REMINDER! REMINDER! REMINDER!

WARNING: I know that there are spoilers floating around about Season 2. Please remember, I hate spoilers. If anything I write resembles those spoilers in any way, I don't want to know—and it is pure coincidence (which HAS happened before). Please respect my wishes and do not refer to them in any reviews.

Thank you!  XOXO Sharon

This story takes place after the events of A Thin Line Between Chuck and Nate. Concepts from later episodes may be used.

Previously… on Aftershock

"Move on. I have," Blair said. She hoped her words would serve their purpose. She just needed him to leave her alone. Maybe the moving on part would help with that too.

Chuck was quiet for a long moment. Humiliation was flowing through him at her words because he really was acting like a fool. But he also felt anger.

"Nate." Chuck finally managed to utter the name. It wasn't a question. He just wanted confirmation. If she had "moved on", that was the only conclusion to reach.

"Matt," Blair said simply, denying the Nate accusation.

"Matt. Matt?" Chuck asked, raising an eyebrow. "You're kidding right?"

"When have I ever been known to kid?" Blair deadpanned.

"You can't possibly…" Chuck started to deny that she could feel anything for that jerk.

"You know what? I don't know," Blair laughed. "And you know what else? It doesn't matter. Because it's none of your business."

- - - - - - -

"Well, in about five minutes you could be interrupting me murdering Chuck!" Serena groaned loudly.

"What'd he do?" Dan asked.

"Not only did he get my brother drunk, but he got him plastered. Passed out drunk! Eric's been recovering all morning. He can't keep anything down and he has a lovely gray tinge! He almost got Eric in a fight and he spent all evening dirtying his mind with whore stories! My brother is supposed to be pure and innocent and… and… sweet… and, ah!" Serena screamed in frustration.

- - - - - - -

"Matt, I will not ask you about your past relationships or dalliances, and I'd rather you not ask me about mine. Just know that I'm here with you, not one of them, and if you want me to continue to be here with you, you're going to have to speak. This is the getting to know you part of the evening. I can't get to know you if you aren't talking," Blair said flippantly.

"Check, please," Matt said loudly to a passing waiter.

Blair leaned back in her chair, a wry smirk on her face. "Well, I guess the evening's over then." She wasn't terribly disappointed that he was ending the evening early anyway.

"You want to get to know me? Your wish is my command," Matt said, a wide smile spread across his face as he stood and offered his hand to Blair.

Blair took it and let him pull her out of her seat and they were off.

Blair couldn't help but wonder if Matt was about to redeem himself or fall flat on his face. Either way, it was going to be amusing.

- - - - - - -

"You don't know Chuck Bass well apparently," Serena said.

"Serena… Chuck is Bart's son. Mom is marrying Bart. Chuck is going to be our brother, whether we like it or not," Eric explained the facts to her. "Who knows? Maybe Chuck will like having a built-in family."

Serena couldn't help it, she started laughing. The idea that Chuck would want a family for anything more than the 'pleasure' he would get out of the sexual innuendos was just too funny for words. Chuck had lived with no restraints and no parents for so long that he would probably scoff at anyone attempting to tell him what to do.

"Well, at least I can still make you laugh," Eric said sardonically. "Seriously, what's so bad about Chuck Bass? He can't be that horrible."

"Little brother, you have much to learn," Serena said with a shake of her head.

- - - - - - -

"When did Chuck say something to you?" Dan asked suddenly.

"Uh, Monday," Jenny said.

"Are you sure?" Dan asked.

"Yeah, like I could forget," Jenny said sarcastically.

"But… why would he say anything to you if he'd already started to send the letters? Couldn't that have made you more suspicious? He'd already set this up. It was like he was warning you about it, giving his plans a chance to fall through… that doesn't sound like Chuck," Dan explained.

"But…" Jenny said, thinking about everything. She sat up and started re-reading the cards too. "I got the first card after the first time Gossip Girl posted something about me and Nate. That's why I thought it was him. Nate was on my mind."

"Serena said she didn't think Chuck was able to do this…" Dan said. "I didn't want to say anything because I thought she was defending him, but now…"

"Dan, really, why would Serena defend him?" Jenny said, somewhat disgusted. "She'd have to have a good reason to say that."

"Well, if Chuck didn't do it, then who did?" Dan asked.

"The only other person who might call me a "rat" would be…"

"Blair," they both said her name at the same time.

