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alixtiiTitle: Some Thing to Watch Over Me (2/3)
Fandom: Sarah Connor Chronicles
Pairings: Riley/Cameron, John/Riley, John/Cameron, Riley/Jessie, Jessie/Derek, John/Riley/Cameron.
Timeline/Spoilers: Takes place during the first half of Season 2, after 2x08, "Mr. Ferguson Is Ill Today" but before the half-season finale. Spoilers for the first half of Season 2. Also spoilers for Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Becoming Jane.
Summary: Termination is not an option, so Cameron must rely on other tactics to neutralize the threat Riley poses.
Rating: NWS
A/N: Epigraph from Kate Douglas Wiggin, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Special thanks to my betas,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
anonymous_sibyl, present_pathos, and tacky_tramp. This was written before I saw any episodes of the second half of the Season 2; I don't know which I feared most, being jossed or kripked.
Part 1 is here.
Some Thing to Watch Over Me, Part 2
X.
When Cameron returns, it's in the truck, with John, and there's a large mass in the back covered by a canvas which Riley assumes is the remains of the T-101, to be destroyed later.
Cameron pulls off Riley's shirt and examines the bullet wound, a couple inches to the left of Riley's navel. "It's missed the major organs," the machine pronounces, "but we need to stop the bleeding." She rips Riley's shirt in two pressing one side against the entry wound and one against the exit wound. John wraps duct tape around her waist, sticky side facing out, to keep them in place.John and Cameron go on to splint Riley's leg, then help her into the truck.
Nobody says anything as they drive back to John's. Riley's afraid to; she's blown her cover, to Cameron at least, by recognizing the T-101. But the machine doesn't say anything as she drives and John's done that thing where he's in his own world, although he does occasionally glance back at Riley. The machine carries Riley out of the truck and through the house, laying her down on Cameron's bed.
"Thanks," she says, looking up from the bed, at the machine, who served as her protector, standing between her and death.
"No problem," says Cameron with a soft smile. "You should get some rest; you're going to need your energy to heal."
Riley smiles back. "What frail creatures we mortals be," she says, then closes her eyes and within minutes sleep has claimed her.
XI.
"She can't go back to her foster parents," John points out, as Cameron knew he would with 97.3% certainty. "If SkyNet is after her, she'd be a sitting duck there."
Sarah sighs. She doesn't like it (the probabilities that she wouldn't had approached unity) but Cameron knows she knows that John is right. "How do you know you're not the one who programmed it to kill her?" Sarah questions.
"John wouldn't do that," Cameron answers simply. "Even when he should."
"She can stay here until she's healed," Sarah decides, leaving unsaid what they're going to do with the girl when that time comes. There's an 80% chance that Sarah herself hasn't decided yet.
Sarah gets up to leave, then turns back to John. "Yes, mom," he says before she even says anything, "if I didn't draw Riley into this, she wouldn't be involved. I know that."
Sarah nods, then exits. Cameron crosses the room, stands next to him. "It's not your fault," she tells him.
"No, she's right," John says. "I put her in danger just by being with her."
Cameron puts a hand on John's shoulder. "Riley was always a part of this. You didn't do that."
John pulls away. "What then? You're telling me it was fate, like my mom meeting my dad?"
"Not fate," Cameron answers. "That timeline has been overwritten. The future is mutable."
"Then what?"
Cameron shrugs, an emotionless rise and fall of her shoulders. "I'm still collating the data," she tells him.
He looks at her. It's the look he gives her when he's not just surprised or confused by something she's done or said, but when he recognizes that there are reasons and motivations at work which he doesn't understand. It is a look laced with more than a little suspicion and awe.
Then he shakes his head, crosses the room, and sits down in an armchair in the corner. "I guess we're going to have to tell her everything now," he says. "Mexico was bad enough, but now she's going to have to be on the run for the rest of her life."
Cameron sits down on the arm of the chair. "You should be happy," she informs him. "Now you don't have to keep secrets from her."
"Yeah," John agrees with a decided lack of enthusiasm. "How do you tell someone you're the future salvation of humankind?"
Cameron graces him with a carefully gauged smile. "I can tell her if you want."
John collapses back into the chair, finally relaxes. "Thanks."
"No problem," Cameron says, standing up. "What are sisters for?" She leans over and kisses him on the temple.
She keeps smiling as she leaves the room, even when no one is watching any longer and the routine no longer serves any purpose. Execution of mission objectives are all on track.
XII.
Riley wakes quickly, sensing movement in the bedroom. She's learned to be a light sleeper ever since Judgment Day, it being an essential survival skill. When her eyes snap open and spy the machine it only compounds matters. Instincts kick in and she makes to flee until her side and leg definitively veto the matter.
Ouch.
"Easy," cautions Cameron, who is carrying some sort of tray,
"Well, what do you expect if you barge in on somebody who's asleep?" Riley asks, mustering all the righteous indignation she can.
"I brought you some soup," Cameron says, putting the tray down on the nightstand near the bed.
"I'm not hungry."
"You lost blood," Cameron reminds her softly. "You need to replenish your fluids."
Cameron gently slides a hand under Riley's back and gradually lifts her up, propping up pillows behind her. The covers fall off her and Riley realizes that her torn shirt has been replaced with fresh bandages, the duct tape with gauze. Her jeans and bra have been removed, the latter replaced with a loose white t-shirt. Maybe she's not as light a sleeper as she thought.
Riley reluctantly lets Cameron spoon-feed her the soup, as she's far too weak to do anything else. Once the first sip of the soup passes her lips, she's eager for more, suddenly much hungrier and thirstier than she thought. But Cameron's movements are slow, deliberate, not letting Riley consume too much too fast.
"It's good," Riley is forced to admit. "Campbell's?"
"Artificial preservatives may increase the chance of cancer," Cameron informs her. "The research is inconclusive. I made it myself."
"You can cook?"
"I found a recipe," Cameron answers. Her expression is deadpan, naturally, but Riley has the distinct impression that the machine is toying with her. "I'm very good at following instructions."
