Title: So Damn Beautiful
Author: fading_tales
Pairing: Chuck/Blair/Carter
Disclaimer: I do not own Gossip Girl or any characters, they belong to the CW and Cecily von Ziegesar.
Rating: PG-13 ~ T
Summary: Because Chuck and Blair are nothing if not dramatic. Because I Love You's don't equal to a Happily Ever After. Because she's so damn beautiful. Because he wants it all. Future fic.
Prologue & Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
A/N: No Blair/Chuck interaction in this one, SORRY! _ I need to get some plot points out of the way first, but this chapter does feature the ever amazing Eric Van der Woodsen as per requested by mys2pepero. I hope I did him justice and sorry it took so long for me to get Eric in the story, but I wanted him to play a part in the actual plot instead of just being there to pep talk somebody. Anyways, to all the readers, THANK YOU AND ENJOY! 3
Chapter Ten
Blair stumbles into one of the waitresses in her attempts to grab her things and make a quick exit. This results in knocking over a tray full of hors d'oeuvres, as well as spilling the contents of both girls' purses all over the floor in the process.
"I'm sorry!" She blurts out, hastily gathering up her spilled belongings.
She stops short when she looks up into the familiar blonde face.
"You!"
"Why isn't it Park Avenue Princess."
"Why-"
Before Blair can interrogate coffee shop blondie, she finds her mother spinning her around.
"Blair! What the hell were you thinking?"
She tears her arm away from Eleanor's grasp.
"What I was thinking? I was thinking that I would beat you to the punch. Rather than wait for you to dismiss me, I thought I might as well save you the trouble and quit!"
"I don't know why you must keep fighting with me! I am trying to help you! I can see already that New York and its influences have already clouded your judgment. And look at you! You smell like a winery! You're a complete wreck, Blair."
"I'm a wreck only because you're my mother. I was doing fine without you!"
"Denial has always been your answer to everything wasn't it? Never admitting you need help. This whole hysterical episode of yours only proves to me that Carter was more than right about your need to get away from this place."
Confusion hits her like a ton of bricks.
"What? You've been talking to Carter?"
"Yes and thank god I have! Otherwise I wouldn't know anything about what's been going on with you. If I had known what a frantic state you were in I would have came sooner! You keep saying you need this company and work and yet you have no idea what a mess you really are! I'm just trying to help you, Blair. You just can't handle it all."
The jigsaw puzzle starts to come together despite her heavily intoxicated mind. She feels nauseated and not just because of the alcohol burning at the back of her throat.
"I… I can't believe this…"
It was Carter. She always has to choose the bad boys whose best skills are those in manipulation and betrayal. She shouldn't be surprised.
"You can believe whatever you want. You've already caused a scene with the press. Don't add fuel to the flames with any more of your juvenile behavior. And you wonder why I won't hand over the company."
Waldorf women are always known to say things they don't mean in the heat of the battle. Too bad many of those things can't be taken back.
"Oh, don't you worry about me. Like I said, I have nothing more to do with you or your precious company. I'm done!"
She stuffs her remaining strewn possessions into her purse and makes her way as far away from her mother as she possibly can. Carter finds her before she can accomplish the task.
It's like out of the fire and into the frying pan. The alcohol in her blood stream only increases her irritation.
"Blair! There you are!"
He has on a congratulatory smile that she wants to slap off. This whole fiasco was probably part of his scheming.
"I don't want to speak to you!"
He's startled by her sudden hostility.
"What's going on? Did your mother find you? Did she upset you?"
"You know who upset me, Carter? YOU! Guess who I found out has been making covert phone calls to Eleanor."
His previous appearance of jubilation is replaced with quiet sort of stunned horror that she feels a slight triumph in producing. That small victory is not enough to override the veil of red that shrouds her eyes.
"Who do you think you are? You had no right! What kind of things are you telling her? You know how she is and how I feel about her! How I felt about the company!"
He has guilt written all over his face.
"Blair, just hold on. I can explain everything."
"Enough! I don't want to hear your excuses. I'm done with all of this. And I'm done with you. Good-bye, Carter."
Just minutes ago she was thinking how he was different from Chuck. How maybe he's the one that understands her best. She storms out of the event, pushing her way through guests and the crowd of reporters trying to find out more about why she had suddenly resigned from Waldorf Designs.
