Part 52

So many people thought it was impossible. In fact, she thought it was impossible. After a loss that was a vital and jarring as the one they experienced, the weekend trip to the park was a pleasant surprise that she relished for the sheer timing and simplicity of it.

Dorota was formidable as she commandeered the nannies. Within minutes of their arrival Blair was seated on a brightly patterned blanket that matched the color scheme of her dress. When Chuck arrived with a smile and a bottle of sparkling grape juice—a cheat they had both discovered the week before—and took off his coat, she delighted at the color of his tie that matched her dress and the flecks of the blanket.

Chuck leaned down to drop a kiss on her waiting lips, and she hardly noticed the blinking flashes that erupted around them. The paparazzi stayed a distance away and she was satisfied with the established privacy. There was no way to completely lose them, but Ben and Jerry did their jobs so well that the photographers had taken to heart the unspoken rule about taking pictures of the twins. Besides, given her confidence in the security Chuck provided her and the children, Blair had leapt onto the delicious decision that her children were too beautiful to deprive Manhattan of their photos.

"I'm five minutes late," he said.

"You're just in time," she greeted Chuck.

"You don't keep the most important people waiting," he told her.

Blair grinned. Gina had advised Dorota ahead of time that Chuck was in the heat of a business meeting. Chuck had decided to buy a hotel and after signing the papers and launching the hotel, he encountered a bit of trouble that he now tried to iron out. The previous owner of the Empire had pending tax issues only just discovered. It was going to be a loss, and Chuck Bass did not let a loss so big just go. "Even if you're talking to the revenue director of New York?"

He shook his head. He had tried not to get her involved with the problems recently, but he had to know that no one could keep secrets from her. "He's not as important as the Basses."

She was thrilled at the sight of Chuck make his way to the strollers where Yale and Hampton were strapped. With a jolly greeting for his twins, Chuck unsnapped the seatbelt buckles that held his children down and picked them up with one toddler sitting on each arm.

The paparazzi were going crazy. Blair hoped for their sake they had charged their camera batteries enough, or that they brought some spare power. Chuck wanted them to move on and she could just taste that the next few hours that they would have enough opportunities to live off the pictures for a while.

"They're getting so heavy," he grunted, then smirked with pleasure when Yale as usual touched his face and peppered his cheek with baby girl kisses. He arched an eyebrow at Hampton and asked, "How about you? Are you too old to give daddy a kiss?"

Hampton puckered his lips and blew hard, causing the dark floppy hair to fly off his forehead then flop back down. The boy kissed Chuck's other cheek. Chuck turned to Blair and said, "His hair is bothering him," he said. "And he reminds me of Nate when he does that."

"We'll get him a haircut," Blair promised, finding the horror funny when the boy was growing to be more like Chuck every day, even in the way he adored her.

He knelt on the blanket and once the twins neared the ground they squirmed in his arms. Hampton threw himself onto Blair, and Blair returned the hug and dropped a kiss on the thick brown hair. Yale's feet hit the blanket and she started toddling quickly away, making for the path towards the pond. Yale's nanny hurried after her.

"Yale and duckies," Hampton said.

"Do you want to feed the duckies with your sister?" Blair asked.

Hampton turned and watched as Yale's nanny held the girl's hand tightly so that the girl wouldn't jump onto the water. "Not tub," Hampton declared.

"That's right. It's not a bathtub. But feeding the ducks are fun," Chuck said. He grabbed a loaf of bread, then held his hand out to Hampton. The boy was only just beginning to come out of his shell—a shell Chuck recognized as the arrogant, shy shell he used to inhabit. Hampton had a precocious sister who held herself like a star, and a mother who coddled him for the knowledge that there weren't likely to be any more babies after. "Let's go feed the ducks."

Hampton reached out to hold Chuck's hand, reluctantly at first. When the small hand touched his, Chuck firmly grasped in his larger one.

"See you later, mom," Chuck prompted.

Hampton waved a hand at Blair, Blair waved energetically back. She watched from her place on the blanket as Hampton ran beside Chuck. Her husband handed a piece of loaf to Hampton and to Yale. Her son thoughtfully tear off smaller pieces and threw them into the water, laughed when the ducks pecked at the food. Yale, on the other hand, eagerly and competitively threw the entire piece that Chuck handed her.

The piece bobbed up and down with the water until it soaked enough water and just sank naturally without any benefit to the ducks.

Chuck let Hampton's hand go. He nodded at the nanny to release Yale's hand as well. Hampton walked to his sister and showed the little girl his style and strategy. Soon, the twins made their way to Chuck to get more bread. Chuck looked towards Blair with a large, satisfied smile. She nodded in acknowledgment at his success and blew him a kiss.

He crooked a finger playfully at her. Blair shook her head, then picked up two glasses of their cold sparkling juice. She rose and made her way towards the pond.

"What can you say, Mrs Bass?"

She handed him a glass. "That was very good, Mr Bass."

