Hard as Silk Part 3: The Comedian
Title: Hard as Silk Part 3: The Comedian
Author: quietprofanity
Fandom: Watchmen
Pairings: Silk Spectre II/Ozymandias, Silk Spectre II/Dr. Manhattan, Silk Spectre II/Rorschach, Silk Spectre II/The Comedian, Silk Spectre II/Nite Owl II (future part)
Disclaimer: Characters are not mine and are used for non-profit purposes. Any real people in the story are used for literary purposes and their representation should not be treated as truth.
Warnings: Explicit f/m and m/m sex. Incest.
Summary: A counter-offer from Adrian Veidt leads to a series of uncomfortable events for Laurie.
Alternate Summary: Laurie has sex with almost everyone.
Acknowledgments: Thank you, sandoz_iscariot for your awesome beta powers.
~*~*~
Things were not going well, Laurie thought as she slapped her palm against the side of the portable TV in another futile attempt to keep signal through the thick walls of the Owlship. It was midmorning and they were riding to monitor a protest at City Hall. While most of the protest was situated on the park grounds, some groups had spilled over to the streets, and with the lack of officers to contain the protest and keep the traffic clear, things had the potential to get violent.
Or so the news reports said. Laurie, whom Dan had asked to monitor the TV, tried to reach another channel. It had been nearly half a day since her “talk” with Rorschach and now, cramped in a small space with him, plus Jon, plus - ugh - Blake, she decided to deal with the situation by ignoring everyone as much as possible.
Not that anybody else seemed at ease. Rorschach paced the length of the ship, his face turned away from her as he passed. Blake leaned against the opposing wall, smoking a cigar and occasionally making a sarcastic comment at the others’ expense. Meanwhile Jon talked exclusively with Dan, asking him question after question about the size of the protests, what he would be expected to do, what the plan was if other problems occurred elsewhere.
This atmosphere was killing her. The only person in their entourage she felt comfortable looking in the eye at this point was Dan, and he was busy with Jon and piloting the ship. A beautiful ship, she thought. She glanced around the interior, trying not to look at anybody inside, wondering how it worked.
The TV signal came back. A white man with graying brown hair and glasses appeared clearly on the screen.
“In our top story, brutal assaults in the wake of the police strike. Albert Friendly, a man from Manhattan, reported Laurel Jane -” The screen showed a picture of the Westie from last night, his face bloody and bruised, then went fuzzy again. Laurie hit the television once more, bringing the picture back. “-- daughter of former vigilante Sally Jupiter, assaulted him last night. This alleged attack resulted in multiple injuries …”
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!” Laurie yelled at the screen. Rorschach stopped pacing at her outburst. She looked down suddenly. “The guy was beating up a woman,” she muttered.
“This attack has led many to question the methods of these vigilantes and once again opened the debate on women in combat,” the journalist said. “We go to feminist author Susan Brownmiller for comment.”
Laurie heard Blake groan from behind her. A woman with short, feathered brown hair appeared on the screen.
“Tim,” Brownmiller said, “As you know, I and other feminists have always been critical of masked adventurers. Of course, this relic from the 1940s may have begun with noble intentions in some individual cases, and while they have had a modicum of success in capturing rapists and other violent criminals -”
“Far more than feminists’ useless tours of strip clubs and sex shops,” Rorschach said.
“Hush,” Laurie said.
“ - the actions of some heroes have proven this is not always the case,” Brownmiller continued. “I’ve always admired the late Silhouette and both Silk Spectres for their work, but we have to remember that Larry Schexnayder wasn’t that much better than Hugh Hefner. It was he who created the image of the Silk Spectre, cemented the link between female costumed adventurers and pornography that formerly only existed in the pages of early superheroine strips like ‘Wonder Woman,’ which incorporated bondage imagery into the supposedly ‘harmless’ stories of a woman fighting bad guys.”
“Seriously?” Blake called to Laurie, “Kid, can you turn that shit off?”
Laurie frowned and turned up the volume.
“Honestly, the very fact that you’ve asked me about this proves the effectiveness of Schexnayder’s methods. I’m against any crime of brutality committed by these vigilantes, but the idea that the second Silk Spectre isn’t capable of it shows how much we expect female masked adventurers to be like the passive rape victims of Irving Klaw’s sadistic Bettie Page pornography.”
“Is that what you really believe, Ms. Brownmiller?” asked the reporter, “That society sees these costumed adventurers as victims?”
“Well, look at the statistics, Tim. One murdered for being a lesbian and the other nearly raped? And her rapist, I might add, is inexplicably considered some kind of war hero. Really, why do you think no other women have become costumed adventurers besides Sally Jupiter’s daughter in the past 20 years? Any potential female costumed adventurers … they were sent a message.”
“Oh, fuck that garbage.” Blake yanked the television out of Laurie’s hands before she realized he was near her.
“Hey, give me that!” Laurie reached for the television but Blake knocked her hands away.
“We’re in a war, kid,” Blake said as he flipped through the dials. “If you’re going to do this, you should be looking for actual information, not wasting our time listening to some whining harpy.”
“Blake,” she said, trying to keep her voice level. “Dan said this is my job. Give me back the TV.”
Blake turned the dial, causing another man’s voice to drone out of the TV set. “No.”
Laurie pushed Blake hard, aiming to pin him to the wall. He dropped the TV, but caught his footing quickly and grabbed her wrists.
“Oh? You want to go down that road again?” he asked.
“What road, you son of a bitch?”
“Laurie!” Jon reappeared at her side, pulled her away by her shoulder. She could hear Dan getting up from his chair, too. Jon whispered in her ear. “You said you wouldn’t do this.”
“Oh, stay out of this,” Laurie snapped, immediately regretting it. She’d done so much to him, and now she was yelling at him.
Jon’s face reminded Laurie of a dog that had just been hit. “I can understand why he upsets you, but …”
“You don’t have to whisper, Doc,” Blake interrupted. “Even if I couldn’t hear you, I’d know what you’re talking about. It’s only what she’s always thinking about whenever she’s near me.”
“Can you blame her?” Jon asked.
Blake let out a chuckle and grinned, crossing his arms. “You know, after what I told you in Vietnam, it’s really cute how you still pretend to care.”
Laurie could feel the blood rush from her face. Her unease grew when Jon said nothing. “What is he talking about?”
“Oh, so you haven’t told her?” Blake laughed. “Interesting.”
Jon frowned. “You don’t exactly come off looking good in that instance.”
“Yeah, but it’s not like she thinks I’m a great person. I make a dumb mistake when I’m sixteen and I’m Hitler, but you can blow a little kid to bits and she’ll still think you’re an angel.” Blake looked at Laurie. “Interesting how your perspective on a guy changes when you’ve got his dick in your mouth.”
“You son of a -” Laurie raised her hand to slap him, but Blake caught her arm before she could even swing. “Ack, Jon!”
“Anyone ever tell you how predictable you are?” Blake asked.
“Let her go,” Jon commanded.
Blake snorted and turned to him. “Oh, like you couldn’t make me if you wanted to.”
“All right, that’s enough!”
Everyone in the ship stared at Dan as he stomped over to them.
“I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I’m going on two hours of sleep right now and I don’t care. This is my ship. I don’t want anybody fighting on it. I don’t want anyone making nasty comments, either,” he said, glaring at Blake. “Now, we’re going to be approaching City Hall in two minutes, okay? Can we spend those two minutes at least pretending we’re a team?”
Blake let her go. Laurie stared at Dan, noticing how tired he looked. She felt like shit. Dan really did have this job because nobody else was willing to do it. When Jon had suggested Adrian lead, Dan probably thought he was getting out of it … and she had let him down with that, plus started a fight with everyone twice. Between her problems and whatever was going on between him and Rorschach … it’s amazing he was doing so well.
“I’m sorry,” Laurie said.
Dan nodded. “It’s all right.”
He returned to the pilot’s seat. Blake stayed at his spot against the wall, not looking at anyone as he lit a new cigar. Laurie stood on the opposite side, Jon next to her. Rorschach looked at the others for a moment, made a “hurm” noise, and then joined Dan at the front of the ship.
~*~*~
The crowd was a lot different from she’d expected. Laurie looked out at from her hiding spot behind a tree in City Hall Park. Some among the more than 1,000-person crowd were older, most likely the family members of the striking officers. However, most were young: hippies and Black Panthers and guys who looked like Hell’s Angels. They carried signs reading “Badges, Not Masks” and “Give Back Our Police.”
“As if this strike was our choice,” Laurie murmured.
While the crowd wasn’t doing anything outright violent, they were rowdy enough that Laurie could see why Dan thought it could get worse. The presumed leader, a man with long, brown hair and a fringe jacket, stood on the steps and yelled to the crowd.
“Let me ask you something,” he said. “If you’re in trouble - who do you want to help you? A police officer - someone subject to the law and the courts and the representatives we elect - or do you want some freak in a mask?”
The crowd responded in jeers.
“There are people who call these guys heroes,” the man paused as the crowd booed. “But I know a group who went around in masks and dispensed their own brand of justice. The Minutemen?” He paused again for another round of boos. “That’s just another word for the Klan.”
The crowd cheered this time. After a few moments, the man waved his arms to stop it.
“Now, I’m not blind,” he said. “The NYPD has made mistakes in the past. Brutality. Profiling. Sometimes even rapes.”
Some - the blacks and the hippies and other young people - cheered for this, but others kept silent.
“But when an officer does something wrong, we can fight it. We can go to the courts. We can go to Congress. Meanwhile, these fascists, these freaks get to operate outside of the law. Free to kill, free to rape, free to do whatever the fuck they want. Well, I say ‘no.’”
The entire crowd cheered now. One broke into a chant of “No No No” that quickly spread.
Laurie sighed. What the hell were they going to do here? Explain to them that their group with the rapist and the nutjob and the slu - well, anyway, yeah. No telling them they were a great group of people.
The loud, repeated honk of a car horn broke Laurie out of her thoughts. She slipped out of her hiding spot, moved out of the park and in the direction of the sound. The honking ceased as she reached the street but she soon came upon the scene. Five men and one woman surrounded a Chevrolet while another man wearing a suit and tie, presumably the owner, glowered at the rest of them.
“Get back in the car, square!” yelled the woman.
“Is this your idea of supporting law and order?” the owner responded. “Blocking traffic and harassing people who just want to get to work? You’re worse than the vigilantes, you fucking punks!”
One of the men pushed the owner against his car. That was enough.
Laurie stepped out of her hiding spot. “Let him go!”
All of them were looking at her now, their faces twisted into surprise and rage.
“What the fuck are you doing here, bitch?” sneered one of them - a light-skinned black man in a leather jacket.
Laurie was wondering that herself. It was best to play the concerned officer for now, though. “Look, you can say whatever the hell you want in this protest of yours, but I’m not letting you bully anyone.”
“Fuck off, slut,” the woman said. She walked toward Laurie, her hands on her hips. “My sister’s a cop. She worked her ass off to get where she is. You just got it walking around in heels and underwear, like you think men won’t hit you if they get a boner. You’re a joke.”
Laurie rolled her eyes. “Yeah, good thing I’ve got a fine, upstanding member of the Sisterhood like you to keep me straight, huh?”
The woman raised her hand to punch her. Laurie dodged, and then caught her arm, turning it behind the woman’s back. Laurie pulled the woman to her chest. The woman screamed and thrashed in Laurie’s arms. Laurie punched her in the stomach, causing the woman to keel over. Laurie let her fall to the ground, and took a little pleasure as she dug her heel into the woman’s back. One of the other men, a white man with long, blond hair, rushed to her aid. Laurie punched him in the nose before he could get too close. The man cried and fell to his knees, blood dripping through his fingers.
