Help, I have serious writer's block, ideas or thoughts if you have them would greatly helpful. What do you want, let me know please.

Chapter 9: My girl?

John woke up wondering what on Earth was making him so hot. As the real world slowly pulled him away from his dreams, the rough pull of his jeans on his legs was confusing since he rarely fell asleep fully clothed. Then something moved beside him.

He opened his eye and found that sometime during the night after his mind finally slowed down enough for sleep he had curled up next to Kat in the bed she begged him not to leave. And now she had turned over and was buried her head in-between his head and shoulder. He was sure he had passed out on opposite side of the bed, and now they laying on their sides facing each other. Kat cuddled up close to his body like she was born to fill his arms.

The bruise on the side of her face had darkened overnight standing out against her skin, but still she slept peacefully. He ran his free hand over the mark the machine had left on her thinking about how easily she put the whole thing behind her. He wished he could do the same.

It was perfect the way she laid there trusting him completely, seeking her comfort in him. He could get use to this. The rightness of it confirming everything that Mike had told John the night before. But if this was his future, then he would lose her before the war started in just a few short years. She was on borrowed time.

The door slowly crept open pulling John away from his thoughts about Kat and into a situation that where someone was going to see just how cozy they became. Tex poked his head inside, but said nothing besides the fact that everyone was up and Mike would be in to check on the patient soon. Still, it broke the spell that had fallen and John untangled himself from Kat.

"John," well, at least she wasn't dreaming it was someone else holding her. As she reached toward his side of the bed, he shushed and whisper a command to go back to sleep. "Always, ordering people around."

"Only when they need their rest." John smiled to himself and carefully brushed her hair back from her face. Defenseless, that is exactly what she looked like. Something that needed to be protected. Man, he needed to get away from her long enough to clear his head.

Kat watched him shove his feet into his boots and walk out the door. It was nice waking in his arms. Warm and safe, it ended too soon when he pulled away. It was wrong to ask him to stay last night. She needed someone, but it must have been too much for John. He ran as fast as he could out the door. Sure he saved her, but that's what John did he saved people.

But he touched her face before he left. Not a typical move when you want to cut a run. Tenderness was not something that got passed around a lot in the future. Too many other things to worry about. Most people didn't even have a bed to sleep on. Everyone who survived had a hard edge.

Kat wished she knew what torturing him as she stared at the ceiling. Their friendship was in danger because of the metal and the distance that was opening between. That was the one thing she never felt about Connor. He was always open with her.

They were two different men, John and Connor. Both had an inner strength that they carried like a second skin. She liked John better since she came back. He wasn't burdened and scarred from being the General.

Why couldn't he let her save him? Was it a macho guy thing? Who cares? Why did she care? For weeks she had been spending lot time with him, but what he was to her personally. A friend. The general. A lonely young man.

Mike interrupted her thought coming in a poking and prodding until declaring her firming sitting in the land of the living. He was acting guilty about something. As he knelt on the floor by the mattress replacing the gauze, Kat knew he was gearing up for something. The same look would make an appearance when he waited by the hatch to go on patrol.

"So, how did this brush feel?" Ah, Mike was golden, a regular lucky charm. The machines hadn't touched him since Century work camp. Come to think of it there's where Connor first picked up the medic back in the day. Everyone that did time with Connor bragged about it, had their back when stories. Mike didn't talk about it, saying he saw something that really spooked him.

"Same as last time." He always wanted to know about near death experiences. "Somehow staring down a gun barrel is strangely calming."

"Look," the silence was expectant as Mike starting walking to the door. "I don't say much, but there's something I need to get off my chest."

****

As John wandered into the kitchen thoughts racing, he noticed his backpack was sitting on the table. Funny, who had brought it over? Then, when was the last time Cameron had left him alone for the night.

He stopped short suddenly remembering what Cameron had said the first morning that Kat jumped back. Two years early and two years older. Putting her at about the age when she would have died in the work camp. Then, later that day Kat said something about making himself happy.

Would he really risk changing the future just to save one girl? Even if he loved her. That went against everything he knew. War like chess was about sacrifices, trading pieces on the board. Sure, she knew her way around a keyboard and stabbing a terminator proved she had enough guts for a whole squad.

Yeah, and her soft skin and great butt were tactical advantages needed to combat Skynet. Right. But she was here, and she really did have a great little body; small, compact and curvy with muscle. Still, there was no way that she felt the same.

Snickering pulled John out of his daze as a few pieces of the puzzle fell into place. When he faced the source of the noise, Rico was leaning on the wall opposite the fridge with a smug grin on his face. In less than twenty-four hours, that punk wore down to John's last nerve and it looked like he was ready to start jumping on it.

"Have fun last night? Cuz I couldn't help but notice while there was a blanket and everything laid out on the couch that you were nowhere to be found." Rico tilted the soda he was drinking to his mouth and paused of effect before he spoke again. "Tell me why send that pretty piece of tail back when you were screwing her in the future? Are you having so much trouble getting laid that jumping your favorite wh….?

There where a couple things about the next few seconds John would, thinking back, like to know about. Like what triggered the insanely violent side of himself that he never knew was there before. Now, a full half minute later it was narrowed down to a reference to tail or the fact Rico almost called Kat a lady of the night. Either way John had Rico pinned face first against the fridge with enough anger flowing through his veins to beat the other teen into hamburger.

Another tidbit that might be useful would be how did he react so fast. Rico didn't even get the full insult out before John hurled the other into the metal door. Somehow slamming the prick into a nice and solid felt great, like breaking something fragile when pissed. Now, John didn't think before the words came out of his mouth.

"If you ever talk about her like that again I will end you." This was no mild threat, John knew that as soon as the words left his lips. "Don't forget I know that you would have left her to die. So you really don't have any room to talk." And with one last shove John pushed off Rico and was walking out the back door when Cameron appeared in it.

Of course, she would be stalking somewhere nearby. Protecting him, and that was getting old. There had to be some way to keep the machine from following him around. She tilted her head in her thoughtful way.

"He's a threat."

"Really, Cameron, how so?" John knew what being a threat added up to in her programming.

"He led the triple 8 to you and would have exposed this cell."

"So, he's stupid and for that we should take him out of the picture." Sure, John wished the guy all sorts of ill will, but he didn't want to put a bullet to him. "No, Cam, he doesn't die until I say so."

With that he brushed past his self proclaimed protector and walked into the sunshine. Why did he go all throw down on Rico? John knew exactly what he was acting like. A over protective boyfriend, and he hadn't even worked up the nerve to ask her to a movie.

Still, part of him wanted to point to Kat and tell the whole world 'that's my girl'.

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a/n: I know its been forever since I posted, but my muse left me. Fled really, and I was finally able to track the sucker down. More will come and it won't take nearly as long I promise.