Author's Note: The beginning of this chapter is a flashback, as to not cause any confusion. I'm glad to see that I've gotten a few more favorites/follows and I'd like to give a big thanks to MissShellyBabes who was my first reviewer on this story! I'm glad you like it!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or plot from Gossip Girl, save for my own. I also do not own any references to anything from any other franchise or show. Thank you.
Spotted: Charlotte Waldorf and Carter Baizen leaving a party…together. I guess you can only fight with someone for so long before you end up fighting for them. Take care of him, C, I hear he got some good hits in for you.
XOXO,
Gossip Girl
"C'mon, Baizen," Charlotte sighed as she took his hand in her own and led him through the crowd of people that had appeared from seemingly nowhere to watch the fight. "Let's go."
"Where are we going?" He briefly glanced at their hands, smirking as he was able to intertwine their fingers without protest from the brunette.
"We're going to go get you cleaned up," she informed him as she hailed a taxi. "Your limo isn't here, right?"
"No," he shook his head, stumbling. "Sent him home."
"Okay. Your dad is home, right?" He nodded and she helped get him into the limo that had pulled up.
"He'd better not barf in here," the cabbie informed her as she got in, locking eyes with the young woman in the rearview mirror.
"1136 Fifth Avenue," she ignored the cabbie, speaking coldly. As he began driving, she cupped Carter's face in her hands to inspect it. "Does it hurt?"
"What?"
"Your cheek," her finger trailed over a cut on his cheek from one of the rings on the knuckles he'd been hit with.
"Don't feel anything," he shrugged as she dropped her hands down to take his left hand into her own and inspect the cuts on the knuckles. "Where are we going?" He frowned again. The address had sounded familiar, but he couldn't remember why.
"My penthouse," she informed him, placing his hands back in his lap as she began to think of all the things she needed from the first aid kit in the kitchen. She hoped that Dorota and Blair were asleep.
"But won't your mom flip?" He pondered, seemingly coherent for a moment.
"She's in Paris," Charlotte muttered, glancing away. Finalizing divorce papers, were the thoughts she left unsaid.
"Oh…"
She paid the cabbie and helped get Carter into the elevator. Once inside the penthouse, she got him up into her room, shushing him along the way. She sat him on the edge of the claw foot tub in her bathroom and told him to stay put and stay quiet, before she snuck away again.
Peeking into Blair's room, she saw that the younger girl was fast asleep with her replica Breakfast at Tiffany's eye mask and earplugs in that Charlotte had gotten her for her last birthday. She smiled and continued on her mission to the kitchen.
She grabbed the entire First Aid Kit from the closet that they kept all of the cleaning supplies in and rushed back upstairs, shutting her bedroom door behind her. When she entered the bathroom, she was surprised to see that Carter had listened to her and stayed in one spot.
She quickly cleaned the cut on his cheek with a bit of alcohol, which he winced at.
"Can't feel anything, huh?" She mused as she put some antiseptic cream on it and then put a butterfly bandage over it. She then got down on her knees in front of him and inspected his knuckles once more.
"I could get used to this," he slurred out with a smirk on his face.
"To what? Me patching your dumb ass up?" She reached for the alcohol bottle.
"Seeing you on your knees," he grinned.
She looked him dead in the eyes and poured the alcohol over his knuckles with no warning. He hissed, cursing as he yanked his hand away. She pursed her lips. Asshole.
"Give me your hand back," she stuck out her own and he obeyed hesitantly. She applied the ointment, wrapped gauze around his knuckles, and put everything back in the kit.
"You're really pretty…" He slurred out, leaning down so that his hand touched her cheek. She froze in her place, not even glancing up at him. "Like… so pretty," he added on.
"Uh… Thanks, Carter." She made the mistake of looking up into his eyes and the next thing she knew, he was pulling her up to meet him and his lips were on her own. She inhaled sharply, freezing up. He pulled away after a moment, but remained close enough to her that she could feel his breath on her lips.
"You should… go lay down…" She breathed out.
"In your bed?" He was grinning.
"Well, you can't go home… your dad will kill you if he sees you like this…"
"Are we going to cuddle?" He teased.
"No," she stated sternly. Though her heart skipped a beat in her chest at the thought. "Go… just go lay down," she instructed, licking her lips. "I'll be out in a minute…No funny business, Baizen."
He smirked and pecked her on the lips once more before exiting the bathroom. She got up immediately after he left and shut the door behind him, before leaning her back up against it. She breathed heavily, running a hand through her hair as thoughts consumed her mind – wondering why she hadn't flipped out on him for kissing her and wondering why she had kind of enjoyed it.
She took a few more breaths before moving to the sink to tie her hair back and wash her face. By the time she made it into the bedroom she was relieved to see that Carter had passed out on one side of the bed fully clothed, but had still been coherent enough to take his shoes off.
Thank God, she thought, letting out a deep breath as she slipped out of her own shoes and climbed on the other side of the bed, as far away as she could manage. She took a glance over at him and shook her head, still unable to believe that she'd let this happen. After a while of him sleeping like a log next to her, unmoving, she finally fell asleep herself.
"Charlotte?" Blair whispered out at the blast Gossip Girl had sent out, curious. There was a picture attached of her sister leading Carter Baizen out of a party by the hand. She scrambled out of her bed to move towards her door, before slipping on her slippers and creeping down the hallway.
She made it to Charlotte's door and opened it, ready to wake her sister up for an explanation – she was not going to wait to find out why Charlotte had left a party with the boy that she ranted on and on about hating for the past ten years.
As she opened her mouth to shout and wake Charlotte up, she froze.
"Carter Baizen," she whispered out horrified, before clasping her hand to her mouth when he stirred in his sleep, tightening the arm that he had wrapped around Charlotte who was lying in bed with him.
