Here's the second part of winter activities. The ending of previous chapter might have seemed like a cliffhanger, but you shouldn't forget what Cameron actually is. She's definitely not a human girl … well, a girl all right, but not human. Incidents which could easily send a human to a hospital are just a minor inconvenience for her. John's really lucky to have such a girlfriend, lol.
Enough of babbling … on with the story. I hope that this chapter won't make anyone sad …
Chapter 21 – Payback
Seconds ticked by and to John, each one seemed like an hour while he held Cameron's head in his lap, gently stroking her cheek and waiting for her to reboot. Damn, the two minutes must have passed! Why is she still offline? He sighed, knowing that the 120 second marker probably wasn't reached yet but he felt like it had been ages since she switched off.
Suddenly he felt how her head twitched slightly and a giant rock fell from his heart. He gazed intently into her eyes and saw, how her eyelids fluttered slightly and opened abruptly. As he saw the beloved brown eyes, focusing on him after a brief second, he sighed relieved and his mouth turned into a beaming smile.
"John?" Her voice was slightly confused and she gazed into his eyes questioningly.
He didn't even bother to answer; he simply laid his lips on hers and kissed her like his life would depend on this kiss. Cameron's eyes widened in surprise, but she quickly found John's action quite acceptable and enjoyable and returned the kiss.
It took them quite a long time to break the kiss and after they finally separated, Cameron looked into John's eyes questioningly: "John? Why are you holding me in your lap?"
John suddenly began to worry: "Don't you remember what happened, Cam?"
Cameron scrunched her face and tried to remember what happened. But it seemed like some time had been wiped from her memory. "I remember seeing a snowboard flying towards me and then you kissing me. What happened?"
John sighed relieved that it was obviously only the switched off phase that was wiped from her memory and smiled at her: "One bastard rowdy boarder jumped over the edge of the slope and hit you in the head with his board. He ran away like hell, but because you switched off I couldn't follow him. I was so worried for you! But …" he scrunched his face in sudden recognition that when she switched off before, she knew exactly how long she'd been out: "How is it possible that you don't know that you had to reboot? You normally always knew exactly what happened and how long have you been off line?" He looked at her with questioning eyes.
Cameron creased her forehead: "I don't know. I should have this information but I don't. You're right … normally I should know exact times of switch off and reboot. But now I don't." Her eyes mirrored her inner confusion and she looked into John's eyes with something like fear written in her own. "Do you think I'm defective?"
John tried to reassure her: "No, Cam, I'm sure everything's all right. It's probably nothing important. If there was anything wrong, you'd know, right?" He wouldn't admit it to her, but the same thought crossed his mind. He was worried that something could be wrong, but didn't want her to know about his fears. Now was not the time to tell it to her.
Cameron nodded, but still looked quite unconvinced. I'll have to analyze this thoroughly! But she decided that this was not the right moment to burden John with worries about her. She'd find out the truth and tell him later. She decided that it was time to get up and tried to straighten herself but met John's resolute refusal to allow her to do so. "What do you think you're doing, Cam? Wait for few seconds until you recover from the impact. It looked really ugly." John knew very well that he stood no chance against Cameron, should she decide to stand up. Slightly unpleasant thought crossed his mind that due to her nature, he would always remain dependent on her cooperation. Should she ever decide not to cooperate, he wouldn't have any possibility to prevent her from doing whatever she'd decide to do. But the second this thought appeared, it also disappeared and he smiled at her gently.
Cameron detected genuine concern in his voice and decided to play along for a while. Not that she had anything against him holding her. She felt really comfortable in his lap. She smiled at him: "I'm OK, John. I don't need time to recover. Just to reboot."
John grinned at her: "Well, if you don't need time to recover, than allow me some time to recover from shock after I saw your body tumbling lifelessly down the slope." His grin vanished and in his eyes she could see the horror of this experience.
She lifted her hand and gently laid it on his cheek: "It takes a lot more than just one rowdy snowboarder to get me."
John nodded: "I know. But still … in that moment I only saw my girlfriend, my love, being thrown down the slope. It didn't matter what you are made of, I was just scared to death that I might lose you."
Cameron smiled gently at him and her other hand joined the one on his cheek to cup his other cheek. She tenderly pulled him down to her lips and brushed them against his: "I'm sorry."
