After dinner, the men took all the dishes and the small amount of leftovers into the kitchen.
"That was some dinner. Who knew the girls were such great cooks?" Randy said rubbing his abs in a circular motion as if he had a huge gut. Sam chuckled.
"Yeah, cooking isn't there problem. It's getting them to cook that is the hard part. The only person who will volunteer on a regular basis is Dylan." Randy smiled.
"Remind me to marry that woman." Dean's brows shot up.
"Marriage? That's a big step." Cody smirked at Dean.
"Not if you love someone." Dean and Cody seemed to be having some sort of staring match to which Randy was oblivious to and Sam wanted to escape from.
"You know what? I think I'll wash the dishes." Sam said raising his sleeves and hoping to change the subject.
"I know what love feels like." Dean replied to Cody's earlier offensive strike. Sam stared between the two men and wiggled his way through to the sink.
"Okay. Dean, I'll wash, you dry."
"But has anyone ever loved you back."
"Cody." Randy hissed in shock.
"Actually, women usually fall for me easily. You can say I'm sort of… irresistible." Cody took a step closer.
"But sooner or later they all come to their senses."
"Yes. You're right. Sooner or later they realize who they should be with." Dean replied taking another step. Just then, when the testosterone was so thick you could slice it with a knife, Kimberly and Dylan trailed into the kitchen.
"What are you boys talking about?" Kimberly asked curiously while walking over to Cody and wrapping her arms around his waist. She rested her head on his shoulder. You would have to be staring very hard at Dean to see the twitch that happened in response.
"Oh, we were just talking about how you're going to cook for me all the time when we take the next step." Randy said to Dylan while throwing an arm around her shoulder. Dylan laughed.
"Yeah right." Sam took a sigh of relief because it seems that once again, crisis has been averted.
"That was awkward." Cassie said pouring out two glasses of champagne for us. She offered me one with a smirk on her face. Clearly she could read the desperate need for alcohol on my face.
"So, you noticed?" I asked jokingly, excepting the drink with great pleasure. She smiled at me.
"I remember that Dean clearly."
"What do you mean?"
"The jealousy. The pride. The sarcastic asshole tendencies. It's classic Dean."
"That's his way." I agreed.
"He's totally in love with her." I choked on my drink from the shock of such a statement.
"In love? I don't know about all of that. I mean he likes her, but Dean's not the type to fall for someone easily." Cassie shook her head.
"Trust me. Dean's not as hollow hearted as everyone thinks. I mean it's not easy, but once he opens up to the thought, he's a goner. The way he looks at her, talks to her, talks to Cody. I know what I'm talking about Sharnel." I sighed.
"That's even worse than I thought." Cassie laughed.
"Why? I think she and Dean would make a great couple." I quickly looked over my shoulder to make sure we were alone. Grabbing her by the arm, I quickly ushered her to the other end of the living room, as far away from the kitchen as possible.
"Are you forgetting something? Or someone? Cody perhaps." I hissed. Cassie shrugged.
"I'm just saying. Dean has a lot to offer in a relationship. And he is amazing in bed." My eyes went wide.
"Thank you. That's something I wanted to know about my boyfriend's brother." I said in disdain.
"So, how did you and Sam get together anyway?" Cassie asked changing the subject.
"That is a long, long story."
"Well, I'm glad Sammy found someone. Last I saw him, he wasn't doing too well. He was really depressed about Jessica, but he's different with you." I smiled.
"Well time heals all wounds."
"No. It's more than that. With you, he seems to have a lot more life now and I'm not the only one who thinks so. Dean told me the same thing." My cheeks felt as if they were on fire from my incessant blushing.
"Are you sure you don't have feelings for Dean?" I asked changing the subject again. Cassie raised a brow.
"Evasive much?"
"Right back at you. You didn't answer my question." There was a moment of silence where the two of us challenged each other with devious smiles, but then Cassie realizing how stubborn I am, rolled her eyes and gave in.
"I will always have feelings for Dean. He was my first love, but I don't want to go backwards. I've come too far in my life to go back now." I nodded. I really did like Cassie. I just hope she really is handling this whole situation as well as she is claiming to.
Despite the obvious tension, the night went off without a hitch. Cody got to take Kimberly back to his place. Dylan got to serve Randy his dessert. Cassie ended up staying the night and Sam got to unravel my gown. There was great food, great conversation and great sex. I give the night an A-. In the morning, I got ready for my shopping extravaganza with Cassie. I told her how much I love the Jersey outlets and how I was supposed to go with Dylan the other day, but I got called in for work at the last minute and had to cancel. Then Cassie had an epiphany and said we could go shop until we drop and then pass out at her place. And boy did we shop. I always did have a bit of a problem, but I'm not a selfish shopper. I got Kimberly a hot pair of shoes, Dylan a gorgeous dress, Sam a sexy jacket and Dean an eye-popping button down. Cassie and I were having such an amazing time and then it all went to shit. The sales lady had just rung me up and handed me my bag when I got a vision.
