Faith isn't Part of My Programming

by bigbew

Sequel to 'I Wouldn't Be Worth Much if I Couldn't Feel' - A new enemy emerges as Judgement Day looms, John and Cameron feel their way in to their new relationship and Sarah learns her new role in John's life.

17. Chapter 17

Hi,

Thanks so much for the generally positive reviews to chapter 16, it means a lot.

---

"Check it out, it's homemaker Barbie!"

Cameron glanced up from tucking the brand new sheets under the brand new mattress of her brand new bed. An uncharacteristically defiant narrowing of her eyes letting Sarah know just how much the cyborg wasn't amused.

"Martha Stewart-bot? No?" Sarah ventured again with a smirk as she leaned against the door frame, coffee in hand.

Again, Cameron narrowed her eyes, this time however not bothering to look up from her work as she picked up a pillow case and set to work cocooning her brand new pillows.

"So that's a no on Martha Stewart-bot. Ok," Sarah shrugged against the doorframe, taking a sip of her coffee as she watched the cyborg work with more efficiency than even the real Martha Stewart could've mustered up when it came to changing a pillow case.

"What do you want Sarah?" Cameron asked, not quite with hostility, but not exactly overly cheerful and friendly either.

Shrugging again, she pushed herself up away from the doorframe and entered the room properly, cupping her hands around her coffee. "You've really moved yourself right in here haven't you?"

Cameron stopped her work, pillow half in the case and looked back over her shoulder at Sarah, "Would you prefer your son to sleep on a bare mattress…or the floor?"

"That's not what I was referring to," Sarah replied with a small tilt of her head, almost as if she was appraising the girl in front of her.

"Oh," Cameron carried on with her work, "Then what are you referring to?"

"The bed turned up today?" Sarah asked, sidestepping the question, very well she assumed.

"It did. The delivery men were…insistent, on bringing it up the stairs for me," Cameron neglected to mention that the men even offered to help her 'break it in', an offer she politely refused, she also ignored Sarah's obvious sidestep of her question.

"Oh, did you let them? Bring it up for you that is," Even when she was in a totally casual setting, Sarah's attempts at small talk sucked, they really sucked. She just wasn't the pleasant small talk type.

"I did." Cameron finished placing her now two finished pillows side by side at the head of the bed and turned to face Sarah, staring at her intently with as blank a face as possible.

She wasn't normally confrontational, but Cameron knew that Sarah had something on her mind. Why she was shuffling from foot to foot and not just getting straight to the point she didn't know, but Cameron also had a lot on her own mind.

She had a distinct feeling that today was going to be one of the most pivotal in her relationship with John. Today was the day he returned from his trip away with Derek, and if all things worked out well, the day she would reconcile with him.

She didn't like it when she was't in a blissful relationship with John, despite the fact she'd only been in a one for a short while. She found she missed John, and had grown to dislike the periods spent apart more so than she ever thought she would. She'd always lived for John, to protect him, but now she found she couldn't bear to be away from him, especially when it was over something as small as a disagreement.

But she knew the disagreement wasn't the only reason for it. Many factors contributed to the small blip on the path to harmony, however none of those blips were her fault, they were all John's problems, all John's hangups. By all rights, she should've been the one to be pissed with him, not the other way around.

She was willing to accept to a certain degree that John was complex and his choice to enter a relationship with her, and reveal it to his family, must have been weighing heavily on his mind. She knew that he loved her, but still, he was about to shack up with the machine sent from the future whose original intention was to kill him. It had to be something of a road bump for him as much as it was for everybody else.

But she herself wasn't quite sure how she felt. Sure she was hurt and disappointed at the way he'd been treating her, but she couldn't fight off the feeling that somehow she didn't care about all that. She knew she should really have dumped him, threw his clothes out of the bedroom window and then removed all traces of him from her life. But she wasn't a human girl, that would never happen, ever.

Was that not love, was that not what love meant? The ability to forget about your partner's transgressions, no matter how bad their crime? Cameron didn't know, but all she knew was that she didn't want her and John to remain at odds for much longer. But she should've been feeling some anger, right? She couldn't just let John get away with treating her like crap for the best part of two weeks just because the skin was missing from her arm. He saw the real her, and despite his professions of love, he'd ran a mile at the sight.

Sarah frowned, Cameron had been silent for an unusually long time, even by her standards. "Um…that's good, I guess."

Cameron looked up, snapping herself from her reverie, not forgetting in the slightest the conversation before she'd gotten lost in her own thoughts, "You didn't answer my question. What do you want Sarah?"

With a sigh, Sarah stood up properly, deciding to face the issue head on. "John is coming home today."

Cameron tilted her head, she knew that already…she'd been counting the days, or rather, the seconds. "Yes."

"You uh…you're not exactly on the best of terms with him at the moment, are you?" Sarah asked, levelling her gaze at the young cyborg.

Sensing Cameron's hesitancy, Sarah stepped forward a little, for reasons unknown to her, wanting to keep the girl calm. "It's okay, I'm not trying to pry or anything, but I'm just wondering why you're putting so much effort in to this," She waved a hand in the vague direction of the bed.

Cameron looked in the direction she was gesturing, the brand new bed she'd purchased to share with John sitting proudly in the room she would be sharing with him.

"No, we're not," She paused in her picking up of the sheets to look at Sarah, "Why do you ask?"

"Well..." Sarah did her level best to look disinterested, picking through the small pile of items Cameron had apparently ordered for 'their' room. That thought was definitely going to take some getting used to, "I just thought it might have some impact on the... happy homemaking."

"Happy homemaking?" Cameron asked, tilting her head in obvious confusion, "You don't want your son to be comfortable in his bed?"

"Of course I..." She trailed off, pinching the bridge of her nose, "Not the point. Do you still think he'll be, you know, sharing it with you?"

"I haven't decided yet," Cameron answered honestly, "His behaviour warrants a response...doesn't it?"

"It does." It was odd for Sarah to find herself in the cyborg's corner, but there it was, "He's been a jerk lately. But he loves you, you do know that... right?"

"I do, he keeps telling me," Cameron frowned, thinking about her own obvious issues with that particular subject, "Are you okay with that?"

"I don't have much choice, Cameron." Sarah's eyes took on a hard sheen as she turned to face the cyborg, "But it does mean you and I have to get a few things straight."

"Such as?" Cameron answered, setting the contents of her hands down to focus on the mother of her boyfriend.

"You told me before you don't know if you love him," Sarah held up a hand before Cameron could break in, shaking her head, "I get that. I'm glad you're not lying to me, or to him, just to make him happy. But you have to understand what it means when John loves you."

"It doesn't come easy to him, but when it does... he's willing to overlook just about anything for the people he loves." Sighing, she sat down on the foot of the bed, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees, "Don't you ever take advantage of that."

Cameron stood for a long moment, considering Sarah's words. She had no intention of upsetting her, least of all now that she was being totally upfront and honest. "John is...complicated."

She looked up, "I understand his behaviour, he has told me many times about his fear of...this," She held up her arm for emphasis. "But I know how he feels about me, it is confusing how he can behave the way he is."

"Yeah, and like I said, he's being a jerk. What you need to understand is that it's not all that strange for a teenage boy to be a jerk sometimes," Sarah shook her head, looking strangely tired, "That doesn't mean he loves you any less. So yeah, don't let him walk all over you, but don't hate him for being stupid either."

"I'm not sure I understand." Shuffling from one foot to the other, she looked for all the world like a kid being told off, "I'm supposed to be forgiving, but I'm supposed to be firm too. How am I supposed to know when to be either of those?"

Rolling her eyes just a little at the absurdity of giving Cameron advice on how to handle her son, Sarah continued, "When you discipline a child, you do it for their own good. You don't hate them for making a mistake. It's not about what you do Cameron, it's about what's in your heart when you do it."

"My heart?" Clearly confused, partly at Sarah's seeming acceptance and assistance, and mostly at what she should and shouldn't be doing, Cameron took a half step closer, "So you're saying that whatever I do, I need to remember that John loves me, no matter how he acts?"

"Exactly." Sarah smiled, even if it was a little sickly, patting the bed beside her, "He's scared and confused, but he doesn't hate you, does he?"

"I don't think so." Cameron hesitated, eyeing the spot next to Sarah like it might bite her ass if she sat down, "But I feel like I shouldn't have to just accept his treatment."

"Don't start that doubt shit, frankly, it's annoying enough when John does it." Rolling her eyes again, Sarah slapped the bed a few more times impatiently, "I told you not to accept it, but never doubt that he loves you. He would never hurt you on purpose, do you understand that?"

"But, how do you know that for sure?" Cameron slowly sat down, making sure to keep an adequate distance between them, "You can't detect his biological signs, I can, and I know you're right, but how do you know?"

Sarah looked at the cyborg like she'd just proclaimed the Connor house Cameronia and claimed it in the name of Spain, "Because he's my son? I think I know him pretty well."

Looking down at her lap, Cameron couldn't help but regret the fact that she didn't just know these things. Everything had to be analysed, catalogued and accessed later, and yet even with her highly advanced CPU she didn't know how to handle her John.

"How will John behave when he gets home?" Cameron asked, looking up, hoping to glean some insight from the one other woman who knew John better than herself.

"You really have to ask?" Fighting off another eye-roll, but just barely, Sarah decided to lay it all on the line. After all, as much as the thought might pain her sometimes, putting things right between John and Tin-Miss would go a long way towards reducing the household drama index, "He's been gone a week, right?"

"Seven days, four hours and thirteen minutes," Cameron confirmed, her face as blank as could be.

Sarah smirked a little, the cyborg's quirks starting to grow on her... if just a little, "Wear something nice, because he'll bolt straight for you the second he steps through that door."

