Hello! My country wants me to join the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Or at least that's what I'm beginning to think given all the commercials they seem to flood onto my computer. Have I mentioned that I've never been able to keep a secret from my best friend? She's awesome at it and can keep things from me forever. I have zero filter with her and tell her every thought as it enters my brain and every event before during and after it happens. I feel if I sign up to be a Mountie... That should be the big secret I finally manage to keep from her. Until I show up at her house in a red coat and riding a horse. Sooo, I'm babysitting tonight, watching LiLo on SNL and writing this. Her face scares me so... hopefully, I'll make it through. Okay, I take it back. The Real Housewives of Disney are hilarious. Here we go...

It was 2am and she was wide awake. Blair lay on her back stiffly and waited. It was not her strong suit. She drummed her fingers on her belly and frowned at the ceiling. Everything in her wanted to walk down the hall because it was taking too long. Chuck was talking too long. After her successful heart surgery and a month in the hospital Lenore had finally been released, and tonight was her first night home. Wanting to keep it small they'd insisted on it just being the five of them tonight, much to the rest of the family's ire.

Even still it had been a bit of a free for all. While they had been able to hold her in the hospital for weeks, this was the first time she was home and all theirs. It became a fight on who got to hold her until Blair instituted timed sessions on who got to hold Lenore and for how long. Blair smirked at the sulking Bass men, because her breast feeding trumped them several times. Every couple of hours she's slip away with Lenore and lock them away in her bedroom so she could have a few minutes alone with her.

It still floored her. As an only child she'd always believed siblings just split their parents love... and money. But having had her third she realized that it made it grow. She loved her sons with everything in her heart, and when she looked down at the tiny little girl nursing at her breast it just made her heart grow. Blair rolled her eyes. Lord help her if people could see her loss of edge, but luckily only her family could see it.

Earlier tonight Blair had done Lenore's 11pm feeding and had enjoyed every second of her baby in her arms, warm and alive, however she and Chuck had an arrangement. Blair would pump and Chuck would give Lenore her 2am feeding. This served two purposes, one it let Blair get some sleep, and two it gave Chuck alone time to bond with his daughter. It was all well and good... but it had been an hour and a half since they'd heard Lenore fuss to be fed over the monitor.

Finally she couldn't stand it anymore, and through back the covers to go into the nursery. She stood there for a moment and stared at him. Her. Them. Chuck sat in the cushioned rocker with Lenore sleeping on his chest, and her finished bottle set aside as father and daughter dozed together.

A warm feeling flooded her and she had to snap herself out of it, feeling slightly dirty for having naughty thoughts at the moment. She padded over to his side and pouted down at him.

"You're hogging her."

He didn't open his eyes but a smile curved his lips. "Sue me."

She stroked his hair in a smooth gesture, and then leaned down and gently caressed Lenore's perfect cheek with the tip of one finger. She knew he wasn't putting her down anytime soon, and not wanting to return to their bedroom alone, Blair walked over to the Queen sized bed that placed on the other side of the room as the crib, pulled back the covers and crawled in. She curled onto her side and contentedly watched her husband cradle their baby.

"You were right." He said a while later, long after she'd thought he'd drifted back to sleep.

Blair smiled sleepily. "I always am. You'd think you'd know that by now, Bass. What pray tell was I right about this time? I'll need to know to properly keep score."

He ignored her teasing lilt. "About the surgery. You were right that she should have it."

After all the fear before and during the operation, all the hours of waiting to hear if it was successful, and all the weeks in the hospital as she recovered... it felt amazing to hold Lenore in his arms, and feel how strong she felt, how steady her heartbeat against his own. It had all been worth it, because now, with the help mild daily medication, Lenore's heart was perfect. They didn't just have years with her, they had a lifetime.

Blair hadn't said anything and the quiet stretched and they were both dozing off when the door opened and in stumbled Harry, half asleep, and threw himself down on the foot of the bed. He was asleep almost before he'd fully pulled a throw blanket over himself. Blair and Chuck raised a brow at each other. "How long?" Chuck asked, but it was answered before she could, as in walked Bart with his pillow tucked under his arm. He lay down by Chuck's feet, shoved the pillow under his head and went to sleep.

Blair shrugged a little. "At least he's wearing pajama bottoms."

"Goodnight, Waldorf."

"Goodnight, Bass."

"Shhhh!" Bart grumbled.

