Title: Boundless Dream (Part 2)

Author Name: OneShotWonderment

Rating: PG

Warnings for: NONE

Notes: Takes place before Jordan died.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of OneShotWonderment. OneShotWonderment is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

SYSTEM POWERING UP

Cameron bolted up from her position on the couch and let out one single terrified scream. John, who had been trying to awaken the Terminator by lightly shaking her, jumped back from her startled. He quickly recovered from his shock and clamped a hand over her mouth.

"Do you want to wake my mother?" John asked. Cameron shook her head; she figured that a verbal response was worthless with his hand over her mouth. John dropped his hand back to his side and sat on the couch next to her. Cameron just looked at him, unaware that a few lone tears had escaped her eyes as her CPU replayed the events of the scenario.

"Cameron? What's wrong?" John asked worry lacing his voice.

"Nothing is 'wrong', John. Why do you ask?" Her voice was its normal tone as if it were true that nothing were wrong with her, but her appearance suggested fright and panic. Those were emotions and Cameron didn't have emotions. John had to wonder, though, weather that fact were true.

"Okay then." He stated. He wasn't giving up, oh no, something had scared Cameron The Unshakeable, as some of the kids at school had taken to calling her, and he was going to find out what it was. "Were you sleeping?" He asked. Hadn't she once told him that she never slept? Terminators and particularly Cameron were confusing.

"No." She replied simply, her eyes focused on a spot above his shoulder. He rolled his eyes. Of course, she'd been sleeping! He knew what sleeping looked like!

"You looked asleep." He informed her gently.

"I was not sleeping. I was allowing my CPU to recharge and recalibrate. It requires me to shut down. Do not worry, John, I took all the necessary precautions to make sure you were safe while you slept." Of course, she'd automatically assume he'd been worried about himself when that wasn't what had worried him at all.

"Do you dream while you recalibrate?" John asked curious now. Very curious. None of the other Terminators he'd ever met (granted he'd never asked most because they'd been trying to kill him) recalibrated. Then again, Cam had been different from day one.

"No. The only way we ever know time has passed and that we have indeed recalibrated is from the message on the 'screen', as you would call it, when we power up." She replied, but the fact she'd never, not once, met his gaze whilst she spoke to John told him she was telling half truths. John learned long ago that Cameron could not lie or give him half truths and look at him. It was quite a convenient lie detector. However, he had to wonder why her builder would install such a tell on a "killing machine" as his mother tended to refer to Cameron.

"Cam." He said in his very own don't-lie-to-me tone. She heard it before from him and her CPU knew what it meant. She sighed, actually sighed, at his tone. She couldn't tell half truths anymore; her programming wouldn't allow it. She closed her eyes and took a breath.

"We aren't meant to dream, John, and, normally, we don't. But I did just have my very first dream." She stated and he gaped at her. No dreams really? He loved to dream. Probably because it was the only place he could have the life he wanted and not the one he was fated. He couldn't remember the last time he didn't dream.

"Although, if that was what a dream was like then I don't want to have one ever again." Cameron stated this without emotion, which made John tilt his head in confusion. How could someone, even someone made of metal, declare something like that without emotion?

"Why not?" He inquired, scooting toward her on the couch. She didn't seem to notice the move and for that John was glad. He would've blushed to the extreme if she had.

"Because it was…" She paused, searching through her database for an appropriate word to use. It took a total of 65.99999 seconds for her processor to pull up the best word she could find. "…scary." John cocked an eyebrow.

"Scary? That sounds like a nightmare, Cam. What was it about?" John asked quietly. He felt like this was a precarious subject. It wasn't often, if ever, a terminator, especially his Terminator, admitted to having been frightened. She stared at him. Trying to determine if she could trust him with this information. He knew, then, that whatever terrible nightmare she dreamed must have been something big. He reached over and clasped his hand over hers in reassurance. She blinked as if the touch shocked her awake.

"You died, John." She stated. "I-I-tried; really I did, but I couldn't protect you." John's heart almost broke upon hearing the tears in her words that were just barely there. "Cormartie had you by the throat, dangling over the side of the building." She took a deep breath and then with a few tears, he didn't know that she was capable of, streaming down her face she finished. "I tried, John; I tried." John couldn't stand the sight of Cameron in tears; it tore his heart into even smaller pieces then it already was. Without hesitation, which he knew was reprehensible her being a Terminator and all, John wrapped her arms around her waist and pulled Cameron into a hug. After a 120.98799 seconds, she calmed into quiet hiccups and sniffles.

"It's okay, Cam. It's all okay. It was just a nightmare." He soothed whispering gently in her ear as he stroked her back lightly.

"What if it wasn't, John? What if, when the time comes, I can't save you? What if I fail?" She pulled back from the hug just enough to look at him.

"It was just a nightmare, Cam. It was your first nightmare, so you're probably extra scared, that's okay. Totally understandable and totally allowed, but you can't let it get to you. You can't worry about the what ifs of tomorrow. If you do, you'll never get to live your life." John supplied. He was feeling proud of himself for sounding so extremely grown up and mature.

"But I am not alive. Therefore, I've got no life to live." She stated back to the blank expressions and monotones of usual. John was rapidly coming to the conclusion that Cameron voluntarily acted as machine-like as possible. For reasons unknown to him, of course.

"The point is that you shouldn't be worrying your pretty little CPU about scenarios with such low statistical probabilities." Cameron wondered how John knew the statistic probabilities of the chances she'd fail in her mission. Usually, she ran the probability scenarios around the Connor household. She pulled back into the hug as she ran her probability programs to determine the validity of the situation her CPU had created.

"There is a .999999 statistical probability of failure on my part to protect John Connor." Cameron declared after some five long seconds.

"See." He said. "There's no need to worry about such a situation. " He gave her waist a gentle squeeze to once again assure Cameron, who was so vastly different from anyone else human or machine that he'd ever met, that he was right there with her. John yawned; which wasn't to be unexpected at three o'clock in the morning.

"You should get some more sleep." Cameron decided for him. "You have to be wide awake for tomorrow's chemistry exam." She teased and he groaned.

"Did you have to remind me of that?" He whined sadly and she chuckled.

"Yes. It's one of my many jobs." Of that, he had no doubt. John made a move to stand and go back to bed, but found himself unable to do so.

"Uh…Cameron? You're going to have to let me go if you want me to go back to bed." He informed her and she deliberated for mere seconds.

"I know you have to get more sleep, but…I don't want you to go." John smiled. Ah! Finally she was being totally truthful with him. Not that Cameron lied to him every day or anything. It was just… John had always felt she was hiding something about herself from him and now, here it was, the whole her, emotions and all, and John felt absolutely wonderful for finally being allowed to see her.

The future leader of mankind was afraid if he left her now she'd close up once more and that she would never again reveal the truth to him. He certainly didn't want that. Besides, if he was being completely truthful, he didn't want to leave her either. So, with that in mind, he simply shifted their bodies some so that he was lying, face up, on the couch with Cameron, who was still hugging him, on top. Just before drifting back off to sleep, John thought briefly of his mother and uncle. They would freak out if they found John and his protector in this position when they awoke. But he quickly decided, as Cam rested her head on his chest and began humming "We're off to See the Wizard", that he couldn't care less.

A/N: I hoped you enjoyed Part Two of Boundless Dream as much as I enjoyed writing it!