AN: I own nothing except the story line and the characters not seen in the show!
Thanks for all of the reviews, they really meant a lot to me!!
Chapter 7
"Serena, what the hell is this?" Dan demanded angrily as he walked into their living room.
Serena and Lily had Ryan dressed in clothes that were emasculating, to say the least. Dan was never one to question his wife; he knew it was better to just accept her crazy antics, crazy mother, and crazy best friend, but this was too much.
"I think he looks adorable." Lily said beaming at Ryan.
"Adorable? He looks like his name should be Rebecca in that outfit." Dan continued in outrage.
"Dan, it's his costume for the school play." Serena explained, smiling at Ryan.
"My son is not wearing that in public." Dan ranted.
"Don't be ridiculous, Dan. This isn't a public showing, it's only for the friends and family of the preschoolers." Lily said in an exasperated tone.
"What is he supposed to be, anyway?" Dan asked, afraid to hear the answer.
"I'm a fairy, Daddy." Ryan shouted with glee and proceeded to glide around the room holding out his arms, as if he were flying.
"A fairy, Serena? My son will not be playing a fairy." Dan whispered angrily.
"What am I supposed to do, Dan? He specifically asked the teacher if he could do it." Serena whispered back.
"Damn it Serena, I knew you and your mother should never have taken him shopping with you all those times." Dan sighed in frustration.
"Relax, Dan, he's in love with Blair. He doesn't have any same-sex tendencies." Serena responded.
"Well either way I don't think his requesting to portray a fairy is a good sign." Dan said, sitting on the couch and resting his head in his hands.
"You don't like my outfit, Daddy?" Ryan asked with a frown.
"I do, but wouldn't you rather be a prince or a knight?" Dan asked hopefully.
"No, I like being a fairy. I get to fly and sprinkle fairy dust." Ryan chirped and continued to "fly" around the living room.
"Dan, don't make this into a bigger deal than it is. It's just a play, okay? And besides, even if Ryan were to turn out that way, we would still love him just the same, right?" Serena asked forcefully.
"Of course, but no father wants to see his son dressed like a girl." Dan admitted.
"I'll try to talk to him, alright?" Serena said. Dan just nodded and sighed as Ryan pretended to sprinkle dust on his father's head.
Blair sat down on the couch across from Chuck, unwilling to lift her head up. Chuck stared at her for several minutes; however, it soon became clear that he would have to initiate this conversation.
"So, what's going on in that pretty head of yours?" Chuck asked trying to sound nonchalant.
Blair lifted her face and Chuck noticed that she had been silently crying.
"I'm so sorry." She said meekly.
"What? Blair you have no reason to be sorry." Chuck tried to soothe Blair but tears were streaming down her cheeks at an alarming rate.
"Yes I do." Blair said, letting out her first real sob.
Chuck couldn't take the sight of her so upset, especially when it had something to do with him. He slowly got up and sat down on the couch she was occupying, right next to her. Blair gave him one look and he held out his arms as she sobbed into his chest.
"Chuck, I'm such a bad person." She whispered.
"Shh, don't say that. It took two people to do that." Chuck said with a smirk.
Blair looked up at the sound of his voice, which had turned rather playful and she rolled her eyes.
"You are extremely disgusting, did you know that?" Blair asked, her crying ceased.
"That's all part of my charm." Chuck retorted, signature smirk in place.
"Yeah, yeah." Blair said.
"So what did you want to talk about, anyway?" Blair asked in a calm voice, eyes free of tears.
"This." He said simply and leaned in to kiss her.
At first, Blair was hesitant, if not unresponsive. However, she soon relinquished all thoughts of Joanna and responsibility and leaned into him, deepening the kiss. She stood up and pulled him along with her, heading towards her bed.
Suddenly a timid knock sounded at her door. Blair froze. Chuck, having more experience in situations similar to this immediately ran to the bathroom, closing the door behind him. Blair tried to fix her hair as best she could and wipe her lips as she moved towards the door.
"Hey, Nate." Blair said loudly, letting Chuck know who was at the door. Chuck had flashbacks to the debutant ball.
"Hi." He responded shyly, his head held low.
"Do you have a minute?" He asked.
"Sure." Blair said, leading him to the couch formally occupied by Chuck.
"First, I need to apologize for what happened last night. I was totally out of line. I should have just left the past in the past, it's just whenever that topic comes up I just feel a lot of regret. You know?" He asked, his eyes begging her to answer.
"Yeah." She said quietly.
"And I'm going to call Chuck and apologize to him too. Is he okay?" Nate continued.
"Umm hmm." Blair said, trying to maintain an even face.
"So, do you accept my apology or do I need to do some groveling?" Nate teased.
