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He only paused to turn to them. "Do you mind, terribly?"

"Not at all," Nick replied.

The rest of them said nothing as he disappeared, unsure what to do with the information. It didn't help that Joy especially was starting to suspect what he did for a living, and Fear was getting mildly concerned from that phone call.

Gatsby hadn't come back for hours, and Tom eventually took the chance to take Daisy away, though Nick could overhear him questioning his wife as they left, Daisy making up some lie about Gatsby showing all of them the grounds. It was clear that Tom was about to start investigating into Jay Gatsby and what he did, and it would surely only lead to proving who the superior one for Daisy was.

Fear was extra giddy now, though Joy had to admit, he was showing a lot of good self control to act like he'd known this whole time. Except now his comments had transitioned from "I think you're getting sick" to "Joy you need to rest more you're sleeping for two now."

Well, at least she knew he definitely cared for her. As long as he didn't mind when the food cravings finally hit (when did those come in, again?) she'd at least be grateful that he was already trying to make sure they ended up with a healthy baby.

She passed staff busy cleaning up the aftermath of the party, noticing Gatsby constantly switching from pacing to staring at the green light to pacing and so on, eventually spotting her.

"You didn't tell me you were expecting," he said bluntly.

It wasn't a question, rather a simple statement of fact.

"I... I didn't think it mattered," Joy replied, her shoulders curling a little. "You were so focused on that afternoon tea and with everything going on, I just didn't really find a reason to mention it."

"Yes, Tom ended up telling me."

She wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"But still, I want to extend my congratulations," he said. "And if you or your husband need anything, I can help you."

"Thanks," she shrugged, but wasn't fully sure how to explain that what they needed was a crash course on how this would all go down for the next several months.

Neither of them said anything for a while.

"Daisy wanted me to tell you that she had a great time tonight," she said.

Gatsby didn't seem convinced. "She didn't like it."

"Are you kidding? Of course she did."

"No, no," he insisted. "She didn't have a good time."

He looked up at her. "I feel so far away from her now. It's so hard to make her understand."

"...Are we still talking about the party?" she furrowed her brow.

"The party?" he repeated. "I could care less about the party."

He tossed an empty glass bottle into a bin. "That'll be all for now, gentlemen."

The staff nodded and retreated to wherever they went when not working. Joy could tell that this was clearly to be a more private conversation.

He even lowered his voice into a whisper. "She has to tell Tom that she never loved him."

Joy blinked a couple times. "...What."

"Yes," Gatsby shrugged on a blazer as if they were making remarks about the weather. "Then we'll go back to Louisville to live in her parents' house. Her parents are lovely people, Joy. We'll be married there. You see, we're going to make it like it was five years ago when we loved each other."

"Okay but... I wouldn't advise trying to ask too much of her," she warned.

"Ask too much?"

He pinched the bridge of his nose and she got the feeling he wasn't a huge fan of the plan.

She took the chance to take a step closer. "Are you okay?"

He looked back at her, tears welling his eyes. "It's... it's sad because... it's so hard to make her understand. I mean, look at you and Fear; you're living out your own fantasy with each other and you even have a child on the way. And that's what I want with Daisy."

He gestured to the mansion. "I've gotten all these things for her, and now she just... she just wants to run away. She really wants to leave that."

"Look, buddy," she said. "Fear and I appreciate the flattery, but in case you haven't noticed, you and Daisy are not us. You can't be like us and then act like it's five years ago. It doesn't work."

"But of course it can," Gatsby said. "We can repeat the past, have a love as strong as you two have; we had that same love before and we can have it again."

"There's a difference between love and copying, you know!"

Her voice echoed a little from her shout.

Even so, Gatsby seemed firm. "We can do it. I'm going to fix things like they were before. If I can just get back to the start... I can find it again."

Joy still was unsure. "You can't do it based on what isn't yours. Now or anymore."

Gatsby shot her a look. "There's no real harm in trying."

Somehow this got him into telling her about a night in Louisville from five years ago, when he'd been at Daisy's house with the officers from Camp Taylor, and he'd somehow followed her into a reclusive spot where they couldn't be seen.

"I always knew that I could climb," he told her. "But I could only climb if I could climb alone. I knew that when I kissed this girl... I would be forever wed to her. So I stopped... and I... I waited. I waited for a moment longer."

Joy's brows knit together, suddenly interested. "And then what happened?"

He seemed... sad, almost. "And then I just let myself go."

He may not have realized it, but she seemed to notice that maybe he'd been right; maybe he and Daisy really did have something similar to her and Fear when they'd started a relationship. He'd practically taken her mind right back to the kiss they'd decreed was the real first kiss.

"I knew it was a mistake for a man like me to fall in love," Gatsby said, still slightly despondent. "I'm only 32; I might still be a great man if I could forget that I once lost Daisy but... my life... my life has got to be like this."

He looked up at the lights of the mansion. "It's got to keep going up. She has to go to Tom and tell him she never loved him. I just... need to give her more time."

She still didn't seem entirely convinced.

"Don't worry, I can protect her here," he insisted.

She didn't move as he began to head towards the back entrance, still bewildered.

This had never been him asking her to get him and a married woman he'd known from years ago to see each other again.

This had always been him somehow seeing her as the key to getting the life he always wanted, one that not only hinged on five-year-old love, but one that relied on a love that had never belonged to him. 

hey, joy, on a more positive note, gatsby really liked seeing the love you and fear have for each other so much he's trying to have that for himself with daisy. so like, props for having an actually good relationship?

that being said it'll be interesting to see how this will play out.