As Sam and Dean walked into the building Sam could smell that very familiar distinguished smell that he knew could only belong to the residency apartments where he once resided.

As they reached the elevator Dean noticed that Sam had stopped a few steps behind him.

"You alright Sammy?"

As Sam stood there starring at the elevator he remembered that the elevator was the place where he and Jessica had shared their first kiss. To this day he could still remember what Jessica was wearing that night and he could still remember the way his heart was racing, and all the love and devotion he felt that night came rushing back to him. Who would have thought an elevator could have such an effect of a person.

"Uh…yeah…I'm…yeah," was all Sam could muster up to say as he and Dean stepped onto the elevator.

Dean figured that there must be a story to this but he didn't want to pry so he let it go. Instead he decided to go over the game plan with Sam.

"So, you're coming back to school and what am I again…your exchange student brother or something?"

"Yeah, you're an exchange student from Kansas State University who wants to study a semester here to experience a different college life."

"You can do that?" asked a shocked Dean.

"Yeap"

"Dude…that's so freakin' cool!

Sam couldn't help but laugh at the excitement in Dean's voice.

"It's not that amazing Dean."

"Are you kidding me! Going to a different school for a semester means new hot chicks…which means new dates…which means…"

"New chicks to randomly have sex with," Sam interrupted rolling his eyes.

"…what is wrong with you Sammy, you're such a pig…what I was gonna say was, new chicks to get to know and become friends with," Dean replied with a smug grin.

This time Sam actually laughed out loud.

"Yeah Dean, cuz the minute you see a hot girl your first instinct is to be her friend right."

"Damn straight!"

Seeing that this conversation was going nowhere, Sam continued on with the game plan.

"So remember if anyone asks you, you're studying criminology at Kansas State and you're only here for a semester."

"And what 'bout you Sam? When we end up leaving when this vision is taken care of, what are you gonna tell your friends?"

Shit! Friends! Sam hadn't really taken the time to think about that. He had been so consumed by missing Jessica and being scared to return that he completely forgot that he did have friends here who have wanted him back to Stanford since he left.

"I guess I'll just tell them that I thought I could handle coming back but in the end I realized that I couldn't."

"Yeah that should work."

"Besides, it's more than likely that it'll be the truth," replied Sam so quietly that it was almost a whisper.

Dean took a look at his brother who was now staring at the ground of the elevator.

"It's gonna be okay Sammy," said Dean as he placed a supportive hand on his brother's shoulder.

Sam looked up to smile at his brother just as the elevator doors opened on their floor. The smile was quickly wiped off Sam's face as they stepped into Sam's old hallway.

If the brothers had it their way they wouldn't even be here at Stanford let alone staying in the dorm room right across the room where Sam lost Jessica. But as usual, life seemed to have it out for these two and the only way to keep an eye on the girl who now lived in Sam's old apartment, the same girl in Sam's visions who gets burned alive, was to live as close as possible to her. They weren't really sure what the girl looked like, but they knew that in Sam's visions, whoever was living in his old apartment was going to be the target. So the plan was to settle into their place, then go acquaint themselves with their neighbours the next morning, the first one being their neighbour directly across the hall from them.

As they walked down the hallway to their apartment, which happened to be right across Sam and Jessica's old room, Sam started to feel a little lightheaded.

"Whoa easy there kiddo," Dean replied as he slipped his arms around Sam's side and took the brunt of Sam's weight. "You okay."

"Yeah," answered Sam as he steadied himself and stood upright with the help of his brother. "Nerves I guess."

"Well let's get you inside and…"

Before Dean could finish he saw that Sam was completely in his own world now as he starred at his old apartment door.

"Sammy…"Dean started as he looked at his little brother who at the moment looked no older than a 12 year old who had just lost his best friend.

"She used to walk through that door everyday Dean, we made it our home…our home away from home."

"Sammy…let's go inside, c'mon man," Dean said as he gently guided Sam into their apartment.

Once they got settled in, Sam hit the shower and Dean took that time to run to the car and grab their bags. He would've waited for Sam to come out but the last thing he wanted was for Sam to have to walk through that hallway again today or onto that elevator. When he returned with the bags he went and placed them in Sam's room.

