Chapter 3

Pulling up to the house half an hour later couldn't have came quicker for John. He had been dragged out the house to find his mother, then forced to fight the very thing he's supposed to be running from. He had a long day and was having trouble staying awake. "John? Are you all right?". John rubbed his forehead and looked at her, looking in to her brown eyes and seeing her concern. "I'm alright, just had a long day". He slowly got out of the car. It was now dark outside, and the air was cold. He noticed that Derek had returned to the house as the car was parked outside the shed holding their weapons.

Cameron got out also. She looked at her arms which were reacting to the cold. Small bumps began to form. With out even realising it, she began to rub her arms in an effort to stay warm. She closed the car door and made after John who had just entered the house. Once she reached the door, she turned and remembered the T triple eight in the back seat. She considered what to do next. It began to rain, the water hitting her arms and face. She decided to wait till morning to destroy it.

John entered the house and saw Derek kneeing next to the couch. Looking at the couch, he saw his mother looking like hell. "Mom?, what the hell?". Making his way over, he saw Derek tending to a wound on her leg. "Are you Okay?". She didn't look pleased at all. John knew what was about to come, he was going to get the don't hunt terminators, they hunt you talk." What were you thinking John?, your supposed to run and hide, not fight these things, if I could walk, I'd get up and kill you both for going after it alone." She nodded her head towards Cameron, who just walked in. Sarah didn't look to shocked to see the state she was in.

"So, what happened then, are they still alive or, OUCH!, careful for fucks sake!", Derek looked up." Sorry". Derek wasn't looking at her leg wound, but at Cameron, with a smug smile on his face, apparently glad she was in such a state. Cameron titled her head to the side and looked at the back of Derek's head, with an angry look on her face. John looked from Cameron to Sarah again." We killed the T triple eight, its in the car and William and Elizabeth are alright, just a little confused on why someone wanted them dead".

Derek finished with her leg wound, stood up and walked towards the kitchen. He stopped in the doorway and stared at Cameron, keeping a firm grip on his gun. Cameron sat down opposite Sarah, and stared at her arms, which no longer had any bumps. She looked confused. John sat next to her and looked at her wounds. They ones on her face had already started to heal, but looking at her back, he noticed a lot of blood from the shot gun blasts she took. "John better go get yourself patched up". Cameron tilted her head to the side, not knowing what John was talking about. He pointed to her back. She reached around and felt her back, not relieving the amount of damage he had taken, she seemed a little shocked. "Oh, thank you for explaining, I'll do it in a minute". John and Sarah stared as she turned her gaze back to her arms, almost as she was fascinated by them. John grinned and looked to Sarah" What happened to you". Sarah explained her story to John, what happened at the UFO convention, finding Abraham, Abraham getting killed and then what happened to the warehouse. Cameron had listened to every word as if she was in a classroom.

"I'll be fine, I'm giving up on this three dots thing, I'm not getting shot again over it.". Both John and Cameron grinned. Sarah winched in pain. John guessed it was because it was her leg, but Cameron noticed she was holding her left arm. Getting up, she walked over the Sarah, took Sarah's hand in to her own and just waited. John looked over at Derek, who had taken a few steps closer, hoping Cameron would do something that would give him an excuse to shoot her. "What are you doing?". Sarah demanded. Cameron ignored her. Suddenly , she looked in to Sarah's eyes in shock and let go of her hand. "That can't be right!". John got up form the chair." What can't be right?". Cameron took Sarah's hand in to her own again and closed her eyes this time. Sarah and John gave each other concerned looks. Cameron let go and opened her eyes. "I need to talk to Sarah alone". Everyone was taken aback by this. No one spoke for a few seconds which to John felt like another hour. Sarah was the first to speak up." What ever it is, just say it". Sarah herself was tired. She looked at Cameron who just stared back. Cameron opened her mouth and closed it again, seemingly trying to find the right words before she finally spoke.

" I ran a CAT scan, you have tumours in your left arm, spine and the brain. It's Cancer". Sarah froze, how could she have had cancer, she had been careful. She ate good food and exercised a lot. John was speechless, his mother couldn't have Cancer, she just couldn't. Derek just stood still, looking stunned. "The rate the tumours suggest that they were brought on by radiation exposure". " I've never been exposed to radiation, I've never been near". She stopped talking and remembered, the power plant, how she ran through a room full of radioactive chemicals with out protection. She frowned and punched the side of the chair she was lying on. She couldn't believe it. Cameron made them time jump years to avoid her cancer and now because she was impatient, she was going to die. "Mom, exposed to what radiation?". Tears had formed in John's eyes, he had lost his entire life to the terminators and Skynet and now he was losing his mother. "At the power plant, I ran through with out protection". Derek walked toward the front door." I'm going for beer!".

He left with out another word, disappearing in to the rain and out of sight. Cameron was looking a the responses everyone was giving to the news. Her head tilted to the side, she tried to compare these responses to what John told her at the hospital. Only John's reaction partly resembled what he had said. Sarah looked up at Cameron, and held out her hand to her. "How long have I got". Cameron reached out and took her hand. After ten seconds or so, she gave her reply. " A few weeks, maybe less". John's day couldn't have gotten any worse, his mother was going to be gone in a few weeks. Derek wasn't much help at all and Cameron was a machine. He didn't know what to do." John, get me a blanket, I need some sleep". John reluctantly walked upstairs to fetch a blanket. Once John was out of site. Cameron sat down opposite Sarah.

