Anatomy of a (fax) Sibling Relationship
Saturday
It was strange day already and the morning coffee wasn't even brewed.
It had been snowing all night and from the reports of the early morning news shows the entire city of Los Angeles was now under a foot of snow.
It was an almost typical day in the Connor house though. Derek sat at the kitchen table watching the news, Sarah was still asleep, and John was in the shower.
Derek was about to pour some cereal when Cameron came into the house. She was dressed in a nightgown and had a bucket in hand. Her skin looked pale and her nose was red.
"Good morning, Derek." Cameron said in passing.
"Morning …" Derek frowned watching the machine walk in a B line for the bathroom holding a bucket. When she opened the door Derek could here John humming some song over the rushing water. Cameron went in and closed the door behind her.
Derek was a bit confused as too what Cameron thought she was doing. He was under the impression that maybe it had something to do with her and Sarah's talk the other night.
"SON OF A MOTHERLESS BASTARD!!" John shouted at the top of his lungs. Cameron came out of the bathroom with a much lighter bucket and a roll of clothing under her arm. She shut the door and walked away up the stairs.
KNOCK, KNOCK
Derek had a slight amused look on his face as he went to get the door.
There was a commotion up the stairs before Sarah came rushing down behind Derek in Tank top and panties with a Glock in hand.
John rushed out the bathroom door with a towel wrapped around his waist and snow stuck in his hair.
"What the hell! Who took my clothes!?" He shouted through a sneeze.
What happened next was what John Connor would call "the story of his life."
Sarah in her haste to protect John didn't expect her half naked protectie to be her speed bump. Like a bowling ball to a pin, Sarah crashed straight into John, tackling him to the ground.
There was a quiet moment of painful recovery as Sarah and John groaned in a dazed confusion.
"I can so come back later." Kacy said with embarrassment, as she stood next to Derek watching a half dressed Sarah on top of a mostly naked John.
"…. Oh god!!" John stiffened seeing a panty clad Sarah on top of him
"What's going on, are you hurt?" Sarah asked with worry.
"No, but my sanity must have left me in the middle of the night." John slid Sarah off him and made a slow and dazed march up the stairs. "It didn't even leave a note."
Sarah watched him feeling a strange unnatural feeling herself.
"So … hungry?" Derek asked Kacy.
"Ummm … sure." Kacy frowned as Cameron came down the stairs with a laundry basket of clothing which didn't belong to her.
"Good morning Kacy." Cameron smiled at her with a girly and heartwarming grin that cut away some of the awkwardness of a half naked Sarah going up the stairs with a wet tank top and a strange look on her face.
"Morning sweetheart …" Kacy smiled at first until Cameron opened the window and tossed the clothing out into the snow.
"I think today is going to be fun." Cameron said as she hid the basket and tried to engage Kacy in conversation.
"Yeah … you know there where some great places I wanted to go, but I think we're going to stick to indoor activities." Kacy sighed disappointedly.
"We can go to the movies … I heard they're quiet pleasurable?" Cameron said with an almost child like excitement.
"Wait … you've never been to a movie?" Kacy asked with shock.
"No …" Cameron said with a hint of discomfort.
"Where the hell are my clothes!?" John came down the stairs in a towel. Cameron gave him an innocent shrug. John paused as he looked into Cameron's eyes.
"Bullshit." John deadpanned.
"John I didn't take your clothes." Cameron smiled charmingly.
"Right …" John trailed off as he saw the cracked window. "You are so dead!" John rushed to find all off his clothing scattered on the side lawn. There was a moment of silence as the group contemplated things.
Then in a shot Cameron made a human yelp and took off up the stairs with John hot on her heels. Derek and Kacy listen to the commotion of thuds and shouting that shook the dinning room chandler.
Finally, there was an opening and closing of a door.
Then a pause
Then a door opened again.
"… John Connor!!" Sarah's voice was loud and shocked like he walked in on something he shouldn't.
"No!" John sounded strangely like Luke Skywalker after Vader's reveal.
He came down the stairs stumbling with his hands over his eyes like he was shined with a flashlight. Not going any further, John sat on the steps.
Pity overtook Derek and he climbed several steps.
"Hey kiddo you want me to go grab your clothes for you?" Derek offered the clearly shell shocked young man.
"That would be awesome, Derek." John said in a quiet voice. Derek nodded slapping his nephews arm.
