Fragile: Precious Treasure

36. Precious Treasure

There was a faint whir as the black and gold mech's systems sluggishly came online. Messages flashed across his HUD, reporting normal systems function save for a small warning that said he hadn't had enough recharge. When he checked his chronometer, he was surprised to find that, by Earth time, it was 4:00 a.m. Too early even for him. What had roused from his stasis?

The sound of mech purging his tanks drew his attention to the other side of the room where the little yellow bot was bent over the waste bin by his desk. Concerned, Prowl slid off the berth and crossed the room to kneel beside his mate. He gently laid one servo on the scout's back and rubbed it soothingly. Bumblebee's vents heaved as he drew in short intakes of air between purges. When it seemed to finally pass, he wiped whatever partially processed energon was left on his mouth before leaning back into Prowl. The ninja-bot wrapped his arms around the beetle in a loose embrace, just in case he had to purge again.

"Are you alright, Bumblebee?" He asked gently, concern and worry coloring his voice. Bumblebee groaned and turned just enough so that he could bury his faceplate into Prowl's chassis.

"Yea. I'm fine," He murmured, obviously exhausted, "Sorry. Didn't mean to wake ya."

"Don't apoligize. You were purging your tanks and rather violently at that. Of course I was going to wake up." Bumblebee made a small noise that might've been a complaint and shuttered his optics, trying to go back into stasis in Prowl's arms. Prowl might've allowed this if he wasn't so concerned for bondmate's health. He was constantly tired even though he was recharging normally every night, and he didn't want to play games with Sari or race as much as he used to. This little episode now just added to the list of his worries, "How long?"

"Hm?" The scout onlined his optics part-way, dazed and tired.

"How long have you been purging like this?" He knew from Prowl's tone he couldn't just brush it off and tell him he was fine. The older mech would push the issue until Bumblebee told him the truth. Venting a sigh, Bumblebee wrapped one arm around Prowl's chassis, leaving the other in his lap.

"A few days. It's nothing, really."

"It is not nothing. How come I'm only finding this out now?" Bumblebee winced. Now, Prowl was angry. Or was that disappointment he felt across their bond? He wasn't sure. He was too tired to really think clearly.

"Because it's been happening in my room, and it's never this Primus-damned early. Can we just go back to bed?" Prowl sighed. None of others, except for Sari, knew the two were bonded so, for now, they tried to make it look like they still slept in separate rooms. Most nights started off with Bumblebee recharging in Prowl's room--and only after an intense interfacing session--and before dawn, the scout would wake and sneak back to his room for his last few hours of stasis. To think Bumblebee had been this ill for the past few days without telling him disappointed him. Finally sensing this, the yellow bug mewled quietly as he snuggled as close as he could to the older, "Sorry. I just didn't want to worry you."

"And how do you think I feel now? You're going to Ratchet in the morning. No exceptions."

