**"Hellllllooooo" Kate's call echos down the long empty room. She stands there for a minute and looks around biting her lip because she knows she's really late. She sits down and posts a chapter, curiously wondering if anyone's still out there to read it.**

Hi lovelies, okay melodrama over, I know – I totally suck. I abandoned the story…again. Not intentionally, work just went from being horrible hours to being all I do. Seriously days where there's sleep, food, and gym time are great days; days when I actually find time to write though…are the best days. Still living the dream in NYC working what is hypothetically a 9-5 (jokes). Hope you're all well and you enjoy this LONG overdue update.

To all of you who have reviewed in the time I've been away: BellaB2010, Moonflower26, iALLIEgator, lovetvtoomuchxo, CarolinaGirl21, GGfanficfan09, ChuckBlair08lover, thealluretodarkness, Eva 90, Lola Charlie Ivy, Stella, Joy, Sharry, Moozanna, Temp02, Michii, sos, CHAIRR10, Jordan, ErinSmith20, CarolinaGirlGG, Red Ampersand, Maria, I Bass, the girl with the silver arrow, Alisha, 2three88, and the 20 or so guest reviewsyou're all wonderful and I really am sorry it's taken this long.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Special thanks to my fantastic beta kosoul7 – not just for being my beta but for sometimes casually texting to remind me to update.

Chapter 16: We're All Overly Invested

"It has been a long time since we've done this." Nate spoke as he gestured for another round to bartender at the Palace Bar. "Especially here. And this was not the place I was expecting when you said you wanted to grab a drink somewhere private."

Chuck smirked as he looked up from his near empty drink. "It's the last place anyone ever expects to find me, so it generally suits my taste when I need some privacy."

Dan laughed. "That's ironic considering you literally lived here in high school." They'd all spent quite a bit of time here in high school. Chuck and Serena had both lived here at one point or another. It wasn't until Chuck bought the Empire they'd quit coming here as much - which might have had something to do with the fact that when Chuck traded in his shares in Bass the bar had started carding and none of them had been 21.

But regardless of location, they used to do this a lot. At first it was the whole gang. Then Blair left and they'd all wanted to keep Chuck in check, they'd practically had him on suicide watch; however unnecessary it had been at that point. He'd always just get drunk and ramble about how he was going to get her back, how she'd come back to him; but they had always tried to be there for him anyway. Then that summer happened, the summer Dan now knew resulted from the Hamptons. First Chuck had cut them out, then he'd met Gwen and these little get-togethers had stalled. Dan for one was glad Chuck had wanted to hang out, he'd missed this.

Chuck nodded his head. "That I did. Then the bar stopped being our hangout and it wasn't like I was regularly stopping by. One day I was in the neighborhood and really wanted truffle mac and cheese so I dropped in and ended up having a few drinks. When I left a few hours later I noticed that I hadn't been "Spotted" the entire time and I haven't been "Spotted" here since."

"Right under everyone's noses." Nate laughed loudly as he shook his head. "Not that I wasn't happy to join, we don't do this enough anymore; but I know you had a reason for bringing us here." He added leadingly before looking down at his watch. "At two in the morning."

"I'm not the one who had a deadline, Nathaniel." Chuck said with a smirk. He'd stayed in bed with Gwen until she'd fallen asleep then he'd had Arthur bring the limo around and drop him off here around 10pm. Nate's deadline at the Spectator that had kept them from meeting until 2am - of course that hadn't stopped him from having a few drinks ahead of time.

Nate grinned, flushing slightly. "Sorry about that."

Dan shrugged. "You say that like I have anything resembling a normal sleep schedule besides you're not the only one with a deadline. Steph's up finishing an edit."

Broadening his smile, Nate gestured to the bartender for another round. "In that case...Chuck why don't you tell us why exactly we're here."

Chuck frowned slightly as he looked at Nate, with Dan behind him. Gesturing with his head towards Dan he groaned slightly. "Humphrey here challenged me to sit down and talk to Blair."

Dan flushed a bit he had heard from Blair that she'd had a curious conversation with Chuck but she hadn't really opened up about what they'd discussed. He was curious but he'd respected her privacy and hadn't pried.

