Author’s Note: This is a fanfic for the show Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It takes place directly after Season 2 Episode 8, ‘Mr. Ferguson is Ill Today’, and before Season 2 Episode 9, ‘Complications’. It was written for a challenge over on the livejournal community Spanking_World.
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of these characters, and I’m not making any money from this story.
Warnings: Non-consensual disciplinary spanking of a teen by his uncle.
Show Recap: For those of you that didn’t watch or don’t remember the show, here’s a recap of the events in the show that pertain to my story. Fifteen year old John Connor and his mother Sarah go through a time portal and jump about ten years into the future. They go with a female terminator named Cameron who was sent by future John to protect teen John. A few episodes later they find Derek Reese, who has also been sent back by future John. Sarah and John both know that Derek is John’s biological uncle, but they don’t tell him that. Near the end of season one, on John’s sixteenth birthday, Derek tells John that he knows Kyle is his father, because he sees Kyle in John every day.
Memories of the Future
Derek watched John comfort Sarah after her meltdown. It was difficult for Derek to take John at face value. He either saw hints of a young Kyle, or hints of Commander John Connor, in everything that teenage John did. On rare occasions like this one, he saw hints of both in the same moment, which was quite disconcerting.
Derek was pulled out of his musing when Ellison’s car started. At the sound of the car, Sarah forced herself to stop crying, and let go of her son. She patted his arm, wiped her face, and said, “Finish burying the body.”
John nodded, and went back over to help Derek and Cameron.
Instead of helping to fill the hole, Derek kept staring at John. When the kid’s eyes darted up to his for a second, the expression of guilt mixed with defiance on John’s face was all Kyle. When Derek saw that look, a memory crawled up from the recesses of his brain. His eyes opened wide with shock when he realized exactly what that memory meant, and an idea started to form in his head.
Derek had been thinking about John’s behavior during the entire drive to Mexico. Cameron had given him the full story during the trip, and then she’d asked him why John had lied to her about Riley. Derek had muttered ‘teenage hormones’ to shut her up, and then tried to figure out the real answer to her question.
He hadn’t been able to reconcile John’s behavior today with the behavior of his future commanding officer. Teenage hormones could explain a lot, but this was too much. John knew his life was constantly in danger, and he knew better than to take off for the day without telling his mom where he was going.
Derek had seen adult John put his life in danger a couple of times, but only as a last resort to help them win the war when no one else was available. He’d never seen adult John do something so completely selfish, and he’d never seen the man do anything detrimental to their cause. He had seen adult John do things he didn’t understand, but those things had always ended up furthering their position in the war with the machines.
Derek also hadn’t been able to reconcile John’s behavior with the behavior of his little brother Kyle at sixteen. Kyle had been reckless at times, but never for selfish reasons, only to help others. He’d been an exceptional soldier. He followed orders, and he always did his best to get the job done. But at sixteen Kyle had a couple of years of combat under his belt. Sixteen-year-old John didn’t.
John wasn’t an adult in this time, and he wasn’t a soldier with years of battle experience. He was a teenager with a little bit of weapons training, and the weight of future deeds on his shoulders. He was much more like thirteen-year-old Kyle than sixteen-year-old Kyle, and unfortunately for John, Derek knew how to get thirteen-year-old Kyle to obey orders.
Coming to a decision, Derek set his shovel down, and got the car keys out of his pocket. He handed them to Cameron, and caught Sarah’s eyes. “This is taking too long. We need to stay in front of the cops. There’s a town five miles ahead. You and Cameron should go ditch this car, and get us a new one to cross the boarder with. John and I will finish up here.”
Sarah nodded in agreement. She needed a task to focus on anyway. It would help her get past the panic she’d been feeling over the past few hours. She gestured to Cameron and said, “Come on.”
Cameron dropped her shovel, and followed Sarah to the car that Cromartie had been using. It was riddled with bullet holes, but it still ran fine. The two got in, and left.
While the car dove away, Derek turned his attention back to John. Instead of picking his shovel back up to help, Derek went over to the little outcrop of rocks that they were using as a landmark, and sat on the highest point.
“John.”
John glanced at him with his eyebrows raised.
