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He left the shed with a mixture of emotions tearing through him. 'If she had done it, how was he supposed to conceal it from them?' A bird lying on its side caught his eye. The watch she had given him felt heavier now. He knelt gently turning the animal over, "what am I gonna do about you, Cameron." Grass hid part of it remains and John did the rest.

He stayed coped up in his room never bothering to say anything to his mother. Derek left again with a meaningful glance directed towards Cameron and Sarah sat in the kitchen absentmindedly cleaning her rifle. 'What a cheerful family we are. Kyle what would you do?'

Sarah had meant to talk to Cameron herself but she was distracted by Casey. Since having giving birth Casey had turned even friendlier if that was humanly possible. "It's a shame you guys are moving." Casey began eyeing Sarah' various boxes.

"My job is being outsourced and well I just would like a new change of scenery for John."

"And Cameron." Casey supplied.

"Of course." Sarah figured is she continued giving short non-committal answers that Casey would take the hint and leave.

"Can't blame you. There's so much violence everywhere now a days. I just heard that the police pulled some poor girl out of the river." Casey continued oblivious of Sarah's now extreme interest.

"A girl? When?"

"This morning. Some cute little blond. She was probably from some little town and came out to be a actress or something. Trevor says all they have to go on is some scars from an attempted suicide and a tattoo right here," Casey demonstrated on her own wrist. "A pretty little star. Poor thing, dreams die hard." Casey said sadly.

Sarah smiled tightly. Casey left soon after unaware of the bomb she had just dropped.

John had returned from his self imposed exile and gone to the garage. Cameron was now cataloguing the remaining parts. "Great it looks like a robot serial killer lives here. I guess one does."

She added up the parts keeping a mental tally. "I'm doing inventory."

"Well great, but don't do it here." He looked behind him, "we need to clear all these things out before mom finds it." He crossed his arms, "dig a hole in the back below the retaining wall. We'll bury the parts and come back for them later. We have to find a place to burn them."

Cameron looked impassively at him as if saying. 'So you reached a decision.'

"And we will burn them."

The rest of the afternoon was spent with her digging a hole and him keeping watch. Several times a nosy neighbor would come out and Cameron would wave at them with a shovel. John groaned, "people are gonna think we're the Mansons."

Cameron shrugged and between her and John dragged most of the endoskeletons into the hole. "Do not come back for them, understand."

Cameron nodded. 'Oh great, we're back to the master routine. I hate that.' John thought as she followed all his directives without once complaining or bringing any type of commentary to their situation. They went back to the shed with him following her unwilling to let her out of his sight. She grabbed some rags and wiped down the surfaces. After what seemed like hours she pulled out the last of the boxes.

"Is this the last of it?"

"Yes, it is." She answered placing the half empty box on the table.

John watched her precise movements and his mind recalled how she had looked when she'd been lying beneath him. 'Man, how I want her again.'

"I can do the rest myself."

"Cameron. Exactly what where you told by my father when he came?"

Cameron reached for a set of metal forearms but she faltered at his question. "I cannot tell you. It's a direct order from you. I don't have the power to overwrite it."

"Future John strikes again." He placed his hand over hers, "if you could, would you?"

She was saved from answering by the footsteps outside, "you're mother is coming."

"Alright quick hide the stuff." They quickly threw the last box beneath the others just as Sarah crossed the door.

"I need to talk to John. Alone"

Cameron looked at the teenager and he nodded. She left the garage noting that night had fallen.

"Goodbye bird, there's a fifty one percent chance I wouldn't have killed you," Cameron said in farewell as the bird took off into the night sky. She tuned her audio receptors focusing on Sarah. She needed to make sure that Sarah did not compromise her mission. "They found Riley. She was shot."

She heard John's breath hitch and Cameron looked down at her twitching hand. Time was running out. She turned to comfort him ignoring the fact that she wasn't supposed to know. He looked past her as he made his way into the darkened house.

