Here's the final chapter, I hope you enjoyed this story. Please leave me pretty reviews if you like it!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

The third night Blair called him, she wasn't drunk at all. In fact, she was completely sober.

Chuck was concerned about answering the phone at first. Just because he weaseled his way out of an uncomfortable morning after experience did not mean that Blair wouldn't give him hell over the phone.

"Waldorf" he greeted.

"Hey, is Serena with you again?" she asked.

Chuck was speechless. Was Blair really not going to mention the...activities they participated in the night before?

"Uh, yeah, she's crashing on my couch" Chuck told her.

"Oh" Blair said "Chuck...?"

"What?"

"Is she okay?"

Huh, perhaps this conversation really was all about Serena.

Chuck looked over at Serena from his place on his bed; she had passed out a few hours before due to an exhaustive day of being tortured by Whorgina.

"At the moment, yes. But other than that…I'm not too sure" he answered honestly.

"I'm worried about her, Chuck" she told him "I've been trying to talk to her, but she won't open up to me. Have you had any luck?"

"You know me B, I never have a problem getting a girl to open up for me" he smirked.

"Ha ha" she said dryly "So I'm assuming you know what's going on with her?"

"I do, but it's not my place to say."

"Since when?"

Chuck thought about this for a moment before responding.

"Since the last time I opened my mouth and lost my two best friends as a result" he told her.

"Oh. Right" she said.

"Yeah, and I'd prefer to not lose Serena too. Her and Eric are all I have left."

"So Nate still isn't…"

"No he's not. You?" he asked.

She didn't respond.

"Blair?"

"No" he heard her choke out. It was obvious she was crying.

"Blair…" he began, feeling his heart break in half.

"We really messed up, Chuck" she cried. "Why did everything fall apart?"

Chuck thought back to the night of the cotillion, where he had manipulated his best friend into accusing the wrong man of being with Blair. He had not meant to hurt her. He just wanted her to be with him—out in the open, not afraid of who did or didn't see them. He wanted her to not be ashamed of him. But she would not kiss him. She was ashamed. So she ended it. And she left him on the dance floor, crest-fallen and alone. Like he always was.

Chuck sighed as he fell back on his bed.

"Because I didn't want to be your dirty little secret anymore" he told her "And you didn't want the world to know you traded down the food-chain. An Archibald for a Bass" he said bitterly.

"That's not true" she whispered. "It was because I couldn't trust you."

"Why?" He did not even realize that he had whispered back.

"Because I didn't want to get hurt again!" she cried. "I trusted Nate with ever fiber of my being and he continuously hurt me over and over again. He slept with Serena, he tried confessing his love to her, then he pretended to get back together with me for his parents' sake. God, I let myself believe that he cared even when I point-blank asked him if he loved me…and he couldn't even lie. He just stood there like a moron. And I went back to him anyways. It was a miserable pain, but a pain I knew how to deal with" she said. "But you? Chuck, our entire friendship was based on deceit and manipulation of common enemies. You made me believe that you were this evil, nasty womanizer and then you turn around on my birthday, confessing your deep feelings for me…how am I supposed to react to that? Am I supposed to trust you? Because if I could trust a guy like Nate, and he can hurt me the way he did…what is a guy like you capable of? I can't imagine all the ways that you could cause me pain. You even gave me a taste of what you could have done to me the night at that fucking bar. That just proved my point even more" she said.

Chuck shot straight up on his bed.

"You wanted me to hurt you!" Chuck said, raising his voice. He glanced at Serena, but she was out cold.

"What?!"

"You were afraid of notion that I, Chuck Heartless Bass, could honestly give a damn about you, so you told me to make the feelings I had go away. So I did what I had to do to make you believe that I didn't care anymore. I said things that made me physically sick, but Blair, I never stopped caring. It took all the willpower I had to not run after you that night because I thought in the long run you were better off."

"Well clearly you were wrong" she sniffled.

"Is that so?" Chuck couldn't help the hope swelling in his heart.

"Yes! God, the only reason I went back to Nate that night was to make you jealous. When I left you on the dance floor, I waited for you to come find me. Despite what I said, I still wanted to forgive you. I waited, Chuck, but Nate found me first. I figured I could take a chance on you and risk getting hurt again, or I could go back to old unreliable and face the consequences of my actions. And we all know how well that turned out."

"Damn it Blair, why didn't you say something earlier?"

"Why didn't you?"

"We're…we're too alike Blair; too stubborn to realize our mistakes and too proud to admit when we're wrong."

"I miss you, Chuck."

"I miss you too, Blair."

"I just don't see how we can ever work out, after everything that's happened..."

Oh no, he wasn't going to let her do this after telling him she still cared about him. He wouldn't let her slip away. Not again.

"Blair, last night—"

"--Last night never happened" she snapped "Understand?"

"Like hell it didn't!"

"Chuck, please. Please don't. I can't...I…I have to go, I'm sorry" she said softly "Take care of Serena for me."

She sounded so broken, Chuck didn't want to upset her anymore. So he waved the white flag.

"I will."

"K, thanks" she sniffed "Bye."

"Goodnight Blair" he corrected her. He'd never let her say goodbye to him. Not ever.

"Goodnight Chuck."

And so that's how they left it. After that night they didn't speak again until Blair called him in the middle of the afternoon, completely frantic that she couldn't find Serena and needed his help. He may have made a jab at her drunk-dialing antics when he first answered the phone, but after that neither of them spoke about it again.

Fin.

xoxoxoxoxoxo

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