Title: Cross My Heart
Pairing: Blair/Chuck
Rating: T
Summary: "Spotted: B & C leaving JFK airport with more than matching clothes. Is that a gold ring on your ring finger, B? And it seems that C has one too. Could it really be? Are our former queen and UES's notorious playboy...married?"
Disclaimer: As always, I don't own Gossip Girl.
A/N: Well, I feel kinda bad because I spent my Queen's Birthday Holiday writing this chapter, instead of doing my Society and Culture assignment. Oh well, screw Society! Hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Oh, and Chuck may be slightly slightly OOC, but given the circumstances, I'd like to think he'd act this way. Thanks to all the reviewers as always! P.S. Nat, you rock! R&R please :)

"What the hell are you doing here?" Chuck asked swiftly, pulling his mother aside as he looked around for his father and stepmother, but luckily they were out of sight.

"My, Charlie, that's no way to talk to your mother. You'd think I didn't raise you with any manners," Misty Bass replied.

"You didn't raise me," Chuck said coldly, the hurt in his pride evident as he took a step away from his mother, the angry tension between them starting to evolve. "And don't call me 'Charlie'."

"You used to love it when I called you 'Charlie'. And besides, do you honestly think I'd miss out on my only son's engagement party?"

"You should leave before father catches you here," Chuck cautioned sternly, but his mother refused to heed his words. Instead, she was busy waving at the other guests who were shocked to see that Misty Bass had returned to the UES.

"And miss out on a family reunion as well? My, Charlie, how rude of you. Where is your new step-mother, anyway? I must have a word with Lily van der Bass," Misty said cruelly, her dark voice hardening at the name of the woman who had replaced her in what seemed the UES circle and in her son's life.

"Stay. Away. From Lily," he replied, in a tone to match his mother's insensitive one. "She doesn't need you upsetting her especially in her condition."

"Ah, yes, a Bass offspring. Who's to say that it's your father's, anyway? She was known to be very promiscuous, back in the day, especially with a Bono wannabe," Misty said as Chuck's knuckles whitened and he feared that the glass in his hand might explode. "Well, well, speak of the devil and he shall appear, or shall I say 'she'? Lily darling, you look fabulous."

"Misty, I wasn't expecting you here," Lily said, wrapping her hands protectively over her stomach. Chuck didn't blame her; after all, the last thing he wanted was his future sibling to be infested with any trace of his mother. He sent Lily a sympathetic smile and she nodded her head, showing him that she was ready for anything his mother was prepared to give. "Chuck, your father's looking for you, by the way."

As much as Chuck didn't want to leave Lily by herself, although he knew that she would be able to fend for herself, especially considering that a very pregnant, hormonal Lily van der Bass could take on his mother any day. He excused himself from their company and set off to find his father, relieved to get away from his mother.

"Chuck, either my eyesight really is deteriorating, or is that really your mother talking to my wife?" Bart Bass said.

"Father, at least I can assure you that the carrots seem to be working and yes, that is your ex-wife," Chuck admitted, dejected by the sight that he and his father were both staring at.

"I thought she couldn't come."

"She wasn't supposed to come. I'm not even sure how she found out about the party," Chuck replied.

"Well, just make sure that she does nothing to upset Lily or ruin the party," Bart ordered, walking away from his son, insinuating that he had no intention of dealing with his ex-wife.

"Oh, so now she's my problem, again," he muttered and flinched as a slap collided with the back of his head. He spun around, after letting loose some expletives to find his wife standing behind him, her arms crossed over chest and a less than impressed look on her face.

"You lied to me," Blair said, plain and simple, voice laced with accusation. Chuck, however, barely seemed to be paying any attention to her as he stared straight into the crowd. "Chuck!"

"Huh?" he mumbled, finally acknowledging that Blair was there.

"You told me a few days ago that she had just broken her leg in the Alps and that she was high on painkillers. Why'd you lie to me?"

"She isn't meant to be here," Chuck said drearily, watching his mother sift through the crowd, attracting attention to herself. She had, no doubt, stolen the focus of the party by becoming reacquainted with the Upper East Siders with whom she had lost contact with since she had left. From the other side of the room, he could see his father tighten his grip around Lily's waist, staring disapprovingly at his ex-wife, whilst his current wife looked as if she were cursing her swollen bump for not allowing her to down a martini or two.

"Well, I'm going up to her," Blair said nonchalantly, but just as she spun around, Chuck gripped onto her wrist, pulling her back towards him.

"Don't," he warned her, but the callous tone in his voice made it seem more like a threat. Blair frowned, her eyebrows furrowing at his sudden behaviour and as she looked up at him, all she saw was darkness looming in his eyes. It was almost enough to make her reconsider going up to her mother-in-law, but Blair wasn't going to be easily swayed by Chuck.

