Gossip Girl

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Gossip Girl here, your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite.

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THROW AWAY THE KEY?

Hey Upper East Siders my spies on the streets have given me so much gossip that I'm just dying to share with you. If any of you were excited about a certain blossoming romance then sorry to break the bad news but looks as if the Royal Romance has soured, why else are B and Louis half way around the world from one another? And as for Bass he's behind bars awaiting trial for conspiracy to commit blackmail while his accomplice E is out on bail – looks as if when Lily let her chicks out of the nest she didn't realize they'd become jailbirds. And where are S & N in their friends time of need? They've taken up S & M – you read that right Upper East Siders, smooching on the Champs Elysees and making love at the Louvre – while B's marital bliss breaks down and Chuck's behind bars their BFFs are in Paris enjoying a gorgeous getaway before school starts – then again since when were those two ever reliable friends in the first place?

You know you love me,

Xoxo Gossip Girl

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"Dorota," Blair yelled at the top of her lungs, "where is my Salmon? I told you I was craving salmon!" Blair stormed back through to her bedroom and dramatically flopped onto her bed, letting out a long, exasperated sigh – she might only be four months pregnant but as mother wasn't she entitled to take things easy? All Dorota had to do were the easy tasks – she had gone through pregnancy too, didn't she understand how difficult it was: especially when the father wasn't speaking to you. She paused a few moments and then contemplated installing a drape operated bell system throughout the apartment, whichever room she were in she would pull it and as though she were in a period drama Dorota would appear out of thin air like a phantom in an instant to complete whatever Blair desired. She was drawn out of her daydream by the arrival of Dorota complete with something that did not resemble salmon. "What is that?" Blair demanded fiercely.

"Your fillet steak Miss Blair, you ask specifically for fillet beef one hour ago." Dorota replied not a hint of snootiness in her voice though an aspect to it that Blair thought sounded both annoyed and worryingly mildly revolutionary, Dorota wouldn't dare. Would she?

Blair surveyed it, "I said Salmon."

"No Miss Blair you think you say Salmon but you say steak, you say you want red meat – I bring you finest cut of red meat in whole of Manhattan," Dorota said gesturing to it enthusiastically as though preparing a steak was such a very difficult task and Blair should be impressed, "Miss Blair you imagine yourself saying Salmon but you do not – only yesterday I bring you smoked salmon and eggs for breakfast and you throw up for two hours in bathroom – is like old times." She added darkly to the end, recalling Blair's brief descent into bulimia – an episode she wished to exercise from her memory.

"That was mourning sickness," she said emphasizing that there was nothing wrong with her, "besides those eggs were overcooked and chewy."

"This not about pregnancy," Dorota said to herself and then looked Blair in the eye, settling herself at the foot of the bed, "this about Mr Louis and your affair with Chuck."

"I am not," Blair paused to calm herself down, subconsciously reaching to touch her bump and stroke it in case she had upset the baby, she took a deep breath and then continued, "I am not having an affair with Mr Chuck," there was the first lie out of the way, "and I am not worried about my distance from Louis." And the second, sometimes Blair wondered if she actually said anything truthful in the course of the day – she didn't but it was better that way, it was how she had always lived and would go on living.

"Miss Blair you are engaged and you are pregnant," Dorota said wisely as though she had great personal experience of such matters, as though she were an authority on things and Blair had a sinking feeling she was about to get a lecture on the inner workings of Royal Courts, "once you are Queen you may take as many lovers as you like, so long as you give birth to an heir – Mr Chuck is not an acceptable lover for you and you must make a clean break. Mr Louis stay away because he cannot trust you." She grabbed the tray the beef was on and turned and left already deciding that if Blair did not want it, she would have it. Blair watched Dorota go and then allowed her face to frown deeply – if Dorota knew it would hardly be long before everyone else sussed out that something else was amiss between her and Louis: other than the baby.

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Spotted, Lily Van Der Woodsen looking stressed and tired in the Meat-Packing District, we're left wondering what's more stressful Lil – the fact that you're son's on bail for blackmail or that your sister doesn't even trust you to meet her real daughter and used a con-artist to dupe you? Well get ready for one more frown-line Lily because Faye12 just spotted Carol Rhodes stepping off a flight from Miami.

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She had spent most of the last few weeks pacing, pacing and drinking copious amounts of wine and trying to get into her head that one, her son – the most level-headed of her children – had become enmeshed in a complicated scheme of blackmail and two that her own sister viewed her so poorly that she had actually gone to the trouble of hiring a con-artist to fool them and convince them that everything was fine, the only reason they'd even found out was because said con-artist had returned to the City in the company of Georgina Sparks and proceeded to try for more money, unaware that she was being played by Georgina herself. Lily sighed and paced over to the windows, looking out at the City – the morning she was reassured would be bright but in the distance she could see clouds forming which meant rain which would only serve to further dampen her spirits.

