This story continues the story I wrote for the previous two Valentine's Days. You should read them before reading this story. It takes place during and after the season finale of TSCC, "Born to Run."
I do not claim any rights to the characters or the TV series.
Valentine's Day
Pt III
Sarah and Ellison are momentarily stunned by the bright flash. They struggle to regain their vision, while their muscles spasm from the electrical discharge.
Sarah, who was much closer to the time bubble as it disappeared is suffering more than Ellison who was standing further away in the doorway. It feels like several minutes have passed, despite being only seconds, when she feels him grab her arm firmly.
This is it. He's going to have me arrested, she thinks, but instead she hears, "Sarah, I got to get you out of here. Every alarm within two city blocks is going off."
"Grab her." She orders, surprised by Cameron's presence in the room. Like John, she expected her to go with him and Weaver.
Ellison picks up Cameron's lithe form. Despite having all appearances of being a small girl of only a hundred pounds or more, her weight is closer to one hundred fifty. A point that surprised him, as he hefted Cameron up and put her over his shoulder.
"No! Not like that." Sarah shouts. "Carry her like she was asleep or something. You might be seen."
Ellison frowns, but shifts her dead weight so she is in his arms, with the damaged side of her face against his chest so it won't be seen. Sarah pauses long enough to place Cameron's arms around his neck, relieved that her unpowered servo motors keep her arms in place.
They get to the parking garage and Sarah's SUV without trouble. If anyone was down there, they must have left to see what the commotion was about.
Ellison places the prone form of Cameron in the back of the open vehicle as Sarah keeps watch. Despite his best to place her carefully, her dead weight causes her to roll from his arms landing hard in the back, facing the front. Her jacket opens but no one sees the folded sheet of paper inside her bullet ridden jacket.
"Where are you going? What are you going to do?" Ellison asks as he walks Sarah to the driver's side.
"I don't know and even if I did I couldn't tell you." She says getting inside and taking one more glance in back to make sure the old blanket covers Cameron completely.
"What should I tell the authorities? They'll be asking hard questions."
Sarah shrugs. "I don't know. Make something up. Blame me. It doesn't matter now. Just don't tell them the truth or you'll end up in the loony bin like I did."
She looks at the brooding FBI agent. "Listen. You get Savannah from her class and play ignorant. You don't know anything. I'll have to disappear for a while. In time I'll contact you."
"When? Where?" He says, sensing a glimmer of hope.
"Remember where we met, Silberman's cabin. There's a general store not far from there with mail boxes you can rent. Rent one."
She starts the truck, and drives out of the parking garage at a steady pace, trying not to hurry, or behave recklessly.
It takes her a few hours to get out of Los Angeles. The attack on Zeira Corp managed to create a staggering wave of backups in traffic. Fortunately for her, she was leaving and not entering.
She drives until she reaches the depths of the Mojave Desert. She walks around the back and picks up the shovel and work gloves she bought at some exorbitant rural price.
Into the night she digs a hole wide enough and long enough to hold Cameron's body until she can obtain enough thermite to burn it. She finds it a bit ironic, that just a couple of weeks ago she was forcing Derek to bury a body under gun point. There's no gun pointing at her now, unless you count the barrel of the gun the future has at her head.
With the hole deeper than her waist, Sarah calls it quits. Despite the chill of the desert night, her top is soaked with sweat. Her labors coming to an end, her body succumbs to the cold night air. Goose pimples appear on her skin and her nipples harden to the point of pushing against the fabric of her shirt like two dogs straining at their leashes.
Throwing the shovel out of the hole, she clambers up and goes to the back of the SUV. She takes a deep drink from her water bottle, casting her eyes over Cameron's body, lit by the dome light in the ceiling.
Not giving Cameron another thought, she picks her up and carries her awkwardly over her shoulder to the edge of the hole. Knowing there is no easy or nice way to do it, she lets the body fall.
Cameron bounces off the edge of the hole, the paper fluttering from inside her jacket, but before Sarah notices it, Cameron lands face down in the hole, hiding it from view.
Too tired to get down and roll Cameron over, or to offer any prayers or thoughts for the cyborg, Sarah shovels dirt into the hole. Despite her pretense of being detached and not emotionally involved, she finds it hard to ignore the sounds as each shovel of earth impacts on the prone from. Sarah only finds relief when the only sounds she hears, other than her heavy breathing, is the sound of dirt impacting on dirt.
Having smoothed the surface, she returns to her vehicle and marks the location on her map so she can return later to burn the body. She knows John has feelings for her, for Cameron, but she can't risk the technology falling into the wrong hands.
Shivering, Sarah reaches in back for her bag. She removes her sweat soaked shirt and dons a dry one, not caring if it goes with her slacks. She'll only be hiding it under her leather jacket.
Sarah drives off into the night, off to some remote location to hide, and plan for the future. John needs her. He needs her more than ever now.
Coughing suddenly, Sarah temporarily loses sight of the trail and almost goes off the dirt track before reaching the paved road.
