Title: If You See Something, Say Something
Pairing(s): Dan/Blair, Nate/Blair, hints of Dan/Serena
Summary: What if Blair had gotten on the helicopter and gone to spend a semester in France after Chuck outted her to Gossip Girl. A changed Blair returns to New York for her senior year at Constance.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, from the Gossip Girl characters, to the songs used as the titles.
He walked into the theater, being told to save a seat. Vanessa was always demanding, so he was used to it. And he did as told. That was par for the course where he was concerned. He knew it. He didn't mind it, because it seemed women were never quite as angry at him as they were with the ones that didn't listen and didn't go where told.
He was about to settle when he saw her, three rows further back, a soda in the armrest holder and a package of gummi bears in her lap. But it couldn't be her. Her hair wasn't confined by a headband. She wasn't wearing her normal preppy attire. And more importantly, no one had heard from her in nearly six months.
Six months was enough for everything to change. He wondered if she knew. He wondered if she cared. Most of all, he wondered what she was doing in Brooklyn. She claimed allergies whenever she was someplace other than the Upper East Side.
He settled into his seat, thinking it better to sit and remain invisible than to incur the wrath of one, Blair Waldorf. She had a tendency of making peoples' lives miserable. Of course, it had been six months since she had disappeared in the wake of a scandal that had torn two sets of best friends apart.
After all Gossip Girl devotees had found out that Blair had lost her virginity to Chuck Bass instead of the princely Nate Archibald, the two were rarely in the same room. And when they were in the same room, everyone kept on their toes, just in case it came to blows again.
Serena had apparently gone to convince Blair that she shouldn't leave, shouldn't try to escape to France, but she was too late and the brunette had departed, even as Serena fairly flew to the helipad. Blair didn't return any letters or phone calls. Serena slid into a rather sorry state, only compounded when Georgina stepped back into her life. Without Blair to pick up the pieces, Serena slid into her former bad girl ways, pushing away everyone in her life except for Chuck Bass. Dan was gone after pictures of Serena giving some lawyer-type surfaced on Gossip Girl.
Nate smoked weed, drank anything above a 90 proof, and started sleeping with older women. 'Women he obviously didn't care about,' Vanessa would point out, still smarting from her short-lived relationship with the golden boy of the Upper East Side.
And Dan, well, Dan retreated to Brooklyn. On the plus side, he was writing again. And he and his best friend were hanging out again. He was contemplating trying his hand at a screenplay, because really, the images in his head needed to be captured in celluloid.
"Hey," Vanessa said, plopping in the seat next to him, handing him a soda. "You look lost in thought."
Dan shot a distracted smile at his best friend. He shook his head. "I'm just trying to decide if they're gonna show a preview for Batman."
Vanessa shook her head, chuckling. "You're such a dork."
Dan stood up after the movie, having forgotten that he might have spied the former queen of the teen scene behind he and Vanessa. As he turned to stretch, his eyes caught with the brown eyes of the could-be Blair and he realized she was, indeed, Blair Waldorf. Her own eyes widened in surprise. He expected displeasure next, but didn't get it.
"Dan," Blair said, making her way down to meet with Dan and Vanessa. She was wearing clothes that looked straight out of the Gap. It was strange, since he was sure she wouldn't have been caught dead in denim shorts and a tank top before she had left New York.
" Blair," he said warily. He glanced over at Vanessa, knowing they probably didn't mesh. "You know Vanessa."
"Yeah, hi again," Blair said, extending her hand to shake Vanessa's. No comments about tetanus shots. Something was different. Something had definitely changed.
"You're back," Dan finally said.
"Yeah," Blair said with a nod. She looked down at her feet, slid into beat up flip-flops. "Could you not tell anyone about that, please?"
"No one knows?" Dan asked. Of course no one knew. She was only in Brooklyn because no one would think to look for her there.
"There's no one I want to know that I'm back," she explained. She looked tranquil. She looked tanned. She looked… a lot like Serena, to be completely honest.
"Alright, my lips are sealed," Dan replied.
Blair flashed Dan a grateful smile before she looked at Vanessa, suspiciously. The other girl raised her hands and shook her head. "I won't say a word."
"Thanks," Blair said. And then she was gone.
"What happened to her?" Vanessa asked in wonder as they watched Blair Waldorf head off.
"I have no idea," Dan said, shaking his head. He had a feeling senior year was going to be very interesting.