Everything is not always what it seems. Fair warning read this all the way to the end- you will see why.

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old

Show me a garden that's bursting into life

Let's waste time
Chasing cars
Around our heads

-Snow Patrol

He saw stars. Bright, but dark. It made him want to look away. They looked cracked to him now. Time moved painfully slow. His days were filled with loveless promises and scripted vows repeated as if he was a broken film. Things had not always been like that though. At one time things were an utter frenzy. When he first met her time had been like a whirl wind and she had literally swept him off his feet. She caught his eye. He chased her. He got her. He married her. But now all he felt was utter nostalgia. He supposed it was the curls. She had the same curls as her. Sleek, effortless, and beautiful. Maybe that is what made him fall for her. A broken attempt to move on that had everything.

His wife was beautiful he supposed. She had green eyes with flecks of gold and long red curls. She was tall with long legs that made other girls stare with envy. Everyone told him she was a knockout. He had agreed with them once, but in the back of his mind he had been skeptical. But then again he had always fancied brunettes. When he looked at her now he felt nothing. That was a lie he supposed, he felt comfort and safety. He felt loved. Their love was simple. Their love was patient and kind. It was not hard. He looked at himself in the mirror. Age had agreed with him. He looked down at his suit and felt the tie adorning his neck. His wife preferred ties. She had preferred bow ties. He felt the ghost of a smirk cross his face. He supposed he loved his wife. She suited him. But then again that was just it she suited him. There was a faded edge of a forlorn spark, but there were never flames. There was never fire. Nor would there ever be.

She had left on a Tuesday. It had been raining. It was right after a wedding. A wedding that he had planned as an olive branch to her. She had left him just like all the others. But then again he supposed he had left her first.

He had met his wife in a bar. He was sitting in a velvet chair nursing a long, broken love. He felt like the marionette had cut his strings. He just needed to escape. She came up to him wearing black. He had laughed bitterly and thought of mourning. He was mourning a lost love, maybe she was to. And then he saw her hair. It was long, red and when it shined in the light of the bar he saw the same curls he had once spent hours trying to memorize. He saw her curls. He had blinked and felt the fog leave his eyes as she sat down. She ordered a gin tonic and threw her hair over her shoulder and looked at him and asked him if he was nursing a broken heart. He told her he was. She laughed bitterly and said maybe I can help you with that. He saw something in her. He supposed it was the curls. Six months later they were married in a shower of gold. Part of him wished it had been another wedding. With her.

He spent a lot of his time thinking. Thinking and drinking. Often at the same time. He thought of her a lot. He wondered what she was doing, if she was happy, if she was still in Paris, if she was married. He wanted to ask Serena, but he was scared of the answer. His fantasies of her were better. He knew the reality would kill him. He wondered if it was normal to spend time thinking about a love from when he was twenty. Part of him knew it was wrong. Part of him wanted to stop. But mostly he didn't. The fantasies were all he had left of what could have been. And he thought that maybe that was what hurt the most…what could have been.

He saw it. Every time he closed his eyes he could picture it. They would be the King and Queen of the Upper East Side. They would be indestructible and perfect. They would have two kids. Audrey and Henry. Henry and Audrey. Audrey. The name even sounded like a fantasy. A time of change, of completion, of utter decadence. Henry. The name even sounded like redemption. A new beginning. A new time. A new era. And Henry would be a true prince. The prince and princess of their hearts. And the king and queen of each other's.

He sometimes wondered why he was with his wife. Then again he supposed it was easier than being alone. She had been there with him at his worst and yet she was still here. She had asked him once who the woman was that broke his heart when they had met. He looked at her and laughed and said I would have said anything to talk to you even lie about a broken love. If it had been her she would have seen through it. She would have seen the truth. But she was gone. It had been five years ago and it still felt like yesterday he had watched her walk away, taking his heart with her in the process.

His wife's name was Vivian. She knew what she wanted and when she wanted something she got it. She saw what she was getting when she married him. She saw the title. She saw the namesake. She saw the value. On some days when he looked at her he saw empty eyes mirroring his own. He felt like he was pushed up against a wall with no way up or down. He was trapped in a pit of his own making. He knew one thing though. She would never leave him. She needed him too much. He was her way in and she would never give that up. Not for anything.

It was still dark on his way to work. He looked around the darkened limo. It looked exactly the same. Like nothing had changed. Of course that wasn't true everything had changed. He remembered the first time he had kissed her. It was like fire and ice. Heaven and hell. Desperation and truth. That was the night everything had changed.

When he walked inside his office his assistant immediately walked and began to read him his daily itinerary. He was barely listening until he heard her say something about meeting with the new assistants.

He looked at her perplexingly and said, "Why do I need to talk to the assistants? I am Chuck Bass, the CEO of Bass industries. I do not have time for some silly assistants aspiring dreams."

His assistant immediately started to backtrack and pleadingly said, "Mr. Bass I understand that, it's just the board really thinks it is in your best interest to meet with the potential future of Bass Industries-"

He held up his hand in protest and rolled his eyes when he said, "Fine I will spare ten minutes no more and no less."

She looked relieved and enthusiastically nodded her head and began to continue reading off the rest of his schedule. He sighed and ignored her as he drummed his fingers in the fine mahogany of his desk until she left. He then began to fill out some pointless paperwork until the meeting with assistants.

He walked in the room, his eyes flashing, and his power literally radiating off him in waves. He looked around the room and smirked in satisfaction at the looks of identical fear on each of their faces. Before he could say anything the door opened and his eyes flashed over ready to reprimand the person who dare show up later than him. And then he saw her and his heart stopped. Her appearance was undeniable. She had the skin of angels and the complexion of new snow. Her lips were a blood red. Tainted with the bitterness of unsealed innocence. Her hair was an arrangement of perfect curls topped with her signature headband.

She flicked her hair over to one shoulder and her eyes widened as she saw him standing in the center of the room. She had not been anticipating that. The tension in the room began to build. It was as if a rope had found its tether once more. But everyone in the room was unaware of it. All they saw was a married man looking at a beautiful woman like he had seen the light. A chill went up his back. Her lip quivered.

Her eyes met his in an explosion of light as she said, "Bass it has been a long time."

He was expressionless as he retorted, "Well Waldorf you were the one who made the rules I only played the game."

It always was the broken hearts that fall the hardest.

A/N

I have no idea where that came from. I really don't. But if I do continue it, things are going to get extremely intense. So review if you liked it if you didn't, pretty much whatever. Also, unless I get response I will probably not make this a mutlichapter and will just end up making it a one-shot with some slight alterations. Xoxo Kat

Also, the part about Audrey and Henry I wrote in a random collection of sentences I have about C&B and others that I thought worked here. It was actually me favorite part of this chapter.

Anyways review!