Ch. 12

It was a strange experience for Rorschach, standing there with a man he had previously only heard of and spoken to once in the docks. He and the Comedian, united for one instant through the one thing they had in common -- their utter bewilderment.

Rorschach watched the limousine peel away, wondering for one strange moment what would happen if he ran after it and caught up with it somehow, hanging onto the bumper and climbing on top until he reached the driver's seat and beat Laurie's mother senseless. Rorschach hated histrionic outbursts. Especially ones perpetrated by women who seemed to be distressed by something not apparently known because they had the inability to properly express themselves with coherence. Screaming did not equal cerebral expression. Vague sentences did not equal communication. To effectively convey one's emotions, one had to speak, and eloquently at that. Rorschach wasn't a master at showing how he felt, but he knew damn well to shut his mouth if he couldn't think of the right thing to say.

He turned away, surprised at how much he hated Laurie's mother. Nightshade's mother. Who cared? Silk Spectre. She was a woman who sold her body and as far as he was concerned, women like that deserved not even to lick their daily bread off the soles of his shoes. He had tried to like her --- for the sake of Nightshade; the woman who bore someone like that couldn't be half-bad. He should have known better. He knew that it didn't matter if a woman gave life to another. Giving birth didn't make a woman selfless and altruistic. No, most of them were whores who gave in to desire and lust and didn't know better than to open their legs and suffer the consequences. Nightshade's mother was no exception, and Rorschach had no mercy for her.

Beside him, Rorschach heard the Comedian mutter to himself. His cigar seemed to have gone out, and he was reaching down to light it. Rorschach noticed the tremor in his hand. It seemed his exchange with Sally Jupiter had gotten to him, too. The Comedian glanced at him, laughing weakly before he turned to leave.

"What's going on?" asked Captain Metropolis, as he came out of the double doors behind them. "Are you two coming in?"

"No Nelly, I'm going home, all right?" said the Comedian, as if Captain Metropolis had asked him that question a thousand times before and he was sick of hearing it.

"Oh, uh, well if you might permit me to walk with you, why don't I tell you my plans for the city?"

"Why don't you go fuck yourself, Nelly?"

Captain Metropolis stopped in his tracks, stunned. The Comedian turned and looked at him with steely eyes.

"I don't need to hear what kind of shit you got planned in there -- whatever it is, I'm sure it's a load of crap -- you were always good at spewing it, Nelly. I don't even know why I showed up at this bullshit meeting."

Captain Metropolis was silent as the Comedian drew on his cigar with a flicker of soundless, bitter laughter caught in his eyes.

"I guess I just thought it was funny that after all these years, after kicking me out, you decided to invite me of all people to play cowboys and indians with all the little boys again."

"Eddie..."

"No, Nelson. I'm out. Whatever it is, count me out." The Comedian turned and began to walk away. "I'm getting too old for this shit."

Captain Metropolis turned and looked at Rorschach as if for the first time.

"I just..." he began, as if to explain himself to Rorschach, but the doors opened behind them again and the others came streaming out.

"What's going on?" asked Nite Owl II. "Is something the matter?"

"Should reschedule meeting for later," Rorschach told Captain Metropolis. The retired military officer seemed to have been on shaky ground from the start. The Comedian's words seemed to have crushed him somehow, and now his previous resolve was broken and he seemed unable to function, at least for now.

"Err, yes, of course, later." Captain Metropolis nodded then turned to the others. "I'm sorry, but we will have to reconvene at a later date due to some... difficult circumstances."

"I hope everything's all right," said Ozymandias. In the sunlight his hair and armor shone brightly, making him look untainted, pure, and full of good intentions. He seemed genuinely concerned.

"Yes, I... need to think some things over, I think," said Captain Metropolis, shaking his head.

"Well, keep us updated, Nelly," said Nite Owl II. "Here, let me help you get your things."

Ozymandias followed Captain Metropolis and Nite Owl II back into the building. Boyscouts. Rorschach shook his head before doing a double-take. He was surprised to see Dr. Manhattan standing further back, his girlfriend hanging off of his arm. It was ironic that amidst it all, the glorious Dr. Manhattan had been the hardest being to spot.

"Are we going to have to come back to this place, Jon?" asked the girlfriend.

"It isn't supposed to happen like this," said Dr. Manhattan. He looked and sounded as if he were far away, in another world, even. He didn't seem to have even heard the words that had been spoken to him. He smiled. "How... fascinating."

Rorschach was unimpressed. As much as he had heard of Dr. Manhattan's powers from many sources, he seemed like just another man, and an unimportant one to him. He was more concerned about Laurie. Nightshade. He still couldn't figure out what her mother had been trying to say, but he was nervous that it meant the end of her crime fighting career. Dejected, he slumped away from the building, wishing that they had never agreed to this meeting. Things were better when it was just him and his friend.