"And where do you think you're going?" Lily probed as her son headed toward the elevator, Eric swung his head round toward her and gave her a look that read caught red-handed.

"I was gonna go see Jenny actually – we said we'd go to lunch together," Eric revealed, "do you mind?"

"Not at all," Lily said in a voice that suggest she minded very much, "I mean it's not as if you've marred this family in another scandal, you're College has just revoked your offer and to cap it all off you might go to prison – of course you can't go, you aren't leaving this apartment unless I or Rufus say you can – besides Jenny is just getting back on the right path, I wouldn't want what you've done giving her any ideas." Lily turned away, touching at her forehead, sometimes it made her head hurt how complicated her life was.

"I'd give her ideas? Mom you're talking as if I'm some kind of common criminal-"

"-well darling," she said rounding on him, a fearsome look in her eyes, "in the eyes of the law you technically are, you are on bail for conspiracy to commit blackmail Eric, you did something illegal, and surprisingly enough yes now I am classifying you as more troubling than Jenny, she has tried to turn her life around, clearly allowing you to get involved with Charles in the first place was a mistake and now he has started rubbing off on you…I just despair Eric…go back to your room."

Eric turned and started walking way calling out before going into his room, "If I'm so messed up why not send me to the Ostroff Center?" The door slammed and Lily heard the sound ringing in her ears for what seemed like hours before she turned around and found Rufus entering, carrying in the groceries followed by Vanya carrying the others bags of the basic stock supplies that they'd run out off – normally Lily always had it organized so they never ran out but lately she had been, distracted. She crossed the room and kissed Rufus affectionately on the lips, rooting about in the grocery bags as the elevator chimed shut with Vanya descending to the lobby, she turned after him regretting not having thanked him for his help but instead looked toward Rufus with a smile.

"What would I do without you?" she enquired warmly.

"Find a new slave," he joked and Lily gave him a reproachful grin, the kind that said she'd found his joke amusing but in poor taste, "did Eric go off to see Jen?"

"No I thought he should stay here," Lily stated she regarded Rufus, "you didn't actually tell him he could go did you?"

"I just…I don't think keeping him under lock and key up here is gonna do him any good, I mean you of anyone should be able to emphasize with his position," he paused but found himself unable to decipher whether Lily was annoyed by his train of thought or whether she was beginning to comprehend his viewpoint, "I just think that things are gonna get a little rough, if having lunch with Jen at the Met just allows him to forget about what's happened a little bit then that's no bad thing – you didn't have that chance before Lil…I think you should at least consider letting him out for some fresh air."

Lily looked at the floor and then looked up at him.

"I suppose in a way I'm just taking it out on him," she shrugged, "it isn't fair and I shouldn't but I just…I need to vent somehow Rufus – my sister lied to me, to my mother and to Serena…she couldn't even bring herself to introduce us to her real daughter, she just picked up that girl Ivy from a street corner somewhere…and she didn't even bat an eyelid – I mean are we that terrible?"

"No," Rufus said soothingly, "but she probably feels threatened…besides it isn't like you tell each other everything, I mean you didn't tell Cece or Carol about Eric and the Ostroff Center did you? And why he was in there? All I'm saying is maybe…you need to reassess your outlook on things." Rufus looked toward Eric as he came out of his room and gestured with his head toward the elevator smiling warmly at him.

"Thanks," Eric said genuinely and then looked at his Mom, "you might want to see this Mom," he handed over his phone and Lily briefly scanned the note and then Rufus saw her face crease in a mixture of anger and disbelief, "Carol's back." Eric clued-up.

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When faced with responsibility and realisation we have one of two options, we can accept the need to act upon our realisation and assume responsibility, or we can ignore the realisation and block it out, hoping that somehow, magically it will disappear for us.

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Serena wrapped her arms tightly around Nate's muscled chest as they swung down another side-street on the Vespa, weaving across Paris had become the norm for them as they fell deeper and deeper into the kind of star-crossed, idolized love that was the stuff of fairytales. Admittedly they were using love to distract them from the respective plight of their best friends but they needed the space, to process what had happened between them, to escape from their problems and to simply take some time out, away from New York and the omnipresent gaze of Gossip Girl and their families, simply to take some time for themselves.

