[A/N: Sorry for the delay with this chapter, I was editing the other ones to ~perfection~. Enjoy!]

...

(John's perspective)

John woke, not entirely sure why he was sitting up. He felt something next to him move, and he remembered the previous night. He smiled. She had a horrible nightmare, and woke up screaming. He calmed her down and, when she started crying, hugged her and sat next to her. She begged him not to leave, made him promise, and he did. He stayed up with her until she fell back asleep and they stayed in the close position all night. Now Paige was attached to him like a leech. He kind of liked being her source of comfort. It meant they would be close together.

Then Paige stirred and let go of him after a moment, finally waking up. She rubbed her eyes. "Morning," John said.

"Barely," she joked. "I'll be back in a sec, I gotta go 'powder my nose.'" She put air-quotes around the last three words and got out of the car, making her way towards the bathroom.

A few moments after she left, Sarah and the terminator got into the front of the car. Shortly after that Paige emerged and hopped into the back with John. "Are we in a hurry or something?" she asked.

"Yes," replied the terminator, and he sped out of the garage and onto the road.

They rode for only another couple of hours before they reached Enrique's. At that point Paige was sleeping again, obviously still tired from the night before. They stopped the car, John remembering the familiar and safe environment of the Salceda's.

...

(Paige's perspective)

I had fallen asleep in the car when John suddenly woke me, saying, "Paige, wake up. We're here."

"Finally," I said. "How long was I asleep?"

"About an hour, I think."

We were parked at what I guessed was Enrique's place. Sarah got out of the car and pointed her gun somewhere, the terminator following suit. The same scene played out, with Enrique coming out and the two hugging like old pals. Everyone else came out of their hiding places, and John said, "C'mon," as he got out of the car.

I followed him, and he hugged Enrique's wife as she said in a chipper voice, "How are you? I haven't seen you in so long!" in Spanish. I didn't know anything she was saying beyond the first three words.

"Good, good," he replied.

She came over to me and hugged me, but still appeared to be speaking to John. "Is this your girlfriend? She's very pretty!"

Whatever she said, it made his face turn red. "No, she's a friend," he said. Then she walked towards Sarah to greet her.

"What was she saying?" I asked.

"Nothing, um, she just called you my girlfriend," he said.

"Oh." My face became red too.

"Yeah. But if it makes you feel any better, she called you pretty."

Sarah came up, and made John, the terminator, and I go get "supplies". We went down to the hidden bunker, which was filled with guns, guns, and even more guns.

"Holy shit," I said. "That's a lot of firepower."

"Yep," John said, and we climbed down the ladder.

...

(John's perspective)

When they were all inside, Paige started making jokes about which gun she wanted to use first. "I wanna use this one," she said, pointing to a large rifle, "then this one," pointing to a shotgun, "and as a closer, this one," pointing to a GE M134 Mini-gun. John laughed.

"Maybe we should start with something that doesn't weigh more than you," he joked.

"Oh, fine," she said, crossing her arms and jokingly stomping her foot like an angry four-year-old.

They moved boxes and guns, then more boxes and more guns. Paige climbed up and down the ladder, the terminator handing her things to put up at the surface. John watched her for a moment. She moved so gracefully, her hair bouncing over her shoulders as she climbed each step. Then he looked away, realizing he was gawking at her.

After they finished taking everything they needed, they all left the desert armory and covered it back up. "So," John said to Paige, "are you ready to learn?"

"Definitely."

...

(Paige's perspective)

John set up an area for us to work far away enough that it wouldn't disturb anyone else. There were cans sitting on crates, which served as targets good enough for me to shoot at.

We started with handguns. John told me the name of the gun, showed me how to turn the safety on and off, and taught me how to load it. But then I actually had to shoot the gun.

"When you shoot, the gun's gonna have a kick," he explained. "That's called recoil." I nodded. "Be ready for it, but don't tense up, or you might hit yourself in the face."

He showed me how to stand, and hold my arms, and aim. Then he handed me the gun. It was kind of weird to be actually holding it. It was almost scary to have something so powerful in your hands. John must've sensed my hesitance, because he put a hand on my shoulder, smiled, and said, "Just remember to relax."

I got into my stance, put my arms out in front of me, inhaled, and pulled the trigger, exhaling as I tried to shoot the can. I successfully shot it without hitting myself in the face, but I missed my target. "Damn," I said in defeat.

"You're aiming too high," he said. "Hold it lower, like this." John came up behind me and held my arms up higher. I shivered, getting goosebumps from the sudden closeness. I kind of liked it, and a nervous smile grew on my face.

"Okay," I said, "here we go." I kept my arms where he showed me to. I tried to relax. I shot the gun again, but this time it went below the can.

"No," John said, "you're tensing up too much. You gotta relax your arms." He came up behind me and adjusted my arms, and I shivered again.

"Why are you shaking?" he asked me. I was caught.

"Oh," I said, coming up with an excuse, "I just, uh, don't like the recoil."

"I don't think that's it," he said. Shit, I thought, think of something else. Quickly!

