Author's Note:So, did we likey the last chapter? If you did, good. If you're jonesing for more, even better! Enjoy, guys! :)

Disclaimer:I own a Deadbolt CD. TIKI MAN! XD

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

John's P.O.V.

It was still dark outside when John woke up. When he looked out the repair shop's windows, he could see that the sky was a shade lighter than the rest of it on the horizon, but that was it. The rest of the sky was a dark navy blue, and still studded with dozens of gleaming stars.

John looked at the digital watch fastened around his right wrist – 4:37, it read. He released a low groan. Fuck, I'm up early,he thought drowsily. This is a first.

He tried to readjust himself into a better sitting position, but was slightly surprised to discover that he couldn't move his legs; something was pinning John to the floor of the cruiser.

What the hell?

He felt something shift in his lap. Curious, John glanced down; he found Nik fast asleep, her head resting on his shoulder, her hands resting in her lap loosely.

The memory of the previous night immediately flooded John's mind. He remembered waking up at around one in the morning, and seeing Nik, drenched in cold sweat, thrashing wildly on the floor; he remembered putting his arms around her to comfort her after she woke up crying; he remembered her balling up in his lap as she told him the things she'd seen; and he remembered promising to her that he'd stay with her, and the look on her face after hearing that. It was the look on Nik's face that John remembered most vividly. It had been a combination of deep gratitude, relief, and – he could've sworn that he saw it in her eyes – love.

And he didn't mind that in the least bit. In fact, it actually put John at ease.

He tilted his head to one side, and just stared at Nik. She looked kinda' pretty when she was sleeping; she had this soft, innocent look on her face, almost like a little kid's, and her bangs framed her face in a gentle curve. To John, Nik looked more at peace in sleep than he'd ever seen before.

Nik groaned suddenly, and began to stir. Within seconds, she'd groggily opened her eyes, and had focused on John.

John couldn't move as Nik's piercing blue eyes gazed up at him. They had this 'secrets of the world and the human soul' kind of effect on him, and as creepy as it could be sometimes, it was hypnotic now, almost drug-like.

She blinked sleepily. "Morning," she yawned. "When the hell did you get up?"

"Couple minutes ago, to be honest." John tossed his head from side to side to loosen up the stiff muscles in his neck. "You sleep okay?"

"Yeah, I did," she nodded. "A helluva lot better than the first time."

"Good." John was suddenly aware of the burning sensation and full-to-bursting state of his bladder, so he gently coaxed Nik out of his lap.

Nik gave John a strange look. "You okay there, John?"

"Fine. Just really gotta take a piss at the moment," he answered, his voice slightly strained.

Nik's mouth formed a little oh, and she immediately scooted off his thighs. "Sorry 'bout that."

"You didn't know." John ducked out of the cruiser. "I'll be back in a sec, 'kay?" He then ran off towards the shop's small restroom before Nik could say anything in response, whether it be wise or - like her responses usually were - overly snarky.

John quickly relieved himself, and jogged back to the cruiser after twenty seconds had passed. When he got back, he found Nik lying on her back on the backseat bench, boredly twirling her swiss army knife in her right hand. John just stared at her as she spun the knife, blade out, around her hand like it was the most natural thing in the world to her.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"What's it look like I'm doing?" Nik shot back as she started weaving the knife through her fingers. "I'm screwin' around with my swiss army knife."

"I see that. Any particular reason why though?"

Nik shrugged. "Eh, force of habit, I guess." She wove the knife once more through her fingers, then she held the blade end of the knife between her thumb and index finger, and offered the handle to John. "Here, you up for a try?"

John frowned. "Nik…"

"What?"

"Are you okay? I mean, after last night and all…" It bothered John that Nik was suddenly so cavalier and calm, when she'd been on the verge of losing it only a few hours ago. He had no idea if she'd gotten over the dream already – which he would've called bullshit on, regardless of what she told him – or if she was just repressing it and trying to be tough. He really hoped she wasn't trying to hide anything.

"I'm fine, John. I'm okay now." She offered the handle of her knife to John a second time. "I'll say it again – you up for a try?"

