fairedust - I try not to think about the timeline. I love Kyle but I favor Derek/Sarah. I love Derek to pieces. I hate that in most fanfiction people portray him like an ass. He's just traumatized, hence the lovely moment between him and Sarah. As for John, well he has his reasons...you'll see.
vfergus - I'm glad. I know there wasn't much interaction with John/Cam but Kyle is pretty bad ass. No he doesn't have to die and you are right. It is fanfiction. I can make him do whatever I want. (Insert evil smile here)
djpc450 - They will but I'm trying to do it as close to cannon as possible. John is just hot and cold. That is a pain to write.
Cptlatnok - Thank you, I did always question if they had met. Sorta but that line was about the kiss. The fact that she kissed him back, made him see that she was only responding and not participating.
TK-MR - I realized after the fact. I'm an idiot. sorry! Glad you caught it so I could make the correction.
trenth - Thanks, hope you don't hate me too much for this one.
Whoo hoo! Another update...oh yeah. Hopefully I didn't screw up on this. I hate acronyms...enjoy!
The tension left by Kyle's revelations settled heavily on the Reese/Connor household. So much so that everybody acted as if the whole episode had not happened.
Riley showed up breaking John out his self imposed exile away from Cameron. Cameron in turn withdrew unwilling to engage him while he was still suspicious of her. She did however follow him that would never change.
Luckily she had her own distractions as she became aware of a possible lead from Eric. He still had no idea what was going on with her but she had been able to enlist him in her research.
That week was full of plans on how to best infiltrate the small town that had been devastated by the air and heating factory explosion.
Sarah and Derek left them to their own devices forcing John to stay near Cameron whether he wanted to or not. Cameron approached John determined to end the animosity radiating off him.
"Your mother has gone to locate the best possible connection to the man who shot her."
"That's fine, the records said that he had a daughter about my age." John replied squinting at the bright sunlight behind her. Seeing him squint she moved to block the light. 'God forbid, the general gets sun spots.' John thought cynically.
"I do not think its wise for you to approach her. This is strictly recon. We are not to move from our posts, Derek recommends we observe and see what we can learn from the conversations around us."
John saw the girl take a seat on the bench. Nobody was around maybe now he could actually do some work instead of everybody just covering for him. "Since when do you listen to Derek?"
"Since he agreed not to blast me to pieces." Cameron replied dead panned. John almost cracked a smile but he remembered that he was still pissed at her. He settled on his usual grumpy expression leaving her standing all alone.
Had she not just lost her sight she would have stopped him.
Cameron blinked but the darkness did not dissipate. Her screen was pitch black so she altered her auditory filters to pick up on the voices and reduce the excess noise. A man and woman were arguing a few feet behind her and another woman was sobbing quietly to her right.
She imagined she must have looked like she was lost in thought. Farther away about twenty feet behind her she heard the distinct voice print that matched her files of Sarah Connor. She was talking to the widow of George, the man that had wounded her.
Derek's voice was faint but she was unable to pick out individual words from this distance. Her receptors zoomed right and left searching for her charge. John's timbre suddenly spiked and she moved forward in alarm.
Cameron stopped to get his precise bearings when his voice spiked for a second time, however this time her systems changed the information and the spike turned to laughter.
'John was laughing?'
His husky laugh was soon joined by a more feminine one and Cameron felt an irrational surge of anger boost through her system. 'Who was she? And why was she making John laugh?' Slowly and with great concentration she rerouted some of her functions to her face.
Her eyes slowly gained a fuzzy image first tinted in infrared before settling in into its natural color. Her legs were heavier since she had taken some of the power that helped her weight distribution to see again.
In an instant she spotted John sitting with a pretty dark hair girl on a bench.
They stopped their hilarity and fixed their eyes on her. "That's just my sister." John answered the girl's question. Cameron didn't care to hear what the girl thought of her but the dismissive tone in John's voice zapped through her core just a tiny bit.
She was beginning to question why Future John would cause her so much pain. He loved her or at least he had professed to, so why was he forcing her to stay more machine like before young John. Perhaps she could start telling John a little bit about himself. It might help him warm to her again, with her chip compromised she could access the files the General had secured.
She was still saddened by how he immediately assumed that she was just a tool to be used. She hadn't lied when she had told him that she would do anything he asked. The assumption that he would use her body to keep his men in line really hurt.
