Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me. They belong to their respective writers, creators, and studios. I am merely using them for a brief moment to do a little creative venting. Please don't sue. I don't have enough money to bother. Thanks bunches.

Gravitas: Feel free to comment. Good or bad. I can take constructive criticism. Thank you for reading.

Author's Note: This story has developed a life of its own in my head. I had every intention of this being a simple one shot story. Now, it seems, the story has developed into a series of one shots. Keep in mind, that the end of every story is the possible end to the series. If the story keeps nagging at me, I'll keep adding. I promise. I hope you enjoy.

Cameron walked through the dirty hallway, aware but not bothered by the condemning looks sent her way. These humans fail to understand the relationship between she and John Connor. Every one of them would give their life for him, but they failed to understand why she would kill every one of them to protect John.

Machines take orders. They may see a situation logistically and realize their exercise is futile, but they follow their orders without question. Most likely, the machine will be destroyed in the process of performing its task. This is of little consequence, however, because the mission given to the machine will have been accomplished. Its purpose will have been served.

That is what makes Cameron different than all the other machines the members of the resistance have ever encountered. She listens to John, takes his orders and follows them completely, but if a situation should arise where she had to disobey John in order to save him, she would do it. Not only must she protect John, but she must also ensure her own survival. Not trusting anyone or anything other than herself to watch over the leader of all humankind.

Cameron stopped in front of the shelter designated to John. He hated this room and its steel casing. It would take any machine decades to break through the exterior, no matter what sort of explosives or prying device was used. That was why Cameron had chosen it. The soldier standing before the door was present simply to make runs to commanders if John required it, but he took his job seriously. When Cameron stopped before him he nodded and stepped aside.

"Thank you, Riley," Cameron said with a smile.

"You're welcome, Cameron," the gruff, battle worn man responded. He was too old and battered to serve in the field anymore, but he needed to be involved, so John had given him this position. Other than John, he was the only human who treated Cameron like anything other than a machine. Riley saw her as a soldier.

"Seal it behind me, sergeant. Take the rest of the evening for yourself. No need to stand here like a sentinel any longer." She winked as she passed him.

Smiling in response, he said, "Yes, ma'am."

The heavy doors slid slowly open, powered by internal hydraulics that could not be accessed from the outside. Cameron was very proud of this creation. It was one of her best.

Upon entering, and turning briefly to watch as the doors slid closed, Cameron located John. She found John in a back room, studying the scout reports gathered yesterday. As she approached John, he looked up and she saw the skin around his eyes wrinkle in amusement.

"What are you smiling at, John Connor?" Cameron asked, humor in her voice.

"I can tell when you're analyzing me for physical or emotional stress, Cam. Your eyes glow," he lifted his hand and smoothed a perfect eyebrow.

"You know I always do a perfunctory examination when I arrive, John. I don't trust you to behave yourself when I'm not around." John's deep laugh brought a bright smile to Cameron's face.

This was something else so many fail to understand. Cameron is very capable of feeling emotion. When she chooses, she feels very deeply.

SkyNet set about building Cameron as an experiment. It would create a terminator unlike any other. One with a processor so advanced it allowed the machine to feel stimulation and emotion like a human being. This, it thought, would allow the terminator to go farther than any other in destroying John Connor.

SkyNet gave her a name, it provided her a woman's body, and it set her about her task. Infiltrate the resistance, gather as much intelligence as possible, and when a complete schematic is formed, terminate John Connor and return to home base.

It was a perfect plan. A machine created for this job would not fail.

What SkyNet had not foreseen was that their creation would cherish John Connor. He is unlike any other human. He understands the machine and all its flaws.

He had not known Cameron was a terminator until she said to him, "John Connor, I have failed my mission."

He had laughed at her and said, "Cam, you don't fail at anything."

"I have failed at this, John. I cannot complete my mission. I have found it illogical." She watched as he turned, suspicion now clouding his features. "I find that I must stay with you, John."

"Why are you talking like this?" His head shook, denying what his brain had already told him was the truth.

Cameron was very capable of speaking and acting in such a manner that she was undetectable. Her speech was never stilted like a machine's. She did not speak with unnerving verbiage that betrayed a computer's logistic vocabulary instead of a learned speech pattern that developed with human interaction.

At this moment, however, she was a machine. Revealing herself to the quarry she had been assigned.

"John, you know what I am." She allowed the blue sensors behind human eyes to flare, identifying herself to John finally.

