John walked back into his mom's room and sat beside her on the bed.

"Hey mom, you all right?"

Sarah opened her eyes and gave him a weak smile. "Super. Is…"

John nodded. "Yeah, she's fine. She's just fixing, oh, she's right there. Never mind."

Cameron walked into the room carrying a tray with a bowl of soup and a glass of water, and headed straight over to the bed. She set the tray down on the nightstand and looked down at Sarah with her head slightly tilted. "How are you feeling?"

"Like shit. Is that expected?" Sarah asked sarcastically.

"Yes," Cameron deadpanned. "It's very expected." She proceeded to tug down the sheet covering Sarah to look at the wound. Sarah on the other hand, turned back to her son.

"Please, explain to me again…" She gestured toward the cyborg. "Why?"

John just gave her a faint smile and shook his head. "How does it look, Cameron?"

"Derek did an acceptable job with it. He is right, she will need antibiotics." She reached up and placed her hand on Sarah's forehead. "Your temperature is elevated, but it isn't at a dangerous level. That's a good thing. Your body is fighting the infection."

Sarah stared at her. "Are you going to tell me something I don't know, or just keep poking me all afternoon?"

Cameron stared blankly at her while she considered the question. She finally turned and reached for John's chest.

"Oww!" John winced back and covered his chest with his hands. He glared at Cameron who gazed back with a knowing look.

"No, Sarah, I'm going to fix your son who seems to have sustained a moderate to severe injury in his torso area."

Sarah narrowed her eyes at John. "Take off your shirt."

John rubbed his chest and looked back and forth between the two women. There really wasn't any point in arguing. They'd most likely end up holding him down and tearing his shirt off his body anyway. He sighed, and carefully pulled his shirt off over his head. His mother let out a low hiss, and he looked down thinking it wasn't all that bad.

He blinked. Well, damn. It was actually pretty bad. His entire torso was mottled and bruised.

"Jesus, John," Sarah breathed. "That looks terrible."

John rolled his eyes. "Well I was kicked by a terminator, then thrown into a wall. What do you expect?"

Cool hands were suddenly running across his skin, feeling along his back and around to his chest.

And it suddenly got awkward. Very, very awkward. Even though his chest did hurt, and he was basically just getting medically examined… To put it nicely, Cameron's touch was seriously rekindling that recent warm and tingly feeling. What was bad was that he knew damn well she knew what was going on, and was probably doing it on purpose. Really, was it necessary for her thumb to brush over his nipple while she felt the sides of his ribs? And what made it even worse, was that he was sitting right next to his mother.

"Lay down on the floor," Cameron instructed, and John just stared at her as if she spoke German. "I need to properly feel for internal damage," she explained, giving him a slight smirk, which told him she definitely knew what was going on… and was probably doing it on purpose.

John sighed and slid down to the floor, allowing her to help him lay on his back. Placing her thumbs side by side along his sternum and splaying her fingers over his rib cage, she told him to take a deep breath.

"I feel no complete fractures," she announced, before moving her hands to his abdomen and continuing her examination. "I do not suspect any further internal damage. You will, however, be on bed rest. They could still be cracked, or at the very least, bruised."

John grimaced as she helped him to his feet without jarring his ribs too much. "And how long do you expect me to lay around?"

"Until I say so." She looked back at a chuckling Sarah. "You should eat. The warm soup and water will not cause your fever to increase.

Sarah nodded. "I will… thank you." Eating wasn't exactly her concern at the moment. She turned to her son. "You look disgusting," she said bluntly. "Go shower and change your clothes to something with less blood on it."

John rolled his eyes but didn't argue. He leaned down and kissed his mom on the cheek. "By the way, you look disgusting too." He turned and kissed his fiancée on the cheek as well before shuffling out of the room.

Cameron regarded Sarah curiously. "Did you want to speak to me, Sarah?" She wasn't dense enough to not realize the woman had purposely got rid of John.

"Yes, I did…" She patted the bed beside her much like she did to her son. Cameron tilted her head and, after brief hesitation, sat stiffly down beside her.

Sarah regarded the machine quietly for a moment before taking a deep breath. "You know it's not safe to stay here."

It wasn't really a question, but Cameron responded anyway. "Yes, it's dangerous."

Sarah nodded. "I want you to take John and leave. Get him out of here. I'm under the impression we don't have much time anyway. Just take him somewhere and… do what you need to do to get him ready. I realized a long time ago that that wasn't my job anymore," she finished quietly.

