Chapter Two

The doctors calm infuriated Chuck. 'After a thirty-six hour coma, we can't know how she'll be when she wakes up. She lost a lot of blood from that gash in her thigh, and she went into shock.'

Each word the doctor spoke embedded itself in Chuck like a gun shot. Infuriated that he couldn't help her, he stared at his unconscious wife. Her vulnerable, wounded body rumpled the blanket on her bed. The bank of blinking monitors that surrounded her screeched persistently enough to wake the dead. Chuck bit the side of his cheek.

Men don't cry. So his father had preached. Clutching Blair's unresponsive hand, Chuck alternated between an urge to bawl with unmanly pain and an acute need to break everything in the small hospital room.

'She'll wake up,' Dr. Oakliegh said, as if he saw through Chuck's attempt at stoic silence. 'She's healthy - no sign of infection in her wound. We just have to see where we stand. Tests, physical therapy - Excuse me Mr. Bass.'

The doctor barely cleared the doorway before Serena slipped into the room. Chuck rubbed his fist against his temple, annoyed that he hadn't asked her to call Blair's mother and Father in France.

Serena eased around the bed. 'What dose the doctor say?'

His sister was so close with his wife he was sure they sometimes shared each other's thoughts. If only Blair could sense Serena's pain, she'd wake up, feeling a compulsion to help her sister in law.

'He says the same thing over and over. We have to wait.' He stroked his wife's forearm, grateful for the body heat that warmed her silky skin. How had he not noticed she was avoiding him, even in their bed? 'I'm fed up with waiting.' Waiting and thinking about all the signs he should have read as he and Blair traveled to the end of their marriage.

'Where's Eric, Chuck? He's the only member of our family not accounted for in the waiting room, and I think you need him.'

'He called, he's driving in from Hudson with Jenny and Nate.' Chuck roused himself. Last time he'd left this room, the waiting room had been empty. 'Is Dan out there?'

Serena shook her head. 'I sent him home to relieve the sitter. He'll come back in the morning when the baby wakes up.'

He nodded, twisting his hands on the metal bed rail. Serena's eyes seemed unnaturally wide as she tried to smile. 'We're all afraid. What if she doesn't wake up? How long are we supposed to-'

'Don't think about giving up.' Chuck briefly hugged his sister.

'Don't worry.' She gripped Blair's hand. 'I refuse to lose her.'

Serena's tenacity almost renewed his faith. But it might be too late for him and Blair. Her serious injuries and the possibility that she'd never let him try to win her back lingered in his mind.

He'd wanted to make her life comfortable and easy. Instead he'd let her down, and even now, he wasn't sure what he'd done wrong.

The door swished open, and Lilly Humphrey entered the room. Courage in her tired gaze touched Chuck. He'd swear she hadn't closed her eyes since he'd had to tell her about Blair. Neither had he, but she looked fragile, worrying for her son and daughter in law.

He dragged a chair to the side of Blair's bed for his mother. Although Lilly hadn't become his mother until she adopted him at seventeen, when she married his father, she had taken him in as one of her own and convinced him that he was a true part of the family. Even after his father had died and Lilly had re-married she had shown him real affection and made sure he knew he was apart of their family, a brother, a son.

Taking Blair's hand, Lilly sat and smoothed the sheet beside Blair's hip. 'You need to get some rest, Charles.'

Before he could answer, Nathanial Archibald entered the small room with his girlfriend Jenny's hand at his elbow. Behind them, Eric craned for a glimpse of his brother and sister in law.

Eric sidled through the others to wrap his arms around his big brothers shoulders. Chuck hugged back, t o Eric's relief, but then quickly pulled away. Chuck preferred a handshake to any display of affection.

Chuck met Nate's questioning gaze. 'The doctor can't say much until Blair wakes up.'

'Until she breaks out of that coma,' Serena said, as if the coma were and animal that had wrapped her friend in its vicious grip. 'Let's face facts.'

'I won't face that word.' said Chuck, his expression a faultless display of barely controlled fear. 'Take this chair Serena. And stop talking.

His sister gave him an annoyed glance. 'We need to be realistic about this Chuck.' She bellowed at a decibel level her voice only reached when she was stressed and angry.

Eric patted his sisters hand motioning for her to be quiet. 'I know your both worried but yelling at each other won't help.

Serena slunk into the seat sulking. 'Maybe the racket will wake -' she actually lifted her voice '-Blair.'

Her foot twitched beneath the covers. Chuck went back to her bed. 'Blair?' Could waking her be that easy?

Her eyelids fluttered. For a horrified moment, he was afraid she couldn't open her eyes.

'Blair,' he said, 'wake up. Serena, why didn't you shout at her before?'

'Shall I try again?' Serena leaned closer to Blair and might have yelled again, except Eric placed a hand on her shoulder holding her still .

Chuck flashed his younger brother a grateful smile and took Blair's hand. 'Wake up,' he said again. 'Please, Blair.' He didn't beg easily, and his resistance had been a sore spot between them. He'd beg pretty damn freely now. 'Blair,' he said again, and she opened her eyes and held them open. Her steady dark gaze made him want to shout, but he knew better than to scare her.

'Are you in pain?' He didn't dare look away. Something different in her expression bothered him - some level of detachment. 'Serena, get the doctor.'

As Serna left, Blair's gaze followed her. She studied each person around her bed. Nothing that made her the Blair he loved was in that gaze. She eyed her friends, mother in law and husband with the same strange, dreamy look until she focused on Chuck again.

'Who are you?'

The courtesy in her tone chilled him.

Trying to ask her what the hell she was talking about, he choked on his first breath. Confusion threaded the air, like a piece of twine that slipped from body to body. Strangling them all.

Jenny was the first to cry out, but then she covered her mouth. The flowers Nate had been holding clattered to the floor. Chuck reached for his mothers shoulder, steadying himself with hands that shook hard enough to remind him how his father felt about men who gave in to their emotions.

But even Bart Bass would understand this. Blair had really left him after all.

END CHAPTER TWO.

A quick little update to keep you interested. After reading this back I feel like there might be some confusion with the relationships, so below is a brief explanation.

Serena and Dan are married and have a baby boy (yet to be named).

Nate and Jenny are dating. In my mind nothing with Chuck and Jenny ever happened and as they got older the girls go over their differences and became friends.

Vanessa has disappeared off the face of the planet simply cause I have no place for her in the story,.