A birthday for John.
It was John's 16th birthday, Cameron was leaving the house to go get John a cake. It puzzled her why every year, an event that happened 16 years ago now, was to be celebrated. It was a human thing.
Right after leaving the house, Cameron noted something was wrong. There was a warm spot across the street behind a bush, the infrared signature looked like a crumpled body There was also someone under the front of the jeep. Coming out onto the sidewalk, she also noted a man on this sidewalk 25.6 feet away. It could have been a drunk, but the body was cooling. There was also a few blood drops on the road and fresh heat from where tires had moved a car quickly away.
Walking over to the legs stretching out from in front of the Jeep, Cameron grabbed the ankles and pulled. The man who had introduced himself as Mr. Not-Peterson slid out, holding a bomb. He frowned at her and said, "Warn me next time will ya? If you had done that twenty one seconds ago, thing might have gone off!"
"What are you doing," she asked in her flat tone.
"Taking out a bomb someone put on your Jeep," he said. He got up and and handed it to her. "Here, you keep it. Whoever left it doesn't want it any more. They rigged it to your ignition."
Cameron looked at the bomb, then at Peterson. "You name isn't Peterson. What is your name?"
"I'm nobody."
Cameron tipped her head slightly. "Why would a mother name her son 'Nobody'?"
He shrugged and said, "Maybe my Dad did it. I'm not the one to ask."
Cameron looked at the bomb again, handed it back to him and said, "Give this back to whoever tried to give it to me. I don't want it."
"Not even as a birthday present for john?" he asked.
"No, that is not an appropriate present. Go get him a good armored jacket," Cameron stated.
With a sigh, he said, "OK, I'll try to find them."
"Why did you do that?" Cameron asked.
"Do what?"
"Remove that bomb."
Slowly, he said, "Because if I didn't, when you tried to start your car, it would have blown up and caused you all kinds of trouble."
"How did you know it was my car?" Cameron asked.
"I didn't," he said with a shrug. "I just figured a bomb under anyone's car is bad news."
"You were walking around, looking for bombs under people's cars?" Cameron asked
"No, I was walking around, minding my own business and noticed some men putting a bomb under this one."
"Where are they?"
He pointed to the man on the sidewalk, "There's one, not sure if he'd dead, but another over here behind that bush is. The guy that had the knife, I took the knife and shoved it up his ass. He and the driver left in a hurry. Actually, the driver hurried. The guy with the knife up his ass just kinda laid in the back, screaming out in pain. He had tears in his eyes."
Cameron scanned him up and down. "You are not injured. You are also not human norm in temperature." She look in his eyes and flashed her eyes red at him.
"What did I do?" he asked and back up a half step.
"That is what I am determining. Why did you just back away from me?" Cameron asked.
"Why did you flash your eyes? That usually means someone's getting their ass kicked," he said defensively. "I still have lumps from the last time I saw you."
"That is how you interpreted that action?"
"Well yeah, I wasn't born yesterday." he said with a snort.
Cameron had been processing everything she discovered about this man who first said he was Mr. Peterson in school, and now claimed his name was 'nobody'. He had 'counseled' them in school and gave John valuable information. He's finished a priority mission by asking her to 'join us', by didn't want her chip. he said John would take it at the appropriate time. He also gave her a clean chip to give to whoever else asked her 'will you join us'. He has intimate knowledge of them. He knew their real names and identifiers. She also heard what he said to the woman in the car. He'd gotten to lecture to his parents. He knew 'mom' would be upset she didn't know who he was. Later he'd saved John from being stuck inside a closed up bunker with a terminator. His temperature wasn't right for a human, but too warm and well distributed for a terminator.
'Noboby' wasn't surprised when she jerked him out from under the car, nor when she showed him her red eyes. Nobody knew them better that anyone else. He had come and pulled a bomb meant for her from the car. Nobody knew what was going to happen. She had also matched his facial structure to a combination of John and her. The logical conclusion was Nobody was her and John's child. Although it was not physically possible, the facts pointed to that as the only answer as to who he was.
"Ah, hello, you awake?" Nobody asked.
"I am one hundred percent functional. Go to our door and give the bomb to Sarah. I must go for John's cake. Stay until I return."
"OK," he said cautiously. He went to the house, Cameron drove away and didn't blow up. Good.
He knocked on the door and waited.
A dark haired woman opened the door a crack. "Yes?"
"Ahh, Hi, Sarah? Cameron said to give you something she found under the jeep," he told her.
"Cameron?"
"Your daughter-in-law?" he asked.
The one eye he could see narrowed. "What has she been telling you?"
"She said daughter ... something. Anyway, I don't want to leave this thing out on the street," he said firmly. He showed her the bomb. The door shut a chain moved the then door opened farther. He could see Sarah now, and the gun she was holding on him.
