Chapter Seventeen:

Today is the Day

As soon as Riley saw John walking up the path, she ran up to him, her eyes wide with genuine worry. "What's wrong?" she demanded. "Why did you have us hide? What happened?" Would he lie to her again? Just like in Mexico? She saw his face tense.

"It was a skunk," he explained.

Riley almost laughed at the absurdity. Stupid. He was lying. She could see his "tell." Who on earth would believe such a ridiculous excuse? She already had a pretty good idea of what had actually happened. A Terminator had come. Maybe for John himself, maybe for little Kyle Reese. She knew of a Kyle Reese in the future. He'd supposedly been one of John's best soldiers.

"A skunk," she repeated dubiously. "Why was that such a big emergency?" He'd clearly not gone over his cover story yet, not expecting to see her before the Connor clan had skipped off again.

To her surprise, it was Cameron who spoke up evenly, "We're having a shortage of tomato juice. If everyone got sprayed, we would not be able to get rid of the smell."

As much as she hated to admit it, Cameron's logic was flawless. Riley felt disgusted at the revelation. John and Cameron even thought alike now. They were in synch.

"But I heard gunshots," she protested, still trying to poke holes in his logic, trying to trap him so he would finally tell her the truth. "Surely the skunk wasn't armed."

John shrugged. "We do have a BB Gun shooting range. They were probably still out there practicing."

He said it so casually, carelessly.

The easy way he lied to her hurt.

**********

Riley wasn't asleep.

She couldn't sleep, her mind still trying to work through several situations in her head, the most predominant being John with Cameron. So she'd simply settled for staring at the ceiling, listening to the heavy breathing of all the other girls in the cabin. Only a short while after everyone else had fallen asleep, she heard the floor creak and the door open slowly and cautiously. She sat up, looking down from the top bunk to see the door click shut again.

She glanced around the room, noticing that Cameron's bunk was empty. She was gone again, probably out to meet John. They'd done this every night and no one had ever noticed. Riley curled her lip angrily. Cameron may have fooled everyone else in the cabin…

But not me.

She climbed down from her bunk and poked her head out the door, seeing Cameron walking towards John's cabin. She felt a pang in her heart. This sneaking out to see him…their midnight walks…it shouldn't be something John was doing with a machine. Of course, there was a lot of things he shouldn't be doing with the machine.

Sure enough, John met Cameron outside with a pleased smile and the two began walking down to the lake dock. Riley followed at a distance, careful not to get too close lest Cameron hear her following.

John and Cameron walked out to the edge of the dock and sat down. Riley crouched behind a tree, watching them from a distance. She could hear their voices speaking softly but couldn't make out the words.

Then she saw John look over at Cameron, both of them staring for a few seconds before John leaned forward and kissed her.

It.

The machine.

Riley jerked her head back behind the tree, squeezing her eyes shut tightly to stop the tears. It wasn't right, wasn't fair! Cameron wasn't even real and he loved her more! Everything had gone wrong.

She poked her head out once more, seeing Cameron respond by kissing John back. Riley felt her blood boil watching the scene. It shouldn't be happening like this. The cyborg shouldn't be able to feel, that's why she was a machine! Riley closed her eyes again, unable to shake the horrible realization. They did this every night. Walking, talking, kissing under the cover of the moonlight. Did John know what he was doing? Did he understand that he was destroying the future?

She watched them for a while as they sat staring out at the lake. Soon, she saw John's head slowly dip until it was resting on Cameron's shoulder. Soon he was asleep, the future savior of humankind asleep against the machine.

Riley let herself sink down to the ground, putting her head in her hands. Everything she'd done had been for nothing. She'd tried. She'd obeyed Jesse. She'd tried to save John. But John didn't want saving.

She'd failed, completely and utterly. There was no reversing the process now, no trying to salvage what remained of their fragile relationship. She and John were done, even as friends. She'd have to return to Jesse, but how would the soldier react to Riley's failure? Again?

She could always run. But where would she go? She had no home, no money, no anything. She supposed she could always tell John the truth, but then again, he'd most likely be too angry with her for deceiving him. He certainly hadn't been paying her any attention as of late. Maybe he wouldn't even care.

If she was going to extremes, she could always ask the machine to terminate her. She was sure Cameron would be all too willing. But Riley knew that she couldn't just give in. She wasn't a coward. One didn't survive in Skynet's future if you couldn't face the hardships.

But those hardships and the ones she was faced with now were completely different. And yet, the emotional response was exactly the same.

Watching John she felt a deep sense of loss. She'd come to care for him. Not love him, not truly. Not the way he loved Cameron, or the way Cameron loved him, but they'd been friends. She missed that, but it wasn't John's fault. It wasn't even Cameron's fault.

She had no one to blame but herself.

She desperately longed to tell him the truth, to beg his forgiveness, plead for his friendship. She wasn't sure if she was ready to accept Cameron, but it had to be better than whatever Jesse would offer her. The soldier had made it painfully clear that she was not Riley's friend. If Riley came back and reported failure…she wasn't sure what would happen. Last time, she'd been granted one hour. But now, she had no foster family, no John, no where to go. If Jesse kicked her out again, what would she do?

It didn't matter. She had to return. She had no other option. John would hate her if he found out the truth. Cameron would kill her. Heck, John's mother might kill her. There was no alternative. Today was not a day for running or for taking the coward's way out with another suicide attempt.

