Author's note:

This little story here is the first one I've ever published and the second one I've written. In mid November 2010, I finally started writing my own version of how I thought a season three might have been, but then Christmas was approaching rapidly, and I got carried away with the spirit. So I put TSCC3 on hold and started on my X-mas story after the holidays. Here's the outcome…

(By the way, please note that the last two episodes never happened here.)

Cameron's Christmas

Chapter One

It was finally snowing. John was glued to the window of his room looking at the thick flurries of snowflakes falling, completely blotting out the morning sun. There were children playing in the snow-covered street enjoying what for some of them may well have been their first ever snowball fight. Having lived in warm climate places for the majority of his life, a blizzard was also a scarce occurrence for one John Connor, whose attention was now completely focused on said children pelting themselves with glee written on their faces and obviously not a care in the world. He idly wondered what it must be like to lead a normal life without the need for constant vigilance, without machines from the future being sent back to kill him.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a Christmas tree, John thought. My life sucks.

Kneeling on the mattress, his elbows resting precariously on the window sill, John stretched himself across the gap between his bed and the window and pressed his right cheek firmly against the pane of glass - Ow, it's damn cold - trying to catch a last glimpse of the children who were now running down the road jumping in each and every snowdrift on their way.

"Why are you licking the glass, John?"
Cameron's voice suddenly came from right behind him.

"Arghhhh!"

Before John crashed unceremoniously into a heap on the floor he noticed she was sitting on the far end of his bed.

"Ow! I wish you wouldn't do that. You know it startles me when you suddenly appear out of thin air" he groaned, picking himself up off the floor and climbing back onto his bed rubbing his right elbow which had made hard contact with the floor boards.

Cameron tilted her head "You have never seen me appear out of thin air. I only jumped in time alone once and you weren't present when I arrived."

John looked incredulously at her, his mouth slightly agape. "Never mind. How long have you been sitting there for?"

"Seven minutes, twenty four, -five seconds" she replied.

"How come I never noticed you come in?" John wondered.

"I don't know"

"Well, next time, how about knocking?" he told her in a more accusatory tone than he had intended to.

John could have sworn he saw a slight hurt expression flash across Cameron's face before she said in her monotonous voice "The door was open."

"Erm, well, yeah. Okay then, perhaps you could just cough or something in future?" John asked sheepishly feeling a little sorry for blurting out at her like that. "Just so I cotton on you're there. You know I scare easily, being hunted by killer robots can do that to you."
I also bruise easily, he added to himself, looking at his rapidly swelling elbow with some concern.

"I'll try, although I do not need to cough. The anatomy of my throat does however …"

John cut her off before she could launch into one of her detailed explanatory modes.
"That would be great. My elbow will thank you" he grinned.

Cameron got up and walked over to the other side of the bed where she sat down next to him. She delicately placed her slender hand on John's swollen elbow. His pulse instantly increased by double. She then started to apply pressure to various points of the joint.

"What are you doing?" John asked after he had managed to find his voice again. He wondered why his voice always seemed to leave him these days should Cameron even merely bump into him. Which happened quite frequently in the usually rather jumpy existence the members of the Connor household led.

Cameron fixed him with her huge brown eyes. John felt like he was melting into the mattress. "I'm making sure your elbow has not been damaged" she said, not taking her eyes off him.

"Ah … yeah … is it alright?" was all John managed to burble.

"There won't be any lasting damage, only a bad bruise" Cameron said in a matter-of-factly tone. "What were you looking at before you fell off the bed?" she then added.

Feeling his cheeks going slightly red John told her about the children he had been watching.
"They were having so much fun. I never had a snowball fight in all my life, there was never enough snow" he explained.
"And there was never the time" he added sadly, thinking of his childhood which he had spent mostly on the run with his mother.

"I have never had a snowball fight either. Is it dangerous?" Cameron asked, her head tilted slightly.

"Is it what?" John grinned. "No, of course it isn't dangerous. It's something you do for fun. You make snowballs and throw them at one another trying to hit your opponent" he explained to her.