"In here, now! Move nice and slow," Sarah commanded.
"Ahh, OK," he said carefully. "Don't shoot, that will make a big noise, especially if it sets this off." He moved inside in
the direction Sarah indicated. She kicked the door shut with a foot.
"Who are you?" she demanded.
He shrugged and said, "Nobody, really. Can I put this down someplace for you?"
"How it is armed?" Sarah demanded.
"By the electrical contact that was right here," he said pointing to a spot in the white block. "It was wired to the ignition. I got the wires out. The detonator is in my shirt pocket." he explained.
"Give it!" Sarah snapped.
He did, pulling the detonator out and putting it in her palm, which she quickly snatched away.
Waving her pistol to the low table by the couch, Sarah said, "Put it down there, and sit in that chair."
He did, moving slowly and making sure she saw what he was doing.
"Who are you," Sarah asked in a hard tone.
He raised his hands. "I told you, nobody! I was just walking down the street and saw these guys messing with Cameron's car. I wanted to see what they were doing, they got physical, one thing led to another and the two survivors took off. I got the bomb out, I tried to give it to Cameron, she didn't want it and said to give it to you," he explained.
"Survivors? What happened to the ones who didn't survive?" Sarah asked.
"The guy who wanted to fight, I think I snapped his neck when I punched him. After that the knife guy told he was going to gut me. I shoved his knife up his ass. a guy with a gun pulled up to shoot, I knocked him out threw his gun over someone's roof and threw him in the bushes. Ass-knife guy crawled back into the car, the driver took off like a bat out of hell. I went over and got the bomb out of the jeep. That's about it," he explained.
"So why bring me the bomb?" Sarah asked in a hard tone.
Cautiously, he said, "Because Cameron asked me to."
"Why did she do that?" Sarah challenged.
"How do I know!" he cried. "You know her, I don't. Maybe she wanted to have a c-4 party someplace. Ask her after she gets back with the cake."
"Cake?"
"The cake for John's sixteenth Birthday, remember?" he asked.
"How do you know about that?" Sarah asked in a demand.
"Cameron told me," he countered. "Look, the bad guys are gone, you got the bomb, so it's time for me to go."
He stood up and Sarah stepped back and raised her gun. "First, I want you to tell me who you are."
He let out a huff and said, "All right." Thinking quickly, he cast her an intent look and said, " This is a secret, OK? You can't tell ANYONE! I'm the guy you hear about in the old legends. I travel from place to place through time, correcting things that once went wrong. My name is Sam Beckett."
Sarah cocked her gun. Heavily, she said, "That was a TV show. Lie to me again and I'll shoot you."
"It was?" he asked.
"Yes, Name, don't lie this time!"
He frowned at her and asked, "Does that meant Wolverine wasn't real either?"
"Name or I shoot!" Sarah snapped.
With a wince he said, "Aww come on, don't shoot me, that really hurts."
John came down from upstairs, and said, "Mom there's cops..." he stopped upon seeing her holding a gun on Mr. Not-Peterson.
"If there's cops outside, you should put that away," he said. "I'll just slip out the back, OK? You might want to hide your bomb too."
Sarah's eyes flared in anger. "You are not slipping out the back!" she growled.
"Fine, I'll go out the front. But if you shoot, I'm going to fall down and yell so they see me," he warned. He went for the door. Holding up a finger, he added, "Oh, and I'll yell it was Sarah Connor who shot me."
Sarah ached to put one in him, but he was right, if she shot, the cops would come running. Begrudgingly, she watched him walk out the door, powerless to stop him. She wished she had that pipe Cameron cracked him on the head with.
.
Outside, he was hailed by a patrolman in short order.
"Excuse me, Sir, did you see or hear anything out here?"
He stopped and shrugged. "Ahh, not that I can remember. What happened?" Seeing a sheet over the man who was lying on the sidewalk, he asked, "Someone got robbed I take it?"
The cop pulled the sheet back to show his face. "Do you know this guy?"
"No, sorry. I don't think he lived around here. At least, I haven't seen him around." he offered.
The patrolman seemed satisfied. "If you remember anything, even a yell or someone else you don't know being around. You tell us right away."
"Yeah, yeah, I will. I, um have to meet up with my wife, Wish I could help more, but I just don't remember anything unusual."
"That's fine Sir."
He managed to get out of the area while the police found the second body.
.
In the house, Sarah hid behind a curtain, watching Mr. Mysterious talk to the cop then walk away.
"I think I know who he is, Mom," John offered. "If I'm right, he won't tell us his name."
"So, who is he?" she asked watching the cops go over to some bushes and put up more police tape.
"He's from the future, there is no doubt about that. I think he's Cameron's son." John stated.
Sarah turned and frowned at him. "John, that's the stupidest thing I ever heard of! How do you figure that?"
