To: Kelsey and Vivi for always making me smile with your reviews, and replies. And to everyone else who has continuously read and reviewed this story xXx

It was late, the small digital clock that sat amongst the mess of Serena's desk announcing the time to be eleven thirty; the dark sky of Manhattan, the bright lights of the street to far below to have any real effect, showing through the large window behind her chair.

She wanted to be asleep, eight year old Emily had a tennis game in the morning, and Serena needed to be awake for that; she would never forgive herself if she missed her daughter's match.

Instead of sleeping though, her tired and weary sapphire eyes narrowed as she read her bank statement for the twentieth time in the last twenty minutes; the ten thousand dollar withdrawal highlighted in bright yellow. She had money, and she was an impulsive buyer, she was the first to admit that – but even she would have remembered something at that cost.

She pulled the last couple of months statements out of a file in one of the drawers in her desk, looking for some other irregularity; and for the first time she noticed periodic withdrawals, of only a thousand or two at a time, nothing that would catch her attention while she scanned the monthly pieces of paper.

Pushing the statement away from her, she leant back in her chair and let her eyes focus on the glittering diamond ring that had adorned her left ring finger for not even a year. Where the money had gone was no mystery, not to her.

She didn't hear the elevator doors opening in the front foyer, but she didn't miss the footsteps padding towards the staircase, leading up to the master bedroom. She looked up sharply and silently watched as her dark-haired drunken husband tried to climb the stairs.

"Are you drunk?" Serena startled him as she stood up, pulling herself to her full height to show him that he couldn't intimidate her.

"N…No." Carter Baizen was a lousy liar.

"Why did you need ten thousand dollars?" She asked the question bluntly, otherwise the charismatic man that she had foolishly married, the man that could talk his way into and out of any problem, would talk his way out of answering.

"I…I don't know…"

"Cut the fucking crap Carter." Serena hadn't meant to lose it, but she was tired of playing at his games.

Carter's dark eyes narrowed to her, and Serena matched his glare. He pushed himself away from the railing and came to stand only inches away from her.

"You don't need to worry…"

"Like crap I don't." If Carter had believed for a second that she would fall into the place of a perfect society wife, then he was sorely mistaken; and he had grossly underestimated who Serena van der Woodsen was.

"It's nothing to worry about anymore…" He soothed, slurring. Serena didn't believe a single word.

"Get out." Serena hissed. She was going to be happier if he wasn't around to mess with her head, and her bank account. She might have jumped from marriage to marriage during her twenties, some pathological need to have a constant father-figure in Emily's life, to make up for her own absentee father; a belief that she needed to have someone in her life; but she was not about to sacrifice her happiness for that, she would rather be alone.

"Serena…" Carter sounded patronizing, like he was going to tell Serena what a silly child she was being, and that they would talk about in the morning when they were all thinking straight.

"Get out." Serena hissed it again, venom seeping through her words.

Carter was silent for a moment, like he was trying to evaluate just how serious she was. When he realised he was, he hissed out some words that Serena was glad Emily couldn't hear, and the uncharacteristically, even for him, raised his hand.

Serena didn't let him finish.

"You can be here." Serena might have choked out of surprise before, but now she stood tall, her voice no longer loving like it had been with her daughter, and cold and emotionless; her hand not moving from where it had been next to the phone, letting her grab it any second.

"Well, that's not nice Serena." Carter smiled his charismatic smile that Serena had fallen for for too long, and took a couple of steps closer to his ex-wife; Serena's eyes narrowed. "I just want to talk."

Out of the corner of her eye, Serena watched as Emily reappeared at the top of the staircase, out of her restrictive uniform and in a much more relaxed pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Serena might have not known it at the time, but Emily had woken up on the last night that Carter Baizen had stepped into the van der Woodsen penthouse and had heard the entire argument.

She silently thanked powers she wasn't necessarily sure she believed in, when the nine year old stopped, and stayed silent.

"Carter, I don't want you in this house. I don't want to talk. I want you gone now." Serena was wondering how long it would take the police to get here if she alerted security. She wondered how Carter Baizen had gotten past security; this was meant to be a secure building and this why she paid so much to live here.

"We need to discuss a couple of things first; I need your help." Serena managed to hold back a disbelieving snort, Carter must be delusional if he thought that she would do anything to help him and glanced back towards the staircase.

Emily had disappeared.

"Who do you owe money to now?" She asked snidely.

G~G

Nine year old Emily Humphrey, who had grown up in the sheltered and privileged life of the Upper East Side, sat in her bedroom on top of her pale pink bedspread, facing the door that she had securely locked.

She held her cell phone up to her ear, listening as the bland ringing filled her ear. She remembered that night that her mom had kicked Carter out of the house, she had remembered the yelling, she had remembered the cursing, and she remembered the resounding slap as her mother had beaten Carter to the blow.

"Em, what's wrong?" Her father sounded instantly worried, imaging what could be happening for the phone call to come now while she was still upset for him.

"Daddy, Carter's here." Emily's voice was quiet, so nothing could be overheard.

"What's Carter doing there Emily, are he and your mother back together?" Out of Serena's two remarriages, Carter was the one that Dan had hated the most; he saw past the persona that the man put out in public, he knew about the dirty business deals he made, and the dangerous people he associated with; and he didn't want his daughter to be in the same house as that.

If Serena was remarrying Carter, he would fight for the end for primary custody of his daughter. Once was a mistake too many.

"No, daddy, I think mom might be in trouble." She tried to sound strong. She tried to work out how to tell her father what had happened the last time either of the blonde women had seen that man. "He almost hit her last time." It was the only thing she could come up with now.

There was a choking sound on the other end, and Emily waited patiently. Out of all the people that she could have called, she knew her daddy would get here the fastest.

