CHAPTER 56

Sam twirled Amber around and she screamed with laughter. The club lights flashed above them; they made Sam feel a bit dizzy. It had been a long time since he had been to a place like this.

They had seen a movie before going to the club, some stupid romantic comedy that Sam, for the life of him, could not remember what was about. Rather then paying attention to the screen, he was very aware of Amber clutching his arm and resting her head on his shoulder.

Every so often she would comment quietly on the happenings in the movie.

"I can't believe she just did that!"

"He is such an idiot!"

"Ouch..did she have to hit him so hard?"

Sam relished the time in that dark theater, watching a movie with other people. Being normal. It felt better then he ever could have expected. There was no fooling around between them; Amber was too entranced in the movie and Sam did not want to break her concentration by kissing her.

By the time they got to the club, Amber was popping around with excitment. Sam tried hard not to smile; he didn't know where she got he energy.

The music that was playing was refreshing; it was modern. Although Sam didn't hate the classic rock that Dean always had the radio tuned it, it became dull after a while.

Amber did some weird ass-shaking move and Sam stopped and stared at her. She looked a bit self-conscious.

'What?"

"Is that..what was that?" Sam asked.

"It's called twerking, Sam." She did it again to prove her point.

"Yeah..that's a little weird. Please don't do that."

Some young guy came over and tried to dance with Amber, but Sam blocked him. The guy looked like he wanted to hit Sam. Amber smiled and pulled Sam away to the bar.

"Jealous much?" She ordered two drinks from the bartender, and slid one over to Sam. "Better show me some really good stuff then or I might go dance with another dude."

She took her drink in three quick gulps and gave him a playful wink before moving back into the crowd.

Sam downed his drink in one gulp. Fine, if that's how she wanted to play it. He never liked dancing much in college but went along to a few parties with his friends. Jessica had pulled him up quite a few times to dance and he did learn some things from watching his friends.

Picking his way through the crowd, Sam searched for Amber. She was dancing with the same guy that tried to steal her before. Catching sight of Sam, she smiled evilly and put her hands around the guy's waist.

Before she could drop them lower, Sam had grabbed her and tugged her away.

"He had an awesome butt." Amber teased.

Sam did not reply. The silence made Amber shift uncomfortably, thinking that maybe she had gone a bit too far.

"Sam, I'm just playing around. You know that, right?" she said, the smile fading from her face.

He suddenly burst out, flinging his arms around as if trying to smack a fly away from himself. Amber screamed with laughter, but copied him. Several other groups moved away, afraid they were going to be hit in the face.

After a few minutes, Sam stopped, trying to catch his breath. Tears of humor trickled from Amber's eyes as she leaned against Sam.

"How was that?" Sam panted, apparently pleased with himself.

"You looked like a flightless bird trying to take off." Amber giggled, hugging him.

"Really?" Sam reddened.

"I loved it." she stood on her toes to give him a kiss. "But maybe just tone it down a little so we don't hit anyone in the face?"

Sam nodded with agreement, and instead of flailing around copied Amber's movements.

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"That looks good." Amber had her nose pressed against the window, looking out at the businesses rushing past. She had her eyes on a small restaurant.

"No, I can do fancier then that." Sam said, and passed right by.

Rolling her eyes and leaning against the seat, Amber said, "You don't have to, you know. This day was just about spending time together."

"But I want to, Amber."

Amber shrugged. "If you insist. I won't say no to a five star restaurant, but I want you to know I'd be happy with Mcdonalds. Long as I'm with you anything is fancy."

"There." Sam suddenly pointed to an Italian place that had an outdoor garden. He pulled into the parkinglot and took an empty space.

Amber made to get out but Sam said, "Wait a sec! I'll get the door."

"I'm perfectly capable-" Amber started but Sam was already gone.

He opened the door and helped her out. She decided to humor him. It had been a while since he had been on a normal date; he had probably forgotten what it was like.

