Chapter 2
It's that time of year again Upper East Siders; time to ditch your summer fling, throw out last year's designer swimwear and make your way back to the city because Summer is officially over. But don't be too sad to say goodbye to whichever place you holidayed, be it the Hamptons, Paris or (like our favorite Blonde Bombshell) California because have I got some welcome home news for you! Spotted: Lonely Boy, finally making an appearance on our radar after three long months, exiting what looks to be an Upper East Sider town car in… Brooklyn. It seems you can take the Upper East Sider out of Brooklyn, but can you really ever take the Brooklyn out of the Upper East Sider? Maybe B can answer that question; it wasn't long after Lonely Boy disappeared off our radar that Miss Queen B ended her engagement with her Prince. And whilst she still does stand by her Bass man for richer or poorer, we all know how much our B loves to be in denial – or should I say dair-nial? You know you love me, xoxo Gossip Girl.
Typical, thought Dan. He hadn't been back in the city for more than five minutes and already there was a blast announcing his return – so much for a quiet night in with pizza and Roman Holiday. It seemed that he would have to face the onslaught of his father's imminent lecture earlier than planned. He had hoped after hearing Blair's voicemail just a few minutes ago that he would at least be able to have some sort of time to himself tonight to process everything. But then again, he had had three months worth of time and still the sound of her voice made his heart leap. His summer had been everything he could have ever dreamed of: there had been fiestas in Barcelona, culture in Paris, sunshine in the Greek islands, absinthe in Prague (but that was a whole other story) and writing all over.
Writing. Oh yes, there had been a whole lot of writing! Two weeks into his trip in a little café in Rome, Dan had sat down in front of his laptop, for the first time since he had left the loft and began to write. Since then, he had barely been able to stop. Everything he had ever wanted to say (including everything he hadn't even known he had wanted to say) seemed to burst out of him through his fingertips; it was if a dam had been broken. What had started out as a short story had gradually increased into what he was proud to call his first novel…if he could ever finish it; those last few chapters were proving to be much more difficult than he could ever have anticipated. He had hoped that with a few more days privacy in the loft he would be able to decide which direction to take the story but it seemed that life, or Gossip Girl at least, had other plans for him. So with some resignation he dialled his father's number into his phone and hit the call button.
"Dan!" the familiar voice of his father, though sounding somewhat exasperated, brought a smile to his face.
"Yeah, hi dad, it's me. I just walked through the door."
"Yeah, yeah… Hang on a second" Dan heard what he could only assume to be pots and pans clattering in the background and then a loud "OW! Damn, sorry Dan, you caught me at a bad time, I'm just cooking my famous Chilli; I'm having the family around for dinner." There was a pause, and Dan waited for the penny to drop, "Which would mean that you should be coming over for dinner!"
Dan laughed, "Yeah look dad, I only just got home and I wouldn't want to impose; I'm sure you don't have enough for all of us…"
"Nonsense! You know I always make too much Chilli anyway, and since when has my son ever been an imposition? Dan, I have a very well-rehearsed lecture waiting for you, which won't have the same effect over the phone, so get yourself over here by seven. Oh crap, I think something's burning, I gotta go, I'll see you soon!" And with that Rufus hung up the phone. Dan checked the time on his phone, 5:36pm; just enough time to unpack, shower, dress and head over to the Upper East Side. For some reason, Dan felt like he was heading for death row.
...
When Blair returned home to the penthouse that evening she was exhausted; too exhausted to even bother forcing friendly conversation with Serena who had returned a few days earlier from California. Luckily, the blonde bombshell was out with her new beau and Darota, foreseeing Blair's exhaustion, had run a bath for her. After what felt like hours, Blair exited the bathroom decidedly more refreshed and happier than when she had entered but that did not last for long. Blair had grown up with Darota as her maid and therefore found it very easy to pick up on anything the maid might be hiding from her. And the way that Darota was standing, nervously twiddling her thumbs and avoiding all eye contact caused alarm bells to go off in the Upper East-Sider's head. Rolling her eyes, Blair demanded, "Out with it. And don't bother denying there's nothing wrong, you won't even make eye contact with me." Sighing, Darota slowly raised her eyes to look at Blair and quietly handed her Blair's phone with the latest Gossip Girl blast on it. Blair was acutely aware of Darota's worried eyes on her as she read the blast, "So?" Blair challenged, and if there was a slight hitch in her voice the maid had the good sense to ignore it.
"Nothing, Miss Blair, but does this mean you will still be attending the Humphrey-Van der Woodsen's dinner tonight?"
"I don't see why not, besides Chuck wants me there." She replied defensively.
"But Lonely Boy will be there, and Miss Vanessa said – "
"Darota!" Blair furiously interrupted, "Whatever that low-life cretin, Vanessa, may or may not have said to me about what Dan Humphrey may or may not have felt is irrelevant to my being at the Van der Woodsen's apartment this evening! Got it?"
