So, here's the announced prequel to "Wintertale". Why the prequel? As I began posting "Wintertale" many of you asked what happened to John and Cameron that they were acting so differently than in the show. To be honest, at that time I had no intention to write the prequel, but after such questions, I decided to give you an explanation of the reasons for them changing so much.

After I finished "Wintertale", I announced three chapters for this story. Actually, there are going to be four chapters, the last one being a short epilogue, which will connect this story and "Wintertale".

Maybe the idea is not exactly original, but I still hope to give you an interesting story with explanations how John could finally realize what Cameron means to him and how Cameron could actually realize what he means to her.

I tried to keep all the characters as much OC as possible, given the circumstances in which they found themselves. There's no actual Jameron in this story, just hints of what could be if … I guess that "Wintertale" picked up at the end of this story and served a full dose of Jameron.

Not to forget: I don't own anything but the plot.

Chapter 1 – The Fight

Cameron stood by the window, unmoving like a statue, sentinel once again. Her eyes gazed through the windowpane and swept the surroundings of the house for possible threats. Her face, set in stone, revealed nothing of what she was thinking about. Ever since the car explosion on John's birthday, she was acting more machine-like than before that terrible day, although her behavior was in complete discrepancy with how she actually felt. She knew that her inhuman behavior irritated John. It seemed that most of the time even her mere presence in the same room caused him to become snappy and visibly annoyed over her existence. Sometimes she tried to understand his behavior and sometimes she tried to excuse his occasional open hostility towards her with what she did that day. But her logic didn't play along the same lines. It told her that he wouldn't point his gun at his mother, that he wouldn't bring her back, if he was so irritated and mad at her then. After such contemplations she often stopped at her words, which she said after he brought her back – her words, he couldn't be trusted any more. Maybe those words angered him? He risked everything to bring her back and yet she accused him of not being trustworthy anymore. But it was the truth! It was only logical that he made a grave mistake by bringing her back. He had no idea how she would react, he risked the only really invaluable life on the planet … his … to bring back her, a machine. He couldn't have possibly known if she was fixed. And she wasn't! She never told him, but he didn't fix her. After she rebooted in the car wreck, she was still under her original programming, her kill order was still flashing on her HUD. But she also could remember everything what happened between them and she chose not to obey her order. She chose to protect him and she was even a little proud that she was able to do so. She never heard of a terminator, denying its hardwired order before.

While pondering over these problems, her face expression changed barely visible, but the change was visible in her eyes, which got that distinctive faraway look like she would be lost in some difficult contemplations. Once again she analyzed her behavior after John ran away to Mexico with Riley. Riley! That was one name she really didn't like. But … how was it possible for a terminator to like or dislike someone or even just a name? Did she have emotions? She knew that she could feel things and emotional stimulus. She told that much to John too, although she suspected that he didn't believe her. At least his reaction in the car, as they drove to Mexico to bring back Cromartie's body, told her so. But having real emotions? However, how could she otherwise explain her active dislike of Riley? She disliked her from the first moment on, not just after they found out who she really was.

After Riley died, John treated her a little better. But there were still days when he was just as hostile towards her as before. And today was one of those days.

Her train of thoughts was interrupted by John's voice. She turned her head slightly to look at him, while maintaining her body rigid. John was sitting on the couch and talking on his phone with some girl from the school. Cameron hated the fact that she didn't go to school with him anymore. Not because she would miss the school. She was irritated that she couldn't protect him 24/7. The absurdity of her thoughts struck her heavily. She was again expressing her dislike for something, she was again expressing something that could fall in the 'emotions' drawer. To be honest: she wasn't sure why she felt that way. Was it really only the fact that she wasn't able to protect him? Was there more to it? Was the real reason maybe that she wanted to be with him?

"OK, Joanne, we'll talk about it tomorrow." John's voice interrupted her thoughts again. Her senses were reaching the alarm stage, mainly due to the fact that John's voice was so friendly while he talked to that girl. Just like when he talked to Riley. When he talked to her his voice was never like that. For her, there were usually only scorn, distrust and anger evident in his voice. Apart from brief episodes like when he helped her with her arm and when she gave him the detonator … when she effectively handed over her life to him, to his decision.

Now she looked at John with slight annoyance, visible in her eyes. He was chuckling while he listened to the girl on the other side and his fingers played with the collar of his shirt, while looking at nothing in particular. "Right, see you tomorrow. Bye." He finished his discussion, put the phone aside and suddenly felt her eyes, resting on him. He abruptly lifted his head to look at her and his face got that annoying-hating look again, just like it almost always did when he looked at her. "What?" he snapped at her unfriendly.