Cameron returned the look that Sarah had given her earlier, looking like she'd just declared that the room they were in might look better with a small cow grazing in the corner, "He will?"

"I'd like to wax all poetic about 'absence making the heart grow fonder', but he's a teenage boy," Sarah chuckled to herself, "A teenage boy who has been stuck in the woods with his uncle for the last week. Only way you'd make a more pleasant target would be if you were wearing a nightie and holding a Big Mac."

After a few seconds, the older woman's eyes narrowed just a bit, "That is NOT a suggestion."

"I understand...a Big Mac?"

"You two have been together how long?" The attempt at fighting off eye-rolls had just met it's match, "Don't tell me you haven't noticed John's tendency to pant like a dog in the presence of red meat?"

"Oh, thank you for explaining, and the nightie?" Cameron enquired, filing the red meat information away for possible later deployment.

Sarah scowled at that, her head pivoting around oddly to face her son's girlfriend, "Are you sure you two have had sex?"

Cameron narrowed her eyes at Sarah, just a little, but it was a definite negative reaction, "John prefers something...smaller."

"You did not just say that..."

"I don't intend to wear that for his return...you needn't worry about it." Cameron added a small smile to try and placate the woman

"Well, that's... good." Sarah shook her head, trying to knock that visual far, far into the background, "Seriously though. Are you... okay?"

"Yes," Cameron answered, although she wasn't quite sure she'd made any progress at all, the same lack of a decision she had earlier was still very much present. "Thank you."

Letting slip a long sigh, Sarah shoved herself to her feet, rubbing her hands together in a rare and rather unusual display of nervous energy, "Listen, if you and John need a chance to, you know... work things out."

"I mean, I'm sure Derek will run off to his little girlfriend's to lick her five inch heels and beg forgiveness, and Amy will be patrolling..." The last words seemed to come out in a single rush, the clenched teeth not helping Cameron decipher them at all, "

Icancrashonthecouchifyouwant"

Cameron's eyes slowly rose higher until they met a very red looking Sarah, "You don't need to do that. I can keep John quiet."

For her part, Sarah just stood there gaping, mouth hanging open at an odd angle. Of all the possible responses to her offer that had run through her mind, THAT had most certainly not been among them. "Uh... he's the... he's the loud one?"

"Have you ever heard noise from us before?"

It was about that moment that 'cool Sarah' decided to take a hike and 'mom Sarah' made a startling reappearance, "I thought we talked about sex in the house before the move in date?"

"Oh," Despite being the indestructible cyborg that she was, Cameron couldn't keep the 'busted' look off her face. "I'm sorry, but we were at a...difficult, point in our relationship. I believe John needed me."

"Wow... I guess teenagers are the same no matter what material they're made of," The smallest bit of good humour returning to her face, Sarah chuckled to herself, "You really need to learn to keep it in your pants, Cameron."

"Tell that to your son."

"You don't think I've tried?" Sarah seemed to get a little defensive, "I managed to hold off blondie's full-court press pretty well, didn't I?"

For once a genuine smile crept across Cameron's face, "We saw that one off very well, didn't we?"

"See? That's all I'm trying to say," Letting out a sigh, Sarah's shoulders seemed to sag a bit now that she'd finally gotten through the ordeal of getting this out in the open, "It HAS occurred to me that we protect John better when we're working together instead of fighting each other."

"I understand," Cameron said while standing up from the bed, a very serious look on her face. "I'll take good care of your son. As long as I'm functioning, I won't let anything hurt him, especially not me."

"I'll hold you to that," Sarah's sardonic smirk was back full-force, "And now that you're rooming together, I think it's about time you took over some of the leg-work so dear old mom can rest a little easier."

"Leg work?"

"You're living with John now, that puts you in a better position than I am to monitor some of his more... troublesome habits."

"Troublesome habits?" A lot of things made sense to the cyborg, but that list was pretty big in her opinion.

"Derek and I have been upping our game lately, and I know we haven't been around as much." Sarah seemed a bit depressed at that realisation, "Like I said, he's looking to you now, not me. That means you need to nut up and lay down the law sometimes."

Sarah smiled, "For his own good, of course."

"You want me to be his mother?" Cameron asked with a quirked brow, "I'd rather be his girlfriend."

"And as you learn more about humans and relationships," The older woman could barely contain her laughter, "The more you're gonna realise those two jobs are pretty much identical. Except the sex."

"I understand," She really didn't, but she felt it was the right thing to say anyway.

"Good." Sarah nodded, "So, it's in your hands now. No going days without eating anything that didn't come from a vending machine or a clown's head. No staying up all night just because he has some new theory. That kinda stuff."

Cameron nodded along, she had no intention of letting him stay up past bedtime, and she had a feeling he might not want to spend much time out of bed with her around. "I can do that."

As if reading the cyborg's chip, Sarah's eyes narrowed just a fraction, "And no staying up all night for... other reasons, either. If this becomes a problem, I'll put a stop to it so fast it'll make your head spin."

Nodding more, Cameron considered running diagnostics on the joint between her head and her body, just in case, "Yes, thank you Sarah."

Nodding a few times, Sarah spun on a heel, vaguely considering throwing together some kind of 'welcome home' meal for John. At the door frame though, she paused as a thought occurred to her, "And Cameron?"

"Yes?" She enquired, halfway to picking up her sheets, letting loose a very human sounding sigh.

"Don't let him take advantage of that anal-retentive thing you've got going on," Sarah's smirk was downright evil, "Make him clean the room himself sometimes, or he'll never learn."

---

"Flush beats your two pair."

Quinn watched as the slim, pretty brunette slid a pile of chips over towards him. Probably something in the region of ten thousand dollars, small change really. Hooking an arm around the pile, he drew it towards him before casually stacking his chips in their denominations. Glancing up, fingers deftly manipulating a five hundred dollar chip, he watched as the young dealer shuffled the deck with all the practiced ease of a seasoned professional.

Pulling out a cigar, he sliced the tip off with a pocket blade, a single motion all it took to prepare it for smoking. Pocketing the blade, he set the cigar between his teeth, "You must be my lucky charm."

The dealer looked up from her shuffling with a shy smile. She could've swore she never usually blushed this easily from one little comment, but there was just something about this guy that made her want to throw away her professionalism and throw him down on the card table. He was nothing spectacular, not even particularly handsome, nor well dressed, but for reasons she didn't quite understand, she just felt the urge to tear all his clothes off with her teeth.

Across the table from Quinn sat a relatively young man, neat, tidy…or he was a few hours ago working in his office. Now he was decidedly less put together, nervously fumbling with his rapidly dwindling stack of chips as he glared daggers at his opposition. "Lucky hand."

He tossed a $100 chip out in front of him, his leg jiggling impatiently as he waited for Quinn to add his 200 to the initial bet.

Quinn was barely paying attention to the cards, instead checking the time on his cell before he even bothered to flip his cards to glance at them, he upped the bet and leaned back in his seat, motioning to one of the girls walking around taking drink orders with a smirk, "I seem to be getting a lot of those tonight."

The guy opposite scoffed again, this time eyeing the waitress, trying to appear nonchalant, "Yeah, I'm sure it was all just luck." He started fidgeting, his leg jiggling while he waited impatiently for the girl dealing the cards to stop daydreaming and get on with her job already.

Quinn merely shrugged, for him this was nothing but pocket change, and he was far more interested in the woman across the table than any activity he was engaged in just to make his meeting easier. It wasn't his fault the guy he was contacting happened to be a habitual gambler, "Have a drink, it'll relax you."

Taking a deep breath, Paul tried to calm himself, keep from losing his cool and getting himself kicked out, despite the fact he'd lost his cool when he started betting half the value of his unpaid for home on the next set of cards. "I don't want a drink...I just want the cards to be dealt," He looked across the table at the dealer pointedly.

Whipping out a winning smile when the waitress sauntered over to him, Quinn gave her an approving once over and a wink, "I don't suppose your bar stocks Fosters?"

The waitress scrunched up her face, trying to fight off a flirtatious giggle as soon as her ears pricked up upon hearing Quinn's broad Australian accent, "I'm sorry Sir, but what's 'Fosters'?"

"Bloody Americans," Quinn rolled his eyes good-naturedly, "Wouldn't know a proper lager if it snuck up behind you and bit you on your arse. In that case, whiskey on ice."

The waitress smiled, hers almost reaching as far as the charmer in front of her, "Of course sir." She turned on a heel and sashayed off, knowing full well he was more than likely staring at her ass as she went.

The dealer started dealing, flicking the cards around with practiced ease, "Bet is to you," She looked over at Paul pointedly, trying to keep the glare off her face.

Paul's leg carried on jiggling as he examined his shitty hand, but he couldn't back down, he had to win back what he'd lost. Trying to play it casual, he leaned back in his seat, "Call," He threw in another 100 to match Quinn's initial 200.

"Huh?" Quinn snapped his head back towards the table, having to glance at his cards to remind himself what he had before tossing another 100 onto the table, "Raise."

Paul stared at him, releasing a low growl. Realising playing it cool wasn't working, he decided to try the bluff, "Raise," He tossed in a 500, a raise of 200.

Quinn gave Paul a 'really?' look before matching his bet, "Your funeral mate."

"We'll see." Paul turned his attention back to the cards, clasping his hands together and resting his chin on them.

He usually knew his limits, but ever since the smug Aussie guy opposite him had shown up and started taking his money, he felt the compulsion to play every hand taking over. The desire to win back any losses, to bet more and more, pretty soon he was betting with money he didn't have, and somehow he just kept on losing.

