Chuck waited impatiently for Blair, each moment passing slowly like sand through an hourglass. He was desperately afraid that she would fail to appear. As he watched her slim figure enter the Armani showrooms he felt the world tilt and spin. His prayers had been answered.

Blair sauntered into the room as casually as possible, even though her heart was pounding in her ears like a drum. Up until the last moment she had almost turned around and left, but she had been overcome by an insatiable curiosity. Here was her chance to try and decipher her dreams and memories once and for all.

"You came," Chuck said smirking casually as if he hadn't been waiting breathlessly for her appearance.

"Of course, why wouldn't I?" Blair demanded, rolling her eyes.

"I thought maybe your prince would have locked you up back up in your tower after last night," Chuck said dryly.

"He is not my prince and you shouldn't have done that. Jack doesn't like to be teased and your gesture, however extravagant, taunted him. Don't back him into a corner, he can be vicious," Blair warned.

"I know." Chuck's face-hardened. "We are related, after all," he said cynically. "He doesn't know you're here with me does he?"

"No, and I would prefer he didn't find out," Blair said brusquely, trying to gloss over her nervousness.

"Don't worry, this will remain between you and me. It will be our little secret," Chuck leered.

"There is no me and you and I will tell Jack when the time is right," Blair said giving Chuck a quelling glance. "It doesn't look good to have the two major owners of Bass Industries fighting. This feuding between the two of you needs to stop."

"Are you offering yourself up as the sacrificial lamb?" Chuck asked, eyeing her hotly from head to toe and back again appreciatively. "I must admit I admire my uncle's taste."

"You're disgusting," Blair said her lips curling with disdain.

"Maybe…"Chuck shrugged, lifting one brow at her suggestively, "But I promise, given time, I will grow on you."

"Lets get this over with. Where are we to eat?" Blair asked, giving him a look of disgust. "I can't be seen in public with you."

"You wound me." Chuck placed a hand over his heart exaggeratedly.

"You have exactly one hour," Blair said with a hint of a smile, as she tapped her index finger on her platinum Cartier watch.

"Then we had best be on our way." Chuck said huskily, barely keeping his eagerness in check as he led her through the back entrance to where his limousine awaited.

Blair gazed disdainfully around her as she stepped around crates filled with colorful fabrics and naked mannequins. "Do you do this often?"

"What?" Chuck asked holding out his hand to catch her as she started to stumble.

"Sneak your conquests out the back of designer showrooms," Blair said insolently even as she gratefully let him enclose her small hand in his large one.

"I didn't realize you were a conquest?" Chuck quipped slyly, as he threaded his fingers through hers.

Blair tried to pull away, but Chuck's hand held her fast. Inhaling softly she tried to still the beating of her heart as the contact of just his hand on hers made her blood bubble through her veins like champagne. Opening the back door Chuck pulled her through the entrance, stopping for a moment to regard her heated cheeks with amusement.

"This is your car?" Blair asked faintly, as she stood face to face with the same limousine that had chauffeured her and Serena around town yesterday.

"Yes, I sometimes let my step-sister borrow it when she asks especially nice," he explained his voice lingering over the word nice.

"I see," Blair said stiffly, following him into the back of the limousine. Trapped inside she stared out the window at the passing traffic. She wouldn't look at Chuck. Not now when all she could think of was the vision from yesterday of herself kissing him as if he was the very air she breathed. Shutting her eyes more images flashed in her brain. Her straddling Chuck, her pearls swinging between her breasts, Chuck slipping the strap of her slip over her shoulder. Tingling with erotic sensations, her thighs growing moist she shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Taking a deep breath she wiped the images from her mind like an eraser on a chalkboard, leaving her mind blank to focus on Jack.

Chuck watched her carefully, noting the subtle heightening of her color, the frequent fluttering of her eyelids. He knew she was remembering and the thought pleased and tormented him all at once. For the first time he was worried that he was rushing her, forcing too much at once, but then he recalled Jack's triumphant smile at the restaurant and he knew that it was time for the butterfly to emerge.

Blair gasped as the limousine pulled up to the house she and Serena had visited yesterday, the one that seemed to hold her deepest unconscious desires.

"No," she whispered as the limo driver opened the door for them and waited patiently for them to alight.

Standing at the street, looking up at the imposing house, the iron scrollwork gated door now resembled an elegant prison instead of the stately entryway from yesterday.