"I'm sorry, you ran through that room to save me, you should have taken the long way round". She waited for a reply. Sarah looked a way from her and faced the couch, winching in pain as she moved her body. "Just go get yourself patched up". Cameron got up and went upstairs, passing John as he came out his mothers room with a blanket, she stopped and stared. Green and brown eyes met briefly as John rushed passed Her and downstairs. Cameron felt a little alone by this, she didn't like to see John hurt. She entered her room, took out a pare of pliers from her bag on the floor and went in the bathroom.

John covered his mother with the blanket. She turned to face him. She could see the pain in his eyes. "John?, I'm sorry but nothing can be done about this, I'm going to die one way or another". She decided to not deceive John any more. If he asked, she would answer. John remembered back to when Sarah and Cameron had returned to from the power plant. He watched from the window as Cameron scanned Sarah after coming back. He couldn't hear what they said to one another, but his anger towards Cameron at the time pushed his worry about his mother to the back of his mind. "Why didn't you tell me you thought you had cancer before?" . He looked at the floor as he said this, not having the will to look in to her eyes. "When we first came here from the past, I made Cameron tell me why she made us come here". She paused as John looked up. John wondered why Cameron was being brought in to this." What's Cameron got to do with you having cancer?". Sarah took a deep breath and told John what she never wanted t tell him."

She told me I was going to die in 2005 of cancer". John stared at her and looked towards the stairs. Why hadn't Cameron told him of this? This was him mother. She should have told him. John got up and made for the stairs." John?, its not her fault.". Sarah looked over the top of the couch. "Get some sleep mom, I'll see you in the morning". Sarah watch as John turned around and disappeared at the top of the stairs. Sarah lay down and remembered the only other time she saw John as upset as he was now. It was when John saw the tape of Sarah signing away her parental rights to him. Sarah regretted ever signing those papers, turning over, she fell asleep.

John walked towards Cameron's room, intending to yell as much as he could, to demand why she never told him about his mother. Walking in to her room, he found her blood stained top on the floor. Realising she must be in the bathroom patching herself up, He turned around and headed to the bathroom. The door was opened slightly, he opened it fully and walked in. All thoughts of yelling at Cameron drifted out of his mind. Cameron was standing there, with only her bra on her upper body. John ran his eyes over her smooth skin. He had felt the skin before, it had felt so real but he knew it wasn't. He ran his eyes over her body until he spotted three large holes in her lower back.

Cameron was watching John as he was looking at her. John seemed to be admiring her, the way she looked. Cameron titled her head to the side, why was John admiring her when she had three holes in her back. John realised what he was doing and looked in to Cameron's eyes." Err, are you Okay?". John looked towards the floor, trying not to look at her body. " I need your help, I can't see where the bullets are, I need you to remove them". John thought on this for a moment. He could help her out and ask her about his mother, killing two birds with one stone. "Okay, sit on the side of the bath with your back to me". Cameron smiled as she handed John the pliers. She turned away from the mirror, which she had been using to fix the cuts to her face and neck, which had already healed quite well.

She walked over to the bath, stepped in to it and sat down. John bent down on to his knees and looked at the holes in her back. Even one of these would have killed a human with ease. Placing his left hand on her shoulder, he used the right to find the shotgun rounds. "I need to ask you about my mom". Cameron turned her head to the side to show that she was listening. "My mom told me that you said she would die of cancer in 2005, why didn't you tell me?". Cameron moved her head back stared out of the bathroom window, she couldn't see and thing through the back and the rain. "Sarah asked me not to tell you, and I thought it better if you didn't know due to the stress it would cause". John finished with the first bullet hole, began with the second. "She's my mother, I had every right to know that this could happen".

Cameron was getting distracted from the conversation they were having. She noticed that she was getting a warm feeling from her shoulder, exactly where John's hand was. The bumps that formed when she was out in the cold rain started to appear on her arms again, but these bumps were different, she didn't want them to go away as she was enjoying the feeling of John touching her skin. Turing her head to the wall, she closed her eyes. " It's just the same when you asked me to not tell Sarah about Cromartie searching the school for you". John stopped what he was doing. Cameron was comparing past events and doing it well. He laughed a little before starting on the third bullet hole. Cameron heard John's small laugh. "What's funny, did I say something wrong?". John didn't reply right away. He reached over to where the bandages. Taking his hand off her shoulder, he began patching her up. Cameron waited for John's answer. "No you didn't, its just , you sound so human sometimes, I keep seeing that your becoming less robot and more human". Cameron smiled. She had always thought of herself as a cyborg, but now John says she was becoming more Human, gave her a small sense of hope that she could grow her emotions.

John finished patching her up, he got up and washed the blood off his hands. Cameron got up and stepped out of the bath. John tried not to look at her In the mirror. "Thank you John". She made for the door. "Cameron, no more secrets, okay". She tilted her head to the side as John washed his hands. "Yes, no more secrets". She saw a grin appear on John's face. Grinning herself, she walked down the corridor to her bedroom. John finished washing his hands, went to him own bedroom. Looking briefly at Cameron's closed bedroom door. He went in his and lay on his bed. With everything that had happened today, he fell asleep with ease.