February 15, 2009

1963 – Timeline 90210

Chapter 4

Part 1

The next morning I arrived for first period English Literature thirteen minutes early and found Naomi waiting for me. Three other students were already in class, so she motioned me into my adjacent seat and then leaned close and spoke in a whisper.

"Cam, how is Ty?" she asked, as she ran her deep blue eyes over me - looking, I guessed, for signs of my wounds.

I had a bandage over my right eyebrow to hide the mark from the bullet that had hit there. I was wearing slacks to hide the knife wounds to my legs and a button-up shirt to cover the bullet wound just below my right collar bone. Fortunately, the Skynet of my original timeline was a wiz at the science stuff. When it had created my human body, in addition to tweaking my genetic code to create the nanofiber layer in my skin, it had also massaged my code to accelerate my healing abilities. In another twenty-four hours there wouldn't be a trace of the wounds left on my body. Now we would just have to see if Ty had also inherited that advantage from me.

Of course, from the expression on her face as she gazed at me - a mixture of excitement, curiosity, and just a hint of fear – Naomi was probably thinking more about the revelation that I was metal than the fact I could be shot multiple times with only a little surface damage.

After the events in the warehouse with the gang of drug dealers, Naomi and I had supported Ty between us as we made our way back to Ty's Hummer. We had just gotten Ty situated in the back seat when a police car had cruised passed us on its way to check out the reported gunshots from the warehouse. Once it was clear, Naomi, Adrianna, and I rose from where we had been forced to crouch behind the car and piled in with me behind the wheel, Naomi in the front passenger seat, and Adrianna in the back seat with Ty. Naomi was still brimming with questions about how Ty and I could both so easily survive being shot, but before we had reached the turn onto El Segundo Boulevard or had time to start a conversation, Adrianna remembered her car was still parked just down the street and it would be easier to get it now than come back later when the cops or someone else might be keeping an eye on it. So Adrianna and Naomi switched over to her car and I followed them back to Beverly Hills to make sure they made it safely. And the inevitable conversation was postponed until we got back to Ty's, and now my house.

It was nearly eleven at night by the time we reached home, but Adrianna and particularly Naomi were too keyed up and too curious to leave explanations for the morning. So, after Lisa got over the initial shock of what had happened to her son and had helped me clean and bandage our wounds, we all ended up in Ty's large bedroom and listened to my story.

Well, an edited version of my story. I explained about my origins and my war against Skynet. And I explained about time-travel, but skimped on the whole subject of alternate timelines and the multiverse since I barely understood it myself. The real shocker, of course, was the revelation of my part robot and part human physique and my ability to have children who were human, well enhanced human based on Ty's response to being shot, and then the really big revelation that I was Lisa's mother and Ty's grandmother. The one I expected this to most impact was Ty and I was watching him as I spoke, but he was so out of it from his wound, I don't think it fully sank in.

However it did sink in with Naomi and she got this wide-eyed expression. She didn't say much at the time, but I could almost see the wheels turning in her head. And that was without the further revelation that her boyfriend, John Silver, was also part of this twisted story, and, at least in some versions of the timeline, was Lisa's father and Ty's grandfather.

But I had decided to leave John's involvement in the war with Skynet and his relationship with me out of my story for now. Naomi and Adrianna weren't idiots and if they had an inkling of my past with John, I might lose their support. And for the moment they still seemed my best path to getting closer to him.

I almost gave a human-like shake of my head to clear my thoughts of how much my relationship with the blonde girl sitting in the desk next to me had changed in the last twenty-four hours, but realized my long, meandering train of thoughts had only consumed forty-seven milliseconds and therefore turned my attention back to Naomi's question instead.

And I barely suppressed a smile. When I had last seen Ty, the most noteworthy thing about him wasn't his wound, but his mood, which I would describe as mainly pissed. And the reason he was pissed was because Lisa had given me the keys to his father's black Lamborghini Murciélago roadster which Ty was never allowed to drive.

"He's doing okay. Oh, his abs are so sore he can barely stand, but that should pass in a few days."

Before our conversation could go any further, Annie, Ty's girlfriend, entered the classroom. She took one look around and then seeing me, but not Ty, she made a beeline over.

"Hey, Cam . . . Naomi. Ah, Cameron, where's Ty?"

