FAN FIC: Terminator - Questioning Fate {8}
Title: Questioning Fate
Author: Syrai
Rating: PG-13 for now anyway (for language)
Pairings: Kate/John/Original character triangle, sort of
Status: 8/?
Summary: Judgment Day never came but now, 2006 it's about to. To prevent it from happening is another person sent through time to help John Connor and his wife. But what is going on and what are the real reasons behind Robin York's actions?
PREVIOUS CHAPTERS
Author's Note: What can I say? I know I’m slow but no, I’m not giving up on this story. It will get its ending one way or another. Eventually.Short chapter I know, blame the lack of time! I know I do.
Lyrics: "Hold on" by Jamie Walters :)
QUESTIONING FATE
// Chapter 8
“...I don’t wanna see you ever sad/And everything that I’ve got you can have
When it’s all too much/You need some human touch
To see that it’s really not so bad/Did you call on every saint you know
But still you feel like you’re on your own/Can you see through your tears
I will always be here/And you’re not out there all alone
Hold on, ’till you feel a little stronger/Hold on to me
Hold on, everything’s gonna be alright/Just hold on to me tonight
Anything that hurts you, hurts me too/I´m not gonna let your world turn blue
Will you take my hand/And feel how close I am
There ain’t nothin’ I won’t do for you...”
The girl standing in front of me has this look on her face I could swear I’ve seen before. Determination beyond limits. The kind that tells me she’s serious. Without saying anything, she steps aside letting me enter the comfy-looking little lobby. I close the door behind me. Before the door closes, I can hear a dog barking somewhere. Soon it’s accompanied by a woman yelling; telling it to shut the hell up. Only, she’s using a lot more rude language.
When my attention is drawn back to the girl I can’t for some reason, really say anything nor can I remove my gaze from her. I just stand still and look at her. She’s not tall, but she’s not really short either. But then, she’s a child, so. By her looks I’d say she’s something between 10 and 13 years old but I could be wrong. Underneath a way too big T-shirt there’s a muscular young warrior who obviously has set her mind on something. One look into the deep blue eyes and you know it. Still, she somehow looks like she’d be out of her place and well, in a way she is, isn’t she? Detached from her time. I feel sorry for her, I guess, but I know better not to show it to her.
"Hello," a warm voice says behind the silent girl and I look up to see an old woman there, standing protectively behind her shoulders. "I’m Gloria," she continues carefully shattering what was left of the bizarre moment and I nod not knowing if I should go and shake her hand or something. "John," I reply deciding not to move, only nod politely. Maybe it’s best if I stay a little farther away from the girl; I don’t want to scare her. Although, something tells me this girl doesn’t get scared that easily.
The woman coughs, obviously feeling the need to break the uneasy silence even though from my opinion, there’s no need for it. "Yes, I found this young beautiful, sweet girl lying on the ground earlier. She said-"
The glare Gloria receives from the girl silences her in a blink of an eye but I have no idea why. Is there something I should know? What a stupid question to ask; isn’t there always?
"Right, yes, I’ll go to the living-room then. It was nice to meet you John, you take good care of her." Without really waiting for my reply she lovingly squeezes the girl by the shoulders as if she had been looking after the girl for her whole life. Which she obviously hasn’t done. "You ok now, Sarah?"
Sarah… automatically the name brings my mother to my mind. I wonder if her parents named her Sarah, as a tribute to my mother or if it was just pure coincidence. I make a mental note to remind me that it’s a question I should definitely look into. Later, of course.
The girl, Sarah, nods her head staring straight at me. For few seconds she just examines me with her eyes, probably trying to figure out what to say or do. Almost as if she was trying to decide whether to trust me or not. Well, wouldn’t surprise me. Then she finally throws another glance over her shoulder, but this time she’s smiling shyly. "I’m gonna be fine. Thanks Gloria, I’ll tell Robin you took care of me." That is Gloria’s cue to disappear.
Robin. She seems to be the key-character of some sort, doesn’t she? Everything is somehow bound to her. Surprisingly, I’m not that shocked or amazed by this sudden twist - a young girl calling me and telling she’s from the future… so no, not shocked, just a bit confused. After being almost killed by a goddamn future-machine, there’s not much that can actually surprise me these days. To anyone else this might be a weird, unbelievable moment; a young girl, claiming to be from the future but no, not to me.
"We should go," Sarah finally speaks directly to me with somewhat firm voice. It’s a demand, not a pleading and I see no reason to disagree with her. At that that point, I don’t dare to disagree, really. "Alright."
"I’m ready when you are," she adds cheerfully, "TDF didn’t really let me take anything with me, you know." I suppose I do know. If I had met her on the street, I wouldn’t have been able to tell she’s from the future. She’s a bright child, mature one too and the way she presents herself makes me wonder. She doesn’t look like someone who’s lived her whole life in the middle of a war…
"Yeah…" I start, "I hope you don’t mind, but we’re gonna have to walk home. Robin took the car."
"Fine," she says and shrugs somewhat casually. I don’t know what I expected her to say, but that’s not it. I can’t help but add that the place is nearby, but to that, she only lets out a snort. "I didn’t ask, I don’t care. I’m fine with walking." I forgot, she’s a soldier, right?
"Oh you two, don’t be silly. I’ll drive you," Gloria’s voice comes from the living-room and within a second, she’s again there, standing behind Sarah’s back. Should’ve known; I didn’t really think she had gone too far anyway.
"Kind of you, but-"
The old woman cuts me off by a rejecting wave, and says: "I insist. The poor girl’s been through enough, it’s the least I can do."