Riley laughs. It hurts. "Did you kill the chicken yourself?"
Cameron looks at Riley. She has that faraway look that machines get when they're processing, as if she's not sure whether Riley's joking or not. Riley's not sure herself, actually.
"The chicken came from the store," Cameron finally answers. "It was already dead."
Riley nods. The bowl of soup is almost empty.
"I told John I'd tell you what was going on," Cameron says. The obvious truth, that Riley doesn't need to be told because she already knows, hangs unsaid between them, unnecessary.
"Why didn't you tell him--" Riley breaks off, unable to put into words even now how she's misled John, betrayed him.
"My programming requires me to neutralize any and all threats to John Connor," Cameron informs her. "Termination is optional." She looks pointedly at Riley's wound. "You are no longer a threat."
She doesn't want to, but Riley forces herself to ask it anyway. "And if I become a threat again?"
As expected, the machine's eyes hold neither mercy nor absolution. "Then the threat will be dealt with."
XIII.
There's not a TV in Cameron's room--there isn't much of anything in Cameron's room, really, except for the machine's clothes and a bed Riley suspects was never used before she took it over--but Cameron does manage to produce a copy of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and New Chronicles of Rebecca besides. It's not the copy Riley bought at the mall, which is still at Riley's foster parents', but a different edition, checked out from a local library. Riley accepts the book eagerly, grateful for a way to kill some of the hours she's going to be confined to the machine's bed.
She's just over two-thirds of the way through the first book--Rebecca's just started at Wareham Academy--when John sticks his head in the door. "Hey," he says.
"Hey."
"Cameron said--she said she told you everything," John says entering the room and sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Yeah," says Riley, the lie coming easily to her lips.
"Pretty unreal, huh?"
Riley doesn't know what to say. It's this which is unreal--living in John Connor's house, being his girlfriend, being fed chicken soup by a cyborg, not having to worry about where her next meal is coming from. Judgment Day, on the other hand, is all too real to her.
"Yeah," she says. "Machines from the future? It's kinda hard to believe. But then I think about what I've seen, and it all seems to fit."
John nods, pensive. "And Cameron's told you that she's--"
"A machine? Yeah. I always knew there was something weird about your sister."
John smiles. "And I never argued with you about that."
"Are you sure you can trust her?" Riley asks. "I mean, how do you know she won't--"
"I know," he says, and he is so sure, so confident, that she almost believes him. She wants to believe him. But she can't; metal is metal.
"All this," John says, continuing, "I wouldn't be able to do it without her. She's my . . . my strength." Then as if suddenly realizing that that's really not the sort of thing you say about another woman to your girlfriend, he looks at her. Like really looks at her, not just staring in her general direction but looking at her like he really sees her. "How are you doing?" he asks.
"I'm okay," she answers. "Hurts like hell, but your--Cameron--gave me something. Don't know what it is, but works a hell of a lot better than Tylenol."
John just nods, not taking his eyes off her. It's an exhilarating feeling, being watched by John Connor, having all the attention of the future leader of the resistance focused on her--so much that he doesn't even notice when Cameron enters the room.
"Excuse us," Riley says. Apparently that knocking thing was learned then forgotten.
"It's my room," Cameron points out, sensibly enough. "I need to get changed."
John nods, unable to refute her logic. He gets up to leave, but before he does he leans over and brushes his lips against Riley's. It's a quick kiss, just an instant's contact, but there's an electricity there that's always been missing before, and before he can go she reaches out and grabs him behind the neck. She's too weak to exert any real force, but he lets her pull him down until their lips meet again. This kiss is longer, deeper, more complete, a penetration more intimate in its way than any sex Riley's had.
When it ends and John finally retreats, she's suddenly conscious of Cameron watching, passively curious, the moment of such extreme intimacy having been exchanged under her ever-observant eye. She feels exposed, naked, as if shirt, blanket, and panties were stripped away from her. Still, the electricity continues, surging through her, even as John exits closing the door behind him, leaving Riley and Cameron alone in the room, and the machine begins to strip.
In her excited state, Riley can't help but notice the perfection of the machine's body, as shirt and pants are pulled off to reveal perfectly sculpted flesh.
It's deliberate, Riley knows, part of the design for her model, to enable her to better serve her function in SkyNet's nefarious plans. But these thoughts are driven away by the sheer physicality of Cameron's presence in the room, disabling Riley's higher cognitive functions as surely as if she had a chip and Cameron had hacked into it.
Cameron's underwear joins her clothes on the floor, and then the machine wraps herself in a towel and exits. Riley makes use of the time alone to masturbate furiously in the machine's bed, thinking this moment of John, that one of Cameron, and another of Jessie, as the faces transform from one into another in her mind.
When the machine returns from her shower, she's wet as well as naked, and as Cameron drops the towel to the ground, the desires so recently satiated (or so Riley had thought) swell up once again.
Cameron puts on a black bra and panties, then a pair of black slacks and a black blouse, followed by black boots and a black leather belt.
"Night mission?" Riley asks.
Cameron nods. "I'm getting your stuff. John said your room is on the third floor."
Riley nods. "In the back of the house, on the east side. There's nothing there, though, just stupid stuff."
Cameron doesn't blink. "You're going to need your clothes," she says. "And I'm going to need to return the books to the library."
XIV.
It's sooner than she expects before Riley is healed enough that Sarah insists she begin exercising the leg. They take it slowly at first, with Sarah overseeing the process for the first few days before passing it on to Cameron.
They're not exactly actively hiding things from Riley, anymore, but neither do Sarah or Derek make a point of filling in the the teenaged girl with a bullet wound and a broken leg as to their plans. John's better at keeping her up to date, now that the initial barrier is broken but there's some kind of disagreement between him and Sarah and all Riley can find out is that something having to do with three dots is ripping the household apart.
"John thinks they don't mean anything," Cameron explains as she bends Riley's leg in this direction and that, including a couple Riley was pretty sure it wasn't able to bend before she broke it. "So does Derek, though he won't say so."
