He was numb.

That's the only way he knew he was in pain. Unbearable pain.

And that was saying something since he survived being shot only last year.

He wasn't sitting at the bar in his suite drinking his signature scotch, but instead he found himself lying on the wet concrete of a New York street.

When he walked out of the Empire that night and saw her and the oncoming, speeding taxi only feet away from her that she didn't notice he didn't hesitate for a second and ran through the crowd of people to get to her.

It wasn't just her life in danger, but it was also her baby's.

It was a pain that he didn't want her to feel. That she didn't deserve to feel. He wouldn't let her even have the chance to feel that pain. He was sure the pain of losing her own child would be the same pain he felt that night when she came to the Empire to tell him she was pregnant.

He hadn't seen her since that night in May when he let her go so she could have her fairytale she always wanted. She was the last person he expected to walk out of the elevator that night. He didn't know what to feel when he saw her; it felt good to see her, of course, it did, but it still hurt him to see her and the gold ring still on her ring finger.

She had said the last thing he had ever expected to hear: I'm pregnant.

He was hopeful that she was pregnant with his child. It made him feel. This whole summer he didn't feel anything; not one single emotion, but just with those two words she said he felt again. He felt hope.

Then she dropped the bomb that it wasn't his.

Unbearable pain.

He finally reached to grab her out of the way and the last thing he heard was her gasp before he felt the pain and fell to the ground.

He felt the raindrops from above as they dropped from the sky and landed on his face – his cheeks, his lips, and his eyebrows – as he vaguely heard the whispers of people around him.

Out of all the voices he could focus on he couldn't hear hers. But he knew she was safe and that's what mattered to him.

Despite the people whispering around his body he was alone.

Just like in Prague.

He knew he was dying and he was alone.

Then he felt it. The familiar, dainty hand that he held onto and kissed so many times move to hold his left cheek.

He wanted to move his hand to rest atop of hers, but he couldn't. He tried to open his mouth to say something – anything – but he couldn't.

She could see him attempting to talk to her and she saw the look of pain on his face from just doing that.

"Chuck," She said and he could hear just from her voice that she was crying. "Don't say anything. The ambulance is on its way. Everything is going to be okay. You're going to be okay. No, you're going to be more okay, you and I will more be than okay, and you and our family is going to be more than okay,"

He found himself in the middle of a grassy field. He could hear birds chirping, he heard laughing, and he felt the heat that was coming from the sun's rays.

He had no idea where he was and while he heard laughing in the background he doesn't see anyone. He figures if he walks around this mysterious piece of land maybe, just maybe, there will be someone who can tell him where he is.

He continues to walk while he tries his best to follow the laughing that seems to be non-stop. He had been walking for a while when he reached a tall, clear blue waterfall when he finally sees someone.

The woman was facing away from him. She stood there barefoot and dressed in a white summer dress with her long brown hair curled.

The woman must have sensed he was there because she turned her head slightly over her left shoulder.

Blair.

He started to walk towards her and in the next moment he found himself instantly standing in front of her, "Blair?"

"Chuck," She smiled and brought her hand up to caress his face. "I missed you,"

"Where are we?" He wondered.

"It doesn't matter. We don't have much time," She warned him.

"Time for what? What's going on?" He asked quickly. He needed to know what exactly was going on and why they were here.

She didn't give him an answer to any of his questions, she only put her finger to his lips to silence him. "Shh,"

She removed her fingers from his lips and replaced them with her own. Their kiss was gentle as if they were getting reacquainted with each other.

"I found you!" A little boy yelled as he ran towards them from where he was hiding behind the tree.

"Who's that?" Chuck wondered after he pulled his lips away from hers.

"Who do you think he is?" She asked, smiling as she looked to Chuck before she looked at the little boy who was now requesting to be lifted up into Blair's arms.

Chuck looked at the boy as he settled in her arms. He had dark brown curly hair on top of his head that matched with his chocolate brown eyes and he could clearly see the distinctive jaw structure he had that almost matched his own. And if that wasn't enough to convince him who the little boy was the light green bow tie that had blue polka dots sure did.

"He's our son," He said as he turned to look into her eyes.

"Mommy, Daddy! Were you two kissing again? Yuck!" The little boy exclaimed as his face made a disgusted expression.

Without waiting for a reply from either adult he started to squirm in Blair's arms to let her know he wanted to get down. Once he was free he walked over to Chuck and tapped him on his leg.

"Daddy, tag you're it. You have to try and catch me," And with that he ran off to get his head start.

"You better get your son before he gets too much of a lead,"

"Come with me?" He wondered as he outstretched his hand towards her.

