A/N. Hello everyone. This is my first publication under this account, and I'm really happy to finally get a chance to write a story based upon my ideas about the Terminator. Please all, remember this is a fan published work - I wrote it for myself and the enjoyment of others. If you have any dislikes with what I have written, please keep those thoughts to yourself. I am an amateur writer and do not intend to write perfectly, but I DO intend to write stories about things I would have liked to see happen.

It always has bothered me that Kyle did not survive in the first Terminator, as well as the fact that some questions remained unanswered in Terminator 2 regarding the timeline. I hope you enjoy!

Everything inside of his mind seemed like a giant haze. His thoughts were unclear, yet at the same time they were racing through his mind faster than he could comprehend them. The physical pain consumed him from head to toe if he attempted to move at all, and he could hardly feel his limbs as they moved without purpose.

The last thing that Kyle Reese remembered was shoving his last pipe bomb into the body of the Terminator. He had fallen backwards down a set of stairs and could remember nothing after, only darkness. Perhaps he had died, he thought. To save Sarah, he would have. Though he couldn't believe that intense pain would exist if he was dead, but he did not know for sure.

His head was killing him, and everything was a giant blur. Where he was or how he got there was unknown…all that Kyle knew was that he needed to stop the Terminator from reaching Sarah. He had to protect the woman he loved, the woman who would bear the son to save the future.

Every time he opened his eyes, the world appeared as a giant blur. He whispered her name, calling to her in a confused slur. He kept reeling his mind trying to make sense of what had happened, and the throbbing in his head and the ungodly drowsiness just made it impossible to focus. He had shoved the last pipe bomb into the center of the Terminator, so that Sarah could get away. He fell down the stairs before the bomb exploded…why could he remember nothing after that? What had happened to Sarah?

Gradually as he began to open his eyes, images became clearer. Shapes became sharper, and he realized that he was in a small room lying flat on a twin bed. There was nobody else in the room, or so he thought until he saw a figure sitting directly across from him in a chair. The face, though blurry at first, was strikingly familiar to him – the face of the man who had saved his life on multiple occasions – John Connor.

"I was hoping you'd finally come about soon. You've been unconscious for a while." spoke the figure, dressed in the same type of military uniform he remembered from many occasions before, though his face looked older and more weathered.

"J…J…John?" muttered Kyle, his voice weak and tired "That can't be…" He closed his eyes and took a deep breath of pain.

"It's me, Kyle." replied the figure in a reassuring voice

It was hard to even comprehend what he was looking at. The last time he had laid eyes on John was before he was sent through the time machine to 1984. It wasn't possible that this was John Connor here, right now. There was no way.

"What…what year is it?" Kyle spoke, finding it hard to form words.

"The year is 2037." replied John "You need to try and lay still, soldier. Your wounds are still fresh."

"I don't…understand." Said Kyle as he struggled to sit up, only to fall back down weakly to the mattress gripping the sheets "It can't possibly be…that year…"

"I assure you Kyle that it is in fact. It's me, John Connor."

"J…John?" stammered Kyle "How…how can it be you? Y…You sent me…back to…to…"

John placed a hand on Kyle's shoulder reassuringly. "I know, Kyle, to 1984. Rest, soldier. I know you have a lot of questions, but first let me explain."

Kyle rubbed his eyes and shook his head, trying to fully make sense of what was happening right now, how it could possibly be the year 2037 when he had been sent back in time to 1984.

"Kyle, you know that in the year 2029, Skynet had a plan to assassinate my mother before I was born in order to prevent the human resistance. I sent you back to the year 1984 on a mission to protect my mother Sarah Connor from termination - and you fulfilled that mission."

Kyle suddenly remembered that Sarah was still in danger. "Sarah! I have to save her! That Terminator is…was after her! I don't understand…I can't possibly have fulfilled my mission if I'm here. I must be dreaming…" choked Kyle as he grasped his side in pain.

"I know you have no idea what's going on right now. You have to trust me, and I'll explain everything as best I can." John talked slowly and calmly, stating his words clearly as he could.

