DISCLAIMER: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and its characters are the propert of James Cameron and Fox. No infringement intended.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I have only read fanfiction about these two, so I apologize in advance if I don't get their personalities correct. And if you haven't read Time Loop yet, please do before reading this one. It sets up the premise of this ongoing AU. Please leave a comment, even if it's just one word. Comments tell authors their stories are being read and enjoyed. This Time Loop was inspired by freakykaethe's video: Don't Leave Me.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Time Loop: Loop 12
By wkgreen
Sarah woke with a start, whipping her .45 out from under her pillow to point it at the disturbance to find herself staring at Cameron, "God…. Don't do that! I told you not to stare at me anymore!" Sarah yells angrily, fear and adrenaline surging thru her body in equal measures, disturbed in the middle of her nightmare.
Cameron ignores the .45 pointing at her chest as she tilts her head inquisitively, her face and voice impassive, "You were having a nightmare. I was waking you up."
"I don't need you waking me up! I can handle it just fine!" Sarah hisses irritably, as she uses the butt of her .45 to slap away the hand Cameron was extending to her, "And next time I might accidentally shoot you!"
Cameron lets her hand be knocked away, "It would not matter, it would not harm me. Would you like to talk about your nightmare? I have read psychology books that say…."
"GET OUT OF MY ROOM!" Sarah snares angrily. Not sure what makes her angrier, Cameron not caring about getting shot or Cameron trying to help her again. "Just get out of my room."
Cameron doesn't respond to the angry retort as Sarah yells irrationally at her, again, "Would you like anything? It is almost morning and from your previous patterns you will not be able to sleep for the rest of the…"
Sarah jumps out of bed and pistol whips Cameron across the face, "I WANT YOU OUT OF MY ROOM!! I CAN TAKE CARE OF MYSELF! I DO NOT NEED A NURSEMAID," fear and adrenaline from the nightmare causing her to react more irrationally and angry then normal.
Cameron lets her head snap to the side so that Sarah doesn't hurt herself and steps back from the panicking woman, "I will go back to my patrol." Cameron almost seems to sigh as Sarah rejects her help violently.
Sarah collapses onto the edge of her bed, flipping the safety on and sliding her .45 under her pillow and then grabs her hair and pulls on it hard as she works to regain herself control. Wondering why she is always angry with Cameron, the girl is getting … no, the robot is getting on her last nerves. She shouldn't be… No IT shouldn't care about her well being. Damn, she hit Cameron again, she shouldn't hit Cameron, she can feel pain. NOO! It can feel pain! IT is a robot ... nothing more! She shouldn't care about her.. IT feeling pain.
Sarah jerks herself to her feet and heads towards the shower to break her thoughts up, not wanting to get caught up in her thoughts about Cameron again. Wishing she could trust Cameron to be around, to never betray her, to be someone to share the load with. Sarah shakes the thoughts out of her head violently as she punches the doorframe, letting the pain push the thoughts from her head.
Sarah heads down to the kitchen after her cold shower, smelling fresh made coffee before she even enters. Entering the kitchen, toast pops out of the toaster and Sarah sees a tub of butter and spreading knife placed precisely next to the toaster with coffee in her favorite mug waiting for her. Sarah looks around for Cameron, and sighs in disappointment when she is not in sight. Sarah doesn't examine too closely why she was disappointed as she spreads butter on her toast, picks up her coffee and heads outside to wait for sunrise.
Sarah doesn't see or hear Cameron the rest of the morning, missing her presence. Cameron has joined her the last couple of days to watch the sunrise, her presence calming and reassuring Sarah that she has help, even if the help irritates her with constant questions about human nature. The girl .. no.. the robot… constantly asking her questions about human nature… most be programmed, robots are not curious… but… why does Cameron want to know about her particularly. If Cameron was going to betray her, she didn't need to know all of the things the girl was asking.
Sarah stares into the rising sun and tries to shake her head free of the disturbing thoughts and finally hears Cameron enter the kitchen. She listens to the sounds of Cameron making breakfast, letting it soothe her. After a while she checks her watch and she realizes that it is time for John to get up. Sarah bites her lip nervously, really needing to apologize to Cameron for hitting and yelling at her again, the girl was only trying to help, but dammit she didn't need help, she could do it on her own and eventually the cyborg was going to betray her, it was going to leave her just like everyone else!
Sarah sighs as she hears John bumbling into the kitchen, "Ooo Yeah!.. Breakfast! Pancakes, bacon and eggs! Thanks Cameron! You are a great cook!" Sarah tenses at John's compliments of Cameron's cooking skill, she can cook just find, she just has bigger concerns, like finding Skynet and keeping John alive.
Sarah cuts off her bitter thoughts as she gets up and reluctantly enters the kitchen from the back door and sees John digging into a big pile of food like only a growing teenage boy can and then grimaces as she sees another breakfast plate set out, obviously for her as she glares at Cameron.
Cameron looks back at Sarah impassively, but leaves the feeling that she expects Sarah to sit down and eat her healthy breakfast. Sarah and Cameron get into a staring contest above John's head, who is oblivious to the tension between the two as he completely focuses on eating.
"Morning Mom!" John mumbles out around a mouthful of food, swallowing quickly, Sarah glaring at the back of his head as he is eating like he has never eating a day in his life, "Hurry up and eat, your food is getting cold!"
Sarah sighs as John breaks the deadlock between her and Cameron as she sits down and plays with her food idly… eating some of it. "Any tests at school today?" Sarah asks to fill in the time as she eats small bites.
John shakes his head as he shovels eggs into his mouth looks over at Cameron, his eyes asking her to answer for him.
