Here, as promised, is the next chapter!

Also, I wanted to clear something up; when Gabe gave Nikki a makeover at the end of Reincarnated, all he did was change her hair color. I hope that helps!

Enjoy! ;)

~Christianne

Nicole POV

I flipped through TV channels quickly, and settled on some Golden Girls reruns. I sat back on my blue sofa and raised my bowl of Lucky Charms closer to my mouth.

Sammy let out a low growl when the prerecorded, cheesy sitcom laughter played after Sophia said something.

I sighed and scratched the top of Sammy's head. "It's alright, boy." I cooed out of the corner of my mouth, slurping the milk that started to dribble over my chin.

I took my hand back tom Sammy's head, and put it back on my bowl. I stared aimlessly at the TV, and thought about the dream I had last night.

I was in an unfamiliar bedroom, wearing almost nothing; just a bra and panties. It was pretty dark, only the light from the window lit the cluttered, disorganized room. Suddenly, I was on my back on the bed. Someone was hovering over me, and my mind snapped to a different state. I grabbed at the man's hair, happily sighing and writhing as he kissed my neck and chest. His hands roamed my almost bare body; light grazes with his palm and hard presses with his fingers. It all ended when he gave a breathy moan in my ear. Nikki, he'd groaned.

Then, it was over.

I woke up alone in my bed, Sammy pacing around down stairs by the door.

I laid there for a few minutes, staring up at the steeple while the multi-colored light from the stain glass windows flooded my white-painted-brick bedroom.

Since I had nothing else to do, I was lounging on my couch and thinking of my dream-man. How his broad shoulders were hovering over me, keeping me warm from the biting cool room, and how now an then his teeth grazed my neck.

I jumped when my phone rang.

"Hello?" I sighed, putting my bowl on my coffee table and tossing a knotted rope toy for Sammy to chase.

"Hey! We're going to the Mean Bean, wanna come?" It was Willow, a girlfriend of mine who was always too cheery for her own good. The Mean Bean was a coffee place a few blocks from campus.

"No," I sighed, falling back on my couch. "Me and Sammy are just gonna stay home today...Maybe catch up on 24."

"Oh my God...That show is so lame!" Willow groaned.

"Yeah? Well you're lame!" I snapped back, smiling. "Look, how about we meet there tomorrow? Ten work ok?"

"Yeah..." Willow agreed. I could practically hear her pout.

My phone beeped, and I took it away from my face to look at the screen. "Sorry, gotta go. Big brother's calling."

"I'll pick you up a blueberry scone! No, wait, you hate blueberries. Chocolate chip!"

I giggled and hung up on Willow. I answered Gabe's call.

"Sup Big Bro?"

"Are you alright?" He asked urgently.

My brow furrowed. "Uh, yeah...Should I not be?" I asked slowly.

"Look, I'm getting on a plane in three hours. I bought a ticket for you, it's at the airport. We'll meet up in Kentucky-"

"Gabe what the hell are you talking about?" I cut him off, only more confused.

"You have to get out of New Haven, Nicole." Gabe said firmly. "When we get to Kentucky, we'll hop a plane to Atlanta and pick a country in Europe."

"Gabe, no." I said slowly. "I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what the hell is going on!"

"I don't have time, Nicole!" He half-yelled to me. "Just pack a bag and-"

"Gabriel Jonathan Lani!" I yelled into my phone. "If you want me to pick up and leave a few days before I need to start studying, you're gonna get your butt on a plane and come here yourself to tell me! See you in 10 hours!" I hung up and tossed my phone on the couch next to me.

I heard Sammy whining and scratching at the back door in my kitchen. "What's wrong boy?" I asked, glancing at the clock. He just went out about three hours ago, and all that time had been spent with me on the couch.

"Hey...What's the matter Sam-Sam?" I asked as I knelt down on the floor next to him. I scratched his neck and he nuzzled my hands briefly before going back to the door. He let out a few terrifying barks, then began scratching the door.

