Before the girls knew it the taxi had pulled up to the Hospital Serena's mother had told them he was at. Blair was still crying as Serena paid the driver and then pulled her out of the car.
"Come on Blair everything is going to be okay."
"Hi, hello we're here for Charles Bass." Serena said loudly to a nurse that was sitting behind a desk, typing away at a computer as the two girls waited anxiously in front of her. The nurse looked up at the two girls and nodded thankfully she could understand English, because if she didn't Blair would have strangled her.
"Ah…yes go up to the waiting room on floor D, he's still in surgery so I'll have to send a doctor to you two for an update on his condition." The nurse said kindly as she pointed to the elevators on the other side of the room. Serena thanked the nurse before she pulled Blair into the elevator. As the doors closed Blair broke out into another fit of tears.
"Serena, wha…what if he doesn't make it?" Blair cried into her friends shoulder as the road the elevator up to floor D. Serena quickly pushed her best friend back so she was against the wall.
"Blair…you have to calm down, you're not helping the situation at all when you say stuff like that, I know what this is doing to you and its hurting me to but we can't give up on him ok." Serena wanted to scream at Blair but she understood what her friend was going though, how hurt she was but Serena just knew everything was going to be fine. Blair stared at her with wide eyes as Serena's words sunk in.
"Your right Serena we…we have to be strong for Chuck." Blair said in almost a whisper, she just wanted to see him it was the only way she was going to believe he was somewhat ok, if only she could she him breathing then she would know and trust what Serena was saying. Soon the elevators stopped and the girls descended down to corridor to a little empty glass room that had the words ICU VISITOR WAITING ROOM in English and Czech. The girls silently sat down in the small unconformable plastic chairs and waited. Blair watched the clock as the seconds passed by, she glanced down at the foreign magazines on the counter and looked on at the somewhat abused kids' toys that were strewn across the dirty blue and red carpet you would only find at a doctor's office or elementary schools. Serena wanted to call her mom but had spotted the NO CELLPHONE sing outside the glass window. They waited an entire hour before suddenly a tall man in a lab coat came around the corner holding onto a clipboard.
"Hello Ladies, I'm Dr. Vlcek." That man spoke in a thick accent as both girls heads shot up to greet him, Serena reached out to shake the man's hand then Blair before the doctor took a chair and pulled it in front of them to sit.
"We'll I have good news and bad news, the good news is that we were very much successful in the removal of the bullet, luckily Mr. Bass was not shot near any vital organs. As such he should make a full recovery. But as I said before the bad news is that we did have to revive him several times because of blood loss and as a result Mr. Bass is not able to breathe on his own, he has been hooked up to a ventilator, but sadly he is now in a comatose state which we are not sure he will awake from." The doctor finished his speech before handing a sobbing Blair a tissue. Serena just nodded along to what he say was paying very close attention so she could repeat it to her mother later. The doctor stood up, pushing the chair back. Before he turned to leave he pulled out a large plastic bag and handed it to Blair.
"These are Mr. Bass's things, even if everything seems to be there we know he was mugged because the paramedics that brought him in said that he was muttering something like "they took it, they took it" so the police are now looking for the suspects, hopefully when Mr. Bass wakes up he can tell them what exactly what they took, I'll send a nurse in when it's ok to see him." Serena thanked the doctor as he left then turned towered Blair who had set the bag in her lap.
"B, I'm going to get you something to eat, you should really eat something after today and I saw a hotel across the street so I'm going to see if I can get us a room." Serena said standing up to leave before Blair stopped her.
"I'm not leaving him alone Serena, you can go to the hotel but I'm staying with him." Blair said in a serious tone that scared Serena a little. She wasn't going to argue with her she was already not feeling good so Serena wanted food in her and they would talk about the hotel later.
"Okay B, I'll be back in a little bit so why don't you take little walk while we wait for them to get him ready okay." Serena suggested as she walked away from Blair leaving her alone in the little glass room. Blair decided that a walk wasn't such a bad idea. Taking her purse and the bag and silently made her way down the many hallways on floor D of the hospital. Blair's heels made a light clicking sound on the tile as she walked making her feel small and alone. She had a million thoughts rush through her head, causing more tears to fall down her face. 'Is he ok?', 'Will he wake up?', 'Will he ever say "I'm Chuck Bass!" again?' Blair felt weak, weak because she couldn't do anything to help; all she could think of was the empire state building.
