This story was requested by EmeraldMoonGreen. Here you go, Amiga! Enjoy! Transformers belongs to Hasbro. I own nothing.

The Doctor Gets Tickled

It had so far been pretty quiet at the base while Jack, Miko, and Raf stayed with Ratchet, who was on the computers checking for disturbances and the kids just sat down, all reading, much to Ratchet's surprise as he knew Miko couldn't sit still for long, but she was sitting on the couch, reading with the boys. While he enjoyed the peace and quiet, he did wonder what was going on.

"Children," he said, getting their attention. He used the term to call them all at once instead of saying their names one at a time. "What are you reading?"

"Books, silly," said Miko.

"It's for the Summer Reading Program at the local library," said Raf. "Each of us are in a different age group and so we're trying to reach our goals of reading the most books in our age group."

"A contest?" asked Ratchet, looking a bit confused.

"Kind of," said Jack. "It's a good way to get people reading again and you get really neat prizes if you win."

"So, we're reading books galore until the program ends," said Miko. "We set a goal of how many books to read each day or if the book is long, then we see if we can finish it in a few days, so that we don't get too far behind."

The Autobot medic was pleased that they were spending the time to read instead of doing other things, like playing loud music, as was Miko's favorite pastime.

"Well, just don't read too much to where you don't enjoy the story," he cautioned. "Don't want you getting bored with the stories."

"Sure thing, Ratchet," said Jack.

"The only time we get bored is after we've completed our books for the day," said Miko.

"Yeah, cause then we wonder what to do after," said Raf.

With a rare chuckle that all three heard, Ratchet turned to his computers again, not seeing Miko perk up with an idea and she quickly wrote something down on a piece of notebook paper and passed it to Jack, who grinned and nodded and passed it to Raf, who looked a little skeptic, but nodded in agreement. They soon finished their books and suddenly heard a crash and turned to see Ratchet laying on the ground, rubbing his head a little.

"Scrap," he cursed.

"Are you okay, Ratchet?" asked Raf worriedly.

"I'm alright," he said as the children came closer. "Just tripped over myself."

Miko then nudged Jack slightly and he gently nudged Raf and all three grinned, thinking the same thing. While Ratchet was distracted, Miko raced to his feet and began tickling them.

"Hey!" Ratchet exclaimed before he started to chuckle loudly, chuckles that were turning into laughter as Raf quickly started tickling the medic's stomach and Jack started tickling Ratchet's side.

Ratchet couldn't stop laughing as he then saw all three of the children grinning at him and tickling him. "What are you three doing?" he laughed out.

"We're tickling you!" Miko said with a gleeful smile.

"We were bored, so Miko came up with this idea," said Raf, also grinning.

"And now we know you're ticklish!" said Jack as he had on a care-free smile.

Ratchet tried to get away from his three mischievous friends, but they were not giving up that easily and he noticed how they all looked happy, as if they didn't have any care at all. Secretly, that made the medic happy as he hated seeing young ones so sad. It was why he put up with the kids in the first place.

Now, he felt happy as he kept laughing. "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! STOP! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" he begged them.

"No way, Doc!" said Miko. "Tickle torture!"

Ratchet kept laughing but then figured out a way to get them back. He suddenly went limp, doing what humans called 'playing possum'. The kids stopped tickling and looked worried. "Ratchet?" asked Raf, sounding a little afraid.

"Do you think we went too far?" asked Jack, feeling guilty.

"How?" asked Miko. "We weren't tickling him for that long."

As all three pondered what happened, Ratchet suddenly sprung up and captured all three in his hands, making them cry out in surprise as they saw he was alright and had tricked them.

"You three fell for the 'playing possum' trick," he said to them with the biggest smile the kids had ever seen on him. "Now, you should know that if you tickle me, the doctor will retaliate."

With that, Ratchet placed them all on the exam table and started tickling them. All three kids laughed their hardest as they felt the Autobot's large white fingers tickling them crazily, but also gently. Ratchet knew he had to be gentle with them, but he was also feeling playful, which was something he hadn't felt in a long time.

Raf was the first to give up as he was the smallest, so Ratchet let him up while still tickling the other two. Raf rested as he watched the normally stoic medic show his playful side as he tickled Jack and Miko.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I GIVE!" said Jack, laughing hard. Ratchet let him up so he could rest, but was still tickling Miko, who wasn't giving up yet.

"You'll never get me to give up!" she said through her laughter.

"We'll see about that, young lady," said Ratchet with a grin as he continued to tickle her, making her go crazy with wild laughter. The boys sat on the side, amazed at how Miko wasn't giving up, even though it was clear she wouldn't be able to defeat the doc bot, but they both smiled as they saw her having too much fun with the tickle torture.

Ratchet then had an evil idea and made his hand vibrate as he was tickling Miko, who laughed her hardest when she felt the vibrating fingers on her stomach. They tickled the worst, but she was refusing to give up, but then Ratchet tickled all of her ticklish spots with his vibrating fingers and she finally couldn't take it anymore, even though she tried.

"OKAY! YOU WIN!" she said and Ratchet stopped, leaving Miko in a breathless, but still giggling, heap. The medic scooped them all up in his hands and scanned them to be sure they were okay and was relieved when they were. Miko then looked up at him.

"How do you feel, Doc?" she asked him.

Ratchet smiled. "Better than I've felt since the war began," he said. "Now, I've still got some work to do."

"And we still have some reading to do," said Jack. "Wouldn't hurt to get a little more ahead."

The other two agreed and Miko hugged Ratchet's hand, to his surprise. "Thanks for spending some time with us, Doc," she said sincerely as she joined her two friends back on the couch.

Ratchet only smiled and turned back to the computers. "You're welcome," he said, loud enough from the three to hear. They all smiled at that and everything settled down into a happy silence as they all enjoyed the quiet companionship between them all.

Please leave a review, but no flames!

GoldGuardian2418