Disclaimer: I own only Amelia Waldorf-Bass, Katherine Archibald, and Jackson and Daniella Humphrey. All other recognisable characters and places are the property of their respective owners.

Chapter Seven: Breakfast then Tiffany's

Over the next couple of weeks, Mia had a prime seat for the Chuck Bass-Blair Waldorf game. Her scheming nature was screaming at her to get in on the action, but she gradually found that it was infinitely more fun to watch the two adults dance around each other on their own. Besides, they set each other up more effectively than she ever could; Mia decided this was more due to the practise they'd had in their younger years than anything else.

For example, no matter how hard she'd tried or persuaded, nothing she could have done would have been as effective in stealing her father's attention, as his catching Blair in the kitchen late one night getting a glass of water. In a skin-toned negligee.

Mia, who had had the same idea as her mother, put up with her parched throat. She was convinced that the hungry look in Chuck's eyes more than made up for it. But sure, Blair knew how to play him. She'd never been easy, after all. After a short conversation, Blair brushed back Chuck's hair and left him in the kitchen alone. The smirk on her face was one that said she'd just made a successful capture on the chessboard of their marriage.

As for Mia, well, she avoided Jack in any way possible. She refused to take any of his calls, until finally, he stopped calling. She didn't go over to the Humphrey home, making Ella come to her or meet her on neutral ground, and she refused to enter the favoured haunts of the four friends. Ella was confused, saying she was acting strangely. Mia brushed her off by saying that Jack's refusal to help her at the Archibald dinner hadn't sat well with her. Katie was not as content with her answer as Ella had been, and asked if something had happened between Mia and Jack. Mia calmly denied it, but as Katie left Mia's bedroom she'd raised her eyebrows and shaken her head.

"Don't judge me, Katie!" Mia had said.

Katie had sighed. "I'm not judging you. I just don't think avoidance is going to get you and Jack anywhere."

xoxo

It was exactly a week until Christmas when Mia was shaken roughly awake by two soft hands.

She started and pushed her sleeping mask off her eyes. The blurry figure solidified into a smiling, nay, grinning, Blair. Mia's eyes took in the green headband on her mother's head and the emeralds winking in her ears. When her gaze travelled down, she frowned at the sight of the Erickson Beamon necklace around Blair's neck.

"You're wearing Daddy's necklace," Mia said sleepily.

Blair's brow furrowed as she touched the diamonds. "How did you know your father gave this to me?"

Oops. Blair hadn't told her that. Mia pushed herself up in bed and avoided Blair's eyes. She thought fast. "Ah…Serena told me."

Mia glanced at her mother and was relieved when the frown was replaced by a content smile.

Blair patted Mia's hands enthusiastically. "Come on. Up! We're going out."

"Out? Out where?"

Blair's grin widened. "Tiffany's. But first, breakfast." She laughed, and bounced off the bed and to Mia's door. Before she let herself out, she said, "Don't dawdle, Mia! We have a big day of shopping ahead of us!"

When the door had been shut and the hallway outside was silent, Mia was able to snap shut her hanging jaw. Blair looked happier than she ever had. And she was bouncing. Bouncing. Blair Waldorf-Bass didn't, as a rule, bounce. She glided. It was one of the first things she'd told Mia when she was a child and beginning to be seen in society.

She couldn't figure out what had resulted in her mother's current behaviour. If she hadn't known better, she would have put it down to some kind of drug, but Blair would never demean herself that way. She didn't even like taking cold and flu tablets. No, Blair only had one 'drug' and that was…Chuck.

Mia scrunched up her nose when she recalled that she'd retired to bed before either of her parents the night before. Chuck and Blair had last been seen sitting together, holding hands, watching movies and sometimes talking. Suddenly, she wasn't sure she wanted to know what had put Blair in such a good mood.

"Mia!" Blair's voice called from downstairs and Mia leapt into action, pushing away her bedcovers and racing to her closet to choose an outfit for the day.

She laid out her cranberry coloured Nanette Lepore dress (empire waisted with square neckline), chose her black Dior patent wedges (with bow), and mentally picked out a crimson red scarf to wrap around her hair in place of a headband.

Jumping in the shower (no time for a bath with Blair waiting), Mia laughed. Her mother was wearing green, and she had unconsciously chosen red. How seasonal.

Mia arrived downstairs to find Blair sitting at the breakfast table. As Mia took the seat opposite her, she looked around what she could see of their apartment.