"You don't think this is a bit much?" Amber said quietly as they walked through the garden to the restaurant entrance. There was a cage near the door that had two tweeting canaries in it. Amber raised her eyebrows, but Sam took no notice.

The restaurant was beautiful, Amber had to admit. Soon they were seated and a waiter was by almost right away to take their order.

"So..tell me about your life. Let's pretend this is a first date and we don't know anything about each other."

"Alright. Same goes for you. I don't know anything about you..you're gonna have to break it to me that monsters are real." Amber smiled sweetly. "How about names first?"

"Hi. I'm Samuel Winchester. Everyone calls me Sam; I hate Samuel. Except my brother Dean. He calls me Sammy, but only he gets to call me that."

"I'm Amber Keene." Amber smiled. "Or that was the last name that the orphanage gave me, anyway. Never knew my parents' last name and I really didn't want to find out. I was told by the orphanage that I was an unplanned pregnancy; two teens having too much fun one night. My father wanted nothing to do with me, and my mom gave me up. She didn't want me but she couldn't do an abortion either. So I wound up in an orphanage. Yay." Amber finished bitterly.

Sam was looking sypmpathetic so Amber shook her head. "No pity, Sam. We're just talking. I'm done hearing from people how sorry they am for me. If they're so sorry, how come they didn't go in and adopt me? I sat there year after year while other kids were picked out by prospective parents. I never understood why I was passed by. I tried to be friendly, engaging..but it never worked and I stayed there until I was eighteen. I had gotten an after school job so I had some cash. I got a cheap, crummy apartment. My grades were awesome, so I was able to get a scholarship to college. I interned at the hospital. And that's where I was up to when you found me. Still in the crummy apartment, I might add."

"I feel bad that we took you away from school."

"You didn't take me away. I chose to go with you guys." Amber cleared her throat. "So..anything about me you want to know?"

"What about friends? Boyfriends?" Sam added.

The talk stopped for a minute as the waiter brought over their food. It smelled delicious, and Amber took a bite of her ridiculously expensive pasta dish before continuing.

"I really had no friends...a few people that I hung out with here and there, but nobody close. Nobody that would miss me. I just never fit in anywhere. I had a few boyfriends, guys that asked me out in school, but nothing lasted. I'm not a virgin, though. That tap's been turned on already, Sam. Just letting you know." Amber grinned cheekily and slurped up some pasta. "Tell me about you. I've talked long enough."

"When I was a baby, my mom died in a fire. But this fire was caused by a demon. He came to the house and killed her when she came into my nursery. My dad got Dean and me out safely, but that's what started us in the hunting business. He was determined to find the thing that killed her."

Amber's eyes widened dramatically. "Are you insane? A demon? You have to be kidding."

"No. Those stories you hear..vampires, werewolves, ghosts demons..they're real. And I hunt them. My brother Dean and I do. That demon that killed my mom actually fed me some of his blood. He did it to kids all across the country, and we all have some sort of power. I can kill demons just by concentrating, but I need to drink demon blood first to make me stronger. That didn't work out so well..what I thought was a friendly demon named Ruby started teaching me how to control my powers. Little did I know she was actually coercing me. I killed a major demon, Lilth, and that was the final Seal that had to be broken to release Lucifer. She had been traveling and breaking seals to free Lucifer, but she didn't know that she was the final seal."

Amber was looking at Sam strangely and he suddenly wished that he hadn't told her any of that. She knew already of course about Sam freeing Lucifer, but not in the way that it was done.

"You were drinking demon blood willingly? When you did it to take down Lucifer I thought it was a one time thing." Amber looked slightly disgusted.

"No." Sam said quietly.

"It doesn't matter."

Sam looked at her. He had seriously thought that she was going to up and leave after that. Now she was studying him with curiousity instead of disust.

"But why did you do it?"

"So I could save more people. I hated stabbing them with that knife, and this way the people who the demons were inhabiting would get to live."

Amber reached across the table to touch his cheek. "We all make mistakes sometimes, Sam. But you learned, apparently. Drinking demon blood and letting Lucifer out...giant mistake. But we fixed it."