"What for?" John's eyebrows hiked up his forehead.
"For causing you distress. I'll try to avoid it in the future."
John looked at her slightly irritated: "Cam, are you're really apologizing for being hit by a rowdy and causing me worries? Don't you ever again apologize for something you didn't do or for something you have no influence on. It wasn't your fault so don't even try to blame yourself."
Cameron looked at him thankfully. "I understand John. Thank you for explaining."
John grinned at her: "Well, that's a line you haven't used for quite a long time. I kind of missed it."
Cameron grinned back: "You haven't exactly explained anything to me for a long time though." She tried to get up again. This time John allowed her to get out of his lap and straightened too. "Are you sure everything's OK, Cam?" His voice was evidently worried and he looked at her sharply to detect if there was anything wrong with her. He, however, decided not to answer to her statement. He knew that it was true, but things have changed and he decided that it would be the best not to bring up the past mistakes.
She nodded: "Yes John, everything's fine. I'm at 100% again."
John finally smiled relieved, but got serious again: "Cam, while you were switched off. Do you remember anything beside what you already told me? Have you seen anything?"
Cameron had a strong sense of déjà vu. It was a very similar line like the one he used after he reinserted her chip for the first time. He asked her then what she saw. She told him, but was until today still convinced that he didn't understand her correctly. She decided to repeat her answer from then, because it was actually the only correct answer. She never told him that body controlling functions were the last to come back on line while her consciousness and sight were the first ones. She smiled at him: "I saw everything."
John recognized the line immediately and looked straight in her gazing eyes. He saw slight amusement in them and he suddenly understood what she meant. He finally understood that she saw him gently stroking her hair so many months ago before she rebooted. All this time I didn't know what she meant. And it was actually so simple. She really saw everything. That's why she knew already then that I was falling in love with her. After few seconds his lips began to smile slightly: "I see. Just like when you rebooted after disabling Artie, right?"
Cameron smiled wider and nodded. He finally got it! It took him a long time, but he finally got it. "Yes, John. Just like then."
John shook his head slightly while grinning. He was glad that he could understand Cameron better with each passing day. He remembered how in the past he was rejecting her, how de didn't want to understand her. Well, things have changed. Now he wanted to understand her, now he wanted to know everything about her. Her memories, which began to resurface, were like pieces of a puzzle, falling into places and slowly completing the picture. He was well aware that there would be ugly things coming up too. He had no illusions that Cameron was a sweet little girl she looked like. She had been built with a sole purpose of terminating humans and only her reprogramming and recent development of emotions, she never until now even admitted to have, made her to what she was. He knew that he would probably find out things he'd wished to have never heard of. But it was a part of who she was. A part of this person, named Cameron Phillips, although her darker part. Hell, everybody has their dark side. Even I have one. Otherwise I wouldn't have killed that guy Sarkissian.
"John?" Cameron's slightly perplexed voice interrupted his thoughts. He looked at her like he would be still in another world but refocused quickly. He saw concern written all over her face, but decided not to burden her with his dark thoughts at this moment, so he smiled at her, although little pained: "Everything's fine, Cam. Let's go then." He turned away from her to pick up her goggles and snowboard and handed them to her. After she accepted them with still slightly confused expression, he knew that she noticed sudden change of his mood and didn't want to give her excuse to ask him anything about the cause for it.
Cameron frowned at his back. She saw quite clearly that John was somehow distracted and that probably something bothered him. But his abrupt action showed her unmistakably that he didn't want to discuss it right now. So she decided to let it go for a moment, but filed a task, to confront him later when they would be back in their room. He was distressed and that was unacceptable.
"So, Derek, have you given it any thoughts? Have you decided if tin miss should be given a chance to prove herself?" Sarah turned the cup of tea in her hands and spoke to Derek without looking at him. Her eyes wandered around subconsciously and checked the surroundings for possible threats.
Derek, who was sitting next to her, was seemingly lost in his thoughts and his eyes stared glassy through the window. For a second it looked like he wouldn't bother to answer her; it almost seemed that he didn't even hear her question. But then his eyes turned and refocused on her: "I already told you that last night. I admit that I have difficulties even trying to look at her differently. The first time we met, she was a model terminator. The second time she was already different, but still not a bit like she's now. But seeing her yesterday …" He sighed and made a short pause to take a sip of his tea.