"Cameron?" Sarah accused.

"I know. I heard. Riley is dead." Cameron answered and headed immediately after John.

Derek was busy keeping an eye on the lawyer they were after. His glass was full and the girl next to him was beginning to grate on his nerves. Any other night he would have given her a chance. "I'm here for business not pleasure."

"That one? What's he do?" the woman asked shaking her glass lightly.

"Lawyer." Derek responded finishing off his drink. "He ever buy you a drink?"

"One or twice."

"How did the muscle feel about that?" Derek queried raising a glass to the man at the end of the bar.

"Sometimes it's nice to have an audience."

Derek rose from his bar stool dropping enough money to cover his drink, the girl and her companion's for two more rounds. He picked up Jessie from another bar after she called complaining that some bastards had hit her.

Cameron scanned the house. John would be outside on his balcony. The glass door opened quietly but he remained looking out at the city lights.

"Come back to bed."

"hmmm…"

Cameron padded out of the cot. She wrapped her arms around his naked torso. "Come back to bed. You have five meetings, and have to go to Serrano Point tomorrow. You need your sleep."

"I know, it's just…"

"Did you dream about Sarah?" she asked placing soothing kisses on his shoulders. She sometimes forgot how much taller John had gotten.

"No. I've been dreaming of the funniest things lately." He rubbed his tired eyes turning to face her.

"L.A.'s sky line?" she asked knowingly.

"Yeah, one of the things I miss the most. Seeing the lights from my old house, odd huh?"

"It's better than what you normally dream of."

He kissed her nose ushering her back to their bed. "It's thanks to you."

"General? General? We have an emergency. You are urgently needed." Someone shouted on the other side of his door. A door that could only be opened by Cameron, Katherine and himself.

"Cam…" before he could finish she had already slipped on her uniform and hoisted her plasma rifle across her chest. Her face went blank but she winked at John playfully.

He shook his head in amusement and threw on his fatigues. "Open the door Cameron."

His back was to her but the click and snap, click and snap told her what he was doing.

"Was it you?" His hand popped the watch open, "did you kill her?" His fingers danced dangerously close to the red button.

'John. You still don't understand what I will do for you. What I must do for you.' She kept her distance just in case he decided to push it. She would not want him hurt by the possible shrapnel.

"What if I did?"

His voice seemed to have abandoned him but he managed to push the words past the lump in his throat. "Don't play games with me." He had no idea why he had sounded as if he was about to laugh. 'I'm cracking.' "I need the truth."

"I didn't kill her."

"I want to believe you." 'I love you. I should believe you even if you are lying to me. Even if you're only toying with me because it's what you think I want to hear.' He snapped the watch closed.

"Believe me."

"Sometimes you lie to me." He didn't want to look at her yet. 'You hide what you really want. You keep things for Future John. You keep me out.'

"Yes." She looked down at her shirt. She was tempted to pat her front and feel the diamond he had given her so long ago when things had been simple between them. "But I'm not now."

John let go of the watch but Cameron was still not moving any closer. "I am sorry."

He couldn't keep the hurt from his face, "You're sorry?" He shook his head, "for what?" The weird thing was that she did look sorry. John had been aware of Cameron's jealousy even if she hadn't. Hell he loved pushing her buttons. But now it seemed so trivial.

"For your loss."

He had always known that Cameron held his heart but to think that Riley had been killed because of her attachment to him made it impossible to think positively of that particular detail. 'How many others would be sacrificed for him to be happy with her? He suddenly got a new insight on himself.

Future John had not sent Cameron away from him to protect his past self. He had sent her back to protect her. His future self had a lot of explaining to do.

"I really wish I could believe that too." He muttered and left her standing there with what was left of his heart in her palm.

Cameron's last defense fell and her emotions were lost in the tangle of rules and protocols that kept her from completely caving and spilling her guts to him. "I am the resistance. I will not fail. I cannot."

