Ice skating – another activity that makes a winter so nice. How will our friends cope with the new challenge? Who's going to be the best? Stupid question, I know…

Another hint at what happened before they decided to go on vacation, what caused the tremendous change in Cameron's behavior and John's acceptance of Cameron. But no answer, naturally. The answer will be given in the prequel that'll be posted after this story is finished.

In this chapter we again meet someone whom we've already met before. This time the table turned.

Chapter 30 – Is This Really My Cameron?

John groaned groggily and fought to open his eyes fruitlessly. Slowly, sleepiness began to make place to awareness and with this new sensation also his thoughts slowly began to clear up. He felt a leg, draped over his own, an arm, lying across his torso and a head, laid on his upper chest. He could feel the tickling of soft hair, being spread over his chest and shoulder and memories of what happened only few hours ago instantly shook him wide awake.

His eyes opened abruptly and looked down at the person, lying so casually halfway over him to make sure that it wasn't just a dream. First thing that his eyes noticed was a bare slender leg, draped across his legs. On their journey upwards, his eyes as next saw an arm, lying across his torso possessively and at last, he saw the rich waterfall of auburn hair, spread across his upper chest and almost completely hiding its owner.

It was not a dream! He thought relieved. The crossing of the last border last night seemed almost like a dream and he had to make sure that it wasn't. His hand, lying idly beside his body, slowly reached for the head of his lover and gently stroked her hair. As soon as he touched it, Cameron stirred and looked up at him with loving eyes.

John smiled at her: "Hi, honey."

She smiled back with sparkling eyes. "Hi, John." Her hand began drawing circles across his chest and her head tilted slightly to allow her eyes follow the movements of her fingers.

Suddenly John didn't know what to say. He made love with Cameron yesterday. Well, technically it was already today, but who would look at the clock in such moments? For the first time in his life he was together with a woman. Well, again, technically she was a cyborg and not a human woman, but who would consider such insignificant details? He thought hard how he could tell her how much it meant to him, how much he loved her, how much he wanted her. But the harder he thought about it, the more he was confused.

Before his complete confusion could ruin the moment, he was literally saved by Cameron. She looked deep into his eyes again: "How did you sleep John'"

He sighed, relieved that she broke the ice and grinned at her: "Never better. With minor interruption of course." His grin turned mischievous and he pulled her head towards him to give her a kiss.

"Actually, there were three interruptions." Cameron clarified after their lips parted and leaned back into another kiss immediately.

"Yeah, but I didn't initiate them all. You're responsible for the last two, not me." John smirked at her. God, her lips are so damn addictive! I simply can't get enough of her.

"Guilty as charged." Cameron smirked and propped herself up on one elbow. Her face suddenly turned serious. "John? Does the fact that we just had sex, changes anything between us?"

"Of course it changes!" John answered firmly, just to see Cameron's crestfallen face. She got it completely wrong! Sometimes she can be so painfully slow for so advanced artificial intelligence. As soon as this thought crossed his mind, he felt ashamed for it. She can't know everything about being human. She's still learning. So he clarified immediately: "It changes everything in a way that we are now so to say full time lovers. I guess we just entered the bond for life, wouldn't you agree? Besides: we didn't have sex … we made love!"

Cameron really totally misunderstood John's initial answer and feared that it meant end of relationship. Perhaps she was watching too much TV and movies and thought that the boy after having sex with a girl simply runs away, like in worst movies. But his explanation reassured her, while at the same time made her ashamed for even considering that John would be the same as the boys from the fictional movies. Then she thought about John's last words and smile lightened up her face: "Is there a difference between having sex and making love?" She had a general idea about the difference, but she wanted to hear if John regarded it the same way.

John grinned wide at her: "There is a tremendous difference, Cameron. Having sex is just a physical activity, while making love means that we are connected not only physically but also, and especially, emotionally. Making love is something only persons in love can do."

His words only confirmed her thoughts and she smiled at him happily. Then she suddenly got up and tugged at his hand: "Come on, we should get up. I have an idea what we could do today." She grinned mischievously at him.

"And what is it?" John resisted a little, allowing Cameron to effortlessly lift him into seating position.

"I'm not telling you." Cameron grinned even wider.

"Hey, didn't we say that we won't keep any more secrets from each other? No lies?" John tried to look annoyed, but failed miserably.

"Yes. I said I wouldn't lie to you. But I'm just trying to surprise you and technically that's not lying. According to my knowledge, this is so-called white lie." Cameron explained patiently.