Cameron processed the words carefully. "That is not our decision to make." She watched the older woman's face closely, trying to read her emotion.

Sarah glanced at the door and huffed. "Well damn it, make it your decision. I thought you didn't follow his orders anymore."

"I'm not programmed to blindly follow his orders," Cameron corrected. "Nor does he order me to do anything; he asks. However, John is in charge, and I choose to follow his direction." She looked briefly down at the floor before turning her gaze back to Sarah. "I can make a suggestion, but the decision is ultimately his."

Cameron was glad John fell asleep in the seat next to her, she really didn't' want to have to field all of his inevitable questions. He had questioned her enough at home about why he had to go with her, when all he wanted to do was take a handful of pills and sleep for days. In the end she won, just like always. She did agree to the pills, though. The pain medication Derek and Dani had brought back worked almost instantly, apparently knocking him out cold. She'd have to cut back on the dosage next time.

She pulled up to the security gate and showed the man their clearance badges. The gate arm lifted and she pulled into the underground VIP parking garage, finding a rather secluded spot on the opposite side of the entrance.

She reached over and gently shook John until he mumbled groggily. "John… we're here, it's time to wake up."

She watched as he yawned and rubbed his eyes sleepily. He glanced around them and immediately knew where they were, and she could almost see a few questions forming in his head.

Before he could ask, Cameron climbed out of the car and started walking towards the door, obviously expecting John to follow her. She handed him his badge when he caught up and swiped her own to unlock the door.

They took the elevator to the bottom level and received a few nods from the Zeira Corp employees they passed in the corridor. All of them being members of the Project Babylon team; no one else was permitted on the ground level.

They passed the room John had lived in for several weeks, and Cameron took them down a back hallway, one that he'd never been down before. She finally stopped at a door three quarters of the way down and swiped her access key. The electronic lock clicked and she pushed the door open.

The lights automatically flickered on as they walked in, and John took a quick look around. It wasn't very large, more like the size of an average office. There were a couple of boxes in the corner, but closer to the far wall… what the hell? He took a few steps closer to get a better look. It was a table covered by a sheet, with a clearly defined body lying underneath. Right. Only in my life.

"I'm just going to guess there's a terminator under there?"

"Yes… There is a terminator under the sheet," she said carefully as she stepped around the table and stared at him. Her blank terminator expression was perfectly set on her face. "This is what we will use to fix my arm."

"Oooookay..." John shrugged, wondering why she was acting so goofy. He grabbed the sheet and pulled it off in one swift motion… and fought the instinctual urge to jump. No matter how many times he saw one, the metal endoskeleton of a terminator seemingly staring back at him would always scare the shit out of him.

He felt Cameron's eyes on him and took a deep breath to relax himself. He looked over the chassis carefully, starting at the much less creepy feet. It must have been washed off after it was skinned. There weren't any traces of blood and gore on the body at all. The metal gleamed dully under the light as his eyes swept over the endoskeleton.

Cameron taught him the ins and outs of a terminator. His mother didn't know of course, it was one of those secrets they had between them. Whenever they had a chance, before she would destroy it, she'd take him out and give him lessons on how their bodies worked. It was important, she had said, in case he had ever needed to repair her… or another one.

By the metal used, he knew it wasn't an older model. She taught him that too. The size of the body didn't matter much though, what really made the model was the software, not hardware. However, this particular model seemed extremely small to be a T-888 series. Just eyeballing it, he guessed it would be shorter than him, and the frame itself would be rather petite. If he were to make an educated guess, he'd say this terminator was a female.

And that's when everything clicked into place.

Not using Seth's convenient parts, Zeira Corp, the unusual secretive behavior… The stone-cold expression on her face that he rarely ever saw anymore.

Holy shit, he thought to himself. Why the hell didn't I ever…

He looked back up to meet Cameron's eyes once again, and suddenly realized why she had brought him with her. She didn't need his help; she was programmed for self-repair. This… was a lesson. She was trying to prove a point.

Cameron watched his face closely. She was having a difficult time reading his body language, something that usually came easy to her. His face was in an expression of shock and… something else.

She was afraid it was disgust. She had debated a long time whether or not to ever show John her old body. In the end, she decided it was something he needed to see. He knew what she was, but he needed to see it. There was a human expression she thought worked well for this situation: You have to see it to believe it. When a person saw something, it became more real to them. She wanted John to completely understand, without a doubt, what she really was.

