Chapter 28 - Did you see that ring?

"That was..." Blair couldn't find the words to explain how that felt. She tried to take some deep breaths to steady her breathing and her heartrate.

"Can't say I was disappointed to hear you screaming my name again." Chuck turned to look at her while he tried to normalise his breathing and heartrate too.

"Do that again." Blair smiled at the thought.

He chuckled and playfully shook his head at her. "There was a time where you were satisfied with the idea of waiting for marriage and now your insatiable. Will you ever be satisfied?"

"With you? I'll always want more Bass." To show him that she was serious Blair pulled back the quilt and climbed on top of Chuck to straddle him.

"I don't know whether to take that as a compliment."

"Since when did you need reassurance? I think it's pretty clear that you're the only one for me. You're all I've ever wanted."

Their moment was interrupted by Chuck's phone ringing. Chuck sighed and went to silence it.

"Chuck you can't keep ignoring it. It's early in New York, obviously it is important." She went to move off of him and lay back down on the bed but he stopped her.

"Not as important as this." He lifted his chest up so he could meet her lips for a chaste kiss. He stopped when he felt her hesitate and looked at her confused.

"Chuck, I appreciate it, I do but you can't just ignore the fact that you have a company to run. We have all the time in the world to get reacquainted. You should call them back." She kissed him on the cheek to let him know she wasn't annoyed and climbed off of him to lay back on her side of the bed.

"Do you want to take a shower while I deal with this?" Chuck decided she was right. There was obviously a reason Jack kept trying to call him and he couldn't avoid him forever.

"You won't join me?" Blair asked with a smirk.

"I thought you could do without the distraction." Chuck raised an eyebrow up to her. He welcomed the invitation to join her but he was aware that it had been a while since they had been intimate and he wanted to follow her pace. He didn't want to force her into something she wasn't comfortable with. He was just happy that she was giving him a chance to prove that he was worthy of being in a relationship with her. That he wanted to face any obstacle together.

"You know I welcome any distraction from you. We need to stop at my mother's so I can change. There's no way I'm wearing last night's clothes to whenever you are taking me today. Where are we going?" Blair started to panic at the idea, she never packed a bag because she didn't think she would have spent the night but she should have known from previous experience at how quickly the night could change between them.

"There's already everything you need. You didn't think I would come prepared?" Chuck asked.

"So presumptuous Bass." She never saw it as him assuming how the night would end.

"I like to think of it as always having a plan b and being hopeful." He turned to look at her. He wanted her to know that he wasn't being smug about how quickly the night changed but that he was grateful that she was still here with him.

She rolled her eyes at him; she couldn't deny that she admired his ability to always know what she needed. "Come on, you can them back while I get dressed." She took his hand and pulled him to follow her into the bathroom.

"Why are we at Monet's House?" Blair asked as Chuck helped her out of the car.

Chuck knew it was slightly out of character but he wanted them to explore something different. It would have been easy for them to spend the day in Paris but he wanted a moment away from the busy paced city life for just them. "We can leave if you want to?"

She took his hand in his. "Of course not, I'm just surprised, I didn't think this would be the way you would want to spend your last day in Paris."

Before he could respond a staff member came to greet them. "Mr Bass, we have everything set up in the garden like you asked."

"Thank you." Chuck reached out to shake the man's hand and then turned to look at Blair. "Would you like to tour the house first or explore the gardens or go back to Paris? Choice is yours Waldorf."

Blair realised instantly she had misjudged his effort like she had done the night before. "The gardens."

"Chuck, I -" Blair was rendered speechless. She hadn't expected this. The gardens were beautiful and they had chosen the perfect spot for a picnic.

"Take your shoes off." Chuck was aware it was going to take some persuasion but he was more than willing to try.

"You can't be serious." Blair tried not to squeal at him. He claimed to know her better than anyone and here he was suggesting she take her shoes off. There was no way she was doing that.

"Why not? I will if you do." They were no longer playing games with their relationship but that didn't mean they couldn't try and have a bit of fun.

"There's no way. I'm not doing that." Blair dismissed his idea instantly even if he was trying to tempt her it wasn't going to work this time.

