This is another very subtle chapter. I just feel like subtle fits this story because that's how the show was, and since this is canon, I decided to keep it that way. Since I wrote this chapter, it isn't confusing to me, but I could see it being confusing to others, especially since I've barley written Dan's POV in the other chapters. As a reminder, flashback is italicized, and it's an important flashback that makes sense towards the end of the chapter.
Also, sorry for the errors. I know this chapter might have some and I don't have time to look it over.
Dan should be writing and finishing the novel he's spent the past three years working on, but Nate had become quite a distraction. A month had passed and he was still in New York. The plan was to stay in New York for two weeks, but he lost track of time.
He doesn't know how, but Nate had convinced him to come camping with Blair and Chuck. It wasn't any regular sort of camping trip, there was an imprint of the Upper East Side on it.
The trip began with Nate driving them to the woods in a giant Black SUV. There weren't any tents, instead Chuck had chosen to book them a large cabin with a glorious view of the lake.
Dan threw his bag into the back of the SUV and saw a blue eyed dirty blonde woman walking side to side with Chuck. She looked familiar and he realized he had seen her in the New York Times before. There was a piece on her about her paintings.
Katherine Starr was her name if he remembered correctly.
"Dan…This is Katherine," Chuck introduced them
Dan's lips curved slightly. "I'm a huge fan."
Katherine met Dan's smile. "So am I."
"It's okay, you don't have to lie," he joked, shoving his hands down his pockets.
Katherine laughed lightly at first, but then raised her brows and gave him a look of not trying to offend. "I'm sorry…I'm a little old for your books."
Katherine gave him one last smile before leaving to sit in the SUV.
As soon as Katherine left, Dan tilted his head and looked at Chuck. "Dude."
"I know," Chuck said giving him knowing smirk
"Thank you."
Chuck laughed and walked past Dan.
Driving to the cabin, Dan started playing I Spy with Henry and slowly everyone started joining them. Of course when Nate joined them, he ruined the game by choosing Serena's cleavage as what caught his eyes.
He spoke with Katherine for a little while and learned she was a family friend, more so of Chuck's then Blair's. She had sort of a hippy look to her, but she was really gorgeous. The first thing he noticed about her was her full lips.
Once they finally reached the cabin, they grabbed their bags and went their separate ways. As he stepped into through the sliding glass door, he could easily picture himself getting lost in it. The place had fur rugs and animal heads on the walls. It had a classic cabin feel to it, except it was larger.
Nate and Dan made sure their rooms were next to each other, since they were the only single men in the cabin. After they unpacked, they went straight for the wine cellar, hoping Henry was put to bed by then.
He stepped down to the dusty old basement with Nate and began searching through the racks of wine, finding them to be very old.
"Do you know why I left Serena," Dan asked, looking at the year and name of the wine's he was scanning through.
Nate's eyes left the wine and went to Dan. "No…You never talk about it."
"I treated her pretty badly," he told Nate as the blonde uncorked a bottle of wine
A sad smile formed on Nate's lips. "Yeah…I remember."
"She deserves to be with someone she doesn't feel insecure with…With someone that loves her just as."
Dan chose a bottle of wine and headed back upstairs, hoping Nate got the idea.
XOXOXOXO
"I can't deal with this anymore," Chuck yelled, pacing back and forth in his office. "I'm not gonna sit around and watch you have some emotional affair with someone who doesn't even live here."
"What do you want me to do," Blair asked sounding hopeless and tired
Her eyes felt heavier than they should have.
Chuck stopped and looked up to meet her eyes. "I want you to come back to reality. I want you to fight for us."
Her eyes shifted downwards. "We both know we married too young...We should've dated, or at least moved in together first."
"We can fix this," Chuck countered as he stepped closer
Blair looked up again. "How?"
Chuck reached for her cheek and looked deeply into her eyes. "Do you trust me?"
She took a moment to think about it. Her eyes were on him and they looked sincere.
"Yes," she whispered
XOXOXOXO
Blair took a sip from her glass of wine and narrowed her eyes at the two chattering it up by the warm fireplace. Her lips were pressed in displeasure from the stench of romance filling the room. It reeked of chemistry and her fingers began grasping tightly onto her wine glass.
