Kate was a bundle of nerves as she walked down the long hallway towards the sleeping quarters. Her fingers were linked loosely with John's, their hips bumping as they walked. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and caught him staring at her, his expression anxious. Slowing, she turned in towards him, laying her free hand on his chest. "John."

He stopped instantly, eyes searching her face. "You changed your mind?"

She smiled, shaking her head. Leaning closer, she nuzzled beneath his chin. "Never," she breathed against his rapidly beating pulse.

"Thank fucking god," he groaned, arms banding tightly around her, drawing her closer as his lips sought hers in a deep kiss that stole her breath. He backed them up to the wall, one hand sliding down to her thigh, lifting it up so that he could press closer, the heavy ridge of his erection sliding against her in delicious friction. His other hand rose to cup her cheek, angling her face slightly. Lips, tongues and teeth danced and teased, her hands sliding over his chest and unfastening the buttons on his shirt. She needed to touch him, feel his skin burning beneath her fingertips. Crisp, curling hair met her questing hands and she moaned his name as he thrust against her, nearly making her come.

"More," she breathed, teasing the flat nipples under her fingers, her hips rocking up to meet his.

"Oh Kate, that feels good," John groaned as he bent, lifting her fully against him, her legs wrapping tightly around his waist. He stumbled down the hall, reaching out to lean against the wall every so often for balance. He nearly fell twice before making it into the room they'd chosen as their own, falling onto the bed in a tangle of limbs.

Lifting himself up by his elbows, his lower body was cradled between her thighs. "You are so beautiful," he whispered softly, the reverent tone in his voice nearly making her cry. His finger traced lightly over her cheekbones and ghosted over her full lips, his eyes following the path his finger took. Brushing her hair away from her face, he bent towards her again, their lips meeting softly.

She smiled against his lips, sliding her hands up his chest, pushing his shirt open and down his arms. Lifting first one and then the other arm, he shook it off, shaking as her nails scraped gently down his chest. "You don't know how long I've been thinking of doing this," she said, leaning up to press a trail of hot, wet kisses down the length of his neck. His hiss of pleasure as her teeth grazed against his skin emboldened her and she closed her lips over his pulse, sucking the skin into the heat of her mouth.

"Kate." His voice was deep and rough and it made things deep inside tighten with heady need. Pulling back, she wriggled a bit, trying to get her t-shirt out of the way so he could touch her the way she'd been fantasizing about him doing all morning. The second her tshirt rode up enough to expose her breasts, John's head dipped, covering one tight nipple through the thin lace, his tongue laving over it. The combination of wet heat and friction made her head spin.

"Too many clothes," she panted, hands scrabbling against the waistband of his cargo pants. Ripping open the button, she slid her hand inside, fingers curling around the velvety steel of his cock.

"Keep that up and this'll be over before it's begun," he growled, flexing his hips and thrusting into her hand.

Kate laughed, and licked her lips. "Get naked then, because I want you inside of me... now."

John stared at her, his big hands cupping her cheeks once more. "What about protection?" His cheeks flushed and his eyes shifted to a spot somewhere over her left shoulder. "I don't want to get you pregnant."

Lifting her hand, she turned his face back towards her. "It's okay. I have birth control." Lifting her arm, she pointed to the small lump on her bicep. "It's good for five years, I'd just had it done the day before..." Tears filled her eyes and she trailed off, unable to say the words.

"Kate," he said, his voice thick with emotion, "We don't have to do this, you obviously aren't ready-"

"No!" she said forcefully, cutting him off. "I want to do this." Her eyes searched his as her hand rose to slide through his disheveled hair. "I want you, this. I am ready." Leaning up, she kissed him, her tongue teasing against the seam of his lips, her arms pulling him back down so that he covered her body with his own. He kissed her back desperately, almost as if he was drowning and she was his air. Kate slid her hands down his back, pushing at his pants, her nails sliding restlessly over the skin she uncovered.

"Wait a sec," he said, breaking the kiss and pushing up off the bed. Kate felt a rush of cool air against her skin in his absence and she shivered slightly. He reached for the blanket folded neatly at the end of the bed and handed it to her. "Not that I want you to cover up, but you look cold," he said, shucking off his pants and underwear. He looked down at his socks and shrugged, pulling them off one by one before rejoining her on the bed.

Kate took the opportunity to finish removing the rest of her clothes, and tossing them aside before lifting up the edge of the blanket and winking at him. "Hurry up; I'm freezing without you under here."

John laughed, sliding beneath the blanket. "You're always cold, Kate. I swear, I go to bed with a blanket over me but I end up with it wrapped around you."

She laughed, running her hand lightly over his chest. "But I'm usually wrapped around you as well."

He brushed a kiss against the tip of her nose. "I didn't say it was a bad thing." His hands slid along her ribcage. "Now, where were we?"

Kate grinned at him, shifting and tugging him so that he was once more cradled between her thighs. "Right about here, I think."

