Refuge (When it's cold outside) - John Legend

I pray for better days to come
I pray that I would see the sun
Cuz life is so burdensome
When everyday's a rainy one

Soft lips. That was all Sam could think about as she sat at her computer trying in vain to write a paper on ethics. Leaning back with an exasperated sigh, she closed her eyes and was transported back into that room-she could even smell the smell of alcohol permeating throughout the house.

"What was that for?" She'd asked when he finally pulled away, her cheeks flaming.

"It was a thank you for not forgetting and for feeling bad when you thought you did-and for feeling bad even though you had nothing to do with that stupid prank." Josh shrugged as if he were bad at explaining himself.

"Chris had nothing to do with it and I don't see you kissing him." Sam pointed out, wiping at her still damp cheeks.

"Well, remind me to kiss him later then." Josh replied grinning sardonically. Sam opened her mouth to say something else, but was cut off by the door to the room bursting open and a very drunk Emily stumbling inside.

"Sam! There you are-I've been looking all over for you." Not reading the situation at all, she threw herself down on the bed between Josh and Sam and slung herself over the blond's shoulders.

"Can we leave? I can't handle this. I can't believe Jess would do this!" She babbled tearfully as Sam patted her on the back. Emily rarely cried, in the five years that Sam had known her the girl had always been headstrong and usually preferred to lick her wounds in private, by herself. But here she was blubbering in front of not one, but two people. It was definitely time to get her out of there.

She looked helplessly over Emily's shoulder at Josh who smiled sheepishly at her and shrugged "We'll drive Jess and Ash home."

"Thank you Josh." Sam sagged with relief as she helped Emily out of the room and into her car.

After that Sam had driven a crying Emily home and had gone home to toss and turn all night with memories of the kiss.

It'd been two days since then and she hadn't spoken to Josh at all. In fact she'd hidden away in her room with excuses to everyone else about being buried in a pile of homework. While that wasn't completely false she had barely gotten anything productive done. Everytime she sat down to do homework she would start to think about the kiss and get completely sidetracked.

What frustrated Sam the most was the fact that she wasn't one of those girls. The girls who would let a guy overwhelm and fluster them so much that they couldn't even function.

"Can't focus huh?" A deep voice said from behind her and Sam whirled around to see Josh standing in the doorway to her bedroom.

"Did you climb in through the window…?" Sam asked, her cheeks burning as her eyes flicked over to the closed window.

"No I knocked on the door and your mom let me in, like a regular human being." Josh plopped himself down onto her bed "So, any reason that your thoughts are escaping you?" He grinned devilishly.

"No. No reason." Sam replied letting her temper get the best of her. It seemed that more and more of Josh's playful personality was coming back to him. She turned back to her computer and pretended to be reading over her paper.

"Really?" his voice was right next to her ear and she jumped, her head swivelling until she was looking straight into his face. Pulling back Sam stood and crossed the room, his closeness had flustered her.

"Uh-uh, nope. No. Josh you don't get to ignore me for two days after that." She shook her head as if to try and shake away her blush.

"I was just giving you time to mull over it Sam. I like you, thats what I didn't get to say before Emily burst in. I've never felt more comfortable with anyone before."

"I…" Sam looked at her feet "I don't want you to like me just because I've been your support ever since Hannah and Beth went missing."

Josh closed the gap between them and drew her in, pressing his soft lips to hers. Sam melted under his hands and after a few minutes he pulled away. "Do you think it would feel like that if I liked you just because you were kind to me?" he asked, sounding as breathless as she felt.

"No I don't." Sam finally replied not meeting his eyes "But I also don't want what happened to Hannah and Beth to be a shadow on whatever this is."

His brows came together with concentration as he tried to think of something to say, finally he places a finger under her chin and brought her eyes up to meet his. "I can't promise that it won't have anything to do with them. You know I can't. But we can try, right?"

Sam leaned into the warmth of his fingers, despite all of the things that could go wrong and the many ways that she could get hurt she stood on her tiptoes and

kissed him.


But suddenly there's no more clouds
I believe without a doubt
That heaven sent an angel down
And then she turned my life around

3 months later, June.

6 months since the disappearance of the Washington twins.

"Uhg it's so hot." Jessica complained as she rolled over in her patio chair. Everyone was at Josh's house spending the day by the ornate pool that rarely got any use.

"Then why don't you cool off?" Mike asked as he easily plucked her up from her table and sent her flying through the air until she landed in the pool with a splash. She came up sputtering and shrieking as everyone laughed.

"Mike you jerk!" She screeched as Mike cannonballed into the water splashing her as he did so.

Sam sat with Josh on one of the lawn chairs as they watched their friends rough house in the pool. Three months had gone by since they'd started dating and even though everyone around them had reacted differently it had been a blissful three months.