Sarah used the pause to add: "I think we should give her a chance. Not because of her, but because of John. He really believes that she's different and up until now I can't prove him wrong. Oh well, at least since that car bomb." She shuddered at the memories of Cameron, hunting her and John through L.A. with clear intention to kill them. She would probably never forget her blank, expressionless face and it would forever remain an occasional nightmare. And yet, when she thought of the same face now, she could begin to understand John why he never gave up on her. Hell, how would a human behave if their brain had been tampered with?
Derek slowly nodded at her and smiled. But the smile didn't reach his eyes: "You're right, Sarah. He definitely believes that she's different. One of a kind, so to say." He swallowed and gazed at his hands with absent eyes. "I admit that this is something I never expected to say. The metal was for me the metal, no matter on which side they fought. There was, and I strongly believe that there still is, a good chance that reprogrammed metal goes bad. Even this one. After all, she already reverted to her original mission once. I don't think there's anyone, who could give us the guarantee that she won't fall under Skynet programming again."
Sarah nodded: "You make a good point Derek. That's exactly why I want you around. To always have an eye on her, to always stay alert, to always watch over John. I have no illusions that I could stop her should she decide to do anything to John. But you … I think that you might have a chance to stop her before she could do anything terrible."
Derek smiled and for the first time today, it also reached his eyes: "Well, I'm not sure if I'm up to such high expectations. But you can be damn sure that I'll try my best."
Sarah smiled at him: "So, we have an agreement, right? We will give her a chance, but she will be under constant observation. I think that even John won't object such an arrangement. As long as we don't try to interfere with their life, he'll allow us some more space, so to say." She chuckled: "Funny! The thing I want to do the most is the thing, I cannot do at all. And you're stuck with me, Reese!" She punched him into his arm and laughed humorlessly.
Derek understood very well what she meant and smiled just like her, while nodding: "Yeah, exactly. For now, we just have to stick with it." Then he got serious again: "I might look like an ass, but you have to believe me that I'm genuinely concerned for John's wellbeing. I really love the boy. He's not the general I used to know yet, but he's clearly showing that he has a potential to become one." He fixed Sarah with a piercing gaze: "But you'll have to loosen your control a little. And I don't mean this matter with … Cameron …" It was obvious that he was having difficulties to say the name. "I mean giving him a chance to make his own decisions. If he doesn't learn how to make them now, it will be even more difficult for him to learn it in the future. Now, there are still three of us to protect him and show him how to make good decisions. In the future he probably won't have such support."
Sarah looked at him thoughtfully and nodded: "You're quite right, Derek. It's just so very difficult for me to let him go. I'm so used to take everything in my hands that it's really not easy to burden him with such things. He's still a boy, damn!" Then she suddenly grinned: "I didn't miss that you said there were three of us to watch over him. Did you really include Cameron in this circle too?"
Derek just shrugged and turned his attention back to the windows.
The two hours, John and Cameron spent alone, passed all too soon. After the incident with the rowdy snowboarder, they enjoyed the rest of their time together, without anyone bugging them. The weather was perfect and sun shone from the clear blue sky, warming the air so that it wasn't as bitter cold as it had been in the morning. Even Cameron felt better than before in the cold. She began to ask herself why she prefers warmer weather and the only logical conclusion was that it was more suitable for 100% functioning of her endoskeleton.
They were at the bottom station of the ski lift, waiting for Andrea and Tim. John leaned on the railing with his back and looked at Cameron, who stood in front of him, carefully sweeping the area to make sure everything was all right. He already opened his mouth to tell her to stop doing it, but remembered that it was who she was. It was almost as futile to tell her to stop controlling the surroundings, as it would be to tell him to stop breathing. So he just smiled at her: "Everything OK, Cam?"
Cameron's head turned slowly to complete the sweeping cycle and she looked into John's smiling face: "Yes John, everything's all right."
"What time is it?" John did have a watch, but he also knew that Cameron had no need for one, so it was easier to just ask her.
"It's 29 minutes past noon." She had to force herself not to tell him the correct time in seconds. From her experiences it would sound awkward and only point her out as different. So she settled for minutes as the shortest time interval.
