A/N: Your reviews make me smile. Thank-you. =)

DISCLAIMER! READ PLEASE! Okay. *clears throat* Now that I have your attention, I have to warn you of some of the content of this chapter. There WILL be a DB sex scene. It won't be graphic and will more or less be a fade to black sort of thing, but there will be some details in the aftermath. I am warning you of this now in case you want to skip this chap or just skim past it. You've been warned.

…...

Ch.11—

When he stepped out of the bathroom, Diana was standing in front of him on the other side of the hall. It looked like she'd been standing there awhile – or at least as long as he'd been in the bathroom, brooding. Which had been awhile.

She didn't speak at first, so he opted for assessing her curious facial expression and then walking down the hall in the opposite direction.

She didn't move an inch towards him, but he heard her loud and clear and stopped just before the turn at the end of the hall.

"I gather you're responsible for the hobbling girl recently seen banging on one of our cars in the parking lot," she said, amusement in her voice as it always was.

"Is there a question here or…?" he left open for interpretation.

Diana smiled and started walking towards him. She looked pointedly at the shoe in his hand.

"Was the greenhouse up to your expectations?"

Chuck closed his eyes in anguish. He should have known. There were cameras all over this building. She must've been watching him like a hawk.

He forced himself to focus. This was not a conversation he wanted to have with Diana.

"It surprised me," he said.

She raised her eyebrows. "Oh?"

"I've been to my fair share of brothels," he informed her – to which she smirked, but not in surprise. She was clearly familiar with the typical Bass behaviors and past times. "And none of them had greenhouses in them."

"Your father was very generous in funding us when we first started, and it's no secret that sex in a tropical paradise is on every man's to-do list, or a secret fantasy at least."

"Makes sense," he replied simply.

She smiled. "I called down to have one of our drivers take Blair home if you were curious."

"I wasn't."

Her expression shifted. "Why not?"

He sighed. "I'd rather not discuss it. Is my father still talking to the police?" he asked quickly, eager to get off the subject of anything Blair.

She nodded. "They just left. You were in there quite awhile-"

"Thanks," he interjected, walking away again and up the stairs to the room on the other side of the building. It'd been almost an hour. He hoped his father wouldn't be equally suspicious.

"Charles," Bart said in surprise on seeing his son enter the room. "I thought you might have left."

Reluctantly, Chuck smiled.

"I just got you back. It's not likely I would've left so soon."

Bart smirked and brought his half-filled suitcase to the table in the center of the room.

"Diana told me you left with Blair Waldorf," he informed him, a smile in his voice. "I think that's pretty good evidence that you might not have come back."

Chuck sighed and walked further into the room.

"Yes, well, let's just say things didn't go as planned."

Bart raised his eyebrows but didn't push the subject further.

"You're packing to come home, right?" he asked, his mind shifting to the situation in front of him and just how huge it was. This was a good thing what had happened today. This had nothing to do with Blair and everything to do with what he thought he'd lost. This left him elated and relieved.

"Right," Bart said, as if it had been obvious. "Now that we have Tyler's confession, we can get Devin's, and I can show my face again."

Chuck nodded along, cheered by the details. They provided more focus.

"I want to thank-you, son," he said, sending Chuck into an almost shock. "I didn't think this was going to be possible, but the way you took control, got me out of this mess…makes me think I did something right raising you."

Chuck smiled a bit doubtfully. "Dad, we both know you didn't raise me. You were too busy with those inappropriate transient women to teach me any viable life lessons, except those about inappropriate transient women."

The subject was serious and burned them both a little, but they managed to share a small smile between them.

Chuck picked up the picture lying in his father's suitcase of the two of them. It lifted his spirits a little, because in all this time his father hadn't forgotten him.

"I will have to lay low," Bart continued, moving past the sentimental moment as he accepted the picture back from his son. "…hire security."