After all, Misty Bass was only his mother…how bad could she really be?

The truth was, when she was little, Blair had admired Misty Bass. Chuck's mother had always showed up to her mother's parties wearing the latest designs imported from France, she always had the finest taste in cuisine and wine and was always the talk of the town. Blair would always envision herself to follow in the footsteps of Misty Bass, however she didn't realise how true that would be considering she was now one of the current Mrs Basses. It was no surprise that when she did walk up to Misty Bass, who had just detached from a group of guests, she felt giddy and awestruck.

"Hello Mrs Bass, you look absolutely lovely. I must say, I wasn't quite aware that you were going to be here tonight, but nonetheless I'm honoured that you are," Blair said, sweeter than a honey river.

Misty raised her eyebrow at Blair, an amused expression reigning over her collagen face and replied in a bored sneering tone, "Blair," and then walked away, without so much as looking back at Blair's offended face.

"Your mother's a bitch," Blair snapped at Chuck, as she walked past him, clearly annoyed and aggravated. He sighed, taking another sip of his drink before walking towards his mother, who was busy making conversation with people he didn't recognise.

"Mother, can I talk to you, please?" he said, smiling at the guests before pulling his mother away from them without allowing her to excuse herself.

"Charlie, manners please. That's no way to treat your guest and not to mention your mother."

"What did you say to Blair?" he asked firmly.

"Nothing really, darling, if you must know," her wicked grin, revealing all as Chuck resisted the urge to slap himself with his palm. "Oh Charlie, you must think I'm a horrible person."

"An understatement, I can assure you."

Misty Bass' exterior stiffened and a devilish twinkle sparkled in her hollow gaze as her lips curled. "Charles, you may hate me, you may loathe me, but you're going to have to accept that I am your mother, and darling, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Your 'marriage', it's a sham. It'll crumble, it'll shatter, and it'll be over before you know it. Charles, you may not realise it, but you take after me. You're a free spirit; you need no constraints. Being married will choke you, it'll eat you up alive and it won't be long before you break," she said sharply, every word hitting a chord within her son. "And to be married to a Waldorf? They're nothing compared to our family. And to think Blair was supposed to end up as an Archibald, not a Bass. The minute he breaks up with her, she comes crawling to your feet, expecting that you take her in. This all a ruse of hers-"

"SHUT up! Mother, dear God, if you don't shut up, I swear that the police will be here soon, arresting me for matricide!" he exclaimed angrily, causing some heads to turn towards their direction. "First off, you have no right, no right whatsoever to tell me who I am or am not supposed to be married to. Blair Waldorf is twice the woman you will ever be, her destiny wasn't written in the stars with Nathaniel Archibald, she was meant to be with me. We're married, officially and completely and there is nothing in your motherly powers that can change that fact. Second, how dare you suggest that I am in any way like you? I, for one, don't abandon my family to shack up with some businessman from California. Marriage didn't choke you, mother. You just couldn't live by it. You viewed it and our family as a job, a mere chore. We choked you," Chuck said finally, the anger inside of him dissolving in his last sentence only to replaced by an overdue sadness. "You disgust me," he hissed softly.

Misty, momentarily shaken, swiped a martini from a passing waiter, her fake smile dropping as her gaze met Blair's aghast expression. Blair stood only a few metres away, which was enough justification that she had heard all that had been conversed between Misty and her son. Walking straight past Blair, Misty held her head – and her drink – high, pretending through her façade that she hadn't heard her daughter-in-law say silkily, "you don't deserve him".

"On behalf of Eleanor and Harold Waldorf, the latter unfortunately not being able to make it tonight, and myself, my wife Lily, and my," Bart paused, coughing out the lump in his throat, "and my former wife, Misty," Misty stood up from her seat, waving frivolously at everyone as though she won an Oscar, "I'd like to thank everyone for coming here to celebrate the blessed union between my son, Charles, and the Waldorf's beautiful daughter, Blair. It's an honour to have her as part of the family and whilst their marriage was certainly unexpected, may they spend their rest of their lives in wedded bliss. To Charles and Blair," Bart toasted, as the fellow guests stood up with the champagne glasses and repeated, "To Charles and Blair."

Chuck, himself, took more than a sip – by now, he was beginning to feel just a tad tipsy - and sat back down, avoiding the sight of his mother, who sat a few tables away from him.

"Actually, I'd like to propose a toast," Blair said unexpectedly, standing up and raising her glass in the air. Chuck looked up at her, surprised by her actions and grew even more confused when she winked at him in a un-Blair manner.

