WARNING: Contains spoilers for the season 2 finale

a/n: hi everyone, after seeing the promo, I just had to writing my own Jameron one-shot. It takes place after Sarah is arrested, when John and Cameron check into a motel. Hope you enjoy!



By My Side

Cameron had two priorities, which she intended to fulfill.

1) Ensure the safety of their location

2) Check on John Connor

After successfully making sure the cheap hotel room was secure, she then proceeded over to an emotionless teenage boy, staring out the window solemnly. Cocking her head to the side, Cameron observed his motionless state, noting that all was not what it seemed with the future leader of mankind.

"You shouldn't sit so close to windows," she stated in a seemingly monotonous manner. It was her opening statement to a conversation a warped version of a robot would have with a teenage boy.

"Why's that?" John responded boringly, his mind elsewhere.

"Safety precaution," Cameron replied. After deciding that mimicking human body language may now be the most affective approach toward John's attitude, Cameron situated herself on the bed awkwardly, and leant against the headrest. Although her secret may danger the mission by 87.9%, another possibly human part of herself told her otherwise. "John…"

"Look, Cameron, no offense but I really want to be alone right now," he said calmly, positioning his back toward her. As an act of finality, John retreated from his chair, and hopped onto the bed with an intention of resting. Cameron, not giving up though, navigated herself round to the foot of his bed, where she now faced him.

"I need to tell you something."

"It really can't wait Cameron?" John questioned, completely annoyed. "I've just lost Charlie, Derek,my Mom and now you want to tell me something?"

"We won't get the chance again," Cameron answered vaguely. "If what the girl says is true about Catherine Weaver's basement, then this could be Skynet. We don't have much time and this is going to be hard for me to explain." John sat there, mouth agape as Cameron continued

"After I went bad in the explosion, everything changed."

"So deep down, you want to kill me?" John asked seriously. "That's what you were originally designed for."

"No," Cameron responded hastily enough, that John could have sworn he heard a detection of nervousness. Was that even possible? "When I was jammed between the two cars, I ran a test and you were still my target, but I wasn't going to kill you."

"That doesn't make sense," John replied automatically. "When a terminator targets a person, they don't think about killing them. It's an automatic response."

"It's different. I'm different. I have choice," Cameron told him bluntly. "I can look at you and override the command to terminate John Connor."

"So you're telling me that all this time, you could have left us behind, or killed me, but you didn't?" John asked in disbelief. "Why?"

"Not all machines are bad," Cameron said. "Since that day, my data banks and memory are fine, but there's something wrong with me. I can feel."

"Cam, you mimic human emotion. That's not feeling," John informed her, wincing at his own words. "Machines can't feel."

"You've seen it John," she told him. "You know you've seen it."

John thought back to when Cameron professed her love for him, and her facial expression when he caught her that one time playing fooz ball with a total stranger. Secretly, he would always spy on her releasing pigeons and watching them fly away. A few days ago when she had not killed Riley, he had questioned it and when she affectionately squeezed his hand while he was repairing her arm, John had decided not to take notice. Could it be?

"I thought you should know, before we stop Skynet," Cameron smiled slightly, before lying on the bed next to him. "Just in case something happens to me." It reminded John of that time where she had tried to make him forget Riley, also the time where he finally realized that his unnatural feelings for his terminator protector went beyond a crush.

"Can you feel love?" John blurted out stupidly as he lay there next to her.

Cameron genuinely smiled at this question. "Terminators feel a love for their mission, a love that is programmed into them. That was the only way I knew how to love."

John sighed in disappointment. "Yeah, I know." Cameron turned to face him, as their heads lay down, supported by two pillows on each side.

"John?" Cameron announced. The tips of their noses were now touching as they stared into one another's eyes. "I felt it differently with you and I don't know why." John grinned, before slowly positioning his body on top of Cameron's breathing heavily with nerves.

Leaning down slowly, he chastely covered his lips with hers, and felt her eyes shut beneath him. As her tongue slipped into his mouth softly, John knew she was more human than her behavior around Derek and his mom. He should have known.

They both pulled away and Cameron swallowed, politely not knowing what to say. "What was that?" she asked as John rolled over to his side of the bed.

John thought carefully about the answer before coming up with the most plausible explanation he could think of. "It's what two people do when they really care for one another."

"Oh," was Cameron's only response as they momentarily lay there in silence. John felt embarrassed. With his explanation in mind of what took place just before; she placed herself on top of John, wrapping her feet around his wait, before he could think.

"Cam, what are you doi-," he started before being hushed by Cameron's lips which were roughly exploring his own until John pulled away, gasping for air. Her eyebrows frowned in confusion as he pulled away. John smiled at her clueless behavior, before rubbing his thumb gently across her cheek, reassuring her that she had done nothing wrong, and that coming up for air when kissing was a human requirement.

His mind, fifteen minutes ago was occupied with thoughts of Catherine Weaver's house guest, and his mom's arrest, along with the mourning Derek and Charlie and yet, Cameron was the only thing he could seem to think of, as he stroked her hair affectionately. They were going to break his mom out of prison, but right now, all he wanted was to savor his last peaceful moments with the robot who lay casually on top of him.

Satisfied with John's reaction to the events beforehand, Cameron lay next to him, casually, contemplating the normality of this situation. This is where she belonged, where she had always belonged; by his side


Mission Complete