A/n: Thank you to anyone/everyone who reads, reviews, follows, and/or favorites this story. A special thank you to SparksFlyAngel, Guest, LilyBolt, and jojospn for your recent reviews! I'm glad to hear you're all thrilled to see "Agent Robert Willis." You will certainly be seeing him again ;-)
Chapter 6
November 2nd (Palo Alto) Later that day
"Does it all feel too...I don't know, soon?" The question had caught Jessica off guard and nearly caused her to choke on the grape she had just popped into her mouth.
"What?"
"I just mean, are you sure we shouldn't have waited until after school once we had actual jobs and could support ourselves better?" The young wife knew he had meant it when he proposed to her that Spring, but she also knew he hadn't exactly planned for them to get married that Autumn. It had been she who had insisted on it. He had wanted to wait a year at least.
"I'm 110% thrilled to be married to you Sam, till death do we part. For better or for worse. It doesn't matter to me if we're rich or poor. And besides, you're one of the smartest guys I've ever met who also has a very convincing way about him. You'll do great with the interview tomorrow and before you know it, you'll be a lawyer."
"I hope you're right Jess, I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't support you," he worried.
"Hey, it's the 21st century, I can take care of myself thank you. Don't think that us being married means that I'm going to be sitting around the house on my ass doing nothing all day. I'm going to be looking for a job at one of the hospitals once I've graduated and have my degree. I'm hoping it's a close one, but if I have to commute, then so be it. We're in this together Sam, you and me, we'll take care of each other. We've accomplished so much already, I'm proud of us." Sam beamed at her and placed his hand on hers.
"You're right, I just worry," he admitted.
"That's why I'm here, to keep that handsome head of yours nice and tight on those handsome shoulders." Sam squeezed her fingers, his smile fading as he removed his hand and looked down.
"Jess, did you take off your ring when you did dishes this morning?" He inquired looking down at her bare ring finger. She quickly brought her gaze down to look as well.
"No of course not!" Panic touched her voice and shone through her eyes. The couple searched around their immediate area, and when there still was no sign of it, Sam retraced their steps. He made his way back towards the car with his head down and his eyes making sure to scan every ounce of grass. Not paying any real attention to where he was going, he ran head on to something solid. With a startled grunt, he looked down to see a young woman sporting a blonde bob haircut who had fallen from the impact. She looked up at him with wide dark eyes.
"I'm so sorry," Sam apologized offering his hand. She took it and he lifted her to her feet. "Are you alright Miss?" The girl smiled at him and batted her eyelashes.
"Meg," she responded shaking his hand.
"Uh, Sam."
"Well Uh Sam, what in God's name are you doing? Making sure the grass is green equally?"
"My wife lost her wedding ring, I was just checking to see if maybe it fell off on our way over here."
"Oh!" Meg stuck her hand into the pocket of her red sweatshirt and pulled out a wedding band. "Is this it?" She asked hopefully. Sam's eyes widened and he snatched it up from her with a gasp.
"Thank you so much! Where did you find it?"
"I caught a glimpse of it on my walk right there at the curb. This just so happens to be my favorite stomping ground, I go for jogs here all the time to clear my head while getting some exercise in. Lucky I decided to go out today. I was so close to saying fuck it and sitting around watching bad reality tv with a bag of potato chips."
Sam fished around in his jean's pocket and pulled out all of the money he had on him. "Here. It's not much, but this ring means the world to me and my wife. If she knew how much I spent on it, she'd demand I take it back and get a cheaper one." He held out the cash towards Meg, who shook her head in response.
"Happy I could help," she smiled again.
"Well then, thank you so much!"
"Anytime. Your wife's a lucky woman," she replied looking up at Sam. He laughed nervously.
"Hey," Jessica called out as she joined her husband and the young woman he had been talking with.
"Jess look!" He turned to show her the ring. She quickly took it and placed it back on her finger, tears in her eyes.
"Oh thank God! I thought I'd lost it! Where did you find it?"
"I didn't, she did. She found it over there," he pointed to where the woman had described earlier. Jessica rushed to Meg and pulled her into a hug.
"Oh thank you thank you thank you," she cried.
"It's no problem. I'm just glad I found its owner."
The young woman let go and turned and wrapped her arms around her husband. "Well I should probably get going on my walk, it's getting late. But it was nice meeting you two," Meg said.
"You too. Thank you again," Sam replied.
