Disclaimer: I own nothing except a great love for CB and the many inhabitants of the UES

A/N: Twice in one night *gasp* a little something something extra for you guys. The next chapter is running way long and I thought I'd just trim it down by posting this part early ;). I really hope you guys enjoy this one as much as I loved writing it because I just had a ball. I'm feeling beyond energized and I'm not sure if it's knowing that we've got three more eps to go or this being the last week of classes. Thank the Lord. More time for CB and a life. Much love to Wifey and my girls.

ஐChapter 24ஐ

"You heard me, Bass. Get lost. I have plans for the evening that don't involve you."

Her words might've stung a lesser man. Hell, her icy tone would've snapped his head right off if not for the flashing, playful smile he glimpsed as she flitted from flitted from one corner of the room to the next. Straightening and cleaning what Dorota had left neat and orderly before leaving with Evie and Kat.

"I'm serious, Chuck. You need to go."

"Waldorf, you're making me dizzy here. Would you stand still?"

"Can't. Sorry. Too much to do." She started to brush by him again, but he stayed all movement, holding her to him. "Chuck, come one. I'm running out of time here."

"Blair…"

"I'm serious, Chuck. Go find some corner to hole up in with your precious cell phone or better yet go hang out with your boys."

"Oh, my boys?" Lips quirked, expression bemused.

"Yes, Eric and Nate." Blair supplied, as if he'd somehow forgotten, "Maybe you can even play at civility with Brooklyn."

Chuck held her away, trying to get a look at her face. "Wait. You're actually suggesting that I play nice with Dan Humphrey of all people."

"Hmm, yes. I believe that's the gist of what I said." She retorted lightly.

"No way."

"It'll be fun, I bet. "

He shook his head, "A bet you'd lose. Be serious, Waldorf."

"I am." Blair smiled, "You guys can all go out on your little man-date or whatever. You can relax and pump Brooklyn for information for your beloved sister."

"Please, Waldorf. Do me a favor and never ever say that again. Ever."

"Oh, get over it. You love S almost as much as I do. She's family."

"I wasn't talking about that. Chuck Bass does not and will not ever man-date as you put it." He informed, his mind working to put the pieces together.

Blair suddenly wanted him buddy-buddy with Dan Humphrey of all people. His girl had an agenda and him keeping the other man company worked twofold in Blair's favor. She'd have dirt on Serena's ex, while managing to keep Chuck clear of her precious girls' night.

It was ironic, really. He'd been trying to figure the best way to spring his sudden need to fly overseas. Now would be the perfect time to say the words. She wouldn't be alone for the night either; the most he'd been worried about before arriving to the hospital to find Blair nowhere in sight and the fucking staff acting like a gaggle of clueless idiots.

He was torn. Freaking out at the thought of leaving her alone for a few hours, separated by mere miles rather than the fucking Atlantic. But what other choice did he have?

Despite his PI's assurance, Chuck found himself becoming more and more dissatisfied with the Whoregina/Olivia George situation. Yes, his people had a nearly spotless record, coming through for him when he needed information on a perspective client or associate. Dirt on a competitor. Keeping track of Baizen's less than stellar moments, should the need for it ever arise for that information.

Still, Chuck couldn't shake the feeling that there was some connection there and the only thing that would set his mind at ease would be seeing that crazed bitch locked away. He'd gotten confirmation twice, but it wasn't enough.

Dammit, "B, why not wait a few days?" He suggested, wondering if she might be compelled to change or reschedule her slumb…soiree by a few days, if she knew about the surprise that he had waiting for her. About the downstairs apartment that he had people working on even now to get it ready for her physical therapy. Maybe, he could follow his own advice and wait a few days to get the first-hand confirmation on Georgina's whereabouts.

"Not a chance." Blair shook her head, "You should've heard my mother when I told her what we were doing tonight. I can't believe that she's joining in."

"You and me both." Chuck couldn't help pulling a face.

She shoved away from him and went back to her earlier chore in futility of seeming to clean up after Dorota.

"Blair, what are you doing?" He finally had to ask as she started shifting through drawers and the suitcases where she'd started packing up her new clothes. Anticipating her final night at St. Vincent's. She and the girls had helped or probably hindered Dorota get it all folded and ready for travel. Now Blair had emptied both suitcases, clothes strewn across the bed. "Hey, Waldorf."

