Disclaimer- Dun own anything……th' 'bots might try to all kill me if I did. Well, at the very least Bee would for messing with his charge.

On with the show.

The ride to the lookout was unusually quiet, as the main chatterbox of the odd trio was far more subdued than normal. He wasn't cracking jokes or acting up. He hadn't even been pretending to drive, just flopped back in the seat with eyes closed.

"You okay?" Mikeala spoke up only a second before Bumblebee was going to ask the same question. Sam merely slit one eyes opened and shrugged.

"I'm fine." The usual short answer, tone a bit rough.

"You don't look fine." The girl was undaunted by her boyfriends standoffish behavior. Now both eyes opened to glower at her, the expression ruined by how sickly Sam looked.

"I'm fine." Teeth clenched and a 'drop it' behind the words. There was silence in witch the engine of the Camero hummed slightly, proceeding Bee's slightly scratchy voice.

"You are not 'fine'. You're vitals are not at all where they should be." The tone was soft, concerned but Sam flinched away from it.

"It's probably just a cold or the flu or something. Nothing to worry about." It was hard to tell if he was convincing himself or his girlfriend and his guardian.

Bee was silent for a moment, engine rumbling as he examined the symptoms of his charge and compared them to the symptoms of the aforementioned diseases. No fever or vomiting, both attributed to the flu. In fact, Sam had a voracious appitite, despite actually loosing weight. The young human was pale, skin slack and sallow. There were dark circle under his eyes despite longer than average recharge cycles and was constantly tired.

None of his symptoms matched up to Bumblebee's prossecor and the scout told his charge of the misaligned data.

"Your are not suffering from either a 'cold' or the 'flu'." He paused briefly, and continued before Sam could gather the energy to argue with him, "I can request that Ratchet perform a systems check on you if you will not go to a human medic."

Sam blinked, opening his mouth but was immediately cut off by Mikeala.

"Please Sam?"

"Who's side are you on anyways?" The girl smirked at her boyfriend's weak glare.

"The side that's going to get you healthy"

"You both suck." The tone was mock flat as he pouted.

"And you're avoiding the subject." Mikeala didn't miss a beat of his poor attempt at redirection, "Are you gonna let Ratchet check you out or do I have to get Bee to pin you so he can anyway?"

"It would put my processor at ease if you allowed Ratchet to examine you." Sam gave a weak groan at the double teaming.

"Fine…..I'll talk to Ratch….you happy now?" Usually he would sound at the least sarcastic, but all his tone carried was exhausted defeat.

"Yep."

"Quite, thank you."

"You both still suck." Mikeala smirked at the petulant tone, worry shimmering hidden in her dark eyes.

"We can live with that, can't we Bee?"

"If it means that Sam gets examined then yes." There was a teasing note in the mech's synthesized voice. Sam merely rolled his eyes, too tired to keep up the faux argument.

That in itself was worrisome, and Mikeala tried to get him talking again.

"How's your friend doing? Miles right?" Sam blinked at her, jerked out of the half dozed he'd fallen into.

"He's getting suspicious, its hard to hide weird stuff from him." Now it was Mikeala's turn to express mild shock.

"Seriously? He's always so….spacey."

Sam gave a low chuckle, a pathetic sort of laugh.

"He is, but he's really good at putting together odd bits of information, like that my new Camero has the same paint job, symbol, and radio problem as the old one." At that last he gave the 'car' a look. Bumblebee immediately played the most innocent song he could find. Both teen's snorted in barely suppressed laughter. Mikeala leaned forward and patted the dash.

"Uh huh Bee, you're not fooling anyone." The scout shifted slightly on his wheels.

"Are you going to tell him?" Bee's scratchy voice was tight. Sam shrugged lightly.

"If he guesses I will, and with him he might. Don't worry about it, he'll probably take it better than I did."

"How do you know?"

"It's Miles." The tone suggested that that statement alone should be explanation enough, "He'll think it's the coolest thing ever."

Bee was silent but Mikeala snorted at that, "He does seem to be the sci-fi junkie type."

