Serena Van der Woodson had a way of getting whatever she wanted. It was unintentional on her part, but no one, not even she, could deny that her life was perfect. So why then, if she lived this perfect life, was she curled up in a child's bedroom crying? A better question even, why had she been doing this same thing every day for the past fortnight?
As she dried her tears, she then completed the ritual that she had started fourteen days ago. She would examine in her mind each and every detail that she could use to try and confirm where exactly her life had taken such a sharp turn. Was it her wayward teenage years? Was it the loss of her best friend and brother in one night? Was it the moment that her only other true friend had began to despise her for her weaknesses?
As of yet, the only conclusion that she could draw from all of these memories was that she had never in her life been truly happy. As a child she had felt a crippling need to protect her younger brother from her mother's flightiness and love of romance. As a teenager she had always felt the need to explain her actions and repent them as her best friend had always guided her to do. And as an adult, she found that the one thing that mattered most to her in the world, was unwittingly making her so unhappy that she would cry in the confines of this particular room every day.
No, Serena Van der Woodson's life was far from perfect. But the less people who knew about that little minuscule detail, the better. And so, she slowly picked herself up from the hardwood floor, straightened her dress, brushed her fringe back from her eyes, and awaited the return of her beloved daughter from school. And as the gorgeous little dark-haired girl flung herself into the arms of the only woman she had ever known as her mother, Serena could almost cast aside the depression and the worry that she felt at the knowledge that that same dark-haired girl with the face of an angel, really descended from a woman who was more likely in cahoots with the devil.
And as little Tori Edwards opened her big hazel eyes and looked to Serena with so much love and affection, Serena could only hope that she could do enough to ensure that this apple strayed as far away from the proverbial tree as was possible.
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Four Years Ago....
"Mom, I promise I will be home in time for Thanksgiving dinner." Serena laughed as her companion raised a suggestive eyebrow at her from the bed where he was resting. "I know, I know – it's been months. I can't wait to see you either. Am I still in France? No, actually I'm here in New York." Serena bit her lip. "Brooklyn actually. I'm... meeting up with an old friend. Yeah. Marie introduced me to him a few months ago, he's her brother. Mom no! What is this? Twenty questions? He's just a friend."
Pierre slowly stood up from the bed and began caressing her neck with his lips. Serena squealed slightly as his hands made their way further down her body and she quickly said her goodbyes to Lily. "Mom, I've got to go... yeah, love you too! Bye!" She practically flung her phone across the room and attacked Pierre.
Somehow they both managed to fall back onto the bed without injury, and Pierre had just started to lift her shirt over her shoulders and kiss the skin underneath when a loud crash from the apartment directly above caused them to spring apart.
"What was that?" Serena asked breathlessly, clutching her hand to her heart.
Pierre shrugged his shoulders, but looked unconcerned. "Lady upstairs, she... she is not best person. I see men, sometimes more then one, visit at all hours of the morning. It is not my business, I stay out."
Serena looked up at the ceiling nervously, "I think we should check. Just to be on the safe side."
"Serena," Pierre said in his thick accent, "Is none of your business either."
"She could be hurt," Serena protested, "she could have fallen and hit her head against something. If it was me – I'd want someone to check."
Nodding emphatically, Serena straightened her blouse and pulled on her skirt. She grabbed her heels and slipped them on before looking at him determinedly. "Are you coming?"
Pierre sighed and uttered some words in French before obligingly pulling on his previously discarded clothing before taking her hand and allowing her to drag him out of the room and into the hallway. Together they made their way up the grungy staircase to the fifth floor, and Serena knocked on the door of apartment 512.
When she received no reply, she pushed against the door and peeked tentatively through the crack, ignoring Pierre's huff of disapproval. When still she saw no one, she cracked the door a bit further. She let out a gasp and raced into the room at what she saw.
Sprawled out on the floor, was a brunette woman with little to no clothing on. In one hand was a half empty bottle of Vodka, and in the other was a small bag filled with white powder. Serena crouched down next to her and yelled for Pierre to call an ambulance. She felt the woman's neck for a pulse, but found none. Pierre helped her to roll the woman over and onto her back, thus succeeding in moving her hair from her face as they did so. Serena let out a shriek as Pierre started to lay pressure on the woman's heart.
"Ohmigod, ohmigod." Serena breathed, recognizing the familiar features. "Georgina!"
