What are dreams?
A one off story featuring John and Cameron from "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles." In a series of small chapters, Cameron learns more about human dreams & relationships and John learns how much his cyborg protector really likes him.
I do not claim any rights to the characters or the TV series.
Chapter 3: The Physics of Dreams
Finishing his shower, John towels himself down vigorously and pulls on some sweat pants. Dropping his dirty clothes and damp towels in the hamper, he walks down the hall to his room.
Pausing outside the door to Cameron's room, he can hear music. He taps on the door.
"Cam. It's me. Can I come in?"
"Yes." Cam's voice comes from behind the door.
John opens the door to see Cameron doing some of her ballet floor exercises. She's been doing ballet ever since she had that undercover operation.
"You really like ballet, don't you?" John asks as he watches her perform. Her balance is perfect and the way she moves is so fluid, he would never believe she was a machine if he didn't know that already.
"I enjoy it. I feel different when I dance." She says as she continues to move to the music on her stereo.
John has to admit she does seem different when she dances, like she's in touch with something. Cameron once said that dance is the hidden language of the soul. Derek countered with, machines don't have a soul. John is beginning to think that maybe Cameron does.
"Has mom or Derek ever seen you dance?"
"I think Sarah knows, but she hasn't seen me dance yet. Derek saw me once. He cried."
"He cried?" John asks, sounding surprised. "Mr.'I'm a big tough resistance fighter' Derek Reese, cried?"
"Yes. He didn't say anything mean to me for two whole days."
"Huh." John thinks what a crazy uncle he has. Outright mean to Cameron on every occasion, but cries when he watches her dance.
John watches her some more. Her graceful moves that match perfectly the flow of the music. This is the first time he's really watched her dance.
"You look beautiful when you dance." John says, not realizing he was going to say anything.
Cameron stops dancing and looks at John.
"Thank you." She says, looking very happy.
She walks toward John and gives him a light kiss on his lips.
"Why don't you get dressed and have your breakfast, while I shower. I'll join you in the kitchen afterwards and help you with your physics homework."
"That would be great. I could use some help. It's a date." He says and begins to leave, then looks back at her. "I mean, uh, not a date, date. I'll, um . . . I'll see you in the kitchen." John says and quickly exits for his bedroom.
Cameron grins as she walks toward the bathroom to take her shower.
John is in his room wondering how he could make such a verbal blunder. He pulls some clothes randomly out of his drawers and closet and begins to get dressed. He hears the shower come on in the bathroom followed by . . . singing?
John walks down the hall and stands outside the door a moment. Yes, that is singing. Is it Cameron, or did she bring her stereo with her? He listens longer and finally recognizes the song. It is from some romantic movie that his mom watched the other week.
Cameron pestered mom to let her watch it with her. Mom relented provided she didn't ask any questions until it was over. She didn't, until the closing credits began to roll. Mom swore afterwards she wouldn't let Cameron watch any movies with her, even if she did make the popcorn. Apparently her questions on human relationships drove his mom batty. The song he can hear Cameron singing is a romantic ballad from that movie.
John walks away as silently as he can, but inside the bathroom, despite the noise of the hot spray of the shower and her singing, Cameron heard him approach. He stood there for three minutes listening to her sing. She smiles as she finishes rinsing her hair.
A few minutes later she returns to her room and begins selecting appropriate clothing to wear today. She is pleased at how well John has finally responded to her need for a closer relationship with him. But she needs to be careful now, if she comes across too strong or to demanding it might scare him away.
Cameron couldn't bear it if he shunned her again. What happened after the car bombing wasn't her fault. The pain she felt afterwards was terrible. No one knew how often she would walk her patrols crying because of the way John would ignore her and choose Riley over her. She has feelings. She just doesn't know how to express them correctly all of the time.
Finding a pair of tight black jeans in her closet, she remembers a boy at school commenting on her having a nice ass. He didn't think she could hear him at that distance. If she were human, she wouldn't have. She remembered the comment and saved these jeans for special occasions. Today would be good, but not if they spend all day at the kitchen table. Maybe her denim skirt would be better, then her legs would show.
She selects her skirt and a white blouse. Dropping her towel to the floor, she sprits herself in a few choice locations with her perfume. The girl at the sales counter said boys just love the smell. Having nothing to judge by, she accepted the girl's word. She had to admit, a lot more young men followed her with their eyes when she left the mall. Cameron could see them in the many mirrors throughout the place.
Smiling at the memory, she pulls on her matching purple underwear, then her skirt, then slides her arms through the sleeves of the blouse and buttons it, leaving the top two undone. Her hair is still damp. She'll need to comb it to get the tangles out before it dries. Maybe John would be willing to help. She'll ask him.
