Summary:Just divorced, Chuck thinks that all is said between him and Blair. But why does she show up at his doorstep at night? Future fic.
AN: Wow! Nineteen reviews! You guys are truly amazing! That inspires me so much, you have no idea! Here's the next chapter. As promised longer, than the previous! Enjoy!
Special thanks as always to my awesome beta Sam!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Way Back Into Love
Chapter 5: So What!
"Just calm the fuck down!"
"Excuse me?" Nate's pitch was somewhere between hysterical and mad. "Didn't you hear what I just said?"
"I heard very well what you said. You yelled it right into my ear canal." Although Chuck still remained unimpressed.
"It's happening!" Nate repeated nonetheless. "Her water just broke."
"I know. And I said I'll get you to the hospital in time. I'll make sure that the first thing the kid sees will be his lunatic daddy."
Chuck sighed. If he had known this in advance he'd never agreed to have lunch with Nate in the first place. Especially not when he was still terribly hungover from the attemp to vanish every single memory of Blair with scotch.
Silently he just hoped that Jenny would manage to keep the little brat inside long enough for them to arrive.
No.
Wrong phrase there. For him to drop Nate off. Cuz there was no freaking way he was going in. Even if he actually was Nate's best friend and they considered him family. They weren't. He had no family. Period.
When the limo pulled up in front of, what was, according to his best friend, the best gynaelocigal hospital in the state, Nate was fidgeting in his seat like a fish out of the water. The car stopped and he jumped out immediately only to return after a few seconds.
"Aren't you coming?"
"No."
"But I need you."
"No you don't Nathaniel. You made it through the conception without me, too. You'll be fine."
"Okay." Nate nodded, though he didn't make a single move to get inside.
Chuck sighing got out of his seat and gave his friend a gentle push towards the entry. "Go!"
Smirking he watched Nate stumbling inside. Poor Jenny. Hopefully her DNA would dominate.
Just as he was about to get back into his limo a familiar mane of blonde hair rushed past him.
"Serena?"
The addressed froze in her step and turned towards him. She looked at him like she'd seen a ghost.
"Chuck?"
"Yes. Don't look at me all that horrified..."
"W-What are you doing here?" It may have been his imagination, but she acted strange. Could it be remorse because she'd lied about Blair?
"Just dropped off, Nate."
"Nate's here?"
"Yeah. Although I'm not sure he'll make it through the show without fainting."
"What show? Why would he faint?" Serena looked puzzled.
"Men tend to do that during the delivery of their babies," Chuck said in a voice, like he was talking to a four year old.
"Jenny's having the baby?" she cried out.
"Isn't that why you're here?"
"Yes. Of course. Why else would I be here?" she laughed nervously.
"Exactly. But why did you just ask if Jenny was having the baby, then?" He was beyond confused now. Something was up.
"It was a statement." She explained. "I responded to your comment on freaked out Nate by saying 'Jenny's having the baby!'"
"But why did your voice go up in the end?"
"What is this? Twenty questions?" she snapped. "I don't have time for this!"
Chuck frowned as he watched her almost run into the building. Her last sentences was the one thing he actually believed. She were pressed for time. And she'd seemed rushed and nervous when she'd spotted him. But she sure as hell wasn't here for Jenny.
---
Blair had remained in her state of denial since she had sent away Serena the day before. Refusing to think about any of the stuff she was supposed to think about. Chemo wasn't part of the plan and therefore not worth wasting any thoughts about it. Well actually having cancer at all hadn't been quite part of her plan.
"Ms. Waldorf?" The nurse's voice ripped her out of her non-thoughts.
She looked up at the woman and raised her eyebrows questioningly.
"Hi, I'm nurse Susan. It's time to renew your bandages."
"Do what you have to do." Blair nodded, lifting her nightgown as she watched the nurse preparing the material.
The scissors felt cold against her skin when the nurse cut the elastic bandage. Blair just stared stubbornly towards the ceiling. There was a slight pinch when the plaster was removed. Feeling the cold air hitting her skin she knew that the bandages were away completely now. She just continued to fixate on point above her. She wouldn't allow herself to look down at her destroyed, ill body.
"Would you like me to get you a mirror?" Susan's voice was gentle as she asked. .
Blair squeezed her eyes shut, in order to keep the tears from falling and shook her head. It just was too much.
"Alright. Then I'm going to clean the wound now. You may feel a slight burning when I do it."
Blair didn't answer, but tried to concentrate her thoughts on something else. She imagined herself back to her happy place. Which surprisingly – not entirely true – turned out to be room 1812 in the Palace hotel. She remembered how it had felt to fall asleep in his arms. Familiar. Good. Safe.
She just felt herself calming down as the unexpected sound of the door opening made her eyes snap open. By now she was pretty much used to the fact that the hospital staff, with a few exceptions, didn't really bother knocking. But she'd figured that at a intimate and equally embarrassing moment like that there would be at least some kind of "Do not disturb" sign at the door.
"Oh my... I'm sorry... I didn't know..."
The voice of her made her look up. Serena stared right back. Stared at her chest. Apparently unable to move. She looked as pale as the white hospital wallpaper.
"I'll wait outside." The blonde slowly backed away after finding her tongue again.
"Stay." Blair had no idea why she'd said that. "Please." All she knew was that she really wanted her best friend to be here.
Serena just nodded, slowly approaching the bed. There were tears shimmering in her eyes. Immediately she took her friends hand into her own. Blair squished it so tight, her nails were digging into the other woman's palm.
"Susan." She addressed the nurse quite suddenly. "I changed my mind. I want a mirror."
