I started writing this story back in summer when Gossip Girl was still on Netflix and I was feeling a little 90s. I got some people asking for the rest of the story, and unfortunately, I have to say that my motivation for this story has been lacking over the past couple of months. I wrote another two chapters of this back in August, which I have decided to post, but this story will most likely remain incomplete after chapter 3. If someone wants to adopt/have the idea and the three chapters written so far, please feel free to reach out!

Chapter 2: New York, New York; Brooklyn, Brooklyn

July 13, 1992

In the six days since she'd last seen Rufus, she found herself thinking about him an absurd number of times. When William had come home last night, she had felt desperate enough that she hadn't even let him step out of the elevator before she'd grabbed his collar and pressed a hungry kiss against his mouth. She had steered him towards the nearest flat surface, glad that he had not asked what was going on as he'd hitched up her legs around his waist and pushed her up onto the counter. When it was over and he'd gone to clean up, she'd sat there in the middle of the kitchen for a couple of minutes, mindlessly staring into space and imagining what it would be like to have Rufus love her like that again.

Lily sighed a little. William's alarm had woken them a couple of minutes ago and she was still lying in bed, listening to her husband take a shower whilst she was fantasizing about another man. She got up, feeling a little sore in a good way, and made her way down the stairs and towards Serena's room. Her little girl was still sleeping soundly, her small fists curled up next to her head and her mouth forming a soft O. She caressed her head when she heard William coming down the stairs, calling out her name.

Lily pulled her robe a little closer around her body, leaving her daughter's room.

"What is it, Will?" she asked as she padded into the kitchen.

He shrugged and smiled a little, his hands reaching out to grab her waist. "Just wanted to say goodbye before I head into work," he said as he leaned down to press a kiss to her cheek.

She nodded, twirling a curl of blonde hair around her finger. "When will you be home tonight?"

"Ah, it's probably going to be late," he said apologetically while his hand reached out to take her free one. "And I'll have an even longer day tomorrow. There are a couple of surgeries I have scheduled throughout the day and I will have to catch up on all that paperwork in the evening."

"Tomorrow?" she asked, her smile thinning and her voice getting colder. "It's Serena's birthday tomorrow," Lily reminded him icily.

"It's her first birthday, Lily, she won't even remember if I was there or not, and I can just spend some time with her the day after tomorrow."

She stepped away from him, holding up her hands between them as he made a move to follow her. "She will notice, though, when she sees the pictures of her first birthday and realizes her father is in none of them. Besides, my mother and Carol are coming in, and they will notice for sure whether or not you are there."

"Lily, don't turn this into a bigger thing than it really is, please. You know how important my job is to me and how hard I have to work to –" William started.

She huffed. "Oh, yes, I know. Important enough for you to not come home for three consecutive days over the Fourth of July, even though you kept me and Serena in the city to spend time with us over the summer. And apparently more important than your daughter's first birthday and your wife's happiness. You know that I'm not on good terms with my mother yet, and Carol hasn't spoken more than two sentences to me at a time since I left her place in L.A."

"Alright, alright. I will try my best to make it home for dinner tomorrow, but then I might have to stay really late tonight. Don't wait up for me," he added quickly as he leaned down to kiss her cheek. "I love you, Lily. Get Serena a nice present for me, would you please?"

He grabbed his bag and walked briskly over to the elevator, not even turning around to her as he waited for the cart to arrive.

Lily leaned back against the counter, suddenly feeling cold. She was pretty sure that none of Will's colleagues worked hours as long as he did. Contrarily to what everybody else might believe, she wasn't the typical housewife who had no idea of what was going on around her. She had long suspected that Will was having an affair, had even gone so far as to subtly question some of his colleagues but none of them were willing to share anything, if they even knew something.

But then what kind of father would voluntarily miss his daughter's first birthday, even if he had a lover? She sighed again as she poured herself a cup of coffee. Analyzing William's lack of affection towards their daughter would only make her angry, and she did want to spend a nice day with Serena. Speaking of, she thought warily as she pushed away from the counter she was leaning against. Going back to her baby's room, she followed the soft noises that emerged from the nursery. Serena was looking up at her, sitting up as she came in and waving her hands at her.

Lily smiled as she picked up her daughter, murmuring softly to her throughout their breakfast and as she got the both of them ready. She was still keeping up a steady stream of mostly one-sided conversation with a few sounds here and there from Serena as she got into her town car.

