Cameron's eyes grew wide when she heard her own voice come from the triple eight. She had been extra careful not to make a single sound. How did it know her voice?

"JOHN, PLEASE HURRY! I NEED YOU!"

Cameron slowly picked herself up out of the debris. Her HUD told her she had several injuries, a damaged right leg being the worst of it. The triple eight started for the stairs, and she began to panic. With a damaged leg, she ran as fast as she could and tackled it. She managed to slice his scalp with her knife before being tossed off. It tried to step on her neck, but she rolled out from under his foot just in time.

"DON'T LISTEN TO…" Cameron was silenced by a piece of staircase banister smashing across her face.

Cameron could feel her body reacting more emotionally now. She tried to keep it in check to be more effective, but it wasn't working. She was feeling fear, knowing she was outmatched with no real way of stopping the triple eight in the house. She was also feeling quite angry. She lost half her speed with a damaged leg. Speed she sorely needed against the size and strength of the larger machine.

When the triple eight came at her again, there wasn't much she could do to stop it. She went with the force of the impact and rolled, managing to land herself on top of him. Rather than go for the port this time, she stabbed it in the eye, effectively half blinding it.

Using his own weight and strength to push her off, the triple eight pinned Cameron to the ground, digging his knee into her back and grabbing her right arm, busting the elbow and dislocating the shoulder joint.

***************************************

John knew the last voice was Cameron's. There was a true panic behind it that a regular machine couldn't imitate. He clutched the gun tighter as the tears freely fell down his face.

There was another series of loud thuds, and the sound of something cracking.

That was it. He couldn't sit there hiding anymore. Did the future leader of the resistance sit hiding in a closet?

Absolutely not. John stood up and opened the closet door. Quickly checking the room, he reached down and pulled Savannah up, putting his finger to his lips in a hushing gesture.

They hurried as fast as they could to the hallway. John opened the bathroom door, where Dani was sitting on the edge of the tub, clean and dressed in fresh clothes. He pushed Savannah into the tiny room and tossed Dani the shotgun. "Two shots," he said. "Don't miss."

Closing the door before the woman could object, he pulled out his switch blade, which he knew would be essentially useless, but regardless it made him feel a little better having it in his hands. He just wished it could have been a gun instead.

He made it halfway down the steps before seeing Cameron's body fly by, literally airborne. He pressed himself flat against the wall as the triple eight stalked by, evidently intent on continuing his barrage on Cameron.

There wasn't much John could do. Looking around, he saw the entire house was trashed. There wasn't much that could be used for anything, let alone fighting a terminator.

He heard someone get body slammed yet again.

Think, Connor, THINK.

His eyes stopped on the red fire extinguisher still managing to dangle from the wall. Jumping over the pieces of broken banister, he unhooked it from the wall.

Right. Now what the hell are you going to do with it?

He didn't really have time to ponder ninja fire extinguisher techniques, as Cameron came flying into the kitchen, crushing the last of the chairs.

"Okay, that's it." John pulled the pin on the extinguisher and extended the hose. "HEY! OVER HERE!"

The terminator paused in its advance towards Cameron's emotionless form. Its one remaining eye registered the figure in the doorway.

"Yeah, that's right. I'm John Connor."

The triple eight only got one step before John sprayed the extinguisher. It wasn't a T1000 frozen effect of course, but it still effectively blinded it. It took a step backwards, and stumbled over the debris.

Quickly, he turned to help Cameron to her feet. "Are you all right?"

"I'm not 100%."

John's gut clenched, remembering what that meant the last time. Out of the corner of his eye he caught the triple eight attempting to sit up and sprayed him once again in the face.

Avoiding its stumbling, yet still dangerous form, John ran forward and swung the extinguisher like a bat, cracking the terminator in the head.

"UUUUUGGGGHHHH" John almost dropped the extinguisher, as the force of metal against metal vibrated up his arm. He stumbled back and ran right into Cameron.

"Okay, bad idea."

"John…" Cameron held out her good hand and took the extinguisher off of him. It was obvious John's blow at least shook it up enough that it was confused. Avoiding his flailing hands, she put in one good swing, knocking it offline.

