Chapter 27

A/N: I don't even deserve all the love i'm getting, thank you! Also, there's probably around 4 chapters left of this fic...I'm getting slightly nostalgic about that.

When he wakes, there's metallic taste in his mouth, vision slightly blurry around the edges.

He gets the faintest sense of a deja vu when he realizes that his arms are twisted behind him, tied to a chair, as he finds when he experimentally tries to tug them free. His feet are too, and he finds himself below a single bulb, flickering as though it's chuckling at his bad luck. Insanely, Dan finds himself having to hold back a sarcastic laugh. Of course he's been taken once again. Of course.

When his vision clears, he finds Senator Mortem standing before him. Arms crossing his chest, staring down at Dan with something far too much like pity to be anything of the sort. Even in these circumstances, the man is perfectly dressed as a politician, as though he expects to head out of here and go give a speech in the White House. Silk tie, ten thousand dollar suit, perfectly polished shoes. Dan resists the urge to spit in the man's face. He suspects that will only make things worse.

"Mr Humphrey." Mortem greets him smoothly, his voice making him shudder.

Dan speaks through gritted teeth, a voice of ice. "What have you done with Serena?"

Mortem's eyebrows twitch slightly, before he steps back, sweeping one hand towards the other side of the room.

Serena's beginning to stir, one purple bruise above her left eyebrow, eyes fluttering as she wakes. She's the same as Dan, tied to a chair. Almost hidden away in the shadows of the room. They almost swamp her completely.

"What do you want with us, Mortem? If you wanted us dead, you would've just ordered a hit." Dan spits at him, testing his tied wrists. It's no use. The rope used simply burns against his skin when he twists.

"Speaking from experience, Mr Humphrey?" Mortem speaks coldly, reminding Dan of that night that haunts him, the night he regrets so deeply.

That's when it hits him, that's when he realizes:

Mortem hasn't killed them because he knows that he and Serena are together.

He's going to put her through as much pain as possible before he kills her.

Chuck holds Blair tightly as she sobs into his chest, alternating between hiccups and pounding her fists into his chest, yelling at him for ever letting Serena van der Woodsen go.

"Blair," he says quietly, catching her wrists when she attempts to punch him again, "there's nothing I could've done. They can't arrest her, how do I explain the evidence that I destroyed for her? What evidence do they have to arrest her with, huh? And you know there's no way that she would've willingly handed herself over, to prison or.." Chuck hesitates, watching the tears that glitter in his wife's eyes. "Or otherwise."

Blair's throat bobs, hands curling in on themselves, shoulders slumping. "She needs help, Chuck. She's so lost."

"I know." He assures her, because he does. How could he not know that? He knows PTSD. He knows it well. He knows how to escape it, too, that it takes a long time and that it never quite goes away. Sometimes, he still wakes in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, remembering the bullet that had lodged itself into his leg when he was in the army.

But Serena? She's beyond that. The frantic dart of her eyes, the suicidal thoughts she'd had which Blair had told him about, the cold way that she'd spoken of those that she had murdered. He'd thought, foolishly, that there were echoes of the old Serena there. The lawyer who would've done anything to get justice for the victims, like her dad. But after the ironic reveal of the fact that she had murdered her replacement, after the way that she had felt she was in the right for doing so, after the way that she hadn't truly felt any remorse (he could see it in her eyes); he knew that the lawyer Serena he'd known was gone.

And as much as Blair defended her, this was more than just being lost. Serena van der Woodsen had the makings of a sociopath.

"Please, Chuck." Blair whines, falling into his, arms wrapping around his neck and face hiding in his shoulder. He cradles her tightly, unwilling to ever let her go again. "Please find her, and let them arrest her, or something. So that she won't hurt anyone else. You know that she'll regret it someday, when she comes back to herself."

"Blair." He whispers, pulling away. "I wasn't gonna start a fight with her, what if she had hurt me, you? I know you don't believe that she'd ever do that, but I can't risk losing you... I can't risk losing..."

He lays a hand over the subtle bump of her stomach, watching the hitch in her breath.

"We're finally starting a life, Blair, a family, without being reminded of the past." He tells her slowly. "I don't want her to be our responsibility anymore. She has been for too long now and she disappoints us time after time. I can't risk losing you. Either of you."

Blair's mouth opens to protest, to agree, he's not sure, but then his phone rings loudly. Nate's ringtone that he'd set blaring through the silence that they were stood in.

