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First Aid woke up to the sound of distress. He looked across the room to where Arcee's berth was. She was still soundly asleep. He then checked the berth under his own.
Springer was tossing and turning, his faced scrunched into a painful expression. First Aid slowly got out of the top bunk, trying not to wake Arcee, in case this was just a nightmare.
"Springs? Hey, are you OK?" He asked his friend quietly, gently shaking him awake.
Springer didn't wake up, only moaned in pain.
He tried shaking him again, this time a little rougher.
His friend only made a pained sound again.
This isn't good. He thought. I should get carrier, he'll know what to do.
He tried to walk out of their shared room as quietly as he could. Once outside, he ran to where his carrier slept. Punching in the emergency override code his carrier had taught him, it was only to be used during emergencies, he burst in.
"Carrier!" First Aid exclaimed. "Wake up! Something's wrong with Springer!"
"Huh!?" Ratchet awoke with a start. "First Aid? What's going on, what's the emergency?"
"I woke up to Springer tossing and turning, he sounded like he was in pain, I tried waking him up but it only sounded like I hurt him!" First Aid was trying not to panic, a good medic wouldn't panic!
"Aid, you need to calm down first. You can't help anyone if we panic, remember?" Ratchet reassured his youngling. "Let's go see what's wrong."
First Aid only nodded and made his way back to his shared room.
Once back, First aid saw that Arcee was next to Springer, trying to wake him.
"Springer... Springer please wake up..." she whispered. "You're scaring me, please."
"It's alright, Arcee, I'm here." Ratchet said. "Why don't you and First Aid go get Prowl? He should know that something is going on with his kid."
Arcee and First Aid nodded, grabbed each other's hand, and ran off.
-
Prowl did not expect to be woken up so early. He was annoyed. he groaned as he glared at the two younglings that so rudely woke him up.
He grew concerned when he saw the two younglings were terrified.
"What's wrong?" he asked, hopefully he didn't sound annoyed.
"It's Springer. I woke up and he sounded like he was in pain, I tried waking him up, and it just sounded like I hurt him more!" First Aid said in a panic. He tugged on Prowl's arm.
Hearing that his son was in pain, he sprung out of his berth, and ran straight to the room his son shared with his friends. He didn't care about the rules he himself set up about running in the corridors, this was an emergency, this was his son.
He made it to the habsuite, hearing what he hopes he'll never hear again.
Springer was crying, he now seemed to be awake. Ratchet was trying to calm him down enough to get him to tell him where it hurt.
"Carrier-"
"What's wrong?" Prowl ran to Ratchet. "Springer, what's wrong? Can you hear me?"
"C-carrier!" was all Springer could get out between screaming in pain. "Hurts!"
"I know, but you need to tell us where, what hurts, where is the pain coming from?" Prowl asked.
"Ev-" Springer screamed the moment Ratchet tried to grab his arm.
"His protoform. His armor must be starting to grow." Ratchet realized. "I've never heard of it being this painful, I can't even touch him to get to his DX panel."
"Make-" Springer gasped in pain. "Stop! Make it stop!"
"Why aren't you helping him?!" Arcee exclaimed. "Help him! He's in pain!"
"First Aid, Arcee, go to Velocity, stay with her in the medbay."
"Bu-"
"No, no buts. Go now and stay there until one of us comes to get you!" Ratchet ordered.
The two younglings, still holding on to eachother, hesitated.
"Now!"
With that they ran out. Hopefully to the medbay.
"You scared them." Prowl said quietly. He didn't know what to do, even holding his son's hand could hurt him with how sensitive his protoform must be at the moment.
"It's best they don't see this next part." Ratchet said. "I need you to hold him down, and not let go until i tell you to, this is not going to feel great but I need to do this to even start trying to figure out why he's in so much pain."
Prowl said nothing, and grabbed Springer's arm to keep him from curling into a fetal position. This only made the poor youngling scream in pain louder than before.
Ratchet quickly got to work, connecting to his DX panel on his arm. He secured them, making Springer scream even louder.
"Don't let him go he might rip them out, and that won't help anyone."
"Hurry up then, I don't like hearing him scream like this!"
"I'm doing the best i can!"
Minutes passed, for the distressed youngling and his carrier, it felt like an eternity. Springer had stopped screaming, just gasping painfully, his face was wet from all his tears.
"This can't be right..." Ratchet muttered to himself, but with his close proximity to the other two in the room, they heard him very clearly.
"What? What's wrong?"
"The charts say that he hasnt had enough energon... But the younglings have priority, and him being the biggest, he has the largest ration out of everyone besides Fort Max. How is he not getting enough?" Ratchet pulled out a datapad, transfered the data from his arm panel to there. He quickly disconnected from Springer's DX panel. "You can let go now. I'm sorry about that Springer."