John shook his head. Forget it, she's not letting you know anything… "I dunno. I don't trust myself."

"It's easy. Here, watch." Nik held the handle in her right hand loosely. "Whatcha do is you flick it up, let it kinda' roll off the top of your hand, then you catch it just as it starts to fall... It's a little hard to explain, but it's a lot easier to understand when I show it to you." She then slowly twirled the blade around her hand. After a couple times, she stopped, and again offered the handle to John, this time with a soft, tired smile on her face. "You wanna give it a shot now, Connor?"

John rolled his shoulders. "Sure. I guess what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger," he mumbled as he took the swiss army knife from Nik. He practiced without the blade for a few moments (it turned out to be really easy, much to his satisfaction), then decided to whip out the actual knife part. He looked at the knife hesitantly before he began to twirl it; as soon as he did, he threw his free hand up in victory as the knife lazily spun around his other.

"Holy crap! I'm doing it!"

Nik laughed. "Round of applause for Mr. John Connor." She then proceeded to give John a golf clap. "What's he gonna do next?"

"Oh, you want more?" John smirked impishly. "I'll give you more." He started spinning the knife around his hand faster and faster, until Nik lost track of where she'd last seen the handle. When that happened, she bit her lip nervously.

"Don't go too fast John, otherwise that's gonna go flying-"

All of a sudden, the knife zinged through the air, and headed towards the padded part of the car door. Both teens went after it; John lunged for the handle, while Nik's hand shot out to try and catch it by the blade. Nik caught it first, but it flew out of her hand, and landed blade-down in the seat as John unintentionally tackled her on the bench.

Neither John or Nik did anything for a moment as the former laid on top of the latter; they only stared into each other's eyes, and mentally noted how close their faces were, which were separated by only three or four inches.

Nik's face turned a little pink at the close contact. John was pretty sure his had, too.

"Well... this is, um... interesting," Nik said in low whispery voice.

Indeed, it was; John was lying stomach-down on top of Nik, and he'd pinned her right arm above her head to the bench. John hadn't exactly meant for the arm-pinning to happen. Hell, he hadn't meant to have Nik sandwiched between his body and the backseat bench, PERIOD.

Of course, look where I am now.

"Hey, uh, John? Not to sound rude or anything, but could you please get off me?"

John's face burned in embarrassment when he realized he was still lying on top of Nik. He hastily rolled off and scooted to one far end of the bench, all the while spewing different versions of "I'm sorry."

"I, uh… I'm really sorry 'bout that."

Nik waved off the apology. "It's okay. I'm fine with it." It took Nik a moment to realize what she'd said, and her face turned a mortified shade of purple when she did. "I-I mean I'm sure you didn't mean to or anything; like, we had no idea that that was gonna happen and just I'm pretty surprised and I'm sure you are too but it's no big deal and oh my god why can't I stop fucking talking… she trailed off. "It's just…"

"It's just what?"

"Well…" Nik bit her lip. "Sarah's still sleeping in here, and I think she would've flipped a shit if she'd seen you lying on me, ya know?"

John nodded. Nik had a point. To the two of them, there was nothing wrong; John winding up on top of Nik had been purely accidental, and frankly, the two were still too young and too embarrassed to enjoy the close contact. To Sarah, on the other hand, everything was wrong. John was a teenager, Nik was a teenager, and as far as every adult was concerned, there would've been no stopping the "rampant sexual activity" that would crop up if they didn't sit up and back off before anyone saw. If Sarah had seen them two seconds ago… Fuck, John's head ached just thinking about it.

"Makes sense."

Nik and John sat at opposite ends of the bench for a while, not sure what to say or do to get rid of the awkward silence that had settled in the back. Finally, after what seemed like an hour of staring up at the ceiling of the cruiser and thinking about anything other than what had happened between them, John coughed, and excused himself from the backseat. "I'm, um, gonna go see what the terminator's up to. Uh... yeah."

Before Nik could say anything, John walked away quickly so she wouldn't see the redness in his face.

Jesus fucking Christ, that was awkward…

He found the terminator standing frozen in front of a window with the shotgun in his hands. He cleared his throat to try and get his attention.

