This chapter may be updated soon but I want to get this out there ASAP because of the long wait in between the last two chapters. I am also thinking of starting a sort of spin of series focusing on Blaine and Charlotte's storyline's as many people seem interested in that. As I have said before I am updating chapters and will be changing a few things around so that the story fits with the characters rather than the characters being fitted into the story.
Chapter Twenty Five: Chuck in Real Life
Bart was back that morning. He'd been gone for a while now on some business trip. He'd come bearing gifts, an expensive watch for Erica, a suit for Sebastian and a large deposit into Charlotte's bank account. But these gifts came with a price a new list of rules or 'guidelines' as Lily had called for their new family, Friday night dinner together, a weekend curfew of 1am and no going out on school nights. All three rules had come with some protest from the three teenagers but none more than the last one.
Although apparently both Bart and Lily had made the decision together the whole thing smelled of Bart Bass.
…..
Van was over that morning. He'd been over a lot lately. This morning he was on a mission, armed with a petition and fliers in an effort to achieve landmark status for Dutch Schultz's favourite speakeasy, the owner had died and the whole building was now up for auction.
"How about I come to school with you and hand out flyers to the guilty rich?" he suggested.
"If there is any I doubt you'll find them at my school" she warned grabbing an apple out of the nearby fruit bowl.
"Well, maybe one of their mommies or daddies is looking for their next cause" Van said sweeping his hand across the counter pushing his fliers together.
"Whose bag is that?" he asked nodding towards the sports bag swung over her shoulder "that's a soccer ball"
"Half the soccer team at Constance got mono from making out with Lucas Goldenberg" she told them placing the apple back into the bowl "so I guess their only option was to ask me to try out"
"Wait they asked you?" Jeremy teased handing Van a flier he'd missed.
"Well Nat did" she admitted "I'm an alternate and I'm also really, really late, you coming Van?"
…
"What's next, no TV until your homework is finished?" Sebastian complained to Erica as they walked to school together.
"There just a few rules Sebastian" Erica, always the voice of reason, pointed out "who watches TV on a real TV anymore anyway?"
"It's not about the rules Erica, it's about mom" he argued "with just the three of us, it's fine, but whenever she gets a new guy she stepfords out and lets him make all the decisions"
"I don't think that's what happ-"
"Remember when we had to move to Chamonix because German Klaus wanted to ski all year round?" he asked.
"That wasn't so bad" Erica said.
"But what about Paolo, the raw food diet family, colonics?" he asked "or Sameer, I know I enjoyed our brief conversion to Islam" he added sarcastically.
"I see your point" Erica said.
"Look" he started pausing and turning to his sister who had stopped when he had "mom can let these guys run her life for her but they shouldn't be able to run ours"
"It seems different this time" she said "she seems pretty serious about making the whole family thing work with Bart, we could at least try right?"
"Fine" he said with a sigh "but as soon as he starts calling the shots, the gloves come off and the claws come out, I just mixed metaphors didn't it?"
"Yeah" Erica said with a smile "but it kind of worked"
….
"The coach was really impressed with your try out" Nat told her as they walked through the school hallway together.
"Really?" she asked, she was secretly quite proud of herself she didn't know she had it in her.
"Yeah, thanks for subbing in Danni" Nat told her.
Charlotte turned into their hallway as soon as she saw Nat and Danni she walked towards them.
"Humphrey, never a pleasure" she told Danni before turning to Nat.
"Oh good, finally something we agree on" Danni replied.
Charlotte placed a hand on Nat's shoulder and tilted her head towards her as if she was looking for some kind of privacy but spoke loudly enough for Danni to hear without even trying.
"Isn't it time you dropped the dead weight?" she asked "what happens at Yale stays at Yale"
Nat shook of Charlotte's hand and turned towards Danni.
"Come on, let's go" she said.