They stared at each other, neither really sure what to say. John wasn't even sure what to feel. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. It was weird, yes. Seeing your girlfriend's insides was weird, no matter what she was made of. He tore his eyes away from hers and back down to the endoskeleton on the table. He rubbed the back of his neck and closed his eyes.

So this was Cameron's old body. The one that didn't go through the TDE when he and Catherine jumped into the future. He never thought any more about it. Cameron had a new body, and for some reason he just forgot about this one. It made sense to keep it for situations like this. Why use another terminator's parts when essentially she could just use her own?

He opened his eyes and began studying the endo again. It was actually rather interesting to see. She was clearly built for combat, but small combat… humans. Definitely not built to fight other machines. Body size was really the only difference that he could see between her and triple eights. Other than that, her face had a clearly more feminine structure, but that applied to her whole body.

"Who did it?" he asked quietly.

If Cameron was human, she would have shifted awkwardly on her feet. "I did."

"What?" He stared at her incredulously. "You friggin skinned yourself?

"I needed to store it. The organic tissues would have eventually begun to break down and decompose," she said matter-of-factly. "It would have been… unpleasant."

"Yeah, but…" John scratched his head and sighed. "You could have asked someone else to do it. You didn't have to do it yourself, you know."

Cameron looked down at her old endo and gave him a very human shrug. "It doesn't bother me."

John shook his head and rubbed his neck. He loved her to death, but sometimes… sometimes she was just way too much.

"Well, are you going to cut open your arm so we can get this started before I pass out here on the floor? I think you were trying to kill me with those pills."

"If I was trying to kill you, I wouldn't use Codeine."

John rolled his eyes and pulled his switchblade out of his back pocket. It flicked open with a satisfying metallic swish sound. "You or me, babe?

Cameron pulled off her jacket as she walked around the table. She carelessly tossed it over the head of the endo on the table and held out her left arm.

Oh my God why do I feel like I got hit by a truck? John attempted to roll over, and his memory came flooding back with a groan. Oh yeah… I got my ass kicked by a terminator. Would have preferred the truck…

He sighed and opened his eyes. Someone had drawn the curtains closed at some point so it was still pleasantly dark, rather than the stream of hellish sunbeams that usually blinded him in the mornings.

"Good morning."

John looked to his left and was surprised to see Cameron lying next to him. "Oh hey… what are you doing here?"

Cameron furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "I'm sorry, you do not wish for me to lay with you?" She started to sit up but John grabbed her arm.

"No, that's not what I meant. I meant that I expected you to be on patrol or something. I didn't tell you to go anywhere…" He tugged her arm until she laid back down, resting her head on his shoulder carefully.

"Is this hurting you?"

"Nope, not at all." It wasn't the complete truth, but it was close enough. It didn't really make it hurt much worse. He sighed and raked his fingers through her soft hair. "Were you here all night?"

"No, I did patrol most of the night," she said quietly. "I've only been here for thirty seven minutes. I wanted to be here when you woke up."

"Oh…" John smiled. "Well, waking up to you is always a pleasant experience."

Cameron tilted her head to look up at him. "I needed to talk to you."

"Aaaand… there it went." John sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Before you start, let me say this..." He held his hand up when she opened her mouth to speak. "I know, I know, it's important, but trust me, okay?" When she closed her mouth obediently he gave her a quick peck on the forehead before continuing. "Thank you. Now… yes, I am aware that it is no longer safe to live here. Yes, I am aware, and fully agree, that we need to move as soon as possible. Yes, I am aware, and fully understand, my mom is in no condition to move with us at the moment, and she is going to have to stay here. That means you and I, and most certainly the munchkin, will be going alone." He paused to let everything he said sink in, not that her advanced CPU really needed the time… it was more for dramatic effect. "Did I miss anything?"

Cameron lifted herself up on her arm so she could look down at him. "No, you didn't miss anything. How did you know?"

John rolled his eyes. "I'm not as dumb as people seem to think I am."

"I didn't say…"

"No, you didn't," he interrupted. "I didn't mean that to sound like a dick, either. It's just that… you know, I wish people would give me a little more credit. Even you."

His blunt statement made her guiltily drop her gaze to his chest, but John wasn't having any of it. He lifted his hand to her chin and waited patiently for her to look back at him. "Did you even notice I had already packed up all my clothes?" He watched her eyes immediately track to their closet. "I would have packed yours, but I got intimidated by all the lacy things."

She felt him chuckle beside her and gave him a confused look. "You like the lacy things."