- - - - - - -

And who am? That's a secret I'll never tell.

You know you love me,

XOXO

Gossip Girl

Saturday, February 13th. 9:00 pm.

"I don't believe it," Dan murmured. "Well, that's not entirely true," he reiterated.

"Well, she did warn me," Jenny said, still staring down at the cards.

She flopped back on the bed and stared at the ceiling now.

"She did?" Dan said.

"The day Melissa and Hazel kicked her out of the group," Jenny said. "They did it because she was being mean to me and because they wanted to put her in her place for being such a hypocrite. She said if I walked away from her she would destroy me…"

"Oh," Dan murmured.

Jenny laughed mockingly. "I asked her how she was going to do that. I never did give her a chance to reply. I didn't think she could possibly do anything. She didn't have anything. So… she must have created it…" She sighed.

"Look, Jen," Dan said. "We'll fix this… somehow. I'll talk to Serena. Maybe she can get Blair to admit something. Or, we could just tell Gossip Girl that Blair did it? Maybe she can post the truth for once."

Jenny shook her head, "Don't worry about it, Dan."

"What?" Dan asked, startled.

"Don't bother Serena. I'll handle this," Jenny said thoughtfully.

"How are you going to do that?" Dan asked, perplexed. "You know, if you do what she does, you become her, and I'd hate to see you be another Blair."

"Don't worry, Dan," Jenny murmured. "I won't. This time things will be a little different."

Saturday, February 13th. 9:00 pm.

Serena stood in the doorway, staring at her brother as he slept peacefully—finally.

Chuck had shown up earlier, early in the afternoon, and tried to force her to give Eric some sort of weird green drink that was supposed to help with Eric's hangover.

Serena had turned him away in disgust. He had tried telling her she was being an idiot and that Eric was the one who was going to suffer because she was being such a bitch. She retorted that Eric didn't need anything from him, and she would take care of her brother just fine.

She also would rather Eric go through the entire miserable process of being hung over without a miracle cure because she didn't want him to think that this was something he should do often. She didn't share her second thought with Chuck though, she just kicked him out of the suite and that was the end of that.

Of course Eric just had to over hear her arguing with Chuck. Eric had tried to tell her that this wasn't Chuck's fault, but Serena couldn't see it any other way.

Eric was just miserable, absolutely miserable, and didn't argue with her after that. He kept moaning at her to just leave him alone, but she couldn't. He was her baby brother. She had to take care of him.

An hour or so later, she was still "mothering" him and jumping at his every movement. And he'd evidentally had enough. He was beginning to feel better, if his words were any indication.

"Would you quit it?" Eric said, pushing her away as she started fluffing his pillows and tucking his sheets in again.

"I'm just trying to help…" Serena said, not letting him push her away again as she went back to what she'd been doing before he tried to make her stop.

"No, Serena, you're not," Eric said.

"Of course I am," Serena said, slightly indignant. She had actually cancelled her plans to accompany Blair to the doctor's because her brother needed her. She'd done all this for him, there wasn't any other reason for this.

"Serena, you're mothering me!" Eric said, annoyed.

"Well, you're sick! And I'm just making sure you get better," Serena insisted.

"I'm hung over!" Eric exclaimed. "There is a difference. Most siblings would help me into the nearest cold shower and leave me there until I was awake enough to deal with myself. Most siblings would give me some sort of sibling advice for how to make a speedy recovery—like Chuck tried. Most siblings would not spend their entire Saturday's replacing cold cloths on their brother's head, seeing to their every need, and mothering them!"

"Chuck is not your sibling, so you do not need to get advice from him," Serena snapped. "I told you that you didn't know Chuck Bass the way I know him. That he was horrible! But you chose not to listen to me. Look what he did! He got you drunk and if I hadn't arrived when I did, you would have gotten into your first brawl as well! Greg was a heart beat away from breaking that bottle on your head!"

"So what!" Eric exclaimed. "Stop trying to protect me, Serena! So I tried to kill myself, so what? I tried to do it because I was lonely and didn't matter to anyone. Chuck invited me to his party. Chuck wants to be my friend! And he didn't force me to drink anything, that was all me. Chuck wasn't serving drinks, he had someone else to do that.