The dealer turned over the three cards just as the waitress returned. Paul's head dropped down between his hands, deflated, they give him diddly squat. He caught himself in time however and blanked his face again, even managing to force what he hoped was a misleading grin.

"Your drink sir," The waitress placed the whiskey carefully in to the spot on the table hollowed out for drinks beside Quinn, letting her hand linger on the glass slightly before flashing a seductive smile in his diction when she'd caught his attention.

Quinn tossed the waitress a 100 dollar chip without looking up, wondering just when the hell his contact would be arriving and how much of this punk's money he'd have to take before then, "Enjoy yourself, love."

Taking the chip with a sexy smile, the waitress tucked it down her bra, it was against the rules to accept chips after all. One hundred dollars better off, she disappeared to get on with serving the other customers, Quinn once again stared at her backside for a long moment before turning back to the table with a self satisfied smile. He briefly considered making this place a regular visit. Relaxed atmosphere, good service, attractive women as far as the eye could see, what was not to like? Suddenly he was starting to see why his contact liked spending time in Casino's.

"Raise three," He flicked three, one hundred dollar chips onto the table. Leaning forward, he glanced pointedly at the dealer's name tag, "So, 'Julia', you worked here long?"

Julia glanced down at her name tag, almost forgetting it had her name on it when she heard him speak her name. "Six months. What about you, what do you do?" She conveniently forgot it was unprofessional and against the casino rules to have a chit chat with the customers while dealing, but there was something about this man she couldn't quite put her finger on.

Almost every night she'd get hit on by businessmen, drunks and general assholes, she'd grew a thick skin against it in her short time in the job. However this man was something different, she knew he was hitting on her, but as far as she could remember he hadn't done anything overt, and yet she found herself just wishing he'd make a proper move.

Paul, leg still jiggling, spoke up from across the table, interrupting the pair, "Call," He threw in enough chips to match Quinn's bet.

"I'm a... security consultant." Quinn smirked at his clever little title, "Just got into the country a few weeks ago."

He rolled his eyes while leaning back in his chair, looking over at Paul, "Should have quit when you didn't get anything on the last deal, mate. You're not playing the numbers to your favour."

Paul tried his best to ignore Quinn, snapping at the girl dealing, "Hey, I said 'Call'!"

"Oh, sorry sir," Julia shook her head, trying to fight off a glare at the asshole sitting to her left, maintaining her composure, she dealt a fourth card and flipped it over.

Quinn couldn't keep the smirk off his face, glancing up at Paul pointedly, "Told ya so." He drained his entire drink in one go while glancing at the time on his cell impatiently.

By now Paul was starting to get sick of the flirting between the pair. He was about to say something along the lines of 'place your fucking bet', when another guy showed up and walked over beside Quinn, the Australian standing up to greet the new arrival. Giving the newcomer a surly once over, he wasn't very impressed, around six foot, pretty plain, pretty well built, he just looked like an average guy, although…very neat and tidy, he noted.

"Lieutenant," Quinn smiled, slapping the slightly shorter man on the shoulder and motioning to an empty chair beside him, "How long's it been? Last time I saw you was in Libya, wasn't it?"

Mitchell Stewart smirked, taking the offered seat, "Yeah, pretty good payday that one."

Paul cleared his throat and glared at the new guy, running a shaky hand through his hair, "Your bet."

Stewart matched his glare, tossing a thumb towards him, "Who's this clown?"

"Dunno," Quinn smirked, handing off a cigar to his old comrade, "But at this rate he won't be here much longer, so don't worry about it."

He motioned across the table, smiling like he was a kid in a candy store, "But Julia here has been taking good care of me, so no harm done."

Paul merely growled in to his hands, he didn't have time for this.

Julia smiled sheepishly, "Sir, it's your bet," She gently reminded him, knowing the guy to her left was getting impatient, and she was being unprofessional.

"Of course love," Deciding he wanted to get the dickhead beside him away as soon as possible, he threw in another chip, "Raise five hundred."

"So, you have something lined up to keep me in beer and cigars for a while?" Stewart asked, leaning over while Quinn offered a light.

"I've got a payday lined up that would give wood to a priest." Quinn flipped his lighter back into his pocket, pausing for a long drag while motioning to the waitress, "Another one, and one for my friend here."

The waitress nodded from across the room and set about getting his drinks.

Paul considered for a long few seconds before tossing in a five hundred too. "Call."

"I'm listening, but this had better be good. I do have other offers you know." Stewart leaned back in his chair, eyeing up both the dealer and the waitress approvingly, conveniently ignoring the pencil pusher behind him.

Julia flipped over the fifth card, revealing nothing for either player.

"This guy I'm working for is exactly what you want in a boss, Mitch." Quinn said with a smirk, "Loaded and totally incompetent. The guy has access to the best weapons and equipment money can buy, including crates of experimental shit you can't even imagine. We're talking the payday of a lifetime here."

Quinn's face grew in to a huge smile, "We're not talking 'retire to an island' money. We're talking, 'which island do you want to buy?' money."

Stewart's eyes almost bulged out of his head, "Yeah, and I'm the King of England..come on."

He'd known Quinn for a long time…a long time, and they'd both saved each other's asses more times than either of them could count. But from the way the guy was talking, he was seriously starting to think it all might have gotten to his friend, either that or it the American air was starting to get to him. But the prospect of earning that much money was something he couldn't ignore, no matter how implausible it sounded.

Paul's head sank down between his hands. Raising it back up, he ran it between his sweaty palms, the fifth card still giving him jack shit.

"Three hundred." Quinn didn't even look at the last card, he still sat facing Mitchell, "Have I ever lied about something as important as money?"

Paul tossed three hundred in and flipped over his cards, not bothering to look up, just yelling at himself internally for letting it get this far with money he didn't have and a hand he didn't possess. Never before had he ever let himself get drawn in this easily, his discipline going out of the window…along with the balance of his savings account.

Stewart just calmly nodded, ignoring the idiot who was currently losing money hand over fist to his buddy, "What's the job?"

"Two pair, jacks over sevens." Quinn didn't pay any attention while Julia shoved the chips over to his pile, "Standard smash and grab, four targets, one retrieval. Bonuses on the back end, one mil cold."

Paul slumped back in to his chair, not paying any attention to the conversation. Instead he sat and stared at Julia's hands as she shuffled the cards expertly, ready to deal the next hand. That left him with less than one thousand dollars left, and he didn't really have that to spare in the first place.

"What's the catch? That sounds way too easy for all this money." Stewart let his eyes wander as the waitress returned and leaned in the gap between him and Quinn to set their drinks down on the table. Taking in a pleasant view down the front of her blouse, he grinned wolfishly, this was turning out to be a good day.

"Catch is that the target isn't exactly... normal." Quinn shrugged, "I can't tell you more until you accept the job, Mitch. Standard non-disclosure shit. But you've got my word that it's do-able, and I've already got a plan."

Mitch nodded slowly, "Two man job? Or are you calling in the cavalry?"

"I heard you've been working with a pretty good squad," Quinn shrugged, knowing his friend would wonder just how he'd been keeping tabs on him, "That job you pulled in Sierra Leone was top-notch Rambo shite. Think you could get ahold of those boys on short notice?"

Mitchell shrugged, taking a sip of his drink, the liquid stinging the back of his throat, "If the money's good."

Julia dealt the cards, placing three face down on the table. Paul tossed in his two hundred dollar bet for the big blind, Quinn his one hundred, barely even paying attention any more.

"Raise five hundred," Paul surprisingly declared, heactually had a decent hand this time, and he was willing to use the rest of his stack to wipe the smug grin of the Aussie asshole's face.

"Someone's putting on his big-boy pants." Quinn smiled at Julia while matching and raising another three hundred, pointedly not even looking at his cards. "The money's great, and the hire is supplying the heavy equipment, so no worries about smuggling in an arsenal."

Paul glared over at him, the sheer arrogance of the man pushing him over the edge. "All in!" He pushed all his chips in, the guy couldn't possibly have a decent hand yet again, the sheer odds of him winning again were mind boggling.

Stewart glanced over, paying about as much attention to the game as Quinn was, "I'll make a few calls. I'll get you your men."

"I was hoping you'd say that," Quinn matched Paul's bet, still without looking at his hand. If he lost, so what, it was a week's pay, but if he won he knew he would absolutely destroy the guy, "I wanted someone I could trust on this job. It's going to be down and dirty. We're talking Shanghai down and dirty."

"If it gets me an island..." Stewart stood up, patting Quinn on the shoulder on his way out, "I'll be in touch." With that he disappeared back in to the main casino, leaving the relative quiet of the booth.

Julia turned the three cards over, Quinn had nothing, only an Ace, Paul had 2 kings. She turned over the 4th, a four of clubs, meaning nothing for the hand. She slowly turned over the fifth, nervously glancing over at Paul…it was an Ace.

Quinn looked up slowly, a sly grin growing on his face. He'd won, and he hadn't even looked at his cards. Apparently Julia was his lucky charm. He couldn't help but launch into a burst of laugher, "Wow. I mean, what are the odds, right?"

"They seem to be in your favour." Paul's voice was deceptively even as he was forced to watch Julia shifting his chips over to the smirking, smug bastard who just took all of his money.

"What can I say?" Quinn's eyes never left Julia the entire time, taking great delight in seeing the blush running up her neck, "I'm a lucky guy."

"Yeah," Paul scoffed, "A little too fucking lucky if you ask me."

Ignoring the man's pointed looks, Quinn calmly ashed his cigar, "So, Julia... what time do you get off?"

Paul stood up abruptly, driving an accusing finger in Quinn's direction, "Fuck Julia...you're cheating, I know it. You couldn't have won all that without!"