"What?" She didn't turn to face him, but tossed the agitated query over her shoulder.

"What in the hell are you doing?"

"I'm looking for something." She answered, unhelpfully.

He tipped his head, trying to catch her eye, but the damn woman couldn't seem to keep still. "Tell me what it is and I might be persuaded to help you look."

"The DVD Vanessa dropped off yesterday. I can't find it." She finally paused in her search, casting her eyes about the room, as if it might suddenly just pop out for her to see. "I thought we could all watch it tonight."

Well damn.

Something in his expression must have given him away, as she quickly amended her, "Me and the girls, I mean."

The hell they were. Though, if he didn't know exactly how much it would hurt Blair to see it, it might've been almost worth it to let B play show-and-tell with that damn DVD just to see the look on Eleanor's face. He couldn't really tell that to Blair though, so he did the next best thing and changed the subject, "I still can't believe Chambers actually agreed to this."

"You're not the only one who can be persuasive."

"So you flirted with him."

"I. Did. Not. It's called charm. An approach that I'm sure you're passably familiar with." Blair fired back, "Perhaps, if you'd tried that approach with the man instead of threatening him…"

He interrupted, his words matter of fact and smirk barely surpressed, "I'd have a man-date."

"Shut up." She smiled, tossing a pillow at his head, which he easily batted away. "Now as I was saying…"

"It wasn't a threat." Chuck shrugged, negligibly, "Merely a statement of fact that I was more than prepared to follow through. Now you mind telling me where everyone plans on sleeping because I'm sorry but I just can't picture Lily or your mother camped out on this floor in a set of sleeping bags."

"Well, Mom and Lily are probably going to head out when they're ready for bed. The twins will have your spot. And…" Blair waved a hand at the cot that had been hidden away in the closet since the nurses first rolled the damn thing in for him to sleep on. "S and Alex sleeping there."

"Really? That thing?" He followed her pointed glance, his mouth twisting in disgust, acknowledging its presence for the first time.

"Yes, that thing that you refused to sleep on."

"Bad back, Waldorf."

"I remember." She rolled her eyes. "All the more reason for you to go home and enjoy the comfort of your own bed. Trust me. It'll do wonders for your…back."

"So you're really set on doing this?"

"Everything is in place. I just need you to make yourself scarce." The stern lines of her expression ran soft and she reached out threading her fingers through his. "Don't think for a moment that I don't know what this is about."

"Enlighten me," He brought her hand to his mouth. "Please."

"This is about earlier. When you freaked out because I wasn't where you left me? I'm not going anywhere, Bass. Promise."

Chuck looked away from her, embarrassed that she could see through the façade so easily, "Blair."

She didn't stop, instead Blair reached out, her hand under his chin. "Not like before, but you can't expect to know where I am every single second of the day and who's with me….because…well that's a little less endearing when I say it out loud and kind of disturbing, actually."

Blair's words were dead on, Chuck was damn well paranoid when it came to her but it wasn't as if he didn't have good cause to worry. She was missing that all too important piece of the puzzle. The reason. That insane instinct that had compelled him to call up his pilot hours ago.

It wasn't the coma that fueled his sudden need to go all caveman on her. What would she think when he got her back to the apartment building? An entirely different set of trappings, but if something didn't give would she come to see it as another prison, a gilded cage of sorts. Besides, there wasn't much he'd be able to do short of having someone trailing her every step and he could just imagine how she'd react to that.

Damn, he needed this arsonist caught. Any possible threat against his family eliminated so that he could be free to enjoy finally having everything that he'd ever wanted. Chuck wondered how Dan and Nate had fared with the old woman in Baltimore.

One thing was for sure though, he didn't want to wait anymore than Blair did, she for her soiree with the girls and for him it was definitively eliminating that insane bitch as the person targeting all he held dear.

"Come on, Chuck. I'm sure that you could think of something if you don't want to hang out with Nate, tonight. And I was mostly kidding about the Dan thing. Although, you would be helping to settle a bet that I have going with Estelle."

Of course there was something? Shit this had been exactly his problem after the twins were born and he was expected to fly off to Thailand or Moscow at a moments notice. Those first few years, Dorota and the twins had traveled the world with him, but that very first time he'd left them in New York had been the worse. He couldn't exactly cart Blair around the world until the arsonist was found.