“Come here for a minute.” Derek motioned him over with a crooked finger. “We need to get a couple of things straight.”
John scowled, and scooped up another shovel full of dirt. “I don’t need a lecture from you, too. Mom already yelled at me in front of Riley and Ellison.”
“John.” Derek said again, with mild disapproval. He suspected that would be enough to get John moving, because it would have been enough for Kyle.
A defeated sigh came out of John’s mouth, and he tossed the shovel to the ground. He stuck his hands in his pockets, kept his eyes down, and went to sit next to Derek on the rocks.
Derek kept his eyes on the partially filled hole, and said calmly, “You were really irresponsible today. I’m sure it’s hard for you to fully understand how important you’re going to be to the survival of the human race, and I know it’s not fair to put that burden on your shoulders when you’re still a kid, but it’s an inescapable part of your future.”
“I know,” John muttered. “Trust me I know, and if I ever forget, Mom’s right there to remind me.”
“In a few years, you’re going to be commanding an army, and the decisions you make are going to mean the difference between life and death for the men who follow you. If you’re not there to make those decisions.” Derek shook his head. “Well I’m not going to let that happen.”
“It’s not like a have a death wish! I just wanted to have one day off. One day to hang out with a girl and be a regular teenager.”
“Tell that to the men who got killed today.”
“That’s not fair,” John whispered. He took his hands out of his pockets, and gestured to the hole. “How was I supposed to know that today would be the day Cromartie would find us?”
“That’s the point, John. Every day could be the day your life is in danger. That’s why you never get a day off, and that’s why you never go to Mexico for the day without telling any of us your plans.”
John’s shoulders slumped, and he picked at a spot of dirt on his jeans. “Fine, you made your point. I screwed up. It won’t happen again. Can we get back to work now?”
Derek shook his head. “When Kyle was thirteen he tried to take a day off, too.”
“Yeah? What happened?” John loved to hear stories about his dad, and he was happy to get the focus off himself.
“We’d been living in a huge underground military bunker for months.” Derek turned to John with a smile and said, “Your bunker.”
John smiled back at him, and Derek saw adult John in the expression. Derek cleared his throat and stared off into the distance while he told the rest of the story. “It was your base of operations, and there were so many people there that we felt safe for the first time in a long time. Most days I got assigned to go on small supply runs with other young adults, while Kyle got assigned jobs inside the bunker with the other kids. He had friends his own age for once, and he was happy. But because he felt safe and had friends, he didn’t take his assignments as seriously as he should have.”
“About three months after we arrived, he was assigned to kitchen duty. It was his least favorite job, but they kept the kids on a rotation, so he only had to do it once every couple of weeks. I don’t know what was going through his head, but one day he just decided not to do it. Instead of showing up in the kitchen, he joined one of the gardening crews for the day, which happened to be his favorite job. Halfway through the morning while I was getting briefed on my next job, I was notified that Kyle was missing. The kitchen staff had noticed that they were one helper short, and complained to the children’s duty officer. He eventually figured out which kid was missing, and tracked me down. It took us over an hour to find Kyle, because he’d used a friend’s name to sign in.”
Derek glanced at John, and said, “Ten people lost an hour of work searching for him, just because he didn’t want to do the job he was assigned. Not to mention I spent an hour panicking.”
John frowned, thinking about how worried his mother must have been when she found him gone today.
Derek said, “When we finally found him, I was so relieved that all I could do at first was pull him into a hug, and thank God he was safe. Then when I let go of him, and asked him what had happened, he gave me the exact same look that you just gave me a few minutes ago. The look that says you know you did something wrong, and you’re sorry you got caught, but you’re not actually sorry for what you did.”
Frustrated with the comparison Derek was making, John scowled. “You don’t know what I’m sorry for.”
Ignoring the comment, Derek continued, “When I saw that look, I shook him and yelled, ‘What the hell were you thinking?’” Derek sighed. “When Kyle saw how angry I was, he automatically apologized, but it wasn’t sincere. The duty officer who’d helped me search for Kyle, told us that we could have the rest of the day off, but I told him Kyle would report for kitchen duty immediately. I also told him to assign Kyle to the kitchen for the next week straight.”