"Mate," Quinn scoffed, "This is a first-class casino. You can't cheat the house. Besides, I was barely paying attention to the fucking game. Now calm your arse down before I do it for you."

"No I won't calm down, you've cheated me." Paul looked around and spotted the nearest security guard taking a keen interest in the commotion, "Hey, this guy has been cheating for the last hour!"

The man he'd been yelling at came over, closely followed by his equally large colleague, "Sir, calm down, take a seat." He turned to Quinn, "Sir, we don't tolerate cheating, if you're guilty you will not like the consequences."

Quinn remained totally calm until the pain in the arse security guard whipped out his attempt at intimidation, his eyes going cold instantly, "This fuckhead can't handle the fact he lost his money, nothing more. I played the cards I was dealt."

"Bullshit!" Paul jumped in before security had a chance to, the second guard subtly moving between the two, Paul and the oddly calm looking, apparent cheater, "I'll fucking take this outside right now, get my money back that way!"

By this point he was beyond rational thought, otherwise he would've realised he was dealing with a dangerous man based on their conversation.

"You hear that?" Quinn smirked, trying hard not to laugh at the red-faced pencil pusher, flashing a smirk in Julia's direction, "He's threatening me."

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." The first security guard calmly asked Paul, in an odd contrast to the atmosphere of hostility in the room.

Paul looked up red faced at the security, he was about to argue until he realised that two very large men wouldn't be taking no for an answer. Besides, he could just jump the asshole outside in the parking lot. Snatching his jacket up from the back of the seat, he stormed out, kicking the chair over on the way.

Security turned back to face the still eerily calm Quinn, "That goes for you too, sir."

Quinn just calmly finished his drink, drumming the fingers of his free hand on the table idly, "But I haven't gotten the lady's phone number yet. I promised myself I wouldn't leave without it." He flashed another winning smile at Julia.

Julia smirked, despite the situation, normally she would never even consider it, but she actually did want this guy to have her number.

The first security guy reached out towards his shoulder, rolling his eyes at the bravado on display, "I'm not asking again, sir."

Quinn's fingers stopped drumming instantly, but his eyes never left Julia, "I'd take that hand off me, mate."

Forgetting his professionalism for the first time, his buddy stepping behind him to back him up, the security guard with the hand on Quinn's shoulder leaned close so that he wouldn't be overheard, "Or what?"

Letting out a long, slow breath, snuffing his cigar out in the tray and tossing an apologetic look in Julia's direction, Quinn's voice remained slow and steady. "Sorry about this, love."

Before either man could react, he'd grabbed the hand on his shoulder and yanked downwards, hard, the security man's forehead slamming into the table with so much force it cracked. Standing up, he drove the chair backwards into the man standing behind him, using the way both of the guy's hands flew down to catch it to his advantage, slamming a ridge-fist into his throat and grabbing his tie, pulling him forward and headbutting him to the floor in an unconscious heap.

Just as he was finishing with him the other man had recovered enough to throw a punch at the back of his head, which Quinn easily sidestepped, catching the arm and tossing the guy over his hip, stomping on his chest.

Turning back to Julia as if nothing had happened, an easy smile stretched across his face, idly brushing down the front of his shirt, "So... that number?"

After clutching at his chest for a moment, one of the guards picked himself up and looked around just in time to see Julia, who he kind of had a thing for, casually handing off her number to the psycho with a smile like nothing had happened. Standing up with a grunt, he reached out again, attempting to snake his arm around the man's throat from behind.

Letting out a sigh, like this wasn't even worth his time, snagging the arm around his neck and spinning the man around in front of him, punching him in the stomach to double him over before slamming his hand down on the table and driving the blade he'd been using on his cigars into the centre of it, pinning his hand to the table.

Before the man had a chance to scream and alert the entire casino, he grabbed him by the back of the hair and slammed his face down onto the table three times in quick succession before dropping him. Pausing long enough to wipe some blood from his hand on the back of the guy's suit jacket, he put the number in his pocket and gathered up his chips like nothing was amiss.

Julia just stared, and tried not to drool a little. Despite being terrified, she found herself oddly turned on by what she'd just seen. Glancing up at Quinn, she couldn't help but be a little lost for words

Leaning over, Quinn brushed a few stray strands of hair behind her ear, tucking a thousand dollar chip into her breast pocket with a smile, "Sorry about the mess, love."

---

John Connor wasn't usually one to hesitate or second guess himself. However as he stood just in front of the steps in front of his home, he found himself delaying the inevitable. He knew he'd have to re-enter the house, the lion's den as it were.

It wasn't like he didn't want to, in fact he'd been looking forward to it ever since Derek handed him his ass on a silver platter. But there he stood, stopping dead in his tracks when he'd realised he didn't have the tiniest clue how he was going to approach it.

He had a girlfriend who he'd been treating like dirt because of his own problems, a sick mother who was probably ready to yell at him for leaving her side for the first time since she was locked up in Pescadero, and Amy, who, let's face it, was the best choice of a bad bunch.

John was so caught up in his thoughts that he barely registered the fact that he'd been standing on the same spot for almost five minutes ever since Derek had dropped him off and tore away in the truck, no doubt to go through his very own repair job with Jessica. Evidently women, be they rich, poor or cyborg all had one thing in common that John was just beginning to discover. If they were pissed with you, you damn well knew it!

Taking a deep breath and ignoring the pain it caused in his chest from the battering he'd taken, he stepped forward, every foot feeling like it took an eternity to traverse. He hesitated again with his hand outstretched towards the door. Clenching his fist and summoning up the courage, he gripped the handle and pushed the door open.

Stepping across the threshold, he couldn't help but think how nice it was to be home, especially after spending the last couple of days hiking in the middle of nowhere with a pissed off Derek and sleeping wherever they felt like it. John had never been a nesting creature, but it was still good to be home.

Shucking his jacket off with a pained hiss, he hung it on a nearby hook and took a deep breath before stepping in to the living room.

Huh, that's odd. Where's my welcoming committee?

Nobody was in sight. No Amy, no Sarah and no Cameron. It was odd, only himself and the ticking of the clock for company.

Shaking his head, he set off for the kitchen in search of someone. Halfway across the room, he heard a low rumble of somebody coming down the stairs behind him.

"John?"

He turned around to face his mother, who rather surprisingly looked overjoyed to see him. He was just about to greet her like he hadn't seen her in years when the back door closed and Cameron appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, eyeing him with a curious tilt of her head.

So there he was, in the exact middle of the two most important women in his life. Sarah to his left, Cameron to his right in a scene oddly reminiscent of an old western movie, the two combatants facing off.

If he'd been thinking rationally, he'd have greeted both genially and downplayed the situation. But he wasn't. Instead he was fuelled by days of pent up pain, emotional and physical. All he wanted to do was set his fuck ups right, and hopefully earn his forgiveness.

Glancing from Cameron across to his mother, he flashed her a sympathetic 'sorry' look, a look which she seemed to be expecting. Sarah's head dropped ever so slightly in acceptance. John felt bad about it, but his decision was made before he even realised it. Turning his body away from his mother, he faced Cameron, took a few long strides, all the way keeping his eyes locked on hers. When he reached her, he slowly, almost tentatively threaded his arms around her waist, clasping his hands behind her back.

Tightening his grip, he pulled himself in closer, burying his head in the crook of her neck, letting her sweet scent wash over him. She didn't return his hug, something he was quite frankly expecting and fully understood. It hurt him, but he knew deep down he didn't deserve anything she gave him, so he satisfied himself by shuffling his head around on her shoulder.

What he didn't see however was Cameron's face. When he encircled her, she almost had a look of shock on her face, her arms spread to the side. Sarah was right, John chose her, over his own mother.

Cameron looked up, finding Sarah with a look of resigned sadness on her face, she knew it was coming too. But she seemed to appear wiling to accept it, giving Cameron a nod before quietly making her way out of the room, leaving Cameron alone with her boyfriend clinging to her.

Shifting her head to the side, she looked at the side of his head as he cuddled her in even tighter. He was filthy, and judging from the way he was slumping against her, he was exhausted too.

Cameron felt torn as she had earlier. On one hand, she should be angry with him, she should have pushed him away before he even had a chance to get near her. However when he'd done exactly what Sarah had said he would, it gave her pause. Still undecided, she felt John shuffle his head so that his mouth was right by her ear.

"I'm so sorry," John paused, seemingly trying to come up with something to say that would absolve him of his guilt, "I'm sorry for treating you the way I have been. It was wrong of me…immature."

He paused and pulled back enough to see her face, his eyes locking with hers before he spoke again, "You don't deserve to be treated like that, especially by me. I…I…"

He paused, releasing a frustrated breath. He just couldn't grab the right words to explain how he felt and it left him little more than a stuttering idiot, "Would you be willing to let me explain myself, apologise properly?"

Cameron remained rooted, still not making any extra contact with him than what he'd instigated. Her face stayed as blank as it always had, making his heart skip a beat all the more when she finally, after what seemed like an eternity, nodded her assent.

Nodding happily and breathing a sigh of relief, John unclasped his hands from behind her back, "Thank you. I'm filthy, I'm going to take a shower, will you wait for me?"

Cameron again nodded slowly, not trusting herself to speak. Instead she simply watched as John detached himself from her completely and stepped back with all the resigned sadness of a death row inmate. He obviously wasn't expecting much, her reaction all but confirming it for him.

Sighing, he slowly turned away, tearing his eyes away from hers at the last possible moment before heading off towards the stairs, leaving Cameron alone in the living room with nothing but her thoughts, confused and chaotic as they were.

