Title: There Was A Boy…
Author: Muse's Inspiration
Rating: General
Disclaimer: All characters herein belong to FOX, et al, and not to me. I am not making a profit, this is purely for entertainment purposes.
Author's Notes: This is in response to the SCC Fic-A-Thon presented at Sarah Connor Chronicles LiveJournal Community. But I kinda screwed it up, so I redid it. This is the first one...

Derek sat at the kitchen table; drinking his beer and watching the scene unfold before him with a rather sick sense of fascination. Not unlike a fatal car accident, he couldn't tear his eyes away from what he saw happening. He wanted to deny it, but he couldn't. He knew that he should interfere, that he should say something, but what could you say to something like that? There wasn't anything.

This was how the world ended. What he was witnessing, right here, in this moment.

Sarah came in, fresh from the shower and hair still wet, and grabbed a cup of coffee, quirking an eyebrow at Derek's beer. It wasn't even noon yet. Shaking her head, she turned and stopped and stared out into the back yard, riveted by the scene. Frowning, she looked back at Derek and noticed that he was watching it, too.

Derek says, "A boy and his robot."

Sarah groaned in response and shook her head.

He turned and looked Sarah dead in the eye. "We REALLY need to get that boy a dog."

Sarah stifled a snort and sent him a mock glare. She turned and looked at him more fully. "What are you talking about, Derek?"

Derek looked at her like she had lost her mind. "The kid needs someone, or something, else to focus on."

"There's nothing wrong with him interacting with her, you know." Sarah defended.

Derek frowned, not happy with how the conversation was going. "If he gets too affectionate, or god forbid, falls in love with it, he could get killed right when he's needed most. It's not right! It's fucking metal, Sarah!" He was getting agitated; the thought of John Connor developing feelings for the very cause of their destruction was not something that made for comforting moments.

Sarah studied him, his chest rapidly rising and falling with his quickening breaths as he became more and more upset by the notion of Cameron becoming 'more' to John. She turned and looked out once more at the scene in the yard and quietly nodded. "You're right."

"What?" Derek was startled. She never gave in this easily.

"I said, you're right. The more attached he becomes to her, to them, the harder it will be for him to recognize the danger when it decides to show itself… If he allows himself to trust her, to trust them, then when the one that has been sent here to kill him shows up, he won't be able to separate the two." She looked at him and then ducked her head, looking at the cup of coffee in her hand like it held all of the secrets in the world. "He wouldn't stand a chance, Derek."

Derek nodded and looked back out the window. For once, the two of them were in agreement… but both were at a loss as to what to do about it.

John laughed as Cameron looked at the Frisbee that she had caught, studying it as if it were the most intricate piece of computer hardware rather than the simple piece of plastic that it actually was. "Just throw it! See?" he demonstrated how with a flick of his wrist and watched as it sailed across the yard.

Cameron looked at him, noting the flush of his skin and the rapid way in which he breathed. "I do not understand." She said.

John rolled his eyes. "What's to understand, Cameron? You just throw it!"

"You find pleasure in this… You laugh from throwing this. Why?" She questioned him as she went retrieved it from where it had landed on the other side of the yard.

John looked at her, watching as she again studied the Frisbee. He noticed that she had done the head-tilt thing again and couldn't stop the small smile. He would never tell anyone, but he found it adorable when she did that. He walked over to her and gently took the Frisbee from her, grinning when she looked at him.

"We do it because it's fun, Cameron. It makes you feel good, alive… you just… I dunno; you just enjoy it!" He looked at her closely, admiring the dark brown eyes that stared intently back at him. His smile faded and he found himself staring at her mouth, her lips, wondering what it would feel like… and slowly starting to lean in closer to her…

He was startled when Cameron suddenly turned and walked away. "What's wrong? I thought you wanted me to show you how the Frisbee worked?!" he yelled to her.

"Yes, I did. Thank you for explaining." She called back and then continued walking back into the house.

John shook his head, not understanding what had just happened and more than a little confused. Sometimes, Cameron was just a little too real.

Late that night, Cameron wandered into the kitchen during her usual prowl through the house. She was unsurprised to find Derek sitting there, field stripping a pistol and cleaning it. He looked up and noticed her standing there and frowned before quickly going back to his work. Cameron watched him for several minutes before he finally couldn't take it anymore.

"Jesus! What do you want?!" he snarled at her.

She tilted her head to the side, looking at him and then moved further into the room, standing near the cabinets where the sink was. She looked out the window into the back yard and gazed out for a moment before turning and looking at him again.

"I agree. You are correct in your assessment."

Derek looked at her like she had lost her mind. "What?"

"John. He must not get attached. You are right." She stated in her quiet voice.

Derek stared off into the darkness of the back yard through the window at the table for several moments. There was a strange sense of irony at work here; the day that a Reese and a metal were in agreement was a scary day indeed. He sighed and looked back at her and shook his head; it didn't matter, they were too late.

He went back to cleaning his pistol, finding comfort in its familiar weight. "So, I'm right. Great. Not that I can do anything about it…"

Cameron looked at him, noting that his jaw was tight and his grip on the pistol was unsteady. "I can. I will. He sent me back to protect him. Even if it is from himself."

Derek snapped his gaze back to her, meeting her eyes. She looked at him steadily and he saw something in her gaze that scared the shit out him, as much as he was comforted by it. She nodded once and turned and walked back into the dark recesses of the house.

Derek sat at the table for a long time, his cleaning of the pistol completed, but he kept it there with him while he drank his beer. He couldn't help but be unsettled by the fact that he had seen actual human emotion in the metal's eyes.

Cameron loved John, too.

This was how the world ended. What he was witnessing, right here, in this moment.