A/N: I know, I know, you guys must absolutely hate me for starting another fanfic when I already have three in the works but I simply couldn't resist when this idea hit me. So here goes nothing for my first exploration into the AU world. I figure it's about time I stopped relying so heavily on what the show has given us to work with. To alleviate some confusion I will tell you that this occurs AFTER the Season 2 finale. So Chuck and Blair had already said their 'I love yous.' I know it starts out a little odd at first and there are a lot of new characters but I assure you that eventually things will begin to make since

Disclaimer: I do not own Gossip Girl or the characters.

Rated: T as always because we all know I like things to get a little smexy and I'm liberal with my word usage.

Annabelle Carmichael-Getty smiled as she looked around her. Her warm brown eyes glowed with wonder at her surroundings. The lights of the New York skyline illuminated her face. Anna had dreamed of this moment for so long that she could hardly believe that she was finally really here. Of course she loved Texas with all her heart, what true Texan didn't? And Houston was the only home she had ever known; but over the past year or so she had been drawn to this place. So drawn that she had worked her ass off for the past two years to get into Columbia University. No matter how hard she had busted ass, she knew that it had been her essay titled, "Doesn't Everyone Want A Chance to Start Over?" that had pushed her over the edge. After all, she had no official social security number, no birth certificate, no clue how old she actually was, no name at all really.

She remembered the introduction of the essay as if she had just written it. "Starting over, that's what everyone wants right? The proverbial clean slate, a do-over, a second chance to get things right. If that is truly the case, then you are reading something written by the luckiest person alive; however, I would argue that clean slates are not quite what everyone imagines them to be." From there she had gone on to tell the story of her life, all two years of it.

A mistake, that was the first thing she heard when waking up in the overly sterile hospital room in Galveston, Texas. The walls were so white that for a moment she thought she was in a mental institution. She remembered feeling totally normal, except for a pounding headache. She heard the voice again proclaiming that she was some sort of mistake. She had noted a southern accent, possibly even detected that it was a Texan in origin. Slowly she had pushed herself to a sitting position, finally drawing the attention of all of the people in the room. A doctor, a nurse, and two distraught looking adults. The adults were dressed to the nines, clearly in possession of some serious money; but they looked as though someone had just told them their dog had died . . . or perhaps their daughter, she remembered thinking at the time.

Anna could remember the doctor's voice as he immediately began drilling her with questions. It had been so in control, so authoritative, but there had been a sense of warmth in it as well. A warmth that was matched in his eyes. She had answered every question without hesitation, months, years, who the President of the United States was, several states and capitals. She had done math that made her eyes roll because it was so easy. Then he had asked the most important question of all, a question that was definitely a deal breaker in the 'is she okay' category. It was a question so simple that any normal, sane person could have answered it; but not her because the doctor had asked her for her name.

She could do things, walk, talk, read, do advanced math. Later she had learned that she could also speak fluent French. Skills resurfaced as she had need for them. She did things without thinking, without knowing where she had learned them and that had all seemed perfectly normal until they had asked her for her name. That's when she went back through all of her thoughts, only to realize that not only did she not know her name, she didn't know when or where she was born. There was not one single memory inside her head, no face that she could identify and say that's my parents or that's my best friend. Nothing was there. As though someone had taken an eraser and wiped it away.

As it turns out, Anna (or for the moment Jane Doe) was one of the survivors of a giant storm. All of the cruise ships, yachts, military vessels, and airplanes in the gulf had gone down. She had been found in the water by a rescue ship, near the location that one of the ships from the Celebrity Cruise Line had been thought to have sunk. She along with one other casualty of the disaster that turned up in the Galveston Hospital, matched the description of a girl named Melanie Carmichael-Getty from Houston, Texas that had been a passagenger on the cruise ship. They both had the same brown eyes, the same chocolate colored hair, and were around the same age and height. Unfortunately, the other girl had not survived her injuries. It had been her parents in the hospital room. These were the same parents that upon loosing their only child had done what they asserted was the Christian thing to do and offered her a place in their household. They had loved her like a daughter and never once had they tried to use her as a replacement for their own daughter. And she loved them. They were the only parents that she had ever known and she had even asked them to name her. As it turned out, her first instinct had been right and the Carmichael-Getty's had plenty of money. Their name, a fusion of two of the oldest wealthiest names in the south.

She had started school at an upper crust public school in Houston as a junior the following fall because they didn't know her age and that would have been where Melanie had started. As it turned out, Anna attracted people, with a certain air of leadership about her; it wasn't long before she had secured a spot in the inner circle of the school, been elected to Student Council, chosen as President of her class, and joined the Cheerleading squad with the rest of her friends. Within months she was dating the quarterback of the football team, throwing the best parties, and overall enjoying life. Her senior year had been the fairy tale that every teen movie had always made it out to be. She had been chosen unanimously as the captain of the cheerleading squad, was voted Homecoming Queen, elected President of the Student Body, Co-President of the school's Philanthropic Society and still a part of the Student Council. She captained the Debate Team to a state victory and in all likelihood would have won Prom Queen as well if she hadn't declined the nomination.