"Sammy! No!" I scolded him, both for barking and for scratching the door. "Bad dog!"

He looked up and me and whimpered, pacing in front of the door again. I sighed, and got his leash. I unlocked the door and opened it the smallest amount. I leaned on the cupboard, and pulled on one of my red flats onto a bare foot, and then started the other.

"Sammy no!" I yelled as my big dog used his nose to open the door, then bolted.

I pulled my other shoe on, and took off after him, leash in hand. I didn't care if I was wearing some short cotton shorts, a tanktop and my short cotton robe; I wasn't going to lose my dog. I had him, Gabe and a circle of 'acquaintances' who were too bitchy to be considered friends.

"Sammy!" I yelled, running down the block in the direction of my dog.

"C'mon Sammy! C'mon, where'd you go?" I yelled, looking around wildly. "C'mon Sammy! Don't do this to me!" I picked a corner and kept running.

"Sammy!" I paused, and looked down the yards on the block.

"Sammy! Where'd you go Sam-Sam?" I yelled, turning a corner.

I sighed in relief when I saw a tall man in plaid holding Sammy's collar. Oh my God—There you are!"

The tall man dropped his phone, looking at me with wide eyes. I pulled my robe closed, and rushed towards my dog. I squatted down, grabbing his collar from the guy. "Oh you scared me," I scolded, kissing his head. I latched his leash to his collar, and stood up.

I was going to introduce myself, when I saw his expression; he looked like he saw a ghost. "Are you alright?" I asked, grasping his forearm. He looked down at my hand on his arm, then back at me.

The expression was gone instantly. "Uh, yeah, sorry." He gently shook my hand off, and gave me a stunning, sincere smile.

"Uh," he said, looking down at Sammy, who was playfully pacing around by our feet. "He's...He's a Berner, right?" I smiled.

"Yeah, most people think he's some kind of retriever mix." I admitted, rubbing between Sammy's ears. I glanced back up at the guy, and smiled a little more.

He was pretty good looking. Tall, all sturdy and muscled looking, and had nice eyes. Before my own, his eyes seemed to go from a bluish hazel, to a gold-flecked green.

"Oh, uh, I'm Nicole." I said, holding my hand out.

"Nicole." He repeated, slowly moving his large hand to shake mine. His strong brow was furrowed as he looked down at me.

I smiled a little, and laughed softly once. "This is where you say your name." I said in a loud whisper, leaning forward a little.

"Oh, uh, yeah," he chuckled, looking down and scratching the back of his neck for a second. "Sam...I'm Sam."

I groaned, my head lolling up to look at the sky. "Oh God..." I said, pressing a hand to my head.

"What is it?" Sam said, sounding pretty concerned.

"Of course the cute guy who found my dog has the same name that I've been yelling through the neighborhood...I swear I could not be more embarrassed right now." I said, chuckling slightly at the end.

"It's Sam...You were yelling Sammy." The tall, flowing-hair-having man corrected.

I shrugged. "Sam, Sammy, either way I'm incredibly embarrassed."

"Don't be." He said, hands in his pockets.

I glanced up at his face again, and felt a hot blush crawl up my cheeks. The look in his (pretty) eyes was so intense. It wasn't a threatening look or anything; I didn't feel like I needed to run. It was actually a naggingly familiar look; I felt like at any second I'd remember him from some class or from a concert or something.

"Well...This would normally be where I asked you for coffee, but I'm still in my jammies...So..." I trailed off, turning slightly towards the corner.

"Can I see you again?" Sam blurted out, one of his big hands reaching out to gently grab my arm. I looked between his nice face and his hand until he let go. "Sorry..."

"It's fine," I shrugged, yanking slightly on Sammy's leash as he tried to walk away. "I'm...I'm meeting some friends at the Mean Bean tomorrow. 10:00 am."

Sam nodded a little, putting his hand in his pocket. "I'll try 'nd be there."

"Great." I said with a bigger smile.

