It wasn´t that Jessica Moore was particularly naive. She merely believed in the goodness of others, and above all others, her boyfriend, Sam. After all, how could a girl not trust her man when he protected her from drunken louts, and that was how they met? How could she not adore a man that opened doors for her, constantly wrote her little letters of love and gave her little gifts just because?

Yet, recently, her belief in Sam had begun to falter. It wasn´t that he stayed out until the early morning, received stange texts or phone calls, or even looked at other women when he was with Jess. It was the small things that she noted the absence of and were the reason she began to question her relationship. Sam kissed her passionately as he had done before, but he never embraced her these days. All his earlier notes contained the phrase I love you but now it never appeared, even though he still left her a message every morning before he went to class. They used to fall asleep in each other´s arms. Now, he would bid her goodnight, turn on his side away from her and promptly begin to snore.

Then there were the nightmares which Sam refused to talk about. Two nights a week he would awaken in the middle of the night, kicking and screaming, his forehead lined with beads of sweat. Once, he had even kicked Jess out of the bed during one of these episodes. When Jess would ask him about it, he would get angry and walk out of their apartment, slamming the door behind him. He would return a few hours later, calmer and apologise, and all would be the same as it was before. Jess learned quickly not to approach Sam about it and would retire to the couch during the nightmares, seeing as she wasn´t supposed to wake him. He would sometimes speak during the nightmares and the word which crossed his lips most often was the name Dean.

Once, she had dared to confront him about it over breakfast. Sam had merely buried his head deeper in the book he was reading but muttered his response. "Dean´s my brother." And with that, the matter was finished with, as far as he was concerned. Jess quickly concluded that whatever he was dreaming about, it had taken place during Sam´s childhood, but he never wanted to discuss the matter, only telling her he had a father and brother alive, his mother was dead and they had moved around a lot. Their father worked a lot, meaning Sam spent a lot of time alone with his brother since it was difficult to make friends with them being constantly on the move. Jess did find it strange that she had never met Dean, judging by the few comments Sam made suggesting they had been joined at the hip as youngsters. However, siblings can grow apart and that seemed to be the case with Sam and Dean. Jess never had any reason to question it.

Until the night he received the phone call which changed her entire world.

They were relaxing on the couch, Jess in Sam´s arms, watching Pretty Woman for the thousandth time because it was her favourite movie, when his phone rang in the bedroom. Jessica recognised that it was a different ringtone from the one he usually used for everyone else. Sam had to have programmed that particular number with a special ringtone, and that alone sparked alarmbells in Jessica´s head. It was some kind of stupid rock song, when Sam´s usual ringtone was a Maroon 5 song, something they had danced to on their first date together. He said he wanted to remember that day, and therefore refused to change it.

Sam untangled himself from Jess with lightning speed and then ran towards the bedroom, closing the door behind him and only then did he pick up the phone. Jess followed silently behind him and put her ear to the door. "Hi, babe. Why are you calling me so late?"

There was a moment of silence as the voice on the other end spoke. "Yes, I miss you too. I can´t really talk right now with Jess in the other room."

Another bout of silence followed. "Are you here in Palo Alto? Where are you?" Jess heard banging about as her boyfriend searched for a piece of paper and pen, found it and wrote down the address. "The Horse and Hound? Yes, I know where that is. I´ll see you there in fifteen minutes. I love you, too."

Jessica quickly ran to the couch and pretended to be immersed in the movie when her boyfriend emerged from their bedroom wearing jeans and a t-shirt, having worn pyjama bottoms earlier.

"Babe, Jake called. He is having some kind of problem with the new girlfriend and wants to talk it over. Is it okay if I go see him?"

Jessica realized at that moment she would have to employ her acting skills in order to fool her man. She feigned an air of indifference as she looked from the tv over to where Sam was standing. "Of course, you go help your friend."

Sam gives her a kiss on the lips and with that, he is gone.

Jess quickly dresses in whatever clothes she has handy and follows suit. Thankfully, Sam is on foot due to lack of transportation. Jessica takes her car and is therefore at the pub before her boyfriend appears. Inadvertently, the slut Sam is banging helped Jess, seeing as she picked a place she and Sam have frequented during their two years together. Jessica is surprised when she enters to see no women in the pub, only two drunks at the bar and two men playing pool in a corner.

Jessica sits in a dark corner where she will not be recognised and considers her options. She has every intention of confronting Sam but wants to see the evidence with her own eyes. She can´t believe her trusting, loyal boyfriend is cheating on her until it´s proved beyond the shadow of a doubt. Then Jess will confront them both and preferably kick that whore´s butt to the next life and beyond.