“Anyone else think I’m just waiting for you to get a boner?” Laurie asked the rest of the crowd. “Now get the hell home and -”
The clang of a canister hitting the pavement interrupted Laurie. She cursed and ran away, pulling her blouse up over her mouth and nose in an attempt to protect her face from the white gas that issued from the canister. It was just smoke, thank God. And while it didn’t hurt anyone, it did cause all of them to run away, even the two that she had hurt. As it started to clear she turned and saw Blake stepping out of the smoke, his leather mask now covering his face.
Laurie glared at him. “You know,” she coughed, “I had that handled.”
“What? With the pleading they go home?” Blake shook his head. “Right. I liked the boner thing, though. That was cute.”
“Yeah, well I’m sure their impression of us will be a whole lot better now that they’ll go the press and say you’ve assaulted them. Ugh!” Laurie turned away. She was going to go back and see if there were any other problems in the crowd.
Blake grabbed her by the arm. “You’re kidding, right?”
Laurie looked back at him, her face twisted into a frown. “What?”
“Kid, wake up. You …” Blake’s mask, with its crude rectangles for the eyes and mouth, usually made him look like his face was twisted into a demoniac grin no matter what his expression, but this time Laurie could see the shock in his eyes. “… You really think this is just going to end? That you’re just going to go back to D.C. when this is all over and everything will be all hunky-dory?”
Laurie pulled her arm away, feeling flustered. “Well, it might if you didn’t …”
“Nobody actually gives a shit if you broke some Westie’s arm, all right? The guy was a mobster. If you hadn’t broken his arm the press would have whined that one of us punched someone in the face, or scratched someone’s car. They want us to fuck up, and you know what - there’s fucking five of us protecting a city of thousands - one of us would have eventually. You just happened to fuck up first.
“I swear, you’re like the fucking bird. He was actually surprised when people started throwing stuff at him when he was playing traffic duty. I know that douchebag Schexnayder probably instilled all that ‘good image’ bullshit into your head but forget it. That shit’s over. Even if the Keene bill doesn’t pass, these people are never going to think of you, or the bird, maybe not even the Doc when they think of vigilantes. They’re going to be thinking of me.”
Laurie shuddered. She wanted to just dismiss everything Blake said, but he was right that one of them would have screwed up. They’d known the odds were against them from the beginning, but that people had anticipated their failure was something she hadn’t considered.
Still, it would be a cold day in hell before she’d admit he was right, so she just asked, “What do you mean by the Keene bill?”
Before Blake could answer, Laurie heard a loud whirring noise overhead. She looked up to see a helicopter flying toward City Hall.
“Should that be here?” Laurie asked.
“It’s not military. C’mon, let’s get a better view.”
Blake rushed back into the park. A group of protesters stood near the edges. Blake removed the shotgun from his back and fired into the air. The protesters shrieked and rushed forward. “One side, suckers!”
Laurie’s mouth gaped open. “You moron! What if that is the military? They’ll arrest us if the crowd doesn’t tear us apart!”
“I’d like to see them try.” As if to prove his point, another protester approached them, screaming profanities. Blake cocked his gun and the protester ran away. “See?”
Laurie just sighed. This was insane.
Blake pulled out a pair of binoculars from his belt. He took a glance through them, a smile curling his lips through the rectangular cut over his mouth. “You asked me what the Keene bill is. This should explain it.”
He handed the binoculars to her. Laurie recoiled at first, then reached out to take them, holding onto them with just the tips of her fingers.
“Come on,” Blake said. “I’m know you’ve touched much worse in your time.”
Laurie huffed and looked through them. The hippie protester was now sharing the steps with ten armed guards. In the center of the guards stood Mayor Beame and another man who was wearing a suit and tie. He was tall and while he wasn’t handsome, his thick nose and square face made him look distinguished. He looked especially commanding next to Beame, whose short stature, black eyebrows, gray hair and wide smile made him look like the sidekick instead of the head of the city.
“New York Senator John Keene,” Blake said, anticipating her question. He took his binoculars back. “He’ll be the one to put a stop to this.”
Laurie looked at Blake skeptically. “And you know about this?”
Blake shrugged. “I’ve got my connections. Why are you surprised, though? Doesn’t that boyfriend of yours know everything that’s going to happen already?”
Beame had the microphone now. He was introducing John Keene, talking about his credentials, his years in the Senate, his dedication to law enforcement. Although some still yelled at Beame for allowing vigilantes in their city, the crowd was calmer overall.
“You may not have seen me, but I assure you that I am still here for you. I’m still listening to you,” Beame said. “You want back your police. You deserve your police. Well this man, Sen. John Keene: my close, personal friend … he’s going to give you exactly what you deserve …”
“To be honest,” Laurie said, “I don’t know whether I like knowing what’s going to happen.”
“Well, not when he pulled that shit on you about going to see Ozzy, I’d bet,” Blake said.
The crowd applauded and whooped as Keene began to speak. He thanked Beame and then talked about how he grew up in West Chester and now lived in Albany. Yet his parents originally came to New York City, and for many people’s parents New York City was their first taste of America - the very face of America - and now America’s great city was undergoing its worst time of darkness. Laurie listened to him, thought of how her own grandparents had arrived in America and met with crippling poverty and anti-Polish jeers, and she remembered that she really, really hated politicians.
Laurie frowned and crossed her arms. “I don’t need sympathy from you, of all people.”
“I’m not offering sympathy. And I agree: that’s definitely not what you need.”
Laurie dug her fingernails into her arms. “What do you mean by that?”
Blake didn’t answer. Laurie looked ahead, tried to listen to Keene.
“You’ve been through a lot, New York,” Keene said. “You’ve been through the worst economic crisis this city has seen, the riots earlier this summer, and now these vigilantes have taken over your streets, have threatened your lives. You’ve had enough, New York, and so have I!”
As the crowd roared, Laurie finally broke down and turned in Blake’s direction. He was staring at her, and when he saw her staring back, he smiled.
“Nothing,” Blake finally said. “Anyway, we ain’t going to get to do anything else here with these geeks around. I’m going to see what the bird’s doing.”
Blake ran off, leaving Laurie by herself. She looked over the cheering crowd. When her mother was a superheroine - even a kind of a goofy, self-promoting superheroine who staged her first fights - the police had loved her, had posed for pictures of her and said to the press what a wonderful job she was doing. Not just the police had loved her mother, either. Women had come up to her and told her what an inspiration she was, how she was an example of women’s progress. When had the world changed so much?
There really was nothing left to do here, even though they had done barely anything at all. She walked away from the park, wandered down the streets of Manhattan unsure if she was looking for a crime to stop or just trying to clear her head. By the time Jon found her an hour later she had done neither. They said nothing to each other as he teleported her back to the Owlship.
~*~*~
While Jon was as stoic and no-nonsense as ever, and Blake was as laissez-faire and tactless as ever, the mood had changed among the rest of them. As the day went on, the five of them spent their time dispersing protests, usually via a well-thrown gas-bomb from The Comedian or a surprise appearance from Dr. Manhattan. As Laurie looked through the glass of the ship to see another group of 20-somethings fearfully running away, she was feeling increasingly unheroic, as well as useless.
“Can’t we just let the two of them do this and we can go and stop crimes or something?” Laurie asked Dan.
“Agreed,” Rorschach said. “Bored.”
Dan shook his head. “The radio reporters say the rioters are doing more damage than any looters. This is where we need to be.”
Rorschach made an irritated growl, but Laurie could hear from Dan’s voice that he hated what they were doing as much as she did … and that he sounded really exhausted.
Late that night, when a crowd responded to Blake and Jon’s attacks with violence instead of retreat, the three of them descended from the Owlship to help. As Laurie fought off protester after protester, screaming at each one to go home, she wondered if Jon could have just sent them all home or … well, worse. Maybe this how it worked in Vietnam. Maybe he was used to only using his most impressive powers when absolutely necessary. Laurie admired him for that, but when she pondered all the implications, she felt more lost than ever. She realized Jon and Blake were used to playing a different type of game. They were soldiers. She was just a cop in a fancy outfit - barely that, even.
As another man fell under her fists, she looked over the melee. She saw Jon pushing a group of people against the wall with a force shield, Blake pulling a man by his hair out of the crowd, Rorschach in a fist fight … and …
“Nite Owl?” She looked around, fear gnawing at her heart. Did he go back to the ship and not tell anyone? That didn’t seem like him. She raised her voice. “Nite Owl? Nite Owl!”
Rorschach raised his head at her cries, and then looked around rapidly. He began to push through the crowd, shoving anyone who got in his way. Laurie started pushing through the crowd too, crying Nite Owl’s name.
Rorschach found him first. She glanced over the crowd to see him picking up an unconscious Dan in a fireman’s carry. Laurie guessed Jon saw it too, because he immediately lost patience with the crowd, knocked all of the protesters at once with a force shield blast. Those who weren’t already unconscious were so impressed by his power that they began to run away.
Laurie saw Rorschach lay Dan down on the now-empty sidewalk. She ran over to them as Rorschach slapped Dan’s face a few times. Dan groaned and pushed himself up off the ground.
“Whatcha doing that for?” Dan complained.
“Knocked out,” Rorschach said. “Silk Spectre noticed. Dr. Manhattan got rid of assailants.”
“Oh …” Dan said.
Laurie reached them. At first she reached her arms out to Dan, planning to hug him, but then recoiled. Why had she wanted to do that? She offered her hand instead. Dan took it and she pulled him to his feet.
“Thanks, guys,” Dan said. “I … I don’t remember getting hit. I …” He rubbed his eyes. “Jesus.”
Blake had appeared next to them. “You saying you just conked out mid-battle, Birdie?”
“Is that possible?” Laurie asked.
“Of course,” Jon responded. “Not very probable, considering the external stimuli, but if one has had a considerable lack of sleep …”
Dan raised his hand. “Look, I don’t remember. Just … I’ll just get back to the ship and have some coffee. I should be okay after that, really.” Dan stepped forward and stumbled off the curb.
Blake laughed, “Oh, good one.”
Rorschach sighed and pulled Dan’s arm over his shoulder. They made a funny image, the larger Dan slumped over the much smaller Rorschach as the latter led him back to the ship, which was hovering not too far away. After Dan pulled out a remote to bring down the ship, Rorschach stood behind him, guiding Dan as he slowly climbed up into the entrance in the floor.
Blake sighed. “Sorry pair of shits they are. ‘Course I can’t say much more for the rest of us.”
Jon shrugged. “What do you suggest we do now?”
“I don’t give a shit what you do, but I need a fucking drink. Later.” He walked down the street, past the unconscious bodies, smashed cars and other debris, whistling as he went.
“Is anybody going to serve him when he’s dressed like that?” she asked Jon when he was out of earshot. “Everything’s probably closed with these riots.”
“Many bars are open,” Jon said.
“What? How do you know?”
“I’ve seen them on patrols.”
Laurie raised an eyebrow. “You’re serious? This place is like a war zone.”
“Bars were open in Vietnam, often during battles,” Jon responded.
Laurie sighed and rubbed her eyes. “Right … of course.” She sat down on the pavement.
Jon sat next to her. “Is something wrong?”
“Oh …” Laurie moaned, and couldn’t continue. What’s wrong? Where would she start? Maybe with what sort of bitch was she that she could cheat on Jon twice in the past week. “I’m … I’m just hungry. And I want to smoke. Maybe I should have found one of those bars.”
“I see,” Jon said. He waved his hand and a satchel appeared at Laurie’s side, making her flinch. “I’m returning to patrol. When I see you again, we will go back to D.C.”
“Really?” Laurie couldn’t help but smile. “That’s great. It’ll be nice to refresh in our own apartment for a bit.”
Jon frowned. “I … I’m afraid we’ll have work to do first. I must be going.”
He disappeared, leaving Laurie alone. She looked in the satchel. A pack of her favorite cigarette brand lay in it, as well as a book of matches, a bottle of water, an apple and a sandwich wrapped in paper. She shook her head and took out the sandwich, pulled off the paper and saw it was tuna fish. Her favorite.
