This is a companion fic to TheLegacy79's story 'New Feelings'. I suppose you could read this separately, but I don't know why you would want to because TheLegacy79 is an awesome writer, and this would make a heck of a lot more sense.

I do not own Transformers or TheLegacy79's plot line.

Set after chapter three of New Feelings.

...

"Arcee, what's gotten into you?" Jack asked. "You stay here and mope all day, and then you don't even want to go for a drive?"

"It's nothing, Jack. I just don't feel up for it, right now." Arcee sighed. Bumblebee was on her mind, again. She glanced toward the med bay for what felt like the thousandth time that day. Even though she had things to do, and knew that Bumblebee was probably sleeping off his injury right now, and that she had been ignoring Jack for a few day.

"Something's up. You've been going between grinning like a fool and jumping at anything that moves."

"Jack, if you were a girl, I would tell you."

"What does me being a guy have to do with anything?"

"Arcee? I need back up, now!"

"Coming, Bulkhead. Raf, bridge me to Bulkhead. I'm going as backup."

Raf wordlessly compiled, the swirling green portal opening up. Arcee transformed and sped through.

...

With a painful popping noise, Arcee's left hip was wrenched out of place by Knock Out, a sadistic smile on his face. As she hit the ground, she whipped her blaster up and fired a shot straight into the back of his head. He dropped like a stone.

He wasn't dead. Arcee hadn't been close enough to actually penetrate his specially reinforced armour. But, there was a nice-sized dent from the force of the blast, and Arcee was certain he wouldn't be able to see straight for weeks, let alone get the dents buffed out.

The decepticons turned tail and ran, taking their incapacitated squad leader with them.

Bulkhead offered a hand up, which she gladly took. Limping heavily, she tried to transform to the location of the ground bridge.

Tried being the operative word. She immediately cried out and hurriedly reversed the process, the joint grating even further out of place. She ended up on one knee, pointedly looking away from her left side.

"Arcee?" Bulkhead called out.

"I'll be fine. It just hurts to transform. I'm just glad I got to return the favor." she told him darkly.

"Can you get to the ground bridge?"

"Yeah." Arcee stood up and walked, as normally as possible, through the ground bridge. She managed to slip away from Jack and the others as Miko and Bulkhead were excitedly talking about 'con crushing and a new album from Miko's favorite band. Ratchet was going to kill her for not showing him her leg sooner, but she thought she might as well check up on Bumblebee. As of yesterday, he was still holed up in the med bay, dizzy and weak from energon loss and painkillers. Raf would come and visit him from time to time, but mostly, Bumblebee was left alone, Ratchet's orders. He needed rest.

Arcee had never seen the yellow scout so miserable.

But he noticeably perked up when he saw Arcee come in. He stood up slowly, testing his balance, and gently hugged her around her waist. She let out a decidedly un-warrior-like whimper. "Mind my left hip," she gasped, "it's dislocated."

Optics whirring into focus, he removed his right arm and examined her worriedly.

"That looks really bad, Arcee. How are you even walking?"

"Says the mech who got stabbed."

"I'll be fine. It's you I'm worried about." He ignored the subject change. "What happened?"

Arcee groaned inwardly. He was too good a scout (and friend/mechfriend) too fall for that. "Knock Out grabbed my leg and yanked it out of place when I was taking down some of the other soldiers." she confessed, then continued, "Don't worry. I got him in the back of the head after he turned his back to me. He isn't dead, but he'll have a headache that'll make him wish he was."

Bumblebee laughed, grinning. "I'm not surprised you're walking. You probably popped it back yourself."

Arcee shifted all of her weight onto her good leg. "Yeah, but it doesn't want to stay there." Realizing her mistake too late, she found her arm draped over Bumblebee's shoulders and herself being dragged almost forcibly to Ratchet.

"You need to see Ratchet now, before it gets any worse. If you struggle too much, I will carry you."

"Hypocrite." She muttered darkly, going along with it anyway.

"I'm almost healed. All I really need now is time and energon to get my strength back up. You have a dislocated hip that wants to stay dislocated. That needs to be taken care of. So, as someone who cares for you very, very, much, I'm going to take you to Ratchet."

"Arcee? Why didn't you come to me earlier?"

She bit back whatever comment she was about to make to Bumblebee and allowed him to place her down on the examination table out in the main room, for emergencies and minor repairs whenever Ratchet was trying to work on the ground bridge or file reports at the same time.

"It's dislocated." she offered.

"I can see that. Did you try to transform?"

"Once. I got about halfway before I could reverse it."