This was one of the things John had come to like most: explaining something to Cameron. Even Sarah had noticed that her son remained unusually calm and patient when explaining something they took for granted to the machine. And she wasn't too happy about it!
In Sarah's opinion John spent too much time with the machine, he had become far too attached to it. But then again, Sarah knew her son to have a soft spot for the machines.
And Derek maintained that in the future John had always seen something in them that others could not. Sarah only hoped that her son wouldn't one day come unstuck being so trusting.

…

"Look at all that bloody snow!" Derek remarked from his vantage point at the far end of the kitchen table opposite the window while greedily helping himself to another two or three of Sarah's breakfast pancakes. "They'll be putting salt down for sure which means we can't go out" he added before shoving an entire pancake into his mouth.

"You do know what knives are for, Reese?" Sarah barked, eying him disgustedly. "And why should salt on the roads stop us from going out?"

Derek shot her a shocked look. "I'm not risking my SUV's tyres and having them being eaten away. Worse still, the paintwork might discolour. No, we're grounded as long as this goes on" he concluded, jerking his head towards the snow now collecting on the outside window sill.

Sarah shook her head and continued to make more pancakes while muttering "Men, honestly…" under her breath.
John will be down anytime soon, she thought, and ravenous as usual, she added, deciding to open another packet of bisquick's finest.

…

"Can we have a snowball fight?" Cameron asked a dumbfounded John from her position on his bed.
Of all the things he had ever secretly imagined doing together with Cameron in his teenage dreams and fantasies a snowball fight was definitely not amongst them.

"What? Erm … well, why not? Yeah, we will. Definitely." John answered and smiled brightly at her. Hey, this could be my first attempt at leading a normal life, he joked to himself.
"But first: What do you need before going out with the intention of getting soaked to the bones?" John asked.

Cameron looked at him quizzically whilst processing his question. Coming up with no satisfactory response she merely replied "I don't know", before repeating "What do you need before going out with the intention of getting soaked?"

"I'll tell you" John smiled. "Breakfast. A double helping at least."

He stood up rubbing his elbow once more and noticed that it felt better already.
Leave it to Cameron to instantly cure me with a few simple measures…

Bending his elbow and shaking his head in disbelief that the pain had already gone, he started towards the door before stopping and turning around to face her again.
John didn't know if it was simply the season's spirit or Cameron brightly asking him if they could have a snowball fight. But all of a sudden he felt terribly sorry for her. For how he had treated her in the past. And for how his mother and uncle treated her on a daily basis. It dawned on John that Cameron had never ever questioned him or doubted him in the slightest. She had been loyal to him even after he had started to push her away. When he had tried to convince himself to bury his feelings and exclude Cameron from his life she had still been there for him. He felt he had to try and make it up to her. Somehow.

"Come on" John called to her, his voice cracking slightly. "Let's go downstairs for breakfast."

Cameron never accompanied John to the dining room ever since Derek had remarked that he couldn't eat with metal in the room. John remembered the look of hurt on her face that day before she had left the table after Derek had said "Bleedin' 'ell, it'll make me throw up." He felt a surge of anger towards his uncle as the memory struck him.

"John, I don't require breakfast. And Derek wouldn't be pleased to see me" Cameron said in a tiny voice as she hesitantly rose from her sitting position on John's bed and walked over to where he stood.

"That's his problem then, isn't it?" John shrugged as he took a step towards her. Defiantly taking her hand and pulling her towards the door with him he added "It would please me, though."

"Why?"

"Why what?" John inquired somewhat bewildered as to the fact that Cameron had suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, making him stumble backwards owing to his hand still holding on to hers. Noticing this he quickly let go of her hand feeling a trifle embarrassed.
Was I really just holding her hand? It felt … normal, just like something I should do…

"Why would it please you if I were to have breakfast with you?" Cameron asked looking straight at him with sadly inquiring eyes, a slightly tilted head and a barely open mouth.

Thankful for the semi darkness John hoped against hope that Cameron would not see the colour rising to his cheeks again. If she did notice she didn't let on. John scratched the back of his neck. "Well, err, look, it's just … um …" he broke off.
How could he tell her that he desperately wanted to spend a normal day with her? Just one. Or at least a day which he thought accounted for normal anyway. For her. To make her happy or at least to try.
What makes her so sad sometimes? John mused at the cyborg's expression, the one he had long ago forced himself to overlook and ignore. Just for the sake of it. Because he might have lost himself in those eyes. He found that pushing all of this to the back of his mind had started to become more and more difficult as of late.

