What are dreams?

For all the Jameron fans out there, a one off story featuring John and Cameron from Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles. In a series of small chapters, Cameron learns more about human dreams and John learns how much his cyborg protector really likes him.

I do not claim any rights to the characters or the TV series.

Chapter 1: Daydreams

A quiet Saturday afternoon. Sarah and Derek are off checking out a clue from the basement wall. John is putting off his homework to watch the soccer match between Mexico and Brazil. He was never much into sports, but every Saturday afternoon, when he was a boy growing up in Central America, he'd always spend sometime watching the game.

Sarah would always worry about him when he went, but he never went alone. He'd always go with a group of soldiers or mercenaries from their camp. Despite their many differences they had a few things in common, love of strong drink, cigars, women, and soccer. Being too young for the first three, he always joined them for the fourth.

Watching the game right now, it brought back those happy memories. He sat there daydreaming, a smile unconsciously coming to his face.

"What are you doing?" Cameron's voice comes out of nowhere shattering his meditation. He jumps.

"Good God, Cameron! Could you make a noise or something before entering a room? I nearly had heart failure."

Cameron does a quick scan of John's chest and pulmonary functions. "Your heart rate is elevated, but within normal operating tolerances. I see no indications of impending heart failure."

"It's an expression Cam." John says, shaking his head. "It just means you nearly scared me half to death."

"Why would I want to only half kill you? I can render either you dead or unconscious, but I can't make you half dead. Besides, scaring you would be a very ineffective means of killing you. And I have no desire to kill you."

"As glad as I am to hear you don't wish to kill me, even half way, you still missed the point. Let's just drop the subject for now okay. You asked me a question when you came in."

"You were staring off at nothing. I watched you for several minutes and I couldn't ascertain what you were looking at. I analyzed all objects in line with the direction of your gaze, but your eyes weren't focused on any of them. Then you began to smile. So I asked what you were doing."

"I was watching the game and I began to remember watching soccer matches as a boy in Central America. There were happy times for me. I was daydreaming about watching a game with some of my old friends."

"You were smiling. Do all daydreams make you smile?"

John thinks a moment. "Well, I really don't know. You have some conscious control over daydreams, and depending on who you are or what you do, daydreams can have any content of your imagining."

"I don't think I daydream."

"Come on. When you analyze a room or a situation that is something like daydreaming. You imagine multiple scenarios and then select one to use. Daydreaming is something like that, only it is more random and usually less violent." He says with a touch of humor in his voice.

"I don't think you quite understand how we work." Cameron says, giving him a questioning look.

"Maybe not, but I'm trying to help you understand how we work. Come over here and sit next to me." John turns off the TV and turns the sofa so it faces the window.

He sits near the middle and pats the cushion next to him. Cameron walks over and smooths her skirt against the back of her legs as she sits next to John. She sits closer than what he showed, but he doesn't move away or ask her to sit further away either. She smiles lightly.

John doesn't see the smile, but he carries on with his explanation. "Now imagine this window is like our TV, the only difference being, you get to select what you see on it not some executive who sits in an office and has no idea what people want to watch."

"I have no means of projecting my thoughts on the window."

"No Cam. Just imagine your thoughts are displayed there. Here, lets try this instead. Close your eyes and rest your head against the back of the sofa."

Cameron does exactly as he says.

"Now exclude all thoughts from your head and just listen to my voice."

Cameron smiles again.

"Cam, why are you smiling?"

"I like this. Spending time with you, without Sky Net or Cromartie to worry about, or your mom or Derek interrupting us. I like listening to your voice. We talk a lot in the future."

Cam's eyes are still closed and she doesn't see the smile that comes to John's face. At that moment he realizes she isn't just here to protect him, she likes him. Recovering quickly he says, "Okay. When you said that, what went through your head at that moment?"

"There is a micro-fracture in the window pane which will cause the glass to shatter if the house settles another 3.9 mm. Sarah's cooking skills have improved 8.6% since moving to the new house. Derek hasn't scowled at me or called me tin-bitch in approximately 12.39 hours, but he hasn't been here the last 7.43 hours so I shouldn't include that time in my calculation. You need to finish your homework before Monday or Mr. Harris will give you a failing grade in physics. And I thought of all the times I spent with you both in the present and in the future."

John chuckles to himself.

"Did I say something funny?" Cameron asks turning her head and opening one eye to look at him.

"No Cam. You are just you. Glad to know in all your thoughts, I was in there somewhere. At what point did you smile?"

"When I though of you . . . and me . . . together." She says this time looking at John with her head erect and both eyes open.

John swallows nervously. He wasn't expecting that. "Okay, um, put your head back and close your eyes again." He lets out a long breath as Cameron listens to him.

"All right, take that thought that made you smile, and don't think about anything else this time. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Now, analyze that thought like you would a new situation, but don't analyze for possible threats. Use your analyzing to determine what would make that thought even nicer."

Cameron sits there quietly while John watches. Her hand twitches lightly. He takes hold of it gently with his own and it stops twitching. Very gently her hand closes on his hand.

As he watches her, she smiles. This time it isn't the barely perceptible smile she normally shows, but a true smile. Her face seems to glow with a warmth.

"What are you thinking of now?"

She looks at him so pleasantly, with that warm smile, and her eyes look moist. "I was thinking how nice it would be if you kissed me."