But something had been missing. That's why she had joined so many clubs and worked so hard. She loved her family, friends, and boyfriend but there was a part of her that knew that there was more. There was a part of her that longed for whoever it was that she use to be. For the first time in the past two years, Annabelle knew that she was on the right track. The thought sent shivers down her spine even though it was the middle of Indian summer in New York City. She remembered the closing line of her essay. "I don't know what my life would have been like but one day I do hope to find out. For now however, this is the reality that I live with." It's not that she wasn't grateful; she was more thankful for the life she did have than anyone could believe, 16 or so years of her life was gone.

Suddenly, as though in her subconscious she thought she heard someone shout at her. "B?" The shout was almost a question. She flipped her head around, confused. The only person who ever called her B was her boyfriend Jackson and by now he was in Florida at football camp and besides it wasn't his voice. This voice did cause a certain reaction within her though, almost as if a switch was flipped. Then she thought she heard the mysterious voice yell out 'Blair' or maybe it was Claire, she couldn't be sure. That was odd, she thought to herself, almost a year after the accident someone had run up to her in the Dallas Fort-Worth airport and hugged her, calling her what she thought was the name Claire but she couldn't really discern from the heavy French accent. The girl had exclaimed something about it having been too long since they had seen each other but as soon as Anna had spoken to ask the girl if they knew each other. The girl had shaken her head in astonishment and said. "My mishtake, zsu zar not Laire zaldorv." Anna had been caught off guard, but it hadn't stopped her from using the internet to look up girls named Claire that had gone missing in the past year the moment that she had returned home. A search that had of course come up empty, just like it always did. After a moment, she absentmindedly reached up to flip her hair over her shoulder. The action caused her to blush when she realized that her hair no longer reached that far. Post graduation she had chopped it off and it now fell straight about an inch off her shoulders.

"Annie, where're ya goin'?" She heard from what seemed like faraway. It was then that she realized that she had been wandering down the street without thinking about it. She turned around to see her best friend waving at her from almost a block back the other direction. Samantha Jamison's fiery red hair, a perfect match her impetuous and devilish personality, was being blown about by the warm summer wind as she collected some of the suitcases from the driver of the Hotel Cab that had picked them up at the airport. Anna smiled as she headed back towards the cab and her friends as they stepped from the cab. After Samantha came Carolina Caruthers, or Lina, as she preferred to be called. Lina was as classy as they came, a true Southern Belle through and through. Her family had moved to Houston from Atlanta when she was twelve and her cornflower blue eyes with her white-blonde hair had immediately set her apart from all of the other Texans. She was demure where Sam was crazy and she had the innocent naivety and curves that drove every guy mad. Finally, out stepped Cassandra Ramirez, the last of the Fabulous Four. She was the only Hispanic of their group even thought they were from one of the state's with the heaviest Hispanic population. To say that Cassie was beautiful would be a gross understatement. The girl was model level gorgeous with her ebony hair and chestnut skin and she had a peaceful calm about her; almost an exact balance to Sam's constant energy. Cassie always thought before she spoke, so when she did, people listened.

Just as quickly as her happy bubble had formed at seeing her best friends, it burst with the next person who stepped out of the cab. Diego Gutierrez walked forward with a cocky smile on his face. She had no idea how he had gotten into Columbia. How could they let gang members into an Ivy League School? He walked forward and wrapped an arm around her waist before planting a kiss on her cheek. "Hey CG, thanks for waiting on me."

"Bite me Gutierrez," She said pushing his arm off her shoulder. "And I told you to stop calling me that." She knew that Diego had had a thing for her since the day she walked into their high school. She didn't know why she had managed to attract the attention of a well known, member of the only wealthy gang she had ever heard of that wasn't THE Mob or THE Mafia. She didn't know how they had gotten their money either and she didn't want to. However, she couldn't deny that Diego was handsome. More was expected from her than that. In high school, she was the head cheerleader so of course she dated the quarterback but now he was at the University of Florida playing football and she wasn't sure where that left them. Maybe somethings were simply supposed to end with high school.

"Gladly." Diego said glaring suggestively at her before continuing inside the hotel, calling back "Oh Ana, I'll win your affection eventually." He said it almost jokingly, but somewhere deep inside of him he wanted that girl more than he could stand it. Certainly, more than he should. He didn't have a right to want Bella that way and he knew it. She was a whole different class of human than him. He wasn't even sure of when he had started thinking of her as Bella in his head; it just seemed to fit her so perfectly that now he couldn't stop. There was something about that girl. He knew all about her mysterious past, everyone did, but something else was there as though she was a part of him. Something in him recognized something in her and he vowed that one day he would have her.

