Prologue

Dan Humphrey looked at the final chapter of his series. He re-read it for what might have been the hundredth time. It might have seemed as obsessive; but he just wanted it to be perfect. The other parts of his series had created a ruckus in his life, well technically in the lives of his so called "friends". However, today they all hated him, but for all he cared. As he saw it, he was merely being professional. Yes this was the same Dan Humphrey who until recently cared about all these people, so much so that he even fought with his childhood best friend Vanessa over them. Vanessa was probably right about these people; they would never let him in. It had always been about them and their world, and would always be. Some things just never change. But that didn't make Vanessa any less of a bitch.

He stopped caring for all these people the day Serena tricked him into making a sex-tape and Blair Waldorf left him for Chuck Bass, yea that's right he thought, Chuck Bass. The mere thought of it revolted him. In a way it was good he thought; it made him a different person. Anyone who knew Dan Humphrey few years ago would never believe that this was the same guy, the one who cared about everyone around him, the loving, thoughtful and caring guy.

He leaned back in his chair, so that he could see himself in the mirror, he wanted to check out his wound. Making a mental note of Nate's strength, he noticed that the wound had swollen up a bit now. He always knew that it would end like this, he had it planned, well he most certainly did not imagine the punch and least of all from Nate, if anything he would have thought that either Blair or Chuck would get physical. But they didn't. He then looked at the other set of papers on his desk. He had received them a couple of days ago, and that day, after what seemed like an eternity but in reality was only a few days he felt ecstatic. But when it hit him that he had no one to share it with other than Georgina, he came crashing back to the bitch that's called reality. The only one he wanted to share it with then was his little sister Jenny, but she had her examinations, and if he had told her the news then she most certainly would get so excited and stop studying. So he waited until after her examinations, and true to his guess she was excited, with Jenny's reaction excited would be an understatement.

"Dan! That's amazing", said Jenny Humphrey when her brother told her that he had been accepted for an English Honors Programmme at Oxford.

That meant he would join her and Eric in London. After being banished by Blair, Jenny lived with her mother till she finished school, and was now in London doing a course on fine arts and Eric was studying Economics and Management.

"Wow! This is so exciting, I can't wait to see you…and Wait till I tell Eric this, and he'd be delighted." said Jenny not making any effort to control her emotions.

Dan thought for a moment, about what Jenny said and wondered if it would be ok if Eric knew, of course Eric was the only one on the UES who was never mean to him, but he was still them.

"We can show you around and-Dan? Are you there?" Jenny, who was blabbing away, realized something was wrong.

"No Jenny I was just thinking-"

Jenny who realized what the problem was asked, "you don't want me to tell him yet, do you?"

"No, it's ok, you can tell him, but ask him not to discuss it with the others" he said emphasizing on the word others, "besides Dad probably needs to know about this before anyone else in spite of what he's currently doing, or rather should I say who he's doing", spat Dan, he still couldn't erase the image of his father, the ideal man in bed with Ivy Dickens, the con artist.

Jenny let out a sigh of exasperation, "Oh Dan would you let it go already, he seems happy so let him be, and after all he's been through with mom, me, Lily and lately even you, he deserves to be happy"

"But it's Ivy! You have no idea what a conniving bitch she can be "exclaimed Dan.

"Seriously Dan, you think I of all the people wouldn't know what a conniving bitch is? I've had enough experience Dan; now I can tell a bitch when I see one."

Dan let out a snort, it was true, he hadn't realized how mature his rebellious, evil younger sister had suddenly become, and though he hated Blair for banishing her, he couldn't have been more happier of what she was today, and he was glad that Jenny was away from the UES, who knows what they would have done to her.

As he saw his date approach him, he told her goodbye and promised to tell Rufus when he could.

Finally the time had come, he was going to tell Rufus about his admission into Oxford. He went out of his room to see Rufus sitting at the counter in the dining room, with a coffee mug in one hand and was turning the pages of what seemed like a photo album, he stopped at one particular page and looked at it in a longing manner. As he moved forward he got a clear view of the photo, it was taken on the day of the wedding of Rufus and the love of his life –Lily, Lily VanderWoodsen, Lily Bass, you could call her whatever you wanted, but the truth still remained that she had dumped Rufus. The photo had the newlyweds, Dan, Jenny and Scott in it, pretty much all the people that meant the world to Rufus.

"Dad", he called out.

Rufus jerked back in surprise which made him spill coffee over the counter, luckily the album remained unaffected.

"Are you in the middle of something?" Dan asked, "I have something to tell you."

"No, I was just- what was it that you wanted to tell me, another expose is it?' he asked trying to make a joke.

"No", smiled Dan, "I got accepted for an English Honors programmme at Oxford", then he added "It's a scholarship"

"That's incredible son", said Rufus getting on to his feet and hugging Dan. He was happy for him, and though his children almost always made him proud, he had never been as proud of Dan as he was now. He was proud of both his kids for getting into one of the world's best colleges. Though he himself had been unlucky in almost everything in life including his career and love life, he was happy that the life of his kids was shaping up. Though he feared that Dan was becoming cynical and would probably never believe in human relations again, somewhere deep down he knew he'd find his way.

"I have to leave in two weeks", said Dan pulling out of the long embrace his father had pulled him into.

"Two weeks? How long has it been since you got the letter?"

"More than a month ", he said sheepishly, he was hoping it wouldn't come up, but it did.

"Oh!" said Rufus trying to hide the pain; he realized that it was probably because of him and Ivy that Dan didn't want to tell him the news. "Look Dan I'm sorry for what happened, I really am, I was a fool and should have listened to you".

