Chapter Six

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"It's hard to argue
when you won't stop making sense
But my tongue still misbehaves,
and keeps digging my own grave."
'Hands Open', Snow Patrol

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"So she was telling the truth then," Serena says, the full weight of what they've just been told starting to sink in for real now.

"You really did get a girl pregnant," Nate adds, releasing a breath of slight disbelief.

"So it would appear," Chuck offers by way of an answer, as he watches them from the armchair, rotating the glass in his hand.

"Wow," he breathes out next.

"Wait," the blonde by his side frowns and then spins her gaze round to her brother, an abrupt smile rising high on her cheeks, and removing any trace of previous doubt over the situation, "You're telling me I'm going to be an Auntie?"

"Way to keep the focus on someone else for a change, sis," is Chuck's droll response to that.

She throws a mock pout his way, complete with scowl. "Well, one of us has to be excited about this."

"Oh, believe me I'm excited – ecstatic, in fact," he tells her, standing to walk over to the bar and deposit the still full glass on the counter. "I've had such positive parental influences in my life, what could possibly go wrong?"

"Hey," Serena says, coming over to join him and placing her hands on his shoulders, "You'll be a great Dad, Chuck."

"Yeah, man," Nate agrees as he appears by his best friend's side, cracking a smile, "Just think of everything Bart did to you, and then do the opposite."

Chuck fits him with a sideways glance. "I have a feeling that might not be the best route to take, but I'll be sure to keep it in mind, Nathaniel, thank you."

He shrugs, grinning. "Well, you never know."

"Come on, Chuck, you'll be great – look at how my Mom is with you," Serena says, and there's no bitterness in her tone so much as honest truth, and a slight tinge of marvel. "She was lousy with Eric and I growing up, but then you came along and apparently she really did want things to be different in her life, and she really tried with you, and it worked out."

"I have always felt this kinship with her," Chuck observes with a slight tilt of the head as he regards his sister's point, "Shared certain personality traits and what have you."

Nate cracks a smile at that, ducking his head; he remembers Serena recounting some of the tales of her mother's youth. Seeing the woman she is now, he can't help but agree with Chuck's assessment, and hey – if Lily van der Woodsen-Bass-Humphrey (and all the others that came before) can be classed as a good parent, then he has no doubt his best friend will be off the charts. He has faith in him.

"See?" Serena voices, her face bright with optimism and hope for what's to come.

"And Lily has always been championing my corner," Chuck muses aloud.

"Exactly!" Nate cheerfully agrees. "Not to mention how responsible you are with Monkey."

"Monkey's a dog, Nathaniel," is the deadpan response he receives for that, and even Serena frowns across at him.

"Yeah, but you look after him well enough," Nate defends his point. "So really he's like practice, before the baby comes along."

"I'm sure Belle would just love to hear your theories on how owning a dog makes me prime material for fatherhood," Chuck's sarcasm replies.

"Well, I think it does," he refutes, "And Monkey's only part of the equation, you run your own company, Chuck – this is your hotel, not Bart's – and with everything that's happened… you've grown up, Chuck, and you've become a great man in your own right and…" he shrugs, giving his best friend a genuine smile, "I'm glad you're my best friend."

Chuck looks like he's trying not to smile with the way the corners of his lips are only twitching, but he quite help himself, even as he quips, "Why Nathaniel, who knew the prospect of becoming an Uncle would turn you into such a sap?"

He just laughs, bestowing another compliment on the other. "Your kid's lucky to have you Chuck."

"Yeah, yeah," his best friend fobs him off with a good-natured roll of the eyes, but Nate grabs him and pulls him in for a hug before Chuck can stop him.

"You guys!" Serena cries out as he reaches out a hand and blindly pulls her into their fold. He hears his best friend chuckle at his sister's squirming, her hair and arms and legs getting tangled up with their mix of limbs in the jumbled embrace.

When he finally lets them go, Chuck sends him a grateful look, before they both turn to Serena as she tries to right herself, huffing because she was trying to tell them something. His best friend smirks amusedly at his sister as Nate tries not to laugh.

"So…" She looks at the pair of them expectantly, as if they should already know what she's about to say, "… who's going to tell Mom?"

Nate looks between the siblings, but before Chuck even gets the chance to speak, Serena's already continuing on.

