Safe and Sound

AN: Hey guys! It's been forever since my last GG story, I know…but I've been planning on doing a story during the (short) break, and the mid season finale's cliffhanger provides an interesting start to one. The episode was absolutely heartbreaking, but it was really well-written and good. Anyways, this story picks up right at the end of 5x10. It's going to (most of the time) alternate between chapters about everyone but Chuck from multiple points of view and chapters just from the point of view of Chuck. It will make more sense when you get to his first POV chapter.

This will be from multiple points of view (I like that format best) but it will be in second person (some people have mentioned that they prefer that).

Without further ado, here's the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own Gossip Girl.

Chapter 1-Okay

Spotted: Lily, Rufus, D, S, and N rushing to a hospital in New York after a paparazzi-caused car crash caused our favorite star-crossed lovers to check in. But before you go pointing fingers, remember that I don't cause the problems in your lives, I just write about them. Guess it's no coincidence that trauma rhymes with drama.

Xoxo,

Gossip Girl

Nate

Some people say that something traumatic has happens, everything around them becomes a blur. When they look back on it, they can hardly remember anything at all. All they have to deal with is the end result.

But Nate could remember every moment in painful detail. He could remember the driver pulling over, he could remember running from the car and surveying the scene, all while the paparazzi scattered. He had wanted to chase after them, wanted to show them the damage they had done, just for a good story, but he had restrained himself. Still, he thought, he was a journalist too, but he would never have had his staff chase after a car like that. His mind spinning, Nate had turned back to the car. He hesitated for a moment, but just a moment, before stepping closer and looking inside. He felt as if this wasn't this life, that these weren't his friends. This car was just another one shown in a video in health class about the dangers of drinking and driving. This wasn't the limo holding two of his best friends.

But it was, and Nate wasn't going to stand by when people he loved needed him. Hoping that he would see Chuck and Blair shaken but unharmed, he had grasped the handle of the car door and pulled it open.

And if there was any part that was the least blurry in Nate's memory, it was the sight in front of him at that moment.

He had stayed with them after calling the police, although he wasn't sure they knew he was there. He had been terrified of moving them and causing them further harm, so he had knelt in the backseat of the ruined care and said whatever comforting thing he could think of. Blair had drifted in and out of consciousness, mumbling incoherently and once lifting a trembling hand to her stomach. But she hadn't said a word, or acknowledged Nate at all. Still, Nate had smoothed her hair back from her bloodstained face and told her it was all going to be alright. But her hand on her stomach had reminded Nate of something he didn't even want to think about, yet the thought had come to him anyways. Blair was fragile enough, and she had been badly injured; what would happen to the even more fragile baby?

While Blair stirred and mumbled, Chuck didn't move a muscle, which scared Nate more. Chuck would have scoffed if someone had called him fragile, yet the crash seemed to have broken him as easily as it had the hood of the car. Nate felt another wave of anger at the sick people who had chased his friends and caused the crash. Anger was better than fear. Anger gave him strength. Strength led him to finally reach one shaking hand over to take the pulses of Chuck and Blair.

Alive. But just barely.

When the ambulance had come, he had watched Chuck, Blair, and their driver carried away on stretchers, Blair's hand falling from her stomach. Struggling to compose himself, he had started to walk back to the car and, realizing what he had to do, had taken out his phone. Because no matter how much he didn't want to think of how he would tell Lily, Serena, and Dan about Blair and Chuck, it was better than thinking of what would happen if the EMTs couldn't save Chuck and Blair, so he had taken a deep breath and waited as the phone rang.

Standing in front of Lily and trying to wipe away these all too clear memories , Nate realized how much he hated waiting. Waiting for Lily to arrive, waiting for Serena and Dan to arrive, waiting to hear new of how Chuck and Blair were doing….it was more than he could stand. And Lily's update only made things worse.

"But he's alive?" Serena asked Lily urgently, who was still at a loss of words. "Mom!"

Silently, Lily nodded. "But I don't know….how much longer…." She managed to say, before allowing Rufus to lead her to a chair.

Serena grabbed Nate's arms, taking shaky breaths. "Chuck can't…" she started, but she couldn't continue. "He won't…"

"Of course not," Nate said, but he was lying.

"Promise me, Nate….promise me he won't…" she said, clutching his coat.

Her desperate eyes searched Nate's, looking for more reassurance, but he found he couldn't give her any. He opened his mouth to respond, but the words wouldn't come out. He had said countless reassuring things to Chuck and Blair, and where had that gotten them? He wasn't going to make a promise he couldn't keep.

"It's not up to me, Serena," Nate said softly.

"Then who is it up to?" Serena demanded, her eyes wild. "Who, Nate?"

Once again, Nate had no response. He could only stare at Serena. "I…"

"What about the baby?" Dan finally spoke up from behind them. "She didn't say…."

Serena blinked, then released Nate. She walked up to Dan. "There's no way it survived," she whispered after a moment. "If Chuck doesn't…..there's no way the baby could have…" Her eyes filled with tears, and Dan wrapped his arms around her.

"Shh…it's going to be okay," Dan said, feeding Serena the lies Nate could no longer find the strength to supply. But she knew it was a lie. No matter how desperately she needed it to be the truth, no matter how much she pretended that it was, she knew it was a lie. They all did. That's the funny thing about telling someone that everything it going to be alright…because no one ever knows when it is.

