Title: The Game
Author: LegolasLover2003 aka Ashley
Category: TV - Halt and Catch Fire
Genre: General
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to Halt and Catch Fire, I just have this semi-unhealthy adoration of it. Here's to Season 3!
Note: This story takes place between Season 01, Episode 06 and Season 02, Episode 01.

"I still think about her. That cocky lopsided grin that used to make my head dizzy as I wondered what she had in mind next. We'd been perfect for each other... because opposites attract... right? After the hurricane, I started staying over at her place... but only when the coders weren't around. It was almost like we were teenagers hiding our love from overprotective parents. I left a change of clothes in her closet... just in case. I had been honest for the first time that I could remember. We were in love. All I wanted was to be near her and, in all honesty, I thought she felt that way about me too."

-Joe MacMillan

"THE GAME"

A 'Halt & Catch Fire' Story

Brushing his hair into place, Joe MacMillan, dressed in his typical business suit, headed from the bedroom and into the living room. He could hear Cameron... and he could hear something that sounded far from a usual morning routine. There he found her, sitting in an over-sized comfy chair, an Atari controller in her hands. Bending down so he could at least look at her eye-to-eye, Joe positioned himself squarely in front of the television.
"What're you doing?"
Laughing, Cameron tried to see around him. "Come play with me."
"Play with yourself. I gotta work. You gotta work." he argued good naturedly, remaining there just long enough...
"Joe!" the woman shouted, falling back against the chair in defeat. She had lost the game because he wouldn't move. "I can't look at code right now. Come." she reached out her hand, waving him over. "It's not as much fun to beat the computer. Let me beat you."
Walking over, MacMillan carefully sat down. Cameron made room, scooting over to allow him to join her on the right.
"Why?" he asked, picking up a spare controller before wrapping his arms around the woman, resting the controller against her left shoulder.
Cameron smirked, "It's just better when you know your enemy."
"Or love your enemy." Joe teased with a smirk, squinting his eyes slightly as he looked at the screen.
"Oh please." the woman rolled her eyes, but he had already changed the subject.
"Racing, huh?" MacMillan scoffed at the notion. "Easy win."
Smirking, Cameron got the game ready. "We'll see."
Soon two race cars were zipping around the pixelated track. It seemed at first that Cameron had the upper hand as Joe's car suddenly took a turn for the worst and began to veer off course toward the wall. However, his strategy altered as his car suddenly started to catch up.
"Uh oh..." Joe teased, before seeming to get excited at the possibility of winning. "Oh... Oh oh!" without any warning whatsoever, Joe's car slammed straight into Cameron's, veering her into the wall and ending with a fiery explosion of twisted pixel metal. He leaned over in that same moment, kissing her quickly on the cheek.
"Joe!" Cameron reached over and hit him in the ribs. "That's cheating!" she admonished him before bursting out into laughter.
Smiling genuinely, Joe's grin was infectious. "Victory."
"Okay. Rematch." the woman demanded, ready to go again.
Surprisingly however, MacMillan tossed his controller to the ground and stood up. He headed past the television and over to a table, grabbing his briefcase.
"Come on!" Cameron begged him, until something occurred to her. "Oh, you can't do it, can you? You can't just sit and play for five minutes."
"I'm sorry I can't." Joe replied, moving toward the door and using the back of another chair to prop his briefcase on. "Not right now." Seemingly back in business mode, MacMillan had apparently abandoned his happy-go-lucky earlier mood to focus on what needed to be done here... now... today... "We gotta keep working on the Giant's new OS." he said, opening his briefcase and drawing out his sunglasses. "Comdex is closer than we think. We gotta be ready." he said, looking over to Cameron.
The women's expression simply seemed baffled for a moment. "We will be." she said, obviously believing it. "Come on. One more game. Please?"
Opening the front door however, Joe flashed Cameron a charming smile. "Don't play all day." he said, before popping his shades on and heading out.

"I don't understand."
Cameron smirked, rolling her eyes as she snatched the Atari controller from MacMillan's hands. He had agreed to try and play fair... after unceremoniously crashing the woman's race car with his own the last time they had played against one another.
"Look, it's easy. Just start off slow and, once you get the hang of it, speed up gradually."
"Are we still talking about the racing game?" Joe quipped with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
"Will you stop turning everything into an innuendo?" the woman asked as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"Will you give me the controller back if I do?"
Another roll of her eyes had Cameron shoving said controller back into the man's hands. He accepted it, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, while squinting and starring at the television and the little race car that slowly made its way around the course.
After much longer than any race should have taken, Joe leaned back into the chair once more. "I lost."
"I noticed." Cameron replied, making a pillow out of his left shoulder. "Takes practice." There was a pause in her words before she suddenly asked. "No innuendo?"
Joe shook his head, lifting one arm and putting it around the blond woman's shoulders. "Nope."
"Awww... look at you... being such a good boy." she teased.
That statement remained true for about another three seconds...

