I started to scream but Chuck was immediately tossed to the floor and a hand was covering my mouth. The entire thing happened so quickly I barely had time to react at all. I tried to grab Chuck's lifeless body but it was gone too fast and in it's place was Jack Bass.

A shiver of fear run up my spine and I was having trouble processing everything that was going on. All I did know was that Jack's hand was covering my mouth while his other one was crushing me into the bed and his whole body was covering me so completely I didn't have a prayer of escape.

That didn't mean I didn't try. I worked my mouth open under his bruising grip and bit his finger until I tasted blood.

He pulled his hand back only long enough to slap me. Catching me over my right cheekbone, it was hard enough to make it feel as if my eye were about to pop out of its socket.

" What do you want ?" I demanded as I blinked back tears.

He grabbed me tighter and yanked me off the bed and into his chest. " Oh, I have what I want." He glanced down at Chuck. " I'm betting that having you will get me whatever I want from the lovesick little bastard now."

" The police are looking for you. It's not like you can take over his company now." I tried to reason with him as he began to drag me towards the door.

His hand tightened on my arm, digging into my bicep and leaving bruises. " No, you managed to mess all that up for me." He ground out between clenched teeth. " But he still has money, lots of it and I'll need it to get away. So, that makes you still useful."

I grabbed anything I could snatch as he lifted my feet from the ground and tried to carry me out of the room. I was praying Chuck would wake up. I was pulling lamps over as we passed, digging my fingernails into the door frame, snatching at curtains, anything to make this harder on Jack, buy me more time. He still had one of his hands close enough to my mouth to cover it quickly if I decided to start screaming again. I realized that meant he was carrying me around with his other arm, one handed. The thought of how strong that meant he was caused a wave of panic to rise up in my throat. If he could carry me in one arm, he could surely crush me with it as well, or strangle me, or just plain break me in two, like a twig.

It was at that moment of sheer terror that I saw movement on the floor. I yelled out, wanting to hurry along the process of Chuck coming to. It worked and he jerked his head up and searched the room until he found us standing by the door.

" Put her down, Jack." He bellowed as he came to his feet slowly.

" No," Jack shook his head, his face was smiling as if he were enjoying playing with us. " I think I'll keep her for a while." Then his hand came up away from my throat and cupped my breast roughly. I cried out in both shock and pain. " She looks really tasty."

Chuck stepped forward, but Jack backed up with me just as swiftly.

" Are we going to dance all night ?" Chuck asked, his voice sounded suddenly so calm, so control. There wasn't a hint of panic in him, not a flicker of fear on his face.

I gulped at the implications.

" I think we can work something out here, Jack. I just need you to put her down and we can talk this out." Chuck reasoned with him.

Jack jerked me into him and his hand came back up to my throat, his long fingers wrapping around it threateningly. " I don't think I like your tone, Young Man." Jack spat as he tightened his grip and I gasped at the sudden pain and lack of breath. " I don't believe you are properly afraid of me."

Chuck held out his hands. " Oh, no that's not true. I'm plenty scared of you. But if you hurt her, I promise you that you will not get whatever it is that you want. And I also promise that you are not leaving this room with her."

I was squirming now, doing my best to try to keep up with the conversation but tiny black spots were filling my vision and I couldn't make my mind focus on anything besides the fact that I couldn't breathe.

" JACK !" I heard Chuck scream.

It felt as if time were slipping away from me. Things were happening without me. There was more yelling. Then I heard my name being shouted and Chuck yelling that he was sorry.

Then everything went completely black and nothing existed at all.

The first thing I did when I woke up was search the place beside me for the warm body that I was so accustomed to having there. When I didn't find it, I began to panic. Then I realized that I wasn't laying on a bed or even a couch. This felt much more like a floor.

I shifted, trying to assess the reasons for my respite in the middle of the rug in my room. That much I was sure of. I recognized the rug the moment I opened my eyes. But there was something strange about it, something spilled on it.

Dorota is going to have a fit, I thought as I tried to sit up.

There was a hand on my shoulder and suddenly voices were filling up my head. There was movement everywhere. But the thing I focused on was the familiarity of the hand on my shoulder. I sought out that voice above of all the others and when I found it, I narrowed in on it, turning stiffly until I could see his beautiful dark eyes staring down at me with such concern and worry.

