A/n: My reader has spoken. On with the story.

Chapter 12: Murphy's Law

Kat was hot. The A/C must gone out again sometime in the night, a fatality of the heat wave. Still, the hotter the better. After years of never being able the shake off her permanent chill, sweating was a welcome change.

Kat also wasn't sleeping on her couch. At first she didn't know where she was, but then the night before came flooding back to her. The change in sleeping arrangements meant it wasn't a dream as she feared. It had really happen. John had kissed her and the kiss had been good. Remembering the feel of his lips brought on smile.

As much as she liked it just where she was, Kat needed to go on her run. It had become like a religion to her. It was freedom compared to hiding underground. One small problem, John curled up behind her with his arm anchoring her body against him. Being held there was perfect. Even if his added body heat was almost uncomfortable.

"Hey." Kat grinned at the sound of his voice still rough with sleep as he pulled her even closer.

John woke with a smile. He knew who was in bed with him. It had only taken one statement of fact and here was Kat in HIS bed. Awesome. Plus, Kat had said that quite got to her. That was something foreign to him, when silence was something to be feared. She had lived his nightmare, which was another thing that attracted him to her. Growing up with his Amazon of a mother throwing all kinds of training at him and stopping at nothing to keep him safe, John would always have a thing for strong women.

However every hormone in his body groaned in protest to the fact that she worn one of Derek's shirts and a pair of shorts to bed. It was way too much cloth between him and her skin, but his hand still found its own way to her hip right above top of her shorts.

"That tickles." Kat rolled over face to face with and briefly hoped that she didn't have morning breath. Ignoring the fact his hand was still under her shirt, she cuddled closer. She just couldn't get enough of his touch. She moaned and pulled away letting responsibly win the day.

He had other plans and Kat didn't put up any resistance as she was pulled on top of his chest. "Where do you think you're going?"

"I have to get a work out in before it gets too hot." But she didn't move. Kat just laid there with her head on John's shoulder. It was like the spot was made for her fit against. They hadn't done more than kiss last night, but she felt connected to John.

"Why don't you take a day off?" John didn't want her to leave. If she did then the magic would be broken. He closed his eyes as her fingertips started to trace up and down the side of his neck. After the weeks of dreaming her, reality was more tender than he ever thought it would be.

"Not really. Plus, all my clothes are in the living room. And Derek and your mom may get up any moment." While both were true, Kat couldn't motivate herself to get out of bed.

"Then, we should move all your clothes in here." At that, Kat pulled away to look into his green eyes. There was no way for him to know that he basically offered marriage with his offer. Kat couldn't help but grin. At least his mood had improved sometime during the night. It was like a weight had lifted from his shoulders after he came into the garage.

"I'd like that, but Derek…" John didn't want to think about the details right now. He flipped her across his body and had her under him before she could protest. As he stoked her hair away from her mouth, he lowered his head to kiss her, silencing anymore conversation. The way she kneaded his back through his shirt while he kissed her was bliss. He allowed more of his weight to rest of her body and deepened the kiss. As a plan of everything he wanted to do to her ran through his head, the door slammed open.

"John, have you seen whoa…" Derek's first reaction was to turn his back to the intimately entangled couple. John was grateful for that at least, even though he was sure at this point wishing for death might not be a bad idea. His uncle seemed as uncomfortable with walking in on them as John was with being walked in on. "When you guys are..." Derek tripped over his words a little. "Done, I need to see you in the kitchen."

As soon as the door closed John rolled onto his back again. After a minute, Kat started giggling. The are-you-insane look was unstoppable. Her brother had just caught them warming up for the big act and she thought it was funny!!

"Did you see the look on his face?" Kat buried her head in the pillow to muffle the sound. When she came up for air again, she noticed John staring at her like she belonged in a loony bin. She sat up, still smiling. "What?"

"You think its funny that he gonna kill me." It was more of a statement than a question.

"Don't be silly." Kat pecked him on the cheek and bounced off the bed. "Torture maybe, but he wouldn't kill you. You're the great John Connor. It would be like handing the future over on a silver platter."

