A/N: Hey guys! This update is coming a lot sooner than I expected, but that's good, right? Anyways, I hope you like what I've cooked up for you. I feel like the story is starting to really get moving now. Emotions are starting to take flight, I think.

Onward!

Polaroid

Kissing Carter was like… the first day of summer. Something you wait for all year. Something you cherish when it comes. Something you look back on fondly when time has passed and –

Carter pulled on her bottom lip gently as he broke the kiss, then pressed his forehead against hers. He tasted faintly of strawberries and cream, and for a moment Jenny wondered if he'd stolen her lip gloss once again, like he had on their third 'date'.

Carter stepped back, but only far enough that he could take her hand in his and press a kiss to the back of it. Jenny felt as though her smile was touching her ears and her cheeks, certainly flushed from the kiss if not the fact that there were hundreds of blank faces watching them, felt on fire after his touch. He grinned at her, and Jenny opened her mouth to say something – anything, really. But the words didn't come at once, and Blair beat her to the first word.

'What a surprise,' she said sternly, though not unfriendly to those unfamiliar with her, coming around to Jenny's side and turning to face a photographer that had pushed their way through the door. He was a photographer from the Post, as it turned out, and it seemed Blair had thought fast on her feet and ushered both herself and her husband into a smiling photograph. Manhattan would wake up to see Mr. and Mrs. Bass welcoming their old school friend back to their city with open arms.

Jenny drew her lips into a thin line as she looked between Carter, who was so at ease in front of the camera it was as though he'd never left the Upper East Side, and Blair, whose teeth Jenny could almost hear grinding together beneath her beautiful smile. Chuck looked as Carter did, completely calm despite events that Jenny knew would leave him feeling very much the opposite. The photographer lowered his lens and began digging for a notepad for a quick quote, it appeared. Blair didn't object; in fact, she looked perfectly fine with it. Unusual, Jenny thought, frowning for just a moment, before Carter's arm slipped around her waist and took her attention away.

'Miss Humphrey,' the photographer began. Jenny looked quickly over her shoulder. She saw Dan and Serena talking quietly; Serena had a black envelope in her hands. Rufus and Lisa weren't too far away either. Nate was nowhere in sight, she noticed last. Carter squeezed her hip gently. Jenny turned into him.

'Miss Humphrey, where does your relationship with Mr. Baizen leave your relationship with Nathaniel Archibald?'

She felt Carter freeze beside her. Jenny's mouth curved into an O. Chuck clapped Carter on the shoulder then and moved off, taking his wife's hand as they moved away. Blair threw Carter a devilish grin over her shoulder that Jenny herself read as: prepare yourself. Jenny ground her teeth together.

'Mr. Archibald is here tonight, isn't he?' the photographer prodded.

Carter's hand felt heavy on Jenny's hip when he cleared his throat and stepped into the man holding the notepad.

'Look man, we're not interested in giving a quote. It's the lady's birthday. Why don't you run on home?'

He didn't.

'Is one or the other relationship an affair, Miss Humphrey?'

'Alright,' Carter's arm slipped from Jenny's waist and he moved closer to the man. He spoke in hushed tones, but Jenny was still reeling from his first question. Nate had disappeared. Where did this leave their relationship? If anyone hated Carter, it was Nate, and if anyone loved Jenny, then it was –

'Thanks.'

Carter clapped the photographer on his shoulder and he finally moved off, disappearing through the front doors as numerous other journalists attempted to get a shot through the glass. Some heavy curtains were pulled then, Jenny suspected at Chuck's design, and the camera flashes were shadowed out of sight. Carter returned to Jenny's side. She took a deep breath and looked up into his face. She smiled.

'You and Archibald?'

Her smile fell, and he failed to offer one in return either. Jenny swallowed.

'It's nothing. A silly story someone fed to the press because they were bored.'

Carter didn't look completely convinced.

'Nate's dating his assistant, Sage.' Jenny continued. She wasn't sure whom she was trying to convince with her story, not really. 'They're very happy. Nate and I are just friends.'

Carter nodded. Slowly, a smile spread back onto his face.

'It's really good to see you,' Jenny confessed.