Much to Blair's relief, they were both fully dressed, save for their shoes, which looked as if they'd been kicked off onto the floor before they'd passed out. She sighed slightly, thankful, before she realized the situation at hand.
"Oh my God," Blair whispered out once more, rushing out of the room and leaning up against the door as her heart raced. What had she just seen? As she heard movement in the room behind the door, she rushed away, down the hall.
Charlotte was waking up and when she noticed Carter had snaked his arm around her waist in the middle of the night, she frowned and shoved him, almost out of the bed completely. "Get off of me, Baizen!"
"What?" His eyes snapped open, confused. He glanced at her and then glanced around the room. "What?" He repeated, before frowning and running a hand over his face as he yawned. "Oh don't tell me we did it and I can't even remember it…"
"Not even in your dreams, Baizen!" Charlotte glowered.
Most of the night came flooding back to him as he ran a hand through his hair and licked his lips. His mouth felt dry and his cheek was throbbing. He was almost sure there was a bruise there already.
"You let me stay here," he concluded as flashes of the night came back to him. "Thank you."
"Yeah, well… your dad," she frowned as she got out of bed in the dress she had worn last night. "And I told you no funny business."
His eyes scanned her face – free of makeup she looked younger and more carefree. He smiled at her messy bed hair.
"What?" She asked, annoyed.
"Nothing," he grinned, getting out of bed and stretching.
"You can go now," she snapped, gesturing towards the door. She was hoping that she could get him out of there before he mentioned the kiss last night… if he even remembered it.
"God, calm down," he laughed, scratching at his chest. He noticed his knuckles were bandaged. "Oh… thanks for this… again."
"You're welcome. Thank you."
"You're welcome," he grinned.
"Good. Now get out."
"It's just a jacket," Charlotte was whispering to herself as she climbed the steps. "Just return the jacket to whoever answers the door and leave… that's it."
She rang the bell to Carter's family's townhouse and waited. When the door opened she almost groaned with disappointment.
"You answer your own door?" She frowned. "Don't you have people for that?"
He laughed, not expecting her to have shown up at his house. "We do, but I was closer than any of them. What are you doing here?"
"Jacket," she stated bluntly, staring at him as if he had two heads. She was trying to find any physical flaw that Carter had in order to try and use that as a means to not find him attractive. Why had it been so easy to hate him when they were younger?
He'd been rude, he'd stolen her headbands, he'd teased and tormented and annoyed her relentlessly… but he'd still saved her from a terribly uncomfortable situation and ended up taking a few punches after defending her…and then there was the fact that she'd woken up next to him in the morning and it had been just as hard then to remember why she hated him as it was now.
But alas, Carter Baizen and his impossibly blue eyes were perfect and they were making it even harder for her to remember why she hated him in the first place.
"What?" He was bewildered and was holding back a laugh at the expression on her face that told him she was thinking about something.
She snapped out of whatever odd trance she'd gone in as she held out a black jacket. "You left your jacket at cotillion. Serena asked if I could bring it to you – they gave it to her because you were her escort."
"Oh," he was surprised, but he reached out and took the jacket from her. "Thank you."
"Okay, well, maybe I'll see you around," she turned to leave and he grasped her arm.
"Wait," he frowned and let go of her, grinning sheepishly. "Sorry. Do you… do you want to come in? For a drink?"
Despite her mind screaming No! Run! Charlotte found herself smiling and entering the Baizen household to both of their surprise.
She almost let out a low whistle at how expensive everything looked – she'd almost forgotten the glory that was the Baizen home. She glanced to Carter, who was throwing the jacket on a chair as he made his way to the small bar in the sitting room. She followed.
"Where are your parents?" She wondered out loud.
"Dad's away on business," he poured two glasses of whiskey. "Mom's out with Lily. And Sarah is at Harvard and she's not coming home for the holidays," he handed a glass out to her.
"Shame," she smiled. "Sarah is my favorite Baizen."
"You wound me," he brushed past her to sit on the sofa. "All of the years we've known each other and you still prefer my sister."
"Who wouldn't?" She surprised him further by sitting on the couch with him.
"Charlotte Waldorf…" He trailed off, a teasing tone in his voice. "Are you… hanging out with me?"
"What?" She seemed scandalized, as if she'd just realized it herself. She sighed. "No… kind of…"
"What's wrong?" He noticed the change in her face and found that the corners of his lips turned down into a slight frown. "Are you okay?"
"My dad showed up with… someone for Christmas and Blair thought it would be just him and she's furious and lashing out and he opened his big mouth and asked my mom if she was glad I was moving back to get the attention off of himself and Eleanor doesn't like being left out of the loop…"
"So you're hiding out here?" He asked, curious.
"Sorry," she winced. He shrugged, uncaring. She suddenly got an idea. "Could you do me a favor, Baizen? And trust me when I say that this is really hard for me to ask, so please don't laugh at me."
He raised an eyebrow at her question, signaling her to continue.
"Could you…come to my family Christmas party and dazzle Eleanor long enough to keep her from yelling at me until after the holidays? For some reason everyone finds you so fascinating…"
"Yeah," he grinned. "I'll do it… why not?"
"Thank you so much," she breathed out, relieved.
"As your date," he added on, leaning back in his seat.
"What?" She almost choked on her whiskey as she swallowed a sip. She coughed, covering her mouth with her hand.
He smirked. "I'll do it… but you have to tell everyone there that I'm your date." She groaned and put her face in one hand, mumbling.
"What was that?" He leaned forward, mockingly.
"Fine," she chugged her drink and handed him the glass before standing up. "It starts at seven… wear a red tie."
