Hi guys,
I want to let you all know that the updates will dry up pretty quickly from now on. I'm back at work after my Christmas break and have a lot of studying to do for my Cisco exam on Feb 4th. Don't worry, I do intend to update still, they'll just be a lot less frequent.
Once again thanks to reviewers, kaotic2, acer-sigma, clearfanfic, TK-MR, The1Russter, Casobs2 and CloudyShadows.
I'm particularly proud of this chapter. It was so easy to write and just seemed to flow really well. I think this is my strongest chapter so far! Please let me know if you agree!
(Please note I've raised this story to a T for one use of foul language in this chapter)
Sarah sat at the kitchen table holding her coffee cup in both hands taking an occasional sip.
She's still just sitting there staring at her hands. What the hell is she doing? I hope this glitch doesn't end up with her trying to kill us again.
She tore her gaze away from the living room couch where the aforementioned cyborg had been sitting, unbeknownst to Sarah, since the beginning of her 'patrol'. Actually, after she had hesitated outside John's door debating whether to go in, she had came downstairs and sat staring at her hands for the whole night. She stared at the hands that had harmed her best friend John Connor, the only person in her world that mattered to her and the only one who didn't treat her as a 'metal'.
But he called me 'a damn machine' last night, he said I had a thick metal skull. I think he didn't mean those words, but it doesn't make it okay for him to say them. What am I to him?
She looked up from her hands for the first time in 10 hours and suddenly stood, causing Sarah to place her hand on the 9mm concealed in her waistband. She relaxed a little as she watched Cameron move to the window and start her daily staring contest with the front yard.
Some things never change.
Sarah took her hand off her gun and returned it to the cup, bringing it up to her mouth for another sip as she did. She tensed again when she heard the door open and someone enter, once again relaxing as the beeps of the alarm panel could be heard.
It's just Derek.
She watched as he headed toward the kitchen passing Cameron on the way. She didn't miss the look of disdain he shot at her turned back. He greeted her as he entered and took a seat opposite at the table.
"Morning" he said gruffly.
"Morning" came her reply.
She needed to talk to Derek alone without Cameron overhearing. She made sure Derek was watching before leaning forward slightly and pointedly looking at said cyborg. She looked back and Derek and watched him mouth 'what' and scrunch his face up in confusion. She tilted her head toward the back door and got up from the table. Derek took the hint and followed.
When they were outside Sarah shut the door behind them and Derek turned to face her.
"What is this about?"
"I need to talk to you and I didn't want Cameron overhearing"
She could see the hatred oozing out of him at the mention of her name.
"So talk"
"I need you to do me a favour. I need you to take John somewhere and do something with him"
"What? Why?" Derek asked in obvious confusion.
"Because...I think he's been getting too close to Cameron these past few days"
"Finally figured that out huh?
She shot him a barely tolerant look.
"I don't care what you think. Just take him somewhere"
"Where?"
"I don't know, anywhere, bowling, golfing, take him to a strip club for all I care. Just do something to take his mind off of her"
Derek considered the possibilities of getting some guy time with his nephew before responding.
"Alright fine. So what are you and the metal bitch gonna do, bake cupcakes and have a tea party with her dollies?"
She gritted her teeth and responded in a polite manner because after all, he was doing her a favour.
"I'm gonna talk to her. See if I can't get inside that metal head of hers for a change, see what's going on in that chip"
"Rather you than me"
With that he turned and headed in to the house, Sarah in tow behind him.
John awoke having not really slept. He moved to stretch and immediately regretted yawning at the same time. The red swollen skin on his cheek stretched and he had to stop himself from crying out in pain.
Well I can't say I didn't deserve it.
He groggily got out of bed and headed in to the bathroom. He looked in the mirror at his bright red cheek, gently prodding it with his finger.
How the hell am I gonna explain this one?
Despite the fact it was Cameron who caused his pain he still felt the need to protect her from his mother and uncle. Who knows what they would do to her if they found out she was the one who hurt him.
She was just upset and rightfully so. You were a complete jackass calling her 'a damn machine'. Dammit John, you have to ruin everything don't you.
He decided on a cold shower to try and reduce the some of the swelling and redness in his cheek.
After wincing through an ice cold shower for five minutes he got out, dried himself off and went back to his room to get dressed.
When he reached the bottom of the stairs he caught sight of her and stopped in his tracks. She was standing and staring out of the front window, ensuring his safety, as always. He took a deep breath and descended the last few steps and shuffled over to take up a place behind her. Surprisingly she spoke first.