John shook his head in disbelief: "I had no idea you knew what white lie is."

"I didn't know until tonight." Cameron clarified. "But as I decided to surprise you, I was worried to have to lie to you, so I did little research to find out how to surprise you while not telling to you what the surprise would be. Was it a bad thing to do?" She suddenly sounded worried.

John hugged her and kissed her neck: "No Cameron, it's just the right thing to do. I trust you completely." He somehow had the urge to reassure her again.

Cameron's face turned into beaming beauty. Without any further words, she stood up and pulled John after her: "We really should hurry up. Everyone else will be at breakfast in ten minutes."

John let himself been pulled up and sighed: "Do we really have to? I'd rather stay here in bed." He grinned slyly. "With you."

Cameron pretended to look at him in dismay, but failed just like John failed few moments ago to look annoyed. She saw in his eyes that he didn't believe her expression, so she smiled gently: "I'd like it too. But then I couldn't surprise you."

John chuckled: "Believe me; you could surprise me in bed too. At least you did it few hours ago."

Suddenly Cameron's cheeks got a rosy shade and made John gasp in surprise: "Cameron! Are you blushing? Why?"

Cameron touched her cheeks and felt their warmth. Then she looked into his eyes: "If my memory serves me well, and the last time I checked it did, we already clarified that I can blush." She paused like she would have to think over something: "I suddenly felt embarrassed and simply blushed."

John shook his head and grinned at her: "Yeah, you are much more human than machine already. That much is evident."

XXXXXXXXXX

After they entered the dining room, they saw that Sarah and Derek weren't there yet. Cameron tugged John to the same table they occupied every morning. John grinned: "You really like that table, don't you."

Cameron looked at him with slightly confused expression: "Yes. It is best situated to control the whole room." Then her face softened: "And there's a beautiful view to the mountains from this table too."

While they were already eating, Sarah and Derek entered the room too and sat at the neighboring table. They didn't talk much during the breakfast and after they finished, Cameron announced that they should sit in the lobby bad to discuss what they would do today. Derek looked at her funnily, not really believing that the machine wanted to say something to them. Sarah showed no visible reaction, but she suddenly realized that she already began to regard Cameron more as a person than as a machine. A machine would never want to discuss something with humans. And yet THIS particular machine did. John just smiled proudly, seeing the reaction of his uncle and even reading the thoughts his mother tried to hide quite good.

XXXXXXXXXX

They entered the bar and saw that Tim and Andrea were already there, waiting for them. They joined them and John turned to Cameron: "You said you'd have a surprise for us. So, would you mind sharing your ideas with us?"

Cameron nodded and her gaze swept over them. She could see slight confusion in Derek's face, friendly smiling Tim and Andrea but as she looked into Sarah's eyes, she saw something that almost shocked her. Sarah looked at her with unhidden interest in her eyes and no revulsion could be seen in them. If Cameron wouldn't know it better, she'd say that Sarah was looking at her like a mother would look at her daughter. Or daughter in law at least. Suddenly she felt pride that she could convince Sarah Connor that she wasn't just a mindless machine. Her lips curved into tiniest proud smile and she began: "I think that we should try something new today. We tried snowboarding, we tried sledding, we tried swimming. I'd like to try ice skating too." She paused to look at the reactions. Like she expected, Derek looked unconvinced, Andrea and Tim looked eager to try it too, John simply looked at her adoringly and Sarah … well, Sarah looked slightly confused, but it was clear that it appeared tempting to her. She smiled and tried to strengthen her proposal: "It would be useful for us to test and improve the balance. Ice skating is one of sports which requires the best coordination of the whole body. It could be very useful in certain situations." She looked at the others: "And it's fun!"

John nodded: "It's a good suggestion, Cameron. We really could use some more skills." He grabbed her hand and squeezed it slightly.

Andrea and Tim didn't need any more persuasion and they also unequivocally confirmed it.

Sarah was more or less persuaded and as she looked at Derek, she was absolutely sure that it was a good thing. If there were no other reasons, the fact that it would most likely annoy him, persuaded her. She punched him in the shoulder: "Don't look so damn skeptical Reese! It wouldn't harm you to try it."

Derek leaned away from her, massaged his shoulder with annoyed expression and answered: "Right! And you have to hit me to persuade me? You could have just said it without using physical violence!"

"Oh, the baby is now hurt." Sarah mocked in a baby voice and prepared to hit him another time. But before she could pull her intention through, Derek lifted his hands in defense: "All right, all right! I'm in!"