Annie Wilson had only arrived at West Beverly two weeks before I had when her father had accepted the position of Principal. From what I had learned from Ty and talking with her at lunch the day before, her family had been living in Wichita, Kansas before coming to Beverly Hills. But they weren't complete strangers as her father had gone to high school at West Beverly in his youth just like Kelly Taylor and Brenda Walsh. Annie's Grandmother had been a big movie star back in the 60's and 70's. And, at least for the moment, Annie and her family were living with her.

And I had discovered, Annie had a history with John, too. Two years earlier she had spent most of the summer staying with her Grandmother and she had spent a lot of that time hanging with John, whose family lived only three houses down the street. It seemed like every attractive sophomore girl I met had some kind of a relationship with John, except me.

"Ty came down with some kind of flu bug. He says his stomach hurts so bad it almost feels like someone shot him," I responded. Glancing over at Naomi, I saw she was trying to suppress a grin over how close to the truth my response had come.

"Oh, my god," were the first words out of Annie's mouth. "Is he going to be alright?" she asked rhetorically. Then after barely a pause, she added, "What about the play? It's opening tomorrow night and Ty has the lead. Is he going to be okay to perform? No way is Daniel Webber ready to step in for him."

Annie finally wound down long enough to take a breath. Even though she had only been at the school for two weeks, she already had a part dancing in the chorus for the musical. And she was by far the most enthusiastic person I had met in the drama club. Certainly she was a lot more excited than either Ty or Adrianna, the two leads. But then I am sure part of it was the whole Beverly Hills thing. Ty and Adrianna were both old hands having been in numerous plays and even had had parts on TV and in the movies.

Naomi whispered almost under her breath, "It's Addy we should be worried about not being ready for opening night not Ty."

I gave a subtle nod in Naomi's direction before turning my attention to Annie. When I had touched Adrianna back in the warehouse I had easily detected the cocaine in her system. When Naomi, Adrianna, and I had a moment alone, I intended to reveal this one extra little ability I possessed. Hopefully, knowing I could detect whether she was using and with some moral support from Naomi and me, we could help her kick her addiction. Because the mere thought that a drug addict, who might do anything for her next fix, knew my secret sent shivers down my metallic spine and caused the little red 'terminate?' question to flicker briefly in my visual array.

"I think Ty just has one of those twenty-four hour bugs. He was already looking a little better when I left this morning. I know he hopes to make at least an appearance tonight at the final rehearsal," I answered, as the first serious trickle of students began entering the room.

A smile of relief quickly blossomed on Annie's face then she seemed to really look at me for the first time. "What happened to you?" she asked with a nod towards the bandage on my forehead.

"Gunshot wound," I answered, as telling the truth is less likely to come back to bite you then a secret, and I was already keeping enough secrets from everyone. Then I dramatically rolled my eyes to imply I was lying and didn't really want to talk about what had actually happened.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see the shocked expression on Naomi's face, as though she thought after my gunshot reference about Ty's 'illness' and now this remark that I was going to just blurt out I was metal to the whole classroom.

So I threw a quick wink in Naomi's direction before turning my attention back to Annie.

Annie's gaze shot from me to Naomi and back again. She obviously realized Naomi knew the story behind my bandage.

Since it was apparent we weren't going to talk about it, Annie shrugged and took a step in the direction of her desk before pausing and turning back.

"Cam, would you like to have lunch with me?" Annie asked looking curiously at my bandage again before abruptly adding, "And my brother?"

I really wanted to have lunch with Naomi in hopes of getting closer to John, but spending a little time with Ty's girlfriend was probably the next best investment of my time.

Smiling, I answered, "Sure, I would like to meet your brother."

I don't know what she thought she saw in my expression, but she grinned and her response took the conversation in an unexpected direction. "Hey, it's just lunch; I'm not trying to set the two of you up."

Naomi laughed and the tension her knowledge about me had seemed to cast over things disappeared. "Perhaps I'll join you. I am curious to see Silver's reaction."

I turned and stared at Naomi. Why would John Silver care whether Annie was or wasn't trying to set me up with her brother? But before I could ask, Mr. Matthews walked into the classroom and the bell rang.

Part 2

Lunch at West Beverly was completely different from the school in Culver City John and I had attended way back in the first timeline. That school had a cafeteria straight out of some bad prison movie - right down to the protective bars over the windows which in turned were reinforced with wire mesh. And the food, well, they may have met the minimum legal requirements for the five basic food groups, but even a robot like me had my limits. Therefore John and I had mostly just brown-bagged it.