Wasting no time, Cameron knelt down beside it. The flesh over the port was already half cut by her, so she simply tore it the rest of the way off with her hands. John was pulling the tool kit out from under the sink and digging through the bag.

"Screwdriver," he said, tossing it in her general direction.

He heard the port cap pop off as he found the pliers. "Pliers." This time, he actually walked over to hand it to her, and watched her pull the chip out.

They stared at it in Cameron's hand, both glad it remained in one piece.

She handed it to John and stood up, glancing around at the total disaster.

"Sarah is not going to be very happy."

John wasn't looking at the kitchen. He didn't really give a damn about it. He was looking Cameron up and down, noticing every cut, scrape, and apparently damaged limb.

"She'll get over it." He gently touched her right arm, running his hand down from shoulder to wrist, feeling the busted joint. "My God Cameron… how bad is it?"

"I'll get over it."

John glanced up to Cameron's face, but she avoided his gaze. It hurt that she felt she couldn't even look at him. The whole situation, from Dani to terminator, wasn't his freaking fault. Somehow though, he had to fix it all.

"Cameron…"

John was interrupted by the front door crashing open. "John! JOHN!"

"In here, mom!"

Sarah ran into the kitchen, leaping over broken furniture everywhere. "Oh my God, are you all right? Where's Savannah?"

John picked his way around the broken table to hug his mother. "I'm fine mom, Savannah's upstairs in the bathroom with Dani. They're okay. The only one of us who's hurt is Cameron."

Sarah looked at Cameron, and was surprised to feel genuine concern. "Are you all right?"

"I have several damages. I will need to use the triple eight's endo to repair myself." She looked at Sarah, as if to challenge her. She knew she preferred to burn them as soon as possible.

But Sarah simply nodded. "That's fine. Just take it downstairs. We'll get rid of it when you're done." She looked around the kitchen as if for the first time. "Now what the hell are we going to do with this mess?" Derek, who had been standing in the living room staring through the now missing wall, was the first to answer.

"As long as the refrigerator is still there, and my beer is unharmed, I'm okay to go."

It broke the tension in the situation, as everyone managed to chuckle. "I'm going to go check on Savannah," Sarah said, but as she turned to walk out, she ran right into Dani.

"Oh, sorry ma'am, is everything all right now?" Dani cautiously walked down the steps and into the kitchen. "Holy hell, looks like a herd of rhinos ran through here."

What happened next shocked everyone. There was a loud crunch as Cameron's fist made contact with Dani's face.

Dani fell to the ground, nearly unconscious, groaning in pain as blood dripped out of her mouth.

"You lead it here." Cameron picked her up by the front of the shirt and lifted her off the ground.

"It's your fault. You almost killed John." She threw her against one of the remaining walls and watched her collapse to the floor.

Dani covered her face with her arms. "I don't know what you're talking about! Please!"

"Cameron…" John reached out and grabbed her shoulder, but she shrugged it off. Approaching Dani, she lifted her up again and held her against the wall.

"It followed you here. Where did you go? How did it find you?"

Dani was bawling in fear and pain. "I don't know! I just went back to where I used to sleep at night. I don't know how it found me! I swear I didn't know! I would never bring metal on the Connors! I would die first!"

"You should die."

"CAMERON!" John had to yell to get her attention. He knew there was more than just a terminator fueling the fire.

Cameron glanced over her shoulder, displeasure clearly written on her face.

John placed his hand on her back. "Please… enough damage was done for one night."

He didn't miss the flash of hurt that crossed her face. "You and I can discuss together how to deal with her. And I promise…" John glared at Dani meaningfully. "She will be dealt with."

Cameron seemed to consider this, and decided it was satisfactory. She dropped Dani unceremoniously and watched her once again crumple to the ground.

John took her hand, and held tighter when he felt her try to pull away. "Let's get this thing downstairs, and you fixed up, okay?" He led her into the kitchen, and slowly, they managed to half carry, half drag the machine down to the basement.

Sarah had gone upstairs to take care of Savannah, and Derek simply stood there glaring at Dani, a beer already in his hand.

"I don't know what you did, but I know you did something…"

Dani slowly got to her feet. "I swear, Derek. I didn't know. You know me."

