The Last Days of the Long War; or How I Became Immortal and Saved Mankind (5b/8?)
“Are you convinced this isn’t just a one night thing now?” Kyle asks insistently, sitting down next to him in weapons class as the students take it in turns to strip down, clean and reassemble a pistol, prizes for the fastest and most efficient. Marcus sighs internally. Kyle, as it turns out, and he shouldn’t be surprised really, is very persistent. And still way, way too young for him, and Conner’s going to kill him if and when he ever finds out about this, but goddamn if he can actually refuse Kyle anything it seems. Certainly couldn’t that night. He’s been trying not to get lost in the memory; Kyle is seventeen, for fuck’s sake, there’s no way he should feel as calm and good about this as he does. He ought to feel like a creep, fucking some kid - no some guy, that’s more appropriate goddammit - ten or so years younger than him, but he doesn’t.
“You sure you wouldn’t rather be with one of the chicks here?” he says, dodging the question a bit. “There’s enough of them.”
Kyle smacks him lightly on the shoulder. “Of course not. Don’t you think I’ve had plenty of time for that, if it’s what I really wanted. I mean, I did sleep with this one girl, and it was pretty good and all, but it was better with you.”
Marcus finds himself blushing to have it said so openly, where anyone could fucking hear it. It’s not like being gay or bisexual or whatever was ever something you could talk about where he grew up, and he’s not so sure it’d be all that different here. Kyle says otherwise, but it’s not as if he’s actually asked anyone. And he doesn’t want Kyle to get hurt, especially not on his account.
“So I was thinking we should probably do it again,” Kyle says conversationally, and Marcus nearly drops the pistol he’s cleaning. “Like, tonight maybe?” He looks so hopeful, Marcus suppresses the startled ‘No!’ that’s on the tip of his tongue. And it’s not like he can really deny he wants too. He feels pretty strongly about Kyle, he’s just not sure he’s appropriate, what, boyfriend? Appropriate boyfriend material.
“We’ll see,” he says gruffly, not quite looking at Kyle. He doesn’t miss the grin that spreads across his face though, or the warm, tingly feeling in his own stomach. Oh, he’s so fucked.
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Conner heads up to Utah the next day. It’s going to be Christmas in a couple of weeks, he realises, startled by the speed with which the time has passed. Strange to think it was the end of summer when they blew up Skynet’s base, when he was stabbed through the chest and the T-800 carved up the side of his face. Almost four months now. It doesn’t feel like that long, not with all the things they’ve been doing. And it’s the most progress they’ve ever made, which has made things pass even more swiftly, he has no doubt. Maybe he can organise something special for the Resistance this year. His soldiers deserve it, and while there’s no way there’ll be much of a feast available, or many of the traditional trappings of the festival, that doesn’t mean they can’t get into the spirit of the occasion. Kate isn’t likely to have any objections to coming back down to Nevada to spend the time with him, and for once he reckons it’ll be safe enough for a baby, which is not something he ever though he’d be saying. Hell, maybe he’ll even let Kyle come back for a few days. Christmas with all the family.
It’s a couple of hours from camp to camp, and John spends it watching the dry land passing by, scrubby plants, the occasional gas station drained dry and rotting, the corpses of cars rusting by the roadside. It’s a land he’s used to. Once, it hurt to see these things, but whatever pain that caused has atrophied inside him. He doesn’t feel it any more. Instead, it’s just... normal.
Under other circumstances he’d be taking some of his men up with him for R&R, but things as they stand are too busy. There’ll be time for that at Christmas. Maybe swap things around a bit, bring some of the women back to Nevada with Kate and Kyle. A nice change of scenery for them. Only those who can be spared, of course, but things are a lot safer now. The battlefronts have changed, and indeed, the greatest danger is now from their direction, from the east. That’s where the Resistance will be headed, in three or four months. East.
It’s just after midday when Conner pulls up outside the camp boundaries. He’s hungry, but that can wait until he’s seen Kate. Now so close, he realises just how much he’s been missing her, and he wants so badly to see her again. He parks the car under the relative camouflage of the trees’ bare branches, and starts trekking up the hill towards the sentry line. He’s been here before; he knows roughly where it is, and he’s recognisable enough that he‘s not worried about being shot by accident.
He’s hailed a little before he was expecting it. It makes him feel proud that his soldiers are keeping their eyes open even out here where it’s a safe as it’s possible to be in the circumstances. He waves back, and goes over to meet her.
“John Conner, sir,” the woman says and salutes him, smile wide and pleased. “A pleasure to see you here sir.”
“At ease,” he replies with a nod. “Do you know where I might find Kate?”
She points out directions for him, and he leaves her to her patrol. The camp is busy, people winding between the trees going about their daily tasks, paths leading off to cabins and clearings and down to the river. Kate is lending a hand at the nursery, with Sarah no doubt. John finds he’s excited to see how much she might have grown in the past few weeks. He is still a little amazed that he had a hand in creating this new life, when it sometimes seems that all he has known is ending it.
The nursery is a log cabin on the outskirts, quiet and undisturbed but spacious and airy. Kate isn’t the only young mother there, sitting around the edges of the room on empty crates with blankets spread over the top, chatting companionably amongst themselves. He watches her for a minute before she notices him, just admiring how happy she looks, so well-fed, rested and content, Sarah sitting in her lap.
“John!” she calls, spying him out of the corner of her eye. “I didn’t know you were coming up!”
He walks over to her, nodding greetings to the other women. “I had the time to get away,” he says shrugging. “And I guess I have been missing you and Sarah.”
“Oh, John,” she says, smiling, standing and moving Sarah onto her hip so she can
kiss him. “I’ve missed you too. Now let’s go somewhere a little more private so we can talk, shall we?”
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