The youngling only groaned and curled into himself. He'd calmed down somewhat, but was still crying softly, his carrier unable to physically comfort him.
"I'll be right back, I need to run some tests. Don't worry Springer, i already have some energon, I won't have your carrier hold you down again."
Springer said nothing, just kept crying.
"I'll be back as soon as i can. I'll do everything in my power to find out what's wrong."
"Thank you, Ratchet."
With that, the medic left, and made his way to the medbay as quickly as possible. Once he arrived, he noticed that the only light still on was the one from the office. He made his way to the back of the medbay, and he saw that in the closest berth to the office, Arcee and First Aid were fast asleep, holding on to eachother.
This night is not going well for any of them, it seems, they both had tear stains on their faces.
He opened the door silently.
"Mind telling me why two younglings came to me crying earlier? I managed to calm them down enough, but they were both super tired, so i just told them to sleep in the berth just outside the office." Velocity asked. "I'm guessing something's wrong with Springer, those three are attached at the hip."
"He woke up in excruciating pain. I need to run tests on his energon, since all his DX panel told me was that he was lacking energon. It's most likely that he's lacking some sort of mineral or vitamin, but the DX panel isn't that precise." Ratchet explained.
"I'll clear out then." she said, standing up. "There's no other patients here tonight, so I'll just head to my hab for now. Comm me if you need anything."
"i will, thank you Velocity."
She leaves, and he's left alone with Springer's energon sample.
He gets to work. Running all the tests he think are relevant. Nothing makes sense, until the 3rd test. By the time he gets the results for that one, its mid morning. He checked on Arcee and First Aid regularly throughout the night, they stayed asleep by some miracle. He sent a quick message to Windblade and Chromia that Arcee was in the medbay and was completely fine.
Finally, once the results for the 3rd test finalized, he read it and again got to work. He messaged Prowl the results and told him that he was getting to work on something that will relieve some of Springer's pain. Somehow, the youngling was missing a plethora of minerals and vitamins and that made him not absorb the energon properly. The poor kid must have been starving for who knows how long and was too polite to say anything.
By early evening, he had Springer's new diet figured out, had a cube ready for him, and made his way back to the younglings' habsuite.
"Have him drink this, and take these." Ratchet said the moment he was through the door.
"Why is the energon... So blue?" Prowl asked as he took the cube and the pills he was handed.
"Like my message said, he is missing a lot of vitamins and minerals. He hasn't been absorbing his energon properly for a while, could be weeks or months now. That energon has just some of the things he needs, and those pills will help relieve the pain. The energon will help activate them."
"Thank you, Ratchet." Prowl set the cube down and tried to help his son sit up.
Springer shivered the moment Prowl touched his shoulder.
"I know, but this will make you feel better." Prowl comforted him. "Thats it, get up slowly."
Springer, with great dificulty, sat up, though was still slumped over, hugging himself in a form of comfort.
"Ratchet said to take these, and take this energon." Prowl gave him the pills, which Springer quickly put in his mouth and then was handed the energon.
"Is boo." Springer said, unable to say the words properly with the pills in his mouth.
"it's good for you. Drink it."
He made a face, closed his eyes shut tightly, and drank the energon. After a big gulp to swallow the pills, he gagged.
"This is so gross..."
"Yes, but it'll make you feel better."
"Am I going to have to take this every day now until I'm better?" Springer asked, the first full sentence he's said since he woke up in the middle of the night.
Prowl looked over to Ratchet.
"No, that will just be weekly. I will have to give you your energon every day now, since it'll still have additives, plus some new medicine you'll be taking for the next couple months." Ratchet said. "Your daily energon won't taste all that different. Just that one that you'll take once a week."
"Ugh, even once a week is too much. But i do want to get better... That was the worst I have ever felt in my life." Springer said. "Do i have to take this quickly or can I... sip it?"
"It might be best to drink it quickly to not prolong it. Just be careful not to choke." Ratchet said.
Springer made a face again, but nodded. He closed his eyes tight again, and drank the cube in large gulps, careful not to choke on it, like Ratchet said.
"Ugh. So this is gonna be my life for the foreseeable future?" Springer asked.
"Until your light armor has grown in, which typically for your build takes a couple months."
"Thank primus, it won't be forever."
The two adults chuckled at the youngling's relief.
"You'll also need to rest a lot more. This is like if you got the flu. Lots of rest. The brightside, Arcee and First Aid can still be around you, since this isn't contagious."
Springer brightened even more.
"Just rest for now. The growing pains will be over before you know it."