But West Beverly was so far at the other extreme, it was hard to believe they were part of the same school system and were separated by a mere eleven miles. Oh, West Beverly was still cafeteria style, but there were separate lines for pasta, Mexican, burgers, stir-fry, Japanese, cold sandwiches, as well as the most expansive salad bar I had ever seen.

I had gone for the sushi, since they prepared it fresh while you waited, and then I had moved out to the central courtyard and found a table in the shade. It was another typical hot Southern California day; fortunately a pleasant mist from the nearby fountain sporadically drifted across the table.

I had barely settled my tray on the table and stowed my bag with its assortment of books and weapons beneath the bench seat when I spotted Annie stepping out of the cafeteria door. I waved to catch her attention and then watched as she made her way over. Without even closely inspecting her tray, I knew she would have hit the salad bar just like eighty-seven percent of the girls at West Beverly. Not that she needed to, as her spare five foot seven frame couldn't weigh an ounce over ninety-seven pounds. Naomi, Adrianna, and Annie were all at the low end of the super-model body-mass-index range, but Annie was the most extreme of all. I think even the super-powerful Skynet would have found it impossible to jam a robotic chassis into that skinny package.

"Hey," said Annie when she reached the table and slid into the seat next to me. Then in a highly chipper tone she asked, "How's your day been going?"

Shoving into the background the diagnostic I had been running on why I was suddenly fixated on the weights of girls going to West Beverly, I pondered her question for sixteen milliseconds before responding. "Okay, I guess. Well, there was the pop quiz on the Civil War in Mr. Harris' American History class. I hadn't gotten around to reading the material last night, but it was multiple-guess and I probably did alright."

"Darn, Mr. Harris is doing pop-quizzes today? I have him for fifth period." Annie paused, bent down, and riffled quickly through her bag. Straightening up, she took a moment to sweep her long, medium brown hair back behind her shoulder. "Phew, I have my book; now I just need to skim the chapter before class. Thanks for the warning."

I nodded as I watched a handsome African-American boy approach the table with another skinny white girl in tow. I recognized him from the photo I had seen in Principal Wilson's office the previous morning. This was Annie's adopted brother, but we hadn't yet been introduced nor had I heard how he had ended up in her family.

"Hey, Dix," said Annie with genuine warmth once she realized he was approaching. "Have you met Ty's cousin, Cameron?"

When both of us shook our heads 'no', Annie made the introductions. "Cameron, this studly guy is my brother, Dixon. Dix, this is Cameron, ah, Miller, right?"

I nodded as Dixon held out his hand. As I shook it, I took a moment to give him the once over. He was six foot one with a lean, hard body. Oh, not as lean as all the girls I had been meeting lately. No, he had a nice layer of muscle. From the school records I knew he was on the rugby team with John. Hmm, another possible avenue for approaching John was standing in front of me.

"It is nice to meet you," I said while displaying 'pleasant' smile number fourteen.

He nodded, but his eyes were shifting between his sister and the girl standing beside him, as though he was waiting for Annie to introduce her, too. I followed his glance and observed how Annie was pointedly looking everywhere except at the other girl.

Finally deciding an additional introduction wasn't forthcoming, Dixon looked back at me as he withdrew his hand. "Have you met Silver?"

I shook my head and then raised an eyebrow. So this was who Naomi had been referring to when we had talked at the beginning of school, not John Silver.

"Cameron, Silver. Silver, Cameron," was all Dixon said before sliding into the sit directly across from me. Silver slid into the seat next to Dixon and straight across from Annie.

"So, is it just 'Silver', like just 'Madonna'?" I asked with a grin.

Silver, who had been staring at Annie with a disappointed expression on her face, turned towards me, but kept glancing at Annie as she answered in a cool, barely friendly tone. "Actually, it's Erin Silver, but I prefer Silver and no one calls me Erin except my Mother."

Silver had dark brown, almost black hair and blue eyes so light they almost looked silver. After less than thirty seconds in her presence, I decided 'Silver' did seem to suit her.

I shrugged, "Silver is cool with me." I was curious if she was related to John, but decided it would be better to approach it more obliquely so I didn't appear overly interested in him. "Are you related to Ms. Taylor in the guidance office? She is related to David Silver and David's wife, Sarah, is good friends with my aunt, Lisa."

Silver still seemed to have more of her attention focused on Annie than me, but she nodded. "Kelly is my sister and David is my brother. Well, half-sister and half-brother. Kelly and I share a Mom and David and I share a Dad."