"We'll take care of it together," Chuck put in, sure of it, slowly sure of them. "Like a family. Speaking of which…what about Lily? Have you thought about how you wanna break the news to her?"

He shook his head. "I'm not sure," he said, for the first time sounding sad and a little hopeless. "My relationship with Lily was on the rocks. You and I were going through a difficult time. Maybe hiding all these years was easier than facing things head-on."

"Well, how about we try group therapy next time instead?" Chuck suggested with an implied laugh. It was getting easier, this conversation, his father, reality.

He grabbed his father's suitcase and headed out of the room, his father right behind him and Diana's knowing look as she glanced at the two men from her office as they headed for the exit. The loving pat on his back from his father warmed him, made him feel that at least one sector of his life might be going in the right direction.

Maybe this time he could have the relationship with his father that he'd always wanted, that he'd needed for so very long.

At first when the man approached her, she put herself on fight-or-flight mode, hoping some sort of Audrey spirit would put fighting skills in her and she could beat her opponent.

Of course before she could think of anything, the man explained that the limo she was banging on, sure that someone was in, was completely empty, but that he could drive her back to wherever she needed to go.

She guiltily and somehow innocently put her Southern Belle smile on and thanked him as he held the door open for her and she slid inside. She didn't tell him anywhere to go but back to the city. She couldn't decide on a destination. She had to recover first. Thankfully, the man didn't mind the vagueness of her pinpointed location.

Five minutes down the road from the brothel and she realized she was shaking. Shaking. And she knew exactly why. She'd cheated on Dan. Cheated. True it hadn't been sex, but that would be the only card she'd be able to play. Full on making out with Chuck of her own volition surely wasn't going to go well for her if she chose till Dan the truth, and she knew eventually she would have to. She remembered how furious she'd been when Serena hadn't told her that she'd slept with Nate herself and instead had to be told by her boyfriend. It was true that she was the girlfriend and not the 'other man' in this scenario, but Dan deserved the truth. Up until she'd partaken in this scheme with Chuck, she'd been honest with him and him with her. That shouldn't stop now. Not when Dan had even been very forthright about his jealousy. He hadn't hidden that from her, hadn't hidden his spying either, no matter how despicable that was.

Everything she had to say would lead to a break up though. She just knew it would. Because it was all his accusations coming true, and no matter what she said, he wouldn't believe that she hadn't physically cheated until today. He knew her history with Chuck, and he knew her well enough to know that she always went back to him at this time of year every year, whether it lasted or not. It was like clockwork and she didn't like it. It was like she had no choice in the matter, like she was stuck in this endless cycle. And Dan was different, he was. He knew all about her and he accepted her like no one else had – with the obvious exception of Chuck, who she did not love. Well, she didn't love Dan either, but that was beside the point.

Dan was good for her. He'd never hurt her. He'd been by her side through everything in the past year, and he'd put aside all the judgments he'd had for her in the past. There was no reason to leave him or to even think about leaving him. Sure their sex life had gotten off to a rocky start, but it was all smoothed over now. It just took having it in a not so ordinary location to get things rolling.

Which she should've known since…

Well, she just should've known it. Sneaking around in a secret relationship often included some sort of unordinary location to have sex in, and she obviously knew about this because she was familiar with sneaking around in a secret relationship.

Not that she had ever enjoyed that type of thrill. Because it wasn't a thrill. It was just…

Well, she knew about it.

Aggravated with herself, she realized that sometime along the way she had told the driver the address of Dan's place and she knew that would be a good idea. She might accidentally spill all the details with Serena if she went straight home and she didn't think she could take that kind of pressure. She would feel guilty, more than she already did. Right now what she needed to do is create a blank slate for herself, whether Dan knew it or not. She would go above and beyond tonight. She would assault him, maybe repeatedly, maybe for the rest of the week. She would be very interested in his trip to Rome, which sounded amazing. She would focus solely on Dan, so that if it did slip out that she'd made out with Chuck at the brothel just before he reunited with his father, she could play out the cards of how she'd been trying to make it up to him and how that meant what had happened with Chuck hadn't meant a thing and would never happen again.

