AN: Just a short drabble while I work on Room for One More

The easiest way to deal with a jam-packed schedule was a strictly-adhered-to routine, a lesson Jessica Moore had drilled in to her by her mother, so despite the cold weather, at half past eight on a Saturday morning, she was letting herself back into her dorm room after her daily run.

Her dorm-mate hadn't come home the night before, but Liz had been out with her boyfriend and left a cheery note on the door reading don't wait up x so Jess wasn't too worried.

Humming to herself, she stripped off her workout clothes and stepped into the small shower room. They were lucky to have one, rather than the standard shared bathroom of most halls, and she was grateful for it, but that didn't mean she couldn't get frustrated (and muscle cramps) by the way she needed to bend her body into inhuman contortions in order to get in to the shower, turn the water on, retrieve her body wash, use it, rinse off, turn the water off and step out again.

At least it wasn't as bad as it had been. Since moving in, Jess had become quite adept at the art of shower gymnastics.

Shivering in the cold air of the bathroom, she wrapped a towel around her body and poked her head out of the door, just in case Liz had come back and she hadn't heard.

Not that it would have been a huge problem if she had, but Jess had a policy of not being naked in front of people she wasn't a) related to or b) planning on sleeping with.

Anyway, the dorm was still empty so she relaxed and got dressed again, mentally running through her schedule.

Today was a bit strange. Usually, she would devote the morning to one area of study and the afternoon to another, or split the two into however many areas she needed to focus on that day, but she had just finished one large assignment, so the only area she needed to focus on was 'professional nursing practice', something she was already very comfortable with.

"Stick to it." She muttered to herself, bending forwards to rub her hair dry with the towel. "You start taking days off, you'll never stop."

There was a knock at the door and she tipped her head back, still soaking up the excess water. "Just a second, I'm not decent."

"Bullshit." A male voice answered. "You finished your run twenty minutes ago, so you should be showered and dressed by now. Your hairdryer's broken, isn't it?"

Jess rolled her eyes, recognising her visitor, and pulled open the door. "Fuse finally gave up yesterday, triggered the lights. RA wasn't happy."

Brady grinned at her. "So I was right."

"Don't make fun of me." Jess pouted. "How was Thanksgiving?"

Brady shrugged, leaning against the doorframe. "Same old. Dad yelled, Mom cried, Jackie got high. Yours?"

Jess shrugged, mimicking his pose. "Pretty much the same, without the dad or the sister. Oh, and Mom didn't cry, just lectured."

"On what?" Brady asked curiously.

"Anything." Jess said with a sigh. "Everything. Whatever crossed her mind that day. Don't smoke, don't drink, don't do drugs, don't go out too much in case something happens, don't stay in too much because it's not good for you, don't get pregnant, don't make her wait too long to be a grandmother …"

Brady smirked. "More than a couple of contradictions in there."

Jess shook her head with a fond smile. "That's my mother." She crossed her arms. "Now are you going to tell me what you're doing here at nine o'clock on a Saturday morning or do I have to guess?"

Brady grinned and beckoned at someone behind him. "This is Sam. Sam Winchester."

Jess straightened up subconsciously, her gaze landing on the tall (very tall) guy loitering behind Brady, giving her an almost bashful smile. "Hi."

"Just thought you two should meet." Brady said breezily, with a grin. "I've got to go to work, see ya!" "Brady!" They both shouted, as he took off down the corridor with a laugh.

"I'm so sorry." Sam said. "He dragged me out this morning, didn't tell me where we were going or …"

Jess held up a hand, cutting him off. "It's not your fault, Sam. I'm Jessica, by the way, since he didn't bother introducing me."

"Nice to meet you." Sam said with a smile. "I'll … er … Do you happen to know how to get back to the East campus? I haven't needed to come this way yet."

Jess hesitated, tossed her towel on to one of the chairs and mentally scrapped her schedule. "Buy me a coffee on the way and I'll walk it with you."

Sam's face lit up in a truly genuine, beautiful smile.

Years later, Jess would pinpoint that moment as the moment she began to fall in love with him, but right now, she just grabbed her keys and jacket, and accompanied him down the hallway and to the stairwell.

