Chapter 4

After dismissing her minions for the afternoon, Blair begins her walk home quickly to prepare for tonight. Now, not only does she have to get everything ready at the hotel room, she also has to prepare for this sit down with Serena.

Blair rolled her eyes at the latter upon realizing that she was being followed. She looked over her right shoulder and smiles at what she sees; stopping in her tracks as she turns towards the limo, "Stalk me much, Bass?"

Chuck smirks at her wit and calls out from the inside, "I read the Gossip girl blast and thought that you had need of me in regards to your next move." He motions her into the car as he opens the door and slides over, not doubting that she would join him.

Blair thinks on it briefly before nodding to herself that she DID in fact need someone to bounce ideas off of and, since he was the only one other than Serena and Nate that knew what was going on, Chuck was her only option. She gracefully slid into the limo, shutting the door behind her.

Chuck decides to get the ball rolling to allow her to prepare her thoughts with, "So, I gave Nathaniel a ride to school today, to figure out where his head is at."

Blair nods as she looks at him, "And?"

"He wasn't at home at first. He claims that he was out running an errand for his mother, which was a lie. I think that he went to go see Serena," Chuck explained softly as he pours himself a glass of scotch from the mini bar.

"And why do you think that?" Blair frowned, feeling her irritation grow if what Chuck said was true.

"Mostly just a feeling. That and the question of why would he need to lie to me, his best friend of all people, about where he was this morning. I proceeded to steer the conversation to Serena to see if he would confide in me officially, and he, of course, played the role of devoted boyfriend," He takes a sip from his glass.

"So why do you think Serena wants to meet with you?"

Blair released a sigh and looked ahead before answering, "Who knows? Hopefully she finally got the point I made on the steps today and will try to make amends. Was it just me or did she look a bit…guilty at the party last night?" She turns her head back to Chuck, honestly wanting his opinion.

"You think she feels remorse for what she did?" Chuck asks as he contemplates it. "It would be the most opportune time for her to confess, to have a clean slate," he takes another sip of his scotch.

"True. But she also would run the risk of alienating me from her.," Blair motions for Chuck to follow her up as she steps out of the limo when it stops outside of her building. The two are quiet as they make their way up the elevator, not wanting to be overheard. When the doors open at Blair's penthouse, they make their way up to Blair's room. Chuck taking a seat on Blair's bed and Blair heading into her walk-in closet to get out of her uniform.

"At the rate it's going with both of them, one of them is going to tell you sometime soon. The question is: who's going to do it?" Chuck states as he waits for her to come out.

Blair frowns as she responds, "Why do you think either one would? Especially Nate, since he's had about a year to do it?" She slips out of her skirt tosses it into her hamper for Dorota to clean along with her blouse. She finds a cute, striped skirt that sits just above her knees and pairs it with a black turtleneck sweater. She slides on her black stockings before grabbing her stiletto Jimmy Choos as she leaves closet, being sure to take off her yellow headband and exchange it for a red one as she goes and sits at her vanity.

"Because I know Nathaniel, and with your determination to give him your virtue," he smirks before continuing, "He will feel guilty and mess it up with a confession of his sins."

Blair pauses as she messes with her hair and looks at him through the mirror. "No, he wouldn't do that to me. He's kept quiet this long; I don't believe that he would ruin something this important to me to be that selfish."

"He will, especially if I'm right and he went to go see Serena this morning," Chuck stands up from the bed, sauntering towards her until he's standing right behind her. His eyes find hers in the mirror "As I said in the car, she would most likely tell you tonight at the sit down if she's even going to do that."

Blair breaks eye contact, upset at the doom that seems to be awaiting her tonight when only at lunch she thought that it was going to be perfect. "I guess…it depends on who tells me first, but I honestly don't think Nate would wait until now to finally tell me…unless he still has feelings for her." She says softly before looking back up at him through her mirror, not liking that thought at all.

Chuck nods, not liking how obviously upset Blair is and decides to fix it. He rests his chin on the crown of her head and gives her his signature smirk as he lifts up one of her hands and kisses the back of it. "Or you could ditch them both; I'm sure that we could find something to…entertain ourselves with."

"You're such a Basshole. And a perve."Blair scoffs and takes her hand back with a small smile.

"You know it's one of the many reasons why you adore me," he continues to smirk as he places a soft kiss on her cheek.

"I plead the fifth," she looks away coyly, feeling her self-confidence grow at the light banter and flirting. She begins to apply her make up as she speaks, "Now, back to the matter at hand."

