"This is definitely not a factory." Cameron remarked as the two women entered the restaurant and she scanned over the elegant decor.

"Will you get over it?" Sarah snarled back.

"I am over it." Cameron replied in her usual monotone.

Sarah quickly made her way over to the hostess to put her name in for a table.

"It'll be about a 30 - 45 minute wait," the young woman informed her.

Fantastic. she thought. Who's idea was it to come here on a Friday night? Oh right. Mine...

"Thank you." she said, accepting the pager from the hostess before turning back to Cameron. "Here hold this. When it vibrates it means our table is ready." She commanded the cyborg.

Sarah then spotted an open space on one of the nearby benches to sit while she waited. When a moment or two passed with Cameron standing in front of her awkwardly still, it began to grate on her nerves.

"Why don't you sit down, Cameron?"

Cameron squeezed in on the edge of the bench, pinning Sarah between her and the middle aged blonde woman sitting on the other side of her.

"Sorry." she apologized as she accidentally nudged the other woman.

"Oh that's no problem," she responded.

It was a little cramped, but at least the terminator looked less conspicuous. Sarah would just have to try to block out the sensation of Cameron's bare arm resting against hers as she sat next to the cyborg with her arms crossed.

After a few minutes had passed, Cameron suddenly rose to her feet again and approached the woman on the other side of Sarah.

"Excuse me, but would you mind taking a photo of us?" she asked with a polite tone put on her voice and retrieved her cell phone from her pocket.

"Oh sure!" the woman responded, standing to her feet to get a clear shot of them with Cameron's cell phone camera.

"Cameron, wha…" was all Sarah managed to get out before Cameron sat back down next to her and leaned into the shot.

"Ok, smile!" the woman commanded. Sarah glanced at Cameron who was grinning convincingly next to her. Turning back to the camera, she quickly followed suit and put on the best fake smile she could muster to avoid complicating things further.

"Thank you." Cameron said after the shot was taken and the woman handed her back her phone.

"Sure thing!" she responded cheerfully as she sat back down.

"What the hell was that about?" Sarah hissed into Cameron's ear.

"It's customary during special events for people to photograph themselves." the terminator replied calmly.

"Special events?"

Doe eyes met Sarah's again. "It's just you and me together, but not as part of a mission objective. It's nice to take a night off to clear your head."

Sarah snorted. "I don't think my head's ever gonna be cleared, Girlie."

"What happened to Charley's wife wasn't your fault. You shouldn't blame yourself for her death." Cameron attempted to reassure her about the latest in a long line of casualties she'd been forced to endure and was probably still fresh in her mind.

"Can we not talk about that right now, please?" Sarah snapped back at her.

"I'm sorry. What would you like to talk about?"

"How 'bout how nice it would be for you to stay quiet until we get our table?"

Cameron's expression turned semi-pouty again as she turned away from Sarah and faced forward.

"So are you two from around here or are you just visiting?" a voice from the opposite side of Sarah inquired. The other woman must not have been able to overhear them arguing over the ambient noise of the restaurant. Either that or she was just the nosey type and wouldn't mind getting involved in their altercation.

Sarah wasn't exactly in the mood for conversation with anyone, but the woman who introduced herself as Sue seemed genuinely nice enough, and apparently didn't notice she and Cameron had been arguing. Sarah explained to her that she was doing a dinner and movie night with her daughter and revealed the movie Cameron had been begging her to see.

"Oh, I've been wanting to see that! Was it good?"

"It was... better than I thought it'd be." Sarah admitted.

Sarah would go on to make small talk with the woman for a little while before Sue's pager vibrated.

"Oh, I guess my table's finally ready. It was nice meeting you, Sarah!"

"Likewise." Sarah replied with a smile as Sue proceeded to the hostess with the rest of her family.

Sarah scooted a few inches away from Cameron now that the bench had more space. Cameron immediately crossed her arms as Sarah's had been earlier. Sarah gave the cyborg an odd look at the gesture. Was she just trying to mimic her?

"Why did you do that?" Cameron asked without looking at her.

"Do what?"

"Have a conversation with that woman when you wouldn't have one with me."

Sarah huffed. "What are you, jealous? I'm not the one who got her attention by asking her to take a damn picture of us. What are you going to do with it anyway? Show it to John so he'll never let me live this down?"

"Our table is ready." Cameron replied, still without making eye contact, as she handed Sarah the pager that had just begun to vibrate and light up.

"Your server will be right with you." The hostess informed the pair as they sat down in one of the booths.

"Thank you." Sarah replied.

Sarah observed as Cameron ignored her and proceeded to skim over her menu, wondering why she would even bother.

"I know you don't really eat or drink, but at least order an ice water anyway just so they don't wonder what the hell's wrong with you." Sarah instructed as she browsed over her own menu for a few moments. Cameron didn't answer her, but Sarah was too hungry to care at this point. After she'd decided what she planned to order, Sarah looked back up at Cameron to find the cyborg's blank expression not on the menu but boring a hole in her instead.

"Can you not stare at me like that?" the woman growled.

"Sorry." Cameron replied, readjusting her gaze a few degrees to the left, where she quickly noticed a dark haired waitress heading in their direction.

"Hi, I'm Ashley," the young woman greeted. "I'll be taking care of the two of you this evening. Can I get you started with something to drink?"

"Ice water, please." Sarah responded as her former occupation stared her in the face.

"I will have an ice water as well." Cameron added without inflection.

"No problem, would either of you care to hear about our specials for this evening?"

"No thanks, I've already decided." Sarah answered.

"Oh, ok. What can I get for you?"

"We'll just split the Cajun Jambalaya Pasta. She's not very hungry."

"Ok, I'll have that right out for you." The waitress declared as she took the menus back. She returned a few minutes later with the two ice waters and some bread.