She didn't come back that night, but the next night she returned to him. Rorschach was relieved to find her out of the unmentionally disgusting outfit and back as Nightshade.

"I'm sorry about what happened yesterday," she said to him. Her eyes looked glassy, as if she had been crying.

"Forget about it," he told her.

She nodded, looking away.

"I've been thinking about all the things my mother said to me, and I still don't understand half of it, Rorschach." She looked at him again. "She said these things, about the Comedian in particular, but she never really told me anything specific. I don't know what to think."

Rorschach paused for a moment. She hadn't read Hollis Mason's book, he recalled. He had, however, and he had an idea what Sally had been referring to. He understood now. Rorschach felt a little bad about the ill-will he had been harboring towards Nightshade's mother. That didn't mean he approved of the way she had handled the situation, however. And his opinion of her character had not changed.

"She seems to think that he would hurt me, somehow." Nightshade said, finally.

"He won't."

Rorschach didn't say this because he thought that the Comedian had made a false move on his part. He didn't seem like the type -- Rorschach wasn't the expert on rapists, but he was certain, nonetheless -- whatever the Comedian had done back in those years, it seemed to be a moral lapse, nothing more.

No, Rorschach wasn't thinking about this when he spoke those two words to Nightshade. Rorschach was thinking about how he would kill the Comedian if he attempted to touch her. The thought came to him instinctively, as if it was natural to react in that regard. But no, he was certain he wouldn't have to resort to anything drastic. The Comedian seemed to think of them as children, as irksome as that was to Rorschach personally, the older man was harmless. Explosive temper, but essentially harmless -- towards them, at least.

"Why don't we get some work done tonight?" Nightshade asked him. "You won't believe how much I missed it in the night I was gone."

Rorschach nodded. He had missed it too. He hadn't skipped his duties like she had, of course, but by himself it just wasn't the same. The two walked on together, a comfortable silence between them as they both seemed to enjoy the quiet night. They apprehended a particularly repulsive old hobo who was trying to steal a woman's purse. They gave some gang members a hard time and found an easy rest of the night. They were walking through a high-scale neighborhood on the lookout for a catburglar that had been hitting that area when they saw a dark figure near the trees. Rorschach recognized it immediately. He had seen the burning embers from his cigar.

"Oh," said Nightshade, stopping in surprise.

"Hey," said the Comedian. There was something strange about the way he was holding himself, and when he passed Rorschach to come closer to Nightshade he smelled the liquor on him. Rorschach looked around and wondered if the Comedian had been following them. It disturbed him to think he had gone by without their noticing him -- all the while intoxicated, too.

"Hi," Nightshade said nervously. She turned to look at Rorschach with wide eyes. He nodded to her and she seemed to relax a little.

"So, you're Sally's kid, huh?" asked the Comedian. He looked weary and seemed all too morose in manner to be his normal self. "Surprised when I found out -- had to come see you up close. See your face."

"My mother said you did bad things," Nightshade told him. "I'm not sure if I should be talking to you."

He laughed bitterly.

"Yeah, I guess I wouldn't be talking to me either. No offense little girl, didn't want to come off like some creep. I just needed to see. Had to see, that's all."

Nightshade looked up at the huge man who was looking down at her with those troubled eyes and something else that Rorschach noticed. Rorschach tensed up for a moment when he saw that look -- that odd look that was a mixture of grief and longing and something else that he didn't understand.

Unbelievable. Was the Comedian some kind of pervert? Was he getting some high out of looking at Sally Juspeczyk's young daughter? Rorschach had half a mind to throw himself against him. The Comedian was known to be a dirty fighter and Rorschach wasn't quite certain if he could take him even in one-to-one combat, but Rorschach had the advantage of not being inebriated.

Nightshade seemed to be entranced. The Comedian was close, too close for comfort, but she didn't seem to mind. His hand was on her chin now, lifting up her face to see it in the moonlight. Rorschach was disgusted. What was the man doing? This girl was half his age. He was old enough to be her father.

Rorschach paused.

No.

It couldn't be. Could it...?

Rorschach tried to view the situation with this new idea in his mind. The Comedian and Silk Spectre's shared past not witholding, he played yesterday's scene again in his head. The emotions from Nightshade's mother. The look on the Comedian's face. That way he regarded Nightshade now. Goodness, they even looked similar. How come he had never noticed? It had to be true. Rorschach was certain of it.

He also couldn't believe it.

Rorschach was going to investigate. Then he would tell Nightshade. She deserved to know. If this was true, she had every right to know.

All children deserved to know their fathers.

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To be continued...