He pulls the phone from his pocket, giving Blair one final squeeze before speaking into the receiver.

"Bass."

"Chuck. We've got a problem."

Ice freezes in his spine.

"The Nanny of Dan's son has just reported him missing."

Serena's nostrils flare, eyes widening as she drinks in Mortem's figure, the way he almost blocks all of the light with his wide shoulders. She seems to hesitate for a moment, before spitting out words as though they physically hurt her. "Mortem. What do you want?"

Mortem smiles, and it's almost chilling, but the look in Serena's eyes is worse. "Well, Miss van der Woodsen, I feel it's more what I can do for you."

"Oh, I can think of a few things. Up for owning up to everyone you've ever had murdered?" Serena remarks dryly, spitting blood from her mouth.

"Are you ready to own up for murder yourself, Miss van der Woodsen?" Mortem's lips twitch in the corners. "Murders I've had you commit? Or, perhaps, you'd like to know about the murder that Mr Humphrey here is involved in?"

Dan's back stiffens and he struggles against his constraints. Serena's eyes flicker towards him briefly, but it's merely a passing glance, before she looks back towards Mortem. Her eyes are frantic as they take him in, travelling up and down his body, regarding him with disgust. After all, this is the man that ordered her first hit, the man that's been controlling her for years.

"I'm not interested in your politician doublespeak, Mortem." She hisses.

"Oh, but surely you'd like to know why I ordered the hit on Mr Humphrey? Why I ordered you to do it?"

Serena hesitates, eyes once again flickering to him. No, Serena, no, he wants to say. This is not what you need to know. (Please forgive me.)

"Either murder us or let us go, Mortem." Serena growls.

Mortem actually chuckles, making Dan's blood boil, and he watches the way Serena's eyes widen in disbelief. The vein on her forehead angrily throbbing. He can't believe that she hasn't broken free of her confines yet, that she hasn't lunged for the man. Perhaps she's more interested in his story than she is actually letting on. This is the opposite of what he wanted, from the moment that he put the pieces together, from the moment he saw Mortem's picture in that folder she'd held.

Mortem pulls a switchblade from his blazer pocket and holds it out to Serena, as though he's offering it out to her. Her eyes flare with recognition at the sight of the weapon, only making Dan's heart sink lower into his stomach than it already is.

"Where did you get that?" Serena asks, voice trembling.

"Your lawyer friends aren't so good at destroying evidence as they believe they are." Mortem tells her. "This is your weapon, is it not? Your favourite? Your signature trademark? Well, not that anyone would know, really. You burn everybody you kill. Like they're nothing more than a piece of meat."

If he were any more human, Dan is certain that he would fall out of love with her. She's a murderer. She doesn't care about the victims.

But he couldn't fall out of love with her if he tried.

Serena's eyes harden instantly. "Don't try and guilt trip me, Mortem."

Mortem shakes his head. "Oh, no, I wouldn't dream of it. After all, it's not you that ought to feel guilty out of all of this."

Her eyes furrow towards him, jaw clenching. "I'm not interested in playing games, Senator."

"My apologies." The man says, lips quirking. The bastard is enjoying this, taunting her, taunting him, most of all. Destroying the only true chance he'd ever had of true love. "How about I set you free, and you kill the man that caused this?"

"I did no such thing!" Dan cries, watching the way Serena startles, eyes swiveling around to him.

"Dan?" She gasps, voice breaking. It breaks his heart in two, and all he wants to do is reach out and hold her, promise her that this will all be okay. Kiss away the tears that are forming in her eyes. "What has- What has this got to do with you?"

"Oh, he hasn't told you, Miss van der Woodsen?" Mortem turns to Dan, smooth as ever, almost calm. While Dan's world is crumbling around him. "He witnessed your father's murder."

The gasps simultaneously rise from both Dan and Serena's lips, Dan turning to Serena in despair, Serena turning to him with eyes like fire. Fire that burns and destroys, kills people whole. Much like the way she kills people anyway. Much like she was probably going to kill him in the beginning. And now? Now, they'd gotten through that, they had gotten past it; only... With that look in her eyes, he's not so sure that she won't kill him now.

"I didn't, Serena, I swear- I didn't witness-"

"Oh, you sure did, Mr Humphrey. Why, I remember it quite clearly."

His eyes widen, heart pumping, remembering the dirty alley, the flash of a knife-

"That was... That was her dad?"

"You let my dad die?"

