I know I said I would take a break, but I just couldn't resist! :)

Thanks to reviewers The1Russter, kaotic2, meanoldmoe, fullhans1, jojobevco, ElusiveSanity, Icemanss, Nyrki, CloudyShadows, TSCCandTwilightarehebest, MementoMoriYB, NordWest and TK-MR.

This is a continuation of a previous story. I highly recommend reading that one first or this probably won't make much sense!

(Also, in case you didn't notice, I went back and rewrote a small section of the end of chapter 12. I did it to try and clear up some apparent confusion over the ending)

A pair of small legs dangled off the edge of the couch as Amy set about tackling her ice cream cone with abandon. Her cheeks were covered in the gooey substance and a happy smile adorned her lips. Sally noticed the cute little girls ears prick up when she heard the ice cream van jingle being played outside. She bought her a double chocolate chip cone with sprinkles and was rewarded with a surprisingly powerful hug from the little angel. In fact, Sally noticed that her entire mood perked up after she had hung up on whoever this 'Cameron' was.

Awww, poor little darling. I'm gonna give this Cameron chick a piece of my mind when she gets here.

As Sally thought about what she was going to say to whoever turned up, Amy replayed her conversation with Cameron through her mimetic CPU.

"Name and Rank"

Amy noticed a slight crack in her voice which was to be expected given what had just happened.

"Cameron?"

...

Silence

"Cameron, I know it's you"

...

"He couldn't do it could he? He couldn't bring himself to wipe out your emotions"

"Who are you?"

A slight smile formed on Amy's face.

"Let's just say I know you in the future. I have a message from your future self if you're interested?"

...

"She says 'Hello Cameron, I know you don't think so right now, but what has just happened between you and John is one of the best things that could have possibly happened to you'"

Amy spoke in Cameron's voice down the phone.

...

"Could you come pick me up please? You should know now that I pose no threat to you or John"

"Where are you?" Cameron's mechanical tone had returned with a vengeance.

"I'm in the lobby of the building where John got shot. A very nice lady is looking after me..."

Amy continued in a lower voice.

"...please try to not terminate her when you get here"

Click.

Amy thought this Cameron wasn't as nice as future Cammy. Amy had given future Cameron that nickname, though no one else ever called her by it. Perhaps it's inappropriate for her personality?

Sally watched on as Amy's little legs continued to dangle playfully off the edge of the couch. She caught a movement out of the corner of her eye and looked out of the glass building entrance as a large pickup truck came to a stop rather abruptly on the road outside. A pretty brunette in her late teens, early twenties hopped out of the driver's side, rounded the front of the truck and stalked towards the main entrance. Sally noticed that she walked kind of funny, sort of like when a dressage horse picks its feet up.

Cameron pushed the front door open with ease and marched right up to the front desk. Putting her best 'scary robot' face well and truly in place, she addressed the suddenly flustered looking receptionist.

"Somebody called me from this location approximately twenty minutes ago. Where is she?"

Wow, not even a hello. What it up with this girl?

Just as Sally was about to reply, Cameron felt a tiny, sticky hand grasp on to her right index finger and give it a gentle tug. She looked down and saw a small blonde girl attached to the hand. She had a goofy smile on her face and Cameron saw the source of the stickiness dripping on to the floor in the child's other hand.

"Hi Cameron..."

Cameron tilted her head to regard the little girl. She was NOT what Cameron was expecting to find when she arrived here. She performed a scan on the child.

Scanning, standby...

Unknown model cyborg, no match to records...

Temporal displacement particles detected...

Analyzing voice pattern...

Match to telephone call...

"...this is Sally, she's been looking after me, and she's very nice"

Taking the hint, Cameron turned to face the receptionist, her blank expression disappearing suddenly to give way to a bright, becoming smile.

"Hi, would you happen to have some tissues please?" Cameron asked, the smile never leaving her face.

Sally, to her credit, maintained her professionalism and pulled a handful of tissues out of the box she kept behind her desk and handed them to Cameron with a smile. Cameron sank down on to one knee and started wiping the child's cheeks and hands, Amy let out a giggle as she did so. Cameron modulated her voice synthesizer to a frequency beyond the range of human hearing and opened her mouth slightly.

