Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. They belong to Cecily von Zeigesar and The CW.
Thank you everyone for the wonderful reviews. A couple of questions popped up that I wanted to address.
Meg – My FanFiction . net BBF (Lori2279) pointed out SimplyShelbySJL's 'Breakfast with the Basses' when I first came up with the idea for this story. I hadn't read it prior. I've glanced over it. There are a few similarities, but I think this story is different enough to keep going.
Em – I think in this story that Chuck and Blair would be creeping towards their 40's, but aren't there yet.
Janice93 – I wouldn't say this is the final chapter of Blair and Chuck's life, but it may end up being the final chapter that I write. Time will tell.
"Okay, Brice, spill. What is going on with you?" Chuck inquired as he asked his son to accompany him into his office after their usually sarcastic son took his show to an annoying new level they all were forced to endure during dinner.
"Why is it that whenever I'm in a bad mood I get pulled in here to have some unnecessary talk?" Brice complained as he plopped down on the black leather sofa. If his father was going to play the part of a shrink, he was going to play his role of the patient as he laid himself out.
"Be happy that someone notices your bad mood," Chuck told him.
"Why can't you be like everyone else's parents and just leave me alone? Grandpa Bart never brought you into his office to discuss your feelings and you turned out all right," Brice spoke without really thinking.
"Brice Nathaniel Waldorf-Bass, think before you speak," his father scolded him. "You know very well that what Grandpa Bart didn't do affected me in the most negative of ways. It took your mother's love and patience to get to where I am today."
"Nobody else's parents care what their children do. Nobody else's parents watch their every move, ensure that they don't sneak out of their homes at night or make them turn off their phones," Brice whined.
"I don't give a damn about anyone else's children, but I care a great deal for mine. I'm not going to apologize for taking an interest in your life," Chuck told him.
"Just once I wish I could do something without you looking over my shoulder," Brice sighed.
"What's this about?" Chuck prodded.
"There's this dance . . ." Brice began. He stopped as he thought his father was going to interrupt him, but Chuck waited patiently for him to finish. "Sadie Hawkins asked me to go."
"Is that really someone's name?" Chuck couldn't resist the urge to laugh.
"Ironic, I know," Brice rolled his eyes, "But I know I have to turn her down because you won't let me go."
"Your thirteen, Brice," Chuck sighed, "You'll have your fill of dances when you get older."
"Like that's ever going to happen," Brice responded sarcastically. "Charlotte is fifteen and is barely allowed to speak to boys, never mind the fact that most of her friends are rounding third base already."
"You're too young to know the meaning of that statement," Chuck scolded him.
"Wake up, Dad," Brice responded, "We're not little kids anymore. Charlee is fifteen. Aiden is nine. I'm thirteen. We're not still those little babies you used to rock to sleep each night."
"Which is unfortunate as you were much quieter then," Chuck quipped.
"I know I'm not allowed to date. I get that, but it would be nice to know when I possibly could," Brice responded.
"When your thirty," Chuck responded without missing a beat.
"How about a realistic answer this time," his son responded instantly.
Chuck was cursing his son's intellect at the moment. Blair was right. His son had the same quick wit that he'd had at that same age. It wasn't until Brice had started spouting off to both him and Blair that he realized how truly insufferable he'd been. He'd gone so far as to apology to Lily personally though he was certain she hadn't dealt with the worst of his insufferableness.
"That's still up for debate," Chuck responded through gritted teeth.
"Keep me posted," Brice replied sarcastically as he stood up abruptly and left the room.
Blair strolled in a few moments later and began massaging her husband's tense shoulders. Chuck sighed in relief.
"What's that sigh about, Bass?" she inquired as she worked a little harder on his shoulders. She hadn't felt him this tense in a long time.
"We're good parents, aren't we?" he asked.
"Are you wanting a letter grade? And if so, are we grading on a curve?" she inquired as she pressed into his shoulder a little harder to work out the knot she found. "Because I happen to think that we set the curve if we're comparing ourselves to the other parents in Manhattan."
"Do you think we're suffocating our children?" he pressed.
"What did Brice say to you?" Blair inquired as she shifted course and decided to sit in his lap. When he was this tense, there was only one truly effective stress reliever.
"He was asked out to a dance and was upset he had to turn the girl down because we won't let him go," Chuck explained.
"He's thirteen. He's too young to date, especially a girl brave enough to ask such a handsome young man like Brice," Blair replied.
