Sometimes, like right at the moment, Chuck was very thankful that he lived in a penthouse. It made storming out a tad inconvenient since you had to wait on the elevator to make your dramatic exit.

He hadn't heard the doors open yet, so he knew she was still standing there, fuming away and tapping her foot in front of its doors.

When he finally untangled himself from the two other women in his life, that was exactly how he found her.

He silently watched from the hall as she quickly batted at the wetness on her cheeks with the back of her hand at hearing his footsteps on the highly polished floor. Even barefoot, they resounded loudly.

" Please don't go." He said as he stepped to her.

" Leave me alone !" She ground out between her clenched teeth. " Haven't we already made enough of a scene ?"

He laid a tentative hand on her shoulder and she jerked away from him in response. " Blair, this is crazy."

She spun towards him so quickly it surprised him but the look in her eyes said another hurtful onslaught was imminent and he braced himself. Whatever she had to say to him, he deserved.

" What is crazy is that you are throwing all this away. You keep pushing me and pushing me. I can't be your therapist any longer. Whatever abandonment issues you have, you need to deal with on your own. I've done the best I could to help you, but I guess I've failed."

Whatever he was expecting her to say, it wasn't that. Yet he managed to keep the shock from his face.

"I don't have abandonment issues. This isn't about me. Its about you and your need to play the damsel in some movie. I can't play the part you've cast me in, Blair. You need to find a better actor to fit this role."

" A better actor ? So you're saying that all this time, all the time we've been together, you were just playing a part ? Pretending to want me, pretending to care ?" She choked out, fighting desperately to keep from sobbing again.

He yanked his hand threw his hair and watched as the elevator doors opened. " No, that isn't what I'm saying. I'm saying that its becoming apparent that I can't be who you expect me to be. I'm not boyfriend material. I'm sure as hell not husband material."

" Husband ?!" she shrieked. " Who said anything about you ever being a husband ? No, Chuck, you aren't going to make this about me. I had nothing to do with your decision to end this. This is all about your fear that someday, I will have enough of you and leave. Well, guess what ? You've done it. You've pushed as far as you could push, tested me until I'm broken. Congratulations, you have finally figured out what it would take to make me give up on you."

" And what was that ? What did I do to finally break you ?" He spat contemptuously.

" You couldn't trust me. After all the trust I've given you. Far more than you deserve. You couldn't just trust me when I said I wouldn't leave you."

Then she walked into the elevator and he watched, shell shocked, as the doors began to slide closed.

Her words rang through his mind and he realized she was absolutely right. That was exactly what was holding him back, keeping him from letting himself love her. Everyone left him. His mother, his father, everyone in his life he had ever given a damn about had abandoned him.

He raised his hand a split second before the doors closed completely and managed to slip his fingers inside to stop it at the last possible moment.

She huffed and stomped her tiny foot as the door slid open again.

When he stepped inside, he was silent under the doors closed completely this time and the metal box began to move.

He wanted to tell her she was absolutely right. He wanted to apologize to her and tell her exactly what she meant to him. But somehow the words just wouldn't come out. So he stood there like an idiot with his mouth opened and his hand shoved into his pocket, waiting for the right sounds to make their way to his lips.

For her part, she was standing as far from him as she could get in the tiny enclosure. Her eyes blazed brown fire at him. Her mouth twitched with the need to continue their attack on him. Her hands were planted on her hips and her perfectly sculpted eyebrows were raised expectantly.

Finally she couldn't take his silence any longer. " I assume you had something more to say to me."

" I...." He tried once again. And once again he failed. There was some sort of disconnection between his tongue and his brain. It just wasn't listening to his instructions anymore.

" You what ?" She persisted, not understanding, or perhaps finally not caring, what he was going through.

" I'm sorry. I don't want to end this." He managed, though how he had no idea, since his tongue had grown to the size of his fist suddenly.

She sighed and he glanced at her to see the cause. When he did, his stomach dropped to his toes at the look in her eyes. She looked tired, defeated and empty. All the anger seemed to sap away suddenly and what was left in her face was a nothingness that terrified him.

" It's too late for that now. You're right. I want more. I need more and I guess you really can't be what I need. I'm done. I'm just too tired to keep this up. I feel like I'm fighting against demons way too powerful for me to ever overcome." She admitted and the slump of her shoulders told the story of how much those words had cost her. " I'm just not strong enough to keep it up anymore. My stubbornness alone has been the only thing keeping me holding out this long."

He wanted to grab her. To shake her and make her understand that he didn't want to fight with her any longer either. But he was frozen.

It was that moment when the world went completely and utterly black and the floor beneath their feet jerked sending them into the walls with matching grunts falling from their lips.