Saphira laid on the couch frowning at the floor. She didn't know how she should feel at the moment. She knew that the autobots and the kids would find out what she has been through, though she didn't think they would notice her injuries this soon. She had wanted the autobots to just thing the bruises were marks that were easily able to be washed off. Now that Jack told them what they actually were, she hoped they would not actively pry into her business about it. She had a feeling that they will. Optimus definitely will.
Speaking of the commander, she heard the door opening and the heavy footsteps of the massive autobot walk in slowly. She made no attempt to look at him properly other than a slight side eye to see which autobot was there. However, she was slowly being able to pick up each bot simply by listening to their footsteps.
"Saphira." She doesn't even flinch when Optimus addresses her. She hears him drop down on one knee, leaning down close to speak to her. "Can we please talk?"
"I believe I said I wanted to be alone," Saphira responded bluntly, sniffling slightly as she had been crying for the past hour.
"You have been given ample time to yourself, but now it is time to talk. What happened to you?" She groaned a little, not wanting to speak of it. "Please, can you tell me?"
She looked up at him with a glare, her eyes were red and puffy, making the bot flinch slightly at seeing her eyes. "What good would it do? You can't do anything."
"Talking to someone about it does many things, Saphira. I may not be able to heal your injuries, but I can be your ear to talk to." She rolled her eyes, looking back down at the floor, letting a couple tears fall from her eyes. "I do not understand your reluctance, Saphira. We are not going to turn you away."
"I don't want to talk about it...can you please leave me alone?" Saphira moved her arms over face to hide it from him. "I promise I won't cause any further trouble."
"Trouble? What trouble have you cause?" Optimus asked in a confused tone. "You have done nothing to cause trouble, Saphira. We are getting used to having humans around. And I will admit, we are realizing we need to be careful with the children as it seems that some of them are not fully aware of the dangers we face."
"By some, you mean Miko," Saphira grumbled into her arms.
Optimus exhaled loudly, his eyes glanced at her stomach and he reached down slowly. "Yet it seems you hold a maturity far beyond your own age. Maybe it has happened because of experiences human children should not have experienced."
Saphira didn't respond. However, she felt Optimus's fingers gently grab the bottom of her shirt, making her yelp in surprise and pull away, only to fall and land on her back from the couch. "Owww...Optimus!" She glared at him before gasping and pulling her shirt down. "Can you not do that again?"
"I am sorry for startling you. You should know I am deeply trouble by your injuries, and the fact they could have been inflicted by another human...I don't understand it at all." Saphira sighed and pulled herself up onto the couch, sitting on it and keeping a tight grip on her shirt. "It seems cruelty is not limited to decepticons."
"Definitely not."
Optimus stared at Saphira silently for a few minutes, making it awkward for her before he spoke. "I will take you to your job on Monday. I am pleased you are still determined to work." She smiled slightly at Optimus when he said that. "If I am unable to do so, I will have another bot take you. Most likely Arcee."
"But, Arcee is guarding Jack," Saphira said with a frown.
"Jack has chosen to leave. He has been shaken by what he witnessed out in the field, and has decided he does not want to put himself in danger. Even though that was never our intent." She widened her eyes at Optimus, she had not expected Jack to leave. "He told us to keep a close eye on you. He seems to have an idea of what you're going through."
Saphira frowned and looked down. "Everyone thinks they know, but they don't," She muttered to herself.
Optimus heard her however. "Of course we don't until you tell us. Would you please stop this act. Ratchet wants to take a closer look at your injuries. Miko and Raf have been sent home, so it is only myself, Ratchet and Arcee."
Do they really want to help me? Or find another reason to get annoyed at me?
She shuddered and shook her head. "I...I...don't..."
"Do you expect us to just ignore it until you are satisfied?" He asked, raising a curious eyebrow at the girl which made her give a surprised expression. "Jack told us that your injuries may not even be healing properly."
"What makes you say that?" Saphira rolled her eyes, looking away from the autobot in irritation. "Actually, none of you know that for sure."