It was an odd experience to see Nat choose her over her once best friend, she was actually quite surprised. She had really begun to like hanging out with Nat, she'd never really had any female friends and the pair had a lot in common.
…
He had settled in for the evening when Charlotte stopped by his room. She had pushed the door open and stood in his doorway, smirking at him. She looked dressed up, but he doubted that she even knew how to dress down.
"Look who's following the rules" she said "and it's not even a school night"
"Erica convinced me" he admitted "what about you?"
"I'm on my way out to a house call" she said raising her eyebrow in a suggestive manner.
"Ugh" he groaned "just as long as you're back by one"
"Naïve Sebastian" she said, shaking her head "don't you know Bart and Lil's list of rules doesn't apply to me"
"What are you talking about?" he asked.
She moved into the room, stopped at the end of his bed.
"My sources tell me that the real reason my father flew in early was to court some executives in town from the Midwest" she said "the problem is they won't do business with anyone who doesn't share their family values, or at least appear to"
"Wait?" he asked "all this just so he can close a deal"
"I do my best work off the radar" she told him "but as long as your splashed all over the paper with the Poppy Liftons of the world you're the bigger threat to Bart's business"
She turned back around, pausing in the doorway, placing one hand up against it the other on her hip.
"Night bro" she said "I hope your book is captivating"
And with that final statement she turned around and left.
…
He waited around the corner of the elevator for Bart to arrive. He shook his shoulders when he heard the elevator ding and mentally prepared himself.
"Hi Bart" he greeted when he turned the corner "missed you at family dinner, maybe next time"
He turned the corner, walking past Bart and heading for the elevator.
"Where do you think you're going?" he asked.
"Anywhere there's paparazzi" he replied pressing the button for the elevator "I'm in the mood for a show"
…
"What did Lily say about the curfew flaunting?" Blaine asked the next morning over breakfast.
"Nothing yet, I snuck out before she woke up" he admitted "let her discipline the sibling that actually deserves it"
"Chuck" Blaine said with a nod and a smile.
"Was that a smile?" he teased.
"No" he argued "I hate her, I absolutely hate her, look is that Erica?"
He was right when Sebastian looked up he noticed that his sister was weaving her way through the crowd towards them, a pretty dark haired girl walking behind her.
"Hey Larissa told me you would be here" she said.
"Hey, who is this?" he asked nodding towards the dark haired girl.
"Oh, Julie this is my brother Sebastian and his friend Blaine, Sebastian this is Julie my girlfriend" Erica announced with a smile.
"Nice work, E" Blaine said with a nod of approval.
"It's nice to meet you" Sebastian told her "sit down, both of you"
"I invited her to the party tonight" Erica told him as she sat down "but I wanted you to meet her first"
It was strange to think of his sister with a girlfriend, he still pictured her as the six year old who needed him to check under her bed for monsters sometimes, well as long as she was happy he supposed.
…
"So then the ball came to me and so I kicked it to this girl, and then-and then, you know, she kicked it to another girl, and she kicked it to another girl and then that girl scored, so, you know, it was basically an assist" she recounted to Jeremy "it was awesome, it was actually pretty amazing"
"It's so weird that you're on a team now" he told her "pretty soon you'll have actual girl friends"
"What are you talking about?" she asked "I have plenty of girl friends"
"Danni, I know you're Miss Soccer now but you and I both know that your prefer to hang out with guys" Jeremy said "Van, Sebastian once upon a time, it's nothing to be ashamed of"
"Except that it's completely untrue" she argued.
"Okay" he said with a shrug, voice full of disbelief.
"Dad!" she called out to her father who was standing over by the kitchen counter "please tell Jeremy that I have actual girl friends"
"Of course she does" he replied "your moth-"
"Not mom" Jeremy cut in.
"Oh then…" he trailed off.