"You are up early," the terminator said in a low, flat voice. "I was not expecting that."

"Well, what were you expecting then?"

The terminator shrugged. "I was expecting you to sleep in later. I am aware that it is something that you adolescents do."

"Eh, I guess. I mean, I usually sleep in, but I'm really not that tired." John rubbed away the sand in the corners of his eyes with his thumb and index finger, and groaned. "Had one hell of a night, but I'm not that tired, honest."

The terminator turned to John, and silently looked at his face. John knew that he was thinking the exact opposite of what he'd told him as his gunmetal-like eyes briefly froze on the dark, purplish rings under his own eyes. "You look like you've been deprived of sleep. Did something happen last night that I was not aware of?"

John sighed, and looked down at the scuzzy carpet-covered floor. No trying to get out of this. "Nik had a bad dream last night," he said quietly. "It was really bad. She said she saw her parents die and she couldn't stop crying after she woke up."

"I do not see how you fit into this, John."

"I was the one that tried to calm her down and help her get back to sleep." The ghost of a smile graced John's lips. "I also kinda' acted as personal pillow."

"I see," the terminator nodded. "Is Nik all right now?"

"Yeah, she's fine, I think. She was acting really calm earlier, but I think it's a load of shit. I dunno though. I hope she's okay."

"As do I." The terminator wrenched himself away from the window, set the shotgun down on a table behind him, and proceeded to walk out of the repair shop with John's forearm gripped in his hand.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing?" John hissed.

"You are assisting me in finding a vehicle," the terminator replied simply. "We must leave this place before the authorities find us."

"What's wrong with the cop car? Why can't we take that?"

"It would be too obvious on the open road. We need a vehicle that will not cause suspicion to the public."

Good point.

The two were now standing in front of the repair shop, both of them simultaneously looking for a functioning car and shielding their eyes from the rising sun. Briefly, John looked at his watch – 5:40 a.m. At first, John's brow furrowed in confusion; it had been 4:37 last time he checked. He didn't get how an hour and ten minutes could go by so fast, until he remembered that he'd talked with Nik for around ten minutes, and sat around in the back of the cruiser just trying to keep his head straight for an hour.

Holy shit, I've been doing squat for an hour? Damn. Sure didn't feel like it.

"John!"

John looked behind him, and saw the terminator standing beside a slightly rusty station wagon. With a light smirk on his face, he jogged over to the passenger side of the car.

"Nicely done. Are the doors unlocked?" John tugged on the door, but it wouldn't budge. He scowled. "Shit. They're probably all locked."

"I can fix that," the terminator piped up. He then punched his left fist through the driver's window. The glass shattered instantly, and sprayed all over the front seat.

John winced. "That's not exactly what I'd call 'fixing it,' homes."

The terminator shrugged, sat down in the driver's seat, then reached across and unlocked the door for John. As soon as John was sitting in the passenger seat, the terminator ripped away part of the steering wheel column, and hotwired the car - in all of three seconds. John shook his head in disapproval.

Next time, he oughta' look for the keys first.

John reached over the terminator's head, put down the visor, and caught the keys as they fell off. He jingled them in front of the terminator's face. "Are we learning yet?"

The terminator sighed, then backed the car up with no regard for John's pissed-off demands to stop the car so he could at least get the door shut. He then pulled the car around to the front of the repair shop, and halted to a stop in front of Sarah and Nik, who were squinting their eyes and trying to shield them from the bright morning sun.

"We have to get as far away from the city as possible."

Sarah nodded, slipped on a worn jean jacket, and opened the back door. "Just head south." She motioned Nik towards her. "C'mon Nik, get in."

With a low, tired groan, Nik trudged over to the station wagon, and slid in as she shut the door. As soon as the back door had been closed, the terminator hit the gas, and they took off down the lonely highway towards southern California.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Nik's P.O.V.

We'd been on the road for almost four hours when the saguaro cactuses started popping up alongside the highway, a sign that we were now in the south end of California. At the time, I'd been staring out the window, listening to Pink Floyd playing quietly in the background, and absent-mindedly twirling my swiss army knife in my hand. I'd been silent the entire time we were on the road. Hell, everyone was silent while were on the road, even Sarah (that one was a little hard for me to believe for a while). Nobody really had anything to say.