The sales lady goes into the parking lot and gets to her car when some man appears out of nowhere holding something behind his back. She turns in shock and glares at him, recognizing him.
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm broken hearted." Then man pulls out a dagger and the woman seems genuinely surprised and scared.
"What's going on? What are you doing with that?" she gasps. He smiles at her with a vicious grin and raises the knife to strike. There is a piercing scream and then everything goes black."
"Shar? Are you okay?" Cassie asks with concern. I try to force a smile at the sales woman.
"Yeah. I'm fine." Once we got far enough from the lady, I pulled Cassie to the side and told her about my premonition.
"What do we do?"
"We? This guy could be a demon. We don't do anything." Cassie rolls her eyes at me.
"We don't have time to argue about this and I'm not going to run while some innocent girl gets her head sliced off. So what's the plan?" If she wasn't irritating me I would've be impressed. We hid in my car and waited for the scene to unfold. When I saw the woman approaching her car, I made Cassie promise to stay in the car. Dean would never forgive me if I let something happen to her. The woman got to her car and out popped the man.
"Liz." He called. She turned and glared at him. With a scoff, she replied.
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm broken hearted." He wore a smug smile on his face as he pulled out a dagger.
"What's going on? What are you doing with that?" I was trying to inch my way closer and closer, hiding behind cars. This man then raised the knife to strike so I took that as my cue. Coming up behind him, I spoke and watched with a smug smile as he spun around in shock.
"Hey loser. Why don't you put the pieces of your heart back together somewhere else?" I said while cocking a brow up at him and folding my arms. He smirked.
"Don't be a hero honey." I ignored his statement.
"Leave her alone before I call the cops." The man chuckled.
"Cops? Lady, you have no idea who you're messing with."
"Dido." Liz tried to diffuse the situation, grabbing his free hand to get his attention.
"Jack, put the knife away. This isn't you."
"Actually…" he trailed off, his voice deepening to demonic proportions. "This is me."
"Liz run." I ordered as I spun kicked the knife out of his hand. Using levitation, I flipped backwards and kicked him in the face sending him falling to the ground. "Now!" Red tribal markings magically formed his face and his smile was accented by razor sharp teeth.
"I should have known. Witch." She screamed and hopped in her car without a moments delay. While he was down, I tried to get to Liz's car but I did not account for all his powers. Sending a fire ball into my back, I went crashing into her windshield. Poor Liz screamed in terror. Cassie hopped out of my car and scurried over to me, trying to help me up but I was slowly slipping away from consciousness.
"You have the power of premonition as well." The demon said with chuckle. "Tell me witch. What's going to happen next?" With that he put a large fire ball in his hand. He was just about to throw it at us when bright white lights appeared in front of us.
"Cody?" I muttered before passing out completely. Cassie on the other hand sat there with shock clearly written on her face as she watched this blonde wonder throw a potion that wounded the demon enough to make him retreat. Cassie couldn't help but leave her mouth ajar. "Maybe I'm wrong. After all, I only ever saw the one picture. It can't be her." She thought to herself as this woman walked over to us and healed my wound.
"You doing okay?" she asked. I hadn't noticed that she was avoiding eye contact with Cassie. I sighed and sat up slowly.
"I'll live." I glanced back at our freaked out innocent and asked Cassie to go check on her. Cassie seemed all too eager to get away and jumped at the opportunity. I turned back to my savior. "Thanks for the healing. And the potion. And the all in all kicking ass thing." I tried to laugh but I was still weak and I could feel a pounding in my head with every rumbling sound.
"Thanks for saving my charge." I looked over my shoulder at Cassie, trying to calm Liz down.
"Charge? So, she's a witch?"
"Future white lighter." I nodded in understanding and then offered her a hand. "I'm Sharnel by the way." She took my hand and shook it with a genuine smile on her face.
"I know. Every white lighter knows who you are. One of the charmed ones." I laughed, realizing that it would be obvious to her who I am, but I still didn't know who she was.
"And you are?"
"Jessica, but you can call me Jess."
I wanted Jess to orb me home so that I could get to my sisters faster. Apparently, it would take the power of three to take this demon out, but Jessica said that she wanted to make sure Liz was doing okay.
"Guys!" I yelled when I finally got home. Throwing my keys on the desk, I continued. "It's demon time!"
"Sharnel!" Dylan growled at me. I turned the corner to find her and Randy cuddled on the couch and Dylan giving me death glares. I cringed.
"Oh, hey guys." I said nervously.