"You keep acting like I'm porcelain, like I'll shatter if one bad thing happens. I'm not and it won't! I just want you to treat me like a normal sibling would. I want you to be happy for me that I've had my first hangover, you know you've had a few—or more! This isn't a bad thing, this is part of growing up and you acting like mom is not helping!"

Serena was silent for a long moment before finally whispering, "You matter to me."

"I know that, Serena," Eric almost whined. "I know that now. I didn't before. But now I just want to be normal. I don't want you to treat me any differently because of my time at Ostroff. I don't want anyone to!"

Serena hadn't known what to say after that. He was right. She had been treating him differently. But she didn't know how not to. She ended up just apologizing to him before she left the room.

That was three hours ago. Now it was a little past nine. She'd kept herself occupied with some more of the weirdly confusing to read Canterbury Tales.

She hadn't heard from him at all, not one peep, so she'd decided to check on him. And there he was, sleeping peacefully on his stomach, his arms wrapped around the pillow, bunching it up to make it higher for his head. His blankets were mostly kicked down below his waist. There was some sweat left on his forehead, but he wasn't frowning… he just looked… angelic.

She resisted the urge to go fix his covers and wipe the sweat from his brow. It was bad enough that she was checking on him again.

Sighing, she turned back around and went back to the couch, picking up her book for some more fascinating reading.

Saturday, February 13th. 9:30 pm.

"Where are we going?" Blair asked, looking out the window.

Matt gave her a sheepish look.

"You tell me," he said.

Blair finally looked at him, arching a brow. "You've got to be kidding." She shook her head. "You make a heroic exit from the restaurant like you've had the most brilliant idea ever, only to make me choose our destination?"

She sighed and turned back to the window. She didn't know why she even bothered with him. He'd talked her into this date only because she wanted to make sure everyone—two guys in particular—understood that she had moved on. She didn't want Nate or Chuck to continue to pursue her. She was using Matt, she admitted it. And she should be showing him a bit more mercy, but at the moment she was just tired.

She'd had a long session with the therapist earlier and it was still stuck in her head. Dr. Sherman just had to point out how angry Blair was at Nate, and the fact that Chuck was important to her.

Deep down, she already knew that Chuck was important to her. She wouldn't have decided to give up on getting back together with Nate and finally choosing to be with Chuck if he wasn't. It had been a little scary. She'd had to purge and listen to Mary J. Blige. She had to go outside and feel the cold air on her face, looking out over the water. If she had looked toward the city, toward all the ties that bound her to the plans for her life she had personally set in stone, she would never have changed her mind. But she'd looked out over the water and decided that she could take a chance. She decided that she could change, just this once.

She decided that she would be with Chuck. She hadn't known what the future would hold for them… but she knew that she couldn't get enough of his kisses and the way he touched her. He had done all these romantic things for her—the entire week of Valentine's. He wanted to spend time with her. He appreciated her. He wanted to protect her by not having sex—Chuck Bass not having sex?—until she got on birth control.

And it had all been a lie.

From the minute that conscious thoughts started swimming through her head after Nate's revelation, she knew she'd been played.

Chuck had only done all those things because of guilt. He thought that she knew what he'd done… and when he found out that she didn't know, he chose to pay her off with presents and attention as a way to make up for what he'd done.

It was like in the movies when a guy cheated on his wife. He started buying flowers for her and doing things around the house that she asked him to do just to avoid telling her the truth, to help cushion the blow.

But it doesn't make the blow less painful. When the wife finally finds out, she's not thinking about roses and clean garages. She's thinking about the betrayal. She just wants to kick him out. She never wants to see him again because it hurt too much to see him. Seeing him meant seeing what he did over and over again. The wife would have to live with the husband's actions every day.

And that's how it was with Chuck. He'd done all these things to cushion the blow… but it still hurt when she learned the truth. He betrayed her in such a way that she would have to live with what he did every day of her high school life. She was trying so hard to rebuild everything, but nothing was ever going to be the same. She was never going to shine quite as bright as she had before. People were still going to laugh about it behind her back even if she regained her former status.

And the thing that hurt the most was that she'd given him so much of herself. She'd given her virginity, she'd given her reputation, and… she hadn't lied to Serena… she had given him… at least part of her heart… that's all she would admit to.

And he'd lied to her.

No matter how much she may want to forgive him, it didn't change the fact that he couldn't change. He'd manipulated things to his advantage at her disgrace twice. She wasn't going to be played a fool again.

Not by any guy.

Not even Nate.

