Under the mistletoe - part 13

[4kennedy]

Title: Under the mistletoe
Author: 4kennedy
Fandom: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Pairing: Cameron/Sarah
Rating: PG-13
Summary: As Christmas is coming closer even the Connor household gets into the seasonal spirit.
Disclaimer: I unfortunately don’t own them; they belong to FOX television and Warner Brothers.
Notes: Written for charrua33. The wish on the Christmas wish list at passion_perfect was 'Getting caught under the mistletoe'. Thanks to my wonderful beta reader gsr_rocks! The awesome storypic is made by 2headed_turtles.


Part 13

At half past ten in the morning on the twenty-third of December Sarah knocked on John’s door. The door stood already ajar, but she felt a bit more hesitant than usual and waited for his reply before she entered his room.

Sarah knew that she had to talk to her son, though she didn’t really want to. She would prefer it if she could avoid the uneasiness the conversation would probably entail, but sooner or later they had to face the subject.

Just get it over with… no big deal. You’re a grown-up woman, you make your own decisions and he already told you that he’s okay with… whatever it is between Cameron and you, Sarah thought to encourage herself.

Last night, in the heat of the moment, she had made a decision. Spontaneously and not after hours of pondering about it like she had done in the past when it came to her… feelings for Cameron.

Sarah still wasn’t able to give the whole thing a name, but she wasn’t so sure it even needed one. The general rules didn’t apply to them and they were currently in an undefined state where everything, every development was possible. However, all she was able to tell was that she was attracted to Cameron, that she cared for her. Sarah accepted that she was different, special and so they were building bridges between their races and their differences, where it had seemed impossible before.

Yesterday, when Cameron had heard that John had left his room and that he was on his way downstairs, it had been Sarah’s chance to step away from her. They could have easily pretended that they were just having a little midnight talk and John hadn’t needed to find out like this, coming down the stairs in the middle of the night and finding his mother lip locked with Cameron under the mistletoe.

But Sarah had let it happen, even though she wasn’t entirely sure why.

“Hey”, she greeted John in a soft voice and sat down on the edge of his bed. There were space rockets on his bed linen, a remnant of the boy who had lived with his family in this house before. Sarah decided that she would buy John some new bedclothes; she wasn’t exactly earning gold stars by letting her teenaged son sleep under a blanket with rockets on it.

John was sitting at his desk, working on his computer. “Hey, what’s up?” he asked not shifting his eyes away from the screen.

“Nothing,” Sarah shrugged, smoothing his covers with one hand and tracing the outline of one space rocket with a finger. She wished she had thought about what she should say to him and foremost how she could approach the subject. “I just wanted to check on you, see if you’re okay.”

John nodded absently and confirmed, “Yeah, I’m okay.”

His fingers continued to fly over the keyboard, but he glanced briefly at his mother. He could easily read her body language. She looked uncomfortable and nervous. It wasn’t hard to guess what the cause of it was.

John felt a little awkward himself, catching his mother making out with Cameron wasn’t something he’d expected to find, when he had walked down the stairs to get a glass of water. Although he had already suspected that there was more going on between them than they let on, neither Sarah nor Cameron had told him anything when he had asked them.

What he also hadn’t expected was the small, cold pang of jealousy in the pit of his stomach and he quickly pushed it away by thinking of Riley, reminding himself that he had chosen her. Not that it would’ve made any difference had he decided otherwise.

When John had spotted Cameron and his mother he had lost his balance and stumbled, almost falling down the stairs. After staring at them for a moment longer he had pulled himself together, turned around and had gone back to his room, the need of water forgotten.

Once he had overcome the initial shock he had a triumphant smile on his face. After all he was the one who had helped Cameron to come to terms with her development, the things she was experiencing and feeling. He had also pushed his mother in the right direction.

John shook the memories off and turned somewhat on his swivel chair. “Seriously, Mom, I’m fine. I promise. So please spare us both the awkwardness of having this conversation at all.”

For once Sarah was thankful for her unruly locks, because some of them covered her burning cheeks and even more fell into her face when she looked down at her hands in her lap. “Gladly,” Sarah agreed with him. As long as he was okay, she could do without a talk. “But I still wanted to tell you that I’m sorry you had to walk in on us like that. It must’ve been a smack over the head…”

John tried to wave the subject aside, interrupting his mother this way. “No, it’s alright. I get it, showing me was easier than telling me,” he said, feeling sympathy for her as it was obvious how uncomfortable it made Sarah to talk to him about it.

