Tom watched Gatsby attempt to compose himself after his outburst. His blood was still boiling and he couldn't control the words that came next.
"You thought to take my wife from me, but it's not just Daisy, is it? You won't be satisfied without the pair of them. Nick may not have realized his role in your grand prize, but I see it. I saw him watching in school, watching me, as he watches you now. That's the goal, isn't it? The perfect pair of cousins." Tom smirked at the unsettled look on Gatsby's face. He had to continue to push. Daisy would stay with him, and while Jordan may not be able to draw Nick away from Gatsby's hold, Tom would keep him close, he wouldn't surrender anything of his to this nobody. He walked to stand behind Daisy, held her by the arms and briefly buried his nose in her golden locks.
"My Daisy." He spoke barely above a whisper, but everyone could hear him in the nearly silent room. "My own Golden Girl, delicate beauty and southern charm." Daisy shivered at his words, leaning back into her husband. Tom gently slid his hands down her arms before releasing her completely and stepping away from her.
Tom stepped before the couch where Nick sat. He stood, looking down at Nick for a moment before he held out his hand.
"Get up Shakespeare."
"Tom." Nick's brows furrowed as he looked up at his friend. "What are you doing? What do you hope to accomplish?" Tom only glanced at Gatsby for a moment before returning his steady gaze to Nick.
"Get up Shakespeare." He said again. The three men in the room heard a female voice, but were so intent on this interaction that they heard no words, indeed, they could not even tell if it was Jordan or Daisy that spoke.
After a moment, Nick rose with a sigh, aware that Tom stood too close to him to be entirely proper. The polo player raised one hand to Nick's cheek and wrapped his free arm around the smaller man's waist.
"Nick may not even realize yet why the beautiful Jordan or even his cousin can't turn his head and keep his attention. But I understand, it is not a gentle hand that he most desires, and his naivety of his own nature is as endearing as it is frustrating." Nick began to pull back from Tom, but the larger man swiftly moved his hand from his cheek to grip lightly at dark hair and the arm around Nick's slim waist pulled him securely against a broad chest.
"Tom!" Nick couldn't help but cry out. "What are you implying?!"
"Shhh. Shakespeare, no one here will judge you." With this he turned to Gatsby, "and anyone who tried couldn't possibly care for you." Jay visibly bristled at the implication that he didn't care enough for Nick to accept him no matter his desires, his cheeks burned with his anger. Tom was laughing at him as he tried to contain himself. After a few moments Tom calmed down enough to continue speaking into Nick's ear, his breath disturbing the smaller man's hair and he smoldered in the polo player's arms.
"We'll take care of you Nick. Your own family. Daisy loves you, and you belong with us. You belong to me." Nick's arms pushed with a little less strength after these words. "That's what you need, isn't it? You have never been caught by any member of the fairer sex, not even our own Jordan. They can't take care of you properly. You need to be taken in hand, you need to be cherished above all else. You've always been sought after to take on the burdens of others while you watched your fair cousin Daisy be pampered and praised without needing to give anything in return. But I can take care of you Nick. Take your burdens, give you a room in my home, let you write and praise you for everything you do. I'll cherish you Nick, you'll be my Shakespeare. Daisy will keep you close, she'll pamper and pet you as she desires and as you deserve. And my daughter, my little Pammy will rely on you to be her friend and confidant. You'll comfort her when she's been scolded and teach her all your steadfast principles. All you have to do is come with us." Nick's struggles had completely ceased by now. His arms had fallen limp at his side. "Just let yourself be loved like you've always needed. Just tell this man that you belong with your family."
"Tom." Nick's voice was weak as the mewls of a newborn kitten. He had no defense against this.
Tom's gaze travelled to Gatsby whose eyes were wide open and staring at his friend's submissive posture in the arms of this brute of a man. Had Jay completely misunderstood this friend? How had he not noticed? How had he overlooked what his friend must feel. Always pulled this and that way by other's whims and always put aside for the sake of the fair Daisy? Jay turned to see how these words were affecting Daisy, knowing that Tom's posture was that of a seducer towards her own cousin. To his astonishment, she looked only at the men of her family embracing with something like longing, sparing no glance for Jay and betraying no distress at the intimate display.
"Tom please." Nick was quickly hushed, Tom's big hand making soothing circles at the small of his back.
"I'll protect you Shakespeare, I'll keep you safe. Can he say that?" Tom's eyes caught and held Jay's. "Can he promise that he'll never leave you? Or forget you? He's bewitched you Nicky, all to bring himself closer to Daisy. You're a means to an end. But you were first for me, you were my friend before I ever met Daisy. I know you, Nicky, better than anyone else in the world. And I'm not a perfect husband or friend, but I'll always take care of what's mine, because that's what a real man does."
"Now you hold on a minute there, Old Sport. Nick's my friend and I can protect him just as well as you can."