A few weeks later Blair and Serena sat on a bench in the park, sipping decaf coffee from their cups and watching the nannies play on a blanket with Lenore and Chloe. Blair eyed her daughter's still hairless head but consoled herself by assuring herself that no hair was better than what was going on on the top of Chloe's head. The baby had blonde hair that stuck straight up off her scalp and Serena had already confessed that nothing she tried seemed to be able to get it to lay flat.

As Blair continued to weigh the pros and cons of bad hair vs. no hair at all, Serena had other things on her mind.

"B?"

"Hmm?" Blair asked distractedly as she spotted Chloe's grasping hand going for Lenore's face and she snapped at her nanny. "Marta! Her eyes! She has two and I'd like to keep it that way!"

"Blair..."

"Marta do not make me pick up my phone and call INS!" Blair said sharply to the nanny who picked up Lenore and moved her away from Chloe, who seemed hell bent on hugging Lenore to death.

"We're not having sex." Serena confessed quickly. "We haven't since before Chloe was born."

"What?" That got Blair's full attention. "I mean... I'm not surprised. It is Humphrey after all... but he's your thing... so what's the problem?"

"I don't know... Didn't you and Chuck have... a dry spell after Bart?" Asked hopefully.

Blair rolled her eyes. "We had a dry spell... what you've got going is a drought. Chloe is five months old."

"So... are you and Chuck?"

"Why do you think I was late to the park?" Blair smirked... and then lost her train of thought at her remembrance of how she woke him this morning.

Serena looked off, past the children to a point only she could see. "It's not just that... We... want different things..."

Blair turned to stare at her friend. "Such as?"

"I miss the Upper East Side..."

"It's home." Blair finished for her.

"Exactly and Dan won't even consider it... and there are other things..."

Blair raised a brow. "Besides sex and real estate?"

It was Serena's turn to roll her eyes but she got serious a second later as she met Blair's gaze. "I think I've fallen out of love with him."

"Oh, boy." Blair sighed and took a sip from her cup.

"B! Is that all you have to say?"

"S, I love you and I want you to be happy. Whatever it is you want to do, I'll support you... just know that this is going to open up a huge can of worms. Big ones. Ones that are all related to each other and are going to have different reactions to how this plays out."

Serena nodded.

Several weeks later, Chuck came home and headed straight upstairs. He knew his boys were out, Harry was... well, Blair would say, "God knows where", but Chuck knew exactly where Harry was. His PIs and security team kept him abridged of his eldest's whereabouts. He thought refraining from telling his wife Harry was in New Jersey was the best idea.

Bart was sleeping over at Eric's... but only after Eric could promise that he'd have his own room with a king sized bed and western exposure. It wasn't the first time that someone had taken Chuck aside to ask if the boy had been tested for Aspergers.

"He's not autistic. He's just Bart." Chuck had commented easily each time.

Knowing the boys were away, he searched out his girls, and found them easily. When he walked into the master suite he spotted the closed bathroom door with a crack of light streaming out from under it and headed for the room, stripping off his jacket, slipping off his shoes and socks, and loosening his tie as he went. He paused for a moment to brace himself for the heat, and opening it he was his with the wall of warm air. He quickly shut the door after him knowing that Blair didn't like the heat to escape. The mirrors and shower door were think with fog and drops of condensation dripped down leaving trails. The tile under his bare feet felt wet and slick, but was warm because of the in-floor heating, and he stood for a moment looking down into the bathtub. Whenever Blair bathed Lenore she cranked the heat in the bathroom and made sure that the water and air were warm so that Lenore was comfortable and not chilled.

Blair sat at the far end of the very full tub, and kept her legs pulled up closer to her chest. Lenore rested on her mother, her head on Blair's knees as her bare bum sat on Blair's stomach. The water came up over Lenore's belly, and Chuck knelt at the side of the tub and Blair's head rolled towards him to give him a smile.

"Hi." He said softly, kissing her lips.

"Hi." She said back as he pulled away, leaving her lips tingling.

Chuck stripped off the rest of his clothes and carefully slipped into the tub, not wanting startled Lenore or splash her. He sat at the opposite end of the bath and his toes touched Blair's. He leaned back, placed an elbow on the rim and rested his head on his hand to watch them. Blair and her daughter only had eyes for each other, cooing back and forth, and Blair played with her hands, and lifted a foot to kiss it every now and then. He didn't mind the lack of attention he was being paid, because he felt like he was party to something special.

"Is Harry across State lines again?" Blair asked a while later as she ran a cloth over Lenore's shoulders and tummy.