"Sounds pretty confusing," said Dixon and from his expression he hadn't heard all these details before either.

"Oh, it's just your typical Hollywood seven-year itch spouse exchange story, nothing special. And what about you – a handsome black brother with a little white sister?"

Dixon grinned, but before he could respond, he was interrupted by a loud voice.

"Well, if it isn't Auntie Silver!"

We all turned and looked up. John was approaching with Naomi. He had a book bag slung from one shoulder, was carrying a food tray in his right hand, and had his left arm loosely draped around Naomi's waist.

"Hello, Nephew Silver," Silver answered with the biggest grin that had brightened her face since arriving at the table two minutes and forty-three seconds earlier.

John and Naomi slid into the last two vacant seats with Naomi next to Dixon and John next to me. Naomi quickly pulled a miniscule salad and a bottle of water from John's tray, but I barely noticed. This was closest I had been to John in the day and a half I had been at the school. And with his left shoulder less than four inches from my right shoulder, I could feel the human part of my body starting to react.

Naomi unscrewed the top of her water bottle, took a deep swallow, and then looked over at me. "Cam, have you met John?"

I shook my head. "I think we share a couple of classes, but we haven't really been introduced."

"Cameron, this is John Silver. John, this is Cameron Miller. She's Ty Collins' cousin and is staying with his family. She was kind enough to help me with Adrianna and her problem last night."

"Ah, yeah, right," John said, turning and offering his hand.

My mind seemed to be trying to go two completely different directions at once. On the one hand here was John, our faces mere inches apart, and it felt so strange to not see a hint of recognition in his eyes. Oh, we had only spent a few months together in a completely different timeline, but we shared a forty-five year old daughter and a sixteen year old grandson. But there was no sudden spark of recognition in his eyes, not that I should have really expected it.

And on the other hand, was Naomi's comment about Adrianna. What had she said to John? Was my secret still safe? Never before had anyone except the Connors known my secret, well known and lived to tell about it. Now, suddenly, Naomi and Adrianna knew and I wasn't sure how far I could trust them.

"Ah, hi, John," I began trying not to let the importance of this moment show in my expression or voice. Then while my hand lingered in his, I automatically did a chemical analysis and was pleased to discover no sign of cocaine or any other controlled substance in his system. "I almost feel like we have already met. My aunt, Lisa Collins, and I played tennis with your Mom at the club Tuesday afternoon."

As John pulled his hand away, he answered, "Cool. My Mom and I play at our house on Saturday mornings. Usually at least three or four others show up and we play some doubles. Annie and her Mom, and Naomi, and a couple others were over last Saturday. You're welcome to stop by this Saturday. We usually start around 7:30 before it gets too hot."

"Thanks," I nodded. Who would have thought that tennis might be my route into John's life, as I doubt 'my' John had ever held a racquet in his life. "I may just take you up on your offer."

"You play tennis?" asked Naomi with an incredulous expression on her face, as though after my revelation of being a killer robot I couldn't do anything as mundane as play a social sport.

"You bet your sweet horses, I do," I drawled out in my thickest Texas twang. "We all do have tennis courts down in the Great Republic of Texas, you know. Of course, no one back home had their own private court so we had to play at the park. Nevertheless, I am pretty good and several of my opponents have said I play like I'm a freaking machine."

Naomi had barely started taking a swig from her bottled water when I made my 'freaking machine' comment and it must have caught her just right as she spewed a mouthful of water halfway across the table and then started coughing.

"Are you okay?" Dixon asked as he started to gently pat her on the back.

Naomi glanced over at me and with a calm, nonchalant expression on my face I threw her a slow, deliberate wink.

"Fine," she answered between coughs. "It just went down the wrong way."

As Naomi got her breathing back under control, Silver suddenly spoke up. "Hey, Nephew Silver, how come you never invite me over for Saturday morning tennis anymore?"

"Well, it's like this, Auntie Silver. I don't want to end up the school pariah like Annie if I did something uncouth like make a particularly bad shot or wear something uncool like floral-print shorts with a plaid shirt."

I watched as Silver frowned and her eyes darted away from John and back to Annie. "I said I was sorry about the blog making you out to be a hillbilly from the sticks of Kansas. What else do I need to do?"

