It could have gone on, Blair seeking companionship with one, Dan Humphrey for the duration of the school year

Title: If You See Something, Say Something

Pairing(s): Dan/Blair, Nate/Blair, hints of Dan/Serena

Summary: What if Blair had gotten on the helicopter and gone to spend a semester in France after Chuck outted her to Gossip Girl. A changed Blair returns to New York for her senior year at Constance.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, from the Gossip Girl characters, to the songs used as the titles.

It could have gone on, Blair seeking companionship with one, Dan Humphrey for the duration of the school year. He didn't ask her where she had been nor where she was going. All he asked was for her to be present. And he really didn't even ask that so much. She was comfortable being present with him.

When her mother suggested she go out with friends, it was Dan she told. It was Dan who offered to go to the movies with her, to see some ridiculously melodramatic foreign film the both wanted to see. It was Dan would stay with her in a coffee shop for hours, arguing over the pros and cons of each of the Ivies, just in case either of them didn't get into their first choice.

When Halloween rolled around and there was a heavy chill in the air, it was Dan she told. "I had a dream last night," she said, sitting next to him on the bench the met at every morning. There were whispers about them. Whispers both were aware of, but whispers neither of them heeded.

Dan waited, figuring she'd explain what she had dreamed about, but she just looked at him. "Okay," he said slowly. "What does that mean?"

"I just, I don't remember what I dreamed about," Blair said, pulling her maroon scarf more snuggly around her neck. "But it was bad. I don't think anything good can happen tonight."

Dan laughed. Of course she was chickening out. They had each been invited to the big costume party one of Jenny's friends was throwing. People assumed Dan was dating Blair, so Blair was invited to everything again. Not to mention, barely anyone remembered why Blair had left in the first place. Most people took more notice of the Blair who was too busy with her life to be bothered with even looking at her phone while other people checked the latest Gossip Girl reports. What Dan found ironic was that the less Blair cared about being the most talked about girl in Constance, the more she was talked about.

The talk wasn't negative anymore. There were the rumors that they were dating and the only reason they kept it a secret was because of Serena. Which, if it were true, was highly likely. But they weren't dating. As Dan kept telling Jenny.

Then there were the rumors that Blair was engaged to some rich Frenchman and she was only back to rub how sophisticated she had become in everyone elses' faces. Dan liked that one. She wasn't as polished and perfect as she had been, but there was a certain air about her that reeked of confidence and elegance. He could understand why people were jealous of her now.

And there were rumors that she had gone to France to have a child. A child that was now being taken care of by her father and his gay lover. Blair liked that one, because she would have loved for Chuck Bass' child to be brought up by a couple of gay men. "But with my luck, it would have been Nate's and it would have been beautiful and I wouldn't have been able to leave France at all," Blair would joke. Dan laughed with her, but he thought it was an interesting insight into how she felt about the two boys she had been involved with.

"You cannot use a dream as a reason not to go to the party," Dan said, nudging her shoulder with his. "We made a deal."

Blair's bottom lip stuck out as she pouted. "Do you see how sad you make me, Dan Humphrey? Do you see?"

Dan laughed more loudly, shaking his head. "Blair, come on. We have costumes. We know what we're going to drink. And we know where we are going to sit to make fun of everyone else. It'll be the outsider's corner of the ball."

Blair sighed loudly, before she smiled at Dan. "When you put it like that, it sounds like the most fun I've ever had at one of those parties."

"Then, I'm picking you up at nine, Waldorf," Dan said, gently tugging on a lock of her hair.

"Yeah, yeah," she said, laughing. She talked with him for a few more moments before she headed off to classes. He and Vanessa had been trying to pinpoint when his feelings for Blair had gone beyond friendship. And he honestly couldn't say.

Vanessa said he was a jerk for not asking her out.

"I'm ready, I'm ready," Blair said, rushing down the stairs in an ivory flapper's dress, the fringe swinging madly as she fiddled with the earring she was putting on. She had pulled off the look perfectly. She had even gotten the nylons with the stripe in the back, making her look as authentic as possible. She pirouetted in front of Dan, showing off the entire ensemble. "How do I look?"