All of a sudden, a horn drowned out the soft sound of the radio. I jumped in my seat, and nearly whacked my head on the roof of the car as we zipped by a charter bus - and the pissed-off driver laying on the horn - without a care in the world.

I growled. "Son-of-a-BITCH! Can you cut it out with the kamikaze driving already!" I snapped angrily. "The care-free driving BS is gonna make me mental!"

"I apologize, Nik." The terminator briefly looked over his shoulder at the charter bus, which had now become a small silver dot shrinking in the distance. "The driver was going far too slow."

I snorted. "What speed's too slow for you, forty-five?"

"Fifty-five miles per hour, to be precise."

I shook my head. "And what speed did you originally wanna push?"

John looked over his shoulder at me, a half-smile pulling to the left side of his face. "He was almost going for seventy-five, but he cut it down to sixty-five," he answered for me.

I laughed sarcastically. "Sixty-five. Shoulda' known."

Sarah leaned away from her seat, and gave the terminator a warning look. "Keep it under sixty-five," she ordered him. "We don't wanna be pulled over."

"Affirmative."

"No no no no no. You gotta listen to the way people talk," John said. "You don't say 'affirmative' or some shit like that. You say 'No problemo.' If someone comes off to you with an attitude, you say 'Eat me!' And if you wanna shine 'em on, it's 'Hasta la vista, baby!'"

"Hasta la vista, baby," the terminator parrotted.

I laughed silently. "Oh man, I can't wait to hear what you say next."

John looked at me, grinned, and held up his index finger. "Wait," he mouthed to me before he turned back to the terminator. "All right, yeah...or 'Later, dickwad!' And if someone gets upset, you say 'Chill out!' Or, you could do combinations."

"Chill out, dickwad."

I laughed, and clapped my hands. "All right, yeah! Way to go, big guy!"

John playfully backhanded the terminator on the arm. "That's great! See? You're getting it!"

"No problemo."

I tapped John on the shoulder. When he turned around, I gave him a grin and a thumbs-up. "Nice going, Connor."

"Why thank you, Nik. I do try." John ruffled my hair gently. I quickly retaliated by giving him a noogie.

"Dude! What's with the noogie?"

I snickered evilly. "Aw, I just wanted to give you a noogie for the hell of it," I replied sweetly. I then lunged forward and wrestled with him some more.

Suddenly, Sarah yanked me away from John by the shirt just as I was about to put him in a headlock.

"Hey! What gives!"

Sarah gave me a hard glare. "I've asked you and John to cut it out with the horseplay twice now. If you aren't gonna cut the bullshit and open up your ears to other people, then I'm just gonna start yanking you two apart." She exhaled sharply through her nose. "Learn to pay attention, kid. I have no patience for people that don't listen. Got it?"

I rolled my eyes in annoyance. "YES, I got it. Yeesh..." I settled back in the seat with my arms folded in front of my chest, and stared sullenly out my window.

Damn killjoy.

"Aw, shit! The engine's getting fried already? Goddammit!"

"What's your damage, John?"

"The engine's getting torched right now," he sighed as he pointed at the red thermometer light on the dashboard. "If we don't pull over someplace and dump some coolant into the engine soon... well, it'll be adios to the wagon and hello to hitchhiking."

I nodded in understanding. "All right, I'll keep my eyes open for a rest area or something like that, 'kay?"

"Sounds good."

So, I did just that. Within two minutes, I'd hit the jackpot with the gas station on the left side of the highway.

"Pull over there!" I ordered to the terminator as I pointed to the gas station. "Pull over there right now!"

The terminator spun the steering wheel, and pulled the station wagon into the rest area. As we cut across the highway, we just narrowly avoided getting totaled by a semi coming up the other direction. While the driver responded by laying on the horn, I responded by giving him the finger, sticking my head out my window, and loudly calling him an asshole as he passed us.