Chuck stands up straight with a nod in agreement, "If Serena tells you tonight, I think you should take this as an opportunity to ex-communicate completely, that is if that's still what you want."

"I think I'll play it by ear, it depends on her explanation on what happened, but I'm not completely throwing out ex-communication yet. And if she doesn't tell me?" Blair asks as she puts on her eye shadow, liking the plan for the first option.

Chuck shrugs lightly, "We'll figure something out later; right now it's probably best to prepare for the worst case scenario."

"Sounds good to me, can't beat good old fashion blackmail at a time of secrets and lies, if necessary. Besides, her not telling me would also make her a liar. And if Nate tells me?" She pauses as she thinks out loud, "I don't want to break up with him. I would still like to try to move forward from it."

Chuck just sighs at her declaration of not wanting to break up with Nate, having had this argument with her before, "Playing the understanding girlfriend of a cheater does have its perks. You would be able to secure that he doesn't speak to her again, but it would have to be something he offers up."

Blair nods as she swipes her deep, red lipstick on to her lips, feeling that she'll need the red color to boost her feeling of power, "So the plan is set, and hopefully all goes well."

Chuck nods as well as he prepares to leave her to her prepping, "Keep me posted?"

"Of course," Blair responds as she gives herself the once over, picking up her anchor pendant necklace to go with her outfit, "What are you up to tonight, anyway?"

"The usual, I do have a reputation to uphold," He smirks at her as he takes his leave of her bedroom.

Blair continues to sit at her vanity, praying that the truth doesn't come out tonight. That she could have this perfect night with Nate and she can pretend with the rest of the world, with the exception of Chuck Bass, that her life was indeed perfect.

xoxo

Blair took a deep breath as she walked into the bar located just off the lobby of the Palace hotel, briefly glancing at her Cartier watch to check the time, pleased that she was five minutes late to her meeting with Serena. She takes a moment to take in the ambiance and the music floating through the air. It's times like this that she loved her life.

Deciding to take a few minutes before heading in to look for Serena, she begins to check over her appearance. "Just because she called this meeting doesn't mean that she's in charge of the situation. I'll hear what she has to say and then I'll leave." She thought to herself as she gives herself one last look over, using the mirror on the nearby wall.

She paused for a moment and took a look around before spotting Serena at the bar waiting for her. Taking her time, she made her way over to Serena, taking the bar stool beside her as she orders herself a gin martini with extra olives.

She was surprised that Serena didn't already have a drink in front of her, "Maybe she has changed since she was last in New York," she thought silently, eating one of her olives, as she waits for Serena to start the conversation, after all she was the one who asked her here.

"So, how's your mom doing with the divorce and everything?" She asked to start off.

Blair continued to chew a bit surprised that Serena decided that her mother's divorce was the first thing that Serena wanted to talk about, but she responded aloofly with a nod, "Great."

Serena smiled at her as Blair pursed her lips in thought as she continues, "So my dad left her for another man," she shrugged, "she lost 15 pounds and got an eyelift. It's been good for her," never breaking eye contact with Serena as she took a sip from her glass nonchalantly.

"I'm really sorry," Serena apologizes obviously getting that if she would have been there she wouldn't have needed to have asked such a question.

Feeling her irritation grow over this particular subject, Blair replied after swallowing her drink and setting the glass down, being sure that she kept her voice down, refusing to make a scene, "Yeah I could tell. Since you didn't call or write the entire time it was happening."

"No, I-I know. I was just…boarding school-" Serena releases a forced and light laugh as she gives her half-assed excuse for why she left Blair in her time of need.

Blair decided to focus on the topic of why she left, purposely acting as if she didn't know what happened just before Serena left the city, "I don't even know why you went to boarding school to begin with." Giving Serena a look of confusion and a shake of her head she continued, "Do you know how it felt? Calling your house when you didn't show up at school and your mom says "Serena didn't tell you? That she moved to Connecticut?"

"I just," Serena hesitated as she looked down at the bar before looking back at Blair, "I had to go, I ju-." Blair listened and watched carefully mentally thinking that maybe Serena would tell her what happened between her and Nate, but as Serena continued on she realized that she wasn't going to confess anything and that made Blair feel a bit sad.

"I needed to get away from everything. Please, just trust me," Serena pleaded to Blair.

"How can I trust you? When I feel like I don't even know you?" Blair asked, for the first time being truthful about her thoughts.

"Let's fix that!" Serena replied eagerly, "I saw you at school with Kati and Iz and I get it. I don't want to take that away from you."