She could do this. With her best friend right next to her, she could.
Without a word the nurse pulled a hand mirror out of the sideboard across the room where she'd gotten fresh bandaging material just a minute ago, handing it to the patient.
Shaking a little she lifted the mirror into the right position rather slowly. The doctor hadn't understated when she had told her the movement of her right arm would be limited. Taking another deep breath she felt Serena reassuring gentle squeeze on her left hand.
Fearfully she slowly began to inspect her chest. It was different than she'd imagined. The pale skin lay flatly above her rib cage. On the level where the breast nipple had been a thin line ran across half of her chest. Not entierly straight, a little rounded. Held together by stitches. It simply looked horrifying to her. With her left breast being perfectly fine it somehow made her whole upper body look asymmetric.
Breathing out she handed the mirror back to Susan. She felt the elusive need to cry. This had to be some kind of bad dream. It was just impossible that it was really Blair Waldorf laying inside this hospital bed, being that distorted.
Until two weeks ago, her biggest worry had been how to squeeze as much as possible out of divorcing Chuck. Talk about karma.
The nurse applied a new bandage in quick and skilfully motions. "Alright, now that's done I'll leave you and your friend alone. If you need anything, don't hesitate to call for me. The physical therapist should come to see you soon, too."
"Thank you", Blair answered politely. Though she didn't really know why she was thanking the women. For giving her the worst moment in her adult life?
"B?" Serena's soft voice sounded to her ear. "Are you okay?"
"Do I look okay to you?" Was the prompt and similar bitchy response as she gestured towards her bandaged chest.
"It's not that bad."
"Yeah, right," Blair spat bitterly. "So that's why you looked ready to keel over when you came in here."
"B..." Serena sounded tortured and tired. "You're still beautiful."
Beautiful. Blair couldn't bear to hear that word now. Especially not out of Serena's mouth. Serena, Blair thought resignedly. Perfect Serena. With her long gorgeous shiny hair and her perfect tits.
"Let's just... not talk about this right now," Blair suggested, angry at herself for how shaky her voice came out. "Just... tell me something that is happening outside of this room. Please?"
Serena seemed to be actually kind of relieved for the change of topic as she sat down on the edge of the bed. Apparently cancer, chemo and mastectomies weren't her favorite small talk topics either.
"Guess who I ran into just outside!"
"Not in the mood for a pop quiz, S," the brunette replied dryly.
"Chuck."
"Chuck? Why would Chuck be here? You didn't--? S! You promised!" Blair's voice hat reached its full level of shrillness now.
Serena made a soothing gesture. "And I didn't. Don't worry. He was just here to drop off Nate."
"What would Nate want in a gynocologist clinic?" The moment she'd said it dawned on her. "Oh my god! Jenny's having her baby?"
The blonde nodded with a big smile. "As we speak."
"That's really great. I'm so happy for them." It was a lie par excellence. She knew it was abysmally selfish, but with herself feeling that tremendously lousy she couldn't manage to come up with any enjoyment for the fortune of other people. Did that make her a bad person? Maybe. But she really had other things on her mind than the flaws of her character.
"So, Chuck was here, too?" Blair did her best to sound as nonchalant as possible. "What did you tell him why you were here?"
"Don't worry. He thought I was here because of Jenny. And I just affirmed that suspicion."
"Good. He can not find out."
"B, you do know that you won't be able to hide this from everyone forever."
"I will if you manage to keep your mouth shut." Blair was back in her stubborn mode.
"Don't you think it would be good to have more of your friends around you? Especially with the chemo coming up...", she stopped. "Oh you've got to be kidding."
Blair's lips had turned into a thin line, her jaw clenching.
"Oh, don't tell me you're still on that refusing chemo nonsense!" The blonde rolled her eyes.
"I'd like to see what you would do if they told you to have pure poison pumped into your body that would cause you to lose your hair."
"Blair you know that the hair will grow back."
"Yeah after I've been feeling like shit for months."
"So what?"
"So what!?" Blair's voice was, though it was calm, sharp like a knife.
"Yes. So what!" Serena countered, clearly rushing with anger. "If it means that you'll live than yes: So what! What are a few months of feeling miserable compared to the rest of your life?"
"Just leave me alone."
"The hell I will!" Serena was almost yelling, which caused Blair to look up at her stunned. The blonde was clearly pissed now. "Oh yeah, you heard me quite right. As soon as somebody tells you something you don't like you just send them away. But I will not have it! I'm your best friend and you will listen to what I have to tell you!"
"No." Blair simply said.
With a hand on each side of her friends face, Serena forced her to look at her. "B, we're not talking about if you should put perfume on for a charity event. This is about if you'll live or die."
Blair held the gaze without as much as a wink. Without a further word she hit the button to call the nurse.
Susan appeared in the door just a moment later looking at her patient questioningly. "What can I do for you Ms. Waldorf?"
"I'm really not feeling well. Would you please escort my friend out. I'd really like to rest." Serena's jaw had literally dropped at her friends over dramatic voice.
"You've got to be kidding...," the blonde muttered under her breath.
"Miss?" the nurse turned to Serena. "You're friend has just had major surgery. I think it'd be best to grant her the relaxation she needs."
"You won't be able to avoid this conversation forever, B!" the blonde tried one more time in a calm voice.
"Miss. Please," Susan insisted one more time.
Holding up her hands in defense Serena took her bag and complied with the orders. "I'll see you tomorrow, B!" She called back into the room sounding really frustrated.
"Not if I get a say in it," Blair muttered under her breath.
To be continued
AN: Review please!