As Derek grabbed his jacket Cameron's voice echoed down the stairs.
"Hey Mama's Boy … Antigone called, she want you to come back home … she misses her daddy."
***
Sarah felt a strong sense of what it feels like to be normal as she drove the blue jeep down the snow covered freeway, conversing freely and even laughing with a normal human being that had no idea about Machines, Skynet, and war. As she laughed she took a look in the rearview mirror and immediately felt guilt as she knew John was feeling anything then less then normal.
John sat with is chin propped on his elbow staring at nothing as he tried with every fiber of his being to ignore the slim well manicured silky smooth finger stuck only centimeters from his five o clock shadowed cheek.
"I'm not touching you." Cameron said in an obnoxious cutesy voice as she continued her torment that was now past the twenty minute mark.
Sarah felt guilty as she might have miscalculated the degree of which she wanted to get back at John. She would admit that she had talked to Cameron and she would fess up to maybe telling her that she was the worst infiltrator of all time, because she was acting like John's wife instead of his annoying twin sister.
But as she watched John make a defeated sigh, she might admit that she had done the equivalent of launched a nuclear warhead at a motorist that cut her off.
As Cameron began humming the wheels on the bus into John's ear for the umpteenth time, maybe the punishment didn't fit the crime.
***
"I want to watch twilight."
"Well I don't."
"But I do."
"Then go. I'll go watch something else."
"But, I want you to come with me."
"I just said no."
"John, You're coming with me and that's all there is too it."
Sarah and Kacy watched Cameron and John go back and forth as they stood in the theater lobby.
Sarah had to admit Cameron was doing an amazing acting job as a spoiled teenage girl that liked to get her way.
"You know I don't know how you did it?" Kacy sighed.
"What's that" Sarah turned her back to the teens.
"How did you get them to be so close?" Kacy asked with a fond smile.
"Well … you know what they say about twins … right?" Sarah lied with a shrug.
The two women became oblivious to Cameron tackling John to the ground and pinning him.
"Say it; say you'll go with me to the movie." Cameron was emotionlessly ruthless in tone.
"No … I hate teen dramas." John grunted embarrassingly as he could feel the entire lobby looking at them.
"Say it"
"No"
"Say it!"
"No!"
"Fine … I'm sorry John, I love you … but you leave me no choice." Cameron said darkly with sympathetic eyes.
"Oh hell no!" John struggled as Cameron gurgled her throat.
***
"You know Cameron … you might want to dial it down a notch?" Sarah said awkwardly.
"But, you are the one who said that my infiltrations skills are lacking, so I compensated to fix said problem." Cameron said in an almost insulted tone.
"Yeah, I know … but there is such a thing as over compensation." Sarah motioned to John, who with Kacy's and a napkins help where cleaning the synthetic saliva off his cheek.
"My research suggests that Sisters in age ranges from twelve to eighteen live to annoy and torture there brothers. Is that not accurate?" Cameron tilted her head.
"I guess …? Look why don't you try being something else, other then the spoiled brat?" Sarah implied.
"… His mentor?" Cameron asked.
"Yeah, that'll be fine." Sarah said walking back to John and Kacy.
"You ready to see Vampires?" Kacy said with a smile.
"Sure …" Both John and Sarah said with tight faces.
Giving there tickets to the usher they walked down the narrow carpeted hallway.
Just then a beautiful feminine figure jumped on John's back.
"Ah! What in the …" John called supporting both weights.
"A Jedi must feel the force following around him, in the movie posters, in the popcorn cornels, in every living thing." Cameron said in a wise voice.
Sarah felt warmth inside her, because for all the crap that she had put John through today. He laughed a real heartfelt laugh at Cameron's mundane wisdom.
***
Sarah walked down the hall way of there home to say good night and to apologize for her part in the torturing.
Sarah opened John's door quietly as possible.
Her grip became so hard she might have crushed a weaker doorknob.
She watched John lying on his side spooning with Cameron who had an unmachine like smile on her face as he kissed her neck.
Sarah wanted to yell, she wanted to blow away the terminator in her baby's loving arms. But that would make him only fight her harder.
What Sarah Connor was going to do was so drastic, so unbelievably insane … she might end up in Pescadero … again.
OH SNAP...!!
Happy Thanksgiving peeps ;)
