gin_akasarahsmom

Disclaimers:  This is a story using the characters seen in The Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles television show.  All rights to said characters belong to whoever owns that show.  No money was made in the writing or posting of this story (if I actually did post it).  I only wrote it because I love the characters…speaking of which… there is a character missing from this piece, you will note the conspicuous absence of one Derek Reese.  That is because, well… I hate him.  I think he ruins the show and I will be glad when he’s dead and out of the way.  There I said it.  Anyway, this story started with an idea I had of Cameron finding Sarah at the bar, and just grew from there.

Like it or not, here it is.

Twenty-Three

By Gin

“Mom.” John held the dying woman’s hand. “Mom, please don’t go.”

She tried to smile even as pain wracked her body. “Can’t stop it now.” A tear slipped from the corner of her eye and she managed to tangle her fingers in his hair. “You need a haircut.”

He laughed through his tears at the familiar comment.  “Yeah, I guess I do.” He heard heavy footsteps approach the bed.

“You should rest.” The girl held out her hand. “I have your medication.”

Sarah turned to see the conundrum that had become her nurse.  She knew that cherub face.  She’d known it before when the girl was her friend, and it looked the same now even though there was a demon skeleton inside.  The kicker was that she didn’t care. Death can make you see things much clearer. “Give us a minute would ya, girlie?”  There was sadness in the girl’s simulated human eyes as she moved away.  A sadness that Sarah doubted anyone but her could or would even try to see.  Suddenly she felt everything dimming and knew she didn’t have much time.  Damning her pride and inability to ask out loud, she hoped John would get the message. Knew he would, because he had before…at least she thought he had…things were pretty jumbled up in her brain right now…but she thought she still needed to ask.

“I love you Mom.”

Sarah could feel her own tears sliding down her face as she looked at him.  John’s cheeks now streaked with tears made him look so much younger, not the battle hardened man he’d grown into, not the leader of the resistance movement against the machines, not the savior of mankind, right now he was just, John, her son, her baby. “I love you too.” 

“Is there anything I can do?” He sounded a bit desperate, more so than a man with his power ever should.  He watched her jaw muscles bunch and knew there was something, something she wanted and wasn’t going to ask for.  “Mom… I mean it. If there is anything you want…” He saw her eyes slide sideways, to the girl, then close in pain.  There is more than one kind of pain though and he knew it.

Opening her eyes to look at her son, probably for the last time she smiled a genuine smile. “I’m so proud of you.” Their eyes met for a moment then distant thunder of bombs getting closer instinctively sent them scanning overhead.  “You have to go.”

“I don’t want to leave you alone.”  It was a human need, to know a loved one didn’t die alone.

Sarah closed her eyes and smiled.  Here it is, her opportunity, her chance to ask, without asking.  “I won’t be alone.”  She managed to pat the hand in hers. “Send her back to me.” She watched as he nodded and began to rise.  Holding as tightly as she could to his hand she waited for his eyes to meet hers then spoke slowly, enunciating every word very clearly. “John, send her back to me.”

“I will Mom.”  John nodded as he motioned the girl back to the bed.  He walked to the doorway and looked back, his Mother lying there looking pretty much as she always had, strong and beautiful as she spoke to the young girl sitting on the edge of the bed holding her hand.  He smiled as the stubborn patient knocked the meds out of her nurse’s hand, then turned a look on the girl…a look he’d seen before.  His breath caught in his throat and he heard his mother’s words again.

Send her back to me. 

He watched the girl, machine, slide off the edge of the bed sitting on her knees, resting her head on his Mother’s hand and arm, eyes never wavering from the dying woman’s face.

Send her back to me.

It would change everything. Nodding to himself, John continued out of the room.  It would change everything, and he didn’t care. Maybe it would change things for the better.

Send her back to me. 

He heard the words and vowed to himself, to her. “I will Mom.  I will.”

------------------

Simulated eyes scanned the bar’s interior, identifying and ignoring the patrons until they landed on a lone figure sitting at the bar. The figure was identified as Sarah Conner.  With single-minded determination, the terminator walked in a straight line, directly to the woman’s location. “I’ve found you.”