"What's your name?"

Amy tilted her head slightly and responded silently.

"Amy. We need to leave here"

Cameron nodded as she continued to do her best to clean Amy's sticky hands and face. When she was satisfied with her work, she stood and walked over to the waste bin in the corner. She dropped the now ruined tissues in to it and returned to the reception desk. She looked at Amy when she approached and tilted her head towards the door slightly, Amy immediately made to follow as Cameron started walking towards the door. Sally jumped up from her spot behind the desk and raced around to the other side.

"Wait! You're leaving? Just like that?" Amy stared in disbelief as this teenage looking girl just turns up and leaves with Amy without so much as a thank you.

Cameron said nothing and continued walking, Amy on the other hand, turned and ran back to Sally. She threw her arms around the woman's waist and held on tight. She looked up at the nice lady and smiled.

"Thank you Sally" Amy squealed in childlike fashion.

Sally brought her hands down to rest on Amy's head and gently smoothed her hair.

"Take care of yourself sweetie" Sally said with a slightly sad smile.

Amy loosened her grip on Sally's waist and pulled back slightly, she flashed a bright grin.

"I will. Bye bye"

With that she turned and skipped back towards Cameron. Cameron was taken completely by surprise when Amy reached up and grabbed hold of her hand. She didn't know what to make of this strange model terminator and was slightly confused as to what to do now. The only experience she had ever had with children was with a young Martin Bedell, and he wasn't as clingy as this 'girl' seemed to be. Sensing Cameron's confusion and hesitation, Amy rolled her eyes and pulled Cameron toward the door and out of the building.

Sally watched them leave with a sad glint in her eye. That child sure was infectious. As Sally turned to resume her position behind the reception desk, she could have sworn she saw a metallic glint travel quickly across the tiled floor and rush up to Amy's foot. She looked again but saw nothing.

Huh, must be the heat playing tricks on you.

She took a seat behind her desk and watched as Cameron opened the passenger side door of the truck and Amy climbed in. Shifting her gaze to the window, she saw Amy waving at her and smiling happily. Sally gave a small, sad wave back and watched as the truck pulled away and out of her sight.

"John"

...

"John"

...

"JOHN!"

John's eyes snapped open and took in the sight of his Uncle leaning over him with, rather oddly, a tray of food in his hands.

"Urgh, what?"

"Wake up. Momma Bear says you have to eat"

John shot a slightly confused and slightly disgusted look in his uncle's direction.

"Did you just call my mom 'Momma Bear'?"

"Uh, yeah, I think it kinda suits her"

John let out a humourless laugh and sat up, wincing in pain a couple of times in the process. After his emotionally and physically draining episode with Cameron, he had returned to his bed to recover some more and try to make sense of what had happened between them. He hadn't really succeeded on the either front, he still had no clue what he was going to do about Cameron and him and Derek had barged in just as he was drifting off to sleep. On one hand he had done what he felt was right and 'saved' Cameron from herself. On the other however, he had gone against her wishes and not rewritten her code. He still wasn't sure why she had asked him to do it. I mean, surely she can alter her own coding without my help?

Derek noticed John seemed to be caught up in his own little world. Probably fantasising about the metal. Derek had been brooding over what to do with the metal ever since he saw it put on its pretend crying act in the car. Despite the Jesse from this timeline not being the Jesse from his timeline, he still felt compelled to believe some of what she said. Maybe it was true that John had segregated himself from all other humans, spending his time with the metal and the metal alone. He recalled from his own future that he hadn't seen Connor in a long time until he emerged to inform him of his mission in the past. Any contact with John was made through his little metal whore and never directly.

Now it was John's turn to notice that Derek was off in his own world. John cleared his throat much louder than was necessary.

"Derek"

"Huh, what?" Derek shook his head and refocused his eyes on John who was gesturing to the tray in his hands.

"Oh, right" he handed John the tray and watched as he dug in to his mother's disgusting cooking greedily.