"And for the most part, I think he's okay with that," Chuck responded as his hand ran along her stocking covered thigh slowly. He knew she wore them merely to tempt him and it always worked. "But he'd also like to know when he might be able to date."
"Then you have to answer the question as to when you're going to allow Charlotte to date," Blair responded, "I will not be setting different rules for Brice and Aiden than we are for Charlotte."
"But it's different for girls than it is boys," Chuck groaned.
"No, it's sexist," Blair responded sternly. "If Charlotte cannot date until she's thirty then neither can Brice or Aiden."
"Blair . . ." he began.
"I don't want any of that nonsense about the boys not ending up pregnant," Blair responded as she interrupted his train of thought. "They can just as easily get a girl pregnant as Charlotte could end up that way."
Chuck's face immediately turned crimson as that unpleasant thought entered his mind. That anyone could violate his daughter in that way sickened him as nothing else in his life ever had.
"Chuck, we're raising our children right. Sooner or later, we're going to have to let them go out into the world and trust them to do the right thing," Blair responded.
"No, we keep Charlotte locked up forever," Chuck responded. He knew he was being irrational, but this was his little girl. This was the little girl he'd spent hours rocking, read fairytale after fairytale to, and who always looked to him with her large doe eyes as if he could truly do no wrong. He couldn't help being overprotective.
"Are you done pouting yet?" Blair inquired as she tapped at his lip that was stuck out in such a cute little pout. She was brought back to when Brice was a little boy, having one of his pathetic little tantrums.
"No," Chuck tried to fight off a smile he felt coming.
"How about now?" Blair inquired as she bent in and began lightly sucking on his Adam's apple.
Chuck's drawn out groan echoed in the room, with her name following shortly after as she bit down sharply.
"You have to keep it down, Bass," Blair cautioned him, "This room isn't soundproof."
"It does the children some good to hear their parents' intimate moments from time to time," he grinned as he lifted her into his arms and transplanted her to the leather sofa Brice had laid out on earlier.
"Trying to scare them straight?" she grinned as he began unbuttoning her blouse and quickly parting it to get his hands on her porcelain skin.
"If that were my intent, they would have been scared ages ago," he laughed, "I'm sure they're immune to it all by now."
"Chuck," Blair halted his actions when he looked deep into her eyes. "There's a boy that's asked Charlotte to a dance. She really wants to go, and I think we should let her."
"She's my little girl," Chuck shook his head as he immediately dismissed his wife's suggestion.
"She's our little girl," Blair corrected him as she saw the tears pool in his eyes, "And she'll always be our little girl."
"I've always been the most important man in her life," he responded as a single tear fell.
"And you still will be," she assured him as she brushed the tear away, "She has years before she finds the man to replace you."
"No," he shook his head, "Absolutely not. She's not ready to date."
"You're not ready for her to date," Blair amended, "I get that you worry about her, but we have to allow this."
"No, we don't," he held firm, "She's not prepared for those hormonal boys that will come calling. She doesn't know their tricks."
"She knows," Blair assured him, "You've told her ever trick in your arsenal."
"No," he shook his head.
"Now that that's out of the way," Blair sighed, "She's going."
"I want to meet him first," Chuck countered, "And I get to do a full background check on him."
"Then you need to know his name is Evan Sparks," Blair responded softly.
"Sparks!" Chuck exclaimed as he rose up from the sofa. "The spawn of Satan's offspring, absolutely not."
"Chuck, Georgina is not even a part of his life," Blair tried to calm him down, "He sees her once a year."
"NO!" Chuck exploded with rage. "This is just some sick, twisted way for her to get back at us for all the things we did to her."
"He's a fifteen-year-old boy," Blair responded.
"Do you know what I was doing when I was fifteen?" he continued to rage.
"I know exactly what and who you were doing," she assured him as she rubbed his chest softly through the fabric of his shirt. "If we forbid this, it will only make wanting to see him all the more desirable. This is just her first crush. It will pass."
"Your first crush lasted nearly a decade," Chuck pointed out.
"But my second will last a lifetime," she replied as she ran her fingers along his chiseled jaw.
"You're not helping your case right now," Chuck informed her.
"Please," she batted her eyelashes in a way he was hard pressed to resist.
"That's not fair," Chuck moaned as he turned away quickly. He couldn't resist that look, and he knew he had to this time. His daughter's welfare was at stake.
