Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. They belong to Cecily von Zeigesar and The CW.
"You okay by yourself for a few minutes?" Nate inquired as he watched his best friend fumble with his bowtie.
"I don't need a babysitter, Nathaniel," his nervous friend responded, glaring devilishly at him.
"Funny, I though you've had more than your share," he quipped. Chuck began to laugh at his best friend's successful attempt at humor. Nate shook his head as he stood back to stare at Chuck, the man who was about to get married. He was the picture of calmness, other than the aggravated grimace at the fact that he couldn't get his bowtie straight.
"Go give Blair the necklace already," Chuck instructed as he undid his tie for the eighth time and gave it another go, "And I want a full report on how she looks when you return."
"Whatever, Man," Nate responded as he grabbed the box he had been entrusted with earlier that morning and left the groom's dressing room.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Nate, now is not the best time," Serena cut him off as he was about to enter Blair's dressing room.
"Why?" Nate inquired, "Is she still getting dressed?"
"No," Serena responded, "She's been dressed for about fifteen minutes."
"Then what is it?" Nate pressed. Chuck was going to kill him if he didn't give Blair the necklace before the wedding.
"She just realized that she forgot her Erikson Beamon necklace in the safe of Chuck's penthouse. She is flipping out because there isn't time for anyone to go get it before the start of the wedding," Blair explained. Nate could hear the rant that Blair was presently on from the other side of the closed door. He felt for whoever was on the other end of her tirade.
"I think I'll be able to assist," Nate realized as he patted the box in his hands.
"Unless that's the Erikson Beamon necklace, I doubt it, but you're welcome to try," Serena responded as she opened the door to allow Nate to enter. "I'm going to go check on Chuck to make sure that he isn't having trouble with his tie. Blair seems to think he might struggle today. I don't know how she could think such a thing. He could tie a perfect bowtie before he could tie his shoelaces."
Nate tentatively entered Blair's dressing room. She was on her cell phone screaming at someone on the other end about how they were ruining her wedding day. She looked to be on the verge of tears.
"Blair," Nate spoke softly.
"Nate," Blair responded as she flipped her phone closed, "You have to tell Chuck that we need to postpone the wedding. I cannot get married without that necklace."
"I'm not going to tell the man who is so crazy in love with you that you can't get married because you forgot some ridiculous fashion accessory," Nate chuckled.
"Ridiculous fashion accessory!" Blair exclaimed, "That necklace plays a very important role in my very complicated history with Chuck! You of all people should know that."
"Wasn't that the necklace that I was supposed to buy you?" Nate tried to recall.
"Beside the point," she snapped. He was right of course. She had the store set it aside so that Nate could purchase it for her seventeenth birthday, but it was Chuck that came through that evening. It had been that day that she realized that he would always come through for her when it mattered the most.
"Blair, calm down," Nate insisted as he urged her to take a deep breath, "Chuck doesn't care about what you'll be wearing around your neck. He wants to marry you, not your fashion accessories."
"At least ask him if we can delay the service by an hour," Blair insisted, "Someone has got to be able to get to the penthouse and back in that amount of time."
"Without the safe combination?" Nate asked. Nobody knew the combination to the safe other than Chuck. He wouldn't give the information up to anyone, not even Blair. He certainly wasn't going to give the information up today no matter how important the necklace was to Blair.
"This whole day is ruined," Blair stated as she began to tear up. Thankfully she had on waterproof mascara and eyeliner, or she'd have raccoon eyes for her wedding photographs that were to be taken after the ceremony.
"Chuck sent me on a mission," Nate stated, suddenly remembering why he was there.
Blair looked at him expectantly. "You can't take a photo of me with your phone to show Chuck."
"Not that kind of mission," Nate clarified as he held out the box for her. She studied it curiously. At first she had hoped that Chuck had miraculously remembered the necklace and Nate was just trying to get a rise out of her, but the box was not familiar.
Blair accepted the box and pried it open slowly. She gasped at the jewels that began to sparkle inside. The Harry Winston sunflower diamond necklace!
"How did he know?" she gasped as tears spilled over from her eyes.
"Know what?" Nate asked in confusion.
"God, I must have been seventeen when I saw this necklace," she began as she stroking the necklace delicately. A memory suddenly hit her. "It was just after Chuck and I slept together for the first time."
"Spare me the details of that adventure," Nate groaned as he rolled his eyes.