“Yeah, at least I thought so,” Sarah agreed, snorting and combed through her dark hair with one hand. “But still… it wasn’t very thoughtful of me to throw you a curve like this. Sorry.”

“Apology accepted. Besides, not everyone gets the chance to see his mother act like a teenager, raging hormones and stuff.” John grinned at her shortly, not able to resist the jibe. Then he turned back to his computer.

It felt good that they were getting closer again, that Christmas was near and that Cameron tried everything to get them into the mood weren’t the only reasons.

Over the last couple of months he had tried to distant himself from his mother, not only because he was a teenager. It was also to become the man he needed to become in order to lead the resistance against Skynet. But they weren’t going backwards; it was a different kind of mother-son-relationship and he liked the way it was turning out.

“I guess I deserved that,” Sarah sighed, her shoulders slumped in defeat. “Just don’t take it too far; a Mom can only take so much teasing.” She stood up and patted him on the back of his shoulder, peeking at the screen. The emblem of the Los Angeles police department was resplendent on top of the opened internet site. “What are you doing?”

John wasn’t sure how his mother would react. She hadn’t given him any instructions like that so he carefully explained, “I’m searching for leads, anything suspicious that might indicate Skynet. So I’ve hacked into the LAPD network to go through all the current reports.”

Sarah nodded in agreement. “Sounds like a good plan,” she admitted, squeezing his shoulder. She was somewhat proud that John tried to take responsibility, to actively participate and that he came up with such useful ideas. “Just be careful that you don’t get caught, ok?””

“Of course.”

Sarah resisted the urge to kiss the top of his head and left his room, relieved that last night’s incident hadn’t revised his opinion of her and Cameron’s growing relationship.

*****

At quarter to four on the same day in the afternoon Sarah was on her way to the garage. Like several times before Cameron had again disappeared hours ago into the wooden shed and hadn’t shown her face once.

Sarah was bursting with curiosity, why the terminator suddenly spent so much time in it and at some point she had given in, deciding to find out what Cameron was up to.

When she was only a few steps away from the garage, Sarah already had a good idea what was going on inside. She knocked twice, but entered without waiting for a reply.

As Sarah had suspected, Cameron was dancing ballet. The classical music had given it away.

It was the first time that she actually saw the terminator practicing. In the beginning Sarah only knew that Cameron had continued to dance after she had joined a ballet class in order to find Dimitri, Andy Goode’s business partner, was because Derek had caught her once practicing in her room. Of course he had told her about it, full of disgust and in hope it would fuel hers too.

Since then Cameron hadn’t really kept her little hobby a secret, some days ago Sarah had seen the girl’s black ballet attire lying openly on her bed, but she obviously tried to not get caught again.

Unfortunately Cameron almost stopped dancing the second Sarah came in, finishing the step, posture or movement, Sarah had no clue what it was called. The girl went over to the work bench and turned off the small CD player.

Sarah raised one hand, trying to prevent Cameron from coming over to her. She wanted her to switch the music back on. “Please don’t stop because of me. I didn’t mean to interrupt you,” she said apologetically.

Cameron accepted the unspoken apology with a short nod. “You did not. I am done.”

She wasn’t actually referring to her ballet practice, the dancing was just a cover. For most of the last couple of hours Cameron had worked on Sarah’s Christmas present and had finally succeeded in finishing it. She was rather pleased with the outcome.

It hadn’t been long before her sensors had picked up Sarah’s approaching foot steps, but Cameron had been prepared. She had already worn her black ballet outfit, so she simply turned on the music and began to dance just in time before Sarah had entered the garage.

“Oh… okay.” A small part of Sarah was disappointed, she had hoped that she would get more than just a glimpse of Cameron’s dancing ability. Maybe another time, she thought, feeling too unsure in their fresh relationship as to ask the terminator to continue and letting her watch. “Well, I wanted to tell you that I spoke to John… about what he saw last night.”

Cameron calculated that Sarah’s reasoning was very likely false pretenses. She knew Sarah and her need to be in control, not knowing what she was doing in the garage for hours had probably strained her nerves immensely. “You and me kissing under the mistletoe,” she specified, keeping her facial expression blank.

Sarah bobbed her head a few times. “Yeah, that.” She made some casual steps towards Cameron, looking around the garage as if she was strolling through a mall. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, no hint that Cameron had been doing something besides dancing ballet. “He seems okay with it. Probably because he’s glad that his mother is distracted and will be off his back concerning Riley.”