John looks at her and he can see she truly wants to be kissed. Her lips are moist, her gaze unflinching. Against his will he leans in to kiss Cameron, her lips parting in anticipation. Just as their lips are about to touch, there is a knock at the door.

John leans back quickly. There lips never touching.

"I'd better see who that is." he says quickly and walks swiftly to the front door.

Cameron sits there listening. The person at the door is Riley. Cameron frowns as she listens to their conversation. Riley has tickets to the Dodgers game. Her foster aunt bought them for her. If they leave now they can catch the last five innings. Cheap seats, top of the stands. Riley hopes John won't get a nose bleed sitting that high.

John walks back into the living room. Cameron's smile is gone replaced by a frown.

"I guessed you heard." He says looking at her expression.

"Yes. I heard. I suppose you are going with her then." she says rather stiffly, all traces of emotion gone from her voice.

"Yes. I'm sorry, but it would seem strange if I didn't go with her. Don't need any red flags. You do understand, don't you?"

"I understand." she says simply. "Don't forget a weapon." she adds, not looking at him.

"Like I'd forget that." he says, then quickly checks his waistband. Yeah, he's got a weapon and his cell phone.

John looks at her one more time before he leaves. He doesn't know what to say, and with Riley waiting, there just isn't enough time to say it all.

Cameron hears their voices fade after the front door closes. She's all alone in the house. She should follow them. Keep an eye on John, but he will be surrounded by hundreds of people at the ball game. He should be safe. Besides if she went, she'd probably kill Riley.

Killing Riley. Now that is something she could daydream about.

Following John's instructions, she leans her head back against the sofa and closes her eyes. There are multiple means of terminating Riley. She decides to calculate how many unique ways she could kill her before John returns.

But when she closes her eyes, all she can see is John's face at that moment he was going to kiss her. She daydreams about that instead. A warm smile appears on her face.

**

John walks quietly up the gravel drive. It is the middle of the night and if his mom is back, he'll catch all holy hell for coming in this late.

He had a great time at the game with Riley. After the game they went out to eat where he ran into Morris and his current girlfriend. First time he's felt like he's had a normal life since they ran out on Charley.

The house is dark. Morris gave him and Riley a lift back into town. First dropping off Riley and then John. John had him drop him off a block from home. If his mom is home, he didn't need a scene in front of Morris, or worse, have her come running out brandishing a gun.

John goes up the front steps and pulls his keys from his pocket. They slip from his grasp and hit the porch floor making a loud noise. Grimacing, he picks them up and feels for the right key, then slips it into the lock. He hopes no one heard the noise.

He quietly closes and locks the door behind him and punches in the security code to the alarm. John listens for any noise. The house is quiet.

He walks into the living room.

"What time do you call this?" his mom's voice comes from the shadows.

John nearly leaps for the ceiling and begins to stammer a reply when a light comes on, revealing Cameron sitting in the recliner her hand moving away from the lamp.

"Dammit! Cameron are you trying to kill me? That's twice in one day you've nearly scared me to death!"

"I would never try to kill you, John. You know that." She says getting up from the chair and walking towards him.

"Besides, it's almost two in the morning. This would make it the second time in two days I've tried to scare you to death. Not that I'm trying." She says a hint of a smile playing across her features. "Where were you all this time. The game was over seven hours ago."

"What I do in my free time is none of your business, but if you must know we ran into an old friend of ours. Remember Morris from our old school? Riley and I bumped into him and his new girlfriend. We hung out at his place."

Cameron reaches up and wipes the corner of his mouth with her thumb then looks at it. "Cherry red lipstick. Well, unless Morris has begun wearing ladies makeup, you were doing more than just hanging out?"

"God Cam. Can't I just have a moment to be me? The world is going to come to an end in a couple of years time. This evening, was the first time in ages it felt nice to just hang out and relax and enjoy the company of my fellow human beings."

Cameron stiffens at that last comment. Her movement was such that John noticed.

"I'm sorry Cam. I didn't mean it to sound that way."

"Do you prefer her company to mine?" She asks very simply.

"No...It's not like that..." John doesn't know what else to say.

"Sarah called while you were out." She says sounding more like the cyborg she is, and not like the human she is becoming.

John realizes he's done something wrong and Cameron just doesn't want to talk about it.

"What did mom want?"

"She and Derek are going to be another couple of days. She says there is plenty of food in the pantry and fridge. She wanted to speak to you."

"Did you tell her I was out?" He asks nervously. His mom would kill him if she knew he left the house without protection or her knowledge.

"No. I covered for you. I pretended I was you and told her I was doing my physics homework."

"You are determined I'm going to get that done by Monday aren't you."

She doesn't answer.

"I'm going to bed then." John says and goes up the stairs to his room.

Cameron waits until she hears his door close. She looks at her thumb and the smudge of lipstick she rubbed off his face.

"That should have been mine." She says to the empty room.

END OF CHAPTER

For all those who think because of my other story Reunion, I'm not Jameron, I wrote this especially for you. I hope to write two follow up chapters, using both dreams and nightmares as themes. I'm pretty busy right now and I will write them when I can. Let me know what you think of this story. -– The1Russter

Your response has been greater than I could imagine. Thank you everyone for your nice reviews. As soon as I have a chapter worthy of continuing this story I will post it. Once again, thank you. -- The1Russter 10-22-09