John looked her over as she stood beside the bed. Rumpled ill fitting clothes. Her hair ruffled and tangled by sleep, with a little help from him. A guy could get use to seeing that sight each day. Kat's smile lit up her eyes as she leaned down and pulled on his hand.

"Come on, if he's up before the dew's off the ground, it must be important."

"All right, I'm coming." John even bother changing out of his PJ's, he just followed behind Kat hoping Derek was waiting to rearrange his teeth as soon as John walked into the kitchen. Instead, he was on the phone.

When he finished scribbling on a scrap of paper, he held out to Kat. She frowned at the address and time with no idea what they meant. "Yeah, she'll be there. Thanks."

"What's this?"

"An appointment today to get you on the pill." John stopped breathing, his lungs just stopped working when Derek said this. This definitely was one of those times when John did not need to present, but moving now would draw attention. Derek was calm now, best not to change that.

"The pill?" Kat didn't like the sound of that. It sounded bad.

"Birth control."

"They have a pill for that now." Kat knew a lot, but sometimes things just fell through the cracks. "You got me up now for an afternoon appointment. I'm going back to bed."

"No, I got you both up because Rick was killed last night."

"Rick, like from Mike's crew Rick." Kat didn't believe it.

"Terminator?" John questioned Derek. Things were starting to pick up speed this morning.

"Don't know. He didn't report back last night and when Mike called his cell this morning a cop answered. They've packed up and vacated the safe house just in case." Derek was pulling the C4 out from under the kitchen sink.

"I can hack the police mainframe. Get the coroner's report." John turned to walk back and retrieve his laptop.

"John, you're with me on this. Kat will get the details." Derek had turned back into the officer he was in the future, giving orders effortlessly. With an 'I on it', Kat left the room and started to boot up her computer on the coffee table. As the hard drive hummed to life, John saw her look back into the kitchen. While she didn't look either of them, the laughter was gone from her eyes.

Derek set a duffle bag on the table with a metal clink. Must be the pipe bombs Derek insisted on keeping on hand 'just in case.' Sarah seemed to really like that idea since all the scenarios to use them involved metal. "The metal's coming with us. Boots to the breeze in five."

"What are we gonna do? John figured it be a run and hide deal. When his mom spoke from the doorway, the first thing he noticed wasn't wearing one of her butt kicking outfits.

"You three are going to set a trap for it at the safe house. Machines are nothing if not logical." It took John a second to process that Sarah wasn't coming with them. If John was in trouble, she was all over him like white on rice on a paper plate in a snow storm. That was a lot of white. Now, she was sitting out.

"Mom, what going on?" The confusion bled into his voice. "You okay?"

"I'm fine." Sarah moved to her son and pulled him into a hug. "Its time. That's all." She knew the day would come when she would have to cut the apron strings, well if she wore an apron. After wrestling back and forth with the issue Sarah realized that John had already decided for her. Two weeks ago, he took down a machine all by himself, and saved the girl. Before he had just barely gotten away or stayed alive long enough for someone to back him up. He was starting grow the man Kyle Reese had told her about, and he couldn't if she always held him back.

Yes, it was time to trust him to stay on his own. That didn't mean Sarah was ready to stop protecting her little boy.

John released his mother and went back to his room for a quick change of clothes. After all one couldn't save the world dressed in their jammies. He was pulling on a light weight jacket when he saw a handgun lying beside the bed. John picked it up carefully and noted that the safely was off and the weapon was locked and loaded. It was his.

Funny, Kat didn't seem like the type that slept with a full cocked handgun in arms reach. That just seemed like something Derek would do. Of course, at first glance she didn't seem violent at all. He briefly wondered how she got it there without him noticing. John thumbed the safely and picked his pistol up from the dresser.

With a gun in each hand, John thought about how the fact that Kat and he had his and hers handguns reflected the realities of his life. Guilt seized his heart because he knew that being near him put her life in danger. No, he would keep her safe.