"I knew there had to be stairs." Sam commented. "Brady didn't seem to think there were any."

Jess snorted. "Brady takes any excuse not to move." She said. "But the alternative's not a good idea."

"Getting into an elevator alone with a guy you've only just met?" Sam asked, understanding tinting his voice where most men would have been insulted.

Jess gave him a smile. "Well, that too." She said. "But I was talking about the fact that the elevator breaks down at least once a week. The girls in the dorm next to us were stuck in there for two hours last Saturday."

"Okay then." Sam said, giving the elevator doors a wary glance on the way out of the building. "He didn't mention that."

Jess laughed, doing up her jacket as they stepped out into the cold. "How do you know him?"

"We live in the same building, a few rooms apart." Sam answered. "You?"

"He's pre-med, I'm nursing." Jess explained. "We've had a couple of joint lectures. We're friends, but it is a bit out of the blue for him to turn up like that."

"I think he's hung-over." Sam admitted. "He's been acting a bit … loopy ever since he got back from break."

Jess frowned. "I hope his family didn't push him too hard. What about you? Did you have a good Thanksgiving?"

Sam shrugged. "It was alright. I picked up a couple extra shifts at work."

"You didn't go home?" Jess asked.

"My family isn't exactly the 'Thanksgiving' type." Sam said.

There were about five hundred unspoken things in that sentence alone, but Jess let them go. "Where do you work?"

"I bus tables at the Biggerson's about ten minutes from campus." Sam answered. "It's not exactly fun, but it's a job. I got a full scholarship so …"

"What are you studying?" Jess asked as they reached the snack cart.

"Pre-law." Sam answered. "How do you take your coffee?"

"You don't have to …" Jess began.

Sam gave her another gorgeous smile. "I know. Cream and sugar?"

"Just a little bit of cream." Jess said, relenting. "Three sugars."

Sam took his with hazelnut creamer and four sugars, and smiled sheepishly when he caught her eye. "My brother used to moan when I ordered coffee like this so I'm taking advantage of his absence."

Jess giggled. "So would I. Brother?"

Sam nodded, his smile fading slightly. "Older brother. Dean."

Once again, something in his voice told her that they'd ventured into rough waters, so she returned to the last safe topic. "So pre-law? How'd you decide on that?"

"I wanted to help people." Sam answered, almost predictably. "And it's always interested me."

"Do you know what kind of law you want to go into?" Jess asked. "My mom always wanted me to go into criminal law, prosecuting, not defending, but it never really caught me."

"No idea yet." Sam admitted. "I'm quite interested in family law though."

That was interesting, given his obvious reluctance to talk about his own family, but maybe that was why. "I had a friend whose parents divorced when she was fifteen." She said thoughtfully. "And she said that if their lawyer wasn't nearly as nice, she would have had a much harder time of it."

"Kids always get screwed over." Sam agreed quietly.

"Speaking from experience?" Jess asked curiously.

"No." Sam answered. "My mom … my mom died when I was a kid. Fire."

Jess grimaced. "Sorry. I lost my dad when I was younger."

They shared a brief moment of silent solidarity, before Sam steered the conversation back to safety once more. "So where'd you grow up?"

The conversation didn't lag once and if Jess noticed the moment when Sam could probably find his way home by himself, she didn't say something and neither did he.

When they reached his building, he thanked her for the walk, she thanked him for the coffee, and they parted ways, her phone number scribbled on a slip of paper in his pocket, a number that he called not even an hour later.

On Monday morning, Jess walked into her first lecture and took a seat beside Brady.

"You're a dick."

"Am I?" Brady asked innocently. "Because I could have sworn Sammy had a date last night."

Jess refused to grant him a response, her lips still tingling from the goodnight kiss Sam had bestowed upon her the night before.

"Admit it." Brady sang. "You like him."

Jess smiled softly. "Yeah, I do. Thank you for introducing us." She turned away to greet another friend and he allowed himself a cruel smirk behind her back

"Oh, don't worry." He said, blackness creeping into his eyes. "The pleasure was all mine."