AN: Thanks for your continuing support as always. The story is winding down, but I will hopefully have at least two more chapters after this one. Don't forget to review!

Chapter 8

Blair didn't make herself throw up, honestly, it just happened. No fingers down her throat were required this time around—public humiliation seemed to do the trick just fine. She didn't want this, to be on her knees in a custom made Dior dress holding back her own hair as she vomited in a public toilet at a Hampton's dance club.

She promised that after the Tuscany disaster, she would never make herself sick again. But it didn't take long for Blair to realize that even despite the best intentions, sometimes it was impossible to keep even the promises she made to herself.

With dignity checked out for the night, Blair rested her forehead on the public toilet seat and allowed herself to weep silently.

She had done this often enough that she remembered to grab a complementary small bottle of mouthwash kept by the sink on her way to the stall. Unscrewing the cap, she took in a mouthful and swished it around before spitting it into toilet and flushing it.

She heard the bathroom door open and hoped it wasn't Serena. Her best friend was far too beautiful to clean up after her emotionally train-wrecked self again—in fact, she was even oblivious to the relapses Blair had had this summer. But what Serena didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

"Blair" a raspy voice asked her quietly, breaking the deafening silence of the marble bathroom.

Blair squeezed her eyes shut as she heard the voice she tried so badly to hate utter her own name almost sacredly. She got up off the ground and sat down on the toilet, burying her face in her hands.

"Leave me alone, Chuck" she said—her voice shaking as she willed herself to be strong "You already got what you wanted. You completely humiliated me. Again."

"That's not what I wanted" he said quietly.

"Well you could have fooled me" she told him.

Chuck hoisted himself up so he was sitting on the sink across from the stall where she was hiding.

A short silence fell over them.

"Why did you tell James you were a virgin?" Chuck asked her.

Blair sighed.

"The first time we tried to hook up, I was determined to sleep with him in spite of you. But I ended up totally chickening out, so I told him I was scared because I never had sex before, when really I was just too hung up on you" she said "And he agreed to wait until I was ready."

"Plus" she added, "I thought that if James thought I was this delicate little flower, he would want me more. No man wants another's sloppy seconds. I found that out the hard way with you and Nate."

Chuck flinched.

"Blair, I would still want you even if you've been with hundreds of men" he said.

"Oh please" she scoffed.

"I would" he insisted "I'd just have to kill every man that ever touched you first."

"Or hire someone to do it for you" she added.

"Exactly" he said without missing a beat.

"Chuck Bass, you have the strangest concept of chivalry" she said, almost smiling "Speaking of which, how did you even know where I'd be tonight?"

"Gossip Girl sent a blast" he said "attached with a fairly incriminating picture of you all over tall, blonde and dumb as a door-knob."

At that, Blair really did laugh.

Chuck's heart fluttered at the tiny sound.

"Well good" she began "it's about time the world got a taste of the real Blair Waldorf."

"Oh? And who's that?" Chuck asked.

"You know, the girl who lets her heart get trampled on again and again by a self-absorbed Bass until she finally snaps, finds a fake-boyfriend and lies about her chastity— only to make a drunken spectacle of herself in public" Blair said somberly.

"That doesn't sound like too much fun" he said.

"Well, apparently I'm not meant to have fun, Chuck—you saw to that. And what are you even doing here anyways? You just got finished telling me you were done and then you show up here like a caveman, calling me 'your woman'."

"I think that's an exaggeration" Chuck began, smiling to himself.

"Please, you were 30 seconds away from beating your chest, throwing me over your shoulder and bringing me back to your cave to ravish me" Blair quipped.

"Now that scenario has serious potential…" he mused.

"Chuck" Blair scolded "you owe me an explanation. Now."

"I don't know…" he sighed "I saw the blast and something inside me just snapped. The sight of you in another man's arms does unseemly things to my decision-making skills as you very well know—it makes me do things I'm not particularly proud of" he said.

"Like blogging to Gossip Girl about our sex life and comparing me to your dad's sweaty old horse" Blair reminded him.

"And outing you to your fake boyfriend…who was fake, by the way, so I don't think that should really count" Chuck added.

"Well at least you are attempting to see the error of your ways. You know, admitting you have a problem is the first step" Blair told him.

Chuck was silent for a moment as a serious look fell over his features. He stood up and walked over to the stall that Blair was in, pressing his forehead against the door in an attempt to get closer to her.

"Then I will admit to having an unhealthy obsession with you, Waldorf" he began.

"You're under my skin. You've consumed my every thought. Wherever I go, whoever I'm with, you're always with me too. And you know what the worst part is? You'll never see it—because I'm Chuck Bass and I'm not supposed to care about anyone…but I care about you."

"Nineteen" she whispered.

"What?" he asked, confused.

"That's how many voicemails I left you this summer. Did you even listen to them?"

"…I couldn't" he said.

"Why not?" Blair cried out "I poured my heart out to you and you couldn't even bring yourself to hear what I had to say? I humiliated myself…I fucking begged the great Chuck Bass to just get over himself and find me because I missed you so damn much. And I waited. I would have forgiven you Chuck."

"I know you would have. That's why I couldn't bring myself to listen to them. I knew that if I heard your voice, I would have been at your side in an instant—but it would have been unfair. I was willing to cheat on you to prove to my father that I'd never change and you don't deserve that kind of treatment. You deserve so much more than the fuck up that I am" he confessed.

"I don't care, I want you. I've wanted you for so long and I know you want me too or you wouldn't be here" Blair said, standing up so she was pressed against the other side of the door.

"Blair, please come out from in there."

"Why?" she asked, although her hand was already on the lock.

"Because I'm tired of coming up with excuses to stay away from you. I do want you, and only you" he told her.

Blair opened the door slowly, afraid of who would be waiting for her on the other side. She knew from her years of friendship with Chuck that he was a man with my faces. She knew when he was lying, she knew when he was undressing her with his eyes or when he was scheming behind her back.

But she also knew the look in his eyes when he was being sincere. It was a look she rarely ever saw in public—save his best man speech—because he saved that look for when the two of them were alone. It was intimate and perfect and everything Chuck wasn't supposed to be but was anyways when he was around Blair because she made him feel happiness he never knew existed.

And that was the Chuck that was staring at her on the other side of the door. It was her favorite Chuck; it was her Chuck.

Blair flung herself into his arms and buried her face into his neck. As he held her close to him, she felt safe and secure for the first time in a long time. She breathed in his scent deeply, adoring the way his cologne tickled her nose.

"Oh I missed you, I missed you" she whispered against him, peppering kissing all over his neck.

Chuck felt himself shiver at the intimate contact. He may have been sleeping with different women all summer, but Blair had always been the only one he'd ever really felt close to. And after months of uncertainly and worrying that he'd never get the chance to hold her again, relief flooded out of him now that she was finally his again.

He turned his head and coaxed her mouth to meet his.

"Did you miss me Chuck?" she whispered against his lips.

"Every second of every day" he told her without hesitation "I was fucking miserable without you."

She kissed him again.

"Let's get out of here" she told him.

Chuck nodded and lead her out the door.

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

TBC!!!