Cameron rolls her eyes at John and answers in a monotone, "No tests and all our homework is done."
Sarah glares at Cameron, sensing petulance in her answer and the room descends into an awkward silence that John seems to miss as he eats, looking at his watch, he finishes the rest of his breakfast quickly. Sarah is barely halfway thru hers, constant expectant stares from Cameron only thing keeping her eating.
"Got to go Mom, see you later." John jumps up and kisses Sarah's cheek quickly in good bye as he rushes out the door with his backpack swinging over his shoulder.
Sarah glares at Cameron when Cameron starts moving towards her, "Be sure to do your job … Robot." Sarah snaps at Cameron caustically to keep her away as she feels her heart jump at the thought that Cameron might be moving to kiss her like John did.
Cameron's face gets impassive, "Cybernetic Organism." She spins on her heel and stalks out after John catching up to him as he steps outside and lets a small smile appear at the very corners of her mouth.
Sarah snorts in disgust at herself. She wonders what drove her to call Cameron a robot. She had done it to drive Cameron away, but Cameron is just a robot, "cybernetic organism" she hears Cameron's voice in her head, a robot with no feelings, just a machine she overrides Cameron's voice in her head. She shouldn't bother trying to hurt a machine, they didn't have emotions. Sarah shakes her head, trying to drive out the confusing thoughts she is having about Cameron and decides a good hard workout is what she needs.
Hours later as Sarah is sitting on the couch reading over files John downloaded that might find the Turk, she finds herself drifting off. Laying back in a half awake/half asleep state, she remembers her nightmare and what woke her up suddenly this morning. And it wasn't Cameron's presence in her room; it was Cameron's presence in her nightmare. Cameron had come to her aid in her nightmare. Sarah snaps upright at the realization, eyes wide in fright, shock, disbelief that she would dream of a terminator coming to help her.
Before she can follow up on that thought, her cell phone rings, with John's ring tone, she snaps up the phone, "John? Wait … what do you mean Cameron is missing? Something must have happened." Sarah listens and nods her head, "John, get back here now, I will look for… Noo.. you get back here and make sure you aren't followed. NO, we aren't going to abandon Cameron, I will find her. Now get in the car and get back here and be safe!" Sarah hangs up and jumps to her feet, moving to the computer and calling up the cell phone Locator application and locates Cameron's phone. The Locator indicates that Cameron's cell phone is currently at an abandoned steelyard, one they had previously targeted as a remote location ideal for fighting terminators. Sarah bites her lip, holding back a shiver of panic as she notices that Cameron's cell phone hasn't moved for the last 30 minutes and holds back the thought that the only thing that could endanger Cameron is another terminator.
Sarah snatches up her cell phone and calls Cameron, holding down desperation, tapping her foot impatiently as she listens to the phone ring muttering, "come on Cameron… answer the damn phone … answer it damn it. You better not have lost your damn phone!"
At the abandoned steelyard, a cell phone plays the opening tunes of Heart and Soul by T'pau, a slim feminine hand is outstretched to the phone, still in defeat as the rest of the body attached to it is buried under a mass of debris. The hand twitches as Heart and Soul plays.
Sarah hears the call go over to the answering machine, "Cameron, answer the phone! Get your butt in gear." Sarah pauses as she tries to hold back her desperation, having just discovered that Cameron was becoming one of the foundations that is keeping her sane in her insane world, someone she is growing to trust, someone to help her carry the weight of the world, "Cameron ...Cameron… call me back immediately." Sarah pauses, getting ready to hang up, when words of desperation surge past her lips, "CAMERON DON'T YOU LEAVE MEE!" Sarah gasps and hangs up, shivers running down her back at revealing her need. Getting a hard look in her eyes as she grabs up her keys and the shotgun hidden under the coffee table and strides out to her Jeep, she intends to find Cameron and give her Tin Miss a piece of her mind!
Minutes later Sarah is pulling into the abandoned steelyard with a screech of tires, she drives to the center of the yard, looking around constantly, watching for any movement. Reaching the center of the yard, she jumps out of the Jeep and starts walking around the jeep, circling as she tries to look in all directions as she listens for any noise, worry etched across her face, her shotgun ready for anything. Suddenly she hears metal on metal coming from behind a huge pile of rubble, "CAMERON?" Sarah cries out as she starts rushing over, her shotgun at the ready, loaded with Slug rounds.
"Sarah?"
Sarah hears her name called out by Cameron's voice, and slows herself down, proceeding cautiously; reminding herself that there might be a terminator around and they are experts at faking voices. She rounds the pile of rubble, to see Cameron half buried and obvious claw marks on the ground where she was trying to pull herself out and her cell phone laying on the ground out of her reach, "What happened?" Sarah tries to keep the rush of relief at seeing Cameron alive out of her voice as she keeps looking around for any threat.
Cameron stills her struggles to get free, "It's buried under the rubble. I have not detected any signs of it being active."
Sarah relaxes as she hears the threat is neutralized, "That doesn't tell me what happened Tin Miss, or how you got buried under this crap." Sarah smirks as she moves to help Cameron get free, stopping as she gets to Cameron's cell phone and ducking her head to hide a blush, she scoops up the phone and pockets it, no way is she letting Cameron hear her message now.
"That isn't important," Cameron stiffly announces, not looking at Sarah as she looks at the debris trapping an I-beam across her stomach, "We need to recover it and destroy it before anyone comes."
Sarah could swear she detects embarrassment in Cameron's stiff body as she tries to move an I-beam laying across her stomach, "Oh, we have plenty of time for the full story, girlie. It isn't going to be easy getting it out of there." Sarah chuckles as she starts moving debris off of the I-beam.
The End