(NOTE: New fic!. I wasn't going to post this for awhile since I probably won't have the time to work on it for quite some time but I thought what the heck. If anyone has seen the movie "Definitely, Maybe" this fic is based off that movie. It's a future set fic as always, my favourite kind of fic. STORY: Dan Humphrey is in the middle of a divorce, he's working for a publishing agency and not exactly happy with what his life has become. His nine yearold daughter Nicky makes him tell her the story of how he fell in love with her mother. Dan proceeds to tell Nicky about three women: Emily, Natalie and Britney. Nicky's job is to figure out who her mom is based on the story Dan tells her. Only Emily, Natalie and Britney are not their real names.
Maybe
Everything had already been divided up, the money, the furniture. They had sold their penthouse and split the profit and now they could now go on with their lives, the one and only thing they had to share was a nine yearold girl with her dad's eyes and her mom's smile. The last couple of years they were pretending, pretending they were still in love, they loved eachother but not in the same way they once did. It was hard to wake up every morning and ask themselves why?, why did they do this? at the time it was the right thing to do, they were meant to be, of course they were, but these days it seemed something close to a mistake. The butterflies they once had for eachother died years ago and no one was to blame, they just weren't meant to be. Dan was secretly hoping that the spark would magically appear again but it hadn't, the truth was it was wishful thinking, he couldn't make himself love her again if he tried. They hadn't slept in the same bed in eight months, their dinners were often carried out in different rooms, sometimes different restaurants. Dan was the one to have the divorce papers written up. When he brought them to her he expected a slap in the face, a grimace, but no, she smiled and told him she was relieved that he had the same thoughts she did. They sat their daughter down and explained to her that they were going to get a divorce, they were done playing make believe.
Dan spent his lunch break at a law office signing papers, the very last ones, the custody ones. Nicky now was joint property. "Can I get you to sign here, and here please" a woman pushed more papers towards him.
Dan scribbled on the lines and sighed as he handed the pen back to the woman.
"Thank you very much Mr. Humphrey" , he was a free man. A weight lifted off his shoulders but at the same time it was upsetting, he never thought he'd fall in into the fifty percent of people that don't live happily ever after. Back when he said those vows he meant them, he meant them forever and he was sure she did too.
"It's done, I signed them" Dan spoke into his cellphone as he headed back to the publishing agency he worked for.
"How do you feel?" Nate asked.
"Fine, I guess, it's all over...I'm free." his voice changed. "I always believed in happily ever afters...I mean my parents are divorced but I really hoped Nicky wouldn't have to deal with this"
"Did you actually think you would live happily ever after with..."
"I know" Dan answered with a laugh.
"You have some good memories though" Nate reminded him.
"We do" he smiled."this is good" he nodded before walking into the building.
"DAN!" a man called to him. "We got the series!...Caroline Reece signed with us!"
"...i'm getting divorced and I'm in publishing, not exactly the life I expected to have" he sighed into the phone.
"Have a good day Dan, keep you're chin up"
"I'll be fine as soon as I pick up the chickee" When Dan said bye to Nate another man walked by and congratulated him on the series.
"You must be thrilled"
"yeah...another vampire love story..." he said sarcastically although the man in front of him didn't catch it.
"Congratulations again"
"Thanks" Dan smiled before walking into his office and closing the door behind him. Not more than a minute went by and someone was knocking on the door.
"You wanna go celebrate?" Ted, one of Dan's collegues asked as he did an attempted moon walk.
"Oh shoot...I can't" Dan pretended he was upset.
"Why not? let's go! this is huge" Ted urged.
"It's Tuesday, I have to pick up my daughter"
"Too bad"
"Yeah...too bad" Dan said sarcastically.
When Dan walked into the school there were parents yelling at teachers. He walked around a little looking for his nine yearold daughter who was the spitting image of her mother.
"Dan, did you know that they were given a sex education lesson today?" a woman said furiously.
"Aren't they a little young?" Dan looked up seeing the parents were still yelling.
"Yeah and it was a huge disaster, I'm going to find Mrs. Geller right now so I can give her a piece of my mind, did you want to back me up?" Dan's eyes widened, he didn't really feel like yelling at faculty today that was never his job.
"Uh...no I'll just make sure everything she was told is...accurate and it'll be fine" he nodded somewhat worried about what was to come.
"Won't your wife be angry?" the woman asked him.
"Ex Wife actually and I don't think she needs to know"
"At least it got them reading" a teacher said as he followed another furious parent out of the building.
"There's a book?" Dan swallowed. "...There's a book" he repeated. Maybe yelling at the teachers would be easier than having a premature sex talk with his nine yearold.
"Yeah...listen, I'm sorry about your divorce" The woman said before exiting.
"Don't be" he smiled and spotted his daughter with an indifferent look on her face. When she noticed her dad she ran towards him in a desperate way.
"We need to talk" Dan took a deep breath not knowing if he was ready for this talk.
Nicky began explaining the class in great detail as soon as they exited the school.
"...and then thrusts..." Dan's eyes widened
"Whoa, whoa...Mrs. Geller didn't say thrust" Dan said awkwardly looking down at his daughter.