"No, "Blair murmured, shaking her head, her feet fixed firmly on the ground. She couldn't breathe, it was as if the elegant wrought iron had come alive and was winding its way around her neck like a snake, asphyxiating her.

"Yes, Audrey," Chuck rasped, his arm coiling around her waist as he pulled her to the door. As soon as the door slammed behind them, Blair pushed hard at Chuck, throwing herself out of his grasp. Breathing heavily she paced the floors like a wild animal, looking him straight in the eye.

"Why did you bring me here?" Blair asked, her chest rising and falling erratically with every breath.

"This is my home. I brought you here for lunch," he said coolly, approaching her slowly as if she was dangerous.

"No, it can't be. This home is for sale. I visited it yesterday with Serena," Blair said, with confusion.

"I own this house, but it is not and never has been for sale," Chuck said strangely, his voice thick and heavy. "It is waiting patiently for its mistress to return."

"She's dead," Blair said tonelessly, blankly. Colors swirled, turning to black and white as her brain began to shut down. Images and flashes of her and Jack blossomed in front of her eyes like inkblots, only to bleed into full color scenes of her and Chuck.

"Is she?" Chuck asked with a calm he did not feel. He had started a process he no longer was sure he could control. He was tearing apart the very woven fabric that was Audrey Hawthorne, unraveling it thread by thread.

Blair shook her head, forcefully clearing all colors and images from her mind. "No, Serena specifically said she was dead. She was your fiancé?" she asked calmly as if she just hadn't almost had a small breakdown in the middle of the entryway of the townhouse.

"She was," Chuck said softly, his eyes reflecting the pain of nearly a thousand days without Blair, days spent believing she was dead.

Overwhelmed by sadness for a woman she had never met and terrified of what would happen if she stayed one minute longer in this house with ghosts at every turn, Blair stared at her watch. "You have twenty minutes Chuck before I beat the door of this house down."

"Lunch awaits," Chuck said heading up the stairs.

Blair gulped as the staircase wavered before her eyes. Pausing at the first step with dread she stood still, afraid to take one more step that would bring her closer to the bedroom and the bed she had now dreamed of twice.

"I never took you for a coward, Audrey," Chuck called out over his shoulder as he stepped higher up the stairs.

"I'm not," Blair replied haughtily, as the world tilted like a funhouse with each step she made up the curved elegant steps. Reaching the landing, she swayed as her heart palpitated like a snare drum. In that instant he was there, his arm around her waist. She shoved him roughly away. "You forget yourself, Chuck. You have exactly," she looked at her watch, "Nineteen minutes now to feed me and get me out of here."

Chuck could see the fragile veneer under the surface. Blair and Audrey were beginning to bleed into each other and he exalted in it. Just one more push and they would be there. She would be back and his once more.

Throwing open the gilt double doors to the master bedroom, Chuck unveiled his luncheon. Candles covered every surface, flickering and coating the room in a golden glow. On one of the tables, spread out picnic style, was exotic cheeses, breads, cold lobster salad, fruit and a bottle of wine, her birthday wine. Standing in honor in the bedroom, just as she remembered, was the four-poster bed of her dreams and nightmares. Draped in silk it called to her like a siren in a storm.

Blair's stomach clawed at her, her heart jumping into her throat as her brain tried to process the scene before her. It felt so right, like it had happened before and anything different would be wrong and foreign.

"Have we met before," Blair asked with the slightest hint of bravado, still fighting what her heart already knew to be true.

Chuck advanced slowly towards her, his lips twisted into a secret smile she had never seen before and one that scared her. "What do you think, Audrey?"

She stared up at him despair shining in her eyes. "I don't know anymore," she said her voice sounding like a child terrified of the monster she knew existed under the bed that no one else could see.

Placing his arms around her, he lifted her into his embrace carrying her as if she was as light as a feather. She didn't even bother to struggle instead she surrendered to him. She was lost and the only thing that seemed real right now was Chuck and his touch. She was suddenly so tired, physically as well as mentally drained. Curling into the fetal position she nestled herself into the heavy satin coverlet that covered the bed. Chuck sat next to her and nestling his fingers in her curls, he stroked and smoothed her hair just the way she had always liked. The only way she had ever been able to relax. "I have been here before, haven't I," Blair whispered shakily.

"Yes," Chuck said, his voice breaking.

"Tell me," Blair whispered.

"Blair," he whispered, her name a holy prayer.