Yes, the psychiatrist had been completely correct. Blair was still angry at Nate. She'd just grown accustomed to pushing aside any feelings of anger that she had toward him for so long that it was second nature to do it now and try to make amends.

"Well, what do you know already?"

"Hmm?" Blair asked, startled, as she realized she was still in the limo with Matt.

"You mentioned that part of dating was to get to know one another better," Matt said with a shrug. "Tell me what you know about me and we can go from there."

Blair looked down at her lap and tried to think, but at first all she saw were her fingers clamped together. She needed to calm down. She needed to stop thinking about how much Chuck and Nate had hurt her. This was the whole reason she was going out with Matt, to forget the other two. She needed to stop acting like a bitch (even though she was), stop acting like she'd had the day from hell (even though she had), and try to make nice with this idiot boy (though he did have a point).

"You can dance," Blair finally said, allowing for a hint of a smile that she didn't really feel.

Matt, relieved that she was actually responding and not acting standoffish again, nodded, "Clubs and parties," he shrugged. "Lots of practice."

Blair nodded, her smile dimming somewhat. She'd already assumed that… and now they were back to square one. This was just getting more and more boring. She was losing hope of keeping up this pretense. Then what would she do to make Nate and Chuck leave her alone?

Matt looked at her for a long second before giving a sheepish look again, "And my mother might have forced me to take dance lessons…"

"She what?" Blair couldn't contain her surprise. "You mean, like cotillion dancing? Everyone had to do that." Blair pushed away a thought that popped in her head about her own Cotillion rehearsing.

"Uh," Matt cleared his throat. "No, but if you tell anyone I will deny it."

"What?" Blair said, finally giving more than a hint of a smile.

"Tap," Matt muttered, looking away.

Blair let out a surprised laugh. "Excuse me, but your dancing definitely does not look like tap dancing."

"I know, I stopped after like a year," Matt said.

"Why?" Blair said, laughter still in her voice.

"Well… my parents split and dad got full custody and didn't force me to go anymore," Matt said, forcing a smile and a shrug.

"Oh, sorry…" Blair said, trailing off uncomfortably.

There was a moment of awkward silence before she finally decided to show him a little mercy.

"So, if you only danced for a year when you were… how old?" Blair said.

"Nine," Matt said.

"How is it that you're so good now?" Blair asked.

"I…" Matt shifted, unable to believe he was being this open with her… but she wasn't running away and she wasn't bitching at him anymore, so maybe he was doing something right. "I didn't get to see my mom much after that… but I started checking out some other dance stuff on my own, like movies. Center Stage, Step Up, Salsa," he listed before shrugging. "I don't know why, but they made me think of her so…" He looked anywhere but at her for a second. "Anyway, I just watched them and mimic their stuff when I'm out."

"Wow," Blair said, trying to be encouraging as she smoothed over her surprise that he was being this open with her and the fact that she thought he was extremely uncomfortable talking about this. Neither Nate nor Chuck had ever been this open with her…

Stop that! Blair reprimanded herself. She needed to stop thinking about them!

"So, what else… well, you're on the water polo team," Blair pointed out knowingly.

Matt was relieved that she changed the topic. "Of course," he said, switching back to his normal cocky self. This was a topic he was much more comfortable with. He still couldn't believe he'd said anything about his mother. He was just going to steer clear of any mention of his father. That wouldn't be a good idea.

"So… why water polo?" Blair asked. She didn't really know anything about the sport. Apparently it was catching on in the states… and it was growing more popular in private schools… but Blair wasn't much of a sports person in general… besides watching the occasional track meet or lacrosse game while Nate played.

"Well, see," Matt grinned. "I'm a driver."

"Okay?" Blair asked, not following.

"We're the fastest swimmers and we play both offense and defense," he explained. "We have to have above average hand-eye coordination or something," he said, speeling something one of the coaches told him once. "It can get pretty intense out there. It's like a cross between basketball and soccer… we don't use our legs to kick, but we're in the pool so we have to be strong enough to move against the water."

Blair nodded her head like she had some idea of what he was talking about; she really had no clue, "Can't say that I've ever played before."

"Well, you wouldn't be an ideal candidate," he said.

"Excuse me?" she said, feigning offense.

He reached toward her hand, "May I?" She had sat on his lap and played with his hair last night, but she'd been pretty quick to stop the touchy-feely after that… and she had warned him about taking liberties with her. So, he figured he'd ask.

