blue_bells: (Supernatural :: Cas-Jimmy @ Window)
[personal profile] blue_bells
» Title: And if you see my friends, tell them I'm fine
» Fandom: Supernatural
» Warnings: Angst, PTSD themes
» Pairing(s)/Characters: Jimmy/Adam
» Summary: They have been pushed beyond any sane limit, but they have not been (completely) broken.
» A/N: Title taken from Robert Plant & Alison Krauss's "Nothin'". Originally written here for [livejournal.com profile] ravenspear in [livejournal.com profile] comment_fic.


Adam rolls out of bed first in the morning before the sunrise. He sits on the front porch, breath misting in the cold, just to be in the open air. One day Jimmy stumbles out early enough to see him there, phone pressed to his lips, and wonders if there’s somebody Adam needs to call.

Adam doesn’t like riding in cars. The bus is bearable, but until Jimmy had proven Adam couldn’t walk everywhere and still be on time, it was almost impossible to get him up those steps onto the public transport.

“I don’t need to be there on time,” Adam had shrugged.

“Adam, you could lose your job,” Jimmy argued.

Adam didn’t seem to hear him and just turned down the street with his hands in his jacket.

Jimmy sighs and their grocery bags sag in his arms.

On some days, Adam just didn’t care and Jimmy didn’t have the strength to make him.

They used to be more than this.

Adam has waking nightmares Jimmy can’t wake him from. He’s dangerous when they come on and it feels like some vicious betrayal, but Jimmy has to step outside the bedroom; let Adam ride them out on his own. They learned that the second time Adam came around and saw the bruises on Jimmy’s throat the morning after, the broken skin on his cheek and lip. The first time, it had been a lot easier to hide the effect of a few broken ribs.

The guilt in Adam’s eyes is worse than his own pain, so Jimmy agrees to lock the door.

Sometimes, it’s Jimmy that needs help. He’s woken up more than once on the ground with no memory of falling, or feeling ill in the slightest. The worst time, he fell in the street and woke up at the hospital with four stitches and a mild concussion. Some nights he wakes up on the floor of the lounge with his head pillowed in Adam’s lap while the other man flips through the TV channels like Jimmy chose to sprawl there. The only thing ruining the effect is the ice pack Adam holds to his temple.

It’s become ordinary.

Adam has phantom agony and the doctors can’t explain it (they know why). Adam hates doctors because they won’t increase his pain meds. Once upon a time he was going to be a doctor, too, but not anymore. They argue, just once, when Jimmy won’t buy him alcohol and then they never mention it again.

Jimmy has catatonic periods that can last for hours. Once, he blinked into awareness at the dining table, weak, and pained like he hadn’t eaten or drank in days. When he asks how long he’s been… absent, Adam’s eyes glaze over in that way Jimmy’s learned means he’s about to lie. He doesn’t ask anymore and just takes the food handed to him.

They don’t talk about it.

Adam sits beside him on the edge of the bed one night, almost leaning into him with the dip of the mattress.

There’s one bedside lamp on in the corner. It’s late. They’re tired. They’re always tired.

Jimmy finally moves, settling a hand on Adam’s knee. Adam looks at it, sighs, and wraps an arm around Jimmy’s waist. He rests his forehead on Jimmy’s shoulder when Jimmy’s thumb strokes his knee through the denim, but Jimmy’s watching the dark trees shake in the dim light of the street lamps outside.

Winter’s coming.

“I’m thinking of going to the park tomorrow,” Jimmy says. Tomorrow is Sunday.

Adam lifts his head and when Jimmy looks at him, there’s this small, wistful smile on his face.

They’re it. Despite the nightmares, the black-outs, the pain, and the apathy, they’re still here, and every night they still have this.

Adam leans in when Jimmy kisses him. He’s still smiling when they part and leans his forehead to Jimmy’s. Jimmy clutches the hand that winds through his and turns a deaf ear to the autumn wind howling outside.

“Do you want to come with me?”

“... Yeah.”

Date: 2011-03-17 10:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] synnerxx.livejournal.com
Ooo, this is so achy and yet sort of sweet. I find fics centered around the after effects the Angels have on humans very interesting. This is awesome, as always, bb. :)

Date: 2011-03-17 01:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_bluebells/
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! I love writing about the aftermath of the angels, it's also unexpectedly becomes one of the themes of my big bang (not Jimmy/Adam, though), so I'm really happy you thought this worked. :]

Date: 2011-03-18 12:07 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] synnerxx.livejournal.com
That's nifty. I like it when people explore different circumstances around the Angels. It's something we don't see in Show, but it's really realistic and just very awesome to read about.

Date: 2011-03-17 11:58 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ianthe-echo.livejournal.com
Bittersweet and beautiful. *loves*

Date: 2011-03-17 01:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_bluebells/
Thank you so much. <3
(deleted comment)

Date: 2011-03-17 01:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_bluebells/
Wow, that's really flattering, thank you for reading and I'm so glad you liked it! <3

Date: 2011-03-17 12:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] unikorento.livejournal.com
I liked that there were very tangible consequences to what they've experienced - it's one of those things that the show never has time to get into. I'd have never thought to go look for a piece of fic like this, but I'm really glad to have read it. Excellent work! :)

Date: 2011-03-17 01:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_bluebells/
Thank you! I really enjoy exploring the many and varied repercussions of being a vessel because it's only touched on briefly in the show (e.g. with Raphael's original vessel) and I'd like to think that life could continue for them if they survived in one piece, even if not completely whole. I'm so glad you enjoyed it!