He needed to do this now. Rip the band-aid off, as it was. But he'd be damned if he was going anywhere without making provisions. Blair was getting her way. She was getting rid of him for the night and likely most of tomorrow, but she'd just gained herself a permanent shadow. And he knew the perfect candidate for the job.

"Fine, Waldorf. You win."

She held his gaze, frowning and dissecting his expression, his words for something hidden.

~ஐ~

"Did you tell him about the daughter in Arizona?"

"Yep," Nate said, handing back the other man's cell phone. "But seeing as how his plane just took off destined for Prague, I don't think he's going to be able to loan you the company jet."

Dan was almost relieved that he wouldn't be boarding a plane in the next few hours. First they'd spoken to Mrs. Franklin, a thirty minute conversation for which she was lucid all of six minutes. A fire that had killed the stranger who'd been her husband for fifteen years before he'd gone to war and come home all wrong, unfit for life with the living. At least that was how the Franklin woman told it, except she'd managed it in rhyme and meter.

The daughter Emma had left for college. Tulane and never returned, instead settling in and making a life for herself in Spokane and then Tucson. Her son, Jeremy stayed with the old woman. Sticking close to Jersey. Never marrying or even falling in love. Then she'd started alternately calling Dan and Nate by her son's name, crying and smiling in the same breath. Wanting to know why she'd been abandoned and then demanding to see their report cards.

The experience had been interesting to say the least. It could have been worse. She could've called them Emma and demanded that they model their prom dresses, as she'd done to her nurse before the boys left.

"Wait, Prague?"

"Georgina….hopefully." Nate said, his head lolling against the headrest. After their little visit with Mrs. Franklin, they'd managed to miss their train ride home. Not the best idea with the station crowded with people traveling for the fast approaching New Year.

They'd waited for hours and there wasn't a rental car or even bus ticket to be had. They'd managed was standby. Now the train was hurtling, pushing forward, closer to home and all the problems that came with it.

"You sticking around tonight?" Dan wondered aloud, as if he were privy to Nate's thoughts.

"God, Humphrey, don't you ever stop?" Nate groaned, before turning it back around on the other man, "Are you gay?"

"I'm sorry?" Dan sputtered, glaring at the suddenly intrigued spectators, sitting directly across from them. "Where in the hell did that come from?"

Nate shrugged, "The girls have been talking and Blair's speculating all the reasons why you've been avoiding Serena."

"But you know why I've been avoiding her."

"Yes, but Blair doesn't."

"So she set you and Wonder Bass on the case. Give me a break, man."

Nate smiled at that, "Don't like it, do you?"

"Fine. You made your point." He focused his attention outside the heavy glass, watching the blurred scenery blend until it was a mass of color without sound. Silence fell between them and the man and woman listening so openly, didn't bother muffling disappointed looks and sighs, turning back to other exercises in keeping themselves amused during the train ride.

"Although, I am supposed to ask if you've got some girlfriend back in Chicago." Nate told him.

"Actually, I don't but sorry, I can't be your date for New Year's. You'll have to make other plans, Archibald." Dan shot back, "I answered yours. Are you planning on going with V to her parents' tomorrow night?"

Dan saw the lie before Nate even said the words, "Actually, I hadn't thought about it." The blonde shrugged a little too carelessly, "My mother left for Aspen a few days ago. I'll probably just hang out with Chuck and the family."

"Won't Chuck still be in Prague?"

"Not if he values his life."

Though he didn't need the confirmation, Dan still asked, "Blair?"

The twosome shared a knowing look, smiling as they pictured Blair Waldorf's reaction when Chuck dropped the Prague bomb, the day before New Year's Eve.

"Blair."

~ஐ~

Blair, Chuck sighed. A mirthless smile curving his mouth as he stared blindly at the amber liquid that he'd been nursing since the pilot landed them in calm skies.

He hadn't swallowed a drop, unable to savor with his mind full of Blair.

To say that she'd been unhappy with his sudden "business" trip would be the understatement of the millennium. Ha. Match struck to a powder keg was more like it.