A couple of hours later she had gotten everything she needed to make sure that Serena would have a perfect first birthday, from an adorable little party head to a wonderfully decorated cake. She had gone by the Waldorf's and invited Eleanor with Blair over for a little birthday brunch before her mother and her sister would get into the city in the early afternoon. There was nothing else for her to do but she couldn't get herself to go back to the penthouse just yet. There was a quiet yearning for adventure in her heart, and even though she knew she shouldn't give in – not with her daughter in tow, not with all her social responsibilities – she just couldn't seem to shake the feeling.

"Where to, ma'am?" her driver asked as she lowered the partition.

"Brooklyn," she answered, and before she even knew what she was doing, she had given him the address to Rufus' old band practice room.

He had taken Dan with him that day. Alison wanted to paint, and he just wasn't comfortable leaving his son behind in the loft if the air would soon be permeated by the fumes coming from the paint cans.

Dan was rapidly leaving behind infancy and was growing into an adventurous toddler. At sixteen months he was steadily getting better at keeping his balance whilst walking around the loft, his mind seeming to outrace his feet as he tried to go faster and faster.

"Dan," he called out as the little boy peeked around a corner in the vast space of his new art gallery, ready to explore the place to his heart's content. Dan grinned back at him, obviously amused by his concern as he gave him an almost sly smile and inched around the corner. Rufus chuckled quietly to himself. The building was safe and empty, and the doors closed, there was no harm in letting him test his independence.

Over the last months he had worked hard to make the gallery as presentable as possible, pouring almost all of his money from his last tour into the building. The floors still had an old look to them but were made up freshly, the walls were painted a neutral off-white, and the lights were as good as they could get. Alison would be surprised, he thought with a content smile, when she would see this little miracle. She hadn't been here in months and still had the image of his rickety old band practice space in mind whenever she thought of his prospective gallery. He looked around again, a feeling of pride flooding through him at what he had accomplished.

Suddenly he heard the front doors squeaking and then a surprised voice making cooing noises before his son's voice reached his eyes, excitedly stringing together a bunch of syllables. Hurriedly he rounded the corner, stopping in his tracks at what he saw.

"Lily?!"

"Rufus? What are you doing here?" she asked, blushing a pretty shade of pink.

"What am I doing here?" he asked incredulously. "This is my new gallery. What are you doing here, Lily? Isn't Brooklyn a little far from your usual Upper East Side territory?"

"Your gallery?" she asked back, carefully putting Serena on the floor as the little girl began to struggle to get out of her hold. The blonde baby crawled over to Dan, giving him a broad toothy grin before she started babbling in an excited voice.

"She doesn't meet too many other children her age, does she?" Rufus said, nodding towards their children.

Lily shrugged a little. "Some other Upper East Siders, if that's what you mean or don't mean in this case. She's an easy child, though, really friendly. But tell me more about this art gallery of yours," she commanded, looking around curiously.

"Well, this was the space we used for our Lincoln Hawk band practices," he explained.

Lily nodded. "I remember," she said softly. "I was here for most of those when we were –"

"Together," he finished for her, "but yes. Well, I was thinking about getting into the art dealing business anyways, so when I learned that the owner planned to sell the building, I decided to make an offer and he accepted. The past couple of months I redid it from scratch, and now here we are." Rufus made a sweeping motion with his hands.

"Well, I love it," Lily answered, looking around with wide eyes.

He smiled at her then his gaze found Dan and Serena who were sitting opposite one another on the floor, playing with an old pencil that one of the contractors had left behind.

"So, what are you doing here?" Rufus asked after she had taken everything in for a couple of moments.

"Ah, you know, I was in the area and I just thought I'd stop by," she said, trying to sound nonchalant.

Rufus laughed a little, taking a step back and holding up his hands as she made an angry step towards him. "You thought you'd stop by in Brooklyn? At our old band hang out? Come on, Lily!"

"What do you want me to say?" she hissed, upset by his reaction.

"Nothing, Lily, I'm glad you stopped by, I just can't imagine it was as randomly as you made it seem," he said, his gentle voice calming her down a little.

"It's Serena's birthday tomorrow," she said, "and my mom and Carol will be coming."

"That's nice," he commented dryly.