"You know her?" Pierre shouted.
"Yeah," Serena said, tears pouring down her cheeks. "She used to be one of my best friends. She has to wake up! I can't do this again, not this time." Serena said, almost to herself. "Georgina wake up!" She shook the lifeless body frantically until Pierre gently pulled her away and held her until the paramedics came.
Serena broke down again as they pronounced Georgina dead on the scene. She turned away as they put a blanket over the still warm corpse, and as they asked Pierre questions she looked around the room, her body shaking with silent sobs. The place was filthy. There were bottles everywhere, old pizza boxes still half full, days old takeout still in trays. There was dust on every surface, and a large mattress was stuffed in the corner. There were needles and syringes everywhere.
She walked slowly to the other side of the room and peered into a tiny bedroom, it was not much better then the rest of the apartment. A large wardrobe dominated most of the room, and there was a small single bed in the middle. She had just turned to leave again when she heard a small crying sound. She spun around and darted further into the room, only to find something that she had missed on first glance. In the far corner, beside the wardrobe, there was a shabby old bassinet.
Inside was a tiny baby – it couldn't have been older then six months – clutching at a ratty pink blanket and crying its eyes out. Instinctively Serena reached for the baby and clutched it to her chest, rocking it gently and making soothing noises as she did so. Serena quickly shouted for a paramedic, and watched anxiously as the man looked the baby over.
He nodded gravely to Serena, "She's underweight, and she appears to be having slight difficulty breathing – probably as a result of the dampness in the room over a prolonged period of time. Other then that she appears fine."
"What will happen to her?" Serena asked hoarsely.
It was a police officer who answered her, "She'll be taken into protective custody until a father or a relative can be found. I'm Detective Baker, I'd like to ask you a few questions about Georgina."
Serena nodded, prying her eyes away from the baby. "Can I come and stay with her until you reach her Grandparents? I don't want her to be alone." Serena looked at him pleadingly until he nodded reluctantly.
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"What do you mean they don't want to take her?" Serena asked her mother angrily, a few days later. "She's their granddaughter!"
Lily sighed as she enveloped her daughter in a hug, "It's not that simple sweetheart. Mr and Mrs Sparks haven't seen or heard from Georgina in years. They'd given up on searching for her, only to get a call saying that she'd died of an accidental overdose. They just need time to grieve."
"And what about what Victoria needs?" Serena demanded, pulling away. "She's just a baby, hasn't she been through enough?"
"Serena, darling, I understand." Lily said soothingly.
"No! No you don't!" Serena said, tears pricking her eyes yet again. "You weren't there Mom, you didn't see what Georgina was like. You didn't see how they were living. I can't just let this go, it could've been me laying there on that floor. If you and everyone else hadn't stepped in on time..." Serena shook her head and whispered, "It could've been me."
Lily rested her head on her daughter's shoulder and didn't reply. There wasn't much that she could say. It was the truth, and they both knew it.
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Present Day...
"What time is Daddy coming home tonight?" Tori asked later that day as she and Serena sat down to eat dinner.
"Late," Serena smiled sympathetically as her daughter's face fell. "He has to work sweetie, but you'll see him all day tomorrow."
Tori stirred her broccoli around her plate sulkily, "And then he's going on that business trip until Saturday. And then we have the Gala on Sunday."
"I know," Serena sighed, "but he'll be finished this account soon, and then he's promised to take us away for a few days. Wherever we want."
Tori's face brightened. "Really?" She asked, clapping her hands excitedly.
No, Serena thought honestly, but he will when I'm through with him. Instead she nodded enthusiastically, "Yep, and I'll tell you what," she lowered her tone to a conspiratorial whisper, "if you manage to eat all of your vegetables until we leave, I'll even let you pick where we go. Deal?"
Serena laughed as Tori immediately started shoving broccoli into her mouth. "I'll take that as a yes."
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"You're sure about this?" Chuck asked her one more time before they stepped into the limo.
"Yes," Blair nodded, "let's just go there, and get it over with."
"Blair this deal could take weeks to close, and even then we'll have to stay and finalize all of the details." He told her. "And we'll be going directly against Lily and the company. They're not going to take us snatching their business from under their noses lying down. We're going to have to fight for it. And that means going to all of the fancy dances and mingling with our old friends."
