A/N - Sorry for the delay in updating. Thanks to all of you for sticking with the story. I hope you like this chapter. Please review. :)
Disclaimer - I don't own the characters, just the ideas :)
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Spotted: B sneaking into the Empire Hotel in the middle of the afternoon. We'll give you one guess on who she's there to see - and somehow we doubt that it's Nate. Apparently some things never change. It looks like Queen B may be returning to her former King.
Dan read the Gossip Girl blast for the fifth time before hurling his phone across the room and it clattered loudly to the floor. He'd probably just destroyed his phone but Dan couldn't bring himself to care. He couldn't believe that Blair was with Chuck. He'd really believed that if he gave her enough time she'd get over Chuck the way he'd gotten over Serena, but after reading that blast he was beginning to wonder if Blair would ever get Chuck out of her life. Was Blair ever going to really let him in?
He makes his way toward the kitchen, pulling an old bottle of whisky that his dad had left out of the cupboard and pouring himself a stiff drink. He didn't even like whisky, but right now he needed something a hell of a lot stronger than beer.
The liquor burned his throat as he gulped it down. His phone beeps from across the room and all Dan can do is stare at the thing like it's a traitor. If that was another blast about Chuck and Blair, he was going to seriously lose him mind. He reluctantly makes his way across the room and picks the phone up to see a text from Nate telling him not to jump to conclusions about the blast. That was easy for him to say. His girlfriend wasn't sneaking off to see her ex a mere few days after he told her he loved her.
Dan lets out a frustrated sigh as he pours himself another drink, gulping that down in one mouthful. Screw that. If Chuck Bass thought that he was going down without a fight, he had another thing coming. Dan slammed the glass down on the counter as he grabbed his jacket and keys and headed toward the door. He stopped when he pulled the door open and finds his sister on the other side.
"Jenny? What are you doing here?" Dan stares at her in confusion when she moves passed him into the loft.
"I saw the blast." Jenny drops her bag on the floor and turns to look at him.
"You know, Jen, if you came here to say I told you so, you really should have just called." Dan stares at her impatiently, still holding the door open. "I'm actually on my way out so…" He motions toward the hall.
"Where are you going? To confront Blair? Challenge Chuck?" Jenny crosses her arms over her chest. "Dan, you know you can't do that."
"And why not, exactly?" Dan finally closes the door and stares at his sister.
"Because you'll be playing right into Chuck's hands." Jenny sighs, shaking her head. "Chuck is an expert at making someone else take the fall for him. If you go over there, the two of you are going to get into a fight and he'll spin this to make everyone believe this is your fault."
"I'm not just going to sit here and do nothing, Jen." Dan shakes his head angrily.
"That's exactly what you're going to do." Jenny takes the keys from him. "Look, I'm not even going to pretend that I understand this thing with you and Blair, OK? Personally, I think she's awful but I am willing to admit that if you can see the good in her, then it must be there somewhere and from what you told me, she does seem to genuinely care about you."
"Yeah, well this is pretty clear, Jen." Dan scoffs, moving to pour himself another whisky. God, Waldorf was turning him into the an alcoholic and he sees Jenny eye the glass before glancing up at him. "Don't judge. I need this OK. I was the fool who let myself fall in love with Blair Waldorf, so yeah, I kind of a need a drink."
"In love?" Jenny's eyes practically bulge out of her head. "You're in love? With Blair?"
"Yeah and now she's at Chuck's. It doesn't take a genius to connect the dots, Jen." Dan takes another gulp of whisky, wincing at the burn. "And seeing as you are not going to let me leave, I'm gonna drink."
Dan raises his glass to her before downing the rest of the whisky in one mouthful.
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Blair takes a deep breath as she steps out of the Empire and glances back at the building for a moment before heading to the curb to hail a cab. There was a part of her that couldn't believe what had just happened. She and Chuck were really (finally) over and the realization caused various reactions within her. There was a part of her that was sad, a part that mourned her first love and what they could have been if things had been different, but a bigger part of her felt like a weight had been lifted. She felt like she could breathe, really breathe, for the first time in years.
She couldn't help but smile as she climbed into a cab and gave the driver Dan's address. Leaning back, she watched the city fly by and her pulse started to race as Brooklyn got closer and closer. By the time the cab pulls up in front of Dan's building, Blair finds herself rushing to pay the driver, eager to get inside as fast as she could to see him. When she reaches the loft, the last person she expects to open the door is Jenny Humphrey.
"What are you doing here?" Blair asks, unable to keep her dislike for Dan's sister from showing.
"Absolutely nothing. I'm leaving." Jenny picks up her bag, glancing at Dan. Blair watches the younger girl leave, staring at her as she disappears out the door before she finally turns to look at Dan.
"Hi." She's nervous and she can't help but still be a little shocked that Dan Humphrey makes her nervous. She wonders if that will ever going away and she's surprised to realize that she hopes it doesn't. She hopes that he always makes her feel like this.
"What do you want, Blair?" Dan leans against the counter, crossing his arms as he looks at her with slightly glassy eyes and Blair stops to look at him.
"Dan, have you been drinking?" Blair glances behind him and her eyes widen when she sees the bottle of whisky. Whisky? Dan was drinking whisky? "What's going on? What's with the whisky?" Blair lays her bag down and slides her jacket off before looking back at him with worried eyes. "Is something wrong with Jenny?"