John's smile turned into a grin. "Damn right I do… when you're wearing them. In fact…" He hooked his finger into the collar of her shirt and peeked down her chest. "Oh, is that the red one? You know it's my favorite."

Cameron's smile was slow, but genuine. She was still learning about her emotions and how to handle them, but there were certain things that now came much more naturally to her. She liked when John complimented her. She liked when she could make him smile and even… turn him on. She also liked when he touched her. Not just when he really touched her, but even the small simple touches like playing with her hair, or just tapping her arm to get her attention.

Of course… really touching her was the best, and where his hand had currently found his way under her shirt, her sensors were pretty much exploding. Well, figuratively speaking of course. She wouldn't allow him to touch her if they could actually explode; that would be a serious risk to his safety.

She felt his hand slide up to her breast, and through a series of immediate pleasure responses, her nipple harden in his palm.

"John… you're hurt."

"And?" He began trying to pull her on top of him, but she didn't budge.

"We should not… this could hurt you more."

John groaned. "Okay, well what if I just let you do all the work?" He pulled more insistently, and smirked when she finally acquiesced and carefully placed herself over him, doing her best to keep as much of her weight off of him as possible.

"This is not a good idea, John Connor."

"And that doesn't sound like a real complaint." He tucked her cascading hair behind her ears and smiled. "Think of it this way… endorphins are the body's natural pain killers. It won't hurt much at all. And you know damn well you'll be monitoring me the whole time anyway, so I promise I won't try to lie and pretend to be fine just to get a little action."

His logic was sound. Well, not really, but it was good enough. He was likely to continue to argue until she all but left the room. If she did that though, he was likely to be moody and unpleasant the rest of the day. Besides… John was in charge, after all.

"Okay," she finally agreed. "But you have to promise."

"I already promised," he growled in frustration as he attempted to pull off her shirt.

She allowed him the shirt and raised her arms to make it easier. "No… promise me I'll do all the work."

John had a hard time keeping eye contact, and finally gave up and settled on her red-lace covered breasts. "Uh… yeah sure…" He swallowed hard. "Not a problem, Cam."

That earned him a full-fledged smile just before she leaned down to kiss him deeply.

Kissing John was one of the things she loved most. She thoroughly enjoyed the sensations of their lips and tongues dancing together, and John's hands on her now naked breasts brought her. Of course, as the kiss became more heated… so did John. When his hands glided down her body and gripped her hips, she finally pulled away.

She was taking charge now; and John wasn't going to complain one bit.

"Stop squirming."

"I can't help it, it tickles!"

"You're such a girl, Connor."

"Hey! I'm injured here, you know, from trying to save your ass!"

They heard a shout from upstairs. "HEY! KNOCK IT OFF DOWN THERE BEFORE YOU MAKE ME GET UP AND KICK ALL OF YOUR ASSES!"

Four sets of eyes stared up at the ceiling. Derek set his glass of juice down quietly. "Glad it wasn't me this time."

"REESE! I HEARD THAT!"

Nobody had the guts to laugh. Between the medication, the fever, the pain, and being bedridden, Sarah Connor had turned into a scary dragon.

The other adults were hiding in the kitchen. Cameron was wrapping John's chest with gauze dipped in some sort of mentholated crap she claimed would help the pain. Every once in a while her hand would brush against a sensitive spot, making him squirm in his seat.

"Hold here so I can tape." John did as he was directed, eager to put his shirt on in hopes the strong smell of the poultice would be covered somewhat. "There, you're finished. I'm going to help Savannah pack. Eat your oatmeal."

John stared at the bowl of mush in disgust. He looked across the table at Danielle who was eating the last bowl of Cap'n Crunch. She noticed him eyeing it up and pulled it closer to her.

"Don't even think about it."

John raised an eyebrow. "But I'm the General, don't I get dibs on the better food?"

"Not for another ten years or so."

John sighed and picked up his spoon. Unlike the oatmeal his mom used to make, it wasn't thick like glue. It had a curious cinnamon scent, and when he hesitantly took a small bite, he was surprised to taste not only cinnamon, but a healthy amount of butter and brown sugar.

"Hmm… this ain't too bad, I guess. Don't tell her I said that, though. She'll make me eat this crap everyday."

"Mmm… fiber," Derek chuckled. "I gotta finish getting this list of supplies together that Cameron gave me before she gives me another one of those death glares." He clapped John on the shoulder before leaving him alone with Dani. And inevitably an awkward silence.

