Chapter 20:

Chuck sat alone on a hard white bench reading Blair's credit report, which he had ordered as soon as she had disappeared into the white room with Mr. Grey. It wasn't pretty. He knew she had lost everything in the dowry, but he had assumed she had found some alternate arrangements - she was Blair Waldorf after all. She had been holding steady until about six months ago, and then her credit went into freefall. He wondered if she had lost her job at that newspaper. Newspapers were a notoriously bad investment these days. He quickly Googled the 'Grimwood Gazette' - it had folded six and a half months ago - of course. He wondered if the loss of the job coupled with her decision to off Jack had initiated the fiscal irresponsibility. Clearly if she was determined to kill Jack and herself, her fiscal health would be the last of her concerns. It almost made him want to wait, before forcing the issue of the next step - almost. He called each of her creditors in turn and paid them off, and then called the Waldorf=Astoria and put the room they were staying in into his name. He was looking forward to how her eyes, nose and lips would scrunch up and how she would glare at him in exasperation at his impertinence. God, how he missed her every expression - he would take an angry glare any day.

Two hours later, she emerged from the room with Mr. Grey. He extended his arm to her, and she fell into the folds of his arms with a simple familiarity.

"I take it you're giving her back to me?" Chuck asked Mr. Grey.

Mr. Grey's lips twitched. "Yes. Thank you for bringing her in. She's been very helpful." He paused, a thoughtful expression in his eyes.

"I take it you'd like us both to stay in the city?" Chuck asked.

"That would be best, and give us a call if you make any further discoveries."

As Mr. Grey watched the couple leave, he let himself hope that they would be allowed some small moment of peace together, before being swallowed up by the world.

"How did it go? I take it you're not a suspect."

"At least not officially," she responded. "Mr. Grey admitted that he thought it unlikely that one young woman was capable of taking down that crowd."

"Before we endeavor to track down the killers, there are a few details we need to take care of," he said.

"Like?"

"Dinner tonight with Lily."

Blair froze. "Lily. Will Serena be there?"

"I'm not sure. Occasionally she joins us. Perhaps I should request she shows up."

"Do you think that's a good idea? The last time I saw her ..."

"She's forgiven you for Dan. She'll want to see you. I want to let Lily know in advance that we're getting married, so we do need to see her."

Blair's eyebrows shot up. "Married? Shouldn't that be up for discussion?"

"No," he said as he helped her into the waiting Limo. "To the courthouse," he requested of the driver as he slipped in behind her."

"Courthouse?" Blair gulped. "You don't think we're getting married now? We're not even engaged."

"Calm down, we're not getting married today. There's a twenty-four hour waiting period in New York. We're getting married tomorrow. We can go to the courthouse to get the paperwork signed and then ring shopping before we meet up with Lily at the Palace."

"Chuck, don't you think we should wait?"

"No."

She tried to pull her hand out of his, but he wouldn't let it go. "I won't lose you again. I can't. You would think that at some point I would have gained some independence from you, but I never did. All I want in the entire world is to tie us so firmly together that we can never break free. Not a terribly romantic proposal, I'm afraid."

Blair rolled her eyes. "Better than the fiasco at the hospital. At least Jenny Humphrey isn't hiding behind any corners this time." She stared with a frown out the window before turning to face Chuck, whose eyes bore into hers. "You may not want to marry me so soon. I lost the job at the newspaper, and run up some debt ... You've always been leveraged enough that marrying my credit score could hurt you."

He smiled lightly. "I'll move a few things around tomorrow morning. If I'm liquid enough, I'll be able to survive a few years of bad credit. Oh, and I paid off your creditors while you were with Mr. Grey."

"You what?" She glared at him.

"I went through your purse this morning and took down your credit card information, and I called your creditors and paid them off.

"That's ... that's awful. You can't do that."

"If you're going to be my wife, you can hardly go around with unnecessary debts."

She frowned. "Don't you think we should talk about this?"

He trailed his fingers down the side of her chin. "Okay. Do you want to wait?"

She scrunched her nose as she considered. "No. I guess I don't want to wait."

"So we're decided?"

She grimaced. "Fine. I still wish you could have asked before you went digging."

He buried his face into her neck, and kissed her lightly. "When have I ever asked?"

"Don't get me started, Bass." Her lips twitched. "Do you think we could get back the Harry Winston ring?"

"Would you want it - after all it's history?"

"Its history is our history."