Sarah smirked at him and turned to the others: "So, we're all going. Now … go and prepare yourselves. We meet here in twenty!"

John saluted: "Ma'am, yes, ma'am."

Sarah snatched his hand and looked at him threateningly: "Don't you mock me, John!"

Cameron's blank face suddenly appeared in front of Sarah and made her flinch a little."I won't allow anyone to hurt my John."

Sarah suddenly felt like she'd return few months in the past, gazing at the blank, expressionless face of their resident terminator. Did I really forget the fact that she's a machine after all? A terminator?

But before she could continue Cameron began to grin at her and warmth returned into her eyes: "Fooled you again!" Then the cyborg girl turned to John and smiled proudly at him.

"I don't think that my mom appreciates such jokes, Cam." John was trying to explain to Cameron that she perhaps overestimated her sense of humor. But after he saw her deflated expression he grabbed her hands: "But I do!"

Cameron smiled at him again and felt valued. She didn't care much what others thought of her, only John's opinion mattered. But still … she was surprised that she began to wish that other humans would accept her too. Something that an ordinary terminator actually never even considered was becoming more and more important to her. Perhaps John really is right. Perhaps I really am different?

Sarah shook her head at Cameron's attempt of making a joke, not really believing that a terminator tried to make a joke in first place. Maybe all the other machines were made to stick painfully to their logic, but this one was definitely different. Definitely!

XXXXXXXXXX

After twenty minutes they all gathered at the entrance to the hotel. John couldn't tear his eyes from Cameron. She chose a very girlish outfit that accentuated her curvaceous body immensely. I don't know how she managed to pack so many different things to wear in her bag. Like a machine would have packed it. Oh well…

The stroll to the skating hall took fifteen minutes and all the time John couldn't stop thinking about what happened last night. He suddenly realized that he regretted just one thing: not having it done before. He regretted to have kept Cameron at arm's length for such a long time. But then he remembered when she began to change and shuddered involuntarily at the thought of that night.

His shuddering naturally didn't escape Cameron, for she was clutching at his hand and pressing herself to his body. "Is something wrong, John?"

Her worried voice penetrated John's mind and he smiled reassuringly at her: "No, Cam, everything's fine. I just remembered that night, you know … when things changed to better between us."

Cameron understood instantly what he was talking about and nodded: "Yes, I remember. It wasn't pleasant, but it changed our relationship thoroughly. I don't regret it."

"Neither do I. Although I was scared to death at the time." John smiled at her lovingly.

XXXXXXXXXX

They borrowed the skates in the booth at the entrance to the hall and after putting them on at the edge of the ice surface, they slowly, very slowly and carefully tried their first steps on the slippery surface. Cameron was reasonably sure that she would master the skating very quickly. After all, she was a fast learner in almost anything. She had watched some ice skating on the TV last night while John slept and she thought of how she could combine her superior physical abilities, especially her unsurpassed balance with ballet. In her eyes, ice skating was a combination of dance, ballet and extraordinary control of her body. Somehow it completed the ballet and she decided in that moment she'd try it. So, now she was here, on the skates, on the ice and prepared to demonstrate her superior body control to everyone.

There were just few other people on the surface, most of them trying to remain on their blades rather than gliding around the oval.

Cameron was the first to step on the ice. She carefully tested everything, calculated the best position of her body, the influence of the ice's roughness and every other factor that influenced her skating. Slowly, she made one round around the oval and gathered enough data to fill in all the blanks in her calculation. The second round was much better and in the third she already glided across the ice like a professional skater.

John was the next to try his luck. His first action after stepping on the ice was to grab the board and thus prevent himself from falling after only a second on the ice. He silently cursed the slippery surface and wondered how his legs felt just like jelly and how he had absolutely no control over them. After few second he finally got the trembling of his legs under control, straightened a little and, while still clutching to the board fiercely, tried to glide along it. He was so busy with himself that he completely forgot to look how Cameron was doing. His eyes were fixed on the ice, few inches before his blades and as he continued along the board he became more and more confident. With each passed second his feelings got better and after a half round around the rink he already dared to let go of the board and tried to stand on his blades without any support. He managed to reach his starting point on his own, without falling and just as he grinned proudly at the others, who were still hesitant to enter the rink, a sudden sound of someone stopping in front of him momentarily distracted him and his feet began to slip away. He flailed helplessly and already saw himself lying on the hard ice, but before he fell, two small hands grabbed his arms and held him upright. He sighed relieved and looked into Cameron's worried eyes.

