A/N: I have decided to merge two of my chapters on my outline, since I know you guys want to see some actual action going on, some progression in the story instead of more unbearable filler stuff. XD Enjoy! And please vote on the new poll I've posted on my profile. =) I've had several ideas for Chuck/Blair/Eva encounters, based on the S4 spoilers that have been slipping out, but I refuse to create a million more multi-chap fics on each. I just can't. Heh. It would just be a collection of drabbles and oneshots based on the spoilers. I've had a million ideas running through my head concerning them and I'd really like to write them out, to an extent. It's only gonna be a summer thing before the season starts, based on the pre-season spoilers, so please vote (even if I've basically decided to do it regardless). Heheh. On with the story. XD

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Ch.3—Tears that Burn

It had been a long day. Like the rest, it left her feeling incredibly satisfied. Being with Serena, shopping, touring the excellence that was France – mostly Paris. She must have bought twenty new purses and plenty of fun, flirty, swaying summer dresses. She felt incredibly sexy under the warm Parisian sun, and the light blushing that filled her cheeks at the compliments the French boys gave her completely always made her day. She wished she'd always been single.

That was a lie.

It would be the farthest thing from the truth if she told anyone, including herself, that she'd forgotten Chuck and his impact on her life the moment she'd walked out of the lobby of his hotel. It was a struggle everyday to just enjoy herself, despite how easy she made it look. There were times, she could honestly admit, she was having a marvelous time. It was true; it was just always accompanied with a thought, a memory, of Chuck. She imagined what she'd be doing if he was there, how incredible it'd be to kiss him again – as if she could ever forget the fireworks that exploded whenever their lips touched. She'd create fantasies of them holding hands, leaning into each other as they explored the most romantic locations in all of France. Being with Serena was fantastic, and she wouldn't replace it for anything. But Chuck…he had imbedded himself in her blood. At a time like this, she hated it. Because after she fantasized and then mourned her dreams about Chuck that weren't reality, she would remember that he nearly traded her in to his deceitful uncle for a hotel, and that he slept with Jenny Humphrey in what couldn't have been more than half an hour after the proposed time to meet at the top of the Empire State Building. Then, she would cry angry tears. But never in front of Serena or in public. She always waited until after the bubbly blonde fell into a deep sleep. Then she'd sneak off into the large bathroom in their hotel room. She'd climb into the oversized bathtub, and cry.

The light snores made by Serena were finally heard by the nearly shaking brunette, cueing her to leave the bed and quietly have her hidden tears in the bathroom across the room. Blair had promised herself she wouldn't purge again, even if she could keep it secret. So, she just cried instead. Besides, her self-confidence wasn't low because of what had happened between her and Chuck. She was just suffering from a broken heart.

Before she could get very far though, Blair noticed the soft blinking light of her phone alerting her of a missed call. She reached for it at its place on the edge of the small table on her side of the bed. She squinted a bit, her eyes already blurring with tears, and a belated shock slightly skittered her system. Confusion quickly accompanied.

"Lily?" she whispered aloud, swamped into a fresh bout of confusion. Serena moaned in her sleep beside her, and Blair very carefully, very slowly, stood from her spot at the edge of the bed and moved towards the other side of the room, slipping inside the bathroom and closing the door behind her. Her eyes widened in shock and pain as she listened to the message.

"Blair, this is Lily. I hope both you and Serena are having a lovely time together in France. I only wish the best for the two of you and I'm sure that this is exactly what you need to prepare yourself for the new year." She paused, and then sighed.

Blair grew incredibly wary.

"I know this news may hurt you, but I can't imagine Serena having told you, and I feel that you simply must know. Serena has good intentions, I'm sure, but I can't imagine deep down you or Chuck would want to keep this kind of thing from each other, despite your current circumstances."

She froze. Chuck? Hesitantly, she continued listening to the message. She ignored the warning signs screaming at her to hang up immediately. She'd done the same when she'd decided to give Chuck his second chance…before she'd found out about Jenny. Somehow, at the moment, the familiarity of her decision did not jog her memory enough to change her course of actions, or at least think twice.

"If you already know about this dreadful news…"

She swallowed hard. Dreadful?

"…then, I sincerely apologize for burdening you with it again, but my instincts tell me you haven't got a clue." She took a single deep breath and slowly exhaled.