John trudged his way up the stairs almost on autopilot. Eventually he found his way to the bathroom, skipping out his bedroom entirely and barely noticing his mother in her own room. Once inside, he slumped against the door, closing it with his weight.

Well that went as well as could be expected.

He had no clue how Cameron would react, it was one of the reasons he liked her so much, that despite being mostly based on logic and programming, when it came to her emotional side she was always liable to throw a curveball in to the mix.

But her reaction was pretty much all he could've hoped for. Actually, he could've hoped she'd want to tear all his clothes off as soon as she saw him, but that was probably just his adolescent male brain going in to overdrive, it had been a long week. But the fact that she didn't just blank him or say anything negative gave him hope that in time he could sort it out, the humiliation at the hands of his uncle drilling the point home that patience and maturity were pretty important if he was to be the man everybody wanted him to be.

Undressing slowly to avoid inflicting any more pain on himself, he tossed his clothes in to the hamper and flicked the shower on, stepping under the spray before it even had a chance to warm up. Feeling the ice cold water hitting each and every bruise and scrape, after almost a week, it felt so good. So good in fact he let his mind wander while he waited for the water to heat.

Over the past week, he'd pissed off his girlfriend, in more than one way. He'd been beaten to a pulp by his uncle, who was kind enough to not make a mark on his face, lest he face the wrath of not only Sarah but Cameron too.

That beating had managed to drill more sense in to him than an army drill instructor could have in a year. Derek had shown him that he wasn't John Connor yet, no matter how much he fancied himself to be, he was still John Baum, still a kid, and not a very strong one at that. Sure he'd had his moments, the way he handled Jesse being one of them, but at the end of the day he was not ready to be the man who would lead humanity to it's ultimate victory. At this rate, he'd be nothing more than one of the grunts he'd belittled, and that hit home deeply with every punch that landed.

Feeling the water turning hot, he picked up his washcloth and set about ridding himself of the accumulated dirt and grime he'd built up out in the wilderness. The cloth scraping over his wounds like it was made of steel wool, John hissed with almost every movement, but grit his teeth and carried on regardless.

Pretty soon he'd have the weight of an entire world on his shoulders, the lives of almost every person left alive would ride on the decisions and choices he would make. It was an awesome responsibility, something which hadn't fully hit him yet. Despite all that, he could still only focus on his own personal problems, and he had to sort out those issues first before he could even think about helping anybody else.

Finishing up his wash, he switched off the shower and stepped out, snagging a towel off the nearby rack and roughly drying himself and his hair off. Wrapping the towel around his waist, he swiped at the mirror a couple of times to clear the fog. As he stared at himself, particularly the mottled bruises on his body, he thought of what he was going to say to Cameron.

In all honesty, he didn't have a clue. He wouldn't have been surprised, or blamed her if she wanted to end their relationship, go back to being his stony faced protector, nothing more than an Uncle Bob. John desperately didn't want that. He wanted his Cameron, he wanted her love, her forgiveness, but most importantly he wanted to be with her. He'd never had much going for him in his life and wouldn't in the future, she was one of the good things in his life, something to be treasured, not argued with and treated badly.

Sucking in a deep, deep breath, he prepared himself. Taking a couple of short steps, he gripped the door handle that lead to his bedroom. If he lived to be a hundred, he was pretty sure he'd never, ever be more surprised at what he saw when he opened the door.

Cameron was waiting for him, he'd been expecting that. She was on their new bed, he'd forgotten about that. But what almost made him keel over in shock was the fact that she'd stripped down to her figure hugging tank top and panties and lay on her side in a downright seductive pose.

He was so caught up in his own shock that he barely registered her face twisting in to a look of sheer panic as she leapt up off the bed, all hint of seduction gone. She closed the gap between them in no time at all and the next thing he noticed was the feel of her hands ghosting over his body, but not in the way he expected.

"John, what happened?" She asked, her voice bordering on stark terror as she examined the array of bruises marring his torso.

"Huh, oh," Doing his best to ignore the obvious effect her hands roaming over her body, and the way her delicate perfume washed over him as soon as she came close, John tried to block out the pain her feather light touches were causing to focus on her, "It's…it's nothing."

Gently encircling her wrists with his hands, he tried his absolute best to get her to look up at him, rather than looking, and probably scanning his body. When she didn't pause her movements, seemingly trying to map out every single mark with her fingertips, John ducked lower, trying to catch her eye, "Cameron, it's fine," He assured, in the gentlest voice he could muster.

"You're damaged!" She replied abruptly, ignoring his words and instead continuing her inspection undeterred.

"Cameron, I swear, I'm fine." John tried again, his voice calm and soothing, laying his hands on top of hers as they danced over his ribs, her movement stopping when he wrapped his hands around her smaller fingers, metal and all. Her eyes finally meeting his after several moments spent staring confusedly at his hands on top of hers.

A moment later, Cameron detached her hand from his and raised it up to gingerly touch seemingly random spots on his head, her eyes following the movement of her hands. John remained content to let her do her work, no doubt checking for a concussion, after all, if somebody had claimed to be fine with the amount of bruising he had, he'd think they were crazy too.

Instead what he focused on was the fact that he still had his hand wrapped around her bare metal fingers, right over his heart. Cocking his head to the side with a smile, he found it oddly comforting that she still saw fit to care about him after everything that had happened. "Cameron, I promise you, I'm fine.

Reaching up to gently take hold of her hand, he pulled it back down between them, her eyes shifting focus to his, confusion evident on her face, "Me and Derek…well, we just got in to some hand to hand training, that's all."

Cameron looked down again, highly sceptical. There was no way Derek, no matter how much she doubted his honesty, would ever inflict this much damage on his nephew unintentionally, or during 'training'. She knew that John was protecting somebody, most likely Derek from her. Before she could question him on it, he'd shifted his attention back to her.

"What's all this about? I thought you'd be ready to throw me out of here, not," he waved his hand in the direction of her attire, "Whatever this is."

"I had a talk with Sarah," Cameron clarified to a clearly confused John, putting aside the issue of his bruises for now, although she did make a note to have a word with Derek about it at some point.

John though looked more confused if anything, "And she told you to do this?"

"No, Jessica told me to do this," Cameron coked her head to the side. John's face looked like somebody had just thrown a book of five hundred page book of math puzzles and told him to solve them all in ten minutes. Confused was an understatement.

"Cameron…" John resisted the urge to throw his hands up in the air in frustration, "Not that I'm not happy that you're even speaking to me at all, but you're not making any sense. What did mom say?"

Cameron tilted her head to the opposite side, picking her chin up slightly as she gave his fingers a light squeeze, "You chose me over her."

John shook his head, closing his eyes. If he wasn't already on shaky ground in this relationship, he'd have been forced to laugh at just how much sense she wasn't making, "Cameron…"

"She said that when you came home, you'd hug me before her," Cameron clarified, seeing he was struggling with the concept she was trying to relay, "I didn't believe her."

"Why not?" John asked, still shaking his head, but not nearly as confused thanks to her explanation.

"She's your mother," Cameron answered, her eyes flicking back to his damaged body again quickly, "Sarah is the most important person in your life, she always has been."

John remained silent, allowing her to explain her motivations. So far she wasn't making much sense, but he had a feeling if he let her spell it out then he'd grasp it eventually.

"I assumed that you would greet her first," Cameron took a small step closer, laying a hand on his chest possessively, "I was upset when you left. I've rarely felt that way before, I didn't like it."

Cameron shook her head, trying to relay how she was feeling to the best of her ability, given that she wasn't quite sure herself. "Since you've been gone I've been torn about how I feel. You haven't treated me well, your behaviour has been…frustrating."

Just as John was about to stutter out a response, she stepped forward and placed a slow, lingering kiss on his lips. When she pulled back, John remained with his eyes closed, her soft, silken lips something he hadn't tasted in what felt like forever. She waited for them to drift open before she continued, pleased beyond belief that she was capable of getting that reaction from him. "From what I know of human society, I would've been well within my rights to 'dump you'. But I haven't felt the need to do that."

Cameron paused before continuing, gauging his reaction. He seemed to be caught somewhere between trepidation and sheer hopefulness, an intriguing sight. "You've hurt me John. I haven't had these feelings for very long, but you've encouraged me to develop them, to engage in behaviour that makes me happy. Being with you makes me happy, but you can't ever treat me like that again…I won't forgive a second time."

John wasn't used to Cameron using such ominous words, but he knew that any kind of forgiveness wouldn't be straight forward. Hell, he was just happy he'd been forgiven.

Taking both of her hands in his again, he raised them higher and dropped a tender kiss on both sets of knuckles, skin and metal. Making sure his eyes never left hers, he spoke in a voice that conveyed his sincerity, he intended to keep the promise he was about to make. "I promise you Cameron, I will never treat you the way I have been because of my own personal issues. This," He held her metal hand up in front of him, dropping another kiss on it, "Is my problem, not yours."

Tightening her grip around his fingers, Cameron started shuffling backwards, leading a shaky John towards the bed, their bed. Her knees made contest with the edge of the mattress, lowering herself naturally down in to a sitting position. With a small smile, she shook her head, sending a few stray hair out of her face as she slowly sank backwards, pulling John lower by their joined hands.

Propping a knee up on the bed, John couldn't help but smirk at her sudden behaviour. Never before had she been so purposefully…seductive, sexy. The way a tiny movement of her arms sent her tank top riding up ever so slightly, giving him a perfect view of a tantalising sliver of skin. Grinning, he sank lower, his lips meeting hers as her fingertips came to rest lightly on his cheek.

Shuffling backwards on to the bed, Cameron pulled him with her, laying flat on the bed. Carefully, he swung a leg over to her side, straddling her hips, kissing her again, passionately. Her tongue feeling like an old friend after so long apart.