I shook my head, and huffed as we wheezed to a stop in front of a gas pump. "Jesus Christ, it's like these people have never heard of stomping their damn foot on the brakes before. What the hell?"

"Nik, people don't usually hit the brakes on a highway. They're too damn busy trying to get from Point A to Point B." John shoved his door open to let in some fresh air, then proceeded to check out the stuff surrounding the gas station. Almost immediately, his green eyes fell on the dusty little diner parked to the left of the station. I could faintly hear his stomach growl hungrily from the backseat. "Man, I'm starving." He turned around to look at me. "How 'bout you, Nik?"

I nodded vigorously. "I'm frickin' dying right now."

"'Kay then, you wanna come with me and grab something to eat?"

"You're the bomb, Connor. Yeah, definitely," I smiled.

Sarah's face scrunched up in confusion. "Do you have any cash?"

With a smug grin on his face, John pulled the remaining wad of twenty dollar bills from yesterday out from his pocket, and waved it in front of his mom's face. "I got a couple hundred bucks. I'll give you half," he said slyly.

In response, Sarah snatched the money out of John's hand, took most of it, and gave the remaining three bills back to him.

"Mom!" he protested.

"Get some food."

Then, she got out of the car, and walked off to the mechanic's garage to the right of the gas station.

Once Sarah was gone, I snorted. "Your mom's so damn serious," I said to John. "I think I'm gonna start calling your mom Chuckles if she doesn't lighten up soon."

"I know." He sighed in irritation, and smacked his thigh with the palm of his hand. "Eesh, she has no sense of humor."

"Yeah, unfortunately," I mumbled as I slid out of the back, and stood outside in the bright morning sun with the terminator.

Once John was out of the car, the three of us walked over to the diner. About halfway there, I looked up at the terminator, and frowned slightly.

"Missster Happy, lose the frown already, will ya?"

"Yeah, that's another thing. You can lighten up a bit yourself. The severe routine's getting old. I mean, you're acting like such a geek. Smile once in a while."

"Smile?"

"Yeah, you know, smile.Watch."

John ran over to a window, and skidded to a stop in front of a lady with this cranky I-don't-wanna-be-here frown on her face. He rested his chin in his hands, and casually said, "Hi. Nice place you got here. How's business?"

The waitress lady rolled her eyes at John's attempt to be charming and get a grin out of her. "Gimme a break," she grumbled before turning away.

John bit his lip. "Okay, bad example." He briefly scanned the gas station for somebody with a good example of a smile, and focused in on a guy talking on a pay phone. Apparently, whoever the guy was chatting with had said something funny, because he was laughing and smiling. Only problem was, the smile this guy was flashing looked downright CREEPY.

"Him?" I mouthed to John in disbelief.

He nodded. "Trust me," he mouthed back to me before turning to the terminator. "You see that guy over there? That's a smile."

Yeah, a pretty damn demented smile, if you ask me.

The terminator glanced at the guy; for a moment, there was a low whirring sound coming from him. Then, there was something that sounded a lot like John wincing. Curious, I looked at the terminator to see what the deal was.

He was staring at John - with a smile on his face. It was a pretty freaky-looking one, but it was a smile nonetheless. I gave the terminator a thumbs-up and a subtle smirk.

On the other hand, John shivered a little. "That's... good," he said with difficulty. "Maybe you could practice in front of a mirror or something."

The terminator dropped the smile off his face immediately following John's suggestion, and shrugged indifferently. "Perhaps," he said flatly. "Come, you and Nik must eat something."

"We know. We'll take care of ourselves. In the meantime, you're more than welcome to take a break from all the guardian bullshit, 'kay?"

The terminator cocked his head to one side in confusion. "What can I do?"

"I dunno, anything, I guess." I paused for a moment. "Actually, it would really help if you put some of that coolant crap in the car."

"Okay. If you will excuse me then..." The terminator turned around, and walked away from me and John without another word.

As soon as he was gone, John and I looked at each other, and burst out laughing.

"Holy SHIT, that was great!" I giggled. "That just totally made my day!"

"I know! That was just perfect!"