John noticed that she didn't use the seconds like she used to do before and smiled satisfied. She's learning! In a very short time she'll be able to completely blend in without being forced to activate her infiltrator program. "So, that gives us only one minute before Andrea and Tim arrive." He grinned at her: "We should discuss what we could do to Derek to pay him back for his yesterdays' deeds. Do you have any idea what annoys him the most?"
Cameron's head, which was meanwhile already turning away from him again, snapped to him and a slight grin appeared on her lips: "There are many things that annoy Derek Reese. One of the top three, probably the undisputable number one, is me. But I think that being cold is also one of the top three."
John grinned conspiratorially and nodded: "Well, then we have two of his top three annoyances right here. So … have you any idea how we could combine them?" He already had an idea, but wanted to allow Cameron to make her own suggestion. He knew that on Cameron's top three list of the things she liked the most, besides himself, annoying Derek Reese was definitely a strong number two.
Cameron's grin widened and for a moment she considered. Then she turned her bright eyes to John: "I take it that you would not approve if I stripped him naked and bury him in the snow pile for an hour, would you?"
John laughed: "Cam that would probably be too drastic, although it could be interesting. Besides … I wouldn't want to let you on some naked men. Besides me…" He waggled his eyebrows and blushed slightly over his own courage but became serious again: "But the elements could be used. How about, we start a snowball fight with him when he arrives and after we beat him, you could make his printout in the snow."
Cameron noticed his fleeting embarrassment very well and even enjoyed it. He's jealous! He would like to ... what? Touch my skin? Let me touch his naked skin? She quickly discarded such thoughts as inappropriate at the moment and turned to considering his suggestion for a second and soon her lips turned up in a content smile: "I like it. Especially the second part." She winked to John, who almost toppled over in laughter after seeing her face. She literally beamed at him. After getting his laughter under control, he breathed heavily: "I guess that Andrea and Tim will have nothing against a small snowball war."
"Most definitely not," came amused answer from the side and after they looked in the direction, they saw Andrea and Tim strolling towards them. Andrea was the one to have answered the unasked question and after they closed in, she asked: "Probably a war against Derek, right? Like you suggested in the morning?"
John nodded and nudged Cameron to explain the plan to the siblings. After she finished, they both nodded in unison. Tim looked at the watch: "Well, if I remember correctly, we decided to meet here at two pm. So we still have time for few descents, don't you think so?"
Nobody had anything against his suggestion, so they went to the ski lift to enjoy the time they still had before Sarah and Derek would join them at the ski lift.
Few minutes before the time they set for meeting with Sarah and Derek, they were at the meeting point again. In the time since they came together again, they managed to go up and down the hill for few times and even got to know each other a little better. John was completely surprised how Cameron behaved. She was acting just like any girl of her age would. She participated in discussions, she smiled, she laughed, she frowned and there was absolutely no way to tell that she wasn't human. At first he was little worried that he'd have to help her out of some awkward situation, but he soon realized that she didn't need any help. She perfectly managed to dodge unpleasant questions without being rude, like she would have had years of experience how to react in unpleasant situations. Andrea and Tim proved to be quite nice and John was slowly forgetting what happened yesterday and saw them in new light, the way they really were.
In the meantime they also fixed the plan how to 'attack' Derek and to Cameron's great satisfaction it was her, who should start and finish the operation. She didn't even know why she felt so satisfied that she'd get the chance to annoy John's uncle. After a short analysis, she came to the conclusion that it was probably because he never treated her like a person, because he never let out the opportunity to humiliate her and scorn her for what she was, because he never made an effort to get to know her. Not to forget the fact, that he had been plotting against her relationship with John and by doing that, he distressed John . It was just a little payback, but it was making her inexplicably satisfied that she'd get a chance to do it. Well, she could have had her revenge anytime before, but she knew that John wouldn't approve of it, so she didn't even consider it as a possibility. But now that it was John, who proposed it, she threw herself into it wholeheartedly.
"Here they come!" Cameron was the first to notice Sarah and Derek, who were coming towards them. "Is everybody ready for the action?" Asked John and looked at his lover winking. He got a "yes" from everyone.
As Sarah and Derek approached them, Sarah noticed some strange smile on John's face and momentarily remembered his exaggerated sweetness in the morning. She groaned: "I think that they are up to something, but I don't know what."
Derek smiled at her: "It can't be something that bad. After all we're in public and no one would risk some stupid action here. Not even Cameron."
