Summary: ONESHOT! Just because it's the post-apocalypse doesn't mean that some things haven't changed.
Spoilers: For T:S...umm. Yea. Other than that kind of AU, but its Terminator, so in all honesty, the future, and fate for that matter, is negotiable in my book *thumbs up*
Pairing: John/Kate, OC/OC Friendship
Word Count: 1,450
A/N: Don't own anything, except Alex. She's my daughter of John Connor and you can't have her. Please *bats eyes* Though I still wish I had Christian Bale's John Connor for my own. *long sigh* Yea, so it's for entertainment only, no copyright infringement intended. That whole deal. Please don't sue, I'm already too broke and I haven't even made it to college yet. (at least not for another 4 days) But please, do enjoy! Comments are ! *wink*

Teenagers

John's arms were crossed across his chest, his eyes firmly planted halfway between him, Kate, and a in-repair jet with two battle ready soldiers leaned against it; having some sort of a conversation. The cool breeze that drifted through the partially opened hangar sent chills along his bare arms, but he paid it no mind.

"John." His eyes creased, following the motions of the two individuals that, at this particular moment, were most important. He could faintly make out Kate's voice from his side. "John." Running a hand across his chin, the impulse to walk over there and separate the two was nagging at him. All he had to do was find something for the boy to do, something perhaps, with at least two helicopter transfers involved. The kid's dad wouldn't mind a change of scenery. "John Connor, are you listening to me?"

Kate forcefully forced him to face her, blue eyes glaring into his own. He forced a smirk that quickly sank away when he realized that she wasn't fooling around. Not that he should have been either. They were supposed to be running over the details of a recon operation. "Of course I am." Her head tipped to the side, throwing him the dreaded look. He hated when she gave him that look because it meant that she knew he was full of shit, lying through his teeth, and she was about to verbally abuse him.

"No...you...aren't. You're too busy keeping an eye line leash on your fifteen year old daughter and the sixteen year old boy that has developed a fondness for her company as of late." His head cocked back over his shoulder to look at the two. Alex Connor was tall for a fifteen year old, he mused. Kate had blamed it on genetics that she had jumped up to nearly five foot eight within the past year. Blair had already guessed that she would be a head taller before she turned sixteen; not that it took a genius to see that she would be John's height before it was all said and done. They had gone through more hassle finding gear that would fit her now than they ever had when she had been a toddler. Now though, she was just as happy in one of his old jackets, a pair of boots and a worn out pair of cargo pants. Everything, as everyone said, screamed John. She was rebellious in nature, as she had been since she had learned to walk and talk. Guns were second nature, just like everything else that involved the fight against Skynet. Material things meant nothing to her, and up until this point, he'd hoped her tom-boyish nature would allow her to focus on more important things; not hormonal boys. Some things obviously didn't change.

Lex stood nearly the perfect height to Max, the son of a mechanic who, at this point, was supposed to be checking out the beaten and battered A-10 his father had left in his charge. But rather than doing that, he was choosing to check out his daughter instead. Her brown hair was pulled back into a messy bun, an M-16 was slung over her shoulder and a smirk caressed her face as they spoke. "I should make him go back to work. We need that A-10 Friday," he muttered grumpily.

Kate let out a beleaguered laugh. His eyes moved back to her, "What?" She raised her hands in surrender. "What," he repeated, "I'm serious Kate."

"I know, I know." Her hands slipped up in a sign of surrender before falling back to her side. An awkward silence overtook the two as Kate went back to their operations map. "If you go over there, we both know about how great that will end." John's shoulders slowly began to slump and he let out a pent up breath. Alex playfully shoved Max, who seemed to beam at her touch. It made him cringe internally. "Whenever you two get into, I wind up having to play the middle man in the peace treaty signing, because you're both so damn stubborn. And I don't particularly feel up to that today."

"That's not true," he said, turning away from the A-10 and back down to the lit up table. Standing directly across from his wife, she finally looked back up.

"Fine; case in point...Last week; after you promised Alex she could go on the Recovery Op, and then you changed your mind because it was too dangerous...They could hear you two all the way from the Command Room to the Infirmary." John nodded; admitting defeat to that fact that when Alex went all "teenage-wasteland," on him, the two of them usually wound up berating one another until they were both too pissed off to yell anymore. More often than not, she would slam the door in his face and disappear within the interiors of the base.

"Point made. But it doesn't mean that we shouldn't stop this before it becomes an issue."

"...because a little friendship ever killed anyone. John, Alex can take care of herself...and where I can see your concern because she's my daughter too, maybe it's good that she's got a few other friends her age around here. Her life is this; it's us and this war. If she can get five minutes where she doesn't have to be the daughter of the savior of humanity and just be a teenager for a little while, then maybe it's a good thing." They looked at one another for a moment, before John reluctantly nodded. If there was anything John had learned, it was that Kate was more often than not right.

"I guess that means a full interrogation by Blair and Barnes is out of the question?" Kate shook her head before they both found themselves smiling.

"Interrogation for who dad?" The new, much younger voice chipped in just as an arm slung over his shoulder. Her eyes slowly flipped between the two of them, a hint of confusion crossing her features as she leaned over to join their hovering of the map. "I swear you two are so weird sometimes..."

"Don't swear honey," Kate muttered a pen in her hand along with a piece of string as she returned to their work.

"Sorry," she muttered under her breath with an exasperated sigh. Her arm finally released from around his shoulder as she swung her legs over a stool and sat down beside him. John watched her movements in his peripheral vision. Her head turned a moment over her shoulder, looking in the direction of the jet and boy in question.

"Where'd you abandoned Barnes?" Her head jerked back towards them.

"Oh, he was striking for the Mess Hall. I think I finally got this piece of junk sighted right." John stood up, crossing his arms back across his chest, as he nodded in the direction of the now working boy. She had taken her gun from around her shoulder and sat it down in front of her.

"So what's with you and Max?" He could hear Kate's audible groan as Alex's shoulders visibly tightened.

"Nothing's up with me and Max. We were just, you know, talking." Alex's face was fully stolid. "What did you think was up with me and Max?" The silence that followed gave him enough clearance to move over in Kate's direction. A smile appeared out of nowhere on her face as her boots hit the ground, her weapon shifted and she pecked his cheek from beside him. "If you're going to spy on me, at least you know, don't do it in plain sight. Seriously, that's bad for a General such as yourself dad." After giving her mom a hug, Alex looked at them, backpedaling towards the door leading back into the main part of the base. "I'll be in the Mess Hall if you need me," she called before she turned around and disappeared. Kate nudged him once more.

"Yea, General. You shouldn't be so obvious." He kissed her on the cheek, brushing a stray piece of her red hair behind her ear.

"I wonder if we were this bad as teenagers," he mused, as he took the pen from Kate and began looking over the work she'd gotten done while he'd been preoccupied. It might have been the post apocalypse and humanity might have been on the brink, but teenagers he'd realized, never changed. It had been when he was barely a teen that he and Kate had kissed for the first time. Not that either of them had expected a future like this back then.

"Never mind, don't answer that," he added quickly with her soft chuckle.