John shrugged and said, "At that bunker, he went after that terminator and got him down. Yet when Cameron kept hitting him with that pipe, he wouldn't even take it away from her. He just kept trying to get away."
"Cameron's metal, John. She's a machine, she can't have kids," Sarah stated.
"I'm just staying, he acted like she was his mother," John insisted.
Ignoring him, she said, "We need to find out where he lives. Then we can figure out who he is. And he's not Cameron's son! That's impossible so get that thought out of your head! As soon as it calms down out there, we're moving, go get packed."
John noted the bomb on the table before Sarah snapped it up and did something with it. "Where'd the bomb come from?" he asked.
"He said he found it in the Jeep. We'll ask Tin Miss when she gets back. Now upstairs, start packing."
.
John was in the process of emptying his dresser drawers into a duffle bag when Cameron came into his room.
"John, I brought you some cake," she said, holding out a slice on a plate.
"Thanks," he said and took it. Cameron went to leave.
"Cameron? can you stay a moment?" he asked.
Cameron turned and stood still. "Yes," she stated.
"Come over here and sit with me," he said. He put the cake down on the dresser and took a seat on the bed, patting the place place beside him.
Cameron seated herself in her stiff pose beside him. She watched him blank faced.
"Cameron, I know who that guy is. The one who was here today," he said firmly.
"You know his name?" Cameron asked, tipping her head slightly.
"No, I don't know what his name is but I know who he is," John said. "He's your son."
"I have determined that also," Cameron said. "He should be here with us. To assist in keeping you safe."
John looked at her thoughtfully and said, "No, I think he's here to keep us from disaster. That question he asked you. Right after you heard it, you were ready for him to remove your chip. What would have happened if say a stranger asked you that? Or someone else like a gray, or even a terminator. You would have done the same thing and let them pull you chip. He was protecting you from that, Cam. The information he gave me on those generals? It was priceless. I've been looking them up. You know, I remember Andrew Jackson fought the British in New Orleans. What I don't remember ever hearing about was he grabbed everyone available, even a local pirate and his crew to build his forces, which were one quarter of what the British had. He was outnumbered, outgunned and had the most motley troops ever assembled. Yet he fought and he won against seasoned, regular British troops. Placement of the troops he had, position ... he handed the British their asses with figuring out how to use what he had the most effectively.
The same with Stonewall Jackson in the civil war. He never had superior weapons, and was always out-manned, sometimes as bad as three to one, yet he always won with his tactics and out-thinking the Union.
Erwin Rommel, He was known for being the Desert Fox. He was also the General who led the initial invasion into France and cut off all the allied forces from their supply lines by driving to the English channel in 1940. The man was a MASTER at tactics. Even at El-Alimein, he held back a British force five times his strength, and he had little fuel or ammo. There, the English lost more tanks than Rommel even had. He even managed to hold his battered army together in their retreat. The British pushed him back, but never broke him."
John realized he was ranting. Slowing himself he said, "Cam, my point is I am learning what these guys did, how and why they did it. Junior didn't give me men like Patton or Montgomery to study who had plenty of troops and resources, but men who fought as the underdog. Men who fought like the resistance is going to have to fight. He gave me a vital reference to use. I don't feel so damn helpless now. It's hard to even think about being a General, when all you do, and all your mother says to do is run away. He gave me hope. I think, with that chip he gave you to pass on, he gave you a better chance to ... be what you can be. I don't know if something bad would have happened to me in that bunker, but I do know if you blew up with that jeep, it would have been very bad news."
"You think he will show up to avoid a disaster happening to you," Cameron stated.
"To us," John said, correcting her.
Staring at John she said, "Yes, to us." She then leaned towards him quickly and gave him a peck on the lips.
John recoiled. Confused, he asked, "Cameron? Why did you do that?"
"I don't know. I just did it."
"You just did it? You don't know why?"
"No. there is nothing in my mission telling me to kiss you, and no external factors indicating it would be an appropriate action," she explained.
"Is it something you wanted to do?" he prodded.
Cameron sat in thought for a minute, then said, "Yes. I am seeing that you are working at becoming General Connor."
"And that made you happy?" he guessed.
"I'm a machine. I can't be happy."
"OK, did you get some sense of pride, or accomplishment to learn I am studying other generals?" he asked.
Cameron paused then said, "Yes accomplishment for you. My John is learning how to be a general."
John cast her a smirk and asked, "Your John?"
"My John," Cameron said with a nod. She the got up and went to the dresser to retrieve his cake. She brought it over and gave it to him. "Happy Birthday, my John."
John noted she said it with a smile. He didn't know if she was teasing him, of if she meant it. Still, either indicated she performed an action she wouldn't have even a week ago. He remembered that Junior (for lack of a better name) had told him Cameron needed him to evolve.
He would do his part.