"I should have gone so…sooner…err." In that moment Blair's world spun as she slid down the white brick wall in the middle of the hall, without her knowledge she had made her way down into the NICU/Nursery hall.
Blair let everything go when she hit the ground, curling her legs to her chest she sobbed into her stockings staining them with her salty tears. Her purse and the plastic bag forgotten until something in the bag clinked against the ground when it hit the tile. Blair's head picked up at the sound, glancing down at the back before opening it and spilling the contents into her lap. The biggest thing was Chuck's wallet but Blair moved that aside. Chuck's gold pinky ring was there and his bracelet and a gold pocket watch she had never seen before. She picked it up and opened it before gasping at the inscription that was etched into the inside cover.
To My Darling Son Charles, I Believe In You ~ Love Lily
Blair had no clue Lily had given Chuck this beautiful gift, she knew Lily loved Chuck like a son and she now felt bad for Lily because she probably was suffering with heartache for Chuck just like she was. Putting the watch down Blair spotted the small Silver lighter next to his cell phone that Nate and Serena had given him when all four of them had celebrated Chuck buying the Empire. They had gotten it engraved to say 'THE BOSS' in bold fancy print. Blair had to laugh a bit at the memory of that night when all of them got so drunk that Serena fell of the bar stool in the penthouse and Nate had smashed the tiny 'Congrats' cake in Chucks face.
Picking up the wallet Blair smiled at it, she had gotten it for him on his birthday, teasing him about him being younger than her (by only seven months as he put it) before she gave him his real "present". Upon opening it the first thing in front was Chuck's drivers license. Blair had always wondered why he had gotten one because he had Arthur the drive him around. Flipping it over she was assaulted by his collection of credit cards and in the pocket was about two hundred dollars in cash. "If Chuck was mugged why didn't they take his money?" Blair wondered how strange it was that they didn't take the money. Wasn't that the whole reason someone is mugged for? With that thought aside Blair flipped the second flap only to find about five picture slots with tons of pictures stuffed into them but the ones on the top of each pile stood out to her the most. The first one was black and white and Blair knew instantly that it was Chuck's 'mother'; he had the same picture on his night stand at his penthouse. The next surprised her it was a picture of herself, Chuck, Serena and Nate when they were about five, they we're on the Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park. Serena and Nate were making funny faces at the camera as a young Chuck whispered something into a blushing Blair's ear. Blair smiled at the memory as she went onto the next photo. She had to gasp at the next one because she didn't even know it had been taken. It was herself lying in Chuck's bed; it looked to be about mid morning because the sun was kissing her bare back as the white sheets covered and wrapped around her nude body, she had a smile on her face as if she was dreaming something wonderful. Then she remembered that this photo must have been taken the morning after Chuck had said 'I love you' because like in the photo she had woken up to Chuck smiling at her and a pink peonies tucked into her messy curls. More tears ran down her face as she was flooded with memories as the rest of the pictures were all of her smiling or blowing kisses. She had no clue that he had kept all those pictures of her but it also made her giggle a bit because she too had pictures of him in her purse and she has yet to take them out.
Finally after a while Blair decided it was time to get off the floor and head back to the waiting room to wait for Serena, she was shocked to she had only left for the walk ten minutes ago. But when Blair stood up she accidentally bumped into a chunky African American woman.
"Oh honey are you alright, I'm sorry about that." The woman a fairly decent American accent, so Blair understood her perfectly and apologized while quickly picking up her things.
"So, which ones yours?" The lady asked as she pointed to the glass window behind Blair. Blair turned around puzzled as to what the lady was pointing at until she saw about a dozen babies sleeping and wiggling around in little plastic cribs. Blair was shocked for a second before she turned around to the lady again.
"Oh no…I was just walking around I must have wondered down here and not even noticed." Blair laughed at her mistake her mind was in a totally different place then her body. The lady smiled as Blair noticed that she was dressed up like a nurse and that her name take said something about NICU nurse on it.
"Oh that's okay Hun…well seine you're here do you mind helping me with something I'm a little short handed it being two in the morning and all?" The nurse smiled at Blair and pleaded with her eyes for Blair's help.