"Are you seriously just going to sit here and watch him get laid," Serena said, ruining her sulking
Blair turned her head and glared. "Are you," she challenged
Serena giggled as her lips were pressed on the edge of the glass. "Oh Blair." Serena placed her drink on the coffee table and her eyes went out to the deck. "Nate looks awfully cute tonight…Don't ya think?"
She took her eyes off Serena, and had another sip from her wine glass, deciding to ignore the blonde. Her lips pouted a little at the thought of everyone other than her having sex tonight. Even if Henry wasn't staying in the same room, she doesn't know if she was really in the mood.
"Are we friends," Serena asked hesitantly
Her eyes were on Dan and Katherine, Serena barley maintaining her attention. "Why are you asking?"
"Because you never told me how you feel about him," Serena explained sounding a little sad
"I suppose you can call us acquaintances stuck with each other," she told Serena
Blair continued to stare at Katherine and Dan, fingers curled under her jaw. Living in the past was considered dangerous, but Blair had been doing it all of her life. Her life was just a cycle and the men were all the same.
"You're letting Chuck win."
Her attention then went to Serena.
"Dan seems to be into Katherine," Serena said
"I think that was what Chuck was aiming for S."
"Or, it might just be the push you need," Serena countered with a light smile
"Why are you doing this," Blair asked softly
"Because I don't want Dan to be like the alcoholic writer's he looks up to."
XOXOXOXO
Dan tried to go to sleep, but the sounds of Serena's moaning were terribly annoying. After listening to the journey of Nate and Serena's sexual awakening for each other ended, he still had trouble sleeping so he left for the kitchen to have a glass of milk.
To his surprise, he saw Serena grabbing some fruit from the fridge, hair disheveled. He cleared his throat and Serena's head popped out of the fridge to the sound.
"You're still awake," Serena said, looking surprised
"You do know your room wasn't preoccupied," he replied, lips curving slightly. "But then there is nothing better than revenge I suppose," he trailed off.
"Of course, you needed to know what you were missing out on," Serena teased as her lips curled into a smile
They laughed it off and let a moment pass in-between them. The curve of Dan's lips faded and he looked straight across to meet Serena's eyes.
"Why now?"
"Because if I was going to be with Nate, then there was no chance of us salvaging our relationship," Serena confessed, looking down. "It was hard for me to let us go."
Serena gave him a sad smile and picked up some things from the fridge and headed back for Nate's room.
Night passed and he cooked waffles for everyone. The smiles on their faces were worth all the effort. Once everyone was finished eating, he snuck Henry out, right under their noses and took him fishing. He could've taught Henry to fish with plastic bait, but he decided to teach the boy the way his grandfather taught him. Henry scrunched his nose at the sight of sandworms just like his mother would, but he continued on and showed how to place the worm onto the hook. They eventually caught a bass, but placed it back in the water.
After spending some time fishing, they headed back to the cabin to see the group holding rifles and with dogs roaming around them. Chuck explained to him that they were going to hunt for quails. He wasn't surprised since he wasn't expecting it to be a normal camping trip.
They split up into groups and dogs. Blair teamed up with him, causing Chuck's nostrils to flare. Chuck took Henry with him, since according to Chuck, hunting was something a father taught his son.
"I have no idea how to use this thing," Dan said, holding a rifle and his steps causing a rumpling of leaves noise
Blair and him were in the woods with no sign of life except the sounds of bird's chirping and their dog breathing heavily.
"Where are we going to find this stupid bird," Blair huffed
"Even if we find one, who's shooting it," Dan questioned, staring at Blair
"You obviously," Blair replied, raising both her brows expectantly
"Leaving me with the dirty work. Why am I not surprised?"
She giggled and then nudged him with the butt of her rifle. Their eyes then met and she looked at him in a way that made him feel something he had been trying to avoid for years. He hated that look. The look that had her lips slightly curved and her eyes gleaming.
Dan cleared his throat and took his eyes off her.
"I hear you're leaving," Blair said, trying to change the mood
"I have to go home at some point."
"Why don't you consider New York home," Blair asked
He stopped and turned so that his body would face her. "Because the only thing linking me to you guys is Serena."