Nate looked back at Dan curiously before turning back to Chuck. "What exactly did you talk to her about? I thought you were still choosing not to deal with things." His voice held a hint of bite to it resulting from the conversation he and Chuck had the last time he'd mentioned Blair.

Chuck tilted his head with another smirk. "Touché Nathaniel." Looking at Dan he nodded. "Yes you heard right Humphrey, you weren't the only one who suggested I evaluate my feelings." Taking a sip of his drink Chuck leaned back in his chair. "So I talked to her. And it was more normal than I'd like to admit. It was so easy to fall into an old pattern with her. Fucking terrifying really."

"After how much she hurt you, none of us would expect otherwise." Dan spoke his voice reassuring. He could see Chuck was building towards something and didn't want to say anything to dissuade him from continuing.

"So what did you figure out by talking with her?" Nate asked, knowing that if the conversation hadn't meant anything Chuck wouldn't have even brought it up.

Chuck nodded. "It's more on what I've decided." He spoke his voice confidant. "I want Blair to be a part of my life, even if that makes my life more difficult."

Nate's eyes widened. "That's...big of you."

But as even as Nate's eyes widened, Dan felt his narrow. He could hear the 'but' that was coming and he think he knew exactly what it was.

"But while I want her in my life, I don't want to be anything other than her friend and I think it might be a long slow road even to that." Chuck spoke with confidence.

Nate nodded. "That's fair all things considered. If you are sure that you can really be just friends with Blair that is..."

Before Nate could finish his rambling thought Dan cut in looking briefly at Nate before cutting his eyes over to Chuck's. "Chuck's not done. Are you Bass?"

Chuck shook his head, smirking slightly. Nate might have known him better and for longer, but Dan was much better at reading people. "I'm asking Gwen to marry me tomorrow night."

Dan closed his eyes and inhaled quietly, he could hear Nate's much sharper intake of breath next to him. Regardless of their reactions Dan knew that both he and Nate felt the same apprehension about this - they'd discussed it before Chuck had arrived but they hadn't really needed to. Chuck had certain tells and this wasn't unexpected news to either of them, it was just...unwelcome.

"Wow." Nate spoke, forcing a smile onto his face. He hadn't expected this, Chuck hadn't mentioned anything like this since their conversation a few weeks ago when he pushed him to be honest about his feelings concerning Blair. It was surprising now that it was coming up so suddenly. "That's big." He hated that he was faking happiness for Chuck right now but he didn't know what else to do. If he and Dan didn't at least try, Chuck would get angry and defensive, then he'd be even more likely to do something reckless. Before Blair had come back, neither would have even thought this was strange, they had both been placing bets on how much longer it would take Chuck to propose. But now, now it was wrong because he was confused and he didn't know what he wanted. He was doing this to prove to himself that Blair didn't control him anymore.

Chuck had known that neither Nate nor Dan would be jumping for joy - at least not until he explained himself. That's why he was sitting here now, telling them what he was going to do before he did it. "I would tell you to go ahead and let me have it but you've both done that already. I know how you feel. I know that you think that I'm trying to prove everyone wrong, to prove Blair wrong. But that's not it."

Dan swallowed. He wanted to point out that the person that everyone thought Chuck was trying to prove wrong was himself but that conversation wouldn't be leading anywhere so instead he exhaled. "Are you sure about this? Because once you do this, everything get's a whole lot messier."

Chuck looked down at his drink before facing his friends and giving them a sly smirk. "Don't you see? This is going to stop this nonsense. I was ready to propose to Gwen two months ago, I've had the ring even longer than that. Blair coming back fucked with my head, it brought back all the insecurities from before."

"You're wrong if you think this is going to simplify things Chuck." Dan said, unable to stop himself. "You can tell yourself that it will but that's only true if you have no ulterior motive."

Chuck's smirk broadened into a smile. "I know what I want Dan, I always did. Blair coming back made me doubt myself - it didn't make me doubt Gwen. I'm sure that this is what I want. I want to spend my life with Gwen."

Nate's brow was furrowed as he listened to his friends pander back and forth - watching them was making him more anxious by the moment. It wasn't supposed to be like this. "I hate this." He interjected, causing both of them to turn their heads. "I hate it. This is wrong. When your best friend tells you he's proposing, he's not supposed to have to prove to you why it's a good idea. And you're not supposed to ask. We're fighting you and it's not something that has anything to do with us and that's not fair Chuck."

