Sarah Connor

She's only been in the clinic for hours and the only battle wound she has is a new IV puncture -- one to add to the collection -- but she feels like an idiot. She used to be taken down by far more than a little side-effect, but something's wrong with her system and her body shuts down on her. She doesn't know when this happened, but Sarah fears it's just one more domino in a cascading series where her life is slowly being pried from her and the battle has been reduced to her white and red cells.

She's asked Neil to get Cal. If she's going to get escorted home, she's going to get the stubbornest. Once there, the new pup will do his damnedest to watch out for her -- Sarah's been training him for exactly that purpose. Now, she sits at the end of the bed, her wig settled perfectly on her head. She wants something to fight and she keeps losing.

When she hears footsteps, she looks up and keeps her eyes on Cal as he enters. Maybe there's another purpose for her request. After all, she's still not sure how he's coping with the fallout from his accident. She wants the damn spider in front of her so she can shoot it dead. "Hi," she greets him, head tipped to one side as she starts to collect her things to leave.

Another year has passed. It should be an event that Sarah barely notices, but with a finite number of years, she's started to look at them as more precious than ever. She's thirty-five now, and she'd indulged in her moment of severe guilt and self-loathing at the fact that the male company she's been keeping nowadays is definitely not that number.

Still, she's never been a conventional sort of woman before. On the heels of her discussion with Sookie and a choice still unmade, Sarah finds her way to Cal's place, lingering outside the door once she arrives. In the end, it will be her choice, but she finds some kind of comfort in at least acknowledging that there are other people who care about her enough that she should seek out a treatment instead of simply letting all those years fade away.

The problem is that she's felt awkward around him since the clinic and after the business with Cook, she feels about a thousand times stranger for it. Thirty-five years old and she's got no damn clue how to cope with regular human interaction -- not that this place makes it any easier.

Still, she has to try sometime.

She bolsters her courage and lifts a hand to the door to knock firmly. "Cal," she calls out. "It's just me."

Judgment Day has come and passed and the sky still holds, not lit with fire, and every human being remains free. It brings Sarah a kind of relief in that she knows that the fight is continuing at home and maybe, just maybe, it means they've succeeded. It also means that Sarah has nothing left to fight here unless something shows up.

Correction -- she has nothing to fight but the disease inside her body, threatening to take her apart and render her weak. Ellie is gone, now so is George. It's been weeks since she's seen anyone and she's been starting to feel dizzy and weak. Her appetite is gone, she can't sleep, and she spends most of her time feeling like she's weak. She knows that she should see someone, but her trust has already been eroded by two disappearances.

She doesn't even want to consider a third.

Still, it's one of those days where even she and her stubbornness can't make it to the Winchester. She hopes that Neil doesn't mind too much, but she's confined to bed, staring at the ceiling as her thoughts turn to home and John. Her John, her baby boy. He must have stopped the end days from coming or at least pushed it off. No matter what's happened, she knows that she can be proud. Even if she won't be around to see the majority of the battle, she knows he's ready.

She lets out a small sound of effort as she sits up, hand to her forehead, and thinks about trying for some food. It's been a full day since she's even attempted, but she hasn't been anywhere near hungry enough. Maybe it's a symptom -- maybe she'd know if she would only see someone, but her stubbornness prevents her from taking on anyone new.