Blair frowned a bit in response. "That's not fair."
He smiled a little thinking of a memory, now realizing how ridiculous they were. "Do you remember what you told Serena before your wedding?...The thing about how I not one of you, but Chuck is."
Blair's face fell. "You know about that," she said softly
He nodded and swallowed. "At first, it killed me because all I ever wanted was to be accepted, especially by you….But then I realized it wasn't such a bad thing and that's what led me to leave New York."
"I only said that because the thought of you being in love with Serena really bothered me," Blair admitted, shoulders slouching and her eyes on her hands.
"Unfortunately, I don't believe you."
Serena was the only person who stood by him, no matter what mistakes he made. Nate turned on him and accused him of being worse than Chuck while Blair thought he was the most disgraceful person in the world, all because he turned into them.
XOXOXOXO
Nate took a swig from his beer bottle and then ran his hands through his hair, showing off his long dirty blonde locks while standing out on the deck.
"Thank you."
"For what," Dan asked, brows furrowing in confusion
"For helping me with Serena," Nate answered and looked down. "How can I help you?"
Dan shook his head and took a swig from his beer bottle. "When are you going to learn that I'm not going to change my mind?"
"Why," Nate asked softly, probing further
"Because she never loved me," he stated him simply with a sad smile. "Not that it mattered because if she had chosen me, she would've caught me having sex with Serena."
Nate leaned back against the log wall and took a moment to stay in deep thought as he took everything in.
"She's a mess now," Nate said more to himself then Dan. His eyes then shifted up to meet Dan's. "Why do think she drink's so much?"
Dan shrugged his shoulders, eye's crinkling questionably. "Chuck's an asshole."
"Three words…Damsel. In. Distress," Nate told him putting out three fingers, waiting for a reaction from Dan, but none coming from his direction.
"I know where you're trying to go with this."
There was some preconceived notion that Blair had been trying to gain his attention by destroying herself, but he had difficulty believing it. There were words Blair said to him that always stuck in his head and that had burned a hole in his heart.
"Blair was a mess after you left…It got so bad that her and Chuck started swinging," Nate explained and then looked down, deeply saddened at the thought.
His fingers curled into fists and he closed his eyes, trying cool off.
"Why didn't you do anything about it," he asked, jaw clenched
"Because it's Chuck and Blair. I thought that was how they functioned... But it just made things worse."
Dan chugged his beer and left the deck, not wanting to listen anymore. Listening about someone with so much potential going on a downward spiral was not his cup of tea.
"What are you going to do about it," Nate yelled out
"I'm not talking about this with you," he replied
XOXOXOXO
After making sure Henry was asleep, Blair left her bedroom to head downstairs, but when she walked past the bathroom, she felt a hand on her arm and the next thing she knew, she was in the bathroom with Dan staring down at her. Her back was against the door and their hips were pressed together.
"What are you doing," Blair asked, sound a bit surprised, breath caught
His big brown eyes were soft and hurt. "How about you come with me?"
"Where?"
A smirk tugged his lips. "Does it matter?"
She felt his hands grab underneath her thighs, to lift her up onto the sink. She slowly stared at his chest and swirled her index finger around it, looking a little shy.
"Unfortunately, there's only one way I can be happy." She placed a soft kiss right below his ear. "And it's with you…So tell Katherine I'm sorry for being selfish."
She could feel him smile as she nuzzled her nose and cheek against his neck, taking in his scent.
"What took you so long," she asked softly before placing kisses from his neck to the corner of his lips
"Sheer stupidity," Dan said before meeting her soft lips.
She let tugged him closer with her legs and enjoyed the feeling of him moving his hands freely within her hair as the kiss deepened. A suppressed moan escaped her lips as his tongue entered into the equation.
Dan pulled away from her lips and leaned his forehead against hers. "It can feel like this…If you want it to."
She met his eyes and they were pushing her to join him, but she could feel Henry and Chuck in the back, ruining any possibility for her and Dan.
Some might think Chuck and Blair swinging is a bit drastic, but I can seriously see them being that couple. Also, I think the next chapter will definitely come as surprise.
