A/N: Ahhh! I'm such a procrastinator! This chapter should have been up ages ago! I tried to make this one longer then the last update I posted (or should I say tease??) maybe that's why it took me so long to get this one up. Its still not as long as my old posts, but I guess its better then nothing. Something I have discovered about my laptop… It doesn't keep up with my typing. What the hell??? I know I failed my typing classes in middle school, I know I don't really type that fast! Oh well, I just have to correct more mistakes now.

Also, HUGE thank you to all my reviewers who are still hanging in there. Francesca Zatnik, Misao-CG, Diinya-chan, Megatron's Blackfire, black dragon, Player3, CuteKittten, Himeno24, Litahatchee, girlrock250297. Thank you for your reviews on chapter 46. Hope you guys enjoy 47!

Chapter 47

Burnout hadn't even realized she was awake, she had been in perfect limbo between online and in recharge for who knew how long. She had been perfectly content to lay where she was forever, unfeeling… uncaring. But something had pulled her out of her recharge. Laying motionless in her spark mates arms, the femme felt completely at peace. Being bathed in Barricades presence, soaking in his love, she almost forgot all of the problems in life. Almost forgot that her health was depleting in such a way that she wouldn't live to see her sparkling grow up. She forgot, that is, until her body suddenly tensed, automatically she knew what was coming.

Her processor became a whirlwind as pain began to fog everything else out, she hadn't even noticed Barricade stirring and coming back on line.

"Burnout."

Her bondeds voice was a soft whisper as it broke through the veil of pain and fear that was taking over her body, thrumming through her circuitry with every pulse of her spark, but somehow she knew that his quiet words were far from calm and collected. Dully she could feel the stoic Decepticons panic and confusion as his love convulsed and cried out in his arms.

The femme had been clutching her chest as the waves of pain washed through her, relaxing only slightly as a lull in the torrent gave her momentary peace. It was in one of these moments that she felt her hands be pulled away, taking away the meager shield she had created for herself, she desperately wanted to pull her arms back in, to curl up in a ball until her pain passed. Then with only half an understanding she felt her chest compartment open up.

Burnout tried to choke out a question but was suddenly overwhelmed by the intense heat of pleasure as energy was being pushed into her spark via another spark. 'Barricade,' she thought as peace seemed to overtake her… But only a false sense of peace for the pain was still there, throbbing and threatening to take over again. Only this time she wasn't alone. There was another presence, her spark mate, sharing the burden, giving her strength, offering reassurance.

After what felt like an eternity but may have only been a few moments, Burnouts body finally relaxed and her optics dimmed as she fell into a deep recharge. Barricade did not let his femme go though. If he had to, he would never let her go. Her spark forever attached to his. He felt so helpless, so useless, and utterly at fault. But he knew he had to stay strong. He had to stay strong, not just for Burnout, but for their sparkling.

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First Aid had been growing concerned. Yes, the term 'growing concerned' was a bit of an understatement when considering the circumstances and events of the past earth week or so. But this was almost a completely different type of concerned when compared to the trials he had endured not only with Burnout and her Decepticon mate, but the hundreds even thousands of battles he had been practicing medicine in.

The center of his worry was the CMO. He hadn't seen Ratchet all day. Actually, once he thought about it, he hadn't seen the CMO since earlier the previous day. Aid knew that the Doc needed some time to blow steam and re group, but this had the assistant worried. It was completely out of character for Ratchet to miss out on so much work. Even when he was on leave, Ratchet couldn't be kept out of the medical wing.

First Aid sat in contemplation for a few more moments. Deciding that he needed to track down the CMO, he went to stand, planning to start at the medics personal quarters, but no sooner did he finish the thought when the doors to the med bay hissed open.

Sitting back down heavily, First Aid sighed as Prowl walked purposely through the meticulously clean medical facility. He was starting to understand why Ratchet threw things…

"What can I do for you Prowl?" Aid asked lightly as if it were any other day, but he knew that on any other day Prowl doesn't make visits to the med bay.

