He woke with a start. Sitting up in bed, his heart was pounding and he couldn't breathe.

Looking at the clock, he noticed that he had about an hour before his alarm was to go off. He lay back down and began to think about his dream. One of the things that startled him was that this was a memory that surfaced whenever he wondered if he'd ever find his completing happiness. He hadn't had this dream in nearly a year. Why did it come back now?

He walked out to the balcony in sweats and a t-shirt towards a figure wrapped in a blanket standing out there watching the snow fall softly. He put his hand on the shoulder of the blanketed figure.

"What're you doing out here? It's 2:30 in the morning. Aren't you tired at all?"

"No, I'm too excited. I can't believe it. They won and gave me the best birthday present in my life. I'll remember everything about this weekend for the rest of my life."

"I'm glad that you had such a good time. Did you tell Mike yet?"

"No. I'll tell him in the morning. He wouldn't have remembered if I told him tonight, anyway. What about you?" She asked as she turned towards him, "I hope you had a good time, too."

He looked down at her. "I had a great time. The best part of the whole weekend was meeting you."

"Really?," she asked quietly. "Why would meeting a 16-year old girl be the best part of your weekend?"

He saw that she was shivering under the blanket. He enveloped her in a hug before he spoke. "It is when said 16-year old is smarter than most of your classmates. When she's funnier than a lot of your friends and can cut them down to size in a matter of seconds. When her sarcasm and wit are outpaced by her kindness and capacity to love. And," he added, as his voice became very soft and he caressed her cheek with tips of his fingers, with no more pressure than a whisper, "when her external beauty compliments the beauty that radiates from her heart."

She dropped her eyes, suddenly shy at all of the compliments. He tipped her chin up so that she was looking up at him and saw the tears in her eyes which sliced through his heart with such swiftness and intensity that it left him breathless. The expression on her face reminded him of a hurt child silently begging for some show of affection. "No one's ever said anything like this to you, have they?" She shook her head slightly, dropping her eyes again. His heart ached with the knowledge that she hadn't been complimented like this. How could no one see these things about her; things that were painfully obvious to him, and he'd only known her for maybe 2 days? He brought her face up again, looked into her green-gold eyes and found something that shocked him to the core.

He saw her heart at that instant. Clear and pure, innocent and trusting, fragile as blown glass. He saw the passion and love that were locked away inside, her need to be able to give them to someone, the faith that who she gave it to would be as kind, gentle and loving as she was with them, and the fear that if she did give and the person was rough and harsh with her feelings and emotions, she'd be deeply hurt and shattered inside, afraid to trust, to give, too injured and scared to try again. In that instant, he knew. He could see his entire life in her eyes.

Slowly, he bent his head towards hers. "Have you ever been kissed before, Katie?," he asked softly. He didn't want to embarrass her or make her even shyer if she hadn't. She shook her head. 'Considering that no one could see what was in front of them, I guess I shouldn't be surprised,' he thought. He looked into her eyes, the eyes of a true innocent, and whispered, "May I have the honor?" "You may, Sam," she whispered back, just before their lips touched.

He didn't want to frighten her, so he started slow. Soft, small kisses at first, gentle and sweet to coax her out of her shyness. The small kisses began to grow longer as things went on. Gently, he traced her lips and the shape of her mouth with the tip of his tongue, an unspoken request for permission to go further. She gave a small sigh, her lips parting ever so slightly. Softly, he ran the tip of his tongue along the inside of her lips, quietly coaxing her tongue and her passion to come out to play.

She darted her tongue out to touch his at unpredictable intervals, enjoying the electric sensations when she did. He could feel the hesitation in her touch. Suddenly, Sam broke the kiss, but only briefly. "Let yourself enjoy it, Katie. I'll be here to catch you when you fall," he whispered against her lips. "Sam...," she sighed. He resumed the kiss almost exactly where they'd left off, but things changed. She deepened the kiss faster than he'd expected, and he heard a small moan of pleasure from her, and he responded in kind. He felt the world drop away from them; she was the only solid thing for him to hold onto in that moment. She was what he wanted, no, needed. She was so idealistic, so trusting, a lot like he was. She was the big thing that was missing from his life.

He felt her drop slightly as her knees buckled. Breaking the kiss, he held her close so she knew that she was safe. He stepped back slightly to look at her, and he could see the sparkle in her eyes which lit up her whole face. He caressed her face and could feel her lean into his touch. "Do you feel it too, Sam?," she said softly, her voice barely above a whisper. He didn't have to ask what she meant, he knew. "I do, Katie," he replied as he brought her closer, the pull between them too strong to deny, "I do." He would always remember how her face looked in the moonlight...

Sam shot up in bed. Could this woman that he brought in from the snow be her? How could he be sure he wasn't just imagining all of this to make himself feel better?

He quietly stepped into the guest room and knelt next to the bed to watch her sleep. She looked so much like Kate in this light; he could feel the tears in his eyes and a sharp pain in the part of his heart that had always been hers. It was still very tender, even after all these years. After she went back home, he hadn't really heard anything from her since and missed her more than he'd ever admit to anyone.

During what would later be termed the last six months of their relationship, Lisa thought he was cheating on her with Kate; they'd had so many fights whenever he tried to convince her that she was wrong, but she always pointed to the picture of the 3 of them from the game that he kept at his desk both at work and in the study as proof.

"You keep telling me that you have this picture up because it's you and your best friend from Duke. Why can't you just tell me the truth? The only reason you keep it out is because of her. It was the first thing up when we moved in and it'll be the last thing down when we move out. Even in your office, it has a place of honor where you'd expect our engagement picture to be. Damn it, Sam, why can't you just come out and just admit that you're sleeping with her?"

Sam had inwardly winced when Lisa said that during one of their arguments. Deep down, he knew that she was partially right. For most of their relationship, whenever he kissed Lisa or made love to her, a small part of him wanted it to be Kate, in fact, that part of him would pretend it was Kate.

That picture was the only thing that he took with him from Gage Whitney the day he left with Josh for New Hampshire.