A/N: Season 2, "Allison from Palmdale". John's POV. Part 1/2 (currently, will edit if this number changes)

The Name Game

Damn. Damn. Damn.

I was gone for thirty minutes. Just thirty minutes.

"Do you know a girl named Jody?"

There was a chorus of no's.

I couldn't believe that this was happening again. Okay, so this wasn't really like the last time. Cameron wasn't hunting me down and trying to kill me. This time I was the one hunting her down.

Not to kill her. I would never kill her. I was going to fix her. I just had to find her first.

"Hey, do you know someone named Jody?"

No luck here. Maybe some of those girls up ahead…

My phone rang and I dug it out of my pocket, praying that it was Cameron. It wasn't.

"Hey."

"Hey."

I almost sighed with relief when I heard my mother's sweet and sappy tone of voice. If she had the smallest inkling of what was going on with Cameron, she would be yelling or at least sound very angry. Nonetheless, I waited for her to explain why she was calling rather than volunteering any information.

"Just checking in. What are you doing?"

Oh, nothing much, just frantically running around town, looking for a malfunctioning cyborg that may or may not suddenly flip out again and decide to kill us all, you?

"Uh…Cameron and I are shopping. What are you doing?" Good. Keep the questions on her. The less she asks, the less you have to lie.

"I took Kaci to the hospital."

This piece of news momentarily distracted me from Cameron.

"Is she okay?" I asked, genuinely concerned.

"They're running a few tests. I'm going to be a while."

And back to Cameron. She was going to be a while. That was good. I needed a while. I could only come up with so many excuses about where we were and what we were doing before Mom figured out that something was up.

"How long?"

"I don't know. Why?"

Why? That was a good question. I needed a good answer.

Instead, I got a distraction in the form of a man dressed up as a woman.

"Delicious," he commented saucily as we passed each other. I visibly shuddered. Creepy.

"Who was that?" Mom asked, obviously confused.

"Nobody. I got to go," I answered quickly, hanging up before she had a chance to argue.

I lied to my mom to protect Cameron. Again. This was quickly becoming a pattern.

But I had to. If Mom knew that Cameron was malfunctioning again, she would say the exact same thing as last time: It's too dangerous, John. She has to go. So I couldn't tell her. I had to lie. What she didn't know wouldn't hurt her. I'd just track Cameron down, take her home, repair her chip, and everything would be fine. Mom never had to find out about the glitch.

I asked another cluster of teens if they knew Jody and got the same answer that I'd been getting all afternoon. No. No, no, no, always no. I was beginning to wonder if anyone actually knew this girl until I ran into a café.

First I asked the guy in the corner

"Hey, do you know a Jody by any chance?" He shook his head and I tried someone else. "Jody?" I asked another table. "Do you know a Jody?" More negative replies.

Damn. Damn. Damn! Where the hell are you, Cameron?

"Anybody here know a Jody?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know her." I was awed into silence. Finally. "Yeah, she was here earlier with some other chick."

The phrase "music to my ears" didn't begin to describe how relieved I felt.

"Do you know where she went?"

Please, please, please say yes.

"Nah." Great. Just freaking great. "Oh, but she hangs out at this halfway house on Yucca."

"Yucca," I repeated, making absolutely sure that I had heard him right. He didn't correct me, so I assumed that was it. "Thanks."

I didn't wait until I left the diner to start running. I didn't have time to waste on walking. I had to find Cameron. Now.

On the drive to the halfway house, I prepared for myself for just about every possibility except for the one that I actually found.

"Jody, no! Ah!"

She was laughing.

I was standing in the door of the halfway house just staring at her, entranced and completely unable to look away. It wasn't just what she was doing. It was the way that she did it. Somehow, Cameron made laughing and smiling and playing Foosball look like the most natural thing in the world.

She looked like a normal girl. She looked human. She looked happy.

It wasn't until Jody walked away that I remembered what I was there for and started across the room toward her. I had to take her home and fix her, even if I suddenly hated the way that word tasted in my mouth and thought I might rather see if I could make her laugh—make her smile—the way she did before.

"Hey. What the hell are you doing?"

She laughed in a sort of nervous way and answered, "Playing foosball," in a way that suggested I was simple.

"We've got to go," I half-whispered, looking around to make sure no one was eavesdropping on our conversation.