Annie just glared at Silver. Finally, it was Dixon who stepped in. "Annie, the girl has apologized. Try to put it down to the razzing we all go through when we move to a new school. I know you never had to change schools before, but trust me I have been through a lot worse." Dixon paused for a moment and then continued on in a slightly more commanding tone. "Now I want you to shake hands and put this behind you."

Annie continued to sit there stony-faced for another nine seconds. Finally, after a glance at Dixon, she slowly raised and extended her right hand.

Gingerly, Silver brought her own hand up and clasped Annie's.

The first hint of a smile was appearing on the two girls' faces when Dixon spoke again. "See, that wasn't so hard."

"I guess not," said Annie as she picked her plastic fork back up. But I could see in her face that while things had been glossed over on the surface, underneath she was still unhappy with the situation.

And apparently Silver could see it, too. "I really am sorry. Sometimes I just get carried away."

There was silence around the table for a minute. Finally, it was Silver who spoke, trying to change the subject.

"So, Cameron, what happened to your forehead?"

For a moment her question almost didn't register. My full attention had been diverted for over 25.75 seconds to her online blog, 'The Vicious Circle', which I was reading and watching through my internal internet connection. It sometimes amazes me how much people will willingly post on the web about themselves. And yes, after watching the seventeen second animated video Silver had made about Annie calling her a hillbilly and a bovine lover, I could see why Annie was so upset.

"Hmm, it is sort of embarrassing. If I tell you, you have to promise not to make me out to be some kind of hillbilly from the darkest depths of Texas. Because, well, because if you do, I WILL KICK YOUR ASS. And I am perfectly capable of doing it, right, Naomi?"

Naomi, who had been texting on her Sidekick, glanced up at the mention of her name. "What? Oh, yeah," she paused to look down the table towards Silver. "Yeah, Cameron could most definitely kick your ass. In fact I think you could pick anyone you want at West Bev, and she could kick their ass. Cameron, what was it you told me last night? You're a seventh degree black belt?"

"Ah, eighth degree actually," I answered trying to maintain a sweet, demure smile.

"Yeah, right, eighth degree. Anyway, Silver, you really don't want to have Cameron pissed off at you. Trust me."

Silver started to nod, but before she could say anything, Dixon jumped.

"Eighth degree black? That's amazing. What style do you train in? I was up to a brown in Jujutsu back in Wichita, but I haven't gotten back into it since coming to L.A."

"I'm a fifth degree black in Jujutsu and an eighth in Taekwondo. If you would like to get together and practice sometime, it might be fun." I paused and looked over towards John, "How about you, John? Have you done any martial arts?"

"Not really," he began with a shrug. "I never saw the point. If I am ever in a dangerous situation, the other guy is probably going to have a gun. So what's the point of learning martial arts?"

I had to smile. 'My' John said almost the same thing, although it was more about the futility of martial arts when going up against terminators. But still it was nice to see some of the old John mindset in this new iteration that had grown up with a silver spoon in his mouth.

"Oh, well, if nothing else, martial arts training is a good cardio workout and you never know when the skills might come in handy," I answered. Then putting a more serious expression on my face, I continued. "Of course, it is probably different for me than you. I mean guys are a lot more likely to hassle me than you and usually it doesn't involve guns. So it's nice to know that when some guy simply will not take 'no' for an answer, I can put the guy down to the floor, if I need to."

John slowly nodded, but didn't say anything.

After a twelve second pause, Silver spoke again. "So, Cameron, was your injury a training accident? I promise not to write it up if you don't want me to."

I didn't want to overdo the whole martial arts thing too much, fortunately Dixon appeared to be the only one who might understand the significance of the extremely high rating I held. Therefore, perhaps a 'dumb blonde' explanation was a better choice.

"Nah," I began, kicking the Texas accent back up a notch. "It has nothing to do with training. Actually, it was just a darn accident. Back home I mostly drove an F-350 with a long bed and duallies. It had a lift-kit and was a real bitch to get into when wearing a short skirt with heels. But at least it had 'normal' doors. This morning I was driving my Uncle's Lamborghini and it has these stupid doors that swing up instead of out. Anyway when I was getting out I apparently wasn't paying enough attention and smacked my head into the lower edge of the door. As I said, a pretty stupid accident. Fortunately, I ran into Naomi in the parking lot just then and she had an emergency first-aid kit in her trunk and patched me up."

I looked over to Naomi. "I did remember to say thank you, I hope?"

Naomi returned my look and then nodded, but was interrupted by Dixon.