"Ash be careful!" Sam called as Ashley ran by screaming and giggling as Matt and Chris chased her around the pool.

"It's fine Sam! Don't get your bikini bottoms in a twist." Ashley called back as she dove into the pool.

Shaking her head Sam stood and turned to Josh "I'm going to go and get something to drink." She waggled her eyebrows at him before heading inside. When he appeared fifteen seconds later she grinned, "Glad you got my message."

"Mhm." He gripped her hips and brought her in to kiss her smiling mouth.

Looping an arm around his neck Sam squealed a little bit when he lifted her off of her feet into the air, "Stop that!" she laughed as they twirled around the kitchen.

The sound of approaching laughter brought them back to reality, with a sneaky look Josh pushed Sam into the hall and into the downstairs closet just in time as the entire group came in for refreshments.

"I thought Sam was getting something ready?" Sam heard Jessica's voice float through the door and she had to clap a hand over her mouth to keep from giggling as Josh peppered kisses up and down her neck.

"You know how to make yourself some lemonade Jessica." Emily's sullen voice followed as their voices faded.

"Why'd you shove me into a closet?" she asked when it was safe to talk again, "It's not like we haven't kissed in front of them before."

"Yeah but I can't do this in front of them." He shoved her up against the shelf and kissed her roughly, his tongue delving into her mouth.

"Oh yeah?" she finally gasped, looking up at him with heated eyes and nipping his lower lip. "What else can't you do in front of them?"

His answering grin was all that she needed.

Two hours later after they'd shooed their friends away they lay in Josh's bed. Sam traced patterns on Josh's collarbone as he slept. The bags under his eyes were still there, though not at bad, he would toss and turn at night plagued by nightmares and when he would wake up he wouldn't let her touch him.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" he muttered, surprising her, and his eyes fluttered open revealing their hazel depths.

"I always enjoy myself." she replied with a kiss to his chin.

"Okay I'm going to take a shower, we'll watch a movie when I get out." he sat up and pressed a quick kiss to her lips before rolling out of bed, Sam admired his form as the door shut.

Sam rolled over in bed and grabbed her phone as it chimed, she'd missed a call from Emily and had gotten several texts from Jessica. It turned out that the two got into a fight on their way out of Josh's and both wanted her to listen to their side of the story. Sam rolled her eyes and put her phone on the bedside table where it promptly slipped off and clattered to the floor.

Grumbling Sam leaned down to snatch her phone up off the ground but her eye caught the edge of a book on the ground peeking out from underneath the bed skirt. Curious she pulled it out and she saw Hannah's name scrawled on it with a date.

Sam ran her fingers over the cover of the diary, she hadn't seen this since before they'd gone to the Lodge. She would often see Hannah scribbling away in it.

Flipping open the diary at random she read:

October 29th

I really think Josh is doing better now that he's out of the hospital. I saw him today and he seemed better. He's pretty upbeat, but he talked like he's been doing therapy for such a long time. I guess I didn't know. Mom and Dad never let on. Funny how you can not even know your own brother. I kinda need a good cry thinking about how lonely he must feel...

Sam frowned with confusion, therapy? She hadn't heard about that. She remembered last year when Josh had been in the hospital for a while but everyone had been told he'd had surgery and was recovering.

A sick feeling filled Sam's stomach as she shoved the diary back under the bed when she heard the water turn off. When Josh emerged in a cloud of steam rubbing a towel on his hair Sam jumped guiltily.

"Everything okay?" Josh asked as he pulled on a pair of pajama pants. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Fine." Sam said trying to push her discovery to the back of her mind. It wasn't any of her business that Josh was in the hospital for mental illness… was it?

She tried to get the thought out of her mind but as she lay curled in Josh's arms that night she couldn't help but wonder, was there anything else she didn't know about him?

When it's cold outside
There's no need to worry cuz
I'm so warm inside
You give me peace
When the storm's outside
Cuz we're in love I know
It'll be alright
Alright it's alright


Author's Note:

Hello everyone! Sorry it's taken me so long to update, I will try to finish this story as fast as possible since there isn't too much left that I want to do. Sam/Josh relationship definitely developed quickly in this chapter-which was intentional since the time lapse helps move the story a long quite a bit. I will also be adding a smut fic for some of this time at a later date, I just didn't want to add it in to this story since I didn't want it to mess with the integrity of the story.

Additionally I got a couple of private messages about Jess's characterization which I totally get. I just think that Jess herself started out as a follower since that is how her and Emily became good friend (in my mind) and when she realized that she liked Mike she kind of threw that girl who would buckle under anything that Emily wanted out the window. She became confident and quite like another Emily in that aspect and it drew Mike to her. ANYWHO.

A few more chapters to come!

Please read & review!

-LittleMoonLover-