Names and Letters Chapter 10:

Blair watched the familiar buildings blur by as she waited for the limo to stop at the address Serena had provided for her. She wished she felt at least rejuvenated after a few hours of sleep, but she felt sluggish. Of course that shouldn't surprise her; Chuck had always been able to leave her a bit emotionally hung-over. He was like some sort of illegal drug and being in the same room as him, even though they were fighting, made everything a bit rushed and blurry.

When the limo stopped, she paid the driver and gave him the best smile she could muster before getting out. She hadn't even been able to hit the doorbell before the door was swung open and Serena rushed through the doorway, smile as big as ever, blond hair longer and still flowing and caught her in a hug.

Blair hugged her back, memories of all their times together rushing through her brain. The good and bad times, but even in the bad times, they were still friends, weren't they? They could always tell each other everything, except…

Blair felt tears forming behind her eyes and held on tighter to Serena. They must look like fools to those who passed by, but it didn't matter to Blair. All that mattered was trying to figure out how she made it all these years without her best friend. That was when the tears wouldn't be held back any longer and she cried.

It took a minute to hear that Serena was crying too and somehow that made her feel better.

Blair couldn't tell how much time had passed that they just stood there crying, but it had felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of her. Even though they had so much to tell each other, they didn't need to talk to figure out that the bond was still there.

"Mom, are you okay?"

Serena let go of Blair, but kept a hand around her shoulders as she turned around. Blair looked up, wiping her eyes at the tall man before her that had to be Thomas Humphrey and couldn't help but smile. Something about him reminded Blair of someone, but she couldn't put her finger on it exactly. It must be the combination of Cabbage Patch and Serena, all rolled into one.

"Yeah. I'm great Tommy." Serena suddenly flashed her trademark smile, which her son quickly mirrored in relief.

"This is Blair Waldorf, Charlotte's mother."

"I could kind of tell." Tommy said light heartedly and extended his hand, looking Blair straight in the eye. "You two look a lot alike."

Blair shook his hand and smiled back. "I'm very proud of her." She said, before releasing his hand.

"Where are you going?"

"Actually, I was going to save Charlotte from grandfather and take her around town…" He glanced at his watch.

"Go, go. You're going to be late!" Serena scolded. Tommy smiled and kissed Serena on the cheek quickly, said the usual nice to meet you to Blair, and hailed a cab, leaving Blair and Serena on the porch alone, once again.

"He seems very nice." Blair offered first, suddenly feeling awkward.

"Oh, he's great. I love him so much!" Serena said, smiling and looking off towards the departing cab, before focusing on Blair again. "Come on, let's go inside and have something to drink."

"That would be great." Blair said, following Serena into her home.

Eric put down his paper and picked up his ringing phone, a frown forming on his face when he saw who was calling.

"Is Charlotte okay?" He asked quickly after he picked up, not giving her time to do the fake pleasantries.

"Yes."

"Is Blair okay?"

"Yes."

"Is Sebastian okay?"

He heard an exasperated sigh, "He's fine too."

"I'm not bailing you out."

"Shut up Eric. I'm in trouble."

He quickly thought no shit, you are trouble before taking a deep breath. "What do you want Georgina?"

"Chuck called a bit ago and asked me out."

"Blair's Chuck?"

"Yeah."

"Are you sure?"

"What the hell, of course I'm sure!"

"That doesn't make any sense."

"I know. He's probably pissy cause Snow White did something dumb. Again. But I have a plan. I just need your help."

"Last time I helped you with a plan, my rental car got blown up."

"That was Sebastian's fault." She said quickly, and all Eric could do was roll his eyes.

"Fine. Tell me about the plan."

"So of course, Tommy got accepted! There wasn't a doubt in anyone's mind that he wouldn't. And now he's home for the summer."

Blair smiled and continued nodding at the appropriate times. Her and Serena were seated at the counter in Serena's kitchen, and Serena's had been filling her in on what her life had been like for the past eighteen years.

"So it looks like you got your fairy tale." Blair said after Serena had stopped.

"Yeah. I mean, we still have our problems. But we got over the big one…"

"Big one?" Blair perked up, ready to attack anything that threatened her friend's happiness.