Her shoulder’s slumped down slightly as the dark haired woman looked over, blinked, then turned back to take a swig out of her beer bottle. “So you have, girlie.” She pointed to the stool next to her.  “Now what?”

“I don’t know.”  Cameron sat, understanding that continuing to stand would draw unwanted attention.  “What?”

Sarah rolled her eyes. “What are you doing in here?”

“Looking for you.”  The terminator stated then moved her chin closer to her chest. “John was worried.”

“John isn’t home.”  Sarah reminded her, knowing full well Cameron didn’t forget anything.  Letting her son go on the school field trip was not as much risk as it sounded, at least that’s what she told herself, over and over.  “Try again.”

“If John had been home, he would have been worried.”  Cameron lowered her eyes. “You left very suddenly.” 

I left because if I’d stayed there one more second I’d have attacked you like the sex crazed idiot I feel like every time I look at you.  Intense green eyes turned to gaze at the machine. “Try again.”

Brown doe-eyes returned the look. “I was worried.”

Unlikely. Sarah thought but her expression softened somewhat and she let the topic drop. “How did you even get in here?”

“I have an ID.  The guard is inefficient. He didn’t look very closely at it.”  Cameron thought that should be obvious, and apparently it was from Sarah’s next statement.

“Of course you do.”  The dark head shook, fake ID was a staple in their unstable lives, and forced her attention back to her beer. “And of course he didn’t.”  No bouncer in his right mind would fail to pass the lithe, scantily clad girl into a place like this.  Curiosity got the better of her. “How old does this ID say you are?”

“Twenty-three.” 

Sarah snorted. “No way.”  She allowed herself to turn and study the terminator’s face and, giving in to temptation, body.  The tight white shirt outlining the thin form’s curving breasts was tucked into a very mini skirt.  Knee length boots covered much of her legs, but the skin on her thighs looked so… Tearing her eyes away, focusing back on those wide brown eyes, Sarah shook her head, trying to rid herself of the image she’d just flashed on.  “You do not look twenty-three.”

“I have good genes.”

The older woman clenched her teeth together, her hand tightened around the beer bottle, her voice rasped. “Is that supposed to be a joke?”

“Was it funny?” 

Sarah’s heart beat faster seeing the cute way Cameron tilted her head, waiting for the answer.  Her grip on the beer bottle relaxed.  “No, it wasn’t.” 

Cameron blinked.  “Then no, it wasn’t supposed to be a joke.”

Sarah grunted at that, she’d known what the response would be, it was programmed that way.  She had almost finished her beer and motioned to the bartender for another one.  “Get my… friend here a coke too.”

Her eyes slid over the girl in question and she nodded. 

Cameron spoke quietly. “I’m old enough for a beer.” 

Sarah’s hand again tightened around the bottle in her hand. “Even if you were twenty-three I’d still be old enough to be your mother, so I’m not buying you a beer, you’ll drink the coke and like it.”  The volume of her voice had risen with each word and she tried to get herself under control, realizing some of the women in the bar were now looking their direction.

Accepting the drink from the woman behind the bar, Cameron took a sip and nodded. “I like it.”

“Stop it…”  Sarah kept her volume to a minimum but slammed her hand down on the bar.  “Just stop…”  The voice at her elbow shocked her silent.

“Got a problem?” 

Sarah turned to see a well meaning bar patron.  The stocky woman with short cropped hair took an aggressive stance and looked, for all the world, like a bulldog ready to take on the ‘problem’.  It would have been sweet had it not been for the fact that the ‘problem’ the woman was ready to toss on her ass was a tiny slip of a girl that would have killed her without a second thought.  Giving the woman a smile for her trouble, Sarah reached out and patted one sloped shoulder. “Thanks.  I can handle it.” 

“Why did she do that?”  Cameron watched the bystander walk across the room, back to a table of what were presumably, friends. “If she had attacked me she would have been hurt.”

“She didn’t know that.”  The muscles in Sarah’s jaw jumped as she ground her teeth together, knowing the truth, knowing if Cameron was attacked she would kill the attacker.  It was what she did. Kill. “She thought I was in trouble and she came to help.”  Her eyes found Cameron’s. “It’s a human thing to do.”

