Chapter 3

John was sitting at the kitchen table with several school books in front of him when Sarah came down. She observed him silently and concluded that his mind was not on his books, "You're avoiding him."

He looked up slowly, but stayed silent.

"He's going to be fine," she then stated as she started walking towards him, she saw Cameron out of the corner of her eye, cleaning one of the weapons, "He knows."

"He remembered?" John asked warily.

"Some of it, I filled in the blanks." Sarah admitted; taking a seat beside her son.

John looked over at her sharply, "I thought you said it was a bad idea."

"It is."

He looked back down at his homework, "What did he say?"

"Not much, I don't think he knew what to say," Sarah answered.

"Is he angry?" John then asked.

"Some, I think," she said carefully, "You have to realized that Kyle hasn't been gone that long for him, the pain of losing his brother is fresh and he'll lash out at anyone that may be the cause."

John nodded, ran a hand through his unruly hair, "I don't know how to act around him," he said frowning, "He knows me, well, the older me, but I have no idea who he is to me other then my uncle of my estranged father from the future; how screwed up is that?"

"Just be yourself, John" Sarah said finally, "Just be you."

"Who am I?" He whispered to himself as he watched her walk away.

xxx

Sarah knocked lightly on the door as she pushed it open to bring in some food for Derek. Two days had gone by and he was itching to get out of bed permanently. They hadn't exchanged many words since the revelation of John's paternity. Derek had refused to talk about it, but Sarah could tell something was on his mind now. She placed the soup on the night stand and waited, "What?" she finally asked him.

"I didn't say anything," he said sharply.

Sarah had a fairly good idea what was on Derek's mind; her fifteen year old son, "He's just a kid you know," she said, "He isn't the man you know in your future, not yet anyways."

He frowned at her, "I know that."

"Do you?" she fired back, "Because I get the impression that you're waiting for him to waltz in here and give you your standing orders or maybe to explain why he never revealed his true relationship with you and your brother."

"Then why is he avoiding me?" Derek shot back angrily.

Sarah frowned, "He hasn't been in since he told you?"

"I barely remember that, if you hadn't confirmed it, I would have though I'd been dreaming at the time." He replied truthfully.

Sarah said nothing, and was still frowning.

"Sarah?" Derek said.

She looked over at him, "I think its guilt."

"For what?" Derek asked.

She looked down and then back up at him, "When we first brought you here we had trouble stabilizing you, you were really out of it. John was sitting with you, giving you blood to help you replenish what you'd lost, you started yelling for Kyle," She stopped and looked at him sadly, "You kept yelling at John, demanding you tell him where he'd sent Kyle, what he'd done to him; to your brother."

Derek looked away.

"He's known since he was very young who his father was, that he would never know him as a father but that someday he would have to send him back to the past, knowing what the outcome will be," she explained to him, "He has to live with that."

Neither said anything for a few moments, and then Derek spoke up, "If it's any consolation to you, they were close; John and Kyle, in my time," he frowned, "I always wondered why he took us under his wing."

Sarah looked up at him solemnly.

"Now I know."

xxx

Derek had had enough; if John wasn't going to come see him then he was going to see John. He'd been up and around before, but Sarah had always been around to catch him when he'd start swaying. He was fairly confident that he could manage now; it's not like it was the first gun shot he'd ever gotten.

Getting out of the room was a slow process, out of habit he grabbed the 9mm that Sarah had placed in arms reach, and tucked it in the back of his pants. It seemed like hours before he reached the door, he opened it slowly and peered down the hallway. Bracing himself with the wall he slowly made his way down the hall. The house was eerily silent. He glanced over at the clock in what appeared to be Sarah's room; it was two o'clock and if Derek was right, it was a Tuesday. John was at school. Derek could barely remember going to school when he'd been younger; before the bombs had hit; it seemed all too normal. He decided that he'd try going downstairs and wait for John to get home. Sarah had told him earlier that she would be out all day checking out a lead she'd gotten regarding the Skynet.