John stood very still. Staring for the longest time. He was so distracted that he failed to notice the soldiers enter behind him. When the men saw the glow of her eyes they drew their weapons and took aim. In a blur of motion, John found himself seated and Cameron standing in front of him taking fire. What the hell was going on around here?

"Cease fire!" He shouted, "Dammit, stop shooting those guns!!" When the bullets stopped, he stepped around Cameron and said, "Have you assholes lost your minds?!" Turning his attention to Cameron he found her expression could only be described as sad. Did machines feel sadness? A few minutes ago he wouldn't have thought about it that way, but knowing what he knew now, it seemed crazy to think that a machine would feel emotion.

"Is it simulated?" He asked her.

"All emotion is simulated, John. It is simply a set of circumstances that result in the firing of brain synapses, creating a physical reaction." She watched him, awaiting his verdict, and was surprised when he turned and began to address his men.

"It's okay, gentlemen. Looks like we got us our very own terminator. That right, Cam?" He asked her, directly.

"No, John. That's not true. I have assigned myself only to you." She saw his eyebrows draw together in confusion as he attempted to make sense of that.

"Why me and not any of them," he asked, as he gestured toward the men behind him. "I'm no different than they are."

"That's not true." It was all she had ever really said on the subject as to why she was loyal only to John.

Now, here they stood in a room Cameron had commissioned shortly after that fateful day. It would keep even her out if it had to.

She lifted a hand and stroked the face of the man before her. He stood still while she assured herself that he was fine. That nothing had happened while she was out performing tasks for him. As she computed all the information a simple touch brought to her, a wary expression passed over her face. He sighed and waited for her questions.

"John, what is it?" He knew she was a machine, but he'd never really thought of her that way. Not even after she had told him that's exactly what she was. He pulled her with him, sitting on what could be described as a couch. It's rough cushions as comfortable as could be expected, given that they were living in a post nuclear holocaust.

"I need you to do something for me, Cam. Only you can do it. You're the only one I trust." His eyes told her of his earnest plea. Eyes that were far older than the years of the man, having seen and suffered too much. She waited for him to continue.

"The scouts say SkyNet has sent one back. They mean to finish what they failed last time. All we did was push it back a few years, but if they can kill me this time --" He let his voice trail off. "They sent one back to 1999. I need you to prepare a team to go back there and keep me alive."

"It's not safe to leave you here, John. If I'm there I can't be here." She was shaking her head as she said this, as though to make sense of it all.

"Cam, you know as well as I do that if I'm dead then, I'm dead now. I won't be here to protect if it finds me and kills me." He took her hand and pulled her close, leaning back so that they were stretched out on the couch. Cameron settled herself into her favorite position, ear above John's heart, listening to the rhythmic cadence she could identify from nearly a hundred yards.

"I don't want to leave," he heard her whisper.

"I know, Cam." He stroked her glossy hair. "If we're lucky, it'll be a short trip. You'll go, destroy it, and come on back. We have to be thorough, though. My mother will still be alive. She'll take some convincing. Use me against her. She'll give in if it keeps me safe." When she didn't respond he continued, as though to placate an insecure lover. "Look at it on the bright side, Cam. You'll get to see me at sixteen."

At this, she lifted her head and looked at him as though he'd lost his mind. "Are you the same as you are now?"

He sighed and shook his head. "No, only my mother was as I am now."

"I won't know this John," she said.

"No, not at first. You'll figure it out quickly. You always do." Pressing his lips lightly to her forehead he continued, "All I need you to do, Cameron, is make sure I stay alive. You don't answer to them. Hell, you don't answer to me now, but at least I've got some say. Don't let my mother or me order you around."

She continued to look into his eyes as she said, "Keep you alive."

"Yeah, just keep me safe until you're sure you can come back."

Looking sternly at him she stated bluntly, "This won't stop it, you know."

"I know. That's why I didn't ask you to stop it." He watched as she began to understand.

"I'll keep you alive until I can come back." Now it was she who pressed her lips to his. "I'll need to make sure I'm created, John. It does us no good for me to be destroyed before I'm made."

"Do what you have to, Cameron. I trust you."

"Thank you, John."

They continued to talk about the plan for the rest of the night. The following day she would leave with the understanding that a team would soon follow to build everything she would need to protect John. There would also be a means of her return once she had completed her mission.

As Cameron stood in the beginnings of an electrical field that would transport her away from the John she knew, taking her to a boy whom she did not, she held on to the memory of eyes that would miss her.

The woman known as Cameron would become dormant; replaced by a machine who waits to return to the man she loves.