John shook his head, reaching between them to brush the head of his cock against her entrance. "I think it was more like here," he said thickly.

"You're right." Her voice had gone sketchy with need and she arched her hips, rubbing against him like a cat. "It was there."

He held himself above her, his arms nearly shaking with the effort. "You're sure?"

Her hand slid down his chest and curled around the heavy length of his cock, guiding it further into her body. "Positive." He surged forward, filling her with one long, thick stroke and her eyes nearly rolled back into her head at the feeling of being taken completely.

"God that feels so good," he groaned against her shoulder, brushing a kiss against her leaping pulse.

"More," she breathed, lifting her hips. He pulled back slowly, drawing out the pleasure as he began to stroke, steady, even thrusts that pushed her back down against the mattress, her body on fire. Lifting her legs, she wrapped them around his back and met him thrust for thrust, her nails digging into the smooth skin of his back. Time lost all meaning as the world narrowed to the feel of his body moving against hers, the soft slap of skin meeting skin and their mingled pants filling the air.

"Oh god, Kate!" he shouted suddenly, tension building at the base of his spine. He wasn't going to last long, not with her feeling so amazing wrapped tightly around his cock. Reaching between them, he pinched her clit as he surged forward one last time, buried to the hilt.

"Yes, oh god, yes," she panted, completion rushing through her like a tidal wave, leaving her shaking. Pulling him down atop her, she buried her face in his shoulder, breathing in his scent.

After they'd both caught their breath, John leaned up and cupped her face with his hands, staring deeply into her eyes. "You are so amazingly beautiful," he whispered, thumb stroking over her cheekbones.

A deep flush stole over Kate's cheeks and she couldn't quite hold his gaze. "You're just saying that because I'm the only girl in here with you."

"Kate," he said, frowning, drawing her gaze back to him. "I mean it and not just because this was all supposed to happen. I think I fell in love with you all those years ago in Kripke's basement." Her eyes dropped to his shoulders and he sighed, moving off of her to lie next to her side. Lifting his hand, he rested it over his eyes. "You were one of the few people who would talk to me and not act like it was some big deal, talking to the freak."

Kate turned on her side and rested her hand on his chest. "You weren't a freak, John."

He laughed without mirth. "I was. My mother was in an insane asylum, my father from the future was dead and I was living with foster parents who had no idea how to deal with me, so they let me do whatever I wanted. All my life I'd been told I was going to be the savior of the human race and all I cared about was using the skills my mother had given me to get whatever I wanted."

"You were a teenager, it's not like any of us think rationally at that age."

He turned to look at her. "You weren't out hacking ATM's or cutting class, were you?"

Kate frowned, biting her lip. "No."

"See, I was a freak," he said, turning his face away from her once more and staring up at the ceiling.

"Just because you were acting out doesn't make you a freak. I'm sure that if Kripke could've hacked ATM's, he'd have been doing the same thing, or any of the other popular kids for that matter."

He sighed again and the silence stretched almost endlessly between them. "I remember the first time I saw you," he said softly. "I was walking up the stairs after Janelle registered me and you were standing outside of the Chemistry classroom, talking to the teacher about tutoring some of the students who were falling behind. I thought that maybe I'd take Chemistry just to see if I could have you tutor me."

"You didn't," she said, laughing. "You were so good in Chemistry; I remember that, you probably could've tutored me."

"I just knew how to build bombs," he said, chuckling.

"I thought you were just one of those super smart kids who didn't know how to deal with us lesser humans."

He turned to look at her before bursting out laughing. "You lesser humans? No way would I ever include you in that group. You were valedictorian, weren't you? Four point plus gpa, regular college and vet school in four years instead of the usual six?"

Kate flushed and dropped her gaze to the bed. "I liked school."

"That wasn't an insult, sweetheart. It's pretty damn impressive is what it is. Not many people could've done it."

Kate looked up and saw him staring at her. She began to laugh. "I just wanted to be a vet, and not have to follow my dad around from base to base anymore." Her expression sobered. "I hadn't been there long before you got there, you know."

"Really? You seemed pretty comfortable for being the new girl."

She shook her head. "I'd done it so many times that it became second nature. Dad got promoted pretty quickly, so we moved a lot. That was my third junior high in two years."

"Ouch."

"Yeah, didn't help that I was smart and pretty much destroyed the curve in any class I was in. I purposely got bad grades at one school just to fit in with the popular crowd."

He laughed. "Did it work?"

Kate shook her head. "My dad found out and had me transferred to another school."

"My mom would've just told me I was being stupid and to get over myself."

"I got a huge lecture and was grounded for a few weeks, but you know, I'm glad he did it. I finally realized that people were going to like me or not and nothing I did was really going to change that fact."

"Heavy lesson to learn in junior high."

"But a necessary one. I wouldn't have made it through college in three years otherwise."