"Always," She replied and held on tightly to his hand.

As they ran to catch up with their son Chuck felt the unbearable pain again. He tried to ignore it at first, but the pain was increasing by the seconds and before he knew it he collapsed to his knees.

The vision of Blair and the green field in front of him was starting to fade to black. He could still feel her presence but it was slowly disappearing. He now knew what she meant when she told him they didn't have much time.

"Chuck, you need to listen to me," She rushed. "This is the reason we're here; I need to tell you that you need to wake up. Wake up for your son. Wake up for me. Wake up for your family,"

Five hours and thirty-seven minutes.

That was how long she had been sitting in the chair next to his bed after the doctors and nurses brought him into his own private room after his surgery.

She had been tightly holding his hand the whole time. At first she was scared to even touch him, scared that she wouldn't feel a warm body, scared that he wouldn't move, but she quickly got over her fear. She needed to hold his hands.

He was still here and that's what mattered.

Tonight was one of the worst nights of her life. She was supposed to go to the Empire to talk to Chuck. She was supposed to tell him the truth, that he was the father of her – their – baby. Then they were supposed to talk about what they were going to do and tell everyone.

The part of her that felt nervous over telling him the truth felt relieved, since technically she did tell him about their baby, but now that feeling had returned and it was now increased a billion times.

This was a life or death situation. Literally.

The walls felt like they were closing in on her, but she wasn't going to leave. She had to stay and wait for Chuck to wake up and she had to be the first person he saw when his eyes would finally open.

She heard the vibrations of her phone throughout the last hour but she ignored them. Whoever was calling and texting her wasn't as important as the person in front of her who still hadn't moved an inch.

It was probably just Louis and she definitely didn't feel like dealing with him right now.

In her own way she did love him, but not the way she loved Chuck. The love she had for them was different and not at all similar.

She knew she could tell Chuck anything, everything, and her honest to God thoughts and with Louis she felt like she could only say certain things around him and act a certain way.

With Louis she felt like she was always being told what to do and she wasn't fond of that. Blair Waldorf liked to do what she wanted to do, not what others told her to do.

There were always certain rules she had to follow since she was engaged to a Grimaldi and Blair's philosophy was that rules were sometimes meant to be broken.

Rules wouldn't exist if they weren't meant to be broken.

She felt like she was a different person when she was with Louis and she didn't necessarily like it. She wondered how she didn't realize this sooner and she was just now coming to this conclusion.

As she looked down to Chuck she knew they always shared the same thoughts and they were always on the same wavelength and because of that she knew without a doubt that she belonged with him.

She heard the doorknob squeak when it was turned, but she didn't face the door. She continued looking at Chuck as she waited for him to wake up.

"Blair? What are you doing here?" She heard his French accent immediately.

Speak of the devil and he doth appear.

"What are you doing here?" She asked as she continued to stare at Chuck.

He didn't say anything and she continued, "Let's skip to the part where we pretend you're actually civil with Chuck and that you're actually here to make sure he is okay,"

"Let's skip to the part where we pretend that I don't know what's really going on," Louis demanded.

"You tell me. What is really going on? Because you were the only one who knew I was going to the Empire even when you told me not to. Are you going to tell me it was a pure coincidence that the moment I was standing across from the Empire that a speeding taxi came out of nowhere and hit Chuck?"

He denied nothing and looked down to his feet.

The hairs on her neck stood up as goose bumps started to form on her body. The realization that he would do something like this shocked her.

"You did this? This is your fault he's here!" She yelled at him as she turned towards him.

"I found the envelope with the paternity test," He said after a few moments of silence.

"Then you know the truth and there's no reason for you to stay here,"

"Let me explain," He begged.

"No. You don't need to explain anything. You knew that Chuck was the father of this baby and you hired someone to run him over and possibly have him killed leaving this child without a father. How could you do something like that?"

"You're my fiancé. I was protecting us,"

"Was. I was your fiancé. We both knew this wasn't going to work out,"

"Bla-,"

"No, we're done," She said and for the first time in five hours she stood up from the chair. She walked over to Louis and handed him her engagement ring back.

"You do know you're making a big mistake, don't you?" He questioned.

"I know I made a mistake, but it's not because of what I just did. My mistake was letting this engagement go for so long and thinking I wanted this so-called fairytale. I don't need a prince to have the fairytale I dreamt about wanting since I was a little girl. I just need someone who loves me like Chuck does. I already had my fairytale this whole time. It just took me a while to truly see it,"

"I only wish you would have figured this out sooner," He said as he clenched his hand around the gold ring.