"I'm on my way Emily. Stay in your room, and do not leave for anything. Promise?"

Emily made the promise, and Dan disconnected the phone.

G~G

Dan pocketed his phone, and grabbed his house keys. He could make it from his building to Serena's in a couple of minutes if he ran the distance, and if the pedestrian traffic wasn't too heavy.

He glanced around the room, making sure that he wasn't forgetting anything that he was going to need, when he remembered Olivia sitting on the couch; waiting for him to rejoin her so they could watch a movie together.

She was watching him, one perfect eyebrow raised.

"I've gotta go." He explained hastily, moving to plant a quick kiss on her forehead. "I don't know how long I'll be."

"What's going on?" Olivia asked in concern, as the elevator doors were sliding open.

"Serena's in trouble."

G~G

"I'm not giving you any money." Serena repeated to Carter for the third time, hoping that this time he would understand. He had mistaken her earlier query on who he owed, as a confirmation that she was going to help. She was just curious as to who he kept managing to piss off.

"We were married, Serena. Does that mean nothing to you? We used to love each other and now you're just going to turn your back in my hour of need?" Serena thought he was full of BS.

"We didn't even make it to the first anniversary Carter, and divorcing you was the best thing I ever did. I might have been in love with you but that was because I was stupid enough to want to. I feel absolutely nothing now…"

"It's not like you're going to miss the money, you don't even need it. How much are you getting to work with Dan Humphrey?" He spat the name out. "You just keep running off with them, you filthy…"

"That's enough." Both Serena and Carter jumped when Dan's loud voice cut through the argument. "I think you need to leave, now." He addressed Carter firmly.

"You playing house again with this bitch?" Carter laughed. "You know she's only good for two things right?"

Serena thought about slapping him again, but before she could act Dan's closed fist connected with Carter's nose. Serena cracked a smile.

"You bastard." Carter cried, clenching his nose; almost certain that if he were to move his hands they would be covered in the crimson liquid of his blood. "You didn't want her, remember?"

The parents of young Emily Humphrey were both glad beyond belief that she was still locked in her bedroom, and she hadn't heard those words.

"You need to leave now." Dan repeated firmly to Carter, "I'll remove you myself if I have to." Dan, while still lean, was no longer the scrawny teenager he had once been and would have easily been able to remove Carter from the suite.

"I'll leave." Carter didn't want to end up in the ER anytime soon, and he recognised the glare in Dan's eyes. "But this isn't the last you've heard about this." He threatened.

Neither Dan nor Serena looked concerned about the threat of charges.

Dan escorted Carter to the elevator, making sure that the stainless steel doors closed completely behind him, not letting him change his mind. Once the apartment was free of Carter Baizen, Dan moved back to Serena not thinking as he wrapped her up in a tight, comforting hug.

Dan entered his bedroom, to find his young wife of barely twenty three sitting cross legged on the mammoth bread, the navy blue bedspread underneath her crumpled as they'd been thrown haphazardly back.

In front of her were more catalogues and booklets than he had seen in his life, and he noticed that there was a frazzled look in her eyes.

"Where's Em?" He asked softly, kissing her gently as he sat down next to her, pulling the closest booklet towards him.

"Asleep." Serena was distracted, as she flipped through another thick information booklet that her mother had dropped off an hour ago while Dan had been out.

"What are these?" Dan sounded confused as he flipped through the booklet he had picked up, the information and enrolment on a summer camp in Switzerland. He threw away the booklet, the professional promotional photos of children playing in the idyllic scenery and the wooden chalets still glaring up at him.

He glanced at the others covering his bed; tennis camps, ballet camps, Constance Billard enrolments… he stopped when he came across the Connecticut boarding schools and Brown University admission papers.

"What are these?" Dan repeated slowly, "Where did they come from?"

"My mom just dropped them off." Serena smiled slightly.

"Well, we can send them back." Dan replied instantly, without any hesitation. "Tell her we don't need any of this…"

"Dan…" Serena paused, and Dan looked at her in surprise. She was actually looking at these seriously.

"Seriously Serena? She's two years old. She doesn't need to enrol in Brown University yet, she still has sixteen years. Let's get her through nursery school first. What makes your mother think we're even sending our daughter away to boarding school? And Switzerland?" He sounded disgusted.

"I went to Switzerland." Serena reminded him gently. "I went to all these camps; I went to boarding school for a year. I had a great time."

"Yeah and look…"

Dan stopped, surprised that the words were even coming out of his mouth. Serena looked up at him and she couldn't believe he'd said the words either.

"Look what? Dan?" Serena asked him quietly.

"Don't worry about it." Dan said softly, pushing the booklets away from him; "I have to go check on Emily."

"Look how I turned out?" Serena finished his sentence any way as he reached the door. "Are you that scared our daughter is going to be like me?"

G~G

As Dan held Serena, calming the panic she thought she'd been hiding; she felt her body soften at his touch, the warm and loving embrace that made her feel like she was twenty again, and they were just getting married.

She knew that he had moved on, in seven years how could you not, and that he was with Olivia now, and that he was happy with Olivia now; but it didn't stop her brushing her glossed pink lips softly against his.

When he didn't pull away, she wrapped her arms around him tightly and kissed him again; and this time he returned it.

I think I just wrote that in record time =D

What do you think so far? Carter's gone, he was never going to be a huge part in the story, and Olivia's not gone…yet, next chapter =D

The second flashback is just the start of the marriage meltdown, kind of the base of it all =D

Oh, and before I forget again – Jenny in this story is Jenny circa Season One (Good Jenny, Nice Jenny)

Next chapter up soon, so don't forget to review; I love them all

Casey xXx