Disclaimer – I don't own them. Wrote this a while back, and since it's Earth Day, I thought it might be fun to share.

Small Discoveries (or...The Bones Have Eyes)

"What's that, Fireflight?" Bluestreak asked curiously from the next berth, as First Aid carefully extracted an assortment of sticks, leaves, and rocks from Fireflight's wings and joints. "It looks like a sort of tree branch, only that's not like any tree I've every seen, and anyway I bet you've had enough of tree branches for one day so it would be pretty strange for you to hang on to one like that, although you do bring back some strange things sometimes, but usually they're interesting things, too, y'know? Not that tree branches can't be interesting, in their own way, but-"

Fireflight gave up trying to answer, and simply handed Bluestreak the object he had been keeping carefully clasped in his hand since arriving in the medbay. In the fraction of silence as Bluestreak took the object, Fireflight saw his opportunity. "Bones!" he quickly interjected. "I think they're bones from one of the organics! After I hit the tree and then squashed you, and rolled down the hill and wiped the mud out of my optics and there they were, right there on the ground! Only…" Fireflight's expression switched gears from excited to slightly mournful, "I think that means it's dead, now, right First Aid? There's no way you can fix it, is there?"

"Hmm," First Aid said, concentrating on working out a particularly embedded bit of branch. "Nope, I'm afraid not, not if it's bones. Not even Ratchet can fix it if it's all the way to bones. There we go," he said in satisfaction, as he pulled out the last of the shredded branch. "You can wiggle a bit now, if you want to, 'Flight. You've been doing a great job holding still."

Fireflight wiggled happily, wincing a little as the remaining branches and debris tickled and scraped his joints as he moved. First Aid stretched his servos for a moment and then came around to examine the bones Bluestreak was holding.

"Are you sure you can't fix it?" Bluestreak asked hopefully, running a finger along one of the two branchlike structures that were stuck to a smoother, rounded bone.

First Aid smiled and shook his head. "These are just the inner support structure for the organics, like our struts. If there's enough of the programming, the genetics, left inside we might be able to grow a new one, but there isn't enough here to bring it back to life. Its spark has gone out I'm afraid."

"Oh," Bluestreak said sadly. "Organics don't live very long, do they." Bluestreak handed the bones over to First Aid.

"No, they don't," First Aid sighed, brushing his sensors delicately over the hard organic surfaces. "Their bones are really amazing though," he continued, "and I'm glad you found these, Fireflight. I've seen scans and pictures, but I've never seen real ones up close like this. I think this might be a skull, the head part. Look, here are the teeth!"

Bluestreak leaned in closer and Fireflight slid off his berth to see.

"Those hard shiny parts?" Fireflight asked. "Wow! Actual teeth! I wonder what this one ate."

"Oh yeah," Bluestreak added enthusiastically, "Organics eat so many different things, don't they, only it's really weird when they start eating each other, I think, not that there's anything wrong with that, I mean, it's just the way they're made and they can't all do that thing the plants do, with the sunlight, but still…"

"Do you know what kind of bones they are?" Fireflight wondered, nodding absently to Bluestreak as he continued his discourse on organic eating habits. "They're not…human ones, are they?"

First Aid shook his head. "No, this is the wrong shape for humans. It's an animal of some sort…maybe a deer? With these on top, these would be the antlers. Groove would know probably, and Hound for sure. We can ask them."

"Aid, don't move," Fireflight whispered suddenly, putting his hand on First Aid's arm, and First Aid made a questioning sound. "It's still alive," Fireflight said, looking at First Aid, his optics very wide. "I saw it, I saw it move!"

"I see it! I see it too! There's something moving!" Bluestreak said, squeaking in excitement.

First Aid angled the bones to peer into the crevices of the skull, his visor brightening as he scanned. "Well hello there, small ones," he murmured. "The bones aren't alive Fireflight, but there's definitely something alive here. Fifty-nine somethings, to be exact. They seem to be living in the skull. Eating it, too, at least the softer parts, if I'm not mistaken."

"No way," Fireflight breathed in delighted awe.

"Eating it," Bluestreak said, blinking. "Wow. Like I said, organics are weird. Will they come out? I want to see them too."

"I think they're scared. Maybe if we put the bones somewhere quiet, and don't move very much they'll come out again," First Aid said.

"Here, put them on my berth," Bluestreak offered.

Ratchet, coming by to check on them later, was mystified by the sight of Bluestreak and Fireflight crouched next to one of the berths, optics level with the sides as they peered raptly at an object in the center of the berth while First Aid diligently picked more tree fragments out of Fireflight.

"I think I see one of them!" Bluestreak whispered, squirming a little in excitement.

"Aid, what, in the name of Vector Sigma, are you doing?" Ratchet asked, wondering as he did so if he really, truly, actually wanted to know.

"Organics, Ratchet!" First Aid said, a little muffled as he was holding a leafy bit of branch between his denta, keeping it steady as he worked the rest of it out with his hands. "Fireflight found some tiny organics, and they're eating a part of a dead organic, and if we're quiet enough maybe they'll come out where we can see them. You don't mind, do you? They're quite harmless." First Aid peered up at him from behind Fireflight's wing, branch-in-mouth, and Fireflight and Bluestreak both popped their heads up a little from their positions behind the berth to await his answer. Faced with three sets of innocently hopeful, spark-melting optics, Ratchet surrendered.

"Just…make sure they don't get loose, ok?"

"Thanks, Ratchet!"

A/N: Just a little background - I work at a large park, and part of my job is leading kids on nature walks. We had to call the fire rescue out to the park one day for what turned out to be a false alarm, and one of the firefighters apparently took a fancy to the deer skull I'd placed at the beginning of the trail to teach the kids about decomposers, and he took it with him! On the fire truck! I thought this was hilarious, and posted about it in my LJ, and one of my friends made the comment that she'd originally misread the title as "Fireflight Stole My Deer Carcass" - at first I was all XDDDDDDD, but then I thought, well, of course! I bet Fireflight would be absolutely fascinated by a deer skull - of course he would pick it up and take it home! The little creatures in the deer skull are probably carrion beetles, family Silphidae - interesting, harmless, kind of cute actually, if you can get over the whole "living on a rotten carcass" thing.