"You wish to lead a normal life" Cameron suddenly remarked.

"I'll never have a normal life, we both know that" John said resignedly, marvelling at how she always seemed to know what he was thinking.
"But I could at least try to make the best of it. Meaning it would be nice if we all acted like we were a family. So how about it? What would you like for breakfast before we go out?"

Cameron's lips parted with the smallest expression of surprise. A bystander would not have noticed at all but John did. He always noticed when Cameron was upset or happy, although she had repeatedly claimed to have no emotions. John had tried hard to convince himself of this and make himself believe she was right, all evidence to the contrary. All he knew now was that he never wanted her to feel unwanted or lonely again. He supposed making Cameron a breakfast was not a bad start.

"I'm not sure, John. I've never had breakfast nor do I require it. But if it makes you happy I can eat whatever…"

He cut her off before she could finish. "Not me, YOU. I was hoping it would make you happy."

"I'm a machine, John. I can't be happy" Cameron said, putting her best scary robot face in place. "Happiness is a human emotion. I do not have—"

"YES YOU DO!" John cut in somewhat louder than he had intended to. He at once lowered his voice again and continued.
"I've seen the way you look when Mom or Derek make digs at you. I … I hurt you myself … again and again by being a total jerk and forcing myself not to care about … what you think."

…and not to care about you, John added mentally to himself while Cameron studied him, her head slightly tilted. After what seemed like being scrutinized for ages and John starting to fidget from becoming all the more uncomfortable, Cameron finally gave him the smallest of smiles.

"Thank you for explaining."

John simply adored it when she said that. He always took it not as a response merely generated by programming but as a hint that he had managed to teach her something more about human behaviour.
He was just about to continue on his quest of going downstairs with Cameron to make her breakfast when she spoke again.

"John?"

"Yeah?"

"Can we celebrate Christmas?"

John simply stared at her his jaw flapping.
"W … What?" he stammered before the meaning of what she had just said sank in.

"Can we celebrate Christmas?" Cameron repeated.

After at first having fixed her for some considerable amount of time with a rather goofy look on his face John closed his mouth with an audible pop and his lips slowly started to transform into a bright smile, quite unlike his usual guarded one. Cameron continued to look at him patiently awaiting his response.

Grinning broadly, John took a step towards her and said "You know what? We can. And we will. Yeah, that's just what we'll do. We'll have a real Christmas with a tree and a turkey and all."

John began to pace around the room while thinking of all the things they'd need to buy. This called for a lengthy shopping trip and even though John usually ran a mile when anybody so much as mentioned going to the shops he was really pleased at the prospect this time. It just seemed like something he should do. Something normal at last.

"We'll have to go and buy quite a few things" he mused and started counting his fingers.
"A tree, some decorations, candle lights and, oh yeah, wrapping paper. I'll bet my Mom won't even have any of that. That flak jacket I got for my birthday last year wasn't wrapped…"

"Wrapping paper?" Cameron tilted her head. "What will we need wrapping paper for?"

"For the presents of course" John exclaimed unbelievingly, deciding that for the most advanced learning computer on earth Cameron was sometimes painfully slow on the uptake.

"Oh. Thank you for explaining" she said predictably and then added "What would you like for Christmas, John?"

Evidently she wasn't that slow in putting two and two together, John had to admit before he wondered if there actually was anything he'd want as a Christmas present. Especially from Cameron. He had never expected her to give him anything, yet alone ask. After all, she did enough for him on a daily basis, sometimes even getting shot for him. Little did Cameron know that every bullet she took hurt John as if it had struck him.

"Err, I dunno. I've never really thought about it. And I've never expected to have Christmas presents." Especially from you, John added to himself, feeling the familiar red tinge creep up his cheeks. "I'll tell you later, okay?" he offered.

"Alright" Cameron said with the ghost of a smile.

"Let's go then" John decided with the intention of going to the shops straight away.