The air flew from Dan's lungs so quickly that he didn't know what had hit him until he realized the absurdity of the conversation that they'd been having. This wasn't his war, and this wasn't even his battle. If this was what Chuck wanted it wasn't their place to keep pushing him. "He's right. And I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be." Chuck spoke shaking his head. "You're both looking out for me. Don't you think I realize that? I'd probably be more worried if I'd had your overwhelming support. This is a fucked up situation - it actually means a lot to me that you're both concerned. It at least means you realize that I've been dealing with a lot of shit lately."

Nate clasped a hand on Chuck's shoulder. "We just don't want you to be the one that ends up getting hurt again."

"But we also don't want you to be so scared of being hurt that you make a choice just because you're scared." Dan finished, knowing that Nate wouldn't have said it - even if Chuck had read that in his tone. Before Chuck could say what Dan knew he would, Dan continued. "And I'm not saying that being with Gwen means you're settling because lets face it, she's way out of your league to begin with." He added with a chuckle before continuing. "All we want is for you to really know what you want and to go for it."

Chuck gave his friends a small smile. "I know that, really I do." Exhaling he gave both of them a long look. "I think I've enjoyed the drama of the past weeks more than I'd like to admit. Blair brings a fire to everything she touches and for the briefest of moments it was fun to drift through the nostalgia and think 'what if' this hadn't happened, or 'what if' that had; but at some point that all just becomes old because that isn't what happened. We are who we are and we're where we're supposed to be."

"Are you going to tell Blair first or just let her find out?" Nate asked with a small tilt of his head.

For the first time Chuck frowned. He hadn't really thought about that part. He knew he was making the right decision but telling Blair would be difficult. How did you even tell the girl you were once sure you'd spend the rest of your life with that you were going to spend it with someone else? "I don't know yet."

Inhaling deeply, Dan's eyes felt heated as he thought about how Blair was going to react to this. "If you don't want to, I can. But don't let her find out through Gwen okay?"

Chuck nodded. "Sometimes I forget how close you and Blair are now Humphrey." His eyes narrowed slightly as he thought about the book Dan was writing and how little he knew about what was in it. "Just how much explaining am I going to have to do with Gwen when that book comes out?"

Dan felt the laughter bubble up inside of him before he could stop it. He hadn't really been thinking of how the book portrayed Chuck until that moment; sometimes he forgot the effect that his writing had on his friend's real lives. "Don't worry, I think you're okay this time. Most of the book that involves you is before you knew Gwen - anything you don't want her to know you can always claim was exaggerated."

Nate looked between the two of them for a long moment before interjecting. "Wait - what book?"

At that both Dan and Chuck started laughing, Nate always would be one step behind. Chuck shook his head at Nate's baffled expression. "Dan's next book is about Blair...and by proxy it's about me. There are things that Humphrey here found out about that I was unaware he knew."

Dan smiled wryly, his cheeks reddening slightly. "I should have told you, I am sorry about that. You can give it a read through ahead of time if you want. And if there's anything you don't want made public I can take it out. I told Blair the same."

Chuck pressed his lips together and took another sip of scotch before he answered. "I want to see it. But there are things, things like what happened in the Hamptons, that Gwen deserves to know about anyway. I just need to find the right time to tell her before you publish the damn thing."

"Look how much we've grown up since the last time Dan told us he was writing a book." Nate said with a laugh recalling the turmoil that had followed with everyone angry at how they were being portrayed.

Chuck shrugged with one shoulder. "I was cool about it even back then."

Nate rolled his eyes. "Oh please, you were cool about everything back then. Nothing phased you. Not even the fact that your character tried to off himself."

Chuck smirked. "Now is that life imitating art, or art imitating life?" He asked Dan philosophically.

When both Nate and Dan went deathly quiet before exploding with excuses and apologies, Chuck couldn't help but laugh. "Please, the only thing that made me upset about that book was the Dan and Blair sex scandal."

"Which never happened." Dan interjected quickly.

Chuck rolled his eyes. "God I was so mad, but I didn't throw a fit about it like some people whose character just happened to be gay."