She nodded wondering what he was about to do.

He took her hand with his and used his other hand to flatten hers, palm up. He traced her palm in a circle. "While your hands are cute and smooth…" He looked up and grinned, "They're definitely too small."

She snatched her hand back.

"See, we can only hold the ball with one hand," Matt explained, still grinning at her as he held up his own hand, palm up—it was definitely bigger than hers by a mile, "Two hands on a ball is a foul… and you will definitely not be able to catch or throw with only one of those," he finished, pointing at her hand.

"We'll have to see about that," Blair said, laughing.

"Well, we could go to the pool at school and I could show you how it's played…" he began, a little suggestively.

"Except I was almost expelled with half the junior class for sneaking into that very pool!" Blair said, rolling her eyes. "Be real, Matt. I'm not doing that again."

"Your loss," he shrugged. He could have snuck her in. They'd definitely be less likely to have a problem if it was just the two of them, and it would be a perfect opportunity to get Blair alone… in a pool… with a bathing suit… or maybe without…?

He snapped back to attention. It wasn't going to happen so he needed to stop thinking about it.

"So, dancing, water polo…" Blair said, raising her eyes heavenward as she pretended she wasn't listening to him. "What else do I already know about you…"

The minute her eyes widened and she exclaimed, "I know!" He knew exactly what she was going to say next. He tried to hide the wince.

"Your dad! He's Nick Cunningham!" Blair said.

Matt didn't respond, but Blair didn't notice, she just kept on going.

"Everyone loves that man. He's into everything. Music, Movies, Television," Blair gushed. "The people he's worked with... doesn't he have something with Jay Z coming up?"

"There isn't a thing that man touches that doesn't become pure gold," Blair said. "What's it like having him for a father?"

Matt cleared his throat as Blair finally finished talking long enough for him to realize a reply was required. "Probably nothing like you'd expect."

"And to think that he started out marketing for big business before getting into the entertainment industry," Blair said. "That's what I want to study—marketing at Yale."

"Is that so…" Matt interjected, staring straight ahead, hoping she'd stop talking about it soon.

"You know, I haven't seen him at any of the past few society events," Blair said. "How is he doing? Is he still seeing Jill Wilbury? Wasn't he in L.A. last I heard? How often—"

"That's enough," Matt finally snapped.

Blair paused, mid-word, and stared idly at him.

What was his problem? They'd actually been talking and she was starting to enjoy their little talk even though they were still in the limo driving around. Did he just yell at her?

"Excuse me?" Blair said, completely reverting back to her earlier barely masked disdain.

Matt bit his lip and shook his head, "Sorry."

Blair decided she'd had enough of this for one evening, "Take me home."

Matt sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "Look—"

"I said, take me home," Blair said in her most commanding tone possible.

"Fine," Matt said, exasperated with himself and her and the entire situation. He instructed his driver before sitting back in his seat in a pissy-stupor.

Blair returned to looking out the window. She didn't care that she was using him; he wasn't going to speak to her like that. She did not need that crap.

Silence reigned in the vehicle until the car finally pulled up out front of her building.

She picked up her bag and reached for the door.

"Wait," he said, reaching out quickly to stop her, taking hold of her arm.

"I don't think we have anything else to say," Blair said, not even looking at him. "Let go of me."

"At least let me walk you in," Matt said.

"No," she said, finally turning to make eye contact with him. "The evening is over, and so is the 'getting to know you' part. Thanks for dinner. Don't call me." She turned to reach for the door handle again.

"I hate my dad," Matt blurted.

Blair paused and turned back raising an eyebrow… she seemed to be raising her brows a lot tonight.

"I didn't mean to…" Matt trailed off. "I just hate him and really don't like talking about him."

Blair gave a slow nod.

"I really want you to keep… er, getting to know me?" Matt said, turning on his grin again, hoping to persuade her. "How's Tuesday?"

Blair sighed. She wanted to turn him down, but even she couldn't fault him for not wanting to talk about his father whom he obviously disliked. She could relate. She didn't go around talking about Eleanor Waldorf if she could help it… of course, no guy she'd ever met had raved about her mother's clothing line.

"And what's going to be so different about tonight and Tuesday?" she said.

"Well, it's probably not anything you've ever done before…" he said, "but I love it… and you were the one who said you wanted to get to know me, so… you have been warned."