"Well, why else would I be shaking?" was what I settled on.

"Maybe," he said, smirking and coming up behind me once again, "it's because you like it when I'm close to you." He held up my arms, coming so close that I could feel his chest on my back and his breath on my hair, and I shivered once more. Stop doing that, I told myself. But he was so close.

"Yeah, that's it!" he exclaimed.

"I, uh... I..." I tried to explain, to defend myself, but I only ended up turning bright red. I pulled away, mortified.

"Hey, I'm just teasing," he said, his smile turning into a frown.

"I know," I said. "I just... need a break." I handed him the gun, avoiding eye contact, and went over and sat on the wooden picnic table.

I put my head in my hands, trying to get my red face to go away. I thought about what happened. Not just about the moment before, but about all of the moments I had with John. I analyzed them, trying to figure out my feelings. Eventually I came to a conclusion. God dammit, I thought, I like him. I like John Connor. I realized that I was crushing on him, hard. I'd never really had that before, a crush. It was much weirder than I'd expected. But at the same time, it was really nice.

...

(John's perspective)

John thought about what had just happened. He made her that way, he made her so upset. He pushed her too far.

He was excited to teach her about guns, to make her into a robot-killing bad-ass. And the fact that he got to be so close to her was, to him, a plus.

But then she shook, she shook at his touch. She didn't flinch, or pull away, or even do nothing. She shook. She wasn't even about to shoot. He knew that, and so did she. So when he asked her why she was shaking, and she said that thing about the recoil, it didn't add up. He didn't even think until then that when he liked to be close to her, she might have liked to be close to him too. Sure, he had been the shoulder she cried on. But that was when she was upset. This, this was just learning. This was happy.

She asked what else she could have been shaking at, perhaps to make him jump to different conclusions, and he gave her what he thought to be the truth. She didn't object, she didn't say, "That's not true." But she did blush, and when he touched her arms again, she shook again. That made him sure. He said, "Yeah, that's it!" out of excitement, and regretted it when she was stammering and clearly upset. He didn't mean to embarrass her.

He tried to pass it off as him just teasing, and she tried to pass it off as knowing that already, but then she left and sat on the picnic table. He looked at her, pained that she was so upset. The more he thought about what happened, however, the more he realized: he didn't just like her, he didn't just think she was pretty, he didn't just like being close to her. He liked her. He wanted to see that she liked his closeness. He wanted to see that she liked him back.

Holy shit, he thought, I like her. I like Paige Anderson. He realized that he was, as the other kids at his old school would say, crushing on her, hard. He'd never really had a crush before, and it was much weirder than he'd expected. But at the same time, it was really nice.

He waited until she seemed more calm, and went over to the table to apologize.

...

(Paige's perspective)

When I had come to terms with it, and my head was out of my hands, I saw John come over to me. He sat down next to me. "Listen," he began, "I didn't mean to... I went too far. I'm sorry."

I could hear the pain in his voice. "It's okay," I said, "you weren't doing anything wrong." I wasn't angry with him, I was more frustrated at the situation. I couldn't even tell if he liked me: he hadn't shown any signs. The closeness thing could've been him being his usual cocky self. The only thing I was sure of was that I had fallen for my new friend, and I had fallen for him hard.

So if I told him, and he didn't like me back, then who knows how long I would be stuck with that?

"You're not mad?" he asked.

"No, I'm not mad," I said. I smiled slightly, trying to make it seem like I was okay.

He looked at me with an inquisitive expression on his face. "Okay, then why were you so upset just there? There was definitely something."

"You've been asking a lot of questions," I said, trying to put the focus on him.

"C'mon, don't change the subject. What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong."

"I'm not so sure," he said.

"Fine. I'm gonna say what you said to me: I don't think you wanna hear it," I said, smiling.

"Okay, I'll drop it," he said, and he put his hands up in surrender. "For now."

"Can we just go back to shooting?" I asked, hopping off the table and grinning. "Or are you giving up on me?"

"Alright, let's go," he said, putting a smile back on his face. "If we keep going, we might be able to move on to the big shit by sundown."

"Cool," I said, and we went by the cans and continued shooting, John coming quite close to me every once in a while. I still couldn't control my shivering, but this time he didn't question me on it.

...

(John's perspective)

He was glad Paige wasn't mad, but was still, of course, quizzical. There was something bothering her, he just couldn't figure out what it was. She told him he didn't want to hear it, but if it wasn't her being mad about before, then what did it have to do with him?

He continued teaching her how to shoot. He got through a few handguns before they had to stop. He would teach her the name, show her how to load it, and so on and so forth. But every once in a while he got to come close to her by fixing her posture or helping her aim. He enjoyed that. Even if they said nothing when it happened.

...

(Paige's perspective)

We did all of this when Sarah was getting food and clothes. She came and got us, thankfully when John wasn't close to me, telling us to get into a truck. We said our goodbyes to the Salceda family, double checked that we had everything we needed, and left.

