(A/N)-Okay, three chapters down, twenty something chapters to go! Anyway, a lot of review are adding this story to your favorites or putting story alerts on it, so thank you guys so much! And to all the people that reviewed-you guys are awesome, as always. I wrote a guest article for the Winchester Family Business called "Why Teenagers Hate Supernatural" (read it and you'll understand), so check it out! And I STILL don't own Supernatural. I mean, what's up with that? Side note: Cas STILL isn't in this chapter, and I'm so sorry! But I promise, he'll be in the next chapter and most, if not all, of the chapters after that.

The next two months passed by in a slow, routine blur Lydia got up, studied everything she could about being a hunter all day, drank all evening, and went to work all night. A few days after Sam had left, Bobby had taken her along on her very first hunt with him. It was a simple salt-and-burn, nothing complicated, but Lydia had done everything right and surprised both herself and Bobby. The experience only made Lydia more eager to hunt, and now, she was regularly going on hunts with Bobby. Neither of them had heard from Dean since Detroit, but Sam would pop in every few weeks to see how they were holding up. As far as Lydia knew, he was still hunting with his mom's side of the family and was doing just fine. He seemed a little more distant than he was before he went to hell, but Lydia never thought too much of it. He was in hell, after all. He had probably seen and experienced things that most people could never imagine.

And anyway, Lydia was still trying to avoid him after what happened the first time Sam came to Bobby's. The sting of Castiel's rejection still burned, even if Lydia did her best not to think about it at all, and she wasn't sure she wanted to get close to anybody after that. And Sam was just…Sam. For the longest time, she could never think of him as anything but a friend. He was…who was she kidding, the guy was hot. But Lydia just couldn't let herself even think about getting close to him. There was just no way she could deal with a relationship with him. Or anybody, really.

Everything changed one rainy day in August. Bobby went out to do some shopping-or so he claimed-and left Lydia home alone. It wasn't terribly out of the blue, so Lydia just sat on the couch and started reading about the curse of 27. Bobby said she should start smaller, but she was determined to figure out why so many musicians died at that age. If there was once thing she had learned after all this time, it's that there was no such thing as coincidence…

"Whatcha got there?"

Lydia let out a scream and within seconds was on her feet, her hand on the gun she always kept with her and the book thrown somewhere, forgotten. Her heart was racing and didn't even begin to calm down until she saw the hulking figure in the doorway.

"Hey, Sam…" Lydia said breathlessly, sitting back on the couch. He had scared her half to death and her breathing was still heavy.

Sam smirked at her and said, "Howdy!" before walking closer to her. He looked around the room, and that back at her out of the corner of his eye. "So, uh…where's Bobby?"

Lydia shrugged nonchalantly, trying her best to keep her eyes and attention on the book. "He said shopping. But that could mean anywhere, really."

Sam nodded, laughing a little bit. "Yeah, that sounds like Bobby." Sam sat on the edge of Bobby's desk, still looking at Lydia. "So you're a hunter now."

"Yup…"

"How's that going for you?"

Lydia shrugged again. "Fine."

"Just fine?" Sam raised his eyebrow.

Lydia looked up at him, nodding. "Yeah, just fine."

Sam sighed, obviously trying to make small talk. "So you and Cas…"

"Can we not talk about this?" Lydia quickly cut him off.

Sam raised his arms in mock-surrender. "Okay, fine. We won't talk about it." They were both silent for a few seconds before Sam broke it again. "So why'd you dump him?"

"I thought you said we weren't going to talk about it!" Lydia protested, finally putting the book down.

Sam shrugged. "I'm a compulsive liar. It's a bad habit. Really should work on that."

Lydia rolled her eyes, but sighed when she remembered Castiel. "I didn't dump him. He dumped me."

Sam blinked once, twice, three times. "Wow. I'm kinda surprised."

"What? That we're over?" Lydia snapped irritably. "You said that already, remember?"

"Well, that," Sam continued. "And the fact that he's the one that broke it off. I mean, Lydia, the guy was head over heels for you…"

Lydia snorted. "Yeah, right. Maybe for a while. But the second he was resurrected and got his angel mojo back, Sam, he broke up with me and went straight to heaven." Lydia laughed a little bit at how ridiculous that sounded. "Stupid, huh?"

Sam smiled. "A little bit, yeah." They both lapsed into awkward silence before Sam said quietly, "Can I ask you something?"

Lydia shrugged. "Shoot."

Sam shifted on the desk a bit so he was now directly facing her. "Why hunting? Why in God's name would you choose this life?"