"So I'm allowed to participate in this activity?" Blair said, softening as she teased him a little.

"All you want," he agreed.

"Good night, Matt," Blair said as she grabbed the door handle and pushed the door open, deliberately not answering him.

Matt sighed. He'd lost his bid to fix this little problem. He was pissed at himself, but it was completely his fault.

She got out of the car and shut the door briskly.

He watched her through the window as she walked into her building. He'd really managed to mess this up. Figures that he started to make her laugh and he knew she was enjoying herself before ruining everything because of his father.

His father… the former "golden" boy—the guy who could do no wrong, the guy who's shadow Matt had to live in. The guy who reminded Matt frequently that he never did anything right, the guy who had a temper that he'd always managed to conceal from the public.

The former "golden" boy… yeah, that's exactly why he didn't like Nate Archibald. Matt tried so hard to be like Nate for his father, but nothing he did was ever good enough. Matt had started to see Nate as his rival in all things… At first, it was easier to ignore Nate because he didn't see him that often. He didn't have to pretend to like him. But then Nate started hanging with some of Matt's friends and Matt could no longer ignore him… plus, Matt had just developed some major jonesing for Blair Waldorf at his PVD Party. Matt thought he'd finally gotten Nate's girl and that, at least, would help him on his way to surpass the current golden boy… But he'd managed to screw that up.

He felt his pocket vibrate and took out his cell phone.

Or maybe he hadn't screwed up as badly as he thought.

Tuesday. See you then.

He grinned.

Saturday, February 13th. 10:30 pm.

She had just started to wonder how Blair's date with Matt was going when she heard a knock at the suite door.

Puzzled, Serena climbed to her feet and went to answer it.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, surprised and more than a little ticked.

"He rang," Chuck said with a smirk and a nod to some point behind her.

Serena spun around and saw that Eric was actually up and standing in the doorway. He was still in the pajamas Serena had forced him into after he got puke all over his clothes, so Serena knew that Eric wasn't planning on going anywhere.

"Eric!" Serena exclaimed, "What are you doing up?"

"It's alright, Serena," Eric said, forcing a smile. "I'm fine. Chuck?" Eric said, tilting his head toward his room.

"Later, Sis," Chuck said amusingly as he made his way past Serena and followed Eric.

"But… but…" Serena tried to figure out what she was supposed to do here. Eric wasn't supposed to hang out with Chuck… but that wasn't entirely true… that's just what she wanted.

And she, in truth, had no say in the matter.

She walked briskly to grab her stupid book about stupid tales and stomped off to her room, slamming the door shut and flopping on her bed.

Chuck made his way past Eric and entered the room. Eric watched his sister slam her door with a weird smile on his face before joining Chuck and closing his door softly.

"She sure is feisty," Chuck said, smirking still as he settled into a comfortable over stuffed chair on the right side of the room. "What's gotten into her?" As if he couldn't guess. She had slammed the door in his face earlier.

"Normalcy," Eric said with a smile. He hadn't seen Serena get that pissed in a long time. She was actually upset and showing him that she was upset. He couldn't be more pleased.

"Wouldn't be my first choice," Chuck replied, though he figured he was missing some sort of context. He didn't really care though.

"So, what can I do for you?" Chuck continued, wondering why Eric had invited him over this late. The boy was lucky. Chuck hadn't looked at another girl in the past week and actually trying to get one in the sack tonight was no where near his intent. Getting Blair back was sort of his top priority at the moment.

"Uh, just wanted to say that no matter what Serena said, last night was all me and I don't blame you at all. And I wanted to apologize for her acting like that earlier," Eric said in a rush. He flopped into the other overstuffed chair that was on the left side of the room, facing Chuck.

"Is that all?" Chuck asked, mildly amused.

"Yes, yes it is," Eric stammered.

"I've known Serena a long time," Chuck said, shaking his head in his amusement. "That wasn't the first time she's been a bitch, and it won't be the last. Don't let it get to you."

"Oh," Eric said with a blank expression.

"As to the rest," Chuck shrugged. "You're right. That was all you." Though he'd been watching everything Eric was drinking and knew he'd have a hell of a hangover the next day. He'd been about to cut Eric off when Greg said something derogatory about Serena. Most of the guys, him self included, wouldn't have cared and either laughed it off or just ignored it. But most of the guys were not Eric van der Woodsen, brother of the female in question, and he'd taken exception to Greg disrespecting his sister.