How do you know? Riley almost asks, before catching herself. The machine knows because it is impossible to hide something like that from her, just as Cameron must surely know now how Riley is responding to the touch of the machine's hands against her leg.
She winces in pain as Cameron pushes the leg in a new direction but merely grits her teeth. She can tolerate pain, had been doing so from Judgment Day all the way until Jessie took her back here to before.
Cameron pulls her leg to the left, and this time the jolt of pain which shoots up Riley's side is unbearable. "Fuck, Cam," she says. "That hurts, okay?"
"It's important that you exercise your leg," Cameron points out, as Riley knew she would.
"Yeah, sure," agrees Riley. "But you don't have to be so rough."
Cameron cocked her head, as if processing something, then let go of Riley's leg and instead reached around to press her palm against Riley's back, just above the hip, where the now-healed bullet wound had been, the other hand taking Riley's opposite shoulder in a firm grip. Cameron quickly puts pressure against Riley's back.
"Ouch," replies Riley automatically. "Come on--"
But then she realizes the quick twinge of pain she felt when Cameron did whatever she did is already gone, and in its place is . . . relief.
"Oh," Riley lets out a soft moan. "That feels good."
Cameron doesn't smile, but the way she raises her eyebrows has a distinctively self-satisfied air to it. Cameron applies pressure to a spot about an inch higher than the last time, and once again there's the quick pain followed by the relief. Riley's relaxed now, the tension worked up during the exercising of her leg now drained out of her body.
The fear she once would have felt at the machine's touch is gone; she feels nothing but comfortable in Cameron's hands as Cameron slowly kneads the flesh of her back with one hand. She closes her eyes and lets Cameron work her magic, her mind free to wander.
Unfortunately, it doesn't wander far, choosing despite itself to focus on the feel of the cyborg's hands against her body. It's a more intimate touch in its way than the sharp pulls and prods of the physical therapy, more like a lover's caress--so if her desire was smoldering at a slow burn before, now it has erupted into a raging conflagration.
Cameron stops for a moment, and Riley opens her eyes, hungry for the machine's touch, but Cameron only smiles and positions herself behind Riley on the bed, so that Riley's sitting between Cameron's legs. Riley leans back into Cameron so their bodies are pressed against each other; Riley can feel the shape of Cameron's breasts against her back.
Cameron starts work on Riley's shoulders, and Riley lets loose a long sigh at the sheer pleasure of it. She closes her eyes again; this is what she has wanted ever since Judgment Day, the sweet oblivion of not having to worry. The machine begins to hum, softly; Riley recognizes the tune as "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."
XV.
Time passes.
Each minute, every single second is no doubt counted in Cameron's mechanical mind, the inexorable tick tick of her clockwork brain, but for Riley one moment passes into another without differentiation, a sort of waking sleep. The machine, untiring, keeps working, keeps humming.
XVI.
Slowly, Riley opens her eyes, as if waking from a dream. But Riley doesn't have dreams. As far as Riley can tell, no one in the Connor household does--she knows John, Sarah, and Derek are beset by nightmares just as she is, and Cameron does not sleep. She's the lucky one.
Riley twists around, so that she's not sitting in between Cameron's legs anymore so much as sitting on her lap, and her leg doesn't even so much as wince in protest. She places a finger on the machine's lips and Cameron obediently stops humming, leaving only silence, stillness, peace. Riley's finger lingers on Cameron's lips. A moment passes and then another and neither of them pulls away until at least Riley slides her hand across Cameron's face, feeling the softness of her skin as she traces the cheek, the jaw.
She leans towards Cameron; the machine meets her halfway and their lips meet in a kiss. Riley's hand, still cradling Cameron's jaw, slides down farther, across her smooth neck and shoulder, and then they break the kiss so that Riley can pull of the machine's shirt.
They kiss again, briefly, and then Cameron takes off Riley's shirt, and Riley gently bites the machine's earlobe as Cameron undoes Riley's bra. Cameron lifts Riley off her lap easily an turns, laying Riley on her back on the bed. Cameron slips her fingers into the waistband of Riley's underwear and, after leaving a trail of kisses from Riley's breasts to her navel, slides off both her gym shorts and the panties underneath.
Riley is naked on the bed now, unable due to the injury to get up and walk away, but she doesn't feel exposed or vulnerable. She's shared the room with Cameron for weeks now, even if the machine doesn't use it very much, and has often relied on Cameron for helping getting dressed or bathed. It's not as if either of them has never seen the other naked.
Each of those times, as now, she was excited, but the difference is that while then she had to be satisfied with the not altogether welcome thrill of seeing or being seen and the machine's ostensibly non-sexual touches, now that which she hated herself for wanting is quite literally in her hands.
She still hates herself for wanting it. She still wants it.
Cameron kneels on top of her, straddling Riley, and Riley reaches up to unfasten first the machine's bra, then her jeans. She pushes down Cameron's jeans and panties as far as she can without moving her lower body too much, and Cameron leaves them like that, at her knees, as she turns around and lies down beside Riley in a classic 69. Riley tastes Cameron eagerly even as the machine's tongue slides into her own cunt. Though machine she may be, Cameron tastes, smells, and feels like a woman, and if Riley can be any more aroused than she was a minute before, she is now.
Cameron works skillfully, perfectly (of course), coaxing pleasure Riley didn't know was possible out of her clit. But Riley doesn't lack for experience, either, and sets on Cameron with as much skull as she can. Any she lacks she'll make up with enthusiasm.
Riley doesn't know what sex feels like to a machine, whether Cameron can feel pleasure, but the way she shudders and trembles at the touch of Riley's tongue against her clit speaks to some rather sophisticated programming, and if Cameron is faking the orgasm--orgasms--well, she's doing a hell of a good job.
