The Way We Were

Author's Note: This fourth season of Gossip Girl really has me in pieces; the Chair I've grown to know and love is getting destroyed. I will never lose my faith in them as endgame but I don't see how that can happen any time in the future after all that's happened. With another six weeks until new episodes I've decided to add to the Chair saga in my own way, by writing it the way I see fit.

My other stories have gone back in time to fix events that I didn't like. With this one, I'm moving seven years into the future because I think Blair and Chuck both need time to grow up and find themselves on their own. If they do that and still feel the way they do when they find each other again, they will know that they are meant to be together.

I hope you enjoy and really look forward to your comments!

Disclaimer: I do not own Gossip Girl, or Ed Westwick – sigh.

XOXO

"Vivian," Blair yelled to her assistant as she gathered what she needed from her office, "I needed that file two minutes ago."

Her flight to New York was leaving in two hours and she was stressed to begin with. Blair Waldorf hadn't stepped foot in Manhattan since she left to study at the London School of Economics her junior year of college, seven years ago.

When Chuck and Serena walked in on her kiss with Dan, they overreacted and did everything they could to sabotage their exes. Dan and Blair ignored their attempts to harm their character but the one time they attempted to retaliate, Chuck and Serena resorted to low blows that further destroyed relations between them. Nate and Eric did their best to run interference but nothing would stop the warpath the stepsiblings were on.

If only they gave them time to explain, Dan and Blair could have let them know that kiss meant nothing and showed them what they were really longing for. They wanted what they once shared with Serena and Chuck, not with each other. They became real friends after that and spoke to each other every weekend since Blair made her move across the pond.

The opportunity to study in London was exactly what Blair needed after the spring she had in New York. The change of scenery would be good for her and family breeding still meant something to the British. She left New York and never looked back.

Her new classmates were impressed with her heritage and she had no problem adjusting to the London scene. After her year of study in England, she decided to stay and transfer to the LSE, completing her law degree.

As graduation approached, she had multiple firms vying for her. Blair chose the firm that was based solely in Europe; she was in no mood to revisit her old stomping ground any time in the future.

Through her hard work and tenacity, Blair was able to move from clerk to associate in four years. She worked 90-hour workweeks, traveled three days a week, and not a day went by that she didn't think about Chuck Bass.

When the partners announced their acquisition of a New York firm, she was chosen to represent the London office during the transition because of her ties to the city. She was to be the go-to person in Manhattan for at least a month while the transfer of staff and operations was completed. While she wasn't thrilled about going home, she couldn't help but be excited at the possibilities.

If everything were successful under her watch, she would be on the fast track to partner for sure. Then there was the possibility of seeing Chuck again. No man was able to make her feel the way he did and if the opportunity to be with him arose, she wasn't about to let it pass her by.

"Thank you," Blair told her assistant as she grabbed the missing file and stuffed the file into her briefbag. "My car better be there when I walk out that door."

Vivian scurried to her desk to make sure the car was outside, the wrath of Blair Waldorf was the last thing she needed upon her boss's return.

XOXO

Dan and Nate met her jet at Teterboro airport. Blair couldn't deny it; it felt good to look upon the Manhattan skyline once again. No matter how much she loved London, no city would ever feel the same as the one she grew up in.

She spotted Nate and Dan waiting for her and couldn't help but smile as she rushed towards them. Those two held her together when everything with Chuck came to a violent head all those years ago and she would forever be grateful to them. A girl couldn't ask for two better friends.

"Welcome back, stranger," Nate said with a smile as he pulled her to him for a hug. "I've missed you."

"Missed me," Blair asked amusedly as she pulled back to hug Dan. "You saw me a few months ago when you visited me in London."

"You know Nate," Dan told her as he kissed the side of her head and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, "Out of sight, out of mind for that one."

"Hey," Nate pouted as he put his arm around the other side of her shoulders, "You're never far from my mind. How does it feel to be back?"

"Ask me in a week," Blair said as she got into the limo, "Do you two have time for a drink with me at my hotel?"

"We'd love to," Dan said.

"No place else we'd rather be," Nate added as they all laughed.

XOXO

Chuck Bass knew that Blair was gone for good when she didn't come back to the city that first year for Christmas. He knew how much she looked forward to the tree lighting in Rockefeller Center, walking down Fifth to comment on all the window displays, and ice-skating in the Park.

His reaction when he walked in on her kiss with Humphrey was uncalled for and he saw that now. She took it all in stride though; every blow he threw she avoided it. And when she left with no way for him to contact her, he spiraled out of control. Nate, along with Eric and Lily, had to stage an intervention for him to make him see that his drinking and womanizing wouldn't bring Blair back.

Chuck hurled himself into Bass Industries and concentrated his energies there. The more he tried to forget about her, the more he missed her. He longed for the comfort a relationship brought him but none of the women he dated could measure up to the one that got away. Blair Waldorf ruined him for anyone else.

As much as he missed her and kept tabs on her, he wanted her to be happy. If he learned anything from their years together and apart, it was that nothing could repair the feeling of loss that never went away from destroying the only good thing he had in his life.

When he got word that the only woman he ever loved would be back in Manhattan, he made sure that he would be able to get her alone. What he wasn't expecting was how good she would look, how much she had changed, and how much he was still drawn to her.

Chuck knew what time her flight was arriving and waited in the hotel bar knowing that she would want a drink before she retired for the night. He waited for Humphrey and Nate to leave before he made his move.

"Guess who?" he drawled in her ear as his hands covered her eyes and he stood behind her at the bar.

Please review if you'd like me to continue.

If you do want to see more, would you like to see this story bumped up to M. Let me know =)