"I've never quite been able to figure you out."
"Hmmm?" Joe's head lifted a bit from the pillow so he could look down at the blond tuft of hair that was currently resting on his bare chest. "Figure me out how?" the man asked sleepily.
Who knew that talk of innuendos would bring last night about?...
Cameron lazily let her fingers play at the scars on the middle and lower half of MacMillan's chest. "You and games. I mean... you're obviously well built but you're more interested in computers." she turned her head, resting her chin on the man's chest so she could look him in the eyes. "Which do you like better? Video games or baseball?"
"Why do I have to pick?" he questioned, not exactly sure himself of the answer. Sighing, and knowing that Cameron would needle him until he finally answered, Joe explained himself. "My father wanted me to play ball, always telling me to 'swing for the fences'... and for a long time I made his dreams my own. After the accident, after two years of reading anything I could get my hands on, I realized there was an entire world out there... a world full of more than baseball and the stars. I was... angry... frustrated." he sighed softly before continuing. "My father told me my mom had died... and I just stopped dreaming." Pausing in his story, Joe took the moment to gauge Cameron's reaction. She seemed... entranced, genuinely listening... so he continued. "High school was typical, but instead of fitting into that world, I just worked harder and harder to be better than it. After college I went to work at IBM because, well, by then my father expected it. He gave me that baseball bat in my apartment... told me again to 'swing for the fences'... only this time, I guess I just associated the saying with my accident and took it to mean I should beat back adversity. So, I climbed the ladder... then fell from it." he adjusted his position, keeping one arm around Cameron but putting his left up onto the pillow, using it to prop his head up slightly. "I learned my life had been spent thinking my mother was dead... only to find out she wasn't. My father had her sent away. So I flooded the IBM data center and just left. My mother had wanted me to be great. He had wanted me to be him. I decided no more baseball."
Cameron was silent for a while before finally voicing a new question. "Then why do you still have the bat?"
Joe smiled slightly. "To remind me where I came from... and where I have still to go."
Sighing, the woman sat up and looked down at MacMillan in mild annoyance. "You still didn't answer my question. Baseball or video games?"
That smirk remained as the man grabbed Cameron by the hips and pulled her in for a kiss. "What do you think?" he teased before jerking the blankets up over their heads.

"Mmmm, I really like watching you play." Joe whispered softly into her ear.
Cameron was sitting on the floor, leaning back against the large plush chair and, coincidentally, Joe MacMillan's legs. He was quite comfortable in a t-shirt and sweat pants, albeit a bit sweaty and downright wet from a morning job in the rain. It had been a few weeks since they had played video games together... though Joe did enjoy taking the time every now and then to simply watch Cameron have a little video game fun. Today however, well, Joe would finally see if all his observations and all of his planning... and practice... would actually pay off.
"That's because I play better than you." she returned, easing the joystick to the side ever so slightly.
After a few moments, and a finished race, Cameron set the controller on the floor and tilted her head back to look up at Joe. "You're soaked."
One eyebrow quirked slightly. "It was raining."
"Really? I never noticed."
The man laughed. "I'm not entirely sure if that was the truth... or a touch of sarcasm there."
"Both?" Cameron asked with a shrug. She sighed softly. "Why were you jogging in the rain anyway?"
"Habit."
"But not in the rain?"
Seemingly exasperated, the man moved to get up before a hand on his knee stopped him.
"I was just enjoying getting you riled up." Cameron semi-apologized, to which MacMillan crossed his arms over his chest.
"Of course you were... so, did you win?"
"Huh?"
He gestured to the television. "The game. Did you win?"
Cameron waved a hand dismissively at the question. "You expected anything else?"
"Do you always win?"
The woman gave him a look as if he had grown two heads. "Ummm... yeah. That's kind of the point in playing... to win."
"Seems boring to always come out on top."
She laughed suddenly. "Yeah, like you'd know."
Obviously annoyed at her, Joe stood from the chair and walked over to the tv, snatching up the second player Atari remote. "Let's see how you do against a human opponent."
The blond smirked, "You... expect to beat me?" The man shrugged, to which Cameron stood to get his attention. "Answer me, Joe."
"I don't know. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. We'll see in a bit."
Something about the way that he said that seemed to unnerve the woman. This only made MacMillan smirk. The tables, it seemed, might be turning in his favor for once.
"You should change first." Cameron pipped up.
The man shrugged again, "What difference would my attire make?"
She rolled her eyes. "I'm not playing against you when you look like a drowned rat."
An amused smirk appeared on Joe's face. However, he set down the remote. "Alright." he replied, heading out of the living room.
Five minutes later the man returned in a dark blue long sleeved shirt. The sleeves were, as usual, pushed up, and he was sporting a clean pair of grey sweat pants. He had no shoes on, but his feet were covered in grey socks, and he had seemingly combed his hair in an effort to tame it after his rainy morning jog. Cameron was obviously still skeptical in regards to his ability to beat her, but the young woman wasn't about to let a challenge go unanswered. Especially one from Joe MacMillan.
"Have you at least practiced since the last time?" she asked with a cocky grin.
Joe returned the expression. "Maybe..."
Cameron's eyes went wide as she blinked and looked to the man who was now seated at her side. "Wait what? When?!"
His dark eyes never left the television screen. "I have a place too, remember? You're not the only one drawing a paycheck." he teased as the game began.
It was a swift race... or rather as swift as any Indy 500 race could really be, and it soon became apparent that Joe had, indeed, practiced. The man's car narrowly pulled ahead of Cameron's, inching forward along the track. She tried to take advantage of the turns in the course, but it seemed Joe was prepared. The minutes ticked by and soon... well... it was all over.
Cameron had lost.
"Good game." Joe said, putting the controller back on the table. "You almost had me. I..."
Frustrated and annoyed were understatements and Cameron moved suddenly and swiftly, claiming the man's lips and straddling his lap all at the same time. Joe's own hands went out quickly to her hips in an effort to keep the woman steady. When their kiss broke, he blinked in pleasant surprise.
"A kiss for the victor?" Joe teased, before she pushed him back against the back of the chair roughly.
"Shut up and console me." Cameron smirked.
MacMillan didn't have to be told twice.

