A/N: I know this was a long time coming but I wasn't completely satisfied with it. But I suddenly realized I might never be completely satisfied with it and decided to just go ahead and post it. Otherwise I'll never get to chapter three. So please read, enjoy and let me know what you think :)

Jack pulled his pickup into the parking lot beside Sam's Volvo and got out.

"You're early" Sam announced.

"So are you"

"Good point" Sam smiled.

They stood there for a moment while both of them waited for the other to speak first.

"Feel like walking?" Sam asked finally.

"Sure"

They walked around town for the next two hours talking. Stopping once or twice to sit and talk, then going back to walking again. When they got hungry they decided to try a diner neither of them had been in before. It was a cozy little place, popular with the collage student's for its descent food and low prices. They took a table in the corner and ordered the special.

Sam sipped her soda.

"What?" Jack asked at the look on her face.

"Mountain Dew" Sam said distastefully.

"They got it wrong?"

Sam nodded.

Jack stood up. "I'll take care of it"

"It's not a big deal" Sam objected.

"It'll just take a minute" Jack took her glass. "I'll be right back."

Sam watched as Jack walked over to the counter and started explaining the problem to the cashier. She exhaled. She hadn't realized how much she'd missed him. Especially the little things like just watching him talk. The way he gestured with his hands to illustrate his point, the way he could go from charming, to sarcastic, to serious in a fraction of a second...

"Sam!"

Sam heard her name and turned to see a tall, bronze skinned young woman wearing blue jeans and cowboy boots walking toward her.

"Hi Nikki"

"Long time no see" Nikki said pointedly.

"Yeah" Sam agreed.

"And not just for me, Cass says you've been making yourself scarce lately."

"I know" Sam admitted guiltily. "I don't stop by nearly as much as I want to. I've been working too much."

"Dang" Nikki said emphatically. "I was hoping you'd got a guy or something"

Sam's eyes inadvertently shifted to Jack's seat. It was only for a second but Nikki instantly picked up on it, saw the other glass, the men's leather jacket draped over the back of the chair and grinned. "Have you got a guy?"

Sam was still struggling for an answer when Jack returned and Sam decided to introduce them. "Nicole this is…"

"Jack!" Nikki was pleasantly surprised.

"Hey Nics" Jack greeted her warmly.

"This is unbelievable." Nikki grinned. "Cass talks about you guys all the time, but I didn't know you even knew each other."

"Oh we go way back" Jack informed her, handing Sam her Coke.

"That's great" Nikki was enjoying this more and more every minute. "Well, um, I got a guy waiting" she pointed her thumb toward a group of young people. "Jack, you're crashing at Cass's again tonight?"

Sam looked at Jack.

Jack squirmed. "I'll be there"

"Then I'll see ya 'round. And uh, leave you two alone. Have fun." Nikki smirked and left before either Jack or Sam had a chance to reply.

Sam raised her eyebrows at Jack. "You're staying with Cassandra? That's the big mystery?"

"Uh-huh" Jack confessed.

Sam was baffled, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because Cassie asked me not to tell anyone she knew I was here"

Sam was stunned. "Did she say why?"

"Because…she didn't tell people I was here."

"But she didn't even tell me"

"Well," Jack absently turned his glass around and around on the table "I asked her not to tell anyone I was coming"

Sam looked at him questioningly.

"I've been kind of out of touch." He said vaguely, stirring his ice with his straw. "Fact is, if Cassie hadn't written and asked me to visit I probably wouldn't have come back."

After talking to the man for two hour as if almost nothing had happened Sam started to realize exactly how far away from the world he'd been the last two years. "Well I'm glad you did."

Jack met her gaze. "Me too"