"Are you alright ?" He was asking as he dragged me into his chest.

I nodded, not sure why talking seemed to be such an effort but it was so I nodded and buried my head in Chuck's warm shoulder.

" I'm so sorry, Blair. I had to do it." He was whispering.

I leaned back and regarded him with a quirked eyebrow, telling him that I had no idea what he was talking about.

Chuck didn't answer, instead he grabbed me up in his arms and lifted me off the floor. Before I had a chance to ask what was going on, he had me out the door.

I realized there was something hot and wet and very sticky running down my leg, down the side of my face, causing my hair to stick together in clumps.

What the hell was going on ? I managed a sort of half-assed attempt at conveying that sentiment to Chuck when he finally sat me down on one of the barstools in the kitchen.

His face was ashen and deeply lined. His eyes hooded and darker than I'd ever seen them. He looked as if he had been suffering from a long, drawn out illness that had taken its toil on him. So tired, so pale, so shaky.

I was instantly scared. Terrified over whatever had put that look on his face.

" I'm sorry. I didn't know what else to do. I thought he was going to kill you right there in front of me. I had to do it." He was repeating the same words over again that he'd first said to me.

The memory of Jack and everything that happened in the last hour suddenly hit me full force and my eyes darted around, searching out my assailant.

Chuck stilled me, pulling me into him in a tight embrace. " I shot him."

His voice was so low and quiet, so weak and unstable.

I blinked up at him questioningly. But he must have read my expression wrong because his face was all at once shame filled and remorseful. " I didn't want to shot him while he was holding you, but he wouldn't let you go. I wanted him to get away from you. I didn't want you to see any of that."

I put my fingers to his lips to quiet him and he stopped talking and looked at me.

" It's okay." I choked in a pain-filled hoarse voice. " You saved me."

I looked around the shambles of my penthouse apartment, hours later, in dismay and utter disgust. There was still blood everywhere, covering my room in a deep crimson coating that soaked into the carpet, destroyed my rug and looked as if someone had dropped a bucket of it all over my walls. The police had confiscated my dress, much to my mother's chagrin. Dorota, Serena and Vanessa had helped me remove the last traces of it from my body. Yet somehow, I still felt as if I were covered in it. Like it had somehow left a lasting imprint on my skin that would never truly go away.

That had been what Chuck was trying to avoid. That was why he had hesitated so long before taking the tiny, palm sized gun from some hidden place in his tuxedo and pulling the trigger.

He knew what would happen if he shot Jack so close to me. He knew it was a horror I would have to live with for the rest of my life. And he did everything he could to keep me away from it.

But in the end, he hadn't had a choice. The thing that struck me deepest about the whole thing was that he didn't seem to feel any remorse at all over ending a life. He was just sorry that I had, once again, been caught up in what he considered his drama.

It was typical Chuck reasoning. He had been alone in the world so long, he couldn't fathom the fact that his problems, his dramas were no longer just his own. I made a promise to myself to make a concentrated effort to adjust that way of thinking.

I'd managed to make the paramedics and police officers that were insisting I go to the hospital understand that I was fine. But looking in the fog covered mirror right after my shower, I wondered if I'd done the right thing. Deep, red and purple fingerprints decorated the normally pale, unmarred column of my neck. My throat was raw and so sore I could barely swallow and my voice, when I used it was hoarse and hardly more than a whisper.

But the last thing I wanted was to spend any more time in a hospital. All I could think of, at the moment, was how badly I wanted Chuck, how much I need to reassurance of his arms around me.

As if sensing my need, Serena nodded her head towards the doorway and I saw a flicker of movement as Dan, who had been lounging there, disappeared down the hall.

" Dan's gone to get him." She told me as she grabbed a comb and began to work it through the tangles of my hair.

" Do you need anything else ?" Vanessa asked from my other side.

I shook my head. All I needed was Chuck. I felt shell-shocked, numb. The world seemed to move around me at a speed I was unable to keep up with. So I stopped trying and instead just sat back and watched the things going on around me.

Serena continued to work on my hair. Vanessa was busying herself with picking up the bathroom. Dorota was hovering, never moving more than an inch or two from me. The look on her face said she may have failed twice in keeping me safe, but there would not be a third time.

Dan appeared in the doorway of the bathroom with a carefully guarded look on his face. " He's on his way back now. Cyrus is bringing him."