Slowly and gently,he took hold of her wrists and brought them up above their heads, a quizzical look on Cameron's face as he pinned them down on the bed. Smirking to himself, he leaned down and nuzzled her neck in just the way he knew she loved, her arms tensing slightly under his grip. Smiling against her skin, he licked and kissed his way higher, back up towards her jaw, kissing along it's length until he reached her lips again. Cameron replying in kind when she could, squirming delightfully under his weight.

Chuckling, he trailed his fingertips down her arms, teasing lightly over her elbows, past her armpits and down her flanks. Eventually he gripped the hem of her tank top and finally broke away from the kiss. Taking the hint, Cameron sat up, still with her arms raised above her head. Smiling at her eagerness, John pulled the top off over her head, casually discarding it to the side and openly admiring the view she presented to him, her bra matching her panties.

Grinning, he dove forward, practically tackling her to the bed, holding her in place with his lips on hers. Cameron's hands found their way to his back, squeezing him in closer to her as her lips pushed back at his. She certainly had to admit, she was enjoying this attention and apparent newfound playfulness in her John.

Trailing her fingertips down over his spine, she thought she should at least have the opportunity to tease back. Taking the opportunity presented to her, she trailed her hand lower, her smooth skin gliding down between them until she gripped her target, John freezing almost instantly. Then with one quick flick of her wrist, and to John's everlasting surprise, she whipped the towel that was covering his lower half off, discarding it in the same pile as her top.

John looked back at her and the grin on her face, he couldn't help but smile himself. Leaning down he kissed her slowly, gently, as if he could pore out all his affections through a single kiss. Cameron responded in kind, her fingers framing his face, keeping him as close as possible. She switched her attention to his jaw, trailing her lips mere inches after her fingers.

As she lavished attention on the stubble covered skin she found, she barely registered that John wasn't returning the favour. In fact, he wasn't moving at all.

Pausing in her ministrations, she looked up at him, only to find his eyes screwed shut, she could feel his heart rate increasing wildly through her fingertips on his neck. Then she realised her mistake. Her metal fingers had grazed his throat.

His worst nightmares had come true as he was stuck between two machines with no hope of escape. He backed away a couple of feet when something grabbed his throat and slammed his head back in to the car. He felt his head being turned to face his attacker. He was greeted with the sight of Cameron seemingly studying him intensely, the chrome of her bare endoskeleton sending a chill down his spine. She noticed his fearful expression and tilted her head in her usual fashion as she examined him closely.

"Don't be scared John. This is your destiny"

John struggled more in her grasp to no avail. She wasn't choking him, instead she was merely holding him in place while she continued to stare at him.

"What do you want?"

She looked away from him for a moment while she considered.

Just like my Cameron does.

John was shook from his thoughts when she answered.

"I'd like a kiss John"

John's eyes widened in panic as she moved her face closer to his. She noticed his renewed struggling and spoke again, her optical sensors never leaving his eyes.

"I love you John"

With that she inched her face ever closer to his until John couldn't bare it any longer and closed his eyes. A second later he felt cold metal press against his lips.

John opened his eyes slowly, seeing Cameron below him looking distinctly concerned as she slowly removed her hand from his throat. That alone should've been enough to calm him down, but just seeing her reaction to it was more than he could take.

Closing his eyes again, he shook his head, barely registering the small plea she made by calling his name. He couldn't keep doing this to her, he couldn't, he was so sure he was over this, that he could be comfortable around Cameron again.

That wasn't the case, everything up to the point that she grazed his throat he could handle. However the feeling of the cold metal sliding over his neck brought the carefully repressed memories of so many nightmares rushing back.

Opening his eyes again, he found Cameron looking up at him, her inquisitive, innocent eyes almost boring holes in to his head such was the intensity of her gaze. A moment later she brought her hand up to rest gently on his cheek, idly stroking the pad of her thumb where it rested on his skin.

He faintly heard her ask if he was alright, however all he could think of was that he'd let her down, again. He was her rock, her everything, and he couldn't keep his deep seeded fears from fucking up her life. He hated himself for letting her down like this. She relied on him for guidance, to aid her evolution and development, but he couldn't even help himself much less her.

Staring down at her deep, brown eyes, he slowly pushed himself up on to his hands, and then back on to his haunches. Shaking his head sadly, he extricated himself from her and the bed and took off for the bathroom, not turning back, he couldn't face her again.

John closed the bathroom door gently behind him, clicking it closed. Leaning back, his head hit the door with a thud, adding a couple more just because he felt like it, the impact reverberating through the entire door and through his shoulders. He didn't feel the pain, it was nothing compared to what his body had been through. That coupled with the emotions racing through his mind were a very effective numbing agent.

Fists clenching at his side, he felt the sudden urge to break something on the off chance it might make him feel a little better. Casting his eyes around the room in search of something, they eventually landed on the small mirror by the door. Picking it up, he tossed it as hard as he could, unfortunately taking no pleasure at all when he watched it shatter off the far wall.

Not satisfied, and still feeling the need to vent the anger and contempt he held for himself, he aimed a kick at the side of the bathtub. Unfortunately, the thing was damn near bomb proof, his foot didn't stand a chance. Recoiling as if he'd been hit with an electric shock, he winced and hopped around, cursing himself for being so stupid, "Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

As he was trying to rub the sting from his foot, he heard the door open quietly behind him. Glancing back over his shoulder, he watched Cameron slowly entering the room, her concerned look apparent as she approached him. "John?"

"I don't wanna hear it alright!" John snapped, turning back to his throbbing foot, "Whatever you have to say, you can guarantee I already feel bad, so save it!"

Cameron frowned, he was doing it again, despite her warning, "I was just going to ask if you were alright."

Her tone suggested she might be ready to withdraw the concern she had for him, but John didn't pick up on that little nuance. Instead he slammed his foot down and turned around, throwing his arms up in the air in frustration, "No I'm not alright, you wanna know why?"

Before Cameron even had the chance to formulate an answer, John started talking, whether she wanted to hear it or not. "Where do I start?"

"Let's see…first of all, I'm John Connor!" He exclaimed exasperatedly, causing Cameron unending amounts of confusion, "I'm the guy who's supposed to lead three billion people to victory over Skynet."

John shook his head, scoffing at the same time, "Look at me, I can barely keep the people I care about from dying, how the hell am I supposed to keep three fucking billion alive, huh?"

"John…" Cameron reached out to try and lay a hand on his shoulder, but he hadn't finished, shrugging off her hand like it stung.

"Three billion," John stepped back, shaking his head, "That means another three billion are going to die when Skynet attacks. Oh, and guess who signed their fucking death warrant? Yeah, that was me. When I decided it would be a good idea to stop trying to prevent Judgement Day and just accept it, I may as well have just put a bullet in all of their brain pans!"

He started pacing, something Cameron knew was never a good sign. All she could do now was to stand and listen, sensing that John was just getting started, his responses and general attitude suggesting he had a lot to get off his chest, and she had to just be there for him.

"But hey, on the plus side I get to order the survivors around," John paused in his pacing, aiming another kick at that damn bathtub again and immediately regretting it, fairly sure he's have another cracked bone to add to his already probable list. "Me! I'm the one they're all going to look to. I'm the one who has to defeat the super smart and very afraid AI."

He turned to face Cameron, her face a blank mask as she patiently watched him vent, "How the hell am I supposed to do that, huh Cameron? I can barely keep from shooting my damn uncle out on the battlefield, and he looks nothing like a Terminator!"

Chuckling humourlessly, he leaned over the sink, staring at himself in the mirror mounted on the wall. The sight greeting him wasn't very pleasant, mottled and angry looking bruises covering his torso, "Speaking of my dear uncle, he just handed me my ass on a plate out there."

He looked across to his right at Cameron, who still remained like a statue, "He did it without even trying, didn't even break a sweat. He accused me of being cocky, and I lost my calm."

Refraining from mentioning that he did have a tendency to become over confident, Cameron stepped slightly closer, careful to avoid the small shards of glass littering the floor.

"The guy just beat my ass, and he did it for my own good!" He turned back to face the mirror, shaking his head with yet another humourless laugh, "Am I really so messed up that it takes a beating to make me realise just how unprepared I am, for everything?"

Getting on a real roll, John poured his heart out in a way he'd never really done before. The last time he'd shown such emotion was when Cameron had asked him to wipe out her emotions, before that was after explaining the Jesse and Riley situation to his mother and Cameron. Thinking of his mother brought him on to a new topic, something he'd been suppressing for altogether too long.

"Then I come home and have all the shit to worry about here," John turned away from the mirror and away from Cameron, running a pair of shaky hands tiredly over his face and the stubble decorating his chin, "Mom is sick. I know it, you know it, she knows it. But she's too stubborn to admit it and would rather suffer on her own."

John shook his head in disbelief, letting his arms swing by his sides, finally seeming to slow down and breathe, if a little shakily. "She's getting worse…I'm afraid I'm going to lose her."

He turned back to Cameron, again her confusion only grew when he was wearing a smile, albeit a very strained smile. "Ironic right? I'm condemning three billion people to death and I'm worried about losing my mom."

Shaking his head again, he sat himself down in the edge of the bathtub and settled his head in his hands, defeat seeming to claim him as he put up the last vestiges of resistance before his carefully put together exterior crumbled. "I can't even touch my girlfriend because I'm afraid of her."

His revelation stung Cameron, although it was unintentional. Although she knew it was his fear of machines, no, Terminators, that was causing his issues, hearing him admit it was something she didn't want to experience. Although, in a sense it brought her a modicum of comfort to know that he still wanted to touch her, to hold her. It wasn't something she'd done, or hadn't done, or even what she was. It was because John couldn't get past his own subconscious to follow what he desired in his conscious mind, her.