"Yeah..yeah she did" Nicky nodded.
"Okay" Dan continued to listen, not knowing what to say.
"Dad?"
"...yeah?" he knew a question was about to come and he was already dreading it. They finally entered the foyer of the apartment building, Dan was relieved that pedestrians wouldn't be able to hear Nicky's new topic. Lord knew she loved to talk as much as he did and he realized what his mom meant when she said there was never a word he met that he didn't like, Nicky was the exact same.
"what I don't understand is that Evan Richardson's sister said that he was an accident, how do you accidently thrust..."
"Hi Marko" Dan said loudly to the doorman hoping to drown out Nicky as they walked towards the elevators. Nicky was the biggest hand talker anyone had ever met, her stories were always exaggerated and she rambled just like her father did, her mom reminded her that long stories can be made into short stories day in day out.
"...Accidently thrust the penis..." she continued, Dan's eyebrows raised.
"Stop, saying penis and thrust" Dan whispered to her as they approached the elevator. He looked around to make sure no one was hearing this.
"Explain how Evan was an accident" Nicky leaned against the wall as they waited for the elevator.
"That's...complicated" he really didn't know what to say. Nicky looked around.
"Penis!...Penis!" she yelled. Dan quickly turned to her.
"Okay that's enough" Dan put his face close to hers. "It's not like Evan's dad slipped on a banana peel...the accident was that Evan's mom...got pregnant" Nicky's eyes narrowed with confusion.
"If they didn't want a baby then how come they had sex?" she pursed her lips together. Dan closed his eyes and thought.
"...that's a...umm.," he swallowed. Nicky looked impatient.
"Spit it out" Nicky said.
"That's a very good question" he thought for a moment. "I guess you could say they were rehearsing" he got into the elevator once it opened.
"Oh" Nicky said.
'What?" Dan asked her.
Nicky's eyes hit the floor. "Was...was I an accident?" she asked sadly water filled her eyes.
"No" Dan said instantly and tried to get her to walk into the elevator with him.
"I was wasn't I?" she asked him.
"No!..." he bent down to her level and pushed some hair behind her ear.
"tell me the truth" she said sadly.
"...I slipped on a banana peel" he deadpanned.
"Daddy!" she made a painful sound. Dan laughed a little.
"no, Nic...you were not an accident. You were completley and totally on purpose" he smiled up at her, grabbed both sides of her face kissed her forehead.
"I knew exactly what I was getting into." he stepped into the elevator.
"Promise?"
"I promise"
XOXOXOX
"Can we just get takeout?" Nicky asked her dad as she ripped up lettuce leafs and thew them into a bowl.
"I thought you loved my cooking"
"Umm...I do" she ripped up more lettuce.
"You're getting used to take-out aren't you?...I'm not going to let you become like your mom, you will not be useless in the kitchen if I have anything to say about it" he moved around the stove.
"are you getting divorced because she's useless in the kitchen?"
"...no" Dan didn't have the heart to tell her that they were already divorced.
"Daddy are you lonely now that you live by yourself?" she looked up.
"No" he smiled hoping she wasn't worried about him. "That's enough lettuce how bout some tomato?"
"Okay" she grabbed a tomato from the plastic bag sitting on the counter beside her and began chopping it into segments.
"Hey!...not directly on the counter, that stone is very expensive I don't need scrapes in it" Nicky rolled her eyes.
"Then what do you suggest I cut it on?" she flashed him her teeth. Dan shook his head at her drama queen behavior.
"Maybe a cutting board?" he suggested giving her the same kind of sass she always gave him.
"Where can I find one?"
"It's probably still packed away" Dan went over to some boxes.
"More books...great" she shoved the box to the side and opened another.
"How come you have so many books?" Nicky asked her dad as he opened a few boxes. He had only moved into the new apartment a week ago and had been getting takeout, the only room that had really been unpacked was Nicky's room. He had already painted it her favourite shade of blue.
"You know I read for a living" Dan explained. "Oh more vampire love stories" he said with distaste as he dropped as he picked up another box and opened it.
"How come you don't write your own stories anymore?" she asked as he unloaded more books.
"...I don't know" he continued to look through the boxes in the livingroom for a cutting board.
"I think you should tell me the story of you and my mom"
"Why do you say 'my mom' like i've never met her" he finally found the cutting board he was looking for and passed it to Nicky.
"Well... because now that you're getting divorced she's mine not yours"
"Oh...ok" he nodded. "touche"
"Is it because mom doesn't give you inspiration?" she asked out of nowhere while stabbing a tomato to death.
"pardon?" Dan looked up at her confused.
"That's what she said, she said you never wrote her anything"
"Well that's just a lie, I wrote her tons of things and love letters all the time...even a story"
"she said they were luke warm compared to the ones you wrote to your other girlfriends, she said you never loved her like them"
"...no, no I loved h,...your mom told you that?" Dan asked perplexed.
"No, i heard her on the phone"
"You shouldn't eavesdrop" he scolded her.
"Tell me how you fell in love with her...was it love at first sight?"
"I don't believe in love at first sight"
"So you had other girlfriends?" Dan just laughed a little.