"I vote I get to do it – or at the very least I want to be there when you do," she tells her brother, biting her lip to attempt to contain a smile as she looks at them both then and the glee overtakes her with the words: "I cannot wait to see her face when she realizes that it's you, out of all her children, Chuck, who's making her a grandmother at her age." Serena practically cackles at the prospect, mocking what she knows will be her mother's reaction, "It'll be priceless."

"More importantly," Nate voices, putting an end to the blonde's overflowing amusement with the sobering question, "Who's going to tell Blair?"

"There's no need to tell Blair anything," his best friend quickly instructs.

"Chuck, are you crazy?" Serena cuts in at that, her thoughts shifting immediately from humor to horror. "She's going to find out sooner or later, and trust me, it'll be far better for everyone if she hears it from you first."

"Blair's currently preoccupied with Humphrey right now; she's not my concern – what is my concern is the future life of my child," Chuck tells them.

Neat shares a look with Serena; they both know that there's likely very few moments when Blair is not on Chuck's mind. This won't end well.

"I've already had the papers drawn up and sent over to Belle for her to sign," his best friend informs them, and then with a pointed look at each of them in turn, Chuck adds, "Until then, we say nothing."

"I can't believe she agreed to sign a contract that stipulates how she should parent her own child," Serena comments at that.

"It's not like that," her brother counters. "It's simply a safeguard to protect the child should anything happen to one of us."

The blonde sends him a look like she doesn't quite believe him; Nate absentmindedly wonders if she's referring to the time when Lily and Bart tried to instill all those rules on their family for the purposes of appearance rather than the more cohesive, invested living arrangement they claimed was their intension.

"We're not married and though right now she's intent on having me as part of our child's life, circumstances can change," Chuck tells them, still speaking so matter-of-factly.

"You're protecting yourself," Nate says at that. "I get it."

"I'm simply doing what's best for all of us," his best friend rephrases.

"No, look, I get it man – I mean, look what happened to Dan," he explains, "Granted, he was stupid enough to listen to Georgina Sparks, but still – he got attached to her kid and then she just upped and left one day and this whole part of his life that he'd set up for fatherhood suddenly got ripped away from him."

It hasn't escaped him that his best friend seems the only calm one in the room; he's not drinking, another sign Nate knows it's serious. He's not sure it's quite sunk in with the dark haired male yet: fatherhood, having a baby. Sure, he's saying the words and going through the motions right now, but Nate can't help but notice that Chuck has yet to actually show any real feelings over the matter.

"I get it," Nate repeats, "You don't want to get hurt like that."

He's still not been met with a response.

"You're doing the right thing," he reassures his best friend, grip firm and supportive on his shoulders as Serena looks on with a smile and a nod that agree with him.

"I already knew that," Chuck declares, and then slowly he smirks, clapping his hand on Nate's shoulder in return, and winking at him, "But thanks for the vote of confidence."

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Serena's eyes go wide at the sight of her caller ID. "It's Blair," she hisses.

"So answer it," Nate tells her like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"And say what?" she requests; because how can he seriously be oblivious to this right now?

"Umm… hello?" he offers, frowning at her sudden behavior.

How can he be so calm when she's already started to panic? Clearly. "But what if she asks about Chuck and Mira?"

"Why would she?" Nate replies, his brow still creased as he tries to work out where her head's at. Honestly, she'd swear he doesn't pay attention to what's going on around him half the time.

"I don't know," she offers sarcastically, before adding blankly, "Because she's Blair?"

"Serena, the only way she's going to find out about Chuck and Mira is if someone tells her, and since I know you have no intentions of doing that, you'll be fine. Just answer the phone and talk to her."

"Ok, you're right, I'll be fine," she reassures herself, taking a deep breath in and out and then in again before pressing the answer button and mustering her brightest voice and accompanying smile to greet her best friend. "B!"

"Hey S," Blair answers genially. "I just wondered if you wanted to meet up again today? We were having such a good time yesterday, but I feel like I hardly got to see you before you had to run off to deal with whatever it was Nate deemed an emergency."