“Not only the most powerful man on Earth and a sex god, he’s also a vending machine.” Laurie took a bite out of the sandwich. It tasted far better than any sandwich made out of thin air should have. She sighed. She really was the most ungrateful bitch on the planet.
The street wasn’t much of a place to picnic, though. Laurie put the rest of the sandwich back in the satchel and took out the matches and cigarettes. She lit one up and breathed the tobacco in deeply. Oh God, she needed that.
Laurie walked back to the Owlship. She wasn’t eager to spend any time alone with Rorschach, but it was preferable to eating out on the streets. She needed a break from everything. She was about to knock on the side door of the ship, then looked beneath the ship and saw that the bottom entrance was open. She crouched under the ship, ready to climb up through the hatch, but paused when she heard the two of them arguing.
“I said ‘I might.’ Maybe. A maybe isn’t a ‘yes.’”
“Know what you really mean.”
Laurie peered out over the edge of the hatch, saw the two of them sitting across from each other on the floor, paper cups of coffee in hand.
Dan had pushed his goggles up on his forehead and rubbed his eyes with his right hand. “It’s not that I want to quit …”
“Then don’t,” Rorschach said. He had his mask rolled up over his nose. He took a sip of his coffee.
“It’s not that simple. Stuff like tonight … this isn’t what I got into the business for,” Dan sighed and laid his right hand on his knee. “I hated being regulated to the sidelines as much as you did. And I hate fighting civilians. I hate working against law enforcement. Hollis was a cop and I … I don’t think this is what he and Hooded Justice envisioned when they started all this.”
“So roll over when it gets too tough? I see.”
“No! That’s not it at all,” Dan said. “I want to do what’s best for people. This set up we have where we’re pulling Laurie out of D.C., where we’re getting Jon and The Comedian to scare people out of protesting. And why are we punishing them? Because they want a regular street patrol? Because they want to feel a measure of security when they walk on the streets at night? I mean, really … they have a right to do that. They have a right to expect that.”
“Says who?” Rorschach asked. “People not entitled to the police’s protection. Have grown complacent. The union leaders know it. Have cut off the blood supply for the bloated ticks. Only reason they’re upset. Care nothing for the safety of their fellow man. Proven that time and again.”
Dan’s face twisted into an expression of surprise and horror that echoed Laurie’s own feelings. “Look, I know you had some kind of … I don’t know what to call it … revelation lately. I don’t understand it but I can’t believe you really think this mess we’re in is deserved. And it’s certainly not preferable to the way things were before vigilantes.”
Rorschach growled. “Not our fault, Daniel. None of this is our fault. Their fault. Lazy. Greedy. Think police cares about people? Care so much they abandon them … and want us to reward them for it?” Rorschach’s voice grew louder. He crushed the cup in his fist. “Would do that, Daniel? Would placate your principles of justice to reward them for doing nothing?”
Laurie’s felt sick at Rorschach’s words. This wasn’t what she thought of when she wanted a break from all this. She was about to leave when she heard Dan sigh. Laurie looked back and saw him cover his face with his hands.
“I don’t like it either, man,” Dan said. “But if it comes down to a choice between that and this … this anarchy? Then yeah, I guess I would reward them for doing nothing.”
Neither of them said anything. Rorschach made a low, humming sound, something that said loud and clear he was sorry to be right.
“Better than this, Daniel. Caught Big Figure. Caught Underboss. Caught Berkowitz.” Rorschach reached out toward Dan, hesitated, and then grasped the edges of Dan’s cape. Seeing him act like this made Laurie’s stomach flip. “What did they do?”
Dan looked like he was frozen. He put his hands on Rorschach’s forearms. “You helped with the first two. But, come on, if they were convinced by that we wouldn’t be -”
Rorschach pressed his lips against Dan’s. Laurie froze. Shit, she thought, it wasn’t her name he was calling.
Dan grabbed Rorschach’s shoulders and pushed him away. “Oh God, man … don’t … don’t do this now. Not for this. I … fuck.” Dan pulled Rorschach to him. As Dan kissed Rorschach he grasped the fabric of his coat, held onto him like he didn’t want to let go.
Laurie watched and felt like she couldn’t breathe. Dan pushed Rorschach back against the floor of the ship, their lips still locked together. He reached for Rorschach’s belt. Rorschach caught his wrist.
“No,” Rorschach said.
“I’m sorry,” Dan breathed. “It’s okay. I don’t care. I just want to touch you.”
“You want …?” Rorschach’s voice echoed an amazement Laurie felt in her own heart. She realized it had been a long time since Jon had said anything like that to her.
“No. Not right.” Rorschach pushed Dan onto his back, and then climbed on top of Dan. He bit Dan’s shoulder.
Dan cried out and arched his back, rubbing against Rorschach. “Oh God. Yes. Please.”
Rorschach grasped for Dan’s belt, fumbled with the crescent moon latch for a few moments. He took off one of his gloves. Laurie’s eyes widened as Rorschach reached into his pockets. No way, she thought to herself. When he didn’t find anything he spit onto his fingers.
“Let me,” Dan said. He took Rorschach’s hand and sucked on the two middle fingers. Rorschach moaned. Laurie felt the familiar ache of desire between her legs.
Rorschach reached underneath Dan, pushed his fingers inside. Dan bucked suddenly and Laurie could feel herself blush as she got a glimpse of his penis.
She needed to go, she thought as Dan’s moans became more urgent. Laurie looked down at the ground, trying to push out the visions in her head of her getting behind Rorschach, or climbing on top of Dan’s mouth. She realized she had dropped her cigarette long ago. She looked on the ground but couldn’t find it. She wished she had it back. She wished … oh God …
Laurie crawled away as fast as she could, almost hitting her head as she got out from under the ship. She walked away quickly, realized as she did so she wasn’t that far away from Gardner’s mansion. She could walk there. Clear her head. Feel better. She nearly ran through the streets, the summer heat causing her flimsy blouse to stick to her body.
~*~*~
It didn’t work.
Laurie sat in one of the chairs in the trophy room, smoking a cigarette, the remainder of her food forgotten. She’d taken off her belt and blouse, and while she felt cooler it hadn’t abated her arousal.
She took a sip of her water. Then she rested her head on her palm, running her fingers through her hair. What the hell was wrong with her? That thing with Rorschach was … Christ, she didn’t know. She thought it was just some crazy, one-off thing. She didn’t even find him sexy … not really. He certainly wasn’t as sexy as Jon … or Adrian. They were perfect and he was so gross. And Dan? What was that about? He was certainly cute, even if his nose was a little funny-looking, but she wouldn’t have thought of having sex with him.
Then again … it had really scared her when she thought he was in trouble. Maybe … No, she had to stop jumping the gun on this. Anyone would feel bad if they saw one of their teammates go down like that. Plus, Dan had been so nice to everyone. It made sense. Why shouldn’t she care about him?
Of course, that didn’t explain why she felt so jealous when she saw the two of them together.
Laurie sighed. She thought of that woman on television, that woman she’d fought. She wasn’t really doing much to dispel her mother and her … well, her quasi-father’s image of the Silk Spectre as some superheroine hooker. Laurie thought she couldn’t sink any lower.
And then the door behind her opened.
“I thought I’d find you here, kid.”
Laurie flinched. She took a drag on her cigarette, snuffed out the rest on the remains of her food, then stood up and turned around.
“Blake,” Laurie said. “Go the fuck away or I will make you go away.”
Blake smiled and closed the door behind him. He’d replaced the full face mask with his domino mask, but if that had been a tactic to make her feel more at ease it wasn’t working. “Relax. I just want to talk.”
“Well, I don’t.”
Blake walked closer to her. Laurie crouched into a fighting stance. Blake looked her over.
“Looks like I interrupted some alone time, eh?”
Laurie gaped when she realized what she was talking about and covered her chest. Fuck, she thought. Fuck!
Blake laughed and stepped closer to her. “Can I guess what you were thinking about?”
Laurie stepped backward. “Fuck you.”
He stepped forward again. “One little guess?”
She stepped back, realized if she took another step backward her back would be against the wall. “Beat it. I’m warning you. Don’t back me into a corner.”
“How about ‘Not your boyfriend’?”
Laurie was stunned. She frowned at him. “You’re a bastard, Blake.”
“I’ll take that as a ‘yes.’ So was it doing Rorschach in the ass or fucking Ozzy for information?”
Laurie stepped back, hit the wall. Blake laughed and rested his hands against the wall, on either side of her head. “I …,” Laurie blubbered. “I don’t know …”
“‘… what you’re talking about?’” Blake asked. “Don’t waste my time, kid. I was passing through and saw the whole thing last night. I gotta admit, the little guy makes me gag but you were pretty hot.”
“You …” Laurie’s fear melted away, humiliation fueling a burning rage, “You watched that? You … You sick bastard! What is wrong with you?”
Blake let out his loudest laugh yet. “What’s wrong with me? Are you kidding? You know, it’s a real laugh that you think I’m the bad guy. What was it you said at one point? Ah, ‘Is that what you really want? Tell me “no” again?’ I think it walks and talks like a duck, don’t you?”
“No!” Laurie grabbed the straps on Blake’s outfit and yanked them hard. She spun Blake around pinned him against the wall. “I am not like you. I am nothing like you.”
“Maybe not,” Blake said, a smile on his face. “Maybe you’re worse. I never did get to do it with your mother that night. You, on the other hand ...”
Laurie knocked Blake against the wall again, making him groan. “Fuck you. You … You’re a man. You’re a man who uses women. You could never understand.”
“Oh?” Blake reached up and grabbed her forearms so hard she let go of him. He yanked her arms up and pulled her against him. “So raping men makes you a feminist, now?”
“I didn’t rape him.” Laurie’s voice sounded desperate to her, and she realized she was trying to convince herself as much as Blake. “I … I gave him plenty of chances to escape. He … You’ve seen him in battle. He could have stopped me at any time.”
“Interesting.” Blake gripped her wrists in one of his hands, ran one of his fingers of his other hand along her chin. “How do you know I didn’t give your mother plenty of chances to escape? How do you know your mother didn’t want it?”
Laurie shook her head violently, ripped her arms out of his grasp. “Bullshit. And you didn’t give her a chance to escape. I know you didn’t. You’re just saying this to fuck with my head and it’s not going to work.” She walked to the door, not caring she left half of her outfit behind. She wanted to get away from him.
Blake reached it first, spread his arms across it. “Kid, I don’t need to fuck with your head. By the time you’re screwing someone like Rorschach, you’re already pretty fucked.”
Laurie blustered. This cat-and-mouse game was frustrating her. She felt exposed, furious and uncomfortably aroused. “Then … then leave me alone. I want this to stop.”
“Oh no, you don’t. I can hear it in your voice.”
Laurie’s hands balled into fists. “I … I won’t let you hurt me. I’d kill you before you hurt me.”
“You always assume the worst of me. Kiddo, I …” Blake sighed. “I meant it when I said you don’t need sympathy but fuck, look at yourself. You’re a fucking mess.”
Laurie lowered her fists. What was he doing?
Blake removed himself from the door, stepped closer to her. “Like this Rorschach thing. I mean, whether he wanted it or not … why? Did you honestly think that guy could teach you anything?”
“I …” Laurie stepped to the side.
“Stop running!”
Blake stepped forward and grabbed onto her hips, digging his fingers into them. Laurie gasped as she could feel herself getting wet. She felt humiliated. Not him, she whispered to herself. I won’t. I won’t. Not with him. Not ever.
“Listen to me,” Blake said. “I’ve been in war. I’ve been on the docks. And while Rorschach is a hell of a lot smarter than most of them, I know a psycho when I see ‘im. I’ve also seen the women batty enough to want to fuck these guys. Most of them fall into two categories. Either they’re like the bird and they’re stupid enough to think they can save these guys, or they want to punish themselves for something.”
Laurie’s mind went back to that night, remembered all those things Rorschach said to her. Whore. Slut. Temptress. Every word had made her want him more. “So,” she said, her face red, “I guess I’m in category two, huh?”
