The last time John had seen his mother and his uncle Derek was the day before. There had been an ambush of two terminators at the same time awaiting John and his family.
They had split into pairs, John and Cameron, and Derek and John's mom. Cameron had taken John along for a brilliant escape plan that left both terminators behind.
Now, almost a day later, Derek and mom hadn't shown up for the rendezvous at a motel in the city. John sat idly brooding on his motel bed. He shouldn't have left them behind, shouldn't have left with their greatest weapon, Cameron.
He hadn't slept at all during the night. Cameron patrolled the room, checking windows and listening for the giveaway heavy footsteps of a terminator. John was useless.
He hadn't saved his family, hadn't even saved himself. Future John was no where to be found, there was just teenage boy, John Connor. John watched Cameron for a while. She was on a sweep routine, which he figured he must have programmed in the future.
Cameron was proof that he would become a great general for humankind. But she was also a constant reminder that he didn't know half of what he needs to. She turns her head, 90 degrees one way and then the other.
She walks to the window, Mossberg in hand, and does the same neck twists while peeking out the window. She does this for both of the windows, then presses her ear against the door to further enhance her superhuman hearing.
She then waits in the center of the room for a few minutes and does the sweep again. Cameron had been doing this the entire time they had been in the room
"Cameron" She turns looks attentively at John, "Is this...Is this when my mom...dies?" John hesitantly asked Cameron about the future. He was scared, scared that maybe this was the time when she would die. He knew that she doesn't make it to Judgment day, which scared him still more.
"That's impossible to say as this never happened before. Before, I wasn't here and neither were these terminators. You seem worried."
John knew already that she couldn't give him an answer, but he still felt the need to ask. "Yeah. Do you think they'll live?"
Cameron paused for a moment and looked distant. She walked over to the bed, sitting down next to John. She made the bed creak under he weight. "The odds of their survival are in their favor. Don't worry John."
John thought for a second about what she said. A 51% chance was technically in their favor, but it didn't mean they had a good chance.
"That's not as comforting as you're programming thinks it is." John edged forward and rested his head in his hands, looking at the ground.
"John, they're great fighters. Derek is one of your best soldiers, and you know how strong your mother is." Cameron leaned forward too, and put her hand on his back.
The words she said were true, and they eased his mind, just a bit. John looked over at Cameron. He knew that behind her eyes, those wonderful deep brown eyes, there was metal and a CPU. But he didn't care. He loved her.
"I should be better. I should be General John Connor, but I'm not. He's the greatest fighter against the terminators, and I'm not. I'm just...useless."
Cameron took her hand of his back, brought her legs up and turned to face John.
"You're not useless. You're a teenager, and I guarantee you that you're a better fighter than Sarah or Derek when they were your age. You're a better tactician than either of them now, and you're only going to get better with time."
Cameron was honestly trying to comfort him. Strange, she's never had a situation like this to base her actions on. That made her words all the more meaningful, because he knew she wasn't running program ComfortJohn exe
"Cameron...Do you really love me? Was saying that, back when your chip malfunctioned, just a strategy to defend yourself?" John brought his legs up onto the bed and faced Cameron as she had done.
The look in Cameron's eyes suggested she was thinking very hard. John regretted saying it now, feeling like he had changed the subject to exactly the wrong thing.
"John, I don't lie to you. Ever. Even when my chip malfunctioned and my number one objective was to kill you, I didn't lie to you. My processes slow down when I'm around you, I start overheating when you say things to me, you cause errors in my programming. You make me feel illogical."
"Sounds like Terminator love to me." John felt immensely better, all thoughts of Mom and Derek melted away. All there was in the world was the beautiful girl in front of him.
John shifted around and lied on his back beside Cameron. She did the same, and they turned to face each other.
"I love you Cameron. The greatest gift I've ever given myself was sending you back to me. You're much more than a machine, you're more real than anyone I've met." John reached out a hand and stroked her cheek, and ran his hand through her hair.
"John...I love you. That's the first and only feeling I've ever had." she move closer so that their faces were faces were inches apart. He could feel her breaths, short and hot on his skin. John figured that her programming was as, if not more, intricate than the human brain.
She was made of metal and wires, but she was no robot. Her soft hair, her amazingly cute face, her warm skin; it was simply impossible for her not to be human. Cameron wrapped her arms around John's back and pulled him tight around her.
John squeezed her back in a hug. He could feel the hard bones that lay beneath her skin. He liked them, it gave him a sense of her indestructibility.
"I need to check the perimeter." Cameron whispered to him gently, her voice sounded better than any angel's.
Reluctantly, John brought his arms away from her very nice body. She was thin and beautiful, but she could hit harder than the most well muscled man in the world.
"Did I love you in the future?" John realized he was mixing past and present tense, but that's what happens when there's time travel involved.
"No...I was just another machine. I didn't love you there either." John wondered if he would have to stop loving Cameron to become that future John; he'd rather let the world die.
As Cameron was looking out the last window, she spoke again. "Its not that you end up different, incapable of love. It's just that I never felt anything around him."
John thought about it. Now that he did love her he knew he would never stop. Since she's part of his life now, one thing making him different from the future John she knew. He also picked up on her referring to future John as 'him' and not 'you'.
"Cameron, I'm not going to be future John. I'm always going to be...me." Sure, he would learn warfare and strategies, but he would never be the mysterious and impressive figure that made Skynet send terminator after terminator to kill at a wide range of ages.
Cameron had finished her sweep, and looked back at John. "You probably will be different. But better."
Without saying anything, John stared back at her. She wore a red faux leather jacket over a blue shirt and jeans. She looked stunning. Only John saw her this way, most people saw an average, sort of hot, girl.
John beckoned her back to the bed by patting the spot next to him. John wondered how he looked. Probably like a stoner; his T-shirt was dirty and his pants were ripped, and his eyes showed not a hint of rest in them.
Gracefully, Cameron walked across the room and lied down by John. He felt the dip in the mattress as it acted under the strain of the incredibly heavy girl.
"Get closer please, Cameron" John talked softly and, quite blatantly, tiredly. Cameron moved closer, and turned around so her back faced John. He wrapped an arm around her waist and held her tight.
"I'm going to fall asleep Cameron." John yawned into the back of her hair.
"That's fine. There's one thing I want to do first." Cameron shifted around again, and brought her lips to John's. John kissed her back, deeply passionate. The kiss lasted over a minute before John pulled away.
Cameron shifted around once more and once again had her back to John. He held her tight again, and began to drift off to sleep.
She's living, breathing, she's my half machine woman