Slipping on a pair of tennis shoes, instead of her usual boots, she goes down the stairs and into the kitchen. John is just finishing a bowl of corn flakes when she enters.
"Let me just rinse my bowl out and we can get started." John says, trying not to stare at Cameron. He doesn't know how she does it, but she always looks good no matter what she wears.
Stepping into the living room to get his books out of his bag he asks a question, "Did I hear you singing when in the shower?"
"Yes. I just felt like singing. It is something I've noticed humans doing when happy or in the shower, and I was both."
John walks back into the kitchen. "You're happy?"
"For as long as you are my friend, I will be happy. Please don't hurt me again." She says, her head dropping a little.
Leaving his books on the table he walks over and raises her head by lifting her chin. He places a soft kiss on her lips. "I won't hurt you. Now that I know you have feelings. I wouldn't do anything to hurt you."
They embrace briefly before sitting at the kitchen table to work on his physics homework.
"John, while I help you with your schoolwork would you comb the tangles out of my hair before it dries?"
"Yeah, I can help you with that. But don't you usually do it yourself?"
"Yes, but I need to help you with your homework. The least you could do in return is help me with my hair. It will only take a few minutes."
John positions his chair slightly behind her and combs out the tangles while he looks over her shoulder at his physics book. She explains the various problems and points out where he went wrong with his calculations. All the while John is combing her hair and smelling her perfume. He has to admit, she smells really nice.
As they begin working on his equations, he wonders briefly if she did that on purpose. He doesn't care. They are spending time together and this is something she likes. No wonder she was so hurt when he started spending time with Riley. Riley! What is he going to do about her?
"John!" Cameron says sharply.
"What?" John says, being woken from his thoughts.
"Your mind was wandering and you got your equations wrong. You need to take into effect the friction of the flow as well as the viscosity of the fluid in your pressure calculations."
"Sorry. I was just thinking."
"About what?"
"You won't get upset with me will you?" John asks nervously.
"Not if you are honest."
"Okay. I was wondering what I should do about Riley. If you and I are going to have a relationship, then I'm going to have to break up with her, or make it clear that from now on we'll be friends only. Either way, I'm going to hurt her feelings. It's not something I want to do. Riley's a nice girl."
Cameron frowns at the mention of her name, but what John says is true.
"John I'm only beginning to learn more of human relationships. I don't think I should be the one to advise you on this. Especially since you are leaving her for me. But, if you promise me that I'll be the only one you'll kiss, you can remain friends with her. If she will settle for that."
"That's . . . that's very generous of you. I'd thought you'd tell me to break it off with her, permanently."
"I wanted too. In fact I would kill her if I ever thought she was a threat to you. But you need friends John - human friends. In the future, most of your friends were machines by the time I left. The people are beginning to lose faith in you. They think you prefer machines to humans despite winning the war against Sky Net. If you don't learn how to make and keep human friends before Judgment Day, the future could be worse for you, and I don't want that. I want you to be happy."
"Thank you Cam." John leans over and kisses her. "I'm glad to have you in my life. Just to let you know, you are more than a machine. I think you are more human than mom or Derek give you credit for, because no human would be as generous or as patient as you when it comes to relationships. The next time I see Riley, I'll let her know from now on, we'll just be friends."
"You'll be seeing her sooner than you think. I can hear her bicycle coming up the drive."
"Oh crap!" John yells and jumps up from the table and goes to the kitchen window to look out.
"I wasn't expecting to see her today. I don't know what to tell her yet!"
"Do you want me to answer the door?" Cameron says standing beside John. She places her hand on his arm. His pulse is racing, his temperature is rising, and he is beginning to perspire.
"Would you, please? I'll just need a moment or two." John replies.
While John composes himself, Cameron goes to open the front door. Riley has just stepped up to the door when it opens.
She begins to smile, but it falters into a frown when she sees who opened the door.
"Hi, is John home?" she asks Cameron.
Cameron stands there a moment just staring at this girl trying to analyze her. Not coming to any clear conclusion as to her threat level she answers her question.
"Yes, he's home. He is very busy and should not be disturbed."
Riley tries to give Cameron a winning smile, but she terrifies her.
"I think he'll want to see me. I am his girlfriend."
"John doesn't want to . . ."
"Cam!" John shouts as he exits the kitchen. "I need some help with this problem." He follows up to cover his outburst.
"Hi Riley. I didn't hear you at the door." He says walking up to them.
"Hi John." She says as she squeezes through the open door past Cameron. "I was wondering if you'd like to go to the beach with me today."
"I'd like too." He says and catches a firm look from Cameron, "but I have my physics homework to finish before Monday."
"Is it important? Can't you do it later? I bought a new bikini. I really wanted to show it off for you today." She says smiling at John.
