"So, I'm not in the same loop as you all," Elena said as Nate navigated his Range Rover through Manhattan traffic. "Explain this whole Dan Humphrey-Chuck Bass dynamic."

"We could fly from here to Tokyo and that wouldn't be long enough to explain," Nate sighed. The traffic suddenly stopped completely. A water main was gushing water in a dramatic and copious fashion. Nate rolled his eyes. "This will take a while," He grumbled. "So, what do you think you need to know?"

"The Humphrey-Bass dynamic." Elena repeated.

"Chuck hated Dan. When he was living, Dan hated Chuck even more. It was ugly," Nate said.

"The question is why," Elena said, voice sounding almost professional. Nate was impressed at her phrasing.

"Ah, I love you NYU kids," Nate shrugged. "Opposite background, opposite personalities, opposite values. It just seemed they were two different molds."

"And you in the middle?" Elena asked.

"Yeah," Nate nodded. "I met Chuck, God, as long ago as I can remember. He seemed normal. As normal as any of us on the Upper East Side could be. I was too dense to figure it out, but I guess he was already showing signs of being..." Nate struggled to find the term.

"Mean?" Elena volunteered.

"That's too easy," Nate smiled.

"Manipulative?"

"...Bingo," Nate responded, impressed. "We were all kids. We didn't know what was what. I suppose we thought once high school rolled along, he'd grow up."

"But I'm guessing it got worse?" Elena theorized with a half-hidden smirk.

"A lot. All I cared about in high school was getting laid and getting into a decent college," Nate shrugged, loosening his tie and unbuttoning his collar. He found himself smirking as he managed to remove his suit jacket. Even through the fabric of his dress shirt, Elena could visually trace Nate's muscles. She could have sworn he was flexing. "As I was saying, we all sort of grew up as high school went on. Chuck had some moments, but never anything real."

"What about college?"

"Chuck decided he didn't need it," Nate answered. "It cramped with his lifestyle. I guess he liked whatever it was he had going."

"No offense, Mr. Archibald, but-"

"Nate. Call me Nate."

"No offense, Nate," Elena said, "But why do I get the feeling you were always around his so-called lifestyle?"

"I was," Nate muttered. "Like I said, Elena. I was a kid. I didn't know that what I was a part of was so...disturbing."

"What made you notice it?" Elena inquired.

"Dan." Nate said simply.

"And we're back into boyfriend territory, I take it." Elena almost laughed.

"Well, Dan and I started hanging out in high school. And his life was just so different. Chuck was girls, booze and drugs to the extreme. Dan was Met's games, vampire movies, teaching me how to write a proper term paper. He was normalcy." Nate laughed into a pleasant sigh. Elena, normally snarky, was a little bit touched by how much Nate clearly cared for a man who was supposed to be his client. It was puppy love on steroids.

"And then?" She asked.

"Then came college. Dan at NYU, me at Columbia. And Chuck having his scary little orgies," Nate said, rubbing his eyes. "Once we all landed on a college campus, things mellowed out. I found myself drifting away from all the stuff I did in high school. I found better stuff."

"I'm guessing Chuck didn't like that?"

"Hardly," Nate groused. "I guess Chuck thought I was some peice of real estate he owned."

"Okay, there's that for background. How did Dan enter Chuck Bass's shitlist?" Elena inquired, more curious than she wanted to admit.

"Because Dan just didn't care," Nate said, a little proud. "He was from Brooklyn. An all A student. Smart, brave, stupidly stubborn. The one person Chuck Bass couldn't buy off or scare away. And Dan only got tougher as he got older."

"So it was a lame version of West Side Story?" Elena laughed, unable to help herself. She knew it was very serious, but it was contrived enough to make her laugh.

"Just about," Nate shrugged.

"So, who won?" Elena asked.

"Depends on who you ask," Nate shrugged. "The book Dan wrote, Inside, showed a lot of people all the ugly that lives in the Upper East Side. It put some dirty of their pristine smiles."

"But?"

"It didn't leave Dan with a lot of friends. Or protection. All of a sudden, he was out of the social group he had worked so hard to get in," Nate said, looking out his window. "It was scorched Earth. No one won."

"You stuck around." Elena casually pointed out.

"Well, duh," Nate laughed. "A book wasn't going to make me stop being his friend. It was a book."

"Is that the only reason?" Elena slyly forwarded.

"Clever girl," Nate chuckled. "We'd had some, uh, sleepovers. Neither of us wanted to stop having them."

"Uh-huh," Elena laughed with a roll of her eyes, she looked down at her ink-filled notepad. "How does this sound? Stanford trained legal ace Nate Archibald has taken, for free, the case of one Daniel Humphrey, the man charged with sending Chuck Bass on a oneway roller coaster ride. Out of his own hotel, no less."

Nate, smile in place, glared at her. "You're terrible." He laughed.

"What part of it isn't true?" She asked with a wink.

"That's not the point," Nate laughed. "And leave out the boyfriend thing for now."

"But that's my hook!" Elena blurted out with laughter.

The traffic finally cleared up and they were able to move forward. Their small talk continued until they arrived. Elena, who normally worked out of a nice but rustic building, was in awe of towering glass and steel skyscraper. For a split second, she wondered if Nate owned the whole building. She followed him inside and marveled and the pointlessly ornate lobby. The marble fountain with crystal blue water just smelled of Vanderbilt. Almost feeling lost, she was glad the always playful Nate was guiding through the swarms of well-dressed professionals.

She almost tripped into the elevator, the heel of her boots getting caught slightly. Nate casually caught her with one arm. "How'd you do that?" She asked.

Nate just smiled. "I dated Serena van der Woodsen. It comes with the territory."

"You'll have to tell me about that some other time," Elena smirked. She was slightly shocked by how many buttons there were on the elevator. "75 floors?" She said outloud.

"75th is a restaurant, 74th is an observation deck, and the 73rd is-"

"Your office?" Elena asked, grinning.

"Now you're catching on," Nate said as he pressed the button marked 73. The elevator moved quicker than expected.

"How do you stay so tan?" Elena asked, curious for several reasons.

"Tanning bed at home," Nate answered with a shrug, like everyone had one. The elevator chimed as it arrived at the second to top floor. Nate guided her to his office, letting his smirk do the bragging. The window views were breathtaking scenes of the Manhattan skyline. "You should see it at night," Nate said, taking a seat behind his desk, degress framed on the wall to his left. Along with various pictures.

"Is that you and Bonnie?" Elena asked.

Nate fake a shudder. "Yeah, we went to law school together. It was horrible."

"Uh-huh," She nodded, taking a seat. "So, what's the job, boss?"

Nate rolled his eyes. "Like I said, you need to find Blair Waldorf."

"So...why?" Elena inquired.

"Outside of Chuck and Dan, with Chuck being...dead, I have the ugly suspicion that Blair might know something." Nate sighed.

"Can't you just subpoena her to make her show up?"

"She'll hide," Nate nodded. "She's very good at that. Trust me."

"So, I'm supposed to find her? Blair Waldorf?"

"Yep," Nate grinned. "Why do you think I hired you? I remember how you tracked down Caroline Forbes, that supermodel."

"Thanks," Elena shrugged. "So, when do I get to meet Dan?"

"He's in hiding. And I don't blame him." Nate answered. "There's no doubt Blair is somewhere in the city. So...have fun." He encouraged cheerfully.

Elena rolled her eyes with a laugh. "Don't you Vanderbilt's have a fleet of private investigators to handle these things for you?"

"That's too obvious. So, I have you, Ms. Gilbert." Nate smirked.