After another two weeks, Bulkhead was finally up and moving, though weakly. Miko was helping Bulkhead exercise, and get better. He got frustrated easily, but he was still working on getting better. While Faria just was stuck sitting in her bed, though she was slowly getting better. There were still times when she became upset and wouldn't talk to anyone, but that was mainly when Ratchet would check up on her. Which was what was happening right now.

"Okay, Faria", Ratchet murmured, his holoform standing next to her bed. "How are you feeling today?"

Faria glared at him, and crossed her arms. "Depends on what you're talking about. Emotionally or physically? Because both are crappy."

Ratchet sighed. "Faria, I need you to work with me here."

Faria continued glaring at him, and held back tears as she spoke. "And I needed you. That's past tense. So you can go frag whatever you need, because my 'needed' trumps your 'need'. Leave me alone."

Ratchet stays silent before speaking quietly. "Faria, I'm sorry", he murmured. "I... I just want to help you."

Faria scoffed. "As if. I know you don't care about me."

Ratchet hangs his head softly before looking up, a professional look upon his face. "Does your gunshot wound hurt when you laugh, or shift?"

"No", Faria says. "But my heart hurts whenever you're near me or whenever I see you or whenever you talk to me. So can we hurry this up."

Ratchet sighs again. "We can hurry this up, if you will answer my questions quickly and honestly."

Faria rolled her eyes, and continued to glare at him. "Fine, fine."

Ratchet sighs. "Thank you. Now, can you sit up for me?"

Faria tried to do so, but winced in pain. She shook her head. "Not by myself, no."

Ratchet hesitated, before moving closer and helping her sit up. Her hair was a mess, though she could care less. However, she was shocked when Ratchet didn't move away immediately. She turned her head to see him staring at her nervously. She glared at him, causing him to move away quickly.

"Alright, I'm going to need to see the wound now", Ratchet muttered, his face a bright red. Faria sighed softly.

"If you want... Nurse Darby can do the check up when she gets here... You know she double checks what you already checked, so... I don't know why you check on me anyway."

Ratchet looks away. "I check up on you because you are my charge."

Faria sighed. "That probably won't last for very long... Once I'm healed... I don't think I'm going to come back here..."

Ratchet drew in a short gasp and looked at her. She refused to look at him, because she was holding back tears. She just stared at her blanket, and hid her face.

"I... I understand", Ratchet murmurs. A few moments later, Faria heard gears shifting and when she looked, Ratchet's holoform had disappeared and he had transformed. He was watching her for a moment, but as soon as their gazes connected, he looked away before walking away towards the back of base.

Faria sighed softly and closed her eyes, tears leaking out of them. 'Why can't you love me like I love you...?' It was along this line of thought that Faria laid back down, and fell asleep.

Ratchet was wandering the base before he leaned his back against the wall, and looked up to the ceiling. "Primus, why can't I tell her that I love her...? Why did I have to reject her in the first place?!"

Ratchet heard pedesteps coming towards him, and he saw Optimus who was smiling sympathetically at him. "You still haven't told her?"

Ratchet shook his helm. "How am I supposed to? She hates me at the moment."

"She doesn't hate you!" a feminine voice said, the sound coming from Optimus' shoulder. Ratchet looked and saw Dahlia sitting up there, her hand holding onto the side of Optimus' faceplate.

"I am finding that rather difficult to believe, Dahlia", Ratchet said dryly. Dahlia sighed.

"She's hurting, Ratch", Dahlia said. "And she hides it with anger. But when she's alone... I'm sure you've heard her crying herself to sleep."

Ratchet looks away. "I wish I knew what to do..."

"You do know what to do, you're just afraid", Dahlia said. "I'm the one who can't do anything to help her, because we all know there's only one way for her to get better."

"She's healing just fine", Ratchet said, deliberately misunderstanding Dahlia.

"Don't deliberately misunderstand me. It's not nice", Dahlia growled. "Now, you can either wallow here in self pity and let Achelois continue to suffer emotionally, or you can grow up, and actually go and tell her how you really feel."

Ratchet stared at her before looking to the ground. "How... How am I supposed to tell her when I've already rejected her...?"

"Tell her that you lied, and then tell her how you really feel. If she doesn't believe you, seal it off with a kiss or something like that", Dahlia shrugged. "I actually have no idea, so just do what feels natural."