"Did you just yell it's demon time?" Randy asked me with a raised eyebrow. I looked from Randy to Dylan and then laughed.
"Well, you know I always loved my charmed. Yeah, I'm going to go watch the pilot right now because the power of three will set us free." I added emphasis to the last part with wide eyes. Dylan threw another glare my way and then smiled at Randy.
"I'll be right back." She said and gave him a kiss before squeezing my hand and dragging me upstairs.
"Okay, ow, ow, ow, ow, ouch! Easy on the punching hand!"
"Are you out of your mind? What were you thinking?"
"I was thinking that I almost died today and I'd really like to kill the sun of a bitch demon before he tries to kill someone else again." Dylan rolled her eyes and sighed. She was trying to have a normal date with her boyfriend today but apparently the Gods just are not having it. Once I filled Dylan in on the details, she went to figure out an excuse to get Randy to leave and I went to I.D. the demon. When I finally decided to check my phone, I got a message from Sam saying that Cassie had done exactly what I asked her not to do and told him that I almost died. He was on his way home, which I didn't want. This demon is powerful and it's not like he and Dean can offer much help.
Kimberly had just pulled into the garage when Sam skidded to a stop behind her. Sam and Dean hopped out of the car in a hurry.
"Jeez guys! Swipe off my bumper, why don't you." She complained. Dean took a sigh of relief when he saw that she was okay. Sam never explained what happened. He only said that they needed to go home immediately so Dean was going out of his mind with worry.
"Sorry, but we have a demon to vanquish." Kimberly groaned.
"Demon? What demon?"
"The demon that almost killed your sister." Sam said accusingly as if she should have already known. The three rushed into the house.
"Shar? Dylan?" Kimberly called with worry clear in her voice.
"Up here!" Dylan called from the attic.
"What the hell happened?" Kimberly asked as soon as she got to the top step. "Why didn't anybody call me?"
"You were at work Kim."
"So!"
"So, we need the money for bills and it's not like Shar died. She got healed." Kimberly only stared at her sister in disbelief.
"Where is she?" Sam asked.
"She went to china town to pick up the last herb that we're missing."
"She's driving?" Kimberly asked seeing how long that would take. Dylan shook her head.
"Nope. She got a ride from a white lighter. Sharnel saved her charge and now the demon will be after Sharnel so we have to work fast."
"Dylan! I'm back!" I called from downstairs when Jessica and I orbed into the kitchen to toss in the final ingredient.
"You might want to…" Jessica spoke before I tossed in the plant. It made a loud explosion and sent me flying back on my ass. "…step back." Jessica finished with a laugh. I sighed and rolled my eyes as she helped me up.
"That was fun." I said sarcastically. "I'll be right back. I'm going to call Kim and tell her to get her butt home." As I turned the corner to get my cell, I bumped into Sam who immediately took me into his arms.
"Why didn't you call me? I had to hear you almost lost your life from Cassie? Were you even going to let me know?" Dylan, Kimberly and Dean stood behind me nodding, obviously telling me to say yes, but since I never lie, I just deflected the question.
"Sam, I'm fine. Now, let's vanquish this demon while we have the power of three in the same room. Shall we?"
"Thank God that white lighter was there." Kimberly said.
"Yeah, let me introduce you." I led the way around the corner and didn't realize when Sam and Dean stopped dead in their tracks. "These are my boyfriend and roommates, Sam, Dean, Kimberly and you already met Dylan. Everybody, this is-"
"Jess." Sam spoke, cutting me off. His voice was no more than a whisper. I turned with a confused smile.
"Hi Sammy." She said with a sad smile. Kimberly, Dylan and I let our eyes jump between the two as if we were watching a tennis game.
"Uh… am I missing something here?" I asked. Sam seemed so tense. He turned on his heel and walked out of the kitchen and ran up to his room, slamming the door closed behind him. Jessica hung her head down. There was pain written on her face.
"Jessica, what are you doing here?" Dean finally asked.
"Shar saved her charge so now she's helping us with this vanquish." Dylan spoke softly. Then Kimberly seemed to gasp and stare between Jessica and me. Jessica looked up at me and offered me a small smile with a shrug of a shoulder and it hit me like a ton of bricks. Out of all the Jessicas I choose to bring home, I brought home the one woman who could take everything from me with a snap of her fingers.
"Jessica Moore." I whispered, more to myself than anybody else. Her silence was all I needed to give me validation. I needed some air. I felt my chest constricting and I was getting lightheaded. The demon was the least of my concerns now. All we needed was for the Charmed ones to bless the vanquishing potion with a spell and a drop of our blood. "Kimberly, Dylan, let's bless the potion." I couldn't read the spell fast enough. I took two vials of the potion and left. Kimberly and Dylan didn't think it was a good idea for me to be alone, but there was no stopping me. This morning everything was perfect. I woke up in Sam's arms which was becoming some sort of routine. I'd kiss him and go about my day knowing that at the end of the day, I'd have him to look forward to. Boy, how things can change.