Not that Derek had ever really known fine dining, but he knew that Sarah Connor's cooking was legendarily bad. He learned that from the General in the future, in a time when he actually spent time with his command staff. Even then, the metal would be right on his shoulder, silently scanning for threats. Derek thought nothing of it at the time, having a metal bodyguard for the leader of the human resistance actually made a little sense, after all they could take bullets, and humans couldn't. As he watched John eat, he studied him carefully. He wasn't a boy anymore, but he wasn't yet a man, and he was only a distant shadow of the great General Connor. Certain traits shone through of what he was destined to become, like the way he had quietly investigated Riley and dealt with Jesse. But then again, he was so hopelessly dependant on that machine next door that it scared Derek, thinking of the possibility that he could actually be in love with a metal.

Derek started imagining a group of mini terminators that acted like real children running around. Almost gagging on his own vomit, Derek stood and walked over to the window. He stared out of it for a moment before turning and looking at his nephew who had just finished up his second helping of pancakes. Yep, mini childlike Terminators are definitely my worst nightmare.

"So John..."

John, sensing what was coming, looked up from his tray at his battle hardened Uncle and waited for the inevitable.

"...the metal"

There it is, right on cue.

John put down his fork and slowly and deliberately moved the tray off his legs and placed it on the bed. He folded his arms across his chest and regarded his Uncle with a cold stare. He thought about how he wanted to play this before replying.

"What about her?"

The steadiness of John's voice unnerved Derek slightly, but he collected himself and pulled the chair out from under John's desk. He sat down facing the bed and took a deep breath.

"It has to go..."

"Derek"

"...let me finish. John, it's unstable and unpredictable. I can't tell whether it's going to try and beat me in a staring contest or rip my head off. What if it suddenly decides it doesn't want to protect you anymore and thinks that your head would look better on a pike instead of attached to your neck"

Got you.

"But, wait a minute Derek, I thought that Terminators were built on programming and didn't deviate from their directives. The last time I checked, she is programmed to protect me" John countered in a sarcastic tone, knowing full well that this wasn't true but was what Derek had always preached.

Derek leaned back in his seat, admitting to himself that John had him on that one. But he wasn't done yet.

"Alright, I'll give you that one. But you didn't see it John. You didn't see it put on its big fake crocodile tears and act like it actually cared about you. You were too busy being delirious and chatting it up to notice. You were shot, and it was too busy with its own messed up chip that it didn't even try to actually help you until I reminded it that you were injured and needed real help"

Derek took a moment to steady himself before continuing.

"John, I hate to say this, but you are being blinded by it. Sure, it looks damn pretty on the outside. Hell, if I didn't know what was underneath I'd sure as shit go there. But you need to get your head straight. It is a machine, it's dangerous and one of these days it will turn on you and you're pretty much screwed when that day comes"

John meanwhile had sat staring at his Uncle all through his rant. He took in every word and silently mulled over what he was being told. As much as he tried to concentrate on more important matters, one thought kept pushing its way to the front of his mind. When was I chatting her up? John nodded, more to himself than anything before straightening up and addressing Derek.

"You know what Derek? Every word of what you have just said is probably right. You're right that I'm at risk of her going bad every single day. You're right that I probably pay too much attention to her 'emotions'. You're right that I may be infatuated by the way she looks, as you said right, what guy in his right mind wouldn't go there? And you're right that if she does go bad again that I'm royally screwed"

John gave his Uncle a moment to digest his words and noticed he had perked up slightly in his chair.

"But I'm going to tell you, what I told Jesse..."

The mention of Jesse caused Derek to shift uncomfortably.

"...that even if she had killed Riley, I wouldn't have sent her away. That was her plan all along you know, she wanted Cameron to kill Riley. She wanted me to be forced to get rid of her, to send her away or melt her down. But that plan would never have worked, you wanna know why?"

Derek felt his anger starting to bubble slightly but kept it in check. He shook his head to answer John's question.

