Hello! I hope you'll all forgive me I'm still on an Olympic high. SOOOO proud of all our athletes, and so proud of our Women's and Men's Hockey teams! GOLD! BEST Olympics EVER! Oh, and I didn't proof it again. Still love me? Here we go…
Her heels clicked sharply as she hurried down the hall. She was almost back to the party when a hand caught her elbow, spinning her and pinning her up against the wall. Not totally surprised, Blair rolled her eyes before focusing on a spot near the ceiling and pretending he didn't exist.
"What do you mean you're pregnant?" He hissed with an edge of near rage in his voice.
"You wouldn't think I would have to explain this to a man who has gold medaled in procreation." She hissed back.
"I wouldn't say that, since up until now my only progeny was one… and as we know, I didn't really have any input into that one."
Blair met his eyes and a vicious little smile came to her lips as she taunted him. "And what makes you think it's yours?"
A knowing malicious smile slid across his face. "The fact that your boyfriend was on my payroll, which made him a eunuch where you were concerned. I got you the best living, breathing chastity belt money could buy…"
Her eyes narrowed as she gasped. Having enough of him and this game for now, she slammed the spike of her heel down on his foot. Chuck cursed as she slipped away and into the party. Surrounded by family and friends she proceeded to dodge him for the rest of the party, ever aware that his eyes stalked her everywhere she went. As the guests began to filter out she stood in the foyer seeing them off, ignoring the fact that Chuck was slouched against the far wall, making it clear he wasn't going anywhere. Serena was the last to leave bouncing the birthday boy on her hip as she came into the foyer.
"Here's the birthday boy!" Serena chirped, handing him to a stiff and agitated Blair.
Serena, becoming aware of the simmering tension in the area, slid her gaze back and forth from Blair to Chuck.
"Either he knows or he's planning on killing you… or both." Serena whispered. "Call me later."
As Serena disappeared into the elevator Blair and Chuck silently faced off from opposite sides of the foyer. Blair held Charlie in her arms as if he was a tiny human shield, and she started edging towards the kitchen where Dorota would be and provide a more substantial deterrent than Charlie. Unfortunately Chuck countered her every move, cutting off her escape route.
"Don't worry I'm not going to kill you… especially since you're carrying both my children at the moment." He commented dryly.
"I literally wouldn't count your chickens before they're hatched, if I were you…" Blair said vaguely not making eye contact.
Chuck's eyes narrowed, not liking the subtle implication behind her words. He didn't have to question further, because he knew the answer was coming.
"Meaning…" She said, stroking a hand over Charlie's soft dark hair. "That I only ever wanted one child. I'm still considering my options at the moment…"
Taking advantage of his momentary distraction, Blair slipped down a hall to the kitchen where Dorota was directing some of the clean up staff. Chuck was right behind her, and she quickly moved to put the kitchen island between them. Dorota's eyed the former couple, and signaled for the staff to leave the kitchen. She then tried to take Charlie from Blair, who immediately tightened her grip on her shield, aka her son.
"No!" Blair half shrieked in the scuffle.
"Give me boy." Dorota said, and finally managed to wrestle Charlie out of Blair's arms.
Shaking her head Dorota left the kitchen with Charlie, and left Blair and Chuck scowling at each other from across the kitchen.
"You can glare all you want, Bass, but you haven't managed to kill me with a look in all these years, so I wouldn't imagine it would be that affective now." Blair finally said.
"You can't be serious…" He said cutting to the chase, both of them knowing they were jumping into the deep end.
"Really?" Blair said with a raised brow. "I believe I'm totally serious. I loved being an only child. Why wouldn't I plan the same for my son?"
"Ahhh… The Blair Waldorf plan… An heir without a spare… but it's a little too late for that now, don't you think…"
"I'm thinking I live in America and that I have options."
"And we know how much you like options… like sex on the floor of my jet…"
"That wasn't part of the plan!"
"Really? Well… I had to adjust to your plan… Now it's time for you to do the adjusting."
"Excuse me?"
"You're having the baby. I know you want it, and you know you want it." He taunted. "You're just being… you…"
He was right, it hadn't been part of her plan to ever have another baby, and while she'd never wanted a sibling for herself, she had to admit it might be good for Charlie. She and Chuck were the embodiment of only children, and it wasn't this that made her want to give Charlie a sibling. It was knowing how close Serena and Eric were, as well as Dan and Jenny, that made her want that for Charlie. Blair had a feeling Charlie was going to need a brother or sister in the trenches with him. Besides if he had a sibling so young he might not notice that his inheritance had just split in half.
Her decision already made, she moved into a different verbal combat with her ex.
"How interesting that you say that when you're acting so uncharacteristically." She quipped.
"I don't follow…"
"Here you are, standing in my kitchen. I thought you'd be half way to Singapore by now, what with the whole 'I didn't want to watch you die' blah, blah, blah." Blair rolled her eyes.
"Well… you seem to have come through the last pregnancy with flying colours. So no, kitten… I'm not going anywhere…" A slow cunning smile came to his lips.
"Unfortunately you're no longer welcome." Blair said in her sweetest voice.
"Never stopped me before." He smiled, nodding goodbye and then heading out the door.
