SUITE BERGAMASQUE

Summary: My responses for the Chair Week 2013 challenge – seven Chuck and Blair vignettes, set in the Clair de Lune universe. (There may be spoilers.) Dedicated to my Chair lovelies who have been such wonderful friends and readers over the past year... each short story is dedicated to a different shipper.

Disclaimer: I own nothing in the Gossip Girl universe, not even (sadly) Chuck or Nate. Major props to Cecily von Ziegesar, the CW, the producers, actors, and crew, and everyone involved with bringing these amazing characters to life.

Day 1 – Contentment

(Prompt: Pregnancy)

December 2017 to January 2018.

Blair knew that she was pregnant before she had the time to ask Clemence to buy a number of things from the drugstore, including a test. And of course, Chuck knew before she knew.

She'd had inklings before the confirmation that was sitting on her marble vanity. There was the unusual fatigue during the week or so before Serena's wedding, the tenderness of her breasts that was particularly noticeable during her cherished sexytimes with her husband. But she really wasn't nauseated, and during her first trimester with Henry, things had got so bad that people thought her bulimia was back. So she ignored the signs at first.

It was a good thing that she wasn't sick all the time. 2017 had been a banner year for her company. Blair had begun it by making the cover of Forbes magazine, and her only regret was that Chuck had made it first, two years before, with the historic expansion of Bass Enterprises. They'd summered in France as usual, but both Chuck and Blair had to interrupt their vacations with side trips to attend to business. (That was when Blair promoted Jenny from line designer to lead, and gave her the title of creative director... as much as she loved her business, family came first for Blair Waldorf Bass. Never would she interrupt her private time with her husband and son again.)

Then came the news at the end of the summer that Dan had finally proposed to Serena on S's birthday. Blair, keeping her misgivings about whether Dan had done enough to make it up for the way he'd treated her BFF and sister-in-law over the years to herself, gave them her blessing and offered to throw the wedding herself.

Famous last words. The wedding of Dan and Serena Humphrey nearly turned Blair's hair gray from the stress. Everything that could possibly go wrong did. Instead of going with a Bass hotel, they went with the stupid Waldorf-Astoria (no relation to her family), who then claimed to have "overbooked" when some billionaire sheikh bought out the place for the entire month of December. Never mind that Serena had paid her deposit. (But then again, Blair thought derisively, that was what S got for marrying a man who couldn't throw his weight around a little to get things done.)

Then there was the trouble Henry had at school. His first preschool teacher, an awful Occupy Wall Street type, was a disaster. Clearly, the woman had something against her child simply because he was a Bass. Henry came home crying the first day of school, and on the second day, Blair had marched up to the classroom herself and given the woman a warning. The second time, when the teacher had the nerve to call her child "spoiled?" The bitch was fired. (Chuck, in an aside at the headmistresses' office, had suggested another line of work... not that she'd find any doors open to her in New York.)

Still, that situation had rectified itself by the end of September. These days, Henry was thriving at the 92nd Street Y's day school. Blair couldn't have felt prouder of her little boy as he brought home artwork, sang his little songs that he and his friends learned from their music teacher, and began reading some of the easiest picture books that filled the shelves in his playroom.

Chuck had hinted around at adding to their family, but Blair was so busy that she didn't think it was the right time. Perhaps when Henry was in kindergarten...

But the day after Dan and Serena's wedding, Blair knew. The martini she'd had in the living room, sitting with Chuck, Eric, Nate, and Jenny had been her very last drink. It had been two weeks since then, and she now had the evidence before her eyes...

She was pregnant!

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Chuck opened the door of the master suite slowly. Over the years, he and Blair had turned the upper floor of their townhouse into their sanctuary. Their suite was almost an apartment in and of itself. There was the gigantic bedroom with its custom bed, a sitting room that used to be Henry's nursery before he was old enough for a set of rooms of his own, two huge walk-in closets, and a master bath and spa with built-in sauna/steam room, sunken tub, separate shower large enough for two, and two vanities.

"Blair?" he called out. He'd left Henry sleeping downstairs, and Dorota was gone. The only other occupants of their home were the cook and the driver, whose quarters were on the first floor and in the basement, respectively.

"In here."

Chuck walked into their bathroom. His wife was sitting at her vanity, already dressed for bed, a silk nightgown covering the body he so loved to worship. Her long, dark curls were freed from hairpins and headbands, and fell over one shoulder.

"Chuck..." she said, ever so softly.

It was then that he knew. "We've having another baby."

"Yes." She held up the positive test.

"Yes," he repeated, and it was not a question. "Yes... yes!"

Lifting her out of the chair, he spun her around, laughing as she chortled and kissed him, small hands grabbing his face, sweet lips touching any spot they could reach. It was a while before he allowed her feet to touch the ground.

"Best news I've heard since our son was born," was his verdict. "You'll call..."

"Verna first thing in the morning to coordinate our schedules so you're there for every single appointment? Of course." They kissed, hot, long and deep. "Mmm. Once again, timing has never been our strong suit."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we're in the middle of everything. You're in the middle of that takeover that no one's supposed to know about, I've got Fashion Week and a dress design that's going viral, and don't even get me started on our clueless friends. It's like we're juggling everything."

"That's because we are. King and Queen of New York... all part of the job description, of course." His hands caressed her still-flat midriff. "It's a girl."

"Oh, that's so cliché." Of course, he knew that she wanted nothing more than a little daughter, although they would also delight in another boy... and keep trying for more kids, no matter what happened. "Chuck, I love you so much. I love the life I have with you."

In response, Chuck lifted her off her feet, and took her to bed.

XOXOXOXOXO

It was a few weeks later that Blair came to breakfast and found the beautiful Tiffany heart diary on her plate. At first, she didn't notice it as she continued the rant she'd begun as they dressed, and only ended when Henry banged on their door, asking his dad if it was time to shave.

"I swear, Chuck, if Jenny's thing with our best friend ruins Fashion Week this year, I'll kill them both. Never have I seen two more..." She trailed off, picking up the diary. "What's this?"

"Daddy said it's for you!" giggling Henry, crunching on his cereal.

"It's for me... let's see, it looks a lot like the diaries I kept when I was a little girl," said Blair. It had been the contents of one of those diaries that had, in the end, brought Chuck back to her... or really, brought her back to Chuck.

"Open it."

Blair did. Inside, there was an inscription written in Chuck's bold handwriting.

From Mother to Daughter... The Diary of Blair and _ Bass.

Her eyes filled with tears. "Chuck..."

"I thought you could start writing to her now, every day. Someday, years from now, I think she'd treasure knowing how much you loved her even before you saw her face."

Blair couldn't even point out that they had no idea whether the baby was a boy or a girl yet (although, deep down, she knew that her new little one would be a girl.) Opening her mouth, all that came out was a sob...

"Mommy, why are you crying?" Henry frowned, as Chuck took her by the hand, drew her to sit, and began to kiss the tears away.

"Because I love you and Daddy so much," she breathed. "You mean the world to me. There's nothing more important to me than the two of you."

Henry laughed. "You're the best Mommy in the world."

Chuck kissed her gently on the lips, and reached out to ruffle his son's hair.

In that moment, Blair felt perfectly content. She couldn't wait to welcome her new baby girl into the world.

~fin~

A/N: Dedicated to Carly, who is one of the kindest, most wonderful ladies on the Chair ship. I love you because along with Maryl (who of course, will get a chapter of her own later in the week), you gave me Scandal to console my shipper heart after Gossip Girl ended. You're one of my favorites in the fandom!