Riley climaxes soon after Cameron does, and then again. Presumably Cameron could keep going indefinitely, but after the third time (and Cameron's fifth, if Riley's count can be trusted) she stops, sits up on the bed, pulls her jeans and panties all the way off, then settles back into Riley's arms so they're spooning. Riley slips her arms around the machine, one hand on Cameron's breast and the other at her cunt, and falls asleep smelling the scent of her hair.
XVII.
Riley wakes up in bed alone.
It is only natural, she supposes; Cameron doesn't sleep, so it's not like Cameron is going to spend all night in bed doing nothing while Riley sleeps just so that she'll still be there when Riley wakes up. Still, Riley's surprised to find herself vaguely disappointed.
There's a neatly folded outfit--shirt, bra, shorts, and panties--on the nightstand by her bed, so she puts them on, then grabs the crutches leaning against the wall and uses them to pull herself to her feet. Using the crutches she walks out of the room and down the hall to the kitchen, where John and Sarah are having breakfast.
"Hey, beautiful," John says, as he pulls out a chair for Riley and helps her lower herself into it. She blushes; even after all this time, having acclimated herself to so many things as a resident of the Connor household, she's still not used to John actually noticing her. She tries to think about what she and Cameron did the night before does to their relationship. It's not cheating on him, she tells herself, any more than using a vibrator would be. After all, Cameron's only a machine; if it counts at all, it counts as sex with John, since he's the one who programmed her, even if it wasn't her John.
"Where is everybody?" she asks as John puts down a plate of eggs in front of her.
"Derek's working the Thournier angle," John answers. Sarah frowns but doesn't say anything. "I don't know where Cameron is. Following a lead on her own or something, I guess. She does that."
Riley nods, accepting the intelligence, then starts on the eggs. Halfway through breakfast, Cameron enters and sits down at the table across from Riley. Sarah raises an eye but doesn't say anything.
"I was thinking we should go out today," John says, as he takes Riley's empty plate. "You could use the fresh air, if you think you're up to it."
Riley nods her assent. "Sounds good," she says. She hasn't left the house since she was wounded, and even with her stuff--not much, after all--transferred over from her former foster parents' house, it has been more than a little claustrophobic.
"Just be careful," Sarah warns, and John rolls his eyes. As far as they can tell, pretty much everyone is willing to accept Riley as being a runaway (which she is) rather than a kidnappee, so there shouldn't be anyone looking for her. Unless SkyNet has another Terminator on her scent, of course.
"I'll go with them," Cameron volunteers, and it is settled. After breakfast, John and Cameron help Riley into the truck, and they are off.
XVIII.
They go to the same park she and Jessie sometimes used as a rendezvous. It's strange being there with John and Cameron, an unwelcome juxtaposition of two sets of familiar things which aren't supposed to go together. She tries not to think about, focusing instead on the physical act of making her way down the walk on her crutches, flanked by John and Cameron. At one point she almost loses her balance, but Cameron quickly grabs her arm and steadies her.
"Steady," says the machine.
XIX.
She wakes up that night having to pee. She's alone in the dark of Cameron's room, so she fumbles for her crutches before she manages to pull herself out of bed. She slowly makes her way through the hall to the bathroom.
There's a light on in the kitchen and she can hear the voices drift down the hall.
"The girl is healing fast," Derek notes.
"Good," Riley hears Sarah reply. "The faster she's better, the faster we can get her out of here."
"Maybe she should stay," Derek hazards. "It's not good for John to spend all his time with metal."
Sarah doesn't answer, and Riley makes her way to the bathroom, does her business as quickly as she can.
When she returns to the room, Cameron is sitting on the bed. "Don't worry," Cameron says. "I'll watch over you."
Riley drops the crutches, falls onto Cameron, pinning the machine to the bed. "Forever?"
They kiss. "I promise," says the machine.
XX.
The machine's still there when Riley wakes up in the morning.
XXII.
A week later, Jessie finally finds her. She's sturdier on her crutches now, and John and Cameron allow her to wander a bit. Riley looks for them when Jessie steps up besides her, but they're nowhere to be seen.
"You're late," Jessie says.
"I've been busy."
"I can see that," Jessie says, looking at the crutches. "What happened?"
"Metal," Riley answers. It's all the explanation that is needed.
"Her?" is the inevitable question.
"No, another one," she answers. "The 101 model." She tries not to think of Cameron saving her from the T-101, or of herself and Cameron naked on her/Cameron's bed, making love.
No, not making love. You can't make love to a machine.
"The bastards," Jessie says simply. "You learn anything?"
Riley shrugs as she races to think what to say. Should she tell Jessie about the three dots?
"They don't tell me anything," she tells Jessie, which isn't quite a lie. After all, neither Sarah nor Derek ever tell her anything.
"It's been almost two months," Jessie points out. "You've had to have picked up something." She frowns. "You fucking him?"
Riley shakes her head and Jessie just keeps on frowning, not saying anything. "I think they have a list or something," Riley tells her, "of people they need to protect. I don't know who's on it, though."
"And the machine?"
Riley shrugs. "She protects John."
"And that's all?
No, that's not all. But how can Riley tell Jessie about Cameron bringing her chicken soup and beloved storybooks or helping her exercise her leg? And there's no way in hell she can tell Jessie about the sex.
"Sometimes she slips out at strange hours," Riley offers. "No one knows where she goes."
Jessie nods as if this confirms some suspicion or other. "Do you ever try to follow her?" she asks, then laughs and shakes her head. "No, of course not" she says, looking again at the crutches.
Riley doesn't say anything, waiting for Jessie to speak again. "Well, see if you can't find out what she's up to. How about her and John? Do they spend a lot of time together?"
"All three of us do, now. We do all live in the same house."
Jessie nods, biting her lip. "Well, hopefully your presence manages to mitigate her influence somewhat. Other than no fucking, everything going all right in paradise?"
Riley blushes. "Yeah," she says. "We're getting along really great, actually."
"I'm glad to hear that," Jessie says, her expression stern. "You may be the only thing standing between him and her. You have to make sure she doesn't take control of him. Remember she's the enemy."
"Right," says Riley. "The enemy."
TBC . . . here.