"Fine," Bumblebee huffed, sick of the arguement even though it had barely started, "As long as I get to go back to stasis, I don't care." He buried his faceplate into the crook of Prowl's neck and shuttered his optics once again. He had no intention of getting back up. Prowl let a small smile cross his faceplates as he gathered the sub-compact into his arms and carried him back over to the berth. He was deep in reharge before the ninja even laid him on the berth. Still smiling, Prowl stretched himself beside Bumblebee, wrapped his arms around his waist, and fell into recharge.

~~~~

When Bumblebee came back online, he was rather shocked to find that he was still in Prowl's berth, and he was alone. What was more, it was already eleven in the morning. Groaning, he sat up slowly, holding his helm in one hand, his mid-driff with the other. His tanks were churning unpleasantly, and he was a little afraid he was going to purge again. Inwardly, he cursed at how late he'd slept in. Normally, he was up around nine, but ever since the morning purging had started, he'd been 'sleeping in' later than usual. He was getting just a little bit sick of it.

After a few kliks, the nauseating feeling in his tanks disappeared, and he deemed it safe to stand up. Bumblebee slid off the berth and stood up as straight as he could. Before a dizzying sensation in his processor forced him to his knee joints, one arm wrapping around his abdomen. The other servo was planted firmly on the floor to keep his faceplate from hitting it. He had little to no warning besides a violent lurch of his tanks before he purged whatever was left in them from the night before. 'Great. Prowl's gonna kill me.' Taking a moment to even out his intakes, he tentatively stood back up. The dizziness that had overtaken him before threatened to come again, but it faded a moment later. When his tanks finally settled, he stepped over the small pool of energon and headed for the door. 'Prowl's right. I really do need to see Ratchet.'

Bumblebee thanked Primus that the hallway was clear as he made his way out of Prowl's room and towards the medbay. He passed the doorway opening into the main room and noted where everyone was at. Optimus sat at the monitors, watching for any sign of trouble. Bulkhead was in the far corner, working on another painting, his optic ridges furrowed in concentration. Sari was playing video games, though they weren't the same as they used to be. Her tastes in games, music, movies and such had changed after her upgrade. Prowl was nowhere to be seen. Shrugging, Bumblebee tried to continue on without being seen, but Sari had noticed him and promptly jumped off the couch to run towards him.

"Hey, Bee! Bout time you got up. I've been waiting all morning." Placing her hands on her hips, she flashed him an expectant smile, obviously waiting for his excuse. Try as he might, he couldn't muster up the playful aura he normally held when offering some odd reason or another and gave her an apologetic smile.

"Sorry. I've not been feeling too well." Her smile fell, puzzlement crossing her face.

"You guys can get sick?" From the monitors, Optimus chuckled.

"Not in the human sense, Sari, but we can get viruses in our systems that sometimes mimic human illness. Glitches or abnormalities with our sparks can cause this, too."

"Really?" Ignoring Bumblebee for the moment, Sari went over to Prime to continue her 'lesson'. Bumblebee was grateful for the distraction as his tanks gave another small lurch. He continued on his way to the medbay without waiting for Sari or Prime to ask questions. But something Optimus had said stuck with him. Something about abnormalities with the spark As far as he knew(and according to his last check-up with Ratchet), his spark was perfectly healthy. There shouldn't have been anything to worry about. Still, he couldn't deny that since this had all began, his spark chamber had been feeling a size too small, which was odd, and it did worry him. That was the one thing he hadn't told Prowl and had no intention to.

Bumblebee finally reached the medbay doors and hesitantly opened them. Ratchet sat at his desk, tinkering with his old war wound. Several medical tools lay flat out  on one of the berths, making Bumblebee cringe slightly. Ratchet was expecting him. 'Thanks, Prowl.' The old medic seemed to realize he wasn't alone anymore and turned to face the younger bot.

"Bout time you got here," The war veteran huffed. Bumblebee gave a tired smile, shrugging. Ratchet vented a sigh. "But I guess I should've expected it. Prowl told me you'd been purging early mornings. Never seen the kid so worried 'bout ya." An optic ridge went up causing the yellow mech to tense.