Blair thought she might be sweating for how Lily was preparing to reveal the shocking news she had regarding Chuck. She felt incredibly uneasy.

"I don't know the exact details of how it happened, but…"

Just tell me already! Blair cried in her mind. She was so desperate for the information now, hot tears began spilling down her cheeks. Lily's following sigh and pause nearly drove her crazy.

"Chuck was mugged…and shot…in an alleyway in Prague." She sighed again. "He's in the hospital. I just thought maybe…"

Lily's voice trailed off into the distance and was finally silenced when the phone slipped out of Blair's hand as she crumbled to the floor. She was shaking horribly as she slid down against the wall to the tiled, marble floor. Her breath was catching in the warning of full-out crying. She didn't know in the slightest what she was actually feeling. She didn't know if she was scared to death for Chuck, furious at him for getting in the line of danger, or on the brink of lunging at Serena for having not told her sooner, whatever her reasons may have been. All she knew was that she wasn't glad he had been shot. She would have been a far sicker human being than any horror writer could have possibly concocted if she took pleasure in her ex-boyfriend – despite how he'd hurt her, even unforgivably so – getting shot while all alone in some filthy, abandoned alleyway in a foreign country, with only despicable muggers as his companions. Briefly she wondered what they'd mugged from him, but the thought disappeared in a heartbeat as the whole situation overwhelmed her. Still, she didn't know what exactly she felt about it all. She needed to sleep, she knew. It would help her figure out how she felt by morning. She knew it was for the best, but she simply could not sleep next to Serena. Not only would the blonde be alerted to her best friend's tears, but Blair was not sure she'd be able to control herself for keeping such a secret from her when she knew how heartbroken she was over Chuck. The possibility that Serena actually thought that her best friend would be… She sighed, ignoring what her thought may have been. She decided she'd stay and the bathroom and cry. For an entirely different reason, she cried, muffling her cries in her arm as much as she possibly could. She hugged herself tightly, trying to get her shaking under control, but she didn't think it did her much good. Everything felt like it was closing in on her. She didn't know if she fell asleep.

…

Her long blonde hair twisted and whirled around her as she pulled the large silken cover off her and slowly sat forward in an attempt to wake herself up. She blinked at the clock that shone 10:59 and was briefly startled by the "late" hour. Blair was not beside her, but she was not alarmed. Blair always had been an early riser, for the most part. She imagined she had probably showered, gotten dressed and was admiring herself in the mirror, waiting for her best friend to rise from her slumber. Perhaps she'd even ordered room service like they usually did in the morning. The possibility was always there that they were going out for breakfast. Serena liked the possibility of that. She extremely liked the outdoor cafes that seemed to decorate every corner of Paris, France.

"B…" she moaned softly, her voice escalating as her pretty pink lips opened to unleash a loud yawn. She rubbed her eyes and searched the room for her best friend. She saw her. Sitting prim and proper and particularly colorful at the petite breakfast set-up in front of the floor to ceiling windows near the entrance to the veranda, Blair looked at her late-riser of a best friend.

She did not look happy.

Serena frowned. "B?"

Blair blinked and didn't move. Serena grew worried. Quickly, she uncovered the rest of her slender form from the bed sheets and slipped off the bed. She padded over to Blair in an urgency that she wasn't sure usually accompanied the moments right after waking, except perhaps in the need to turn off an alarm.

Blair had turned her face away and was looking out the window. Now Serena was sure something was wrong. She watched her carefully for a long time, wondering how to approach the situation. She decided going with the basics was best.

"Blair, what's wrong?"

The brunette said nothing, just continued to look out the window. Serena felt her resolve breaking down. She went to place some of Blair's hair behind her ear, but her best friend recoiled. Her brows narrowed worriedly. Finally, the brunette sighed and stood to her feet. She moved across the room, and grabbed a few accessories off the bedside table and stuffed them in what, Serena now realized, was Blair's packed suitcase – all of them.

Serena could not speak. Nothing was making sense. They hadn't fought. They hadn't done anything out of the ordinary. Everything had been peachy keen as far as she was concerned. Well, beside the gossip girl blasts that she was ever deleting off of Blair's phone. Her eyes widened in the possible realization that one had been sent during the night. Cautiously, she moved back towards the bed and rummaged around for her phone. When it showed absolutely no new messages, she was completely confused and even more worried about Blair's demeanor.