Slowly and almost silently, Cameron stepped forward. After a moment's pause to consider her next actions, she gently laid her hand on John's head, slowly running her fingers through his short hair.

Face still buried in his hands, John's voice came out barely above a whisper, laced with emotion and downright despair. "I can't do this, Cameron."

When he looked up, Cameron's felt a pang of something she'd never felt before. A sensation she would be in no mood to repeat. Her John was…crying. His eyes were bloodshot and glassy as he looked at her, almost pleading with her to understand.

"I can't be the man everybody needs me to be," He managed to croak out, sucking in a shaky breath or two, "I'm going to let them all down, and so many people are going to die because of me."

Burying his head in his hands again, John felt Cameron moving closer, her gentle fingers roaming down the back of his head, stroking his hair soothingly. "My mom is the strongest person I know, and I'm going to lose her too."

Taking another shaky breath, he picked his head up out of his hands and stared straight ahead, speaking in a low and eerily calm voice, "I killed five people during the ambush, Cameron. Five people, shot, by me…and I didn't even blink, I just killed them."

Feeling a renewed set of tears approaching as he pictured the faces of the hired mercenaries he'd shot and killed, he looked up at Cameron, who still remained quiet as she carried on gently stroking the back of his head. "You're the best part of my whole life, and I've been treating you like crap just because of my own issues."

Finally breaking, new tears rolling down his cheeks, John screwed his eyes shut and let his head drop. If he hadn't been sitting down, he'd have collapsed, what little energy he had being completely sapped.

Breaking down completely, he started sobbing, the gravity of everything he's just confided to Cameron finally hitting him after years of repressing it all. The 'normal' life he'd been trying to live was now a ridiculous fantasy. He was John Connor, normal wasn't something he could ever have or know. His relationship with Cameron was about the most normal thing he could ever hope for, no matter how absurd that was in reality.

"I'm sorry, Cameron."

The woman had stood by him during his freakouts, his immature behaviour and apparently was willing to stick by him during his breakdowns too. Opening his moist, glassy eyes, he saw a pair of bare feet in his field of vision. It was about that point that he realised just how soothing her delicate touch was on the back of his skull.

He'd always thought he was her rock. It turned out she was his also.

All through this, she hadn't said anything, questioned him or even tried to help in any way. She'd simply been there, there for him. If that wasn't love, he didn't know what was, and he was pretty sure she'd realise it soon enough.

Finally lifting his head up, her perfect, smooth waist was mere inches from his eyes. Leaning forward, her rested his cheek on the smooth, slightly cool expanse of skin, listening to the very, very faint whine when she moved, no doubt pistons and servos carrying out their duty. Oddly enough, for all his bluster over recent weeks about her exposed arm, he took an odd comfort in hearing the sound coming from deep within her mechanical belly.

It comforted him to know now that she was stronger, much stronger than him. The realisation that he wasn't invincible driving the point home that he couldn't afford to let the little things bother him any more, especially where Cameron was concerned.

The aforementioned cyborg looked down at her John with a tilt of her head, idly grazing her thumb around his earlobe in a gesture she hoped was comforting. For all her intentions to let John know exactly how she felt, when she'd seen him crying, she'd stopped in her tracks. John wasn't weak, and bottling things up was one of his more dangerous personality traits. So to see him in his current state made her want to do nothing more than to help him.

She looked down again when she felt a pair of warm, moist lips press against her synthetic flesh, just above her belly button. He kissed her again, slowly, gently, almost apologetically, as if he didn't want to hurt her any more, as if a kiss could sting her if he tried too hard.

He brought his hands up to rest on her hips, slowly drawing his lips across her skin, dropping a kiss here and there, his fingers grazing her sides delicately.

"John…"

John paused in his ministrations, eyes bloodshot, his expression desperate and full of longing. He waited for her to speak, anxious, nervous of what her reaction would be. Would she tell him to stop? Would she want to tell him how she felt? Would she ask a question?

"Take me to bed."

Needless to say, John was surprised. Her simple response wasn't a question, it was an instruction, albeit spoken in a tender and gentle voice, as if she could sense his trepidation. His eyes followed her movements when she reached out her hand, her metal hand to him. Glancing up at her face again, he silently took the offered hand and stood up on shaky legs.

He felt her grip tighten around his fingers as she formed the faintest of smiles at his acceptance. Without a word, she turned slowly on a heel and set off towards the bedroom, again carefully avoiding the fragments of glass littering the bathroom floor, silently guiding her lover through the debris. John followed behind like an obedient puppy, as near to autopilot as was possible.

Stepping in to the bedroom, Cameron stopped and reached behind John to close the bathroom door. Placing her free hand on his hip, she manoeuvred them around and started gently pushing him back towards the bed, in a role reversal from their earlier aborted attempt. John's eyes remained locked on hers the entire way as he allowed her to guide him.

"Cameron…"

John started, but was cut off when Cameron deftly rose to her tip toes and pressed her lips to his, effectively silencing him. When she pulled back and settled down on her feet, she gently pushed him back so that he was sitting on the edge of the bed. "Let me take care of you."

Again, it wasn't a question, only Cameron could take something so well intentioned and make it sound like an order, no matter how softly spoken it was. Placing a gentle but firm hand on his shoulder, she pushed him back so that he was laying flat before stepping back from the bed.

John watched as the woman he loved reached around behind her back, a second later his eyes followed her bra to where it came to rest on the floor. After a short moment of staring at it, his eyes trailed higher, up over her legs, past her panties to her bare chest, then to her face. Shaking himself from his trance like state, he shuffled backwards so he was laying flat on the bed properly. As odd as it was, he felt a little nervous. It wasn't like they hadn't done this before, but he had always been the one to take control, to lead her. This was new territory for them both.

Cameron kicked her underwear out of the way and stepped forward. Ensuring she avoided most of his bruises, she set one knee on the edge of the bed, followed by another as she crawled her way over to him. Swinging a leg to the other side of him, she straddled his hips and sank back, sitting on his thighs, her eyes never leaving his.

"John," She waited for him to tear his view away from her body and to her eyes before she continued, "You believe I'm capable of feeling much more than I have been?"

John nodded dumbly, assuming she was referring to sex. Cameron gave a small nod before speaking again, "I want to help you, to help me."

The very corner of her lips quirked up as she reached out and gently took hold of his hands. A moment later, and after a confused look from John, she leaned forward and placed them over her breasts and held them in place. At John's quizzical look, she clarified, idly caressing the back of his hands where they rested, "My breasts are more sensitive then most of my body…but I don't think they're as sensitive as a human woman's."

She released her grip on John's hands and rested them very lightly on his chest. She was pleased beyond measure when he started to move his hands of his own accord, a coarse thumb brushing over a delicate nipple, causing her to suck in a tiny, simulated breath of air.

John looked up at the unexpected sound, only to find a smile greeting him, a smile which let him know that this was real for her, she wasn't faking it. Perhaps it was the situation they were in, or maybe she had changed something internally, but Cameron appeared to be 'in the mood', as it were.

Cameron leaned down and placed a slow, sensual kiss on his lips while he continued his delicate exploration, simply letting himself think of nothing besides her, doing what she wanted. Her hands slowly dragged up his chest and came to rest on his face, the cold metal of her fingers coming in to contact with his cheek. To her eternal delight, he didn't even flinch. She didn't detect any raised heartbeat, nor did she pick up on any of the usual signs of his fear as her tongue brushed against his lip.

Altogether sooner than John wanted, Cameron pulled back a couple of inches, leaving him sucking at fresh air. He opened his eyes to find her smiling down at him, releasing her hold on his face. "I've always liked it when you kiss my neck…could you do that again for me?"

John barely registered the fact that this time it was phrased as a request. Instead, he leaned up, watching Cameron as she took hold of the hair that was draped over her left shoulder and flipped it over to her other side, giving him free access to her neck. That bare expanse of skin may as well have been ambrosia, such was the way John attacked it, fervently licking, sucking and kissing all over the area.

He vaguely noticed her taking hold of one of his hands and removing it from her chest. If he hadn't been so focused on her neck, he'd have questioned her, that was until she slid his hand down lower in between them. She settled it, palm facing up over her panties, taking care to place his fingers exactly where she wanted them.

Pulling back, John levelled a goofy grin in her direction as he manipulated his fingers, using what knowledge he had to his advantage. Her eyes closed as he brushed over a particularly sensitive spot, causing her brow to knit together delightfully. When she opened her eyes, she hesitated for a moment before her lips crashed against his, John releasing a low groan in to her mouth which reverberated down her throat.

Scraping her fingers up over his torso, she pulled back when he groaned again, this time in pain, accompanied by a wince, "John?"

John shook his head feverishly, setting his hand on top of hers where it hovered above his chest, guiding it back down, "It's okay Cameron."

Cameron nodded, albeit slowly, and returned her touch to his chest. She tilted her head to the side again, encouraging him to resume his attentions on her neck as her hands danced across the sparse hairs on his chest. The fingers of her right hand tangled where it rested, her left continued higher, finding it's way to the back of his head, keeping him pressed closer to her.

John groaned in to her neck when she started slowly rocking back and forth, her breasts grazing his chest bringing pleasure to them both. Reaching his free hand around, his fingers tangled in her hair, much the same way she was doing to him, pressing her closer as his tongue worked it's way across the delicate skin covering her throat.

Feeling braver, John raised his fingers up, paused for a moment and then slid them under the waistband of her panties. The next thing he knew her grip on the back of his head tightened almost painfully. Despite that though, he grinned as he felt a shiver run through her body at the contact.