Sam just nodded with a faint grin, leaning his head back against the Camaro's seats with a sigh. Mikeala gave the car a faintly worried look and had the feeling that he returned it as they pulled into onto the lookout.

The mechanic got out quickly and Sam followed at a much slower pace. He was careful, not putting any weight on his gloved hands. He stumbled from his guardian, collapsing against the base of the lookout's single tree with a groan.

The second the humans were clear of him Bumblebee transformed, running various scans even as Mikeala questioned her boyfriend's health, with the expected results.

"I'm fine, geeze!"

"You collapsed, that's not fine." She backed off, a little, knowing she'd get her answers when Ratchet arrived. However, that did nothing to sate her annoyance.

"You're an idiot you know that?" at her glare Sam winced.

"I'm just a little sick. It's no big deal."

"'A little sick' is having a cough or congestion or something. You can barely stand up!" She would have kept going but was cut off by a sharp ring from her phone. She jumped slightly and gave the offending device a withering look but it ignored her.

"I'll be right back…." She answered her phone and walked off tossing back a look that was harsh enough to peel paint.

Sam winced again, relaxing back against the tree with a sigh.

"Man she is gonna chew me out when she gets back….." Bee latched onto his odd tone, but it was put out of his processor as Sam pulled off the gloves he'd worn since Mission City. The scout gave a low whine at the state of his charge's hands. The burns from his contact with the Allspark were still raw, unhealed despite the amount of that had passed.

Worried, Bumblebee focused a scan. His readings were clear of infection, but there was no sign of healing in the open wounds either.

"Sam…" there was the faintest hint of reproach in the mech's voice, underlined with deep worry. The boy in question blinked up at his guardian, gaze flickering from Bee's blue optics to his hands and flinched.

"Those should have healed by now." The scout almost whispered.

"They don't hurt." Sam's protest was weak and they both knew it. Bee eyed him but was cut off from responding by Mikeala's return. The mechanic immediately picked up on the tension and quircked a sculpted brow and them.

"So what are we yelling at him for now?" Her phone clicked shut with an audible snap, sharp grey blue eyes narrowing at Sam.

"Look at his hands." Bee's staticy voice was tight, though through worry or anger it was impossible to tell.

Mikeala said nothing, immediately grabbing Sam's arm to take a better look at the raw burns.

"Have these healed at all?" Sam just shrugged, pulling his arm back expression closing.

"Dunno, haven't been paying that much attention." The tone gave lie to both words and expression. The burns weren't healing and they all knew it.

"Sam…." The glare faded from her face and she thunked down next to her boyfriend.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Bee's vocals whined softly, pained. Sam winced again.

"I didn't want to worry anyone." The scout sighed heavily, kneeling by his charge.

"Samuel, you worry us more by staying silent." He paused, optics shining, "My scans indicate that you are malfunctioning but they cannot tell me what, exactly, is wrong."

"Sorry."

Mikeala snorted, "You are such a guy!" To emphasize her point she poked him with her phone. He gave a mock glare and smacked the offending contraption away, forgetting for a crucial moment that he didn't have his gloves on. Sam was forcibly reminded of that omission when his burns connected with the hard casing of the phone.

A yelp burst from Sam's throat but the sound was drowned out by a sudden electrical crackle and a blaze of blue-white light where his burned flesh met machine. Mikeala fell back from the pulse, instinct forcing her to drop her phone and force her stunned body away as a cry tore from her throat.

"Sam!" Bumblebee tried desperately to get to Sam's side, but was shoved back by the pulsing energy around his charge.

The crackle of power was pierced by a mechanical screech, underlined by a very human scream. The world was filled with the sound as the light sucked back in on itself, leaving in the lookout shrouded in an unnatural silence.

Reviews will get up the next chapter if ya'll want it.

Sam-……what did you do to me!

Teka- sticks tongue out at him not teeeeeelling.

S- glares….and then grins looking over Teka's head you might change your mind about that……

T- O.O why? hears the tell tale whirr of a cannon firing up and looks up to find Bee standing over head, cannon pointed at her ohhhh……slag……takes off running

S- blinks at the reviewers um…hi…….review so we can find out what she did to me please?

B- chirps and lowers cannon