I promised that this chapter would be a little more dynamic than the previous ones, so here it is – winter activities. Actually, this chapter grew much longer than I expected it to, so I had to split it up into two and this is the first one.
I knew from the start that this story wouldn't be 'everyone's taste'. It's too sappy, there's almost no action, there are no different timelines, there's no dark future looming over our heroes. Those, seeking such attributes in the story, will definitely hate (or at least dislike) this one, especially the following chapters, which will be partly even fluffier. The same could be said for those, who expect that my characters would be the mirror projections of the original ones. So, please … read my notes at the beginning of the story before complaining that I write the characters the way I do. I'm not changing the way I write the story just because it doesn't appeal to everyone. I ask only that you wait with final notes until this story as well as the prequel will be finished. Many things (and explanations) are yet to happen in next chapters and the prequel should answer quite a few seeming anomalies too. However, I really appreciate your honest opinion on it: positive or negative, just consider what I announced before starting the story. Don't say I didn't warn you … LOL
Just to set things straight: I never had any pretensions to become a valued, esteemed writer, to write deep, complicated and heavily structured S3 stories. I leave such job to the ones, better qualified for it. I'm just writing 'light stuff', hoping to entertain some readers. If I'm making an acceptable job I'm more than happy.
Thus said, on with the story (I promise not to 'rant' about such stuff anymore).
Chapter 20 – The Almost Perfect Day
Shortly after Sarah and Derek left them, the four youngsters were already at the ski lift with rented equipment and were waiting in a short line to take a seat. John smiled in thoughts as he remembered the young man at the ski boot where they rented the gear. It was the same one who already serviced him and Cameron yesterday and it was obvious that he remembered Cameron perfectly. The second she entered the small cabin, hanging on John's arm with a vague satisfied expression on her face, his face turned the slightly reddish color and he suddenly began to stutter. It was obvious that he desperately tried to avoid staring at Cameron and failing completely, for his eyes snapped to her face about every ten seconds. Cameron noticed his embarrassment and slightly squeezed John's arm, pressed her body tighter to him and even gave him a fleeting peck on the cheek. John simply couldn't believe the way she behaved; it was absolutely new Cameron, more human Cameron, who sometimes shared only the looks and the name with the impassive cyborg, he was living with for the last few months. OK, not to exaggerate! It's still the same Cameron, just showing her feelings like a human being, not hiding them behind her blank terminator façade. She had always been a person, just didn't show it to anyone. It was evident that she noticed the young man's problems and even more clear that she decided to tease him a little. Well, two can play this game! John accepted her sudden playfulness and turned to her while the man gazed at them: "So Cameron, would you like the same gear you had yesterday?"
Cameron turned to him and just as she opened her mouth to answer, he silenced her with his lips, crashing eagerly onto hers. For a split second she stiffened and processed the new situation unsure of what to do, but quickly accepted the unexpected gift and returned the kiss, while looking at the man behind the counter from the corner of her eye. She couldn't help but smile into the kiss as she saw how his face suddenly turned scarlet and his hands fumbled around in utter embarrassment. It was more than she was originally intending to do to embarrass the young man, but she wouldn't complain. Seeing that they achieved their goal, she gently nudged John to stop the show. He seemed not to have understood the gesture, or perhaps he did understand, but chose to pretend not to understand, for he showed no intentions to break the kiss. For a second Cameron considered to withdraw from the kiss, but she enjoyed it too much to strictly follow the course of her thoughts, so she allowed herself to enjoy it a little more.
After few seconds John too realized that their action resulted in desired effects, so he slowly let go of Cameron's lips, but kept his only inches away. He opened his eyes and while looking in Cameron's slightly unfocused brown pools, he grinned at her: "I guess we pulled a nice show for the guy, don't you think so?"
She nodded and whispered back: "We most certainly did. Maybe we should practice it a little bit more? I'm not sure if I got everything right. Not now, but I'm sure there'll be enough occasions to repeat the practice?"