"So what's been going on with Riley lately?" Sarah asked as she took a slice of bread from the basket.

Cameron's head tilted slightly to the side. "Who?"

"Uh… Riley. John's… friend?" Since when was Cameron forgetful?

"Oh, right… I believe their relationship is progressing far enough to warrant concern. I cannot properly protect him if he does not want me around when he's with her. They need to be separated… for his safety… and hers."

Sarah found it strange that Cameron would even mention Riley's safety as any kind of concern. Truthfully, Cameron wasn't exactly placing Riley's safety as a priority, but she knew by now that Sarah would get angry if she gave the impression that she didn't value human life.

"And how do you propose to do that?" Sarah asked as she finished buttering her bread slice and took a bite.

"I don't know."

Sarah rolled her eyes but was content to drop the subject for now. After all, she still wasn't exactly sure herself how to handle John Connor's first potentially serious love interest.

The table was mostly silent as Sarah waited for her pasta. Cameron seemed almost… frustrated, and Sarah still wasn't exactly comfortable on this little excursion with the cyborg. She didn't want to give Cameron the impression that tonight would significantly change anything between them, so she wasn't willing to make an effort to mitigate her crankiness. Once the food arrived however, and her hunger was finally assuaged, her mood began to lighten again.

Sarah smiled at a little girl two tables over. She'd accidentally made eye contact with her as she chewed a bite of her pasta, her eyes eager to wander away from the terminator staring blankly down at the table from the opposite side. But Cameron wasn't oblivious, and she immediately turned her head to find out who Sarah was smiling at. She observed the child, approximately 6 or 7 years of age, dining with her family. The little girl briefly returned Sarah's smile before turning away after noticing Cameron glaring at her. The terminator appeared to be growing discontent with Sarah's insistence to be friendly towards everyone but her tonight.

Cameron also observed that the girl had a flower pinned through her hair just above her left ear. "Why does that girl have a flower growing out of her head?" Cameron asked, turning back to Sarah.

"To look pretty, something you wouldn't understand, and you probably just gave her the creeps." came the woman's snide reply.

"There are certain things I find pleasing on an aesthetic level," the cyborg defended.

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"It doesn't matter." Cameron replied curtly, looking away to the side.

Sarah rolled her eyes again. "Whatever." She said as she took another bite of her pasta before continuing. "But you know what's funny? I used to do the same thing when I was a little girl."

"What do you mean?" Cameron asked, impressed by the possibility that Sarah might actually be making an effort to continue conversing with her.

Sarah's smile returned as she went on, "Hard to believe now, but when I was growing up, every now and then me and a friend of mine who lived close by would go for a walk around our neighborhood to see how many different kinds of flowers we could find. We'd just take them right out of our neighbors' front yards. We'd stick some in each other's hair, and later I'd save all mine and put them in a glass of water to see how long each of them would stay alive. I'd always use the one that lasted the longest to play 'He loves me, he loves me not' for whatever boy I thought I had a crush on at the time."

Cameron gave Sarah another trademark head tilt as her deep brown eyes fixed on the older woman. Sarah sighed. It wasn't often she allowed herself the privilege of reminiscing about her pre-Skynet life. The fact that she would do so in conversation with Cameron surprised even herself once she realized what she was doing, but the irony was amusing enough to make her continue anyway. "It's when you pluck out each petal, alternating between 'Loves you' and 'Loves you not'. When you pull out the last petal, whichever one you're on supposedly determines whether the person is in love with you or not. Make sense?"

When Sarah saw Cameron still staring at her wide-eyed, and her mouth slightly open, she gave the cyborg a wry smirk. "Sorry, forgot who I was talking to." She said mockingly.

"Don't be sorry." Cameron responded immediately. "That was a tight story. What was your friend's name that you used to pick flowers with?"

Sarah's smirk faded. "Uh… Melissa." she replied, wondering why the hell Cameron would seem so interested in a random excerpt from her childhood.

"Melissa…" Cameron repeated, seemingly enthralled. "What happened to her?"

"I'm not sure." She continued, still wondering why Tin Miss would give a shit. "When I was about 10 we moved somewhere else and I haven't talked to her since. I can only imagine what she must've thought if she ever heard the news about me…" Sarah mused as she took another forkful of her pasta, "Your old friend Sarah Connor, now a terrorist lunatic…"

"No." Cameron interrupted. "You have the spirit of a great warrior. I see it now, how much Future John will take after you."

Sarah stopped chewing the last bite she'd taken and locked eyes with Cameron as she continued on the unexpected turn the conversation had taken. "He always loved you. Very much. He might get angry with you sometimes now, but he will understand someday, why you do what you do, and how important you are to him."

Sarah took a deep breath before she swallowed her food. "After I'm gone I take it?"

"Maybe. Or maybe this time things will be different. Maybe you won't get sick."

Sarah swallowed again, this time without food in her mouth. "Well, I guess we'll find out in a few years, right?" the woman asked ruefully.

"Are you sure I can't get you anything else?" The waitress interrupted, seemingly reappearing out of nowhere and noticing Cameron appeared to not have touched her drink or any of the pasta that was clearly all Sarah's.

"I'm fine, thank you, but I believe my date would like a slice of cheesecake. Please return her menu so she can choose a flavor." the terminator replied.

"Ok, I'll be right back." she replied, disappearing as fast as she had reappeared.

"I'm not your date, I'm your mother," Sarah corrected, "and how did you know I wanted cheesecake?"

Cameron smiled. "Why else would we be at The Cheesecake Factory? I would be disappointed if you didn't order any."

Sarah was slightly taken aback. "Disappointed? What the hell are you talking about?"

Cameron's smile widened. "Don't think I'm not having a bite."