Derek had not been happy to hear from Jessie especially since she had ignored his calls for the last day and half and had completely ditched him the night before. "We gonna talk about it?"

"I got into a fight." Jessie replied.

"With four flyboys?"

"Three, one of them went down pretty quickly."

They pulled over in an alley and he fixed her hand telling her a story of why she should never aim for the mouth. She grinned at him just as his cell rang. Ritual completed he went on alert at the obvious anxiety in Sarah's voice. "Riley is dead. Cameron did it."

"Damm," he moved away from Jessie not willing to expose more of his nephew's secrets. "John ok?" Sarah said not really. "Ok, sit tight. I'll be right there." He closed his cell.

Jessie looked expectantly. "John's girlfriend is dead. The cyborg did it."

Jessie kept her composure but it was damm near impossible to keep the smile from splitting her mouth open. "You sure?"

Derek looked at her oddly. "Who else could it be?"

Jessie examined her hands, "What are you gonna do about it?"

"About the metal?" Derek felt a twinge of unease at Jessie's expectant look. 'What exactly was going on in John's future?'

"You can't do it." Derek looked taken aback. "This is not something you can do for him. He has to do it himself."

"You thought this through." Derek took one last look at her and he silently apologized to Sarah and John for being so naive.

Derek dropped off Jessie and made it home in record time. He found Sarah in the living room passing like a caged lioness.

"So?"

"John doesn't think she did it." Sarah exploded.

Derek was very pleased that he had not been taken totally by surprise. Maybe he knew his nephew better than he had originally thought. "Are you surprised?"

Sarah glared at him and mentally pictured shooting him in the leg for sounding so nonchalant. "That's not the point. He actually told me that he asked her and that she had told him no. He acted like she has never lied to him."

"We've all lied to him." Derek interjected.

Sarah snorted, "we're his family, we only lie to protect him. That's not the same."

"Sarah." Derek cautiously approached her. "I hate to play devil's advocate but John knows what he is doing. We have to believe that he can handle this on his own. We can't do it for him or he'll never be rid of her."

"He is my son. I will always protect him." Sarah shouted resuming her pacing.

Derek blocked her way holding onto her arms. "I don't like it either but we have to let him do this. Sarah, we won't always be around. The metal will, we have to play our cards right or we risk losing him completely."

Sarah let her head drop onto Derek's chest. "I…don't. I don't know what to do anymore."

The confession wilted her and Derek wrapped her in his arms. Sorry to have ever see her, the strong woman that she was, fall apart like this. "It will work out." He kissed the top of her dark head and pushed away from her.

"Take John away from her for a while. I'll keep her occupied and we can meet up in a few days." He suggested fighting the desire to hug her to him again. Sarah agreed and he was left with trying to figure out what he was going to do about Jesse.

Kyle's words which had been a mere month ago came back with a vengeance. "She is as big a threat to John as Riley. You need to take care of it. Do not let Sarah know. This is a direct order from Connor. Do not tell Sarah. Take care of it."

John and Cameron left soon after and Derek and Sarah spent the night comforting each other. He got up from the bed some time later. The conversation with Jesse earlier had kept him awake long after Sarah had fallen sleep.

"The thing with Riley and what the cyborg did to her."

"Maybe, if John realizes what the metal really is and what it does," Jessie shrugged, "maybe some good can come out of this."

"Good? An innocent kid is dead. Because that metal bitch murdered her in cold blood nothing good comes out of that. None, not ever."

Jesse tugged on his lapel, "you're a good man."

He looked down, "oh yeah."

She put her arms around his neck, "yeah. Don't let anybody tell you different."

They went inside her room but a few kisses later Jesse could tell that he wasn't in the mood. "You've fallen for her, haven't you?"

Derek buttoned his shirt back up, he glanced briefly at her. "I'm not surprised. I've met her you know. I've met the great Sarah Connor." Jesse said conversationally.

Derek spun on his heel, his hand for some reason resting on the hilt of his Beretta. "When?"