John winced sympathetically, but agreed that it was an appropriate punishment.
“Then Kyle actually whined about it in front of everyone. He said it wasn’t fair of me to make him do any extra kitchen time, and that it wasn’t my call anyway.” Derek closed his eyes, and after a short pause of silence, he said, “I snapped. I grabbed his arm, told everyone we’d be right back, and pulled him down the hall a few feet to the bathroom. Before the door even had time to close behind us, I’d knelt down, pulled him over my leg, and started spanking him.”
John gasped in surprise.
Derek said, “Maybe that sounds harsh to you, but after the war started, everything in life was harsh. By the time Kyle was thirteen, spanking was a common method of punishment. Not just for kids, but for military personnel, too. A few smacks on the butt is a good deterrent, it doesn’t incapacitate the person who did something wrong, and doesn’t take up a lot of time or resources.”
An uneasy feeling formed in the pit of John’s stomach. His mom had spanked him before, but not for several years.
“I’d never spanked Kyle before that day, and I never had to do it again. I think the fact that I resorted to that particular punishment forced Kyle to realize how far he’d gone over the line, and that was enough to straighten him out, because he was usually a good kid who liked to follow the rules.”
Derek turned his full attention to John and said, “You’re usually a good kid too, John, but today you went way over the line.”
John saw determination in Derek’s face, and panicked when he realized why Derek had just told him that particular story. He attempted to jump out of his uncle’s reach, but Derek had anticipated that move, and grabbed him by the arm before he could escape.
Derek stuck a foot out to trip the kid, and John fell across Derek’s lap ungracefully. Derek quickly had John immobilized with a strong arm wrapped around his back to hold him in place.
“No, don’t!” John yelled.
Derek’s hand was already in motion, and he didn’t let the plea sway him. The first swat landed dead center on John’s backside, and the teen let out an indignant yelp. Derek kept his hand in motion, peppering his nephew’s behind with fast and furious swats.
“Ow! Derek, stop!” John bucked, pushed on the rocks with his hands, and kicked his legs to try and get himself off his uncle’s lap. Derek’s arm around his back kept him firmly in place no matter how much he struggled, and the swats kept coming.
“Oww! Derek, please!” He said after a few seconds. When he got no response other than the relentless smacks, John reached back to cover his butt with a hand, and yelled, “You have no right to do this to me!”
Derek paused and grabbed John’s wrist. He pulled the hand away from the target area, and held it under John’s stomach when he wrapped his arm back around the kid’s waist. In a heavily disappointed tone, Derek said, “John, you put yourself in danger by disobeying standing orders, and people died because of it. I have every right.” Derek waited a few seconds for his words to sink in.
John opened his mouth to disagree, but found he couldn’t. His eyes filled with guilty tears, and he hung his head.
When he felt his nephew’s body sag across his lap, Derek started spanking again, just as fast as before. This time John’s body twitched with each smack, but he didn’t struggle.
Silent tears ran down John’s face. For the next several seconds, Derek’s hand slapping the seat of John’s jeans was the only sound to be heard. The sharp bite of each smack quickly became intolerable. John’s legs started to kick involuntarily to get away from the pain. He yelled, “I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt!”
“I know,” Derek said while swatting, “which is why you need to follow orders from now on.”
“I will!” John’s breath hitched, and his voice cracked as he yelled, “Derek, I will! I promise!” When the swats didn’t stop, John cried, “I’m sorry!” and gave in to his tears.
When Derek heard the boy crying, he gave him ten more solid swats to drive the point home before he stopped. He gave John a few seconds to realize the spanking was over, and to calm down. Once Derek heard more sniffles than sobs, he said, “You will not leave the house again without telling your mother or me where you’re going.” He punctuated the statement with light slap to the aching bottom over his knee.
John grunted with surprise, and said tearfully, “I won’t! I swear I won’t!”
“You will obey your mother and me, so we can keep you safe.” Derek gave him another minor swat.
“Okay, I will!” John squirmed uncomfortably, and decided he’d better try to convince his uncle that he’d learned this lesson thoroughly. “You’re never going to have to do this again, Uncle Derek. I promise.”