"Wonderful, Zelda," he said, giving her a wide smile. They had spent nearly a day trying to figure out who they should be. Blair had said they should pick someone most people wouldn't guess, so they could laugh at their guesses. "If people think you are just a flapper, they are out of their minds."

Blair smiled before she reached out and straightened Dan's tie, making sure it was perfect. "Thank you, Francis Scott," she said, her eyes lifting to his. "We probably make quite the dashing pair."

"As dashing as Daisy and Jay?" he asked, offering Blair his arm.

"Moreso," she said with a nod. "Because we're real."

"They weren't exactly a banner couple," Dan replied, walking with Blair to the elevator. "I'm pretty sure they didn't even see each other for the last like, eight years he was alive."

"But they wrote each other all of the time," Blair replied. "Even when she was in a sanitarium, being treated for schitzophrenia, she was devoted to him."

"Is that love?" Dan asked. "Or insanity?"

"Well," Blair said, looking at her feet and smiling. "I personally believe it's a mark of insanity to love a writer anyways."

"You're just hell bent and determined not to like any girl who falls for me, aren't you Waldorf?" Dan asked, teasingly. He loved their banter. He wondered if he was the only one who considered this banter flirting. A slow burning form of foreplay.

"Maybe," Blair said vaguely.

"Can I get some more of that awful punch, darling?" Blair said, slurring her words together for dramatic effect. She wasn't anywhere near drunk, but the Fitzgerald's had spent their married lives drunk, so why not play the part?

"Anything your heart desires," Dan said, laughing as he went to refill their drinks.

Blair sat in the booth she and Dan had taken up residence at, watching others on the dancefloor and trying to decide if she was brave enough to get on the floor with Dan. She wasn't sure how well he knew how to dance.

A shadow fell across the table and an achingly familiar voice said, "Daisy Buchanan."

Blair looked up and stared, even though she had memorized the shaggy hair and the deep, clear eyes. Finally, she shook her head and pursed her lips together. It had taken over two months for him to speak to her. Almost four if she counted weeks before school had started that she had spent in New York. "Close," she finally said.

"Then who?" he asked, sitting in the spot previously occupied by Dan. She took a look at what he was wearing, trying to decide who he was supposed to be. He wore a suit, a nice suit, completely black. Maybe a mobster circa 1930. Dillinger?

"Zelda Fitzgerald," she said, reminding herself she was at the party with Dan. It was easy to be transported where Nate was concerned. She didn't expect him to know who Zelda was. She was impressed he knew Daisy's full name. Of course, juniors at St. Jude's and Constance Billiard had to read The Great Gatsby every year.

"Oh," he said, showing that he didn't know who she was. Maybe she was just some woman. Or maybe she was a writer in her own right. Maybe she was a painter, who couldn't paint herself away from the demons that haunted her. Blair felt a lot of sympathy for the woman, truth be told.

"F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife," Blair said, smiling to herself when she saw Dan coming back with their drinks. "He called her the First Flapper."

"Oh," Nate said, smiling this time. "You always were good with costumes."

"It was Dan's idea," she replied, reaching out for her drink when Dan brought it over. Dan nodded toward Nate, not sure how much of a hello he owed the other boy. They had never really been friends, more people who spoke because of who the other person was dating.

"Nice costumes," Nate muttered, sparing Dan a look.

"Thanks," Dan said. "I just came up with it, Blair did all of the hard stuff. What about you? Dillinger?"

"Yeah," Nate said, nodding his head. "That obvious?"

"Well, I would have said Clyde Barrow, but I don't see a Bonnie," Dan said, smiling before he looked at Blair, trying to judge how she was handling this encounter with Nate. He knew she hadn't spoken with him since before she had left. He knew that the eventual encounter was not something she was looking forward to. Blair rewarded him with a tight smile, before taking a sip of her drink.

"No one wanted to be my Bonnie this year," Nate said, nodding his head. Both Dan and Blair found that hard to believe and each chuckled.

"Okay, Nate," Blair said. She looked up at Dan with a dazzling smile. "What do you say we show this room how to dance?"