"Blair," she echoed, her voice sounding tinny and far away to her own ear. She knew that name. Somehow it was all tied to everything, the house, the bed, the wine and the dreams. It had to be the key to everything.

"Your name is Blair," Chuck said, his voice breaking.

Blair shook her head in denial, her eyes large and scared. "No, my name is Audrey," she said in the tone of a little girl lost.

"No, it is Blair," Chuck said, his eyes shimmering with pain. "Your name is Blair and you are my fiancé.

"No, no. " Blair shook her head wildly.

"Yes, Blair. You are mine and I have loved you ever since that night in the limo."

"You know about that?" She asked, her hand covering her mouth in shock. Pushing him away she rose from the bed, only to find him blocking her path.

"I know everything there is to know about you. Just like I know you have been dreaming of me. Only those dreams aren't dreams, they are repressed memories of our time together," Chuck said his voice low and purposefully seductive.

"I am not yours, I have never been yours. I am Audrey Hawthorne and I am engaged to Jack Bass." Blair declared, stepping around him, making her way to the door.

Chuck pounced, stalking her like panther. Coming closer and closer to her with each step until he had backed her up against the wall. Leaning in he trapped her, imprisoning her with his arms. She wanted to struggle, to push him away, but looking into his passion filled eyes, she felt only the stirrings of desire.

"You can't run from me. There is no place you can hide I won't find you. Jack can no longer protect you now that you know the truth," Chuck said his voice heady with triumph.

Gripping her shoulders, his lips masterfully caught hers. She struggled, in his embrace, but he only pulled her closer to him. As his mouth pressed firmly against hers, she was stunned, taken out of her world and into another, one where only Chuck existed. Sensation flooded her, her knees trembling as he kissed her with deep, drugging kisses. She closed her eyes, eyelashes fluttering like butterfly wings as visions of two of them in the bed together, in the back of the limo, flashed behind her eyelids. In her mind she tried to replace the images of Chuck with Jack and to her ultimate shame she couldn't. She was drowning in desire, flames licking at her skin, setting her afire.

"Audrey!"

Ripping her lips from Chuck's, Blair heart skipped a beat, stalling in her chest as she came face to face with Jack.

"Jack," she breathed, pulling away from Chuck. "I didn't mean too…I don't know what I was thinking."

"It's all right. I don't blame you," Jack said coldly. "I know how persuasive my nephew can be."

"She didn't need much persuasion, did you Blair?" Chuck asked silkily. Reaching up he cupped the side of her face, his thumb tracing the curve of her cheek.

Blair glanced from Chuck to Jack, her eyes wide and scared.

"Come here, Audrey," Jack commanded, gesturing sharply at the empty space beside him. "The car is waiting to take you home."

Blair obediently started to move towards him, only to have Chuck stop her as his hand gripped her wrist.

Twisting in his grasp, Blair fought to free herself.

"She's starting to remember. It won't be long now, Uncle Jack, before she is mine again." Chuck said triumphantly, releasing Blair from his grasp slowly one reluctant finger after another.

Jack held out his hand, catching Blair's as she stumbled towards him.

"What does he mean?" Blair asked frantically, as Jack folded her into his arms protectively.

"I'll explain it to you in the car," Jack said soothingly attempting to lead her from the room.

"No, explain it to me now," Blair demanded, her body stiffening in his grasp.

"I'll tell you everything, but you need to come with me now," Jack said warningly, pulling her down the stairs one step at a time.

Chuck followed after them, his eyes dark and hard. "You don't have to go with him, Blair."

"Stop calling me that!" Blair shouted angrily, over her shoulder.

"Let her go, Jack. You can't keep the truth hidden from her much longer," Chuck called out.

Blair gasped, her legs bucking under her as her brain exploded with pain. Flashes of memory were coming to the surface faster and faster. Images of her and Jack danced side by side with ones of her and Chuck in the crazy carousel of her consciousness. "Make it stop," she whispered.

"I will, darling. You just have to let me take you home," Jack said as he picked her up in his arms.

"Put her down," Chuck commanded, his voice heightened with anger and fear.

Blair struggled, kicking and screaming as Jack's arms tightened around her like a vise. "Put me down."

Jack ignored her, as he walked through the iron-gated doorway towards his waiting town car. Like a hissing cat, her nails clawed at his face until he was forced to set her down.

"Audrey, please," Jack pleaded. His worst nightmare was coming true, his plans slipping through his fingers. Worst of all he was going to lose her.

