College Days

As Dean sat down on the bed, he figured he was lucky it didn't break. Sam sniffed as he entered the room and winced. The room smelled of stale sex and urine. "I'm going to get some food out of the vending machine. You want anything?"

Dean watched as Sam searched through his bag, hunting for loose change. "Something to drink and a bag of chips would be nice."

"Be back in a few minutes." Sam said as he shut the door with his foot.

Something trimmed in silver at the bottom of Sam's bag caught Dean's eye and he carefully pulled out a photo album. He opened to the first page and a girl's feminine handwriting greeted him. A post-it note carefully taped to the inside cover read Sam, you keep a lot of pictures bundled together and we've had discussions on getting you an album. Anyhow, this is the biggest one I could find. Enjoy your Christmas with Jessica, I want all the details when you get back. Hugs and kisses, Anna Dean looked through the pictures absent-mindedly, knowing full well he was invading his brother's privacy and not caring.

Sam came in the room, hands full. "Dean, are you looking at my photo album?"

Dean looked up and watched as Sam sat next to him on the bed. "Hey Sammy."

Sam rolled his eyes and handed Dean a bottle of pop and his requested bag of chips before taking the album out of Dean's hands. "Do you want to know a little about the people in the pictures?"

"You'll tell me?" Dean asked, surprised Sam was offering to tell him a little bit about his life at Stanford.

In response, Sam pointed to the picture of a girl dressed in a burgundy dress sitting piggy-back style on Sam's back. Sam himself was in a suit. They both had smiles on their faces and looked more than a little tipsy. "That's Anna Aston, the girl who gave me this album. We met first day of term. She was a sophomore pre-law student and took me under her wing as soon as she learned I was majoring in pre-law. This picture is from her parent's annual Christmas party. In exchange for letting me stay with her over Christmas break, I had to be her date for the party." He smiled and turned to the next picture in the album and pointed to the people in the picture. "That's Anna, John, Paul, and me. I think this was taken my freshman year, and Anna and John were sophomores. We wanted to do spring break right, so we finished our finals and we flew to Cancun."

Dean's eyes went wide. "You went to Cancun?"

Sam smirked. "I wasn't the model student all the time, Dean. This was pre-Jessica, of course. I met Jessica the beginning of my sophomore year." Sam smiled and pointed to the picture below. It was a picture of Sam and Jessica kissing. "This was our first date. Anna and Laura followed us everywhere that night and when I kissed Jess goodnight, they jumped out of the bushes and took this picture. I could have killed them when they did it, but when they handed me the picture a month later, I was so happy I kissed them both."

Sam flipped to the next page in the album. "That's Paula, Erika, and Mitch. Winter break, junior year I believe. In the beginning of December, we all went to a ski lodge in Colorado. Jessica had never skied before and she ended up breaking her arm first or second run down the bunny slope. I spent the rest of the trip 'nursing' her back to health. We flew to her house right before Christmas. God, we had such a fun time. Christmas with her family was always fun," Sam said as he showed Dean various pictures from Christmases with Jessica's family.

Dean, beginning to feel both a little sad and annoyed at the pictures of Sam smiling with Jessica and her family, flipped to the next page which had Sam on crutches with a broken leg. "Sammy, what happened?"

Sam shrugged. "To tell you the truth, I don't remember. I was walking home late from the library the one night and two days later, I woke up and was in a hospital room with Jess holding my hand. Jess told me I was hit by a drunk driver who decided he wanted to try driving on the sidewalk instead of the road."

Dean grimaced. "When was this?"

Sam looked thoughtful. "It was near the end of my junior year. I want to say in March. I remember I was cramming like mad because I had the LSAT in June."

Dean looked curious. "How well did you score on the test?"

"I got a 174."

"Out of?"

Sam winced. He knew the geek comments were about to start. "Out of a possible 180."

Dean's eye took on a glossy shine, but his voice was steady and filled with pride. "Damn, Sammy. That's great."

"When Jess found out I scored a 174, she insisted on throwing a little party for me. Her parents agreed to let us have a party at their house. I think there's few pictures from the party in here somewhere."

As Sam flipped through the photo album, he told Dean bits and pieces of his life at Stanford, jumping from different years in a manner that made Dean grin. Sam got halfway through the album before he carefully shut it and put it back in his bag. "I'll tell you more, Dean, I promise. Just not right now. After this, it's mostly Jessica and me, and there are some things and events that I'm not quite ready to discuss."

Dean was ready to pry, but he decided against it. Sam smiled gratefully at his brother before getting off the bed to take a shower. As soon as Dean was sure Sam was in the shower, Dean flipped through the album and was surprised, towards the end, to find pictures of Sam with Dean and their dad. The same handwriting was back which Dean's mind identified as Anna Aston's scrawl and he carefully read the post-it that was attached to the top of the page. Sorry to have snooped around your room, but I was trying to find pictures to put in this album. You always talk about your brother, Sam, and it's nice to see what he actually looks like. Please don't be mad at me, Sam. I torture you because I love you. Anna When Dean heard the water shut off, he quickly shoved the album back into the bag and absentmindedly wiped at his eyes. Sam came out, looking a lot more refreshed than he had in weeks.

"Hey, Sammy?'

"Yeah Dean?"

"Thanks." Dean chose not to elaborate on what because he refused to turn this into a chick flick moment.

Sam smiled warmly at Dean. "Not a problem, Dean. Thanks for listening. I..."

"Sam. Stop right there. We are not turning this into a chick flick moment."

Sam smiled as he lay down to sleep. When he woke up an hour later, screaming and trying to claw his eyes, Dean was there.