There was a loud ringing in Kiki's ears after the bomb went off. The sound was so high pitched, she swore she couldn't hear anything else that was around her. Kiki had her arms up, protecting her face from the flying glass. All she remembered was Bumblebee pushing her down.

Was he trying to push her out of the way of a incoming piece of glass?

She felt something drip on the left sleeve of her shirt. She lowered her arms away from her face, only to meet Bumblebee's gaze. His face was just mere inches away from hers. He was breathing heavily, his breath just grazing her nose as his chest rose and fell.

Kiki couldn't help but gap at the sight, a small gasp escaping her lips as her cheeks turned a light shade of red.

"Bumblebee..."

"Are you alright, Kiki?" The man asked, panting.

"You... you saved me." She spoke.

Bumblebee managed a small smile on his face. "Then I guess that's two you owe me," He teased, but not before suddenly growling under his breath harshly, his teeth grinding.

"Bumblebee?" Kiki spoke up with concern.

There it was again. Something dripped down, this time crashing down on Kiki's left cheek. The girl's eyes scanned his form, and noticed a red liquid leaking from his right shoulder, staining his uniform.

Her eyes widened at the sight. "Oh god... y-your bleeding!"

"Wha--?" Bumblebee tried to push back, but the pain was so unbearable that he bent back down again.

"No, no, don't move!" Kiki cautioned, gently placing her hands on his chest to steady him. "Try not to move, okay?"

Bumblebee met Kiki's gaze again, trying his best to not think about the pain as he nodded in reply. Kiki carefully crawled backwards, shimmying her way out of Bumblebee's protection before she quickly sat up, kneeling beside him as she scanned the area around her.

There were shattered pieces of glass everywhere on the ground. Firefighters had moved in to take out the smoke. It looked like hell broke lose here.

"Help!" She called, waving her hand. "Someone, officer down!"

"Kiki!"

Strongarm and Jazz ran out of the crowd, jogging towards the pair as they looked upon the state of their friend in shock.

"What happened?" The cadet asked with concern.

"Bumblebee got hit with a piece of glass," Kiki explained as she pointed at the shard in his shoulder. "He did it to save me."

Jazz stalked over to his partner, kneeling in front of him. "Bee, can you stand?"

"I--" The lieutenant coughed, placing a hand on his arm. "I think so,"

Jazz walked over to Bumblebee's good side, slowly helping the man to his feet as he placed his arm around his shoulders, carrying his friend. "He needs medical attention, stat!"

"I'll signal an ambulance," Strongarm spoke up, running a head. 

"Is there anything else we can do to help him?" Kiki asked with concern. 

"It's too dangerous to pull that thing out of him," Jazz cautioned. "Well, here at least."

"It's not that bad," Bumblebee defended with a painful moan. "I've been through worse."

"Man, are you trying to make the new girl worry even more?" Jazz raised a brow at his partner.

"I got one!" Strongarm called, waving her hands at the group.

The trio made their way over to the ambulance, Jazz helping his friend before he and the girls quickly followed inside, shutting the back doors. The truck took off down the street as the paramedic stabilized Bumblebee. 

As Kiki took another look at his injury, she couldn't help but feel a tad of guilt wash over her. If she had just held a tighter grip on the bomb, that criminal wouldn't have gotten his hands on it, he wouldn't have reignited it, blown up the lobby, and Bumblebee wouldn't have been needed to be rushed to the hospital. 

Kiki's face sulked as she twiddled with her thumbs. She sat in between Strongarm and Jazz in the side seats. Strongarm gave words of encouragement to the lieutenant as the paramedic checked his vitals. 

"Relax," Kiki shot her head up, glancing over at Jazz. "He's going to be fine."

"I guess I'm just a little shaken up," Kiki shrugged.

"It happens to the best of us when we least expect it." said Jazz. 

"I can't help but think I might have caused this mess," She admitted. "This is one heck of a first day."

Jazz paused for a moment, looking over to the side, deep in his thoughts. A small smile grew on his face as he looked back at the girl. "You like him, do you?"

Kiki was caught completely off guard after hearing him say that. Her eyes widened with shock as her mouth gaped open, staring at the man as she tried to speak. "Ah-- H-How did you know?" She whispered.