"Um…sure what do you need?" Blair was led into the nursery and was quickly sat down into a pink rocking chair in the middle of the room by the nurse. Blair set her bags on the ground and waited patiently for instructions.
"I need to tend to a couple of babies that were just born and need a good washing, what I need you to do honey is this poor little sweet thing right here needs his bottle." The nurse scooped up the tiniest baby she had ever seen and gently placed him in Blair's awaiting arms with the tiny hospital bottle full of formula.
"Poor thing, he was just born about two hours ago. Sadly his mother has passed away only after five minutes of meeting the little angle." The nurse said softly as she showed Blair how to feed him. Blair's heart broke for the little baby as the nurse told the story.
"Oh my…that's terrible; it's going to be hard for him growing up without a mother. What's his name?" Blair asked as she started to feed the baby he cooed and wiggled in her arms making a big smile spread across her face.
"His name is Charles, now honey just do what your doin now, and when you're done just put him back in the crib and I'm right through that door so, just tell me you're done and you can be on your way." The nurse left after she finished telling Blair the information. After she was out of sight Blair looked down at Charles as more tears clouded her eyes.
"Hi Charles, you're so perfect and tiny I can't imagine what life is going to be for you without a mother. Well maybe I can, I have my own Charles down the hall he's grown up without his mother for nineteen years and let's just say his life has been rough. But you know what you just have to go on in life and find yourself a best friend that will love you even if you don't think they do and let them into your life, your best friends will be your family and you'll never feel lonely when they are around to help you. Because Charles you're loved even if nobody tells you at first, you're loved by all the people that you let into your heart." Blair didn't even know where she was going with this little speech, she kind of felt like she was trying to talk to Chuck through this tiny angle in her arms. So as she held Charles in her weak arms she knew just by looking at him that for some reason that everything was going to be ok. She believed with all her heart that everything was going to be fine and that Chuck was going to pull though. Just by looking at him she knew.
"All done?" Blair cooed as Charles let go of the empty bottle and fell back into a peaceful sleep. Blair set the bottle down. She rocked the baby for a few more seconds before she got up and put him back in the crib leaving him with a soft kiss to his soft forehead.
"Bye Charles." Blair said her goodbyes to the sleeping baby then to the nurse as instructed and was out the door headed back to the waiting room where Serena was just walking into as Blair rounded the corner.
"Hey B…I got you a salad if you want it, how was the walk?" Serena asked as Blair sat down next to her. She was hungry now that she thought about it, but she hoped this time she could keep it down.
"Cleared my head a bit, did you know your mom gave Chuck a watch with a very beautiful inscription in it?" Blair asked taking a bite of her salad it was actually good for it being hospital food.
"Yeah she loves him you know; speaking of my mom she just landed and is staying with me at the hotel. I'm still guessing that you are staying here instead of sleeping at the hotel right?" Serena asked with an annoyed look on her face, she wanted Blair to get a good night sleep but her best friend wasn't having it.
"That right Serena I'm not leaving Chu…" Blair didn't get to finish her sentence because a nurse came into the room with a tired smile on her face.
"Miss Van der Woodsen, Miss Waldorf one of you can go in and see mister Bass but he still hasn't woken up I'm afraid it may take some time." The nurse said softly waiting for the girls to respond.
"You go ahead B…I'll come in and check on you when my mom gets here okay." Serena smiled as her friend stood up to leave, thanking Serena for letting her go. Blair clutched onto the scarf that was still around her neck as the nurse led her down the halls of the ICU.
"Right this way Miss Waldrof." The nurse led Blair down until they reached a door marked 812, Chuck's carts and things were by the door with the name of his doctor and the nurses on staff. The nurse turned to leave as Blair clutched the handle before turning in the nurse's direction.
"Thank you." Blair thanked the nurse then turned the handle of the door before quickly sliding inside shutting it softly as she stood facing the back of the door. Taking a deep breath Blair prepared herself for the worst. For the second time that day she prayed, fisting the scarf between her fingers.
"Dear God, please let everything be okay."
Wow this took forever. But it was worth it. Baby Charles is my favorite part! REVIEW AND I'LL GIVE YOU YOU OWN BABY CHUCK! :D Click the button you know you wanna!
