LOVE
FOURTEEN
"Oh my God!" Gwen Cooper howled with laughter as she pushed Gray off of her and rolled onto her side to face him. "I don't believe it! You're fucking impotent. Not only can you not keep it up, you can't even get it up!"
Her words came fast, furiously, without a second's pause in between, giving him neither time nor opportunity to respond to her tirade.
"I mean you are pathetic! Not only are you what they say – a liar and a coward and a bully. Oh, and a murderer, too. But add to the list a rapist, and a damn bad one at that. No wonder you're so fucked up. It must be bloody terrible to be you. To be so barren, so feeble, so incapable.
"And how dare you compare yourself to Jack? Well, let me tell you – I do know. You were wrong about that because I know very well indeed! Shall I compare and contrast? Oh! I'd be happy to! I could write sonnets about Captain Jack Harkness! I could compose an epic about him! He's an amazing, attentive, inventive, incredible, breathtaking lover. He can go on and on for hours… and talk about multiple orgasms! My God, I've never seen anything like him. He's the stuff of dreams: the man who keeps going, the man who never stops. He keeps coming back for more again and again and again, each release more intense than his last." She laughed anew, her eyes bright with mirth. He slapped her across the face but she ignored him.
"Yes, Jack Harkness is amazing while you… you are inadequate, meager, puny. I feel sorry for you! I pity you! I do, seriously! And what planet have you been living on anyway? Huh? Thinking you can use sex as a weapon? Use it to intimidate me? Scare me? Dominate me? Well, welcome to the twenty-first century little brother, little boy, where sex is wonderful and fun and satisfying and something to share and nothing to get uptight about. I've had lots of lovers – I still do, but you… YOU win the prize as the most worthless and mediocre of them all."
"I liked you better as a mindless zombie," Gray managed to sputter while she took a breath.
"Hah! I bet you did! You enjoy sticking your cock into tight, round, cold, dead spaces? Well maybe I should find an empty beer bottle just for you, hmm? Is that your idea of a good time? Is that your notion of proper sex?" Gwen shook her head as she narrowed her eyes, "I can't quite remember what it was that John told me about you – when you had him under your power. He said something like no matter what you did he really couldn't get excited by you. Imagine that! John Hart – the man who gets aroused by looking at a freaking poodle! You're really a lost cause if you can't give Captain John Hart a hard-on."
"Shut up, bitch!" he struck her again, this time more viciously. But again she just ignored him. Then she chuckled knowingly.
"Does that turn you on? Beating me up?" Gwen pressed the inside of her wrist to the corner of her mouth and found a few drops of blood. "Is that the kind of perversity you're into? Sadism? Schadenfreude? Well, I know a few women who might really enjoy that, would you like me to introduce you? They hang out in Cardiff's red-light district, if you know what I mean… but I'll warn you, they won't be cheap."
She rolled over onto her back, a sardonic smile on her face, "Or maybe you'd like to try again? Give it another shot? Hey, I'm game. Ask Jack or anyone else I work with – I'm always willing to try to help someone or some thing in distress. I'm a soft touch, I admit it! I might even have time to take you on as a special project. It seems I have a vacancy in my schedule ever since you managed to exterminate Owen Harper. Poor Owen… now there was one singularly screwed up individual. Well, even compared to him you present quite challenge… but I'm up for it if you are, pun intended, little brother. What do you say, hmm?"
He rose from the bed and angrily threw the blanket, covering her naked body. "Shut up. Just shut the fuck up," he growled. "You wait until Jack shows up. Then I'll show you."
Her eyes danced, "Oh hooray! Indeed! I simply cannot wait! Do you have some sort of plan in mind? Some sort of nefarious, dreadful, evil, cunning plan? I hope so because you know what? Whatever it is, Jack is going to kick your butt. Let me tell you – Jack Harkness is an amazing lover, but he's amazing at everything he does. He's an amazing friend and an amazing boss and an amazing colleague and an amazing teacher. He's even an amazing dancer… can you beat that? But he's also something else and I've been lucky enough to watch it first hand: he's an amazing enemy and I'm betting you're about to find out for yourself just how amazing of an enemy Jack Harkness can really, truly be…
"Hey! Where are you going?"
Gray slammed the door behind him as he stalked out of the room.
Gwen Cooper looked down at the blood where her fingernails had cut deep into her palms and tried not to throw up.
-00-
"The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love."
William Sloane Coffin