Nate grinned at his friends, they'd been so young back then, in some ways they still were. Feeling a strange seriousness settle over him he looked at Chuck. "I am happy for you, you know. I'm happy that you're happy again."

Nodded, Chuck stiffened. "A part of me is always going to feel something for her, but it doesn't change what I feel for Gwen now. What I have with Gwen is different. I think this is what real love is supposed to feel like. And no matter how much I care for Blair, what I feel for her isn't that."

"Then I'm happy for you too." Dan spoke seriously.

Nate was about to make a comment about the fact that it wouldn't be much longer before they'd all be settled down when a loud banging followed by a blaze of golden hair and girlish laughter drew his eyes to the left hand corner of his periphery. Two twenty-something women were giggling drunkenly as they tumbled out of the kitchen. One still holding what looked like a grilled cheese sandwich.

"Damn." Nate spoke lowly as he took a long look up the girls' backs.

immediately Dan followed Nate's gaze over Chuck's shoulder and shook his head. "I'd say." On a scale of 1-10 these girls were easily 11s. Great bodies, short dresses, high heels, amazing legs, and in that moment he was more than a little bit glad that he and Steph had a 'you can look but you can't touch' understanding. The girls were chatting amicably with someone who was still in the kitchen - likely an employee.

Chuck heard his friends but at the same time he didn't hear them, he knew there must be a hot girl behind him but just now he didn't care. His whole body was suddenly on edge as his eyes began to drift around the room. He hadn't seen anyone come in but he felt like the oxygen had fled the room and only one person ever made him feel like that. He could still hear Dan and Nate making comments on the hotness of what had to be two girls from the way they were talking when he shifted his eyes to the mirror behind the bar and everything made sense.

Chuck's face was a half-frown, half smirk as he shook his head at his friends. "It's a good thing that one of those girls is your fiancé Nate or I'd feel like I'd have to inform her about the way you were talking about her. In this particular case it would probably just turn her on."

Both Nate and Dan blinked rapidly as they looked from the hot girls, still halfway in the kitchen, to Chuck. "What...?" Nate started as Dan picked up. "Are you talking abou-oh oh oh." Dan finished almost gagging as the brunette turned her head just far enough for Dan to catch her profile.

Chuck laughed - granted he respected Steph and Dan's arrangement - it was similar to how he and Blair and been at one point. Looking was fine, touching was out of the question - but it was fun to tease him now. "Humphrey, there's no need to act like Blair disgusts you now. We all knew you used to fantasize about her remember." Chuck spoke, placing his hands against the bar and sliding back.

"Damn my fiancé is hot." Nate said with a bright smile before he realized just how awkward this situation now was. Because they weren't the only ones who'd seen who else was there. He was about to say something else when he realized that Chuck wasn't even sitting there anymore. "What's he..." He started, leaning towards Dan slightly.

Dan shook his head. "He's going to talk to her."

Frowning Nate looked at Dan before looking back at Chuck approaching an almost panicked looking Blair. "This really is fucked up."

"Yeah." Dan spoke softly. "And I don't care how much he claims he's over Blair and in love with Gwen. Just look at his face."

Nate looked at Chuck's face, and more importantly his eyes for a long moment before he sighed. The determination in his eyes, coupled with something else, something akin to longing, was all Nate needed to see. "Shit. He can't stay away can he."

Dan shook his head, frowning to himself. "No, he really can't."

"But what changed?" Nate asked emphatically. "A few weeks ago Chuck was having no problem. I watched him turn her away without so much as a flinch. That's not the same guy that just stalked over there."

Dan couldn't help his small smirk. "That was before they kissed."

Blair's eyes widened as she saw the guys sitting at the bar staring at them. Hitting Serena's arm slightly she took a few steps back from the Hotel manager she'd flirted with to get access to the kitchen so Serena could get her truffle grill cheese.

Serena's smile slipped from her face when she saw where Blair's eyes were looking. As Chuck pushed away from the bar she thought he was going to walk out and she'd have a distraught Blair on her hands but instead she was hit with another surprise as he started walking towards them. Shooing the manager into the kitchen as she looked between Chuck and the guy - he only resisted as long as it took him to see who was walking over and then he was disappearing back into the kitchen, this time without the hot girls he'd been showing around.