Yes, she thought, smiling brilliantly. This would work. It had to.

"We're here," the driver announced, but she wasn't fully aware until she felt the slightly chilly breeze coming inside the car from the open door.

She smiled politely, murmured a thank-you and headed into the building and up to the Humphrey loft.

"Blair," Dan said, surprised when he opened the door to find his girlfriend there, and even more surprised to find she was barefoot and with only one shoe in her hand. She kissed him quickly though and stepped inside. "It's late."

"The drive was long," she said, setting herself down on the couch and making herself comfortable while still managing to keep her back straight. "But I didn't want to go home." She smiled warmly at him and he returned it, coming to sit beside her.

"What about Chuck?" he asked.

For a moment she froze, fearing that somehow he knew everything, but it dissolved when she reminded herself just how much he'd known about the situation before she'd even left that afternoon.

"He's still there. The police needed to ask him and Bart some more questions."

He nodded, accepting it. Then he took her hand in his and moved his thumb over it.

"I know we've already discussed in detail how much you're not secretly running around with Chuck, but I just have to point out that…whether there's a romance or not, Chuck's dad is alive and it's going to change his world deeply."

"His yes, but not mine," she said instantly, hoping he hadn't seen her gulp and the brief terror in her eyes she'd quickly covered up.

He searched her eyes, giving no hint to what he may or may not be seeing in those dark brown orbs.

"I understand why you did what you did today, but I need to know for me – for us – what is really happening here?"

The smile seemed almost natural now.

"I'm here with you, right now, in this moment, and that is not going to change any time soon, because who I want to be with, who I am with, is you." She leaned forward and kissed him. He returned it, so she deepened the kiss, pulling an inch away when they started running out of air. "Is anyone else home?" she asked breathlessly.

He shook his head slightly. "No," he whispered.

She smiled against him. "Good," she said sultrily, kissing him deeply and slipping her hands under his shirt to assist in undressing him. She thrilled in the feel of his hands smoothly unzipping the back of her dress.

This was where she was supposed to be.

Staring up at the ceiling, in bed beside Dan in what should have been their magical post-coital glow, she found herself anything but happy.

They'd started in the living room on the couch, but after just a few thrusts he suggested moving it to the bedroom. She flirtatiously suggested doing it on the kitchen counter, but even in what she thought was lust he grimaced at the bare countertop. She suggested the wall then, because she thought that was hot as hell – and besides, it wasn't as if he couldn't hold her up. He'd done it in the elevator during their first successful time together. He wasn't for that either though. Something about Rufus potentially touching it sometime in the near future and him not being able to block out the image of his father leaning against the surface area where they'd had sex.

Afraid that she'd lose his sexual drive completely – and quite possibly her own – she settled for the bedroom, and for the bed, because apparently the walls and desk and bookcase were out of the question. He teasingly said Cedric wouldn't be able to handle it and that he'd be disturbed by him watching like she'd once informed him when they made out once in his bedroom, but it wasn't funny or cute this time. She'd be damned if she let him use her cute remark to stop sex in that location entirely.

In an effort to make the experience enjoyable for both of them, she took control. She rode him hard, harder than he could keep up with or maintain, and that irritated her a little but she plowed forward because this was going to be the best night of his life. She was going to really outdo herself, prove that she was the best sexual animal he'd ever laid eyes on. Screw Serena and any other girl he'd slept with or fantasized about. She was going to be the best.

It proved true, according to what he mumbled just before falling asleep. She'd made him come twice and that was quite the accomplishment, seeing that he hadn't been impressed at all by her efforts when they'd first made love.

But it hadn't paid off for her. During the entire ordeal she'd been thinking about how hot it would've been to have sex with Chuck in that paradise at the brothel. It was horrible, but she couldn't stop thinking about it. They'd been this close to undressing each other and then he had to go and ruin it.