Lily laughed mirthlessly. "Yeah, sure. As nice as CeCe and Carol could ever be." She leaned back against the wall, staring straight ahead for a little while until he started to wonder if maybe he was supposed to fill the silence with words. He had never been too good at figuring out what she expected him to do. They were too different for that, but one way or another, they had always worked out until one day they didn't anymore, and he still hadn't figured out what had changed between them and made them go south.

"Anyways," she finally continued, "my husband thinks work is an acceptable excuse to miss his daughter's first birthday and you've been stuck in my head since I met you last week, so I randomly decided to come by to see how this place looks."

"I've been stuck in your head?" he asked, slowly advancing towards her until there were only a few inches between them.

"Don't let it go to your head," Lily said but there was a smile on her face even as she turned her head and looked at Dan and Serena. "So, when is the grand opening?" she asked.

"In a little less than two weeks from now. The paintings should get here within the next week, and then it's just the last minute arranging and re-arranging until we're ready to open," Rufus shrugged, brushing a few strands of loose brown hair out of his forehead. "You want to see the place?" he asked, smiling at her.

She nodded, giving him a brilliant smile. "Of course, show me the way, Humphrey."

"Come on then, Rhodes," he teased back, putting a hand at the small of her back and steering her towards the main room.

"What about the kids?" she asked, looking towards the door with a questioning glance.

"I can lock up," Rufus said. "I don't think they'll be able to get out on their own but this way no-one else can come in and snatch them either."

She nodded, her features relaxing a bit as she observed little Daniel patting Serena's hand. He was a very handsome baby with his father's dark hair and fair complexion. She wondered if her son looked anything like him.

Rufus walked past her, turning the key in the lock before he looked at her, a smile firmly on his face as he put his hand on the small of her back again, gently leading her into the next room.

"This is where I want to put most of the really big paintings," he explained in a low voice, filling the space with his words until she could literally see it playing out in her mind. He had always had a way with words, whether he just said them or sang them. He led her through the different rooms, explaining his plans for each and every one of them, completely capturing her thoughts until she heard Serena and Dan's voices from the front room.

"What's going on with them?" Lily wondered aloud as Rufus just shrugged his shoulders. Together they hurried back to their children, just in time to see Dan trying to run away from Serena whilst the little girl held on to his pants, preventing him from setting one foot in front of the other.

"Serena, baby," Lily admonished gently as she picked up her daughter, freeing Dan from her firm grip. The boy looked up at her, giving her a big grin before he ran over to his father, holding onto the leg of Rufus' pants.

"Little trouble maker that one," Rufus commented with a grin. "Like mother, like daughter."

"You wish, Humphrey," she bit back as she brushed her shoulder against his.

He laughed again, putting a steadying hand on her waist as Dan suddenly launched at her, clearly trying to get back at Serena by bringing her mother to fall. Lily gave him another dazzling smile as she handed Serena over to him, picking up Dan herself.

"Well, Daniel, that wasn't so nice," she said although she couldn't quite contain the mirth in her eyes. The little boy just smiled again, his dark eyes captivating her.

"Your son is quite the charmer, do you know that?" Lily asked.

Rufus laughed again. "He takes after his father in that," he replied as he put an arm around her waist, pulling her and his son closer to him and Serena.

Her smile was contagious, he could feel the corners of his mouth being further and further lifted up as his face slowly came closer to hers, until Dan suddenly hit his chest with his little fist.

Lily pulled back from him as if she had gotten burned, a blush spreading all over her face and neck. "I – I have to go. There are a lot of things I still have to prepare for Serena's birthday tomorrow, and –" she stopped mid-sentence, carefully putting Dan on his feet on the floor and plucking her daughter out of Rufus' arms.

"It was nice to see you again," she said, waiting impatiently whilst he unlocked the door to the gallery again.

"You should come by for the official opening," he said, giving her a long look.

Lily leaned her head to the side. "Maybe," she conceded. "I'll have to look at my schedule."

"That's the best I can hope for," he answered as he leaned down and brushed a soft kiss against her cheek before he ruffled Serena's hair. "Happy birthday, princess," he wished before he let them go.

"I'll see you around Rufus," Lily said as she walked out of the door.

"See you around," he confirmed before he turned around and looked at his son, playing with the forgotten pencil again.

Let me know what you think :)