Dean wasn't exactly happy with the fact that there was 1 single bed in each room, and they were way too big to fit on one bed. Besides, sharing a room may result in questions arising from Sam's friends and that was the last thing they needed right now. Still Dean's number one priority right now, as it has always been was to keep Sam safe, and to be sleeping in a room beside his brother where he might not be able to protect Sam was unacceptable, so Dean decided that he would sleep on the pull out sofa bed. This way he still stood between the door and Sam's room so that if anyone or anything tried to get Sam, it would have to go through Dean first, and Dean wouldn't have it any other way.

After putting their stuff away he let Sam, who was still in the shower, know that he was going to go grab them some food.

Once Sam got out of the shower he decided to call up a some friends who he thought may still be on res. He knew it wasn't the smartest idea to get close to his buddies again but if they were to find out that he was back at Stanford and hadn't let them know, there would be more questions to answer. Besides, Sam knew it be nice to see them again, like old times, before that horrible fire in his and Jessica's apartment.

The first person on the list was Jack. Jack had been Sam's best friend at Stanford. The two were pretty much inseparable, Jack used to always joke about making Jessica jealous because he took up a lot of Sam's time. Jack reminded Sam a lot of Dean, which was the main reason he found it easy to get close to him. He would never replace Dean, could never replace Dean with anyone, but the years that he was off at Stanford, Jack had almost become a second older brother.

Sam found the number in his cell phone and gave him a call.

One ring…two ring…

"Hello?" came a woman's voice on the other end.

"Um…hi…is uh…Jack there."

"Sure thing hold on a sec."

As Sam was on hold he began to feel nervous again. It's been over a year since he last spoke with any of his friends. The only one he had seen was Becky and the rest he hadn't even spoken to.

"Yelllo," came a scruffy voice from the phone.

"Still starting conversations with yello huh Jack," replied Sam.

"Who's this?"

"Two words for you…JACKL N HYDE"

"HOLY SHIT!! SAM WINCHESTER…is it really you man."

"Hey jack, how you been?"

"Forget how I've been, how you been man, where you at!"

"I'm back at school, back in res."

"Dude, shutup! Are you serious! What apartment you in?"

"204,"replied Sam, and with that admission Jack fell silent for a minute.

"204…wait…isn't that…" Jack remembered that Sam's old apartment was apartment 205.

"Yeah, just my luck eh."

"Sit tight Sam, I'll be over in 5 minutes!"

After hanging up the phone Sam decided that he would call a few of his other friends tomorrow because he needed the 5 minutes to shove all the bags with their weapons into the closet in one of the rooms. Sam was once again hiding who he really was from his friends, at least that part hadn't changed at all, and Sam didn't really know whether that was a good thing or bad.

Knock…knock…knock

Sam went to the door and opened it with a big smile on his face.

"Hey Jack!"

"It is freakin good to see you Sam!" Jack said as he grabbed Sam into a hug. "Man we've missed you here."

"Yeah…I've missed you guys too," Sam replied as smiled back at Jack.

"Um…so we planning on having catch up time in your doorway?" joked Jack.

This is what Sam was talking about, Jack being like Dean. They both had the smartass comments and the cocky attitude, and they both always…always got the girls.

Sam let out a laugh as he invited Jack in. They both went and took a seat on the couch. Sam went over to the fridge and grabbed a beer for Jack and took a Pepsi for himself.

"Here you go," Sam said handing the beer bottle to Jack.

"Thanks man, so what the hell you been up to for the past…what is now year and half? Still road tripping with that brother of yours?"

"Yeah."

"So when'd you decide to come back here?"

"About a month ago," Sam lied. "My brother, Dean, decided to go back to school as well and he's never been to Stanford so he did an exchange program and he's here for a semester now."

"You're rooming with your brother?"

"Yeah."

"That's cool, where is he?"

"He went to grab us some food, he should be back soon, you can meet him then."

"Sounds good buddy," replied Jack. "So Sam…how you been, you know with Jess and stuff?"

Sam's excitement quickly faded at the sound of Jessica's name.

"I…idunno man, I miss her…a lot."

"Dude, I'm really sorry about what happened, we never even got to talk after that, you just up and left."

"Yeah…sorry about that, I just…I couldn't stay here for another second, and my brother was here so I just left with him."

Yeah, that's cool man I understand. What the hell happened that night anyways?" questioned Jack. "If you don't wanna talk about it it's totoally cool man."