“No,” Blake said. “Your problem is you think you are.”
Laurie looked up at Blake. “I … I don’t understand.”
“I was like Rorschach,” Blake said. “I knew you weren’t telling the whole story with that ‘Adrian said “no”’ bullshit. You had the defensive guilt thing going on. It shows in everything you do: the way you move, the way you talk. And whenever I ribbed you about what happened last night I saw you flinch. I get why, too. You think of yourself as a good person. You need to think of yourself as a good person. Otherwise you’d have to really face all the shit you’ve done.”
“What are you talking about?” Laurie pushed Blake’s hands off her. “You said you can see I feel guilty. How is that not facing the bad things I’ve done?”
“Oh, you’ll admit them. And I’m sure if the Doc ever finds out you’ll be repentant and you’ll cry and you’ll swear it was all a mistake, that you’ll never do it again. Part of you will even mean it. But I want to tell you something.”
Blake grabbed Laurie about the waist again, and this time pulled her close. Laurie could feel the bulge of his cock against her. Blake thrust against her, and she moaned before she could think about it.
“A part of you ain’t really sorry,” Blake purred. “A part of you loved every single fucking minute. I saw your face when you were fucking Rorschach and you know what? You were gleeful. You felt justified.”
Laurie shuddered. Blake ran his hands along her waist, making her squirm.
“A lot of the reason why you feel guilty is because you think you should be. You know what you really regret, kid? You regret that Adrian didn’t do what you asked after you fucked him. You’re not a masochistic victim.”
Laurie tried to wrench out of Blake’s grasp. Blake grabbed onto her chin, forced her to look at him.
“You’re a predator. Just … like … me.”
Laurie screamed and pushed him to the floor. She punched him in the face. Blake growled and shoved her back. She toppled off him. Blake was already on his feet when Laurie tried to pull herself up. He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her along the floor. Laurie tried to reach up and untangle herself, tried to knock him away, but he was too strong.
Blake pulled her to Moloch’s solar mirror weapon, still in its spot after all these years. She looked a mess. Her hair tangled in Blake’s hand, her body nearly nude. She wanted to look away so badly, but he held her head tight.
“Look at yourself,” Blake said. “Is that what you want to be? Is that how you see yourself?”
“Fuck you!”
“Don’t want to answer that question? Fine. Try this one. Why the Doc? The man has two modes: stoic and slightly annoyed. Don’t tell me you like him for his personality.”
“You …You don’t understand.”
“I think I do. How old were you? Sixteen? I remember sixteen. How did it feel for you back then? How did it feel to have the most powerful man in the world’s dick between your legs?”
Laurie felt frozen. “No,” she said. “No that’s … fuck … that’s …” A sob escaped Laurie’s mouth.
“Stop it!” Blake pulled her up to her knees, by her hair, making her cry. “Stop fucking crying and tell me the truth. You fucked him because it stroked your ego. And now you’re fucking other guys because you like it. You don’t give a shit about he feels. Did you give a shit about how Janey felt? Did you?”
“Let go of me!” Laurie screamed.
“Answer the questions and I will. Did you love fucking Adrian?”
“I …” Laurie sniffled.
“Don’t cry!”
Laurie took a deep breath, hardened her face. “Yes.”
“Do you feel bad about fucking Rorschach?”
“No,” she said, her voice firmer.
“Did you fuck the Doc that first time because it made you feel like hot shit?”
Laurie sighed. “I had other reasons, too, but … yes.”
“Have you ever really, really felt sorry about stealing him from Janey?”
“I …” Laurie gulped. “No, I … I wanted to. I told myself I should, but … but ... No. No, I … I didn’t care.”
Blake made a noise of satisfaction. He let go of her hair. She felt a cold determination in her stomach as he did so.
Laurie heard Blake walk over to the table. She stared at her reflection. She sat with her legs tucked beneath her, her hands on her lap. She wished she could turn into stone, she wished that this ache inside her would go away, this ache that seemed to prove she was as horrible a monster as Blake said she was.
“I’m glad you admitted all that,” Blake said. She didn’t look at him, but she could hear him undo the straps on his costume, hear him take off his weapons belt and lay it on the table. “I think one day you might be glad, too.”
Laurie exhaled sharply. I won’t look at him, she said. I’m not going to give in.
“But,” he said. “I wouldn’t expect you to let me get away with what I did.”
His words felt like a trap. She wasn’t regretful, she wasn’t apologetic, but she couldn’t give up her old habits so easily.
Mom, she thought, please never find out. Please forgive me.
Laurie pounced on Blake, cried out as she slammed him against the table. He grinned at her, and she slapped his face.
“Don’t smile at me,” she slapped him again. “You’re a slimy piece of shit.”
“You’re right,” Blake said, a smile still on his face. “Feels good, doesn’t it?”
Laurie growled and climbed on top of him. She knew she was wet, but she didn’t realize how wet until she rubbed her pussy against one of his legs. “You planned this. You wanted this to happen, you sick fuck!”
Blake moaned. “Guilty.”
Laurie pulled at the straps of her bodysuit, exposing her firm breasts, erect nipples. Blake reached for them. She grabbed his wrists and pushed them so they were above his head. Her breasts dangled over his face. “No. You can’t touch them.”
“No?” he tensed as Laurie thrust against him. “Urgh … Funny, I don’t think they’d complain.”
“You do what I say, you fucking rapist,” Laurie breathed out the words, exhilarated. She knew in reality she was playing into Blake’s game rather than controlling him. She was only allowed this because he was letting her. But it felt so good she didn’t care. Some of the most vile, wrong feelings she’d ever had were bubbling to the surface and she didn’t have to restrain them anymore.
Laurie pressed herself against Blake, ran her body and her tongue over the leather material of his shirt, and then reached down to undo his pants.
“I hate you,” she moaned between licks. “I hate you more than anyone else in the world. If you died tomorrow I wouldn’t give a shit.” She grabbed onto his cock … oh God, it felt so thick … and squeezed.
“Urgh!” Blake cried out, and then laughed as he maintained his composure. “But you’re still going to fuck me. I bet part of you has always wanted to.”
Laurie moved up and grasped onto Blake’s hair, forcing his head against the table. “Yeah,” she said, unsure why the hell she was telling him this. “I thought you were hot when I met you. But then I heard what you did, you shit.”
“Bet it didn’t go away.”
Laurie frowned. “Well, you don’t exactly have the moral high ground right now. Wanting to fuck your victim’s daughter? You’re as sick as ever.”
“Never claimed to be a good person, kid.”
Laurie pressed her breasts against his face. “Suck me.”
Blake did. He took her left breast in his mouth. Laurie moaned. Everything that had happened: seeing Rorschach and Dan earlier, this fight with Blake, had driven her crazy. Her sex was pulsating with desire and she could only stand a few seconds of this before she wanted to fuck him.
She pulled herself away. “Get ready, I won’t be long.”
Laurie got off the table. Blake stroked his cock as she pushed off her bodysuit off. As soon as she was on top of him again she thrust herself down onto his cock. He was so thick, so hard, but she was so wet that she slid on like it was nothing.
“Oh God, kid,” Blake moaned. “Fuck, if you knew … if you knew the half of what I am.”
“I know what you are,” Laurie said. She pushed herself up and down on his cock, so wet they made loud, smacking noises as she thrust back against him. God, she had no idea how much she had wanted this. She knew it was wrong. She knew it was sick. But damn it, she couldn’t stop, would have screamed like she had been shot if someone had made her.
Blake reached out for her breasts, and then pulled back. “No, no you don’t. You could have been …” his fingers stroked his scar. Laurie shifted and he cried out. “Oh God,” he moaned. “I’m not sure I know anymore.”
Laurie was in too deep to think any longer. She impaled herself on him again and again until she was exhausted. When she lapsed, Blake gripped her hips and thrust into her hard. On the fourth thrust she could feel herself coming, let out little gasps of pleasure as she felt her orgasm build. When she was reaching the peak, Blake began to come as well. Her pleasure, her gasps, increased as she felt him pumping his come inside of her.
“Oh God!” she moaned. “Oh God, this is sick, I ... Oh!” She shrieked as she came at last.
When she was done, she pulled herself off him and collapsed next to him, exhausted.
“Spent?” Blake asked.
Before she could answer Blake had rolled over. He pushed one arm under her head and pulled her close, and then with his free hand pushed his first two fingers, still gloved, inside her pussy, wet with her fluids and his come. His touch was deft, gentle, and she was moaning in pleasure before she could protest.
In a small matter of time she was coming again. Blake pushed his lips against hers. The gesture shocked her, made her body tense and her skin crawl. But as he pushed his tongue inside, something about the situation felt so desperate. He held her so close, and his touch, despite everything, was so gentle that she began to kiss him back, moaned into his mouth as she came for the last time.
The afterglow didn’t last long. Laurie lay stiff in Blake’s arms, turned her head away. Part of her wanted to fight him - just on principle - but everything Blake said kept her rooted to the spot. She thought again about her first night with Jon, and every bit of romance she’d remembered - his gentle touches, her soft kisses, her virginal amazement of his body - felt like a hollow lie in the face of this new vision of herself.
Laurie wasn’t the type to think about the big picture very much. She hated politics, avoided talking about war, and often felt Jon could just think about all that for her. She’d had enough hardship in life to not be an optimist yet she’d always thought of life’s misfortunes as invasions into the good existence that everyone deserved. While she never liked being pushed into the career, Laurie had nevertheless believed, as a costumed adventurer, that she was one of those agents for good. Even what she’d done with Adrian, done with Rorschach, hadn’t shattered that illusion. Adrian had felt like a good-intentioned mistake. Rorschach had felt like a message to a world that had tried to hurt her. Wrapped in the arms of her mother’s rapist, she couldn’t lie about herself anymore.
Blake let her go. Laurie still couldn’t look at him as he got up. As he started to fix himself she got up and retrieved her clothes. Blake waited while she dressed. Bodysuit. Blouse. Belt. Heels.
“You should leave him,” Blake said suddenly.
Laurie looked at Blake and laughed. “Why? So I can date you?”
“Heh … no, you don’t want to do that.” Blake reached into a pocket of his belt and pulled out a cigar. He patted different compartments, seemingly looking for a light. Laurie reached into the sack and got out the book of matches. He held his cigar straight as Laurie lit it.
Blake exhaled the smoke as Laurie lit a cigarette for herself. “Still hate me, huh?”
Laurie removed her cigarette from her mouth and smirked. “I don’t feel like ripping your head off right now, but I’m finding sex doesn’t change how I feel about a person.”
“Yeah, I …” Blake’s voice was quiet. “I found that out the hard way once.” He strapped his shotgun to his back. “Good-bye, Laurel.”
As Laurie watched him leave, she thought about his confession, wondered what sort of situation could ever get him to say that, and then realized she didn’t want to know.
Laurie looked at the objects in the room - that ape head, that spear - preserved and labeled and covered in dust. She approached Moloch’s mirror again, hoping to find some kind of peace, but all she could think was her hair was still a mess.
She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, Jon’s reflection joined hers in the glass.
“Hello Laurie,” he said as she turned around. “It’s time to go.”
“Now?” Laurie asked. “Really?”
“I said we would. Right now there is a protest in Washington in support of Sen. John Keene’s new bill,” Jon explained. “You need to be there with me. You will stop the ringleaders.”
“Right. Superheroing. Sounds good,” Laurie said.
Jon held out his hand. Laurie began to reach for it, but then stopped.
“Jon?” she said. “Why did we come here?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, why did we come to New York? Is there anything bad that would have happened if we didn’t come?”
Jon blinked. “Laurie, I’ve told you many times. I don’t predict the future to…”
“… ‘to me it’s already happening,’” Laurie finished. “I just … Fuck, I don’t understand.”
“I apologize,” Jon said. “When I was in your position …”
Laurie laughed. “No, this … you weren’t in my position.” She took Jon’s hand. “Let’s just go.”