"Wow, you have a black belt and drive a Lamborghini? Where have you been all my life?"

From the expression on Dixon's face, it was hard to tell, but I hoped he was kidding. However I could see Silver out of the corner of my eye and she didn't look happy, no definitely not happy. Obviously she was attracted to Dixon and I suddenly wondered, promise or not, whether I was about to feel the full wrath of 'The Vicious Circle'.

Part 3

Lunch broke up a few minutes later. I agreed to meet Annie after school and accompany her to the rehearsal for the play. Then I managed to depart with Silver. Dixon's next class was in the opposite direction, which fortunately gave me a couple of minutes to talk with her alone.

We dumped our trash and returned the plastic trays before stepping back into the cool air-conditioned comfort of the school. We walked in silence for nineteen seconds as I once more reevaluated the situation.

During my first class the day before I had given out the impression I was a bit of a geek. Now after the conversation at lunch, I was sure my martial arts skills would circulate through West Beverly's grapevine in a matter of hours. At this rate I was quickly going to be known throughout the school.

When I had arrived at the school with no idea how to approach John, building some kind of reputation, good or bad, seemed to have some use. But now that I had made contact through Naomi and had been invited over to his house for a morning of tennis, I seemed to be well on my way to entering his inner circle of friends.

Leaving Silver and her potentially scathing blog which might bring an additional level of notoriety I no longer needed. I didn't have any particular interest in Dixon. Oh, he had seemed, briefly at our initial introduction, another potential path to reach John. But that route no longer seemed necessary. So now it was just a matter of convincing Silver that I wasn't interested in Dixon. Particularly since I still had no idea what the future in this timeline would bring me. What was my purpose, my mission? Was Skynet still a dire, albeit unseen threat? If not, there were still plenty of things like crazed drug-dealers to deal with. With the future so unknown, it was important to have as many allies and friends as possible. And that included Silver. I don't know if robots can have 'gut' feelings, but I definitely felt a twinge of some sort that Silver might turn into an important asset. So I needed to make the situation clear to her now rather letting things fester and grow.

"Silver?" I began. "Back in Texas I was always taught to be straight forward and forthcoming and that 'honesty is the best policy'."

I had her attention now, but from her expression I think she expected me to suddenly profess my undying love for Dixon or something like that.

"I'm not interested in Dixon," I said bluntly. "He seems like a really nice guy, but I have my eye on someone else."

"It doesn't matter to me whether you are interested in Dixon or not," Silver responded defensively.

"I think it does matter to you," I answered. When she merely shook her head, I added, "Maybe you haven't even realized it yourself, but I saw your face when he made that stupid fawning remark to me."

Silver dropped her eyes towards the floor and then answered in barely more than a whisper. "You're right. I do feel an attraction to him. But I don't know if he feels anything towards me. And we have so little in common. He is so into sports and I saw how his eyes lit up when you were discussing the whole martial arts thing."

I had never tried to play matchmaker before, but if Skynet truly didn't exist in this timeline, I might have to find a new calling. "Well, Auntie Silver, let me think about it a little. Perhaps I can come up with some ideas to help get the two of you together."

The corners of her mouth lifted briefly at the 'Auntie Silver' remark.

"Are you busy after school?" I asked. When she shook her head 'no', I continued, "Why don't you meet me at the play rehearsal. Since I have only been here a couple of days and just joined the drama club, I don't have a part in the current production. So I don't really have much to do there yet and we should have time to strategize a 'Silver gets her man' campaign. And if I put the bug in Annie's ear, I'm sure Dixon will just happen to show up at some point before things break up for the evening."

The corners of her mouth seemed to be permanently turned up now. "Thanks, Cameron. At lunch I thought I was going to hate you because you are impossibly cool, incredibly beautiful, and managed to wrap Dixon around your little finger within minutes of meeting him. But now I think you might really be okay."

I laughed and for once it wasn't an artificial laugh. "Me, impossibly cool?" I shook my head. "I'm just a small town girl from Texas who still has stars in her eyes from seeing all the wealthy and beautiful people here in Beverly . . ."

And just like that in mid-sentence I stopped. Stopped talking and stopped walking.

My visual recognition program, which is always running in the background, abruptly highlighted someone standing seventy-eight feet further down the corridor. I zoomed my vision, hardly believing my eyes. It was John. John Connor.