"Correct. That is why we must know the extent of your injuries." He leaned down a little more, softening his expression with a gentle smile. "I hope you don't believe that you're worthless. That would be truly sad."
But I am...all I am good for is to be a punching bag...
Saphira stared into the blue optics that were looking back at her before she glanced down at the floor. "You are not going to let this go, are you?"
"No. Not while I know you are suffering."
Saphira groaned, rubbing her face with her hands and looked at Optimus. "Fine...you win..."
"This was never about winning, it is all about your health." He extends his hand out to her, causing her to flinch away from him. "Allow me to take you to him so you don't have to put pressure on your body."
Saphira was not entirely thrilled with the idea of being carried by Optimus, but it was faster as she would likely take very small steps all the way to the lobby. She lifts her hand hesitantly before reaching out to grab his massive fingers. She was surprised by how warm they felt, she somehow thought they would be cold. And the warmth felt...comforting. She pulled herself up from the couch and carefully climbed into the palm.
As she sat down, she winced due to the bruises on her backside. "I think I like the couch better."
Optimus slowly stood up and turned to walk out of the room, keeping his hand steady as he walked. "I apologize for causing you brief discomfort, and I truly hope that you will heal. I am curious, you seem quite light for your age and height."
"You can feel weight differences?" Saphira asked curiously before huffing loudly before he could answer. "What am I talking about, of course you can."
Optimus smirked slightly as he was amused by her question. "It might be hard to believe, we do feel weight differences in various items and creatures. We also have a limit for extreme heat and cold, and while our bodies take longer to be affected than a human, we most certainly can die from those extremes."
Saphira let out a giggle, she placed a hand to her lips to stop herself from laughing. "I will be honest, it took the kids a while to realize you lot were actually alive. I am not sure how you are born or made, but you're sentient, and that is good enough for me to know that you are alive."
Optimus was pleased to hear her giggle, it was way better than before. "I had noticed that. You are very aware about your world, Saphira. And you seem to look beyond what others may perceive us to be. Even Fowler still thinks of us as more robots."
"I don't really like him anyway." Saphira knew it was good the autobots rescued the man from the decepticons, that didn't mean she didn't like him. "First impressions are hard to forget."
"It wasn't his best moment." Optimus looked ahead as he entered the lobby, Ratchet and Arcee were waiting patiently. "I have managed to convince Saphira to allow you to inspect her injuries."
"Good. Place her up on the berth here, that way she won't be able to try and get away." Ratchet pats the berth by him with his left hand, waiting for Optimus to bring her over.
Saphira trembled a little. She guessed he just wanted to stop her from running off and getting caught by decepticons. Optimus lowered her to the berth and she stepped off carefully. She didn't know if she wanted to hide or run, but she felt incredibly nervous in front of the autobots.
"Alright, I assume what I saw this morning was just a small portion of your injuries. I would like to see the rest please." Ratchet looked at her with an expecting look.
Saphira looked away from him, feeling the pressure before she peeled her jacket off first. The bots gasped as they see the bruises on her upper arms, they were huge bruises and they were still very sore. She gripped her shirt and slipped it off, she left her bra on even though the bots likely would not have any idea about naked humans. Again, the bruises on her stomach, chest, back, ribs and sides were huge. Her ribs were darker from being kicked. Finally, she slipped off the jeans, as there were bruises on her thighs and backside, thankfully the bruises didn't cover her entire legs.
"Who would do such a thing?" Arcee asked with a sad expression. "And why do her shoulders and ribs seemed to be more...defined?"
"She is underweight, I think," Ratchet said and he began to scan her body, causing Saphira to jump. "Be still, Saphira. I can't scan the extent of your injuries if you move around."
She looked away from him sadly, standing as still as possible, while also feeling awkward about being almost naked in front of the autobots. Still, she felt as though she annoyed Ratchet again, she had not meant to jump but she wasn't expecting to be scanned.
"By the All Spark..." Ratchet shakes his head once he scanned her whole body. "These injuries are not days old. They're years."
"Years? How would that be possible?" Arcee asked, her optics widen as she had not expected to hear that. She looked at Saphira in disbelief. "Who did this to you?"