"I noticed when you and him were talking back at the station," He explained. "I think it's kind of cute."

"Oh, um, thank you, I guess." Kiki rubbed the back of her neck nervously.

"Mind if I say something?" He asked as the ginger haired girl turned her head back to face him. "Don't beat yourself up over this. We all have hiccups once in a while. Trust me, Bumblebee won't shrug you off that easily."

Kiki nodded in reply. "Okay... I'll hold on to that."

Jazz smiled at the girl as he patted her on the shoulder, the air falling silent for the remainder of the ride to the hospital. The paramedics assisted Bumblebee out through the back before the three officers quickly followed behind him. 

As they entered the emergency room, Kiki gently tapped Jazz in the arm, catching his attention. "Hey, um, could you keep this, secret, just between us?"

"Um," Jazz suddenly got nervous, shoving his hands into his pockets. Should he not say anything? It didn't feel right to keep the truth hidden, no matter the situation. Jazz sucked in his gut, exhaling heavily. "About that..."

Kiki felt like her eyes widened to the size of flying saucers. "You told him?!" 

"Well... yes, but---"

"I can't believe this!" Kiki rose her hands to her head, pulling on her ponytail. "He must think I'm a total creep now!"

"Hey, hey, hey, calm down!" Jazz cooed, placing his hands on her shoulders. "Nothing serious happened."

This peeked Kiki's interest a little as she slowly raised a brow at the man. "What do you mean? Did he say anything?"

"Well, at first he didn't believe it, then he explained that even if what I said was true, he said and I quote: I'm just not ready to go back into dating." He explained.

Kiki could feel a tiny ping of pain in her heart. 

"He's not, interested?" She questioned. 

"Not you specifically," Jazz quickly assured, waving his hands. "He's still going through a break-up, that's all."

"How long off?" Kiki asked. "If you don't mind me asking."

"A couple weeks at most," he answered. "What they had was a interesting relationship. First they were rivals, friends, then lovers, and then back to friends again."

"I see..." Kiki replied, her voice going quiet.

"Hey," Jazz placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't give up. There might be hope for you, yet. I'm rooting for you." 

"Thanks Jazz," Kiki sighed, her hands relaxing as they dropped back down to her sides. 

"Guys!" Strongarm called from the other side of the foyer. "They got him a room!"

"Coming!" Kiki yelled back. Just as she was about to walk away, Jazz reached over, gently grabbing her shoulder. "Wha--?"

"Seriously, though, give him some time," he spoke. "I'm sure he'll come around."

Kiki nodded in reply as Jazz let go of her shoulder. The two of them made their way across the room, regrouping with Strongarm as they made their way down the hall of the first floor of the building. They entered the room, finding Bumblebee sitting up in a hospital bed. They each only took one step inside until a male figure shoved his way past them, barging into the room.

"Holy crap, what happened?!" he shrieked, making his way over to the brown skinned man.

After recovering from nearly falling right into Strongarm, Kiki looked up to get a good look at the visitor. He had a smashing head of red hair with a matching shade of dark red eyes. He had light skin, and judging by his figure he seemed fairly built, though not as ripped as Bumblebee. He wore a white lab coat over his red shirt and black pants with matching sneakers.

"There was a mishap after the hostage situation at the Commissioner's office," Strongarm explained. "Sorry to bring him in on such short notice, Doctor."

"No need to be sorry," the Doctor replied, slipping on some rubber gloves. "It's a slow day today, this is all the excitement I could get." 

"Well, then I'm honored to be today's entertainment." Bumblebee teased. 

"You," the man pointed a finger at him. "No talking while I work." 

Bumblebee imitated zipping up his lips with his good hand, giving the doctor a thumbs up. The red haired man stood behind Bumblebee, examining the injury.

"Ratchet not working today?"Jazz spoke up.

"No, he had the day off today. But I'm sure he'll be up my arse about this when he sees the news," He muttered before clapping his hands together, looking at the trio. "Alright, I need some help. Let me see your hands."

The three of them exchanged confused expressions with each other before they each rose their hands in the air. The doctor snapped his fingers, pointing at Kiki. "You there, in the middle, step forward."

Kiki took a couple steps forward, keeping her hands raised in the air.

"Wow, those are really small," He commented. "Like, petite."