Fandom: Sarah Connor Chronicles
Pairings: Riley/Cameron, John/Riley, John/Cameron, Riley/Jessie, Jessie/Derek, John/Riley/Cameron.
Timeline/Spoilers: Takes place during the first half of Season 2, after 2x08, "Mr. Ferguson Is Ill Today" but before the half-season finale. Spoilers for the first half of Season 2. Also spoilers for Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Becoming Jane.
Summary: Termination is not an option, so Cameron must rely on other tactics to neutralize the threat Riley poses.
Rating: NWS
A/N: Epigraph from Kate Douglas Wiggin, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Special thanks to my betas,
anonymous_sibyl, present_pathos, and tacky_tramp. This was written before I saw any episodes of the second half of the Season 2; I don't know which I feared most, being jossed or kripked.Part 1 is here.
Some Thing to Watch Over Me, Part 2
X.
When Cameron returns, it's in the truck, with John, and there's a large mass in the back covered by a canvas which Riley assumes is the remains of the T-101, to be destroyed later.
Cameron pulls off Riley's shirt and examines the bullet wound, a couple inches to the left of Riley's navel. "It's missed the major organs," the machine pronounces, "but we need to stop the bleeding." She rips Riley's shirt in two pressing one side against the entry wound and one against the exit wound. John wraps duct tape around her waist, sticky side facing out, to keep them in place.John and Cameron go on to splint Riley's leg, then help her into the truck.
Nobody says anything as they drive back to John's. Riley's afraid to; she's blown her cover, to Cameron at least, by recognizing the T-101. But the machine doesn't say anything as she drives and John's done that thing where he's in his own world, although he does occasionally glance back at Riley. The machine carries Riley out of the truck and through the house, laying her down on Cameron's bed.
"Thanks," she says, looking up from the bed, at the machine, who served as her protector, standing between her and death.
"No problem," says Cameron with a soft smile. "You should get some rest; you're going to need your energy to heal."
Riley smiles back. "What frail creatures we mortals be," she says, then closes her eyes and within minutes sleep has claimed her.
XI.
"She can't go back to her foster parents," John points out, as Cameron knew he would with 97.3% certainty. "If SkyNet is after her, she'd be a sitting duck there."
Sarah sighs. She doesn't like it (the probabilities that she wouldn't had approached unity) but Cameron knows she knows that John is right. "How do you know you're not the one who programmed it to kill her?" Sarah questions.
"John wouldn't do that," Cameron answers simply. "Even when he should."
"She can stay here until she's healed," Sarah decides, leaving unsaid what they're going to do with the girl when that time comes. There's an 80% chance that Sarah herself hasn't decided yet.
Sarah gets up to leave, then turns back to John. "Yes, mom," he says before she even says anything, "if I didn't draw Riley into this, she wouldn't be involved. I know that."
Sarah nods, then exits. Cameron crosses the room, stands next to him. "It's not your fault," she tells him.
"No, she's right," John says. "I put her in danger just by being with her."
Cameron puts a hand on John's shoulder. "Riley was always a part of this. You didn't do that."
John pulls away. "What then? You're telling me it was fate, like my mom meeting my dad?"
"Not fate," Cameron answers. "That timeline has been overwritten. The future is mutable."
"Then what?"
Cameron shrugs, an emotionless rise and fall of her shoulders. "I'm still collating the data," she tells him.
He looks at her. It's the look he gives her when he's not just surprised or confused by something she's done or said, but when he recognizes that there are reasons and motivations at work which he doesn't understand. It is a look laced with more than a little suspicion and awe.
Then he shakes his head, crosses the room, and sits down in an armchair in the corner. "I guess we're going to have to tell her everything now," he says. "Mexico was bad enough, but now she's going to have to be on the run for the rest of her life."
Cameron sits down on the arm of the chair. "You should be happy," she informs him. "Now you don't have to keep secrets from her."
"Yeah," John agrees with a decided lack of enthusiasm. "How do you tell someone you're the future salvation of humankind?"
Cameron graces him with a carefully gauged smile. "I can tell her if you want."
John collapses back into the chair, finally relaxes. "Thanks."
"No problem," Cameron says, standing up. "What are sisters for?" She leans over and kisses him on the temple.
She keeps smiling as she leaves the room, even when no one is watching any longer and the routine no longer serves any purpose. Execution of mission objectives are all on track.
XII.
Riley wakes quickly, sensing movement in the bedroom. She's learned to be a light sleeper ever since Judgment Day, it being an essential survival skill. When her eyes snap open and spy the machine it only compounds matters. Instincts kick in and she makes to flee until her side and leg definitively veto the matter.
Ouch.
"Easy," cautions Cameron, who is carrying some sort of tray,
"Well, what do you expect if you barge in on somebody who's asleep?" Riley asks, mustering all the righteous indignation she can.
"I brought you some soup," Cameron says, putting the tray down on the nightstand near the bed.
"I'm not hungry."
"You lost blood," Cameron reminds her softly. "You need to replenish your fluids."
Cameron gently slides a hand under Riley's back and gradually lifts her up, propping up pillows behind her. The covers fall off her and Riley realizes that her torn shirt has been replaced with fresh bandages, the duct tape with gauze. Her jeans and bra have been removed, the latter replaced with a loose white t-shirt. Maybe she's not as light a sleeper as she thought.
Riley reluctantly lets Cameron spoon-feed her the soup, as she's far too weak to do anything else. Once the first sip of the soup passes her lips, she's eager for more, suddenly much hungrier and thirstier than she thought. But Cameron's movements are slow, deliberate, not letting Riley consume too much too fast.
"It's good," Riley is forced to admit. "Campbell's?"
"Artificial preservatives may increase the chance of cancer," Cameron informs her. "The research is inconclusive. I made it myself."
"You can cook?"
"I found a recipe," Cameron answers. Her expression is deadpan, naturally, but Riley has the distinct impression that the machine is toying with her. "I'm very good at following instructions."
