blue_bells

» Title: Stupid is Never Safe
» Fandom: Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles
» Warnings: AU
» Pairing(s)/Characters: Derek/John, Cameron
» Summary: There's more than one Derek walking around and one of them is metal.
» A/N: Originally written here for

daria234 in

comment_fic.

John should have known.

Derek had just hovered at the step to their front porch, deaf to John’s careful greeting.

John had been cautious, he’d noticed the stiffness in Derek’s shoulders, the way his dazed green eyes darted from John’s eyes to his mouth like there was something there that kept distracting him. John swiped the corner of his mouth, thinking of crumbs from their dinner.

Was Derek drunk?

Derek watched John’s hand drop from his lips and his eyes gently narrowed. John shrank back when Derek's expression hardened as he climbed the last step to the porch. He’d seen that look only a few times before, that slow, hungry intent, but never at him and there couldn’t be any way John was reading him right.

Because he was John, the untouchable, sacrosanct leader of the revolution who was to be protected, not seen, trained and not entertained.

And then there was Derek.

Even as the older man stalked towards him and John had to blink up through the fringe in his eyes, he didn’t believe for a second there was any way Derek would be brave or stupid enough to –

Derek pulled on the collar of John’s coat and leaned down to swallow his inhale of shock. Derek’s wet, sliding push parted John’s lips, tilted his head back and John’s eyes fell shut with a groan, heat flaring low in his gut.

Stupid was underrated.

John jerked as the hand behind his head drifted down to mould their hips together. He shivered and though the smile didn’t quite reach his lips, he leaned in closer.

John had just curled his fingers into Derek’s shirt when he felt the hand around his throat.

Derek’s grip clamped down and John’s eyes shot open, sputtering a cough into their kiss. The shove against Derek’s chest was instinct, but Derek didn’t show any effect of the push.

For a moment, Derek's pupils glinted red.

If he could drag in air, John would have sworn. He kicked and punched at every part of the terminator he could reach, but he weakened with every blow. His heart hammering with panic, starving him even faster and the terminator only held tighter.

John snarled even as his vision blurred to grey agony, a slow smile spreading on the terminator’s face, then the grey bleached white and just before it eclipsed everything there was an explosion.

John’s knees hit the porch and the terminator Derek fell backwards, sparks flying from the gaping hole above his ear. Hand flying to his throat, John crawled backwards, his vision still swimming as he coughed and sucked in painful gulps of cold, autumn air.

Cameron flew into his vision. He saw the flash of the large knife before she thrust down with the tinny shriek of metal gouging through metal and John startled when someone swept him up tightly, pulled him into the house.

“I’ve got you, you’re okay,” Derek said and John looked into his face in shock.

When John shoved him back, he moved, and that’s when the spell broke. This was the real Derek, with a million burning questions in his eyes, whose chest rose and fell with human strain of trying to hold John close.

“C’mon, John, it’s me.”

Derek pushed the hair out of John’s eyes as John searched his face, but the terminator’s job had been flawless, right down to the thin beard, the cuts on his neck.

He could already feel the bruises on his neck. His breath came in a wheeze and he took the excuse to cough (hoarse, hacking) and look away from Derek's tight concern. Because that's all Derek ever had for him: concern, impatience or outrage when John didn't look out for his wellbeing and not-so-deep down, John thinks he had known.

He’d known as soon that terminator stepped up to that porch.

Stupid, stupid, stupid....

John pushed off of Derek's chest, cheeks flushing red, and made a break for his room.

There's no way Derek and Cameron couldn't have seen. He doesn't know how he's going to explain, but hiding to regroup seemed like a good start.