Damn. For one brief moment I forgot, thinking I was healthy and whole like the old days. John was right. I am sick. But I'll beat it, just like I've beaten everything else in my life. I have to. I must.
# # #
Cameron sleeps an eternal sleep, her body hiding or protecting what was her last words. She doesn't know her words have gone unread by the person for whom they were meant.
Dear John,
You were right. The message Ellison gave me did upset me. It upset me more than you can imagine because it meant I'd be leaving you.
I don't want to leave you John. You need me and I need you. We love each other. You won't say it, but I know how you feel. It's too late for that now. I have to go.
'Will you join us?' Such a simple question, one that might be said as an invitation, but it means so much more to me, to us, the Third Faction. In my case it means leaving you, but not before I got your mom out of jail. You will need her more than ever now. My mission here is done.
I have a new job to do now, one that will take me away from you. I'm sorry, not just for leaving, but for not knowing you in the way I wanted to these last two years. I could have told you how I felt about you, what I wanted, but that's not my way and I thought I had more time.
Catherine Weaver is a member of the Third Faction. I knew that when I got her message. I expect she will be taking over for me as your protector. Considering some of the things she has been doing until now, she must of had other orders like I did. But I won't know if she was following orders or not until I meet the others. For her sake and yours, I hope so.
She's not like other machines you have known. She has her own way of doing things and doesn't like to take orders, but will work with you if you give her patience and space to do her job. One other thing, she tends to kill anyone who gets in the way of her doing her job. All liquid metal machines are like that.
You will need Sarah to help handle her. This machine respects strong women and John Connor. A word of warning, she really hates being called a bitch.
The time for me to leave is here, so I have to hurry.
Remember that one night we slept together for the first time and almost got caught when your Mom returned suddenly in the early morning hours. It was the happiest moment of my life, even if we didn't have sex. Just spending that night with you next to me was a sensation I will cherish. I guess it was too soon after Riley's death, but sharing that time with you in your bed meant so much to me. I opened the locket that night, and put something from each of us inside it, and hid it where it won't be found. That way, we'll always be together in some small way.
I'm sorry John. I have to go now. But before I do, I will say what you've been afraid to say for so long,
I Love You.
I Love You.
I Love You.
I Love You.
I Lo-
# # #
John Henry pulls Cameron's chip from her port and inserts in the vacant primary port of his head. Per Ms. Weaver's instructions, he initiates a reboot of his computer to be able to absorb the new data. Before the computer containing his essence comes on, the cyborg body awakes.
Utilizing the connection between her body and the computer, Cameron prevents John Henry from booting, shutting him down, and wiping the hard drives - this experiment is over, she thinks - and inserts a small program to display a message on one of the monitors. She bends down and picks up the note she had written and folds it neatly placing it inside her former body's jacket, where she hopes John will find it and no one else.
With tears from her new eyes, Cameron activates the time displacement equipment, leaving behind her old broken body, her old life, and a love she may never know again.
"I'm sorry John." she says, just as the time bubble whisks her away, not knowing her true love will be pursuing her.
# # #
John Connor stumbles over a pile of rubble, diving behind it, getting out of sight as another of those aerial Hunter Killers flies past.
He is joined by a figure, camouflaged to match their surrounding, but humanoid nonetheless.
They haven't talked in a while. Not since they reached the outskirts of what was one of Los Angeles' nicer suburbs.
At that time, Catherine asked John where he was going and all she got in reply was a smile, which perturbed her to no end. He keeps secrets as well as any machine, she thinks with some admiration
Sticking his head out through a hole, John looks around then signals for her to follow.
They move quickly down streets of ruined homes. Even this far out from the epicenter, many houses didn't survive the blast wave of the nuclear missiles which released their warheads over Los Angeles.
John enters a familiar street, and trots quickly up to a shared gravel driveway.
"We're almost there." He says to his companion, the ever vigilant Catherine Weaver.
He jogs down the drive, past the remains of the house he once shared with his mom, Derek, and Cameron. He runs around to the back of the house and to the top of an old retaining wall. He looks around, then drops over the edge of the wall. John waits for his companion, who joins him shortly.
"Now will you tell me what we are doing out here?" She asks, sounding impatient with the youth.
She abandons her camouflaged appearance, with the foliage now hiding them from view.
"Better than that, I'll show you." He says and begins crawling along the base of the retaining wall.
He's examining the ground for signs of digging and the wall for any scratches from tools. He knows its been many years, but the place and grounds have been undisturbed, not counting Judgment Day. Finding a likely spot, he pulls a collapsible shovel from his pack and begins digging.
"I used to live here." He begins explaining. "Cameron had some terminator parts she saved to repair herself. Mom burnt most of them, but not before Cameron hid some, burying them out back."
"What good will they do you now? She's not here."
"I'm not here for the parts. I'm here for something else."
He'll never forget that first and last night he and Cameron slept together. He was frightened out of his wits to be exact. Not because of what she was or who she was, or the fact she just crawled naked into bed with him, but because of the future. If just being friends with cyborgs can create enemies like Jesse Flores, then what would it do if he and Cameron were lovers? He did love her, and even with her warm naked body pressed against his in the narrow bed, he could not find the courage to tell her he loved her.