John's grin widened: "You're evil! But you know that, don't you Cameron Phillips?"
Cameron looked at him blankly and the corners of her mouth twitched slightly upwards: "I know. That's simply the way I am now." But I still don't understand exactly what is going on with me. I'll have to analyze everything thoroughly to see why everything is happening the way it is.
After they finally managed to get their equipment from the young man, who was still turning all shades of red color, they joined Andrea and Tim, who were already outside, waiting for them.
The ascent with the ski lift was clearly uneventful. There were not too many people, so they were alone on the seat and could seat quite comfortably. No one was exactly eager to talk, so they more or less sat in silence and enjoyed the beautiful winter landscape. After they reached the top of the mountain, Andrea asked the others to have pity with her and take the easiest course for the first descent. Nobody had anything to object, even Cameron not. She was satisfied to be so close to John and even if they'd sat down and waited for few hours doing nothing she'd be completely content, as long as she could hold him, touch him and protect him from so near. Strange! Few days ago my main prerogative was only to ensure John's safety and now … now I think it's still important as before, but making him happy became equally important. Maybe I can combine these two tasks – by being very close to him I can make him happy and can take care of his safety perfectly. How goes the human idiom? Killing two birds with one stone? I think I got that right.
For the first descent they decided to take it slowly and carefully, with Andrea being the first, followed by her brother and John, who was trying to keep up with Cameron and was paying attention to her specifically. Cameron, knowing that she was by far the best snowboarder of the four, enjoyed the descent and always kept an eye on John. She noticed how he tried to stay as close to her as possible without endangering anyone and felt quite satisfied with their evolving relationship. Every now and then, she saw how he looked at her and she couldn't help but wave her hand at him every now and then when he was looking at her. His response was always a bright smile and a wave to her. Well, sometimes he failed to wave back to her because he tried his best not to embarrass himself before her and was busy trying to maintain the perfect balance. He knew that it was irrational to try to be as good as she was, but he still felt that kind of man's pride to at least try to look as good as Cameron. They managed to get down without any problems and as they stopped at the ski lift again, John slid to Cameron and circled his arm around her waist: "You are far too good for us, Cam! You should be joining the professionals and drive them crazy. I bet you'd win the World Cup in the first season."
Cameron deadpanned back with blank expression on her face: "Would they accept someone like me? Wouldn't they consider my physical abilities to be of an unfair advantage?"
John recognized that they were dangerously near to revealing Cameron's true nature to Andrea and Tim and smiled in his thoughts that Cameron noticed the trap and avoided it, while still making him clear what she meant. He let his arm leave her waist, looked at her and mumbled: "Well, I guess they probably would have some objections."
Andrea and Tim were listening to their conversation but didn't notice the awkwardness of the moment, so Tim just shook his head: "Why would they have anything to object?"
John thought frantically to find an acceptable excuse without revealing what Cameron really was and turned to him: "Well, Cameron's been a dancer for quite a while and I guess it's definitely an advantage. Not to forget the martial arts she trained and mastered perfectly. Besides … you saw by yourself how fast she learned yesterday." That was SO lame, Connor! You should avoid falling into similar situations in the future. Next time you might not get so lucky. He knew that he should quickly turn their attention to something else and encircled Cameron's shoulders with his arm: "I think that Cameron probably wouldn't want to be a part of that circus at all. But I may be wrong …" He cast her clearly questioning glance, squeezed her lightly and let his arm fall.
Cameron maintained her blank face: "I don't think I'd want to do it. It would probably be a bad idea to leave you alone. Who knows what stupid ideas you might get, should I leave you unsupervised." She gazed at him challenging.