"I'm sorry John. Are you all right?" She sounded guilty while she scrutinized him.

"Why are you sorry? You just saved my sore ass from making a painful acquaintance with the ice. You actually saved me. Again." He grinned at her.

"It was my fault that you almost fell. I scared you by stopping so abruptly in front of you." Cameron still wasn't convinced.

"What? You got to be kidding me, Cam! If I weren't so painfully concentrated on my miserable ice skating skills, I'd never even notice anything unusual. You didn't do anything wrong." John was raising his voice slightly in his attempt to persuade Cameron she didn't do anything wrong.

It seemed that Cameron now finally understood that it wasn't her fault, so she smiled relieved and let go of John carefully: "Don't fall, John!" She made a tight circle around him backwards while maintaining her look on him. After she returned into her initial position in front of him, she saw his admiring look and grinned self satisfied. Then she reached for his hand: "Here. Let me help you."

John was taken aback as he saw her gracefulness and complete control of her movements. It seemed to him like a big cat would be fluidly dancing across the ice. He remembered to have watched some figure skating before on TV but he would swear that Cameron was already now better that anyone he'd seen on the Olympics tournament. "Cam, you're unbelievable. You're … you're …" he trailed off unable to express his feelings correctly. So he let himself be guided by her to the center of the ice surface.

Meanwhile the other also managed to overcome their fear and lined through the narrow opening in the boarding to the surface. Their initial actions resembled John's very much and soon you could see a train of four individuals, propping themselves along the board, paying more attention to their feet than to each other. Sarah being in the lead, followed by Derek, Tim and Andrea, acting as a tail light. John and Cameron, now standing in the middle of the circle that depicted the center of the rink, looked at the small procession grinning. "Do you think that they'll crash?" John asked Cameron, while trying his best to maintain stable position on the ice. But if it weren't for her hand, gripping at his arm he would probably already be laying sprawled on the ice.

Cameron eyed the band of four, slowly progressing along the board and shook her head: "I calculate 85% chance that some accident will occur before they finish one round."

"85%? That's quite a big probability. Maybe we should wait and see if it really happens." John grinned and looked at Cameron, who was still critically looking at the slowly moving group.

Before Cameron could answer, it happened. Tim was obviously gaining too much self confidence and accelerated significantly, however, forgetting that Derek was just few feet before him. While looking down, he completely missed that the distance shrunk and in the moment he saw that there was someone in front of him it was already too late. He crashed into Derek, bounced off of him and fell backward to his butt. Because Andrea was quite near to him, he swept her off her blades too and she landed with a loud thud on her back, cursing loudly.

But her loud cursing was just a gentle whisper compared to the sounds that emanated from Derek's mouth. He felt someone crashing into him, sending him forward while his arms helplessly flailed in futile attempt to regain his balance. Instead of gripping the board tightly, he let go of it and was now paddling through the air just to hit Sarah in front of him. After hitting her on the shoulder, she stumbled and fell like a log, just to be hit by Derek's falling body. He sprawled himself across her and cursed like a dock worker. After initial shock, Sarah regained her breath and began to rival Derek in cursing.

John was standing in the middle of the rink with his hands leaned against the knees and tried to stay in vertical position while laughing at the picture before him. There were four people, lying sprawled across the ice, cursing loudly, accusing each other of being the responsible for their group fall, while trying to somehow get back to their feet. He turned to look at Cameron and found her grinning amused at the same picture. "I guess that 85% was even too low estimation, right?"

Cameron turned to look at him: "No. It was correct. They just did it sooner than I anticipated."

After a while, the four fallen would-be ice skaters finally managed to get up and calm down. In the next hour, everyone did their best to come to terms with the new sport and some mastered it quite well, while others, like Derek, weren't so good at it. John was now able to skate alone quite acceptable and felt proud of himself. But he couldn't stop admiring Cameron, who was already doing everything that professional skaters did. After another series of different jumps, she glided to him and just in front of him she stopped and began to spin in a pirouette. But this time she made something John never saw before: she began to spin and while she spun around, she leaned her upper body back, lifted her right foot backwards and grabbed her right blade with her hands, pulling it high over her head. All the time she continued to spin so fast that her hair flew out like a fan.