Blair closed her eyes and inhaled deeply before turning to meet Chuck, not sure quite what that look was that she was reading in his intense gaze. "Chuck, hi, I'm sorry. I mean we wouldn't have come by if we'd thought..." Exhaling she shook her head. "Serena wanted a truffle grilled cheese and honestly, this is the last place we thought we'd see you."

"Which is why I'm here." Chuck spoke, his smirk still in place. He and Blair had always followed a similar thought process - in this case it happened to be to hide in the place so obvious that there was no possibility that someone would come there looking for you.

Serena looked between Chuck and Blair noticing how intense both of their gazes had become and feeling oddly in the way. "I'm going to uh go over there." She said gesturing behind her as she backed up. As she did she noticed both Chuck and Blair nodded absently but neither broke the other's stare.

"We'll leave." Blair offered immediately. She hadn't meant to run into him tonight. In fact tonight was supposed to be about nothing but fun before she turned the heat up on her plan to get Chuck back. As drunk as she was, she'd be more likely to embarrass herself and say something she didn't mean than make any sort of progress with him.

Chuck shrugged lightly, surprising himself as he spoke. "You don't have to."

Blair's eyebrows rows infinitesimally. "Not still mad at me?"

Chuck smiled almost to himself. Maybe he should tell her to go, maybe he should go himself, but right now he just didn't want to. "Not at the moment."

"Hi boys." Serena spoke, sauntering over to Nate and Dan.

Nate smiled, giving his fiancé a quick kiss. "What are you two doing here? I thought you were going out in Meatpacking."

Serena smiled, saddling up to the bar and slipping into Chuck's seat. "Same thing as you I'd expect - the last place you'd think to find Chuck. Besides it's the best truffle grill cheese in the city."

Nate frowned holding up the bar menu in front of him. "Why does everyone keep talking about that thing - it's not even on the menu."

Grinning mischievously Serena took a bite of the sandwich still in her hand. "You have to know the right people."

Nate shook his head, he didn't even like truffles so the whole bit was lost on him. Placing a hand on Serena's hip, he smiled. "So you two dressed up tonight."

"I'll say." Dan added, he'd been quietly watching Chuck and Blair and as Nate spoke he found himself looking Blair up and down from his seat at the bar. Seeing Blair dressed like that was not something he was used to - Serena looked great too of course but this had always been more the norm for her.

Serena slapped his shoulder playfully. "Eyes down married man."

Dan shrugged slightly. "Can't a man appreciate beauty anymore without being considered a womanizer?" Nate looked like he wanted to laugh but Serena was still staring at him with playfully raised eyebrows. "C'mon you both look hot tonight - besides Steph's pretty liberal, I'm sure she'd agree with me."

At that both Nate and Serena did laugh before hearing Chuck and Blair doing the same and turning their heads back to the non-couple.

Dan swallowed, his laugher dropping off immediately. "This is the first time I've seen them together. And I can't help but think that he hasn't moved on – no matter what he keeps saying."

Shaking her head, Serena frowned. "He's got no clue he's not over her does he?"

Dan scoffed. "Oh I'm fairly certain he does."

"On some level yeah." Nate added. "But he's not going to admit it. Not to anyone, especially not himself."

Serena pressed her lips together and sighed. "So instead, they're going to do what they always do and fight like hell to prove it."

Dan tilted his head. "But to prove what? There's always been a reason before but this time I just don't get it."

Serena shook her head. "I don't know."

Nate exhaled. "I do." When all eyes turned to him Nate nodded. "She's trying to prove that they belong together and Chuck…Chuck's trying to prove that he doesn't have to hurt to be happy. Because to him as much happiness as he gets from being with Blair there's equal parts pain."

Chuck furrowed his brow slightly as he recalled their argument in Blair's apartment while they were looking at her scrapbook. He'd gotten so angry that day, in a way that he hadn't quite managed to wrap his head around, even days later. There had been so many emotions rushing around inside of him and they had bubbled over in the form of anger. "I'm sorry for the other day, I bit your head off when that wasn't your fault.'

Blair shook her head slightly. "The whole afternoon was strange. Emotions were running high and I shouldn't have kissed you. It was one of those strange moments when I stopped thinking I just went with what I was feeling."

