Bottoms Up
Part Four
By Clotho & Cathy
clothomoerae@hotmail.com and huntersglenn@yahoo.com

Rating: NC-17
Status: 4/6
Pairing: John Carter/Dave Malucci
Date: December 31, 2000
Archive: Not without permission
Category: "E.R
Disclaimer: "ER" and all its characters belong to Warner Bros. No infringement of their copyright is intended. This story was written for the enjoyment of "ER" fans everywhere, and may be downloaded for your own pleasure. We owe a huge "Thank you" to Alice and Melissa, our wonderful editors. We couldn't have done it without the two of you!

SHIT. Dave was beginning to think he shouldn't have mentioned that John had not yet come. Should just have ignored it. Dave didn't move. Was frozen solid. And then felt Carter pushing his knees apart. With his own knees between them. SHIT. Dave heard his breath coming in short little gasps.

"Dave? You didn't answer my question," John softly reminded him as he lowered his head to Dave's chest and began to suckle one of his nipples through the cotton of Dave's T-shirt. John smiled around the nipple as Dave moaned, then he stopped what he was doing long enough to ask, "How many times have you been to a gay bar? Counting tonight? Two? One?"

Carter was making him respond. He hadn't meant to groan. It had just happened. He was having his nipples teased like a woman. Oh God. What was happening? Dave tried to control his breathing. "You don't do this. You're a bottom."

John couldn't help but laugh at the tone of Dave's voice. "What on earth makes you say that? One fuck on a dance floor doesn't make me one way or the other, Dave." John had noticed how Dave had responded to having his nipple sucked, so when he lowered his mouth to the other nipple, he also decided to use his fingers to play with the other one, rolling it between his thumb and forefinger a bit, then squeezing it between them. "Maybe you're the bottom here, but just don't know it yet?" John asked when he came up for air. "You still didn't answer my question, Dave. How experienced are you?"

Dave heard himself moan again as Carter played with his nipples. This couldn't be happening. "A bit." That was all he could say. "A bit" What are you doing?" Oh God, that sounded ignorant. How had Carter turned this around? Dave was lying there tense from eyelid to toe, but whatever Carter touched turned to liquid. Oh God.

"I'm making you feel good, Dave. Doesn't this feel good?" John nuzzled the side of Dave's neck while running one of his hands up under Dave's shirt and toying with the first nipple it encountered. "There are a lot of things I can do to make you feel good, but first we need to get you ready for me." All the relaxing that had occurred was undone by John's last statement. John chuckled, even though he did want to relieve his arousal by coming inside of Dave. "That wasn't what I meant, Dave. God, you are so very much a virgin at this, aren't you?"

John got up off the bed and headed for the door. "There's a whirlpool downstairs. Come on." And then John headed down the hallway. He figured that he would lose Dave, but that wasn't a bad thing. It would give him time to get the water going and on its way to a decently hot temperature. He stopped off in a bathroom and grabbed a bar of soap and a washcloth. Towels were kept in the pool area. Aside from the whirlpool, his grandparents also had an indoor pool. John hadn't used either one much since the stabbing, too ashamed of the way his body looked, but if he just cut on the lights in the pool and not the ones in the whirlpool or the overhead lighting, then Dave wouldn't see his scars. Not that John planned to take his shirt off anyway. His intent was to get Dave completely stripped down, then he would get him relaxed enough so he could clean him out enough for sex. And then he would fuck him at ease.

It had been a long time since John had taken the lead in a relationship with a guy. Way before the stabbing. Before Adam, John's last gay encounter had been just after Elaine had run off to Europe. He had seen the guy a few times, but nothing had really clicked between them. Still, the sex had been good. And then the stabbing had happened and his world had been turned upside down. Everything was out of his control after that and even when he returned from Atlanta, John couldn't shake that feeling. He hadn't been able to shake it until tonight. Until now. He had the upper hand over Dave right now and it felt good to be in control of something -- of being responsible for bringing pleasure to someone. That's where Dave was confused. He thought that being a top meant you took pleasure where you wanted, and that wasn't quite true. Being in control meant that you were responsible for the pleasure of the person you were with, of making sure that his or her needs were met, that the other person didn't leave unsatisfied. And that could happen no matter who was doing the fucking.

John tested the water and found it warm enough to get into. He quickly unbuttoned his shirt, taking it off before slipping into the water. He settled onto one of the seats to wait for the water to heat up even more and for Dave to appear.

Dave lay in the bed after Carter had walked out. The worst thing was that Carter was right. It had felt good. He'd wanted to be played with. And Carter was obviously SO experienced - knew a man's body the way Dave himself knew a woman's. Had known how to make him relax despite everything.

Dave got off the bed and looked at the fuck-me pants with all the lacing. The lacing he'd been so busy undoing and feeling between earlier. Surely no guy who liked being on top would wear stuff like that. No one. They just begged to be unlaced, and for liberties to be taken with the body inside.