They ate their respective breakfasts in silence until John couldn't take it anymore. He pushed his bowl aside and took a breath. "Listen… Dani… I want to thank you for-"

"Don't," she interrupted. "Just… don't." Her voice trailed off at the end and she stared at her cereal milk. "It was my fault they found you. I told them-"

This time it was John's turn to interrupt. "It's not your fault. Trust me. They would have eventually found us either way. They always do…" He grabbed his bowl and began playing with the now cooled oatmeal. "The fact that you held them off for three weeks is commendable. But regardless, everything you did for my mom…" He paused, trying to find the right words. "She means the… she's… I don't know what I would have done if I lost her. I owe you more than you know."

Dani shook her head and spoke quietly. "It's what I do. You don't owe me anything."

John knocked on his mother's bedroom doorframe. "Hey mom… is it safe to come in, or are you still breathing fire?"

Sarah turned her head and narrowed her eyes. "Are you sassing me? Boy do you know how many hours I was in labor with you? In the jungle? Alone?"

John rolled his eyes and sat down on the bed beside her. "You're probably going to tell me some obscene number like thirty five or something, right?"

"Seventeen!" Sarah shook her head and let out a mock exasperated sigh. "Kids! No respect for their mothers…"

"All right all right, we'll go on the Maury show and you can tell the world all about our convoluted family."

Sarah chuckled. "Convoluted doesn't even begin to describe us." She looked him up and down and sighed. "So you're all ready to go, huh? Savannah and Cameron were just in here. The poor girl is pretty upset about having to leave her friend."

John nodded. "Yeah, I know. I feel terrible, but… nothing we can do. And Cameron… is starting to get impatient. She's fidgeting."

"Oh dear," Sarah said seriously. "Cameron fidgeting… best not keep her waiting."

"Yeah, I know right?" John chuckled uneasily. "She'll be fine for a few more minutes. It's not like she's going to come up and carry me out to the van."

"I don't know, she might."

John secretly agreed. "Anyway… are you sure you're going to be all right?"

"Oh my God, John," Sarah groaned. "I'm a big girl. I think I'll survive just fine. Besides, Derek and Dani are staying with me."

"I know…" John's eyes got wide. "That's kind of what I'm afraid of."

"Oh…" she smacked him on the arm, but couldn't stop her smile. "I'll be fine. It's not like it's forever or anything, right? Just until I get better and things settle down."

John was gazing out the window, not really looking at anything in particular. "It better not be," he said quietly, before looking back down at his mom. "Call me a big baby, but I haven't lived without my mommy since I was ten."

Sarah was doing her best not to let the tears that were threatening to spill over escape. "I know… think how I feel. But hey, just… imagine this as you going off to college. It's about that time, right? You're just lucky. You won't get stuck in a tiny dorm room with some guy you hate. Instead, you get the sorority queen."

John laughed and shook his head. "Wow that's… yeah. Definitely not Cameron, but okay. College. Got it. I'll become a fan of some state university and start wearing their clothes or something."

"That's the spirit! See? We can do this."

"Yeah…" John picked up her hand. "We can do this."

They were silent for a few long moments before John spoke again. "Well… I guess I should get going."

"Please. I don't want to witness her carrying you down the stairs." She sat up and pulled her son into her arms. "Be safe. Please," she pleaded, a hint of what seemed like panic in her voice.

"I will, mom. I love you."

"I love you, too."

Sarah slowly hobbled over to her bedroom window that looked down over the driveway. Derek and Dani were saying their goodbyes, but with the window closed she couldn't hear what they were saying. John gave his uncle one last hug before climbing into the passenger seat of the van. She watched as they pulled out of the driveway, drove down the street and quickly out of sight.

She didn't know how long she stood there staring. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours. The dull throbbing in her leg eventually snapped her out of it, and she slowly limped back to her bed as she wiped the moisture from her cheeks.

"Are you ready, John?"

He looked over at Cameron in the driver's seat. "Do I have a choice?"

THE END... FOR NOW.

Well... surprise right? This is the end of That Which We Call Fate. Before you panic and blow up my inbox... don't worry, the story will continue with a third part. Stay tuned... I haven't titled part 3 yet. I'll add a 'chapter 19' with the information in a short while. There shouldn't be that long of a wait. I'm not taking a hiatus from writing.

Also, thanks to M1919 for supplying me with the Cameron skinning herself idea! And to DarkDanny for putting up with my Xena-like attitude, well, pretty much everyday :)

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed. Readers who don't write really don't know just how important it is for authors to get feedback, good and bad.