Only his suspicions of Kyle had been correct. Yes, she had been told to do anything. The General knew more than most how easy it was to want to take your own life. He had shared it with her that if it had not been for his mother and her he would have not pulled the gun away at the last moment.
She had been willing to give Kyle whatever he needed to keep him breathing but that John had never suggested it. In fact when she brought it up they fought.
2014 - Quarters of General John Connor - Union City
"Cam, tonight is very important. I finally got what I needed to give us a leg up in the war." He had told her as they retired to his quarters.
"You found the location of the TDE machine," Cameron had answered divesting John of his heavy coat and ever heavier Kevlar. "Will you be sending for Kyle?"
The little joy that had shinned in his eyes grew dim at her question. "I'll give him another week. I'll make sure he has as much time with Derek as possible."
He sat at the mangled piece of metal that served as his desk. His posture screamed the unease he felt at knowingly sending his father to die. His elbows rested on the surface while his interlocked hands covered his mouth in thought.
Cameron had seen him like this too many times in the past four days. Aware that she would attempt to break him out of his pensive mood John looked up at his never aging angel. "I'll be fine."
No matter how many times he saw it he would never become accustomed to Cameron displaying her perfect body for someone like him. He felt like he tainted her with his bleakness everything they joined together.
"John, you will not be fine. There is nothing wrong with admitting that it hurts you." Cameron said closing the distance between them. Her boots had come off with out him even noticing but then when he was being presented with her topless view it was a wonder he could think at all.
"I can't afford to be sentimental. I have to…or…you know," he sighed unwilling to finish the bizarre sentence that signaled what his life was. An endless repeating cycle.
"You can be sentimental with me. You can be anything you want with me." Cameron supplied as she straddled his lap. "You don't have to be the General all the time."
He groaned out loud when reached her arms around him, pressing herself that much closer to him. "Cam, you're gonna be the death of me." he said leaning back and letting her administer her own type of healing.
"That is not my primary function." She joked quietly as his hands finally sick of just holding her lifted her off him and onto the desk.
"What is your primary function?" John asked teasingly.
Cameron answer would have been immediate had it not been for the fact that John was standing in between her legs and urgently pulling down her uniform. He tugged it to her waist letting the garment flop onto the desk while he occupied himself in exploring every inch of her.
"Come on, Cam. You have to answer. That's how we play the game, remember?" John smirked pulling his attention from her smooth breasts.
"My primary function…is …my function…to make you happy…" the last of her sentence ended in a gasp as she got caught up in John's touch. "keep you safe…to love you."
John removed his mouth from her, his patience for the usual game vanishing at the sight of her. Without anymore words between them she undressed him. She stood to remove the last of the barrier but John's patience had ended.
Knowing that she was just as ready as he was, John ripped the material at the juncture of her legs. He was normally a very gentle lover but the stress of everything had gotten to him and only a violent release would allow him to function like he was meant to.
Cameron understood him and did not complain as he roughly shoved into her. He wrapped her legs around him using the desk to balance them. She dug her nails into his back feeling his spine curve up and down as he kept a regular rhythm.
She would never tell him but it hurt her when he took her this way. Not physically but emotionally. He would pour out his frustrations into her and she didn't mind. What she minded was how hopeless he seemed afterward as if he had poured out his soul as well.
"John, don't do this," she begged.
Her voice broke though his violent haze and he slowed down. He would have pulled away but she clung to him. His sweaty body clinging to hers. "I want you to get rid of whatever is bothering you and leave it in this moment."
"I don't think I can." He began but she placed a finger on his lips.
"This is our time. Only ours. Not the world's, not Skynet's. Only you and me. Let me do this one thing for you." She pleaded allowing the some of her neural net to unbind.
John kissed the tip of her nose and grinned. "We'll I can't say no to a beautiful woman."
"You should unless it's me," she answered biting his shoulder to get him back in the mood.
"Just you," he said bending her back onto the desk and their previous position. This time was just as chaotic and perhaps just as violent but it was less desolate. He let himself go instead of losing himself.
Sometime during their lovemaking he had moved her from the desk and onto his bed. They were laying in it and he basked in the freedom to show her how he really felt about her.
Nobody could bother them or interrupt him here. He made himself a promise that he would make up for all the cruelties his younger self had inflicted on her. "Cameron. There's something I need you to do for me."
Cameron stroked his hairline memorizing every crease and crinkle present in his 34 year-old face. "Anything at all."