"It was right after you left, not a big deal. I mean, it was." Serena sighed and looked away for a second, before continuing. "We had already had Tommy, and Georgina decided to try to mess with my life again. Almost destroyed my marriage actually. But that's behind me and Dan now."

Blair nodded and kept her mouth shut. Her and Whoregina weren't exactly friends now, but their children had brought them to a truce of sorts. Enough of one that they had spent holiday's together, and weekends in the country.

"What about you B?" Serena asked, suddenly her bubbly self once more.

"Oh, just this and that. I'm a magazine editor now." Blair said, not really sure what to say of her life. "Raising Alabaster has been hard at times, but worth it. I really love my daughter. Of course, I always had Eric and my father to help. My mother use to help too…"

"Yeah, sorry I couldn't make it to the funeral." Serena added awkwardly, guilt on her face.

"Its fine. Really." Blair gave a sad smile.

"Charlotte must have been about… four or so?"

"Five actually, so she doesn't remember much. The day after the funeral is when she actually meant Sebastian."

"Oh. What's with that by the way? I thought you and Georgina would have kept them from being friends."

"We tried." Blair said, laughing, "Believe me, we tried. But they won."

Serena nodded slowly, growing silent for a moment before looking at Blair. "Why did you do it B?"

"You've meet Chuck, haven't you?"

"Blair."

"What do you want me to say? I can't say the right thing to him about it, and now I can't say the right thing to you either."

"He's just hurting Blair, he's been miserable without you."

Blair shrugged, keeping her gaze firmly on the thin layer of liquid at the bottom of her coffee cup. She didn't want to admit to Serena that she had been miserable too.

"B, you two loved each other more then anyone else I know. And I don't think he's stopped loving you." Serena sighed, "And I don't think you stopped loving him either."

"Love isn't enough Serena. Love isn't enough to fix the fighting. Love isn't enough to protect Alabaster. Love just isn't enough." Blair said softly, choking on the words as they came out.

Blair felt Serena put her hands on her shoulders and turn her around so Blair was forced to look Serena in the eyes.

"B, love is always enough. It just takes awhile to kick in sometimes." Serena said firmly, and before Blair had a chance to object, she added. "Just trust me B, talk to Chuck."

Charlotte knocked tentatively on her father's door before opening it, and instantly the smell of scotch hit her. It wasn't repulsive, just surprising. Her mother had a strict no hard liquor in the house policy. She was even touchy about wine.

Moving into the room slightly, she saw her father dozing in the desk chair, holding onto an almost empty bottle of scotch. Sighing, she went up to him and took the bottle, setting it on the desk, next to her mothers open diary, before lightly shaking him on the shoulder.

"Daddy?" she asked softly when his eyes fluttered open.

"Alabaster?" he said through a yawn, before standing up quickly, suddenly awake and looking very guilty.

"Long night?"

"Yeah…" the other Chuck said, not meeting her eyes.

"Where's mom?"

"She left, she said she would be back later though."

"Oh. Right."

"Listen, I wasn't really drinking that much. Because drinking is bad. So don't think that you can drink… or anything. I mean, it's just, I needed a drink, but you don't need to drink. Your not even old enough to drink. So it would be illegal."

"I had this talk already." Charlotte said with a small smile, touched by the concern and effort her father was putting forward. "Thanks though."

"Yeah… I just." He hugged her quickly. "Sorry I'm not good at this father stuff."

"Your doing great."

Chuck nodded and sat back down in the chair. "Did you want something?"

"Tommy and I are going to go out for awhile, if that's okay with you?"

"Of course. Just be back by one or so."

Charlotte nodded and started to leave the room, before turning back around quickly. "Are you going to be okay?"

"I'll make it through."

"Okay, well I'm going to go then. If you need anything, just call."

Eric was almost speechless when Georgina finished telling him her plan.

"They will kill you." He finally said, "They will literally kill you."

"It won't be that bad. Besides, if all turns out fine, they will have other things to think about."

"I'm not sure about this Georgina."

"It will work. Don't you want them to be happy Eric? Or do you secretly want Blair for yourself?"