"Okay then, watch and learn" she told them digging her cell phone out of her pocket and dialling Nat's number "hey" she greeted when the other girl picked up "it's Humph- it's Danni, hey listen do you, uh, want to hook up for some soccer later?" she paused waiting for an answer, smiling when Nat agreed "you're uh by the park right? Noon, yeah, love it, see you then"
She dropped her phone back into her pocket and turned to face her brother and father.
"Apparently we're going to go play soccer later" she told them "no big"
"Is Cedric invited?" Jeremy teased.
"Of course not, you know he'd get dirty" her father added.
…..
"Sebastian, wait a minute" his mother told him as he walked into their apartment, she turned to the woman she had been talking to, a member of the staff and asked her to excuse them.
"What's my punishment?" Sebastian asked once the woman was out of ear shot, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Don't be childish" Lily cautioned.
"Why not, you're treating me like one" he pointed out "isn't that who curfews are for?"
"Well you're living up to our expectations, if you have a problem with our rules then just say so but to simply defy us" she said
"Not you, him"
"Bart and I are husband and wife"
"But he's not our father" he pointed out "mom things were so good last year, we were almost like a real family, why change that?"
She sighed, turning towards the nearby counter and taking a sip out of a waiting cup of tea
"Sebastian, you're making this much more complicated than it really is" she said placing down her cup "and going by your actions last night, I clearly think that you could benefit from a little structure"
"If I thought this was actually you talking, I might listen" he told her.
He'd warned Erica about this he wasn't going to let Bart run his life, marrying Lily didn't mean he gained control over her children's lives.
"If this is how you're acting now I should have insisted on more structure years ago"
"What, three husbands ago?" he asked.
"That was unkind" she said. That was the point, he wanted to tell her.
"I'm not really in a family mood" he told her "I think I'm going to pass on tonight's little soiree"
….
She stopped by Nat's house at noon, she pressed the button for the doorbell but found that it didn't ring. She noticed that there was piece of paper sticking out from under the door mat, so bent down to pull it out, it was a noticed about the seizure of the house. From the angle she now kneeling at she could see an orange 'seized' sign tucked behind a column that was probably supposed to be on the door. She dropped he paper, kicking it back under the rug and prepared to head off down the street but something told her to turn back, perhaps it was concern for her new found friend or natural curiosity but whatever it was she listened.
She pushed open the unlocked gates and headed inside, calling out for Nat.
She tried a light switched only to find that there was apparently no electricity, she stopped her investigation when her phone rang.
"Nat, hey" she greeted as she picked up the phone "oh right, we're meeting in the park, sorry I got tied up, I'll meet you there in ten"
She took one last look around the room, taking note of the sleeping bag on the floor that Nat had obviously been sleeping, before leaving the house.
…
"You've got to show me the bouncing off the knee thing" Danni told Nat as they walked through the park together after soccer "because I tried it once and I broke my dad's Gibson, it's scaring to see your father cry"
"I wouldn't know, my father, not too big on showing emotion" Nat admitted.
The Humphrey family were kind of the opposite, there were a few particular incidents before her mother left for Hudson where the emotion in the house felt utterly suffocating. She remembered going out for ice-cream or frozen yogurt with Jeremy whenever this happened, they'd just sit there for hours talking about everything and anything but home.
"So are you going to Bass/Van Der Woodsen housewarming party tonight?" Nat asked.
"No, no especially since this is the first time I've heard about it" she replied, she and Sebastian hadn't even talked since the whole Adam/Nair incident and it wasn't as if Charlotte would be adding her to the guest list.
"Oh so you and Sebastian….." she started trailing off and waiting for Danni to fill in the blanks.
"Yeah, to say we ended badly would be an understatement" she told her, she was surprised that Nat didn't know already everyone else at school already seemed to know.
"Nah, I'll think I'll just stay in, watch some movies you know" Nat said "I'd actually invite you but the house is like a total mess, the housekeeper has the week off"
"Oh, is your mom there, I mean, not that she cleans things, you know, I-I-I don't know, all that stuff with your dad yeah" she rambled.