John was mesmerized by the sight of his lover and his jaw fell open without him noticing it. He stared at the spinning figure, her right leg raised high above her head, held now by only one hand, while the other was bent in front of her, so that her hand was clutched to her chest. After she finally let her leg go and stopped her spinning perfectly to look him direct in the eyes, he began to clap almost unaware of his own actions.

"That was … that was great, beautiful, unbelievable, Cam! Where did you learn it?" His admiration was clearly mirrored in his face.

Cameron smiled proudly and glided to him, to take his hands in hers: "I saw it on TV last night. It is called the Biellman pirouette." She batted her eyelashes at him: "So you think it was beautiful?"

John gulped: "More than that. It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." He lifted her hands and kissed them. "Have I told you lately that I love you?"

Cameron grinned and tilted her head: "Van Morrison, 1989, Avalon Sunset."

John gaped: "I beg your pardon? Or in short: WHAT?"

Cameron's head tilted even more: "You just said the title of his song." She grinned evilly: "Yes, the last time you told me that you love me was 11 minutes and 25 seconds ago."

John finally gathered his thoughts: "Whatever." He leaned over to her and kissed her. "I love you!"

Cameron opened her eyes, which she closed during the kiss: "And I love you." Then she noticed Derek, who was carefully trying to make his way across the rink, quite far away from the board and her eyes suddenly got that distinct mischievous gleam. John noticed it and followed her look, just to see his uncle trying to look more confident that he actually was. "No, you don't want to do it!" He turned to Cameron again shaking his head vigorously.

"But I do! I will do it. I like annoying Derek Reese." Cameron grinned as an answer without taking her eyes off of Derek.

John saw her almost gleeful look and suddenly became afraid that she might hurt Derek. "You won't do anything drastic, right?"

Now Cameron turned to look at him with her trade mark 'Are you really that stupid?' look. "Of course not!" Without losing any further words she let go of John and struck a beeline towards the unsuspecting Derek. Then she turned and changed the direction. Suddenly John understood. She's going to scare the hell out of him from behind! I have to see this!

Cameron made a detour to be able to come to Derek from behind and now that she was in line, she accelerated. The distance to Derek shrunk rapidly and John was looking at the scene holding his breath. He didn't know what Cameron was up to but he trusted her that she wouldn't do anything stupid.

Just before she would crash into Derek's back, Cameron made a sharp turn to the left. After she passed him, she struck an even sharper right curve, so sharp that she had to lean on her right hand and crossed Derek's path inches in front of him with full speed. Derek wasn't expecting anything like this and swooshing of a brown haired projectile, only few inches from him, shocked him totally. His balance was hopelessly lost in a second and his arms began to flail, while he began to dance a wild Kasatschok dance. At first slowly, but the kicking of his feet sped up immensely in a matter of seconds, so that after three seconds they were just a blur. In the fourth second the inevitable came: he crashed on his butt unceremoniously and remained sitting while filthy words flew from his mouth like wild water current.

John was leaning against his knees again and tried his best not to fall while he listened to the uninterrupted cursing of his uncle. Cameron meanwhile made another circle around Derek and stopped in front of him. She grinned a little at him and stretched her hand to help him get up.

Derek glanced at her furiously and spat: "I don't need your help machine! But maybe you'll need it after I'm done with you!" He turned away from her and got on his knees. But before he could get up a pair of ice skates stopped just there before his eyes. He slowly looked up and saw a seriously pissed off John Connor, standing in front of him with his fists on his hips, glaring daggers into his direction.

"Don't you even think of hurting Cameron!" John's hissed words were quiet, but burned into Derek's mind like they'd have been shouted. He was aware that his reaction to Cameron's prank was probably unsuitable, but the fact, that that machine caused his fall was driving him crazy. Probably even more because he was aware of his own incompetence in skating and seeing Cameron master it perfectly.

He finally got up and now looked down at John's burning eyes. Then he turned to Cameron, who was now standing at John's side and smirking slightly at him with tilted head. "I'm sorry Cameron. I overreacted."

For the second time since they came here, John's jaw almost hit the ice. He couldn't believe that Derek was actually apologizing to Cameron. "Derek? Are you sick? Is everything OK?"

Derek grinned at him sheepishly. He saw the look of astonishment on Cameron's face and John's open mouth and he knew that he managed to shock them both. It actually isn't that difficult to say something nice to Cameron. After all … what she just did was so not machine-like that I can't see it as an attack. "Yeah, there's first time for everything. What she did wasn't very nice, but my reaction also went overboard. So I guess we're even now."