Riley laughs. It hurts. "Did you kill the chicken yourself?"
Cameron looks at Riley. She has that faraway look that machines get when they're processing, as if she's not sure whether Riley's joking or not. Riley's not sure herself, actually.
"The chicken came from the store," Cameron finally answers. "It was already dead."
Riley nods. The bowl of soup is almost empty.
"I told John I'd tell you what was going on," Cameron says. The obvious truth, that Riley doesn't need to be told because she already knows, hangs unsaid between them, unnecessary.
"Why didn't you tell him--" Riley breaks off, unable to put into words even now how she's misled John, betrayed him.
"My programming requires me to neutralize any and all threats to John Connor," Cameron informs her. "Termination is optional." She looks pointedly at Riley's wound. "You are no longer a threat."
She doesn't want to, but Riley forces herself to ask it anyway. "And if I become a threat again?"
As expected, the machine's eyes hold neither mercy nor absolution. "Then the threat will be dealt with."
XIII.
There's not a TV in Cameron's room--there isn't much of anything in Cameron's room, really, except for the machine's clothes and a bed Riley suspects was never used before she took it over--but Cameron does manage to produce a copy of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and New Chronicles of Rebecca besides. It's not the copy Riley bought at the mall, which is still at Riley's foster parents', but a different edition, checked out from a local library. Riley accepts the book eagerly, grateful for a way to kill some of the hours she's going to be confined to the machine's bed.
She's just over two-thirds of the way through the first book--Rebecca's just started at Wareham Academy--when John sticks his head in the door. "Hey," he says.
"Hey."
"Cameron said--she said she told you everything," John says entering the room and sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Yeah," says Riley, the lie coming easily to her lips.
"Pretty unreal, huh?"
Riley doesn't know what to say. It's this which is unreal--living in John Connor's house, being his girlfriend, being fed chicken soup by a cyborg, not having to worry about where her next meal is coming from. Judgment Day, on the other hand, is all too real to her.
"Yeah," she says. "Machines from the future? It's kinda hard to believe. But then I think about what I've seen, and it all seems to fit."
John nods, pensive. "And Cameron's told you that she's--"
"A machine? Yeah. I always knew there was something weird about your sister."
John smiles. "And I never argued with you about that."
"Are you sure you can trust her?" Riley asks. "I mean, how do you know she won't--"
"I know," he says, and he is so sure, so confident, that she almost believes him. She wants to believe him. But she can't; metal is metal.
"All this," John says, continuing, "I wouldn't be able to do it without her. She's my . . . my strength." Then as if suddenly realizing that that's really not the sort of thing you say about another woman to your girlfriend, he looks at her. Like really looks at her, not just staring in her general direction but looking at her like he really sees her. "How are you doing?" he asks.
"I'm okay," she answers. "Hurts like hell, but your--Cameron--gave me something. Don't know what it is, but works a hell of a lot better than Tylenol."
John just nods, not taking his eyes off her. It's an exhilarating feeling, being watched by John Connor, having all the attention of the future leader of the resistance focused on her--so much that he doesn't even notice when Cameron enters the room.
"Excuse us," Riley says. Apparently that knocking thing was learned then forgotten.
"It's my room," Cameron points out, sensibly enough. "I need to get changed."
John nods, unable to refute her logic. He gets up to leave, but before he does he leans over and brushes his lips against Riley's. It's a quick kiss, just an instant's contact, but there's an electricity there that's always been missing before, and before he can go she reaches out and grabs him behind the neck. She's too weak to exert any real force, but he lets her pull him down until their lips meet again. This kiss is longer, deeper, more complete, a penetration more intimate in its way than any sex Riley's had.
When it ends and John finally retreats, she's suddenly conscious of Cameron watching, passively curious, the moment of such extreme intimacy having been exchanged under her ever-observant eye. She feels exposed, naked, as if shirt, blanket, and panties were stripped away from her. Still, the electricity continues, surging through her, even as John exits closing the door behind him, leaving Riley and Cameron alone in the room, and the machine begins to strip.
In her excited state, Riley can't help but notice the perfection of the machine's body, as shirt and pants are pulled off to reveal perfectly sculpted flesh.
It's deliberate, Riley knows, part of the design for her model, to enable her to better serve her function in SkyNet's nefarious plans. But these thoughts are driven away by the sheer physicality of Cameron's presence in the room, disabling Riley's higher cognitive functions as surely as if she had a chip and Cameron had hacked into it.
Cameron's underwear joins her clothes on the floor, and then the machine wraps herself in a towel and exits. Riley makes use of the time alone to masturbate furiously in the machine's bed, thinking this moment of John, that one of Cameron, and another of Jessie, as the faces transform from one into another in her mind.
When the machine returns from her shower, she's wet as well as naked, and as Cameron drops the towel to the ground, the desires so recently satiated (or so Riley had thought) swell up once again.
Cameron puts on a black bra and panties, then a pair of black slacks and a black blouse, followed by black boots and a black leather belt.
"Night mission?" Riley asks.
Cameron nods. "I'm getting your stuff. John said your room is on the third floor."
Riley nods. "In the back of the house, on the east side. There's nothing there, though, just stupid stuff."
Cameron doesn't blink. "You're going to need your clothes," she says. "And I'm going to need to return the books to the library."
XIV.
It's sooner than she expects before Riley is healed enough that Sarah insists she begin exercising the leg. They take it slowly at first, with Sarah overseeing the process for the first few days before passing it on to Cameron.
They're not exactly actively hiding things from Riley, anymore, but neither do Sarah or Derek make a point of filling in the the teenaged girl with a bullet wound and a broken leg as to their plans. John's better at keeping her up to date, now that the initial barrier is broken but there's some kind of disagreement between him and Sarah and all Riley can find out is that something having to do with three dots is ripping the household apart.
"John thinks they don't mean anything," Cameron explains as she bends Riley's leg in this direction and that, including a couple Riley was pretty sure it wasn't able to bend before she broke it. "So does Derek, though he won't say so."