End Part Three.
Author: quietprofanity
Fandom: Watchmen
Pairings: Silk Spectre II/Ozymandias, Silk Spectre II/Dr. Manhattan, Silk Spectre II/Rorschach, Silk Spectre II/The Comedian, Silk Spectre II/Nite Owl II (future part)
Disclaimer: Characters are not mine and are used for non-profit purposes. Any real people in the story are used for literary purposes and their representation should not be treated as truth.
Warnings: Explicit f/m and m/m sex. Incest.
Summary: A counter-offer from Adrian Veidt leads to a series of uncomfortable events for Laurie.
Alternate Summary: Laurie has sex with almost everyone.
Acknowledgments: Thank you, sandoz_iscariot for your awesome beta powers.
~*~*~
Things were not going well, Laurie thought as she slapped her palm against the side of the portable TV in another futile attempt to keep signal through the thick walls of the Owlship. It was midmorning and they were riding to monitor a protest at City Hall. While most of the protest was situated on the park grounds, some groups had spilled over to the streets, and with the lack of officers to contain the protest and keep the traffic clear, things had the potential to get violent.
Or so the news reports said. Laurie, whom Dan had asked to monitor the TV, tried to reach another channel. It had been nearly half a day since her “talk” with Rorschach and now, cramped in a small space with him, plus Jon, plus - ugh - Blake, she decided to deal with the situation by ignoring everyone as much as possible.
Not that anybody else seemed at ease. Rorschach paced the length of the ship, his face turned away from her as he passed. Blake leaned against the opposing wall, smoking a cigar and occasionally making a sarcastic comment at the others’ expense. Meanwhile Jon talked exclusively with Dan, asking him question after question about the size of the protests, what he would be expected to do, what the plan was if other problems occurred elsewhere.
This atmosphere was killing her. The only person in their entourage she felt comfortable looking in the eye at this point was Dan, and he was busy with Jon and piloting the ship. A beautiful ship, she thought. She glanced around the interior, trying not to look at anybody inside, wondering how it worked.
The TV signal came back. A white man with graying brown hair and glasses appeared clearly on the screen.
“In our top story, brutal assaults in the wake of the police strike. Albert Friendly, a man from Manhattan, reported Laurel Jane -” The screen showed a picture of the Westie from last night, his face bloody and bruised, then went fuzzy again. Laurie hit the television once more, bringing the picture back. “-- daughter of former vigilante Sally Jupiter, assaulted him last night. This alleged attack resulted in multiple injuries …”
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!” Laurie yelled at the screen. Rorschach stopped pacing at her outburst. She looked down suddenly. “The guy was beating up a woman,” she muttered.
“This attack has led many to question the methods of these vigilantes and once again opened the debate on women in combat,” the journalist said. “We go to feminist author Susan Brownmiller for comment.”
Laurie heard Blake groan from behind her. A woman with short, feathered brown hair appeared on the screen.
“Tim,” Brownmiller said, “As you know, I and other feminists have always been critical of masked adventurers. Of course, this relic from the 1940s may have begun with noble intentions in some individual cases, and while they have had a modicum of success in capturing rapists and other violent criminals -”
“Far more than feminists’ useless tours of strip clubs and sex shops,” Rorschach said.
“Hush,” Laurie said.
“ - the actions of some heroes have proven this is not always the case,” Brownmiller continued. “I’ve always admired the late Silhouette and both Silk Spectres for their work, but we have to remember that Larry Schexnayder wasn’t that much better than Hugh Hefner. It was he who created the image of the Silk Spectre, cemented the link between female costumed adventurers and pornography that formerly only existed in the pages of early superheroine strips like ‘Wonder Woman,’ which incorporated bondage imagery into the supposedly ‘harmless’ stories of a woman fighting bad guys.”
“Seriously?” Blake called to Laurie, “Kid, can you turn that shit off?”
Laurie frowned and turned up the volume.
“Honestly, the very fact that you’ve asked me about this proves the effectiveness of Schexnayder’s methods. I’m against any crime of brutality committed by these vigilantes, but the idea that the second Silk Spectre isn’t capable of it shows how much we expect female masked adventurers to be like the passive rape victims of Irving Klaw’s sadistic Bettie Page pornography.”
“Is that what you really believe, Ms. Brownmiller?” asked the reporter, “That society sees these costumed adventurers as victims?”
“Well, look at the statistics, Tim. One murdered for being a lesbian and the other nearly raped? And her rapist, I might add, is inexplicably considered some kind of war hero. Really, why do you think no other women have become costumed adventurers besides Sally Jupiter’s daughter in the past 20 years? Any potential female costumed adventurers … they were sent a message.”
“Oh, fuck that garbage.” Blake yanked the television out of Laurie’s hands before she realized he was near her.
“Hey, give me that!” Laurie reached for the television but Blake knocked her hands away.
“We’re in a war, kid,” Blake said as he flipped through the dials. “If you’re going to do this, you should be looking for actual information, not wasting our time listening to some whining harpy.”
“Blake,” she said, trying to keep her voice level. “Dan said this is my job. Give me back the TV.”
Blake turned the dial, causing another man’s voice to drone out of the TV set. “No.”
Laurie pushed Blake hard, aiming to pin him to the wall. He dropped the TV, but caught his footing quickly and grabbed her wrists.
“Oh? You want to go down that road again?” he asked.
“What road, you son of a bitch?”
“Laurie!” Jon reappeared at her side, pulled her away by her shoulder. She could hear Dan getting up from his chair, too. Jon whispered in her ear. “You said you wouldn’t do this.”
“Oh, stay out of this,” Laurie snapped, immediately regretting it. She’d done so much to him, and now she was yelling at him.
Jon’s face reminded Laurie of a dog that had just been hit. “I can understand why he upsets you, but …”
“You don’t have to whisper, Doc,” Blake interrupted. “Even if I couldn’t hear you, I’d know what you’re talking about. It’s only what she’s always thinking about whenever she’s near me.”
“Can you blame her?” Jon asked.
Blake let out a chuckle and grinned, crossing his arms. “You know, after what I told you in Vietnam, it’s really cute how you still pretend to care.”
Laurie could feel the blood rush from her face. Her unease grew when Jon said nothing. “What is he talking about?”
“Oh, so you haven’t told her?” Blake laughed. “Interesting.”
Jon frowned. “You don’t exactly come off looking good in that instance.”
“Yeah, but it’s not like she thinks I’m a great person. I make a dumb mistake when I’m sixteen and I’m Hitler, but you can blow a little kid to bits and she’ll still think you’re an angel.” Blake looked at Laurie. “Interesting how your perspective on a guy changes when you’ve got his dick in your mouth.”
“You son of a -” Laurie raised her hand to slap him, but Blake caught her arm before she could even swing. “Ack, Jon!”
“Anyone ever tell you how predictable you are?” Blake asked.
“Let her go,” Jon commanded.
Blake snorted and turned to him. “Oh, like you couldn’t make me if you wanted to.”
“All right, that’s enough!”
Everyone in the ship stared at Dan as he stomped over to them.
“I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I’m going on two hours of sleep right now and I don’t care. This is my ship. I don’t want anybody fighting on it. I don’t want anyone making nasty comments, either,” he said, glaring at Blake. “Now, we’re going to be approaching City Hall in two minutes, okay? Can we spend those two minutes at least pretending we’re a team?”
Blake let her go. Laurie stared at Dan, noticing how tired he looked. She felt like shit. Dan really did have this job because nobody else was willing to do it. When Jon had suggested Adrian lead, Dan probably thought he was getting out of it … and she had let him down with that, plus started a fight with everyone twice. Between her problems and whatever was going on between him and Rorschach … it’s amazing he was doing so well.
“I’m sorry,” Laurie said.
Dan nodded. “It’s all right.”
He returned to the pilot’s seat. Blake stayed at his spot against the wall, not looking at anyone as he lit a new cigar. Laurie stood on the opposite side, Jon next to her. Rorschach looked at the others for a moment, made a “hurm” noise, and then joined Dan at the front of the ship.
~*~*~
The crowd was a lot different from she’d expected. Laurie looked out at from her hiding spot behind a tree in City Hall Park. Some among the more than 1,000-person crowd were older, most likely the family members of the striking officers. However, most were young: hippies and Black Panthers and guys who looked like Hell’s Angels. They carried signs reading “Badges, Not Masks” and “Give Back Our Police.”
“As if this strike was our choice,” Laurie murmured.
While the crowd wasn’t doing anything outright violent, they were rowdy enough that Laurie could see why Dan thought it could get worse. The presumed leader, a man with long, brown hair and a fringe jacket, stood on the steps and yelled to the crowd.
“Let me ask you something,” he said. “If you’re in trouble - who do you want to help you? A police officer - someone subject to the law and the courts and the representatives we elect - or do you want some freak in a mask?”
The crowd responded in jeers.
“There are people who call these guys heroes,” the man paused as the crowd booed. “But I know a group who went around in masks and dispensed their own brand of justice. The Minutemen?” He paused again for another round of boos. “That’s just another word for the Klan.”
The crowd cheered this time. After a few moments, the man waved his arms to stop it.
“Now, I’m not blind,” he said. “The NYPD has made mistakes in the past. Brutality. Profiling. Sometimes even rapes.”
Some - the blacks and the hippies and other young people - cheered for this, but others kept silent.
“But when an officer does something wrong, we can fight it. We can go to the courts. We can go to Congress. Meanwhile, these fascists, these freaks get to operate outside of the law. Free to kill, free to rape, free to do whatever the fuck they want. Well, I say ‘no.’”
The entire crowd cheered now. One broke into a chant of “No No No” that quickly spread.
Laurie sighed. What the hell were they going to do here? Explain to them that their group with the rapist and the nutjob and the slu - well, anyway, yeah. No telling them they were a great group of people.
The loud, repeated honk of a car horn broke Laurie out of her thoughts. She slipped out of her hiding spot, moved out of the park and in the direction of the sound. The honking ceased as she reached the street but she soon came upon the scene. Five men and one woman surrounded a Chevrolet while another man wearing a suit and tie, presumably the owner, glowered at the rest of them.
“Get back in the car, square!” yelled the woman.
“Is this your idea of supporting law and order?” the owner responded. “Blocking traffic and harassing people who just want to get to work? You’re worse than the vigilantes, you fucking punks!”
One of the men pushed the owner against his car. That was enough.
Laurie stepped out of her hiding spot. “Let him go!”
All of them were looking at her now, their faces twisted into surprise and rage.
“What the fuck are you doing here, bitch?” sneered one of them - a light-skinned black man in a leather jacket.
Laurie was wondering that herself. It was best to play the concerned officer for now, though. “Look, you can say whatever the hell you want in this protest of yours, but I’m not letting you bully anyone.”
“Fuck off, slut,” the woman said. She walked toward Laurie, her hands on her hips. “My sister’s a cop. She worked her ass off to get where she is. You just got it walking around in heels and underwear, like you think men won’t hit you if they get a boner. You’re a joke.”
Laurie rolled her eyes. “Yeah, good thing I’ve got a fine, upstanding member of the Sisterhood like you to keep me straight, huh?”
The woman raised her hand to punch her. Laurie dodged, and then caught her arm, turning it behind the woman’s back. Laurie pulled the woman to her chest. The woman screamed and thrashed in Laurie’s arms. Laurie punched her in the stomach, causing the woman to keel over. Laurie let her fall to the ground, and took a little pleasure as she dug her heel into the woman’s back. One of the other men, a white man with long, blond hair, rushed to her aid. Laurie punched him in the nose before he could get too close. The man cried and fell to his knees, blood dripping through his fingers.
“Anyone else think I’m just waiting for you to get a boner?” Laurie asked the rest of the crowd. “Now get the hell home and -”
The clang of a canister hitting the pavement interrupted Laurie. She cursed and ran away, pulling her blouse up over her mouth and nose in an attempt to protect her face from the white gas that issued from the canister. It was just smoke, thank God. And while it didn’t hurt anyone, it did cause all of them to run away, even the two that she had hurt. As it started to clear she turned and saw Blake stepping out of the smoke, his leather mask now covering his face.