He could just call a cab and go home. He knew the way to the kitchen, knew the way to the outside door. Could walk down to the entrance to the estate and get home from there. He didn't need to follow Carter and go to the whirlpool. He didn't need to get ready for Carter. And despite Carter saying he hadn't meant that, Dave was sure that that was precisely what he'd meant.

Dave stood up and began gathering his clothes; he'd just get out of here. It didn't matter that despite having orgasmed twice already tonight he was quivering a little at the thought of Carter by the pool waiting for him. He'd just go. Get dressed and go.

Dave pulled his clothes on hastily. He had a hard time getting the buttons done up over the cock that wasn't as quiet as it should have been.

And sneakers and socks. Okay, forget the socks, he couldn't control his hands enough to get them on. And just leave the sneakers untied.

Dave stroked the fuck-me pants one last time before he left the room. They'd looked so damn sexy on Carter. But he, David Malucci, was (when he needed a man at all) a top, that was just how it was.

Dave left the room, and went down the stairs. There were lights on that there hadn't been on the way up. Carter must have left them on - to guide his bottom to the pool. Dave wasn't a bottom, he couldn't be. And he was going to leave.

About three steps from the base of the stairs Dave tripped over one of his untied shoelaces and fell with a thump. Shit, now Carter would hear him. Would come out and look for him. Shit, shit, shit. It had been a stupid idea to not tie the laces, he might have known that this would happen.

Dave sat on the bottom step and waited for Carter to arrive and demand to know why he hadn't come to the pool, why he was dressed, why Carter's program of seduction had fallen apart. Then Dave could explain he wasn't a bottom and leave. Leave grandly.

But it didn't happen. Carter didn't come.

Dave heard a grandfather clock ticking in the hallway, passing the minutes.



John glanced up at the clock on the wall above the pool and frowned when he saw that it had been almost twenty minutes since he had left Dave back in the bedroom. He should have been here by now. John got out of the whirlpool and pulled his shirt back on, only doing up every other button in his haste. Then he retraced his steps, hoping that Dave was just being stubborn and hadn't gotten into any trouble. Or left. Please don't have left, John prayed.

John stopped short in the hallway as he had an unbroken line of vision toward the steps. Dave was sitting there, fully dressed and looking glum. So, he hadn't left, but he wasn't ready for sex, either. Not caring that he was leaving wet footprints on his Gamma's Oriental rug, John walked over to Dave. In his concern, he could even overlook the way his shirt was sticking to his wet body.

"Are you okay?" John asked, not sure if he meant physically, mentally or emotionally. Or maybe all three. It had been a long time since he had set out to seduce another man, so maybe he was rushing things, but it had felt good for that short time earlier when he was so sure that Dave would follow him down to the whirlpool. "Are you hurt anywhere?" John asked, going for the physical angle.

Dave looked up at Carter's voice. He could see his friend silhouetted by one of the lamps in the hallway. He shrugged hopelessly, and chose the most trivial of all his complaints. "I'm going to have a bruise where Adam hit me."

John knelt down in front of Dave not sure if Dave meant where Adam might have hit him on his face or where he hit him in his belly. "Are you in pain? Should I call an ambulance?" A smile twitched at the sides of John's mouth. "Or, do you need me to kiss it to make it better?"

Dave shook his head, and chuckled. "I'll be fine." Then he looked up, into Carter's eyes. "I'm not a bottom, you know. I'm NOT."

John sighed, struggling for the words to explain things to Dave. Whoever had been his first fuck had certainly misled him. Or, considering that this was Dave in front of him, he had probably gleaned these ideas from bad gay porn films.

"Dave, most guys aren't one or the other. They're a little bit of both. I haven't always just let myself get ordered around. Sometimes it's enjoyable, and sometimes I like to be the one giving the orders. And being a top or bottom is more than who is fucking and who is getting fucked. If I ordered you to fuck me, then I would be telling you what to do. You'd be the bottom, taking my orders. Just because I want to fuck you, it doesn't mean I think you're a bottom. I don't. I just want to feel the pleasure that I know your body will give me. And I want you to feel the pleasure of being fucked. It does feel very good." John grinned. "It feels extremely good, as a matter of fact. I don't know what kind of experience you've had with gay sex, but someone has been badly misleading you."

John stood and extended his hand out to Dave. "Let me help you up and then we can just go and relax in the whirlpool. I'll answer any and all questions you have once we're there, okay? And unless you tell me that you want to try it, I won't force anal sex on you."

John waited patiently for Dave to make up his mind.

Dave looked up at the hand. The whirlpool DID sound good, that was half the problem.

"'kay." He took the hand and stood up, pausing for a second when he felt the muscles in his stomach that Adam had punched protesting.

