Bicarbonate of Soda [fanfic]

[morriganfearn]

Title: Bicarbonate of Soda
Author: MorriganFearn
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Milner, Jane
Pairings: Milner/Jane falling apart
Warnings: There are multiple possibilities for the answer to this problem. None of them are happy possibilities.
Summary: Post "Among the Few" - "Everything has changed" was always her excuse, but Milner never realized how much

Comments

[champagnesly]

So...it turned out the episode I just watched was "Among the Few," with this tiny plot point of the bicarbonate of soda and I was wondering if the story was going to imply that Jane was pregnant (whether by Milner or another man), so this is just eerie.

Jane and Milner's relationship is so very sad--both trapped, both silent, though I do have to wonder if her aversion is about more than the leg--her coldness seems so sharp and out of place. I think you capture that trapped feeling very well--particularly in the contrast of the kitchen versus the garden, and his tentative happiness versus her cool despair.

That episode was interesting in general, for the inclusion of the gay pilot subplot. And of course Sam going all badass and trying to get secret papers and ending up locked in a room with a bomb.

[morriganfearn]

I love and despair at "Among the Few" by turns. It's so sad, and yet Sam's undercover bit just makes me squee. They never pick up the "Jane might be preggers" plot again. I meant to play with the various reasons for that here, but leave it pretty open as to what actually happened.

As for Jane's coldness, it was common-ish in the war for men and women to have an aversion to the injured in that way. There are some interesting medical reports where doctors wonder at the frigidity of the female psyche (ignoring its male equivalent). Nowadays it would be classified as a kind of PTSD, most likely. Back then, it was just bad wives. I actually think that Horowitz did a great job with Jane. You want to kill her for what she's putting Milner through, but at the same time, she is getting absolutely no help, and she can't deal with all of the changes in her life. I also see it as an interesting allegory of how the shock of war and the changing times really hit British society, but your mileage may vary on that front.