CAMHOWE
That was what the username said.
Since when had he started to even play video games? Cameron had really gotten him hooked on them... especially hooked when he could take the time to play against her. But now? Logged in with her as an opponent... tonight of all nights?
Couldn't this be considered stalking?
A part of Joe MacMillan, aka USER85, didn't care however. As he sat there, one little light on near the computer, hunched over the keyboard in his sweats. Sarah was asleep in the other room... she always seemed to sleep through his loud clicking keystrokes.
Cameron was playing right now. She was on Mutiny... and it seemed in that moment, to Joe, that this was fate. He had only just subscribed to the server... he wanted to see what the buzz was about. He knew... and it was... brilliant.
Playing a game with Cameron... not even having to be in the same room and they could play... hell, she didn't even need to know who he was!
'This is definitely stalking.' Joe thought to himself as his tank came under heavy fire.
He squinted a bit, getting closer and closer to the screen as his keystrokes came faster and louder. She was winning...
She always won...
Or maybe he had simply always let her win?
Joe just wanted Cameron to succeed... he had never meant to hurt her, and perhaps, sitting there in his sweats, he realized that for the first time. Maybe he wasn't over her just yet... But Sarah understood that... right? After all, he had proposed and she had accepted! They were engaged!
"Good game. New subscriber?"
The words came across the bottom of the screen as Cameron talked to him.
Joe hesitated for a split second before his fingers flew over the keys.
"Yup. Just signed on."
Leaning back, MacMillan couldn't help but stare at the screen. This was the future. All those times they had played games with one another was only leading towards this singular idea. Again, Cameron Howe had a beautiful idea... only this time, Joe wasn't standing there to hear it... to participate in it...
Annoyed, the man signed off and leaned his head back, closing his eyes and simply sighing.
Tomorrow would be a new day.
Tomorrow would bring a whole new game.

END

Author's Notes:
- First scene is from Season 2, Episode 1, at the very beginning. Last scene is from Season 2, Episode 1, at the very end. Everything in between was original dialogue and situations by me.
- I started this story shortly after the premiere of HCF season 2. I finished it shortly after the premiere of HCF season 3, lol.

Muse Moments:
Sighing, Legolas flicked a piece of dust off of the foot-board of the bed. "Please stop binge-watching..."
"Nope." Nil replied with a smirk, now smack-dab in the middle of 'Halt and Catch Fire' season 2.
"But you have been at it all weekend." the Elf groaned, falling over on the bed and looking at the television from an upside down perspective.
Nil nodded. "And I'll be at it until I finish. I'm hoping to be done before Season 3's next episode on Tuesday night."
Legolas groaned. "Too much..."
"Would you rather I binge-watch 'Lord of the Rings' or 'Hobbit'?" she replied, glancing his way.
For a moment, for an actual second, Legolas hesitated. Then... "No because then you would write about me or my father and that usually ends in pain."
Nileregwen laughed. "Now you're learning."