"Did you?"
"Umm, I had three serious girlfriends in my lifetime and a few women that I dated in between them" he breathed wondering why he was telling her these things.
"What?" Dan looked at Nicky's raised eyebrows.
"What's the boy word for slut?"
"NIC!"
"I'm just curious" she smiled.
"They...they haven't come up with one yet...but they're working on it" he went back to the oven smiling to himself for Nicky being such a handful.
XOXO
"Maybe mom dated some nerdy guy before you, or maybe he was really mean to her and you were her friend for a really long time and she finally realized she was in love with you this whole whole whole whole time and then you actually loved her back and it was an epic love story for the ages and then you got married and then two years later you had me and I was probably the cutest baby you've ever seen in your entire life and..." Dan leaned in the door way as she continued to brush her teeth.
"have you ever met a word you didn't like?" Dan asked.
"If that's your way of saying I talk too much...I resent that" she put her hands on her hips and her toothbrush back in the cup.
"alright, get in" he pointed at her bed.
"What kind of sheets are these?"
"are you kidding me right now?"
"I have allergies"
"They're fine" he said.
"Well I've never slept here before and it's a school day tomorrow so I can't go to school with a rash all over my body"
"Since when do you get rashes from sheets? I've lived with you for nine years i didn't know you had allergies"
"Pollen, dust, certain types of artificial colours...plaid" she looked at her dad's pj pants.
"HA! HA!" he said sarcastically.
"Tell me...tell me the exact second you fell in love with her" Nicky sat on the bed apparently not worried about the sheets anymore.
"It wasn't just one moment" Dan yawned walking over to tuck her in.
"ok so why did you fall in love with her?" Dan smiled a little thinking about it.
"I fell in love with her because she was smart and beautiful and fun"
"So now she's stupid and ugly and boring?" Nicky got under the covers. Dan sat down on the bed.
"Of course not" he pulled the comforter up to her chin.
"Your mom is a brilliant woman, she's very beautiful and...I've known her much longer than you...I know she's fun" he smiled and kissed her forehead. "you're so much like her that it scares me"
"I've been told I talk too much on several occasions so apparently I'm like you too"
"I'll take that as a compliment"
"You should" she smiled.
"So if you think she's...fun and smart and beautiful...what's the problem" she asked.
"Uh...It's complicated Nic" he said exhausted with this conversation.
"Why is everything with you so complicated? just tell me, I bet it's not complicated at all, and maybe you'll see that you... still love her" The statement made Dan's stomach turn, he tilted his head at her sadly.
"...I know this is tough for you, but what are you thinking, that I'm going to tell you this story and it's going to make everything better, it doesn't work that way. We're not getting back together" he said sympathetically knowing she was having a rough time with the separation.
"please just tell me the story" she said sadly.
"No...gameover it's time for bed" he kissed her one last time and stood.
"Tell me please" Dan stood up and flicked the switch on the wall.
"No, it's bedtime"
"NO!, it's not bedtime! it's time for you to tell me the story of how you fell in love with her!" she said stubbornly.
"Nicole!" he groaned into the wall.
"Dad...I need to know" she said desperately. "I need to know" she said sadly as if she was on the verge of tears.
"Alright...alright" Dan flicked the light back on, he couldn't deal with tears.
"I'll tell you, but I'm not going to tell you who your mom is...you're just going to have to guess" his face was close to hers.
"I love this idea...a love story mystery" Nicky smiled and got comfortable, her wavy hair laid down on to her pillow. Dan was always amazed at how much she looked like her mom, she was a tiny version of her.
"I'm going to change all the names, I just decided that right now"
"I hope you do" she said back.
"Okay ready?"
"One sec" she fluffed up her pillows, she loved her dad's story telling skills, it had to be her favourite thing about him, that and his waffles.
"Ready?" he asked once she laid back down.
"Ready" she nodded.
"Once upon a time back in 2010 a young man named Dan Humphrey was deeply deeply in love with his bestfriend..."
"Britney!" Nicky suggested.
"Why Britney?" Nicky shrugged.
"Okay, his bestfriend Britney"
XOXOX VANESSA XOXOX
"Dan hurry!" Vanessa motioned for him to join her through the crowd of people.
"FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE...HAPPY NEW YEAR!" Dan kissed her.
"2011, do you believe it?"
"no I can't believe we've been dating for almost an entire year now"
"I hope for it to last many more" Vanessa slung her arms around his neck and kissed him again.
"Wait!" Nicky stopped him.
"What?"
"If my mom was your bestfriend you wouldn't be getting a divorce, so Britney can't be my mom"
"How're you so sure?"
"I have a gut feeling, plus the first person in the story is never the mom...it's like in CSI, the first suspect is never the murder"
"Sometimes in murder mystery novels the first suspect is the murder, but the author tries to throw you off by adding more characters until you forget about the first suspect, then at the end it's revealed and it shocks you"
"Is she my mom?" Nicky asked.
"Maybe"
XOXOX
(Okay, there it is. The next chapter will be entirely the story. Review and let me know what you think about it. It's kind of a different idea but I hope it's well received. Thanks for reading)
-Faryn Queens