"Who taught you to pick locks?" Derek questioned, as Kat crouched down and began to unpick Vick's door.
"John" She replied, as Derek nodded.
"Same here" He admitted, as the door clicked open.
"Were you and John close in the future?" She inquired.
"I was apart of his inner circle, I guess" Derek shrugged, as Kat went to open the door.
"Uh-uh. I'm going in first" Derek told her, taking his gun out of the waistband of his trousers.
"The Terminator's dead, and she probably is too. What's their to worry about?" She pointed out.
"No stupid risks, remember?" Derek replied, as he opened the door and began to walk through the narrow corridor.
"She hasn't been home for a long time" Kat sighed, noticing the mail on the floor.
"He had her completely fooled" Derek stated, looking at a picture of her and Vick smiling on the wall.
"It must be hard to pull off. I mean I'm amazed no one at school has realised how off Cameron is…but to actually live with a machine and not realise…" Kat trailed off, a small shiver running through her body.
"You'd think you'd know?" Derek questioned, as they came into the main room.
"I'd know something was wrong. But if you love someone enough…I think there's a lot you're willing to look over" Kat mumbled, causing Derek to frown.
"You talking from experience?" He inquired.
"Maybe…hey, look. There's a name. Barbara Chamberlain. City Manager, Los Angeles" Kat read out, as she picked up some files.
"Computer's gone. It must have been covering his tracks" Derek suggested.
"Why would a machine have been so interested in this woman?" Kat wondered aloud.
"City manager is infrastructure. Might be something to do with the Turk" Derek went on.
"So she was killed because of her job" Kat said, a sad look on her face.
It was a strange feeling not having Sarah around, she had been on constant in Kat's life for a long time. She knew Sarah could handle herself, but she couldn't help but worry. John on the other hand didn't seem to be missing his mum too much, which Kat expected was because she was suffocating him recently by being more protective than ever.
"You've been doing that for over twenty minutes" Kat pointed out, as she washed Derek brush his teeth.
He just shrugged in response, as she threw something at him, which he quickly caught with his fast reflexes.
"Thanks" He mumbled, as he saw she had bought him his own toothbrush.
"She'll know you've been using her brush" Kat told him.
"She'll get over it" He stated.
"You're a brave man, Derek" Kat laughed, as they shared a knowing look.
"Hey, guys!" They heard John shout from the other room.
"So I figured out that they don't store memories the way we do. They store them by categories. Like, mission or location or whatever" John announced.
"How did you figure that out?" Kat frowned.
"Remember those weird robot symbols? I still don't know how to read them. But the exact same one kept popping up every time a clip of Barbara was playing" John explained.
"Huh…that's smart thinking" Kat praised, as a grin grew on John's face.
"You should look at this" John suggested, the grin quickly dying.
He showed them a small clip of a woman being chased by Vick, and then thrown feet into the air, falling with a sickening thud. It looked like Barbara.
"There's no way she'd survive that" Kat sighed.
"It gained her trust. Made her think it was human. Then killed her. That's what they do" Derek accused, giving Cameron a cold look.
"All machines have a different mission. That was his" Kat clarified.
"I'll grab the flashlights. We need to find her" John suggested, as Kat nodded.
"Finding Barbara's body should not be a mission priority" Cameron frowned.
"We can't leave her out there. She's a person" Kat insisted.
"She was a person. Now she's dead. Bones and meat" Cameron retorted.
"Well how would you like it if you got terminated and we just threw you on a rubbish heap?" Kat went on.
"That would be unwise, the technology would-" Cameron started, but Derek cut her off.
"There's no point. She'll never understand" Derek shook his head and left the room.
"Okay look, say if you were human and we just left your body out there somewhere, it would mean that no one cared about you. That you were just left alone to…rot. Doesn't that mean something to you?" Kat continued.
"I wouldn't be aware of it" Cameron pointed out.
"Ugh, you know what…this is useless" Kat groaned, and began to walk away.
"Does this upset you because you fear that your body will be left to rot when you die soon?" Cameron questioned, stopping her in her tracks.
"…Jesus, that is…you really need to start thinking before you speak" Kat told her, rushing out of the room, biting her lip to stop herself from crying.
She hadn't realised but Derek had heard every word of this, his fists clenched, using everything he had to stop himself from going into the room and pulling the machine apart with his bare hands.
With Cameron's advanced brain they were soon able to figure out the forest the body had been dumped in and began scouting out the area. Cameron and John paired off and went ahead, as Derek kept his eyes on them at all time, his gaze never leaving the machine.
"You know if it wasn't for her we'd probably never find this place" Kat stated.
"We could have left her at the house" Derek suggested.
"She can use thermal imaging, we'll find the body faster this way" Kat pointed out.
"Why are you defending her so much?" Derek inquired, coming to a halt.
"I guess I'm trying to convince myself that it's the right thing having her around" Kat admitted.
"You don't like having her here?" Derek asked, surprised.
"It's not that but…I guess she makes me feel useless. I was supposed to be the one to protect John, and then she came around and I became…obsolete" She shrugged.
"I'd pick you over a machine any day" Derek exclaimed.
"Coming from you…that's extremely low praises" Kat chuckled.
"I'd pick you over anyone" Derek confessed, making Kat frown.
Before she could say anything, they heard John whistle and rushed over to find a dead body beside a tree trunk. Derek crouched down beside the body and flipped it over, as a pale face with blue dead eyes came into view. Kat grimaced at the sight, not used to seeing a body that had been dead for so long.
"That's not Barbara" John realised, as Derek pulled out the woman's wallet.
"Who the hell is Jessica Peck?" Derek inquired.
"A threat to Skynet" Cameron informed them.
"Maybe Barbara is still alive…" Kat trailed off.
"I wouldn't count on it" Derek pointed out.
"Let's get to work. We need to bury her" John stated, as he turned back towards the car.
Kat crouched down beside Derek and firmly shut the woman's rigid eyelids, shivering at the feel of her cold skin under her hand.
"Are you cold?" Derek questioned, as Kat shrugged.
"A little" She mumbled, as they stood up together.
Derek then took off his jacket and placed it over Kat's shoulders, who gave him a grateful smile and pulled it closer over her. Cameron frowned as she watched this, confused as to why Derek gave her the jacket when it was his only one. John quickly returned with four shovels and began to hand them out.
"Do you want my jacket?" Cameron inquired, as she undid the zipper.
"Uh…no. I'm good" John frowned, as Cameron tilted her head.
Author's Notes: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! It's a little longer because I took a bit longer to upload. I decided for Sarah not be in this episode much, and see how the characters act a little differently e.g John taking a more leadership role and Kat and Derek getting closer. Please leave a review:)
fastandloud: Thank you for the review! I'm really enjoying their conversations, and it'll be interesting to see if they can develop a proper friendship.