"But you – "
"I did nothing!" she all but screeched causing the maid to jump back a bit in fright, taking a deep breath in and silently counting backwards from ten, she continued more calmly, "Dan Humphrey and I are just friends, actually no, we are less than friends. He left for the summer without so much as a word goodbye and now he just waltzes back into the city and if he expects me to – " but whatever Dan expected Blair to do was interrupted by her phone ringing. Seizing the distraction, Blair snatched up her phone and breathed out a sigh of relief, "Chuck."
"Blair," he drawled back in a whisper, "I'm going to be running late this evening, my PI has just stumbled across something very interesting to do with Jack, do you mind if I meet you at the Van der Woodsens?"
"Oh, of course not," replied Blair, trying to hide the disappointment in her voice; she had been hoping to spend some alone time with Chuck before the dinner tonight, which was something that they rarely got to do ever since he had decided to rebuild his legacy.
"Good." And he hung up. Blair stared at the phone in her hands, allowing herself a moment of vulnerability before she shook her head, masked her features and defiantly looked up at Darota,
"Change of plans Darota or, should I say, change of outfit…I'm thinking the Dior Tropical Batik!" she smirked as she flounced over to her wardrobe.
...
When Dan entered his dad and Lilly's apartment at the Palace he was wracked with a combination of nerves and guilt. He knew that it would not be easy returning to his family in the Upper East Side after he had basically ditched them just after Lilly's jail sentence had been announced. And even though Serena had done a very similar thing; that was to be expected of her; not of Dan though because he was the responsible, reliable Brooklynite. So when his father, Eric and Charlie, immediately embraced him respectively, you could say that he was more than a little surprised. "Wow, guys it's great to see you and all," he said looking around at their smiling faces, "but I thought you would have – "
"Been mad at you?" asked Eric knowingly; the boy was much wiser than his years.
"Well… yeah." Replied Dan dumbly
"Honestly, son, we were." Said Rufus, "but after you've been through something like our family has, what with Lilly being sent to prison, you start to realise that if you love someone you can't hold their mistakes against them, especially if they were made with good intentions."
"How very…Zen of you." Said Dan, a small smile beginning to appear on his lips, "So was that my lecture then?"
"God no!" shouted Rufus, with a grin on his face, "I've been working too hard on that lecture to just let it go; I've even been practicing on Charlie!"
"He has." Quipped Charlie smirking as Dan raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"It'll have to wait until after dinner," continued Rufus as he walked back to the kitchen, "we don't have time now, besides, the others should be here soon!"
As the three headed to the lounge room and sat down, Dan asked Eric quietly, "The others?"
"Serena and her boyfriend, Ethan, and Chuck and… Blair." Replied Eric warily.
"Chuck and Blair? As in ChuckandBlair Chuck and Blair?" Dan asked casually, his eyes betraying how much the idea hurt him.
"Didn't you get that Gossip Girl blast this morning?" Asked Charlie gently, as if she was talking to a child about to hear that their pet Labrador had just died.
"I did, I just… wasn't sure how much of it was true." Dan muttered avoiding all eye contact. Dan was saved further pitying looks by the ding of the elevator alerting them all to the presence of the whirlwind that is Serena Van der Woodsen. As she swept in with her new boyfriend in tow, the three Humphrey-Van de Woodsens stood up and greeted them. Dan tried to distract himself by engaging in small-talk with Ethan, and really tried to pay attention to when he went on about whatever pretentious film he was working on at the moment (with Serena as his muse of course) but all he could think about was the inevitable ding of the elevator that would signal the entrance of Blair… and Chuck.
He didn't have to wait long it turned out, for not five minutes later, the elevator doors slid open and, as if in slow-motion, out stepped Blair Waldorf. If Dan didn't know better, he could have sworn she was dressed specifically to punish him because she was wearing a very, very short orange and white silk dress with a white-rope cinching it in at her tiny waist and he couldn't take his eyes off her. Eric, noticing this, subtly poked Dan in the ribs to gain his attention and whispered, "Close your mouth."
"Right." Dan replied, jerking out of his Blair-induced coma, "this is going to be a long night."
...
A/N: First off, just wanted to say a MASSIVE thank you for all the reviews and alerts; I am beyond flattered! I hope you enjoyed this chapter; it was a little harder for me to write than the last but I had fun with it. Hopefully Dan hasn't come off as pining pathetically for Blair because that is the last thing I would want to happen and I'm trying to be really wary of that. I just figured that since his emotions are already out in the open I could be quite blatant about them. The next chapter will be the beginning of a lot more Blair/Dan interaction and show a little more insight into what is going on in that Waldorf head. Please review and let me know what you thought!