His shovel hits something metallic and he freezes, listening to the silence of the night. If there are any machines about, that sound could draw them near.
An eternity seems to go by before Catherine whispers, "You're safe John. What are you looking for?"
John continues digging urgently, abandoning his shovel in favor of his hands until he uncovers a large coffee can. Derek and his mom really liked their coffee in the morning.
That night Cameron crawled naked into his bed, she showed him the heart-shaped locket he had given her that first Valentine's Day. It was burned in the fire that destroyed their first home. The gold plating having melted off and the clasp bent.
He remembers waking that morning. Cameron shushed him to be quiet as they listened to Sarah entering the house. Luckily, his mom didn't immediately rush upstairs to check on him.
Cameron exited the bed and picked up her clothing from a chair. Padding on naked feet, she entered the bathroom and exited dressed in a pink robe, while wrapping a towel around her hair. The one thing he remembered, as Cameron walked through his room naked, was that the locket was gone from between her beautiful breasts, where it hung the night before.
Opening the coffee can, he holds his breath. Nestled in among the parts is something small wrapped in a scrap of flannel.
He takes the wrapped item and drops the can back in the hole.
Smelling faintly of the coffee that once filled the can, John carefully unwraps the cloth revealing the old burnt heart-shaped locket. His hand trembling, he opens the catch, now repaired, revealing two small locks of hair. One lock is short, brown and straight, and the other with its curl and golden highlights among the brown can only be Cameron's.
"I came here for this. " He says, his eyes welling up with tears. He was right. All he had, were his suspicions of what she did with it, and he was right. There was no telling what Cameron got up to at night.
Closing the locket, he puts the chain over his head.
I love you Cameron. I love you. I love you. He thinks, not knowing he is also saying it out loud.
A few minutes go by as John presses his forehead against the cold concrete, scratching at it absentmindedly with a stone as his thoughts remain focused on his true love.
Realizing John has surrendered to the emotions which cloud the human mind, Catherine Weaver takes John Connors elbow, and guides the young man quickly away from the house. They've been active for too long in one location above ground. It's time to move.
The two of them have been here weeks, and she's yet to find John Henry. He is the key to their survival and the defeat of Skynet. Things in the past are not what The third Faction expected. Sky Net was already present and alive in 2009. She could not avert what had already been started. It was too late for that.
So she did the only thing she could do, bring them a hero, John Connor, to help them defeat it now. She can only hope that a version of her Third Faction exists in this time line, otherwise she'll have to do it on her own. If she can do that, then maybe, she can also reunite John and Cameron. She also knows what it's like to love.
"We'll find John Henry, John, and we'll get your Cameron back. I promise." She says, not knowing if she can keep it.
From a distance, a tall masculine figure watches, motionless against the ruins of Kacey's home. It watches as Catherine Weaver and John Connor runs from its former home.
John is here. He's not supposed to be here. It thinks. This changes everything. It may not be possible to predict any outcome based on prior experience. The resistance will be disorganized. The third faction may not even exist. I am now a rogue unit with no home, no base of operations. No human in this time-line will trust me. I cannot make my presence known as I am. There is only one slim chance for me and for John, that Sarah Connor survived Judgment Day and is still alive. She will listen to me.
Walking to the back of the house, it finds trampled grass, and the coffee can. Its contents of terminator parts spilled into the churned up earth. Examining the can and its contents, she realizes John must have figured out what she did with the locket and came to claim it for himself. Above it, and to the left are four short words scratched into the concrete wall.
I love you too.
"I know." Cameron says touching the roughly scratched letters with the hands of her current male body. She stands up and stares out into the distance where John and his new protector have disappeared. And this time, it is she who can't tell him, not until she finishes her current mission
The machine posing as Catherine Weaver always was a good field agent, but her actions in the past have left a strong swell of suspicion about her with the leaders of the Third Faction. Cameron's mission is to watch Weaver and decide if she can be trusted, until that time, they will not reveal their location. The hardest part of this process, leaving John under the protection of a possible traitor. The fact that he is here also brings into question what Catherine Weaver is up to. She was not to return for a long time yet and definitely not with John Connor.
From across the barren wastes comes a cry of pain, screamed with such emotion, the voice is strained.
"I'll find you! I'll find you, Cameron!"
"And I'll find you." Cameron says softly, from her position by the retaining wall.
Cameron walks away from the ruins, following John and Catherine at a safe distance, sadden that her present form and new mission doesn't allow her to be with John at this time, but knowing they will be together eventually.
On the wall, below John's words, are new words scratched into the concrete stained with tears.
I know.
# # #
To be continued...
...next year.
Author's Note:
For the continuation, I'm not planning on getting into a lot of the heavier plots in many of the post-BTR fic's, including my own. The story concentrates on the Valentine's Day theme, the locket, and John & Cameron.
Thank you for reading this story. I look forward to your reviews.
Story Updated: Mon, Apr 22, 2013