Disclaimer: I own nothing, except my own creations.
It was a scene that had been seen several times before: Chuck Bass sat lounging back with his phone to his ear as he did business his way.
And yet this scene was slightly different.
'Lookie here,' came the blustery voice of the overweight, middle-aged man on the other end of the line. 'If you think I'm going to take orders from a boy that has yet to reach 21 years of age, you've got another thing coming.'
Chuck bounced his knees as he responded, his voice regulated and calm, with an underlying threatening tone. 'I think you'll find yourself changing your mind when you hear what I have on you.'
There was silence on the other end of the line. Chuck smirked, his knees still bouncing as he waited for an answer. He was more than happy for the silence to continue until the man on the other end spoke.
Finally. 'What have you got?'
'Remember a certain night some years ago?' asked Chuck conversationally. 'Oh, the seventeenth day of June, 2010 if I recall correctly. Busy that evening much?'
He heard the other man swear. 'You bastard.'
'Now is there really a reason to talk that way?' admonished the billionare. Giving the other man no time to answer, he continued to speak. 'I can see that you will be making arrangements to have that piece in my warehouse.' He put an end to any and all responses when he slowly and carefully eased into an upright position. 'And I want it there by tomorrow afternoon.'
'Just who do you think you are?' came the last hurrah.
The young man's tone didn't change as he looked at his nails with a bored air and gave an answer that explained it all. 'I'm Chuck Bass.'
The conversation was terminated as he promptly followed this declaration by pressing the button to end the call. The phone was thrown negligently to the side bouncing twice on a couch cushion as Chuck Bass took advantage of two free hands.
Gripping the underarms of the small form bouncing between his knees, he deftly lifted the child and spun her to face him.
Arliss Audrey Bass laughed out loud as she flew up into the air.
The arrogance and standoffish expressions still reigned supreme on Chuck Bass' face, but they had been softened since the arrival of his daughter ten months earlier. Such an event had been neither planned nor sought for himself or his child's mother, but now that it happened, they would not have it any other way.
Eyeing the plain thick band on his left finger as he settled his baby girl on his lap, he mused that marriage had been another fortituous consequence of this unexpected event.
It had been somewhat of a struggle and a long hard fight with Blair Waldorf for her to get her head around the fact that denying she was with child would not mean that she was going to cease growing bigger.
For all that she was an ostrich with her head buried in the sand, anyone that dared make any mention that she may even just possibly, maybe, be pregnant had not met a happy ending. The unfortunate new girl who had mentioned Blair's sudden weight gain had suffered an unfortunate social death. He heard that Australia was nice this time of the year.
Nothing he or Serena told her - when they could get anywhere near her that was - could make her see the obvious: Blair Waldorf was, simply put, knocked up.
By Chuck Bass no less.
The defiant fiery woman had only come back to reality when every single phone in the Upper East Side had beeped, chirped and vibrated one sunny afternoon three months after the discovery of what Blair had maintained was 'non-news'.
"Spotted: Looks like the Royal Court will be expanding by one. Anything you want to share with us B? And just who is your King?"
As the rumour mill went into overdrive, Blair had risen from her seat, white as a sheet, and turned to him. 'This is all your fault,' she'd said in a deadly calm voice before she took careful measured steps and left the room.
Thankfully her mood and disposition toward him had improved – somewhat – and they had managed to weather the worst of the scandals together. That didn't mean that they didn't fight - how boring would their life and relationship be then? - but he'd swiftly found that make up sex really was the best type.
Especially make up sex with the love of his life - mother of his child - Blair Waldorf, now Bass.
Balancing the baby on his upper thighs, he eyed the grinning child. His little creation was all Blair - apart from those dark brooding eyes he knew were his. There was no awkwardness or uncomfortableness as he placed a kiss to his daughter's soft brown hair as the baby giggled.
He'd seen enough high powered families (hell, he'd been in one himself) produce offspring that didn't know their parents, even hated their parents, raised by nannies.
Not this time.
He knew that public opinion and sentiment were against them – Destined to Fail! had been one headline – but he knew just as certainly that he had one thing to offer: an actual desire to be around his child and guide her upbringing.
'That and we Bass's stick together hmm?' said Chuck softly pressing gently knocking his nose against Arliss'.
'Bass!' came the call, determined and sure when they parted, small hands clasping his cheeks.
Chuck's mouth dropped. He liked to think that very little surprised him, but this most certainly had.
His daughter had just said her first word!
Scooping up the grinning babe into his arms, he flew up from his seat. Ignoring the ringing phone, he took the stairs two steps at a time.
Wait until Blair heard this!