"I was setting aside gifts for you to buy me at the jewelry store like I always did for my birthday. This necklace caught my eye. Naturally it was the most expensive thing in the store as it was over a hundred thousand dollars. I knew you'd never be able to afford it, so I had the saleslady put it back and selected the Erikson Beamon necklace instead," Blair explained as she continued to stare in awe at the necklace, "The day after my birthday party I went back to the store just to admire the necklace again, but the saleslady told me that she sold it the previous day."
"And Chuck just happens to buy a necklace that looks exactly like it," Nate responded skeptically.
"It would be impossible. It was a one of a kind," Blair responded, ". . . Unless he's the one who originally bought it."
"That would mean that he would have bought it seven or eight years ago," Nate scoffed, "You two weren't even together yet. You'd only had that one night together."
"He was in the store. He was the one that bought me the Erikson Beamon necklace after all," Blair theorized as she wiped another stray tear that had fallen.
"So, you're trying to tell me that he bought you a necklace which was worth over a hundred thousand dollars, along with the much less expensive Erikson Beamon necklace. He gave you one for your birthday, and held the other on the off chance that one day he would be able to give it to you on your wedding day," Nate summarized, "Do you realize how crazy that sounds?"
"Crazy enough to be something Chuck would do," she added as she lifted an eyebrow curiously, "How else do you explain him having in his possession the one of a kind necklace that I had admired eight years ago."
"He could have easily given it to you at any other moment," Nate scoffed, still refusing to buy into her story. "You two give each other gifts for any occasion that you can think of, anniversaries, birthdays, legal holidays, even Groundhog Day for crying out loud."
"Never anything this extravagant," Blair responded as she finally picked it up, began putting it around her neck, "Would you mind helping me with the clasp?"
"Sure," he responded as he stepped forward to take the necklace from her. He fumbled a few times with the clasp before he successfully put it on.
"Thanks," she responded as she admired how well it fit with her gown. She had designed her wedding dress around the Erikson Beamon necklace, but this seemed to be fit the dress better than she could have imagined.
"It was always him, wasn't it," Nate realized as he stepped away.
"What do you mean?" she asked as she scrunched her nose in confusion.
"Part of me always thought that it would be you and I walking down the aisle today. Even after the six years you've spent with Chuck," Nate began, "But it was never meant to be. You fit with him so much better."
"He's my other half," she replied, "You and I reigned the school as prom king and queen, but that was kid stuff . . . high school stuff. What Chuck and I have is so much more than that. We balance each other out. We push each other to be better than we are."
"If I hadn't messed things up like I did, do you think we would have ended up here together?" he inquired.
"No," Blair responded definitively, "We would have figured out a way to screw things up one way or another."
"But I would have been your first," he insisted.
"Maybe," she agreed, "You definitely were the second, but that's not what holds Chuck and I together. There is so much more to life than that. There is so much more to Chuck and I than that."
"And if I asked you right now to run away with me and get married?" he pressed.
"I'd slap you silly and demand that Chuck find a new best man," she stated forcefully before a smile was coaxed from her lips as a single tear fell down her cheek, "Let me go, Nate. Let us go. I belong with Chuck. He has my heart."
"I know," he nodded as he took a deep breath, "And you have his. That's the way it's supposed to be."
"She's out there, Nate," Blair assured him, "Your perfect match . . . but it's not me. It never was."
"I hope you're right," Nate responded as he took another deep breath, fighting with himself to not shed the tears he felt forming.
"We'll help you look," Blair chuckled, "Chuck still loves to look, and he has excellent taste."
"Obviously," he responded sincerely as he took several steps back to finally take it the full effect of her in her dress, "You look breathtaking. Chuck is the luckiest man. I'll make sure to remind him of that every chance I get."
Blair nodded as she reached out to hug him. He melted into her arms, allowing himself to imagine for one moment that she was his and that this day was theirs before he stepped away.
"I'd better go check on Chuck," Nate responded as he motioned towards the door, "He was fighting with his tie when I left him."
"He's out of practice," she responded as she shook her head in knowing amusement, "I should have made him practice before the ceremony."
"Make him happy," Nate demanded.
"Nate, tell him that I love him," she requested as he turned to leave.
"Not that he needs to be reminded of it, but I will," he agreed, "And know that he loves you too."
She nodded as he left.
He went for a short walk to gather his emotions before he returned the Chuck. He wasn't going to ruin Chuck's big day, but he had to wrap his head around the fact that today was the day that he had to let Blair Waldorf go. They were happy. For Blair and Chuck, Nate let her go.