Dan's slightly altered breathing told her he was slowly waking up from his drowsy sleep even though they'd only finished twenty minutes prior and it was the middle of the night, so she forced herself to think on other things. Her sex with Dan hadn't been bad. It just wouldn't have compared to what would have been sex with Chuck in that jungle. The make-out session alone was…

"That was amazing," Dan murmured, pulling her close. She turned herself into him, splaying her hand across his chest and somewhat irritated that though his chest had hair on it, they weren't particularly long…or curly. It was a strange thought, she admitted, since at one point she'd absolutely detested chest hair. But not now. Now…

"I missed you," she said on a quiet giggle.

What was that? She criticized herself. The giggled was detestable in her mind, and it sounded fake. She was surprised Dan didn't say anything about it. Probably too far gone, she gathered.

"Mmm." He smirked. "You should miss me more often."

She smiled a little, reminding herself that she'd come through on her goal to make Dan satisfied beyond all measure.

"I won't be doing that for awhile," she assured him. "Not on purpose at least. I'm going to spend extra time with you this next week to make up for my absence these last few days."

She heard his breath catch in his throat and she thought at first it was from surprise and delight, but when he didn't say anything, she became worried.

"Dan?" she asked cautiously.

"There's something I've been wanting to tell you," he said just as hesitantly.

She gulped. "What is it?"

"I canceled my trip to Rome."

Her eyes widened and she turned towards him, propping herself up on her elbow.

"What? But why?"

He sighed. "Well, at the time, I was feeling very on edge about just where you and I would stand by the end of the summer if you and Chuck were alone together for three months in the city."

She laughed. "It's a big city, Dan."

He nodded. "I know…"

"And I wouldn't do that to you," she said, sounding slightly offended. She couldn't force more than a little offense though. She was so guilty. She should be sentenced for life for making Dan feel guilty about his suspicions again.

"I know," he cut in, sitting up.

She pursed her lips with her brows narrowed, wondering where he was going with this.

"But now that we've moved past that…there is another option with my going to Rome this summer."

"You have to go, Dan. It's the opportunity of a lifetime," she insisted, hoping he didn't catch her unintentional emphasis in the demand.

"I know, and I probably will, but-"

"You have to-"

"Come with me."

Her eyes widened and for several long moments she couldn't speak.

"What?"

He sighed briefly. "Look, I know it's a lot to ask, but wouldn't it be amazing? Just the two of us in Rome all summer? It'll be our first big trip."

She looked away briefly, thinking about Chuck, and herself, and everything.

"Dan…I don't know…"

"At least think about it?" he offered, promising himself as he'd done earlier in the evening that he wouldn't push her.

She looked at him and searched for the answer she needed that she'd never find in his eyes.

"There's something else," he said, and she thought maybe this could be her way out. "It's something I've been wanting to tell you for awhile, and I think I should have told you from the very beginning. I…" he laughed a little. "I just didn't want to scare you away." He took her hands in his, pulling her up fully beside him.

Oh god.

"I love you."

Her lips parted. Her breath left her body. And the panic, once again, took over her.

"I'll think about it," she said, and his eyebrows furrowed, wondering about which monumental subject he'd brought up she was referring to. "Rome does sound amazing for the summer," she continued, "but it's also a big decision."

He nodded slowly, a cold sweat starting to develop on his skin.

"I'm just really tired right now though, understandably," she forced a small laugh, which he tried to return. "Can we talk about it tomorrow?"

"Sure," he forced, swallowing the feeling of unending, sick fear consuming him. "I'm sure you're-" But she was already turning away from him and laying back down on the bed, snuggling into the pillows and blankets. "-exhausted," he finished lamely, lying back down and curling behind her. He couldn't help but feel that she'd scooted a little away.

His imagination probably.