"Blair, please. Wait. Let me explain!" Carter pleas.
Blair doesn't stop. She doesn't want to hear the excuses and the explanations. If she does, knowing his glib tongue, he might just somehow convince her to forgive him and she just can't do that right now.
"Blair! Stop! Please!"
He reaches for her arm, but she wretches it away.
"I cared about you. I really did. You weren't just a rebound, you know. I thought you understood me. There was a time when you made me happy. God, I was so stupid. You even managed to convince me to feel guilty about Chuck."
She hugs herself from the cold, but it doesn't help.
"Blair, I'm sorry. I made a mistake. We've both had our shares of mistakes. Please. We can be happy again. Let's go back to Paris. Away from all of this," he says, gesturing at city in general.
"You know what? I was sorry, too. Sorry that I ever believed in you. You played me and I trusted you, Carter. You can't do what you did and then expect me to go running into your arms. Don't be so naïve," she states, her words matching the freezing temperature.
She leaves him, standing there out in the New York cold and doesn't ever look back.
xoxo
Chuck watches as the entire event goes up in flames. People all around are buzzing about the scene Blair Waldorf just caused and speculating on the future for Waldorf Designs now without its figurehead.
"Hey! You won't believe what I just witnessed."
He turns around to answer the tap on his shoulder and comes face to face with his hired eyes.
"If you're talking about Blair's little speech, I think we've all seen it."
"You saw the show, but I got backstage pass. Eleanor just confirmed our theory on Carter and better yet, she's spilled the beans to Blair. The two came to blows just minutes ago."
"What? Where is she now?"
"Princess left. You can try catching up to her, but I don't think you can do anything about it. Better to give her some time to cool down."
Despite his first instinct to chase after her, be the knight in shining armor he never really managed to be, Chuck acknowledges the fact that this is not the time for selfish grand gestures. He'd only be a burden to her now, more baggage to bear on her small shoulders.
"What about Carter?"
She nods in the direction of the front entrance and Chuck doesn't need telling twice to know where he's headed.
xoxo
He finds Carter sitting on the curb, hands clenched in fists and eyes staring out blankly.
"You look pathetic," Chuck calls out.
"…What do you want?"
"I want to know what kind of drugs you're on that would make you think that calling Eleanor was a good idea."
"Leave me alone, Bass. I'm not in the mood."
"Well, too bad because I am. You went to far this time and it backfired."
"It's not over."
"Yes. It is."
"It's NOT FUCKING OVER!"
Carter's on his feet and whips around to face his adversary, grabbing onto the lapels of Chuck's Armani jacket. Chuck stands his ground, clenching his jaw.
"You underestimate how far I am willing to go."
"I don't think you are in any position to threaten me right now," Chuck spits out as he forcibly removes Carter's hands from his jacket front.
Carter laughs.
"You forget that I have nothing left to lose. There's only uphill from here. The question shouldn't be what I'm going to do. It's what you're going to do," he punctuates his point with a push. "You think I don't know about your little PIs? Keeping tabs on Blair? She's never one who enjoyed being stalked," again another shove.
"Are you trying to compare what I did with what you did?" Chuck sneers. "You're highly delusional if you think Blair would even blink an eye about what I've done now that she's figured out that you played her," he answers the shoves with those of his own.
The insults continue to be exchanged. Push comes to shove and turns into punches. It's amazing that they don't attract any attention from the reporters or guests a mere 20 feet away, but they fight quietly, awkwardly, desperately. They take the blows and dealt out their own.
Soon the both of them are too tired to lift up their arms and too hurt to get up off the floor. It's a little too soon for physical altercations when both of their previous bruises have yet to heal. They lie there on the cold, dirty New York pavement, just breathing.
"… It's… not over…" Carter whispers in between deep breaths.
Chuck doesn't correct him this time because he knows how it feels to be so desperate to want something to last forever.
xoxo
It's 10am in the morning and she's sitting at a bar, ordering drinks that aren't appropriate for breakfast. While downing gin martinis rather than mimosas, she reads the various news articles on her public resignation the night before. She idly rubs at the migraine that doesn't go away when a shadow creeps over the paper she's currently reading.
"A little early for the drink, don't you think?"
She looks up to see a dapperly dressed Zac Posen smiling serenely at her.