"I wasn't talking about the metal, and yeah, I do know you. That's why I know you did something. And whatever that something is… you had better fix it. Because if she doesn't kick your ass…" Derek nodded towards the basement. "I will. Lord knows you have it coming." He reached into the freezer and pulled out a bag of frozen peas, and tossed it to her. "Put that on your face. She has an awesome left hook, and it's already showing."

*******************************

John and Cameron dropped the triple eight on the floor by the wall.

"Okay, we should probably start on your arm first, that looks like it has the most damage."

"I can fix it myself. You don't have to."

John sighed. "I know you can fix it yourself, Cam, but as long as I'm around you'll never have to. Come on…" He took her hand and led her over to the bed. "I think we're going to have to cut off your shirt."

Cameron looked at her dislocated shoulder. "Yes, it's the only way to get it off."

John smirked, trying to lighten the mood. "Under normal circumstances, that would be an incredibly hot thing to do. Oh, oh oh oh… don't you even dare try to pretend like you didn't just smile. I so busted you."

"I did not smile," Cameron pouted.

"Yes, you did," he said, pointing an accusing finger.

"It was a twitch."

John snorted. "A twitch my ass."

He started digging through the tool box they kept downstairs, mostly containing the stuff needed for Cameron's repairs, which they hadn't needed since… before.

Cameron watched him quietly. She was still upset with him, and the tension between them was uncomfortable. She would have preferred to do her own repair, but she wouldn't tell John no, and it was easier to have help anyway. It would be good practice for him, too.

There was a quiet knock on the door. "Come in," she called, and immediately regretted it when Dani walked down the steps.

"Um, I'm sorry. I just, um, thought you could use the first aid kit," she said, without looking at either one of them.

Cameron took the box from her. "Thank you. You can leave now."

John had to bite his tongue. For some reason, when Cameron was being a bitch to anyone but him, it was just plain funny.

Dani didn't move, though. She stood awkwardly a good six feet away from them, and shoved her hands in her jeans.

"Um, listen… Cameron… I need to apologize." John cleared his throat and stood up. "I'm gonna go get some more tools." He made a quick escape up the stairs, leaving the two women alone to duke it out themselves.

Dani shuffled her feet uncomfortably. "What happened the other day… that was my fault, not John's. I came on to him, and he refused." She was blushing profusely, but she chanced a glance at Cameron, whose stone-like face simply stared back emotionless. "I'm not used to being refused. I didn't like it. I just kept pushing, and I crossed the line way too far. What you saw the other day was me crossing that line, and John trying to get rid of me. He had nothing to do with it. He was simply trying to get me to leave. You just walked in at the wrong time…"

Cameron just stared at her blankly, not giving any of her thoughts away. Dani's story added up with what John had told her in the voicemail, as well as her bitch-whore personality to begin with. For some reason though, she wasn't quite ready to give in.

"Thank you for explaining. You can go now."

Dani shook her head and started for the steps, but stopped midway and turned back around. "You know… he never, ever cheated on you… ever." She left Cameron sitting on the bed, analyzing the implications of what she just said.

*************

When he saw Dani come back upstairs, John returned to his room, carrying a pair of scissors.

"Are we ready?" He asked, snipping the scissors a few times for dramatic effect.

Cameron nodded and laid back on the bed.

John lifted the bottom of her shirt and started cutting. "You know, regardless, this is actually still kinda sexy."

Cameron raised an eyebrow. "I think you're demented."

John cracked up. "Being chased by killer machines all your life will do that to anyone." He made the final cut and pushed the fabric away. "Okay, shoulder first. Will we need parts for that?"

Cameron ran an analysis. "No, it's repairable."

"Alrighty then… let's do this."

Repairable or not, there was quite a bit of damage. John worked for half an hour straight in near silence. Cameron never spoke a word, she simply moved her arm as directed, and nodded yes or no.

John tightened yet another bolt. He could fix her arm, but he was going to have to work on fixing her inside.

He decided an apology would be a good start. "Cameron… I'm sorry about everything."

Cameron turned her head and regarded him. "This is not your fault. You did not break my arm."

John just gave her a look. He knew she knew what he was talking about, but if that's how it was going to be… he'd play along.

