This Love, This Hate: Aftermath Part 3
The waiting room outside of the medical bay was empty.
For a moment, Bumblebee marveled at the empty chairs, unused to the lack of interest and seemingly nonexistent worry. Every time one of their own had been hurt - no matter if it was potentially terminal, something sustained from battle or even a minor injury caused by some stupid stunt - there was usually at least someone sitting there, waiting for news. Usually several someones.
Now, there was no one there. Only himself, having come in of his own regard.
Slowly, he took a seat. The silence, it seemed, was a crushing weight in and of itself.
He supposed that he shouldn’t have been surprised. It had been instrumental that the general masses didn’t know that the Autobot that they had gone in for was Cliffjumper; just about everyone was under the impression that it was an ‘unknown soldier’. Even the sparse rumors that formed of hyperactive imaginations that it could be, might be, may be their red ally hadn’t taken hold.
It was almost funny. One of the few times that a rumor is considered impossible and it ended up being true. Cliffjumper, altered and tortured, lay in the medical bay.
Cliffjumper was back. He was back and he was alive, although he looked so much different from before.
He hadn’t even recognized him.
Bumblebee buried his face in his hands; he hadn’t recognized his own best friend. They had been together for practically their entire lives. They had even come from the same factory line, forged from the same mold, separated only by a few solar cycles and serial numbers; they had learned about the world together and had been best friends even after the start of the war had shocked them all.
Despite all that, he still hadn’t recognized him. It felt like the worst betrayal, a monumental failure that could never be made right. All it had taken was a little bit of paint to change what he thought he knew.
He should have known it was Cliffjumper. His friend had been laying there, in Primus only knew how much pain, and he hadn’t even known it was him.
What kind of friend did that make him? First failing to find him for months on end, and then failing to realize he had found him when he did. What did that say about the kind of person he was?
He wouldn’t have been surprised if Cliffjumper hated him, now. If it had been the other way around, he had no doubts that Cliffjumper would have done better. It didn’t help that it likely could have been the other way around; their forms were so similar, their body types identical except for vehicle mode. If he had been captured instead, would he have been tortured, reformed and assaulted? Would it have been him tied to that berth?
Three months. Cliffjumper had been there for three months.
Bumblebee shook his head in his hands.
What kind of friend was he?
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After a time, the door opened.
It was the sliding hiss that woke Bumblebee from his self-incriminations. He looked up sharply, hoping beyond hope that Cliffjumper himself would walk out, as unlikely as it was. He had, after all, been in horrible shape.
He wasn’t surprised to find it was Ratchet instead. The lead medic took two steps out the door and then stopped, seemingly surprised by the yellow scout’s presence. At least, the wide optics seemed stunned.
For a moment, silence reigned. Bumblebee looked to the CMO, hoping for good news, and the stare was returned.
Slowly, Ratchet seemed to deflate with a slight frown forming on his face. Bumblebee could feel his own fuel pump clench at the expression.
A soft sigh evicted itself from the medic. “Bumblebee, I’m not going to allow any visitors for a few hours, yet. Even then, I will only allow one at a time.”
Bumblebee’s optics widened. “But.. But he’s.. Is he..” Alive? Coherent? Sane? He wasn’t even sure what he wanted to ask.
“He has a long recovery ahead of him.”
The words were slow to sink in; the brief joy that flushed through at the idea that Cliffjumper was well enough for visitors dissipated. “But.. He will be okay, right?”
There came a pause. Ratchet rubbed his face with a hand. “Bumblebee, come back in three hours. You can see him then.”
A soft frown crossed Bumblebee’s face, but he gave a slight nod; he wished he could run in there and see him now, eager to apologize for everything that had gone wrong, but he also knew that Ratchet knew what he was doing. If Ratchet said to leave, then there was no other option. “..Okay.”
Hesitantly, he forced himself up.
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Bumblebee was there a quarter of an hour early. Save for a slightly annoyed stare Ratchet gave him, this didn’t seem to make much of a difference.
Still, the CMO made him wait. In the empty waiting room, the yellow minibot found himself shifting in place, leg twitching as the fearful eagerness mixed together and churned.
By the time Ratchet gave him the go-ahead with the simple nod of his head, Bumblebee thought that he might just fall apart before he even got to the private room nestled in the far back of the medical bay. There was some gratification when he kept it down to an only mild trembling.
The automatic door slid open as he neared it. The room itself was well-lit and had medical paraphernalia laid about, but there was only one berth and it was occupied.
The small blue frame looked up with green optics. Said optics widened. Slowly, a delighted grin began to form.
