Hello, everyone! I feel the need to set some minds at ease. I don't abandon fics. I don't start a story until I have a pretty clear idea about the ending, so that I have a direction to work towards. If you'd like to see proof, feel free to take a look at my other stories. The multi-chaptered fics, are all completed with the exception of my baby ManOfTheHour, which just may be never-ending. Anyhoo, I just wanted to assure you that even if there is a bit of a gap between chapters, there will be more until I warn you the next chapter will be the last. Here we go…

Blair stood in the foyer, dressed to perfection, and waiting for the elevator. Unfortunately when it arrived it wasn't empty.

"Chuck." Blair greeted, cursing her former spouse's new embracing of punctuality. Sure, now he was on time, but when she waiting for him to find her in a bathtub with edible soap, she turned into a prune. At the memory of what happened after Chuck had shown up, her body heated involuntarily.

"Early again. This must be a record."

"I'm embracing a new me; a fresh start. But you know… It doesn't really matter how you start… It's how you finish. And you know how I do so love to finish…"

With where her mind had been a few moments ago, Blair didn't need the added reminder of Chuck's finishes. Her eyes fluttered shut for a fraction of a heartbeat, barely noticeable, but Chuck caught it didn't even try to hide his knowing smile.

Blair's eyes snapped, and she flicked a lock of her hair back from her shoulder.

"Charlie exploded. It was not pleasant." She said with a shiver, before going on coolly. "Dorota is changing him, and she'll bring him down when she's done."

Chuck smiled glad to have missed one of his infant son's forays into messy wardrobe malfunctions. While he could easily see that he and Blair had every intention of being completely more involved in their child's life they their own parents had been in theirs, it was obvious that they felt some of the more "hands on" aspects should be left to the professionals.

Blair took the opportunity to quickly sidestep Chuck and enter the elevator, pressing the button with a purposeful hand.

"The forecast calls for rain, so don't take him out. I'll be back in an hour." She said, not making eye contact but focusing on the lit up numbers.

The door was about to slide shut when Chuck's hand shot out to halt it.

"One moment…"

Blair cleared her throat and finally looked at him disdainfully, and raised her eyebrows with impatience for him to continue.

"It's about the Hospital Charity Gala next week… I thought we could attend together… since we always have. I'll pick you up at eight."

Before Blair could say anything, Chuck lifted his hand from the door, and if shut on her open mouth. It was already headed for the main floor before she could even put together what had happened. There was no way in hell she was going to go to the Gala with Chuck.

Blair walked at her slowest possible gate through the park. She'd never walked this slowly before in her life, but she did so to give him the maximum time to show up. Thunderclouds rolled over her head, and she checked her watch again. She had only ten minutes before she was due back at the apartment, and probably about three until she was as soaked as a Notebook character. Where was he?

Adam had "bumped" into her three times now and Blair grudgingly now new several things about him. He was a lawyer with a firm of good reputation, he'd graduated at the top of his class from Yale, and he was money, old money that is, from Maine.

What he also was, was tardy.

But given the fact that Nate had already warned her to not involve him in any of their reindeer games, Carter Baizen had gone hedonist with a set of triplets in the islands, and Blair had just decided that it was best to go with someone Chuck didn't know and couldn't influence… Adam was her only choice. If he ever showed up, that is.

Back in her apartment, after Chuck had fed Charlie, his son had the arrogant rudeness to promptly fall asleep. Chuck, carried him into his nursery, and tucked him into his crib. For several moments he just sat in the rocking chair by the bed and watched his son sleep. Chuck wanted to give Charlie everything. He himself had enjoyed the no-limits lifestyle extreme wealth had afforded him, and he wanted Charlie to have the very best of the best as well. And to Chuck, that all started with his parents. Charlie had a mother and father who loved him, and he deserved to have them both in his life, not this tragedy of a timeshare. Getting up he gently stroked the dark silken hair of his son's head.

"Soon." He promised.

A streak of lightening split the sky, leaving a jagged white trail as it connected with the peek of a skyscraper, and Blair rolled her eyes, opening her wide umbrella just seconds before the first fat drops started to hit the walkway. In a clipped pace, she headed for the exit from the park, her mind focused on her shoes and what the water could potentially do to them.

A bike chime catches her unawares and she looks up to see Adam slide up beside her. The rain begins to pelt and he hops off the bike and slides under her umbrella uninvited.

"I got the bell just for you." He smiled. "I thought it was only fair to give you warning before I tried to run you down. It's more fun that way."