"The perimeter is secure. No threats detected" she stated in a very mechanical tone.
Ouch, she is really pissed with me.
"I...I'm sorry"
Nothing. Not even a hint of a response from her.
"I'm sorry for what I said to you last night"
Nothing.
"I'm sorry for calling you a...damn machine"
Nothing.
John's guilt grew every time he received no response from her. He watched her stand there like a statue ignoring him and it killed him to see her so upset with him. He attempted to reach out to turn her around to face him. He placed a hand on her shoulder, but before he could even attempt to turn her she shrugged his hand off and continued to stare. John was about to speak again when his Uncle beat him to it.
"Hey John"
He turned to see his uncle coming in from the back door with his mother behind him.
He replied in a sharper tone than intended.
"What?"
Derek was slightly taken aback by his harsh tone.
I'd better get some beer out of doing this for you Sarah.
"Come on, we're going out"
"What? Where?"
Confusion evident on his face and in his tone.
"Doesn't matter, just out for some guy time"
As Derek moved closer to his nephew he caught sight of his reddened and slightly swollen cheek.
"What happened to your cheek?"
Upon hearing this Sarah came charging up beside him to look at her son.
"John, what happened?" concern and anger laced in her tone.
"I, uh..."
John had always had a marvellous ability to think on his feet. However Cameron's ignoring of him a few moments ago had thrown him off his stride. He looked at her again for some signs of her stepping in with an excuse but saw none. Turning back to his family he answered.
"I leaned out of bed to put something on the nightstand and my elbow slipped out from under me. My cheek came smacking down on the wood"
He held his breath for the inevitable response. Instead of hearing one, his mother simply reached out and gently caressed his cheek as only a mother can.
"I'll get you some ice. You can use it while you're driving to...wherever it is Derek's taking you"
John exhaled and smiled at his mother, causing him to wince slightly.
"Thanks mom"
She gave him a look he couldn't quite decipher and headed off to the kitchen, no doubt to the freezer. He looked at Derek again.
"So where are we going?"
"I dunno, let's just drive around and see what catches our eye"
"Sounds good"
He spared a last glance at Cameron before following his mother to the kitchen. In truth he didn't want to be away from her, but refusing to go would cause too much suspicion. That coupled with her cold behaviour towards him had made him want to spend at least a little time away from her to let her think.
And hopefully forgive me.
Cameron watched John and Derek back out of the driveway in the truck with several emotions running through her. The first was anxiety at the thought of being unable to protect John.
Derek Reese is one of his most skilled soldiers. He will protect John.
That thought did little to ease her current emotional state. The second thing she felt was a great sense of loss and longing. Although John had said some nasty things to her, he was still her best friend and she missed his companionship greatly.
As the truck backed out with Derek driving, Cameron's eyes met with John's for a brief moment. She quickly averted her gaze, not before noticing the look of profound sadness on his face as he clutched Sarah's homemade ice pack to his cheek. Speaking of Sarah, Cameron detected her move up behind her left shoulder and join her in watching the truck disappear from sight.
As Sarah watched the truck leave she could have swore she heard a faint sigh of sadness emanate from Cameron. She shrugged it off and tagged it as her imagination playing tricks before addressing the beautiful cyborg.
"So, the boys are away, what should us girls do?"
Sarah was not so slightly disgusted at herself for the decidedly chipper tone she'd just addressed Cameron with. She must have been surprised too as she turned to stare at her with a quizzical look on her face.
"Us girls?"
"Yeah, us girls. They have gone for some guy time, so how about some girl time?"
Cameron performed some complex calculations in her CPU of how her effectiveness in projecting John would be affected by leaving for some 'girl time' as Sarah had put it.
Maybe it will take my mind off John. I may be able to gain some insight in to Sarah's psyche. It will also give me time to analyse the state of her health.
Cameron felt a certain sense of guilt at knowing something about Sarah that she herself didn't know yet. She had lost eleven percent of her mass in the last six weeks. As she debated whether or not to tell John or Sarah about this development, she noticed Sarah still waiting for an answer.
"What is 'girl time'?"
Sarah simply smiled at the naive young cyborg and grabbed the keys to the jeep from the living room table.
Hey, I might even enjoy this a little.
John and Derek had been driving around for the better part of thirty minutes in total silence. The tension was killing Derek.
"So are you gonna talk to me on this little trip? This is supposed to be fun you know"
John let out a light chuckle.