If possible Cameron looked even more astonished: "I'm sorry that you scare so easily, Derek. I'll try to keep that in mind."

John snorted at her reply and turned back to Derek: "You got it, Derek."

Derek didn't miss the point of Cameron's apology and grinned, now already back in good mood: "Yeah, Cameron. Keep that in mind. Just for the record: I don't scare so easily. But you … you are a very, very scary creature."

In next minutes, Cameron went back to her routine and after a successful combination of quadruple Lutz and two triple Rittberger jumps she stopped at John's side. In that moment a group of three young guys slid by and she could hear one of them saying so quietly that only she, with her super hearing could understand: "I think that this is the girl I hit on the slope yesterday."

Her body momentarily froze and John bumped into her. "Why did you stop Cam?" He massaged his shoulder that made contact with her rigid body. He looked into her eyes worriedly and saw how she stared at the group of three guys, skating away from them. There was murder written in her eyes and he gasped: "Cam! What's wrong? Why are you looking at them like you'd be ready to kill them?"

Cameron finally turned her attention to him and her gaze softened. "The biggest guy there is the one who hit me on the slope yesterday. I just heard him say it to his buddies."

John's eyes were now glaring after the group and now it was him that contemplated the most painful and slow way to terminate the guy who hit his Cameron. He already started towards them, but Cameron stopped him: "No, John, I'll deal with it."

"But … I can't let him get away with what he did!" John objected and tried unsuccessfully to pry her fingers off his forearm.

"He won't get away with it. But let me be the one to deal with him. After all … he hit me, not you. Please?" Cameron's eyes were almost pleading him to listen to her.

Reluctantly John gave up. He definitely wanted to pay it back to the rowdy, but he was also aware that they were on the ice and he was probably the worse skater of them all. Those guys looked like they'd be quite good at it, not to even mention Cameron. So he nodded: "I don't like it Cam, but I know that you're the best for this job. Just don't hurt him." He paused and added with an evil smirk: "Too much."

Cameron grinned back: "I won't cause any permanent damage to him. I swear." In the next moment he saw her speeding after the trio. It took her only few seconds to catch up with them. She overtook them and stopped in front of them so that they also had to stop.

John tried his best to catch up with them to hear what she was saying to the guys, but he was obviously too excited and he stumbled, what resulted in him nearly falling. After he caught himself and straightened back up, he could saw Cameron's best scary robot face, turned to the guy who hit her. She obviously made her point, because the guy seemed to crumple into himself and began to retreat slowly. His two buddies were gone and John could see them already leaving the rink. Just few seconds later, Cameron obviously decided that the remaining rowdy needed additional motivation and she shoved him backwards. She probably didn't use too much strength, but the bloke flew backwards like a puppet and crashed unceremoniously against the board, just inches to the exit. He picked himself up hurriedly and left the area running.

Cameron looked after him with a blank face but after she turned to John, she began to grin and sped up to him. After she reached him and took hold of his hand, John asked: "What did you say to them? They seemed to be completely terrified."

Cameron eyed him for a second, unmistakable mischievous grin in her eyes and on her face and answered: "Oh, nothing special. I just told them that they should leave immediately, otherwise I would put their heads on pikes and plant them outside for everyone to see."

John snorted: "I can hardly believe that they took it seriously. Especially because it came from such a petite, fragile girl like you."

Cameron tilted her head slightly and gave him a terrifying look that almost froze the blood in his veins. "Don't give me that look, Cameron! It's scary!"

Her face relaxed and head bolted upright: "I gave them this look."

John grinned and nodded: "I see." Then he remembered seeing the guy flying across the ice. "Why did you then send that idiot flying? Wasn't he scared enough?"

Cameron pouted a little: "He was too slow. I only sped up his departure."

John broke into laugh: "Yeah, right. But I have to admit it that you aim perfectly. You sent him directly to the door."

Cameron pouted even more: "I was aiming FOR the door! I missed it terribly. I'm getting sloppy."

John, who just stopped laughing, howled with laughter again and this time he almost fell. Weren't it for Cameron's snatching arm he'd be now lying on his back on the ice. After he got his laugh under control, he looked into Cameron's slightly confused eyes. "You're unbelievable Cam. You send a guy over half of the rink flying and complain that you missed the target." He bowed to her and kissed her. "And that's why I love you. There's no one like you."

Cameron's face lit up in pride: "No, I'm the only one of my kin."

John gently stroked her cheek: "And you're my Cameron."

TBC