"Can you? Are you able to take care of all his needs? Can you take care of Daisy too without neglecting him? That's what you ultimately want, isn't it? Both of them?" Tom paused for a moment, giving Jay a chance to speak, which was not taken. "They must be kept together, as a matching pair, now that they have a taste for it. Can you give them that? Can you promise to make sure they are happy? Will your glittering parties keep Nicky as entertained as Daisy? Will you plan amusements for a man like him, or have you thought that far ahead as you dragged him into this mess?"
"Tom stop." Daisy's voice wavered as she spoke this time, taking a half step towards her husband and cousin, hand held aloft as if to reach for them.
"I'll do whatever I have to." Jay finally spoke, voice strained.
"Anything at all? Will you satisfy all their needs?"
"I'll give them whatever they want."
"Even this?" Tom's hand in the smaller man's hair suddenly clenched, wrenching Nick's head back and he mashed their lips together. Nick's protests were lost in Tom's overpowering embrace. When Tom broke the kiss to breathe—he smirked at the dazed look on Nick's face.
Nick wasn't sure how to react to Tom kissing him. This was his friend, his cousin's husband, a man. Sure Nick could see the beauty in the male form, he was a student of the classics after all. But he had never really thought about what it might be like to kiss a man, and never Tom. As the kiss broke, he couldn't say he disliked the idea of kissing a man, his body certainly had no objections, but the shame of kissing Daisy's husband was almost too much to bear. He was confused by Tom's words; what exactly was the man offering him?
"Tom, that's enough! Let Nicky go." Daisy wasn't sure how to react. This wasn't another woman competing for her husband's attention, this was a man, her own dear Nicky. She tried to be jealous, but the idea of keeping him forever with her, it was more than a little appealing.
"You don't want me to let you go, do you Shakespeare? My Nicky?"
"What are you doing to me Tom? Why are you doing this to me?" Nick's voice was unsteady.
"Because you want me to, Nicky." Tom kissed him again, pleased at Nick's quick surrender this time, and the growing hardness he felt to match his own. Tom's hand quickly jerked Nick's hair and took the opportunity that Nick's little cry created to force his tongue between the smaller man's lips. He happily explored the hot cavern of Nick's mouth until he heard a whimper that could only be pleasure. This time when the kiss broke, the polo player quickly spun the writer around in his arms.
Nick found himself being manhandled by the man who had just given him the most devastating kiss he had ever experienced. As his back came to rest against Tom's chest, an arm seemingly forged from steel locked around his chest, trapping his arms at his sides. The hand that had previously been in his hair was not resting low on his belly, drawing attention to his shame. Tom's next words to Gatsby brought tears to his eyes and color to his cheeks.
"Can you give him this?" Tom sounded so smug, the tears began to flow freely but silently.
"Why are you doing this Old Sport?" Even Jay's voice was uneven as he stared at Nick's still form in the larger man's arms. Nick turned his face away from the rest of the room, attempting to hide his tears and his kiss-swollen lips from scrutiny, but Tom wasn't having it. The hand on Nick's belly moved to grab his chin and bring his face into the dying light of day. His passion, shame and devastation highlighted in every line of his body. Tom shifted to press his pride more firmly against the valley of Nick's buttocks, startling a moan from the smaller man.
"I'm only showing him all the possibilities available to him before he decides what he truly wants. To remain in his cousin's shadow at the side of a man who will always be beneath him, or to return to the arms of his family where he will be cherished. To remind him that he is mine and has been since we were at school together. And to remind Daisy that all things are possible for her and for Nick if they just acknowledge that I am what they want, not some nobody criminal." Tom ended in a sneer that finally brought Nick back to struggle in his hold again.
"He's not a nobody! Gatsby's my friend!"
"Your friend? Really Nicky? He gave you the world so that he could use you to bring himself together with your cousin, a married woman! He doesn't belong in our world Nick. He never did! This pretender doesn't deserve you."
"And you do, Old Sport? What is Nick to you right now but a pawn in your game to win? To conquer him wins you the prize you accuse me of desiring, but how long will it be before Nick and Daisy are both forgotten and hurt by your affairs? I built an empire for Daisy, I remembered Nick form the War and invited him to my home before I even knew he was Daisy's cousin. He is not a pawn to me. I will be his friend till the end of my days." Gatsby's declarations came out so easy that Nick couldn't help a small smile. "Even if I didn't have Daisy's love, I would always be Nick's friend!" Tom chuckled at this.
"Haven't you been listening? Daisy loved me. We're married, we have a daughter, a family. And Nick wants more than a friend. Can you be that? Can you satisfy him enough that he will never think to stray from your side? You love Daisy, but are you man enough to keep them both?" Jay clenched his teeth, his expression was hard.