He walked into the foyer and spotted the blonde halfway down the stairs. As he suspected, his trip had been in vain.

"Chuck," Serena said, surprised. "What are you doing here? It's early. And I would imagine you would be catching up with your father…supposing everything was sorted out."

"Uh, yes it was," he quickly cleared up, "but I had to make a quick delivery. Is Blair here?"

Serena's brows furrowed but then her eyes lowered and she noticed for the first time that Chuck was holding one high-heeled shoe in his hand. She laughed.

"Uh…no, she's not. Is that…is that shoe?" she asked, well knowing the answer.

He nodded, trying not to get too annoyed or embarrassed by his sister's reaction.

"Yes. She left it at the brothel yesterday."

"She left it there? What-did she just fall out of it?" she laughed again.

"I'm sure she'll tell you all about it," he said, forcing a tight smile.

"Oh…kay, I'll make sure that she gets it," she said, maintaining a smile instead of spewing into more laughter. But just before Chuck had successfully handed it over to her, the elevator bell rang and they both turned to see Blair walking out of the shaft, holding the matching shoe to Chuck's under her arm. When she saw Chuck, she dropped the shoe and her purse.

"Chuck," she breathed, her eyes widening as her heart stopped.

Instantly the atmosphere shifted. Even Serena could feel it. There was tension in the air now and it was targeted between the two brown-haired devils before her. Something had happened yesterday. She couldn't pick up on what it had been and she knew now was not the time to ask, but she wouldn't let Blair get away with not telling her eventually. It was clearly something that needed to be discussed and dealt with.

"Would you look at that, looks like Blair's here!" Serena announced far too cheerily.

"I see that," Chuck said, keeping his eyes on the vixen standing stock still right outside of the elevator with her belongings on the floor.

"Well, I'll be upstairs," Serena said quickly, deciding not to press her best friend about the shoe issue right in front of the delivery boy.

"No need," Blair said, suddenly switching her gaze to her best friend who stopped frozen on the bottom step. "Chuck won't be staying along. He clearly just came to-"

"Deliver your shoe," he finished, holding it up before her.

She shifted her gaze back to him. Her eyes narrowed but she cleared her face a moment later, picked up her shoe and purse and stalked towards him, stopping a good foot or two away. When he made little to no effort to extend his arm for her to take it, she snatched it from him. Then her eyes locked with his and for far too long she couldn't look away. His stare was smoldering. It told her everything she knew to be true that she didn't want to be reminded of.

"I'll be right up, Serena," she said without looking away, but Serena had seen the exchange from the beginning and started walking up the stairs to retreat to her bedroom.

"She left already," Chuck informed her.

Blair fought to catch her breath. It was uncanny how the air grew so thin whenever she was around Chuck. Like he was killing her on purpose just by being near her.

"Thank-you for returning my shoe," she said politely. "I obviously didn't mean to leave it behind."

"Of course not," he responded obligingly. "You were in a hurry. I might have lost my shoe too if I was trying escape someplace so quickly."

She cleared her throat. "I wanted to get home."

"Which explains why you weren't here when I arrived five minutes ago," he retorted sarcastically. "Wasn't Humphrey at all curious when you showed up so late, and with only one shoe on?"

Her eyebrows narrowed. "I distracted him," she said, knowing her emphasis would hurt. Cause damn if she'd let him make her weak at the knees again.

He showed no sign of any impact the words might have had.

"I've overstayed my welcome," he said, beating her to the punch.

Her mouth opened and closed as he walked around her towards the elevator. She spun around just in time to see him stepping into the elevator and turning around to press the button.

"Have a good day, Waldorf," he said, as slowly the doors slid shut.

She blinked, then looked around her, confused to as if the whole interaction had been a dream. Then she looked towards the upstairs and remembered the details.

"Serena!" she called out, running up the stairs to her best friend's bedroom.

A/N: If you're giving up hope…don't! (That's really all I got. XD) Please review!