Laurie glared at him. “You know,” she coughed, “I had that handled.”
“What? With the pleading they go home?” Blake shook his head. “Right. I liked the boner thing, though. That was cute.”
“Yeah, well I’m sure their impression of us will be a whole lot better now that they’ll go the press and say you’ve assaulted them. Ugh!” Laurie turned away. She was going to go back and see if there were any other problems in the crowd.
Blake grabbed her by the arm. “You’re kidding, right?”
Laurie looked back at him, her face twisted into a frown. “What?”
“Kid, wake up. You …” Blake’s mask, with its crude rectangles for the eyes and mouth, usually made him look like his face was twisted into a demoniac grin no matter what his expression, but this time Laurie could see the shock in his eyes. “… You really think this is just going to end? That you’re just going to go back to D.C. when this is all over and everything will be all hunky-dory?”
Laurie pulled her arm away, feeling flustered. “Well, it might if you didn’t …”
“Nobody actually gives a shit if you broke some Westie’s arm, all right? The guy was a mobster. If you hadn’t broken his arm the press would have whined that one of us punched someone in the face, or scratched someone’s car. They want us to fuck up, and you know what - there’s fucking five of us protecting a city of thousands - one of us would have eventually. You just happened to fuck up first.
“I swear, you’re like the fucking bird. He was actually surprised when people started throwing stuff at him when he was playing traffic duty. I know that douchebag Schexnayder probably instilled all that ‘good image’ bullshit into your head but forget it. That shit’s over. Even if the Keene bill doesn’t pass, these people are never going to think of you, or the bird, maybe not even the Doc when they think of vigilantes. They’re going to be thinking of me.”
Laurie shuddered. She wanted to just dismiss everything Blake said, but he was right that one of them would have screwed up. They’d known the odds were against them from the beginning, but that people had anticipated their failure was something she hadn’t considered.
Still, it would be a cold day in hell before she’d admit he was right, so she just asked, “What do you mean by the Keene bill?”
Before Blake could answer, Laurie heard a loud whirring noise overhead. She looked up to see a helicopter flying toward City Hall.
“Should that be here?” Laurie asked.
“It’s not military. C’mon, let’s get a better view.”
Blake rushed back into the park. A group of protesters stood near the edges. Blake removed the shotgun from his back and fired into the air. The protesters shrieked and rushed forward. “One side, suckers!”
Laurie’s mouth gaped open. “You moron! What if that is the military? They’ll arrest us if the crowd doesn’t tear us apart!”
“I’d like to see them try.” As if to prove his point, another protester approached them, screaming profanities. Blake cocked his gun and the protester ran away. “See?”
Laurie just sighed. This was insane.
Blake pulled out a pair of binoculars from his belt. He took a glance through them, a smile curling his lips through the rectangular cut over his mouth. “You asked me what the Keene bill is. This should explain it.”
He handed the binoculars to her. Laurie recoiled at first, then reached out to take them, holding onto them with just the tips of her fingers.
“Come on,” Blake said. “I’m know you’ve touched much worse in your time.”
Laurie huffed and looked through them. The hippie protester was now sharing the steps with ten armed guards. In the center of the guards stood Mayor Beame and another man who was wearing a suit and tie. He was tall and while he wasn’t handsome, his thick nose and square face made him look distinguished. He looked especially commanding next to Beame, whose short stature, black eyebrows, gray hair and wide smile made him look like the sidekick instead of the head of the city.
“New York Senator John Keene,” Blake said, anticipating her question. He took his binoculars back. “He’ll be the one to put a stop to this.”
Laurie looked at Blake skeptically. “And you know about this?”
Blake shrugged. “I’ve got my connections. Why are you surprised, though? Doesn’t that boyfriend of yours know everything that’s going to happen already?”
Beame had the microphone now. He was introducing John Keene, talking about his credentials, his years in the Senate, his dedication to law enforcement. Although some still yelled at Beame for allowing vigilantes in their city, the crowd was calmer overall.
“You may not have seen me, but I assure you that I am still here for you. I’m still listening to you,” Beame said. “You want back your police. You deserve your police. Well this man, Sen. John Keene: my close, personal friend … he’s going to give you exactly what you deserve …”
“To be honest,” Laurie said, “I don’t know whether I like knowing what’s going to happen.”
“Well, not when he pulled that shit on you about going to see Ozzy, I’d bet,” Blake said.
The crowd applauded and whooped as Keene began to speak. He thanked Beame and then talked about how he grew up in West Chester and now lived in Albany. Yet his parents originally came to New York City, and for many people’s parents New York City was their first taste of America - the very face of America - and now America’s great city was undergoing its worst time of darkness. Laurie listened to him, thought of how her own grandparents had arrived in America and met with crippling poverty and anti-Polish jeers, and she remembered that she really, really hated politicians.
Laurie frowned and crossed her arms. “I don’t need sympathy from you, of all people.”
“I’m not offering sympathy. And I agree: that’s definitely not what you need.”
Laurie dug her fingernails into her arms. “What do you mean by that?”
Blake didn’t answer. Laurie looked ahead, tried to listen to Keene.
“You’ve been through a lot, New York,” Keene said. “You’ve been through the worst economic crisis this city has seen, the riots earlier this summer, and now these vigilantes have taken over your streets, have threatened your lives. You’ve had enough, New York, and so have I!”
As the crowd roared, Laurie finally broke down and turned in Blake’s direction. He was staring at her, and when he saw her staring back, he smiled.
“Nothing,” Blake finally said. “Anyway, we ain’t going to get to do anything else here with these geeks around. I’m going to see what the bird’s doing.”
Blake ran off, leaving Laurie by herself. She looked over the cheering crowd. When her mother was a superheroine - even a kind of a goofy, self-promoting superheroine who staged her first fights - the police had loved her, had posed for pictures of her and said to the press what a wonderful job she was doing. Not just the police had loved her mother, either. Women had come up to her and told her what an inspiration she was, how she was an example of women’s progress. When had the world changed so much?
There really was nothing left to do here, even though they had done barely anything at all. She walked away from the park, wandered down the streets of Manhattan unsure if she was looking for a crime to stop or just trying to clear her head. By the time Jon found her an hour later she had done neither. They said nothing to each other as he teleported her back to the Owlship.
~*~*~
While Jon was as stoic and no-nonsense as ever, and Blake was as laissez-faire and tactless as ever, the mood had changed among the rest of them. As the day went on, the five of them spent their time dispersing protests, usually via a well-thrown gas-bomb from The Comedian or a surprise appearance from Dr. Manhattan. As Laurie looked through the glass of the ship to see another group of 20-somethings fearfully running away, she was feeling increasingly unheroic, as well as useless.
“Can’t we just let the two of them do this and we can go and stop crimes or something?” Laurie asked Dan.
“Agreed,” Rorschach said. “Bored.”
Dan shook his head. “The radio reporters say the rioters are doing more damage than any looters. This is where we need to be.”
Rorschach made an irritated growl, but Laurie could hear from Dan’s voice that he hated what they were doing as much as she did … and that he sounded really exhausted.
Late that night, when a crowd responded to Blake and Jon’s attacks with violence instead of retreat, the three of them descended from the Owlship to help. As Laurie fought off protester after protester, screaming at each one to go home, she wondered if Jon could have just sent them all home or … well, worse. Maybe this how it worked in Vietnam. Maybe he was used to only using his most impressive powers when absolutely necessary. Laurie admired him for that, but when she pondered all the implications, she felt more lost than ever. She realized Jon and Blake were used to playing a different type of game. They were soldiers. She was just a cop in a fancy outfit - barely that, even.
As another man fell under her fists, she looked over the melee. She saw Jon pushing a group of people against the wall with a force shield, Blake pulling a man by his hair out of the crowd, Rorschach in a fist fight … and …
“Nite Owl?” She looked around, fear gnawing at her heart. Did he go back to the ship and not tell anyone? That didn’t seem like him. She raised her voice. “Nite Owl? Nite Owl!”
Rorschach raised his head at her cries, and then looked around rapidly. He began to push through the crowd, shoving anyone who got in his way. Laurie started pushing through the crowd too, crying Nite Owl’s name.
Rorschach found him first. She glanced over the crowd to see him picking up an unconscious Dan in a fireman’s carry. Laurie guessed Jon saw it too, because he immediately lost patience with the crowd, knocked all of the protesters at once with a force shield blast. Those who weren’t already unconscious were so impressed by his power that they began to run away.
Laurie saw Rorschach lay Dan down on the now-empty sidewalk. She ran over to them as Rorschach slapped Dan’s face a few times. Dan groaned and pushed himself up off the ground.
“Whatcha doing that for?” Dan complained.
“Knocked out,” Rorschach said. “Silk Spectre noticed. Dr. Manhattan got rid of assailants.”
“Oh …” Dan said.
Laurie reached them. At first she reached her arms out to Dan, planning to hug him, but then recoiled. Why had she wanted to do that? She offered her hand instead. Dan took it and she pulled him to his feet.
“Thanks, guys,” Dan said. “I … I don’t remember getting hit. I …” He rubbed his eyes. “Jesus.”
Blake had appeared next to them. “You saying you just conked out mid-battle, Birdie?”
“Is that possible?” Laurie asked.
“Of course,” Jon responded. “Not very probable, considering the external stimuli, but if one has had a considerable lack of sleep …”
Dan raised his hand. “Look, I don’t remember. Just … I’ll just get back to the ship and have some coffee. I should be okay after that, really.” Dan stepped forward and stumbled off the curb.
Blake laughed, “Oh, good one.”
Rorschach sighed and pulled Dan’s arm over his shoulder. They made a funny image, the larger Dan slumped over the much smaller Rorschach as the latter led him back to the ship, which was hovering not too far away. After Dan pulled out a remote to bring down the ship, Rorschach stood behind him, guiding Dan as he slowly climbed up into the entrance in the floor.
Blake sighed. “Sorry pair of shits they are. ‘Course I can’t say much more for the rest of us.”
Jon shrugged. “What do you suggest we do now?”
“I don’t give a shit what you do, but I need a fucking drink. Later.” He walked down the street, past the unconscious bodies, smashed cars and other debris, whistling as he went.
“Is anybody going to serve him when he’s dressed like that?” she asked Jon when he was out of earshot. “Everything’s probably closed with these riots.”
“Many bars are open,” Jon said.
“What? How do you know?”
“I’ve seen them on patrols.”
Laurie raised an eyebrow. “You’re serious? This place is like a war zone.”
“Bars were open in Vietnam, often during battles,” Jon responded.
Laurie sighed and rubbed her eyes. “Right … of course.” She sat down on the pavement.
Jon sat next to her. “Is something wrong?”
“Oh …” Laurie moaned, and couldn’t continue. What’s wrong? Where would she start? Maybe with what sort of bitch was she that she could cheat on Jon twice in the past week. “I’m … I’m just hungry. And I want to smoke. Maybe I should have found one of those bars.”
“I see,” Jon said. He waved his hand and a satchel appeared at Laurie’s side, making her flinch. “I’m returning to patrol. When I see you again, we will go back to D.C.”
“Really?” Laurie couldn’t help but smile. “That’s great. It’ll be nice to refresh in our own apartment for a bit.”
Jon frowned. “I … I’m afraid we’ll have work to do first. I must be going.”
He disappeared, leaving Laurie alone. She looked in the satchel. A pack of her favorite cigarette brand lay in it, as well as a book of matches, a bottle of water, an apple and a sandwich wrapped in paper. She shook her head and took out the sandwich, pulled off the paper and saw it was tuna fish. Her favorite.
“Not only the most powerful man on Earth and a sex god, he’s also a vending machine.” Laurie took a bite out of the sandwich. It tasted far better than any sandwich made out of thin air should have. She sighed. She really was the most ungrateful bitch on the planet.