In the truck there was silence, but there wasn't much to talk about. We weren't in the truck for very long. Night had fallen and we hit the border, fake passports and gun registrations with us. Apparently Enrique made them for us, among other things.

After that we reached a place, a small house, where I assumed we'd be living. To me it was cute and not too small to live in. After all, the terminator didn't need much space, and besides that there were only three people.

"So this is it," I said. "It's nice."

"And it's got a bunker," John added.

"Sweet," I said. We went inside.

There wasn't much, just some average furniture that looked either stolen or used. There were some personal belongings, but it didn't surprise me that Sarah kept so little of them. Material belongings were insignificant in the face of a nuclear war.

"Is the bunker already set up?" I asked. "For Judgment Day and everything."

"It is," Sarah said, "but we're not gonna be here for Judgment Day. We have other plans."

"Oh," I said. I knew it was happening, the nuclear bombs, and war, and fallout. I wouldn't have been there if it wasn't. But it was always so distant to me, so far away. I wondered how far away it was. "So... when is Judgment Day supposed to happen?" I asked.

"On July 25, 2024," replied the terminator. "But Skynet does not want to be predictable, so it is possible that it might change."

"What is that, nine years from now?"

"Correct." I didn't want it to be so soon. I wanted it to be farther, much, much farther. I wanted it to never happen at all. But that wouldn't happen, and in the back of my mind I knew that.

"So," I said, "what happens now?"

"We kill the T-1000," Sarah said. Oh, joy, I thought. This'll be fun.

...

(John's perspective)

They got started. This job was mostly in the terminator's hands, because he was the only one who knew how to build the weapon. He asked for specific tools and supplies that they had collected at Enrique's. Then he began to build something indescribably complicated to create, but simple in its own way. It was sort of like a home-made bomb, but smaller, and it fit inside a gun like a bullet.

It only took about an hour to create. When it was finished, John said, "Whoa, that's awesome." It was mesmerizing to look at.

"Totally," Paige said in response. They both stared at the incredibly tiny and powerful creation. The terminator carefully loaded it into a handgun so that the next shot fired would be with the bomb-bullet.

"So, how do we find it?" Paige asked. "Do you need a whistle or something?" John laughed at the joke. She proceeded to jokingly call out to the T-1000, saying, "Here, psycho psycho psycho! Come here boy!"

"Enough jokes," Sarah said coldly. "But we are gonna call it. We make it come to us, track us through a cell phone, and we wait."

And they did just that. The four of them got anything that they wouldn't need out of the truck, so as to not look so suspicious, and drove to one of the last places they would've normally gone: the city.

They went and bought a cheap, disposable cell phone and activated it, then went back inside the truck. "Who're we gonna call?" John asked.

"Ghostbusters!" Paige suddenly sang.

"I knew you were gonna say that," John said to her, laughing.

"Sorry, I just couldn't resist," she said, grinning.

"We'll order a pizza," Sarah said, ignoring their conversation, "and give them our address. Then we wait outside."

"Good idea," Paige said.

"Yeah," John agreed, "and we'll get some pizza outta the deal." His stomach was growling, but it could wait. Then they drove back to the house and got as ready as they would ever be.

...

(Paige's perspective)

Once we got back, Sarah went up to John and me. "You two," she said, "stay inside. And take these." She handed each of us a loaded handgun, which I thankfully now knew how to shoot. "Just in case."

She then hugged John, much to his and my surprise, and kissed him lightly on the top of his head. Then, she looked at me and, very much to his and my surprise, did the same to me. Maybe she's finally warming up to me, I thought.

John and I went to the farthest back room of the house, which was upstairs. Sarah and the terminator went outside to the front. They were going to call a pizza joint and wait for the T-1000 to find us.

We shut the door, sitting on the edge of what I guessed was Sarah's bed. "I hope this works," I said.

"It will," he replied.

"Good," I said. We sat and listened for a while. Nothing happened. We listened more. Once again, nothing happened. It continued like this for a good while.

Then we heard a car or something similar pull up. We didn't know if it was the pizza guy or the T-1000. Then I heard gunshots, and I almost shouted, but John clamped his hand over my mouth until the urge faded.

Then we heard footsteps. "It's okay, its dead," came Sarah's voice. But we knew it could imitate voices, so we both aimed our guns at the door. I held my breath. The door creaked open, the suspense killing me, and when it opened, in came both Sarah and the terminator. Now we knew it was dead, because it couldn't change into two things at once.

"Thank god," I said, lowering my gun and breathing out. John, after a moment, also lowered his gun.

We went outside to look at the wreckage, but there wasn't much to look at. The T-1000 hadn't just been melted, or set on fire, or had exploded, it combusted into nothingness. There were some ashes, but they blew away into the wind and mixed with the sand. My nightmare, finally, was gone. "That," John said, "is pretty fucking cool."

...

[A/N: Woo! So much happened in this chapter. John and Paige discovered they loved each other (but didn't tell each other about it), they arrived at their new home, and they killed the T-1000. Hope you liked it, and if you did, stay tuned and review, review, review!]