He made his way towards the top of the stairs when he heard it, a noise coming from the room to his left. It sounded like music, but it was turned down low. He had the gun in his hands before he even thought of it; again, habit. He pushed the door open with his left hand, pistol in his right one. The creaking of the door alerted the body on the other side and Derek was met with a pistol pointed at him.

"Jesus Christ!" John cursed, "What the hell are you doing sneaking up on me?"

He lowered his pistol and Derek followed suit; he smirked, "Shouldn't you be in school?"

John frowned, "Should you be up?" he countered.

Derek shrugged, "I've never been out of commission for that long and I've had worse."

"Yeah, well you're bleeding again," John pointed out.

Derek looked down and sure enough, a small spot of blood had seeped through his bandages. Ignoring it, he looked over at the computer that John had been working at; he was pretty sure he saw an open window on the FBI database before John stepped over, obscuring his vision. Secretive as ever, Derek surmised.

"Where's the tincan?" Derek then asked, making his dislike for it obvious.

John frowned, put the gun down on the desk and then looked back up at his uncle, "School."

"Does it know you're here?" Derek then questioned, and then before John could answer he did, "Obviously not, or it would be here too."

Derek shook his head in exasperation, took a couple steps towards the bed and sat down, "Is there a reason you don't want it to know where you are? Your mom seams to think it should be around you 24/7."

"She doesn't need to know everything," John said, and then contemplating whether he should tell Derek the truth, he went to his desk and grabbed the business card he'd found in his mother's room. He went to Derek and handed it over, "I found this in my mom's stuff, I think the FBI visited Charlie and left him the contact card. Cameron has licenses to kill when it comes to anything that could harm her mission; this FBI agent could be a problem. I was checking him out."

Derek looked down at the card, read it, and then slowly looked back up at John. He said nothing for a few seconds, "What did you find?"

John was slightly taken back at Derek's immediate acceptance of his reasoning. He went over to the desk once again, grabbed the computer and brought it back to the bed so that Derek could see the screen, "I just got in to their database, but it's going to take a bit more work to crack the files on their own Agents."

Derek look at the screen and then back up at John, "How long before you do?"

John looked down at his watch, "It's not going to happen today; I have to go back to school before Cameron notices I was gone."

"How long has it been with you guys?" Derek then asked, "You seem pretty comfortable around it."

John met his uncle's gaze, "Not long," he paused, "It's not the first one that's been sent back to protect me, and I doubt it will be the last."

Derek frowned, he'd never known about John's life when he was growing up, he had a lot to learn, "You shouldn't trust it, they have a habit of backstabbing you." He said, and then more firmly, "Don't ever believe that you're safe around it."

John looked at him solemnly, "No one is ever safe." He shot back, unknowingly throwing Derek's own words back at him.

Derek nodded, "No one is ever safe." He affirmed.

John checked the time again, "I got to go," And rose from the bed with computer in hand.

"Here, I can keep working on that." Derek said pointing at the computer.

"What?" John said frowning.

"You think you're the only one who can crack a code?" Derek replied.

John rose and eyebrow in doubt, and handed the computer over, "Be careful, the firewalls are sensitive."

Derek looked at him, "Believe it or not kid, this isn't the first time I've hacked the FBI database."

"The FBI still around in the future?" John asked sarcastically.

Derek frowned, "I was at MIT taking software engineering before SkyNet took over, I do, believe it or not, know a little about computers."

John looked at him in surprise, but chose to say nothing. He walked over to where he'd left his gun and hid it away. He turned back to Derek, "There's a high powered rifle under the mattress. I'll be back at quarter to four, make sure anything you find is stored away."

Derek nodded and watched as young John grabbed his bookbag and left without a backward glance. John may have been young, but he still looked like he had the weight of the world resting on his shoulders. Well, that definitely didn't go like I thought it would, he thought to himself as he started to continue the work John had started on the code breaking; and marveled at the ease in which he got back into hacking mode.