I looked over my shoulder at him as I walked away, back towards my house. "Nice to meet you Sammy!"

"Sam." He corrected me in a way that sounded automatic.

I giggled, running a hand through my hair. "Right...Right, you wanna be called Sam, not Sammy."

Once the cute guy was out of earshot, I looked down at my dog, then started talking.

"I like him." I declared, nodding once. "Maybe I'll dress up a little...A skirt or something."

Sammy sneezed.

"Yeah...He was wearing a flannel...I wonder if I still have that checked button up from a few years ago, when Jackson took me to that fall festival, the one with the hay ride...Eh, I wouldn't want to wear that anyway." I shrugged.

When we got home, I shut the door tightly behind me and kneeled down to take Sammy's lead off his collar. I narrowed my eyes at my pet. "Do you have some sort of hot-guy sensor I don't know about?"

Sammy tilted his head to the side.

I smiled and gently prodded his forehead. "I wish you could talk."

"You've called me 28 times today, Gabe, what do you want?" I asked into my phone, booting up my laptop on the coffee table.

"Oh...You know...Just checkin' up on you."

I rolled my eyes. "Uh-huh, while I pretend that's true, why don't you tell me what's really up with you?"

"Nothin's up with me! Can't a big brother miss his little sister?" Gabe asked on the other end of the phone.

"Are you pouting?" I asked.

There was a pause. "No."

"Yes you are!"

"Am not!"

"I can practically hear you pout through the phone!" I laughed, typing my password in. "Look, I just called to let you know that I'm alive, eating and happy. I have three days left of nothing, so now you can leave me alone."

"Nicole-"

"Good bye Gabe!" I half-yelled, hanging up on my big brother.

"Ok, it's official, Sammy." I sighed, putting a hand on my bare hip. "I have nothing to wear."

I knew I was being weird about the whole thing; it was coffee with a guy who I didn't really know. I'd taken a look for that checked shirt I had from a few years ago, but I must have thrown it away. It was, after all, flannel.

The entire contents of my closet and dresser were strewed about my bed and bedroom floor. Sammy was happily lying on his dog bed, chewing on a rope bone, while I stood in my underwear and tried to get dressed.

"Ok, Sammy," I said, holding up two dresses from my closet in front of my body. "Which one?"

Sammy lifted up his big head and looked at me. Then he tilted his head to the right before barking.

"This one?" I asked, lifting the dress on the right. I looked down at it; it was blue with some white trim. I groaned and rolled my eyes.

"Oh what do you know?" I half-snapped, throwing both hangers on the bed. "They both probably look gray to you anyway."

I grabbed my short robe from over the ledge of the loft and pulled it on. I tied it around my waist as I sat on my bed, and kicked a pair of green linen shorts. "Maybe I'm overthinking this," I sighed, scratching Sammy's neck when he lumbered past me. I watched his black and white tail switch as he slowly descended the staircase.

"Thanks for your amazing help Sammy!" I called after him sarcastically.

I fell back on my bed, and basked in the colorful glow from the stain glass windows. Instead of laying on my soft comforter, I was laying on a variety of clothes.

An hour later, I cut my losses, threw on my favorite outfit, gave Sammy a kiss between the ears, and started walking towards the Mean Bean.

"Mocha latte with vanilla and extra whip." Willow said, holding the blue and brown paper cup towards me. It was her turn to buy; I waited outside, sitting on the low stone wall that surrounded the Mean Bean patio.

"Yeah...Thanks." I said, looking through the crowded square. The Mean Bean as situated around a large courtyard with some picnic benches and umbrellas and stuff. There was a guy I'd seen walk up from the street a few minutes earlier; I hadn't taken my eyes off him since I saw him.

"What are you looking at?" Willow asked, putting her coconut-smelling hair closer to my head to try to look where I was.

"I think I know that guy," I said, taking a sip of my coffee. I gestured to the guy vaguely, and Willow snorted.

"How can you know a guy like that and still be single?" She asked, laughing.