John understood all too well what Cameron was trying to say between the lines and his face warmed up, but not enough to show to the others that he was slightly embarrassed. But he also felt a pang of anger over Cameron's words. He definitely didn't like to be reminded of his mistakes in public, especially after he finally realized what he had been doing wrong in the past. We should work on this. She's too blunt sometimes and I'll have to explain to her that there are some issues with human pride that she doesn't exactly understand yet. Hell, I may never forget that she's actually a child, regarding her emotional development and social skills. But his voice sounded quite calm as he answered: "Yeah, like I would want to repeat my mistakes. If anything, I learned from them." He stared into Cameron's eyes with complete honesty, trying to persuade her that he really would never hurt her again.
Cameron saw in his eyes that he wasn't pretending, so she smiled at him gently, hooked her arm under his, squeezed it tightly and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek: "I know that John. I know and I'm happy that it is so."
Tim rolled his eyes and snorted with a smile: "Oh, get a room you two!"
Cameron's head snapped to him and she tilted it while answering: "We already have one. Why would you want us to get another one?" Her voice conveyed confusion over such a suggestion.
John stared at her incredulously and turned to look at Tim who was also looking at Cameron like she'd suddenly grown horns. Then he looked back at her and noticed how her lips slightly twitched and poked her under ribcage: "You're making fun of him, aren't you?"
Cameron kept her poker face for a second, but then she began to grin wide. "Gotcha!"
Andrea grinned at her brother: "If you're making smart remarks, expect them to get back at you sometime."
Tim smiled: "Sure! I just didn't think I'll get it back immediately."
John looked from one to another and decided it was enough: "OK, guys, we should do what we're here for. And making fun of each other isn't exactly what I'd like to do here on such a beautiful day. We should go up again. Maybe this time we could try more difficult descent."
Andrea looked worried: "Well, I'd prefer to stay on this one for a while. However, if you'd like to try some other courses, you can go. I'm not going to remain here sitting whining." She grinned at them to show them that she really wouldn't object being left alone with her brother.
It was nice to have company, but John was sure that it would be wonderful if this company would leave him and Cameron alone for a while. He was so looking forward to enjoy the slope with her that he had no objections to let Andrea and Tim go their separate way for few hours. "Sure, why not. I guess that Cameron would enjoy more if we took the most difficult slope, right, honey?"
Cameron looked at him with confusion written in her wide eyes upon hearing him calling her 'honey'. He never used such word when it came to her and she suddenly felt very warm. "I would. But … how about you? "
"Oh, I'm going to enjoy it all right. As long as you're there to pick me up…" John grinned at her goofily, getting an exasperated sigh and rolling eyes in response. She's getting far too good at this 'irritated girl' things. Does she practice in front of a mirror?
Tim nodded: "OK, we'll stay here for few more descents. Maybe we could meet here in two hours?"
John nodded: "It's OK with me." Then he turned to Cameron: "So, shall we?"
Cameron nodded, still contemplating how a simple word could cause such warmth in her.
After they reached the top, they actually decided for the most difficult course. There were very few skiers and snowboarders on it. The majority obviously preferred the easier ones, so Cameron grinned slightly in anticipation of a nice descent with very few disturbances. She looked down the slope and found it really beautiful. It was a bit narrower than the easiest one, surrounded by high trees, covered with snow. Like a white ribbon it meandered down the hill, never getting extremely steep, but also never being exactly flat. She cast a questioning look at John and saw, that he also seemed satisfied with the choice. For a second a thought crossed her mind that the difficulty might be too high for him, but after remembering how he managed the slope yesterday and earlier today, she decided that he'd be more than able to master it. Besides … she'll be there to help him, should he need any help. She suddenly grinned as she remembered how she had to save him yesterday after his fall off the slope.
Exactly in that moment John looked at her and saw her grin: "What's so funny, Cam?"
Cameron shook her head slightly and looked at him with amused eyes: "Oh, nothing special. I just remembered your ill fated flying attempt yesterday. I'm not sure if this course has such landing areas like the one you found while you pretended to be a bird."
