A/N: I won't be able to update for a week because I'm going away, but here's the second installment. Like I said before, the point is that everything is short and choppy, so sorry if everything's rushed. I also am without a beta, obviously.

Summary: Chuck's lips curled sardonically. "It's not like this marriage of convenience was a secret. Everyone knows it. Not only that, but everyone knows getting married is the best way to scorn a past lover."

Disclaimer: Don't own Gossip Girl or any other ways I got inspiration.


Girls were everywhere. It was hard to ignore them. Drugs were everywhere. It was hard to ignore them too. Money, alcohol... everything you wanted was just in your grasp. I thought I was overwhelmed in Manhattan. This was ridiculous. Traveling the world with New York's richest was something that was indescribable. Especially when you knock on Chuck Bass's door when you shouldn't.

"Go away!"

I was startled by Chuck's yell.

"Uh..." I said lamely, "should I come back later?"

"Yes," came the yell. "I'm in too euphoric a mood."

"Isn't that good?" I called through the door.

"Go aw--"

The door snapped open and in the doorway stood Blair. I saw Chuck stalking around in the background with his shirt unbuttoned, untucked from his pants, revealing his chest. Blair was in a slip. Oh.

"Sorry," Blair shook her head. "He doesn't deal with hangover's well."

"Right," I answered, trying to avert my eyes at the obvious cover up.

"You can talk to him tonight," she assured.

"Go away," Chuck called from the back of the room.

Blair began closing the door when I heard her talking to him.

"You're so rude."

"It's fine..."


I could tell when the time came for Blair to go back to her fiancee. Her laughter was shorter lived. She wasn't as light or carefree. Chuck was more brooding, never leaving the aide of his best friend Scotch. Yells like "please go the hell away" shouted from closed doors followed by light laughter had almost dissipated completely.

We were all taking the Bass Jet back to Manhattan. Including Blair's fiancee who had finally joined us in our travels a time later. Chuck was as moody as ever. He leered more, dangerously close to the couple. He sent angsty glares that Blair most certainly noticed. She noticed everything. So did he.

"Do you really think its the best idea?"

Blair looked at me warily.

"We're all going to the same place," she offered.

"But Chuck and..."

"It doesn't matter," Blair said. "Everyone knows that score. I'm engaged. That's it."

"Why are you even here?" I asked exasperatedly. I knew that Blair's image was Queen Bitch. But there were times with just a gin martini in hand where I saw she was falling apart at the seams. She lived for merely one lecherous glance from Chuck. It didn't seem right.

"You don't know what you're talking about," Blair suddenly snapped. "Everyone has this portrayal of what we should be. No one sees him for who he really is. No one really sees me. Except him."

There was no question of who this "him" was.

"You don't know the things he says to me when we're alone. He's sweet and gentle and romantic--"

"And yet you're going back to your fiancee," I spat. I didn't know why I cared so much. These people had become my friends so fast in such a short period of time but I cared about them. I didn't like seeing Blair and Chuck torturing themselves like this. Some people spent their entire lives searching the world for what these two shared.

"Look," Blair said quietly. "It's just not that easy. Chuck comes and goes whenever he pleases. I'm getting married to someone who won't turn on me in a second."

"But you don't love him."

It was the truth.

"Successful marriages aren't connected to love," Blair said sadly.

"But happiness is."

What did I know? I didn't know anything about love. But then why did I get the feeling that the world would end if these two tortured souls didn't end up together?


It was weird. The fiancee and the... whatever Chuck was... traveling together. Blair met us at the helipad. I noticed Chuck's captivated expression as she strode down the concrete. Her fiancee waved. I never bothered with his name. He didn't seem worth it.

"Blair," greeted Chuck. Blair cast him a cold look. It was always about appearances on the Upper East Side.

"Charles," she greeted coolly. I realized she only called him this in the presence of her husband-to-be. Chuck was aware too. He cast her fiancee a acidic look over Blair's shoulder as they embraced awkwardly.

***

Chuck's scotch glass shattered as the jet jerked. Eric shifted uncomfortably. I never really liked flying.

