Story 148: "If I Die in a Combat Zone" by Sabine

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

Here we have...well I'm not entirely sure what to call it. Late seasons pseudo-apocafic? It defies genre, that alone has me intrigued. And do check out "the even-numbered pages" too, if you can. It got a little stiffed for time of its own.

TITLE: If I Die in a Combat Zone
AUTHOR: Sabine (sabine101@juno.com)
ARCHIVE: Gossamer, Spookys okay. Else please drop a line.
CATEGORY: Short.
RATING: NR

Comments

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Estella, I appreciate the company. And I think your comment was a good one. We're bound to end up expressing similar things in different words (we are commenting on the same short fic, after all) but that doesn't make your expressing your thoughts any less valuable.

The children soldiers are her child, or rather her child is just the emblem, the place-marker of all the children she'll never be able to protect

I'm glad you said this. My comment kind of focused on her child specifically, but you're absolutely right - the fact that she's going to be a mother herself is just going to make her more empathetic towards all children.

IIDIACZ is just fear, great and justifiable fear, of warfare.

Yes! The first couple of times I read it I kind of got distracted by the descriptions and little details, so it resounded with me less. But when I came back to the fic a year or two later what came through so strongly was as you've said, the great justifiable fear. For all the complexities of how the dream can be analyzed, fear is the very fabric of the fic - so much fear, an almost unbearable amount of fear - and the terrible thought that Scully is living with that much fear.