Kyle stared blankly at John as he attempted to sit up on the edge of the bed. His head throbbed, and he ached nearly ever single inch of his body. He shook his head in confusion trying to sort out what was happening at that very moment. As far as he was concerned, this may as well all have been a dream.

"The first thing that I need, Kyle, is for you to tell me everything that you know based upon what happened in 1984, from the time you arrived there until now."

Kyle sorted through a flood of memories in his mind as he positioned himself across from John. He squinted his eyes as he tried to remember everything that happened when he went through the time machine. It slowly started to return to his memory- his first crash onto the cold stone pavement of a damp alleyway, smuggling a pair of pants on as he ran from the police, his first encounters with Sarah and the Terminator, all the way up until he and Sarah arrived at the motel. He explained everything as best he could to John, who simply nodded and encouraged him to go on, until Kyle reached the time where he and Sarah had spent the night together in the Tiki Motel.

"You had a lot of time to speak with my mother and talk to her about the future." Connor stated

"Yes. I tried to tell her everything I could about the war, about our world and what the future was like for us. I told her about you as well, whatever I could to ensure she knew how important she was to the future". Kyle had a hard time making eye contact with John when he talked about Sarah…controlling his feelings for her was proving extremely difficult for the soldier.

"What happened as you spent more time with her, Kyle? As you got to know her and protect her on your mission?" asked John as he stared at him directly from his chair

Kyle gulped as he tried to think of how to answer. "Well, the night we were in the motel, we got to talking about the future. She asked me about…about the women of our time, how they were, what they were like. I…admitted some of my…feelings to her." Kyle couldn't believe he was telling this to the son of Sarah – the legend, John Connor. "That I had loved her ever since I saw the picture of her that you gave to me. That I had never loved another woman in my entire life…that the reason I volunteered to come across time was for her."

"Go on." responded John, gesturing towards Kyle to continue

Kyle felt himself gulp as he tried to find the right words to say "We got what little sleep we could before we moved out the next day…"

"Stop." John spoke. "You seem to be leaving something out of this storyline."

Was John angry with him for compromising the mission by admitting his feelings towards his mother, Sarah? Did he regret that he even gave him a picture of her? The fact was that he had been given a picture of Sarah years and years ago – the picture he kept with him night and day – the very picture of the woman he had fallen in love with across time despite having never met her.

"I know that you had a very romantic night with her, Kyle." John said. Kyle felt a cold rush of anxiety through his entire body as he was on the spot in this situation. John just stared at him giving a reassuring but subtle smile

"I am bringing this up for a very good reason, Kyle. I can also assure that there is a reason I know that these events occurred."

Kyle felt the blood leave his face. He knew he could have gotten Sarah killed because of his inability to control his emotions. They could have easily been targeted by the Terminator in a moment of weakness, and it would have been his entire fault for initiating it.

"John Connor, I had no intentions of putting your mother in any danger whatso…"

John cut him off immediately "No, Kyle. I am not angry with you. In fact, you did what was intended to happen. If the actions had not taken place the way that they had, the future would have been changed in ways that I cannot even comprehend. I know that you loved my mother, and it was very important that you expressed your feelings to her that night."

"I don't understand…" stammered Kyle "I don't even know if Sarah is safe, I could have jeopardized her safety by my actions…"

John cut him off again. "Kyle, do you remember when I gave you the photograph of my mother?"

"Of course I do. I could never forget it. I kept that picture with me night and day…Sarah Connor was the reason I volunteered to go back through time. She meant everything to me."

"Do you know why I gave you that picture?" asked John, leaning slightly forward in his chair "I gave you that picture because it was important to me that you knew who my mother was. That you became aware of how you felt about her before you were sent back to 1984. To protect her and her son…her yet unborn son who would become the leader of the human resistance."

All of a sudden, it all became clear. The reason the photograph had been given to him by John…his feelings for Sarah before he even had met her. Their intimate night together at the motel…the reason that John was his height, the way he seemed so connected to him ever since the first day the met.

He was John Connor's father.

He had been sent to the past, and fulfilled his purpose in history as the father of John Connor.