Jessica was going to leave. She couldn't see how anything else would make matters any better. Kimberly and Dylan summoned the demon and vanquished him their selves just to make sure I'd be safe on my own. Jess' work there was done. Or so she thought. After righting Sam a little goodbye note, she went to slide it under his door, not expecting him to open it.
"So, you were just going to leave?" he spoke. His voice sounded strangled with mixed emotion. He honestly didn't know how to feel about this. Grateful that she's okay. Angry that she never thought to let him know. Sad that he found out this way. Confused on how he should handle this. His torture was endless. Jessica tried not to stare into his grieving eyes.
"I didn't know what else to do."
"You mean just now, or all those years ago." He spat out bitterly. "Do you know how much guilt I held onto all these years? How much I grieved? What I went through just to avenge your death?"
"It wasn't your fault."
"Of course it was my fault!" he shouted. Kimberly and Dylan, who were downstairs at the time, looked up with wide eyes. They didn't want to be there but they wanted to wait for me to get home and make sure I was okay. "You were killed because of me! Just like my mother was." Jess' eyes began to tear up but she willed herself not to cry.
"Sam, I wanted to tell you. I did, but it wasn't allowed. Besides, our life together was over from the moment I died. You needed to move on… and you did."
"That's beside the point. How am I supposed to react now? I held on to our love for so long. I mourned your loss. Now, all I feel is anger. I can't be mad at you. I don't want to be."
"But you deserve to be. You are allowed to be mad at me. I can handle it, but Sam, don't wallow in self-pity for too long. You have a great girl who really cares for you." Sam hung his head. It felt so heavy, like it was going to explode. "I won't come back. Just go on with your life as if you never saw me today." Jessica took his hand and placed the note within his palm. He watched with watery eyes as his first love vanished in a vale of white lights.
Several hours had passed since I started walking. At first I let my mind be a blank, but then the real fears started spilling out. "Sam might want her back. What if he left me for her? What we have is special, but it doesn't compare to what they have. I care about him enough to want him to be happy. I don't want him to stay with me and resent me for the rest of our lives. Truth be told, she deserves him more than I do. I pushed him away and played games at first. He deserves better than that. If he chooses to be with Jess, then I wont stop him. It's not like I can anyway. He's his own man. I'll be fine. I can handle this. I am fine." I told myself, but the words were empty. I didn't mean any of it. I don't want this to end, but I wont stand in his way. After all, the way their relationship ended wasn't out of choice. It wasn't fair. They deserve another chance. I realized that I was being completely selfish by taking off. Sam must be going through so much right now. I rushed home as fast as possible, ready to look him in the eye and tell him that he should be with Jess, but when I got there, he automatically took me within his arms and gave me a note to read. I originally thought it was a goodbye note for me, but then I saw his name at the top.
Dear Sam,
Words cannot express how deeply sorry I am for everything my death put you through. I know that you never stopped loving me and I think that's part of what gave me the strength to become a white lighter. I want you to know that I never blamed you. It was my destiny to die just as much as it was our destiny to meet. I don't regret one moment we spent together. They were the happiest moments of my life. I wish I could have spoken to you and told you not to worry about me. This gave me a chance to do something great in this world. I save lives. I help people and I am happy. Our lives have grown apart, but that's okay. You have a wonderful home with a wonderful girlfriend and a wonderful little family. I couldn't ask for a better life for you. Trust me Sam. Don't close off your heart to her because of me. She can give you things that I could never offer you. I am truly happy for the both of you. Don't let love pass you by.
Love, forever and always,
Jess
"I'm sorry." He whispered to me. "I should have told you who she was. I should have made sure you were okay." I shook my head and placed my fingers against his lips to silence him.
"No, I'm sorry. I should have been focused on how you were handling the blow instead of thinking of myself. I just ran."
"You have nothing to run from. I would never hurt you." I took a deep breath.
"Sam, if you want to be with her, I won't stand in your way. All you have to do is say so. I can handle it." He held my hand and smiled at me.
"Why would I choose her over you? I don't even know who she is anymore. You have nothing to worry about." Sam placed his forehead against mine and stared into my eyes. I smiled while internally jumping for joy.
"Good, because all of that was bull. I don't think I could handle that." I said suddenly causing us both to laugh. With all my power of premonition, I never saw any of this coming.
Author's Note: Okay, so what did you guys think? Jessica became a white lighter after her death. I always wanted to see more Sam and Jessica moments throughout the series so i thought I'd put a spin on my story and toss her in there a little. Did you guys like it? Review guys! Until next time ~ Pheebz