Illusions
AN: Another Supernatural hiatus writing challenge from my tumblr. Enjoy!
"Can I see it again, Jess?"
"Jeez, Nat, that's like the fourth time today," Jess teased, grinning. She held out her left hand across the table and her younger sister gazed down in awe at the engagement ring. The small diamond sparkled under the light.
"So pretty."
Jess beamed. "Thanks!" Her hand retreated back to handling the fork.
"Can I try it on?"
"No ma'am," Mrs. Moore jumped in quickly. "She just got it, let her enjoy it for a while."
"Don't worry, Natalie, I'm sure you'll get one of your own someday," Sam said.
"Oh I know, but it won't be for a long time," Natalie spoke with confidence. "I have big plans."
"Harvard won't know what hit 'em." Mr. Moore chuckled, taking a sip of beer from his pint glass.
Sam smiled as he took in his soon to be family. They were sitting around the table, Jess on his right, her sister Natalie across from them, and Mr. and Mrs. Moore at opposite ends. He had only been at the Moore house for two days but it already felt like a lifetime. They were caught up in a whirlwind of excited phone calls and visits from several of Jess's friends. Sam didn't mind though. How could he? Her face lit up every time someone mentioned the engagement. She enthusiastically introduced him to everyone. If Jess was happy, then Sam was happy.
Dinner came to an end and Mr. Moore offered to take their empty plates. The five of them made small talk, some of wedding plans, others of what lay ahead for the young couple at Stanford. Sam told them all about how he passed his LSATs with flying colors, which would lead him to a top notch law school, while Jess looked on with pride in her eyes.
They retired to the living room. Natalie cuddled up next to Jess on the larger couch while Sam took the recliner, Mrs. and Mr. Moore settled in on the love seat.
"Hey, Sam," Natalie piped up. "How did you and Jess meet again?"
"Through their friend Brady," Mrs. Moore supplied, then looked to her oldest daughter for confirmation. "Right?"
Jess and Sam shared a glance and neither of them could stop the growing smiles.
"Yes, but actually, there's an interesting story behind that," Sam said.
She laughed. "Oh gosh, it's so silly."
Natalie sat up. "What happened?" She asked with excitement.
"Okay, so, when I first started school I went to this frat party with my roommate. Sort of like a 'Welcome to Stanford' thing," Jess began.
"I think I know where this is going," Mr. Moore teased.
"I had a few beers but my roommate was just completely wasted. Luckily we lived pretty close to the frat house so I had to drag her drunk ass back home. Well after everything was said and done and she was laying down, she kept saying how she wanted chips, right? Of course, we don't have any. But she was so persistent that I went out to get a bag just to shut her up. And I knew there was a tiny grocery store between the dorm and the party. So who should be behind the counter but Sam."
"I was about to shut down for the night and count my register because it was past ten so the store was technically closed. No one else was in the store and my manager was...doing something, I can't quite remember now," Sam jumped in. "But this girl seriously needed a bag of chips. I believe her exact words were, 'My drunk roommate won't shut up about goddamn chips. Please, I just need anything, I promise I'll be quick'."
Jess laughed. "And Sam, ever the chivalrous young man, showed me where they were, walked me back to the front, and as I was in the middle of paying for it the overhead lights turned off."
"What!" Natalie giggled.
"Yeah! So I checked my phone to call my manager, who had apparently thought I had already left? I'm not sure what he thought. But of course my phone was dead, Jess's phone was dead, the lights were off and the automatic sliding doors were locked. And I didn't have a key because my manager always closed with me."
"So you waited all night in a grocery store until someone let you out the next morning?" Mrs. Moore said incredulously.
"Fortunately no, just a few hours. Sam finally got in touch with his manager through the land line. Oh my god, do you remember what time that was?" Jess said.
"Two a.m.," Sam said. "His phone was off I think."
"Wow that's uh...different," Mr. Moore said, chuckling and shaking his head.
"We introduced ourselves, talked for a while, and that was that. Until fate brought us back together."
"Someone definitely thought we should see each other again," Sam nodded. "Brady thought we were out of our minds for dating so quickly but it just felt...right."
