**I don't own any of the rights to Gossip Girl or its characters, just saying

~ So how'd you pick the pieces up; I'm barely used to saying me instead of us. The elephant in the room keeps scaring off the guests. It gets under my skin to see you with him and it's not me that you're with~

Serena tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and sighed. It was the same, sorrowful sigh that she had been trying to keep in and now, with Blair asleep, it escaped. She had managed to slip off of Blair's bed and was walking around the hospital aimlessly. There was nowhere else she wanted to be and yet she could think of a million places where she would rather be. Instead, Serena pored herself into the task at hand: destroying Gossip Girl. It had been awhile since she had really put any thought into this; between the accident and comforting Blair Serena had barely had time to think of what to do.

She was just about to brainstorm when she saw Nate coming down the hall.

"Nate, hey," Serena said with a smile. She controlled the soft flutter that she felt and filled Nate in on everyone's conditions.

"So, what can we do?" Nate asked. He was trying to remain entirely platonic but, around Serena, that was hard to do. He knew that the feelings he had for her, the feelings he always had for her, weren't mutual anymore. But that wasn't Serena's fault; she had moved on easily, as always. He found his thoughts drifting to Ivy and wondering if he could have moved on, too, if Ivy really had been Charlie Rhodes. Sure, Nate had had girlfriends after Serena but they had always been short-lived flings. Ivy had been the first person that he had had any sort of real feelings for and she was gone.

"Nate, are you listening?" Serena asked with a twinge of annoyance in her voice. She wasn't used to Nate spacing out on her; Dan, maybe, but never Nate.

"Yeah, sorry I guess I got lost in my head," Nate said.

"Well, I was saying that maybe you could help me brainstorm ideas to take down Gossip Girl? For Blair and Chuck, and all of the other people she's hurt."

Nate nodded half-heartedly but Serena didn't seem to notice. She was glad to have a partner in crime that wasn't Dan. She had made the decision, after talking to Blair, to move on. Dan had certainly moved past the idea of them being soulmates and so could she.

For hours the two tried to come up with any way to take down Gossip Girl but to no avail. It seemed like every time Serena would come up with something, Nate would shoot it down and vice versa.

Frustrated, Serena leaned her head back and moaned.

"Why don't we take a break, maybe get some food? Hospital food is crappy but it beats this," Nate said with a smirk.

Serena smiled, "Yeah, OK." She felt the butterflies again and tried to ignore them. As usual it seemed like Serena never knew what she wanted. Did she want Dan or Nate; even she didn't know the answer to the question she constantly faced. She had loved Nate forever but being in love with him had been more frightening than anything Serena had faced. And now it looked as though tragedy would bring the two back together again.

"Nate?" Serena said quietly.

"Yeah?"

"This is nice, the two of us, hanging out together. It's like old times."

Which old times? Nate wanted to ask. The times when we were in middle school and just friends or when we were dating, two years ago?

"Nate?" Serena asked again.

"Yeah, it is nice, Serena," Nate said. He didn't know what else to say, really. Why was everything between them complicated whenever there was no one there to act as a buffer? Whether it was Chuck this summer or someone else, Nate and Serena hadn't really spent time together, just the two of them, since they broke up.

~ I still don't know how to act or know what to say, still wear the scars like it was yesterday.

They ate in silence, each person contemplating what was happening. The old feelings that were stirred up, even in a simple setting like lunch, were overpowering. Just as Nate was about to address the issue, Lily walked in.

"Chuck's out of surgery and he's awake," Lily said.

Serena abruptly stood up from her chair and hugged her mom, "Really? That's great! Does he know?"

Lily shook her head, "No one's told him about Blair and the baby. Louie's talking to her now so I guess we'll see."

'How much did Lily know?' Serena wondered. Surely she had put two and two together about Chuck and Blair but did she know that Blair was ending things with Louie? Or would she even end things now, after the accident?

"Can we see him?" Nate asked.

Lily smiled and nodded, "He's very groggy and confused but that's to be expected. Just, be gentle and don't tell him anything, let him and Blair sort it out."

Nate nodded and touched Serena's arm softly. The two of them headed toward Chuck's room and somehow, on the way there, Serena had found Nate's hand. She intertwined her fingers with his and took in a shaky breath, completely unsure of what she was doing or even why. All she knew was that she needed the comfort; Serena could think about what she meant when everything had settled down a bit.

**Sorry this took forever and isn't very long. I wanted to set it up for the most recent episode (which I haven't seen yet so no spoilers) and, even though this will become AU because I doubt Nate and Serena get together (sigh), I want to try and keep the story running at least a little parallel to the show. Also, if anyone has ideas for getting Nate and Serena "officially" together, shoot me a message because I'm playing with a couple of thoughts but any input would be great. Once I watch the newest episode I'll add another update so that should be within the next few days, I hope.

**The bolded quotes and the name of the chapter is the song "Long Gone and Moved On" by The Script, in case anyone was wondering.