She is waiting impatiently for Sam and his bit on the side to waltz into the pub, preparing herself to do battle for the person she loves most in this world, when her attention is drawn to the two men at the pooltable. The taller one has just accused the smaller one of cheating. The one accused simply smiles, puts on his leather jacket, pulls up the collar and asks for his money. When the other one is about to refuse, Jess sees from the edge of her vision a shadow enter the pub. He walks up to the two men and promptly puts his arm around the smaller man . He says something to the loser which apparently deters him from any further pursuit of his rights. He hands over the money and departs. The newly arrived man then turns to the leather-clad one and returns his butter-wouldn´t- melt-smile with a smirk of his own.

It´s only when the two men step into the light that Jess recognises the taller one as Sam.

As she watches the two men interact, it suddenly dawns on her that Sam isn´t sleeping with some floozy at all. It´s another man. Does that mean he is gay? The flood of questions in her mind is quickly drained when she sees the shirt the other man is wearing underneath the jacket. It´s an AC/DC shirt. Suddenly, something clicks in her brain. Sam doesn´t like the band, but he´ll grin like an idiot when a song of theirs comes on the radio. Jess recollects Sam telling her about endless hours in the car with his family, listening to that band which was their father´s favourite. The man with Sam is too young to be his father. It couldn´t be...?

Jess is about to march over to Sam and give him a piece of her mind, but she is suddenly awed by seeing the two men interact with one another. She has never seen this side to Sam, who is laughing and joking, at ease with himself and his environment. Her boyfriend slips his hands around the other man´s waist and they rest there easily as the two men chat and Sam laughs at something the other man says. Jess can´t manage to tear her eyes away, even when she tries. There is something awe-inspiring about seeing the two together, the love which radiates between them. It´s as if time has fallen away and they are eternal. Jess has the feeling the two could not care less if the world would end at that moment, as long as they had one another.

She watches them for an hour, as they grab a table and order beers. She notes how Sam slaps the other man on the shoulder, the long glances of desire which pass between them. She swallows the lump of betrayal building in her throat.

Finally, after what seems to Jess like an eternity, the two men arise, pay the bill and head outside, Sam´s arm slung over his companion´s shoulders. Once outside, they exchange a heated kiss and head to a car parked in front of the pub, a black Chevrolet Impala. Jess runs to her car, parked only a few cars back, and pursues them at a distance. They head to an abandoned car park and Jess sees how the windows fog up, leaving no doubt as to what they are doing in there.

She drives home and begins to go through Sam´s stuff, searching for proof. At the bottom of the sock drawer, she finds a picture of Sam with the man from earlier. She finds another one in an old schoolbook, of a man balancing two boys on the front of a car, the Impala from earlier. The man, no doubt John Winchester, is wearing the jacket Dean wore tonight. There is no room anymore for doubt. Jess wants to scream, to cry, call her girlfriends, complain to her folks, but how can she when her boyfriend is fucking his brother. His own brother. Instead, she merely gathers Sam´s things and puts them away.

She is overcome by the sickening realization she is the bit on the side. She is nothing more than an extra on The Dean and Sam show. A thousand questions are flying through her brain. How did it start? She doesn´t want to imagine it, but it comes to her easily, how two lonely boys found love and companionship in one another. She wants to believe it was their youth which made them this fucked up, that their daddy did something to make them the way they are today. Yet, something within her rebels. What she saw tonight did not feel wrong at all. Perhaps in the end, it wasn´t about either Sam or Dean, or their father for that matter. It was all about love. Jess remembers something her grams told her before she passed away, that soulmates come in all shapes and sizes. Perhaps Sam had found his long before Jess entered the scene.

She puts on her nightclothes and curls up in their bed, soon falling asleep crying. She is awakened by Sam entering the bedroom and shedding his clothes. He is about to turn out his light and go to sleep when Jess turns to him and kisses him. Sam seems quite taken aback but indulges Jess. She allows herself to enjoy each caress, to glory in the feeling as he pushes into her again and again. They reach the peak together.

Jess falls asleep in Sam´s arms with a smile on her face.

She is up at the crack of dawn, getting dressed, packing some things into an overnight bed. She calls her friend Mia who allows her to stay with her for now, being the good friend she is, Mia accepts Jess´s explanation that she and Sam had a fight and need some time apart.

After having finished her packing, Jess is about to open the door to their bedroom when a stray sunray makes its way through the curtains, illuminating Sam´s etherally beautiful face. She returns to kneel beside the bed, kisses him one last time. He awakens slowly. "Jess?"

"Sss, it´s okay, babe. Go back to sleep,"

"I love you," Sam whispers before turning on his side away from Jess.

"I love you too," she whispers but Sam is already asleep. Jess knows it´s all a beautiful lie, one she can no longer participate in. She arises, goes out and closes the door on her past behind her.