"No groveling for me but you may not get so lucky with Chuck." Blair said with a chuckle.
"God, you look beautiful." Nate muttered.
Blair looked at him in a mixture of joy and embarrassment.
"Look, there's this small party tonight at one of Chuck's clubs and everybody is going and I was wondering if maybe you would want to go with me. As a date." Nate added, not wanting to repeat the same mistake twice.
Blair thought for a minute, knowing full well that Chuck was listening to every word that was said. She didn't know what she felt for him but she knew that it didn't matter, he wasn't hers anymore. Nate on the other hand was single and she enjoyed his company.
"I'd love to." She said and he grinned that smile of his that made her melt.
"Okay, we're all meeting in the lobby at 8:30." Nate said and strode to the door, a newfound spring in his step.
"Bye, Nate." Blair called after him as she shut the door.
"That was close." Chuck said, settling back on the couch.
"Chuck, this has got to stop." Blair said firmly, refusing to sit down.
Blair knew the moment that she was sitting next to Chuck she wouldn't be able to help herself and would do something that she would regret later. Eventually, this little affair or whatever it was would end, probably when he got married, and she would be left all alone. She had to nip this in the bud before it got out of hand and people started getting attached, namely her.
"What has got to stop?" Chuck said with faux innocence, walking towards her.
"Seriously, Chuck. Listen to me. Stop doing that." Blair ordered as Chuck kissed her neck. "Chuck!"
"Okay, I'm listening." He said.
"Good. Now, we both agree that last night was special, okay, but it can never happen again. You are engaged to a wonderful woman who loves you and who deserves a lot better than this." Blair said.
"But, Blair…" Chuck started.
"But nothing, Chuck. I have been Joanna. I know how it feels and I refuse to be the other woman. So let's just forget about this." Blair said as unshed tears filled her eyes.
"I don't know if I can." Chuck admitted.
"You can. We need to go back to the way things were before last night. That's just the way things are supposed to be." Blair stated.
"Alright." Chuck finally agreed.
"Okay, good." Blair said, half convincing herself that this was indeed a good thing.
"Goodbye, Chuck." Blair said as she walked over to the door and held it open, basically telling him to leave with using those exact words.
"Bye, Blair." He whispered and she could have sworn his eyes were a little red.
"Blair Waldorf?" An unfamiliar voice caught Blair's attention.
She was sitting at the most coveted table of the entire club, in the VIP section, of course. Being friends with the club's owner had its benefits. Sitting alongside of her was Nate, Dan, Serena, Chuck, and a very pleased Joanna.
Joanna was grinning, daring Blair and Serena to comment on her beautiful diamond necklace containing flawless pink diamonds that had apparently been a gift from Chuck. Blair was seething with envy, although she refused to admit it to herself, let alone show it to anyone else.
It was from these thoughts that she was pulled when she heard her name being called for a second time. Nate shook her shoulder, getting her attention.
"Sorry, yes, I'm Blair Waldorf." She said as she turned to face the stranger.
Her face froze as she realized that this was no stranger at all. In fact, he was a man that she knew all too well. She reminded herself to breath and smile.
"I thought I saw you." He said. "I'm Steven, Steven Brown." He said to the rest of the table. Only Dan and Serena looked interested at this.
"Hey, Steve, how's it going?" Dan asked in a friendly voice.
As far as Blair's fiancées went, Steve was one of the best in Dan's book. He was a smart guy who earned everything he had. Blair had met him at Yale during her junior year and he had proposed on the night of their graduation. She had said yes.
Unfortunately, things had gone downhill from there and Dan no longer hung out with Steve out of respect for Blair. But at one point, the two men had been pretty close.
"Good, man. Serena, how are you. How's Ryan?" Steve asked. Serena supplied only the basic response not sure of how to react.
Finally, when he was done with all of the pleasantries, Steve turned back to Blair, giving her a sad smile.
"How have you been?" He asked softly.
"I've been okay. How about you?" She responded.
"Alright, I suppose. So are you with, what's his name, James anymore?" Steven asked trying to keep his voice light.
"No. No James and I broke up." Blair answered sadly.
"I'm sorry to hear that." He said sincerely, which made everything more difficult. He was sincere, he really was sorry, he was perfect.
"So are you seeing anyone now?" He asked after several moments of awkward silence.
This question surprised Blair and she didn't know how to respond. Luckily for her, she didn't have to.
"Yes she is. I'm Nate Archibald, her boyfriend. Nice to meet you." Nate said sticking out his hand.
"Nice to meet you too. You're a lucky guy." Steven said.
"Yes I am." Nate said, putting an arm around Blair's shoulder.
