fandomtownies | Imperial Junke Yard

Going from the depths of the jungle (rainforest really but who was counting?) to a much colder island wasn't exactly what John had had in mind when he'd run away from his mom after their fight. She was probably freaking out by now, tearing the jungle apart to find him, and if he hadn't still been sulky, John would have felt badly for jumping through that vortex-portal-thingy.

But...this felt right in a way that didn't even start to make sense to him, and he wandered around the island, gravitating eventually to the junkyard and the guy working there.

He stood off a ways, trying to scout the situation before jumping in. See? His mom would be proud. He was being careful.

Marcus would have known how to do this, Kyle thought. But Marcus wasn't here any more and this was something he needed to figure out on his own.

Something made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Had he caught a glimpse of something that his brain hadn't processed properly or was he simply paranoid? Either way, it made the hand concealed by the generator gravitate towards his gun. He was going to wait and see if he was right.

John became more alert as he realised the guy had stiffened. He glanced around, checking ways out first. "I'm not trying to sneak up on you," he said calmly. "Which is good cause I'd've done a bad job at it."

Kyle watched the kid make himself known. "You're pretty light on your feet," he said. "But you'd do better coming in from a different angle. Who are you looking for?" When the kids showed up in big numbers, they were usually looking for someone.

"Why do I have to be looking for anyone?" he asked logically as he came closer, peering to see what Kyle was working on. "What angle would you use?"

"Sometimes kids show up and there's usually a lot of them and they come looking for people they know." While keeping the kid in his sights, Kyle glanced around. "If you're fast, you can get in behind that pile over there and then come from near the ships without getting noticed." He'd tried it with Marcus plenty of times.

John frowned a little. He wasn't like everyone else. Wasn't that what his mom kept telling him?

He glanced from the entrance of the junkyard to the pile. "I don't know," he said doubtfully. "I'm pretty fast."

Kyle relaxed. He didn't seem like a threat. "You could do it. Well? Who are you looking for?"

"Depends," he replied, noticing as Kyle relaxed. "What's your name?"

"Kyle Reese. What's yours?"

Thousands of hours of drilling by Sarah allowed John to give a fake name without hesitation, but he still looked startled by Kyle's admission.

"John - Baum," he said. He knew without a doubt that he could never, ever tell Kyle Reese his real name. "I'm looking for you."

Kyle's expression fell. He rested his arm against his knee and looked at John in a new light. "You're looking for me?"

"Yeees?" John said, uncertain what that reaction meant. He couldn't know he'd run away from Mom, right? No, that was silly. Kyle Reese was in the future now which meant that John was in the future which meant that Kyle hadn't met Mom yet. Which was good cause he was really young and that would have been weird.

He pushed himself to his feet. "Okay. Right, okay." He needed a second. "No one's ever come for me before. You're my son?"

"I couldn't come before. I was too little." He frowned a little. That hadn't been what he'd meant to say. He lifted his chin as he looked up at Kyle. "Why are you surprised?"

"I've never met anyone I've thought about like that. That I've loved or liked like that, I mean. Like your...mom." That was so strange to say. "And it's hard to imagine raising a kid at home." Even though plenty of people did it.

"You're still pretty young," John pointed out a little doubtfully. "I mean, not that young or anything, but maybe you haven't met the right person yet."

...okay, that was weird to say to his dad. At least he wasn't talking about the future right? Good start, Connor.

It wasn't any less weird to hear it. "You're a smart kid. Do you know me? At home." John hadn't recognized him, but a person could change a lot in ten or more years.

"Everyone knows you," he replied. And - it was true. At home, he and Mom knew him. Or, well, John knew of him, but it felt the same sometimes.

"You're at an advantage because I don't know you at all." So he thought. He knew John better than most people did, but he hadn't - and wouldn't - make the connection between the boy in front of him and the man who would become his friend. "Go easy on me?"

John couldn't help smirking a little at the request. "Maybe," he said, the smirk turning into a grin. "Depends. What are you working on?"

"A generator," Kyle said. He crouched back down beside it, taking his eyes off John as a silent invitation to join him. "I don't know how to get it to work, so I'm trying everything until it does."

He moved around Kyle to get a better look, something in his shoulders relaxing just a little when he saw the gun. "What's broken on it?"

"I haven't worked that out yet either. Mechanics aren't really my thing." He grabbed the wrench and offered it. "The guy who was teaching me left."

