The Bass' limo pulled into park outside of the largest and most upscale townhouse on the block. An architectural dream, the house stood tall and mighty marked with elegant design and true character. Steps lead to a fancy door with small shrubbery plants on each side. Down the street, Central Park was two blocks away, and where Manhattan's Royalty typically took evening walks with Monkey, the dog.

Arthur, their trusted limo driver, opened the door for Chuck and Blair to get out. Blair came first, frantically thanking Arthur then running up the steps, pulling Chuck by his arm the whole way to the door. Chuck, dealing with a call about the meeting he missed because of his lunch with Blair, mouthed a thank you to Arthur, and allowed his only free arm to be tugged on by Blair.

Dorota -Blair's old maid from growing up- rushed out of the kitchen and opened the door, ready to take whatever necessary orders from Blair for the dinner party later. "Ms. Blair, Mr. Chuck, everything perfect for guests later!" she exclaimed, seeing Blair's frantic expression.

"Add two more places to the table, we picked up some people off the street." Blair ordered.

Dorota's expression showcased her uncontained surprise. At that, Chuck gave a low laugh and marched out of the entry to finish his call, leaving Blair to plan things, something she loved and succeeded at greatly.

Sighing at the news of the call, Chuck hung up, knowing he'd have to go back to The Empire for the second time that day. Getting over it, he gazed around at the tall ceilings, custom-made chandeliers and glittering lights, and iron railing of the spiral staircase to the second floor. Furrowing his brow, Chuck knew something was missing. Typically, a certain someone would greet Blair and him happily when they arrived home. Someone other than Monkey.

Approaching the stairs, Chuck saw the over-sized brown teddy bear before he saw the boy himself. At the sight of his son, Chuck's frown turned into a wide grin. Little Henry Charles Bass sleepily rubbed his eyes as he dragged his favorite stuffed animal down the stairs. The three year old had awoken from his nap and was ready to continue the day. Seeing his mother and father were home, Henry threw the bear down and quickly descended the rest of the stairs straight into his father's open arms. Father and son embraced in a tight hug.

"Daddy!" Henry shrieked, wrapping his arms around Chuck's neck and clinging tight.

Chuck peppered Henry with kisses and lifted him onto his arm, "Hey, little man. I missed you today," he greeted, kissing the top of Henry's brown wavy head.

Henry kissed his dad back on the cheek and exchanged bold beams with him. Chuck hugged his little boy again, just as tight as before. When Blair had first announced she was pregnant, a lot of people -Serena, Nate, Eleanor, Cyrus, even Lily- were a little concerned with Chuck's upbringing of an absent mother and a father who ignored him to great extremes and later attempted to have him killed, twice. It wasn't the least bit shocking that the people closest to him had doubted his ability of parenting. Being entirely honest, Chuck had been concerned himself. Blair always had believed in him though, that definitely had helped overcome the feelings and conspiracy theories.

In the end, the Basses ended up being right, what else was new? Little Henry adored his father to great extremes.

Shaking her head in adoration at the scene, Blair strided over, her heeled Louis Vuitton booties(in black) clicking on the floor, "My boys," she gushed, wrapping her arms around both her son and husband.

"Mommy!" Henry exclaimed, kissing Blair on the cheek as well.

Smiling, Blair did the same to her son, "Guess what, Henry? Tonight we're having guests over."

The little boy's bright brown eyes lit up. He loved parties and guests as much as Blair loved planning things and Chuck loved saying "I'm Chuck Bass". And, a party tonight, sounded like a great ending to a great day.

"Do I get to dress like Daddy?" the young boy eagerly questioned, pointing to Chuck's signature suit and tie ensemble that Henry loved to mimic every chance he could get.

Letting out a laugh, Chuck nodded in reply. Henry typically got everything he wanted from either his parents. It was very hard for both Chuck and Blair to say "no" to their beloved son.

"You and I can pick something out when we go to town in a little bit. Go get ready, buddy." At this, Chuck set Henry down. Giddy with glee he'd be going to town with his father and able to dress like him at the dinner with guests, Henry dashed upstairs as fast as his little legs would carry him.

Watching him go, Chuck and Blair exchanged smiles with each other. The two took a step closer together. Cocking her head ever-so-slightly Blair crossed her arms, and shook her head as if she were annoyed with her husband, "My, my, my, I had no idea you planned on going to town again today, Mr. Bass."

Turning his head the other direction, sensing the tease in her voice, Chuck played along, his hands cupping her face, "I just got a call from my assistant who is insisting that I come to The Empire as soon as possible. Do you have a problem with that, Mrs. Bass?"

The two loved calling each other by their titles of almost four years of marriage. From Manhattan's Royalty to The King and Queen of New York, just Mr. and Mrs. Bass was enough to bring a smile to either Blair or Chuck's face. The name had the years of many downfalls, takedowns, hookups, and successes tied to it. The fact that it was real was an accomplishment in itself.

