Three orns. That's how long it took of his five orns for Ratchet, First Aid, Prowl's Enforcer friends previously told Prowl wouldn't survive, and the psychiatrist Rung to have Prowl out of hospitals and back in his own home, refitted his rehab needs. Members of his precinct took turns keeping his apartment clean, originally for the impending funeral wake. Once Jazz left they would take turns caring for Prowl.

Jazz never left Prowl's side, even for the offered drink by other Enforcers for saving their missing companion. He had several reasons for not leaving Prowl's side, including that he didn't feel like he saved Prowl. His mind was still absorbing that Prowl was real, in an actual berth and leaning into him.

His struggles with grasping Prowl's physical existence weren't the only ones in the berth room. Prowl hadn't recharged yet, too unnerved to go back voluntarily to Somnus. Rung worked with him and several experts to quickly build a private server where Jazz and Enforcers could visit him without making it feel like recharge. There'd be no access to the public servers, and Prowl wanted nothing to do with that, save for one issue.

Prowl told the authorities about the Lost and Severed mechs he met during his time as a Somnus-controlled mech, but refused to tell them who were Ghosts. Not until they could prove themselves capable of being trusted to handle that type of damaged psyche. He gave them very specific instructions about Red Alert and told them he wanted to see Red Alert on a vidphone as soon as the mech was able. If necessary, he was willing to have Red Alert move in with him. He anticipated the security mech's distrust be debilitating to any recovery without someone there that Red knew while he was vulnerable. Besides, Rung would be around a little longer in Praxus until he felt Prowl would be alright with vidphone sessions.

Their final night was the two of them alone, with the specialized server now installed directly by the berth. Jazz had a remote interface unique to that server so he could return to Prowl when recharging in Kaon. Jazz sat behind the temporarily crippled mech, messaging his doorwings with one hand and supporting him with his other. A small bottle of high-end Vosnian highgrade sat on the table, less a quarter empty. Jazz was trying to get Prowl to relax enough to go into recharge, or just too sleepy to fight anymore. He wanted to be there for Prowl when he faced this fear.

When Jazz dipped his hand into a thin seam Prowl softly gasped and leaned into the fingers. He murmured, "When did you learn about that seam?"

"Blue. I asked him earlier this orn on how he'd get a Parxian to happily fall into recharge."

"The talkative one, right?"

"Right. He said he could come here and help you out if you needed it. He feels awful for telling me to not visit you for a deca-orn because you wouldn't notice it. Bee and Raj are still pretty beat up about it."

Prowl reached up and over his doorwing to catch Jazz's hand, only to fall a little short. Jazz paused his ministrations anyways. Prowl asked with concern, "You told them what I said, right?"

"Yeah, they know that you understand their concerns. That you saw the same thing a few times as an Enforcer, and even more while stuck in Somnus. Doesn't exactly give someone peace-of-mind over an orn. Maybe when things are better for everyone, you could come to Kaon or us here."

Prowl nodded, leaning into Jazz as the small amount of consumed highgrade started doubling the easing sensation Jazz was causing. "One of those ideas should work. I never asked you to extend your recharge for the same reasons as they feared. I didn't want you stuck in there with me, voluntarily or not."

Jazz drifted his supporting arm downward until he reached Prowl's waist. He slipped his arm around and gave a soft squeeze. "Ready for recharge yet?"

"Not yet."

"I'll wait for you. Remember, Rung can remotely access the server should we call. We can call him through it without having to logoff." Jazz resumed his massage, turning back on the soft music and offering Prowl another sip of highgrade.

It took a while before Prowl was relax enough to allow Jazz plug the recharge cable into his recharge port, as he couldn't bring himself to touch it. It took a little while longer before Prowl was finally willing to initiate recharge, Jazz promising to be right behind him. They laid down and Jazz watched Prowl's optics as he held his hands. Prowl didn't want much more physical contact, worried that he might abruptly come out of recharge and harm Jazz.

As soon as Prowl's optics darkened Jazz initiated recharge. To his processor the experience was like his sensors all hitting "fast reboot" at the same time, because he found himself in the exact same position in the exact same apartment, but with Prowl's intense optics looking at him.

Jazz leaned forward and lightly-but-steadily kissed him. "Like we never left."

While Prowl's well-practiced neutral expression didn't change, Jazz could feel the tension around his frame, seeing the subtle changes in optic color from fighting fear. He gently guided one of Prowl's hands with his until his hand touched Prowl's face. He didn't break contact with Prowl's hand as he rubbed the Praxian's jaw. "It's okay, stay with me. You're okay." Jazz murmured the words over and over until the signs of building fear slipped away.

"You won't always be here."

The Polyhexian didn't respond right away, taking the time to slowly map out Prowl's jaw and mouth with his fingers. "You're on medical leave," he gently reminded him. Prowl wanted to go back to work ASAP, as if that would erase the bad memories, but couldn't for physical and mental reasons. It was another stress factor for him. "You can recharge on Kaon's time so whenever you're ready to recharge, we can recharge. I got us those communicators so you can call me any time or I can if something is going to change. Whether I'm at the Arx, my room, or a club, you can reach me."

Prowl slowly ex-vented, the air cool against his warm frame. "Now what?"

"What do you want? We can stay here all recharge or go visit the gardens. There's that one really nice garden you can't visit in the real world until you can walk, right? Think they said they brought that garden here."

Pale blue optics glittered and Prowl cautiously moved his legs. He partway sat up, moving himself around while refusing to let go of Jazz. He didn't want to let go of the one other real mech here. He knew it was irrational, but he was afraid of Jazz dissolving if he let go.

His fear alleviated a tad when he moved his body without the restrictions of a revived frame left locked in place for too long. Having found himself unexpectedly the voice to the government for those forgotten in Somnus, one of his points of advocacy was moving the frames of the comatose so a waking mech wouldn't have so much rehab again.

"Moving again is nice," he whispered, "but I can think of more life-affirming ways that involve moving." His gaze shifted intensity when he looked into Jazz's visor.

Jazz grinned and couldn't help himself. "So no bondage training for me?"

For the first time ever Jazz heard Prowl truly laugh. "Ah yes, you're discipline issues. I can't believe I forgot about that, after spending over a mega-orn getting you to stop saying 'yes, sir' so sarcastically with orders you disagreed with. We may need to come up with new training methods."

"Something for you, something for me," Jazz promised, adding a kiss to the end of his promise. "We'll find the balance together. I'm never going to leave my instructor. You're too precious to me to ever let you fall through the cracks again."

A/N:

LJ Prompt:

"Cybertronian recharging involves plugging yourself into the main computer system for proper defragmentation. While your processor gets recharged, your consciousness is put into a virtual reality world created by the main computer system.

Cybertronians can interact with others plugged into the system or choose not to interact with any other recharging mech. This system is controlled by artificial intelligence and reacts according to each mech's needs/wishes/desires.

In this VR world, Cybertronians can use their holo avatars to become anything/anyone they want.

This can be based in any verse but your fic should primarily revolve around the virtual reality world and whatever holo avatar our black and whites choose to take."

… So basically I filled the prompt in at least half of the chapters. It counts!

Prowl's ID code was 32 chars long because in IDW's 2012-ongoing series, issue #32, Prowl secretly uploads his mind into the enemy network while Jazz moves Prowl's unconscious body, unaware of what's happened to Prowl.

The story's bunny overlord was pleased with that detail.