Blair felt her anger flare up again at the insinuation that Serena just made, "Because it's just yours to take if you want it."

"No, that's not what I mean," Serena protested. Blair raised her eyebrows at her as if to say then what did you mean? Serena decided to start again, "I've missed you. I just want things to go back to the way they used to be, you know? Like walking to school together, dancing on tables at Bungalow, midnight swimming at your mom's country house?" Serena asked with a smile at all their shared memories.

Blair, despite her best efforts, felt her sadness return and ate her last olive from her drink at Serena's words. Admitting to herself silently that she did miss that stuff with her too. And since Serena, obviously, wasn't going to tell her what happened that caused her to leave in the first place, Blair decided to just bury it in the back of her mind and just pretend that it didn't.

Only the four of them knew what happened and as far as Serena and Nate went, they thought she was ignorant of it, so she could easily continue on as if she had no knowledge. The only thing with that thought was that she would now have to continue to watch Serena very carefully in regards to Nate.

"B, you're like my sister. And with our families, we need each other," Serena finishes.

Storing away all her reservations about this friendship for later, Blair responds with a bit of a smile as she decides to at least see if she could do this, "Well, you've missed some classic Eleanor Waldorf meltdowns. If it wasn't such a tragedy, it would have been funny." Blair smirks before whispering, "Actually it kind of was."

Serena shares a laugh with Blair, the tension in the air dissipating as most of the problems between the two friends flew away. "I should have been there," Serena says softly, he voice littered with regret, as she takes Blair's hand in her own.

"Well, you are now," Blair smiles at her with a nod, mentally deciding that she could do this. She could continue on with her life as if nothing had happened between Serena and Nate, and still have her best friend and her perfect boyfriend. As long as no one spoke of it she could continue on as if everything was fine.

Blair takes a glance at her watch and notices the time before saying, "I have to go and meet Nate. Kind of have something special planned." She smiles excitedly as she deemed this chapter in her life officially closed.

"Well I don't want to keep you, but…" Serena pulls Blair into a hug that, after a second of hesitation, Blair returns. "I love you, B."

"I love you too, S," Blair responds with a genuine smile before taking her leave. Slowly slipping on her coat at the end of the bar as she goes over and over the conversation she just had with her best friend. Feeling sad, angry, and most of all resigned that she could never trust Serena as much as she once did before with the secret still out there, but she would just let it go.

Blair glances over her shoulder at Serena once more, just in time to catch her finishing off Blair's drink in one gulp. Maybe she DOES feel guilt for what she did before she left, Blair thought silently as she took out her cell phone to send a quick text to Chuck as she heads out of the bar to go to the Plaza for her night with Nate.

She didn't tell me, but I'm ready to move on. She seems guilty enough and if anyone I would say that she would be the one to say something compared to N. –B.W.

She didn't have to wait long for a reply as she slipped into the cab. Opening her phone to look at what Chuck said.

If that's your wish. You know I'm here for you if it becomes too much. ;) –C.B.

Blair sighs softly as she leans her head back against the back of the seat and nods. She knows that he will always be there for her. He was the only one that she could fully trust, without fearing a betrayal and he had fully earned it that day when he came by her place and saw her on her bathroom floor.

Shaking her head firmly, not wanting to go back to that dark place, Blair instead focused on what was going to happen tonight and smiled happily. Everything was going to be perfect.

Spotted at the Palace Hotel: S and B having a heart to heart. Hmm, why so thirsty, S? You may have won over B, for now, but we still think you're hiding something.

xoxo

Gossip Girl

xoxo

After sending his response to Blair, Chuck heard a knock on his door. Mentally going over his agenda for the day, he doesn't recall inviting anyone and decides to go see who it could possibly be. After checking through the peephole, he pauses before opening the door with a flourish and a smirk, "Nathaniel! To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?"

Nathaniel walks in with a soft smile and a nod, "Hey Chuck, I need to talk to you about something. You busy?"

Chuck shuts the door behind him before making his way to the bar to take out his stash, "For you Nathaniel, I'm always available. And you look like you need something to help you relax a little bit." He motions for Nate to take a seat on the couch as he starts to prepare the joint; having an idea of what Nate came to talk about with him, and knowing that Nate would get to the point in his own time.

After fifteen minutes had passed where they basically just passed the joint back and forth, Nate finally got to it, "I'm supposed to be meeting Blair at the Plaza in thirty minutes…I think that she and I are going to go to the next level."

Chuck grins, "And yet you don't sound happy about it. Nathaniel, you two have been dating since kindergarten, you're finally going to have sex with your girlfriend and you sound as if you're going to your execution."

