Resurgence

Jimmy Novak. Born July 10, 1973 in Pontiac, Illinois. He came from a deeply devout line of Christians, all with the ability to contain the power of an angel in their blood. At his birth there was a sound in my head, but unlike the loud PING that notified us that Father was at work, I heard a light ringing, like that of a small bell. Immediately, I went to the source of the sound and found myself at a hospital, in a room with humans clustered around a bed. There, I saw my true vessel for the first time.

He was a normal infant in every way. Nothing was outwardly special about him; he was rather loud and constantly hungry. Even so, I stayed with him and his family for a while, watching over them. On many occasions I became frustrated when the parents didn't understand what the baby was trying to tell them. Baby language can be quite hard to decipher. Often, when Jimmy cried and the parents were elsewhere I would just tend to him myself. With a touch to his forehead he would be healed of his ailment, and he would fall into a deep sleep.

Whenever I had the time away from my Garrison I would visit him. Throughout his childhood and teen years I made sure that he was not aware of my presence. Not fully. But I still heard him sometimes at night, eyes closed deep in prayer as he murmured the words, "Dear guardian angels, please keep me safe and watch over me tonight."

And I did.

When Jimmy was 4 years old, I knocked a cup of detergent from his hands as he mistook it for juice and was about to drink it.

When Jimmy was 8, I scared away some boys who were harassing him by appearing before them, flaring out my wings and causing them to flee in terror. Jimmy never got to ask them why they ran, because they stayed away from him from then on.

When Jimmy was 12, he wandered away alone during a family vacation and fell into the lake, nearly drowning before I came in time to pull his unconscious body out of the water.

And another time Jimmy, 16 years old, was walking home from school when a car came careening down the road at him. In a flash, I was there and shielded him, deflecting the car so that it spun away and hit a street sign instead. I glanced down. Jimmy was staring upwards with wide blue eyes, unharmed, and I almost thought that he could see me…but then he shakily stood up and passed through my form without another glance.

After that incident, which his parents had called a miracle, Jimmy grew even more devout. I found pictures and bible verses of angels that he drew pinned on his wall. The devotion of humans never ceases to amaze me. I began to watch over him even more, gradually opening his eyes to the ways of the Lord. At the same time, he opened my eyes as well.

As I saw Jimmy grow up, I think it was then that I truly began to understand humans and their capacities for love, regret, grief…All these emotions had evaded me until I saw the world through his life. Once, Uriel drew me aside,

"Why do you hang around that human all the time?"

"Because he is my vessel and I must see to it that he is not harmed."

"Yes, I understand that. But what is the real reason?"

I was caught off guard by this question.

"You…you can't be implying that I have a relationship with the human-"

"That is exactly what I imply, Castiel. You should not allow yourself to roll about in their fleeting concerns. Serving Heaven comes first; you should know that."

I might have rebuked Uriel then, as he was of a lower rank than me, but I held my tongue. He was right; I was spending too much time with the human. Anael, also, was seen less and less around this time, watching over the humans alone, and I had a feeling that Uriel would have given her the same speech he gave to me if she was not his superior and a Seraph. The times Anael did come back, she spoke few words to us and had a brooding look on her. We were all worried, especially me. One day, I found her at a park and tried to confront to her about it, only managing to get:

"Castiel…I'm tired. I don't know what to do."

"Have faith, Anael, Father knows-"

"Father knows?! I'm sick of waiting on orders from some all-mighty being whom we, even the Arches, haven't even heard from for over two thousand years. I'm sick of sitting down here and just…watching," she motioned to the humans around us, happily unaware of our existence," I want to do something. I want to be something. I…I want to go home."

The last words she uttered came out as a whisper, like a feather softly falling. I cast a look at Anael, shocked at her outburst, about to tell her that such thoughts were blasphemy, but my eyes only met sadness so deep that I could only stare. Sadness was a human feeling. It was a dangerous feeling. Angels feel grief, yes; grief over a fallen brother, or a battle lost. But they always move on. As I looked into Anael's eyes, in a way I understood her. The entire Garrison had not set foot into Heaven for almost two thousand years. We could hear its call within us, like a beacon, at all times, pulling us to it. Our obedience was the only thing keeping us from going back.

From going home.

She left me after a few moments of stunned silence. I didn't see her or hear of her until the day she Fell, two weeks after she talked to me. It was only then that I realized that there was something else I had seen in Anael's gaze. It was a spark of determination, but I didn't understand the reason for it until I heard a voice in my head over angel radio, clear and condemning.

Anael has Fallen.

Ahhhg the whole time I wrote about Jimmy and Cas I wanted really badly to add fluff. But (very, very unfortunately) Cas no understand any fluff. At all.

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