"Is Wheeljack alright? Where is he?" Optimus asked, walking towards the group.

"I'm right here, Prime." Wheeljack answered, a small grin on his face.

At first, there was a surprised look on Optimus's face. He'd never seen Wheeljack without his plate before. Pushing his shock aside, he placed a hand on his shoulder. "We're glad we found you, now let's get out of here."

"I'm with ya, I'm tired of this dump anyways." Wheeljack chuckled, glancing over at Athena.

Athena giggled, clapping her hands. She was happy to be surrounded by bots she knew and loved. Now they finally got to go home.

Optimus led the way to their escape point, eliminating any Decepticons that got in their way.

Surprisingly, Megatron never appeared to stop them. Wheeljack soon found out that they cut the communications so that the other Decepticons couldn't contact him. In fact, he never even knew that Optimus was there!

Soon, they made it back to the sandy dunes of the High Desert. Wheeljack and Athena hitched a ride in the back of Optimus's trailer and they all drove back to base.

-Back at base, Ratchet's Medbay-

"I'm so glad we found you, I was so worried!" Ratchet exclaimed as he was patching up Wheeljack's wounds.

Wheeljack chuckled, laying on his back on the medberth. "I can imagine how bad you must've felt... I felt horrible, that's for sure...."

"But at least you protected Athena, right?" Ratchet asked, tilting his head and stopping what he was doing.

Wheeljack looked away, sighing heavily. "I.... I was too injured to protect her.... They just ripped her from me and dragged me away... I couldn't do anything to stop it..." Coolant began gathering in his optics and he sniffed. "I'm a complete failure..."

"Wheeljack, you aren't a failure! Look around you! You're safe, Athena is safe, that's all that matters! You couldn't have done anything about it! You tried your best." Ratchet said, placing his hand on Wheeljack's cheek.

Wheeljack smiled a bit, blushing gently. "Yeah... I guess so.. I missed you so much, sweetspark."

"I missed you too." Ratchet smiled, blushing as well.

"Kiss kiss kiss!" Athena squealed from the chair she was standing on, clapping her hands.

Ratchet chuckled, glancing over at Athena.

"We should do as she says, Ratch." Wheeljack smirked, starting to pull Ratchet closer.

"B-But she's watching!" Ratchet stammered, his spark pounding in his chest.

"So? The kid needs to know how much her parents love each other, just like when we wanted to kiss a while back."

Ratchet giggled and sighed. "Fine, come here you lunkhead." He pulled Wheeljack closer and their lips met in a kiss. They hugged each other close.

Athena was watching intently even though she knew she shouldn't. "Watchet kissy Wheeldack! Yay!" She jumped off the chair, running over and climbing up onto the medberth. "I wanna join!" She pushed herself in between them so they were kissing both of her cheeks.

Wheeljack opened his optics in surprise and laughed, nuzzling Athena on the helm. Ratchet smiled and kissed Athena's cheek some more before standing back up.

"You're so cute, Athena." Wheeljack chuckled.

"She gets it from you." Ratchet smirked, booping him on the forehead.

"You too, sunshine." Wheeljack grinned, sitting up.

"You need your rest tonight, you've had enough action over the past few days. I'll take care of Athena until you recover." Ratchet said, picking up Athena.

"Don't expect me to just lay here in silence and do nothing."

"Oh you will do just that, unless you want a wrench to the head mister!" Ratchet teased, waving his special wrench in front of Wheeljack.

Wheeljack held up his hands and smiled nervously. "Alright alright, sweetspark! I get it!"

Ratchet chuckled, putting the wrench back in its place. "Good."

Athena reached for Wheeljack and Ratchet leaned in so she could kiss his cheek. "See you later, dada!"

"Did she just call me dada!?" Wheeljack exclaimed, overloading from the cuteness.

"Yep, I taught her that." Ratchet laughed as he left the Medbay to get some energon.

"No you didn't! It was both of us combined!" Wheeljack yelled after him, chuckling as well.

"Whatever!" Was the response from the hallway.

Wheeljack sighed, laying back on the berth. "It's good to be back home and with my family again..." he shut his optics, getting a much needed recharge after the long hours of repair.