"You can bunk with the girl," River offered. "She bunks in the passenger quarters. There is an extra bed in her room."
Cameron considered River's offer, wondering how much to reveal about her true nature. "I don't need much sleep," Cameron finally offered up. "But it would be nice to have a place to put the few things I have left. To think of it as my space."
"Settled then it is, you shall bunk with the girl. Does the girl's twin have pretty things to bring to mother Serenity?"
"No, I don't have many things left at all. When we left our house we could not take much with us. I took my few treasures, my weapons, and a few clothes."
River looked at Cameron with a sad expression. "When we are in the black, there is lots of down time. The girl can make you a pretty dress," River suggested. "Maybe. I'm used to wearing pants, mostly. Better for fighting."
"Dresses slow the girl down not at all. Does her best fighting in a dress. So, it is agreed?"
Cameron processed for a few seconds. "I have to ask my John."
River pouted for a second before a grin spread across her face. "You want to bunk with your John, but mother Sarah won't allow it."
"Derek is not thrilled with the idea either," Cameron admitted. "They are my family and I have to consider Sarah's wishes. If John thinks it would be okay, wise even, for us to share a room then I will be happy to do so."
"Okay," River answered in her singsong voice, skipping off towards the bridge. "The girl must tell Serenity where to fly in the black. You talk to your John."
Slipping into the pilot's seat on the left, River quickly checked all the controls and course heading. "Reporting for duty, Captain Daddy," she announced cheerfully.
"You're in a mighty fine mood," Mal laughed.
"Have a roommate now. Her twin will share if twin's John say's it's okay."
"Whoa, now, lil' Albatross. You reckon that's wise? We don't know much about these folk yet."
"She can read the others. They are frightened but determined to prove themselves. Recognize they do the need for a home, for friends and allies."
"You can't read Cameron though," Mal reminded River as he passed off the controls to his pilot.
"Yes, and it's nice," River answered with a smile. "Nice to talk to someone and not know what the answer will be. The twins can be quiet together, really quiet."
River reached out and touched her captain, stopping him from leaving. "She knows this much. Cameron is a protector. The girl can always use another protector."
"From the hands," Mal said softly.
xxxxxxxxxx
"I'm not sure that's wise," Sarah snarled from her seat on a crate.
"You won't let me bunk with John and space is limited."
"Do you really even need a bunk?" Derek asked, a grin on his face.
Cameron glared at her tormentor. "I had a room. For the first time I had space that was my own. Now that is gone. It would be nice to have some space that is mine again. Until John does the right thing."
"That again," Derek sighed.
"Skynet is gone. You heard what they said. We run from the Alliance now. The destruction of Earth That Was must have been Judgment Day. There is no reason for John not to make me an honest woman."
Sarah glared at Derek. As far as she was concerned, any mention of the subject was off limits. She preferred not to think about Cameron's desire to tighten the leash on John. Nor did Sarah want to think about John's desires for Cameron. Desires she refused to let her son partake in until he "made her an honest woman."
"It's okay for now," Sarah informed Cameron, heading off the budding argument between Derek and the cyborg. "Might do you some good."
"If John says it's okay, then I will tell River," Cameron monotoned, leaving to find John.
Derek waited till Cameron vanished from sight, heading towards the area where the engine room was located before speaking. "You sure that's wise? Leaving Cameron alone with this River girl? That's the strangest person I have ever met. And they claim she's this psychic mind reader who's an assassin?"
"Better River bunk with Tin Miss than one of us then," Sarah answered, getting up to find the Captain. "Might as well find out where the rest of us are going to bunk."
xxxxxxxxxxx
Stopping to make more adjustments to her auditory sensors to allow for the hum of the Serenity's engines and the other noises of the ship, Cameron heard laughter coming from the engine room. Among the voices laughing was her John's.
She could also make out the squeal of the girl named Kaylee. Red momentarily flashed from her optics as she hurried to see what the source of merriment was. Approaching with her normal stealth, Cameron stopped in the entrance to the engine room to observe unnoticed.
John and Kaylee were laughing at Simon who sat on the deck, his silk vest covered in grease. His hands were likewise covered and the poor doctor was simply staring at his ruined garment.