Ratchet sighed before standing straight and walking to main room. He was about to transform and go to Faria, but Raf noticed a strange picture when going through a conspiracy website on his laptop, distracting Ratchet. 'I'll do it later', he told himself.

"A cybertronian escape pod?" Raf asked in disbelief as he stares at  a picture that had been taken and posted on the internet.

"Here in Earth's atmosphere?" Ratchet asked. 

"Autobot or Decepticon?" Arcee asked as she walked over

"Impossible to tell, given the image resolution", Ratchet murmured, casting small, almost imperceptible glances over to Faria, who was stirring from the short nap she had taken.

"In any event, this merits investigation", Optimus said.

"Could be a trap", Arcee spoke. "And we're down one bot. Should we reach out to Wheeljack?"

Ratchet ignored Bulkhead yelling as he responded to Arcee.

"I don't care that Bulkhead isn't combat-ready", Ratchet said sharply. "After that stunt he pulled with Miko, Wheeljack can stay rogue."

"An Autobot may be in distress", Optimus cut in to the conversation. "Ratchet, bring your medical kit."

Faria was blinking awake when she saw Optimus help Dahlia off of his shoulder as Ratchet opened a ground bridge with one servo, his medical kit in the other. She stared softly, watching as he turned to go into the ground bridge, casting a small glance at her. She blinked before waving shyly. She saw Ratchet's surprised expression before he walks through the ground bridge, following Optimus. She sighed softly before laying her head back and falling back asleep.

"Let her sleep", a familiar voice came through Faria's ears. "With a wound like that, sleep is the one of the best things that can help her."

Faria smiled softly at the sound of June's voice. She opened her eyes and saw Dahlia watching her, her eyes shining with worry. 

"Don't worry Dahlia", Faria murmured. "I'm healing wonderfully, thanks to the nurse-" Faria hesitated. "-and doctor who have been helping me with that."

Dahlia's eyes widened in wonder at Faria's inclusion of Ratchet. Faria looked away, hiding the tears in her eyes.

"Faria... you haven't included him in a sentence for a while..." Dahlia murmured softly, moving to her bedside. Faria smiled sadly and looked back at Dahlia.

"I realized that he's been doing his best to help me, and I haven't been making that easy... It still hurts, there's no doubt about that, but I've been getting better at ignoring it."

Dahlia sighed and stood. "You shouldn't have to ignore it. You should be able to just focus on healing physically and not just emotionally."

Before Faria could speak, June cut in. "She's right. It's harder for a patient to recover from a traumatic injury when they are recovering emotionally as well."

Faria groaned. "How am I supposed to recover emotionally when I have to see the person who is causing me this emotional pain?!"

Dahlia opened her mouth to speak, then closed it, tilting her head in confusion. "Uh... you're right... you could have been healing at a hospital this entire time, though you'd miss all the excitement. And I suppose it makes it harder for the Decepticons to find you. You know they'd love to kidnap you, since you're one of the better bargaining chips to them."

Faria sighed. "Gee, that makes me feel so much better."

June sighed. "Alright, this isn't helping her. Dahlia, I'm going to have to ask you to leave while I check up on my patient."

Dahlia nodded, and gave Faria one last worried glance. "See ya later, Faria." Faria nodded, before pressing the button to make the curtain close. June helps her sit up to take off her shirt. Once the shirt was off, June began inspecting the wound on Faria's stomach.

"Well, Faria, I'd say you only need about one month and two weeks to completely heal, but I estimate it will take you two months and two weeks to completely regain your strength."

Faria sighed. "Alright. So I only have to be stuck on this bed for another month and a half?"

June nodded. "Yep. And then you'll have to take it easy on regaining your strength or else you'll overwork yourself and you could possible reopen your wound."

Faria didn't say anything, and June took that as a signal to help Faria get her shirt back on and help her lay back down. June opened the curtain, and Faria watched as Rafael opened the ground bridge for the others. She was surprised to see a new bot come through with the others. Her eyes widened, and she looked at Ratchet, who looked a bit startled, and wary. She didn't blame him, as the last time they had a new bot it turned out to be traitor. At least, that's what she had heard from the other humans about Wheeljack.

She heard Miko's loud voice from the ground floor, but she ignored it as she studied the new bot who was named Smokescreen.. He was mainly white with bits of red and blue. Faria started paying attention when the new bot started to speak, his voice a bit flustered from Miko's constant chatter.