She had a point; he was tall, broad shouldered and had a jawline that could cut glass.

"But I do know him." I insisted, frowning a little.

"Look, Nicole, I'm sorry to break this to you, but-"

I cut her off. I'd put my coffee down, cupped my hands around my mouth and yelled.

"Hey! Hey Dean Winchester!"

I wasn't aware that I'd yelled a name until it had already left my mouth.

The guy stopped in his tracks and turned toward around.

"Oh." Willow managed to say, her eyebrows raised. "So...You do know him."

He was still looking around, for who yelled his name probably, and I put my hands down quickly so he wouldn't know it was me.

"Sorta...Well, not really." I said with my brow furrowed. "It's...It's a trippy situation."

Willow shrugged it off and began talking about her dissertation. She may look like a ditzy girl with perfect chestnut hair (and she acted like one sometimes) but she was a microbiology major and was smarter than a few of her professors. We walked around to a few shops in the courtyard, discussing little things, when I saw a tall man walking out of the Mean Bean.

"Hey, talk to you later, ok?" I told Willow quickly, jogging through the courtyard.

"Hi stranger," I said, falling into step next to him. Sam glanced down at me with a little half smile.

"I was starting to think you weren't going to show." Sam admitted. He had his own blue and brown Mean Bean paper cup in his hand, the other was jammed in his pocket.

"Yeah, well..." I trailed off with a shrug. "What can I say? I had a large mocha latte. Those things are so full of caffeine; you can not expect me to sit still." I smiled a little, glancing up at him as I tossed my empty cup in a trash can we passed.

Sam gave a slight chuckle, just an amused breath through his nose, and a little half-smirk. "So..." He trailed off.

"So." I repeated, trying to keep a smile off my face. "Should we be having, like, date talk, or it this more of a friendly date situation?"

Sam shrugged, scraping his nail on the protective sleeve on his cup. "You remind me of someone." He finally said.

My brows rose up. "Oh...Girlfriend?" Sam shook his head. "Friend?"

Sam laughed once, and stopped scraping his nail on his cup. "More than a friend, less than a girlfriend."

"Ah..." I said, nodding. "Sounds complicated."

"More than you know." Sam said with a little half-smile. Since his face was turned towards me, I took the opportunity to study his face. Looking the slightest bit self conscious, Sam glanced away then back at me. "What?"

"Do I know you from somewhere?" I asked, crossing my arms as we walked, and got a confused look from Sam. "I just...I swear I've seen you before."

"I have one of those faces." Sam said dismissively, tossing his coffee away in a trashcan we passed; there were a lot lining the sidewalk around the park.

I snorted. "Yeah, sure you do." I said sarcastically.

"I do!" Sam said defensively, struggling not to smile.

"Then clearly you've never seen yourself in a mirror." I laughed, walking closer to him to gently shove his big arm with my elbow. We both chuckled for a while longer, then lapsed into silence.

"Are you sure we've never met before?" I asked him again. "Because you seem really familiar."

"I told you," Sam said with a shrug. "I just have one of those faces."

Sam was amazing.

He went to Stanford pre-law, but left to help his brother find their dad. He ate a lot of salad which his meat-guzzling brother gave him crap for. He hated clowns. He was funny, in a dry, sarcastic way. He didn't like that I called him 'cute' once, but when I called him 'ruggedly, kick-in-your pants gorgeous,' he didn't seem to like that either.

The nagging feeling that I knew him kept jumping up as we walked around and talked; it was like I was more tuned into him that I was the rest of the world. It was like I could sense how good he was. Even though we didn't get into his life a whole lot, I felt like I knew already; he'd been through so much pain and hurt, but he could still smile and mean it.

I met up with Sam a little after 10:30, and it was getting dark now. I didn't really want to say goodbye, but I had to get home to let Sammy out. I added gentlemen to the list, when Sam said he'd walk me home; said he was 'worried about me walking home in the dark.' As a grown woman I felt it was a little condescending, but Sam was hot and I let it go.