The street wasn’t much of a place to picnic, though. Laurie put the rest of the sandwich back in the satchel and took out the matches and cigarettes. She lit one up and breathed the tobacco in deeply. Oh God, she needed that.
Laurie walked back to the Owlship. She wasn’t eager to spend any time alone with Rorschach, but it was preferable to eating out on the streets. She needed a break from everything. She was about to knock on the side door of the ship, then looked beneath the ship and saw that the bottom entrance was open. She crouched under the ship, ready to climb up through the hatch, but paused when she heard the two of them arguing.
“I said ‘I might.’ Maybe. A maybe isn’t a ‘yes.’”
“Know what you really mean.”
Laurie peered out over the edge of the hatch, saw the two of them sitting across from each other on the floor, paper cups of coffee in hand.
Dan had pushed his goggles up on his forehead and rubbed his eyes with his right hand. “It’s not that I want to quit …”
“Then don’t,” Rorschach said. He had his mask rolled up over his nose. He took a sip of his coffee.
“It’s not that simple. Stuff like tonight … this isn’t what I got into the business for,” Dan sighed and laid his right hand on his knee. “I hated being regulated to the sidelines as much as you did. And I hate fighting civilians. I hate working against law enforcement. Hollis was a cop and I … I don’t think this is what he and Hooded Justice envisioned when they started all this.”
“So roll over when it gets too tough? I see.”
“No! That’s not it at all,” Dan said. “I want to do what’s best for people. This set up we have where we’re pulling Laurie out of D.C., where we’re getting Jon and The Comedian to scare people out of protesting. And why are we punishing them? Because they want a regular street patrol? Because they want to feel a measure of security when they walk on the streets at night? I mean, really … they have a right to do that. They have a right to expect that.”
“Says who?” Rorschach asked. “People not entitled to the police’s protection. Have grown complacent. The union leaders know it. Have cut off the blood supply for the bloated ticks. Only reason they’re upset. Care nothing for the safety of their fellow man. Proven that time and again.”
Dan’s face twisted into an expression of surprise and horror that echoed Laurie’s own feelings. “Look, I know you had some kind of … I don’t know what to call it … revelation lately. I don’t understand it but I can’t believe you really think this mess we’re in is deserved. And it’s certainly not preferable to the way things were before vigilantes.”
Rorschach growled. “Not our fault, Daniel. None of this is our fault. Their fault. Lazy. Greedy. Think police cares about people? Care so much they abandon them … and want us to reward them for it?” Rorschach’s voice grew louder. He crushed the cup in his fist. “Would do that, Daniel? Would placate your principles of justice to reward them for doing nothing?”
Laurie’s felt sick at Rorschach’s words. This wasn’t what she thought of when she wanted a break from all this. She was about to leave when she heard Dan sigh. Laurie looked back and saw him cover his face with his hands.
“I don’t like it either, man,” Dan said. “But if it comes down to a choice between that and this … this anarchy? Then yeah, I guess I would reward them for doing nothing.”
Neither of them said anything. Rorschach made a low, humming sound, something that said loud and clear he was sorry to be right.
“Better than this, Daniel. Caught Big Figure. Caught Underboss. Caught Berkowitz.” Rorschach reached out toward Dan, hesitated, and then grasped the edges of Dan’s cape. Seeing him act like this made Laurie’s stomach flip. “What did they do?”
Dan looked like he was frozen. He put his hands on Rorschach’s forearms. “You helped with the first two. But, come on, if they were convinced by that we wouldn’t be -”
Rorschach pressed his lips against Dan’s. Laurie froze. Shit, she thought, it wasn’t her name he was calling.
Dan grabbed Rorschach’s shoulders and pushed him away. “Oh God, man … don’t … don’t do this now. Not for this. I … fuck.” Dan pulled Rorschach to him. As Dan kissed Rorschach he grasped the fabric of his coat, held onto him like he didn’t want to let go.
Laurie watched and felt like she couldn’t breathe. Dan pushed Rorschach back against the floor of the ship, their lips still locked together. He reached for Rorschach’s belt. Rorschach caught his wrist.
“No,” Rorschach said.
“I’m sorry,” Dan breathed. “It’s okay. I don’t care. I just want to touch you.”
“You want …?” Rorschach’s voice echoed an amazement Laurie felt in her own heart. She realized it had been a long time since Jon had said anything like that to her.
“No. Not right.” Rorschach pushed Dan onto his back, and then climbed on top of Dan. He bit Dan’s shoulder.
Dan cried out and arched his back, rubbing against Rorschach. “Oh God. Yes. Please.”
Rorschach grasped for Dan’s belt, fumbled with the crescent moon latch for a few moments. He took off one of his gloves. Laurie’s eyes widened as Rorschach reached into his pockets. No way, she thought to herself. When he didn’t find anything he spit onto his fingers.
“Let me,” Dan said. He took Rorschach’s hand and sucked on the two middle fingers. Rorschach moaned. Laurie felt the familiar ache of desire between her legs.
Rorschach reached underneath Dan, pushed his fingers inside. Dan bucked suddenly and Laurie could feel herself blush as she got a glimpse of his penis.
She needed to go, she thought as Dan’s moans became more urgent. Laurie looked down at the ground, trying to push out the visions in her head of her getting behind Rorschach, or climbing on top of Dan’s mouth. She realized she had dropped her cigarette long ago. She looked on the ground but couldn’t find it. She wished she had it back. She wished … oh God …
Laurie crawled away as fast as she could, almost hitting her head as she got out from under the ship. She walked away quickly, realized as she did so she wasn’t that far away from Gardner’s mansion. She could walk there. Clear her head. Feel better. She nearly ran through the streets, the summer heat causing her flimsy blouse to stick to her body.
~*~*~
It didn’t work.
Laurie sat in one of the chairs in the trophy room, smoking a cigarette, the remainder of her food forgotten. She’d taken off her belt and blouse, and while she felt cooler it hadn’t abated her arousal.
She took a sip of her water. Then she rested her head on her palm, running her fingers through her hair. What the hell was wrong with her? That thing with Rorschach was … Christ, she didn’t know. She thought it was just some crazy, one-off thing. She didn’t even find him sexy … not really. He certainly wasn’t as sexy as Jon … or Adrian. They were perfect and he was so gross. And Dan? What was that about? He was certainly cute, even if his nose was a little funny-looking, but she wouldn’t have thought of having sex with him.
Then again … it had really scared her when she thought he was in trouble. Maybe … No, she had to stop jumping the gun on this. Anyone would feel bad if they saw one of their teammates go down like that. Plus, Dan had been so nice to everyone. It made sense. Why shouldn’t she care about him?
Of course, that didn’t explain why she felt so jealous when she saw the two of them together.
Laurie sighed. She thought of that woman on television, that woman she’d fought. She wasn’t really doing much to dispel her mother and her … well, her quasi-father’s image of the Silk Spectre as some superheroine hooker. Laurie thought she couldn’t sink any lower.
And then the door behind her opened.
“I thought I’d find you here, kid.”
Laurie flinched. She took a drag on her cigarette, snuffed out the rest on the remains of her food, then stood up and turned around.
“Blake,” Laurie said. “Go the fuck away or I will make you go away.”
Blake smiled and closed the door behind him. He’d replaced the full face mask with his domino mask, but if that had been a tactic to make her feel more at ease it wasn’t working. “Relax. I just want to talk.”
“Well, I don’t.”
Blake walked closer to her. Laurie crouched into a fighting stance. Blake looked her over.
“Looks like I interrupted some alone time, eh?”
Laurie gaped when she realized what she was talking about and covered her chest. Fuck, she thought. Fuck!
Blake laughed and stepped closer to her. “Can I guess what you were thinking about?”
Laurie stepped backward. “Fuck you.”
He stepped forward again. “One little guess?”
She stepped back, realized if she took another step backward her back would be against the wall. “Beat it. I’m warning you. Don’t back me into a corner.”
“How about ‘Not your boyfriend’?”
Laurie was stunned. She frowned at him. “You’re a bastard, Blake.”
“I’ll take that as a ‘yes.’ So was it doing Rorschach in the ass or fucking Ozzy for information?”
Laurie stepped back, hit the wall. Blake laughed and rested his hands against the wall, on either side of her head. “I …,” Laurie blubbered. “I don’t know …”
“‘… what you’re talking about?’” Blake asked. “Don’t waste my time, kid. I was passing through and saw the whole thing last night. I gotta admit, the little guy makes me gag but you were pretty hot.”
“You …” Laurie’s fear melted away, humiliation fueling a burning rage, “You watched that? You … You sick bastard! What is wrong with you?”
Blake let out his loudest laugh yet. “What’s wrong with me? Are you kidding? You know, it’s a real laugh that you think I’m the bad guy. What was it you said at one point? Ah, ‘Is that what you really want? Tell me “no” again?’ I think it walks and talks like a duck, don’t you?”
“No!” Laurie grabbed the straps on Blake’s outfit and yanked them hard. She spun Blake around pinned him against the wall. “I am not like you. I am nothing like you.”
“Maybe not,” Blake said, a smile on his face. “Maybe you’re worse. I never did get to do it with your mother that night. You, on the other hand ...”
Laurie knocked Blake against the wall again, making him groan. “Fuck you. You … You’re a man. You’re a man who uses women. You could never understand.”
“Oh?” Blake reached up and grabbed her forearms so hard she let go of him. He yanked her arms up and pulled her against him. “So raping men makes you a feminist, now?”
“I didn’t rape him.” Laurie’s voice sounded desperate to her, and she realized she was trying to convince herself as much as Blake. “I … I gave him plenty of chances to escape. He … You’ve seen him in battle. He could have stopped me at any time.”
“Interesting.” Blake gripped her wrists in one of his hands, ran one of his fingers of his other hand along her chin. “How do you know I didn’t give your mother plenty of chances to escape? How do you know your mother didn’t want it?”
Laurie shook her head violently, ripped her arms out of his grasp. “Bullshit. And you didn’t give her a chance to escape. I know you didn’t. You’re just saying this to fuck with my head and it’s not going to work.” She walked to the door, not caring she left half of her outfit behind. She wanted to get away from him.
Blake reached it first, spread his arms across it. “Kid, I don’t need to fuck with your head. By the time you’re screwing someone like Rorschach, you’re already pretty fucked.”
Laurie blustered. This cat-and-mouse game was frustrating her. She felt exposed, furious and uncomfortably aroused. “Then … then leave me alone. I want this to stop.”
“Oh no, you don’t. I can hear it in your voice.”
Laurie’s hands balled into fists. “I … I won’t let you hurt me. I’d kill you before you hurt me.”
“You always assume the worst of me. Kiddo, I …” Blake sighed. “I meant it when I said you don’t need sympathy but fuck, look at yourself. You’re a fucking mess.”
Laurie lowered her fists. What was he doing?
Blake removed himself from the door, stepped closer to her. “Like this Rorschach thing. I mean, whether he wanted it or not … why? Did you honestly think that guy could teach you anything?”
“I …” Laurie stepped to the side.
“Stop running!”
Blake stepped forward and grabbed onto her hips, digging his fingers into them. Laurie gasped as she could feel herself getting wet. She felt humiliated. Not him, she whispered to herself. I won’t. I won’t. Not with him. Not ever.
“Listen to me,” Blake said. “I’ve been in war. I’ve been on the docks. And while Rorschach is a hell of a lot smarter than most of them, I know a psycho when I see ‘im. I’ve also seen the women batty enough to want to fuck these guys. Most of them fall into two categories. Either they’re like the bird and they’re stupid enough to think they can save these guys, or they want to punish themselves for something.”
Laurie’s mind went back to that night, remembered all those things Rorschach said to her. Whore. Slut. Temptress. Every word had made her want him more. “So,” she said, her face red, “I guess I’m in category two, huh?”