"As do I," She said before she looked back at Chuck. She turned back around, "Goodbye Louis,"

"The first memory I thought of when I found out I was pregnant was that night I told you I would always be your family," Blair said to a still unconscious Chuck.

Only an hour had passed since see bid adieu to her now ex-fiancé, but it felt more like an eternity to her.

Nurses and doctors entered the room to check the numbers on the machines that Chuck was connected to. Some nurses tried to persuade her to go down to the café, but she didn't budge.

Blair just sat there and held onto his hand. One particular nurse saw how distraught she looked and suggested that she talk to him, which was what she was doing now.

"I meant it when I said that and I mean it even more now. I hope you won't hate me when I tell you this is your baby. I know what I did is wrong and you'll be disappointed, but please don't hate me,"

"I don't know what I would do if I lost you," She continued tearfully as she thought about the horrible possibilities of him actually dying or him being so upset with her he would never talk to her again. "I need you to wake up. I can't do this without you,"

"You're my Bass, you're our Bass," She said as she finally broke down into a fit of tears. She hadn't cried since the doctors brought him out of surgery, but everything was becoming too much. She couldn't keep the tears from falling any longer.

She leaned her head down onto his hand and cried her worries out. Her sobs were just diminishing when she felt a movement.

She stayed still and didn't move a muscle as she waited for another movement. There was none and she decided that her mind was just playing tricks on her.

She didn't imagine what happened next.

"Blair," Chuck whispered hoarsely after a few minutes passed since when she thought she felt Chuck move.

"You're awake," She said softly as she lifted her head up to look at him. She smiled and a lone tear rolled down her cheek when she saw that his brown chocolate eyes were finally open.

"What happened?" He asked her as he tried to move but cursed out in pain.

"Don't move," She cautioned him as she stood up to place a hand to his cheek as she caressed it.

"What happened?" He asked again when the pain ceased.

"You got hit by a taxi last night,"

He didn't say anything and she stayed silent with him as he processed the news she just gave him.

She barely heard him when he started talking, "I remember seeing you across the street at the same moment I saw the speeding taxi coming for you,"

"You pulled me out of the way, but the taxi was going too fast and when I turned to look behind me you were already on the ground," Blair said next.

"I couldn't feel anything, but I knew you were okay. I couldn't let you get hurt, especially when I could have done something to prevent it,"

"But now you're laying in this bed in the most pain I've ever seen you in because the taxi was coming for me,"

"Better me than you," He told her simply.

"Thank you," She told him gratefully as she continued to caress his one cheek.

"For what?"

"You risked your life for me," She told him as if it was the most obvious thing in the world for what she was thanking him for.

"Not only for you," He argued and Blair felt her heart flutter. He had no idea that the baby inside her stomach was his and yet he was willing to throw himself in front of a speeding car just to save the baby.

"No, it was for our family," She responded after a moment of nothing but silence hovered over them.

"What?"

"The baby; it's yours," She confessed and she felt the weight on her heart and shoulders lessen. She did what she had to do and now all she could do was wait for his reaction.

"You lied to me," He accused her and when she hesitantly looked into his eyes she saw just how hurt he was.

"I know and you have no idea how bad I feel because of what I did. That's why I was on my way to the Empire last tonight, I was going to tell you everything,"

"You would have risked losing your fairytale if you would have done that,"

"You deserved to know. It was wrong of me to even lie to you in the first place,"

"You don't know how much hope I had when you came over to the Empire that night," He told her and she knew exactly what night he was talking about.

"Finding out you were pregnant was the first thing that made me feel any type of emotion that whole summer," He recalled. He felt nothing when he crashed his motorcycle in California and he still didn't feel anything when he hired those guys to fight him in the alley once he returned to New York.

"I'm sorry," She broke down. "I'm so sorry,"

"I love you," He proclaimed once he heard her sobs soften.

"What?" She asked in pure shock. This wasn't what she was expecting to hear from him; she was expecting a lot of anger and hurt.

"I can't stay upset with you, Blair. You're giving me the family I always wanted. The family I always wanted with you," He told her as he forgave her for not telling him the truth right away. What mattered to him was that he knew now, before it was too late and that he was definitely going to be an important part of his child's life.

"I love you, too," She told him genuinely. She then hovered over him as she moved his hands to her growing stomach as they looked into each other's eyes.

Later she would tell him that she broke off her engagement.

Later they would talk about what they were going to tell their families.

Later they would find their own penthouse for their little family.

Later he would ask her to marry him and ask her to spend the rest of his life with him.

And later they would get married at her father's chateau with only their families in attendance before they welcomed Brendan Charles Bass in the world.

But all that mattered right now was that they were right where they belonged.

With each other.

fin.