We laughed for about another minute, then we decided to grab something to eat. While I scanned the menu tacked next to a window for something good to eat, John got himself a cheeseburger and some fries. Finally, I said, "To hell with the menu," and got the same as John.

John got another burger and fries, and passed them to me. "Took you long enough," he snickered as he slapped a twenty on the counter. "I only waited for five minutes, ya know."

"Ah, shut up." I lightly smacked John's arm.

He made a face. "Hey, I'm just messin' with you."

"Sure you are."

"I am, honest," John insisted as he gave me this puppy dog look.

The weirdest thing happened as soon as he gave me that look; chills ran up and down my spine as he looked at me. These chills, however, weren't the kind I got when I was afraid; they were more like the kind a girl got when (now I'm not usually like this, just to clarify) she came across a picture of River Phoenix. And BOY, was I getting those chills just looking at John. I didn't know what the hell was going on; his angular, stringy, dirty-blond hair, the look on his face, and the good two or three inches he had over me were making my head all fuzzy.

What the hell?

I clenched my eyes shut, and shook my head, hoping that this would get rid of the current wa-wafeeling.

I opened my eyes, and looked at John, who had now dropped the puppy dog look and wore a concerned frown.

"You okay, Nik?"

His voice sent another round of chills down my spine. I mentally panicked and swore.

After a second of freaking out, I tried to calm down. Just act normal, the little voice in my head instructed. Just act normal, just act normal...

I took a deep breath, and nodded. "Sorry," I said. "Kinda' spaced out for a sec."

"It's fine." John started walking back to the station with mine and his food. "C'mon, I'm starving."

I nodded silently, then followed him back to the car, where we sat down in the back.

John passed me the styrofoam box with my burger and fries in it. "Enjoy," he mumbled.

I started at the food for a second, then at John. I smiled lightly. "Thanks for the food, John."

The corners of his eyes crinkled up as he smiled back at me. "You're welcome." He then dove into his burger.

I followed suit with mine. I bit into the bun, meat, and extra trimmings, and tore away a large chunk. Steam billowed out into my face and juice dribbled out of the divot I'd made in the burger. I sighed blissfully at the combined heat of the steam and taste of the meat.

"Wow, you're really into that burger, huh Nik?"

"Bet your ass I am," I grinned after swallowing the food in my mouth. "I haven't had a burger like this one in ages."

Somebody's shadow suddenly loomed over the station wagon. I craned my neck over my shoulder to look behind me, and saw Sarah standing in from of the backseat door, a burger clutched in her hand, and her head tipping to one side in this creepy rag doll way.

Okay, what the hell?

"Care to make a little room in there, Nik?" Sarah sighed.

I shoved the last of my burger in my mouth, and scooted over to open the door. Then, I slid to the other end of the bench, and watched in silence as Sarah plunked down in the car, unwrapped her food, and slowly took a bite out of it.

John shook what was left of his fries around in the styrofoam box, not really sure if he was in the mood to eat them or not. He shook his head - no fries for him then, I guess - and held the box out to me.

"No thanks." I rubbed my stomach. "I'll be honest, I'm not that hungry anymore either. I feel like I'm gonna pop if I eat anything else."

He shrugged. "Don't worry, it's cool," he smiled. That quickly gave me goosebumps. I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment. C'mon Nik, snap out of it! Quit acting all mushy and get your head outta your ass! WAKE UP!

"You sure you're okay, Nik?" John asked, lips pursed slightly. "You look... a little out of it."

"Yeah, I'm fine, I swear."

Yup, REAL convincing, Nik.

John shrugged again, and held his fries out to Sarah. "Want some of my fries?"

Sarah didn't answer - she was too busy watching cars pass by on the highway and absent-mindedly chowing down on her burger. She had this blank, thousand-yard stare in her eyes, and her face was totally expressionless. It was like Sarah was lost in her own world, she was so tuned out of reality.

After a minute of holding out his box of fries, John gave up trying to foist them on somebody else, got out of the car, and went around to the front to see if there was something a bit more interesting for him to do. I, really having nothing better to do, did the same.

I found John leaning against the hood, watching the terminator fill up the engine with fresh coolant. "You need any help?"