He brushed a stray wisp of hair away from her cheek. "Why don't you like compliments?"

She flushed, looking away again. "They make me uncomfortable."

"Did you not get many of them growing up?"

"Sort of. I was always the dependable one. My parents knew I wasn't going to do drugs or fall for the wrong kind of boy-"

"A boy like me?"

"A boy exactly like you, who it turns out, is exactly the kind of boy I like the most," she said, winking at him. "But my dad was really big on responsibility. I was smart, so I had a responsibility to develop that and use it to the best of my ability. Looks and such weren't important, so they weren't really talked about."

"I'm going to keep complimenting you, Kate," he said, lifting her hand and threading their fingers together. "Because I think it's important. You should know how I feel and know how important you are to me."

"You didn't get many compliments growing up either, did you?"

His gaze drifted to her shoulder. "I knew my mother loved me; that should've been enough."

She lifted her free hand to cup his cheek, turning his face back to her. "But it wasn't. You are important to me, John Connor. Without you, I wouldn't be here, safe from the machines and the nuclear fallout."

"Did I really save you, or did I just condemn you to suffer more?" His voice was thick and deep and filled with a myriad of emotion. "Like I condemn everyone who gets close to me?"

"Stop, stop it right now. I will not allow you to persecute yourself anymore. You didn't make this happen, you are caught up in circumstance just as much as the rest of us. The only difference is that you had some advance warning that this was coming and maybe have the tools to help humanity survive. It wasn't your fault, do you hear me? IT WASN'T YOUR FAULT!"

He stared at her, eyes wide as she shouted at him. The thick, heavy burden of guilt that he carried constantly began to lift a little, lightening his heart. She leaned closer to him, brushing her lips across his. "I love you John Connor."

He pulled her closer, tucking his face into her shoulder, his voice thick with emotion. "I love you too, Kate Brewster."

~*~

Later, standing in the mess making dinner, she thought about all the things he'd said. Turning, she glanced over her shoulder at him. "How did you know I finished college and Vet school so quickly?"

He had the grace to flush. "I talked to the Terminator while you slept. He had your complete dossier."

"Oh," she said, turning back to the microwave.

"Does it bother you?"

She glanced over her shoulder again. "No, it's just kind of weird to think that my entire life is stored somewhere in some memory bank. It's surreal almost. I never thought of myself as anyone special, or that I'd be remembered for doing what I did."

"You're special to me, and you obviously have a part to play in whatever is coming," he said, getting up and walking up behind her. His hands settled on her shoulders. "Even if no one else remembered you, I would."

She leaned her cheek against his hand. "I guess it's just strange to think about, that people in the future know who I am and what I did as a child and a teenager." She spun around, her cheeks flaming. "Do you think they know what happened in the basement?"

John laughed, kissing her swiftly. "What happened in the basement stays in the basement."

Kate swatted lightly at his arm. "You sound like one of those stupid commercials, you brat. I mean really, do we want our kids to know that we nearly had sex in Kripke's basement?"

The smile faded from his face and he slid his arms around her waist. "Kids?" he asked in a voice that was not quite steady.

Kate shrugged, and then smiled. "Well, that's usually the logical progression, isn't it? Marriage, kids."

"It was before, but now? I don't know."

"Do you want children?"

He sighed, leaning his forehead against hers. "With you? Absolutely. In this world, right now? Absolutely not. I don't think it's fair to bring a child into this world, where there's no guarantee that its parents are going to be there to raise it."

"But without children, humanity will die out."

"If we can't beat the machines, we'll die as well. Standard catch 22." His eyes searched her face. "Do you want children?"

"Eventually, yes. I got the birth control because I wasn't ready for the responsibility, and now I'm thankful for it, because it's one less thing for me to worry about."

"It's not foolproof."

"But it's enough, for now. I'm not going to stop having sex with you, if that's what you're implying," she said, frowning. "Unless you don't want to have sex with me…"

"I'd have to be dead for that to happen. I want to make love to you as much as you'll let me, Kate."

He gave her a cheesy grin and was rewarded with another swat, this time on his ass. "Okay, so we're not going to stop having sex-"

"Making love," he interrupted. "What we just did was make love, not something as mundane as have sex."

Her smile was luminous. "We're not going to stop making love, so I guess we'll deal with whatever happens, just like we have with everything else."

"Agreed, now can we eat, I'm starving?"

Kate laughed, lifting on her toes to kiss his cheek. "You're always starving, are your legs hollow or something?"

He swatted her ass as he brushed by her to open the microwave. "Nope, just a growing boy."

Her eyebrow lifted. "Not a boy, at least from where I'm standing."

He laughed loudly, grabbing the meal from the microwave. "Careful, I might just take you back to bed and forget about eating."

Kate snorted. "I thought you were starving."

He stopped in front of her, staring down at her with hungry eyes. "Food isn't the only thing I'm starving for, sweetheart."