Watching them, Nate wondered if there might be something going on with Dan and Serena again. But after reading Dan's book, the whole thing this time, he thought that Dan may have feelings for Blair instead. But hadn't he been the one to bring Chuck and Blair together? Had he, then, been the one to cause the crash? Or had it been gossip girl's blast, like Serena had said? Or the paparazzi? Or was it just fate, chasing down Chuck and Blair like paparazzi on motorcycles until it could finally destroy them and their love?

In the end, there was really no one to blame. Whatever had caused this terrible accident, it had happened, and all they could do was wait and then wait some more, hoping and praying that the lie of everything being alright might actually come true this time.

"We have to call Louis," Serena said as she and Dan pulled away. "He needs to know. She may have chosen Chuck, but that's his baby, and he loves Blair. I already have six missed calls from him."

"You're right," Dan said, seeming glad that Serena had been the one to suggest it and not him. "Why don't you call Louis while I ask if I can go see Blair? Lily said that she's awake."

Dan started to walk away, but Serena grabbed his arm and held him back. "She's my best friend," she said fiercely, regaining some of her strength. "I'll go see her. You call Louis."

Dan looked like he wanted to argue, but after a moment he sighed and put his hands up in defeat. "Fine, I'll call Louis. But Serena, be careful not to upset Blair. Try not to mention Chuck…"

Serena's lip trembled and she looked like a little girl again, the same one who had cried when Blair had pushed her off of her swing for sitting with Nate at lunch.

"Maybe you should take your own advice," Nate said to Dan as Serena walked away. "He could die, Dan. And he's like a brother to us." Dan turned to glare at Nate, but he saw that Nate looked sad too. Dan nodded, and Nate turned to walk away.

"Nate!" Dan called after him, and Nate turned around. Dan suddenly looked uncomfortable. "Nate, uh…I understand more than you think. I care too, you know. Chuck and I haven't always gotten along in the past, but I wouldn't want…." Dan shifted his weight and shrugged. "I don't want anything bad to happen to him either," he finished awkwardly.

Nate paused for a moment, then nodded. "I know," he said, walking back over to Dan and clapping him on the shoulder. "None of us do."

And with that, he turned back around, with Dan following him over to the couches. Nate couldn't help thinking, though, that it didn't matter how many people didn't want anything bad to happen to Chuck. It wasn't enough that Dan cared about Chuck too. It wasn't enough that they all did. Because just like no one could prevent the crash, Nate wasn't sure anyone or anything could prevent Chuck's story from ending even more abruptly and tragically than Charlie Trout's.

Serena

Serena hadn't expected it to be so easy to be able to see Blair. She had walked up to the doctors and demanded to see her, ready to use the Van der Woodsen name, money, and charm to her advantage. But they hadn't refused; they had explained Blair's injuries and cautioned Serena to not upset her, and then led her to her room.

Blair was lying in bed, her face as white as the sheets on the hospital bed. She glanced over to Serena as she came in, and Serena saw that she was crying.

"Serena," she said in a strangled voice. "Serena, please…."

"Blair!" Serena cried, and rushed over to her best friend. "I was so worried about you. We all were. I'm so glad you're okay."

But she was not, of course, okay. She was shaking with repressed sobs, and her eyes were as pleading and desperate and Serena's had been minutes before.

"Where is he, S?" she asked desperately. "Why won't they tell me anything?"

"B, calm down," Serena said soothingly, noticing as she examined Blair's face and injuries that saying she was okay was about as far from the truth as she could get. "The doctors said that you should take it easy. Your body is still recovering from the crash. You should be resting, or eating, or sleeping."

"How can I rest when he could be fighting for his life? How can I eat when he may not be able to? How can I close my eyes when his may never open? How can I live when he could be dead?" Blair cried, grabbing Serena's arm. "How, S?"

Serena struggled for words. "I don't know, Blair," she said finally.

"Just tell me one thing," Blair said through tears. "Is he alive?"

Serena paused. "Barely…It's not looking good," she said sadly, repeating what the doctors had told her when she had asked about Chuck on the way to Blair's room.

Blair fell back against her pillows and closed her eyes in pain.

"At least he was happy," Serena said quickly. "In those last moments, he was happy. He was with you-"

"He's dying. He's in pain, and he's dying. How can he be happy right now? Would you be happy, if you had just gotten all you had ever wanted and then lost it in the most painful way imaginable? Would you?"

Serena sighed, then shook her head. "No, I guess you're right. But Blair, isn't it better than dying alone, than having the ending he was always afraid of?"

Blair looked away. "You're acting like he's already dead," she said quietly. "And he's not."

"B, he lost a lot of blood," Serena said quietly. "You have to understand that. I don't want you to get your hopes up."

"Hope is all I have left, Serena. You want to know all they would tell me? They told me they're monitoring the baby. That's all they would tell me. That they're monitoring it. What if I lose them…and it's all my fault?"

"Don't say that," Serena said gently. "None of this is anyone's fault."

"Is it?" Blair asked. "I went against fate, Serena. I made a mistake. I was supposed to be with Louis, the father of this child. But I didn't. And now I'm getting punished." She paused, and looked at Serena. "Why were they chosen? Why couldn't it have been me?"

"B…" Serena said, and brought her friend into a hug. All she knew to do was to whisper the same lie that had been told to her. The same lie that she was willing to bet thousands of people had said in this hospital to family members before. The lie that she had told herself, a hundred times that day, and the same lie she would tell a hundred times more.

"Shhh," she said. "It's going to be okay."

AN: Please review and tell me what you think!