He raised a brow. He should have known she'd know. She answered his unvoiced question dryly. "He smells like Jersey."

"In a good way." Chuck smiled.

"There is no good way in Jersey. Period." Blair condemned as she poured some oil into her hand and rubbed it gently into Lenore's still bald scalp. Blair had been researching everywhere for anything that would encourage hair growth. As yet she would seem to be unsuccessful.

The boys had had their own solution. Last week, after a dinner out, Blair and Chuck had come home to two laughing Bass boys... and a daughter with a full, blonde wig on her head.

"There, Mother. Problem solved." Harry had mocked. "You're welcome."

"What is on my daughter's head?" Blair asked with a curled lip.

"It's a baby wig. We got it off the internet." Harry told her. He held Lenore in his arms and the three and a half month old looked at her mother with wide eyes... well, where there weren't thick locks of hair now curling in her way. "It's real human hair."

"That's disgusting. Get it off her scalp before I scalp you." Blair said through gritted teeth.

"Really, Harry? Blonde? She's a Bass after all." Was Chuck's only sensor as he stepped forward and took a remarkably calm Lenore from her brother's arms.

Back in the tub, Chuck looked at his wife carefully. "It will grow." He assured her and hoped he was right. Both boys had been born with a full head of dark hair. Their daughter seemed to have only mastered perfectly winged dark eyebrows.

"What?" Blair looked up, and Chuck realized that wasn't what she'd been thinking about at all.

He lifted his head a little. "Spill, Waldorf."

Blair was going to deny that anything was worrying her, but she sighed instead. She kept her gaze on Lenore as she spoke. "She's almost four month old..."

"As I recall..." Chuck urged.

"I said I'd go back to work when she was four months old..."

"And you don't want to." Chuck said for her and she nodded.

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to..." Chuck reminded her, and it was true. He wanted Blair to be happy, so if working was what she wanted, he'd support her, and if it was taking a break, he'd support that too. He just had to ask. "Is this because of her heart?"

Blair paused to look up at him before looking down to trace a finger down the pink, healing scar that still marred the centre of Lenore's chest. Blair shook her head. "Maybe that's a part of it... we could have lost her... but also... she's our last one... Then there are the boys... they'll be gone soon, off to college. And I love spending so much time with Serena and Chloe... I think S needs me right now too."

Chuck nodded and rubbed his toes against hers. "We all need you, Blair."

She smiled at him. "I'll go back eventually... I just feel like... right now this is what I want to be doing."

"Sitting in fear that our child may pee on you?" Chuck teased.

Blair kicked him under the water, but gave him a smile. She knew he understood, because since Lenore had been born he'd cut back on his hours at the office, and also often coming home for lunch with them or meeting them in the park, as if he didn't want to miss anything at home either.

As the water started to cool, Chuck stood up, stepped out, wrapped a towel around his waist and held his hands out. Blair lifted the baby under her arms and brought her close to her face. Lenore's amber eyes looked at her mother's dark ones. Blair kissed the tip of her tiny nose.

"Even bald I'll keep you." Blair sighed.

Her husband chuckled and took the baby from her. He carefully swaddled her in a soft towel and carried her to the nursery where he diapered and dressed her in her pajamas before resting her on his shoulder and bringing her back to her mother. Blair was already in bed, and Chuck passed her back so that Blair could nurse her. He lay quietly beside them, holding one tiny had as she fed. He again marveled at the strength of Lenore's grip as it wrapped tightly around one of his fingers.

She fell asleep at her mother's breast and Chuck took lifted her and took her back to the nursery, tucking her in gently and whispering his love. After he walked back into the master and found Blair as asleep as their daughter, and crawled into bed with her, kissing her goodnight and whispering of his love.

TahDAH! Okay, so this was a bit of this and a bit of that chapter. I may do another one like that. Here's the idea and I wanted to know what you think... I have story plots in my head for each member of our Bass family. Would you hate it if I didn't go in chronological order? I could write the full story that I have in my head, which would be a few chapters each, all at once, or I could jump around a bit... do a chapter with Bart as a focus, but the next one may focus on Blair or one of the other family members. But remember... The Bart story may have him... like 20, Harry 25 and Lenore 10, but the next chapter might be focused on Lenore when she's 18, Bart 28 and Harry 32. Chuck and Blair are always present and will have their own stories as well. Make sense?

PS-It never ceases to amaze me how short American maternity leaves are. It's like 3 months right? Mat leave is like a year in Canada. I think? I have no baby.