John gave the wrench a look and reached past Kyle for a screwdriver. "Left or died?" he asked, sounding more blase about the question than an eight year old should.

Kyle looked over at him and let the wrench hang loose in his hand. "Both. He was from an earlier part of the timeline. I don't know why he left, but I know where he ended up."

With a nod, John leaned in to work on the generator. "Timelines are weird. You're going to school here, right?"

"Yeah. I graduate in a few months. I've been here for a long time. Coming here must be strange for you. It's a long way from home." He watched attentively at what John was doing.

"Mom's going to get mad at me for running off," John admitted, glancing up at Kyle then concentrating on the machine. After a moment, he reached for that wrench that had been first offered. "I think it's nice here."

"I'd get mad at you too," he admitted. "It's dangerous running off. It is nice here. The sky is usually blue, and the air tastes different." Kyle looked up. "It's dangerous though. You can't let your guard down, not even here."

"You can't get mad at me cause I came to see you," he argued instantly. He followed Kyle's glance up to the sky, wondering how much different the sky would be - after. He couldn't ask Kyle, but he'd remember. "What's dangerous here?" John corrected himself almost instantly. "What's more dangerous here than everywhere else?"

He realised after he said it that it might give away too much.

Kyle leveled a look at John that showed he knew something was going on. "How much do you know about Fandom?"

"You go to school here and there's a junkyard," John answered promptly.

"Anything can be here from any place and any time. There are universes where Skynet never happened, but there are universes where things as bad as the machines exist. There are good things here, and good people, but you have to be careful. Nowhere is ever entirely safe." Well now, didn't that sound familiar?

Focusing totally on the generator, John couldn't stop a little smile from forming as Kyle's words sounded so much like Mom's. Next thing he'd be telling John about fate.

The smile faded slightly as he realised that Mom wasn't there, and for the first time that he could remember, she wasn't nearby. He hoped she wasn't worrying. He didn't bother to set the wrench down as he turned to tackle Kyle in a tight hug.

He was caught by surprise by the hug, but as he did when Star caught him off-guard, he didn't flinch or react by lashing out. He let himself be caught in John's hug, confused by the ferocity of it. He returned the hug after a moment to recover. He had no idea what the hug meant to John, but then he didn't really know what it meant to himself either. "Uh, hey. It's okay. I won't let anything happen to you."

"I'm not afraid," John said quickly even if it was muffled against Kyle's shoulder for a moment before he sat back. "I'm - " he broke off, having no idea how to finish the sentence for a moment. "I'm ready to fight," he said finally, his jaw set and making him look much older than eight for the moment.

"You're allowed to be afraid. It doesn't make you less ready to fight." It was scary how much John reminded Kyle of himself only a few years ago. Even now, really. "You're going to go home after the weekend," if these things went according to the plan they usually went by, "and you're going to have to fight for your family and for everyone and everything you believe in. This weekend, I have it covered."

John had never really missed his dad. He knew his Mom did, and he missed the idea of having a dad, but he was pretty sure that was going to change now.

He nodded seriously. "But I could help. If you wanted, I could."

Kyle rubbed his chin. "You can help me fix this. Then we'll get something to eat. Then you're going to have to meet George. Tomorrow, you can show me how you shoot." Having a plan made it easier to think.

John's eyes lit up. Whether it was from the mention of food or guns, that was under debate. "What guns do you have? What kind of food. Who's George?" As he asked the questions in order of importance, he bent over the generator to start work again. "Just a little more."

"You'll see the guns." He didn't know yet if he'd show him the cache, but the guns he definitely would get his hands on. "I want you to try a hamburger. And George is my best friend. He's my roommate too, so he'll be in the room with us tonight. He's the kind of guy you can trust."

A worried look flashed over John's face. You couldn't trust anyone except family. Mom wouldn't approve.

"Do you have an extra fuse?" he asked.

Kyle dug around in the crate within reach and pulled out a fuse. He handed it to John. "What's wrong?"

"Mom says you can't trust anyone but family," he said, slipping the new fuse into position and tightening another bolt. "It'll start now."

He moved to clear everything out of the way. "Sometimes you make your own family." Kyle pushed himself to his feet and moved to start up the generator.

John scooted back out of the way, thinking hard though he was totally unconcerned about the generator starting. "I like that," he commented.

The generator was fueled up and started with a cough and a splutter. The important thing was that it was running. Kyle turned his head to grin at John. "You're going to like hamburgers even more."

Imperial Junke Yard - Saturday Afternoon

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