Chuck found himself smiling. "Not something you do very often. And yeah you kissed me but I was the one who escalated things and then when I didn't get why I'd done it, I took that out on you."

Blair laughed lightly to herself. "I certainly didn't push you away."

Chuck shook his head. "No, you didn't push me at all." As he said it he saw the strangest look in her eyes like she knew that she hadn't and was surprised he hadn't realized it. "You knew that you could have pushed further and gotten me to break didn't you." He stated rather than asked.

Half of Blair's mouth turned up as though she weren't sure if she was happy or something more somber but there was too much alcohol flowing through her to really recognize what she was feeling. "I'm not trying to break you Chuck. Hurting you is the last thing that I want to do."

Chuck's brows pulled tightly together, she couldn't have packed a more emotional punch if she'd been reading his mind. "I'm having a difficult time redefining what we are. It's something I'm probably going to fuck up a lot."

Blinking quickly, Blair felt herself sway a bit. She was fighting to hear his words through the drunken haze that had settled around her. She knew this wasn't the time for a serious conversation but she didn't want to turn him away now when they were actually being real with one another. Letting go for a moment she decided to try to make sense of it all without over analyzing things like she usually did. "We are what we are. I mean, what we always were." She spoke her voice lilting a bit. "We weren't really friends, even when that's all we were, we weren't and you loved me but I don't know that I knew that or that I even knew what love was really."

Chuck tilted his head slightly as Blair spoke, it wasn't like her to be like this, so open. And even though he struggled to make sense of what she was saying he knew that she wasn't guarding herself at all so he let her continue.

"My dad loved me sure, but he left me. And Nate and my mother, even Serena after what she and Nate did to me…I didn't know what it was so I didn't know how to reciprocate it. Which is probably why you and I were always so fucked up. But you knew how to love, you knew before I did. You loved so completely and I was so...guarded even when I said I wasn't. I was always behind with that; whether I realized it or I didn't." Inhaling quickly to catch her breath Blair smiled to herself and shook her head. "Okay, I'm talking really fast and babbling and I don't even know what I just said."

Chuck laughed as a cute drunken smile slid across her lips. "I don't know what you said either. You're drunk aren't you?"

Blair shrugged and shook her head before laughing lightly and leaning in. "Shhhhh, don't tell anyone I actually know how to have a bit of fun."

Chuck smiled in response and leaned in towards her. "I always knew that you knew how to have fun. It's been one of our best kept secrets." At their proximity now he could smell a mixture of her shampoo and perfume mixing with something that surprised him. There was most definitely scotch on her breath. It was strange. Blair could take her scotch like a champ but it was never her drink of choice.

Leaning in a little more Blair smiled. "You knew I could even when I didn't." Blair smelled his cologne and the scent that was so very Chuck and exhaled quickly, ridding it from her senses before she did something rash. As she did she pulled back from him and looked away, getting her facilities about her before she said more.

When Blair pulled back, Chuck realized how close they'd been standing. He knew he should take a step back too but all he wanted was to take a step closer.

"I think all I was trying to say is that we've always been complicated." Blair spoke, looking back towards him. "Together or apart, when we hated each other, when we loved each other, enemies, friends, lovers, sometimes all three - we are, what we always were." Meeting his gaze boldly she shook her head. "It's never been easy, it's never going to be. We're both complicated people by nature and in each other's orbit that part of us tends to magnify. And it doesn't help that we are always going to love each other - or I'm always going to love you anyway. So no matter what we are, in each other's lives, we are always going to have to work to keep things steady."

Chuck nodded and frowned feeling the emotions that had rushed to overwhelm him when they'd fought run like a current through his system. She was laying everything out there. She was being as open as she possibly could be and he was lying to her. He had to tell her what he was going to do; he couldn't let her find out from someone else. "I need to talk to you about something."

Blair furrowed her brow but nodded, she could sense a change in the atmosphere between them and felt suddenly cold. The happy buzz that had been flowing through her was abruptly chilled. "Yeah, but not tonight, okay?" She spoke, almost as though asking for a stay of execution. She knew something was different now but she wasn't sure what.

Chuck nodded, frowning at the strangeness he felt coming from Blair. Her voice was different even, like she already knew what he was going to tell her. "Okay." He said the slightest hint of concern in his voice.