"Well, technically, if I wouldn't have been too busy hiding in closets, I would have been a lot more help to you. You probably wouldn't have gotten hurt so bad."

"I told you to hide, John. It was the right thing to do."

John just shook his head. "It's never right to leave the woman I love behind to fight off the big scary terminators for me all alone." He looked up to catch Cameron glancing away.

"You should not have come downstairs. It was too dangerous. You could have been killed."

"So could you."

"I'm a machine, John, I…"

"I don't care what you are, goddammit. You mean more to me than anything else in the world, do you understand that? Don't you ever forget that." His eyes bored into hers for a long moment, before finally turning back to his work. "Besides, what kind of legendary hero would I be if I didn't come running downstairs to rescue my damsel in distress?"

"A smart one."

John sighed in exasperation. "Cam…"

"You should not take unnecessary risks, John."

John reached up and grabbed her chin. "You do not qualify as unnecessary." When Cameron did her best not to make further eye contact, John put down the tools and turned her entire body to face him.

"Cameron… I know I hurt you. What happened was as much Dani's fault as mine. I probably should have been more stern with her, meaner, or something. I don't know."

Cameron pulled out of John's grasp and stood up. "Well when you figure it out, let me know. I'll be upstairs having Sarah stitch my shoulder." Almost as if it was an afterthought, she tested her shoulder out, rotating it in all directions. "Thank you for fixing it. It's functioning at 100% now."

John watched her walk upstairs, not having a single clue how to fix a terminator's heart.

**************************************

"Is it really all fixed?" Sarah pulled the needle through Cameron's skin, making another tight stitch.

"Yes. It's not actually quite at 100%, but once the rest of the arm is fixed, I can make fine tune adjustments, and then it'll work perfectly."

Sarah nodded, concentrating on her stitch work. "So, why isn't John doing this?"

"He needed a rest."

Sarah glanced up. "Did he decide that, or did you?"

Cameron didn't answer. She glanced at her shoulder and the half closed incision. "You do not have to make the stitches so neat. I will not scar."

Sarah ignored her and pushed the needle through once more. "So are you going to tell me what happened between you two, or do I have to ask the innocent child who sees all and knows all?"

Cameron wasn't sure if telling Sarah was a good idea. But on the other hand, she thought perhaps she might have better advice than Cosmo, so she related the whole story to her from he beginning.

"Yeah, you're right, he should have known better. But in his defense, as his mother… it's John. As bright as he may be, when it comes to girls, he's about as dumb as a box of rocks." Then again, Sarah thought to herself. Depending on the type of rocks… they might have him beat.

"So you're saying I should forgive him?" Cameron asked, watching her stitch the last of the incision closed.

Sarah was momentarily quiet, deciding how to answer. She had a feeling Cameron was counting on her opinion a lot more than she was letting on.

"I'm saying… you should give him a chance. Don't fault him for his past… or future, however you look at it, mistakes." Sarah quirked an eyebrow at the slightly guilty look on Cameron's face. "Uh huh. And don't punish him for things he didn't do. If he says nothing happened between them, then I believe him, and you should too. Trust is more important than anything else in a relationship."

"I trust him." Cameron tilted her head slightly. "I just… I think I'm mad at him, and I don't know why. I know it wasn't his fault, and I know nothing happened, but I'm mad at him still."

Sarah bit back a grin as she wrapped a bandage around Cameron's shoulder and secured it with a strip of tape. "Yeah, well, I can't fault you for that. I'd be pretty mad too. At both of them."

Cameron looked at Sarah, and with all sincerity asked, "What do I do?"

Sarah paused in repacking the first aid kit. She sat back down on her bed next to Cameron and rested her arms on her thighs. She wasn't quite sure why she was offering a terminator advice, but just looking at Cameron… even though she just saw the metal of her arm… it felt as if she was looking at a normal teenage girl, asking for her mother's advice about boy problems. She didn't have a daughter she ever got to share advice with, and John had never asked her about girl trouble. When he did go through that stage, he was lucky to have Charlie around, and didn't want to ask his mom about girls.

It was weird… but so was the rest of her damn life.

Sarah smiled conspiratorially. "What do you do? Rule number one, when a man fucks up and he knows it…"

*******************

Cameron found John still in the basement, kneeling over the deactivated triple eight.