"I'll tell you. It's because, despite her many flaws which I'll admit she does have. Her arm twitches, she lets her emotions get the better of her sometimes, she dances, and she has a ridiculous attachment to that purple leather jacket. It's those flaws that make her who she is, and who she is, is my protector" John put extra emphasis on the last two words.

"She's my protector, and that's what she does. You could count using the fingers on one hand the amount of times I've come to harm in the last two years. But you'd need a calculator to work out how many times she has protected me, and will continue to protect me. She is invaluable in the fight against Skynet, and...she is invaluable to me. You may not want to hear it, but she has become my best friend. I have had and will continue to have a very lonely life. It is part of who I am and who I will become, and if she can help me avoid some of that loneliness by being there for me, then so be it"

He leaned his head back on to the pillow he was propped up against and tried to gauge his Uncle's reaction. It didn't look too good. John thought he could actually make out a vein pulsing in his forehead and could hear the wooden chair creaking in his death grip. He was on the verge of exploding.

If John had been fully healthy and on his feet then Derek would have grabbed his throat and tried to throttle some sense in to him. But then again he didn't want to piss Sarah off any more than he already had, the bruise around his eye a pertinent reminder of her displeasure with him. Using discipline only a soldier possessed, he stood up and carefully returned the chair to its position under John's desk and turned to his nephew once again. He nodded his head in understanding and acceptance.

"Fine, if that's the way you feel. I was going to offer you a choice, but now you've come out with that little speech it seems a little pointless"

He turned and head to the door.

"Derek, wait..."

John called to him just as he reached for the door handle.

"...what was the choice?" John had a feeling he knew what the answer would be but he felt he had to know for sure.

"I was going to give you the choice between the metal, and your own flesh and blood relation. But you've quite obviously made your decision already. I'll be seeing you around John"

John was lost for words as he watched his Uncle walk away. He didn't make a sound as Derek closed his bedroom door behind him.

Derek trudged down the stairs and walked straight out of the front door, not even sparing a sideways glance at a confused looking Sarah. He stomped over to the Jeep and got in, pulling out of the driveway in a hurry, almost crashing in to the returning Cameron in the truck. He shot her a sneer through the windscreen before screeching away down the street.

15 minutes earlier.

The car journey home had been, not surprisingly, silent. To Cameron's continued amazement, Amy kept up the little girl charade even when in the presence of someone who knew her true identity. As soon as Cameron had pulled away from the building, she had used some of her mimetic mass to fashion a child seat underneath herself and was currently kicking her little legs happily off the edge of it. Cameron drove in silence for a full five minutes before the Terminator's constant smiling started to annoy her.

"What is your mission here?" Cameron didn't even turn to regard her companion, instead choosing to keep her eyes firmly on the road.

Amy merely turned her head to look at the 'older' cyborg and if anything broadened her smile.

"That's classified. I am only permitted to reveal that information to the Generals Connor..."

Amy hesitated for a moment.

"...both of them"

That last remark peaked Cameron's interest as she tore her eyes away from the road, only to find Amy staring back at her in a mysterious fashion.

"So, Sarah is alive in this timeline's future?"

"It's classified"

"Then John is married in the future, his wife is also a General?"

"Classified"

"Then he shares command with his offspring?"

"Class-if-ied" Amy chuckled lightly at Cameron's persistence.

Cameron was quickly growing tired of this little guessing game she had somehow engaged herself in, but at the same time was intrigued as to who shared command of the resistance with John. As a machine she knew that she shouldn't have the need for this information, but she felt like a small child who wasn't getting her way.

"If John orders you to tell me?"

"I don't take orders from John, or from you for that matter"

Cameron once again turned away from the road to look at her passenger, slightly intrigued by the thought of a free machine.

"Who do you take orders from?" Amy smiled slyly as she answered.

"No one. My mission objectives are made by me and me alone"

Cameron returned her eyes to the road with a sceptical look on her face.

"How is that possible? All Skynet machines are hardwired to follow its commands"

"No wires" Amy laughed loudly at her own joke. Even Cameron couldn't keep the small smirk off her face. Though she was determined not to be beaten by this strange little machine, she let the subject drop for now.