What else can I do but agree? She has, yeah. She’s been through all kinds of things, I assume. Worse stuff than I’ve ever ran into, worse than Gloria… All those things I see nightmares about, she’s seen. And this is a child we’re talking about here, a kid that should’ve grown up around other children in a place where you don’t have to be afraid all the time. She doesn’t smile, but I see Gloria, as expected, does.
I wonder… she hasn’t asked what’s going on. Gloria, I mean. She hasn’t questioned me about anything at all, hasn’t shown a single sign of frustration. Just how much has Sarah told Gloria? How much does she know?
"I take that as a yes," Gloria says after I say nothing. "That’s a yes," Sarah says suddenly. "I can just tell. It always is."
And she knows this… because?
0000
I thought I could handle it, I honestly did. I thought I could act normally and pretend it’s not a big deal that he’s here, but I can’t do that. Well no, in the outside it probably looks that nothing is wrong, but in the inside… I can feel it roaming around my stomach. Nasty feeling. He’s my father, after all and it’s hard when I can’t let him know that. Every word I say I must rethink first so that I won’t give out anything too important. It’s tough, because there’s nothing I want more than to be able to tell it to him. To make him proud of me, even if it’s the younger version of him. This, I try telling myself, is not my dad. This is who he was.
I can’t tell him that, can’t tell him anything. I don’t know how much Robin has told him, if anything at all. She shouldn’t have told, anyway. Even though there’s no one here that could pinpoint all the rules Robin has broken if she has told him, or the ones I’ve ignored, that’s still the one we have to follow no matter what. Fate can be altered, but it shouldn’t. That’s what he’s told me since the day I was born and that’s the only thing I need to remember.
I follow him in silence, as he follows Gloria to her car. I don’t know about the laws of this world, I don’t, but to me she looks a bit too old to drive. Then again, the Resistance doesn’t really care how old you are, maybe it’s the same here. Besides, she’s not that old when you think of it. Around early seventies maybe? The hell should I know.
Before I know it, we’re already sitting in the car, driving towards the told destination. Dad… John, he keeps telling Gloria where to drive, but all the instructions slip through my mind. All I can hear is his voice. It’s so different somehow. Everything is different. I have to focus, I can’t let my mind wonder because if I do that, I will start observing the buildings around us… I will be astonished by all these fascinating sights and if I let my guard down like that, there’s a chance my future won’t turn out to be so bright. It’ll turn out to be the same. I know I can’t go back into my time. I don’t know what will happen to me, whether I’ll be trapped into this time for the rest of my life or whether I’ll, at some point, vanish. Not like I’ve done this before, you know. And I’m no scientist. I did what I felt had to be done and didn’t really think further. Yeah, maybe I should’ve done it.
I blame my parents. That’s from where I got my DNA, after all.
The ringing phone startles me, makes me literally jump on the seat. Soon after John - not dad, John, Sarah - locates the vibrating phone from the pocket of his jacket and picks it up. Though I remember dad telling me his life changed after he met my mother; that he stopped running, it’s still weird seeing him act so… casually. Like he’d be any normal guy. I suppose he is; no one really knows what’s to come. Or what he’s to become. Dad telling me that stuff is not the only thing I remember, oh no. I remember Robin commenting how staying still like a sitting duck had was the most stupid thing dad ever did. He said something back to her with a biting tone, but I didn’t hear what it was. It did silence her though.
"You’re taking her to see your father?"
The question spoken by slightly raised voice catches my attention quickly. Who taking and where? "Fine… ok… listen… listen…" he breaths in, trying to keep it calm, " something’s happened. I’ll come there." A pause. "Yes. Yes, really, everything’s ok… I’ll be there."
Hanging the phone and turning to look at Gloria, he says: "There isn’t any chance you’d be willing to drive us a little bit farther, is there?"
I can’t see the look on her face as she glances to her side, but even I can spot the consent as she speaks: "It just so happens, that I am."
Duh.
0000
The homeless man, usually drunk of course, had been guarding his little street for few days and during those few days, he had seen more weird stuff happen than he had seen during his whole alcohol-filled life. At first he had thought it was just because of the amount of boost he had drank, but now it seemed like he was sobering and yet, there it was. Pulling his head closer to his shoulders and the collar of his jacket to put an end to the cold breeze hitting his face, he kept walking towards the weird-looking light that for a short period of time lit the whole ally. Glancing over his shoulder, he realized that just like before, no one else had paid attention to the blue, sparkling light that was already fading.
What was that? Was there..?
He stopped, hesitating. Was there a naked man lying on the ground? Yes, there was!
What seemed like a pile of entangled limbs moved suddenly and the figure got on his feet. There was a cold, steely look covering his face, the kind that made the homeless man take a step backwards. Well, actually he was more bothered by the red color of his eyes… they weren’t red like if he had drank 7 days straight, but red as if someone had inserted lamps behind his eyes.
That was not normal.
Could it be this was just some after-effect slowly sobering caused?
The naked stranger tilted his head to one side and even to where he was standing, he could hear the metallic click. The next his hands made few rather uncontrolled twitches and the same happened with his legs and body. Then, the figure walked.
Sober as ever, but still the homeless man couldn’t bring himself to move. So he only stared how he - no, it, he decided - approached him with shaky steps that were getting more and more balanced by ever single one it took. He watched how it walked to him and stopped only few inches away. At first he thought he should scream, but something kept him silent. Hallucination, it was the only excuse he could make for himself… But then, he clearly heard how its neck made yet another click as it bent and its eyes brushed over the a lot shorter man.
"C-clothes."
The stuttering word was the last thing he ever heard.