John grinned back. He didn't resent her for making a joke of his mishap. She was genuinely amused over his stupidity and he really couldn't be angry with her: "I guess you'll have to watch over me then. Or … on second thought … I'd really have to learn how to fly."
"Oh, I'm sure you're not the first human who would like to fly. And you're most definitely not the last. But my intention is to watch over you and prevent you from taking any stupid actions." Cameron answered stoically and after a second added: "It's what I want to do."
John nodded his agreement and started downwards.
After few curves John realized that he really enjoyed being alone with Cameron. True, he couldn't hold her hand, he couldn't hug her, he couldn't kiss her. But, seeing her, drawing clear curves at his side and obviously enjoying herself was enough to make his heart joyous. The sun came out and shone on the slope, bathing the nature in its warm light, making the atmosphere quite romantic. Snow crystals sparkled in the light, the deep blue sky, showing through the snow covered firs, built a stark contrast to the whiteness all around them. There were no other people around and the only sound, disturbing the silence, was crunching of their boards on the powder snow. That's how I'd like to spend the rest of this vacation. With Cameron, alone in such breathtakingly beautiful nature.
They continued down the slope and were closing in on the narrowest part of the track, where they had to be more careful, not to endanger each other. Cameron, being the better one, decided to go as close to the border of the slope as possible, to leave John more space. He was good, but she still worried for him. She would always worry for him. She closed in on the border carefully and smiled satisfied that John obviously understood her intentions and slowed down a bit, so that she was now few paces in front of him, but quite on one side of the track.
John understood Cameron's intentions to make him more space. Why does she always put me before herself? She's probably the most unselfish person I've ever met. There must be a way to repay her devotion and I'm going to find it.
His train of thoughts was interrupted by a strange sound, coming from the forest on Cameron's side. Something was in the forest that has not been there before. Like some beast would be coming through it. And yet, it sounded differently. His eyes snapped to the forest in an effort to see what was going on. He was a little surprised that Cameron didn't react to strange sounds, but dismissed the thought. She probably heard it and categorized it as harmless.
His attention slowly returned to where it belonged, namely to the slope, for he was now at the narrowest point, which was at the same time also the steepest part of it. Cameron was few paces before him, taking the course just aside the forest. Suddenly he thought to see something in the forest from the corner of his eye and his head snapped involuntarily to see better if there was really something in the forest. In the same second his eyes widened in shock as he saw a really big guy on the snowboard, racing through the forest. What made him froze was not that he saw someone in the forest, but the fact, that he was racing directly towards Cameron, who was obviously oblivious to the danger, looming at her in the forest.
John opened his mouth to call her, but before he could utter a single word, the guy already crossed the forest, reached the border of the track and jumped over the edge, not seeing that there was someone beneath it. The edge was well over 6 feet high and Cameron was completely hidden behind it.
In that moment time seemed to come to a momentarily halt and restarted in a slow motion. Everything seemed so clear, everything dissected into smallest time fragment, everything lead to an unavoidable disastrous result. He saw with complete clarity that the guy would hit Cameron. Not only hit; the trajectory of his jump was clearly aiming at her head. In a nanosecond John knew that his board would hit Cameron's head. In the same nanosecond he forgot that she was a machine and should be able to cope with such crash. He only saw a fragile girl, a girl who meant the world to him, being the random target of a rowdy snowboarder, probably double her weight and height, who was racing towards her with a neck breaking speed.
His mouth began to open slowly to yell out her name. The snowboarder was already in the air and only few feet separated his board from Cameron's head. He saw that in the same moment Cameron must have noticed the danger, for her head began to turn towards the board, coming flying at her. A thought shot through his mind: "Don't turn towards him! He'll injure you! DUCK!"