"You can't give them that either. They have both already strayed from your side!" Jay yelled, unable to control himself with the insecurities that haunt him being displayed before the only two people whose opinions actually matter to him.
"I didn't have Nick like this before. With the pair of them safely beneath my own roof, I will have everything that I could ever desire."
"So you desire him then?" Jordan's voice brought back the knowledge of the previously forgotten voyeur to this little scene, her voice almost achieving disinterest, but not quite, and all those present remembered that there was another member of this party with an interest in Nick.
"How could I not?" Tom began to laugh. The hand on Nick's jaw turned his face to see Jordan staring at him from her chair and Daisy with an expression he had never before seen on her delicate features; she looked lost in longing at her husband and cousin. "He's truly lovely in his passion and those eyes I have heard many women covet over our long years of friendship? I've been waiting for him to realize what his staunch principles have denied him all his life, and now I'll make sure I can protect him, and keep him just as he deserves." Tom pressed his nose into the dark locks of the male cousin as he had with the golden curls of his wife just a short time before. "You'll be happy if I keep him with us always, won't you Daisy? You want him to come home with us. I can give you that Daisy. I can give you your precious Nicky; you want that don't you, love?"
"Yes." Daisy's voice was so small in that moment that her reply was almost lost.
"Nick," Jay's voice had returned to a normal calm tone. "Is this what you want? Always to belong to the polo player?" Jay couldn't voice why, but winning Nick at this moment seemed more important than reaching for the green light.
"Jay…" Nick's voice trailed off and he said no more.
"Let him go Tom. How can you declare yourself winner of his body and soul if you allow him no other option?"
"I've already won." Tom's voice was a veritable growl at being challenged. "See how he reacts to me?" Tom kissed Nick's neck and bucked his hips against the smaller man's body, Nicky's eyes fluttered and a small moan escaped his lips. It seemed his body didn't mind being put on display as long as Tom kept touching him. But did he want his cousin's husband touching him?
"Give us a fair playing field, eh Old Sport. Let Nick go. Let's see if he really does prefer you to me."
"You want to try and turn him from me? You'll fail, just like you failed with Daisy." Slowly Tom released Nick from his hold, placing a tender kiss just behind the smaller man's ear.
For a moment, Nick swayed on his feet. Unsure what to do now that he was free. He turned confused eyes to look at the women who were being unusually quiet, the door, behind him at the man who instigated this tug-of-war match with him playing the role of the rope and finally to Jay's expectant expression.
"Come here Nick." Gatsby's hand was outstretched and Nick began to move to him before he even realized what he was doing.
Jay couldn't help but smile at the lack of hesitation in Nick to come immediately to his side. Jay took Nick in his own firm embrace and Nick came willingly.
"I really did recognize you from the war." Gatsby whispered in Nick's ear, making a small bubble of intimacy for just the two of them. "Such beautiful eyes and a smile that made me feel like anything in the world was possible, even winning a war. As long as that smile was somewhere out there brightening those eyes like basking in the warm sunlight of a cloudless summer sky." Nick raised his arms to wrap around Gatsby. "I thought I would never see that smile again, but I was content to hope that a man who could instill so much beauty and promise in such a common gesture as a smile might be alive and well somewhere on that battlefield. How could we possibly loose a war with such a man fighting on our side." Nick pressed himself just a little more firmly into Jay's arms. "I had never before considered embracing a man in desire until I saw you. After the war I focused on building my empire, making my fortune and winning Daisy, I couldn't begin to think that the nameless soldier who so captivated me would move in to the cottage just next door. I had to know who you were, I set out to discover all I could, and I sent you that invitation to bring you closer to me. You Nick. And it seemed like fate to discover from Jordan that the man of the angelic smile was related to Daisy; the woman I loved for all these years. Oh how there were times when I questioned if I shouldn't give up on Daisy, but I had built everything for her, and surely if she slipped from my grasp surely her beloved Nicky would follow. I'm sorry Nick for treating you as a matched set, it was wrong of me. I need you Nick, not because of Daisy, but because you make me a better man." Gatsby pulled his face back and pressed a nearly chaste kiss against already bruised lips. After no objections were voiced, no struggles mounted against Jay's actions, he leaned in and kissed the smaller man again. He licked Nick's lips until they parted and he was able to explore depths of that sweetly tentative return to his amorous attentions. Jay did his very best to erase any lingering taste or memory of Tom. Jay wanted to write his name across the pages of Nick's soul in strong bold strokes. He wanted Nick to bear his true name, not just the one he adopted to become the man Daisy would love, because Nick would love his past every bit as much as his present. The small joyful sounds Nick made now were nothing like the groans so unwillingly torn form him by Tom's dominating presence.
"Enough!" Tom's growl broke the two from their private moment.