"Serena..." Her name dies on his lips.

He doesn't know what to say.

Because he remembers. Remembers the slumped figure against the wall, bleeding out, eyes wide amongst the trash and blood flowing from her body. The attacker, calm eyes, tall broad. Senator Mortem, lounging against a car door nearby, a bag of cash in hand. The exchange afterwards. How he had watched it al from the shadows of the alley across the road; unseen, silent. The urge to help had been demanding, but the urge to run had been overwhelming. The need to run home and hug his father and girlfriend Georgina, to shield them both from the darkness of the world that he wished to never expose them to, too large.

"You... You watched him die? And y-you didn't do anything about it?"

Mortem smirks at Dan but he ignores it, straining forwards against how he's bound to the chair when he notices the tears streaming freely down Serena's face. He's put them there. These tears, this pain, they are partly his fault. The only part that stops him from drowning in the guilt is the fact that it was Mortem that had ordered his murder in the first place.

It doesn't ease the guilt, though. He's lived with these excuses for so long.

"I swear, Serena- Serena, I swear, I didn't know it was him." He heaves out, watching the disbelief flare in her eyes, the tears dripping into her lap. "Serena, I swear it."

"A decent person would've done something anyway!" She cries fiercely.

He swallows down the argument that rises, about how she was hardly one to talk to him about decency, and focuses on the hurt in her eyes. In the stiff posture of her body.

"Serena, I wasn't- I stumbled across it by accident. I didn't... I was having writer's block. I needed to walk it off. I walked for miles, I think, and then there was... There was that. And I was so afraid, Serena, I was so afraid. You don't understand, it was- I had so much to lose. I'd only just seen it as the killer walked away, I didn't... He was too late to save, and I couldn't risk my life, Serena. Georgina, my girlfriend at the time, we were just trying for a baby. Milo hadn't even been born. And then my father. They both needed me."

"I needed MY DAD!" Serena yells, kicking her feet free of their restraints.

In a flash, she's flipped the chair and smashed it against the wall, bringing her hands free of the ropes too, turning to him and Mortem with a heaving chest, anger flaming in her eyes.

This is Serena van der Woodsen, assassin. Not Serena van der Woodsen, human being, the woman he loves.

Mortem steps forwards- Dan has almost forgot he's here- with the switchblade in his hands, outstretched towards Serena.

"You could kill him, you know. Finally fulfill what we all need."

"Why have you waited so long to kill me?" Dan cuts in, trying to give Serena time to gather her wits.

Mortem's lips waver. Eyes studying Dan carefully. "I'm going to run for president." He tells them both. "I need all avenues completely shut off. No risks. Even those that don't seem to present themselves as a potential threat."

"You think that I'm going to help you? After you killed my father?" Serena steps towards Mortem, hands balled into fists by her side, disgust in her eyes.

Dan's heart flutters slightly in relief. Of course she won't kill him. This isn't his fault. This is Mortem, she wouldn't kill those who are innocent. At least, that's the morale that she's always lived by, right?

"I can give you the life you want. I'm a powerful man, Miss van der Woodsen. I can get you away from all of this. What do you want? A life up in New Hampshire? California? I can give you a life anywhere. You want to be a lawyer again? Done. I can do that for you. You've just got to set us both... Free."

Mortem places the switchblade into Serena's hands, and Dan watches with fright as Mortem nods towards Dan. And, unbelievably, Serena stares back into Mortem's eyes, as though they're communicating some kind of hidden message that he'll never understand.

This is the man who had her dad murdered.

This is the man who can set her free.

Serena's hand closes around the familiar blade, something right settling into her bones.

She wants that- She just wants to be... Free.

Mortem stares into her eyes, a tad bit gloating, a little cautious too. It should scare her. How she knows that she'll never be able to bring him to justice. How she'll never be able to avenge her dad. That she drowned in all of this because of him, and now he's simply going to swan off and reach an even higher power than he already is. No consequences.

But... Freedom. She could be a lawyer again.

Her feet begin to carry her towards Dan, blade in hand, away from the Senator.

She kneels before him and watches as his mouth opens in shock, but no words come out.

That's good. That's better. She can't stand it when they cry.

His brown eyes (so beautiful, so full of life) are watering, disbelief etched into the weary lines of his face. Lips that she had once kissed speechless. Body that she had once loved completely rigid, completely still. Holds his breath.

"I love you." She tells him.

Just not enough.