Terminator SCC Fiction: "But For This Anchor" (Sarah, Ellison, Sarah/Ellison, PG-13)

[halfshellvenus]

Title: But For This Anchor
Author: HalfshellVenus
Fandom: Terminator: SCC
Characters: Sarah, Ellison (light Het)
Rating: PG-13
Summary: In the end, Sarah wound up telling Ellison everything.
Author's Notes: For the Fall Fandom Free-For-All (requested by hereswith), and I hope it got far enough into Sarah/Ellison for your liking

Comments

[hereswith]

*squee* I have to rush, I promise to return with more comments later, but I wanted to let you know right away that I did like it, a lot :-) Thank you so much!

[halfshellvenus]

Yay, I'm so glad! I love trying out new things for the Fall Fandom Free-For-All, and making someone happy with an offering is such a great feeling!

[hereswith]

Here I am, sorry I'm late! First of all, I was thrilled to see that someone had answered one of my prompts and even more so that it was you, because I remembered that earlier SCC story of yours :-)

He'd spirited her out through the basement in the trunk of his car, and no-one should've had as much experience with that as she did, so long ago trained out of claustrophobia that there were times she'd fallen asleep in those dark, cramped spaces. Yes, that's how it would happen, and this says so much about what Sarah has had to endure, too.

It's certainly far enough into S/E, I love that they finally talk about things, and this: James Ellison was waiting with a handful of blankets and eyes so soft she could get lost in them. She'd forgotten how he could listen, how all the unbelievable truths she'd carried for half a lifetime could become weightless once they'd found a home inside someone else.

Everything was gone-everyone. What was left, now that the future had abandoned her? The finale leaves Sarah in an interesting place, and I

[halfshellvenus]

the state of mind she must be in really well here, grieving, questioning, but still surviving.
I can't stop thinking about what a brutal blow that would have been for her, having everything ripped away forever with so little warning. That's something you might not want to survive, but it's second nature for her now and she can't help following that path automatically.

Because it won't be easy, of course, whichever course of action she chooses.
Even just living on through her future won't be easy (when her son probably isn't coming back), but it will get better. I like to think that Ellison will be one of the reaons why.

So glad you liked this, and I'm happy to have made part of your wish list come true! I love the Fall Fandom Free-For-All, and all the new creations that might not otherwise have come to be!

[chelseagirl]

Really nice -- rather how I imagined things going after the series' end!

[halfshellvenus]

Thank you! I really wish we'd had a third season, and been able to see all of those fascinating ideas from the S2 finale move forward. I do think this is how Sarah's story would have gone, and I hope she and Ellison would have grown closer and formed a lasting bond stemming from the things they knew that were otherwise so completely unbelievable.

[pellucid]

Oh, this is lovely!!!! I adored your first one about them, and I adore this one, too. I think Sarah in the wake of the finale feels like she has, for perhaps the first time since Kyle Reese came into her life, something like a real choice: does she continue with her fight, even without John now, with even less understanding than ever what she's fighting for and how to go about it. Or does she finally rest. Is there a space, however small and localized, in which she can actually let go and just be, purposeless, in a way she hasn't been able to for 18 years. I love the implications of where we find her at the end. I suspect that she will keep fighting, but I also hope she can find moments, like this, in which to stop.

He'd spirited her out through the basement in the trunk of his car, and no-one should've had as much experience with that as she didThis made me grin a bit, because this is exactly the image that I've had of the immediate aftermath of the final scene, and my own perpetually unwritten story about what happens next (which I

[halfshellvenus]

does she continue with her fight, even without John now, with even less understanding than ever what she's fighting for and how to go about it. Or does she finally rest.

It's such a great question, because the only thing she knew for certain was John's role in the future (as relayed by Kyle Reese) and the hard truth that forces from the future would try to kill him again and again to change that outcome.

She has threads of information (like who some of the people are that SkyNet becomes interested in), but after that encounter with Catharine Weaver they may all be too suspect to use.

I'd like to think of her finding some of the innocence she lost all those years ago, but I agree that it's more likely she'll continue to fight. Too many years as a soldier, even of your own critical war, changse you in ways that are too hard to put aside.

I hope you DO get the chance to finish your own story down the road-- it seems that a lot of people like this pairing and the chance to explore where the questions raised by the finale will lead. :

[pellucid]

I agree with you--I'd like to think Sarah could find some moments in which to rest, but regardless, she'll keep fighting. And quite possibly she'll use losing John as an excuse to fight all the harder. I suspect if we'd gotten a season 3 we'd have seen her following up some of those leads at the end--particularly the connection to Miles Dyson's son, for instance. I don't think she'd know, at this point, how to stop fighting

[ticketsonmyself]

S2 DVD commentary said that Danny Dyson would have been a central character in S3, so it looks like you're right! And now I miss the show more than ever.

[halfshellvenus]

I feel so for her, and how bereft she would have been after those few explosive minutes and all the parts of her they destroyed. The grief over losing John would have been hard enough, but she also lost all the context of everything she'd done and been since he was born.

What an empty, awful feeling.

The idea that she might find a new path, and have a friend to stand by her while she explores those options, is very comforting. I always loved the friendship possibilities between these two, and hoped we'd see them develop farther.

As the future unfolds, they can help keep each other sane with the shared knowledge of all the impossible things they've witnessed. No-one else will ever truly understand.

[ticketsonmyself]

I have to come back to this, but I am full of swoony, goony, gooberish love for this story - an unexpected and totally fabulous sequel. Oh Sarah and James!

[halfshellvenus]

Yay- I'm so glad you liked it! And it was nice to stretch them to that point beyond friendship that hereswith wanted to see-- and I'm sure she wasn't the only one. :)