Chapter 8: Coming to Terms
Author's Note: Thank you LunasSeasMoonChild for the lovely review. I was also pained that the show wrote Blair as having little drive to build her own future. The princess dream seems a little dated.
Blair closed her eyes. "I've missed you. I know it sounds insane, but I didn't leave to hurt you."
"I know."
"What do you mean?"
"I know Jack threatened you at the hospital. I know he told you that my injuries were so severe that I would need his blood again, and that he would only give it to me if you stopped seeing me."
Blair smiled a half smile. "It was torture not to tell you."
"You were trying to save me."
"Trying? I did save you."
"Yes, yes you did." Chuck grinned. "My guardian angel. Why didn't you come back?"
"I only meant to disappear for a year. After that, I would be able to see my parents again and I knew they would provide me with the resources for a fresh start."
"You weren't going to come back to me? I'm fine now. Fully recovered."
"I'm glad. But I don't think Jack will give up. For some reason I don't understand, he doesn't want us to be together. What if he has one of us killed? It sounds crazy, but it could happen. We came so close to being killed in that accident. The fragility of our lives became so terribly clear to me after I lost the baby..." Blair trailed off.
"We never really talked after the accident. I am so sorry about the baby. I swear I would have loved him or her. I would have."
"I know. God, Chuck it wasn't really Jack, if I'm going to be honest with myself. It seems like everything I've ever done has been selfish in motivation. Everything. And here was this chance, to make this grand gesture, I could do this one good thing, and that would somehow make up for letting the baby die. God that sounds awful." Blair bent her head.
"Oh, sweetheart," Chuck brushed Blair's hair gently out of her eyes. "It wasn't your fault."
"And I meant it to be a sacrifice, but I like this new life I built. I have a job that's important, well important to me. I'm so much happier not being a prisoner of the Upper East Side. I can be anonymous here. I didn't expect to like it, I mean it's the opposite of everything I ever stood for, but I'm actually doing something that I believe in. I'm co-editor of this little paper. It's fun. If I go back with you, all I'll be is your girlfriend." Blair stopped, shocked a little at what she just said. "Not that you're even offering that. Damn, I'm making a mess of this."
He laughed. "I didn't exactly give you the opportunity to prepare - a bit inconsiderate of me." He paused. "I don't want to take you away?"
Blair bit her lip, and her heart betrayed her and sank to the pit of her stomach. There was a huge part of her that wanted him to swoop in and save her, even though there wasn't anything to save her from. Damn it. "So you're just here to say hello?"
"I don't know why I'm here. I'm weak I guess."
They sat in an awkward silence while ignoring the world around them.
"I know why Jack tried to break us up?"
"Why?"
"There was a codicil to my father's will. On my thirtieth birthday, if I'm married with a legitimate child, my child will inherit an estate somewhere in England, but if there's no child and no wife, the estate goes to Jack. You see everything Jack has done to us; he's done it to prevent us from getting married. I suppose he knew me well enough to know it was you or no one. He never wanted the Empire; he orchestrated that whole catastrophe to tear us apart. He told me you would never want me if I were so weak that I couldn't even hold on to the hotel. I should never have believed him - I was so stupid. He's been manipulating me ever since my father died. He's my only family."
Blair's eyes went wide. "That explains everything. Some of the things Jack said to me right after your father died..."
Chuck nodded. "We were played."
"Where does this leave us?"
Chuck leaned back in vinyl booth, and closed his eyes, his mouth slowly forming a grin. "I have an idea, although I warn you it's built on the notion that you're at least partly as in love with me as I am with you."
Blair smiled. "A reasonable premise. Tell me."
