A/N: Thanks for the alerts, reviews and whatnot. That was pretty much just awesomely amazing.
A holly jolly christmas
It's two months almost to the date when Blair sees Carter again. She's Christmas shopping with Roman, who she has quite surprisingly formed a bond with. Roman is busy gushing about a pair of shoes he's gonna buy for Harold, when she sees him on the other side of the street. He has his arm slung carelessly over a blond girl's shoulders and they're smiling at something. She figures it's one of his many euro-trash girls and pushes him out of her mind for the time being. It's not like they're friends or anything, they just talked for an hour of so that one time. But of course Roman sees her watching him and almost yells who she's looking at, catching Carter's attention as well, because there are not a lot of people speaking English with a French accent in Paris. He smiles and leads the blonde across the street with him.
"Hey beautiful" he greets, apparently not concerned about how the blonde bombshell under his arm might feel about such a statement.
"Carter" she says with a tight smile. "This is Roman, my…" She scrunches her nose, looking for the right word. What is Roman, exactly? She's not sure she wants to call him stepdad just yet.
"I'm a friend of her father's" Roman politely says.
Carter just nods; there's no way he hasn't heard about Harold Waldorf eloping with a French male model. "This is Brigitte" he introduces without saying anything about their relationship or whatever they have. It annoys Blair how annoyed at this she is.
"Well, we best be getting on" she says, still smiling tightly and almost pushes Roman down the street, away from Carter and that French Barbie. Seeing them so happy together makes her want to throw candy canes at kids.
"Blair met a friend today" Roman announces happily as they sit at the dinner table that same night.
"Is that so" Harold inquires with a smile. "Who?"
Blair suddenly feels a little on the spot. Her father never liked Chuck and it's a guarantee he won't like the person who taught Chuck to be Chuck. "Carter Baizen" she answers finally.
Harold raises an eyebrow. "That's Henry Baizen's son, right? The one who's been travelling?"
"Yeah" she says, looking at her asparagus.
"Hmm… Is he living in Paris now?"
"Yes."
"Doing what?"
Blair is about to reply and then recalls that she honestly has no idea. She scrunches her nose, looking for a suitably answer but she can't seem to find one. "I'm not sure." Harold shrugs and makes a comment about her inviting him over one day, while Blair scowls and promises herself that she'll find out exactly what Carter is doing in Paris.
She spends the next few days thinking over the possibilities of Carter's living situation, because honestly, there's not a lot else for her to do in France without any friends. Sure, she's made acquaintances like Julianne and Madeline and Louisa, but it's superficial and they all know it. She can talk to them about clothes and school and gossip about the social scene in Paris, which she is not a part of (she can't decide if she's happy about that or not). But she misses Serena and even Nate and Chuck sometimes, even though she doesn't like to dwell on it.
For now she'll have to settle for Julianne, Madeline and Louisa. She's not the Queen, if anything that would be Madeline, but she's a part of the better crowd and she can still rule a little.
Five days before Christmas she decides to call him. She doesn't even know how she has his number, but figures it's some kind of UES thing where everyone knows everyone and how to get in contact with them. So she calls, not too sure on what's she gonna say, but maybe he won't answer.
"Yes?"
"It's Blair." It comes out more forward than she wanted, almost like a command. "Blair Waldorf" she adds for good measure.
"I know which Blair" he says and she can almost see the smile on his lips. "What can I do for you?"
"I was wondering… Are you free for lunch tomorrow?"
"For you, sure. Where?"
"Le Deux Magots" she says instantly. "At two."
"Alright."
She hangs up before he can say anymore.
"What are you doing here?"
"Well hello to you too, beautiful" he greets her with a smile. "I'm meeting you. You called me, remember?"
"I don't mean here here, I mean, what are you doing in Paris" she asks almost angrily.
The smile slips as he leans back in the chair and runs a hand through his hair. "I'm studying."
"What, exactly? French Barbies?"
"Law actually. At Sorbonne."
It feels like her jaw might just have dropped all the way to China and she stares at him completely shocked. If he had told her he was singing in the metro for a living she would have been less surprised. Although really, maybe it shouldn't have surprised her that someone with that personality would become a lawyer.