"So does this completely overshadow any other memories of the duck pond for you?" he asked softly, teasingly.

Blair arched an eyebrow at the question. It was a ridiculous question, and came when she least expected it. It reminded her that despite the billions and the nice, formal wear he paraded around in, he was just twenty one. "What other memories?" she humored him.

He pulled her up against him for a long, sweet kiss, and the world around her fell. She would only realize how inappropriate it was when she saw the front page tabloid picture two days later. There they were in a liplock, with the expensive zoom lens capturing the hint of tongue, with their twins holding the bread in their gloved hands staring up at their parents in fascination.

Lunch time saw the two little Basses slumped across the picnic blanket, their heads pillowed on their parents' laps. Chuck hefted Yale up and handed her to the nanny to strap into her stroller and then did the same for Hampton who was sleeping soundly on his mother.

"Home?" he asked, referring instead to the palatial residential suites that he had acquired for them and converted from the executive suites of the Empire.

She had agreed because the children were wiped and full of breadcrumbs from their rare adventure.

"Home to drop off the kids and rest until Lily's early dinner," he told her.

While the twins slept off their adventure, she stepped into Chuck's home office and found him poring through folders with his eyebrows furrowed. Blair walked over to him and Chuck immediately shoved the folders into his desk drawer and turned around to face her.

"What are those?"

He shook his head in dismissal. "No work. It's family day." He rested his hands on her waist and assisted her as she playfully climbed onto his lap. The ergonomic chair shifted under their combined weight and leaned back appropriately to allow Blair to cover Chuck's body. She nuzzled her nose against his. "You're enjoying family day, aren't you, Mrs Bass?"

"Family day is thrilling," she answered, nipping at his mouth with teasing lips.

She spread her legs to straddle him, and she ground herself against his crotch. Chuck hissed, then shifted. "We should get ready for Lily's dinner."

She frowned. "Now?" Blair glanced at the clock and said, "It's not until a couple of hours from now." She pushed her hips forward. The refusal was not because he was not in the mood either, because he was hard against her and his shallow breathing told her he was up and ready. "I want to make love."

Firmly, gently, he pushed her back to her feet. He stood up and Blair could see the bulge in his pants. "I'll take care of it." Chuck walked towards the bathroom. Blair huffed and followed. Chuck started to close the door but she held up a hand to keep him from doing so. "Blair," he said, his voice tight with frustration.

"Excuse me?" she demanded. "Mr Bass, are you seriously choosing to 'take care of it' instead of making love to your wife?" Her voice reeked of sarcasm and irritation.

"We have dinner."

"Time crunch?" she said, her voice rising. "You're citing time crunch?"

Chuck sighed, then leaned and kept his voice low. He said to Blair, "I don't want to talk about it."

"That's not your choice, mister!"

He narrowed his eyes, then shook his head. "It's been three months, Mrs Bass," he said quietly. At once, the reason hit her. "Three months since we lost the baby. You're not okay yet. I'll be damned if we have another accident—no matter how wonderful we think a new baby is—that will force us into that experience again." The reveal was punctuated with a quick kiss on her slack mouth. The door shut in her face.

Blair took a deep breath. She closed her eyes and took a few more calming ones. Finally, she twisted the knob them pushed the bathroom door open. She heard the muted grunting and the gasps. Blair saw his silhouette through the frosted glass shower door. She closed the door behind her. The sound caused him to stop and glance towards her. The noises he made stopped. Blair slid the frosted glass aside and said quietly, "Hey."

"Mrs Bass," he returned regally, despite the inglorious pose she found him in as he gripped himself in one fisted hand while his other hand rested against the shower wall.

"Sorry for being such a bitch," she said.

"Were you?" he answered with a smirk. "I didn't notice."

Blair chuckled. She nodded towards his hand. "Need help."

He grinned. "Your presence is help enough," he answered.

Still, she stepped into the shower area and covered his hand with hers. She stroked the length of him, then raised her face up to him and opened her mouth when he leaned for a kiss. He reached behind her and Blair jumped in her clothes when she felt the water rain down warmly on her back. She kept the rhythm and felt his hips jerk under her command.

"That's it, Mr Bass," she murmured.

He held up a sopping, foaming sponge between them, and Blair felt the cool sensation as he held it to her neck. The soap dribbled down the front of her designer dress. His head dipped so he could nuzzle her neck. He pushed into her hand and she felt the sticky, warm fluid spill onto her skin, some of it splashing onto her wet dress. He breathed heavily against her neck. "God, I love you, Mrs Bass."

"I know," she whispered in return.

She felt his hot mouth around her earlobe. Her hands squeezed his arms. "Now," he said warmly, "your turn." She gasped when he knelt on the wet tiled floor.

~o~o~o~o~

After Lily's dinner they lay in bed quiet. It was palpable, and she swore if she picked up the letter opener from his desk and slashed it in the air part of it would fall down to the ground. The reason for the small family gathering was simple, once they reached it. She was happy; he was not displeased about it.