She can tell the brunette is rolling her eyes at the thought of her excuse the previous day. Nate had called her to tell her that Dom had stopped by and he and Chuck had gotten into an argument over something her brother had done to Mira and her brother. Naturally Serena had instantly taken it to be something to do with the baby and the paternity and assumed that Chuck had switched the results of the test. Thankfully she'd turned out to be wrong; because she can only imagine the hassle that would've caused on top of everything else. She'd made an excuse to Blair and rushed out of there and back to The Empire as soon as she could, only to find the matter apparently resolved

She's starting to realize this is going to be a lot harder than she'd originally thought; and she is so not a good enough liar for this kind of work. Not to mention the stress of it all! She plans to bill her brother for multiple spa trips; she's going to need them.

"Oh, yeah, that," Serena laughs, trying to cover the nervousness in her voice, and ignores the look he sends her as she says, "Well we got it sorted – you know Nate, such a drama queen."

"So what do you think?" Blair prompts.

"About meeting up?" Serena asks, and then before her best friend can respond she carries on, "I'm not sure, B, I'm pretty busy right now. I'm sorry about running off yesterday, but it was great to see you and catch up. And I'm really glad you're doing well. We'll have to do it again sometime. Ok, bye!"

She hangs up quickly before she can think anymore and releases a long breath.

When she straightens she finds Nate staring at her with an expectant look on his face. "What was that?"

"We just found out Chuck's about to become a father, Nate," she replies when she finds her voice again. "How am I supposed to just meet up with Blair and act as if I don't know that?"

"It's not like we're going to keep it from her forever, just, you know, till things have settled down a bit," he replies vaguely, with a shrug.

That does nothing to instill the confidence in her that she's going to need to pull this off. "Well, until then I don't know if I can do this."

"And by this you mean actually spend time with your best friend?" he surmises.

"By this I mean spend time with my best friend and lie to her about something so important," she counters just as easily, because she believes it.

"So your solution is to what? Just ignore her? Pretend she doesn't exist?" Nate questions, and looks set to scoff how's that working out for you? Just to add insult to injury. Thankfully he doesn't.

"Worked for her with Dan," she finds herself muttering in the absence of his extra words.

"Serena," he intones, giving her a look, holding out his arms to her, "Seriously?"

"Seriously, Nate?" she repeats his words along with her answer, "I'm not going to just lie to her face."

"Fine," he sighs, knowing he's not going to win this one, yet not quite ready to give up the fight, "But you can't avoid her forever."

"I'm not planning to," Serena tells him, and she means it, "Just until Chuck tells her the truth."

"Great," Nate voices, the sarcasm heavy in his voice; because realistically neither of them are really looking forward to the aftermath of Chuck telling Blair he's fathering a child with someone else. No matter their circumstances right now, that has repercussions for their future, and Chuck and Blair's future was always supposed to be spent as one.

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"I'm not signing this," is what Chuck is told by way of greeting; tone leaving no room for argument, as a folder plummets forcefully into his half-eaten breakfast.

He looks up from his coffee to meet Belle's silently fuming face.

"Well, good morning to you too," he greets breezily.

"You didn't seriously think I'd agree to those terms? Or do you really think me that naïve?"

"While I admit some of the points may seem a tad archaic and obviously weren't to your liking," he gestures down to his plate where the manner in which she deposited said points speaks volumes for her thoughts on them, "Was it really necessary to ruin my breakfast?"

He lifts the folder between the tips of his fingers and drops it on the other side of the table with a look of mild disgust which he then turns on her.

"Oh, were you not finished?" she feigns innocence and then immediately glares at him, "Sorry, I just presumed since it already looked like such a mess I could just add some more crap to the pile."

"You know, even in this day and age people accept matters that may not be entirely to their liking, but represent the desires of the other person involved. It's called a compromise," he enlightens her.

"It's called being caught out by the fine print," she counters. "Dom had some of his people look over it."

"Your brother has people now?" he asks, amusement coloring his tone and lifting an eyebrow in accompaniment.

"Colleagues, whatever," she dismisses his attempt before he has a chance to push it further along the same vein.

"Well, human error could be said to be accountable for quite a number of rather glaringly obvious tropes in the legal system. Why I know someone who signed a pre-nup with a clause that included having to pay a dowry if she deflected from the marriage – and she has two lawyers for fathers."

"Right, your ex, the princess," Belle acknowledges, before shaking her head and commenting, "I forget it's like stepping into another world with you people, where ridiculous things happen on a daily basis."