"Yeah, you could have fooled me"
Both men smiled for a moment, the tension clearly broken between the two.
"So you have any ideas what we are gonna do today" John looked over to his uncle after he spoke "After all you did drag me out here with you"
A storefront caught Derek's eye and he manoeuvred the truck towards it.
"I do now"
"Go long John" Derek yelled.
John complied and took off running away from his uncle. Looking back he saw Derek heave the football his way and over his head. John kept his eye on it all the way, leaping at the last moment to make a spectacular diving catch right in front of an elderly couple sitting on the bench a few feet ahead of him. They gave him a generous applause as he stood. He performed a mock bow before turning and trotting back towards his uncle. He tossed the ball back to Derek when he was at a more sensible range and stood waiting for a return pass that never came. Instead Derek waved his nephew over as he made to sit on a nearby bench. When John arrived both he and Derek were breathing heavily and sweating profusely.
"Hey...look over there...you want some...ice cream?" Derek managed to ask in between breaths.
"Yeah...sure"
The two made their way over to the stall still breathing heavily. They waited for their ice cream cones, both ordering the biggest available. Derek paid the portly guy who served them with an almost childlike grin on his face as he watched John wrestle with his clearly overloaded cone. His smugness was short lived however as he found himself unable to handle his own rapidly melting, huge glob of sticky ice cream. The two made their way over to the bench they had just been at and sat down.
No words were spoken between the two as they both set about tackling their treats down to manageable proportions. When they were both down to just the cone, Derek spoke.
"So..."
He hesitated when John looked up at him before continuing.
"...your mother has noticed you have been a little chummier with the machine lately"
John almost chocked on his wafer when he heard this.
Always right to the point huh Derek?
"Derek listen, today has been a real good day..."
Better than yesterday at any rate.
"...don't spoil it by dragging up Cameron" he made sure to put extra emphasis on her name as he spoke.
Derek however didn't fail to notice the term 'dragging up'.
Here's my chance.
"Oh, so everything isn't rosy between you and..."
John shot him a look that dared him to call her a machine again.
"...her?" Derek wasn't stupid.
John looked down at his nearly finished ice cream cone and briefly wondered what she was doing while he was gone.
"Sarah, this is not healthy"
"Yes Cameron, that's the point. If it was healthy it wouldn't taste so damn good"
Cameron looked down at her barely touched bowl of chocolate ice cream and over to Sarah's half empty one.
They were seated in an outdoor cafe/restaurant and had ordered, at Sarah's insistence, two bowls of well presented and ridiculously overpriced ice cream.
"I have a limited sense of taste. My systems point out to me that there is a significantly high amount of unhealthy ingredients in this dish..."
She raised her eyes to meet Sarah's
"...however I do seem to have developed a liking for many forms of chocolate"
Sarah smiled at her companion and watched as she tucked in to her sugary treat with a gusto she'd never seen before.
I wonder where it all goes...actually no, I don't wanna know.
"John says I have a sweet tooth. That is an incorrect assessment, my teeth are made of a coltan alloy"
Sarah couldn't help but smile at her naiveté and apparent misunderstanding. Sarah carried on with her mission regardless of how sickeningly cute it made her seem.
"So..."
Sarah steeled herself as Cameron looked at her with those big brown eyes.
"...I noticed you and John have gotten...closer, lately"
If cyborgs could get nervous, Sarah was sure she just witnessed Cameron tense up in response to her very pointed question. The feeling vanished as Cameron didn't respond immediately.
Sarah started to squirm as Cameron stared at her with her 'scary robot' mask now firmly back in place.
"Yes"
Sarah pushed the sudden urge to tear her pretty face off her skull down deep for the moment and continued her quest for information.
"Care to elaborate on that?"
"No"
With that Cameron resumed eating, assuming the conversation was over. Sarah however had other ideas.
Calm down Sarah, time to try a different tactic.
She pushed all feelings of disgust she was experiencing down alongside the anger and slowly reached out to lay her hand upon Cameron's free one.
Cameron disregarded the order her systems displayed to remove Sarah's arm from its adjoining shoulder socket, instead choosing to look at their touching hands with great interest.
"My relationship with Cameron is none of your business" John said through gritted teeth.
Derek couldn't keep the disgust off his face.
"Oh, so there's a 'relationship' now?" his voice rising slightly.
John realised how his previous words sounded and quickly moved to cover up his slip.
"No, I uh, meant that in the way I would describe my relationship with you or my mom"
Derek didn't believe him for a second.