"Where's Daddy?"

Blair placed two bagels on each of their plates and reached for the cream cheese. "He had to go into the office early today. He'll be back early for dinner though."

Mia stopped with one of her bagels half way into her mouth. Jaw wide open, she blinked in surprise at her mother and pulled back, closing her mouth with an audible snap.

"He'll be home early? Really? When was the last time that happened?"

Blair shrugged, and Mia was shocked to see that her mother only had half a bagel left on her plate. Adding to her confusion for the morning, she mentally wondered when the last time Blair had let herself eat as much as she wanted was.

Her mother helped herself to some yoghurt and fruit, and said, "Your father told me that he's going to be very committed to being at dinner more this coming year." Blair pulled a blueberry away from her mouth and waved her hand at Mia's still full plate. "Eat! We have a big day ahead of us. I still haven't bought anything for Serena or Nate for Christmas and I have no idea what to get."

Mia took a large bite out of her bagel and chewed absentmindedly. This morning was strange, for lack of a better word. Apparently her parents had been discussing the upcoming year, and from the sound of it, they were planning to remain united. What did that even mean? Well, for one, she'd have to change her game plans for Christmas.

After they'd eaten, Mia watched her mother carefully. Blair went upstairs briefly to retrieve a particular coat, but was back down with Mia in about a minute or so…which meant Blair hadn't had time to visit her personal bathroom. That combined with the enormous amount Blair had eaten for breakfast left what Mia figured would be a permanent look of confusion on her face.

As they strolled down Fifth Avenue, Mia tried to block out the blaring car horns from passing traffic. She wanted to talk, but wasn't sure Blair would hear her over the noise, which rose and fell but never quite stopped. She decided to try anyway.

"You're in a good mood this morning."

Blair smiled at Mia, which Mia might have taken as an answer to her question…if Blair hadn't been smiling all morning anyway.

"Yes, Mia, I'm in a very good mood."

"…Any particular reason?"

Blair shook her head slightly. "No, everything just seems to be going right at the moment. It's almost as if it were all planned."

Mia stumbled and reached out to steady herself with Blair's outstretched hand. Was that supposed to be a clue? Did Blair know about Mia's meddling?

She studied Blair's profile, but her mother didn't seem to be trying to indicate she was in on the game. That didn't count for much though, did it? If Blair didn't want you to know something, chances were you'd never find out. Unless your name happened to be Chuck Bass of course. He could read her like an open book. It was so unfair. Why hadn't she inherited that from her father? It would make all this so much easier.

Mia fumed silently as they approached Tiffany, but kept pace with her mother. Blair always seemed to increase her speed when she was coming up to Tiffany and Mia had always wondered if it was just her way of letting herself show excitement. In any case, Mia stretched her legs a little more and matched her mother step for step. It was only as they were within feet of the entrance that Mia tripped (yes, again) and grabbed on to the wall of the building beside her.

She was vaguely aware that Blair was beside her, trying to get her attention and ask if she was all right. She was making some comment of maybe wearing the shoes around the house for practise.

But Mia wasn't listening properly; Blair's voice turned into a buzz in her ears. Under her fingertips, the wall of Tiffany was smooth and cold; she could smell car fumes in the air, and could still taste the bagels and cheese she'd eaten back home in her mouth. Her sight was filled with two people, pressed up against a building on the other side of the street.

A woman, skinny and blonde, and Jack.

Suddenly it was like she had a zoom function in her eyes. Mia could make out every stroke of Jack's lips against the other woman's, and could see the way his fingers squeezed the woman's waist to pull her closer. The woman wove his hair around the fingers of one hand and brushed his stubbly jaw with the fingers of the other.

Jack broke the kiss to drag his lips up to her ear. Whatever he whispered made the woman smile and bring their mouths together again.

Mia's stomach gurgled and she tore her gaze away to let it rest on the sidewalk in front of her. She counted each pair of female feet that passed them and tried to make her stomach sit still. This time it wasn't butterflies wrecking havoc. She'd never felt so disgusted and sick in her life.

"Mia!" Blair's voice permeated the fog and Mia felt her mother's hand on her shoulder, shaking her slightly. "Mia! What's wrong?"

Blair hadn't seen them, or if she had, it meant nothing to her.