How do you know? Riley almost asks, before catching herself. The machine knows because it is impossible to hide something like that from her, just as Cameron must surely know now how Riley is responding to the touch of the machine's hands against her leg.
She winces in pain as Cameron pushes the leg in a new direction but merely grits her teeth. She can tolerate pain, had been doing so from Judgment Day all the way until Jessie took her back here to before.
Cameron pulls her leg to the left, and this time the jolt of pain which shoots up Riley's side is unbearable. "Fuck, Cam," she says. "That hurts, okay?"
"It's important that you exercise your leg," Cameron points out, as Riley knew she would.
"Yeah, sure," agrees Riley. "But you don't have to be so rough."
Cameron cocked her head, as if processing something, then let go of Riley's leg and instead reached around to press her palm against Riley's back, just above the hip, where the now-healed bullet wound had been, the other hand taking Riley's opposite shoulder in a firm grip. Cameron quickly puts pressure against Riley's back.
"Ouch," replies Riley automatically. "Come on--"
But then she realizes the quick twinge of pain she felt when Cameron did whatever she did is already gone, and in its place is . . . relief.
"Oh," Riley lets out a soft moan. "That feels good."
Cameron doesn't smile, but the way she raises her eyebrows has a distinctively self-satisfied air to it. Cameron applies pressure to a spot about an inch higher than the last time, and once again there's the quick pain followed by the relief. Riley's relaxed now, the tension worked up during the exercising of her leg now drained out of her body.
The fear she once would have felt at the machine's touch is gone; she feels nothing but comfortable in Cameron's hands as Cameron slowly kneads the flesh of her back with one hand. She closes her eyes and lets Cameron work her magic, her mind free to wander.
Unfortunately, it doesn't wander far, choosing despite itself to focus on the feel of the cyborg's hands against her body. It's a more intimate touch in its way than the sharp pulls and prods of the physical therapy, more like a lover's caress--so if her desire was smoldering at a slow burn before, now it has erupted into a raging conflagration.
Cameron stops for a moment, and Riley opens her eyes, hungry for the machine's touch, but Cameron only smiles and positions herself behind Riley on the bed, so that Riley's sitting between Cameron's legs. Riley leans back into Cameron so their bodies are pressed against each other; Riley can feel the shape of Cameron's breasts against her back.
Cameron starts work on Riley's shoulders, and Riley lets loose a long sigh at the sheer pleasure of it. She closes her eyes again; this is what she has wanted ever since Judgment Day, the sweet oblivion of not having to worry. The machine begins to hum, softly; Riley recognizes the tune as "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."
XV.
Time passes.
Each minute, every single second is no doubt counted in Cameron's mechanical mind, the inexorable tick tick of her clockwork brain, but for Riley one moment passes into another without differentiation, a sort of waking sleep. The machine, untiring, keeps working, keeps humming.
XVI.
Slowly, Riley opens her eyes, as if waking from a dream. But Riley doesn't have dreams. As far as Riley can tell, no one in the Connor household does--she knows John, Sarah, and Derek are beset by nightmares just as she is, and Cameron does not sleep. She's the lucky one.
Riley twists around, so that she's not sitting in between Cameron's legs anymore so much as sitting on her lap, and her leg doesn't even so much as wince in protest. She places a finger on the machine's lips and Cameron obediently stops humming, leaving only silence, stillness, peace. Riley's finger lingers on Cameron's lips. A moment passes and then another and neither of them pulls away until at least Riley slides her hand across Cameron's face, feeling the softness of her skin as she traces the cheek, the jaw.
She leans towards Cameron; the machine meets her halfway and their lips meet in a kiss. Riley's hand, still cradling Cameron's jaw, slides down farther, across her smooth neck and shoulder, and then they break the kiss so that Riley can pull of the machine's shirt.
They kiss again, briefly, and then Cameron takes off Riley's shirt, and Riley gently bites the machine's earlobe as Cameron undoes Riley's bra. Cameron lifts Riley off her lap easily an turns, laying Riley on her back on the bed. Cameron slips her fingers into the waistband of Riley's underwear and, after leaving a trail of kisses from Riley's breasts to her navel, slides off both her gym shorts and the panties underneath.
Riley is naked on the bed now, unable due to the injury to get up and walk away, but she doesn't feel exposed or vulnerable. She's shared the room with Cameron for weeks now, even if the machine doesn't use it very much, and has often relied on Cameron for helping getting dressed or bathed. It's not as if either of them has never seen the other naked.
Each of those times, as now, she was excited, but the difference is that while then she had to be satisfied with the not altogether welcome thrill of seeing or being seen and the machine's ostensibly non-sexual touches, now that which she hated herself for wanting is quite literally in her hands.
She still hates herself for wanting it. She still wants it.
Cameron kneels on top of her, straddling Riley, and Riley reaches up to unfasten first the machine's bra, then her jeans. She pushes down Cameron's jeans and panties as far as she can without moving her lower body too much, and Cameron leaves them like that, at her knees, as she turns around and lies down beside Riley in a classic 69. Riley tastes Cameron eagerly even as the machine's tongue slides into her own cunt. Though machine she may be, Cameron tastes, smells, and feels like a woman, and if Riley can be any more aroused than she was a minute before, she is now.
Cameron works skillfully, perfectly (of course), coaxing pleasure Riley didn't know was possible out of her clit. But Riley doesn't lack for experience, either, and sets on Cameron with as much skull as she can. Any she lacks she'll make up with enthusiasm.
Riley doesn't know what sex feels like to a machine, whether Cameron can feel pleasure, but the way she shudders and trembles at the touch of Riley's tongue against her clit speaks to some rather sophisticated programming, and if Cameron is faking the orgasm--orgasms--well, she's doing a hell of a good job.
Riley climaxes soon after Cameron does, and then again. Presumably Cameron could keep going indefinitely, but after the third time (and Cameron's fifth, if Riley's count can be trusted) she stops, sits up on the bed, pulls her jeans and panties all the way off, then settles back into Riley's arms so they're spooning. Riley slips her arms around the machine, one hand on Cameron's breast and the other at her cunt, and falls asleep smelling the scent of her hair.
