. . .But What We Make
by Bethe
~*~
Being the only hope of mankind is a tough gig. The weight of the responsibility for millions upon millions of souls wears on you. That's why I ran away from my time. And wouldn't you know? I ran straight back into what I was running from.
~*~
Reese awoke with a start. Then she shook her head and pushed her hair out of her face with sleep-clumsy hands. Almost immediately, her face began to change from the soft innocence it had retained during sleep to the hardened exterior she normally displayed. She then stood up, removed Jack's heavy leather jacket from her shoulders, and handed it back to him. Without saying a word, he put it back on and stood up as well. Then he went to one of the abandoned trucks and began to work on it.
Reese crossed her arms around her waist and walked over to one of the barred windows. She thought, not for the first time, of the gargantuan task which lay before her. She had to convince her grandfather to give her that oh so crucial information about the Machines, and then go find her grandmother and warn her of Judgment Day ahead of time. Not to mention that she had to flee yet another threat that she knew nothing of, warn Jarod of Judgment Day, and have a baby girl.
Being a hero sucked.
Letting a hand drift to her abdomen, she turned back to Jack. "Has the other Terminator appeared yet?"
Jack removed his head from beneath the hood of the truck and paused his moments. "It is hard to tell," he replied simply before setting back to work.
"Does Jarod make it out okay?" she asked.
"Negative," came Jack's reply, slightly muffled because of the barrier between them. "Officer Jarod Crane is terminated before Judgment Day."
"What?" Reese dropped her hands and approached the Machine. "We have to go back and get him," she remarked lowly, almost a command.
"Negative. The other Terminator will anticipate this and arrive at Jarod's residence, killing him, and then taking on his outward appearance to deceive you."
"Shit," Reese breathed. "Another mimetic. What if we beat it there?"
"We cannot take that risk. You must be protected."
Reese planted her hands firmly on her hips and assumed a look of stubborn defiance, much like the one on the face of a young John Connor years ago. "We're going back," she ordered quietly.
Jack the Machine stood up fully and faced her. "We can be there in an hour."
~*~
Although I don't like to admit it, I do get scared. I'm only human. Add to the mix an unborn child, and an unknowing man (who just happened to save your life), and I'm terrified. Some great leader I turned out to be.
~*~
Jarod was beginning to get worried.
Reese hadn't shown up at the house the day before, and she'd been gone all night. The note she'd left didn't look very convincing.
He paced back and forth, trying to determine what his next course of action should be. She was entitled to her own life, by all means, but this kind of disappearance was unlike her (the fact that she most likely had pulled an act like this at least once before never popped into his mind). He wanted to be sure she was safe. He needed that much.
Eyes, blue this time, not green, with fear and pain glazed over on them, came to mind.
He shook his head to clear the vision and moved to pick up his cell phone. His fingers paused above the keypad, however, at the sound of the back door opening.
"Reese?" he called out tentatively, putting his phone down and heading to the back of the house. He got no answer, so he stopped in the kitchen and opened the drawer that held his spare firearm. He resumed his path slowly while checking the gun at the same time. "Reese?" he called again.
Jarod approached the corner with his gun pointed at the floor, then raised his gun and entered the next room, checking all possible angles quickly.
"BOO!" came a voice behind him. Jarod jumped, and nearly squeezed the trigger before regaining control and turning around.
"Damn it, Reese, you scared the life out of me," he breathed, relieved, and embraced her tightly.
"Sorry, roomie," she giggled. "I didn't mean to."
"Where have you been?" he asked her.
What happened next was almost mind-numbing.
Jarod could barely register the sound of a door being ripped off of its hinges before gunshots rang out and Reese was suddenly riddled with bullets, dropping to the floor. He shouted something unintelligible as he turned sharply on his heel and trained his gun at the intruder.
Suddenly, Reese was pulling at his shoulder (wasn't she supposed to be on the ground, dead?), dragging him towards the exit. A pair of strong hands took him then, and he had just enough time to take in the foreign face before being hauled into a fireman's carry.
Before his carrier took him outside, he could see Reese lingering in the house, almost hypnotized by the body on the floor.
"My God," she whispered, " She's me."
~*~
Poor Jarod. I bet we scared ten years off of his life. But at least he still had that life. I had a much bigger problem on my hands. Why did she look like me?
~*~
"It's me!" she shouted after slamming the door to the truck. She took a few deep breaths and pulled her hair away from her head. "That mimetic-poly-alloy bitch is me!" She pounded the dashboard to accentuate her anger.
The Machine threw the truck into drive and did a donut in Jarod's driveway before fishtailing onto the street. Reese fluidly turned around, snatched the pistol from Jarod's hand, checked the clip, and then faced forward. She muttered a barrage of curses under her breath while flexing her fingers.
A bullet blasted through the back window, shattering the glass and sending fragments into Reese's skin. Without blinking, she shouted to Jarod, "Duck!" and turned around, squeezing off a few rounds at the source. Jack applied more pressure to the gas pedal, leaving the new Terminator "eating his dust."
He looked at Reese and said calmly, "She's here."
Reese laughed bitterly. "Thank you, Captain Obvious. Where's your sidekick, Duh?" she asked breathlessly.
"I do not have a sidekick," he replied all too innocently with a sideways glance at her, a tiny smirk appearing on his face.
"I thought Machines weren't supposed to have a sense of humor," she shot back with a smirk of her own.
"Time out!" came a shaky voice from the backseat. "I don't know what the hell just happened, but someone's going to explain. And fast."
Reese turned back to look at Jarod, pity in her eyes.
"Do you really want to know?"
~*~
To Be Continued. . .