Mia shook her head and pulled herself upright. It was supposed to mean nothing to her as well. She had told Jack weeks ago, in Katie's bedroom, with witnesses, that she didn't want him. She had told him to find someone else. And then she'd avoided him completely. Still, when he'd stopped calling, she'd never thought that maybe it was because he'd taken her up on her order. She had preferred to think of him sitting in his room, pining for her in the way she refused to pine for him. But he wasn't. He had forgotten her. He'd found someone else.

The prickling behind her eyes surprised her but she was given enough warning to be able to prevent any tears from forming. She had refused to cry in front of Jack, so she wouldn't cry for him either.

Mia met Blair's eyes with her own and she forced a smile on to her face. "I'm fine. Just tripped is all. And I…I thought I saw someone I knew, but I was wrong."

She turned and walked into Tiffany without checking on Jack again, and felt Blair enter behind her. She didn't want to think about the Jack across the street, not because he'd hurt her (because he hadn't), but because that wasn't her Jack. Her Jack was softer and gentler when they were alone. They could tell each other things that they could admit to no one else. The masks they wore in public, her Queen Bee, his Devil, were just that: masks. When they were alone, the masks came off and left nothing but Mia and Jack behind.

Still, a voice in the back of her mind was whispering to her. How strange it was that the morning she and her mother just happened to be walking into Tiffany, there he was, with another girl. Was it coincidence, or a plot to make her jealous and come crawling back to him?

Blair was looking at bracelets when Mia tapped her on the shoulder. When she turned to face her, Mia tried to keep the anger out of her voice when she asked, "Did you tell someone we were coming here this morning? Serena, maybe?"

Blair frowned. "Why would I tell Serena we were coming to Tiffany a week before Christmas when she knows that I have no gift for her yet? That would be idiotic. I didn't tell anyone. Why?"

Mia bit the inside of her bottom lip. Maybe it was coincidence then. It was a small island; she couldn't have hoped to avoid him forever.

Pleased that he wasn't challenging her (that would demand a counter-attack, and Mia had enough on her plate already), Mia turned to look at the jewellery Blair was inspecting. But Blair wasn't content with the bracelets. She wanted something else for Serena, and so they moved on until they reached the earrings.

Blair eventually chose a pair of gold Elsa Peretti earrings with diamonds. While they might have looked fairly plain to others, Mia could see Serena wearing them and knew she'd be pleased. Buying for Nate was harder, and gradually the two women stopped looking for him specifically and started just looking.

They were in front of a mass of diamond engagement rings when Mia realised this was a perfect opener for a Chuck/Blair relationship conversation.

She leaned closer to the glass cabinet as if to see better and said nonchalantly, "Your anniversary is coming up soon, right?"

Blair walked around to Mia's other side. "Yes. Just after New Year. I can't believe it'll be twenty years."

Mia laughed. "I bet you can't. Twenty years is such a long time."

Blair turned and smiled. "I thought that too, when I was your age. Now, things are different. Twenty years is nothing. What's even more shocking than that is, if you count from the time your father and I first…kissed, it's been twenty-nine years. I was sixteen, you know, when all this started."

Mia smiled secretly behind Blair's back. She did know, now that Ja-, he had told her the truth behind her parents hooking up.

"And has is been a good twenty-nine years?"

Blair laughed. "Some of it. Your father and I have always been very combative. Proud, too. We were dancing around each other for years, going back and forth, driving each other and every one else crazy."

"Would you go back and do it again?"

Her mother was silent for a long moment and thought. "I don't know. The happy parts, of course, but I'm not so sure about the rest."

"The hard parts make the happy parts happier though, don't they?"

"Yes, but living through the hard parts can become impossible. You begin to lose hope and then the happy parts get harder and harder to remember. Sometimes it's easier to just give up."

Blair's voice had grown sad and Mia watched her. She wasn't sure if she should ask the next logical question, or move on to happier topics. She knew she should steer towards safer shores, but she was so curious.

Against her better judgement, she asked, "Have you been tempted to give up often?"

Blair sighed. "I would give up every other week when I was your age because we couldn't figure out how to do what we were doing. We were too young to fully understand. After high school it became easier. Then we got married and had you, and we were happy for a long time, Mia. I was convinced that I'd never want to give up again. But you're old enough to know now, that I have considered divorce."

Mia licked her lip. So, the 'D' word had finally been spoken. She'd wondered when it would come out. She had to play dumb though; she wasn't supposed to know about this.

"When did you consider it?"