Sam thought about it for a moment, but the decided to tell Jack what happened. After all he and Jack were really close back in the day, and they seemed to have carried that on into the present day even though they hadn't seen each other in a year and half.

Sam explained what happened, Dean coming and getting him to help find their dad who had gone on a "hunting trip" and then told him of the fire when he returned to the apartment. Of course he altered the ending a lot and instead of mentioning the fact that Sam was laying on the bed when Jess's blood dripped on his face as she was pinned to the sealing, he just told Jack that the fire had already started by the time he got back to the apartment.

"Wow Sam…I dunno what to say man, I'm really sorry."

"Thanks, I just wish that…"Sam started as his eyes began to fill with tears. "I just wish that I could've saved her."

"Don't do that to yourself Sam. It was a fire dude, caused by the wires, you couldn't have done anything."

"Wires my ass," thought Sam to himself.

Noticing Sam's silence, Jack decided to lighten the mood a little by bringing up old jokes they had played on each other and on their other friends. Sam was grateful for the change in topic and the reminiscing was actually really comforting. Just as they were talking Dean walked through the door.

"Sammy, I got us some Chinese, burgers, and…" Dean stopped as he noticed an unfamiliar face sitting beside his brother.

"Hey Dean, I want you to meet Jack."

Dean walked over to where Sam and Jack were seated and shook Jack's hand.

"So you're the infamous road tripping brother."

"The one n only," replied Dean with a grin.

"Sorry man I didn't know Sammy here was gonna invite friends or I would've brought you some food too."

"Oh don't even worry bout it dude, I just ate anyways, and I should probably get going, Liz will kick my ass if I bail on our movie night."

"Liz," Sam jumped in. "As is Liz Mackenzie, the girl you drooled over ever since we started Stanford?"

"She's my girl now Sam," stated Jack with a smug smile.

"So you did manage to make her fall for you…I shouldn't really be surprised though," laughed Sam.

"What can I say, I'm a sexy guy Sam, girls can't resist this packaging," replied Jack with a cocky grin.

"Don't bother Jack, it falls on deaf ears, I tell Sammy that all the time, about me of course, he just doesn't seem to want to understand," laughed Dean.

"Oh god, you two are like one in the same," said Sam as he rolled his eyes at both Jack and Dean.

Jack and Dean started to laugh at Sam's comment as Jack was heading for the door.

"You can learn a lot from your brother Sam…you know…the main techniques of wooing a woman, he seems like an expert at it."

"Oh god, go home Jack, trust me you don't wanna feed his already oversized ego," joked Sam.

"Dean it was a pleasure meeting you dude," Jack said as he turned to Dean.

"Right back atcha man."

"Later Sam, give me a call tomorrow, we'll meet up with the rest of the gang. Dean you come too"

"Sounds good, see you tomorrow," replied Sam.

Sam closed the door and headed over to the kitchen.

"I like that guy," Dean said with a smile.

"Why am I not surprised."

"Eat your food smartass, before it gets cold."

After the boys ate their dinner, it was pretty late and both were pretty tired from the drive up. Sam was a little more tired because he was emotionally drained. This day brought out feelings of sadness, pain, happiness, comfort, enough emotion to make anyone tired.

As Sam saw Dean pulling out the sofa bed he couldn't help but smile. From the minute they walked in Sam knew that Dean wouldn't be taking the other room because it would be harder to protect Sam. Ever since they were little Dean always grabbed the closest bed to the door so that he could stop anything from getting to Sam. Sam would've argued and told his brother to go sleep in the much more comfortable bed in the room, but he knew he would lose the argument. Dean was a stubborn man, Sam was sure of that, but when it came to keeping Sam safe, using the word stubborn would be an understatement.

Sam was the first to pass out and Dean couldn't help but smile at the turn of events of the day. Having a friend over seemed to have cheered Sam up, and he only hoped that at least for tonight the nightmares and visions would subside and let Sam have a peaceful rest.

Sam had been asleep for nearly 3 hours before Dean passed out himself. Before Dean fell asleep he noticed the smile on Sam's face, and his relaxed and calm expression…maybe this won't be as horrible as he initially feared. With that thought Dean fell asleep.

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

"This is working out beautifully. Oh Dean, if you only knew what that smile on your brother's face means for you…you will find out eventually…but by then it'll be too late"