"Well, I might've worried Optimus and Sari when I mentioned it a few kliks ago." It was a weak excuse, but Ratchet didn't comment on it and instead motioned for him to take his place on the berth. Sighing, Bumblebee laid on the berth and let the medic finish setting up his equipment. He really hoped he wasn't going to get some drawn out lecture when Ratchet discovered what was wrong with him. Ratchet dragged a machine over to the berth that Bumblebee recognized as his internal scanner. He opened a panel on the side of Bumblebee's chassis, revealing a medical access port. Hooking the sub-compact up to the scanner, Ratchet typed in a command and activated the machine. Bumblebee felt a small tingling shock go through his circuits as the machine scanned his systems, looking for any sign of a virus or contamination.

After a few astroseconds, the machine finished its scan and displayed the results to Ratchet. The medic's optic ridges raised as his optics widened. Bumblebee didn't know whether to be curious or worried. Ratchet moved away from the machine and came over to the side of the berth.

"Open your sparkchamber, Bumblebee." The medic's curious tone did little to relax the younger, but he complied, opening his chestplate and disengaging the locks on his sparkchamber. For a few nanokliks, Ratchet merely studied the pulsing blue orb, as if looking for something. Finally, a smile crossed his faceplate and looked at Bumblebee, "I'm gonna take a wild guess and say Prowl's the father." It took a few moments for Bumblebee to fully process the statement, but when he did, his optics widened to a comical degree.

"Whaddya mean, 'Prowl's the father'?!" It was practically a shriek, and Ratchet was surprised the others didn't come running. Then again, he had soundproofed his medbay for a reason.

"Well, correct me if I'm wrong, Bumblebee, but isn't it usually bondmates that have sparklings?" Mouth falling open in shock, Bumblebee looked down at his still open sparkchamber. There, connected to his own spark by thin, whispy threads of energy, was the tiny spark Ratchet claimed was sharing his chamber. Wide optics softened at the sight, and a small smile pulled at Bumblebee's mouth. Then, the full meaning of Ratchet's words sank in, and he looked at him, surprised and slightly embarrassed.

"You knew? About me and Prowl?" Rachet couldn't help the chuckle that left his vocal capacitor.

"I've had my suspicions for awhile, and I can't believe the others haven't noticed. You don't prank him near as much you used to, and the times you do, Prowl doesn't threaten to slag ya," Moving to put the machine away, he looked back over his shoulder, "Not very subtle, kid." Bumblebee's faceplate heated, turning away so the medic couldn't see it. Ratchet chuckled again and began putting away the tools he had thought he was going to need. He figured now was the time to get serious with the soon-to-be 'mother'. "Alright, Bumblebee. Listen up. The purgings are going to go on for about another two weeks." The young mech groaned and held his mid-driff at the thought. "Refuel and recharge as often as you need to. The little one is going to take a lot out of you, that I can promise. No racing, no rough housing, and I'm going to remove your stingers and your jet boosters."

"What? Why?"

"Because the energy that needs to be going to the sparkling is going to your mods, and that's dangerous for both of you." Bumblebee visibly cringed and nodded, closing his chestplates and resuming his original position on the berth. The medic got to work, removing the mods from Bumblebee's frame. Once he was done, he let the yellow mech sit up and stretch, his arms feeling three times lighter than before. He turned to ask Ratchet a question, but the medic already seemed to know what he was going to say, "You're about a week and half along. Now, I don't need to tell you that you can't go on patrols anymore so when exactly are you going to tell Prime and the others about this?" Bumblebee slapped his palm against his forehead. He'd forgotten about them. The discovery of the sparkling had taken most of his attention.

"I don't know. I should really talk to Prowl about it first. Where is he by the way?"

"Where else?" Ratchet's optic ridge went up in a sarcastic manner, a slight smirk on his faceplates. Bumblebee smiled, thanked the medic, and left. Ratchet vented a sigh once the doors slid shut. Something about the sparkling was troubling him, but he didn't know what it was. It seemed perfectly healthy and yet it seemed just slightly smaller than it should've been and paler than most sparklings he'd seen. Maybe it was the experience that came from years of being a medic, most of which was spent in the field during the Great War, but he couldn't get rid of this awful feeling in the back of his CPU. It was almost like a premonition. 'I hope to Primus I'm wrong...'