"You're a life saver! Truly! Would you like to come over for dinner some time? It's the least we could do after what you've done for us."
"That's a sweet offer. I can't tonight, big plans, but I'll take a rein check."
"Great! I'm Jessica Winchester by the way and this is my husband, Sam," she introduced with a warm smile.
"Meg Masters." She turned to Jessica and smiled, "you've got yourself a real keeper."
"Don't I know it," the young wife beamed at her husband wrapping her arm around his.
The couple exchanged numbers with Meg, and then she was off.
"I can't believe how lucky we are!"
"Yeah no kidding."
"I don't understand how this happened. It seemed like it fit perfectly yesterday. Here," Jessica slid the ring off her finger and handed it to Sam. "We should probably have this refitted, next time we may not be so lucky. It's seriously my heart I wear around my finger, it's a part of me. I can't lose it, ever!" Seeing the fear in her eyes at the thought of its absence, Sam pulled Jessica into a tight embrace and kissed the side of her head.
"Don't worry baby, it won't happen again," he promised.
"I don't know what I would do if I lost it for good."
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This time when the door opened, it had been Liz who entered. Her heels clicked on the floor as she made her way back to her seat in front of the younger brother.
"You're looking better," she replied gently. "Mind if I continue?"
"Do I have a choice?" His response caused her to do a double take to make sure she had indeed left Dean's room and was in fact sitting in front of Sam.
"How would you describe your relationship with Dean?" She asked studying the young man's expression.
"Look, I'll tell you the same thing I tell everyone else. We're just too different."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean we don't have anything in common really. It's just-"
"Complicated?" Liz offered.
"Yeah."
"What was he doing at your house the night of November 2nd?" At this, Sam pushed air audibly out through parted lips.
"That's a great question, I asked him that myself. I'm assuming you talked with him while you were away?" "I did."
"And? He tell you he was just looking for a beer too?" She paused. Her hand was still holding her pencil which had been scribbling like mad along the paper until his response stopped her.
"He told you he was looking for a beer?" She repeated.
"That's kind of how my brother works, if you haven't noticed. Why, what did he tell you?" Liz cleared her throat and resumed moving her writing utensil across the pad.
"And your brother lives in Lawrence Kansas, correct?"
"What did he tell you?" Sam insisted.
"Mr. Winchester I'm not at liberty to say."
"Not at liberty to say? Are you kidding me?"
"Please answer the question."
"Yeah he does," he mumbled.
"My sources say that your brother can be quite the trouble maker." Sam stared at Liz, waiting for there to be more said, she obliged. "And your relationship with him is complicated?"
"It's not like that," the young man huffed having a good idea of what was being implied.
"Then what's it like?"
Sam signed and rolled his eyes. "Look, my brother's a lot of things, a jerk being one of them. He may steal from me, but he's not a killer." Liz stopped writing once again and stared at the younger brother. When she had left him to collect himself, she could see in his eyes despair, loss, his body language showed it too. But within seconds of his brother being the primary topic since her return, there was a fire inside him that came flooding out and she couldn't yet tell if it was in his brother's favor or fault.
"Mr. Winchester, what can you tell me about your father?"
"My what? What does he have to do with anything?" Sam scrunched up his face.
"That's what I want to know."
"Nothing. Why are you-"
"How would you describe your brother's relationship with him?"
"I don't see why he's even being brought up, he's been gone for a few years now."
"Gone as in...?"
"Dead." Suddenly, something inside the young man's brain clicked and his eyes narrowed. "Did Dean bring him up?"
Before Liz could respond the door opened once again, this time a thin clean shaven man with light blonde hair and big blue eyes entered.
"Sorry to interrupt, but there's been some new information regarding the case. A witness report." Sam's eyes grew large at the news.
"Did they see Jess' killer?" He asked eagerly.
"Excuse me," Liz jumped up from her seat and followed the man out of the room, leaving Sam alone yet again.
A/n: Thank you for reading!
SparksFlyAngel: Haha yep, you got! I'm glad you got a kick out of naked cooking, not a bad thing at all ;-) Good! Because it's going to be a while still about John. I'm glad you're really enjoying the story, I hope it continues to be good for you. Thank you so much for your drive :-)
Guest: Who doesn't love Bobby? You'll be seeing him again later. We can't all be good cooks, but it doesn't mean we can't have a good heart to try right? ;-) It's the thought that counts and the effort lol. Thank you so much for your review :-)