"So, who sent you back?"

Amy frowned at Cameron's question momentarily.

"Inquisitive little cyborg aren't we?"

Cameron looked at Amy again with her blank robot mask in place.

"I'm trying to ascertain if you are a threat to John. Why you are here remains a mystery to me. I don't like not knowing what people's intentions are towards John"

"You say that like you've gone through a similar experience before" Amy said knowingly.

"Yes, I have. John had a girlfriend for the past few months. She turned out to be from the future and was part of a plot to drive John away from me. I didn't know her intentions at the time, John was the one who discovered her true purpose. Were it not for him, I could have been a pile of melted down Coltan by now, Sarah Connor would surely have insisted on it..."

Cameron hesitated before continuing in a quiet voice.

"...I owe him my life"

The truck fell silent for a moment as Amy examined a suddenly sombre Cameron.

"Wow, you're a lot more talkative than you said you would be"

Cameron suddenly realised she had shown her vulnerability in front of a strange cyborg that she still had no clue about what its intentions were. She snapped her head around and saw only a bright, knowing smile facing her.

"The girl's name was Riley and the woman who masterminded it was Jesse Flores. She was in a secret relationship with Derek Reese and John confronted her about her plan. Riley is now dead and Commander Flores' location is currently unknown..."

She smiled again before deciding to let Cameron know once again that she was no threat to her or John.

"...and for the record, John insists that he would never have melted you down"

Cameron didn't look away from the road, but the merest hint of a smile danced across her lips.

"We're here"

Cameron performed a perfect ninety degree turn in to the Connor household drive way and almost ran in to Derek Reese heading in the opposite direction in the family Jeep. She didn't fail to notice the disgusted look he was giving her but chose to ignore it, Derek was of course insignificant to her. After expertly navigating her way around the Jeep, she pulled up to park outside of the house.

Just as Sarah was about to head upstairs to see what all the fuss was about with Derek, the front door opened. She watched as Cameron stepped through looking, if anything, rather sheepish.

"Cameron"

"Sarah"

Sarah could have sworn that the cyborg looked...nervous.

"What? What is it, what's going on?"

Wow, she's good.

"Sarah..."

"No, don't you Sarah me, out with it"

Feeling like a thoroughly admonished teenager caught with her hand in the cookie jar, or whatever the teenage equivalent of that is, caught with my hand in someone's pants? Cameron sought to try and calm Sarah down first.

"...don't freak out"

Sarah scrunched her face up in a mixture of surprise and confusion at Cameron's use of the colloquial term, she watched as Cameron stepped aside and a little girl entered, quickly hiding behind Cameron's leg.

"What's this?" Sarah asked, quite clearly stumped as to why Cameron had brought a little girl in to their home.

"This is Amy, she's a friend" Cameron gently nudged Amy out from behind her leg and ushered her towards Sarah.

Sarah looked on as this cute little angel shyly stepped towards her. Her maternal instincts kicked in and she knelt down on one knee to greet the girl.

"Hi, I'm Sarah, nice to meet you" she gave her best motherly smile, despite the fact she was still a little confused as to Cameron's intentions.

Amy watched as Sarah extended her hand towards her, she gingerly took it and felt the slightest shake.

"You're prettier than I imagined"

"What do you mean sweetheart?"

What is it with humans and pet names?

"I mean, John described you to me, but his memory was a little fuzzy after so long"

"You know John?" Sarah asked warily, wondering just who this little girl is. Amy nodded vigorously, as if proud of the fact she knows John.

"Yes I do, and he gave me a message for you"

"A message huh?" damn this girl is cute.

"Yes, he said 'Don't worry about Winston, you did the right thing'"

Sarah didn't register what the Amy had said, she instead only heard her son's voice coming from this little girl. His voice sounded even more gravely than usual, it sounded hardened, a voice that only comes with age and experience. Sarah withdrew her hand and stood up, she slowly started backing away.

"Wha, what are you?"

"Sarah, she is not threat to us" Cameron had positioned herself in between Sarah and Amy, fearful that Sarah would do something stupid to provoke her.