Whatever concern had been on his mind before that was gone in a moment, and Carter moved in again. The kiss this time was gentler, just a peck, and while it only lasted mere seconds, it was enough to calm Jenny right down. She found her centre again. Any thoughts of Nate disappearing on her were dulled.

'You're shaking,' Carter said, taking both her hands in his.

'I'm just surprised to see you.'

'Well I couldn't no-show my girl's birthday, could I?' he touched the side of her face, then kissed her temple. As he slipped his arm around her shoulders and they began walking, Jenny turned to look at him.

'Oh, I'm your girl?'

He smirked. 'What, you don't wanna be?'

Jenny didn't know what to say. She liked Carter. She liked being with him, liked how he made her feel and liked what they had in London. Now he was here, his arm around and walking with her like they were boyfriend and girlfriend and somehow, even though she knew it should feel perfectly right… it didn't.

Something felt… off.

'Jenny.'

Dan and Serena stepped into their path, wearing matching uncertain smiles as they regarded both Jenny and the man on her arm. Carter held his hand out to Dan, who watched it for a moment as though it may bite, but then shook it after a prompt squeeze on the forearm from Serena. She smiled tightly at Carter too.

'Serena,' Carter chimed. He took her hand next, gently pressing it against his own. 'Congratulations both,' he remarked, noticing her engagement ring just then. 'When's the wedding?'

Jenny raised her eyebrows at Serena, who promptly avoided her future sister-in-law's gaze and shrugged as she pulled her hand back to her side.

'We only just got engaged man,' said Dan, resting his hand on Serena's far hip. 'Give us time.'

Carter smiled easily. 'Sorry, I was a little late. Invitation must have been lost in the mail.'

He winked at Jenny, who rolled her eyes at him but couldn't help but allow a smirk to touch her lips.

'So are you two –' Dan began.

'Together,' Carter informed him.

This appeared to prompt Serena suddenly, and she held out the black envelope that Jenny had noticed earlier on. Jenny took it, turning it over in her hands, and noticed the familiar handwriting in which her name had been scribed. She looked up at Serena, biting her lip.

'Where'd he go?' she asked quietly.

Serena only offered a look of uncertainty.

'He said he wanted to give that you himself,' Dan said, scratching the back of his neck. 'But that something came up at the office.'

Jenny narrowed her eyes at her brother. He always had been a terrible liar. Nevertheless, Jenny turned her eyes down to the envelope Nate had left for her. The way he'd etched her name in some gold pen so nicely on the back made her half-anxious to open it. She had no idea what kind of card to expect from him; a plain old 'happy birthday', a nice looking 'to a dear friend', or perhaps a hopeful 'someone special' instead. Carter fell into conversation with Serena about the evening so far, and as she told him about the proposal, Dan's eyes fell on Jenny while she opened the envelope.

There was no card inside.

There was a Polaroid candid.

Bright and wild dresses looked back at her from the picture, and Jenny's short blonde hair from all those years ago was unmistakable beneath the moniker of her short-lived design firm, started when she'd left Eleanor Waldorf designs and set out on her own.

Her guerilla fashion show.

She remembered it fondly, like it was only yesterday.

She remembered the way the lights had gone down and the music had kicked in, how the crowd had parted to make way for the models wearing her dresses, how they'd cheered and applauded her work and all the effort she put in. How happy she'd been.

How she'd found Nate in amongst it all smiling back at her.

How he made her heart soar.

How she'd kissed him with everything she and he'd kissed her back.

How she'd been so sure, all those years ago, that Nate Archibald was the boy she was going to end up with.

'You okay?' Dan asked her quietly, pulling her off to the side of the room.

Jenny blinked away the beginnings of tears.

'I'm good.' She swallowed. 'I'm fine.'

He didn't look convinced. Truthfully neither was she.

Nate had been dodging most of his calls for a couple of days. A new issue of the Spectator was due at the end of the week, and there was a series going up online in just a few hours. He had a lot to get on with; he didn't have time to deal with any personal dilemmas. He definitely didn't have time for any schemes Blair Waldorf Bass appeared to be cooking up on his behalf either. So when Sage buzzed through to let him know an old friend was waiting to see him, Nate had told her to give the message that he was in a meeting.