"Why don't you live a little?" Chuck tried again.

"I know what you are trying to do Bass and placing bare feet on the grass is not living a little." She stuck her nose up to the idea.

"If it's good enough for a child." Chuck shrugged.

"Yes, well we aren't children and there's no way my mother would ever allow me to run around barefoot in public."

Chuck could see what she was doing. She was more concerned with what everyone else may think about her than doing what she wanted to do in the moment and although the idea to take her shoes off may not appeal to her he never wanted her to be afraid of trying something just because it wasn't what society expected of her. "Blair, there's no one here and I think that's the point."

"What is?" Blair turned to look at him.

"We never got to experience a childhood so how do you know you won't enjoy it." He started to take his shoes off before he sat down on the blanket that was already set up with their picnic.

Blair huffed and sat down beside him.

Chuck could tell he hadn't managed to win her over yet so leant closer to her ear and whispered. "You're not scared, are you?" He raised a eyebrow at her.

"Scared of what?" She huffed at him again.

"That you might actually like it. Don't you at least want to try it so you can prove me wrong?" The truth was he wasn't exactly enjoying the experience himself but he didn't want her to know that.

"Fine." Blair squealed at him and took her shoes off.

He chuckled. He couldn't stop the smile that spread across his face at knowing he could still get her to try something she didn't want to. He placed a kiss on her temple.

"Why are we here Bass?" Blair wasn't ready to swoon over him just yet.

"You wanted to talk." They had spoken but Chuck knew there was more that Blair wanted to talk about. Dinner had proven last night that they were still worried of people overhearing their conversation so he wanted Blair to talk without feeling like she had to hold herself back.

"We could have done that in Paris." Blair felt like she was stating the obvious.

"Too many people. Here it's just us."

"It was just us in your hotel room."

"Yes, and we got far too distracted to even start a conversation." Chuck smiled at the reminder. They hadn't even spoken in the shower this morning unless they counted screaming each other's names as talking. He saw her cheeks slightly flush and knew she was thinking the same as him.

"We did at dinner." Blair needed a distraction from the heat she felt just thinking about Chuck making her scream his name in pleasure. He was right they needed to talk and that wouldn't happen if either of them was tempted by the idea of getting caught by a member of staff.

"Not properly. We spoke about you wanting to show people the powerful woman I know you are and that you were right about Jack but..." Chuck didn't know if he was going to be helping Blair by talking about it but he knew they needed to.

"But what?" Blair wanted to know why Chuck was hesitating.

"We didn't talk about the baby." Chuck's eyes found her doe eyes. He could see the slight look of shock and hurt.

"Chuck."

"Blair, we have to be able to talk about the loss of our baby. You were there for me when I lost my father even though I tried to push you away. I know you're hurting and I want to be here for you too." He reached out for her hand. He knew this wasn't going to be easy but he wanted to prove to her that if they faced it together it would get easier.

"I'm fine." Blair's voice wasn't enough to even convince herself but placed her hand in his.

"Blair."

"What do you want me to say Chuck?" She needed to know what he wanted from her. It wasn't going to be an overnight fix if he wanted her to face how she was feeling after losing the baby.

"The truth. I want you to tell me the truth. Whatever it is we'll face it together." Chuck wanted her to feel like she could be honest with him.

"It just hurts. Everything hurts. I know you think I ran here to get away from you but the truth is I didn't know what I was going to do if people knew and started questioning me about what happened and how I felt. I feel like a part of me is missing since I found out we lost our baby. I feel like I failed them and I failed you." She took a deep breath to try and stop the tears from falling. She didn't understand why it still hurt so much.

"You haven't failed anyone Blair. You could never fail me. I love you and I'll always be your family." He turned to place a kiss on her cheek. It hurt him to see her think she failed anyone especially him.

Blair was reminded of the time she had said the same words to him. "But will I be enough?"

"Blair, what do I have to do to prove to you that you're more than enough. You are more than I ever thought I deserved."

"But Eva."

"Blair."