"Jay, how could you take my Nicky from me?" This from Daisy brought a smirk to Tom's face. "I'm not going with you Jay. I'm staying with my family. Let go of Nicky, he belongs with me." Daisy took the last couple steps until she stood by her husband. "Come here Nicky, come to us. Tom placed an arm around his wife's waist and looked every bit the triumphal man.
"Nick is a grown man. He can make his own decisions." Jay sounded perfectly calm. "Just as you have made your decision." Jay's voice had lost its strength for just a moment.
"So you take my cousin as the consolation prize?" Daisy nearly screeched, bringing a frown to Gatsby's face. Had he ever heard Daisy speak like that before? Didn't she care about Nick's happiness? Is Nick just an accessory to her?
"Nick is a prize all on his own." Jay shook his head. "He'll choose for himself if he wants to go with Tom or if he wants to return to West Egg with me. All you have to decide Daisy is if you love Tom or me, leave Nick out of it." Gatsby turned his head away from Daisy and gave Nick's pink lips another quick gentle kiss.
Daisy couldn't believe that Tom had shown her the possibility of a future with both her husband and her beloved cousin, only for Gatsby to separate them so easily. She couldn't leave Tom and Pammy, not forever. Tom offered stability, safety and a life with her daughter. Yes, she hated the other women, but if Nick was there, Tom would be too busy with two lovers at home to stray, and Nick wasn't the competition that another woman would be. There would be no inappropriate phone calls during dinner, no fear of illegitimate children to challenge Pammy for her inheritance. Nick was an attractive man and in possession of wit, charm and an easy nature; he would be an asset in society, and a pleasant companion to her. This was the answer to all the problems in her marriage. But Nick couldn't choose Gatsby or she didn't know what would happen.
"Nicky, think about the future. Tom can give us everything we could ever want, and no one would say anything about you coming to live with your cousin. You'd be completely safe. We'd be together Nicky, you and me. I really could have you at my table always. We could have such a nice life together."
Nick's head shook "no" against Jay's chest, he couldn't look at Daisy or he may be lost to her whims, just as he always had.
"You made your choice Daisy; and it seems that Nick has made his." Jay was heartbroken at the loss of Daisy, but the pain was less than he might have expected, as long as he had Nick in his arms, he would have a future. With a gentle hand at the small of Nick's back, Jay lead the silent man from the hotel room. Tom spoke just before the door fully closed.
"Don't worry Daisy, Nick will come to his senses. Just like you did."
Jay and Nick climbed into the bright yellow car and headed towards home, through the valley of ashes and beneath the ever watchful eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckelburg. The drive was silent and Jay drove slowly for once, too heartsick with Daisy's deflection and praying that Tom was wrong and Nick would choose to stay with Jay. Just as he was turning before a mechanic's shop, a woman dashed out into the road, running right towards his car, Jay was able to throw on the breaks and stop just in time. Nick and Jay both were relieved and grateful for Jay's uncharacteristically careful driving. All at once Nick recognized the woman, it was Myrtle, Tom's mistress.
"Myrtle? What are you doing?"
"Where's Tom?!" The distraught woman practically wailed as she noticed her lover was not in the car.
"He's still in the city. Are you alright?"
"George knows! He's gone crazy! I need to get to Tom! He'll protect me!"
"Tom Buchanan?" Gatsby asked in mild shock over his near miss of hitting the hysterical woman. "He's in the city, with his wife." Myrtle wailed again and threw herself into a run, towards the train and away from Wilson, who was now exiting his shop to chase after his errant wife.
Wishing more than ever to return home Jay continued to drive out of the valley of ashes. When the pair returned to West Egg, Gatsby stopped his car in front of Nick's house.
"I don't want to go back to that place just yet." Jay motioned towards his mansion. "Can I stay here with you Old Sport? If it's not too much trouble?" Jay's insecurities were rearing their heads again.
"Of course Jay. I'm always happy to have you visit." Nick smiled as Jay fidgeted like a little boy, nervous about being sent away.
Jay released a sigh of relief, "happy" Nick said. He wasn't a burden and Nick wasn't questioning his choice to leave with Gatsby, at least not yet.
As the two men entered the little cottage and made their way towards the living room, Nick paused for just a moment.
"Oh." He said, a look of astonishment on his face.
"What is it Old Sport?" Jay's voice was laced with concern.
"It's my birthday. I had forgotten."
Jay couldn't stop his laugh, a mixture of relief and joy at Nick's easy acceptance of his presence. With gentle hands, Jay cupped Nick's cheeks and kissed him with as much passion and joy as he could manage.
"Happy Birthday, Old Sport." Jay wrapped the smaller man securely in his arms. "We'll make sure to celebrate it properly next year, I promise." Jay smiled in that special way of his that had Nick practically melting in his arms. The smaller man couldn't think of any birthday wish more important than being on the receiving end of that smile again.