From: msnsc21@yahoo.com   
      
   ok to post to newsgroup, I'll post to Gossamer and Ephemeral.  Thanks!   
      
   Title:  Social Contract   
   Author:  ML   
   Email:  msnsc21@yahoo.com   
   Feedback:  welcomed   
   Archive:  at will.  Please let me know if you want it.   
   I like to keep track!   
   Spoilers: S7,  Within   
   Disclaimer: not mine, just my ideas.   
      
      
   Social Contract   
   by ML   
      
      
   "And how's your day going today?"  The friendly checkout   
   clerk asks.   
      
   How can she possibly answer that in a truthful way?  "My   
   partner and lover is missing, and I'm pregnant with (what   
   I hope is) his child, and no one but me seems interested   
   in really searching for him."  Probably a non-starter.   
      
   She falls back on her standard, "I'm fine."  She can just   
   imagine the clerk's reaction if she told him the truth,   
   and it isn't even remotely funny.   
      
   Even Mr. House, the manager at the garage, seems even more   
   cordial than usual.  "It's been more than six months since   
   your last visit, Dana.  Don't you like us anymore?"   
      
   Mr. House reminds her of the farmer in "Babe," and she   
   often has to restrain herself from saying, "Naa Ram Ewe"   
   in front of him, just to see what he'd do.   
      
   "I'me fine," she says.  Then, realizing he'd asked about   
   the car, she says,  "I've been out of town a lot this   
   spring, and haven't driven it much."   
      
   Mr. House smiles his usual sunny smile.  "I should have   
   realized.  But it's been a while since you've had to do   
   a lot of traveling.  Have you changed jobs?"   
      
   Not if I can help it, she thinks, but says out loud, "No,   
   just the luck of the draw."   
      
   "Must be interesting, going all over the country,"  Mr.   
   House offers.   
      
   She smiles without really answering.  It's part of the   
   fabric of life, she reminds herself.  Don't discomfit   
   people with your true feelings, or what's really going   
   on in your life.  Just smile, and say what's expected,   
   and move on.   
      
   Never mind that she spent the morning staring at her   
   partner's headstone, and learning of his imminent demise.   
   Never mind that the man put in charge of her partner's   
   case impugned his integrity, and by extension, her own.   
      
   "If you can't say anything nice," her mother would say,   
   "don't say anything at all."   
      
   So she smiles and says nothing, and the world turns.   
      
   end.   
      
      
      
      
      
      
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