Was that why Jenny was back in the city? As much as Blair disliked the girl, she was still Dan's sister and if there was something wrong enough to cause Dan to drink in the middle of the afternoon , she would put aside her feelings for the moment and be there for him.
"Right, Jenny." Dan laughs, humourlessly. "No, Blair. I'm not drinking because of Jenny. I'm drinking because I told my girlfriend that I loved her and she went running back to her ex the first chance she got." Blair's face drops in shock. "I guess you haven't seen the latest Gossip Girl blast." Dan tossed his phone towards her. "Go ahead, take a look."
Blair flips open Dan's phone and freezes when she sees the blast. Crap. She feels like all of the air has been sucked out of the room. She looks up at Dan and he's watching her with an expression that she can't read.
"Dan, it is not what you think." Blair quickly crosses the room to stand in from him and she looks up at him with frantic eyes.
"Really? Because what it looks like to me, Blair, is that I told you I loved you and you went running to Chuck." Dan shakes his head as he looks at her and Blair thinks her heart is actually going to break in her chest when she sees the pain in his eyes. "I knew this was going to happen. I knew you were going to do this. I knew you were going to get scared and go running back to him because that's what you do."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Blair's fight instinct kicks in before she can stop it.
"This is what you do, Blair! Things get too real for you and you go running back to what you think is the easier, safer choice. Hell, that's what you did with Chuck, remember? You started feeling things for him and it freaked you out and you went running to Nate." Dan's eyes flash and he closes his eyes for a second to calm himself down. When he finally looks up at Blair, guilt surges through him when he sees tears in her eyes.
"That is not fair, Dan." Blair shakes her head, blinking the tears away and taking a breath. "You can't do that. You can't tell me that you love me and then get drunk and use the fact that you did as a way to hurt me."
"I'm not drunk, Blair. I just…" Dan says with a sigh as he runs her fingers through his hair. "I'm sorry, OK. I shouldn't have said that. It wasn't fair. You know the last thing that I would ever want to do is hurt you." He reaches up to brush the tears from her face. "But what do you expect me to think? Blair, when I told you that I understood that you weren't ready to say those words, I meant it. I can wait as long as I have to but I need to know that I'm actually waiting for something. I need to know that we're moving in the same direction here; that you're not just killing time with me until Chuck gets his shit together and proves that he's serious this time. I need to know that there's a least a chance that you can find a place for me in your heart. I'm already in way too deep here, Blair, I need you to just be honest with me."
"I am being honest with you, I swear." Blair looks up, her eyes pleading with him. "I admit that when you told me that you loved me, it scared me. I handled this whole thing wrong and I am so sorry for that." Dan just looks at her and Blair takes a breath before reaching up to take his face in her hands the way he's done with her more times than she can count. "You have to believe me when I tell you that."
"I want to believe you, Blair, I do… but the way you've been acting…" Dan takes her hands from his face and holds on to them tightly. "Why were you at the Empire?" Dan's voice is strained, anxious and the way he's looking at her breaks her heart and she hates herself for being the cause. Without thinking she warps her arms around his neck and leans up to rest her forehead against his.
"I did go to the Empire to see Chuck, but not for the reasons that Gossip Girl made it seem like." Blair whispers. "Dan, I went to say goodbye."
"Goodbye?" Dan pulls away slightly to look at her.
"Yes. Goodbye." Blair nods slowly and pauses for a second to take a breath. "Dan, when you told me that you loved me, I didn't know what to do. I couldn't figure it out. How could someone like you love someone like me? And I'm not going to lie, the fact that Chuck and I had so much unfinished business did play a factor because I think that, whether I wanted to admit it or not, there was a part of me that believed him. Part of me believed that eventually Chuck and I would fall back into our destructive pattern because that's what we do. So I think because of that I never let myself completely fall for you. Deep down, I think I always believed that it would end eventually…"
Dan opened his mouth to respond but Blair stopped him .
"You have to let me finish." Blair practically slaps her hand over his mouth and Dan just nods silently. "I was scared Dan. I was scared of letting myself really fall for you because I knew that if I did, it would just hurt more when I lost you. But then I talked to Serena and she made me realize that nothing is set in stone; that Chuck and I aren't inevitable. So I went to the Empire to tell him that. I went to say goodbye to him."
Blair takes a breath as she finishes and slowly looks up at Dan, who for his part is just staring at her.
"So, that's it. You're really done with him?" He asks, still trying to process everything she just told him. "You're really done with Chuck?"
"I will always care about Chuck. He and I have way too much history for me not, but you're the one that I want, Dan. This is where I want to be." Blair gives a slightly watery smile as she reaches up to brush her hand across his cheek.
Dan is completely silent as he looks at her and Blair can't help but fear that she's too late. All of those fears are pushed aside when Dan gathers her in his arms, holding on to her as tightly as he can as he buries his face in her hair.
"Damn it, Waldorf, you scared the crap out of me." He pulls away to look down at her with a pained expression. "I'm sorry I said those things to you, I shouldn't have. It's just, when I saw that blast …"
"I know.." Blair nods understandingly. "I'm sorry that I've given you so many reasons to doubt me. But that's all in the past, Dan." She leans forward to kiss his lips gently. "I'm here now and I'm in this 100%. I promise."