"So, these are life forms we're supposed to protect?" he asked, seemingly nervous. "Are they all like this?"

"Fortunately not", Ratchet said as he and the others walked up to Smokescreen. "But I too share Miko's fascination with how you came to on Earth."

"In a Decepticon escape pod", Arcee added dryly, her voice extremely distrustful.

"Still got trust issues, huh?" Smokescreen asked, his voice unhappy.

"Of course we do", Faria called out. "The last time we trusted a bot, he turned out to be a Decepticon spy."

Smokescreen tilted his head and looked at her curiously. "What happened to you?"

"Story for another time", Ratchet cut in. Faria glared at him.

"I can speak for myself!" she snapped. Ratchet flinched and looked down and away from her. Faria huffed. "But, yes. My story can come later. Your story is the most important, seeing as you are the newest one here."

Smokescreen watched the scene with care, taking note of how Ratchet seemed almost ashamed when Faria snapped at him. From what he knew of the old bot, he only backed down when Optimus told him to, but here he was, listening to a small fleshy life form. What was so special about her? He put the question to the back of his mind as he began his story.

Faria listened intently and soon came to trust him, albeit a bit warily. She was still cautious but easily decided that so far he was trustworthy. She didn't really pay attention until he said something that ticked her off.

"I mean, now that you have help, how hard could it be to win this war?" Smokescreen asked.

Faria opened her mouth to speak, but someone beat her to it. She knew who it was due to the scraping on the floor and the loud grunting of effort

"Take a good look, newbie", Bulkhead growled. "This is how hard." Everyone was silent for a moment, so Faria decided to speak.

"Trust us, Smokescreen, this war has not been easy for any of us, even us humans who have barely been involved. There has been many trials and hardships, loss and betrayal, not to mention heartbreak, whether it be from the loss of a good friend", Faria gazed at Arcee, who looked at the ground. "Or from someone you love breaking your heart." Faria looked at Ratchet at this one, and he looked to the ground too."

Optimus spoke up. "Smokescreen, I suggest that you take some time to become acclimated to your new surroundings. A tour of the base would be a good start."

"Sure thing!" Miko exclaimed, only to pause when Bulkhead groans softly. "I mean, Jack here offers a very informative tour."

Smokescreen and Jack leave, and Faria lays her head back, staring at the ceiling. She heard someone transform and soon saw Ratchet's holoform standing next to her. She looked over at him with tired eyes, and was shocked at the sight of his tired and guilty eyes, though he tried to hide it. 

"What do you want?" Faria snapped. Ratchet opened his mouth but paused, tense as a rock. Another holoform appeared next to Ratchet's. It was Optimus. Optimus glanced at Ratchet, who understood the cue, and his holoform vanished. Faria sighed softly.

"What's up?" Faria murmured.

"Must you be so antagonistic towards him?" Optimus asked wryly. Faria rolled her eyes.

"He broke my heart, and I don't know how to deal with, just like any other teenager."

"From what I understand of your laws, you are a legal adult, are you not?" Optimus countered. Faria groaned.

"No need to bring that up", she muttered. "I'm still a teenager. Why do you think eighteen ends with 'teen'?"

Optimus chuckled. "Faria, I hope you know he cares for you more than he says."

Faria scoffed in disbelief. "As if. How... How could he ever care for someone like me?" She had whispered that last part, and Optimus was unable to hear what she said.

"Pardon?" he asked. Faria shook her head.

"Doesn't matter." She looked away from Optimus, and back up at the ceiling. "I just hope you know that once I am completely healed, I will be leaving the base and won't be coming back."

Optimus sighed softly. "Dahlia had suspected as much."

Faria faintly smiles. "She definitely knows me really well." Optimus nodded, but didn't say anything. His holoform disappeared, and she sighed and closed her eyes. She only opened them again to close the curtain and then she began the process of crying herself to sleep. Only...

The tears didn't come. Instead, she was just numb as she laid there, unable to think of anything but Ratchet and her parents. In fact, she didn't want to sleep because it usually ended with her waking up in a cold sweat, her mind racing as her nightmare filled her mind, causing her abdomen to hurt as if it had just been shot.

In the end, however, sleep still overtook her, and her mind filled with the images she dreaded, though she knew that it was inevitable for her to dream of anything else.