"As long as I get you alone tonight, I don't have a problem with anything." Blair admitted, staring deep into her husband's eyes.

To answer her further, Chuck planted a kiss on her lips. Upon its conclusion, he tucked a strand of brown curly hair behind her ear, and whispered, "Three words. Eight letters."

A wide smile spreading across her face, Blair repeated their favorite saying back to him, "Three words. Eight letters."

"Still scowling at the papers, I see. Nothing really has changed, has it, Dan?"

Dan jumped at the sound of the voice he'd only heard over the phone for the past two weeks, when they'd been in New York the whole time. Giving one last glare to The Bass Family's smiling faces at the latest Upper East Side bash he wasn't invited to, Dan got up from the kitchen counter in his penthouse.

"The only thing that's changed is they have a kid now, but plenty of famously divorced couples had multiple children. Things could still go my way. He doesn't deserve her." Dan grumbled, pointing to Chuck Bass's grinning face on the front of whatever newspaper decided to cover it this time.

Jenny Humphrey, someone once banished by none other than Blair Waldorf Bass herself, snorted and strided over to her still-delusional brother, "But, you think you're worthy?"

"No, I didn't say that and you know that, Jen."

Rolling her grayed-down smokey-eyes, the formally infamous platinum haired blonde rolled her eyes, "You didn't have to, it was heavily implied," she remarked, stacking the papers and pushing them as far down the counter as they'd go. Dan needed to move on and grow up.

Not thinking that her brother would still be in the same funk she left him in, Jenny leaned against the counter and stared at him for a few beats. Dan didn't look back and instead pulled out his phone to text his newly found friend, Ezra Fitz. He was sensing a rush of inspiration. Taking the papers home and glaring at them for the past hour really had helped.

Finishing, Dan gazed at his sister. She had grown up stuck in the crossfire of Brooklyn and the Upper East Side all these years. Somehow and somewhere along the line, she made the best of all of it. Jenny now was co-signed in designing a fashion line for Waldorf Design. The girl worked closely with Blair and her mother. Maybe she could be the ticket to his way in between Blair and Chuck...

"I met somebody," Dan confided, pointing to his phone. He could tell Jenny things. After all, all those years, she knew he was Gossip Girl for the most part.

Her eyebrows shooting into the air, Jenny gripped her brother's arm in amazement, ready to squeal out of excitement. Could he finally stop dreaming about Blair and Serena? Time could truly heal all wounds and leave nothing but a scar as a reminder.

Seeing the look she was sporting, Dan shook his head. Wow, for a writer, that was total word vomit, "Not like that, you can wipe that look off your face. He's a former English Teacher and a co-writer of my next book about the Upper East Side,"

Jenny sighed, her smiley faced expression fading into oblivion. The last thing anyone needed was another one of Dan Humphrey's books on the Upper East Side.

Now it was his turn to roll his eyes. His own sister didn't even believe in him anymore. The mighty had fallen. "This time it's going to be different. It's years later down the road. They think it's all in the past. They think it's over. I'm here to bring out all the skeletons in the closets. It's Gossip Girl in real life."

Jenny shook her head as an answer, "Dan, the only thing more unneeded then another one of your books on Manhattan's elite is Gossip Girl's return. Deep down, you know this, you know it very well. This is just you trying to get back at people that actually did something with their lives. Move on and do something with yours." Jenny commented, throwing her two cents into the deal.

Feeling more offended by the second, Dan stood up, "Hate to break it to you, Jenny, but this is me doing something with my life. Go design another dress for Blair. Stir up some drama between her and Chuck too, if you can manage."

Putting a hand on her brother's shoulder, Jenny turned him around to face her once more. If anyone could talk Dan out of this, it would be her. Before he started in on any of this nonsense. So, as his sister, she took it to her ability to slap Dan across the face, "Get it together! Have you been drinking?"

Holding his cheek, Dan pointed to the elevator entrance of his penthouse, "And you get out. The only liquid I've had today is coffee and inspiration."

Knowing it was useless, Jenny turned and marched out of there. Dan was delusional and was the one living in the past. If he were to go through with this, it'd ruin everything Blair, Serena, Chuck, and Nate had worked so hard to build- their own empires. If he couldn't see that, then he was truly blind to reality. Asides from stopping her brother altogether, Jenny had one more thing she could do. Warn the Non-Judging-Breakfast-Club. Tonight at the dinner party, she'd do just that, she promised herself.

Going into his office to dig out a notebook in a drawer, Dan grabbed a pencil and saw the old Gossip Girl laptop sitting in the same drawer, a layer of dust now on it. Knowing that Jenny was wrong and he was right, he pulled it out and plopped it on his desk. Would the monster of a thing even turn on?