Derek raised an eyebrow at the term ‘uncle’, but he believed the kid was sincere, and let go of John’s captured wrist. He helped the teen off his lap, and stood up next to him. John wiped at his face with his sleeves, and then put both hands on his ass to try and rub out some of the sting.
“Uncle Derek?” the older man asked.
“It seemed like a good time to be respectful,” John said unable to look his uncle in the face.
“Respectful, huh?” Derek said with a knowing smirk. “And you decided not to go with ‘Sir’?”
John gave him an embarrassed little shrug. “Yeah, well maybe it also seemed like a good time to remind you that we’re related.”
Derek pulled John into a quick hug. “I may have originally met you as my commanding officer, but now that I know you’re my nephew, it’s impossible for me to forget.” He put his hands on John’s shoulders, and held him at arm’s length. “You’re a good kid, and you’re gonna turn into a great man. A man Kyle would be proud of.”
“Thanks,” John said softly.
Derek nodded towards the shovels. “Ready to get back to work?”
John heaved a loud sigh. “I guess.”
They both picked up their shovels, and while they buried the body, Derek thought about the part of Kyle’s story that he hadn’t told John.
Kyle had broken down into tears and apologies within seconds, and after a short hug, Derek had sent him to apologize to everyone in the search party before going to the kitchen to work for the rest of the day. Then Derek had tried to report back to his own job for the day, only to find that the scouting team had left without him, and Commander John Connor himself was waiting for him in the debriefing room.
Derek had met John a few times, and they’d talked strategies once or twice, but they weren’t close. John stood up when Derek came in, and said, “I heard you had a rough day.”
Derek blushed, and said, “Kyle’s not usually like that Sir. I promise he’ll never do anything like that again. He’s normally…”
John held up a hand to stop him and said, “Reese, Kyle’s a kid. Kid’s make mistakes. It’s fine. That’s not why I’m here.”
John gestured to the table, and Derek noticed a bottle of whisky and two cups. Derek looked back at John, who smiled and said, “I thought maybe you could use a drink, and a friendly ear. I’ve seen you with Kyle. I know you love him. It couldn’t have been easy to spank him.”
Derek’s shoulders slumped with a mix of relief and embarrassment. “You heard about that?”
John opened the bottle and started to pour. “Word travels fast down here.” He handed Derek a glass, and took one for himself. He gestured to one of the chairs and said, “Sit down and relax for a minute.”
Derek sighed loudly, sat down, and sipped at the whisky. John sat down too, and silence settled between them for a few moments.
“He cried a lot,” Derek said with guilt.
“Most kids do when they’re in trouble,” John said with reassurance, “But that doesn’t make it easy to hear.”
After a long stretch of silence, Derek said softly, “He’s gonna hate me.”
John laughed. “No he won’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yeah, I do. My mom spanked me several times when I was young, and my uncle spanked me once. I never hated either one of them, not even when it was happening, because I knew I deserved it. I wouldn’t have said so at the time, but having someone around to call me on it when I messed up, gave me a sense of security that might have otherwise been lacking. Kyle won’t hate you, not even a little bit. Give him a hug and some reassurance tonight, and he’ll be good as new by tomorrow.”
Feeling somewhat reassured himself, Derek held his glass up in a toast, “Here’s hoping.”
Both men downed the rest of their drinks, and John put the lid on the bottle. “Alright soldier, back to work. Go help in the storage room for the rest of the day.”
Derek stood up, and said, “Yes, Sir, and thanks… for everything.”
John smiled, “No problem.”
# # #
Derek tossed the last shovel full of dirt on top of the deactivated terminator, and shook his head. Time travel was a tricky thing. How could adult John remember the spanking that Derek had just given him, before he even sent Derek back? But then how could John exist to send Kyle back, when he hadn’t even been conceived yet? How could Derek not remember that conversation with John the second he realized he was the kid’s uncle?
John saw the confusion on his uncle’s face, and said, “What?”
“Time travel messes with your head.”
John chuckled and said, “Tell me about it.”
Derek gathered up the shovels, and handed the kid a drink of water while they waited for Sarah and Cameron to come pick them up.
The End
Terminator Sarah Connor Chronicles pictures courtesy of Screencapped.net <
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