I love Sam's character and the idea for this story just came to mind, so I thought I'd give it a shot… hope someone likes it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural.

When it comes

Sam Winchester shouldn't have listened to his brother and followed him inside that cheap, squalid bar. The air was stale because of smoke, most of the people inside looked shady and dangerous and he could feel an headache forming already.

Before he could stop his brother, Dean had already ordered two beers and was looking at the pool tables, trying to decide who to play against. "Sam, what do you think? Those two look dumb enough." Dean said, pointing at the pool table on the left, where two middle aged men looked drunk already, although it was just nine in the evening.

"I don't know, Dean, I don't feel like playing, I just want to get back to the motel." Sam replied, rubbing his temples.

"Come on! We could make some easy money!" Dean insisted, looking around to see if he could spot a pretty girl, which was quite unlikely, in that place.

Half an hour later Dean was still pestering him and Sam had to give up. The two of them played against the middle aged men they'd seen before, and they won. The men, Marty and Joe, were very pissed, and Sam was glad the place was crowded.

"Nice game, Sam."

He turned and looked at the girl standing in front of him. She was tall, not just because of the heels she was wearing, and she had dark hair and blue eyes. She was quite pale, too, and for a moment Sam didn't recognize her. Then, he smiled: "Soph! Hi! I didn't recognize you... you look different!"

She smiled. "Must be the hair."

Sam remembered she used to be blonde, but now her long locks were dark brown. It didn't look like her natural color though. "Dean, this is my friend from Stanford, Sophia Carter. Soph, this is my brother, Dean."

She didn't acknowledge the fact that Sam had never mentioned he had a brother and he was glad for that. "Hi, Dean, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too." Dean grinned. Sam knew that grin all too well and elbowed Dean slightly. He understood and left the two of them alone.

"How come you're here?" Sam asked. "I mean, this place's kinda..."

"Shady, I know. I'm here with some friends." She pointed to two guys and one girl near the counter. "You look great, Sam."

"You look great, too, just different." He realized she had never dressed that way before. She had never liked such mini skirts or that kind of very low-cut tops. "How's college going?" he asked, cause he didn't know what else to ask. They had never been best friends or anything, but they knew each other because they often went to the same places in town, when Sam was still at Stanford.

"Good. My last year, so it's kind of different." Sophia seemed to want to avoid the question. "Did you apply for law school?"

"Not yet. I'm just taking some time off, after..." he wanted to say "After Jessica's death", but he couldn't. Sophia knew what he meant right away and started talking about something else. Sam was feeling much better than when he'd first stepped foot into the place, he felt like a part of him was at home. It was easy to get along with Sophia, and it didn't look like she wanted to reach her friends anytime soon, so they ordered some drinks and chatted for a long time.

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"Sam, wake up! I'm going outside to have breakfast!"

Dean's loud voice was so annoying. Especially in the morning. Especially after having a few drinks the night before and going to bed so late.

Sam took a shower to try and fully wake up, but he still felt miserable when he reached his brother at the nearest Starbucks and ordered some coffee. Dean had the laptop open in front of him and Sam was appreciating the quiet, till Dean started speaking: "What's going on with you and the hot girl of last night, huh?"

"Nothing."

"Did she study law as well?"

"No. She's still studying, I don't remember what."

"Alright, you don't wanna talk, fine." Dean closed the laptop. "I haven't found anything about supernatural events in this area, are you sure about your dream?"

Sam nodded. Dean and him were in California because Sam had had one of his premonition about a week before, but it had been very unclear. It looked like a poltergeist or something and it was attacking people, but Sam didn't remember their faces. He wasn't even sure it was happening in Palo Alto, but he had the feeling he had to come back to the town where his college was.

"Fine. Hey, why don't you ask your friend if she knows of something strange happening 'round here?"

Sam stared at his brother like he was nuts. "Okay."

"You could ask her to go out with you as well while we're here."

"Dean. Seriously. Stop it."

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"Stop it, Jake!"

"Come on, Sophia! Why don't you give me a chance?"

"I told you a thousand times I don't wanna go out with you." Sophia sighed into the phone. "See you in class." She hung up and closed her eyes. She was feeling lonely. Meeting Sam after all the months that had gone by without him had affected her deeply. No one knew, but Sam's absence had taken its toll on her. Sure, he was dating Jessica Moore when he was still in college and he didn't even know she existed, but she liked him so much. When he had left, she'd felt so crushed. She'd tried to change because she wanted to be happy and she wanted to fix all that was wrong in her life.

But she couldn't.