(A/N- If anyone is curious about the chapter titles, they're all song titles that I felt fit the mood of each section. Chapter 1, The Good Life, is taken from the song of the same name by OneRepublic, Chapter 2, Helter Skelter is from the titular Beatles song, and Chapter 3, Brain Damage is taken from Pink Floyd, Chapter 4 is from a song by the indie group Crystal Fighters. Should I put in a little source info from now on so you guys can see what's running through my head with the chapter titles?)

Chapter 4: Home

Jimmy was afraid to move.

He was afraid if he moved, the world would shatter and he would find himself back in that room with the Winchesters and the demon. A world where Castiel still had him by the balls and he didn't have Amelia and Claire waiting for him. A world that didn't fit in the neat confines of normal, where the voice of an angel of the Lord spoke to him in his mind and hijacked his body when it felt like it.

"Jimmy?" Amelia spoke his name softly.

He turned to look at her. He could feel his eyes stinging, his vision clouding. He felt so utterly helpless and lost.

He wanted to reach up and touch her face, tell her he was all right.

But he wasn't all right. He was afraid if he touched her she really would disappear, because this might all be an illusion.

"Jimmy," she repeated. "You're awake, thank God. How are you feeling?"

Jimmy swallowed, looking back to the ceiling.

Amelia sighed, setting the bible on the stand beside the hospital bed. "The doctors say you had a seizure," she said. "They weren't sure you were going to wake up."

A seizure. Then he had been unconscious. Or was he unconscious now, hallucinating this?

The things that Dean had said, how Castiel had come back to claim him after he had been mortally wounded (Seriously, man, we thought you were supposed to be dead...), he wasn't so sure. He didn't remember it that way, but who was to say that Castiel hadn't screwed with his head to make him forget?

"How long have I been here," Jimmy asked finally, still staring at the ceiling.

"About five hours," Amelia said softly. "When I got home and I saw you," She reached over and took his hand, taking a deep breath to steel herself. He didn't mind, and squeezed her fingers gently. "I thought I'd lost you..."

Jimmy managed a faint smile. He wished he could say something, anything that he believed in that would console her. The time pretty much matched the time he'd been... dreaming? It was disconcerting to say the least.

"So," he said, wetting his lips. "When do I get out of here?"

[XXXXXX]

The hospital ended up keeping him overnight for observation.

While he had been out, the doctor had ordered an MRI to see if there was anything going on that might have caused to so-called attack.

To everyone's frustration, they found nothing.

Finally, at four-thirty the following morning, they released him to go home. Amelia had stayed up with him the whole time.

Jimmy was leaning his head against the window while Amelia drove. He had spent much of the time just thinking, and it was wearing on him.

Amelia kept glancing at him. He could see the worry in her eyes, but she took his silence as a cue and let him be for the time being.

He'd kept silent about the dream. It had seemed so real, and he still wasn't sure it hadn't been. He wasn't that creative, if he was honest with himself. He wasn't sure he could imagine up that kind of hallucination.

Every one of his senses was at war, saying that both realities were the real thing.

Jimmy wasn't buying it. One of these was a hallucination. He only hoped it wasn't this one.

He didn't want to sleep. The last thing he wanted was to wake up again in the company of the Winchesters with an insane angel stuck in his head.

As they pulled up in front of the house, Jimmy frowned.

He didn't know of any dog owners on their block, but he swore he could hear dogs, a lot of dogs, howling and whining all around him.

He went rigid as the air changed and the interior of the car gave way to what looked like a kennel, at least a dozen dogs- all greyhounds, he noted- were crated all around him. Through what looked like a large barn door, he saw a looping track. It was full daylight, and on the other side of the track he saw a group of dogs chasing a stuffed rabbit.

Frowning, he realised he was now wearing his old beige trench coat, the one he thought he had burned. He was still wearing the hospital smock and drawstring sweats, and was now wearing a pair of hard soled slippers as well. The worst part? He wasn't even all that bothered by the transition anymore, he realized with resignation.

These dogs. They are very unhappy.

Jimmy almost jumped at hearing Castiel's voice in his mind.

"Ugh. Of course you're still there..."

Searching his pockets, he found an older pre-paid flip phone. Opening it, he found three contacts saved on it.

He looked around, searching for any indication of where he might be. The kennels all had tags on them with names and addresses. He leaned in to study them, and most of them had one thing in common.

Perth.

He was in freaking Australia?

"What the hell," he breathed. "What happened?"

Hester. She tried to take the prophet.