"What? NO! I mean. I don't want Blair."

"Good, then to prove that, you'll help me."

"I'm not sure."

"I'll take all the blame."

"What about these?" Tommy asked, picking up a pair of bright, festive maraca's and started to shake them.

"I thought you wanted a safari theme?" Charlotte asked, a smile plastered on her face as she watched Tommy dance around the aisle with the maraca's.

He stopped at her question and looked at her. "Can't I have both?"

"NO!" Charlotte said sharply, and took the maraca's away from him. "You're a horrible party planner."

"Well then, I'm lucky to have you." He said, giving her a big smile.

Charlotte rolled her eyes. She didn't know what she had expected when she got the call from Tommy, but to help plan his parents surprise anniversary party wasn't it.

"We could have a Under-the-Sea theme."

"You still couldn't have the maraca's."

"Sebastian had maraca's in the Little Mermaid."

Charlotte frowned slightly at the name and turned her back to Tommy, pretending to look over the contents of the shelf while she tried to put her mask back on. But it was too late; almost. She couldn't help but wonder what Sparks was doing. This had been the longest they ever not talked to each other. Of course, he was probably hung over right now, knowing him.

"Charlotte?"

She heard Tommy and looked over her shoulder, putting on the biggest smile she could muster, pushing Sparks out of her mind. "Fine. You can have the maraca's only if you pick a theme."

"Its not about that." He said, his face serious as his eyes bore into hers. "I know you've been pretty bummed these last few days. And I know what about. I mean, I know you love your parents, but you deserves better then either of them Charlotte."

"Oh." Was all Charlotte could say, half glad that Tommy didn't know the real reason why she had been acting odd, and half angry at herself for letting other people know that she wasn't all chipper.

"I just… I'm here for you."

Charlotte smiled and handed him the festively stripped maraca's. "Thanks cousin. I'm here for you too."

"Yeah." Tommy gave her a big smile. "Okay. Enough of this serious grown-up business. On to costumes!" He said enthusiastically, and practically frolicked down the aisle towards the costume section of the store.

Charlotte couldn't help but smile at her cousin and felt a twinge of regret in not being able to know him sooner. Taking out her phone, she opened it and looked for any missed calls. She tried to tell herself she was making sure her father didn't need her, but she wished that Sparks would just call and say he was drunk. And then she would make him grovel for her forgiveness for a few days, then they could go back to being friends, like nothing happened.

She told herself sternly that's what she wanted.

She put her phone away and was about to go after Tommy when she noticed he left his phone on the counter were the maraca's use to be. Rolling her eyes, she picked it up the exactly moment it got a new message. She dropped it accidentally, surprised by the vibration. Sighing, she picked it up from the ground, the screen open from the fall. She read the text on the screen quickly without meaning to and closed it quickly, scolding herself.

Putting the phone in her purse, she went off to find her cousin, trying to put the curious text out of her head, which read:

No problem. Think of it like making a deal with the devil, only winning. See you at the party.

-Aidan

Chuck had just finished moving the coffee table back when someone knocked on the door. Going over to the door, he looked through the peephole and sighed at the sight of Blair standing out in the hallway. He wondered how long before she gave up and leave if he didn't open the door.

"I can hear you breathing Chuck."

Chuck rolled his eyes and opened the door. "Alabaster isn't here." He said curtly.

"Are you going to make me wait outside?"

"No, by all means, pollute my home." Chuck replied, trying to bottle the anger and the fluttering all at once as he stepped aside so Blair could come in. He thought for a moment he saw hurt on Blair's face before she swept by him and sat on the couch. Closing the door, he went and sat on the comfy love seat in the room, not trusting himself more then five feet near Blair.

"I want her for Thanksgiving, Halloween, Christmas, and New Years."

Blair was quiet for a moment, and he watched her expression change from shocked to pissed in under five seconds. "Where the hell do you get off demanding that Chuck?"

"I get off demanding that because I missed having those holidays with her for about, oh I don't know, seventeen years Blair." He snarled back at her.

"The answer is no."

"Fine. I'll just call my lawyer then."