"I just have to hope I don't do anything else as stupid as that." Sam said bitterly.

"You won't, because I'm going to keep you in line." Amber dunked a piece of bread in the sauce on her plate. "You were in school too, right Sam?"

"Yeah. I ran away from my dad and Dean and went to Stanford. I was going to be a lawyer. Then Dean comes two years later. Dad never came home from a hunt. Against all my instincts, I went with Dean to help look for Dad. We worked one job before I asked Dean to bring me back to Stanford. That was the night Jess died. Same as my mom. She was burned alive on the ceiling. I knew then that I could never go back to school and become a lawyer. I needed to find the damned thing and kill it. I left with Dean that night and I didn't look back."

"Did you ever catch the demon?" Amber asked curiously, wiping her mouth.

"Finally, we did. His name was Azazel. This is a seriously short version of the story. It's way too long to talk about over dinner. Azazel was creating an army, and one of his 'special kids' was supposed to lead it. He gave us a test. I was the only one who survived..well actually this guy stabbed me in the back and I died-"

"What?" Amber said loudly and a few other patrons looked over, telling her to be quiet. "You died?"

"Dean made a deal to bring me back. The guy that stabbed me opened the gates of hell, though, and let out alot of demons before we could close it. We shot him. Azazel was there. My dad apparently escaped because he appeared to help us kill the bastard. We shot him with the Colt..it's a gun made in the 1800's with special bullets to kill demons..and then Azazel was dead and my dad was gone."

"Gone? As in dead?"

"Yeah, I forgot. Dean, Dad and I were in a car accident- a demon smashed an 18 wheeler into the Impala. We were brought to the hospital, but Dean was dying, so my father made a deal with Azazel. His soul for Dean's. Dean would live, my father would be brought to hell."

Amber shuddered.

"Sam thing with Dean. He made the deal to bring me back, and the hellhounds came for him a year later. Usually it's ten years, but the Winchesters are always special cases. I couldn't find any way to get him out..I tried spells, deals..nothing. Then Cas raised him." Sam smiled slightly, thinking about the angel. "It was Heaven's orders...Dean was the vessel for Micheal like I was for Lucifer. He had to be alive to defeat Lucifer. We all know how that turned out."

The plates in front of them were empty; Sam pushed his away. "There's more, but if I told you it would take all night. Maybe when we get to know each other better, I'll tell you the rest." sam said jokingly.

Sam raised his hand for the check, and the waiter brought it over. The total must have been more then Sam expected because he let out a soft breathe of air before pulling out his wallet.

Amber was watching Sam with a hard-to-read expression on her face. They got up to leave, and Sam wrapped an arm around Amber's waist. It was dark outside now, and the garden was beautiful. Twinkling lights were entwined in the trees and sparkled serenely.

"You're afraid to get close to people, aren't you? When we first met you didn't want to have anything to do with me. You lost your mom, your dad..Jess. Dean."

Sam shifted uncomfortably. "It's just easier when you're alone sometimes. You don't have to watch anyone's back but your own."

Amber put her arms around Sam's neck and pulled him to make him bend down. Their lips met, and Amber pressed against Sam hard.
"It's lonely, Sam. To be by yourself. I know it. I promise you, I won't leave you." She smiled and released him to go to the car.

Sam stood, staring at her through the windshield. He swore he would never let anyone get close to him again, but as fate would have it, Amber did. There was no question about it, he was afraid of losing her. But there was a difference: she chose this life. He would teach her everything and be there to watch over her, and he would pray that nothing would happen, because if it did-

He pushed the thought out of his mind and got into the car. There was too much time wasted on what ifs. Dean and Cas had embraced their relationship and Cas had died already. He loved Amber and he would not push her away. They had adverted the Apocalypse so that they could live. That's what he was going to do.

"So...what do you want to do now?" Amber said suggestively, running a hand up to rest on his leg. "Motel time?"

Sam grinned. He made Amber a promise and he was damn sure going to keep it, especially since he would benefit from it as well.