This is your pilot speaking. It appears that we've caught the edge of an electrical storm. Please fasten all seat belts...

Lightning streaked the sky next to Blair's window as the jet shook.

"Oh my god," Blair said. I felt physically nauseous.

"And electrical storm?" Chuck asked incredulously. As if this could occur on one of his jets. But I knew better when his eyes were on Blair's panic stricken face. She never liked storms. He knew that. Apparently her fiancee didn't.

Thunder cracked all around them. Eric leaned his forehead against the seat in front of him, trying to calm himself. Blair clenched the arm rests as Chuck clenched his jaw, trying to reign in his emotions.

The whole cabin lit up as another streak of lightning flashed by us. The pilots door burst open as one of them emerged.

"We're going to have to land early," he said nervously. "We found a field we could land in..."

"A field?" Blair yelled.

"Don't worry," the pilot said as he retreated back into the cockpit. "We're going to get you out of this."

That was when chaos ensued.

Blair screwed her eyes shut, hanging on anything for support.

"He just told us we're going to die," Nate said, his eyes closed as well.

"We're not going to die," Serena reassured.

Suddenly the pilot's door burst open again revealing mayday sounds and the pilots shouting into their headsets. The pilot noticed and slammed the door shut again.

"Oh my god," Blair cried again.

"If something should happen," Nate said uncertainly.

"Archibald, don't," Blair snapped.

"No," Nate said. "Just know that I love all of you."

"Oh my god!" Blair screamed. Chuck's hands flew out and grabbed the seat in front of him in reflex as the cabin shuddered.

"Me too," Serena said. "We're family."

Chuck's eyes flicked to Blair's to see with dismay that tears were silently rolling down her cheeks.

"I slept with Jenny," Nate said suddenly.

"What?" Serena exclaimed.

"It was before we were married," Nate assured her. "But I told Dan I didn't when I really did."

"So I guess this is time for confession?" Blair yelled. Chuck pinched the bridge of his nose. I couldn't help but look on at these people who were confessing everything they had ever done because they thought they were going to die. It was quite an eye opener.

"I slept with Blair," Chuck said suddenly. Her fiancee's eyes flicked angrily to Chuck's sudden confession. Somehow, he didn't seem surprised. It didn't mean he wasn't angry. "When you two were fighting."

That didn't really make a difference. Chuck also slept with her when they weren't. But I guess that was how they reconnected. Some addictions you just can't kick.

"You slept with Chuck?" he asked.

Blair cast her eyes angrily over at her fiancee, surprisingly not at Chuck.

"Oh my god!" he yelled. "You were sleeping with him in the Hamptons."

"Oh, please," Blair cried. "Its not like you cared. Everyone knows you only asked me to marry you so your father's company and my mother's could merge."

"That sounds familiar," Chuck said darkly.

"I don't want to hear it, Chuck," Blair snapped.

"'Chuck?'" her fiancee sneered. He was finally witnessing Blair and Chuck in there as they really were.

"Please," Chuck's lips curled sardonically. "It's not like this marriage of convenience was a secret. Everyone knows it. Not only that, but everyone knows getting married is the best way to scorn a past lover."

I was sure her fiancee was going to lunge across and throttle Chuck right there. He had that affect on most people.

"And I'm still in love with you, Blair."

That much was obvious.

Blair flicked her hair back as she gave Chuck a haughty glare. Even in the heat of almost certain death, the palpable sexual tension was so strong between the two that her heated expression said as much as his sentence did.

"I'm gay."

Everyone's attention went towards Eric. He said it like the most bland statement. Everyone knew that and it was obvious he was just trying to break the tension even in the middle of an electrical storm.

Suddenly the sun broke through the clouds and the rain receded. The pilot's door opened.

"We're alive!" he yelled. "We're going to make it."

Chuck exhaled and whipped out his gold case. He took out his silver lighter and lit a joint, exhaling a cloud of smoke. Blair wiped away the furious tears that were still streaming dowin her face.