Before Blair could answer, the door opened and Alabaster stepped into the room, looking at them both wearily before shutting the door behind her.

"Hi." Alabaster said awkwardly and Chuck mentally kicked himself. He never wanted his daughter to feel weird in her home. Of course he remembered that this wasn't really her home. Her home was with Blair in Paris. He clenched his fists at his side to keep the anger at bay as he smiled at Alabaster.

"How was your day?"

"Fine. I actually just came to get changed. Eric was going to take me to the arcade tonight if that's okay with you… two."

"Of course that's okay. We can have breakfast tomorrow." Blair answered first, giving Chuck severe look.

"All of us?" Alabaster asked quietly, not meeting anyone's gaze.

Blair stood up and walked over to Alabaster and smiled. "Of course baby. Right Chuck?"

He gave them a slight nod and couldn't help but smile at Alabaster's happy face. "Just the three of us. Promise." Silently he wondered how he was going to be able to get through a happy family breakfast with Blair. Especially after last night.

"Oh, it's all perfect Eric!" Georgina said, a huge smile plastered on her face as she surveyed the scene before her.

To Eric it didn't look perfect. Maybe if Blair and Chuck were two completely different people, then it might be okay. As it was, it looked like the setting of a disaster waiting to happen. The match that would surely light the fuse that would kill them both.

"Don't you think we should get the alcohol out of here?" He asked tentatively.

"What? No! Alcohol is key to all of this."

"To murder?" Eric asked, his voice weary as he started regretting this already.

Georgina sighed and turned to face him, giving him big puppy eyes. "Eric, don't you trust me?" she asked in her most pathetic voice.

"No." He said flatly, and started up the stairs. "I have to go pick up Charlotte. Good luck." He added over his shoulder.

Blair entered the restaurant, her nerves still frazzled from being in the same vicinity as Chuck. She would eventually get over that, she had to for Alabaster's sake, but right now she just wished her heart could decide how to feel about the whole matter. She felt guilty, that was for sure. But Chuck was being such an ass about the whole thing, it was pissing her off.

The rational part of her brain told her he had a right to act like that, but it didn't make it hurt her any less either.

It had been awkward being in the same room with him and Alabaster, and she was sure they all felt it too. Shortly after, Chuck had made some excuse to go to his room, Alabaster needed to change to be ready for when Eric came, and Blair got a weird text for Georgina, which was the entire reason she was here.

She didn't even want to think how breakfast tomorrow would go.

"Snow White!"'

Blair sighed, hearing Georgina before actually seeing her.

"Who meets at a restaurant at 7:09 exactly?"

"It's when the table would be ready, come one." Georgina said hurriedly, giving Blair a smile that made her blood run cold.

"What are you up to?" Blair asked, refusing to move.

"Nothing."

"I'm not moving until you tell me."

"Fine." Georgina replied snottily, "I want to talk about Eric."

"Eric?"

"I'm in love with him."

"Right. Seriously, what is this about?"

"Blair. I'll tell you when we sit down." Georgina said, grabbing her arm as she pulled her deeper into the restaurant. "Oh. This place is kind of weird. They make you get your own wine." Georgina said, and pointed towards a door. "If you want any…"

Blair sighed and shrugged her arm out of Georgina's grasp, wondering what kind of slum she was in that she had to get her own wine. No way in hell was she going through a dinner with Georgina without alcohol though.

"Fine." She said curtly and walked over to the door that was indicated, opening it and going down a few steps before her eyes met the sight of candles, old photo albums, two wine glasses, a huge bowl of cherries, and Chuck.

"What the…?" Before she could finish her sentence, she heard the door slam and lock behind her, apprehension over as she realized what her friend just did.

"Fall for the ol' get your own wine trick too Waldorf?" Chuck said sarcastically.

AN: Alright, so here's the next chapter. I know its a bit weird, and I promise the next one will be better! Hah. I just want to thank all my reviewers first, you guys seriously make this story continue! I would also like to thank all the silent readers, hope you guys are enjoying this too. Anyways, Thanks alot to everyone for your support of the story! :) I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.

Also I would like to wish gleechild a happy birthday :)

Disclaimer: I do no own Gossip Girl