Chuck knew it wasn't the most ideal moment, but this was one worry that needed to be set to rest, as soon as, humanly possible. He'd sworn up and down that he had every intention of being back in New York before partygoers had a chance to crowd into Times Square.

"This is my first New Year back among the living. I know we can only do so much to make it special stuck in some friggin hospital." She'd argued, flitting back and forth between being hurt and pissed off. "How do you see that even happening if you're not even there."

"It'll be unforgettable, Waldorf. I promise."

"You've got that right. It'll be extremely memorable if you mess around and get stuck on the other side of the world…in Prague…what the hell is in Prague, anyway?" Blair had demanded, but left no time for answers as she'd charged onward, outraged and accusing as if he controlled time and space. "You're going to get the New Year before us."

"B, I'm coming right back."

"And this can't wait." She'd mocked, throwing his earlier words back.

"Honestly, it can't. Otherwise there's no way in hell you'd be able to keep me out of your little girls' night."

"I guess not, but if you mess around and don't get back in time…" She'd growled her displeasure at the very idea of it,

"What…I'm curious what happens were I to be even a few seconds late."

"Well, then Basshole. The New Year would've started without you and I'd have to find someone else for my kiss. I'm sure that there'd be no lack in volunteers."

"Try it."

"Try me." They'd stood toe-to-toe, Blair's back flush up against the wall and Chuck's hands planted flat on either side of her, closing her in.

"It's a moot point. I'll be back in time."

"So, what? Am I pushing back my release from this place?"

"Not a chance. The jet's fueled and ready to go. G4, Blair, I'll be back before you know it."

"I don't want you to go." She'd admitted and then motioned to the room, "and I definitely don't want to be in this damn hospital, even one more moment than absolutely necessary."

"You won't. You have my word."

"But…"

"You'll be out of here before midnight. Granted not the early morning departure that you might have preferred, but still. Late afternoon. Evening at the latest." Which actually worked very well with what he'd had planned for tomorrow night anyway. Chambers had finally stopped dragging his feet. Everything was working out like it was supposed to.

Now he wondered about what was to happen next. Did he want to find Georgina in the sanitarium, because if she wasn't there, then who else could be Olivia George? Problem solved. Then it would just be finding the crazy bitch. Damn right, he wanted it to be her. A face for the threat against his business and his family.

But what was the connection to the Franklins. Had she somehow found out about his father's past sins? Information was power, a sentiment that Chuck learned at Bart's knee. Whoregina might have a few screws loose but she could never be called stupid.

It was her. He knew it. He felt it.

Revenge, Chuck understood well, but there was a whole different level of crazy on top of that when dealing with Georgina. During their previous encounters, she'd played her little games and offered little opposition in her removal but this times the stakes had been upped. She'd shot Blair full of McCarty's fucking science experiment, even with the possible outcome being Blair's body rejecting it and going into full cardiac arrest.

That thought spurred him into making the call that he'd put off for long enough already.

Joseph answered almost immediately, "Talk to me."

"It's Chuck Bass."

"Mr B. Long time. I saw the good news." The big man said, "Was definitely glad to hear about your lady. Used to see her in that hospital room just sleeping like she'd wake up any minute."

Chuck nodded, silently. Those same times all too clear and recent in his own memory.

"So I take it this isn't a social call. What can I do for you?"

"Do you remember what you told me that last day? Well, I've some things going on here and I could really use your expertise." Chuck revealed. "I need to call in that favor."

The big man answered without hesitation. "Tell me what you need."

"It's dangerous."

A chuckle met his words. "Like you said…my expertise. I'll need details."

ஐTBCஐ

A/N: Couldn't help myself. I beyond excited with all that's coming and the next chapter keeps going and going and going like that friggin pink bunny and I thought why not just post this part tonight. So what'd you think. Could you see Chuck out on a man-date with the boys or even Chambers. He gives in to B's demands and then hits her with Prague. After his little scare though finding her gone and danger lurking, he can't just leave her on her own now can he? Again I had an awesome time writing this chapter and plotting out what's coming next. Hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you thought of this one. I will most definitely try to update within the next few days. I've possibly got Jury Duty which means *yay* no work and I can possibly get some work done on my Ipod while I sit in some office just waiting the day away...then again it's Jury Duty. *sigh*. Oh, well. Civic duty ;)

Courtneyஐ