"Ah." he said, falling silent otherwise as he gently examined the joint. "I'm going to have to put a brace on this for a few days, and fix the wiring around it. Hold still." he got out several tools and a few metal beams. "This might take awhile. Bumblebee, go back to the med bay."

"Not this time." He didn't elaborate.

Ratchet frowned. "Bumblebee, recovery takes time. If you're going to stay here, at least sit down."

Bumblebee didn't object, sitting down next to Arcee.

About halfway through the process, Bumblebee's optics started powering down. Arcee, bored out of her mind, noticed this immediately and shook him gently.

"Bee."

"What?"

"You're going into recharge."

"Oh."

"Hold still."

"Ow!"

"That wouldn't have happened if you had held still." Ratchet wasn't remorseful. "Bumblebee, If you're going into recharge, go back to your berth."

"Really?"

"...in the medbay."

Bumblebee sighed dramatically. "I don't want to. It's lonely in there."

"Bumblebee, either stay awake or go back to the medbay." Arcee sighed.

"Fine." Bumblebee crossed his arms, staring at Ratchet with defiance.

Despite the logical part of her that was screaming that this isn't helping him, the youngling side that had been much more evident lately wanted to (dare she say it?) throw her arms around Bumblebee and stay like that for a long time, a familiar, friendly, spark pulsing next to her own.

"You can lean against me if you're going to fall asleep." Arcee offered.

Ratchet shook his head and continued with his work. He was pretty sure that the two bots had a thing for each other. It was just a matter of time...

Bumblebee leaned up against Arcee. Ratchet noticed how Arcee had visibly relaxed, and how Bumblebee was avoiding putting too much of his weight on the femme. Even if the two were almost clueless when it came to relationships (they'd spent most of their existence in a war), he was sure that at some point, their feelings would come out, like Optimus's and Elita One's had.

...

At some point, Arcee must have closed her optics, because the next thing she knew, Bumblebee was scooping her up.

"Bee..." Arcee mumbled.

"Bumblebee!" Ratchet yelped, exasperated. "You need to be careful."

"About what?" Arcee asked, fully waking up. She examined her leg. It was sore and a brace started at her waist, and went to her knee. One thing was certain, it was not designed for walking.

"With you. And with estimating his energy and strength when recovering from a stab wound." Ratchet stressed the injury. Bumblebee shrugged.

"I'll help Arcee to her room."

"Arcee, I don't recommend doing anything with that leg until tomorrow. Bumblebee, It's getting late, you probably should turn in. Go to the med bay. I want to monitor you until tomorrow, at least."

Bumblebee nodded once and carried Arcee toward her room. Arcee sat up as straight as possible, just to show that she wasn't fully incapacitated, although, she had no idea what she could do if she had to fight, at the moment.

Bumblebee opened the door and gently deposited her on the berth. Then he stopped for a minute, glancing around the room.

"What?" Arcee demanded, propping herself up on her elbow.

"This is the first time I've looked at your room for more than a few seconds."

"So?"

"I want to get to know you."

"We grew up together, Bee. What else is there to know?"

Grinning, he told her, "Well, for starters, neither one of us knew that one liked the other."

"Fair point," she said, smirking. "What else do I not know about you?"

"Well..." he stalled. "I keep having dreams...well, nightmares, that you get hurt because of me." He looked down, embarrassed.

A chill went through Arcee as she recalled Cliffjumper. And Tailgate. Primus... she didn't wish that on anyone. And Raf, with the dark energon.

She wasn't the only one having problems with survivor's guilt.

"I'm sorry. Bee, I didn't mean to bring something like that up. I'm not ready to talk about things like that, but... I have nightmares, too."

He sat down, leaning up against the berth with a sigh. "You want to talk about it?"

"N-no." Arcee felt a single tear roll down her cheek without warning. She turned, hurriedly wiping it away, only to feel more follow.

Bumblebee winced. "Sorry."

"Not your fault. Shouldn't you be getting back to the medbay?"

Bumblebee considered this for a second. "Nope."

"Why not?"

He didn't answer, but turned around, pulling Arcee up into a hug. More tears dripped down onto his armor.

It was like someone cut a puppet's strings. She let out a soft sob, really crying for the first time in years. "I'm sorry."

He just hugged her tighter, lowering his head so it was closer to hers.

Her intakes hitched. "It's the stress. I hadn't realized how much it had gotten to me."

He hummed in understanding. Excessive beeping didn't seem to fit. He reclined against the wall, letting Arcee rest up against him.

He didn't try to stay awake.