This is a (very) short collection of missing limo moments that I put together in honor of Limoversary. Inspired by the prompt: one word, three letters. As always, I own nothing.
FRY (noun): recently hatched or juvenile fish
(Source: Merriam-Webster dictionary)
One word, three letters: ILL
Blair was so excited she could barely contain her excitement. Her husband had been out of town for business the past three days and she wasn't expecting him home until tomorrow evening. So, she was more than happy to receive a call from him 10 minutes earlier in which he surprised her by saying he was home and that he would pick her up outside the atelier soon. Blair quickly finished what she was working on, grabbed her coat, and went to wait outside.
As the limo pulled up to the curb, an ecstatic Blair didn't even wait for Arthur to come and open the door for her. She immediately slid across the back seat and into the arms of her equally anxious husband. However, their physical reunion was short-lived as Blair quickly pulled back from Chuck's arms.
"Oh my God," Blair gagged, covering her mouth with her hand as she retreated.
"What's wrong?" Chuck asked, very concerned about his wife. He instantly moved to her side.
Almost immediately, Blair started gagging again and she pushed Chuck away.
"You smell like an ashtray and it's making me nauseous," complained Blair. She had been on Chuck to quit smoking ever since they were married over a year ago. She was under the impression that he had cut down but the evidence before her right now suggested the contrary.
"Blair, I swear I only had one cigarette while I was waiting for Arthur to load my bags into the limo," defended Chuck. Then he added, "And I was outside."
"Well, you're going to need to shower and change when we get home because I can't be near you when you smell like that."
Chuck was fairly certain that the cigarette odor on him was not that strong, but he was not about to argue with Blair right now. Not when it was obvious that she wasn't feeling well. This was not the homecoming he was expecting.
"Fine," sighed Chuck. He then informed Arthur not to take the long way home as originally planned, but instead to bring them straight back to their townhouse.
Needless to say, the shower didn't help at all. When Chuck exited the bathroom and joined Blair on the bed, his wife had an instantaneous reaction to the scent of his shampoo and vomited in the trashcan next to the bed. Now Chuck was even more worried about his wife's health, but Blair just dismissed him insisting it must be something she ate.
Still, what Blair couldn't explain her heightened sense of smell…
One word, three letters: RUB
Both Chuck and Blair waited until they were safely inside the privacy of the back of the limo before they showed any emotion. Ever since Bart's untimely death and their spontaneous marriage fifteen months earlier, the press followed them everywhere. Not that they had anything to hide, but some things were just personal. Besides, these were still early days.
When the limo finally left it's spot at the curb, Blair reached across and clenched Chuck's leg. On instinct, he wrapped his arm around her, bringing her even closer to place a soft, loving kiss at her temple. Then, he gently placed his other hand on Blair's stomach and started rubbing it with a slow, circular motion.
Blair closed her eyes to enjoy the soothing feeling, as the reality of their situation began to really sink in. She tried with all her might to hold back the tears, but she couldn't. Now it was real. This wasn't simply two pink lines on a stick that she could dismiss as a false positive. Both she and Chuck saw the amazing image of their baby on the monitor, even if he or she was only a tiny round ball. They both heard the beautiful sound of their baby's heartbeat and they couldn't take their eyes away as their baby's rapid heartbeat was visualized on screen. Blair was consumed with love in that moment, for her husband, for her baby, but she couldn't help the feeling of fear that crept into her mind.
"Blair," Chuck asked softly as he wiped her tears from her face. "What's wrong? I thought you were happy about this?"
"Oh, I am," she reassured him as she leaned in to kiss his lips. And she wasn't lying. She was really, really happy about the two of them starting to build their family. Even if it was earlier than they planned.
"Then what is it?"
"I'm scared," Blair confessed. "What if something goes wrong? This baby is entirely dependent on me."
"Blair," now it was Chuck's turn to reassure Blair as he continued to rub circles on his wife's nonexistent bump. "You heard the doctor. Everything looks great. You and the baby are doing perfectly fine."
"I know," sniffed Blair as she shook her head up and down in agreement. Then she finally whispered, "But that's what they said last time."
Chuck knew that there was nothing he could say in that moment to ease Blair's fear. They had discussed this before and he had tried to assure her that the accident was not her fault. There was nothing she could have done to save her baby. It was not her fault. It was just not meant to be. So instead of using words, he simply enveloped Blair in his arms and cradled her for the rest of the ride home, making sure that she knew he loved her and their unborn baby more than anything in the world.
One word, three letters: SEX
Blair and Chuck had previously made the joint decision that they didn't want to learn the sex of their baby until the birth. They both knew that regardless of whether the baby was a boy or a girl, they were going to love this child with all their hearts. And so would everyone else. They knew that whether this child was a boy or a girl, that he or she was going to be spoiled rotten and they were fine with that. But the real reason was that Blair was adamant that they should not tempt fate. So together they decided to keep the sex of the baby a secret.
Given their steadfast resolution to not know the sex of their baby, it was hard to explain why Chuck and Blair were sitting in the back of the limo staring at the ultrasound picture debating if their baby was a boy or a girl.