With a questioning eyebrow risen Cameron asked, “I am distracting you?” As Sarah came closer to her, a protesting rumble went through her systems, making her wonder how long it would take until the synchronisation of her programming and her emotions were finished.

Sarah leaned in slowly, pausing for second to catch Cameron’s reaction. When she saw the terminator closing her eyes in anticipation, she placed a brief kiss on Cameron’s lips. “Maybe a little.”

Cameron’s placed her left hand on Sarah’s hip, keeping her from moving away. “To focus on a certain task helps,” she offered.

A tingle of excitement rushed through Sarah’s body. It was such a simple touch, yet meaning so much more as it came from a terminator, who stepped outside its programming. “Well this might work for terminators, but it’s not that easy for humans,” Sarah pointed out, a sarcastic half-smile forming on her lips. “But I do recall that you weren’t that focused when you let the pancakes burn not that long ago.”

Cameron registered the teasing tone in Sarah’s voice and stated, “You are mocking me.” Her hand slid upwards to Sarah’s waist, while her other one grasped the edge of the work bench so hard that the wood squeak under the force, an effect of the glitch.

Worry flickered over Sarah’s features, but she recovered quickly from it. It seemed that Cameron was gaining more control over the glitch and was now able to direct or at least influence its display. Better the work bench crashed and not one of her bones.

“Nope, just stating the facts,” Sarah answered with a grin, not letting the mood be destroyed and enjoying the little banter instead. However, she decided to change the subject and asked, “Which song were you dancing to? I’ve heard it somewhere before.”

Cameron noted Sarah’s interest in her favourite hobby with satisfaction and easily answered, “It is called ‘Sugar Plum Fairy’ and is a part of the composition ‘The Nutcracker’ by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It is a very popular ballet, performed primarily around Christmas time.”

Sarah was a bit surprised that Cameron had managed to keep the information that short. If no one stopped her she usually could on and on, reciting everything her database had to offer on the subject.

She was close to asking Cameron more about ‘The Nutcracker’, but then she noticed something, her eyes on the girls exposed collarbone. “It’s gone…” She reached out with two fingers, lightly touching the artificial skin that felt absolutely real. “The gun shot wound.”

“Yes,” Cameron confirmed, her right hand clutching the work bench more firmly. Her programming could argue all it wanted against being touched by a human; she wouldn’t let it take over. She was making her own decisions. “Both wounds are healed completely.”

“Amazing,” Sarah mumbled more to herself and continued to gently stroke over the girl’s collarbone.

Cameron tightened the grip of her left arm around the other woman’s waist, drawing her in closer until their bodies came into contact. She could sense Sarah tense shortly, the old fear not entirely gone yet, but it only lasted a few seconds before Sarah relaxed again.

“Would you like me to dance for you?” Cameron asked and actually felt her synthetic heart skip a beat, when Sarah raised her eyes, surprise and delight shimmering in them.

Sarah laid her hands against Cameron’s cheeks, tenderly pulling her face forwards until their lips met. When they separated after several moments, Sarah said with a smile, “Yes, I would like that.”

tbc...

A/N: Again sorry for the long wait.

Feeling:  guilty

Comments

[wkgreen.livejournal.com]

Well worth the wait. :) Excellent chapter! Poor workbench. ;) But as Sarah said, better the work bench then Sarah's bones.

Hmmm. now the big question, what is Cameron making out here!

and what is Sarah getting for Cameron!

Patiently waiting for more. :)

[4kennedy.livejournal.com]

aw, thank you so much! though I don't think this chapter justifies the long wait , I really shouldn't have made you wait for that long and I'm glad that at least some people are still interested in the story.
I'm not lost to the fandom, but I rarely had time for anything writing and lj related *meh*
Anyways... I only feel sorry a little bit for the work bench ;) you'll find out soon what Cameron is doing in the garage and what they're getting each other for Christmas =)

[tanama30.livejournal.com]

nice update i can't wait to see what cam's present for sarah is. love this story. update soon

[4kennedy.livejournal.com]

thank you =) you'll soon find out for Cam is giving Sarah for Christmas.

[choticraven.livejournal.com]

* makes a face * I think Santa shouldn't have given me presents because at the end of this when Sarah asked Cameron to dance my mind went into the gutter. * L * I like this story but why does the chapter have to be so short? * pouts * You just like to tease us and let us go like rabid animals in a small box. Pure entertainment for you. * L* More please and soon!

[4kennedy.livejournal.com]

Is your mind back from the gutter yet? *g* sorry, that the chapter wasn't longer, but I didn't want you to wait any longer for an update.
oh, I don't know, rabid animals in a small box doesn't sound like the worst entertainement ;)
I'll try to give you more asap.