"At the store, grocery shopping. John looks a lot like her. She's pretty in a scrawny kind of way." She buttoned up her own jeans, "hard to believe she's the General's mother. She seems weak."

"She is humane, Jesse. There is a big difference." Derek replied letting go of his gun and picking up his jacket. "She's been fighting her whole life."

"She is weak and her son is weak. If he wasn't he wouldn't be screwing a tin can." Jesse snapped.

"I guess that makes me weak too."

She looked sad for a second before the cold mask settled over her pretty features. "I guess you are."

"I might be weak but for now I'm strong enough to walk away."

"Reese, Reese, Derek!"

He should have known that she would be woken up by his pacing. She was an extraordinary light sleeper.

"Are they gone?" Sarah asked wisely distracting him from whatever had gotten him out of bed.

"Yeah, do you know why he took her with him?" Derek asked the sleepy woman.

"Make sure it doesn't kill anybody else." Sarah muttered sleepily. "I have given up understanding how that boy's mind works."

Derek's phone vibrated, rattling on the dresser. Sarah eyed him daring him to pick it up. Derek ignored it choosing to climb back into bed with her. "I don't want to know." She said and rolled away from him.

He pulled her back against him. His fingers curved around her middle until she was sharing his body heat. "You know how I feel…" he cleared his throat unsure of what he wanted to say. 'Did he have the right to tell her he loved her?'

"Shut up and go to sleep, Reese." She snapped but interlaced her fingers with his. He grinned and hoped that the morning would bring good news.

John had driven the entire way to Riley's house in silence.

It had given Cameron a chance to analyze what had led to this sequence of events.

She had been in her room. Her hand had been twitching again so she had called Eric. He had told her he didn't know what to do. "Cammi, I have an idea. Let me call you back."

She had sat in her room in her newly fixed bed waiting for the call. Eric quickly phoned back. "Ok, I think I might know what's wrong. Now bear in mind that this is strictly a hypothesis."

"A hypothesis. I understand. Please continue."

"You told me you are an advanced infiltrator unit, correct." Cameron answered in the affirmative. "So you can mimic emotions right?"

"Not anymore."

"Explain." Eric said sounding decidedly authoritive.

Cameron sorta explained her Neuronet not in detail but enough for him to get an idea of its capacities. She mentioned that it was now fully in her command though she did not think he needed specific details of how and when that had occurred.

She wistfully caressed the bedspread and the perfectly recorded memory of her and John intertwined was displayed in her HUD. "Cameron!"

"I am here."

"I thought I lost you for a second. Anyway, I figured that since you have the ability to engage in all human emotions well as least the important once that you might have a slight case of depression."

"Depression?"

"Yeah, you know what that means. Right?"

"Unhappiness, sadness, melancholy, misery, sorrow, despair, desolation, hopelessness, the dumps, the doldrums, the blues…"

"Not the definition, Cameron. The feeling?" hearing nothing he pondered how to best put it into words that would make a quick impact. "John hurt you."

Tears began to well up and Cameron understood what Eric was telling her. "John hurt me so I am unable to cope and am not functioning correctly."

"Yes, so as long as you remain upset you will continue to have these twitches. It's your chips way of telling you that you aren't okay and Cameron you need to do something about it before you make a mistake. It's only a matter of time."

"Thank you, I will try."

"That's my girl." Eric replied and for the first time he felt feelings of brotherly worry for her bloom inside him. Cameron was more fragile than she seemed.

She hung up just as John knocked on her door. "Cameron. Let's go."

She had the jacket that he had given her but for some reason she had the compulsion to rip it to shreds. Realizing that it was just the anger at him talking she threw it back on her bed in favor of her next favorite, a snug fitting black leather jacket.

She slid into the passenger seat and they drove off.

"We're here. Remember the plan. I'll talk to her dad and at 10:20 you call and pretend to be Riley?" John noticed for the first time how quiet she had been, he caught her staring out the window.