The announcement came when deserts were brought in. When Rufus stood up and held up his flute of champagne, and Lily appeared dismayed at the way Rufus began, she knew what was coming.

It was like sixth sense now.

And so they lay in bed quietly even if they both told themselves the news did not affect them, or change the lovely day they had. But they were fooling themselves if they continued in this denial.

"What do you think it would have been?" she asked.

He sighed, then turned on his side so he could look at her face. "Do you really want to talk about it?"

Stubbornly, she kept to her strategy. "What would you have wanted?"

Lily's newly discovered pregnancy could be boy or girl and it would not matter to the woman. It was almost a miracle that she was having another baby after Eric, after more than fifteen years.

Chuck answered, his voice certain, with none of the fatherly coyness a lot of men had about babies—with none of the silly any gender would do as long as it's healthy speech. "A boy. So there would be two of them to protect Yale." He kissed her cheek. With his usual assurance, he added, "But Yale and Hampton are more than enough. The three of you are definitely more than I deserve."

Neither of them, after all, were good, kind souls who warranted this kind of happiness. "You know we can move on from this, don't you, Chuck?"

"I want you to move on," he said.

"I will," was her promise. "I am."

In the morning as he walked with her to the limo that would take her back to Yale, she tugged at his hand and kissed him on the lips. He told her, "I'll be with the twins most of the day."

She nodded, then said, "I'm so proud of us."

They were no longer going to be sad, or depressed. There was no reason to wallow in the darkness. They were still together and their family was beautiful. She made sure to tuck a few tabloids in her bag that contained the paparazzi shots of their picnic. They would be entertaining to go through while on the ride to Yale. Besides, Nate was a fan of the twins and she was pretty sure even Dan's unsophisticated brain could appreciate how beautiful her family was. She was going to leave the tabloids hanging around so Dan could stumble across of it and take the opportunity to praise the twins.

She glanced back at Chuck as the limo sped away. Chuck had his phone to his ear while he waved her off.

~o~o~o~

By the time that Blair walked into the lunch meeting she had set up with Nate, Nate had already seen the tabloids. He waved her over to his table and handed her the menu. "They're gorgeous," he said to her.

Blair placed the menu down on the table. Her eyes widened in excitement. "They are, aren't they?" She spied the one tabloid that Nate had brought with him. She took out the other ones she brought and handed them to her friend. While Nate went through the pictures she placed her order.

In the middle of the meal, Dan walked into the restaurant with a newspaper tucked under his arm. He spotted Blair and Nate and stopped by their table. "Have you seen it?"

Nate greeted the new arrival. He nodded at the stack of tabloids on the table. "Which one?"

Dan glanced at the tabloid and picked it up. "Cute," he commented at the picture where the twins were looking wide-eyed at their French-kissing parents. "You sure the ducks are allowed to see something that graphic?"

"There are many things much more graphic that they didn't get to see," Blair parried bitingly and with much amusement.

Nate hung his head with a flush and a grin. "I'm going to let that go because you're Blair Waldorf," Dan said. "And no, those shots, as brilliant a piece of journalism those are, aren't what I'm talking about." Dan recovered and tossed the newspaper on the table. "This is what I'm talking about. It's the hospital. Bought out just this morning. It's causing a ruckus because it was completely unforeseen and there weren't any preparations for it."

Nate picked up the paper in concern. He skimmed through the article. "What's the big deal? They were bought out. They should resume normal operations."

"They can't," Dan pointed out. "Turn to page 6. The director and most of the attending doctors were released. Looks like all hell broke lose out there. The entire hospital looks like the emergency ward after a train wreck." He shook his head. "Whoever did this didn't care about what happens after. Even if it's private, the mayor's stepping in because it's such a big hospital."

Blair's brows furrowed. She took her phone from her bag and saw several missed calls from Dorota. She held up a hand and called back. Blair paled at the sound of the hysterical screaming. She gripped her phone to her ear and demanded, "Dorota, is that Yale?"

"Miss Blair, I try call you. We're in hospital waiting for doctor for one hour. Miss Yale fell down stairs."

Blair shot up from her seat and grabbed her bag. "Is she okay?" she bit out. "Where's Chuck?" At least he was there in Manhattan, even if took her hours to reach home.

"We don't know. We can't contact Mr Chuck."

"What?" she snapped. "He said he's spending the day with the twins!"

"Mr Chuck left after you, Miss Blair."

"I'll be right there," Blair ground out. "For her sake, fire Yale's nanny. I swear I don't know what I'll do to her if she's there when I arrive." She hung up the phone. Nate grabbed her arm. She said, "My daughter's in the hospital. I need to get home."

"I'll get grandfather's chopper," he offered.

"Where the hell is Chuck Bass?" she cried out in frustration.

"Hey," Nate said gently. "I'm right here." He pulled her into his arms, then tossed his phone to Dan. "Call my grandfather for the chopper. It's right in the estate now and it can be here in fifteen minutes."

tbc