"She is definitely a girl," declared a glowing Chuck as he continued to stare at the picture in Blair's hands. He could already imagine his daughter being the spitting image of his wife, right down to her gorgeous dark curls being held back by a headband.
"No, this baby is a boy," argued Blair as she touched her small, but now visible bump. She was convinced the baby was a boy and couldn't wait to see how much he would resemble her husband. "I mean, look at this picture. Our baby has three legs!"
"What can I say, he's a Bass," Chuck joked. He then quickly raised his hands to protect himself from his wife's blow.
"Chuck!" she screeched but she relented as she realized what he said. "But at least you agree with me now and acknowledge that our baby is a boy."
"No, no, no. I did no such thing!"
"Yes you did. I heard you with my own ears," Blair gloated, as the grin she was sporting got even larger. "There is no denying that we are having a baby boy Bass in twenty weeks."
"I disagree," Chuck responded snidely, and then he got an idea that he knew Blair would never be able to refuse. "But if you are so certain that our baby is going to be a boy, then you won't mind a little wager."
"I'm listening," she answered cautiously and she couldn't ignore the rush of excitement flush over her.
"If you're right, and our baby is indeed a boy, then you can have the privilege of naming him," and Chuck could already see Blair's eyes brighten in anticipation. For weeks, they had argued about names for their unborn child and they could never agree. Blair dismissed all the names Chuck recommended, and he was adamant a Bass would never have any of the names she suggested. They were at a standstill.
Chuck then took great pleasure in bursting Blair's happy bubble by continuing, "However, if our baby is a girl, then I will have the great honor of bestowing our child with the name she will have for her entire life." And just as he expected, Blair's face immediately deflated when hearing the other half of the wager.
"So, what do you say?" Chuck teased. "Do we have a deal?"
Chuck held his hand out to Blair and waited to see if she would accept his conditions. But he knew deep down there was no way she would refuse his challenge. After all, they still loved the game.
Blair then extended her hand and stated, "Deal."
One word, three letters: NOW
Chuck carefully guided a heavily pregnant Blair towards the limo and into the back seat. They had just finished brunch at Lily's place, which went much longer than they anticipated because Eleanor and Cyrus joined them. The extremely excited grandparents-to-be flew in from Paris two days earlier, a week before Blair's actual due date, to make sure they would be in NYC when Baby Bass was born. Both Lily and Eleanor couldn't stop dolling out advice for the future parents, and Cyrus kept putting food on Blair's plate and saying, "Not enough!"
Once Arthur closed the door behind them, Blair turned to Chuck and said, "I need you to call Dr. Black. And we may need to tell Arthur to bring us to the hospital instead of the townhouse."
"Now?!" a puzzled and increasingly frantic Chuck asked while trying to remember how to use his phone.
"Yes NOW!" Blair bit out as she put her hand behind her back to ease the pain that had just erupted. She looked at her phone to keep track of the time.
Chuck dropped his phone and was instantly at Blair's side, trying to help his wife through the contraction.
"How long have you been having contractions?"
"They started around six this morning," Blair replied softly as the contraction subsided and she began to relax.
"Blair!" an anxious Chuck grumbled. "You should have told me."
"I thought this might be another false alarm, so I didn't want to say anything until I knew for sure."
"Are you sure?"
Chuck's question immediately made Blair smile as she thought back to that fateful night, almost seven years earlier.
"Yes, I'm sure."
One word, three letters: BOY
Arthur drove the limo into the underground garage of the hospital, away from the prying eyes of reporters, and parked it right in front of his employers. He jumped out of his seat and opened the door to the backseat for the new parents and their brand new edition.
Blair was seated in a wheelchair as she reluctantly released her hold on their baby to Chuck so that he could place the child in the carseat. Once that all-important task was completed, he returned to Blair's side and helped her into the backseat of the limo. Arthur simply stood by and watched as THE Chuck Bass, a boy he has known since the days of his reckless youth, behaved like a man and took care of his family.
Moments later, the Bass family - all three of them - were on their way home.
"He's absolutely perfect, isn't he Chuck?" a beaming Blair commented as she leaned into her husband's side, never taking her eyes off her son.
"Of course he is – he's half Waldorf and half Bass," Chuck joked before turning more serious. "I still can't believe he's ours."
"I know," Blair agreed with a huge smile on her face. "I feel like I've been living in a dream for the past 48 hours."
"I will never forget Dr. Black's voice when she said, 'It's a boy!'" Chuck then leaned forward to adjust the blanket covering his sleeping son, and he gently grazed the baby's head with his fingertips.
The sight of Chuck with Henry filled Blair with so much happiness. Just a few years earlier, she never would have imagined this would be her life. But here she was, bringing her beautiful, healthy baby boy home from the hospital with her loving husband by her side. Perfection.
"I love you Chuck," Blair whispered as she enjoyed the moment.
Chuck turned to his wife, kissed her lips, and murmured, "I love you too, Blair." After glancing at Henry and then Blair, he quickly added, "Thank you."
Throughout their lives together, three more 'three letter' words would become part of their everyday language. That would be MOM, DAD, and SON. And its crazy to think it all started years ago in the backseat of a limousine.
FIN
A/N: Happy Limoversary everyone!