Jess smiled. "Absolutely."
The living room was serene and peaceful to Sam, like he could lay in that recliner until the end of time, watching his gorgeous fiance and her family. In fact, he could drift away, become lost in the deep blue depths of her eyes forever...
The front door burst open with a bang and Sam heard his name being shouted.
"Sam! Sammy!"
"Dean?" Sam came back to himself and launched out of the chair. "What the hell are you doing here? I thought you were at Mom and Dad's-"
A disheveled Dean rocketed around the corner from the kitchen, Sam halting halfway to meet him, and Dean pulled his little brother in for a life crushing hug.
"Oh god, Sam, stay with me. Come on man, open your eyes," Dean pleaded, clutching at Sam's shirt collar, holding his face between his hands. Sam tried to push him off.
"Dude, I'm fine, quit!"
"Is everything okay, Dean?" Jess asked. Her brows were knit in confusion. She and the rest of her family rose from their seats in concern. Jess hesitantly walked over to the brothers but Dean never acknowledged her presence, never spared her a glance. His gaze was locked intently on Sam.
"We gotta go, come on, Sammy," Dean muttered.
"What-no, no way, I just got here, you know that."
"Wake up man, whatever you're seeing, it's not real."
"What are you talking about?"
"Sam?" Jess placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't listen to him. You can stay here."
Sam glanced back and forth between Dean and Jess, whom Dean still had not said a word to. It was like she was completely invisible to him.
Something was off.
"Dean, why haven't you said anything to Jess?" Sam said. He grabbed her hand and held on tight, dreading what his brother would say.
"We have to get out of here, it'll be back any minute," Dean said, and kept repeating the same mantra, one hand clutching Sam's shirt.
"Sammy," Jess whispered in his ear. She nuzzled his neck and kissed his cheek. "You have a choice. Please. Be with me."
Sam shut his eyes, tears welling behind them. She stepped in front of Sam and stood next to Dean.
"This isn't real," Sam's eyes opened. The tears were coming now, fast, as realization struck. "Is it?" His voice cracked.
"It can be if you want it."
Sam wanted it so bad, she had no idea. She had no clue how much his heart ached for her every single day. She would never know how he agonized over her, how if he had gotten home a few hours sooner, she would still be around, in the real world.
She wouldn't have burned to death on that ceiling.
"Not like this," he whispered painfully. Sam took one last look at the woman he loved, placed his hands behind her neck, and kissed her. Longingly and full of passion that he was certain he would never again feel with anyone else. "I'll see you in another life."
When Sam stirred he was lying face up in the backseat of the Impala, her engine roaring, dust flying as it sped away. He was still crying. He couldn't stop.
A few minutes passed before the car was pulled over. He didn't move as Dean turned off the engine and leaned over to check on him.
"Shit, Sam, you okay?"
"She was there, Dean," Sam's voice wavered. He couldn't bring himself to stare anywhere except the roof. "She was right there."
"Who?"
"Jess."
Dean was silent. Everything around them was quiet except for the occasional passing car. "Sammy, I'm so sorry."
"It was the djinn, wasn't it?"
"Yeah. I got one of 'em. No idea where the other one ran off to. But we'll track that son of a bitch down tomorrow and shank its ass."
"How long was I gone?"
"A day, maybe two."
Sam didn't reply right away. He only nodded. The tears were subsiding but his heart continued to pound wildly. He almost stayed. He could feel the pull of the djinn's poison working him over to make him want to be with her. He knew later he would regret ever thinking this but there was a part of him that wished he had given in. After everything he and Dean had been through, seen, sacrificed...Why not end on a happy note?
But she wasn't real. She was a hallucination caused by the creature's poison. And if he was ever going to see his Jessica again someday, he would rather it be in heaven, when it was his time, right next to his parents and Bobby and Jo and Ellen and everyone else that died for the Winchesters.
"Come on," Dean said. He turned back around and started up the Impala. "Let's get back to the motel. We'll regroup and order some food. Sleep for now, I'll wake you up when we get there."
And Sam didn't argue. As the car drifted back on to the road, his eyes closed once more, and he allowed his mind to roam over the blissful memories of his Jess.