Nate smiles a little, "No man, I'm good. I just-, " He hesitates.

"What? Is there suddenly a problem that I'm not aware of?" Chuck asks, knowing full well what it was. Nate's guilty conscience was rearing its head.

"There is no problem," Nate reassures, not sure if he was reassuring Chuck or himself. "I don't know. It just...Do you ever feel like our whole lives are planned out for us? That we're just gonna-," He pauses before voicing his deepest fear, "End up like our parents?"

Chuck looks down at the joint in his hand, fearing that maybe that is what was going to happen to them. He quickly shakes the thought away and tries to lighten the mood a bit, "Man that is a dark thought." He chuckles as he takes a hit.

"Aren't we entitled to choose, to be happy?" Nate continues now that he has started down the road, unable, and almost unwilling, to stop.

Chuck interrupts, "Easy Socrates. What we're entitled to is a trust fund, maybe a house in the Hamptons, and a prescription drug problem. Happiness," He pauses and shakes his head a little before continuing, "Does not seem to be on the menu, so…" He passes the joint to Nate, "Have a hit and go have sex with your girlfriend because, as of today, you ARE entitled to that too."

Nate takes in Chuck's words and nods as he takes a hit, not saying anything more on the subject of his fears of the future. His thoughts though, continued to go around in circles about it. Maybe there was a way that he could make his own choice for once, He thought, or maybe have the choice made for me to set me free.

Nate checked his watch and realized that he needed to go, "Thanks for the talk man." He stands up after putting out the joint, "I know what I'm going to do now."

Chuck had a feeling he knew what Nate was going to do, but hoped that maybe just this once he was misreading Nate. Surely, he wouldn't ruin this night with Blair by telling her the truth. After knowing how important it was to her, but then again, maybe that's what he was hoping for. Nate was always too obedient for his own good, he always did what was expected of him; he'll tell her the truth in order that she'd be the one to set him free instead of just doing it himself.

In theory, it sounds like a great plan, but he runs the risk of her not doing what he expects her to do and simply holds onto him tighter. That's the thing about Nate, he never thinks things through and look at all the angles. Especially when it came to Blair, him choosing to tell her tonight but not following through with breaking up will lead her to believe that there was still hope for them.

Chuck polishes off his scotch from earlier and stands up before responding with a grin, "I'll walk you down, there's someone waiting at the bar with my name all over her." I think it's about time that I have a little talk with Serena. If it goes down the way I think it will tonight, it's always good to have a few aces up my sleeve for later. Chuck thought as he pats Nate's back in friendship.

Nate shakes his head, not at all surprised, "I don't know how you do it man." He states as the leave the suite and heads to the elevators.

"I'm Chuck Bass." Chuck smirks as the elevator door closes them inside.

xoxo

Blair checked her phone after receiving the text from Nate that he was on his way and proceeded to light all the candles she'd arranged carefully around the room. She felt nervous, but she felt that after tonight it'll be the beginning of a new chapter for her.

She went into the bathroom and ran the brush through her hair a few times, before touching up her lip gloss. She gave her outfit a once over and hoped that Nate liked what she chose. Sometimes when she put the most effort in her outfit choices are the ones that he doesn't notice at all, and tonight it is important that he thinks of her as beautiful.

Chuck's words of the potential prediction that Nate will tell her of his indiscretion, loomed over her head as she took her seat and crossed her legs, facing the door. Blair mentally shook her head as she thought no. He wouldn't do that to me; he loves me. He'll want this to be perfect for me.

She heard the lock on the door move and took a deep breath to prepare for when he first catches sight of her. Waiting with a smile as the love of her life walked into the room.

Her smile became more genuine when his first response to the sight of her was, "Wow."

Still feeling nervous, she stands up from her chair and speaks, "Hi."

"Hi," he says back, in the back of Blair's mind she noticed that he didn't seem happy, but she just mentally brushed it off hoping that it was just nerves.

She slowly makes her way over to him, motioning to the room as she asks, "Is it too much? I wanted it to be special." She feels her excitement grow as she finally feels like it was going to happen tonight.

She reaches forward and hooks her index finger under his chin and pulls him to her as she kisses his lips. Their lips barely brush against each other's before he's already turning his head away from her, but Blair was determined and simply turned his head back to her and kissed his lips again.

It's when he pulls away from her again that she finally notices that he's not as into this as she was; she frowns and leans back from him as she asks, "What's wrong?"