No matter how much he tried, his mouth was too slow to even begin articulating the thought and all that was left for him was to stare in shock, completely helpless, how Cameron's head turned towards the danger in slow motion. He couldn't see her face, for she was turned away from him, but he could clearly see the shock written on the guy's face as he noticed that he'd be hitting a small, fragile girl and that there was nothing he could do to prevent it.
Fragmented time ticked by and the board closed in on Cameron's head unstoppably. John could see that it would hit her flatly, for the guy at least managed to turn it slightly sideward. Still better than to be hit by the tip or the edge. He knew that it wasn't really a consolation, but it would still be better so.
In next second the board's underside made contact with Cameron's head. In the last instant she obviously noticed the danger and snapped her head back, so that it didn't hit her directly in the face, but more against her right temple. John was screaming inside, but there was absolutely nothing he could do but stare at the crash wide eyed and hope that she'd make it.
Like in dreams he saw how Cameron was knocked backwards, falling to her back and in the second she hit the ground he knew that she was unconscious, turned off … The boarder, being so much heavier and more massive than Cameron, didn't even flinch at the crash. He landed, his snowboard missing Cameron's head which was already lying on the snow by mere inches, even managed to stay on his feet, cast a quick glance towards Cameron and sped away like all the hell's furies would be chasing him.
"BASTARD!" John finally managed to scream a single word. But it was too late for Cameron. Her body was tumbling down the slope completely uncontrolled. It was more than obvious that she wasn't doing anything to control or even stop her fall. Her head lolled from side to side, arms flailed and twisted as her body overturned and turned in all possible directions, she bounced off from snow... It was an absolutely devastating sight to see the love of his life tumbling down the slope like a lifeless puppet, following the merciless law of gravitation.
John believed that his heart left out not one, but several beats. Fear, no, not fear, horror squeezed his throat like an iron fist of a terminator and his chest constricted like he'd found himself in the grip of a giant snake. No, please, no! She must be all right! She can't be dead!
He raced after her tumbling body for what seemed to him like an eternity although it actually lasted less than 10 seconds before she finally came to stop at the other edge of the slope and lay there in a completely unnatural position, with one arm twisted under her body, her head tilted in an impossible angle against her shoulders, legs turned in the other direction. He was only few feet away, but the way to her seemed to him impossible long.
After he finally crashed down beside her, he tried to throw himself at her, just to realize that his board was hindering him at doing anything, so he reached for the bindings and managed to undo them in few seconds. I obviously learned my lesson yesterday how to take off the snowboard quickly and effectively.
After he was finally free of his board, he jumped to the body of his lover. He saw that her eyes were closed and she didn't show any signs of consciousness. Noticing the unnatural position of her body, he undid her board, carefully turned her legs into correct position, pulled her arm from under her body and finally turned her on her back, gently straightening her head.
"CAM! WAKE UP! CAM!" He cried desperately, tearing the ski goggles from her face and throwing it away careless. His hands cupped her face, only barely noticing that the impact of the board against her head luckily didn't leave any visible injuries. But his trembling hands and his fluttering heart took in only the fact that she was unconscious, that she didn't respond to his cries.
Not knowing what to do, he tore his ski goggles down too and began to kiss her eyes, her forehead, her nose, her lips. "Cam! Wake up!" He tried to force himself to think logically. He knew that she probably just shut down and would reboot in two minutes, but his heart was at the moment overriding the logic of his mind. He knew that he should think clearly. How am I supposed to lead the mankind one day if I'm breaking over the switch off of my lover? Damn, because I love her! I'll be ready when time comes. But I'm still a boy … and a girl I love more than life itself doesn't respond to me!
He finally got his feelings under control and trembling of his hands on Cameron's face calmed down significantly. He forced himself not to panic for the time, she needed to reboot. There would be enough time to panic, should she fail to reboot after 120 seconds. He kissed her eyes once again and pulled his head back to gaze into her face intently. Without being consciously aware of it, he mumbled: "Come back to me, Cam! You can't leave me! I need you! I love you!"
TBC