"from heaven came" 3/60 - PG
title: from heaven came (part 3 of 60)
author:rosivan
rating/warning: PG, spoilers for 5x19
wordcount: ~ 1300
prompt: #02 Without me you're just AWESO
summary: He'd always been the best at hide and seek, after all.
a/n: I started writing this after Hammer of the Gods, so consider all episodes after that moot for this fic.
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There was a garden in Van Nuys, California that a Japanese doctor built back in the 1980's. Along the garden path a little ways there was a bridge that lead over the water, and if you paused on the bridge, sometimes you could see the dashes of colour beneath the stream's surface that were large koi fish swimming by.
A man stood on the bridge, leaning over the railing to look at the water. Instead of one or two fish flickering beneath, a group of koi gathered over one spot. One of the maintenance people who worked at the garden had remarked on how strange it was, but she didn't seem to notice the gleaming light in the water.
The man did, and he was drawn to it for some reason that he couldn't fully explain.
"Hey kiddo," the Gabriel said, sidling up beside the man. He patted a hand over the sleeve of his rumpled blue suit. "Have the reigns for a change, do you?"
The man's piercing blue eyes examined him for a moment before softening in faint recognition. "Yeah, he kind of..."
"Did something stupid?" Gabriel supplied.
The man made a face, but didn't protest outright. "I was going to say he was self sacrificing."
"Same thing." Hand curled over the man's shoulder, Gabriel tugged him away from the bridge. The man looked back to the water, a protest forming in his mouth, but the strange light that he'd seen before had vanished, the fish dispersing.
"C'mon Jim," Gabriel said pleasantly. "Let's take the old body for a spin before you gotta give the keys back." They walked a little ways down the path and then with a snap of the archangel's fingers, they were gone.
-
They walked up and down Van Nuys Boulevard, supposedly aimless, but every so often Gabriel would detour for a moment, humming something under his breath. Jimmy watched occasionally seeing a soft flare of light that would vanish once Gabriel approached it
"What are you doing?" Jimmy asked, after this had happened several times.
Instead of answering, Gabriel asked him a question. "Did you ever see Van Nuys Boulevard?" It was almost as if they were friends taking it easy, hanging out.
Jimmy frowned at him, but answered instead of pressing his own query. "No, this is my first time here... I never left Illinois much."
Gabriel waved a hand at him, brushing the fingers of his other hand along a glittering window sill. "No, no, I mean the movie!"
"This street was named after a movie?"
"There's a movie about this street," Gabriel said exasperatedly, as if it were common knowledge. "Made in 1979, back when the Busch Gardens Park was still kicking around here."
"You seem to know the area well," Jimmy observed quietly.
"Came with the job," Gabriel said, though he didn't specify what job. "Can't get lost, now can I?"
"I suppose not..." Jimmy said slowly. He kicked at a rock, knocking it a few steps away from his polished black shoes. He'd expected them to be scuffed, but they were as perfect as they'd been the last time he'd worn them. ...Remembered wearing them. He finally asked the question that had been lingering in the back of his throat since Gabriel appeared. "Are we looking for Castiel?"
"Oh, he's around." Gabriel's voice was lofty, and after slanting a grin Jimmy's way, he laughed. At Jimmy's genuinely worried expression, Gabriel shrugged a shoulder, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "Don't worry, I'm on it."
A question burned in the corner of his mind and Jimmy pushed on to ask that one as well. Gabriel was examining a store display window, angling his face to peer at the glass from a certain angle, looking for something. Jimmy watched his own reflection and asked, "I...Castiel knows you as Gabriel....are you-"
"Yep," Gabriel said. He reached out as if to peel something off the surface off the glass. Inside the store, Jimmy could see some people starting to notice, shooting strange looks their way. "Or I once was. Times change, faces change." He turned, rubbing his fingers together, and they continued down the sidewalk. "What."
Jimmy shook his head, having thought that Gabriel didn't see him make the face he had. "I just...nothing's ever what I thought it would be."
"Pretty much." He paused for a moment, staring at something down a side street. The moment passed without Gabriel moving off to pursue it. "You're thinking pretty loudly there, Jim. Gonna ask me out loud?"
Jimmy thought of his daughter, and his wife, supposedly still looked after on earth. Their faces, achingly fresh in his mind, as if he'd seen them a few minutes ago, not...however long it'd been.
"Nope. You're just back for a bit while my idiot brother pulls himself together."
"Did he-"
"No, that was me." Gabriel shrugged, nonchalant as if something like putting a dead guy back into his loaned out body was an everyday occurrence. "I've got a life too, yanno. Had you bat while I was arguing with the batter trying to steal third. When Castiel makes it to home base, you can waltz on back to the outfield."
It took Jimmy a moment to dissect that analogy, and even then he wasn't entirely sure what Gabriel was talking about. "....Right."
Another glimmer, slick over the bark of a tree caught their attention. "Gotta tell you, Jimbo. He almost struck out. You might've been stuck." Gabriel didn't elaborate when Jimmy darted a look his way, too busy with wiggling his fingers in the shine, soaking it up. "But I guess being stuck wouldn't be too unfamiliar for you, hm?"
"It's pretty much what I remember." Jimmy flexed his hands before him, gaze lingering a touch too long on the bare fingers of his left hand. "Almost." There wasn't even a faded stripe across his skin. It was like a ring had never rested there.
The silence stretched for a beat too long, and Gabriel reached over to lightly (for him at least) push Jimmy towards the door of a restaurant. "I'm hungry," the archangel announced. "Let's stop."
"I thought angels don't eat?"
The look that Gabriel shot him was almost believably injured. "Stop your slander and get in."
-
Jimmy had half expected to rush through the food, but in addition to eating, Gabriel seemed to know how to eat at a human pace. He perhaps enjoyed it a little too much, but to be fair, Jimmy did too.
Immediately after they left, Gabriel led them across the boulevard, picking up more bits of light along the way. They were more frequent, like scattered glitter, and they came to a stop just outside of an old muffler factory. Despite how slowly Gabriel had been gathering the pieces all afternoon, with one extended hand, palm flat and facing out, all the light shards in the area pooled immediately, seeming to jump to his palm.
"Thanks," Jimmy said, abruptly understanding. Walking down the street in the sunshine, eating a proper meal, it was all just...for show. "For being nice."
Gabriel turned to look at him, eyebrow raised as he snorted in short amusement. "I don't do nice, kiddo." He flicked his fingers out at Jimmy, and the man jerked, as if something had swelled in the center of his chest. "Back you go, Jimmy boy. Thanks for playing~"
In the shaft of light that engulfed Jimmy, Gabriel reached out and touched his fingers to the man's forehead, sending the soul back to its proper place as a holy Grace swelled to fill the body. When the light had dimmed, it was Castiel who blinked back at Gabriel, each glowing little piece pulled back together, tucked neatly inside the vessel.
Castiel frowned slightly, eyes flickering away from his brother to peer around them. "Gabriel-"
"Your boys are fine," Gabriel told him, patting his younger brother fondly on the shoulder. "And get vaccinated - you're catching their stupid." With a snap of his fingers, Gabriel was gone.
A thoughtful pause later, Castiel vanished too.
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