John felt Dave's hand squeeze his as he stood. "The water will help take away the ache, Dave. Come on." Still holding onto Dave's hand, John led him through the house to the pool area.

"Get undressed and into the water," John said. He began to unbutton his shirt, his concern for Dave having overridden his concern over his scars. Then he noticed that Dave was just standing there, staring at the water. Time to take control again, John thought.

He stopped what he was doing and walked over to Dave. "Here, let me take care of this for you." John gently pushed Dave down into a chair, then pulled off his shoes.

"No socks, huh? Were you in a hurry to get away from me?" John joked. He then grabbed the hem of Dave's T-shirt. "Raise your arms," he ordered. When Dave did that, John pulled the shirt up and off of his body. Then he just stared at Dave's muscular chest. He let the shirt drop, not caring where it fell. Then John ran his hands across Dave's chest, running his fingers through the lush matting of dark hair there. John leaned forward and captured a nipple in his mouth, rolling it around with his tongue while a hand followed that dark trail of hair down Dave's belly to where it disappeared under his jeans.

John's other hand went there, too, and he began to unbutton the fly of the jeans. When he reached through to caress Dave's cock through opening of his boxers, he encountered material. Puzzled, John stopped what he was doing to Dave's body to look down and he wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry when he saw that Dave had put his underwear on backwards.

"You really were in a hurry to get away from me, weren't you?" John looked up at Dave, not sure if he would find fear or anger in those brown eyes.

Dave let Carter undress him, relishing the sensations. The cane of the chair through his T-shirt. The sneakers pulled off his feet with a slight pop. The scratchiness off the wicker when he raised his arms. Carter's hands running through his chest-hair, stimulating the ends of the nerves there. Oh God, his nipples being suckled. That was as good here as it had been in the bedroom.

The hands on his half-hard cock through the denim, and then thin cotton. But then the mouth left his nipple, stopped stimulating it.

Dave didn't want to listen to Carter's words. He just wanted to feel. He brought Carter's lips toward his own, his hands trembling with a mixture of anticipation and fear.

Dave let his own tongue lie passive, waiting to see what it was like for his mouth to be invaded like that.

When Dave pulled him toward him, John relaxed a bit, now knowing that Dave wasn't angry or upset with him. And when that mouth was left slightly open for him to enter, John quickly accepted the invitation. He slid his mouth in slowly, but surely, caressing Dave's tongue and the inside of his mouth with it.

John slowly stood, bringing Dave with him. As he brought the other man to his feet, John pushed the jeans and underwear down as far as he could with his hands, then used his foot to push them further down Dave's legs.

John broke off the kiss. "Step out of the pants and get in the water," he said.

Dave obeyed. It gave him an odd feeling to hear Carter ordering him about. The pants were left behind. And he dipped a big toe in. The water swirled around, it was comfortably warm. He stepped in and found a ledge to perch on.

Then watched Carter who was still standing outside. From this angle he could see a little way under the long shirt. Carter's erection had abated from the raging hard-on he'd felt in bed. He looked up a bit doubtfully. "Am I a tease?"

Dave hated teases. Those who weren't interested were fine. And those who were, were great. But the women who climbed all over you, got you hard as a rock and panting for action, then backed off at the last minute, those he despised.

John wasn't sure what Dave meant, then he saw where Dave was looking and he laughed. "No, you're not a tease. I had been in the whirlpool waiting for you, so when I went to look for you I guess I got a little cold. This is supposed to be relaxing for you, so close your eyes and enjoy the water."

Dave did his best to shut his eyes, but he kept opening them to look at Carter. "Aren't you coming in?" He wasn't sure what Carter was waiting for - just standing there.

"Yeah, in a bit. I just wanted to watch you relax." The truth was that his fears about his scars had returned and he wasn't going to take off his shirt or get into the whirlpool while Dave was looking. And then there was still that nagging question on whether or not Dave had been in the room when he was being treated.

"Can I ask you something?" John decided that now was as good a time as any to find out. "Something to do with work."

Dave shrugged. Work was normal and good and a million miles away from here. "Sure." He looked around, wanted something else normal. "Got any beer?"

"There's a small fridge on the other side of the pool. I'll get you one in a minute. Back in February..." John looked up at the clock, not wanting to look at Dave as he asked this. "Who did you work on? Lucy or me?"

Dave sat upright. He hadn't been expecting that question. "Um, Lucy. What's going on?" Carter wasn't facing him, had turned away. Dave stood and began to clamber out of the pool.

John heard Dave getting out of the pool and he started to walk toward the other side of the room. "Nothing's going on. Let me get you that beer. Get back in the water before you catch a chill, okay?"

John wasn't sure which was worse, knowing that Dave hadn't seen his body back then or the fear that he had.