"Um, thanks?" She replied. 

"Anyways, I need you to help me," He guided Kiki over to Bumblebee's right side, where the injury was. "To carefully and gently remove Bumblebee's vest."

"O-Okay." Kiki quickly nodded. 

The two of them got to work, the doctor stepping to the side as he gathered up bandages, padding, and scissors from the cabinet. Kiki went slow and steady, trying her best not to move the glass shard anymore than needed. She started by slowly pushing fabric on his back shoulder up, gently sliding the glass out of the hole that it made. Kiki hesitated at first, but gently placed a hand on Bumblebee's feeling the leather of his glove. 

"This might hurt a little," She cautioned. 

"You're doing good so far," he replied, glancing up at her. "I trust you."

Hearing that made Kiki's heart come to life. It started beating a little faster than normal. Kiki nodded in reply before she gently lifted Bumblebee's right arm, and carefully pushed it through the arm hole of his vest. Bumblebee winched slightly from the pain, clutching his hand into a tight fist as he squeezed Kiki's hand. 

"Sorry about that," He apologized. 

"It's okay," She assured him. "We got it off."

Kiki gently placed the vest to the side, and right before she stepped back, she caught a sight of Bumblebee's back and so could have sworn she did a double take. Bumblebee had a large, interesting line work of a tattoo. The black lines and square curves blended well with his back. 

"Whoa..." She gasped quietly. 

"Like the ink?" Bumblebee asked, speaking up.

Kiki jumped in her place, looking over at Bumblebee to see that he was staring right at her. Her cheeks burned a bright red as she ducked her head with embarrassment. 

"Um, yeah... it's uh, kinda cool." She rubbed her arm nervously. 

"Thanks," He smiled. 

"Alright, I can take it from here," the doctor spoke up, setting his supplies down on the side. 

"Thanks again for doing this, Knockout," Bumblebee thanked, breathing a sigh of relief. 

"Now are you happy that you still have me on speed dial?" Knockout snickered, placing a stress ball in Bumblebee's good hand. "You would have been waiting in the emergency room for who knows how long."

He grabbed a pad in one hand and a pair of large tweezers in the other.  He used the tweezers to grasp the glass piece and before anyone could even blink, he pulled the piece right out of him! Bumblebee cursed, growling sharply as he crushed the stress ball in his hand as Knockout immediately pressed the pad against the wound, stopping the bleeding.

"How are you even alive?!" Knockout spoke as he set the tweezers aside, grabbing the bandage as he began to wrap it around the padding and Bumblebee's chest.

"So he'll be okay?" Kiki spoke up. 

"He just needs to lay off using this arm for a while," Knockout replied. "I suggest taking the rest of the week off for a more speedy recovery."

"We'll miss you when you're not at work," Strongarm spoke with a tease.

"Just you wait, I'll be back before you know it." Bumblebee grinned. "So try to not have too much fun without me, and that includes you too Kiki."

Kiki chuckled nervously at the man, a small smile spreading on her face. Before she could speak up, there was a knock at the door as Prowl entered the room. 

"Status report."

"Taking the rest of the week off," Bumblebee spoke up. "Doctor's orders."

"What happened to our buddy?" Jazz asked.

"He perished in the explosion. Some of the glass shards sliced him and he lost a lot of blood," Prowl explained. "There's no way we'll be able to bring him in for questioning now. Cadet, Recruit, could you excuse us for a moment? I need to discuss something with my men. Classified."

"Of course, sir," Strongarm and Kiki saluted, making their way out of the room. 

Kiki took one more glance over at Bumblebee who also caught the young woman's gaze. He nodded over in her direction, signalling her that things would be fine. She nodded in reply as she and Strongarm left the room, shutting the door behind them.

Prowl didn't waste anytime, breaking the silence. "So, we all know what he said, yes?"

"I heard it," Jazz nodded with confirmation, crossing his arms with disapproval. 

"Me too," Bumblebee nodded, his eyes narrowing. 

"Not only that, but he had an all too familiar tattoo on his arm," Prowl added, and the tension in the room intensified even more. "And we all know what that means."

"Mean what? What's going on?" Knockout spoke up.

"The Decepticons are back," Bumblebee stated. "And they're making their mark here in Crown City.