Date: 2011-03-17 05:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] unikorento.livejournal.com
(Not relevant - but that's a lovely icon!)

Date: 2011-03-17 11:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_bluebells/
Thank you, and yours, too! I love yellow flowers.

Date: 2011-03-17 02:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] maldeluxx.livejournal.com
I'm glad that they understand each other, even if their life is somewhat unbalanced now *hugs them*

Date: 2011-03-17 03:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_bluebells/
I'm happy you liked it. :)

Date: 2011-03-17 03:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] axilet.livejournal.com
Oh man, victims of angelic PTSD. There should be some kind of club T_T

Date: 2011-03-17 11:32 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_bluebells/
They do need a Vessels Not-So-Anonymous support group. Or at least a free call support line (is this prayer?).

Date: 2011-03-17 05:27 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kattastic99.livejournal.com
This is such a beautiful story.

Date: 2011-03-17 11:39 pm (UTC)

Date: 2011-03-17 05:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ladyknightanka.livejournal.com
Oh, the angst! So much lovely angst! I love that there's more than just the downward spiral of giving up, though, as if there's nothing left after being used and thrown away. Instead, it's bittersweet, because underlying all of Jimmy and Adam's constant pain is hope - hope was there at the bottom of Pandora's box, after all, even when all the bad things had broken out, and it is said to spring eternal. They keep going on, surviving, partly because they have one another to lean on, and it's probably never going to be perfect, it's definitely always going to be just a little heartbreaking, but I can see it working. <33

On a lighter note, they should invite Nick to hang out with them sometimes, maybe start an angel-vessel support group? Sam could come, too, I suppose, lol.

Date: 2011-03-18 12:10 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_bluebells/
I love you and your crazy impassioned comments, I'm glad you liked the story! We haven't seen much in the show to suggest vessels are completely unscarrd, especially when subject to the archangels (ref: Raphael), which is why Adam's worse off than Jimmy here. This story could have gone down the gurgler, but I wanted them to have a chance. :)

I actually started writing a support group fic once upon a time, but I like the idea that Nick could join them. Sam has Dean - a blessing or a curse, is up for dispute.

Date: 2011-03-17 11:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beatlemaniac9.livejournal.com
Wow, I've never read Jimmy/Adam before! I like it!

Date: 2011-03-18 12:14 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_bluebells/
Thank you so much, I'm glad you liked it! :)

Date: 2011-03-18 04:10 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] high-flyer87.livejournal.com
I never knew I needed this pairing until this very second. It's so wonderful and heartbreaking and perfect. Thank you so much for writing it.

Date: 2011-03-18 04:17 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_bluebells/
Oh, thank you so much. <3 I'm so pleased you liked it that much and found these two worked for you!

Date: 2011-03-19 04:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thedreamisreal.livejournal.com
PERFECT PAIRING IS PERFECT. SO MUCH ANGST AND HURT/COMFORT AND I NEED MORE OF THIS IN MY LIFE. ♥

Date: 2011-03-19 05:12 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_bluebells/
YOU ARE TOO KIND, LOVELY. THEIR WOE IS DELICIOUS TO ME. <3

Date: 2011-04-13 04:13 am (UTC)
miscellanium: black and white image of jon voight and dustin hoffman from the film midnight cowboy. voight is dressed like a cowboy with a black hat and hoffman is in all black. they are walking on a large metal bridge. (spn | lost my direction and lost my home)
From: [personal profile] miscellanium
The imagery in this is gorgeous, and I love the soft dark tone of the whole thing. They're not okay but they're fine, or they've found a way to change the meaning of that word, and oh this is just a great post-possession fic.

(I'm dying to know how/why they would get together!)

Date: 2011-04-13 10:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_bluebells/
Thank you! I'm so happy this worked for you. In true Supernatural nature, I don't think that anybody who survived the Winchesters' apocalypse would be unscarred. I liked the idea of Adam and Jimmy's indomitable will, eking out a living through hope and those spare moments that keep them going.

(If I were to write a story about the beginning of these two, it would rely on Adam's memory of Castiel pulling him out of the Earth and initially mistaking Jimmy for the angel. They'd be disoriented, hurting, and learn how to share space for the mere sake of having someone nearby who understood the trauma of the apocalypse. They would prop each other up and sometimes they'd succeed, sometimes they'd have to admit defeat. It would be one of those slow, quiet and completely unremarkable relationships that evolves over time, falling together because they're just always in each other's lives, unwilling to risk exposing anybody else to the unknown danger they still pose. That's where this story comes in. I hope that satisfies!)

Date: 2011-04-28 01:03 am (UTC)
miscellanium: jimmy novak in black and white, with a suggestion of wings behind him (spn | and you want to travel blind)
From: [personal profile] miscellanium
(Oh, it more than satisfies! Slow-burning relationships are my favorite to read about; if you ever get around to writing that story I know of at least two people who would love to read it. c: You have a good feel for the process of recovery.)

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