"Just be careful with that one, she's a real heartbreaker." Steven said in a tone that suggested that he was joking and had come to terms with his breakup with Blair.
Steven quickly said bye to everyone and walked away.
As soon as he was gone, Blair dramatically rested her head on Nate's shoulder and sighed. Nate patted her back a couple of times, eliciting a sour face from Chuck and a pleased one from Joanna.
"Who was that?" Chuck asked in a tone that he prayed sounded casual.
"My first ex-fiancée." Blair sighed, finally picking her head up from Nate's shoulder but refusing to look at Chuck.
"First ex-fiancée? How many were there?" Joanna asked in a tone of disapproval.
"Three." Blair breathed and held up three fingers to further emphasize.
"See with most people, its third time's the charm, but with our little Blair here we just don't know how many times it'll take to find Mr. Right." Dan teased sarcastically. Blair and Serena shot him death glares.
"Dan, has anyone ever told you how clever you are?" Blair asked in a voice that was somewhere between sugar-sweet and murderous.
"Yes, actually, I've been—" Dan began but was interrupted.
"Well they were lying." Blair shot back triumphantly. She then raised her right hand in the air and gave herself a hi-five.
"So why did you break up with him?" Joanna asked, realizing that this would be her chance to further demoralize Blair while still seeming innocent and kind.
Blair remained silent for a moment, looked briefly at Serena and then at her hands.
"I slept with his best friend." She mumbled and shook her head at herself.
"Can I get anything for anyone?" A waiter asked the table in general.
"Yeah, I'll have a bottle of Tanqueray and a shotgun." Blair said in a sorrowful voice. She then rested her head back on Nate's shoulder.
"She's just kidding." Nate said in response to the waiter's odd look. "She'll have a martini, heavy on the gin."
Everyone else ordered while Blair stayed put, Nate rubbing her back and whispering things in her ear to comfort her.
Dan, Serena, and Joanna were discussing the wedding, which would be at the end of September. Chuck was pretending to listen as he glanced at the exchange going on between Blair and Nate. He had half a mind to lunge across the table and grab Blair away from Nate, but he felt that doing so would probably upset Joanna.
Joanna. He knew he had been acting strange around her, for obvious reasons. Reasons that he didn't need her to know about. So he went to Harry Winston and picked out the most expensive diamond necklace he could find.
She loved it and her suspicions disappeared as counted the number of gems clustered about the platinum chain.
"Well on the bright side, it's nice to hear that I wasn't the only one to suffer that fate." Nate whispered and laughed at himself.
Blair punched him lightly in the stomach, but he moaned loudly all the same.
"I didn't cheat on you, idiot. We were broken up." She said and shook her head.
She felt someone's eyes on her and turned around just in time to see Chuck bring his head back into the conversation at his end of the table. She sighed. Things were just so complicated.
Several rounds of drinks later, everyone seemed to have loosened up. Even Blair was smiling and laughing. Chuck, however, was still withdrawn. He was trying not to let the sight of Nate's arm on Blair's shoulder bother him but he was failing miserably.
"…the Vera Wang dress has a train that's six feet. I think its way too long..." Joanna droned on about possible wedding dresses.
"That's what she said." Nate muttered in Blair's ear.
Blair couldn't help it. She was usually so composed but she had a couple of drinks in her, which was her excuse for letting out a loud snort of laughter. This was quickly followed by a fit of laughter that caused her stomach to hurt. Nate was chuckling as well, extremely pleased that he was the one who had pulled Blair out of her bad mood.
"What's so funny?" Joanna demanded in a deadly voice, upset that Blair's outburst had interrupted her.
"He said…he said…" Blair tried to say something but she just kept laughing harder.
Finally Blair caught her breath and gave Nate a look of pure amusement.
"Nathanial Archibald, since when are you funny?" She asked ignoring the venom Joanna was spewing at her.
"I have always been funny, Blair. My jokes were just too sophisticated for you." Nate retorted with a smirk that Chuck himself would be proud of if he didn't want to rip out Nate's jugular at the moment.
After no one else but Blair laughed at his joke, Nate shut is mouth. Everyone sat in strained silence for a while, the loud music in the club the only thing filling the quiet between them all.
Sensing that the tense atmosphere at the table was related to him and Blair, Nate thought it was best to separate for a bit. After all, he was on a date with Blair; they should spend some alone time together.
"Would you like to dance?" Nate asked with his arm outstretched waiting for Blair's tiny hand to take hold of it.
"I would love to." Blair said, briefly looking at Chuck and giving him a discreet wink.
Some quotes in the story above were borrowed from other works, so I've cited them here for anyone who's interested.
The first scene with Serena, Dan, Ryan, and Lily was based on an episode of the TV show Everybody Loves Raymond.
