Sam felt like a broken thing next to Jessica. She was like a light shining against an old rolled glass window pane and illuminating all the drafty cracks and every bit where the glass bubbled and then smoothed out.

Something about her being distinctly unbroken made him feel older. He'd always felt older than his peers. He was older than his peers in some ways, he knew. There was always something that set him apart, made him feel worn and separate and Other in a way he could never articulate. Maybe it was his tumultuous youth- tossed around from school to school, state to state, squatting in abandoned houses and shitty motel rooms. Maybe it was the knowledge he possessed that things that go bump in the night could kill you. That the boogie man and tales of monsters were all too real in his world. But maybe it was merely him. Something inside him that was dark and tarnished and didn't feel right somehow.

College confused him at times. It was a respite, a sanctuary for him where he could be surrounded by normal people with normal lives and sometimes he could feel that way too. Like a kid... like a young man with his life just beginning and his prospects open and unlimited. Life was full of choice. Choices that he'd never been allowed when he'd had his father pulling the reins.

It was fantastic.

But then, at times, he felt so battered and world weary next to their shine. So out of place and like he was masquerading, trying to cover himself with a mask, lest they glimpse the real Sam Winchester and recoil in horror at the scars within.

So Jessica's pure unbridled enthusiasm stood in counterpoint to his natural world weary reserve. Jess made him feel broken. Yet she made him feel...whole? She made him feel like she knew his rough edges and that his window pane had bubbles in the wavy glass and she didn't seem to mind. Her sunshine shone through anyway, danced right through those imperfections and cast a light within.

Sam was thinking of that as Jess stared up at him with her incredible smile, a white paper bag clutched in one hand. All white teeth and that wild mane of blonde hair that he wanted to tangle his fingers in...he reined his thoughts back. They were hard to control when she moved, lithe and tall and long. God help him when she was wearing tight jeans.

Even though her physical appeal was borderline intoxicating, it was simply being with her that ensnared him the most.

The day he'd helped her move, they'd spent the entire day together. The following afternoon she'd called him on the pretext of having someone help her rearrange a few pieces of furniture, which she decided against after he'd dragged her bed to a different location and she made him move it back. He didn't mind. He didn't mind at all.

The day after that she'd asked him if he wanted to go to lunch and when he told her he was working in the library, she showed up while he was stacking books with a sandwich from the cafe down the street.

She smiled up at him. "I thought you told me you worked in the bookstore."

"I do sometimes," he said, balancing on a rung of a aluminum ladder. "But they were short-handed here so I'm covering. They kinda float me around and use me where they need me."

Sam blinked and registered what she was carrying. He looked down from his high vantage point, shoved a book onto the highest shelf, and smiled at her. Then he hopped down, happier to see her face then just about anyone's he could remember. Ever. It was a feeling of almost giddy joy that he wasn't used to.

"Thought you'd be hungry." She said, handing him the white paper bag. "Got you a ham on rye. Hope you don't mind pickles."

Sam smiled warmly, eyes lit with affection. "I don't mind at all."

Jess edged around him and climbed the ladder, easily and gracefully.

Jessica craned her neck back to look at the worn spines of old hard bound books.

"Careful up there," Sam admonished, putting a hand on the aluminum side to steady her and trying to ignore the allure of that curvaceous ass near his left cheek.

She climbed back down until she was standing on the bottom rung and they were standing nose to nose. "There, Sam. Now we're even heights. Bet you never had a girl as tall as you." She teased, leaning in playfully and hooking her arm around the side of the ladder.

"It is unique." he said, her breath on his face. Something was charged in the air. A sense of expectancy.

They were so close. Sam dropped his sandwich bag on the edge of a shelf and put his hand tenderly in that soft scented hair he'd dreamt about. He leaned in tentatively and she made no move to escape. He brushed his lips against hers and when she didn't protest, he kissed her in earnest. His heart sped up and his legs almost felt weak with the force of it.

He pulled away, flushing boyishly, almost a bit embarrassed by his lapse in judgement. At the inappropriateness of making out in the library...at his job no less.

He could almost hear Dean's approval in his head. "Atta boy. Strike while the iron is hot, Sammy."

Sam cleared his throat. "I'm sorry." He said, turning away and grabbing his bag of lunch. "I should probably go put this in the back before I get yelled at for having food near the rare books...and making out in the Philosophy Section."

Jess jumped down, glowing with that irrepressible spirit of hers. "What better place to do it?"

He stood there, unsure of what to say or do.

"I can't think of a better first kiss than in front of," she turned around and pulled a book. "A Vindication on the Rights of Women."

Sam smiled, dimples appearing at the words 'first kiss.' She was letting him know there'd be a second. And third. Hopefully ad nauseum.

He turned around and placed a finger on a book near his shoulder. Essays On Morality.

"Socrates might disagree with this behavior."

Jessica wrinked her nose. "Fuck Socrates. Mary Wollstonecraft for the win."

Sam laughed and knew deep in his heart that this must be what it felt like to fall in love.

I apologize for the slow updates. I've been having some health issues interfering with my writing addiction. Fuck them! ;) PLease throw me a review. Thank you!