"What can I say? It keeps things interesting," Chuck responds to that, lips curling with the smug look on his face.

"Well, you know what's not interesting?" she starts with a sickly smile, before it descends into an unimpressed scowl once more as she continues, "Sitting for hours on end with a bunch of boring old men from various legal departments as they pour over page after page of your ridiculous contract, waiting to see what other unbelievable concoction you're going to come up with next – and not being able to leave until they're finished because they're doing you a favor and it has to be done sometime, so better to get it over with as soon as possible, no matter how mind-numbingly dull the whole affair is."

He can't help but grin at that. "So you found it entertaining then?"

"Oh my God!" she lets out a strangled scream and promptly lifts the still full, but recently sodden paper-wallet and slaps him hard on the chest with it, letting the folder drop into his lap, trailing food and sauce all the way down the front of his waistcoat and blazer lapels to the top of his neatly pressed pants. "I do not need this right now!"

"This is a brand new suit!" he cries out at her attack, scraping back his chair and hastily trying to brush off the particles staining it, glaring at her already retreating figure.

"Get used to it!" she calls over her shoulder, spinning round as she steps into the elevator and angrily jamming the button to close the doors on his equally irritated person. "Babies throw up on you all the time."

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"Hey Nate – Chuck here?" he hears his best friend being asked and with a roll of the eyes and a sigh he prepares to rise to meet with the elder. He briefly considers a preemptive strike of hitting the other first just to get it out of the way, but then realizes that even if he was more of a fighter than a lover, it'd likely only cause moreproblems for him, and he really doesn't need that right now.

"Yeah, he's in his room I'll just get him for you," is the reply and he groans as it reaches his ears.

A moment later, his bedroom door opens and Nate steps inside. "Hey, so Dom's here to talk to you."

Chuck drops his hands from his eyes and looks across at his best friend, eventually replying, "I can't possibly imagine what he could want."

"Probably something to do with Mira," his best friend suggests and then grins across at the suit that hangs in the corner with the protective cover of his dry cleaners keeping it from further harm, "And the fact your wardrobe looked like it became the victim of a food fight earlier. What happened, man? You miss your mouth when you were eating breakfast?"

"Hilarious, Nathaniel," he deadpans as he sits up and then rises from the bed, buttoning his jacket and striding towards the doorway, "Let's get this over with, shall we?"

Nate saunters back to his room, with a final remark that he's only a shout away if Chuck needs a bodyguard again, and Chuck rolls his eyes and considers flipping his best friend off for his total lack of humor.

Dom rises from his place when he enters and he waves off the courteous sentiment from the other.

"Dominic," he greets the other as he nears the couch, "You've not started our conversation by striking me so I'd say we're off to a good start. To what do I owe the pleasure this time?"

"Chuck," the elder returns, smiling at the remark as he retakes his seat, "I heard you and my sister had another disagreement this morning."

"You could call it that," he replies, clearly still miffed about the whole affair, "She ruined a perfectly good suit."

Dom simply continues to smile, apparently fully aware of what occurred not so long ago between the two. "She has my Gran's temper."

"How lovely for her," Chuck replies with mild disinterest.

The elder frowns, and informs him, "Well, she's dead, so not really."

"You have my sympathies," he says then.

"Right, although I'd imagine they're more geared towards the sorry state of your suit at the moment," Dom returns.

"Actually no," Chuck counters, "I sent it off to get cleaned straight away and the women there apparently work miracles so there remains no trace of the little disagreement your sister and I had this morning."

"Wonderful," is the conclusion to that, "Then I'll be happy to pick up the tab."

He waves off the generosity, "No need, it's taken care of."

"Naturally," Dom comments, his lips curving like he should've known better. After a moment he draws in a breath and says, "Look, Chuck, it wasn't entirely your fault."

"What a refreshing thought," he drolly responds to that.

"The stuff with the contract, any other time, she'd have just dismissed it as you trying to be funny when really we both know you were just being a dick," he rolls his eyes and exhales, conceding, "Still, you could bond over the hilarity of it all or whatever it is I imagine was your intention."

"Is this where you tell me that her hormone imbalance was especially unstable today and I just so happened to bear the brunt of her anger?" Chuck inquires as he tries to gauge the other's response.

