Here's the second and final installment. Enjoy!
-x-
The night before her wedding, Blair is all gracious smiles and lingering hugs. All of those closest to her and her groom have gathered at the penthouse for dinner. She spends most of her time seeking out her friends and resting her cheeks that are sore from smiling at Louis' friends and family.
After dinner is over and people are mingling with glasses of champagne in hand, Blair becomes acutely aware of one person's absence. She searches the throngs of people for him, but keeps coming up empty.
She sidles up to Serena and asks as casually as she can muster since it is Serena, "Have you seen Dan? He RSVP'd."
"Oh yeah. He told Rufus he wasn't coming."
"Oh," Blair says tightly. "How incredibly rude."
"He mentioned something about not feeling well. But we both know that's a lie." Serena tips back the rest of her champagne and waltzes away. Leaving Blair staring quizzically after her until someone else glides up to her and is pressing kisses to her cheeks and forcing her lips upwards into another smile.
Late into the night, mere hours before her scheduled walk down the aisle, Blair can't sleep.
She calls Dan and the phone rings six times before he finally answers with a sleepy, "Hello?"
"You're coming tomorrow, right?" she screeches into the phone. "I know you're not big on social graces, Humphrey, but you did RSVP and it would be incredibly rude to not show up now. Especially to such an auspicious occasion."
"Blair…"
But she cuts him off before he can give her an excuse. "It's not just the etiquette you're disobeying, it's the fact that we're friends and friends show up to their friend's weddings."
"I can't, Blair. I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry, too," she whispers before hanging up and crawling back to bed, where sleep finally claims her just as the sun is beginning to rise above the city.
-x-
As predicted, it's one of the coldest January days on record.
But the heat inside of the bridal suite is cranked up as high as it will go, so Blair is all rosy cheeks and warm fingers as she slips into her wedding gown. She is all silk and lace and lovey.
She feels as though she's playing dress up, especially when her mother places her tiara on top of her head. She catches sight of herself in the mirror and can barely believe it's her looking back.
Blair dismisses everyone from the room just before the ceremony is scheduled to start. A moment for quiet reflection.
This is the first day of the rest of her life and she tries to psych herself up to be happier about her life beginning and getting the right ending to her fairy tale.
This is the happily ever after she has dreamt of since she was a little girl. The happily ever after she deserves. She tries to mimic the smiles of all the leading ladies she's seen as they get their prince charming in the end of the stories, but her smile never seems to reach her eyes.
She's nearly convinced herself she's as happy as she should be when Chuck barges into the room and is telling her he loves her and begging her not marry the prince.
"He won't make you happy," he tells her sharply in his closing argument.
"But neither will you," she tells him sadly, wistfully.
He tells her she'll regret this before he stomps out and she thinks he might be right, but before she can gather up the courage to convince herself otherwise, Serena's there and telling her it's time.
-x-
The music is playing and the ceremony is beginning. Blair can smell the roses from where she waits with Serena, her father and step-dad.
Serena is bright and bubbly and happy. She's gushing over something, but Blair can't really hear. She feels faint from the warmth of the church and the smell of the flowers and the strains of the music (she hates this song they're playing).
"Did you see Dan?" Blair asks her suddenly and she thinks she may have cut Serena off (or she's just taken aback by her recent desire to know Dan Humphrey's whereabouts) because her smiles falls and her brows knit together.
"He's not coming. He was leaving to go to California for his book tour."
Blair thinks she might have actually fainted, because suddenly Serena is gone and she's walking down the aisle towards Louis and she doesn't know how she got here. The only thing keeping her upright is the two men on either side of her.
She has to remind herself to smile graciously as she walks to her future, but she only feels as though she's going through the motions as she kisses her dads and takes Louis' hands and half-heartedly listens as the minster begins the ceremony.
But then it's time for the vows and she comes back to herself. This is the part, she thinks, that will make all the rest go away. She'll hear his promises and know he's the one she's supposed to be here with.
Louis goes first, his voice loud and clear as he grasps her hands and looks into her eyes, no false pretenses and no second guesses.
"Here we are," he begins. "And there's some things I'd like to tell you. I think you're insufferable. Your desire to always be right and to rule the world drive me crazy. But they also make me respect and admire you – wholly and completely. That's one thing I promise you today, to always respect and admire you. You have been through so much, but you always handle it with such grace and dignity. I promise to learn from you and live my life with grace. We may not always agree on everything. We may fight and we may stumble. But, I am going to do everything in my power to make you as happy as you deserve to be. Today, and every day after this one, I promise you, above everything else, that you will always have me. I love you, Blair."
"Wait. What did you say?" Blair asks in a whisper. There is a spark of familiarity in his words, but she can't exactly place them without hearing Louis repeat them.
"I love you?"
"No. Before that."
"You will always have me."
She's heard those words strung together in just that way before. The other day and months ago when she was crying on a sofa in Brooklyn. But she has never heard them from Louis. She's never heard words quite so pretty from Louis (pretty promises and pretty, sparkly things – yes, but never pretty words. Not like these).
Blair's hands slip away from Louis'.
"Blair?" he questions.
"Did you write these yourself?"
His eyes widen and he's shaking his head in confusion, but not saying the words to deny anything. She has her answer.
"Who wrote them?"