Ignoring her request to lavish attention on her neck, John pulled her head down to his and met her lips. Their tongues worked against each other as Cameron let out a low groan. John pulled back and looked at her, tilting his head slightly, "I think I like that sound!"

Instead of replying, Cameron merely stared at him, head cocked to the side, almost as if she was analysing him. Then, without warning, she sat up, face and chest beautifully flushed. She hooked her thumbs in her panties and pulled them down, rocking back, she slid them over her knees and then rocked forward again in an impressive feat of agility, removing the underwear completely.

John remained mesmerised as she straddled him again and took hold of his hands. Placing them on her thighs, she leaned forward, kissing John again for all she was worth, capturing his tongue with her own.

Shifting her attention, she detached from his lips and nuzzled his neck, returning the favour. John smiled as he tangled his fingers in her hair, the feeling of her soft lips and delightfully moist tongue caressing his neck was something he never wanted to end. He idly drew his fingertips up and down her spine, smiling when she shivered and arched her back in response.

"Cameron, you alright?" He asked, his voice shaky and somewhat breathless.

She picked her head out from the crook of his neck and saw the concern in his eyes. It touched her to know that he was focused solely on her, on what she was feeling, paying attention to her responses. Without warning, she shifted her body, ran her hand down in between them, sank backwards and brought them together.

John could barely keep his eyes from rolling in to the back of his head as she lowered herself, inching them ever closer. When he did get around to opening his eyes, he found she wasn't faring much better. Her eyes were closed and her jaw hung open as she slowly got used to the sensations and feelings now bombarding her.

It wasn't the first time they'd done this, but ever since she'd first placed his fingers over her panties, she'd been feeling something stirring inside her. Something that she'd never felt before. Sure, she'd felt pleasure when she'd been with John before, but this felt different.

"Cameron…" John managed to breathe out, his eyes glassy as she slowly, very slowly started moving back and forth. John looked up at her beautiful face, her flushed cheeks, her full, pouty lips, and he stayed mesmerised for a long moment. "I love you."

Smiling almost from ear to ear, Cameron continued to rock back and forth. Taking hold of his hands, she guided them to where she wanted them, leaning forward a little to place them over her breasts as she had done earlier. She still managed a frown however at not giving him a reply, she hoped her actions would make up for it.

Leaning closer, she captured John's lips with her own, grinning when he groaned in to the contact. Purposefully keeping her movements slow and small, she rocked back and forth, moving the least amount possible, feeling significantly more impulses and sensations than she ever had before.

Previously during sex, both her and John had felt that more pace was the way to go, based on what she'd felt and been able to translate to him. But now it seemed like the tingling sensations coming from deep within her, emanating from where she was joined with her John were intensely more pleasurable than the decidedly rough treatment they'd endured before.

Voicing her newfound pleasure, she groaned in to his shoulder, gripping his sides almost comically. John meanwhile didn't quite know what had gotten in to his Cameron. It hadn't been that long since they'd had sex, and as far as he could remember she'd never been this…tactile, before. Whether it was simply another point in her development, or if her pleasure really was linked to her emotional state, he didn't know. All he did know was that it felt amazing.

Wrapping his arms around her back, he did his best to sit up with a two hundred pound cyborg laying on top of him. Managing that small feat, with Cameron's assistance, he sat up straight, cradling Cameron in his lap.

She gazed down at him as she resumed her movements, still small, still slow. She watched as John leaned forward, latching his mouth around a nipple. Taken by surprise, Cameron let out a moan of pleasure and slapped her hand over the back of his head to keep him close. Grinning, John flicked out his tongue, teasing her, caressing her, all the time her hand on his head gripping his hair tighter.

Almost overcome by the sensations and data bombarding her chip, Cameron barely remembered that her lover was only human and reigned in her strength. But the way he was gently rocking against her, creating a rhythm, and the way his tongue ghosted expertly across her chest, lavishing attention on her other breast now made her want to forget that small fact and just give in to the feelings coming from deep within.

Never before had her whole body felt so sensitive. Every touch, ever caress, every slight shift of their bodies sent waves of sensation coursing from the point of contact to her chip. The sheer lines of coding something she could barely keep up with.

John knew something was different, he could tell. Never before had Cameron been so seemingly lost in the moment, throwing her head back as he moved against her, matching her movements in a natural rhythm. He felt different too, more in love than he ever had been. Getting his issues off his chest and having them accepted by Cameron seemed to lift a huge weight off his shoulders, allowing him to fully give himself over to the experience. There was no impending war, no sick mother, no training, no Skynet.

Just John and Cameron, together.

Reclining back, John tugged Cameron down with him. She opened her eyes to find him smiling up at her, his hands resting on her hips. Gripping his shoulders, Cameron picked up her pace slightly, feeling the urgency brought on by her building sensations.

John watched as she screwed her eyes shut, he picked her hands up of his shoulders and held them in his, fingers intertwined. Glancing over, he found himself oddly unconcerned by the cold metal mingling with his flesh, instead he took comfort in knowing that whatever he was doing was causing her sensations that he was pretty sure only he could make her feel.

If she'd set out to alleviate his fears, to make him feel safe, loved, she'd certainly accomplished her goal and then some. Feeling his own release building, his head flopped back on to the pillow and he squeezed her hands tight, as tight as he could while she rose and fell in time with his thrusts.

Forcing herself to focus on her surroundings, Cameron disentangled her hands from his, the thought of what might happen to his relatively frail body something she didn't want to even consider. Instead she latched her hands in to the sturdier headboard for support.

Ignoring the squeaking of their new bedsprings, John brought his free hands up to be put to good use, one laced behind her ear, tangling in her hair, the other snaking lower, past her belly button to it's eventual goal. Cameron released a cry of pleasure when his fingers found their target, John grunting too as her legs tightened either side of his waist, putting more pressure than he'd ever felt before on his body. No matter how painful it was, he didn't want it to end, after all, he'd preached to Cameron how good sex could be, and apparently he was only now starting to discover that for himself.

John felt his own release fast approaching. Biting his lip to keep from crying out, he arched his back as it came and went, nothing more than a grunt coming from him as his movement slowed.

Breathing heavily, he opened his eyes. The sight that he found would warm his heart forever. Cameron was hovering above him, her eyes screwed shut and she herself biting her lip. A faint blue glow beneath her eyelids one of the most beautiful things he'd ever seen. His ears vaguely picked up the sound of creaking wood, and the next thing he knew, Cameron came hurtling towards him, her face burying in the crook of his neck. Looking to either side, she still clung to two large chunks of wood in each hand of what used to be the headboard.

"John…" She released a shaky plea as she kept up her now unsteady rhythm, burrowing her head even closer to his skin.

Not knowing what else to do, John wrapped his arms around her back and clasped them together, holding her tight as she rode the waves of pleasure tearing through her body. Running a hand down her spine, he held her close, nuzzling her neck, dropping soft kisses on the skin her found, encouraging her to do whatever she needed to do.

Burying her head in his shoulder, her movement finally did stop, a split second later she released what would've been an ear piercing scream had the sound not been muffled by his shoulder, her teeth digging in to the skin almost hard enough to break it. Her legs tightened around him, squeezing him painfully, John grimacing with each passing moment as her entire body was racked with involuntary shivers on top of him.

Cameron had never felt anything like this before, nor did she know she was capable of feeling as much as she was. What started out as a small sensation had slowly grown until she couldn't handle it any more, losing all control over her body, her mind being bogged down with data, her chip unable to process it all. The feelings John had given her were overwhelming, and it scared her, losing control like this. Using what modicum of awareness she still had left, she hugged herself closer to John, knowing above all else that he'd never let anything bad happen to her. She'd always be safe with him.

Feeling Cameron clutch him tighter, John ran his fingers soothingly down her back and whispered in her ear, "Shhh, it's alright Cameron, I've got you."

She seemed to calm down at his gentle words, releasing the grip her mouth had on his shoulder as the glow behind her eyelids faded. She still clutched at the pieces of wood in her hands, unable to let go of them, her thighs still squeezed his waist as she maintained her hold on her John.

After a long few moments, she regained some semblance of awareness, enough to open her eyes and tilt her head enough to look up at John. He still kept up his gentle stroking of her hair as he smiled down at her like a cat who just got the cream, "You alright?"

Feeling another shiver race through her body, Cameron tensed. Without a word, she slid off the top of his body, missing the concerned expression on John's face as he adjusted to accommodate her on the bed. "Cameron?"

She shuffled herself around on the bed, eventually lying on her side, still trying to fight off the shivers running through her. She felt John snuggle in behind her, his gentle fingers moving a few stray hairs out of her face, "That's never happened before."

Despite his concern that he might have broken his girlfriend, John couldn't fight off a grin as he snuggled her in closer, dropping a kiss on her shoulder. "No it hasn't…but I'm glad it did," He reached down and tugged the covers up over her nude body up to her shoulders.

Cameron glanced back over her shoulder at her lover, taking note of the grin that still adorned his face. "I've never felt anything that…intense, before," She paused, tugging the covers a little tighter around her, "Did I damage you?"

John chuckled, sliding lower down under the covers and dropping a kiss between her shoulder blades, inhaling a deep breath of her sweet scent. Finally, all was right in the world. He'd reconciled with his girlfriend, and he'd finally rocked her world, now he was settling down to sleep with her in their brand new bed. Life couldn't get any better, although he allowed himself the luxury of blotting out everything else at that moment. "No Cameron, you didn't hurt me. You've made me happier than you could ever know."

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:)

Thanks as always to Dekardkain for being the helpful little person he is!