These instances of humanity were becoming more and more frequent leaving John bewildered as to how to deal with her exactly. "Cameron did you hear me?"

"We're here, plan. Call at 10:20 and talk to her dad pretending to be Riley."

He bit back the sharp retort and slammed out of the truck. He took a deep breath and knocked on Riley's front door. Her father answered with an unwelcome expression on his face. "Aaron, I'm John."

"I remember." Her dad didn't seem pleased.

"Is Riley around?" John asked and stepped inside.

At 10:20 exactly, Cameron dialed. "Riley, where are you? Are you alright?"

"Everything is fine." Cameron replied. "I'm in Riverside. It's a long story."

"We've been worried sick. We were just about to call the police."

A note of real panic entered her voice, "please don't do that."

"Everybody is worried. John too. He's here."

"John, really? Can I talk to him?" Riley's dad passed the phone to a stupefied John. He took it plastering a semblance of calm on his face.

"Riley, you're in Riverside. Okay. We can talk later."

Cameron ignored the plan intent on getting John to listen to her, it was the last thing she would do. "I thought you would want to hear my voice." She didn't need her sensors to tell her that John was quite distressed. "Am I freaking you out now?"

"Yes, you are."

"I'm sorry it's just that I've been thinking about my parents a lot." 'Skynet and the Resistance. They're both out to get me. I can't be with you even though you are the only reason I still function. "There are things I just can't get out of my head and I just thought that if saw where I used to live. John I meant everything I told you. I do love you but you can't hold on to your leadership and have me.' "I know stupid, huh."

"We'll talk about all this in person when you get back." 'Cameron Phillips, I'm going to find out everything you know even if I have to deactivate you myself.'

"John?"

"Yeah, that will be great. 'Hang up, Cameron. Hang up.'

"John…I love you." She said and the tears that slipped out belonged to Cameron alone.

John replied shakily, "Ok, bye.

Cameron hung up and stepped out of the truck waiting to see if her gamble had paid off. John didn't disappoint. His strides were a study of controlled anger. "What the hell was that about?"

"What was what about?" She asked innocently.

"What happened? Just now."

It had bothered him. She felt a tiny bit of satisfaction. "It was the plan."

"No, the plan was to call the foster parent. The plan was to let him hear her voice." John glared at her, "that's not all you did. What you did was not the plan." He repeated himself otherwise, her "I love you" would just burn right through him.

"The plan was to make him believe she was still alive so he wouldn't go to the police. You became a part of the plan. You're reaction made it more authentic. Don't you think it was more authentic that way?" She could tell he was having trouble keeping his cool.

'Ah, so that's what she was doing. She's punishing me for dragging her along. For making her pretend to be Riley especially after I'd already accused her of killing her.'

"Where are we going?"

"We're not going anywhere. I'm going somewhere and I'm going to go alone." He bit out yanking the keys from his pockets.

He began to walk away and she followed. "You shouldn't be alone."

"Yes, I should," he finally managed to growl.

Cameron let him go, once out of sight she started the trek to the library. Her whole arm jerked. "Eric was right, it was only a matter of time."

Riley was cold and pale. Peaceful in a way she had never been in life.

He set aside everything that was imploring him to leave this place. He had doubts that Cameron had killed the blond and he wanted some proof that he was right and not just delusional. Her hands were bruised with rip and torn nails.

The violence and savagery which she had fought to defend her life was even more evident when compared to the smoothness of the rest of her. He pressed her lifeless hand to his cheek grateful that he'd been proven correct.

"I'm sorry."

He put down her hand and pushed her back into the blank wall of drawers. Doe, Jane written on her door. "I'll get you justice. I promise you that much."

Jesse sat illuminated by her lamps. You know that feeling of someone walking over your grave. Well she had just felt it. Connor would come for her and she would find out if everything she'd done had been worth it. Jesse adjusted the lamp on her left and waited.