Yeah. That would be the cherry on my ice cream sundae of a day—everyone overhearing us and thinking that I'm some kind of creepy, abusive boyfriend or brother, or even worse, a psycho that thinks that she's a robot from the future.

"Go?" She asked, looking frightened. "Where?"

"Home." And she had the nerve to talk to me like I was mentally challenged.

"Home?" She stared at me and then asked, "Who are you?"

What? Who am I? What's she playing at?

"Cameron," I started softly.

Her hand flew to her chest. "My name's Allison."

"No, it's not. It's Cameron," I corrected her, trying to suppress my frustration. "I can't explain this to you right now. We have to go before Mom gets home."

We were running out of time. I didn't want to think about what would happen if mom got home first, before I got the chance to fix her. She couldn't find out. I couldn't let that happen.

She stared at me with wide, frightened eyes and quietly replied, "You're freaking me out."

"I'm freaking you out," I echoed, trying not to sound incredulous. She was the one freaking me out!

Cameron nodded, looking actually, genuinely scared. I didn't understand. This was supposed to be some kind of mistake, or a joke or something. How could she really lose her memory? Even after the explosion, when she thought her mission was to kill me, she knew who she was.

"You really don't know who you are?"

"I'm Allison," she repeated firmly. "From Palmdale."

I whispered harshly, "You're not Allison. You're not from Palmdale. You're from the future. You're a machine!"

Once again, she looked genuinely confused, and actually a bit like she thought I was crazy. "A what?"

"Your chip is messed up again, but I can fix you. I fixed you once, remember?"

"Fix me?" She looked insulted, upset, and even a little angry, like I had hurt her feelings. For a second, I wondered if I had, but then I reminded myself of what Mom told me in the ambulance. She's a machine. She doesn't have feelings. I had to remember that.

"Why would you fix me?" She asked bitterly.

After standing there just staring at each other for a minute or so, I grabbed her arm and tried to lead her out the door.

"Come on, we have to get out of here."

"What did you do? Did you hurt me?" She demanded, scrambling out of my hold.

Speaking of hurting someone's feelings.

What the hell? What did I do? Did I hurt her? How could she think that I would hurt her? I was the one trying to protect her!

"Is there a problem?" Jody interrupted.

I turned to look at Cameron's new friend and sighed in frustration. Oh great. Three chances to guess what this looks like!

"No. I'm her brother," I answered, glad for the second time that day—ever—to be able to make that claim. "John Baum."

She shook her head. "I don't have a brother."

I stared at Cameron, trying to swallow the enormous tennis ball that had lodged itself in my throat. I had to get her out of there. She didn't belong there. She belonged with me. Why wouldn't anyone listen to me?

"Look, dude," Jody said, clearly suspicious, "I don't know who you are but I really think—"

Okay, that's it. We're going. I'm just going to grab her and—

"Oof! Ah!"

Pain shot through my back and I stared at Cameron with disbelief as I stood hunched over against the wall several feet away from her. Okay, trying to take her away against her will probably wasn't the best idea I ever had. But I still couldn't believe that she shoved me—flung me, really—into a wall.

Jody looked at her with amazement and Cameron quirked a small smile.

Then the guard came, stepping between us as if I was a threat. I supposed that, in his eyes, I was. I knew what it looked like. I couldn't blame him. It didn't help that whatever courage had possessed Cameron to defend herself was already gone. Her eyes were wide with fear once again, darting away from mine as she turned away from me and crossed her arms in front of herself.

I didn't need a psychology book to tell me what was right in front of my face.

I had lost her.

Still, I turned to look at her from the doorway, slowing and ignoring the guard for a moment as he hurried me along with promises that he would call the cops if I didn't vacate the premises.

So I did. I walked back out to my truck across the street and climbed into the driver's side. Then I turned my gaze back to the halfway house determined to wait there for as long as it took to get her back.

A/N: Is it no surprise that one of the best (can't decide if this is better than S&D or just as good) episodes this season is the one to get me rolling again. I haven't read any other "Allison from Palmdale" fics yet, and I won't until I finish writing the second part to this. It's the same type thing, except one scene (currently) is after the show.

Disclaimer: I own John Connor. Really, I do! He's got my name tatooed on his--oh, fine, damn you. I own nothing here except for my style of writing! I don't even own the plot!