Pressing the power button, that's what Dan felt. Power. Power of most of his teenage life, and a key part of his twenties, where he had been in control. He'd had more of a pull on things than Queen B herself. More sources than any newspaper editor, Nate, could gain. More love than Chuck Bass could buy. And more of a presence than Serena van der Woodsen when she walked into a party. It was all coming back to him.

Flipping the notebook to a crisp, clean first page, Dan, with shaking hands lettered "Inside 3.0" across the top.

Because, after all, the third time's a charm.

Three stores and many shopping bags later, Hanna and Caleb finally arrived back at their hotel room at The Empire. Caleb was exhausted. Shopping included lots of walking, carrying, and pretending to be enthused over whatever new item Hanna found. She wasn't even supposed to be shopping, she was supposed to be designing, but suddenly the urge to impress people she barely knew had spurred something.

Hanna plopped down onto the bed and pulled out her phone, clicking on one of her closest friends to report on how her first day in the city was going.

"Hey, Han, wasn't that couples last name Bass?" Caleb called to her, staring down at a handout on the hotel sitting on the brightly lit sink countertop.

Waving him off, Hanna spoke to good ol' Spencer Hastings, a dark haired brunette with an IQ level higher than anyone else she knew, "Hey, Spence!" she greeted, sitting up as her friend finally picked up the phone.

"Hanna-banana! How's New York?"

"Amazing and beyond. There's enough sight-seeing, shopping, and people to last a lifetime. Traffic is so bad. It took forever to find a cab to get back to the hotel, but I bought so many cute things and -you're not going to believe this part- we got invited to this dinner by these two locals just because I gave someone fashion tips on the street."

Shuffling through papers about her latest internship, Spencer laughed and sat back in her swivelly new office chair in her dorm room- which she had all to herself. Being a Hastings did certainly have it's perks and privileges. Georgetown University had a great campus, great dorms, and a great atmosphere. The only thing Spencer was missing was her friends. Consider this call from Hanna a cherished thing.

"That's great, Hanna. Tell me all about them- take as much time as you need. Listening is better than doing internship paperwork." Spencer admitted, putting her feet on top of her desk and craning her neck to gaze at the door. This would be the worst time for someone to burst in. She'd look to be slacking and Spencer Hastings does not slack.

"Well, they're names are Chuck and Blair Bass. And Blair is so pretty, and she has hair, like probably a shade of brown lighter than yours, she helps run her mom's fashion company, but she's really sad over what this Serena chick did. Apparently she just upped and left and they were really close or something. And then, there's Chuck. He was all decked out in a suit and tie, and Spencer, he looked so good. I'm dressing Caleb like that tonight. He seemed a little full of himself, but really well mannered at the same time. And they make a really cute couple." Hanna gushed, hugging a pillow at the same time.

Having answered his question, Caleb walked over to the bed where Hanna was and waved the pamphlet on the hotel in front of her, pointing to the words on the back that said "A Bass Industries hotel".

At the same time, on the phone, Spencer digested all the information Hanna provided and knitted her eyebrows in confusion and almost...recognition, "Bass. Why does that name ring a bell?"

Grabbing the brochure, Hanna's eyes widened, "Spencer, google Bass Industries and tell me what comes up."

Her curious ways getting the best of her, Spencer pulled her feet to the ground and typed on her brand new laptop- a going away present from her parents, and smirked at what the search came up. Bass Industries was a huge leader in New York real estate, property, and construction. The company had billions behind it. Relaying this information to Hanna, Spencer saved the best part for last, "And, you met the CEO, Charles, or Chuck. His dad, Bart started the whole thing."

Dropping the brochure, Hanna's eyebrows shot in the air, "Chuck's the CEO of a billion dollar company?"

Scrolling through online newspaper articles, Spencer smiled at the same ones Dan Humphrey spent an hour glaring at. She had to agree with Hanna- Chuck did look nice in his many suits and tuxes. Very nice indeed. Coming upon some family articles, headlines like "The Basses Take on New York" "The King and Queen of Manhattan" "New York Royalty" One thing was for sure, Chuck and Blair were a pretty big deal in New York.

"Hanna, he isn't just the CEO of a billion dollar company. He's a billionaire. Blair and him are big time socialites. There's newspaper articles galore on them. She used to be married to a prince and his dad died by falling off of a rooftop at a party he was being honored at. Google them, they're honestly icons of New York society."

Jumping to her feet, Hanna ran to get out her make-up bag. She should be primping for this dinner and not talking on the phone. Not to mention, she didn't even know what time they were picking them up, "By the sounds of all that, I better go get ready. I'll tell you all about the party when it's over." With that, Hanna threw her phone down and grabbed Caleb's arm.

