Disclaimer: I do not own TSCC or the characters.

Ruth cautiously extended her right index finger until it reached the shoulder of her sleeping brother. Grinning in anticipation, the tiny T-1000 morphed the tip of her finger into a sharpened tip and jabbed John.

As she'd anticipated, John spun around, wide-awake, aiming one of Cameron's numerous Glocks she kept hidden throughout their sleeping quarters. Irritated, John flicked the safety back on and flopped on his back.

"I could have shot you," John growled, returning the Glock to its hiding place.

"Like that would have hurt me," Ruth giggled, falling onto the bed with her adopted brother.

"What are you doing here?" John demanded, covering his eyes with one hand.

"Ask nice," Ruth insisted, pouting in the manner of all little sisters.

"No. You woke me up," John mumbled back, likewise in the manner of all older brothers who are irritated with their younger sister.

"Be nice, or I won't give you the intel update," Ruth teased.

The word intel did the trick. John counted to ten and turned to lie on his left side. Staring into the eyes of the grinning Ruth, John counted to ten a second time, smiled sarcastically, and spoke in a respectful tone.

"Please, Ruth. Would you brief me on the intel update?"

"See!" Ruth grinned mischievously. "That wasn't so hard, was it?"

John sat up and glared at his sister. This time Ruth sobered quickly. It wasn't her brother looking down at her. It was General Connor.

"Cameron has been spotted making her approach towards Checkpoint Bravo. She has a prisoner."

John's expression softened at the news, causing Ruth to relax. Just as Ruth had done seconds before, John jabbed his sister with his right index finger, poking the petite T-1000 in her nose.

"Don't do that," Ruth complained, slapping at John's hand while morphing her nose back to its preferred form.

"Then don't wake me up by jabbing me like you did," John answered, standing up from his bed.

"Now go, I have to shower and get dressed. Cameron will have a cow if I show up to greet her looking like this."

Ruth grinned and stood up on the bed. Bouncing once the small female executed a backflip off the bed and ran laughing from John and Cameron's room.

"Grow up," John shouted at the door, grinning at Ruth's antics. Normally somber in demeanor, his little sister's personality was blooming more and more as her wedding day approached.

Ruth possessed the most humanlike personality of any TechCom terminator, surpassing even Cameron in many areas. Savannah believed this would become more common as more and more TechCom cyborgs were assembled and raised by human families, never feeling the touch of Skynet code controlling them.

Cameron was of the opinion Ruth would always be reserved by nature. The current manifestation of human behavior was due to her base code being impacted by the cascading flow of data in regards to her impending wedding.

"Ruth will calm down, John. She's just happy and the data is creating too much excitement for Ruth to process. Hailey's on patrol, so Ruth has no way to filter out what is going on. It will pass."

Teasing his little sister was one of John's favorite pastimes, but her current adolescent behavior and the pranks that accompanied it got on his nerves at times. All of which was of much amusement to Sarah, prompting his mother to inform him he deserved it.

Shutting the door to his room, John stood for a moment as the shakes hit. Starring down at his hands, John was finally able to calm his nerves. He was relieved Cameron was coming home. Knowing she would pout if he addressed the source of his current anger with his wife, John made a vow to not bring up the subject of Cameron vanishing and not communicating. John needed to feel Cameron's touch in private, to bask afterward and talk about little things or no real importance.

Then General Connor would have a very one-sided discussion with Commander Connor about protocol in such situations.

Cameron watched as the perimeter guards roughed up the prisoner as they searched him. Cameron remained silent, resisting the urge to comment on the obvious fact that she would have searched the prisoner and disposed of any weapons upon capturing the man. She knew the rough treatment was due to the anger and embarrassment they felt at TechCom having been penetrated by an outside force. The end result of which being Sarah Connor contracting a life-threatening illness.

"He's clean, Commander," the Sergeant informed her, shoving the man towards Cameron. "If you want, Commander, I can assign a detachment to bring him to Security."

"No. Thank you," Cameron replied, gracing the man with a faint smile. "This is personal. I will handle the matter myself." She stared at the prisoner, whose name was Antoine, and motioned for him to follow her.

"Commander Connor," the Sergeant shouted, running to catch up. "The prisoner needs to be restrained. We have handcuffs and manacles."

"That is not necessary. I will terminate him with prejudice should the prisoner attempt anything inappropriate."

Slightly unnerved by Cameron's cold demeanor in responding, the Sergeant nodded, saluted, and stepped back. He watched with his detachment from the safety of their outpost as Cameron vanished from sight with her prisoner following close behind.

"I've known the Commander since I joined TechCom," the Sergeant whispered to his men. "She still unnerves me when she says something like that."

"It is pretty intimidating, Sarge," a lowly private volunteered.

"Yes, it is," the NCO answered. "Because that is precisely what she will do if that guy even breathes wrong." He turned to look at the young privates, new members of TechCom fresh out of basic. "The Commander never jokes about security or the safety of her family." Nodding in the direction where Cameron and the prisoner had vanished from sight, the Sergeant continued. "That guy had a hand in what happened to Sarah Connor. The Commander is liable to start with his toes and work her way up, breaking bones as she goes."

"She'd do that?" the youngest private asked.

"She's a Terminator," another, older soldier answered. "She's terminated two Skynets. What makes you think she can't handle one Grey?"