"It's ok Dad and I guess I'm sorry to for that piece in the Spectator and also for all the things I said to you when I came to collect my stuff.

"Well apology accepted! Now that both of us have apologized and forgiven each other what do you say about a little celebration?"

"Hells to the yes!"

"So how about we get some popcorn, pizza, beer and a movie? You go get the Pizza and I'll go bring a DVD and make some popcorn and we meet here again in say 20 minutes"

"Sounds like a plan!"

Dan picked up his wallet and the keys and headed to get the pizza. While Rufus tried to pick a DVD from his collection, when he stumbled upon a small piece of paper, it looked like the writing of a 6 year old, Rufus instantly recognized it as Dan's. It was a poem he had written for Rufus and talked about Rufus being the best Dad in the world, it had brought tears to his eyes, though Allison was upset that he didn't write anything about her. To keep his mother's heart Dan wrote a poem for her, after some consideration he wrote one for Jenny as well. Though she couldn't really understand it that well at her age, what if she started crying for one too , better safe than sorry, Dan had told Rufus. He had recently learnt phrase and liked it, so he tried using it. Rufus was proud of Dan, at the age of 6 his boy had the vocabulary of what most teenagers didn't have. Dan was smart and loving, he loved his family and hated to see them sad, he had always been like that, like it was his duty to protect all of them. That's exactly why Rufus was shocked when Dan said all those hurtful things to him when he came to collect his stuff.

"Dan? What are you doing in here? " asked Rufus when he walked into his son looking for something in what was previously his room.

"Oh Nothing, I just came here to get some more of my stuff, I'd forgotten it the last time. I'll be out of here in a while, so you can do whatever you want to do then" he said with a straight face.

"Look Dan, you need to understand-"

"It's ok Dad, I don't want to and I definitely don't think that I need to understand anything. I get it, it's your life and you can do what you want to"

"Dan this is not about me, it's about you and what you've become. This is not you, you are not the calculating, back stabbing, cold blooded guy that you have become, you're better than this, We Humphrey men are the giving type, we love deeply and we forgive people and we are defiantly not the scheming type. You and I both-"

"You know what Dad enough of all that crap, we-you and I are most positively not the same, at least I know I don't want to be like you someone who gets walked over by everyone, I've had enough of being the good guy and I most certainly don't want to be a like you-a Loser!",Dan cursed himself for having said that aloud, but emotion got the better of him and he couldn't possibly take the words back even if wanted to. His guilt increased when he saw the look on his father's face, it was blank, like he had been stabbed. He knew he was being dramatic but he swore it looked like the look on Julius Caesar's face when his loyal friend Brutus stabbed him.

"I think I need to go now", he said, walking out and cursing himself again for the choice of words the second time. Why didn't 'sorry' come out of his mouth at that time? Though he wasn't pleased with his father at present, he never meant to say what he did. In spite of everything, Dan loved Rufus, infact it was because of that love and respect for him, that he felt betrayed when he saw him with Ivy. He wished things could go back to normal; Rufus was the only one around who he could call family, but now even that seemed to have been destroyed. But now what was done was done, he couldn't do anything about it.

Rufus stood still where he was, motionless, it hadn't completely sunk in yet, that his very own son would call him a loser. The son that he had brought up, the one that shared his blood, the one that he had loved all his life more than anything in the world, the one that he had given up his career for, the one who shared everything with him, the one that he still loved and will still love in spite of anything. Damn these ties and bonds, he thought.

Rufus was brought back to reality when the he heard a sound in the kitchen. That must be the popcorn he thought, and picked up a DVD, it seemed perfect for this little family reunion.

As he filled the bowl with popcorn and pulled out beer out of the fridge, Rufus thought about Dan, about how he had changed. Rufus knew that though Dan would never accept it, he essentially was the same guy who thought it was his duty to protect the people he loved. Dan would probably say that he didn't love anyone anymore, other than Jenny and Rufus, but that was not true. This very afternoon Mrs. Kerr, the old neighbor, told him that when Dan coming over to invite him for Thanksgiving, she'd fainted while returning from some grocery shopping and, it was Dan who carried her back, got her some water to drink and food to eat and he even offered to cook for her, and invited her over for Thanksgiving dinner that he was hosting with Serena. Rufus knew that time was the best and probably the only medicine to get the old Dan back, well that and probably a nice wonderful girl away from the UES. Thank god he was moving to London. His stream of thoughts was broken by Dan, who came in with a pizza.

"I brought pepperoni with extra cheese"

"Sound delicious, so we get started?" asked Rufus.

"Yup", said Dan, "YOU selected this movie?" he asked looking at the DVD of The Pursuit of Happyness, "looks like someone's in the mood for some melodrama"

"Uh-hu"

"Hey Dad, I know I've done this before but I wanted to say something"

Rufus looked up from his beer to look at his son, like he was waiting for something.

"I'm sorry for all those things I said to you and I apologize from the bottom of my heart, again"

"That's alright son, is that all?"

"No actually I was wondering, would you be alright all alone? I mean once I leave for London, we won't see each other for days"

Rufus laughed, "Yes Dan, I'll be fine, thanks for asking though"

"Anytime Dad, But I was thinking that maybe you could fly down with me and stay there for the holidays. We could surprise Jenny"

"Sounds good Dan, yea I'd like that"

Rufus smiled, his faith in lif was restored. His son would be ok, and now he felt more confident than ever.