"Were you ever going to tell me?"

It had occurred to Blair to toy around with her best friend, pretend everything was alright until Serena finally spilled. She was far too overwrought to mess with her though, to come out on top with her schemes as she always was. She was still completely broken from the news she'd gotten the night before. But now she definitely knew what she felt. And one of those feelings was pure hatred for what Serena had done. Irritation didn't even begin to touch how intensely she was feeling about the situation. Expressing her "sad" feelings on the subject at the moment simply would not happen. After what Serena had done, she didn't deserve to know how broken her best friend felt.

The question was Serena's undoing. She tensed, shock and realization running through her as she slowly turned around back to Blair. Her hands sweat lightly in their grip of her cell phone. She was nervous, and rightly so. She couldn't even remember what grounds she'd had on keeping the news from Blair.

"Blair…" she began slowly.

Blair folded her arms across her chest and raised her eyebrows, daring her to give a decent excuse for her actions. She obviously already knew that Serena had known, so that excuse was out. She searched for something that would reach the heart of the matter.

"He's hurt you so much," she tried. Blair scoffed.

"You don't even know half of what happened," she spat. Serena's face drooped into even more overwhelming concern, if that was possible.

"Because you won't tell me. I know you, B. You don't say things when they hurt too much, even to think about." Serena felt her reasons come back to her, but they just didn't seem to stand as strongly as she'd hoped they would under Blair's angry gaze. She stepped towards her, away from her packed bags.

"Maybe I didn't tell you because I was still hurting, but you had no right to keep this from me."

"Blair, he hurt—"

"He slept with Jenny!" she shrieked before she could stop herself. "He basically traded me to Jack for his hotel, and then when I'd finally forgiven him, he slept with Jenny, right before I got to him. He hurt me."

Serena was speechless. She was heartbroken, and belatedly angry with Chuck, but even more she was confused. If Blair was so hurt, why was she so furious for being kept from the update in Chuck's life? She'd think she'd want to address after she'd healed over at least a little.

"But don't even think for one moment, that anything he could do would keep from loving him, from caring about him. Life or death is a little more important to me than a broken relationship," she said, staring at her best friend very intensely. Then, she marched back to her things and grabbed the little purse that sat on top. She paused at the door and looked back at Serena.

"I'm going to Prague."

Serena's eyes widened and her lips parted. She took one step forward. "B, I'm sorry I kept this from you, but you can't just march in there and—"

"I don't need your permission for anything," she said coldly, closing the door behind her before Serena could say another word.

Frantic, Serena wiped her hands against her nightgown and found NATE in her contacts' list. Briefly, she realized this would be the first time since she'd left, since they'd broken up, that she would be talking with Nate. She didn't know what he'd been up to, but his declaration not to wait for her hung in the air as it did every night when she went to sleep. She swallowed hard and pressed SEND.

"Serena," he said, not sounding surprised in the least. She moved past the confusion that settled in her mind.

"Nate, hi," she moved past the casualties. This conversation wasn't about them. It was about Chuck and Blair. "Blair found out. I don't know how but…" she sighed briefly, and then continued before Nate could interrupt her. Though it wasn't as if he'd tried. He'd been icily silent. "She's coming."

His brows furrowed, emotions finally ebbing out of him. "What are you talking about?"

She sighed, grateful she'd gotten through to him and trying very hard to gather up her emotions on all that had just happened with Blair. "I'm telling you," she said very slowly, "that somehow she found out that Chuck was mugged and got shot, and she's coming to Prague to see him."

Nate's eyes widened. He couldn't say anything for the long time.

"Nate?" she asked, when she couldn't take the silence a second longer. She heard him clear his throat and inhale sharply.

"I'll look for her," he said. Her brows furrowed.

"What?"

"I said I'd look for her, Serena. If she's coming, she's coming. You know we can't keep those two apart."

The dial tone greeted her before she could say another word. Slowly, she pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it blankly, as if she couldn't believe what had just happened. Blair had found out. Blair was going to Chuck. And Nate was going to "look for her"?Somehow, she just knew all hell was about to break loose.

…

A/N: Hope you enjoyed. =) I rather enjoyed it. Hehe. Please review! =D