He looked Blair in the eye as she ran her fingers along his jaw and began to speak, "Look, I don't know how to say this…or even if it's the right thing to do…"

Blair felt herself stiffen at his words, mentally begging him to stop. To not do this to her, don't ruin this dream she's had of them finally being together.

He continues on, "But um…there's something I need to tell you." He leads her over to the bench in front of the king size bed and has her take a seat beside him.

As Blair took her place she finally realized that Nate was in fact going to tell her what happened last year, and she felt pain and anger that he would be that selfish and ruin this night to clear his conscience.

As he delved more and more into what had happened, Blair felt herself feeling nauseous: Serena dancing on top of the bar with a bottle of Champaign in her hands with Nate trying to get her down, the bottle accidentally opening and spraying them both, him pulling her down onto his lap as he sat on the bar stool and their first kiss.

Blair felt the first tear slide down her cheek as he told the tale, hearing all of this for the first time. Chuck was actually gentlemanly enough to spare her the details. He was kind enough to just say what happened that day and not give the mental visual of what lead up to it. Nate wasn't so kind; who knows, maybe he thought he was.

When he paused in his story, Blair hoped that he was just going to confess to some of it; that she would still be able to pretend that it was something as minor as a kiss so she asked him, giving him the opportunity to just end her pain, "But, that was it, right? You guys…kissed."

When he didn't respond and all he did was look away from her. She felt her heart break as he continued on with the story, dashing all of her hopes and denials with every word he spoke. She stood up as she felt more tears gather in her eyes, the words from her conversation with Chuck in her bedroom roared in her ears, her theory on why he would tell her now after a year of silence. She turns to looks at Nate.

He gets up after he finishes and he even has the nerve to try to touch her. Blair couldn't bare it and simply pushed him away from her as she screamed, "I knew it! I always knew there was something! Get out!"

As Nate shut the door behind him all she could do was just let herself fall back down onto the bench they both sat on together and let herself cry, covering her face in shame at her stupidity. How could she have thought that today was ever going to go perfect? If Serena wasn't going to ruin it then of course it would have been Nate!

Now she didn't even have the luxury of just forgetting that she knew and let life go on as it was. Now she had to accept and react to what happened when in reality all she wanted to do was to pretend. Why couldn't he have let her just pretend? Blair began to feel powerless and out of control and she didn't like it one bit.

She quickly grabbed her phone from her purse, tears streaming down her face, and texted the person that said to always call when she felt like this. Hopefully they were paying attention to their phone and would respond because the last thing Blair Waldorf needed right this second was a relapse.

A/N: Who do you think she's texting? ;) I decided that this was a good stopping point, but the good news is that even though school starts for me this week I have a good chunk of chapter 5 already written! I hope that you guys like the chapter and are able to understand our Blair a bit on her reasons and I hope I successfully showed a bit more of the Blair and Chuck relationship at this point. Please send your thoughts! I love the response of this story so far and since it is my first fanfic ever you can imagine how nerve-racking it is to put yourself out there like this and I just want to say thank you for being so positive and sweet.

I'd like to send a thank you to my new followers, Coincidentally Cute, HayleyBailey, T-Rex93, and midnight-angles. And all who have put this story as their favorite lists and who have sent me reviews, I love them like I love beverages other than water lol (seriously I spend the bulk of my grocery money on buying beverages than spending it on actual food!)

You should also know that I have slightly stalker tendencies (I like to click on the names of my followers and see if they write stuff that I've read before or I'd like to read, and in a lot of cases what they favorite) I have found so many intriguing fanfiction stories to read thanks to you all! So I've decided to add on some recommendations that I personally have read in basically one setting because they are that good:

"The Era of Blair Waldorf" by Janice93. It's about the NJBC during their freshman year of high school, when Blair rose through the social ranks to be queen and Chuck got his bad boy reputation.

"the Heir and the spare" by sleepvalentina which is a twilight fanfiction, so obviously I don't discriminate. lol if you love a prince misunderstoodward and bella with a bit more confidence and speaks her mind I would recommend for you to read this one.

Thank you all for your love and attention, as an only child I admit I need it in order to feel good about myself ;) I love you all and feel free to send me a review on your thoughts so far on this story, or even to give me recommendations I'm always on the lookout for my next read while I'm supposed to be "working" or "studying" or "paying attention in class" *scoffs* like that stuff's important! *shifty eyes*

Don't forget to check out my beta's, EveylnBass, story "Return Someday" which I happen to be betaing for. I have it on good authority that she'll be updating it soon :D

-Plei4fun