Blair took a deep breath, gathering her strength around her. "No," she said defiantly. "I am not going anywhere with you."

"Blair," Chuck rasped, opening his arms to her.

"Or you," Blair added, glaring at him. Pulling her phone from her purse she found the number she wanted instantly. "Serena, I need you."

"Audrey, you don't want to do this," Jack said softly.

"Chuck, since New York taxis leave much to be desired, I am taking your limo. I hope you don't mind," Blair said with acidic sweetness.

Chuck smiled slowly, his eyes glittering at Jack maliciously. "Arthur is at your disposal," he offered.

"Thank you," Blair said with a slight smile.

"Audrey," Jack shouted, as Blair was ushered into the limousine by Arthur.

"We will talk later. I promise, but first I need to see Serena," Blair said with a calmness she did not feel. Blair or Audrey, she no longer knew who she was. One thing she did know, with an instinct she couldn't explain, was that Serena would tell her the truth and set her free.

Jack watched in anger as Blair turned her back on him and drove off in Chuck's limousine.

"You haven't won her back yet," Jack snarled at Chuck.

"Maybe not, but if you think she will ever look at you again after she knows the truth, think again," Chuck said triumphantly.

Jack took a deep breath, considering the matter, his eyes shrewd and assessing. "I wouldn't be too sure of that. I am all she knows, all she has. She has no choice, but to ultimately come home to me."

Chuck slowly raised one eyebrow at Jack. "If I know Blair and I do…the only way she will be coming home to you is with a knife hidden between her dainty hands. Making it all the easier to stab you in the back when you least expect it."

"You may know Blair…" Jack said slyly. "But I know Audrey." With those parting words he turned, heading towards his parked town car.

"Tell me how you did it?" Chuck called out, shoving his fists deeply in his pockets, so deep he wouldn't be tempted to punch Jack. "I know why, but I still haven't figured out how."

Grinning with self-satisfaction, Jack turned around. "One of those companies Bass Industries acquired under my management, developed a chemical that could block painful memories, inhibit them so to speak. It has been so successful in trials so far that Bass Industries stands to make a killing if it ever becomes FDA approved."

Jack's smile faltered briefly, his brow furrowing as he continued. "Out of all our subject's, Blair, was the least successful. It was actually harder then I thought it would be. Her memories of you and her life here fought us every step of the way. Fortunately, enough of them were traumatic enough that the drug was finally able to work it's magic."

Chuck looked at Jack with horror the implications of what he had just learned filled him with revulsion. While he had always known Blair had suffered from insecurities where Serena was concerned and he had certainly made life difficult for her when his father died he never would have dreamed her memories would be so negative they could be so easily erased. "You sick son of a bitch."

"I wouldn't talk about your grandmother that way, Charles," Jack sneered. "Think of what dear Daddy would say?"

"You want the company, Jack? You can have it." Chuck paused, his eyes darkening into cold narrow slits. "Just leave Blair alone."

Jack chuckled, the sound ugly. "I would if I could. Unfortunately us Bass men always want what we shouldn't. You should understand." He paused, tapping his finger on his chin in thought as he considered the offer. "But maybe, just this once, I could make an exception."

"I think that would be an idea that would be extremely beneficial to your continued well-being," Chuck replied, his lips twisting into a sick smile.

"Are you threatening me?" Jack asked calmly, even as his eyes darted nervously from side to side.

Chuck merely stared at him, his sadistic smile never leaving his face.

"Even if she starts to remember, she will never be your Blair again," Jack taunted snidely, aware that while he might lose the battle he could still win the war.

"I love her enough that I don't care who she is, as long as she is mine," Chuck replied. Turning his back on his uncle, he walked away.

Thanks once again to all my wonderful reviewers: .x0x0, xoxo - Amber, SnowedUnderNJ, JYLlian, Cathybronte, READER120, annablake, Franci, Poinsettia, flipped, TriGemini, Eternal Destiny 304, GossipGirlFanForever, Kensley-Jackson, abelard, Pao, Lil Miss Chuckles, :D, blair4eva and Syrianora.

I can't begin to tell you how much your support and comments mean to me.

Thanks also to my amazing beta's GossipGirlFanForever and Shanynde.

In case anyone is wondering the technology to erase traumatic memories is currently under development. It was an article about the drug successfully being used in studies with lab rats that brought the idea for this story alive. If you would like links to the scientific articles please PM me.