Title: Patchwork Girl
Author: Elessar-4-TnT
Disclaimer: I don't own Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Summary: Glad everyone is enjoying the story! I appreciate any reviews! It's getting a little meatier… there's quite a bit more substance coming up that might actually provoke disagreement. There are a number of unexplained threads in this show (Alison, Cameron's recent behavior, who she is to John in the future, etc) that we are all wondering about. So, as a writer when you pick an explanation and run with it… some are naturally going to agree with your perspective, others are not. We'll all have to wait and see how they officially deal with these things. In the meantime we're all counting faeries on a pinhead
Chapter 3: Firewatch
Two hours later, Cameron resumed her post walking sentry around the house while Derek sat watch in the kitchen. His eyelids grew too heavy to hold open as he nodded off. Every few dips of his chin would bring his forehead into contact with the muzzle of his upright-held Glock 9MM, waking him to wide-eyed stir crazy alarm. Every time he awoke, he was surprised to find four walls around him instead of the screaming of comrades, endless flames towering over the rubble of Los Angeles and the deafening thrum of an HK surfing overhead, searching for more resistance fighters. Derek blinked as the adrenaline shot he received each time he awoke from the nightmare finally started to burn away at his nerves. He stood and paced the kitchen, rubbing his eyes. Cameron appeared through the back door as the sun began to rise. Derek turned and looked at her as she entered, looking slightly startled through sleep-deprived, bloodshot eyes, but didn't greet her. He quickly stood tall and unblinking. Never would he allow himself to appear weak before a metal. Too many of his friends had learned the hard consequences.
Cameron stopped in the doorway, her endless stare on him as she cocked her chin sideways, analyzing.
"Is it not customary to say 'good morning'?" she asked. Her voice sounded almost curt. Derek squinted as he looked on the machine doubtfully, once again wondering if some strangely schizophrenic subconscious machine-mind inside the metal's head was screwing with him, taunting him; enjoying setting him on edge, giving him reason to suspect that at any moment she'd revert back to her original programming. Before he could respond with the razor sharp tongue, Cameron turned her head away from him and walked across the living room, stopping to look for a few moments on Sarah's sprawled form, then continuing on towards John Connor's room. Derek groaned as he rubbed his eyes again with the same hand as he held the pistol with. Cold steel rested against his forehead, and for a few seconds he felt at home again.
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At around eight in the morning, Cameron finished a satisfactory sweep of the house, rounding the back corner. She identified Derek Reese sitting in a folding chair on the patio. He was relaxed into the chair, nearly asleep as the morning sun peaked over the horizon, back-bathing the house behind Derek with an orange glow. It was a rare moment of weakness. He came to with the machine standing over him and instinctively pointed the muzzle of his weapon between her eyes. His breathing labored, his eyes wide, he hesitated for a moment longer than it took to remember where and when he was. Another moment passed even after he realized his surroundings, before he lowered his weapon. Cameron stared back at him, squinting into the sun.
"It is difficult for humans to keep their guard up," Cameron said, her eyes lifting slightly to the sky. Derek frowned as he watched her perform yet another strangely schizo expression. "Ironically… It is easier for you to stay disciplined when everyone around you is losing their heads…" she said to the air. She looked down at Derek with an icy stare. "I saw your friend, Bird, before he died."
Derek's eyes widened as he slowly stood out of his seat. Jesse had just told him a few days ago how Bird died when a converted metal went rogue and the same piece of shrapnel gave her a long scar. He suddenly realized Cameron must have been it!
"He didn't trust me," she said, her voice almost sounding regretful. "He relieved me of my post. I was programmed to follow orders of John's senior officers, so I obeyed."
"One of you killed him," Derek said, inching closer until he was in Cameron's face, towering over the petite brunette.
Cameron frowned slightly and searched Reese's face as he realized his mistake and backed down. He wasn't supposed to know about anything that happened after he left. He silently prayed that Cameron didn't have the dates down and sat back down.
"He got lazy… He was careless," she spat back at him. Her autonomous emotional subroutines activated again. "We weren't supposed to leave the base. But one of the infiltrators was able to leave and return to SkyNet for reprogramming," she said finally. Derek's eyes shot back up at her.
"Why are you telling me this?" was all he could manage.
"He got people killed," Cameron answered simply. "Important people." Her lips quivered and set in a hard line as she ran a diagnostic on her facial muscle abstraction software. "You need to be more careful not to let your guard down. I could have killed you."
Derek glared icily at her from his chair, still affectionately holding his sidearm against his thigh. Cameron's eye fell to it and observed his finger in the trigger well.
"You have… NO right, to lecture me. I've been fighting this war since I was fifteen."
"Why not? We're better at it than you," Cameron declared finally. "Lieutenant Chester "Bird" Jansen was killed at his post by the infiltrator when it returned under SkyNet's control because he was sleeping."
Derek's jaw ground.
"The only way humans are ever going to win the war is by using SkyNet against itself," she said nonchalantly. Her candor was almost enough to make Derek laugh. Still, it wiped the sneer off his face.
"So you're a pawn being played against your own kind, and you know it?" Derek smirked.
"I'm not a pawn," Cameron declared. "Just all the rest." This time Derek was confused, even intrigued by what it sounded like the metal was claiming.
They both detected noise from the other side of the back door. Cameron turned to see John on the other side of the glass door.
John stood at the door looking sleepy and disheveled, a suspicious eye flickering between Cameron and Derek. John moved aside as she stepped into the doorway. Cameron half turned towards Derek again.
"Tell Sarah when she wakes up we need better guns. Nine millimeter rounds are insufficient to cause substantial external damage to the T-888 model endoskeleton," she reported clinically. She finished that sentence looking at John. "We need more guns," she said, looking at Connor.
John yawned. "Think that can wait 'till after breakfast?" he asked.
Cameron blinked suddenly, her CPU whirring away as she computed a serious response.
"Possibly," she answered honestly.
John laughed despite his mental, physical and emotional exhaustion, smiling at Cameron as she walked in beside him. They made off for the kitchen.
"I'll make eggs," Cameron declared, pulling a pan out of the cupboard.