His harsh reaction hurt Cameron more than she was prepared to admit. But she maintained her scary robot mask. "I don't think it is wise to bond with her so closely. She could be security risk." Her voice was flat, mechanical, without any emotion whatsoever.

"Yeah, sure." John nodded bitterly. "Tell me something Cameron; is there anyone whom you don't consider security risk?" He challenged her with clear annoyance in his voice.

Cameron remained stoic and stared into his eyes squarely: "Yes. Sarah Connor and Derek Reese."

John was slightly taken aback by her statement. Wait a minute! She didn't include herself into that category! "What about you? Are YOU a security risk? You didn't name yourself."

"There's damage to my chip. I am potentially a security risk too." Cameron stated flatly, not revealing that she felt uneasy after mouthing those words. Am I really a security risk? Is there really a possibility I might go bad again?

Upon hearing her answer, John nodded bitterly. Just like I expected! After all is said and done, she's just a machine. He wondered why he felt so disappointed upon hearing her answer. Did he really want her to be more human? Maybe he really was wrong when he hoped that she'd become more emotional. "Exactly like I expected! You're just a machine. You know nothing about emotions, about feelings. So stop trying to mess with my life. Don't try to tell me whom to meet, whom to like." His answer came out even more poisonously than he wanted. All his disappointment over her mechanical nature concentrated in those few words. He looked at her and thought to have seen a flicker of … something … passing across her face. But it was gone before he could be sure and dismissed it as impossible. She was just a machine and didn't know the first thing about emotions. Right?

His words hit dead center of the bullseye. If Cameron had to breathe she'd be now gasping for air. But, being what she was, she did her best to hide how he hurt her. Just a small flicker of hurt crossed her face, but she hid it immediately, hoping that John wouldn't notice it. His words were cruel. Not because he told her she was just a machine. She knew that and she accepted herself as a machine long ago. After all; how could she think anything else? They hurt her because they were said in such accusatory tone. I can't be anything else but a machine. There's no fairy to turn me into human girl. Why does John resent me for being a machine?

Her face was emotionless mask as she stared into his annoyed eyes, while she tried to find a way to explain to him why she thought that that girl wasn't the right company for him. "You will expose yourself too much if you keep on seeing Joanne. She's a person who likes to party and draw attention to her. That is highly inadvisable for you." She tried to reason with him, pointing out the facts. He would surely understand and accept such incontrovertible facts.

But it seemed that all her efforts only worsened the situation. It looked just like they were approaching the worse ending of a bad day. From the morning on John was acting strange. He reverted back to his most annoying persona from the Riley times and Cameron was asking herself since the morning what had she done wrong to cause such anger, directed at her. She couldn't remember doing anything wrong and that bugged her. Why was he acting so hostile when she didn't do anything wrong?

John's eyes narrowed at her. He saw her blank face, emotionless eyes and heard her flat voice, stating the facts he knew perfectly well without her telling it to him. He awoke today with a terrible headache and bad feeling that something was going to go wrong and was, expressed mildly, cranky as hell. He spat poison with every word he exchanged with the others, especially with Cameron. He didn't know why he was acting so rude towards his protector. Deep down he knew very well that she was just trying to protect him that she was just trying to be his friend. And even deeper down he felt the same way for her, but buried the unwanted feelings and denied their existence altogether. He was angry with her. He didn't know why, but he was angry that she was such a cold terminator that she was so obviously a machine. He remembered her from the beginning and knew that she could act differently. He remembered when he helped her fixing her arm and he longed for her to be again like she'd been then. Did he want her to be human? No, he knew that much, but he wanted to see her human side again.

"Don't you dare trying telling me that I have to break up with Joanne! Geez, we aren't even a couple! She's just a friend with whom I can hang out." He was looking at her with narrowed eyes and twisted lips, expressing his annoyance.

Cameron noticed all expressions of his mental state but decided to ignore them. She knew that Joanne was not the right girl for him and she was on a mission to show him the right path, to bring him back on the track. "You might get yourself in danger if you'll hang out with her and her friends too much. It a terminator finds you …"

She couldn't continue her advice, because John rudely cut her off with ice cold voice: "As far as I know there's only one girl who tried to kill me. And that's not Joanna. That wasn't Riley either. The only girl … no, I stand corrected … the TERMINATOR, disguised as a pretty girl, who tried to kill me stands right in front of me and tries to teach me about friendship!"

If Cameron managed to hide her hurt before, she miserably failed now. Her head fell down and she looked at her boots. Her mouth opened few times like fish out of water but no sound came out. In her chip, a hurricane of emotions threatened to destroy every coherent thought. After few seconds of silence, she finally dared to look up, just to see John's burning eyes, glaring at her.