"John?"

"Yeah?"

"What will you make me for breakfast?"

"Oh. Well, how about pancakes?" John suggested, breakfast having been completely forgotten and the fact suddenly dawning on him that he had no idea whatsoever what to make her apart from pancakes owing to Sarah's ample supply of ready made just add water packet mixture.

"Sarah has already made some. Although they are slightly burnt" Cameron informed him. Evidently she had analyzed the smell coming from the kitchen below thanks to her advanced cyborg olfactory sensor relay.
Or something like that, John assumed.

…

"Oh, where is that boy?" Sarah exclaimed while making a fresh batch of pancakes since Derek had scoffed the not insignificant pile she had prepared for John after having finished his own in record time. Derek was now dejectedly staring at the empty space in front of him where his plate had once been before Sarah had whipped it out from under his nose glaring at him.
Just then the shuffling from the upstairs landing and the clomping of boots on the stairs announced John's arrival.

Since when does he wear boots? Sarah mused, trying to recollect if John had ever worn anything else apart from his sneakers in the line of shoes.
Those cowboy boots I got him in Red Valley were never touched…
Before she could cling to her train of thought any farther John appeared at the dining room door, Cameron close behind wearing her usual combat boots, the ones she wore with every outfit. John secretly found this impossibly adorable.

Before Sarah could remark anything in the line of what is she doing here the telltale sounds of spluttering and coughing from the dining room announced that Derek had looked up from his pancake-less reverie and noticed Cameron.

"What's that doing here? I'm not having breakfast with it looming over me. No sir! I'd rather…"

"Shut up Derek" John snapped at his uncle while chancing an apologetic sideways glance at his protector, who looked as if she would have liked to vanish on the spot.
"Cameron and I are having breakfast today. If you don't like it you're free to leave."
He took Cameron's hand and led her to the table where they sat down next to each other as far away from Derek as possible.

Derek just stared at his nephew, a look of shock and revulsion evident on his face.

"What's for breakfast, Mom?" John shouted in the direction of the kitchen just as Sarah entered the room balancing a precariously high pile of pancakes.

"It's your favourite, John: pancakes" Sarah teased, plonking the plate of still smouldering and a rather too darker shade of brown coloured pancakes in front of him.

John nodded at Cameron and grinned. "You were right."

"John, why is she here? She doesn't need any food." Sarah remarked jerking her head disdainfully in the cyborg's direction.

"She has a name, Mom. Cameron is here because we were going to have breakfast together before going out." John replied, unblinkingly holding his mother's gaze.

Sarah flapped a pancake on to John's plate with a little more force than necessary while Derek gazed longingly at the rest of the pancake pile.

"Going out? Where?" she asked, eying her son warily while dishing herself a pancake as well.

John decided he would not yet let on to his mother and his uncle about his and Cameron's Christmas plans.
Yeah, I think we'll surprise them…
He smiled at her and said in a genuinely cheerful tone "To play in the snow, Mom. That's something I've never done."

He got up and made his way over to the kitchen to fetch a plate for Cameron since Sarah hadn't brought one for her and made no intention of changing this. And Derek would rather sacrifice an arm and a leg before being seen waiting on metal. He sneered derisively at his nephew as John placed a plate before Cameron and offered her a pancake which she accepted with a small smile.

"Thank you" Cameron said looking John in the eyes a little longer than he was comfortable with without having to blush again.

"Waste of bloody time giving that thing pancakes. Can't figure where they'd go to anyway even if it did eat them" Derek announced to the table at large earning himself a glare from John.

"Haven't you got any weapons to clean or something, Derek?" John spat at his uncle.

"Nah. I'm having breakfast and you bringing that thing along'll make me lose my appetite" Derek deadpanned.

"You've had your breakfast, Reese" Sarah cut in. Then she turned back to her son. "What on earth made you want to go out in the snow? You're not going to throw snowballs at each other, are you?" she asked.

"Well actually, that's exactly what we did have in mind. It came to us this morning after I woke up and Cameron said—"

John's explanation was halted as his mother cut across him, shooting up from her chair so suddenly, it toppled over backwards and crashed to the floor.