"I…I dunno," Lydia found that she had a hard time explaining herself. "I just…I don't know. I really don't." She thought for a moment before slowly saying, "I think it's partly because there's nothing left for me. You saw me in Iowa-I was a stripper living in a shitty apartment and spending all my money on drugs. I was going nowhere fast. I probably would've been dead in a few years anyway. Maybe months." Lydia stopped and thought for a second. "Then Cas came back into my life, and I thought, okay, I'm clean, my life has meaning. I even thought about going back to school once or twice." The corners of her mouth twitched upwards. "And then when Cas was gone, I didn't know what to do with myself. I relapsed and came to Bobby's. I just didn't know what else to do." She stopped talking for a second and shrugged. "Like I said, I don't know. If this is my life, I figured I should kill some demons or monsters before I die." She looked up at Sam, who was staring at her, his face expressionless. "Does that make sense?"

Sam shrugged. "Kind of?" He pushed himself off the desk and started walking closer to Lydia. "But then again, nothing to do with hunting makes any kind of sense…" Before Lydia could stop him, he grabbed her wrists and hauled her to her feet. Her face immediately flushed a deep red as she crashed into his chest. She looked up at him-he had a good foot on her, but she had started wearing boots that gave her a couple inches-and felt her face turn an even darker red.

"You know, it's pretty adorable, the way you always get all red over everything…" Sam muttered it so quietly, Lydia had barely heard him. They looked at each other for a few more seconds before Sam covered her lips with his as hard as he could. Lydia didn't know what to do. At first she was taken completely by surprise, but after she realized how good it felt, every other thought from her mind floated away temporarily and their lips started moving in sync. Within seconds, Sam had her back pinned against the wall and his hands up her shirt, just like her hands were up his. It felt so good, he was so hard to resist…

Then Cas' face appeared in her mind.

Lydia immediately pushed Sam off of her and stared at him, her breathing heavy. Sam looked at her, but not with concern; he was just wondering what the hell was going on.

"Why are we doing this, Sam?" Lydia asked, defeated and embarrassed. Sam threw his hands up in the air in frustration and looked away, running his hands through his hair. Lydia grabbed his shoulder and forced him to look at her again. "No, I'm being serious. Why are we doing this? What the hell would we possibly gain from…whatever this is?"

Sam didn't speak, only kissed her again. Lydia squirmed and pulled away again. "Sam! I'm not kidding!"

"Would you just shut up?" Sam snapped irritably. "God, the sound of your voice is fucking grating sometimes!" He stared down at the girl and saw that, surprisingly, she didn't take offense to what he said. Instead, she kissed him again and stuck her tongue inside his mouth. She swung her legs around his waist and he carried her to the bedroom, still kissing. Before Lydia knew what was happening or could even think about it, clothes were being torn off in a wild frenzy. Lydia realized with a jolt that this was the same bed she had lost her virginity to Castiel, but found that she couldn't care less. Maybe that wasn't the right way to describe it. She did care, but it was time to let go of the past. Cas was the past, and Sam was the present. Her thoughts were cut off as Sam slid into her, and she was screaming his name within seconds…

And then it was over. Just like that, it was over. Lydia was completely naked, breathing heavily under the sheets. Sam, however, was standing up and was carefully putting his clothes. Lydia just stared at him, her jaw hanging open.

"What? Are you kidding? You're just leaving?"

Sam looked at her, slightly confused, and nodded. "Yeah. I have to get going. Samuel wants to go hunting."

"So that's what you came here for?" Lydia couldn't think of a good response-she was just confused. "Just a quick fuck?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah, pretty much."

Lydia ran her fingers through her hair. "Wow…wow. That's a really douchebaggy thing to do."

"I know that too." Sam nodded again. He went over and kissed the top of Lydia's head. It wasn't exactly affectionate, but it was close. "Thanks for being such a good sport about it, Lyd. Hope we can do this again sometime."

Lydia shook her head, amazed. "A good sport? Do this again? What the hell happened to you?"

"Exactly that. Hell." Sam shot back at her. He sighed a little bit. "Listen, I'm not into relationships and all that touchy-feely crap. But I'm a guy, Lydia. I'm a male. Males have needs."

"That's what prostitutes are for!" Lydia cried indignantly.

Sam sneered at her. "You're a stripper. You practically are a prostitute."

That one had really stung. Lydia, feeling her eyes start to sting, rolled over and faced the opposite way and stared at the wall. "Just leave me the hell alone."

She heard Sam sigh again. "Lyd, I'm sorry, okay? Sorry that you're not over angel-boy or you think I'm being an ass, but…" He paused for a second. "And I wasn't kidding. I would love to do this again."

Lydia rolled back over to face him. "So that's it? You want to be fuck buddies?"

"I suppose."

Lydia thought for a second. "No feelings? No strings attached? Just sex? Friends with benefits?"

Sam affirmed her questions with a nod. "If you want to call it that, then yes. Don't know if anybody's ever told you this, but you're pretty good in bed."

Lydia' face burned red (again) as she sat up and rested her arms on her knees, the sheet covering her naked body. "Okay, fine. No strings attached."

"Awesome." Sam grabbed his duffel back and started walking out the door.

"You know, you've changed a lot." Lydia called before he left.

Sam turned and faced her right before he left. "You have too."