"Chuck's a billionaire." she excitedly whispered, running to the brightly lit counter.

Caleb smiled and bobbed his head. Hanna may be excited for the dinner party, but the last details they just learned about the host and hostess made it a little less exciting for him. Did they really want to intrude on the high class and high society lives of Chuck and Blair Bass?

Only time and his patience for things Hanna loved, would tell.

Chuck and his son strolled hand and hand through candy stores, a custom suit and tie store, and, finally, The Empire Hotel. Henry was gleaming the whole way, clutching his bag of candy(which Blair would kill Chuck if she knew he bought Henry some) and the bag with Chuck and Henry's matching ties for the dinner party in a few hours.

Waving to the front desk workers, Chuck crossed behind the desk and to the hall in the back, his office being the final door it led to. Outside of it, a man in a business suit turned around, smiled, and shook his head, "I was just about to go upstairs to get ready for the dinner, but I thought I'd come see you first. And Henry."

"Unca' Nate!" Henry exclaimed, dashing down the rest of the hallway into Nate's open arms. Nate wasn't actually related to Chuck or Blair, he'd grown up with them and was like a brother to both of them. Even though he dated Blair for the majority of high school and, even middle school. Through all of it, Chuck and him had remained the best of friends. A few years down the road hadn't changed much, only the fact that they weren't able to see each other daily.

"Nathaniel Archibald, the future mayor of this fine city. To what do I owe the pleasure to?" Chuck greeted, approaching his old friend, and former partner in crime(Blair now owned the role).

Being the modest guy he was, Nate shook his head while ruffling Henry's hair, "I haven't even announced if I'm running or not. Nothing's official."

"Yet," Chuck remarked, pointing his index finger at Nate, "How's The Spectator doing?"

Aside from his political side, Nate also was the Editor-in-Chief of New York's favorite news source since Gossip Girl, The NY Spectator, "Great, actually. Business is booming. The only thing we haven't been able to report on lately is Serena. It's like she's slowly dropping off the face of the earth. Had Lily heard anything lately?"

Chuck cocked his head, "Depends. Are you asking as a concerned friend or as a newspaper reporter?"

Smiling, Nate nodded. Chuck knew him well. Too well, almost, "Both, but she's okay?"

"Lily hears enough to know just that and nothing else."

Lily van der Woodsen was Serena's mother. She'd been married, divorced, and remarried close to six times. One of the times had been to Bart Bass, when he died, she adopted Chuck as her son and since then, that was the only true family he'd had. Until Blair and Henry. Lily was a petite blonde who lived in the same building as Dan did. Her penthouse was higher up and bigger, of course.

Nate nodded only. Serena hadn't only left Blair without an explanation, she'd left everyone. Her mother, Chuck, Dan, Nate, anyone with ties to her New York life. The last time she'd left so bluntly was when she had sex with Nate at a wedding, where he was Blair's date, and later was involved in a man's drug related death with Georgina Sparks, an old frenemy. Even then people knew exactly where she was, exactly what she was doing. Boarding school. And, now, all they knew was she in Los Angeles. Nate would never admit it outloud, he wouldn't even know how to process the words, but he had always liked Serena as more than a friend. The girl had just never been serious enough about things.

"Tonight, daddy and me are wearing matching ties!" Henry said, tugging on Nate's sleeve, as if saying "pay attention to me".

"I can't wait to see." Nate said, brightening from his Serena sadness. Henry could dig anyone out of a pit of sadness. It was a gift.

The little boy gazed at Nate with wide eyes. The gears inside his head were truly turning with ideas. A young mind at work, "Can The Spec-ta-er do a story on it? Can it, pwease?"

Shaking his head, Chuck knelt down beside his son, "Now, Henry. Uncle Nate runs a very busy newspaper, he can't just put people in when they ask. And wearing matching ties isn't very, well, newsworthy. Besides, we were just in the times with your mother about the new hotel upstate."

Sighing, Henry cocked his head at his dad, puzzled, "But you're Chuck Bass."

"Yeah, you're Chuck Bass." Nate wrapped an arm around Chuck and played along with the little father-son talk. When Chuck opened his mouth to protest, Nate talked before a word could come out of his mouth, "people love it when you're in the paper. Somehow that copy always sells a little more than the others."

"Not surprising." Chuck remarked, adjusting his tie.

"Modesty was never you." Nate honestly stated, pulling out his phone and putting in a note to get a picture of Henry and Chuck at the party.

Chuck turned to his friend, the signature Bass smirk, the simple carefree shrug of his shoulders, and, of course, "I'm Chuck Bass."

Oh, yes, Chuck, you'll always be "Chuck Bass", whatever that means. But, how much longer are you going to want to be "Chuck Bass"?

You know you love me,

xoxo Gossip Girl