"I got into a little trouble in Bangkok a while ago." She raises an eyebrow at that. "Okay, a lot of trouble" he says before ordering a cup of coffee (black, no sugar or milk) and Blair orders a cappuccino. "It looked pretty bleak for a while and I didn't have the financial means to make it go away. Surprisingly, my father stepped in and fixed it for me, on the promise I returned to New York with him. So I did. Only" he makes a face, "I couldn't really follow his rules and I was cut off. So I decided to screw over some of my rich and stupid friends…"
"Nate."
"Yeah good old Nate. About as naive as he's pretty" Carter says with a sardonic smile. "Well, obviously my father found out and we made a new deal."
"What kind of deal?"
"He doesn't ship me back to Bangkok where some not so friendly people are waiting for me, and I stay out of trouble and continue my education."
"Continue?" She snorts. "As if you ever started."
"Blair, you can believe what you want but I did actually manage to get a pretty decent education from St. Jude's and I've taken classes here and there after that. So yes, I continue my education and I don't get shipped off to white slavery."
"Why France?"
He shrugs a little and thanks the waitress with a smooth merci when she arrives with their orders. "Because I've burned bridges almost everywhere else and I speak the language. Italy would have been okay, I suppose, and Germany as well. Spain would have been a bit more challenging, I never fully got down the grammar. And London is too much like New York, so Paris was an obvious choice."
"You speak German?"
"Blair, is that really all you got from that little story?"
"No!" She sounds offended.
"Now you know."
"Why did you cheat Nate?"
"Because I could" he answers honestly. "And I needed the money."
"Hmm…" She takes a sip of her coffee and lets him observe her for a moment. She figures she should be more angry about him screwing with both Nate and Chuck (and not even offering an apology for it), but she's still angry with both of them and it's not like either of them have called to make amends, so she lets it go. Maybe they deserved it. "Who's Brigitte?"
She wants to slap the smirk of his face and he takes a long sip of his coffee just to annoy her. "She's… a friend." Blair raises her eyebrow again and gives him the infamous Blair-glare. He relents with a smile. "My girlfriend, actually."
It should feel like a victory, making him admit that, but it doesn't and she's not sure if she's comfortable going down this route, so she changes the topic. "You like it here?"
"Surprisingly, yes. I've made a few friends and while my father's idea of living grand is somewhat different than mine, I get by." He observes her a moment. "How about you? France must be quite the change."
"I get by" she mimics with a tight smile. It's close enough to the truth, anyway. She already feels like he knows too much, either from Gossip Girl or from herself blabbering about all that was wrong in her life when they met last time.
"Oh I have no doubt" he says with a smile. "Blair Waldorf is a survivor."
"Yes. She is" she agrees.
He gives her another smile before standing up. "Well, in case you should need a little company, stop by." He pushes a napkin into her hand and kisses her cheek, lingering a moment longer than what is considered proper. She stares at the napkin, not sure how to react, but he's already gone when she looks up.
She spends Christmas with her father, Roman and Cat. It's not exactly traditional but there are no fights, no snide comments about the amount of food she consumes (which is more than usual) and the presents are wonderful. Eleanor doesn't call, but Blair hadn't really expected her to and there's a card with her present, so she figures that will do. There's no present from Serena, even though Blair mailed hers two weeks ago and the disappointment is hard to swallow. She accepts it in the end, as a part of her flaky friend's personality. Serena forgets things, that's just how she is. It doesn't mean she doesn't love her.
Blair's thoughts are put to shame, however, when Serena shows up on their doorstep the morning of the day after Christmas, wearing the biggest coat Blair has ever seen, arms full of presents she immediately drops to give her best friend a big hug. "I missed you" she squeals and envelops Blair in a bear-hug.
"I missed you too" Blair says, hugging back with equal force.
Serena stay for three days, three wonderful days where they shop, gossip and watch bad Christmas movies. It feels almost soothing to have Serena back, even if it's on borrowed time. When she leaves it feels like she takes a piece of Blair with her.
Harold and Roman try their best to cheer her up and she knows she can't stay in this funk forever because it was her own choice to come here and leave everything of her old world behind. She finds herself staring at the crumpled napkin Carter gave her more often than she would like and in the end she decides maybe it wouldn't be so bad to go visit him in Paris. He invited her, after all.