XVII.
Riley wakes up in bed alone.
It is only natural, she supposes; Cameron doesn't sleep, so it's not like Cameron is going to spend all night in bed doing nothing while Riley sleeps just so that she'll still be there when Riley wakes up. Still, Riley's surprised to find herself vaguely disappointed.
There's a neatly folded outfit--shirt, bra, shorts, and panties--on the nightstand by her bed, so she puts them on, then grabs the crutches leaning against the wall and uses them to pull herself to her feet. Using the crutches she walks out of the room and down the hall to the kitchen, where John and Sarah are having breakfast.
"Hey, beautiful," John says, as he pulls out a chair for Riley and helps her lower herself into it. She blushes; even after all this time, having acclimated herself to so many things as a resident of the Connor household, she's still not used to John actually noticing her. She tries to think about what she and Cameron did the night before does to their relationship. It's not cheating on him, she tells herself, any more than using a vibrator would be. After all, Cameron's only a machine; if it counts at all, it counts as sex with John, since he's the one who programmed her, even if it wasn't her John.
"Where is everybody?" she asks as John puts down a plate of eggs in front of her.
"Derek's working the Thournier angle," John answers. Sarah frowns but doesn't say anything. "I don't know where Cameron is. Following a lead on her own or something, I guess. She does that."
Riley nods, accepting the intelligence, then starts on the eggs. Halfway through breakfast, Cameron enters and sits down at the table across from Riley. Sarah raises an eye but doesn't say anything.
"I was thinking we should go out today," John says, as he takes Riley's empty plate. "You could use the fresh air, if you think you're up to it."
Riley nods her assent. "Sounds good," she says. She hasn't left the house since she was wounded, and even with her stuff--not much, after all--transferred over from her former foster parents' house, it has been more than a little claustrophobic.
"Just be careful," Sarah warns, and John rolls his eyes. As far as they can tell, pretty much everyone is willing to accept Riley as being a runaway (which she is) rather than a kidnappee, so there shouldn't be anyone looking for her. Unless SkyNet has another Terminator on her scent, of course.
"I'll go with them," Cameron volunteers, and it is settled. After breakfast, John and Cameron help Riley into the truck, and they are off.
XVIII.
They go to the same park she and Jessie sometimes used as a rendezvous. It's strange being there with John and Cameron, an unwelcome juxtaposition of two sets of familiar things which aren't supposed to go together. She tries not to think about, focusing instead on the physical act of making her way down the walk on her crutches, flanked by John and Cameron. At one point she almost loses her balance, but Cameron quickly grabs her arm and steadies her.
"Steady," says the machine.
XIX.
She wakes up that night having to pee. She's alone in the dark of Cameron's room, so she fumbles for her crutches before she manages to pull herself out of bed. She slowly makes her way through the hall to the bathroom.
There's a light on in the kitchen and she can hear the voices drift down the hall.
"The girl is healing fast," Derek notes.
"Good," Riley hears Sarah reply. "The faster she's better, the faster we can get her out of here."
"Maybe she should stay," Derek hazards. "It's not good for John to spend all his time with metal."
Sarah doesn't answer, and Riley makes her way to the bathroom, does her business as quickly as she can.
When she returns to the room, Cameron is sitting on the bed. "Don't worry," Cameron says. "I'll watch over you."
Riley drops the crutches, falls onto Cameron, pinning the machine to the bed. "Forever?"
They kiss. "I promise," says the machine.
XX.
The machine's still there when Riley wakes up in the morning.
XXII.
A week later, Jessie finally finds her. She's sturdier on her crutches now, and John and Cameron allow her to wander a bit. Riley looks for them when Jessie steps up besides her, but they're nowhere to be seen.
"You're late," Jessie says.
"I've been busy."
"I can see that," Jessie says, looking at the crutches. "What happened?"
"Metal," Riley answers. It's all the explanation that is needed.
"Her?" is the inevitable question.
"No, another one," she answers. "The 101 model." She tries not to think of Cameron saving her from the T-101, or of herself and Cameron naked on her/Cameron's bed, making love.
No, not making love. You can't make love to a machine.
"The bastards," Jessie says simply. "You learn anything?"
Riley shrugs as she races to think what to say. Should she tell Jessie about the three dots?
"They don't tell me anything," she tells Jessie, which isn't quite a lie. After all, neither Sarah nor Derek ever tell her anything.
"It's been almost two months," Jessie points out. "You've had to have picked up something." She frowns. "You fucking him?"
Riley shakes her head and Jessie just keeps on frowning, not saying anything. "I think they have a list or something," Riley tells her, "of people they need to protect. I don't know who's on it, though."
"And the machine?"
Riley shrugs. "She protects John."
"And that's all?
No, that's not all. But how can Riley tell Jessie about Cameron bringing her chicken soup and beloved storybooks or helping her exercise her leg? And there's no way in hell she can tell Jessie about the sex.
"Sometimes she slips out at strange hours," Riley offers. "No one knows where she goes."
Jessie nods as if this confirms some suspicion or other. "Do you ever try to follow her?" she asks, then laughs and shakes her head. "No, of course not" she says, looking again at the crutches.
Riley doesn't say anything, waiting for Jessie to speak again. "Well, see if you can't find out what she's up to. How about her and John? Do they spend a lot of time together?"
"All three of us do, now. We do all live in the same house."
Jessie nods, biting her lip. "Well, hopefully your presence manages to mitigate her influence somewhat. Other than no fucking, everything going all right in paradise?"
Riley blushes. "Yeah," she says. "We're getting along really great, actually."
"I'm glad to hear that," Jessie says, her expression stern. "You may be the only thing standing between him and her. You have to make sure she doesn't take control of him. Remember she's the enemy."
"Right," says Riley. "The enemy."
TBC . . . here.
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Date: 2009-03-20 02:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-20 04:15 am (UTC)