"What do you want, Zac?" she sighs, folding away the paper that featured her latest humiliation.
"So, I heard about your resignation with Waldorf Designs."
"Well, it isn't exactly a secret, now is it?" she snarks. "What about it? Came to gloat?"
"On the contrary. We might have been enemies when you were part of Waldorf Designs, but now you're a free agent."
Zac pauses for dramatic effect and Blair answers with the quirk of a perfect eyebrow.
"I want to offer you a job."
"Zac, I think maybe I'm not the only one drinking early in the morning."
"Blair Waldorf, your mother may not realize the potential of your business acumen, but I do. What do you say about becoming my Chief Creative Director?"
Blair stared at her long time frienemy in disbelief.
"Are you… serious?"
"Oh come now, you know I don't joke. Not about business."
She stares into the face of her once rival and sees the sincerity. It only makes her all the more stunned.
"… I'll… think about it."
"You do that. You know my number."
The next day provides a whole stream of unexpected surprises. Tory Burch approaches her at lunch with a proposition for Brand Manager and Marie Claire offers her a job heading their marketing department. New job options throw their doors wide open and Blair feels like she's just stepped through the wardrobe and into some fantastical fashionable career paradise. It's enough for her to tolerate the piles of news on Waldorf Designs big stock dip. It's not at all what she expected given her less than graceful exit at the gala event, but she doesn't question it.
"So… what are you going to do?" Serena asks one night while they bonded over yet another box of French macaroons.
Serena's heard from Chuck about Blair's lapse and has been keeping an eye on her, but she didn't have to. Blair hasn't felt the need to purge since Posen's surprising proposition and the streams of job offers that followed.
"I don't know…"
"What do you want to do?"
"… I don't know!" she squeals, burying her face into her silk pillow. "I mean. I'm totally overwhelmed. I never expected this sort of reaction."
"It's great! You basically have your pick of where to work!"
"I know… and I'm totally floored that they'd even want me…"
"Why do I feel a 'but' coming? This is fabulous!"
"Yeah…but…"
Serena rolls her eyes.
"But what?"
"… It doesn't feel right. When I was with Waldorf Designs, I felt like I was contributing to a legacy. Like I was part of some greater plan. It wasn't just about me succeeding. It was about the Waldorf name being etched into fashion history. These other jobs, great as they are, feel… shallow in comparison."
"Then start your own company! A new fashion line that will blow Waldorf Designs out of the water! It's not like you don't have the capital."
"You're forgetting that I'm not a designer. Remember? One of the reasons Eleanor wanted to axe me."
"But you do have a great sense of style. And! And a knack for what's going to sell or be popular."
"Much good that skill's done for me," Blair mocks.
"Hey! When you took over, you turned Waldorf Designs into the crumbling bargain bin clothing line it was becoming into one of the hottest couture fashion house in New York. Stop selling yourself short! And you know what? Since you're leaving Waldorfs, then so am I!"
"You have a contract!"
"Well then they can talk to my lawyers!"
Blair raises her eyebrows at Serena's boldness.
"But seriously, B. Do something you want this time. Something new! This is all about you."
All about her. The first time in Blair's life, she's completely free of anything holding her down. The thought is both daunting and exhilarating.
She turns back to the cookies and spends the rest of the night mulling over what it is exactly that she wants.
xoxo
After thinking long and hard about the many offers she received, Blair decided on one thing. She was NOT going to work under Zac Posen. Whether she's affiliated with Waldorf Designs or not, she could not stand the man. Any job that required her to yield to him or endure his annoying presence was not going to work.
She goes looking for her long missed cellphone in the oversized evening clutch she used at the gala event two nights prior. Her fingers meet the familiar feel of plastic and she takes out the phone triumphantly. It would have been annoying to have to hunt down Zac's number in the old fashioned address book.
When she turns on the phone she's puzzled by the photo of kittens serving as a background. Opening up the address book application, she doesn't find the familiar contacts that she would in her own phone.
She quickly realizes she must have switched phones when she had collided with the blonde waitress earlier that night. The memory arouses her curiosity since she never did get a chance to interrogate the girl. Mischief in mind, Blair decides to do a bit of snooping while the phone was in her possession.
"I'm just going to look for a number that will put me in contact with the girl. Poor thing might not even know her phone is missing," Blair tells herself.
Text messages and emails are intuitively the best place to start.