“I understand.”  Cameron continued to look into Sarah’s eyes. “Thank you for explaining.”

They sat in silence for several minutes, Sarah nursing her beer, Cameron sipping her coke.  “Stop what?”

“What?”  Sarah’s turned her darkened eyes to the girl.

“Earlier, before we were interrupted, you told me to stop…”  Cameron spoke in her usual monotone. “Stop what?”

Knowing there was no way to explain it, Sarah remained silent. She stared at the label on her beer and wondered how could she possibly explain how incredibly grating it was for the girl to just do everything she said.  Tell her to sit, she sits… tell her to drink, she drinks… tell her to like the drink…  Knowing she could tell the girl to do anything, anything, and she would do it, the temptation was maddening.

The one thing Sarah didn’t want the machines to do for themselves was the one thing she most wanted Cameron to do.  God help her, she wanted Cameron to think on her own.  The thought of being able to tell Cameron to…Sarah closed her eyes at the thoughts seducing her imagination … She wanted Cameron to stop being a machine for one minute…one minute to look in those intense brown eyes and see a soul.  One minute to lean over and touch the full inviting lips with her own and be lost in the softness of it….one minute, to bury her hands in the thick dark hair that surrounded the youthful face…  and of course that will never happen.  It will never happen.  Sarah sighed and took another swig of her beer.  She’ll always be a machine.

Cameron was disappointed that Sarah hadn’t answered her question.  She looked around the bar and stated. “There are no men here.”

Sarah clicked her tongue against her teeth. “Wow Sherlock… and how long did it take you to notice that??”

“I noticed the moment I arrived, but the other women here didn’t interest me, I only wanted you.”  Cameron carefully observed the effect her words had on Sarah.  Respiration and skin temperature increased, knuckles white around the bottle. 

“They interest you now?”  Sarah studiously avoided looking at the girl.

“Most of them do not.  The two in the corner kissing are of some interest though.”  Cameron had watched the pair move into the shadowy corner.  Mostly because she wanted to make sure they weren’t going to pull guns and start firing at Sarah Conner.  When they had begun to kiss, she watched for a different reason. “Why would that make my temperature rise?”

Startled, Sarah looked at Cameron seeing curiosity in the girl’s eyes, and maybe something more.  Wishful thinking.  She chided herself. Another voice behind her made her jump.

“Buy you a drink?”

Turning Sarah saw another woman standing there, a thin blonde with startling blue eyes. “Um… Thank you, but…”  She held up her bottle and waggled it a little. “I’m fine.”

The blonde nodded, disappointed. “Yeah.. okay.”  She went back to a table across the dance floor.

Sarah turned back to her young companion. “Don’t ask why she did that.”

“I don’t have to.”  Cameron turned her attention from the couple in the corner and focused on Sarah alone. “You’re smokin’ hot and she wanted to kiss you like they are doing.”  She pointed to the couple in question.

Sarah ignored the words, for the moment, grabbing the pointing finger. “Don’t point, it’s rude.”

“Okay.”  Cameron complied but she didn’t pull her finger from Sarah’s grasp, instead she tangled the rest of her fingers with the older woman’s.  She tilted her head, regarding the digits in contact with each other. “This makes my skin tingle.”

Sarah pulled her hand away as if it had been burned.  “Don’t do that.”  She finished her beer and signaled for another one.  She hoped her fingers would stop tingling before her drink arrived.

“I’m sorry, was that wrong?”  Cameron looked into Sarah’s eyes. “You don’t want to appear involved with me.  I understand, you want to keep your…” She searched for the word. “…options, open.”

“I’m not involved with you.”  The rest of her response was a whisper, but Cameron heard it. “There are no options for me.”

One of the women in the corner had now moved her hand under the other’s shirt.  The sight of it, the sounds they were making, sounds only the terminator’s ears could hear, made Cameron warm all over, and started a strange feeling just below her navel.  The thought of Sarah making those sounds, the thought of making Sarah make those sounds…  She ran an internal diagnostic as her respiration increased for no apparent reason.  “You’re wrong.”