She stood up, the fringe of her dress flaring out as she moved. The pale color of the dress made it appear to change color as the lights above them changed colors. Dan grinned at her, holding out his arm to her. "Later Nate."

Blair didn't even give a backwards glance. But Dan could tell from the tight grip she had on his forearm that Blair was far from unaffected.

"I had fun," Blair assured Dan as they pulled up to his house in Brooklyn. "Really, I'm glad I went."

"Well, I won't force you out again," he said, anyways. They had a good time, but he knew it wasn't a situation she wanted to put herself in. People got drunk at the parties and then they all of a sudden remembered the past and wanted to pull out everyone's skeletons. And she could run into her exes.

"I will go out with you to another party," Blair said, grinning at her friend. She looked at the door to his building, realizing the car had stopped. "Maybe a graduation party when we can just say adios and be done."

"That could be something I would agree with," Dan said with a nod. "Next weekend though, we'll go see a band play or something. Get really down with our indie selves."

"Oh dear," Blair said, laughing. "If everyone could see me now, agreeing to get down with my indie self. I must like you a lot, Humphrey."

"Good," Dan said. And he made his move. He leaned forward and pressed his lips firmly against hers. It was a chaste kiss, nothing he couldn't brush off if she got offended by the kiss. But she pressed her lips back against his, returning the kiss.

Dan pulled back and smiled at her. "Just so you know, getting down with your indie self might require more than that. I'll have to check my emo-geek handbook."

"Oh, okay," Blair said, smiling even as she tried to keep a straight face. "Let me know about that. It might be a dealbreaker."

"Which way might it break the deal?" Dan asked, confusing himself.

"Oh Humphrey," Blair said. "Go get some sleep."

Her eyes danced with laughter and Dan was okay with that being the last image he had of the night. "Goodnight, Zelda."

"Goodnight, Francis," she replied, smiling fondly at the boy as he made his way to the door.

Blair hummed a song to herself as she took the elevator up to the apartment she shared with her mother. She lifted her hands to her lips, thinking about the kiss she had shared with Dan.

He had been unexpected. She had come home, figuring she would be alone. Serena, would try to be her friend again, she knew that much. But Blair didn't have it in her to depend on Serena again. She had figured Bass would harass her until he got bored with her indifference. And Nate would avoid her, as she embodied all that had gone wrong in his life. But Dan, she'd never expected him.

She'd never expected to kiss him. She definitely never expected to enjoy kissing him. She couldn't wait until she could really kiss him, instead of the innocent kiss they had shared in the backseat of her limo.

"Blair."

She closed her eyes. Not him, not him. Not while she had Dan on her lips. Not while she was looking forward to the next day. It had been so long since she had looked forward.

She opened her eyes and he really was there. His jacket was off and his sleeves were rolled up and she had imagined him like this before. So many times before. She shook her head as he made his way toward her.

"I've missed you," Nate said, getting close enough to touch, but waiting. Wanting some kind of indication from her.

"You've made this speech before," Blair said. "I like movies, not reruns."

"Blair," he said, in a tone that made her ache. She lifted her eyes to his and shook her head again.

"I can't," Blair said. It wasn't Dan that crossed her mind. It was the red coat she was wearing while she waited for Nate in his apartment, only to be turned away. "Not again. I won't fall for you again."

"I never stopped falling for you," Nate said, his hands resting at her waist. And Blair felt a burn she hadn't felt in months. Besides Roman and her parents and the occasional touches from Dan, no one had touched her in months, though many had tried.

"Don't lie to me," Blair said, hating herself for the tears that welled in her eyes. "Not again. Don't do this to me again."

"I didn't lie," Nate said, his eyes clouding confusion.

"You promised nothing could break us up, you promised me," Blair replied. "But at the first sign of trouble, you ran. You broke me."

"I'm sorry," he whispered and covered his lips with hers. It was romantic, it was perfect. Blair would tell herself she was hopeless to resist this boy who had captured her imagination for years.

Her brown eyes met his blue eyes and she led him up the stairs to her room, thoughts of the boy she had left behind in Brooklyn banished from her mind.