Disclaimer: Not mine in the least.
Note: This ficlet can be read as a companion to 'Awake'
The Cold and Real
It is never exactly the same, but when John Connor sleeps he dreams. Every time. Even when he just closes his eyes for a minute, he sees the same images. He sees the way it all should be. The way he should be. The Great and Powerful John Connor.
He doesn't remember when the dreams began – before or after Judgment Day, but he does remember that they used to feel more like nightmares. More like the nightmares his mother always described to him. The ones that made her watch him sleep and say "if you die, They win."
He's not sure if it's because he's around Cameron every day or if it's because he knows the way she can feel, the way she does feel. Maybe it's just what being humanity's savior has made him become, but the dreams that once frightened him now leave him smiling as he wakes. They allow him an escape, a place of refuge.
So now when he lays down to close his eyes and slip away to a world that doesn't exist, he's not the man behind the curtain. The man who can never live up to his name. The man Cameron has had to protect for too many years. His mother's words don't matter because nothing can hurt him and They will never win. He is strong enough to be John Connor and really, would it be so bad to have metal inside instead of bones?
End.