fandomhigh | Ethics [Monday, April 2, 5th period]

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Ethics [Monday, April 2, 5th period]

"Today we talk about the ethics we encounter in relationships," Anakin began quietly. "Not just the easy questions like 'is it cheating if one of us is possessed?' but the ones that effect everyone--how much of the truth do you tell the person? What happens when one of you stops loving the other one? What happens when you reach an impasse on differences in religion or life goals? What do you do when circumstances beyond your control threaten to split you apart? What if there's too much old baggage to try again?"

He ran a hand through his hair, not looking at John or Molly ~~assuming they're in class today~~. "Take it from me. Sometimes love isn't enough to make it work." He looked around the classroom. "Today we talk about the messy parts of love. Pick one of my questions and answer it the best way you can."

He leaned against his desk. "I'll be over here ~~brooding~~ listening to the discussion."

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"What?" Sam said, staring back.

"It's okay to lie to someone you love if you're bothered by the truth? You can't really believe that."

"Of course I do," Sam replied. "Come on, how often have we told people the truth about us? I mean, we didn't even start out telling the people here about Dad. If everyone wasn't okay with it, we would have continued lying."

"That's different. Those aren't people we're in love with. Least, not unless there's something you're not telling me."

Sam rolled his eyes. "No, they're not. But, we both lied to Dawn, at the very beginning. If it had turned out that she was normal, and didn't know anything about hunting or fighting, you really think you would have told her the truth?"

"Maybe not if all we were doing was dating for a couple of weeks. But if I'd fallen in love with her? Absolutely," Dean said without hesitation.

"Okay, this isn't the best example because obviously, we can't escape the hunting thing here," Sam said, shaking his head. "But if we were in a regular town, and Dawn was a regular girl? I can't imagine telling her the truth, not if it risked making her think I'm some kind of freak."

"So you'd rather have her be in love with a lie?" Dean asked.

"I'm not saying I'd lie about everything. Just the details that might scare her away," Sam said. "She'd still be in love with me."

"Not the real you," Dean pointed out.

"There's a lot more to the real me than our family history," Sam pointed out.

"Yeah, but like it or not, you're a Winchester, Sammy. With all that means. Lying about it doesn't change it. Just means you're hiding."

"I shouldn't have to own up to being a Winchester if I don't want to, and if it means I won't be able to get close to anyone who isn't a hunter too."

Dean was back to staring at him. "Do you hear youself. 'I shouldn't have to own up to being a Winchester.' Dude, that's what you are. You're saying you shouldn't have to own up to being you. And that's just whacked."

Sam shook his head. "No, you're not understanding me. I'm not saying I'd lie about my name or any of the little details. But if someone asked, "Hey have you ever killed anybody before?" I'd lie my ass off. That may be a part of me, but it's not one that I got to choose, so I don't see any reason to be truthful about it unless I absolutely have to."

"And when you do have to -- because you know that's going to come back to bite you on the ass -- and she asks you why you didn't trust her enough to be real with her, what are you going to say?"

"I'd like to think that when she hears the truth, she'll understand why I didn't tell her - because it's too crazy to be believed, and it wasn't that I didn't trust her, it was that I didn't want her to hate me."

Dean shook his head. "I couldn't tell someone I loved them and still lie to them about who I was. I'd have to have enough faith that they would still love me when they knew the truth. If not, then they didn't really love me in the first place. Just who I was pretending to be."

"I think the difference here is that you don't have any problem with who you are," Sam said. "I don't want someone to fall in love with the person I am, I want them to fall in love with the person I want to be."

"Okay, Sammy? Hate to break it to you, but you are who you are. That's who you should be wanting them to fall in love with. Otherwise, you're just hating yourself."

"So you're saying I shouldn't strive to be more than I am right now? That I should just settle for being something I don't want to be? What the hell kind of advice is that?" Sam asked.

"No one's saying you should settle. But you're Samuel Winchester, son of John and Mary, my little brother, with all that entails. And yeah, that means having to deal with knowing demons and crap are real and all that. That's just part of who we are. You start trying to deny that, you deny pretty much everything," Dean told him. "And dude, I'm trying not to be offended by the implication here that we're not good enough or you."

"It's not that you're not good enough for me," Sam said. "And okay, you're right, I can never not know that demons and everything that goes with them are real. But that doesn't mean that I have to go around telling people that they're real for the sake of being truthful about myself."

"We're not talking walking up to random people on the street and going, 'Hi, my family hunts demons!' We're talking about a specific person that you love and, one would assume, want to spend your life with. Big difference."

"Okay, I have to assume that this hypothetical person exists in the future, since right now I have Dawn, who loves me despite the hunting thing, and therefore doesn't fit into this conversation at all," Sam said. "So, let's say I do end up falling in love with someone else, in the future. Odds are, I won't be hunting, so it's not like I'm going to be hiding that from her. If I decide that I want to spend the rest of my life with this woman, then I'll tell her the truth, maybe. But when the relationship's just starting out, the truth would probably be a sure fire way to drive her away."

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