"What are you doing?"

John looked up, a little relieved Cameron had decided to come back downstairs. He half suspected her to go hiding in the shed to fix her arm herself.

"Well, we're going to need some parts to fix your arm, won't we?"

Cameron knelt down beside him and saw that he had already pulled off the skin from the terminator's arm and placed it in several plastic bags.

"You did not have to do this. I understand it can be, what is the word… queasy?... for humans to do this kind of thing."

John's stomach was fluttering a little, but he ignored it. "Yeah well, it had to be done. And it would have been a little difficult for you to do it one-handed." He stood up and went into the laundry room to wash his hands in the tub.

Cameron looked at the skinned arm thoughtfully. Already, it seemed Sarah was proven right. She heard someone come down the steps and turned to see Derek walking downstairs with two beers.

"Hey, please tell me one of those are for me," John said, coming out of the laundry room drying his hands on a towel.

"Nah, I prefer one in each hand," Derek joked, handing his nephew a beer. "Listen… I didn't want to say anything in front of Sarah yet. The woman's a loose cannon, and lord only knows what she'll do when she finds out. I just thought it'd be better to let her relax for a bit before telling her…"

"Telling her what, Derek," John asked.

"Well… that that terminator…"

"Came from the resistance camp?" John suppled.

Derek looked surprised, and Cameron just frankly looked impressed. "Yeah, I'm not always stupid. I figured that one out for myself. Unless Skynet has a Caminator voice file backup… he had to have heard her voice somewhere."

Derek took a swig of his beer. "Well, so, yeah. Anyway… it's from Connor camp. I definitely recognize it. I'm not sure if Dani actually saw it, but I'm sure she would too."

"The question is," Cameron finally spoke up. "Who sent it?"

"Well, there's only two possibilities," Derek said. "When we left, it was still working for us. So either one of our own people sent it back to kill John and all the others, or Skynet recaptured it and sent it back."

John pulled out his cell phone. "Well, I guess we'll give John Henry something to look for on the chip. Speaking of… what happened to Catherine?"

Derek shrugged. "Probably still hanging out in my front yard pretending to be a tree branch or something. I suppose we should call and let her know we found it. Or, it found us… Oh and by the way, we need to get your mom a new phone."

John gave Derek a funny look. "Why? That one's practically brand new."

"Um… she kinda got really pissed at me, and scared we wouldn't get to you on time… and um, crushed the damn thing right in her bare hand."

John exchanged a shocked look with Cameron. "What the hell did you do?"

**************************************

"Close your hand… okay, now move every finger individually… good." John sat back and wiped his forehead. He'd just spent well over two hours fixing Cameron's arm. It wasn't as bad as she thought it was, but they did need several pieces from the triple eight. John was afraid the endoskeleton size difference was going to be a problem, but Cameron had assured him that the joint pieces were all relatively the same and compatible, for situations such as this one.

"Thank you, John. I know you're tired, I can stitch it up myself."

"I'm fine, I caught a second wind here. That pizza mom ordered kicked in well."

John in fact was exhausted, but he wasn't going to tell her that. He was sure she knew as well, and was surprised she wasn't arguing.

"So, what do you want for your birthday?"

Cameron looked confused. "I don't have a birthday."

"Yeah you do, remember? The day you infiltrated my camp and I reprogrammed you. The fourth of July… that's in a couple days."

"Oh," Cameron thought about it. "There is nothing I need or want."

"Oh, come on," John smiled. "There's gotta be something you want."

Savannah had asked what she should get Cameron for her birthday at breakfast the previous week, and Sarah had decided that since it would in normal situations be rude not to get her anything, that it wouldn't be a very good example to Savannah if she were to not get her anything either. So she had just told John to pick up something and put her name on it.

Which was perfectly fine, since it was way more than John expected from his mom anyway. So he picked out a purple iPod and got headphones to match it. He figured with her own, she wouldn't keep stealing his and adding girly music to it.

"I do not know, John."

"Hmm… well, you know it doesn't have to be a thing. It could be anything. We could go somewhere, or do something…"

"Why don't you just make it a surprise? It's more fun that way."

John grinned from ear to ear. "Oh, I'm going to surprise you all right."