Saphira winced at the fierceness of Arcee's voice. "It's fine...it will heal..."
Ratchet looked at her with a frown as Saphira began to pull her clothes back on. "How can you say that when you have endured these injuries for years?"
She shrugged. "I dunno...I guess...I got used to it..."
"That has to be one of the most disturbing things I have ever heard," Optimus said in a slow, sad tone. "No one deserves to be tormented like this. Much less for years."
Saphira pulled on her shirt after buttoning her jeans. "Maybe...but...I dunno."
"You should tell us, Saphira. Agent Fowler can probably help you." She frowned at Ratchet, making the bot frown at her back. "Don't look at me like that, it is good you can finally heal. But, if someone has done this to you for years, they could probably go to prison."
"It would not change anything," Saphira said bluntly, putting her jacket on and looked up at Optimus. "Can I go back to my room now? You got why you wanted. I will go and be out of your servos now."
"There is more, Saphira, you don't need to run from this." She groans and felt a sense of panic growing, making her tense and nauseous all of a sudden whole she listens to Ratchet. "You are underweight, I am sure you know this. I believe you are small for your age because you haven't eaten properly for a long time. I know the kids brought you food, and I hope you've taken the chance to eat something. I would encourage you to eat as much as you can."
She grimaced at the idea of forcing herself to eat more than once a day. "Yeah, yeah..."
"Ep, ep, ep!" Ratchet snapped, startling Saphira with his stern voice. "This is serious. I don't want you to keep living a life of..."
"A life of what, huh?" Saphira interrupts, placing her hands on her hips as she glared back at Ratchet. "A life of being invisible? Because I am good at that, and that is what I want remain until I finish school and leave town to start somewhere new."
Ratchet shakes his head at her. "I have a hard time understanding why you seem to misunderstand me."
"I understand you perfectly," She snapped, throwing up her hands in frustration. "Now can I please go back to my room? I need to catch up on..." She covered her mouth suddenly as she felt the rush of nausea and ran to the opposite side of the berth to heaven heavily.
The autobots grimace at the sight. "That is not what I wanted to happen..." Ratchet groaned, rubbing his forehead. "The last thing we needed was for her to be purging."
Saphira took deep breaths as the nausea settled and she stepped back from the edge of the berth. "I'm sorry..." She said in a small voice, keeping her back to the bots. "I can clean it up..."
"No, don't worry about it. Just...take her back to her room Optimus. I think we are dealing with more than just physical pain...the girl doesn't even want to tell us about it." Ratchet walked away to get some cleaning equipment to clean up the vomit.
Saphira felt fresh tears in her ears and turned her head to see Optimus's extended hand. She climbed into the palm silently, sitting carefully so she did not feel sore. She pulled her knees up to hug them and hide her face, not realizing that the autobots were giving her sad expressions.
Optimus looked at the girl as he walked back to her room with a sad expression. He does not know her story, he does not know why she has been hurt and he does not know why she seemed to believe she was a nuisance to the autobots. She was not a nuisance. Ratchet and Arcee have been the least helpful in making the humans feel welcome, he will admit. But neither wanted to see the humans suffer.
Aside from that, there was something about this girl that has got his interest. Optimus didn't know why, he just was interested in her. He wanted to know everything about her so he could protect her from has been hurting her. She was so small and fragile...it somehow tugged at his spark more than it did when he was told about Jack and Raf meeting Arcee and the decepticons unintentionally. He didn't know why.
He reached her room, looking around at it and wondering if more could be done to make her feel more at home. He exhaled and lowered his hand to the floor. "I hope you..." He didn't get to finish the sentence as Saphira jumped from his hand and ran to the showers, slamming the door behind her.
Optimus did not call out to her, but her heard the sound of her sobbing that filled the room shortly after. The sound again tugged at his spark. He shakes his head, it felt foolish to feel this way. Yet he could not shake it. He leaves the room as he knew being here was not going to make things better. It was up to Saphira to open up to them, and they had to prove they could be trusted.