"I'll bring Charlotte in here and have her give you the puppy dog face," Blair threatened him as she stepped towards the door intent on calling her daughter into the room. "As hard as I am to resist, she's a million times worse."
"Nobody is harder for me to resist than you," he told her as he snatched her wrist and brought her back to him, kissing her soundly.
"So I can tell Charlotte that she can go," Blair stated hopefully.
"No," he shook his head.
"No," she repeated in surprise.
"No," he reiterated, "I'll tell her she can go, but I have conditions."
"I expected as much," she chuckled softly.
"I get to meet him first. I still get to check him out . . ." Blair was going to interrupt him, but he continued on. " . . . to ensure that his satanic mother is truly as out of the picture as you say she is. Charlotte wears a tasteful dress, no bare shoulders, no cle . . .cleavage, the dress flows to her knees or beyond. Arthur drives her and her . .da . date to and from the dance, not in the limo, but in a town car with no glass partitions. She has a strict curfew. No kissing or other inappropriate touching."
"Anything else?" she inquired as she bit her lip to keep her laughter at bay at his long list of demands.
"Yes," he nodded, "You and I chaperone the dance."
"Why don't we just place her in a convent right now," Blair suggested, "Because no boy will ever ask her out again if I give in to all your demands."
"All the more reason to hold firm," he responded, with a slight hint of a twinkle in his eyes.
"You are incorrigible," she rolled her eyes as he stepped away from her and went to the door himself.
"Charlotte, will you come here for a minute? Your mother and I need to speak to you," Chuck called out for his daughter. Blair began frantically buttoning her blouse, missing buttons and aligning them incorrectly in her haste.
"A little warning would have been nice," Blair scolded him as Charlotte came to a skidding halt in front of them, trying her best to ignore her mother's haggard appearance. She knew that the more haggard her mother's appearance, the better it was for her.
"Your mother and I have decided to let you attend this dance with this boy who has asked you," Chuck told his daughter.
"Oh, thank you, Daddy!" Charlotte squealed with excitement as she threw her arms around her father's neck.
"But," Chuck added quickly.
"But," Charlotte repeated tentatively. She didn't like where this was heading. She stepped back to wait for her father to continue.
"We have a few conditions," Blair chimed in. It was always best to present a united front where the children were concerned, even if she didn't totally agree with her husband's demands.
"Such as?" Charlotte asked nervously.
Chuck began to ramble off the same laundry list of items he had for Blair. Charlottes face contorted in horror that she mixed in groans of disappointment, but it wasn't anything she hadn't already expected. When he appeared to finish, she added, "Anything else?"
"One more thing," he told her as his wife looked to him in surprise. "Before you can go out on a date with this boy, you must go out on a date with your father, so you will know how you're supposed to be treated."
"Dad!" Charlotte exclaimed in surprise while Blair added, "Chuck!" in the same tone.
"I'm not negotiating on this," Chuck held firm.
"Daddy, I'd die of embarrassment if any of my friends saw us together," Charlotte responded as she blushed with the mortification that she felt at the prospect.
"If you want to go to the dance with this boy, you will endure what I'm sure will be the most humiliating night of your life first," Chuck responded dryly.
"Mom," Charlotte whined as she looked to her mother for a little support, but she would receive none. Though her mother was surprised by the condition, as she thought about it, she came to the conclusion that it was actually a very good idea. Nobody would treat their daughter better than her own father. She almost wished her father had done the same thing for her when she began dating.
"I'm with your father on this," Blair replied. She and Chuck exchanged looks of surprise. He hadn't expected her to back him up on this, but as his arm snaked around her waist to pull her tight against his hip, his lips kissed her temple in a silent thank you for her support.
Charlotte stomped her foot and gave a shout of annoyance as she left the room in a huff.
"She gets more like you everyday," Chuck laughed as he heard Charlotte's bedroom door slam closed a few moments later.
"Is that a compliment or complaint?" Blair inquired as they began the short journey to their bedroom where her husband was sure to remove the atrociously buttoned blouse she had on.
"The highest of compliments," he told her as he lifted her into his arms without warning. She squealed with delight has he carried her swiftly to their bedroom.
"You are a genius," Blair stroke her husband's ego as they lay in bed wrapped tightly in each other's arms. Their chests rose and fell rapidly as they tried to catch their breath after their romp.
"Because of my sexual prowess or is it something more this evening?" he chuckled as he ran his fingers against her bare back slowly.