"I know," Blair told him impatiently. "I've thought about this just as much as you have. We'll go there, we'll win the account, and then we'll come back and take over our rightful places as joint CEO."
"It's not going to be that simple. You're deluding yourself if you think it will be."
"Chuck, it will be that simple if we make it that simple." Blair said sternly. "Now shut up, and get in the damn car."
Chuck sighed but did as he was told. "Are you sure you have everything?" He said, changing the subject. "I don't want this to be a repeat of Rio."
Blair glared at him, "Let's not have that particular conversation minutes before we are set to board a ten hour flight."
Chuck held his hands up in mock innocence. "Fine with me," he smirked, "does this mean we can find other, more entertaining, ways to occupy ourselves?"
Blair rummaged in her purse until she found her palm pilot. She handed it to him along with a thick sheaf of paper filled with all of the names and numbers of Manhattan's elite. "You can start typing those into my address book," she told him briskly. "I'll start looking up information on some of the new blood."
"Not exactly what I had in mind," Chuck muttered as he began to copy in the numbers, "but whatever."
Blair smirked to herself as she opened her laptop.
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Blair yawned as she lifted her head from it's uncomfortable perch against the window of the airplane. It had been a long time since she had resorted to flying commercial, ten years almost, but she hadn't wanted to use the jet. Somehow, sitting in a cramped compartment with thirty other people, it just felt right.
They had left from JFK, and they would return to JFK. Even if the seats were horrible and the man two rows down had a cold and kept coughing incessantly.
Granted they were flying first class and their hand luggage got three seats all to themselves, but still, Blair reasoned, it was a sacrifice. She was sitting and drinking lukewarm champagne here whereas she would have been drinking ice cold Christalle in the jet. Chuck thought she was mental of course, but after she had explained her reasoning he had reluctantly agreed.
Emphasis on reluctantly.
They were six hours into the flight and he had done nothing more then sit and read and sleep. He hadn't even bothered flirting with the airhostess, or suggest that they rejoin the mile high club. Either he was sick, or he was really worried about coming home.
Home. Blair frowned at the unconscious use of the word. She wasn't even back yet, and already she was thinking of New York as home. No. LA was her home. She lived in a gorgeous apartment near the beach. She worked for Shina Ltd. And most importantly, she answered to no one. Except Chuck – but he didn't count. She was in control of her own life. She was strong, beautiful, smart, ruthless and deadly. She was Blair Cornelia Waldorf – be it in LA, New York or the moon.
So why was she so afraid that the second she step foot in Manhattan she'd automatically resort back into the insecure, selfish, spoilt little princess that prayed upon other people's insecurities because she couldn't handle her own? Why was she afraid that after working for ten long years to be a better person, one glimpse of someone fawning over the perfect Serena would send her reeling back again? Why was she terrified that not only would she revert to her old self, but that Chuck would too?
He had changed more then she had since they'd left. The essence of Chuck was still there; he was still the cheeky, arrogant, playboy she had fallen in love with in the back of a limo over eleven years ago. But he was different. All of the hurt and the pain and the misery that had plagued him his whole life had vanished the second that they had bought their first apartment together and he realized that she was in it for the long haul. That she wasn't going to leave him the second times got tough. And get tough they did.
When she was sick, he had stood by her. He had been strong for her. Just like she had been strong for him so many times before. They were a team now, be they together or not. There was no one person making sacrifices for the other. It wasn't a question of obligation, or of duty. They were Blair and Chuck, Chuck and Blair. Together forever and always. No matter what they said, no matter what they did. They had been through too much to let anyone or anything split them apart.
She only hoped that everyone else understood that.
Because even as stable and as sturdy as their relationship was, it had only ever been tested by people who barely knew them, and vice versa. The had fledged their relationship around each other. In a city where they had no one else but the other it was either stick together or crumble. But against Serena and Nate, Lily and Eleanor, Harold and Jack...
Would they be strong enough to withstand the anger and the hatred and the judgment of the people who knew their deepest thoughts and secrets?
LA was home now. But New York would always be home to them.
LA was just Chuck and Blair. A single entity, never to be divided. New York was Chuck, and Blair. Blair, and Chuck. With all of the in betweens.
"We'll be okay right? It will all be okay?" She asked fearfully. Speaking quietly, in a whisper. Chuck almost didn't hear her.