"This is where you live?" Sam asked, mildly shocked.

I laughed once. "Yeah...My brother picked it out." I explained vaguely as I unlocked the door. Sammy, barking slightly, ran out the door quickly to the grass.

"You have a brother?" Sam asked, walking up the steps to stand on the one below me, leaning on the railing.

"Yeah, two." I explained, copying his pose against the other side of the railing. "Gabe and Chris. Chris is an Army captain overseas, and Gabe is a..." I trailed off, thinking.

"Well, I'm not really sure what Gabe does. Something in an office that requires him to travel a lot and pays a lot." I shrugged. "But he's always here at Christmas and my birthday, so..." I trailed off, shrugging.

Sammy brushed up against our legs as he went back into the house. Now, I didn't have the excuse of my dog to stay around him, so I stood from the railing and brushed a hand through my blond hair. "I...I had a nice time with you, Sam," I said honestly, taking a little step towards him.

"Yeah...Yeah, me too." Sam said with a nod and a small smile. The awkwardness wasn't painful. I was actually a little sad to leave him. I gave him a smile and turned towards my door.

"Goodnight Nikki." I heard Sam say under his breath.

I spun around. "What?"

"Hm?" Sam asked. He was on the ground now, looking up at me with his hands in his pockets.

"What'd you call me?" I asked, going down a few steps towards him.

"Uh, Nikki...I called you Nikki." Sam explained, shrugging slightly. "You know, 'cause you name is Nicole."

I was standing in front of him now, two steps up, so I was a little taller than him. "No one's ever called me Nikki before." I said, my brows furrowed as I thought. "No one but..." the guy doing me in my dream.

After I trailed off, Sam just looked up at me; I was about three inches taller than him. The moonlight caught his eyes, making them seem brighter. The flecks of green, gold and brown sat in the serene blue. His eyes were seared in my brain, but they'd been there before I met him. I swear they were there before I met him.

"What is it, Nikki?" Sam asked. his voice was quieter, and took on a rough quality that made my breath hitch.

I know you damnit!

I grabbed the collar of Sam's jacket and yanked him towards me until our lips were smashed together. Sam didn't even hesitate; one hand went to the back of my neck, the other grabbed at my waist and pulled me closer. My hands greedily traced his face and yanked at his hair and his hands tightened in their respective places.

When we finally pulled apart for air, I looked down at him, panting, lips parted. It was near dark, so the light from my open door was all I had to see him by. His grip didn't loosen, and I was glad he didn't.

I hoped that any second that I would recognise him; that he would say something and I would remember running into him at the gas station or something.

"Nikki." Sam said under his breath, flexing his grip on my hip. I shivered—actually shivered—when he said that. I let out this breathy little gasp, and let my head fall forward so our foreheads were pressed together.

I stayed there a second, then opened my eyes. I leaned back and took my hands away from his body. He frowned, and it only deepened when I took his hands away from my hair and side. I squeezed his large hands in mine, and took a step backwards up the steps. I gently tugged his hands, and gave him a little smile. He got the idea, and took a step up towards me. When we got inside my house, I pushed the door shut, and leaned against it.

Well, I didn't so much lean against it as I was shoved against it. I giggled around Sam's lips and pushed his jacket to the floor.

Sammy barked a few times as we stumbled towards the steps to my loft bedroom. I felt around, keeping my eyes on Sam, and shoved the plastic container of dog food off the table and onto the floor. Sammy gladly went to the open, overturned container and I was gladly letting Sam support most of my weight as he did amazing, indescribable things with his hands and lips on various parts of my body.

When we got to the steps, Sam hoisted me up so my legs were wrapped around my waist and his hands were under my butt. He took one step towards the stairs, and jammed my back into the railing.

"Oh crap—Nicole I'm-"

"Shh..." I said, pressing a finger to Sam's lips as I slowly slid down his body so my feet were on the floor again.

"How 'bout you let me walk?"