Louis is reaching for her hands, glancing nervously at the congregation and the minister, but she takes a step back.
He doesn't need to say. She already knows.
And the realization hits her right in the heart. Makes it boom against her ribs in the most dizzying way and before she can really think what it means, she's hiking up her dress and running down the aisle alone.
She catches sight of Rufus and pauses only to grab his arm and demand, "Where is he?" breathlessly.
"JFK," he smirks and laughs when she takes off running again.
-x-
Her wedding dress is heavy and her shoes are impossibly high. But Blair never thought she'd be running when she slipped on those pretty white things this morning.
Yet, here she is, running through the airport, with fistfuls of her dress in her hands and balancing on her not-so-white-anymore wedding shoes.
She ignores the stares from the people surrounding her, so intent on finding the one person she's come all this way for. But after searching for nearly twenty minutes, she's losing hope and ready to concede defeat. Just go back to her wedding, marry Louis in her now-dirty dress and forget his words were not his own.
That's when she sees him.
"Humphrey!" she shouts in relief (and triumph).
He doesn't see her yet, but she can't help but smile the way his eyes narrow at the sound of her voice and he looks around as though he might have heard her, but can't really believe that he did.
Blair makes her to way him and then he finally sees her. His mouth falls open in shock at the sight of her, but he also can't help but laugh at the picture she makes – wind-blown hair and a wrinkled wedding dress charging at him through the throngs of passengers.
"I know you have a flair for the dramatics, but even this is over the top for you," Dan laughs when she's finally before him.
She rolls her eyes, smoothing her hands over the wrinkles of her dress in vain.
They stand there together - unmoving while the rest of the world moves around them.
Until Dan can't take her silence any longer. "So…"
"So…"
"What are you doing here?"
"Isn't it obvious?"
"Uh. No. Not exactly. Shouldn't you be getting married right now?"
"I was. I mean, I am. But you ruined everything!"
"Me?" he snorts. "I wasn't even there."
"Exactly!"
"I know you hate when people defy the rules of etiquette, but even Blair Waldorf can't be running around the world collecting her wedding guests. Even if…"
"You wrote them, didn't you?" she charges, cutting him off.
"What?"
"Louis' vows. You wrote them. I know it was you."
He lets out a breath, conceding defeat. He's much too tired for a fight. "Yeah. I did."
Blair takes a cautious step closer to him. "Did you mean them?"
Dan runs a hand over his face and laughs uncomfortably. "Come on, Blair…"
Another step closer. "Did you mean them?" she asks more forcefully, holding his gaze.
"Yes. I meant every word."
Blair is bowled over by this knowledge. It's not all that shocking of an admission, considering she did run all the way here just to confirm her suspicion. But the weight of it, coupled with her heavy dress and her high shoes, makes her lose her balance and she's clinging to Dan to stay upright.
"Why didn't you just tell me yourself?"
"How could I take this away from you?" With one hand clutching her arm to keep her steady, he raises the other to whisper his fingers along the line of her cheek. He's never touched Blair freely, not like this, so he lingers against the feel of her skin. "I love you enough to let you go."
Dan drops his hand and releases her, certain she's able to stand alone once more.
"Dan, I…"
"I know you don't love me back. But I'm so hopelessly, stupidly in love with you that it's okay. So, go back to the city. Go get married or go be with Chuck. Or maybe be alone. Neither of them really deserve you. I've got a flight to catch."
He presses a fleeting kiss to her cheek, before he collects his bags and turns to leave her standing there in the middle of the airport in her wedding dress. Alone.
"What if I don't want to do any of those things?" she asks petulantly.
Dan stops, but doesn't turn back to her.
"What if I want the one person I don't deserve?"
He remains frozen in his spot – not moving forward and not going back. Stuck.
He hears the rustling of her dress and the click of her shoes against the floor. He knows she's close, but doesn't realize how close until he feels her breath against his neck and her hand lightly on his shoulder.
"I've been a fool," she says softly. "Not seeing it until now. Not knowing, or understanding how you felt. It's just… no one's ever loved me like this before."
Dan turns and she's in his arms now, just a breath away. "Like how?"
"Selflessly," she says on a sigh.
Then they're falling into each other. Not going backwards or forwards, but an entirely different direction than either expected.
Dan's mouth closes over hers to catch the end of her sigh. His hands frame the sides of her face and she clutches at his shirt. They hold each other as they fall further and further.
This kiss isn't a careful test. It's not a simple press of their lips together. It's much, much more. It's a powerful give and take, push and pull. It is the culmination of everything they are together exploding into one kiss in the middle of the airport.
When they finally pull apart, their lungs screaming, their eyes meet and they laugh. It's quiet and giddy and full of the lightness they both feel (despite being weighed down by a heavy wedding dress and suitcases).
Blair sighs, happily this time, not sadly like before, as she rests her forehead against Dan's. His hand skims the silk of her dress and pulls her even closer.
"I think it's safe to say I missed my flight," Dan says finally.
They pull apart and find that they've amassed a crowd around them. They make quite the pair – a runaway bride standing in the arms of a runaway boy.
"Let's get out of here," he says holding out his hand to her.
Without hesitation, she places her hand in his. "Where to?" she asks.
"Anywhere."
Blair smiles deliriously, her fingers interlacing with his, and adds breathlessly, "Everywhere."
And away they go.