"It's not funny," Simon protested. "I don't have very may clothes left."
"Oh, poor, poor Simon," Kaylee taunted, laughing even harder. "You'll just have to dress like the rest of us now."
Frustrated and embarrassed, Simon scrambled to his feet. Turning to leave he glared over his shoulder at Kaylee, shouting loud enough to be heard of the sudden roar in the engines, "like the rest of the riff raff on this ship is what you mean. At least I tried to maintain appropriate social standards of dress."
Having silenced Kaylee and John, Simon turned to storm off. Finding Cameron inches from his face, Simon let out a scream from the shock. Cameron simply tilted her head to the right, her face devoid of expression.
"Yeah, creeps me out too," John laughed. "I can't stand it, but Cameron won't stop doing it. Just sneaks up all the time."
Speechless, Simon stepped around Cameron and left.
Cameron sat down next to John and watched Kaylee's expression turn sad.
"You are upset. Did I offend you by not announcing my arrival?"
"No. Simon just makes me so mad. He's always putting on these airs and all and if you tease 'em just the slightest 'bout it, he just goes and gets all offended. Then he says mean things like callin' me and the others riff raff, like we was trash. I mean, I know I ain't no pretty Core world girl, with all them fancy manners and shiny clothes like 'Nara, but I'm pretty. I'm a good mechanic and out here on the Rim that's more important."
Tilting her head in confusion, Cameron spoke. "If your association with Simon causes you distress, why do you continue it?"
Kaylee looked up at Cameron with her mouth open in surprise, looking first at Cameron then John.
John sighed and shook his head once. "See what I've been trying to explain. You forget Cameron's a Terminator, cyborg, whatever. Then she sneaks up on you or says something like that."
Cameron looked at John, her head still tilted. "I only asked because I want to learn, to understand."
"Oh, sweetie, it's okay," Kaylee smiled. "I love Simon, I just can't quite figure out how to hook 'em for good and make him get on his knee and do the right thing by me. 'Nara and Zoe been coaching me, but he's all prim and proper. Confuses even 'Nara, my Simon does. Then when he gets upset, he says the meanest things."
Cameron glared right at John, who, taking note of her expression, looked down at the deck. "I know exactly what you mean," Cameron monotoned.
Kaylee's mouth opened in surprise again. "What? You mean? Why, I'da never…I guess…you mean you can, you know…sex John?"
Cameron and John both looked at Kaylee, unsure how to answer. "I am anatomically correct in every way except I am unable to bear John's child."
A huge grin spread across Kaylee's face. "So, you can sex, huh? Can you…I mean, you don't have to answer…oh, this is embarrassing, even for me…but…"
"Yes, John can pleasure me that way and I have the ability to enjoy it like a human female."
Kaylee watched John turn bright red and burst out laughing. "This is just too much. I gotta tell 'Nara."
"No, please don't," John begged. "It's embarrassing enough you know."
"Yes, please, keep this a secret," Cameron asked, turning her death glare back towards her John. "I have no data concerning the effectiveness of my sensors in that regard. Nor will I have any data on the subject until John makes me an honest woman. His affections are limited to kissing me and fondling specific places and then only in private. Since John has made no effort to change the status of our relationship to a permanent and lasting one, even those privileges might be revoked."
Kaylee let out another howl of laughter as John turned an even brighter shade of red. "I came to let you know I will be bunking with River in her quarters."
Turning on her boot heel, Cameron left as silently as she had entered.
Taking pity on a humiliated John, Kaylee finally got her laughter under control. "She's a moody little thing for a robot."
"Yeah, since her chip got damaged, Cameron's changed a lot. Don't call her a robot either. She doesn't like that."
"It's what she is, ain't it?"
"Kaylee, Cameron is a living person. Just like you and me, except her insides are different. When she says cybernetic organism, she means it. Cameron's a self-aware, sentient A.I. with free will. She can change her baseline programming and does. She's more than just a computer."
"Wow, sounds like she needs to see me and not Simon when something goes wrong, except for the emotion part. She can feel emotions? How does a machine do that, I mean a cybernetic organism?"
"You got me," John shrugged. "I guess I'm kind of like your Simon. She loves me but all I manage to do is make her mad most of the time."