Dave frowned. "Sure. Get one for yourself, too. And then get in here." Dave wasn't sure what was going on. But he was sure that he didn't like being watched from above like that."

"I'll pass. I've already had one beer tonight." John reached the small fridge and opened the door. "Any preferences?" he called out. "There's a little bit of everything in here." He grabbed a Coke for himself and waited for Dave's choice.

"Something I've heard of."

John grabbed a bottle of Amstel, popped the cap off and walked back to the whirlpool.

Dave took one look at the bottle. "This is supposed to be something I KNOW?"

"Just drink it, Dave," John replied.

"Rich kid." Dave took a drink. It actually tasted quite good, not that he'd tell Carter that.

"How's your belly feeling now? Any better?" John sat down on the edge of the whirlpool, waiting for Dave to either close his eyes or become preoccupied with something long enough for him to take off his shirt and slip into the water without Dave seeing his body.

"Okay, I guess." Dave splashed the water beside him. "Come on in." The ache in Dave's belly was okay as long as Dave wasn't actually moving. But he wasn't moving - and wouldn't be unless Carter stayed up there

Knowing he wasn't going to get away with staying on the edge of the whirlpool, John slid down into the water, but safely on the opposite side from Dave. Number one, he didn't want to crowd Dave or rush him. Number two, he was still waiting for a chance to take off his shirt without calling attention to himself. Which would be all but impossible now that he was in the water with it on. John mentally slapped himself for being so stupid as to get in with it on.

"So," John hoped that getting Dave talking would take his attention away from the shirt. "Any questions for me?"

Dave shrugged hopelessly. He didn't know the questions, and if he did he wouldn't have the words to put them in. All he knew was that sometimes he liked fucking men. With Carter close he felt himself getting nervous again. He moved his legs together. Took a brave slug of beer. "What 'm I supposed to ask?"

"I don't know. Forget it. It was a dumb idea anyway. I just thought it would put you at ease if you asked me questions as opposed to me asking you things like if you've ever sucked off a guy or been fucked." John opened the Coke and took a long swallow of it. "So? Have you?"

Dave clamped his legs together tighter, and felt his face turn red. "Which?" That was all he could ask. A desperate play for time.

"Either. Both." John didn't like making Dave feel uncomfortable, but he needed to know just how far Dave had ever gone. And maybe some of what he had fantasized about. "And if not either one, have you ever thought about it?"

Dave shrugged. " Course I've done it." So what if it was only once and he'd hated every second. He wasn't about to admit that. "I'm just a top, that's all."

Ah, so Dave had had a bad experience with one or the other, that much was obvious from his tone of voice and the look in his eyes. "Which one did you try and not like?" John asked. He hated it when men would just use someone and not care about even trying to make it good for the other person.

Dave kept his hand clenched around the bottle of beer, and watched Carter's shirt move around in the water currents. "Doesn't matter. I'm a top."

John scooted around the ledge until he was beside Dave. Even through the hot water he could feel the tension emanating from Dave's body. "It does matter. Dave, just because some asshole did something wrong, that doesn't mean that it will always feel that way. I like to give head and get sucked off. I like getting fucked and I like to fuck. It's about equal with me. I want to make you feel good, Dave, but I can't do that if I don't know what happened to make you feel bad."

"My mouth's bigger than my ass right? Well he just kept on pushing it in...and it didn't fit and I couldn't breathe. And I'm a top. So just leave it." Dave gripped the beer bottle and took another slug, not wanting to look at the man beside him.

"Dave, that guy was a jerk. He shouldn't have pushed it in. But, have you ever lost control, just for a second or two, and pushed your way into someone's mouth?"

Dave turned away, not wanting to hear that. "Yeah well, he said I was crap at it, too. I'm a top." He picked up the wet hem of Carter's shirt playing with it. "Why're you still wearing this?"

John tried to pull away, but Dave had a strong grip on his shirt. "Let go," he said. He grabbed Dave's hands and tried to pry them away. "Come on, Dave, let it go."

What?" It was the first time Carter had touched Dave since he'd entered the pool, and it felt good. Too good. He kept hold of the shirt, and gathered another handful of the wet material for good measure, letting Carter touch his hands and arms trying to get free.

"Dave, stop. Let it go." John couldn't get Dave to let go, so he decided to see if he could pull away. He placed his hands firmly on Dave's chest and pushed hard, knowing he was pushing Dave against the wall of the whirlpool. What he hadn't noticed was that Dave was holding onto the material on just one side of the buttons and not on both sides. And when John pushed away, the buttons gave way under the strain. John watched in horror as they popped into the air and then dropped into the water. And then Dave's hands were grabbing him, his arms attempting to go through the shirt opening. John twisted out of Dave's grip, grabbing at his wrists and lifting them up, pinning them against the edge of the whirlpool. By now he was straddling Dave's lap.