"Maybe… But I know my son and he looks too smug. We should be careful!" Sarah shook her head, not convinced that Derek was right. She eyed John and Cameron suspiciously and saw the small grin on Cameron's face. As if John's sweetness wouldn't be enough, the unusual sight of grinning Cameron rang alarm bells in her mind. But they were already too close to be able to run and in the next second she heard Cameron's yell: "Fire at will!"
In a moment an inferno of raining snowballs tumbled down on Derek. The young ones were prepared, each one of them had made a small heap of snowballs and they started throwing them quickly.
Derek noticed the danger too late and two snowballs hit his head before he could react. The attack left him stunned for a second and it was enough for another four snowballs to find their target – his head. He didn't even count the ones, which hit him in other parts of his body. However, he noticed that he was the only target of them. At least at the moment, for Sarah just stood there and watched him in awe as he was being hit again and again. Now she knew what the young ones were up to. But before she could do anything, she also became the target and few snowballs found their way to her. While she spluttered and tried to wash the snow out of her face, she felt how Derek's hand grabbed her forearm and tugged her behind a heap of snow, which was conveniently in the immediate vicinity of their position.
The laughter of four young people filled the air while Derek tried to make some snowballs to return fire. He suddenly found himself amused with the fight. For once he was in a fight that wouldn't harm anyone. Sarah finally managed to compose herself and her first reaction was to explode and start yelling. But something kept her from doing it. She looked at Derek, who was already aiming with his snow balls for the youngsters and grinned like a boy, his eyes bright with amusement. Then she heard the laughter from their opponents. For the first time in a long time she heard her son laughing aloud. Even more surprising was that she could clearly hear how Cameron laughed like a teenage girl. She risked and peered over the snow heap, just to get hit by another snowball. But she had enough time to see that the young ones found a refugee behind a heap of snow too. The only one whom she could see was Cameron, who just threw the ball which hit her square in her forehead. But it wasn't the fact that she was hit that made her forget her first reaction. It was the fact that she could clearly see happiness written all over Cameron's face, wide smile unlike anything she had seen before and loud laughter, that was in no way similar to the one, she heard so long ago , which almost caused her nightmares.
She fell behind the protective heap again and suddenly began to giggle. In few seconds giggles transformed into loud laughter and even Derek's confused look couldn't stop her. Still shaking from laughter she began to make snowballs and when she had a small heap ready, she jumped out of her cover and began throwing them at the young ones.
The exchange of 'hostilities', accompanied by loud laughter continued for few minutes. Finally John realized that Derek was already soaking wet, Sarah's hair dripped with melted snow, he was feeling like he'd just stepped out of the shower, Tim and Andrea were just as soaked and even Cameron was looking like she'd just climbed out of the pool. In the heat of the fight she didn't manage to avoid all the projectiles, coming from Derek and Sarah and had to pay the price for her revenge. John lifted his arms: "Stop everyone! Time out!" He could see that Cameron stopped immediately as well as Tim and Andrea, but before the elders finally accepted his peace offer, he'd been hit two more times.
After everyone finally stopped, he winked at Cameron: "Project revenge: act two! Come with me!" He took her hand and they started towards Derek. The resistance fighter didn't suspect anything and came out of his hiding, together with Sarah. They both giggled like small children. Derek couldn't remember if he'd ever felt so relaxed and Sarah was sure that this might just be the best action she'd had in years.
After John and Cameron approached them, they stopped before Derek and smiled at him: "So, Derek, how do you feel?" Asked John suspiciously nice and Sarah's alarm bells went off again. But before she could do or even say anything she saw how Cameron concentrated her stare at Derek with blank face: "Payback time!" And before he could react, she packed him at his sides, lifted him like a baby and made three quick steps towards the snow heap. Before he could do anything to free himself, he found himself lying in the snow on his back, while Cameron eagerly worked on pushing him deeper in the snow. Suddenly her hands let go of him, just to return in the next moment und rubbed his face in with a significant amount of snow.
Sarah looked at the cyborg, rubbing Derek in with snow with wide opened mouth, unable to say anything. Am I really seeing how Cameron just made Derek's printout in the snow and additionally rubbed him in with snow? Really? Cameron? She wiped her eyes as if she'd believe to see better afterwards, but the picture remained unchanged. Derek was still on his back, buried deep in the snow, his face completely covered with snow and only two furious eyes looked out of the white mass.