He smiled faintly. "No. It won't be. But we'll survive." He took her small hand in his and she squeezed. "We always do."
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As they walked into the lobby of the Plaza hotel later that night, Chuck was thankful for the fact that as of yet they had not spotted anybody they knew or had known. It had been nerve wracking, the whole journey into the city. Every blonde woman was Serena, every man Nate. Any child was immediately suspected of being Serena's infamous daughter, even though they didn't even have so much as a photograph of her to go on.
They had had five days to get used to the idea of returning – it hadn't been enough. And now, tomorrow morning, they were going to breakfast with the heads of Holman Enterprise, an up and coming computer chip manufacturer whose recent breakthrough could earn everyone involved millions of dollars. But they needed financial backing to take the company public. That was where Bass Industries came in. It had money and influence, and the business know-how to really make Holman a success. Bass Industries were also looking to expand. While the hotel business in general had lost money over the past few years with the economic downfall, Bass Industries had grown larger and more powerful. It had the cash flow to be able to buy out many of the struggling nightclubs and hotels and turn them into major successes. It also helped that the clientèle that Bass Industries aimed at had never had to worry about a dime in their lives.
The business genius that had made Bass Industries grow far beyond anything Bart himself had ever dreamed of? His younger brother, Jack Bass.
And now he wanted to try his hand at electronics and micro-chips. Chuck wasn't really surprised, Jack had never heard of limitations. Much less boundaries. That night at the Opera all those years ago proved that much. He bet it had killed Lily to have to relinquish her hold on the company to Jack. Hell, Chuck himself hadn't exactly been thrilled when he'd heard, but in the absence of Bart's heir, Jack was entitled to the company. There was no way around it.
Unless Chuck came back. Which he wouldn't. Ever. Jack was welcome to the company as far as he was concerned. But Jack didn't know he felt like that. If Chuck even hinted that his intentions were to take over the company, Jack would lose everything that he had worked so hard for over the years. He'd do anything in his power to stop Chuck, even if it meant letting go of a potential client that would bring in twice their yearly revenue in six months.
If need be and worst came to worst, Chuck could have Blair out of here in a week.
With this thought I mind, he signed in under his real name and instructed the concierge to have their bags taken up to their suite. He then lead Blair to the bar and smirked as he took in their only ally. "Bro. Long time no see."
Eric spun around in his chair and grinned at the two. "All of eight months." He signaled to the barman to get them more drinks and patted to the seats beside him. Blair took his right while Chuck took the seat to his left. "I certainly wasn't expecting to get a call two hours ago saying that you were in town. Mom's convinced I have a secret boyfriend, I excused myself so fast."
"Sorry about that E." Blair shrugged, "We would have called sooner but it's been kind of hectic these past few days."
Eric raised his eyebrows. "So I gathered. Care to explain?"
"Business," Chuck told him, taking a drink of his scotch. "Wright wants the Holman account. Guess who he sends to secure it."
"I heard my mom talking about that. So it's big?"
"Big enough that Shina is risking making an enemy of Bass Industries for." Blair said. "Not so big that they're above using it to test our loyalties."
Eric nodded in understanding. "So how do you guys want to play this?"
"We want as least publicity as we can. We get in, we get the deal, we get out." Chuck looked at Blair for conformation. She nodded.
"What about everyone else?"
Blair sighed, "There's no way we can avoid seeing any of them is there?"
Eric shook his head. "Definitely not. And there's a big Gala on in a few days. You're going to have to make the rounds quickly if you want to avoid publicity. The last thing you want is your dirty laundry aired in front of everyone."
They exchanged glances. "So who do we go to first?"
Eric bit his lip, thinking. "If you don't go to Nate and Serena first, Serena will be hurt and Nate will just get angrier. Likewise with your parents Blair. You're best bet is getting them all in the same room at the same time."
Chuck nodded in understanding. "What time does your family dinner party start tomorrow night then?"
"What dinner-- oh." Eric sighed in resignation. "I don't suppose it matters to you two that I might have had plans?"
Blair smirked. "Not particularly. Besides, if we're your secret lover then how exciting can your life really be?"
Eric glowered at her. "As a matter of fact, I'm late to meet someone right now." He got to his feet. "Try not to disappear again while I'm gone. This time I might not bother to track you down."
"We'll bring the wine?" Chuck called after him. Eric send him a rude hand gesture in response.
R&R
