Chapter 1 recaps when Serena was admitted to the Ostreff Center.
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In about two weeks, after rallying her best scheming and detective work, she and Dan were in a tin can on wheels to Cornwall.
"Is the petal to the metal? Because I swear if I shove my feet through the floor, I could run faster." She gestured disdainfully at the dashboard. "At least there's not radio here so I'm spared your horrid taste in music. What was that right turn back there? I'm sure we were suppose to turn there."
" It's not that I mind a backseat driver, but how can you be a backseat driver when you don't even know how to drive?" Dan glanced in the review window and caught her bright brown eyes mocking him. In the two weeks they had spent together, partners in crime, he had come to appreciate The Waldorf (as he started calling her in his mind). She was witty and sharp, and Dan was pretty sure she read ever John Le Le Carré novel ever written. Blair wasn't unpleasant to be around if she was on your side, Dan quickly discovered. And while she was on his side, there were miles of legs stretched in front of him while they pounded away at the laptop looking for clues. And like all creatures of the upper east side, she smelled amazing. Dan pictured some Trappist monks in Switzerland, trapping rainbows and meadow dew to be distilled for girls like Blair.
"I offered to get us a car service. Professional driver. Comfortable Seats. Champagne!" She still had no idea how Humphrey had convinced to sit in this Model-T era lunch box.
"We're on a mission here." Dan's voice took on a mischievous tone. "We need to be able to tail people and move at any moment. Speed, if necessary." His voice inflected at the word speed like it was trafficking cocaine across the Arizona border.
"Speed? Please! As for tailing someone-a stretch hummer with a hot tub would be more inconspicuous than this." Blaire had certainly read her Le Carré novel. She believed in thorough and exhaustive research before embarking on any scheme.
"First and foremost, my dad swapped his 69 Les Paul for this." He interjected, "Second of all, the other option was the Lincoln Hawk Van—all I'm sayin', has graphics." Before Blair could shudder at the thought of driving in a glorified kidnap van, she saw the turn off to Cornwall.
In Cornwall, they had found Damien Dalgaard, the no good scion of a Dutch ambassador, who was helpful, despite his weird rat like manners. He reminded Blair of an aristocratic rat, but a rat nonetheless. By the time they had pumped Dalgaard for all the information his weasley heart could give up, Dan got a phone call from his bromance, Nate.
"Hey, when was the last time you talked to Serena? I can't get ahold of her."
"Yeah they took it away as part of her therapy." Dan grimaced, Serena's therapy seemed unnecessarily restrictive.
"Oh she's at the Ostreff? That's good, at least she's safe there. I was visiting my dad and I ran into Juliet's brother Ben? He was really upset and he, uh, thinks that Serena's in danger.
"Wait, what?" Immediately, Dan turned around and gestured to Blair.
"I dunno, he didn't get a chance to say. You better check on her," and Nate was gone.
"Humphrey! What's wrong?" Blair knew from the furrow in his brow that something was up.
"Look, we've got to get back to New York. Now. Serena might be in danger." Dan grabbed her arm and Damien trailed behind since they were giving him a ride back to the city anyways. She liked Dan when he was like this, all action and less of his neurotic Woody Allen schtick. 'Oh hell,' she thought. 'Did she actually think that she liked Dan Humphrey?' She clutched her leather bag nervously when the thought flitted away and her minded started grinding away as they took off in his miserable ride.
"Look, I think I figured it out, Serena had an affair with her teacher because—let's face it, it's Serena. What else is there to do in Connecticut?" Blair knew she was touching a nerve with Dan, but that minute spark she had with him was wholly unacceptable. "Then she came to her senses and discarded him like last season's Chanel booties. Then he became a stalker and she pressed charges against him. That should be a warning to you Humphrey." Smiling smugly, Blair was happy she had gotten herself out of that precarious attraction to the curly haired idiot next to her.
"Yeah, because it parallels our relationship." Dan was confused, what was Blair trying to say? That he was like this stalker guy who was serving felony time?
"Never realized literary aspirations? Check. Townie?" She cast a side-ways glance at him. "You're from Brooklyn, so check. Giving up everything to become Serena van der Woodsen's stalker? Check! Face it Humphrey, you're one knitted tie away from Mr. Donovan territory." She was triumphant now. She enjoyed drawing parallels like most people enjoyed a good ice cream sundae.
"Except for the fact that stalker implies one side." He saw a weak point in her argument and went for it. "Serena went to the Saints and Sinner's ball because she chose me."
"Yes, it was obvious this morning at the Ostreff center that Serena couldn't wait to be in your arms." Blair made her voice sugar coated, but venomous. Right now, all she wanted to do was derail thoughts of Dan Humphries and his very attractive hand gripping the steering wheel. She noticed the light sprinkle of brown hair that stopped right around his forearm, and his fingers, good lord, he looked like he could play a mean Chopin. What was she thinking? Blair slapped herself mentally.
"Except one thing, I haven't given up anything to be with Serena."
At this, Blair snorted indelicately, "Oh of course not. Besides your time and your dignity. You are chauffeuring me around aren't you?" She paused for maximum effect. "And I'm just curious, when was the last time you wrote anything? And scribbling D 3 S over your journal every night doesn't count."
Dan clenched his jaw. Blair noticed it right away since it gave a different dimension to his normally handsome, but not terribly devious face. As he chewed this insight over in his mind, he was taken a back by how right Blair was. He had stopped writing. Ever since that New Yorker story published-incidentally, the story was about Serena-he just sort of dried up, literally. He gripped the stick shift and pushed the car into fourth gear. The car gave a groan but obediently upped the ante on the miles between Connecticut and New York. He had to see Serena. Not only to protect her from whatever threat that she might be under, but to understand if his relationship with her was worth this constant chasing and longing. Maybe that was the reason why he buried himself in thoughts of her, because he was avoiding the truth? Maybe it was over all along and he just kept grasping at straws because he felt so little inside and he wanted to feel so very much. Lonelyboy and Serena the golden girl. That was suppose to mean something at some point. But now, it was all parts unknown. His gut twisted when he thought about Serena. She was just this thing that got under his skin in so many ways, good and bad. She was the person that drew him out of his interior life in Brooklyn, she made him write, she made him feel the tremors of life that was going on around him, and he had never let himself be part of the world before her. For that, he would love her forever. But this Serena, the one splashed across tabloids, was uncharted waters. He could see how easily the Serena that he loved came from the one that drank too much, partied too hard, and now sought penance for the past.
Blair watched the rapid flicker of thought cross Dan's features and negotiated a silent treaty with herself. 'Ha, serves him right for being mindless in loving Serena.' Blair looked at the road ahead, the unending strip of black asphalt winding a little too tightly for her comfort. But why was she mad that Dan was 'mindless' in his love for Serena? Wasn't that what she wanted from Chuck? No. She clarified for herself. The love that was Chuck and Hers defied this sort of puppy dog romance—he was powerful in his love and demanded her body and her soul. Nothing that was interior to Blair was sacred from Chuck, he sought out every crevice, every vulnerability, and god willing he would understand instead of using his information to leverage pain when he was hurt. Besides, she and Chuck were clear-eyed about human nature, something Humphrey's loving dad definitely blocked from his gentle son. 'Hmm, maybe not so gentle.' Blair pursed her lips thoughtful as she looked at Dan. He was pissed, his jaw kept flexing and she again noticed the firm way he was gripping the stick shift.
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Definitely would love some constructive review, i.e. do the voices sound right? Does it reflect the mood of the show etc?
Chapter 3 – Blair and Dan confront Serena.