But Nate should have known that none of his friends would take that for an answer, and certainly not her. Blair didn't wait.

She sailed through the double doors to his office with grace, and when they closed behind her she set her purse down on the chair opposite his desk. Instead of taking a seat in the other one, she remained on her feet, hands entwined in front of her, a darling smile on her lips. Nate pursed his own.

'How can I help you?'

'It's more about how I can help you.'

Nate already didn't like where this was going.

'I really don't know what you're talking about.'

Blair retrieved a newspaper from her purse and set it down in front of him. Nate looked reluctantly over it; he'd seen it all before. Jenny and Baizen smiling at each other on the front page, under a headline that read about how happy they were and how they couldn't keep from gushing over one another. Nate looked up at Blair through hooded eyes. He was fed up of seeing Baizen's damn face everywhere already; he didn't need Blair showing it to him all over again.

Blair watched him through calculating eyes.

'I don't care.'

Nate pushed the paper aside and went back to the piece he was proofreading before he'd been rudely interrupted. Blair didn't seem perturbed by this one bit. She folded the newspaper neatly and put it back into her purse. Nate continued to ignore her, even when she tapped her heel on the hardwood floor, and more still when she cleared her throat.

Finally, Nate threw his pen down and looked up.

'Whoever Jenny wants to run around town with is none of my business. I don't care, even if it is Baizen.' Blair raised an eyebrow. Nate growled. 'I don't!'

She smirked.

'Clearly.'

Nate grit his teeth. His patience was wearing thin already. Aside from being up to his eyes in deadlines for the paper, journalists were on his tail for interviews and asking if the rumours that he had an interest in mayoral duties were true. Blair was still smirking.

'What do you want, Blair?'

'To help you.'

'And?'

'To help myself.'

Nate nodded emphatically. 'There it is.'

Blair finally took a seat opposite him.

'Jenny has yet to accept the position I offered her in my company.'

Nate shrugged. He assumed Jenny was too busy cavorting about with her boyfriend to give Blair an answer. Young love, Nate thought. How the idea bit at him.

'You've always been someone Jenny feels comfortable with. I want you to convince her to say yes.'

Nate scoffed.

'What makes you think she'll listen to me?'

He couldn't deny that he wanted Jenny to stick around. He just didn't want Baizen to stick with her. Nate turned his gaze back to Blair. Her eyes had taken on a softness that he saw rarely in his friend. She always kept herself steeled in public, though he supposed she was in the safety of his office now, and she was in the safest company too.

'She'll listen to you because it's you, Nate,' said Blair, and he wasn't quite prepared for what was coming next.

'And because whatever she's feeling right now for Carter? It will never be what she's always felt for you.'

They were finally back at the diner she'd taken him for his birthday, Jenny remembered as she took the seat opposite Nate in the window. Fresh from greeting her with a grin, Nate was looking down at the menu in front of him. Jenny thought they might chat a little before getting right down to food, but she was hungry too, so she couldn't blame him. She just expected a little… more from him.

Jenny retrieved the black envelope from her purse and set it down on the table between them. Nate's eyes shifted from the menu to the envelope, where his gaze remained focused until Jenny took the envelope back in her hands and he finally looked her in the eye.

'Thank you for the gift,' she said in a voice that felt so alien to her. So soft and fragile, sounding like she it had when he'd kissed for the first time in a week all that time ago and she could scarcely believe it.

Nate was staring at her, apparently deep in thought. Jenny guessed they were both back to thinking about that night.

'I found the picture a couple of years ago when Chuck and I were clearing out the Empire suite before I moved out.'

Jenny raised her eyebrows.

'You kept it all this time?'

Nate nodded.

'I never wanted to forget that night.'

Jenny felt her breath hook in her throat.

'Why?'

Nate shifted slightly, leaning a little closer.

'You know why.'

Jenny didn't know what to say. She knew what she wanted to say, but what she ought to say was something very different. Mercifully, the waitress arrived to take their order and by the time Nate had ordered a pair of Americano's, Jenny had managed to gather her thoughts and set them right. She put the Polaroid back into her purse.

'Carter and I are together,' she admitted.