Blair watched him go, trying to ignore the way her blood had pumped faster when he was around, and that feeling like for once she was matching wits with an equal. She wouldn't admit it but whenever Chuck wasn't fully in her life she felt like she was surrounded by pawns, missing the only person who got her, and could ever really get the best of her. She walked past the staff finishing up the party clean up, and went upstairs to Charlie's room. She could hear Dorota in the bathroom with him, and judging by the string of cursing in Polish, Charlie had taken to splashing again. Not wanting to be part of that, she absently adjusted pictures and figurines on the lilac colored baby grand in the corner of the nursery. She had selected all the pictures herself, but now the one that she hadn't stood out like a Payless in a Manolo store. She hadn't seen this shot in years…
Flashback.
Blair sat perched on her knees, her brow furrowed as she shook the dice in her hands. She ignored Chuck who lay sprawled on the floor across from her, his head lazily propped on his hand as he watched her shake the dice as if her life depended on it. Letting them go she held her breath, her eyes locked on the roll, Chuck's eyes locked on her. Her whole face changed with triumph when she rolled an eleven, putting her one roll away from the finish. Taking her man, she moved him quickly along the board, counting out loud the squares, but skipping several with her hand, putting her three squares closer to the end than she should have been. This was something she did regularly when playing Chutes and Ladders with Serena or Nate, and she didn't see why doing it with Chuck would be any different.
"Either you can't count or you're cheating, Waldorf."
Pulling her self up, she tossed a lock of her long dark hair over her shoulder. "I'm Blair Waldorf. I don't cheat."
"Sure you do… Yesterday I saw you trip Hazel during jump rope, and at Nate's birthday you put a rock in Serena's shoe before the relay race." He said smiling.
"She's freakishly tall. I wasn't cheating. I was evening the odds. And what are you doing watching me anyways? You have staring problems!" She huffed.
Chuck picked up the dice and rolled them between his hands. He'd already cheated three times in the game himself, but he loved to get her angry. Blair always seemed to want everything to be perfect and for everyone to think she was perfect, but she had a wicked temper that Chuck loved to bring out. Dorota and Chuck's current Nanny Magda had arranged a play date for them, and so Dorota had picked both of them up after Kindergarten, at first they'd raided her parent's closet until they'd been caught by Dorota, and they'd been in Blair's room playing ever since. Chuck was just about to let go of the dice, making sure they landed on fives and win the game, when Dorota came quickly into the room. She pulled the drapes, and turned down the bed before catching Blair up in her arms, laying her on the bed and pulling off her shoes.
"What's going on?" Chuck asked confused, sitting up on the carpet.
"Is nap time." Dorota told him.
"You take a nap?" Chuck derided to Blair a second before he started snickering at her.
He was cut off by Dorota hoisting him into her arms. She plopped him onto the bed, pulled off his shoes and nudged him till he was lying down, all before young master Bass could issue a formal protest.
"I don't take naps. I'm Chuck Bass." He said sullenly.
"Today Chuck Bass take nap." Dorota said as she pulled the blanket over both the children and tucked them firmly in.
Dorota left shutting the door behind her. The two children lay on their sides facing each other. The drapes were closed blocking out the light of the afternoon, but shafts of sunlight drifted in.
"She's gone. We can get up now." Chuck whispered.
"Hmm?" Blair mumbled, her eyes already drooping.
Clearly Blair embraced a good nap. The bed was soft and warm, and all too comfortable, making Chuck shift trying to shake off the heaviness he was feeling. He hadn't been lying when he said Chuck Bass didn't take naps. His fidgeting caused his knees to bump up against hers and her eyes opened with an annoyed sigh. She shifted closer to him and he felt her hand move under the blanket.
"What are you doing?" He demanded as he felt her small hand start to pat his back.
"Shhh!" She said starting to drift off. "Sometimes when I can't sleep Daddy pats my back."
Chuck told himself he should jump out of the bed and tell Blair and Dorota that it would take more than the two of them to best Chuck Bass, but instead he fell asleep. An hour later when Dorota came in to check on them, she found the two curled like kittens, their foreheads touching, but what had Dorota get the camera was the way their fingers had become intertwined as the slept. The way they held each other's hand.
End of flashback
Blair put the picture back amongst the others. Before everything had happened she had always thought that that picture had represented them. They were two individuals, but connected. Always connected, and it was more than marriage, or children, or time. There were days when she hated that she still felt it, and hated knowing, barring a lobotomy, it was never going to change. She just needed to decide what was going to happen next.
TAhDAh!! Show of hands… who's in shock we finally made it to March?!! CHAIR on Monday! I've missed them so! I've distracted myself. I've caught Olympic fever. I've even fallen hard for a new show (Greek. Adore Casey and Cappie). But I've missed Blair Waldorf, and I've missed Chuck Bass. CHAIR!! Oh, and get this… I'm a feminist, I'm even doing a degree in Women's Studies, and I've been invited to attend this thing on International Women's Day. Monday. Yeah, I chucked my feminist principals a bit. I was like… I need to be OUT of there by 8:30. I am a bad feminist.
PS-It's going to start moving a tad faster, because I don't plan on it going more than another couple of chapters.