"No."

All of a sudden, two little boys with toy guns whizzed past me and John, pointing them at each other as they dueled in a play fight. He seemed super-focused on them, especially when they argued over who killed the other first and shoved each other. From where I was standing, I noticed a trace of sadness in John's eyes; these two kids had no idea how precious life was at the moment. It really was a sad, pitiful thing to watch.

"We're not gonna make it, are we?" he said, voicing the question that had been on our minds for a while now as he stared at the kids. "People, I mean."

The terminator looked at John grimly. "It is in your nature to destroy yourselves."

"Yeah... Major drag, huh?"

I nodded in agreement, and stared out at the horizon. "The human race really sucks sometimes, doesn't it?"

"You don't even know the half of it, Nik. Just wait 'till the war comes. You'll get a REAL GOOD taste of how badly this race sucks," Sarah muttered to me as she got out of the station wagon.

"If I even make it to the war."

"You will, Nik," the terminator insisted. "Your future is inevitable."

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

"Ask later," Sarah answered for the terminator before he could even open his mouth. "I'm asking questions now." She turned to the terminator. "I need to know how Skynet gets built. Who's responsible?"

"The mainmost director responsible is Miles Bennett Dyson."

"Who's that?"

We all got back into the station wagon as the terminator started talking. "He's the director of special projects at the Cyberdyne Systems Corporation."

"Why him?"

"In a few months, he creates a revolutionary type of microprocessor," the terminator stated, sounding like a history teacher reading from a school book.

"Okay, and?" I said.

Sarah waved her hand impatiently. "Go on. Then what?"

The terminator shrugged as he pulled out of the gas station and back onto the highway. "In three years," he began, "Cyberdyne will become the largest supplier of military computer systems. All stealth bombers are upgraded with Cyberdyne computers, becoming fully unmanned. Afterwards, they fly at a perfect operational record. The Skynet Funding Bill is passed - the system goes online on August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 AM, eastern time, on August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug."

Sarah's brow furrowed. "Skynet fights back," she softly said in reply.

"Yes. It launches its missiles against the targets in Russia."

I shook my head. "WHOA, back up. Why the hell would Skynet nuke Russia?"

"Yeah, why attack Russia?" John asked. "Aren't they our friends now?"

"Because Skynet knows that the Russian counterattack will eliminate its enemies over here."

"Jesus," Sarah hissed. She threw her head back against her seat, and huffed. Then, her eyes flew open, and she glanced at the terminator with a hard look. "How much do you know about Dyson?"

The terminator looked at Sarah with a steely glint in his eyes. "I have detailed files."

Sarah nodded. "I wanna know everything. What he looks like, where he lives - everything."

That can't be good.

As I listened to the terminator spill everything he knew about the Dyson guy, my gut kept spazzing and telling me that something was wrong with Sarah's sudden curiosity. The woman was definitely up to something; I just didn't know what, though. I sure as hell hoped that she wasn't thinking about kidnapping him and holding him hostage.

I sighed quietly, and scooted closer to John. "I've got a bad feeling about this," I said in a voice low enough for only John to hear.

"Me too, Nik, me too." He put an arm around my shoulders, and yawned. "Jesus, I'm so damn tired."

"So take a nap then."

John yawned again. "That would really be good." He closed his eyes, and groaned softly. "Finally, decent shuteye."

Within the next minute or so, John's chest was rising and falling gently as he slipped into an almost unconscious state of sleep.

Jesus, he wasn't kidding when he said he was tired.

I'll be honest, I felt pretty wiped, too; up until I woke up from the nightmare early this morning, the sleep I'd been getting was pretty shitty. Not only that, but I'd been up since four in the morning. At the moment, sleep would've sent me straight to heaven without a second thought.

You've got time. Get a little rest.

I yawned, and closed my eyes, leaning on John as I did; the moment I did, John's arm moved from my shoulders to my stomach, and pulled me closer to him.

Always here for me.

As exhaustion fell over me, I fell asleep, smiling faintly to myself.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

FINISHED! ENJOY GUYS, AND STAY TUNED FOR CHAPTER EIGHT! :D