Blair is startled to find that the phone in question has a completely full inbox. She's further perplexed to find that opening the texts reveal them to be gossip blasts and other forms of UES rumors and scandals. What truly floors Blair is that aside from the gossip tips, she finds various emails from Chuck with herself as the subject.
Interest truly piqued, Blair becomes determined to figure out who exactly this deceptively simple waitress really is.
xoxo
Eric comes home from LA on Monday and Serena delegates the task of entertaining her brother to Blair.
"It'll take your mind off of things. Besides, you guys haven't seen each other in ages! It'll be a great opportunity to catch up."
So with that in mind, Blair arranges to meet the younger Van der Woodsen for lunch.
"Blair, it's so good to see you," Eric greets with a hug.
"Nice to see you too, Eric," Blair returns.
"I hope you don't mind me bringing a guest to join us for lunch. This is my friend Cindy. She's from California."
Blair wrinkles her nose at the surprise guest, but nevertheless extends her hand for handshake.
"It's nice to meet with you, Cindy."
After introductions, Blair calls a waiter to bring over another chair and place setting. The three of them are soon seated and food ordered.
Although she appreciates the chance to see Eric, she's annoyed by the fact that their reunion is marred by the unexpected guest. Eric, sensing her veiled annoyance, attempts breaks the ice by revealing his new friend's field on electronic and digital print media.
"You're in an interesting field. What is it that you're trying to do?" Blair politely inquires.
"My current project deals with the current trend of electronic readers in the publishing industry. I developed an ultra thin, fully colored, touch-screen electronic reader that utilizes the latest technology of electronic paper display. I'm hoping that it'll appeal to the magazine market with the new color applications and size. Imagine glossy digital pages. It's not only going green, but also cuts costs in the long run."
"Sounds… profitable."
Blair's annoyance gives way to interest on a prospective new market. After all, didn't Serena tell her to find something new and interesting?
"It would be. Problem is I don't have enough capital or interested investors to launch the project for mass production. Besides, what I need is some popular content to spearhead whole thing and to appeal to the wealthy masses. I was hoping Eric could help me out."
"Sorry, Cindy. Bass Industries is in the real estate business."
Blair smells opportunity in the air and jumps on it.
"They are… but I'm not. Perhaps we can discuss further about this little business venture of yours another time in private? Here's my card. I'm recently in the possession of some capital, maybe I'm just the investor you need."
The girl is more than happy to take up Blair's offer and before the lunch ends they've scheduled an appointment to meet up.
As Eric's friend takes her leave, Eric turns to Blair with a wistful smile.
"What?" Blair asks.
"You look good. Happier than I thought you would be. I wasn't expecting it from what I've been hearing."
"And who have you been hearing from?"
Eric fakes momentary ignorance when they both know who exactly been talking about her affairs.
"Lunch time's almost over. You better hurry back to the office before Chuck starts deducting your pay."
Eric smiles indulgently.
"Of course if he ever gives you trouble, just dramatically quit during a public event like I did."
"A Blair that can make jokes about herself…how long have I been gone?"
"Too long," she states with a grin on her face. "The time for sitting around is about to come to a stop. I can't be unemployed forever, Blair Waldorf doesn't do socialite. And thanks to your little friend, I might just have an idea of what I am going to do."
"So you're NOT annoyed anymore?"
She answers by ruffling up his hair.
"You're lucky you brought an interesting guest. If it was your dud of a boyfriend I wouldn't be so nice."
"I thought you would like her."
"Well, that remains to be seen, but so far I like her ideas."
The week, despite her current status as unemployed, proves to be one of the busiest weeks she ever had. Between juggling new career prospects, digging up dirt on the mysterious waitress and her connection to Chuck, as well as avoiding both Carter and her mother, Blair's all about tuckered out.
She gets into her taxi cab and waves good-bye the Eric. Once the taxi has gone out of sight, the young Van der Woodsen pulls out his phone and speed-dials 1.
"Bass Industries, this is Arlene speaking. How may I help you?"
"Arlene, this is Eric. Can you tell Chuck I did what he asked? Also, let him know I'll report back to the office tomorrow morning."
Arlene answers in an affirmative and the young Van der Woodsen clicks his phone shut with a smile on his face. He always did have a scheming streak in him that his stepbrother had recognized and cultivated.