His voice was cryptic as if I were only hearing part of a conversation.

I glanced around at Serena and gave her a look demanding to know the entire story of what was going on.

I realized I hadn't seen Chuck in a few hours now and the last time I had it was in the company of two detectives.

" He's fine." She assured me.

" Where ?" I choked out.

She sighed defeatedly and put down the comb in order to take my hands. " Cyrus, Rufus and Nate have been with him the whole time. I think Eric even went along, too."

" Where ?" I repeated.

" He had to go down to the police station and give his statement and do a few other things." She answered finally.

" The police station ? Was he arrested ?" I asked, suddenly feeling more animated and in tune with the world around me.

She shook her head emphatically. " He's fine really. It was clearly self-defense. The police were just being thorough."

" What do you mean thorough ? What did they do to him ?" I demanded becoming more and more agitated by the minute.

" Well, they took his statement and did a gunpowder residue test on his hand and they -"

I cut her off as I jumped out of the chair. " Did they arrest him ? Has he been arrested for murder ?"

All eyes in the room fell to me and a quiet settled over the entire area. Finally, she took my hand and nodded solemnly.

" It's a high profile case. The police are just covering their bases." She tried to explain.

I stomped over to Dan and put my hands on my hips. " But you said he was on his way ?"

" Cyrus got him released into his custody. The bail was huge but Lily posted it. "

" How did I not know all this was going on ?" I asked the room in general.

" You were kind of out of it for a little while. The paramedics said they thought you were in shock But you refused to let them take you to the hospital."

I glimpse movement down the hall and a strange man was walking into my bedroom. " What the hell is going on around here ?" I asked for what I felt like was the hundredth time. The I glanced down and yanked the edges of my royal blue satin robe tighter around me suddenly feeling very naked. " And can someone please get me some clothes ?"

" We can't get into your bedroom." Vanessa answered when it appeared no one else was going to. " It's a crime scene. Those are CSI investigators. But Serena has something for you to wear in your mother's room." She took my shoulder and gently began easing me down the hall. " You go get changed and we can take you to Serena's. That's where you'll be staying for a little while."

My mother's room looked as if it were plucked from the disaster of the rest of the apartment and spared from it all. Nothing was out of place in the large, tastefully decorated room. I realized as I stood staring around me that Dorota had silently followed us into the room and stayed after Vanessa left.

I turned to look at her.

She offered me a tiny smile and it looked as if there might be tears brimming the edges of her eyes.

" I'm so sorry, Miss Blair." she told me. " I wasn't here to keep you safe again."

I shook my head and moved to hug her. " You have nothing to be sorry about."

" I couldn't stop the police from taking Mr. Chuck either. I tried though." She said into my hair.

A knock at the door pulled me out of her embrace and she turned to open it a crack.

" Is Blair okay ?" I heard Cyrus ask.

Dorota told him I was fine. They continued talking for a moment in hushed tones as I went to get dressed.

I was just adjusting the dress Serena had picked out for me and pulling my hair from the collar when the door burst opened and Dorota stepped aside.

A moment later I was surrounded by warmth and comfort and love as Chuck grabbed me to him.

His hand was buried in my still wet hair as his lips found mine. I sank into him, burrowing my body into his and letting his presence fill me up.

" I'm so glad you're okay. I was so worried and the imbecile police wouldn't move any faster so I could get back here to you. I thought for a minute they were going to keep me there until morning." He said all this as he rained kisses all over my face, quick, flickers of his lips darting against my skin.

" I'm fine." I told him. " Are you okay ? Serena said they arrested you."

" It's nothing." He shrugged off my worry. " Just a technicality. They said everything would be fine when the crime scene reports and autopsy come in and back up my story. And they need a statement from you."

" But the gun, where did you get a gun ?" I asked, trying to keep talking to him even though he was holding me almost too tightly to breath.

" It was my father's. I inherited it. I started carrying it the day after we got home. The thought that Jack was still out there, that he could get to you... I had to do something." He said, easing away slightly and looking down at me.

I rested my forehead against his chest and just drank in the feel of him for a few minutes. Then finally I looked up into his worried face and gave him a smile. " Can we just go somewhere with a bed ? I'm so tired."

" Absolutely." He agreed and took my hand to lead me away.

THE END