"Am I correct? Or did I mess up something?" John never knew when he should stop ranting and what was happening now just confirmed it. Had he not be so blinded by his rage, he'd seen Cameron's slightly misty eyes and he'd noticed the clear expression of hurt on her face. But he was too blind to notice anything. He wanted to vent his pent up anger, frustration upon Cameron being a machine instead of a girl he wanted her to be, so his self-control was as good as non-existent at the moment. "I suggest you remember that the next time you'll try to be smart and tell me what to do. If it hadn't been for you, I'd probably still enjoy in my old school, hang out with Morris and other friends. But you destroyed everything."

Each new word was another hard blow for Cameron. Each and every one hit their target. She felt like she would be crumbling under the blows which John delivered one after another. She felt his contempt, radiating from his every word; she could see his eyes, burning with rage. She tried her best to look stoical like a machine which she actually was. But this time John's words shattered her defenses and she couldn't hide her hurting any more. She tried to reason with him, she wanted to explain to him that the person, chasing him across L.A. wasn't her, but no words came out of her mouth. The fact that the person who actually chased him and tried to kill him wasn't her, that it was Skynet's basic code didn't make it any better. In his eyes, she was the one who almost succeeded in killing him. She, Cameron Phillips, was the only girl who ever tried to kill him. He was right … Riley never hurt him physically.

She felt how her vision blurred a little and registered the moisture in her eyes. She couldn't understand why she would cry. John was only stating the facts, no matter how hurtful they were.

John stared into her face and this time he finally noticed her distraught look. There were emotions written all over her face. This time he saw them. But he was too wrapped up in his hate, so that his eyes registered the look on her face, however, his brain failed to interpret it correctly. So he continued to glare at her, satisfied that she was obviously without an answer for him. It confirmed his conviction that he was right. A terminator, unfeeling machine in the guise of a beautiful teenage girl. That was all what Cameron was. He actually failed to see her wet eyes, or he perhaps only chose to ignore them.

Silence, falling between them after his last words seemed to last an eternity. If asked about it, Cameron could tell exactly how long it lasted … it lasted less than 20 seconds, but subjectively she felt like it would last for hours. Even so … 20 seconds is an eternity for a highly advanced AI and if she couldn't find an answer in such a long time, then something must be seriously wrong with her.

John, still blinded by his rage, suddenly perked up and delivered his final blow: "Get lost Cameron! I don't want to see you right now. Go, make your rounds or whatever it is you're doing when you're out there. I don't care, as long as I don't have to look at you."

After he finished his tirade, he smirked at her evilly. But, just like he'd been touched by the magic wand, her completely crestfallen face finally managed to penetrate past his eyes also to his higher cognitive functions and he suddenly saw her like she really was: a completely shocked girl, staring unbelieving into his eyes, her eyes brimming with tears. He instantly regretted lashing out like some psychotic idiot on her. But before he could say anything, before he could do anything, she turned on her heel and stormed out of the house.

Forceful slamming of the door finally brought John out of his angry stupor. Why the hell did I took my anger out on her? She hadn't done anything wrong! She was just trying to reason with me and tell me the truth. He shook his head in sudden attack of sorrow for lashing out at Cameron just to vent his frustration and anger. He knew that she was correct. Joanne was actually just another excuse to shield himself from his feelings he was developing for his terminator protector. He knew that it would be dangerous to hang out with her too much, for the girl was a real party animal and could be seen everywhere where the party was. He also suspected that Cameron wouldn't be exactly thrilled to see him with Joanne so soon after Riley's death.

He fell back down on the couch. During the vivid, but very one sided discussion he stood up not to feel in subordinate position and only now he noticed that he clenched his fists so that his nails dug into his palms painfully. He finally relaxed his fists and put his face in his palms while sighing deeply. He knew he made a grave mistake and he could only hope that Cameron would come back soon so that he could explain to her that he didn't mean it like it looked. Great! First you yell at her and then you tell her that you didn't want to yell. Exactly the right way to persuade her how reliable and reasonable you are.

After he calmed down he tried to understand why he reacted on Cameron's pointing out of the truth the way he did and the only plausible reason he could find was that he wanted her to be more human and was venting his pent up frustration upon her machine-like behavior. But, he also realized that he actually gave her no reason to act differently. If he treated her like a machine and never let out the chance to point it out to her, why would she behave human?

He sighed again and tensed at the sudden flash of light, followed by low rumbling of the oncoming storm. She's all alone outside and the storm is coming. I hope she comes back soon, before the hell loose comes any closer.

Suddenly he snorted in disgust over himself and felt like the biggest hypocrite. First he makes her cry, then he chases her away and after that he begins to worry what could happen to her in a stormy night. Great job, John! Great job indeed!

TBC