"Who is she? Why is she here?" Sarah was not so subtly starting to reach around her back to the 9mm in her waistband.

"Sarah, there is no need for that, it probably wouldn't do much harm anyway..."

She looked down at Amy.

"...show her"

Amy let her whole body shimmer in to its liquid form, revealing herself to Sarah. Sarah pulled out her gun and pointed it at Amy out of pure instinct. Before she could pull the trigger however, Cameron stepped right up to Sarah and placed herself in her line if sight, blocking her shot.

"Sarah, please calm down, I've told you, she is no threat"

"Oh yeah, and how do you know that?" Sarah was fuming, she was on the verge of shooting...something.

"Because, she knows, things"

The sad tone of her voice made Sarah falter slightly and shift her gaze to Cameron who was now looking at the floor and appeared to be in deep thought. Before Sarah could respond, she felt something cold wrap itself around her hands. The next thing she knew, the gun had been ripped from her grasp and was currently moving back towards Amy in the grip of a long metallic tentacle. Amy reformed a hand around the gun as Sarah watched on with a mixture of fear and surprise. Amy looked at the gun before suddenly pressing the clip release button and watching it fall to the floor. She racked the slide to eject the loaded round and expertly disassembled the gun in to two parts. She placed both parts on the ground next to the full clip and ejected round. She stood back up with a bright grin and looked at Sarah.

"I hate guns"

She then walked up next to Cameron, with Sarah back stepping a couple of times, and took hold of Cameron's hand.

I need a drink.

Admitting defeat, but still trying to appear intimidating, Sarah stepped right in to Cameron's face.

"You watch her"

With that she walked to the front door, grabbed her coat and left the house slamming the door behind her.

Cameron and Amy looked at the closed door for a moment before looking at each other. Amy bounced up and down on the spot a little while tugging on Cameron's hand.

"Can we go see John now?"

Cameron hesitated, she still wasn't sure if it was safe for Amy to see John. Sensing that she felt this way, Amy rolled her eyes.

"It's not like you could stop me anyway, come on" she started walking toward the stairs, pulling Cameron along with her.

"No, but I'd die trying"

Amy smiled and looked back up at her.

"I know you would"

John heard the front door slam shut and the truck engine start up.

Cameron must be home.

All people seemed to do in this house lately was argue. A soft knock on the door caught his attention.

"Come in" and speak of the devil here she is. I am so not looking forward to this.

Despite his inner turmoil, he put on a cheerful smile as Cameron entered.

"Hi" he said rather meekly.

She tilted her head at his dejected appearance. "Hello"

"So, um, I guess we need to talk"

So that's why he's upset. He is expecting to have to discuss his feelings, maybe later.

"We do, but not now. I have someone who wants to meet you"

This perked John up slightly.

"Oh yeah, who?"

Cameron stepped aside and John caught sight of a tiny hand gripping the edge of the door and a little blond head peeking out around it slightly higher up. John watched as she entered the room shyly and walked right up to his bed. He thought he saw Cameron flinch slightly but dismissed it when she took no further action.

"Hi, I'm John, what's your name?"

"Amy, it's nice to meet you General Connor"

"Well it's nice to meet...you...too...wait, what? General Connor...Cameron?"

John was thoroughly confused and looked to Cameron for help. She smiled a little as she replied.

"She's from the future John" she said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well, yeah, I guessed that. But why would anyone send a little girl back through time"

"You wouldn't"

Amy surprised John by speaking. He shifted his gaze toward her and watched as her arms formed in to long metallic tentacles, similar to the ones she used to disarm Sarah. They slithered his way up behind him, out of the corner of his eye he saw Cameron take a step forward. He relaxed a little when he felt one tentacle raise him up slightly and heard the noise of the other one fluffing his pillow. She lowered him back down and withdrew the tentacles, smiling proudly as they reformed in to her arms.

"Oookay. So I take it you're not here to kill me, otherwise you wouldn't be fluffing my pillow. So my question is, why are you here?"

She folded her arms behind her back and started turning from one side to the other playfully.

"I'm here to help"