Briefly, Nate's jaw clenched. If she didn't know him so well, Jenny wouldn't think anything was off. But she did know him, and she knew perfectly well that he wasn't happy with the news. She knew he hated Carter and that was why he wouldn't approve, but honestly she just hoped he'd be big enough to put it behind him for her sake. She didn't want to have to keep her boyfriend in a separate room to her friends.

Boyfriend.

Jenny tasted the word on her tongue. It was the first time she'd acknowledged him as that. It was different to them being 'together'. It was an official title. Boyfriend and girlfriend. Jenny swallowed. Nate was watching her once more.

'I know,' he said then.

Jenny bit her lip. The waitress arrived with their coffee soon after, and following a few tense sips of their drinks, both Jenny and Nate seemed to relax somewhat.

'Blair told me that you haven't accepted the position at Waldorf yet.'

Jenny shrugged, and Nate looked quizzically at her, prompting her to continue. She smiled.

'I'm really grateful. I want to say yes.'

Nate frowned.

'Is he telling you not to?'

'Nate!' she admonished him in a hiss, gently rapping his arm. 'Carter is not who he was in high school.'

'People don't change that easily.'

Jenny sighed, shaking her head. 'It's like déjà vu. I'm not having this conversation again, alright? Carter and I are together.'

'Great,' Nate bit back as her own tone changed somewhere in the exchange.

'I'm happy with him.'

'Fantastic.'

She wasn't sure why she felt the need to tell him so many times that she was Carter's girl. Maybe she wanted him to do something about it. Maybe she just wanted him to get it through his thick head.

'And the reason I haven't said yes to Blair yet is that I'm thinking long and hard about it. Moving back is a big commitment, and I don't know if I trust myself not to become someone I don't like if I come back here.'

Jenny could hear her own heartbeat in her ears. That was the first time she'd said it aloud. She wasn't afraid of the company, of Blair, of facing the world with Carter on her arm, or of how her relationship with Nate seemed to be on such shaky ground. She was afraid of herself, and the person she used to be. Nate was quiet for a long moment, and Jenny knew precisely why. She sniffed, grabbing her bag. When she stood up, he stood with her.

'Jenny –'

'People don't change that easily,' she echoed bitterly, tilting her head. 'Right?'

With that, she breezed passed him and didn't bother to look back. Only when he caught her arm as she hailed a cab did she force herself to look at him. She just didn't understand any of it. She didn't understand why she and Nate were so… broken. They were friends, and had been for years, and somewhere in between they'd been so much more than that but now they'd moved on. Surely they both had. Yet here they were, with emotions still running high. He still got under her skin in all the ways she wished he didn't. Even his fingers on her wrist felt like the sun on her skin on a miserable day.

'I'm sorry,' he said then, surprising her. 'I just want you to be happy, so if you tell me you are then I'll believe you. I just don't want you to miss an opportunity that you've worked for your whole life.'

Jenny grit her teeth to keep him from noticing her shivering. It wasn't a cold day; he'd know right away that wasn't why she couldn't seem to keep still.

'And that person that you don't want to be? That wasn't really you.' He released her wrist at last, and Jenny felt oddly cold without his touch.

'You know that,' he went on. 'I know that. The real you, the you that you are now, is sweet and kind and…' he appeared to think better of what he may have been gearing up to say. 'And you're a good friend. You deserve this job, Jenny.'

A cab pulled up before her.

'He's waiting for me,' she said. 'I should go.'

Nate opened the door for her. He crouched on the sidewalk as she sat in the backseat.

'For what it's worth, I think you'd make a great President.'

Jenny laughed.

'Only if it means you'll be my mayor.'

Nate grinned. 'Heard about that, huh?'

'News travels fast around here.'

He nodded.

'I'll see you later.'

With that, he closed the door on her. Jenny took a deep breath, then leaned forward to the driver. After giving the address for Carter's hotel, Jenny sat back in her seat, taking a deep breath. For now, she put all thoughts of Nate out of her mind. She needed to concentrate on herself, and on Carter.

And on the fact that he'd asked her to help him look for a place in the city.

He was staying, and so was she.

That was good.

Right?

Outers x