~~~~

Under the canopy of leaves, surrounded by the quiet sounds of nature, it was somewhat easy for Prowl to let go of his worries. While he felt bad about simply leaving Bumblebee to come meditate in the forest, he knew the yellow mech would know where to find him. Primus knows he'd tried to meditate there in the room if only to watch after his bondmate, but the distant honking of vehicles stuck on the on-ramp and siren wail of a lone police cruiser had kept him from doing so. The forest was his refuge, and Bumblebee knew this. Prowl wasn't worried that Bumblebee would skip his meeting with Ratchet. He'd been caught and knew the cyberninja wouldn't let him know peace until the problem was figured out. That, and he'd also informed Ratchet of Bumblebee's illness and to be expecting him to come by.

He was partially snapped out of his meditation by a slight pull on his spark, followed by Bumblebee's estatic, chirpy voice :I'm on my way!: There was an unusual excitement to Bumblebee's tone, but when Prowl tried to pry further, he discovered that he'd blocked his side of the bond. Whatever had Bumblebee that estatic, he wanted to tell Prowl in person so he had no choice but to wait and wonder. It wasn't long before the sound of screeching tires and a transformation sequence engaging filled his audios. Onlining his optics, he turned to stand but before he could even kneel on one knee joint, he was tackled to the ground by a blur of yellow and black. The surprised 'oof!' he'd made with the impact was drowned out by a pair of lips covering his own.

Surprised, Prowl wrapped his arms around the beetle's waist and pulled him closer as he returned the kiss, optics dimming again. The small engine was revving so softly it was almost a purr. He didn't know what had Bumblebee in such a good mood, but he wasn't going to waste it. With his own engine's quiet revving, he reached his servo up to gently stroke one of the little yellow horns, alternating between feather-light touches to gentle pressure. Muffled moans of pleasure were swallowed by the ninja-bot who moved his other servo down to grope Bee's aft. Bumblebee gasped into the kiss, allowing Prowl the chance to slip his glossa past his lips and explore the warm, wet cavern. There was a faint, bitter taste still present on Bumblebee's glossa, and Prowl aburptly broke the kiss, leaving the other confused.

"You purged again this morning, didn't you?" As expected, Bumblebee's faceplates heated. He diverted his optics away from the other's.

"Yeah. Sorry about the floor, but it kinda took me by surprise."

"Did you go to see Ratchet?" Prowl asked, choosing to ignore the mental image of his floor stained with purged energon. Bumblebee nodded, a huge smile dominating his faceplate. It couldn't have been too serious for him to be smiling like that. "And......?"

"I don't know if I should tell you or show you." There was that excitement again. Prowl's optic ridges furrowed in confusion. Leaning back, Bumblebee let the older mech sit up. Prowl stared intently at the beetle, waiting for a proper answer to his question. Bumblebee fidgeted, pressing his fingers together, before a soft smile broke out onto the pale gray faceplate. "I'm carrying." Prowl's processor stopped right in its tracks. Had he heard right?

"C-care to repeat that?" Bumblebee giggled at Prowl's uncharacteristic stammer, the bewildered expression never leaving his face. Deciding the ninja-bot was going to need a visual to believe the words, he allowed his to chestplates split and retract, revealing the two sparks beneath. Behind the ice blue visor, Prowl's optics widened at the sight of the tiny blue spark next to Bumblebee's own.

"I'm carrying your sparkling. Do you need the human expression, too? I'm pregnant." Prowl continued to stare, mouth agape, even as Bumblebee's words finally sank into his processor. A sparkling, their sparkling. A new life created from the combined essence of both their sparks. It was something to protect, to love. Something worth living for. It was precious. After a few cycles, a gentle smile found its way onto the dark grey faceplate. Bumblebee smiled back, leaning forward to give the motorcycle another kiss. Prowl returned it, aware of the still open chassis in front of his own. When they pulled away, Bumblebee nuzzled his faceplate into Prowl's neck, "I take it you're happy?"

"Beyond," Was Prowl's reply, gently rubbing the yellow back. There was a slight hiss as Bumblebee's chestplates closed with a quiet click. They sat in silence for a moment, simply enjoying each other's presence and that of their sparkling's. Prowl felt across their bond, trying to sense the tiny spark. He was rewarded with a few small pulses of affection. A delighted hum left Prowl's vocals, "I do believe I've been forgiven."

"What makes you say that?" Bumblebee asked, pulling away to stare questioningly at his bondmate.

"I honestly didn't think I was deserving of a family after what happened with Master Yoketron and the protoforms," Bumblebee opened his mouth to retort, to tell Prowl he'd make a wonderful father, but the dark mech stopped him, "Even with that terrible incident in my past, Primus has granted me the chance to have a wonderful life. A beautiful bondmate, a sparkling on the way. What more can I ask for?" At this, a huge smile split Bumblebee's faceplate. He wrapped his arms around Prowl's torso and buried his face into the black chassis. Prowl wrapped his own arms around the scout sitting in his lap, whispering in his audios, "I promise to protect you both." Prodding the bond again, he felt the loving pulses coming from the two sparks within the yellow chassis. Returning a few of his own, Prowl sighed, completely content.