"My mom's out in the Hamptons" Nat told her "I told her I was staying at Charlie's, so she doesn't worry you know?"
She nodded in understanding.
"I'm going to get a drink, you want one?" Nat asked.
"Sure" she said.
She called Jeremy while Nat left to grab the drinks and recounted her story about Nat's house and the conversation she had just had with Nat.
"Well are you sure she's living there?" Jeremy asked.
"I think squatting would be the appropriate term, there's just a sleeping bag and a bunch of clothes" she told him, looking over her shoulder to ensure that Nat was still occupied "why isn't she staying at Chuck's?"
"Obviously she's embarrassed" Jeremy replied "look invite her over for dinner tonight, dad's making chilli and once she's here we can convince her to stay"
"Okay, okay" she said, agreeing to Jeremy's plan "don't say anything to dad thought he'll probably handcuff him to the couch or say something stupid" she looked over her shoulder and noticed Nat heading towards her so she said her goodbyes and hung up.
"That was Jeremy" she told Nat "dad's making his once-a-year chilli, attendance is mandatory for me and whoever I'm with, I'm sorry, I'm deeply sorry, but this year, that's you"
"Wow" Nat said with a grin handing her the bottled water "I guess I don't have a choice then"
"Nope, you don't" she told her "uh, scattegories will be involved"
"Scattegories?" she echoed.
"Be prepared" Danni warned.
….
Julie was in the apartment when he got off the elevator dropping off some books for Erica.
"Have fun tonight" she told him.
"What?" he asked "you're not coming?"
"Erica talked to your step-father, he said it was family only" Julie said.
"Bart said that?" he asked.
It was the first he was hearing of it, he remembered Erica asking if she could bring a friend the morning Bart came home, it wasn't 'family only' back then. Did Erica having a girlfriend ruin Bart's family values image? This was taking it too far, there was nothing wrong with Erica and there was no way in hell he was letting Bart pretend that there was for some business deal.
"It's no big deal" Julie assured him "I'll see you later"
…..
He turned up to the party after all that evening, he even wore the suit that Bart had brought for him but he wasn't there to celebrate.
"I'm glad you changed your mind and decided to join us tonight" Bart told him "can I introduce you to some people?"
"No, I'm waiting on some friends" he replied "we are allowed to bring friends aren't we?"
"Sure" Bart said.
"Does mom know that you told Erica that she couldn't bring her girlfriend?" he asked him.
"I told Erica no such thing" he argued "we discussed it, the decision was hers"
"Yeah, the fifteen year old and the billionaire, I'm sure that was an equal discussion" he sarcastically replied, crossing his arms over his chest.
Sebastian, I hope that over time you'll see that I want what's best for this family, in the meantime, I suggest you talk with your sister" Bart said.
Sebastian rolled his eyes and stalked away, what would Bart know about what was best for the family.
…..
Conversation somehow turned to Nat's home life during dinner, their father had brought it up asking about how everything was at home.
"We're getting by" she said with a smile.
She always seemed to smile whenever she talked about her family, it seemed forced most of the time but sometimes on rare occasion it looked real.
"It's just you and your mom now?" Rufus asked.
"Uh, you know, I've seen Nat do that knee bounce thing with the soccer ball, and it's-it's amazing" Danni spoke up, trying to change the topic of conversation but all she got was confused looks, and a shake of the head from Jeremy.
"Well, my mom's actually out at our Hamptons house, but I still have school, so I gotta-I gotta stick around" Nat continued as if Danni hadn't spoken.
"So you're staying by yourself, isn't that kind of lonely?" Rufus asked.
"Yeah but I grew up there" she told them "it's where all the memories are"
….
"This has been great, but I've got to go" Nat told Danni helping bring the dishes from the table to the kitchen "I'm getting tired so…."
"What about scattegories?" she asked turning around away from the sink "oh god, I can't believe I just used scattegories as an enticement"
"Maybe next time" she suggested.