Blair didn't answer, not at all, and Mia was half surprised. She had expected her mother to admit to considering it recently. But maybe that was the problem. Things seemed to be going well, but Blair had almost given it up. If she'd stayed on the warpath she might have missed it all. She didn't know of course, that her daughter had a hand in it. Still…

Mia took a breath and asked another question. "Well, are you considering divorce, now?"

The breath she'd taken froze in her lungs. She had to know. Had it worked? Had she managed to change her mother's mind?

Blair turned to Mia and looked her straight in the eye. Her mother didn't look happy or sad now, just solemn. Mia took this as a bad sign. Why would she look solemn unless she had bad news to break?

Her mother straightened the scarf wrapped around Mia's hair, and then she smiled a little. "Now? No, Mia, I'm not considering it now. In fact, for the first time in a long time, it feels like the very thought of splitting from your father, is miles away."

Mia had to bite back a grin, but saw Blair's eyebrow quirk up as if she'd caught her daughter's sudden excitement.

"So," Mia said, "twenty years of marriage isn't going to be ending anytime soon, then?"

"No, not if I can help it."

Blair turned away and Mia allowed herself to bounce slightly where she stood. The sick feeling she'd been ignoring since she'd seen Jack was pushed aside. Instead, she felt light-headed with happiness.

She hurried to catch up with Blair and when they paused to look over more jewellery, Mia swept her hand out over the rings.

"So, twenty years ago, did Daddy propose with a Tiffany ring?"

Blair laughed. "You'd have thought so, but no. I never had my own engagement ring."

If Mia had been eating, she would have choked. Instead, she reached out, grabbed her mother's arm and pulled her around to face her.

"I'm sorry? Did you just say you never had your own engagement ring?"

Her mother nodded. "That's right. I got Chuck's mother's ring instead, which I wasn't complaining about. It's beautiful and it will be yours one day so I hope you aren't complaining."

Mia shook her head. "No, I love it, but…don't you want your own diamond?"

Blair shrugged delicately. "I have other diamond rings. It doesn't matter."

"Ahhh…yes, it does."

Blair didn't reply, she just turned around and went back to perusing the jewellery on display. When Mia was sure she wasn't paying attention though, she pulled her cell out of her purse and typed out a text.

Daddy, have you bought Mother something for Christmas yet?

A moment later her phone vibrated in her hands and Mia flipped it open to read the reply.

No. Why? Do you have something?

Mia's face stretched into a wicked grin as she glanced at her mother from behind lowered lashes. Blair said not having your own engagement ring didn't matter, and maybe she was right…if you didn't have enough money to give the family ring and a personal one.

However, they were Bass's. They had money coming out of their ears.

xoxo

A/N: Hi again! I know I told you to expect a day or two between postings, but I think all I needed to do to motivate myself was just take off some of the pressure. I got to watch 2x15 (more on that later) and 'The Dark Knight' on DVD before I began writing today, so I was much more relaxed about the whole thing. Still, thank you to everyone for being so understanding and supportive. Also, thanks for keeping any 2x15 related events out of the reviews. I appreciated it. Which brings me to the episode in question.

OH. MY. GOD. Was anyone else as devastated as me?! At the end, in that scene between Chuck and Blair, I was screaming at him to not step back into the lift. I'm convinced that if he'd just tried, fought harder, that Blair would have forgiven him. But he didn't! And then I cried. *sigh* And, of course, following the usual pattern, there won't be any proper C/B scenes for ages now. This totally sucks. Then there were those adoptive parents of Rufus and Lily's kid. I understand their reasoning, but really! And finally, the one, the only…

Jack Bass.

GOD! I want to throw him off a building and watch him die. Who's with me? He's ruined everything.

Can you guys tell I'm not over this yet? Actually, it might take a few days, which won't be healthy for my brother. He tolerates my obsession, but tries not to encourage it. LoL.

OH! Before I forget, I'm going to put Mia's outfit for this chapter, along with the earrings chosen for Serena, up on my profile as well, along with Blair's dress from last chapter. I'm going to start doing that from now on, in fact. If at any point in the story, I made reference to a particular dress, then you should be able to find a pic of it on my profile. It's more fun to look at the pics frankly, than to read a substandard description.

Anyway, feel free to vent away in reviews now. Assuming you leave reviews, which I'm really hoping you do, as it's been yet another episode of C/B sadness. Kinda matches the Jack/Mia sadness of this chapter. *sigh* Thanks all!