"What?" Sarah exclaimed in outrage, icily adding "And where was Cameron when she said whatever she did?"

Not understanding in the slightest what the sudden aggro was all about John pointed out "On my bed. Cameron and I were just having…"

He trailed off realising what he had just said and what it might imply. Surpassing red John's face turned purple as Sarah swelled like a bull-frog. Alarm bells ringing in her head she marched over to her son and towered over him as he cowered back down into his seat.

"Outside. Now. We need to talk" Sarah growled at her son before storming out into the hall.

Dismally, John got to his feet and trudged after his mother, head bowed and feet shuffling with a slight resemblance to someone guilty of all charges just about to enter a courtroom hosted by an unrelenting judge. Judge Dredd maybe…

He found his mother standing at the front door still seething.
"What were you up to, John?" Sarah hissed through gritted teeth.

"Up to? I was just having breakfast, Mom" John told her with what he hoped was an honest and sincere expression. Unfortunately, it came across as a little goofy.

"Don't try to make fun of me" Sarah warned. "Why was Cameron in your room first thing in the morning? And why was she on your bed of all places?"

"I dunno. She just appeared there. Probably checking on me" John said, determined not to mention a word of his earlier encounter with the floor.

"Oh really?" Sarah sneered, her eyebrows nearly leaving her head. "She just appeared there and you never noticed her coming in?"

"Well, yeah, that near enough sums it up" John admitted.

"Don't give me that" she snapped. "I want to know what you two were up to" Sarah pushed on glaring at her son.

He leaned on the door frame and sighed, turning his head away from his mother.
"If you must know, Cameron and I have decided to celebrate Christmas" John decided to spill the beans. He quickly added as an afterthought "It was her idea, actually. I thought we'd surprise you. That's what we were talking about."

Sarah's alarm bells turned to jingle bells as her anger subsided only to be replaced by guilt.
Guilt for never have been able to offer her son a normal life.
He's never had a real Christmas, Sarah realised. She ruffled her son's hair the way mothers are prone to and John pulled away sighing irritably. All sons hate their mothers doing that, even the future leader of mankind. Sarah's mind was made up in an instant; they would celebrate Christmas, just like any other family.

"Fine. But you two are shopping for a turkey" she commanded, smiling and punching John in the shoulder playfully, just as Cameron came in from the dining room.
"Derek and I will get the tree and stuff."

Tilting her head in confusion at Sarah's remark, Cameron informed John "Your pancakes are cold now, John. And I think Derek has started on them. Would you like me to make you some more?"

"No thanks Cameron, we'll just skip breakfast and get that turkey. Anyway, I thought I was going to make you something today."
He smiled his million watts smile which his mother hadn't seen in quite a while.

Her son's statement also caused Sarah's eyebrows to rocket halfway up her forehead again. Just as she was once more going to comment on machines not being in the need of food, a loud belch sounded from the dining room. Sarah breathed out audibly and stormed back into the kitchen muttering "Just you wait…"
A noise like the cracking of a whip and a following yelp from Derek was the last thing they heard as John and Cameron opened the front door and headed out into the blizzard.

John had donned his thick duffle coat and scarf while Cameron was wearing her usual attire consisting of purple leather jacket and combat boots combined with, rather unfortunately, a mini skirt. He looked at her sceptically and said "You'll be cold in that, you know."

Totally absorbed in watching the snow settling on her hands and then melting, Cameron didn't answer. John couldn't help thinking how adorable she seemed with that innocent look of sheer awe on her face.

"Don't tell me you've never seen snow before" he chuckled, reaching out and brushing the snow off her hair which had begun to settle there while they made their way over to the garage where the Jeep was parked.

"No, I haven't" Cameron told him as she opened the garage door. "There is no snow in the future. No Christmas. No celebrations. Only despair" she added almost sadly.

"So people have lost all hope?" John got in the passenger's side, all the happiness he had been feeling suddenly draining away at the thought of a post-Judgement-Day world.

"Yes" Cameron replied monotonously as she climbed onto the driver's seat. But then she fixed him softly with her beautiful eyes and added with the hint of a smile in which John thought he caught a glimpse of – was it pride? "But there was another."

…