"You're way too close to that thing. It's blinding you. Just because it looks pretty as a picture on the outside, just remember it's a damn scary robot underneath"
Today was going so well. John thought to himself.
John felt the overwhelming urge to explode on his uncle and rant about the same things he ranted to Cameron about the night before. As he opened his mouth to shout he felt his sore cheek tighten up, a painful reminder of the consequences of not thinking before you speak. He took a deep breath to reign in his emotions before speaking in a calm and steady voice.
"I'm fully aware of what she is. I've had her chip in my hands twice. I've seen her survive a car bomb. I've seen and touched her endoskeleton and you know what?"
He paused to gauge Derek's reaction for a moment.
"I really don't care, because no matter what she's made of, she is still someone who is very important to me. To all of us"
John realised in that moment just how important she was to him. The sense of loss he felt at the silent treatment he received that morning chewed him up inside. He vowed right then and there to himself that he would never treat her badly again.
She risks her life to save me all the time, and what does she get from me? I say she's nothing more than an uncaring, unfeeling machine and treat her like dirt just because a pretty blonde walks in to my life and says hello. Well not any more.
John's admission had rendered Derek speechless. He had no scathing retorts to come back with, no smartass remarks and for once no urge to knock the machine's head off its shoulders. He simply stared in shock as John quite casually stood, turned around, placed his trash in the nearby can and started walking towards the truck.
General John Connor is in love with a fucking machine. Even if he doesn't realise it yet, he's in love.
Derek stood from the bench and placed his trash in the receptacle just as John had done. He turned to look at John only to see him stepping in to the passenger seat and closing the door, seemingly waiting patiently for his uncle to drive him home. As Derek made his way on autopilot to the truck, one thought continually ran through his head.
I'm sorry Kyle.
Sarah spoke in the softest voice Cameron had ever heard escape from her lips.
"Listen, Cameron..."
She tried to sum up the correct words so as not to give away her true intentions to the intuitive cyborg sitting across from her.
"...John is my only son and I've protected him for his whole life. I just need to know he will be safe, whoever he spends his time with..."
Sarah raised her eyes to look at Cameron's slightly shocked looking face.
"...I need to know there's at least one other person that will love him as much as I do"
Sarah continued to fight the urges to rip the machine apart and just watched as she seemed to analyse her kind words. If she could manage to trick her in to saying something along the lines of 'oh yes Sarah I love your son and I always have', then that would be justification enough in Sarah's eyes to blow Cameron's head off and blame it on her malfunctioning.
Cameron thought about Sarah's words. She thought Cameron was in love with John. This thought greatly confused her, but at the same time brought a sort of warmth to her cybernetic body.
What if I could love John...What if he could love me?
She analysed the possible scenario's surrounding herself and John and came to the sudden realisation that what she had said when stuck between the trucks was close to the truth, they were her real feelings.
"I love you John and you love me"
Some of her thought processes argued that it was simply a self defence ploy at to prevent her imminent destruction. Others argued that they were her true feelings due to her malfunctioning chip and lack of emotional safeguards at the time.
At that moment she decided to analyse all the data pertaining to her and John to try and determine exactly what it was she was feeling. For the moment she chose to settle on a compromise between the two and decided that while she wasn't sure if she was even capable of loving him, she certainly was devoted to him. Devoted enough to try and prevent any potential threats.
Any threats.
"Why are you lying Sarah?"
"What do you mean?" Sarah asked rather nervously.
Cameron tilted her head towards their still touching hands.
Sarah realised her mistake and immediately withdrew her hand, but it was too late. She'd been busted and she knew it.
Dammit Sarah, how could you make a stupid mistake like that?
"I knew before you said anything that you were intending to lie to me Sarah. My question is why?"
She looked down at John's mother awaiting a response. Instead Sarah just turned her head away and looked at nothing. Realising she didn't intend to answer, Cameron spoke up.
"Thank you for the ice cream Sarah. I'd like to resume my patrols of our neighbourhood soon Sarah. We must leave now if I am to ensure John's safety"
With that she turned, walked to the jeep and climbed in the passenger seat, waiting patiently for Sarah to follow.
Sarah noticed the way she said 'I' need to ensure John's safety. Sarah felt that all too familiar feeling that she was steadily being replaced by the machine, along with the constant feeling of weakness and light headedness she had been feeling recently. As she walked to the truck, one thought continually ran through her head.
I'm sorry John.