Her only option was to return to Jesse. And hope that she had a plan.

********

Riley took a deep breath, knocked on the door, and prepared herself for the verbal onslaught that would inevitably follow. Not only was she disobeying Jesse's orders not to show up at the hidden cabin, but she was also reporting failure, something Jesse didn't take to kindly.

As she stood waiting outside, she suddenly felt like a fool. Jesse wouldn't help her, wouldn't understand. She should have just run. Maybe there was still time…

Jesse opened the door cautiously until she saw Riley standing there. Without a word, she grabbed Riley by her shirt collar and yanked her inside, slamming the door behind her.

Riley stumbled into the dresser and Jesse crossed her arms, her face betraying her controlled anger. "Why are you here?"

"I tried," Riley began hesitantly. "I tried over and over again, but nothing's working. I can't do it. Everything I've tried has turned against me."

You may as well kill me now. I have nothing left. Maybe it would have been better if she'd succeeded in her earlier suicide attempt.

Jesse remained silent for a moment before she went over to her bed and began wiping off the barrel of a pistol. Riley's eyes widened in fear, but Jesse merely pursed her lips. Despite the rough entrance, she didn't seem overly angry at Riley. Yes, she was ticked that Riley had showed up at the cabin after being explicitly ordered not to. But she didn't seem too angry at the reported failure. Something was off, Riley realized. Jesse should have been enraged.

Unless she already knew.

But who would have told her how far gone John was? She didn't think Jesse had revealed herself to any of the Connors. But she was far too complacent to not have had an advance warning.

"So, we just have to go to plan B," Jesse observed. "John is obviously beyond the point of no return."

Plan A. Plan B. Riley had thought Plan A was for John to fall in love with her. But something was wrong. Jesse had known she'd failed before she even said a word… Riley frowned. "What was Plan A?"

Jesse's eyes narrowed slightly. "Plan A was for you to get John Connor to fall in love with you."

Riley was good at picking up lies, at finding the tells. John had one, nearly everyone at camp had one, excluding Cameron. Jesse had one too, and Riley could see it now. "You're lying!" she blurted out. "That was never the plan…"

If the plan was for John to fall in love with Riley, it would have been counter-productive if Cameron had killed her that day in the cafeteria storeroom. That day, she had seen Jesse watching. Replaying the images in her mind, Riley could remember it now, the flash of emotion on Jesse's face.

Disappointment.

Riley had been too relieved and frightened at the time to really contemplate Jesse's behavior, but with a rush, everything clicked into place, and Riley's mouth opened in stunned silence.

"I understand now," she breathed. "You were right there in the cafeteria when Cameron nearly killed me. You didn't do anything to stop her! You didn't even try! And now I understand why." Her voice broke. "I was supposed to die! She was supposed to kill me!"

Jesse's reaction was barely noticeable, well hidden, but Riley could see her lips tighten, her eyes squint for a fraction of a second. "That's ridiculous."

"No, it's not," Riley said strongly, growing bolder. She should have known this from the beginning. She should have known that Jesse didn't honestly believe John would abandon Cameron for Riley. "Because you knew that's the only thing that would turn John against her. She was supposed to kill me!"

Riley glanced away, shaking her head in astonished disbelief. "But that didn't work, did it? Because of what happened in Canada. Because I let her win. Admit it. Say it!"

Jesse was silent for a moment. "Yes. That was Plan A."

With the admission in the air, Riley's resolve began to crumble. Her eyes flicked to the gun that was still sitting on Jesse's bed. "How could you do this to me? I trusted you!"

Jesse's face twisted and she looked away, biting her lip. Riley moved instantly, taking advantage of the other soldier's momentary distraction. She snatched up the gun, aiming the barrel at Jesse's head, her hand gripping it tightly, eyes blazing with determination and hate.

Jesse remained surprisingly calm. "You don't want to do that."

"Why not?" Riley cocked the gun, making sure she stayed out of Jesse's reach. If the soldier was trying to trick her, it wasn't going to work.

"Because you still care about John."

That stopped Riley in her tracks. Her grip on the gun relaxed ever so slightly. How dare she bring John into this! Jesse smirked at Riley's reaction.

"You still care about him," she stated. "So you need to finish your task. Put the gun down."

I'll be doing John a favor by killing you. Riley's grip tightened. "What does this have to do with –"

"By surrendering to Cameron in Canada, you brought them closer together," Jesse explained irritably. "Cameron knows John belongs to her, so she no longer feels threatened by you. There's no need for her to kill you. Which means John and Cameron stay together. You've saved your own life, Riley," she added, her voice edged with bitterness. "But you've taken his."

Riley could feel the shock on her face. "No, that's not true…" John's fate…it couldn't be her fault! She'd been trying to save him…

"We haven't changed the future yet, Riley," Jesse said. "Cameron will still be there, still be manipulating him. All because of what you did. But we can fix your mistake, and I need your help to do it. If we can't get John to turn on her, we'll just remove her from the picture."

I have to do this…for John…it's all for John, always for John. Riley slowly lowered the gun. "How?"

Jesse's mouth set in a firm, determined line.

"Force."

author's note: So just like last chapter was more Derek development, this one is focused on Riley. But we're getting down to the wire, so everything will connect in the next chapter. Hope you all enjoyed it!