“No,” Blake said. “Your problem is you think you are.”
Laurie looked up at Blake. “I … I don’t understand.”
“I was like Rorschach,” Blake said. “I knew you weren’t telling the whole story with that ‘Adrian said “no”’ bullshit. You had the defensive guilt thing going on. It shows in everything you do: the way you move, the way you talk. And whenever I ribbed you about what happened last night I saw you flinch. I get why, too. You think of yourself as a good person. You need to think of yourself as a good person. Otherwise you’d have to really face all the shit you’ve done.”
“What are you talking about?” Laurie pushed Blake’s hands off her. “You said you can see I feel guilty. How is that not facing the bad things I’ve done?”
“Oh, you’ll admit them. And I’m sure if the Doc ever finds out you’ll be repentant and you’ll cry and you’ll swear it was all a mistake, that you’ll never do it again. Part of you will even mean it. But I want to tell you something.”
Blake grabbed Laurie about the waist again, and this time pulled her close. Laurie could feel the bulge of his cock against her. Blake thrust against her, and she moaned before she could think about it.
“A part of you ain’t really sorry,” Blake purred. “A part of you loved every single fucking minute. I saw your face when you were fucking Rorschach and you know what? You were gleeful. You felt justified.”
Laurie shuddered. Blake ran his hands along her waist, making her squirm.
“A lot of the reason why you feel guilty is because you think you should be. You know what you really regret, kid? You regret that Adrian didn’t do what you asked after you fucked him. You’re not a masochistic victim.”
Laurie tried to wrench out of Blake’s grasp. Blake grabbed onto her chin, forced her to look at him.
“You’re a predator. Just … like … me.”
Laurie screamed and pushed him to the floor. She punched him in the face. Blake growled and shoved her back. She toppled off him. Blake was already on his feet when Laurie tried to pull herself up. He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her along the floor. Laurie tried to reach up and untangle herself, tried to knock him away, but he was too strong.
Blake pulled her to Moloch’s solar mirror weapon, still in its spot after all these years. She looked a mess. Her hair tangled in Blake’s hand, her body nearly nude. She wanted to look away so badly, but he held her head tight.
“Look at yourself,” Blake said. “Is that what you want to be? Is that how you see yourself?”
“Fuck you!”
“Don’t want to answer that question? Fine. Try this one. Why the Doc? The man has two modes: stoic and slightly annoyed. Don’t tell me you like him for his personality.”
“You …You don’t understand.”
“I think I do. How old were you? Sixteen? I remember sixteen. How did it feel for you back then? How did it feel to have the most powerful man in the world’s dick between your legs?”
Laurie felt frozen. “No,” she said. “No that’s … fuck … that’s …” A sob escaped Laurie’s mouth.
“Stop it!” Blake pulled her up to her knees, by her hair, making her cry. “Stop fucking crying and tell me the truth. You fucked him because it stroked your ego. And now you’re fucking other guys because you like it. You don’t give a shit about he feels. Did you give a shit about how Janey felt? Did you?”
“Let go of me!” Laurie screamed.
“Answer the questions and I will. Did you love fucking Adrian?”
“I …” Laurie sniffled.
“Don’t cry!”
Laurie took a deep breath, hardened her face. “Yes.”
“Do you feel bad about fucking Rorschach?”
“No,” she said, her voice firmer.
“Did you fuck the Doc that first time because it made you feel like hot shit?”
Laurie sighed. “I had other reasons, too, but … yes.”
“Have you ever really, really felt sorry about stealing him from Janey?”
“I …” Laurie gulped. “No, I … I wanted to. I told myself I should, but … but ... No. No, I … I didn’t care.”
Blake made a noise of satisfaction. He let go of her hair. She felt a cold determination in her stomach as he did so.
Laurie heard Blake walk over to the table. She stared at her reflection. She sat with her legs tucked beneath her, her hands on her lap. She wished she could turn into stone, she wished that this ache inside her would go away, this ache that seemed to prove she was as horrible a monster as Blake said she was.
“I’m glad you admitted all that,” Blake said. She didn’t look at him, but she could hear him undo the straps on his costume, hear him take off his weapons belt and lay it on the table. “I think one day you might be glad, too.”
Laurie exhaled sharply. I won’t look at him, she said. I’m not going to give in.
“But,” he said. “I wouldn’t expect you to let me get away with what I did.”
His words felt like a trap. She wasn’t regretful, she wasn’t apologetic, but she couldn’t give up her old habits so easily.
Mom, she thought, please never find out. Please forgive me.
Laurie pounced on Blake, cried out as she slammed him against the table. He grinned at her, and she slapped his face.
“Don’t smile at me,” she slapped him again. “You’re a slimy piece of shit.”
“You’re right,” Blake said, a smile still on his face. “Feels good, doesn’t it?”
Laurie growled and climbed on top of him. She knew she was wet, but she didn’t realize how wet until she rubbed her pussy against one of his legs. “You planned this. You wanted this to happen, you sick fuck!”
Blake moaned. “Guilty.”
Laurie pulled at the straps of her bodysuit, exposing her firm breasts, erect nipples. Blake reached for them. She grabbed his wrists and pushed them so they were above his head. Her breasts dangled over his face. “No. You can’t touch them.”
“No?” he tensed as Laurie thrust against him. “Urgh … Funny, I don’t think they’d complain.”
“You do what I say, you fucking rapist,” Laurie breathed out the words, exhilarated. She knew in reality she was playing into Blake’s game rather than controlling him. She was only allowed this because he was letting her. But it felt so good she didn’t care. Some of the most vile, wrong feelings she’d ever had were bubbling to the surface and she didn’t have to restrain them anymore.
Laurie pressed herself against Blake, ran her body and her tongue over the leather material of his shirt, and then reached down to undo his pants.
“I hate you,” she moaned between licks. “I hate you more than anyone else in the world. If you died tomorrow I wouldn’t give a shit.” She grabbed onto his cock … oh God, it felt so thick … and squeezed.
“Urgh!” Blake cried out, and then laughed as he maintained his composure. “But you’re still going to fuck me. I bet part of you has always wanted to.”
Laurie moved up and grasped onto Blake’s hair, forcing his head against the table. “Yeah,” she said, unsure why the hell she was telling him this. “I thought you were hot when I met you. But then I heard what you did, you shit.”
“Bet it didn’t go away.”
Laurie frowned. “Well, you don’t exactly have the moral high ground right now. Wanting to fuck your victim’s daughter? You’re as sick as ever.”
“Never claimed to be a good person, kid.”
Laurie pressed her breasts against his face. “Suck me.”
Blake did. He took her left breast in his mouth. Laurie moaned. Everything that had happened: seeing Rorschach and Dan earlier, this fight with Blake, had driven her crazy. Her sex was pulsating with desire and she could only stand a few seconds of this before she wanted to fuck him.
She pulled herself away. “Get ready, I won’t be long.”
Laurie got off the table. Blake stroked his cock as she pushed off her bodysuit off. As soon as she was on top of him again she thrust herself down onto his cock. He was so thick, so hard, but she was so wet that she slid on like it was nothing.
“Oh God, kid,” Blake moaned. “Fuck, if you knew … if you knew the half of what I am.”
“I know what you are,” Laurie said. She pushed herself up and down on his cock, so wet they made loud, smacking noises as she thrust back against him. God, she had no idea how much she had wanted this. She knew it was wrong. She knew it was sick. But damn it, she couldn’t stop, would have screamed like she had been shot if someone had made her.
Blake reached out for her breasts, and then pulled back. “No, no you don’t. You could have been …” his fingers stroked his scar. Laurie shifted and he cried out. “Oh God,” he moaned. “I’m not sure I know anymore.”
Laurie was in too deep to think any longer. She impaled herself on him again and again until she was exhausted. When she lapsed, Blake gripped her hips and thrust into her hard. On the fourth thrust she could feel herself coming, let out little gasps of pleasure as she felt her orgasm build. When she was reaching the peak, Blake began to come as well. Her pleasure, her gasps, increased as she felt him pumping his come inside of her.
“Oh God!” she moaned. “Oh God, this is sick, I ... Oh!” She shrieked as she came at last.
When she was done, she pulled herself off him and collapsed next to him, exhausted.
“Spent?” Blake asked.
Before she could answer Blake had rolled over. He pushed one arm under her head and pulled her close, and then with his free hand pushed his first two fingers, still gloved, inside her pussy, wet with her fluids and his come. His touch was deft, gentle, and she was moaning in pleasure before she could protest.
In a small matter of time she was coming again. Blake pushed his lips against hers. The gesture shocked her, made her body tense and her skin crawl. But as he pushed his tongue inside, something about the situation felt so desperate. He held her so close, and his touch, despite everything, was so gentle that she began to kiss him back, moaned into his mouth as she came for the last time.
The afterglow didn’t last long. Laurie lay stiff in Blake’s arms, turned her head away. Part of her wanted to fight him - just on principle - but everything Blake said kept her rooted to the spot. She thought again about her first night with Jon, and every bit of romance she’d remembered - his gentle touches, her soft kisses, her virginal amazement of his body - felt like a hollow lie in the face of this new vision of herself.
Laurie wasn’t the type to think about the big picture very much. She hated politics, avoided talking about war, and often felt Jon could just think about all that for her. She’d had enough hardship in life to not be an optimist yet she’d always thought of life’s misfortunes as invasions into the good existence that everyone deserved. While she never liked being pushed into the career, Laurie had nevertheless believed, as a costumed adventurer, that she was one of those agents for good. Even what she’d done with Adrian, done with Rorschach, hadn’t shattered that illusion. Adrian had felt like a good-intentioned mistake. Rorschach had felt like a message to a world that had tried to hurt her. Wrapped in the arms of her mother’s rapist, she couldn’t lie about herself anymore.
Blake let her go. Laurie still couldn’t look at him as he got up. As he started to fix himself she got up and retrieved her clothes. Blake waited while she dressed. Bodysuit. Blouse. Belt. Heels.
“You should leave him,” Blake said suddenly.
Laurie looked at Blake and laughed. “Why? So I can date you?”
“Heh … no, you don’t want to do that.” Blake reached into a pocket of his belt and pulled out a cigar. He patted different compartments, seemingly looking for a light. Laurie reached into the sack and got out the book of matches. He held his cigar straight as Laurie lit it.
Blake exhaled the smoke as Laurie lit a cigarette for herself. “Still hate me, huh?”
Laurie removed her cigarette from her mouth and smirked. “I don’t feel like ripping your head off right now, but I’m finding sex doesn’t change how I feel about a person.”
“Yeah, I …” Blake’s voice was quiet. “I found that out the hard way once.” He strapped his shotgun to his back. “Good-bye, Laurel.”
As Laurie watched him leave, she thought about his confession, wondered what sort of situation could ever get him to say that, and then realized she didn’t want to know.
Laurie looked at the objects in the room - that ape head, that spear - preserved and labeled and covered in dust. She approached Moloch’s mirror again, hoping to find some kind of peace, but all she could think was her hair was still a mess.
She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, Jon’s reflection joined hers in the glass.
“Hello Laurie,” he said as she turned around. “It’s time to go.”
“Now?” Laurie asked. “Really?”
“I said we would. Right now there is a protest in Washington in support of Sen. John Keene’s new bill,” Jon explained. “You need to be there with me. You will stop the ringleaders.”
“Right. Superheroing. Sounds good,” Laurie said.
Jon held out his hand. Laurie began to reach for it, but then stopped.
“Jon?” she said. “Why did we come here?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, why did we come to New York? Is there anything bad that would have happened if we didn’t come?”
Jon blinked. “Laurie, I’ve told you many times. I don’t predict the future to…”
“… ‘to me it’s already happening,’” Laurie finished. “I just … Fuck, I don’t understand.”
“I apologize,” Jon said. “When I was in your position …”
Laurie laughed. “No, this … you weren’t in my position.” She took Jon’s hand. “Let’s just go.”
End Part Three.