"Adam, I'm going to ignore your assault references, and you're going to ask me to the Hospital Charity Gala." She told him.

"I am?"

"You are, and I've accepted." She said, as she reached out and took his phone from where it was hooked to his pants. "Here's my number. Call and we'll set the time."

Adam looked at her with eyes wide with surprise. Shaking his head with bemusement, he chuckled. She handed him back his phone, and looked at him with an air of dismissal.

"I have two stipulations." He cut off her quick departure.

"Of course you do." She said, a fake smile of impatience coming over her face as she pointedly looked at her watch.

It didn't faze Adam at all and he smiled again. "One, you have to meet me for dinner one night before the Gala, otherwise it'll be like you're using me, and we'd hate for me to feel like that, now wouldn't we."

A real smile cracked Blair's lips. "And two?"

"Two… Do you think you could finally tell me your name?"

"Blair Waldorf." She said, oddly enjoying their easy banter. "Can I go now?"

He nodded, and she walked away, leaving him standing in the rain.

"Careful, Blair Waldorf." He smiled calling after her. "I have you in my sights."

Blair didn't pause or turn around, but she couldn't help but smile.

With Charlie still asleep, Chuck glanced at the clock and saw his Little Miss Type A was late. Leaving the nursery Chuck wandered across the hall and into Blair's bedroom. Immediately he felt at home, being surrounded by the familiarity of her things, and her scent. Picking up a bottle of her favourite perfume, he haphazardly sprayed it into the air, intensifying her smell in the room. Artfully arranged on an antique table by the window, were a myriad of photos. Some of Blair as a child, ones of her parents, and their spouses, Serena and her up to no good, but by and large there was Charlie. Chuck knew Blair had always liked family photos around, and throughout their marriage Blair had often set up photos in his office, just, as she'd put it, as a reminder to the gold diggers that there would be consequences for any of their actions. Chuck himself had only ever put up two pictures. One was of Charlie, and the other was of him and Blair their first summer together. They were on the beach, and the wind had caught her hair, blowing it around them both, and she looked into the camera smiling as she held it to take the picture. Chuck had been looking at her. He remembered thinking that he could never love her more then he did in that moment. He'd been wrong.

"Mr. Chuck?" Dorota questioned from the doorway. "You find nursery across hall. Only thing you find in here is trouble if Ms. Blair catches you."

Given that Chuck had his hand, wrist deep, in Blair's lingerie drawer, he could see that she had a point. Removing a pair of lace panties along with his hand from the drawer, Chuck smiled at Dorota.

"We wouldn't want that…" He commented, sliding by her as he tucked his ex-wife's delicates into his top breast pocket.

Chuck was just coming down the stairs when the elevator chimed signaling Blair's return.

"You're late…"

"I was delayed." Blair said evasively as she slipped off her raincoat and put her umbrella in the stand.

Chuck picked up his jacket and slipped it on, meeting her in front of the still open elevator door. She went to move to walk past him, but his arms slipped around her from behind, bringing her back flush against his front.

"For the Gala… Wear your hair up for me." He said and in an instant the hands that were lightly resting on her hips, tightened, pulling her closer and into intimate contact with most of his frame, and especially his lower anatomy. "I miss your nape."

His breath slipped over the skin of her neck, and merged into her hair, as if it had become a part of her. "I miss so many things…"

Blair's hands gripped his wrists and she couldn't decide whether to use that grip to push them away or pull them closer. With her eyes rolled to the back of her head, it was tough making any decisions. Finally, she ripped her mind away from his presence and a calculated smile came across her face.

"I don't know… My date might not like that. I really feel I should dress for him, and he's a leg man…"

Chuck froze, and then pulled away to spin her to face him.

"I'm sorry, I must be delusional. What did you just say?"

"I have a date." She said with a glimmer of triumph in her eyes. "Goodnight, Bass."

Having been dismissed Chuck faded back into the elevator, and the doors closed on their locked eyes. Chuck was dialing his phone before he'd reached the lobby.

TAhDAH! Okay, there was your new chapter. Hope you liked it! Now… For those of you who read my other stuff, you may know that I move. A lot. And I have breaks between moves where I crash with other people. This is one of those times. For the last two weeks of August, I'm floating around and crashing with friends. Since I only write on my own computer, this means that you shouldn't expect a new chapter till the beginning of September. I'll try to have one up within the first week. Thanks for understanding… which I'm sure you all do, right?