Title: Shadow Dancing

Genre: Television

Series: Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles

Characters: Derek Reese, Cameron Phillips

Spoilers: 1x07 "The Demon Hand"

Rating: PG

Summary: The day he truly saw her was the day his world changed.

Word Count: 500

Prompt: Bringing Up Baby- "Now it isn't that I don't like you, Susan, because, after all, in moments of quiet, I'm strangely drawn toward you, but – well, there haven't been any quiet moments."

It's the shadows moving across the floorboards that get his attention; he doesn't seek her out, would never seek her out. You don't have to understand something to fight it, but it scares Derek more than a little that he does understand the machine's motivations. His years in the war have condensed his instincts down to three things; fighting, fucking, and sleeping. Cameron is an even baser manifestation of those instincts, fighting and-

He doesn't want to think of her second purpose in John Connor's life.

Her place in the future was clear, at General Connor's side, but here in the past did she know her place? Was she just as lost as Derek for the correct description of his purpose?

She's dancing in the shadows of her bedroom (not for sleeping) and Derek finds himself strangely drawn to her in the quiet moments of sunset. There's no one else in the house and the soft rubbing noises of her feet on dusty floorboards are grating on his nerve endings. He wants to yell at her to stop because machines shouldn't be beautiful, they shouldn't make his heart stutter in sudden reaction to the litheness of her form as it contorts to the music of his nightmares. It's those memories that make him stay, though, because briefly he's back there in the trenches.

Derek wishes later that he'd walked away, that he hadn't seen her there and hadn't let her shake the foundations of his belief system. She was just a machine with a program running that made her dance but no program could make her falter as she did. Had she felt his heavy steps in vibrations through the floor, heard his raspy breath with her superior hearing? Before his eyes she faltered and froze and Derek felt his breath catch in his throat even as moisture leaked from his eyes. Machines don't make mistakes, machines don't overextend or overcompensate or stumble to a stop. Machines are perfect, cold and calm and calculating; to err is human and she can't be human, not for him.

Derek is drawn to her in that moment because Cameron isn't a machine, not for those few minutes. She's a being of light and shadow and grace and the music that follows him through time echoes in his ears as he realizes that he can't hate, not completely, not anymore.

Then she starts to move again, repeating the same motions with eerie synchronization and its like he's living the moment again. He can feel his mind disconnecting as his body begins to move away. He can't help but want to stay and watch her, dancing for no reason at all. For the first time Derek realizes that there might be more to the machines than he'd ever thought, that there were hidden depths to their inner workings that he didn't understand.

You don't have to understand something to fight it, though.

You just had to avoid quiet moments where she isn't what she seems.

Review, please.

Special thanks to everyone who took the time to review this story. For the first few drabbles I got little to no response but then I started to get people commenting who liked it and that's what got me to finish these. I appreciate all my loyal readers and enjoy reading what you're thinking about what I've written.