"I'm not even going to try and understand that. How did we get here?"

We were... banished. Why are these dogs unhappy... they chase the rabbit around and around...

Jimmy sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

He was in freaking Australia with an insane angel stuck in his head as his only company.

Feeling lost and vulnerable, he punched the second number on the speed dial.

"Castiel," the lilting, feminine voice on the other end of the line asked.

"No," Jimmy sighed. "Look, I'm not sure who else to call. I'm in," he floundered for a moment, still not entirely certain he wanted to entertain this whole thing or just sit down and wait it out again. "I'm in Perth."

"Perth?" Meg sounded more than a little amused.

"Perth? As in Australia?" Jimmy grimaced as he heard Dean's voice from somewhere near Meg.

Ask her about the dogs. She would know about the dogs.

"Shut up a minute..."

"What, Jimmy?"

"Nothing, not you."

Jimmy started pacing back and forth. He realised this was agitating the dogs, but a moment later he noticed that this was going to end up being the least of his problems, as it appeared that someone had noticed him, and now there was a security guard at the door.

"Right," Meg said. "Listen, we're on highway 94, North of St. Cloud, Minnesota. We're just passing mile marker 79."

"... Did you miss the part where I told you I was in Australia?"

I can handle this.

Without warning, Jimmy found himself sitting between Meg and some kid.

Naturally, he kept his cool and screamed like a girl. Naturally, this startled the kid, and then he wasn't the only one who screamed.

Dean jerked the wheel with a start. "Jesus! What the, Cas!" He glared back over his shoulder reproachfully at Jimmy once he had corrected the wheel and not crashed them into the guard rail or oncoming traffic.

"Question is," Meg smiled. "Do we find ourselves in the company of Castiel, or Jimbo?"

"Jimmy," he corrected.

Oh good. They have the prophet.

Jimmy looked at the kid next to him.

He couldn't have been more than sixteen, seventeen at most, and he was clutching a duffel bag to his chest as though it were a lifeline. He seemed to be trying to disappear behind his unruly mop of hair. Jimmy sympathised.

"Jimmy," Meg said, a lilting, almost mocking tone to her words. "This is Kevin Tran."

The kid, Kevin, eyed him dubiously. "Are you one of the angels?"

"No," Jimmy scowled, suddenly irritated again.

"So, uh," Dean said, clearing his throat. "Is Cas there with you?"

Jimmy frowned. "What? Why would you ask that..."

"You were talking to him in the ward," Meg offered helpfully.

Jimmy suddenly felt very claustrophobic, wedged between a demon and a 'prophet of the Lord'.

"... I think I'm gonna be sick..."

Dean looked back at him, his face a mask of horror, and suddenly he jerked the wheel, pulling over on the side of the highway. "OUT! Not in the car!"

"Jeez, Dean!" Sam complained. "It's not even the freaking Impala!"

"I don't care Sammy. This guy's not puking in the car. I will not live with that smell, so help me God..."

"Come on, Tiger," Meg opened the door, helping him out of the car. She stood by him while he dry heaved a few times, rubbing small, comforting circles against his back.

After a moment, Jimmy leaned back against the side of the car, not sure yet if he wanted to get back into it.

It was raining lightly, and the cool water felt good on his face.

"You okay, kid?" Meg stood watching him. Sam and Dean were having an animated conversation inside the car, but he couldn't hear what they were saying through the closed doors.

"No," he admitted. "No, I'm not okay. This," he gestured wildly. "This is not okay."

Meg tilted her head to the side, regarding him for a moment. "Want me to sit bitch in the back seat?"

Jimmy blinked at her. "What?"

Meg smiled slowly. "You seemed a little claustrophobic in the middle."

He watched her for a moment, trying to figure her out.

"Why are you so nice," he asked finally.

"End of the world prospects," she explained. "With Leviathan running around, humans aren't the only ones with their asses on a spit. Call it an alliance of self-preservation."

Jimmy frowned. Leviathan... had he heard that before? Something about the water... his vision, back when this had all started.

"Except you don't know about any of that," she mused. "Do you?"

Jimmy shook his head, feeling out of his depth.

"Come on," she took his arm, leading him back to the car door. "I'm sure the idea of sitting on the side of the road is even less appealing than sitting bitch in a car full of crazy."

Jimmy had to admit, she had a point there.

He got back into the car, but this time he took the window seat. He really didn't want to sit bitch.

It unsettled him, though, that he'd found himself back in this version of reality, and it didn't really unsettle him.