Chuck could have told Greg that you didn't mess with a guys' sister, no matter what his age or how drunk he was, but he wasn't in the mood to be helpful. He was going to break up the fight before it escaladed to the point of an emergency room visit and stitches—he'd had to go through it before and it was not fun—due to an imported beer bottle to the head, when Serena showed up and diffused the situation quite nicely.

"Does she know?" he asked.

"Does who know what?" Eric asked, confused.

"Serena. Does she know you were defending her… honor?" Chuck asked, trying to hold back a laugh.

"Uh, no," Eric said, flushing slightly because it seemed as though Chuck was laughing at him.

"Probably for the best," Chuck laughed. He saw the flush on Eric's face and knew the kid was getting flustered again. Eric had been that way last night in the beginning too, like he was really unsure about himself and what he was doing. He'd thought Eric had learned how to loosen up, especially around him.

Chuck almost sighed. He had a lot of work to do. No brother of his was going to be a regular fuddy-duddy. Eric van der Woodsen was going to make a name for himself just like his sister and brother had. Chuck would see to it himself.

But before the "renovation" could begin, Chuck's cell phone beeped.

Wondering who on earth was bothering him now, because most people really did know better than to try to get a hold of Chuck this late on a Saturday night, he slipped his phone out of his pocket and saw that it was a new Gossip Girl post.

Spotted: MC depositing B at her home before midnight in a white limo to rival C's. B seemed to be in good spirits. First a dance, now dinner, what's next B? Is MC's coronation impending? Don't keep us in too much suspense. Until the deets arrive, sleep tight my little kiddies. You know you love me, XOXO Gossip Girl.

He glared at his phone before covering up his expression and trying to get back into the conversation with Eric.

"What?" Eric asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing," Chuck shrugged. "So what—"

"No, it's not nothing," Eric said. "You got all quiet, what gives?"

"Eric, my dear little brother, you have a lot to learn," Chuck said, patronizing him. "Starting with, I always mean what I say."

Eric shrugged and grew silent, looking around the room pensively.

Chuck slipped his phone back into his pocket and forced himself to relax in the chair again.

Eric finally made eye contact with Chuck. "You can go now."

"What?" Chuck said, giving a small laugh.

"I said what I wanted to, you're good to go," Eric explained, standing and going around the bed to his door, gesturing for Chuck to stand up.

Chuck shrugged and got to his feet.

"Except…" Eric started, trailing off before he said more.

Chuck looked at him expectantly.

"Why'd you come in the first place?" Eric asked.

"You asked me to," Chuck said simply.

"Yeah, but why?" Eric asked again.

"We're going to be brothers," Chuck shrugged. "Might as well start acting like it."

"See… that's what I thought too," Eric deadpanned right before he opened his door and gestured for Chuck to leave. "Good night, Charles."

Chuck stared at Eric, a little shocked when he realized that this van der Woodsen was definitely someone worthy of his time.

Even Nate would have let it go when something was bothering Chuck and he didn't want to talk about it…if Nate actually realized that something was bothering Chuck to begin with. But… Chuck didn't talk about things that bothered him… ever. Nobody ever cared enough to listen, plus Chuck always felt as though it made him too vulnerable, or some such crap.

The most he'd ever opened up was when he admitted to Blair that he had butterflies and when he and Blair had made up.

And now Eric van der Woodsen was not only asking him to open up to him—something he'd never done with another male in his life, Eric was also letting him know that he wanted to listen. Eric wanted Chuck to talk to him about whatever was bothering him… because Eric wanted to be Chuck's brother, even though Serena didn't want to be his sister.

But Eric was also telling him, without saying the words, that the offer of brother-dom was about to go out the door along with Chuck if he left…

Chuck hesitated, unsure about whether to stay or go.

"Serena came back because I tried to kill myself," Eric finally said, serious. "It was me spending time at Ostroff, not her." He figured Chuck would remember when Blair humiliated Serena in front of the entire junior class, their parents, and the Ivy League reps.

Chuck looked at him, understanding what the boy was doing, and just like that, he decided to stay.

He went back over to the chair he'd just vacated.

"Blair went out with Matt Cunningham tonight," Chuck said as he sat down. "That was a post from Gossip Girl."

Eric closed the door.

"Oh."

To be continued…