"No, Chuck let me finish. You keep telling me that I was more than you ever thought you deserved but you were going to marry Eva. You've loved someone else. You've thought of a future with someone else so how can I trust that won't happen again?" She didn't want to bring up Eva again but the more they spoke about everything she realised it was still something that was playing on her mind.

Chuck thought about this for a moment he wanted to make sure what he told her provided her with comfort without lying to her. "Eva wasn't a pawn to try and make you jealous, Blair. When I didn't die I had to try and rebuild myself but I knew I couldn't do that in New York. The last thing you said to me was that you never wanted to see me again and no one came looking so I believed it to be true. I had to try and move on with my life especially when I was given another chance. I could never love Eva the way I love you and she knew that. I know that isn't comforting, I remember I had to watch you love Nathaniel but it's similar."

"That's all it was?" Chuck's explanation was the first time that Blair understood. She had never thought he could love her if he had imagined a future with someone else but he was right she did love Nate and Chuck at the same time.

"Yes."

"How can you be so sure that it won't happen again?" She looked at him. She wanted to believe him but she just needed a bit more reassurance before she took that leap of faith again.

Chuck could hear the vulnerability in her voice. "I will never give up on us again. I know I've made mistakes but I really will spend the rest of our lives proving to you that I've learnt from them."

Blair couldn't hide the happiness she felt as she walked hand in hand with Chuck towards the restaurant. She saw a different side to him today. After their talk they had walked around the gardens and then taken the tour of the house. It amazed Blair that there were still hidden parts to Chuck that she hadn't even discovered. Blair stopped when she realised who was walking towards them. "Louis?"

Louis stopped in front of them, "Blair?" He noticed her hand in Chuck's and looked him up and down.

Blair ignored Louis's obvious dislike towards Chuck and directed her attention towards the woman that was on his arm. "It's nice to see you again and this is?"

"Oh, yes, Blair please meet my fiancé Estee." Louis said trying to cause a reaction from Blair. It should have been the ring on her finger but she had gone running back to him.

At his words Blair looked at Estee's hand to see the engagement ring on her finger. "Oh wow! Congratulations. Louis this is Charles Bass."

Chuck unclenched his jaw as he saw Blair was not the slightest bit bothered by Louis news. He felt uncomfortable but he would never give Louis the satisfaction of knowing he was so he held out his hand to shake Louis's.

Louis ignored Chuck's gesture and held Estee closer to him. "We should be going. It's nice to see you again Blair."

Once Louis was far enough away from them Chuck squeezed her hand that was in his. "Are you sure you don't have any regrets?" He asked looking at her to make sure he didn't see a hint of regret in her eyes.

"Are you kidding me? Did you see that ring? It was yellow. There's only one ring for me Bass and I already know it's perfect."

As they made their way to their table Blair realised her mother and Cyrus were already waiting for them. She turned to look at Chuck and saw him genuinely smiling. "Chuck, it's your last night in Paris why are my mother and Cyrus joining us for dinner?" Blair asked as she thought they would spend tonight just the two of them and they had already run into Louis did they need another attempt to ruin their happy mood?

"Because we need to show you that our love for you is more important than how we may feel about each other." Chuck stopped her from reaching the table he knew they needed to talk before they got there.

"But I haven't decided if I want to come back to New York yet." She had; she just didn't want him to know she had already made her decision. He had shown her that he wasn't just able to convince her with his words but he really had taken the time to show her he was ready to face anything together. No more games, no more schemes just them proving they could be a powerhouse couple.

"I know but I thought you might need some support telling your mother what you decided too. I told you I'd be here whatever you decide. If you need more time here then I will be waiting in New York. If you want to spend some time with your mother shadowing for Waldorf Designs then we will make it work if you want us to. I'll be with you every step of the way."

Blair's mind was spinning. "Do I have to tell her tonight?"

"Tonight, is your night. I'll just follow your lead".

A/N: I know this update took a while I was trying to do them justice and I was struggling with how I could do that. I wanted to show a different side to Chuck that I don't think they ever explored in GG. There was clearly more to him than just scheming etc. I also wanted a chance to bury the idea of Blair and Louis. I know I could have done all the typical things in Paris too but thought the content was more important and I really wanted them to start facing things together.