Oh, he looked just like John Silver, but unless John Silver was a quick change artist and had adopted the whole 'grunge' look in the one minute twenty-seven seconds since I had seen him depart the lunch table heading in another direction, this couldn't be him.

Then I took in his black jeans, his dark gray jacket, and the blue tee shirt with a 'Pink Floyd's The Wall' logo and realized it was exactly what he had been wearing in the last timeline. And that was impossible, as clothing didn't make it through the time displacement field. What were the odds he would have acquired the exact same clothes since arriving here?

But that was a question for later. If John, my John, was here, it suddenly changed everything. With unsuppressed excitement, I started towards him. My attention was so focused on John, I barely noticed Silver was still at my side, straining to see what had so abruptly and completely captured my attention.

I hurried forward at the briskest walk I could achieve while wearing heels. Unfortunately, John was looking in a different direction and even if I had waved, I probably wouldn't have been noticed. I considered shouting out his name, but decided I didn't want to make a scene. If others realized there were two 'Johns' running around, it could create all kinds of crazy problems.

So I was hustling forward when I spotted Adrianna on the far side of John, but heading in my direction. She was only fifteen feet beyond him and couldn't possibly miss him. And after seeing her encounter with the other John out in the parking lot just the day before, I had to smile at the unexpected situation my John was about to find himself in. And it made me wonder if John knew yet that he had an identical twin here.

And then I got the biggest jolt I had ever experienced – even bigger than finding my grandson lying on a warehouse floor with a bullet wound to the gut.

John was just standing there staring off to my left. Adrianna was rapidly approaching him and I expected her to slow down to talk to him. But she just kept coming like she was blind or something. And then it happened. Adrianna passed straight through John and kept walking like nothing had happened. John, on the other hand, jumped as though he had been shocked. Then he turned and began moving down the corridor away from me.

I was so surprised I ground abruptly to a halt and Silver literally ran into me.

"Why'd you stop?" she asked, as she smoothed down her blouse.

A tiny fragment of my mind wondered if Silver had noticed that her hundred pound body had simply bounced off my four hundred pound armored chassis. But the majority of my attention was focused on John's retreating back.

"Do you see him?" I asked Silver, while I tried to determine what had just happened. My visual array was definitely saying he was there. My internal radar system was saying he wasn't, but he was right at the extreme end of my radar's range and based on a quick statistical analysis, the radar's results were 70 percent inconclusive. I tried for an infra-red scan, but in the crowded corridor, it wasn't conclusive either.

So what was I seeing? If he was real, Adrianna couldn't walk through him. But if he wasn't real, then what was it? I immediately launched diagnostics on my optical system and, more scarily, my neural network. Was I suddenly hallucinating or whatever was the equivalent in a neural network? I didn't dream like a human, so how could I hallucinate like one? What was going on?

"See who?" asked Silver, her eyes still scanning the corridor.

"The guy walking away from us with the brown hair, black jeans, and gray jacket, he just passed Adrianna," I answered, as I started moving forward again.

"Where? I don't see him," stated Silver.

John turned into a cross-corridor fifty feet ahead without looking back. I broke into a run. Adrianna smiled and started to speak at my approach, but I just shouted a 'Later,' and raced passed her.

I reached the corner where John had turned in 4.35 seconds, but found only another corridor filled with students, but no John. There were only two doorways he could have reached in that time span if he had continued to maintain a walking pace. Both doors led into classrooms, but when I stuck my head in I didn't see him in either.

John had simply vanished as suddenly and unexpectedly as he had appeared. I was standing in the middle of the corridor lost in thought when Silver finally caught up with me.

"Damn, Cameron, I have never seen anyone run as fast as you," she said breathlessly. "What is going on? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Ghost, spirit, apparition, wraith, specter, phantom, shade – a whole host of synonyms rose unbidden from my linguistics database. I had run every diagnostic routine at my disposal three times since I had seen Adrianna walk through John and they had all come up empty. Either I was experiencing some type of mental aberration my self-repair routines couldn't detect or what had just happened was something total outside all my experience.

John had been dressed exactly like that when we had initiated the last time displacement. Then a nuke had gone off right in the middle of the process. I had ended up in this alternate timeline, but neither John nor Sarah had arrived with me. And now this. Was my John dead? Was he trapped in some limbo, phase-shifted continuum where I could see him but nobody else could? The way he had jumped when Adrianna had walked through him indicated he was at least partially interfacing with this reality.

What was going on?

End of Chapter 4

I hope you are having a great day!

Duane