After initial shock Derek finally managed to regain control of his body and tried to get up furiously. He was really mad at the metal and in that instant he forgot his promise to give her a chance to prove herself. He just wanted to make her pay for what she did to him. But Cameron anticipated his reaction and pinned him down in the snow so that he couldn't move a bit. She bowed to him and whispered in his ear with emotionless, cold voice: "This is just a little payback for what you were trying to do to John and me yesterday. I suggest you take it easy and don't make any foolish moves. I'm in a very good mood right now, but that could change every second. And don't even think of doing something like that again. You don't want me as your enemy."
Derek remained speechless and just looked into her eyes. They were completely different than just few seconds ago: cold, merciless and they promised the hell to him, should he not respect her wishes. His temper deflated immediately and he nodded to her. What happened next, took his breath away. Cameron suddenly smiled at him, her eyes in an instant became warm again and she gently wiped the side of his face: "You should wipe this snow off. You look like a snowman." Then she straightened, winked at him and strolled towards John, who was standing with his mother and watching her in amusement.
Andrea and Tim already joined them and with exception of Derek, who remained lying in the snow and looked thoroughly confused, they were all smiling satisfied. Even Sarah found it amusing how Cameron dispatched Derek. She had quite a good idea why she did it and she thanked the God that she was being left out of Cameron's revenge. She suspected that it had something to do with the fact that she was the mother of Cameron's lover. John scanned them all and grinned: "We're all completely soaked. We should all go to our rooms as quickly as possible. I don't want anyone of you catching cold."
"Me too?" A sweet voice came from his right side and a slender hand crept into his and squeezed it gently.
"Of course! You too!" He answered without thinking. After he said the words, he suddenly realized that he just told Cameron that he wouldn't want her to catch cold. He turned to look at her and saw her smiling face, eyes dancing with laughter and her lips parted slightly, showing her perfect white teeth. He suddenly felt like a deer, caught in the headlights of a truck, but overcame the initial shock and managed to answer in a steady, convincing voice: "Yes, Cam. You too!" Andrea and Tim really didn't have to find out that Cameron could never catch a cold.
Cameron smiled wider and stretched to give him a kiss on his cheek: "Thank you John! Thank you for considering me."
His shock already worn out, John hugged her with one arm and squeezed her tight: "Always, Cam." Then he let her out of embrace, but clutched at her hand: "OK, let's go to our rooms. As for the wellness … I suggest we meet in our hotel lobby at six." He turned to Tim and Andrea: "That is, if you'd like to come with us?"
Andrea nodded: "Sure! We'd love to come too."
Cameron tugged at his hand gently. After he turned to look at her, she said: "We don't have any bath suits John. We should go and buy some." She looked at him inquisitively.
John had some kind of premonition that she wanted him to come along, but that was definitely the last thing he was looking forward to. He already had some secret plans for the afternoon that didn't include Cameron and he was just trying to figure out a way to get away from her for an hour. Her remark made the wheels in his mind spin faster and he suddenly found a solution: he'd send her to buy some bath suits and he'd do what he wanted to. But she didn't have to know now that he wouldn't be coming along. So he nodded: "Right Cam. I think that they also have swimming gear in the store we were in yesterday."
Andrea almost bounced: "May I come with you? I so love shopping!"
John grinned satisfied, but took good care not to make it look to obvious and turned to Cameron so as to include her in the plan: "Of course, why not. Come to our hotel in one hour, OK?"
Andrea nodded and turned to Tim: "You'll get you sisterfree time after all, see?"
Tim just grinned, satisfied to be left out of the shopping expedition.
Sarah, who was surprisingly quiet all the time turned to Derek, who finally managed to get up, clean himself and joined them: "I guess we're on the same boat, Reese." Then she turned to Cameron: "I guess I'll come along too."
Cameron felt absolutely flabbergasted, for shopping with the cyborg girl wasn't exactly what normally went well with John's mother. She still remembered how Sarah dismissed the possibility to go shopping with her just two days ago. But she hid her surprise and nodded her approval.
John grinned like a Cheshire cat. Everything was going perfectly! "OK guys, now we should really get going. It's not exactly warm and being so soaked … not good!"
TBC