Title: Average Jimmy
Author: Antiquitydreams
Rating: G
Characters: Dean/Castiel, Jimmy
Spoilers: Just assume everything through the end of Season 5.
Warnings: None really :3
Summary: An introspective take on Jimmy Novak and his observations of Dean and Cas and the sweet downfall that lead to their relationship.
A/N: For cloudyjenn 's Twitfic exchange. Gift to katkaminion . Prompt: None AU Dean/Cas. It's not at ALL what I meant to write but here it is all the same.
In the Dictionary of Life (often found on the shelf propping up its more popular game counterpart), the synonym for "Average Joe" is "Jimmy Novak".
You see, before the winter of 2008, the only thing in Jimmy's long life that had been even remotely out of the ordinary was his last name.
The man had spent his whole life doing what he was told to do; following the strict doctrine his parents had laid out for him as a child. The mantra of "be normal" was in his blood, ironically right next to the "become an angel's vessel" part.
For all intents and purposes, Jimmy was the poster child for the average man. Accomplished, but average even by his own standards. He graduated high school with a 3.0 GPA, went to the local community college and graduated in exactly the same fashion. Average Jimmy even attended and graduated from the local university where he got his degree in business and went on to work for the local broadcasting company as a Sales provider.
Good ol' Jimmy went to church every Sunday like his parents taught him and married his high school sweetheart. They bought a house down the block from his childhood home with a white picket fence and shortly thereafter, they had a baby. Though the man loved his life, very little variation ever occurred and that was the tragically simple tale of how Jimmy Novak lived out the rest of his dreadfully dull life.
Or at least, that's how it would have played out (SHOULD have played out) had IT negated to make a grand entrance into the average man's world. The catalyst of Jimmy's existence was the complete decimation of it with one simple word.
Yes.
His whole life Jimmy had been told to believe in God. Follow God. Live for God.
His biggest mistake was assuming Castiel was the voice of god. Or at least speaking on behalf of him.
Average Jimmy no longer became average and his life subsequently fell apart after that. For a long time post the accidental ruining of his wife and daughter's lives, Jimmy wallowed in silence. He no longer cared what happened to him and Castiel as he passively watched his life flutter away like the gossamer wings of a dream he once had.
In fact, Mr. Novak never opted to speak to the angel of ruined lives and Thursdays until something caught his attention. When the magnitude of Castiel's grace began to fade upon his return from what Jimmy would classify as "angelic torture time", what remained was something distinctly humanized. It was subtle at first but he recognized it as the same swelling sensation that had bloomed in their chest whenever Castiel decided to help Dean. In fact, it thrummed with a viable pressure every moment Dean was around.
Feelings, Jimmy would later note, were strange when seen through the filter of an angel. And that IS what the sensations were because, at the very least, Jimmy was knowledgeable of all these human conditions even if Castiel was not.
The feelings initially reminded him of what he had experienced when he saw his daughter for the first time at the hospital. That slight awe-struck sense of affinity which was pure and innocent and not tampered with by the whole of society. Jimmy had concluded that Castiel felt that way because Dean was his hard work and effort, the culmination of all his strength and grace rolled into one neat little package. After all, the angel rebuilt the man from very little, went to hell just to seek him out, and replaced him in that stitched together suit of Angelic devotion. How could he not be attached?
However, after being exposed to Dean Winchester for longer than five minutes at a time, that nameless innocent affinity shifted into something darker. Not dark in the way evil would be represented but dark in the way mankind would. It was a very human emotion that tainted the angel's grace and fumbled along the lines of love and devotion. It was as if all that worship a celestial being could give to a God had been redirected to a human and it would be said being's sweetest downfall.
Poor Castiel had no idea.
But Jimmy did.
He knew what it was and where it was headed. He knew what little could come of it because of who Dean was and who Castiel wasn't, but he didn't stop it. In fact, when push came to shove and Castiel was fretting over Dean's rude dismissal in the green room, Jimmy finally deemed it time to speak to his body's co-inhabitant.
"Help him." Was what he managed but it was more than enough.
Naturally, they were killed shortly after that.
Of course, for Jimmy it was like freedom. The rewarded he had been promised was his place amongst the exalted and Castiel.. .
Well, 'Cas' was given another chance on earth.
His former "roommate" was resurrected and Jimmy found that angelic vessels were granted certain rights and privileges that other souls didn't seem have. Among these special abilities was a way to watch the living, especially those who the deceased were once attached to. And watch he did because, after all, that was his image that Castiel was borrowing extensively. Jimmy quickly learned that Castiel was having to bumble through existence in much of the same way any other human did. It was kind of satisfying after being strapped to the comet for so long.
In the lazy haze of paradise, the man idly watched his friend (because after being in heaven for a while, Jimmy decided that he could be proud to call Cas his friend, even if that wasn't exactly the case) like daytime television while he mused over the angel's actions. From his cloud Jimmy could see that the once gentle spark of a feeling that had been budding when he left, was clearly developing into something so much more and he worried for Cas. He worried for the angel's inexperienced heart and the beating it was going to receive when the recipient of its devotion found out.
He spent what felt like years mulling over this development. Watching the Winchester show through the slow passage of time on Earth when he wasn't casually spying on his daughter to make sure she didn't cheat on her math test again. He expected explosions and physical violence, possibly abandonment or worse.
Yet as time marched on, Jimmy saw something else that he never thought was possible (which at this point was very little). He saw Dean turn. In an agonizingly slow effort, the wheels in Dean's head collected data and turned over possibilities until the day finally came when Dean looked at Cas and saw so much more than what had initially been there.
Bless his heart, he didn't even flinch. In fact, not only did he NOT flinch, he allowed himself to drift closer to the misplaced angel.
Jimmy felt a familiar rush of relief. Despite the fact that it was weird to see Castiel in his skin, doing all those things he would have never done, Jimmy found that he didn't care so much any more. After dealing with his celestial counterpart on a very intimate level for so long, he understood. He saw what Cas saw, felt what Cas felt and he understood why the angel fell. He understood and he accepted it. Dean was a force to be reckoned with but he was also the perfect matching puzzle piece to Castiel.
Mr. Novak eventually and pleasantly conceded that the angel could have his skin, keep his body and enjoy the novelty of being human for a while. Because Jimmy had his reward while he waited for his family to catch up and he was at peace.
Well, sort of at peace.
For some reason his version of heaven involved walking in through one door and walking out another to find himself square in the middle of a roadhouse bar. One that was occupied by a long haired hick named Ash and a few other patrons who claimed to have known the famous Winchesters. Jimmy resigned himself to using Cas' name in vain every now and again before casually sipping a beer and accepting that this was his new life. If for no other reason then there simply was no escaping it.
Oh well. At least the beer was decent.
Fin.