Just to enforce that fact, said mech sat heavily on one of the chairs that shared a small area of the med bay designated for personnel. First Aid remained silent as the second in command seemed to be collecting his thoughts. He could tell the mech was pretty agitated, not unusual, but for Optimus' right hand man to come here for help, Aid could only guess where this conversation would be going.

"We're concerned about Ratchet." The SIC started, "The mech has practically locked himself in the archive room. He hasn't talked to anyone and wont let anyone in." The mech paused, "Optimus can't even get in there."

First Aid remained silent as Prowl practically rambled on about giving Ratchet the access code to the archive room and other things concerning Optimus and his worry for the CMO.

"I don't know what he would want with a room full of Cybertronian history, some of it dates back to the original inhabitants on the planet."

"Aren't there a bunch of Wheeljacks things in there too?" First Aid asked suddenly, nearly cutting the SIC off. Prowl seemed to have been just as lost in thought for it took him a few moments to completely comprehend Aids question.

"Well, yes. Everything that could be saved was brought here. There were many documents that we managed to bring back. I cant even begin to fathom what that crazed mech thought up and was planning to conduct experiments on."

First Aid didn't reply to Prowls statement. He could never quite understand Wheeljacks methods either, but he knew that Ratchet could. He remembered the CMO mentioning a few projects that he and Wheeljack had collaborated on, and some of the breakthroughs both medically and scientifically.

As much as he wanted to go in and pull Ratchet out of the archive room and get the mech thinking straight again, Aid had a feeling that the CMO was on to something. If Ratchet couldn't find a fix for Burnout then no one could and if it required digging through old Cybertronian documents and a mad scientists notes, well that just proves how far Ratchet is willing to go to ensure his troops welfare.

"I wouldn't worry about Ratchet, Prowl. It is a bit unusual for the medic to go secluding himself like this, but obviously he wishes to not be interrupted. When he is ready he will come out and it will be our job to be receptive of what he has discovered or understanding if he didn't find any leads." Aid paused, he could tell that the SIC wasn't very agreeable with what he had to say.

After a few tense moments of silence, to First Aids shock, Prowl nodded his head slowly and softly added, "Hopefully, for all our sakes, he finds something."

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Ratchet didn't know how long he had been submerged in the ocean of data pads that now surrounded him. The area of the archives that had been dedicated solely for Wheeljacks research had become a complete disaster, much resembling the aftermath of a hurricane that he had left his office in. His hands and optics never stopping, his processor was on overdrive as he shifted from one data pad to the other. He felt like his the answers to his problem, the problem with Burnout, was right under his nose. So close in yet still so far away, but how far? He couldn't tell.

Continuing his research, pausing only for a moment as emotion tried to grip his spark in a temporary lapse of self control when his processor slipped back to the weakened state he had last seen Burnout in, Ratchet worked diligently. Pulling down a data pad from the once perfectly organized shelf, skimming through the contents, then chucking it away as being useless. Activating another pad and glancing through it, the medic was about to dispose of this one too when suddenly his optics stopped. Locked on a paragraph that he hadn't been fully comprehending, seeing the words but not reading them, something had caught his attention. It wasn't the words that had given him pause this time around though, it was an idea that was forming around the concept being organized and presented in the data pad.

So far this had been his only lead, his only bite of a hope that he could fix Burnout. It was crazy enough that it might just work too. Checking to be sure there were no further data pads that needed to be referenced or other volumes, the medic clutched the data pad he had discovered, clutched it tightly because he knew that the life of a femme and her sparkling depended on him transferring the knowledge he had found into a useable concept.

It was so crazy that it might just work…

He had seen too much, lived too long to say that something was impossible. He was refusing to accept defeat, he was going to win this femmes life back no matter how strong of a hold Primus had on her. He was going to save her and her sparkling. He just needed to find a spark whose owner was willing to make the change from a mech to a femme…

A/N: Huh! Its out! Now lets see where this goes… Don't kill me