[choticraven.livejournal.com]

* points at you and wiggles my finger * I do NOT do fury wrestling, no matter what anyone has told you! Or should ever tell you. * L * Wait... The did not sounds right * thinks about that * Err.. hmm.. And way do I have to be rabid? Can't I just be hyper or energized for the good stuff? * L *

But to answer your earlier question, yes my mind is back from Guttersville for the time being, it seems work-side and come along. * Pouts * More story please * claps happily * Chop chop! * S*

[4kennedy.livejournal.com]

*hehe* well it was you who mentioned rabid animals in the first place, so do not point a finger at me and wiggle it *gg* but yeah, okay, you can also ba a hyper, little rabbit =)
glad to hear your mind is back from the gutter! I hear ya, more story is in the making!

[choticraven.livejournal.com]

Alright, I give you that win.. I did say it first but you could have pretended that I didn't. * L* I'm to tall to be a small rabbit, sorry you have to think of another animal or mineral. * sticks out my tongue * Ha!

[4kennedy.livejournal.com]

*gg* of course I could've pretended that, but where's the fun in that? Okay, how about a monkey? =)

[choticraven.livejournal.com]

* grabs my laptop and runs to the bathroom to look into it * Oh hell no I am not a monkey! * Laughs hard * How about a bear? I can deal with a bear better and they can either be nice or all grr... * L * Monkey my ass * mumbles *

And you too can pretend that you didn't see that, you have a great imagination that you use all the time. You can't have that lie. * L*

[4kennedy.livejournal.com]

alright, a bear it is then =)
oh yes, my imagination never sleeps, only when it comes to writing it down it can be a bitch.

[choticraven.livejournal.com]

Nice, I'm a bear than! =)

Yeah, I know how you feel when it comes to writing. Though I'm way to shy about mine to put it out anywhere.

[bsofthewest.livejournal.com]

I wonder. too?

[4kennedy.livejournal.com]

well, you'll find out soon =) I hope it'll be satisfactioning.

[iocaste-gr.livejournal.com]

God I love this story so much! They are so freaking cute together!
To tell you the truth I'm really surprised that Sarah let John catch her while snogging Cameron! It's really nice to know she feels comfortable in this new relationship. The scene in the garage was very sweet! I wonder if Cameron will ever be able to 100% control her glitch. And of course I want to know what her present for Sarah is. There's too much mystery around it! Thanks for the update Ken and Happy New Year!!! :)

[4kennedy.livejournal.com]

Happy New Year to you too! =)
aw, thank you very much. yeah, they can be very cute when they want to ;)
Well, I think it is as John said, letting him see that things have changed was easier than telling him. Sarah is more of an action girl and not so much a talker ;) besides, John would've taken the chance to snog Cameron too, if he had one.
Furthermore, what does Sarah have to loose? It's life or death on a daily basis. No one can blame her for taking the opportunity for a tiny slice of hapiness.
I'm hopeful that Cameron will get control over the glitch or rather that it simply goes away when the syncronisation is completed.
Oh my, I hope that it won't be a disappointment when I'll finally reveal Cameron's present for Sarah as a lot of people are wondering what it is.
thanks for commenting!

[kelltwomyn.livejournal.com]

Just caught up with this story and I am really enjoying it! I look forward to the next update.

[4kennedy.livejournal.com]

thank you! I'm glad you like my "little" fluffy, silly Christmas story *gg*

[demoka.livejournal.com]

O M G!!!!!!!!! I finally got caught up! The tension! The anxiety! The awwwwwwwwwwwwwness!

*burns out from being too tired*

I guess I probably would still be tense about a glitchy hand too...

[4kennedy.livejournal.com]

*gg* you weren't caught up beofore ;) or did you mean you finally caught up?
anywaya, thank you very much. I'm glad it's mixture of tension, anxiety and awwwness you like =)
yeah, the glitch would make me a little tense, but as long as only the furniture suffers it should be okay *g*

[doooom-kitteh.livejournal.com]

Hurray :3 I've taken days just to catch up, looooooove it.

[4kennedy.livejournal.com]

yeah, it's quite a long story by now so it takes a while to catch. Thank you very much for taking the time to do so and I'm really glad that you like the story =)

[olli01a.livejournal.com]

I like how Cam covers her work on Sarah's present with something else Sarah likes and works perfectly as distraction. Can't wait to read what the present is. I'm glad John reacts so positive but I wonder how Derek will react.