Tucking his into the back of his jeans, John carried the other into the living room where Kat was pulling a long-sleeved thin gauze like shirt over a sports bra. She heard him enter the room and turned to face him smoothing the material down to her exposed stomach. He could help wrapping his arms around her. Her head came to about level with his chin and she felt so soft against him like she melted into him.

When he eased back, John pressed the pistol he found by the bed into her hand. Kat blushed before she met his eye again. He tucked a strand of her hair back behind her ear. They didn't say anything, but everything went without saying. He wanted her to stay safe. She wanted him to be careful.

Derek called John's name from the door. Time to move out. John grabbed the shotgun from on top of the bookcase and walked to the doorway. He kept his eyes on Derek holding the door and Cameron waiting by the Bronco. He didn't want to look back.

Suddenly Kat grabbed his arm half turning him back to her and pulled his head down to kiss him. When she pulled back, murmured be safe. With that she released him and stood back. John looked her eye one last time and walked out the door.

The trio sat in silence as they drove across town to Mike's safe house. Derek was behind the wheel, with John staring out the window in shotgun position, and Cameron sat ramrod stiff in the back seat.

"You know the future we had a unspoken tradition." Derek said out of the blue.

"What's that?" John couldn't help but wonder why his uncle was volunteering this tidbit."

"If a guy had a girl she would give him a kiss for luck before he left the tunnels." Derek smirked as he said this. He leaned on a driver side door with one hand on the wheel.

"So that was Kat's way of saying she's my girl." John risked a look at the man beside him. If anything the man looked relaxed as he shrugged. John pressed onward with the issue that had been bugging him since Derek busted into his bedroom. "Derek, you and me. We're cool right? I mean she is your sister."

"Yeah, we're cool." Derek looked John I the eye for a second and turned back into the road. "But I'll still break your legs if you break her heart. We clear?"

"Crystal." John's phone rang. Kat's voice came over the connection telling him to put it on speaker.

"What cha got?" Derek asked.

"Looks like it was human. Based on the photos no metal would be that messy." Kat sounded calm but John could hear the undercurrent of her tone.

"That's good right. Just human on human."

"No, John. Someone carved Judgment day into his skin. Someone from the future did this."

"You can't be thinking what I think you're thinking." Derek slowing the bronco down and turned into the safe house driveway.

"They found a note with the body. I have a pic here. I'm sending it to Derek's cell." John watched the fighter throw the vehicle into park and pull his phone from a back pocket. "It's mostly crazy talk but…"

"I see. The serpent." John was feeling a little left out.

"What are you two talking about?"

Derek fielded that question. "There was a group of religious fanatics who thought that God let Skynet take control to bring about the end of the world. Following that train of thought the Resistance was working against the big man, sort of like the snake in the Garden of Eden. Everyone thinks that they died out since, besides bombing some tunnels and trying to kill Connor a few times, they just let the machines have them."

This was just great. Now, some humans wanted him dead too. Sometimes a guy just couldn't catch a break. "But how would they be able to jump someone back?"

"They can't. Skynet, then Connor were the only ones with a machine." Kat jumped in over the phone line almost like her and Derek were taking turns answering.

Cameron got out of the truck and went into the house while Kat was filling the guys into. She came back to the door, and yelled that there was something John needed to see.

"This didn't look good." Derek opened his door and thumbed off the safety. "Kat, we're gonna check this out, then we're heading back. I got a bad feeling."

"I'll take the Reese gut over hard fact any day. I'll have whatever I can get my hands on ready when you get back." The line went dead. John shoved the phone back in his pocket, grabbed the shotgun from the seat and followed Derek into the house. In the kitchen written in black marker was a message.

I will kill the Serpent in this time by cutting it into three pieces before I sever the head.

There was no name. Dread filled John gut as he ran what little he knew in his head. If the Resistance was the snake then, he was the head. But what or who could the other targets be? Techcom cell in the past. People who would become important later.

However it all became rather pointless as the Bronco exploded outside.

A/n: So enough with the mushy touchy feely stuff. Let's get back to the action and violence. As always hit the button and let me know what you think.