, revealing the Decepticon symbol etched on her shoulder.

Ultra Magnus froze, optics widening, before yelling, "She's a Decepticon!" and instinctively shooting at the two of them. Bumblebee jumped out of the way, and quickly ducked behind some crates, optics trained on Ultra Magnus, who still had his cannons raised.

"ULTRA MAGNUS!" Ratchet burst, seething. He whacked the commander on the helm with a wrench and continued yelling at him, "What were you thinking? Where is your processor at, you moron? Why would you shoot at a wounded soldier, when we are in a moving aircraft that does not currently have a pilot?"

"But...she is a Decepticon," Ultra Magnus said, looking so bewildered. No one had ever talked to him like that before, but Ratchet had always had his own ways of evading the chain of command.

"We know, you moron," Ratchet rolled his optics. "Now, sit here, pilot your ship, and try not to blow anything up. All will be explained later when I don't have two patients critically in need of energon."

Ultra Magnus' optics darkened, "How dare you be so disrespectful, medic? I am your commanding officer, and I can easily have your sorry aft kicked off the Autobot team if I wish!"

Ratchet stared him down, "My commanding officer is Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus. If you have a problem with my attitude you can complain to him when he returns. You cannot seriously expect to have been gone for so long and to come back and have everything exactly as it was."

Ratchet left Ultra Magnus sitting in the pilot's chair, stunned, and went to get Bumblebee, who was still crouching with Magnia behind the crates. Bee stumbled wearily behind Ratchet to a small room full of crates.

"Well, it's certainly not the Medbay," Ratchet said wistfully, "but it'll have to do." He arranged some of the crates into a raised flat surface, and Bee laid Magnia on it, before collapsing against a nearby wall.

Worriedly, Ratchet tried to hand him some energon, but he refused it. "Help her...first," he panted.