John gathered his fledging attention. Next time he wanted to tell Cameron something important he would make sure they would both be wearing clothes.
"John?"
He curled her closer to him and she reciprocated by leaning her head on his chest. "If I am captured, I need you to watch after Kyle. I need you keep him safe no matter what. Do whatever it takes."
"No. I cannot do that. I will not do that," she said rising off his chest to glare at him.
Her dark brown eyes clashed against his green ones but both knew that she would obey him. "Why?"
It tore John up to tell her but he knew that he was bound to be captured at some point and he would need a contingency plan to keep the resistance going. "If something happens, you take Kyle and hide him. Protect him at all cost. Derek will take over my command."
"He won't have to. I'll protect you." Cameron said not understanding why John was being stubborn.
"No, you won't. Tomorrow you will not go with me. I want you to stay behind." John hated to command her to do anything but he could have no argument on this. "That's an order. Cameron."
"Don't ask that of me." She sat up completely ignoring the sheet that slid revealing her body. "Are you tired of me? Am I not pleasing to you?"
"No, you are always pleasing… more than pleasing but if I am to survive Kyle has to make it to the TDE machine and that won't happen if you are protecting me." John sat up as well and embraced her. Though there was metal beneath her skin, John could feel her frailty.
He could feel her terror for him, for the possibility of being left alone here without him to shield her from the brutality of his men's ignorance. "What are my parameters?" she asked defeated.
"Anything within your power to insure his survival." John replied laying them both back down.
"All my resources to insure his continued existence." Cameron concluded wrapping her arm around him.
A thread of alarm shot through his brain at her conclusion. 'Her resources?'
Cameron sometimes would have sex with him fresh off the battlefield. She said it was a way to keep the shock at bay. If his mind was occupied in sexual intercourse then he would not rehash over the amount of lost lives. It was something she had been taught by Derek.
Her logic was sound and he readily took advantage though he knew that Cameron did like being with him as she would get very vocal and he had to silence her repeatedly.
The sudden image of her and Kyle, the man destined to be his father nearly made him jump out of their warm bed and empty his stomach. Granted Kyle was closer to Cameron's perceived age than he was but she was his. He had met her first. He was not about to share her with anybody. It was bad enough that he would soon have to send her back to his idiotic self who no doubt would ignore her. "Everything but sex."
"Yes, John." Cameron replied sleepily. Her algorithms were all ready settling to rest for a few precious hours beside him.
"Listen to me." Her eyes shot open and she regarded him curiously. She was already picking up on his elevated heart beat. "Stop scanning me, I hate when you do that," he growled.
"You are angry, what did I do?"
"Nothing. Just…nevermind." He attempted to go to sleep but he could feel her curious gaze on him. Throwing an arm over his eyes he mumbled, "I can't stand the idea of anybody else touching you."
"Nobody would be touching me. If you are referring to the youngest Reese it would be me doing all the work. He would be too far gone into shock to do anything. I would have to guide him." Cameron said matter of factly.
John deeply inhaled but the anger didn't go away instead it morphed and grew. "You don't fucking get it! I don't want you to be with anybody in that capacity. I don't give a shit who does what. Ok."
His jealousy fueled him with manic energy removing the fatigue from earlier. He got out of the bed tugging on his clothes angrily. Cameron was still sitting on the bed the sheets barely covering her legs. "Put some damm clothes on. I don't need anymore fucking rumors," he snapped.
Cameron lifted the sheet and calmly stepped down on the other side of the bed. She gathered her uniform, methodically buttoning and zipping on her gear. She laced her boots not once bothering to look at John. He felt like such an asshole. They just had been together and now he was yelling at her.
"Cam…I…" John looked up from his unlaced shoes and into her face. She smiled and laced up his boots neatly. She rose from the ground as he dropped to it. He buried his face in her stomach absorbing the feel of her fingers curling through his dark hair.
"I understand. Thank you for explaining. I will not engage in anything of a sexual nature with Kyle Reese." Cameron paused, "I cannot not say the same for his son."
John looked up at her gratefully. Glad she was not forcing him to confess his darkest fear, that she was there in his life and his bed because she was loyal and nothing else.
"I need to check the latest batch of triple 888's," she said and he let go.
He scanned his knees for any extra layers of dust or dirt. Not that he had to in this place but it gave him something to do while he composed himself. Cameron undid the security lock and the door opened with an ominous sound. She turned to the left just as the world exploded outside his quarters.
"Cameron!!"