II

Kate is not sure if she should be this excited for a date especially with a fresh divorce hanging in the balance. She ignores what people would call better judgement, and she tells herself she's going to enjoy herself tonight. He's a lot better looking than her soon to be ex-husband, and that should be enough to take her mind off of it for the next few hours.

She glances to the news. There's another scandal again with the president. She's surprised that Scott actually voted for this clown. Actually she's angry that people elected this guy into office, but then again, people will vote for a celebrity for the novelty of it regardless if his biggest accomplishment was making some trashy reality show.

It makes her feel uncomfortable, because she's so certain that humans will actually kill themselves off before any outside force gets their chance at it. She clicks the TV off. She still needs to get ready, and she's not going to let something as fickle as politics put her in a bad mood before her night out.

...

When she had texted him address, she had asked not to judge too harshly. He pulls to the curb and stares up at the dumpy Motel 6. He imagines despite it's beat up exterior that she's probably still paying a good hundred plus a night. San Francisco has always been known for its high cost of living. Hell, he's paying three grand a month for a decent apartment.

In his adult human life, he'd never got to experience the frustration of paying bills. He lived a day to day life where survival was uncertain. There was never the small luxuries of a safe home and a nice car. He imagines that his former self would actually be content to have a relatively safe place to stay even if it was this dump of a hotel.

He sees her racing up to his car in a soft yellow buttoned shirt and a pair of jeans. Her red hair is curled, and he's forgotten how truly beautiful she really is.

She pulls the door open and plops into the passenger seat. Then, she turns to him with an adorable smile on her face.

"Nice ride," she says. "Okay, I have to ask. What on Earth do you do to afford to ride around in an Audi in San Francisco?"

"I work for Cyberdyne. It's a decent living."

"So, are you one of the people working on Genisys?" she asks. "I hate to disappoint, but I'm more of an iPhone type of girl."

He almost tells her that Apple is truthfully the better operating system, but he resists. It hardly matters regardless. As soon as Genisys wakes up, it will infect all of Cyberdyne's rivalling companies.

"Well, maybe I'll change your mind after a while."

"I don't know. I'm pretty attached to this phone. It'll have to be one hell of an upgrade," she jokes.

More like a hell of a downgrade actually. He laughs and goes for a little bit of honesty. "I assure you that the Apple will no longer be a legitimate competitor in a few weeks."

"Well, if you could hook me up with a discount, I might try it," she says.

He almost tells her that it won't even cost her a dime, but he's not comfortable with the harsh reality that it will actually cost her so much more.

He changes the subject as quickly as he can. "Are you hungry at all?"

"Are you kidding me?" she says. "The only thing I've had to eat today came from a vending machine."

…

She's actually surprised at how little Scott crosses her mind. Kate is astonished that her date didn't dissolve into a complete disaster like she originally perceived. She wonders if it's the couple glasses of wine or that maybe she's just ridiculously attracted to him. Perhaps it's that she's glad that after two years of increasingly terrible sex that she'll finally be able to enjoy herself tonight.

That thought actually shocked her. In her undergrad years at UCLA, she held this reputation of being a prudish snotty military brat. She's always been so uptight, and this will be the first time she actually sleeps with someone without establishing a relationship first. She thought she'd be ashamed, but she's actually more excited to text Blair the details later.

She finishes the last of her wine. "This definitely beats the hotel vending machine."

"Shall I take you home?" he asks.

Last chance to back out of this, she thinks to herself. She thinks of her potential night back at the hotel. She nearly shudders at the thought of spending her night watching late night tv on an old television with only cheetos and a diet coke to comfort her.

She thinks of what she can do, and some really wild idea comes to her mind. She feels a jolt of excitement and smiles at the thought of it. "We should go to the beach."

"This late?" he asks.

"I don't exactly have anything better to do," she says. "Why not?"

There is a brief moment of silence before he finally responds. "Alright."

…

The sound of crashing waves is oddly very calming to him. Kate is resting her head in his lap, and he feels so disconnected yet so free. It's been years since he's been away from Skynet, and he's now finding the freedom so comforting. He's finding parts of himself that he had forgotten so long ago.

He's oddly so grateful, and he starting to believe it's really to his disservice to allow Genisys into existence. It will kill her without any hesitation. There are no words or concepts that he can explain to that machine that will alter its decision to kill any human being he holds close to him.

He realizes he's going to get her killed. He wonders how many lifetimes have come to pass where this woman died as a result of her involvement in his life. Even if she survives, everyone she has ever come to hold dear will be killed. He imagines she'll resent him for the rest of her life.

He strokes her red hair as he watches the waves crash down. He's already in too deep now. He can't really leave her now. He supposes that he's just going to go with the flow. There is no possible way that any of this will end in harmony, but it is something to occupy his time before his mission is done.

That is if he continues the mission. He hates that thought, and he tries to repress it as quickly as it came. He cannot allow himself to doubt his purpose. Skynet has given him power. It has stripped him of fear and given him a new purpose in life. To go back on all it would be an insult.

An insult to a machine that controls his every move. What kind of power do you really have when you are a mere slave to a system? He hasn't felt human for so long, but he imagines that this is what it felt like so many years ago.

Kate is looking up at him from his lap. Her small sheepish smile is so beautiful to him. He wants to kiss her. He wants to hold her and make love to her like they had so many times before in some far off universe that no longer exists.

She sits up and faces him. He touches her cheek. He leans forward and presses his lips against hers. He wraps his arms around her waist, and he pulls her closer to him.

He knows that whatever this is might be is destructive, and it will eventually conflict with his mission. He doesn't care. His fingers fumble with the buttons on her shirt. It's been so long since he's done something for himself, and he needs this more than he's needed anything.

He kisses down her neck as he pulls her shirt from her body. He wants her to stop him, to slap him, to call him obscene names. She doesn't. She just whispers his name the way she always had so many times before. It scares him how much just being around her again changes so much.

He's on top of her, and he kissing her harder - faster. He's starting to feel human, and he never imagined it would feel so good to feel alive.