It was that grin that truly nailed it in. Although the body had been repainted in to a shade of blue that was wholly disturbing and horns and optics alike had been misshapen, that face - that gleeful expression - was entirely familiar and was one that he had missed far too much.
Before he could stop himself, Bumblebee raced inside and clung to the mech that was ,for all intent and purposes, his brother. The trembling only got worse as he did.
Arms wrapped around his frame and returned the hug.
“Slag, ‘Bee, you have no idea how glad I am to see you!” The voice was all wrong and came as a startling surprise, but the dialect was most certainly Cliffjumper. This was him; this was truly his best friend back from the Decepticon’s grasp.
He couldn’t stop himself.
“I’m sorry.” His voice felt small. “I’m so sorry. I looked, I tried to find you, I did, but everything came up as dead ends and we didn’t know if you were being moved around or not..”
There was no response; the arms around him simply clung fiercely, frame shaking just as much as his own, if not worse.
Cliffjumper was shaking. Primus, Cliffjumper was actually shaking. Bumblebee couldn’t recall a time when his best friend had been effected to the point that he actually shook; he had always been so tough, had always been the rock-steady one in their brotherly bond. He had always been the strong one.
That was when Bumblebee noticed that his legs were missing. He pulled back with a startled gasp. “Your legs..!”
Bizarrely, Cliffjumper appeared sheepish. “Ratchet said he’d put them back in a few weeks. Something about my hips being dislocated and things needing to heal.” A slight confusion crossed the face that Bumblebee only now noticed had, for the most part, not been changed. A part that was still very much his best friend. “I.. Didn’t really ask.”
Bumblebee openly gaped; Cliffjumper didn’t even know how badly he had been hurt. However, he did, he had seen the scans and images and had witnessed his friends’ brutalized, naked array from the vents not too long ago.
With the recollection of those scans came another reminder; he wasn’t here solely for a social visit, although he was terribly glad to have these moments.
“Cliff..” Bumblebee gulped. “What do you want us to tell the others?”
Cliffjumper gave him a confused, almost blank stare.
A deep intake was taken to steady himself. “Most of the ARK doesn’t know it was you that we got out of there. We didn’t know what you’d want people to know.”
“..Oh.” Green optics flickered several times. “Pit, I didn’t even think about this stuff. I..” He paused. “No one knows?”
This was going to come up sooner or later. Bumblebee looked away, unable to meet his friends’ gaze; shame coursed through him at the reminder of his failure. “We didn’t.. Know it was you when we went in.”
Silence passed for several seconds; it seemed to take a moment for Cliffjumper to understand.
“You didn’t recognize me.” It wasn’t a question, spoken in a hushed whisper.
“We.. I..” Bumblebee sputtered, trying to find some excuse to cover such an abysmal failure on his part. There were none that came to mind. “I.. I should have..”
“No, it..” Cliffjumper looked down, staring at the blue hands folded on what was left of his lap. A short, bitter laugh filled the air. "I barely recognized me. Should’ve figured no one else would.”
Bumblebee set a hand on his best friends’ arm; both continued to tremble. “What.. What do you want to tell them..?”
A slight, helpless shrug and a gentle shake of his head. “Don’t know.” A breath. “A lot happened in there. Do we even have to tell them anything? Can’t we just go on like nothing happened?”
Bumblebee frowned deeply at that, stunned by the borderline desperation in his friends’ tone. “Cliff.. You were gone for three months. And you know how the rumor mill is around here. There’s going to be a lot of questions.”
Cliffjumper let out a short sigh. “Can’t we wait until I look.. Normal again, at least?”
He had to admit, the alterations would probably throw the ARK’s population in to a loop. Slowly, Bumblebee nodded. “Optimus said that we don’t have to say anything right away. Just.. Just that you had to know what was going on.”
Several long seconds of silence passed.
Cliffjumper slowly looked back up. “Did Perceptor ever build that weapon?”
Bumblebee boggled at the question; it took a moment to remember what he was talking about. He allowed himself a small smile. “Oh, no. Well, actually, yeah, but it exploded as soon as Megatron tried to use it. Knocked him flat on his aft and he threw it at Starscream. Was actually kind of funny.”
A slow, shaky smile crossed Cliffjumpers’ face. “Good. I knew he wasn’t that stupid. Wish I could’ve seen that, though.” A deep breath; he seemed to steady himself. “So.. I guess I missed the past few months. I want to know what I missed.”
That was probably as close to what Cliffjumper would get to ‘talk to me for the sake of talking’; he had never been good at asking for social interaction.
Bumblebee’s smile grew at the invitation.