"Taking Charlotte on her first date yourself," Blair elaborated as she kissed his shoulder, "You'll surely set the highest example that no other boy will ever be able to meet."
"That is my plan," he told her with a mischievous grin, "Set an impossible standard."
"I wish my father had thought of it," Blair sighed as she rested her head against his chest to listen to his still rapidly beating heart. She smirked at how hard it was hammering. After more than twenty years together, she could still get his heart racing.
"I'm not," he chuckled as his fingers sifted through her slightly rumbled curls. "I never would have been able to measure up. It wasn't until we had Charlotte that I truly had any clue how a lady should be treated."
"You give yourself far too little credit, Daddy Bass," she chuckled, "You always treated me like royalty."
"That's not entirely true," he sighed, "Does blogging about our sex life to Gossip Girl and comparing you to my father's sweaty old horse ring any bells?"
"I wonder what every happened to her," Blair sighed. After college, Gossip Girl blasts became a thing of the past. For the first year or so, she missed them, but it had been years since she'd given the blogger any thought.
"The better question might be, who was Gossip Girl," Chuck corrected her, "It may not have even been a she."
"You mean even your PIs couldn't sniff her out," Blair laughed.
"The secret was locked tighter than your legs were until I managed to pry them open," he teased.
"I can't believe you just said that," she groaned as she slapped his chest.
"I had a point a few moments ago," he tried to recall, "But your tantalizing slap has put me back in the mood. What do you say, Beautiful?"
"You are still the energizer bunny," she shook her head as she laughed softly. "Your temples are turning grey, your hairline has receded just a touch, but you still have the stamina of a fifteen year old boy."
"That's not funny, Bass," he told her stoically as his face turned suddenly serious.
"Which part?" she bit her lip to keep the laughter at bay once again that evening, "Greying temples, receding hairline, or the stamina of a fifteen year old boy?"
"I can deal with grey hair and a rece . . . receding hairline," he stammered out, "But the stamina of a fifteen year old boy is nothing to joke about, especially since we've agreed to let our very own fifteen year old daughter date one."
"You take the cake when it comes to doting dads," she chuckled as she caressed his chest affectionately. "My father has nothing on you."
Chuck kissed Blair soundly on the lips in response.
"What are we going to do about Brice's foul mood?" Blair responded when she broke free for breath.
"There isn't a lot we can do," Chuck responded, "Brice isn't going to date this girl until he's at least fifteen, and only after his doting mother takes him out for a proper date to show him how a true gentleman is expected to behave."
"Who was the girl that asked him anyways?" she inquired.
"Sadie Hawkins," Chuck responded.
"There are no Hawkins in Brice's school," Blair responded as her mind went through all of Brice's classmates, "And certainly nobody named Sadie."
"He wouldn't make this up," Chuck responded, "Perhaps I misheard him."
"I think we've been played," Blair replied as she eyed her husband curiously. "This has Charlotte and Brice's scheming minds written all over it."
"I can't believe after all of our years of scheming that I didn't see through this. It's not even a well thought out scheme. We're smarter than this, aren't we," Chuck laughed. "I don't know whether to be angry at them or proud that they finally managed to pull one over on us."
"We should punish them," Blair responded as her cheeks crimson in anger. She apparently wasn't having Chuck's dilemma. She'd gone straight to anger.
"I think making Charlotte go out with her dear old dad will be punishment enough for her," Chuck laughed as he caressed Blair's back with a little more pressure to calm his feisty wife down, "But we'll throw in a month's worth of allowance for good measure."
"What about Brice?" Blair responded as she bowed her head to capture his lips in a scorching kiss.
"We'll have him also forfeit his allowance for a month and volunteer at the dance. Serving punch should do the boy a bit of good," Chuck replied.
"And humiliate him sufficiently to all the upperclassmen he'll have to contend with in a few years," Blair added.
"It will just make it all the more gratifying for him in a few years when he owns that school," Chuck added. "He's too much like his mother to settle for anything less than total school domination. He'll let Charlotte carry the crown for a while, but in the end, he'll make his move."
"And then pass along the torch to Aiden," Blair mused.
"If he'll want it," Chuck replied, "Aiden is more of a go with the flow sort of kid. I'm not sure he'll want to reign over the school the way you once did."
"We should get some sleep," Blair sighed as her head came to rest against her husband's chest again.
"Or not," he laughed as he rolled her under him without warning. Her laughter mixed in with his as they proceeded to make love again.
TBC . . .