"It's uh getting late, are you sure you don't just want to crash on the couch?" she asked, remembering Jeremy's plan.
"Nah, it's cool"
"Look Nat I, uh, I know-I know about how you're living" she stumbled over the words, but eventually she got them out although she wished she didn't have to.
"Excuse me?" she asked, a growing anger present in her voice.
"It was a mistake, I just thought we were supposed to meet at your place today" Danni admitted "but I, uh, saw the notice"
"So you broke into my house?" Nat asked.
She felt a need to help her now that she knew but couldn't help but think everything would be so much simpler if she didn't find out. But it was stupid to think that, there was only so much longer that Nat could continue living in her fantasy land.
"Well no, there wasn't much to break into" Danni told her "Jeremy and me just want to help you"
"Jeremy knows too?" she asked "oh so suddenly I'm the Humphrey families favourite charity?"
"It's not like that" she tried to tell her but it didn't seem as if Nat was listening.
"Look tell your dad I said thank you and I had to leave" she told her.
"Nat-"
"No, Danni we hung out at Yale and played soccer once, so what? Just stay out of it" she snapped heading out the door.
…
"Bart told me I could bring Julie" Erica told him, standing in front of the couch Sebastian was sitting on "but there would be press here and did I really want to come out in a national magazine"
"He's just worried about his image" Sebastian argued, leaning back against the couch.
"I don't think so" Erica said "I think he's trying to protect me, why are you so against him?"
A member of the press interrupted them before Sebastian could answer his sister,
"Sebastian, Erica do you mind if our reporter asked you a few questions?" she asked.
"Sure" Erica told them sitting beside her brother on the couch.
"So your mom told me how close-knit your family is, is there a particular memory that stands out? A birthday or Christmas?" the reporter asked tapping his pen against his notepad.
Close-knit? Sebastian could laugh, the whole thing was a joke. They'd never been close-knit, it didn't matter if Lily told a hundred magazine that they were it didn't make it true.
"She said what?" he asked.
"Just that-"
"Excuse me" Lily cut in "I just need to borrow Sebastian, I'll bring him right back and I'll tell you all about the wonderful time that we had in Mustique, it was such fun"
"Don't you mean you and Constantine or did you forget, the same way you forget to say good-bye to me and Erica every time you left?" he asked angrily, it was a deliberate attempt to embarrass her in front of the press. He wasn't going to pretend to be part of this 'perfect family' image that Bart and Lily wanted to part of.
"Sebastian don't do this" Lily warned "if you have issues with Bart fine, but don't sabotage this"
"What, I'm not doing anything" he argued, standing up "I thought we were just sharing memories of what a close family we are, I remember this time I was, um, 11 Erica and I wanted a white Christmas, luckily mom's husband was a raging cokehead, so he left blow everywhere"
"Oh my god" Lily said with a nervous laugh.
"It wasn't everywhere" Erica chimed in "just on the smooth shiny surfaces"
"Was that, um, German Klaus with a "k," or was it Danish Claus with a "c"? I can't ever remember which ones she actually married or which she just decided were more important than her children" he asked her even though he was talking to almost the whole room by now.
"You know what?" he asked turning to his mother "I was wrong, it's not Bart at all, it's you"
…..
"You still upset?" her father asked her that night, she and Jeremy had told him the whole story after Nat had left and there was no chance of their father handcuffing her to the couch.
"I tried to help and she bailed" Danni told him "if she doesn't want my help, that's fine"
"And being a friend means giving someone something they need even when they can't ask for it, which you did" he noted.
"Right" she said nodding "I did that"
"So it also means not giving up on them when they say "no, thank you"" he added.