Nate pulled in beside the Café and they sank into the white wicker seats, complemented by comfortable white cushions and Serena waved at their server who whisked away, producing their preferred bottle of Rosé and instantly pouring the two glasses to the brim and leaving the bottle in an ice bucket at the edge of the table – it had been a café Serena and Blair had spent much of their time in Paris visiting, in fact Serena was almost certain one of the waiters she'd entertained a brief liaison with was still working there, he kept shooting dirty looks at Nate who was oblivious, following the busy traffic tearing along the Parisian street in the distance, he sipped at his wine and Serena smiled at them and then looked at her phone – another Gossip Girl blast, the fiftieth unread once since they'd left.

"Don't pay to much attention to what she's doing and what's going on back home," Nate schooled wisely, "just live in the moment, here, with me – you're Mom was the one that said we should get some time away and mine agreed too Serena, if we'd stayed in New York we'd just be depressed now listening to Chuck and Blair about their mistakes – we can't be responsible for them and we can be there for friends when things get really tough, right now we should just enjoy what we have together."

"I know, I know," she promised, smiling weakly at him, "I just…I mean we're in Paris Nate, we spend night sleeping in a beautiful room in an antique building, by day we just sit in little cafés like this and then zoom around the City on the Vespa…it just seems-"

"-too good to be true?" he laughed and sipped at his wine again, she mirrored, "Serena this is the fairytale, we're meant to be living as though everything is perfect and there isn't any bad in the world – these are the good memories so that we have some to blot out the dark stuff that's coming our way."

"I get that…I just…I mean I love you and I love our relationship…but it just seems to have been lived in a way that is so completely…unbelievable…and I just feel as though I don't know where we stand, as though I'm living through a dream without any grounding in reality…I mean if this is all that we have to bind our relationship together then I don't know how we're gonna survive it when we go back…with Blair and Chuck…and everything that's going on…"

"Serena we've known each other since we were born, there isn't anything we don't know about each other anymore," he shrugged, "I mean we know when we each went to our first club or had our first drink or had our first smoke or lost our virginity," he winked at her and she couldn't help giggling at that, "I know you inside and out and you know me perfectly, we're already grounded, the difference is we're just together now, and it's gonna work this time."

"How do you know?" Serena probed, she had to admit she was a little scared, everything seemed so perfect she was just waiting for something or someone to screw it up for them.

"I just do," he grinned at her, "and I don't have any relatives to ruin it for me."

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Orange scarves and trench-coats are all very well C, but we didn't take you for a boiler suit kind-of-guy, at least it's your colour though.

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Chuck sidled up to the glass pane and picked up the phone, failing to smile at Dorota on the other side of the glass as she lifted the phone off her side, she didn't smile either, she looked around the prison and clearly it evoked some grim memories, he wasn't happy to see Dorota since it was only really Blair that he longed for, after their passionate kiss he had hoped for their affair to progress but along the way things had gone awry and his blackmail had been discovered – probably a loose link in his legal team, fortunately he was sure that they would succeed in getting him out without charge because they were the best lawyers in the City: and failing that they also had spies placed within the Wessex chain of command and within the superstructure of the City's government itself that would allow them to get him out by under-handed means if fair-minded ones failed. Dorota spoke first.

"She miss you much Mr Chuck," she said with reassuring passion, Blair had in some ways become something of a surrogate daughter to Dorota, despite the birth of Anastasia two years previously, "I tell she still thinks off you over Mr Louis…but she still miss him too, Miss Blair has many faces."

At least that was true, duplicity was one of Blair's prominent and most honed traits – she often made it her business to confuse and outmanoeuvre her enemies and Chuck had fortunately only rarely been on the receiving end of one of her ploys. However from what Dorota was saying it would seem that despite his desire for their affair to eventually develop into a relationship she still harboured feelings for Louis and locked up in a prison cell he would be unable to relieve her of those particular sentiments. He was beginning to regret even more taking the major fall for Eric to ensure that he got out on bail but he knew that Lily would have viewed him even more dimly if he hadn't taken the major wrap for the scheme, sighting Eric as an accessory rather than an instigator.

"Do you think she is going to go back to him in the near future?" Chuck enquired.

Dorota shrugged, "Is anyone's guess Mr Chuck, she seems upset to have lost Mr Louis but also she is always upset about you too – she just not show it to me or anyone, she shows it but does not say it…she is wary of how Mr Louis seems to hear everything."

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Leading double lives tests the best of us, some can stay the course and others are swept away under the weight of the secrecy and the lies. And when the reckoning comes for us – and one always does, we must always be wary that we emerge on top, for once you lose your footing you lose everything,

Xoxo Gossip Girl

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