Behind her Cameron just stares at her with daggers. If Riley weren't a friend of John's she'd kill her, but then John would never kiss her, or speak to her again. She couldn't deal with that again.
"I'm sorry Riley. But I really need to get this done. I have an opportunity to be home-schooled, which will be easier with Mom's schedule. The only thing is, the school board insists that I complete their physics course first. So I have to complete the homework today."
"Please John." she lowers her voice and leans closer to John. "I got waxed to be able to wear this bikini. If we wait, I'll have to have it done all over again. And after what we almost did last night, I thought we could go the rest of the way today."
John swallows nervously a moment and glances over Riley's shoulder and sees the way Cameron is staring at Riley. Her left hand is twitching.
"That's, um, that's uh . . . Riley, that would be nice, but I really need to get my physics schoolwork done."
"Well, what about when you are done? I could wait." She says leaning suggestively against the small table near the entrance.
Cameron speaks. "John needs to finish his physics homework today. He then needs to help me with a school project. We were supposed to do it yesterday, but he wasted the whole day with you. I really think you should leave now."
"You're not going to let your sister boss you around are you?" Riley snaps.
"Riley, what Cameron may lack in some social graces, she makes up for in being truthful. I should have done my physics home work yesterday. I have to get it done today. I'm sorry, but it's just not on for going to the beach today."
John walks back into the kitchen and sits down at the table.
"John!" Riley calls after him.
"You need to go now. John has work to do." Cameron says to her. "I cannot allow you to disturb him any longer."
Riley looks at Cameron, fear fills her eyes for a moment. She turns and walks out the door. Cameron follows and stands on the porch watching her, until she disappears at the end of the drive on her bicycle.
Cameron returns to the kitchen to find John staring at his physics book. He doesn't appear to be reading it, not by the expression on his face.
"You didn't want to say 'no' to Riley." She says gently.
"What?" John says looking up from his book.
"You wanted to, as she said, go the rest of the way, with her."
John doesn't answer right away. He doesn't know what to say without hurting Cameron.
"Do you truly know how lonely I can feel?" He eventually says. "Do you realize how few friends I have had my entire life until now? Riley is the first girlfriend I've ever had, and she wants to have sex and I just turned her down."
"Is having sex important to you?" Cameron asks in all innocence.
"Not as important as having friends. But it would have been nice. I am a teenager. Having sex is something that we are supposed to do quite frequently. Not that I've had the opportunity with the crazy life we have."
She places her hands on is shoulder and rubs them gently. "I know what it is like to be lonely. I know that feeling of wanting to be close to someone and not having anyone there."
John looks up at her. "You do?"
"Yes. I do." she says with feeling.
They kiss each other. She sits down beside him as their passions grow stronger. Their hands begin to roam over each others bodies.
"John . . ." She says between kisses.
"Yes . . ." he responds during their next break.
"You need to finish your physics homework."
"Must I?" He says sounding very disappointed.
"Yes, and then you need to teach me about dreams."
"Ohhhh.." He groans.
It looks like physics and dreams are the only thing he'll be doing today.
**
Riley stops two blocks from Johns house and pulls out her cell phone and presses 5 on her speed dial.
She hears the other line pick up.
"Jesse! This is Riley."
"As you are calling me, you must have failed. He didn't go for it, did he?" Jesse says standing in her apartment.
"No, he didn't." Riley says sounding disappointed.
"You made your intentions clear. You told John you wanted to have sex?"
"I did. But he had physics schoolwork to do and he and Cameron made it quite clear he had to do that."
"Damn! Did you plant the new listening device?"
"I did. But I didn't get any further in the house than the entry."
"I wanted it in the kitchen. Go back and relocate it."
"But how am I to do that? I've already left the house."
"I don't care how, just do it!" Jesse says quite firmly. "And get that damn cyborg away from him!"
Jesse breaks the connection leaving Riley wondering what to do.
Author's Notes:
There may be some delays in posting additional chapters to this story and my other story, Reunion. I will be changing over my operating system from Windows to Linux in the next few weeks.
For those who haven't subscribed to this story, I'd highly recommend it. I truly have no idea when I will be posting the next chapter.
I hope you like this new chapter. Let me know what you think. - - The1Russter 10-28-2009
People are asking which distribution of Linux I'm switching too. I've experimented with multiple distributions over the last few years. It wasn't an easy decision, there are some very good distributions available, but I've settled on Fedora for now. I installed it on an old laptop and I quite enjoyed it. Other distributions I've tried are Kubuntu, Ubuntu, plus a couple of others. I'm sure those of you who use Linux have your favorite distributions and I will hear from all of you. If you have any recommendations, then please email me or send a private message and not use the reviews to tell me. Thanks, The1Russter