"I, for one, never expected myself to be standing here at eighteen, married to none other than Charles Bass. It was definitely something I never pictured, but if there's one thing that I've learnt, it's that the course of true love never did run smoothly. Charles and I, we bickered, we fought, half the time we'd be insulting each other – we still do that now, actually – but never once, did he stop looking at me the way he does now, with adoration and respect. He taught me that in the face of true love, you don't just give up, even when the object of your affection is begging you to. No matter how many times I turned him down, he persevered and I'm truly glad that he did because we wouldn't be here today if he hadn't. Chuck – I mean, Charles, also gave me a second chance. After I had done something horrible to him last year, he forgave me because whilst, he seems tough on the exterior, inside he's got a beating heart that's more fragile than the rest. You hear of childhood sweethearts, but we were never that. Instead we were brats who fought over lollipops," the guests laughed as did Blair at that memory, "but as we've grown older, I've come to understand him and he's come to see me as I really am." Blair smiled down at Chuck and took his hand into hers, before directing herself to the guests.

"And for the rest of my life to come, I'll make sure to do anything to protect him. I may seem tiny, but I can assure all of you, that I'm quite headstrong when it comes to the people that I love. If anyone so much as tries to hurt him, I will personally come at them when they least expect it," Blair said, the threat hidden with a smile towards Misty Bass. "And to anyone who has hurt him or even considers doing so in the future, let me just say, that I find you pathetic and heartless as well as worthless to Chuck and I."

The guests had grown silent in confusion and awkwardness as they were beginning to sense that there was more to Blair's speech than meets the eye. Chuck faked cough into his sleeve and Blair smiled politely once more, breaking the tension with, "As a young girl, I had always dreamed for Prince Charming, but now, I realise that Prince Charming is no comparison to Charles Bass. To Charles."

Blair raised her glass and the guests chanted after her, "To Charles," before settling back into the their conversations. She sat back down, feeling smug, and as she looked to find Misty Bass, she was surprised to find her slipping out of the reception room, trying to remain discrete. Blair turned to face Chuck, but he had already stepped out of his seat, trying to chase after his mother.

As she leaned back in her seat, the orchestra playing a romantic song, Blair couldn't help but think about her speech, and how it had hit close to home as she suddenly realised that she might've said that she loved Chuck.

"Mother," Chuck called out, running out of the Palace hotel to find his mother about to climb into a limo. "Wait!"

She ignored his calls and proceeded inside, but he stopped her from shutting the door as he held it open.

"What for, Charlie? I think your wife made it pretty clear what she thinks of me," Misty said, the defeat strong in her voice.

"What about what I think of you?" Chuck said, prompting some response from his mother, but she kept silent. "Mother, you infuriate me. You come here, unannounced and you expect that I'll be the perfect son who misses you like hell. After all you've put me through, you've got to be kidding yourself if you thought that would've happened. I was there for you every time you got high or wasted, I was the one who would clean you up after you came home, no doubt after being with other men, I even held your hair for you while you puked into the toilet bowl. I was ten, for goddamn sakes. Ten! And still, every time you came to me, I was there for you. And then to think, one day, I come home from school to find that you had left. No note, no card, nothing. Just father telling me that you were gone. You know what, I actually resented him. I hated him because I thought that it was his fault that you had left, that he hadn't fought hard enough for you. And then I started to hate myself. I kept thinking that it was because of me that you had left. That I wasn't the perfect son or that I would never live up to your standards. You were the one to give up on us and the second that you left, was the exact moment that you lost me and I don't think I can ever forgive you for that," Chuck said coldly, standing up, taking his hands off the door and wiping them on his tux. "Stay away from my family, mother. Stay away from Blair and I." And with those parting words, Chuck Bass closed the limo door and walked away from his mother, cutting her from his life once and for all.

"I believe this last dance is mine."

Blair looked up and found Chuck holding out his hand, a small smile on his lips. She gratefully took his hand and they walked towards the dance floor, where only a handful still swayed.

"That was a moving speech," Chuck said, the sentiment hidden by his usual snark.

"It wasn't supposed to move you; although it did move your mother," Blair smirked, the pun not lost on them both, with the image of Misty Bass fleeing the room in defeated embarrassment still fresh in their minds. "She was the one calling you, wasn't she?"

Chuck nodded his head, finally accepting that his mother was no longer someone he wanted in his life. "I didn't mean to lie to you, I just didn't want you having to endure her."

"I think I can take her on," Blair said lightly, as he twirled her around to the soft music.

"For what it's worth, Blair Waldorf, your speech, well, it was endearing. Any sucker out there would've believed you."

"Did you?" she asked softly, resting her head on his shoulder.

The only reply he offered was a soft 'happy one month anniversary' and simply held her close to him, their bodies swaying in unison to the rhythm of the orchestra. And as the night died, they danced together on the dance floor, pretending that the night would never end and tomorrow they wouldn't have to come crashing back into reality.