"Tomorrow, diner food at our old secret spot?" Blair suggested, taking another step back from him.

Chuck smiled to himself. There was a diner in midtown that he'd taken her after her dad left when they were in high school. Somewhere neither of them would have been caught dead. Yet somehow it had become one of their places and he didn't want to tarnish that with the things he had to tell her. "Why don't you just come over to the New Yorker around 11? I have tomorrow off but I'll probably need to get some work done anyway."

"That works." Blair spoke quietly, swallowing tightly as she did.

"This is not going to end well for someone." Serena spoke watching the back and forth going on, imagine the conversation even though she couldn't hear it.

Dan exhaled. "No it isn't. In fact this has the potential to end poorly for everyone involved. The two of them are playing a dangerous game and if they don't quit soon then we might all end up getting burned."

"Blair's going to keep fighting." Serena responded, knowing that after their conversation earlier Blair had only emerged with renewed conviction.

"And Chuck will keep resisting." Dan added, shaking his head.

Nate inhaled before speaking, his voice low. "Until he thinks he's going to lose her."

"What do you mean?" Dan asked curiously.

Looking down at his glass Nate frowned. This was exactly what he was hoping wouldn't happen. "I mean Chuck is letting her in again whether he wants to admit it or not. He may think he can just be friends with Blair, but right now her attention isn't being contested. And if he lets her back in, in any capacity and then starts to lose her again, his reaction then will be what is really telling."

Dan squeezed his eyes shut, getting a headache just thinking about the mess that this was turning into. "I can't say you're wrong. If you think back through all of their fights – Chuck has always been one to realize what he had once it was gone."

Swallowing Nate nodded. "We won't know for sure how all of this is going to go down until Chuck thinks that Blair might be giving up on them again. And then we'll know one way or the other if he's over her."

Serena's eyes widened in surprise. "Nate, are you actually scheming?"

Nate shook his head quickly. "No, I don't want any part in any of this. I'm staying as far out of it as possible. Yeah Blair's my friend, but so is Gwen and this is all really unfair to her. In the end I just want Chuck to end up happy with whomever it is that's going to make that happen. And all that will happen as it happens."

Dan lifted his brown questioningly. "Is it wrong to hurry up the process to find out how it all shakes out and move past this drama?"

Serena shook her head. "No, but we shouldn't. Time is good here. The more time Blair has, the better. She has to prove that she's not going anywhere no matter what he throws at her and time is the only thing on her side where that's concerned. She has to show that time won't change what she wants. If we were to mess with things, throw Austin into the mix. Blair pulling away would just prove to Chuck that he was right about her all along."

"No more scheming - things never go well there when it's just the three of us. A real scheme needs either Chuck, Blair, or Jenny."

Dan laughed slightly to himself. "It's Chuck and Blair. Haven't we always been overly invested?"

Serena looked at the couple for the first time in a few minutes and saw them both frowning, far from the charming exchange that had been happening earlier. "I think it's time for us to go." She said gesturing with her forehead.

Both of the boys followed her gaze and nodded, Serena turned to give Dan a quick hug and Nate a kiss on the lips. "I'll probably stay with Blair tonight. See you tomorrow for breakfast?" She asked with a quick squeeze at the end of their kiss.

"Of course." Nate nodded before hanging back and letting Serena go pull Blair away. Turning back towards Dan he ran a hand through his hair before shaking his head. "What's he doing man?"

Dan exhaled. "I think he'd tell us if he had a damn clue himself." Dan replied as Chuck turned to face them, no hint of the earlier happiness they'd seen earlier on his face. No that was a man that looked damn miserable.

Chuck could feel the heavy pounding of his heart as Blair walked out with Serena and he couldn't help but think that he'd never felt so completely off balance in his entire life. Nothing about this felt right anymore but he had no clue how to fix it. Turning towards his friends by the bar, he saw the looks on their faces and knew that they knew it too. He had no idea what he was doing and neither did they.

Reviews are of course appreciated. Not to tease but the next chapter is...a pretty major chapter. Hint: I wrote most of it as a oneshot that somehow turned into this fanfic.

'Til then lovers :)

xoxo
Kate