The other three girls all hugged her tightly. "It's going to fine, don't pay him any attention Belle." Lina said sweetly.

"Yeah, if he messes with you, you know I'll kick his ass." Sam added, jokingly. She knew full well that if Diego wanted to hurt her he could but he had always left the girls alone so that hadn't been a problem. Diego knew better than to cause trouble at the school he attended in Texas. Any real gang violence and he would have been kicked out, ruining his chances of ever escaping Houston and making it back to New York City.

Anna smiled. "Thanks guys." She loved the fact that she could hear a slight southern accent in her voice now. It had taken it's time developing but sure enough, it was there. She hugged her friends tightly once more. This was sad. It was their last week all together. Cassie was headed to Columbia with her and everyone had come up to stay with them in a hotel for one last week of shenanigans for the Fab Four before they parted ways. Lina was headed off to Yale and Sam to Dartmouth. Both had promised to visit New York often and Cassie and Anna had done the same but they all knew that this was their last big hurrah before everything really changed.

As Lina and Sam grabbed their bags and headed in, Cassie grabbed Anna's hand and squeezed it. They exchanged a secret smile and Cassie whispered. "You made it."

Anna whispered back excitedly, knowing that the other girls just wouldn't understand. "I know so did you."

Cassie smiled brighter. "I promise you Annabelle, if there is something here, a clue anything, we'll find it . . . we're going to figure out who you are."

Anna's eyes sparkled in return. "And I promise you, that I'm going to help you find what you're looking for. If he's here, we'll find him." With that they unclasped hands and walked into the majestic Palace Hotel, their home for the next week.

Chuck slumped against the back of his leather limo seats, leaning his head against the window. He was tired. He had been at the office all day and less than ten minutes after he had finally gotten through traffic and arrived back at the Palace, he had to leave to take care of some emergency at Victorla where a girl was refusing to perform and threatening to walk out. And he had to do all this before going to his night-class at NYU. He hated his life. The moment the thought entered his brain, he had the same realization that he did every other time he had had that particular thought. He wished he had died instead of her. He couldn't do this, not without her. She was the one who had believed in him, the one who had convinced him that he had it in himself to succeed; to be CEO of Bass Enterprises. After he had lost her he had done everything he could to find her and in the meanwhile he had tried to be the guy she had always seen in him. He thought that if he was that guy, if he was good enough for her, he would find her. It had been only a few months ago that she had been pronounced dead. The search had been called off and her name along with thousands of others was added to the memorial in Corpus Christi, Texas. He blamed himself for her death. He had been so determined to take her on a trip on the Bass plane. They had finally decided on Costa Rica. As they were flying over the Gulf of Mexico, the freak storm had hit and their plane had crashed. He had searched the water for her, screaming her name until he was out of energy and passed out on floating debris. They said he had been rescued somewhere near New Orleans. He had done everything possible to find her in the wake of the disaster, but too many were killed and they had no way of tracking anyone. A part of Chuck, the better part, had died the day that they pronounced her dead.

As his limo pulled away from the curb, he saw a flash of chocolate brown hair on the sidewalk. They were stopped at a red light so he rolled down his window and screamed out the window. "B!" He saw the girl turn and something in him sparked as her confused face searched for the voice. It was her, it was really her. He shouted her name this time, determined to get her attention. His heart was leaping and he felt alive for the first time in almost two years. This time the girl's eyebrows furrowed in confusion before she turned back and spotted a wild looking red head waving to her from in front of the Palace. Chuck continued shouting as the limo started driving once more, but the girl didn't turn again. Instead she walked towards a group of young girls in front of the hotel. All the hope inside him collapsed. It had happened before of course, a girl looked so much like her that he had called her name, but always there was the disappointment that followed. This time had felt different though; this time he felt a connection with the girl. Just as soon as he had the thought he pushed it from his mind. This was ridiculous, Serena and Nate were right, he needed to quit hoping that she was going to miraculously return to New York city, she wasn't coming back. Blair Waldorf was dead and had been for a long time.

A/N: Tada, I hope you all enjoyed this. I shouldn't have written it, I already have too much on my plate and I know that but I couldn't seem to study Ethics until I got this out on paper. Of course I would greatly appreciate your opinion on whether or not I should keep this story next chapter will have a much heavier focus on our usual characters but these newbies are going to be around; with the exception of the mentioned Jackson, I just don't see him fitting into the storyline.

Reviews are always appreciated :)

xoxo
kate