"I'm not doing that" she argued "she wants to be alone, it's her choice, good luck to her"
"Well, from what you told me, this thing is pretty intense I don't know if she has anyone else in her life looking out for her right now, you really wanna be his friend, you need to be that person"
…
She really didn't expect to find Sebastian sitting on the Archibald's front step, she'd spent the entire way there rehearsing some stupid speech about just trying to be a good friend and wanting to help but her mind went blank when she saw him. She tried to walk away but he'd already spotted her.
"Danni?" he asked "is that you?"
"You taking to me?" she asked.
"You're the only one here" he pointed out.
"Wouldn't have stopped you before" she reminded her.
"I deserve that" he told her with a sigh.
"I haven't started yet" she told him
"Fine, sit" he replied "pile it on, my night couldn't get any worse"
…..
"What are you doing at Nat's anyway?" he asked a few minutes later after she'd sat down beside him.
"Well, uh, Nat and I are friends" she told him, pulling her coat tighter around herself "at least I hope we are, what about you?"
"I just had to get out my house" he said "talk to someone, Blaine's busy, Chuck is…Chuck, the only person I really wanted to talk to I can't anymore so I came here"
"Pretend I'm Nat" she suggested "she pretended to be me, it's only fair"
Really? Well, um my mom hosted this big party, it's supposed to be about our new family, but it turns out, of course, it was for publicity, so I-I blew up at her in front of everyone and this whole time, I was thinking that Bart was the problem, but I realized it's all her" he told her, she was still so easy to talk to her.
He was supposed to be pretending that she was Nat but he didn't, it was Danni the whole time and it made him feel nostalgic for their shared past.
"You ever think that your mom acts like she's perfect because she's-she's too ashamed to acknowledge how far from it she's really been?" Danni suggested.
"I thought you were supposed to be Nat?" he teased "kidding"
He met her eye and they just looked at each for a few moments before Danni turned away.
"I'm sorry" he said
"You don't think I'm right?" she asked.
"No, I mean I'm sorry about everything" he told her.
"Me too" she admitted.
The Bass limo pulled up outside the Archibald's house at that moment interrupting their moment.
"They must have had me chipped while I was sleeping" Sebastian said with a groan standing up,
"I should probably go, test out some of those theories of yours, see if they hold up" he told her turning back towards her as he begun to leave "I'm really glad you're Nat's friend, she really needs someone like you right now"
…..
The party had emptied out by the time he got home, the only people who were left were his sister and mother who were sitting together on the ground, eating the cake from the party with forks.
"Where is everyone?" he asked her.
"Well the party wasn't quite the same after you left, actually I think it might have even stopped while you were still here" Lily told him.
Erica left with Bart to grab something from the kitchen leaving mother and son alone.
"I'm sorry" she told him.
"No, I'm the one who said things they shouldn't have" he told her.
"I mean for the seventeen years I wasn't there" she clarified "and I did put the men in my life before you guys"
"It wasn't all that bad" he replied "there was a brief period between Klauses"
"Don't forget that uh, weekend with Sarkozy when he made us go to Euro Disney" Erica added sitting back down beside her mother and handing Sebastian a fork.
"I'm sorry I embarrassed you in front of a national magazine" he said "and I'm sorry I acted the way I did"
"Apology accepted" Bart told him.
"Well, our family is our family, that's just who we are, and I shouldn't care who knows about it, and I don't" Lily said, there were a few moments of peaceful silence before Lily added "you killed the story didn't?"
"Already put out the hit" Bart confirmed, the new family shared a laugh.
…
"What happened?" her father asked when she returned home, she didn't need to answer him as Nat walked through the door, bag in hand moments after her.
"Hope you don't mind, but we've got a lodger so I'll, uh, make up the sofa" she told them.
"I'll get the ice-cream" Jeremy said with a smile standing up and heading into the kitchen abandoning the scattegories game he was playing with Rufus, it was probably for the best really.
"And I'll grab the guitar and the 'songs of the 80's' fake book" Rufus announced following Jeremy's lead and standing up "I'm thinking Wham, I almost forgot, make yourself at home"