Sarah sighed. “What do you think I’m wrong about girlie?”

“You have more options than you think.”  Cameron slid her small hand back into Sarah’s. She realized there were things she could do here, in the darkened bar, that she wouldn’t be able to do at home.  In private, the older woman would never have allowed herself to be touched.  Cameron knew. Trying this at the breakfast table would have gotten her backhanded across the face.  But here, in this place, Sarah wouldn’t be able to risk that kind of attention. 

Looking down at the bar, Sarah saw her hand entwined with another, smaller, one.  She knew what it was, fake, a doll’s hand all metal on the inside, but on the outside it was nice, warm and soft, just as she’d always imagined it would be.  Smoldering green eyes found the terminator’s gaze. “You’re treading on thin ice.”  You talking to her or yourself?

“You should always examine your options before you dismiss them.”  Cameron slid off the stool to move closer. 

Using her free hand to pick up the new beer bottle in front of her, Sarah drained the contents down her throat.  It was a mistake to do it, sipping it would have been okay, but chugging it pushed her over her limit and she could feel the world go slightly askew.  It wasn’t as dangerous as it sounded though, she felt safer here than she did in their home.  Who would think to look for her in a lesbian bar for crying out loud, who except…? “How did you find me here anyway?”

“I followed you.”  Cameron admitted and moved closer. “I wouldn’t have looked here for a long time using the normal, logical, elimination method.” 

“But I’ve been in here for…”

“One hour, twenty three minutes and nineteen seconds.”  Cameron told her, wrapping her free arm around Sarah’s waist. “Before I decided to enter and approach you.”

“Waiting for me to get drunk?”  Sarah stiffened in the girl’s embrace.

“No.”  Cameron instinctively began rubbing Sarah’s back with her thumb. “Just giving you time to be alone.”  She spoke in low tones. “You seemed very upset when you left the house.” She felt Sarah begin to relax.

The bartender saw the exchange. “You need me to call a taxi?”

“No.”  Cameron answered. “It’s okay, I will take her home.”

Now the bartender looked at Sarah. “You okay with that?”  The earlier conversation didn’t sound all that civil.

Sarah’s head felt too heavy for her neck, it was so easy to place it against Cameron’s soft hair. Mmmm… much better.  She spoke almost dreamily. “Yeah, s’okay…we live together.”

“Ah.” The bartender raised her eyebrows. “Lucky you.”

“Yes.”  Cameron replied softly. “Lucky me.”  She handed the woman a small bundle of bills to cover the tab.

Sarah just smiled, floating on the buzz she had going, and murmured. “Lucky, lucky, lucky.”  Her breath warming Cameron’s ear and neck.  She was leaning on the machine heavily, glad now for the reinforced frame knowing she wouldn’t be able to walk normally on her own.  She was angry at herself for getting into this state, she had a job to do dammit… she wasn’t a drunk.  Not usually.  She was aware of angry voices buzzing in her ears, then the hard ground under her and Cameron’s reassuring tones telling her to wait here.  Sounds of fighting reached her and the adrenaline rush cleared some of the fog from her brain.  She saw three burly men with baseball bats coming at Cameron.  Two in front of her and one circled around behind her, they were saying something… ah… they’d seen them exiting the bar together and assumed.  They assumed right you fraud. You just haven’t done anything about it, yet.

She hated this, helpless feeling, watching Cameron fight.  Tears sprang to her eyes as one of the bats connected with the girl’s shoulder.  She saw the change come over the small frame as the hit drove her to one knee.  Those men were dead, if she didn’t do something.  For a second she thought about it, then yelled.  “No!  Don’t kill them!”

Cameron’s head snapped up and in half a second the terminator had changed her strategy.  She quickly swept the men’s legs dropping them all to the ground, retrieving two of the bats they’d dropped. Holding one bat in each hand, in a blur of graceful motion, knees were shattered and each man received a hit to the head rendering him at the least unconscious, at the most with a severe concussion.  She dropped the weapons and stalked back to Sarah, helping her stand. “They’ll live.”  They continued walking to the car, but she missed the weight of Sarah’s head leaning on hers.