"Something like that," the elder answers, and then looks mildly apologetic as he explains, "My ex is over for a visit and I said she could stay at the apartment – "

" – But your sister's living there with you," he interjects.

" – and the two don't get on at the best of times, never mind when one of them is pregnant," Dom trails off.

"So is this your way of asking me to take one of them off your hands?" Chuck asks, and then figures he might as well just go for it; adding with a smirk, a raise of the eyebrow, and a cocky tone, "Or maybe both of them?"

Dom just laughs. "Nice. No. I've already got M set up in a hotel – "

" – not The Empire?" he remarks, shaking his head and tut-tut-ing his disapproval of the plan already, "How you people wound me."

"But needless to say," the elder merely continues like he missed the interruption, though the way the corners of his lips tweak upwards tells Chuck he heard him, "my sister's not exactly enamored by the fact she was the one to have to find somewhere else to stay, regardless of the time limit involved and the fact that she was the one who insisted on moving even when I told her to just stay because they'd probably hardly even see each other anyway," he drags in a breath, slaps a smile on his face and concludes, "But M likes to be difficult like that. Plus, she's never exactly been one to not make her anger known, so here we are."

"So what you're telling me is: try not to poke the sleeping dragon any more while you enjoy your little get-together with the ex?" Chuck concludes from that long-drawn-out speech; he's beginning to see where Belle gets it from; God he hopes his kid doesn't chat half as much as these two, he'll be worn out just listening to it babble, nevermind when it reaches the stage of forming coherent sentences.

"That," Dom agrees, adding, "And it wouldn't kill you to apologise once in a while."

"What for?" he demands, not bothering to hide his outrage at such a statement, "I thought we already established she was the one at fault – she nearly destroyed a brand new suit!"

"And you've been making her jump through hoops to prove herself when all she's trying to do is give you the chance to be there for your kid," is the elder's calm retort.

"There's a reason for the paternity test and the contract," Chuck grits out; because why should he be made the bad guy, he's just trying to protect himself.

"Yeah, and I get that – so does she," is Dom's response, if somewhat grudging, "but you keep pushing her like you're testing her limits and pressing her buttons to see what makes her react and it's no wonder she snaps sometimes."

"She gives as good as she gets," he tells her brother; because he won't be painted as the villain here.

"Oh, I'm well aware," is the elder's answer to that, complete with knowing look, "But you gotta give her a break sometimes. Everyone needs a breather now and then, and hey," he cracks a smile, "she's breathing for two now."

Chuck sends the other a flicker of a glare, because that was just awful, though he relents all the same, "Fine. Maybe I'll give her the benefit of the doubt occasionally."

"So charitable of you," is the return remark.

"Don't push it," he half-heartedly warns the elder.

All he gets for his trouble is Dom's laughter and the comment, "God, your kid's gonna be a bloody-minded little thing."

"Don't you have a job to get back to?" he asks, glancing at the clock.

"Right, while you and Nate don't," is the response, with a shake of the head in mild amazement, "What it is to be the boss, eh?"

"Well, I'm sure if you continue to be successful in your field, what we have can one day be yours, Dominic," he says in a completely condescending tone.

"Oh, the irony of the trust fund baby who acts like a self-made man," Dom replies laughingly.

Chuck purses his lips together in a smile. "Have fun working for The Man."

"Feel free to come by and apologise later – you already know where we live, and she's got to come back and get some more of her stuff at some point," the elder tells him before swiveling on his heel and starting towards the elevator.

"So now I'm running on you and your sister's time, am I?" Chuck says to that, rolling his eyes. "Wonderful."

"Get used to it," Dom calls back, grinning as the doors start to shut between them. "Who d'you think gets to dictate visiting hours?"

Like Hell he's letting her have the only say in that. He'll see his kid when he damn well wants to and if that's every minute of everyday then she'll just have to deal with it. That was one of the main purposes of the contract, after all, to ensure he gets to spend time with his child.

He's not his father; he's not Bart. His child will know that they're loved; he'll make sure of it. If it's all he does in this life, he'll love his child so much they never have any room in their heart to doubt their father wanted them all along.

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TBC…


I'm going to try and keep the chapter-a-day till the next episode, so depending on how many I manage to crank out it may finish before or just after the new ep airs.
If anyone wants to leave a comment or two along the way, it'll much appreciated :)

Thanks for reading.
Steph
xxx