A/N: Here it is! The time-traveling chapter! *drum roll*

*I own nothing. No copyright infringement intended.

….

Ch.4—Whispered Voices

The warm sun beat against her face, soaking in every inch of her skin. It was still only early March but it was warmer in the Hamptons and she was planning on taking advantage of every second of it.

It'd been a week since that spur-of-the-moment epiphany Chuck had on giving in to her crazy idea of looking into time travel. They had left that night, after Chuck realized how very careless he'd been in packing his suits. She managed to get him to put half of them away since he did have clothes in the Hampton house and it would be somewhat warmer there. She also insisted that he would have to spend some time baking in the sun with her and wouldn't want a business suit on to do that. Eventually he'd consented.

It had been harder than she anticipated to get Ivy to let them stay at their Hampton house, because it was another, among many other things that was included in Cece's will. In the end, Chuck's charm and billions of dollars were the selling point. He out-bought her. By the end of the transaction, Ivy looked more bored than anything else. For some reason that annoyed Serena.

Everything looked the same when they finally arrived at the big white house. Though they'd both been there many times before, nearly every summer in fact, one summer in particular stood out. They shared one look once they got inside the house that said it all. There were no words needed.

Summer before senior year. The summer they had tried to recuperate from losing Dan and Blair, basically the first time.

The first time Chuck walked out on the patio it all came rushing back to him, as if the memory was being relived in his head. He was so stubborn then, and such an ass. He should have asked to talk to Blair alone right then, should've apologized instead of waiting until the following night. More than anything he shouldn't have let her leave him without telling her he loved her.

But he couldn't do anything about that now. Or at least not yet.

She didn't hear him walking out to the backyard at nearly three in the afternoon. The sun had absorbed her and she felt neither time nor place. All she knew was that she felt fantastic and when she felt the light brush of wind signaling to her that someone had just sat in the patio chair beside her, she felt even better.

The sound of the pink lemonade being poured into a glass on the table between them made her open her eyes. Chuck caught her glance. He raised his eyebrows in questioning.

"Yes, please," she said daintily.

He smirked and poured some of the lemonade into a second glass, then handed it to her. She took a long sip and then wiped her mouth clean of the remaining liquid. She noticed he was staring at her after she attempted to lick her face clean.

"What?"

He shook his head and smiled.

"Nothing. You just… you look like you're having fun."

She wanted to smack him because she could have sworn there was sarcasm laced thickly in his voice. But he'd been so real with her ever since they'd embarked on this journey that she couldn't tell if he was simply enjoying the sight of her not sunk in depression. She couldn't blame him on that regard. She was enjoying not feeling depressed. Never in a million years could she have imagined going away with Chuck on a mini-vacation, but she couldn't remember the last time things had ever felt so right as they did right here, right now with her devoted, protective, charming step-brother.

He handed her a napkin and she quickly dabbed at her mouth and the surrounding area until all of the sticky pink liquid had disappeared.

"Did you hear anything new?" she asked before he could further comment on her napkin-dabbing, even to so much as smirk.

He shook his head.

"No. Same thing as last time. They've 'made progress', but it's not enough to really inform me of much. Not that much progress, I guess."

"You think they're playing you?" she asked. "People will do a lot for money, Chuck. It's not like you're even going down to see exactly what they're doing."

"We'll go down tomorrow," he informed her. "I'm not stupid, but there also isn't a whole lot I can tell over the phone. These are genuine researchers so they wouldn't just pretend they're working when they're not. Besides, they know if I don't see any progress I'll shut them down in a week."

Her eyes widened. "You threatened to shut them down?"

"No one else is funding them. Technically it's the same thing."

"Wow. Maybe they're intimidated by you then."

"With good reason." He smirked.

She rolled her eyes. "Might want to downplay that a little," she muttered.

"Why?" he asked far too innocently.

"Because we're on a time crunch," she said deliberately. "Even the smallest development they're not going to tell you about because they want to impress you."

"I thought you just said they're trying to squeeze money out of me by being vague over the phone." He smiled.

She rolled her eyes. "That wasn't exactly how I worded it."

"Regardless, you and I are going to go down there tomorrow. The research lab isn't far away, maybe two hours. If serious progress has been made, we can hope for something by the end of the week. While they're putting the last-minute details into place, we'll start coming up with a plan on how exactly we're going to… 'fix things'."

She whistled. "Wow. It's really happening, isn't it?"

He lifted his glass and clinked it against hers. "Here's hoping."

This time she didn't drink as much and he didn't comment on any lingering pink liquid on her face. She hid a smile though because there was some on his. After awhile she discreetly tossed a napkin his way when she went inside the house. Not so discreetly, he wiped his face clean.

….

Her heart was beating fast. Too fast.

She was nervous.

Too nervous.

Would he take her back? Would he throw her to the street? Was he with Serena now? Had they…? It wouldn't be the first time Serena had gotten involved with her step-sibling.

It was dark, late, much later than when she'd left Dan fuming in his own apartment. Her tears were dried from the encounter. They'd said words. She could have sworn she threw something.

But that didn't matter now.

Nothing did.

Nothing but this.

His reaction. His sole reaction. She could breathe again if only he would take her.

She knocked but no one answered. That was both good and bad, especially since she hit the white wood a few more times. There was no maid service for one; they wouldn't be distracted and she wouldn't be announced to the entire household – yes, of only two people, but still. However, how she would get in now served to be the problem.

The door knob didn't budge, didn't turn or twist in the least. Frustrated, she stepped back off the porch and looked for any way onto the second floor. She knew Chuck's room was on the far left and that even though he hadn't occupied that room more than a few years, and hardly even then, he had his ways of getting in and out without using the front or back door.

She walked around the house and smirked when she saw it: a white ladder that blended almost completely into the side of the house. Looking down at herself, she realized she was by no means dressed for climbing, but she slipped out of her heels and prepared the climb. She had to do this. The second she got in the car and told the driver to head for the Hamptons, she knew there was no going back.

The ladder stopped short. She frowned and realized then that in order to get inside she'd have to maneuver herself with an almost possible twisting of her body and tight jump in through Chuck's window. The problem? Chuck's window was shut, locked and there was no sign of anyone being in that room.

At least they weren't doing it in his room, she encouraged herself.

Resolved to knock on the front door one last time before most likely abandoning the venture to drown her sorrows in a nearby hotel and grovel to Dan the next morning – if she felt up to it, she started to lower herself back down the ladder.

What she had not bothered to consider however was the fact that the ladder was not glued onto the side of the house, and that in trying to reach Chuck's window she'd unlatched the ladder from its secure position.

Desperate, she tried to push her weight towards the house but gravity won out. She started screaming, reaching out for the side of the house or the window, banging on both only once before her flailing about almost sent her crashing to the ground – and probably to her death, she decided, already writing the tragic tale in her head. Maybe researchers would research the ability to dissect thoughts in the human brain after people had died and potentially use that information for some unknown reason. When that day came, the future writers of the world, most likely her ill-fated Dan Humphrey (and offspring) would write about this horrific incident. It was certainly novel-worthy.

Just before she fell to her death, a strong hand caught her arm and she screamed louder.

She had obviously died and been so terrified in the seconds before that she hadn't even felt it. Now she was…floating among those still living. Fantastic. She was a ghost.

When she didn't move for awhile though and realized she was in fact still alive. She looked up and saw Chuck's exasperated face as he struggled to pull her up. Serena came up beside him and gasped, assisting him in the act as she pushed the window farther open.

"Blair. What are you doing here?"

Serena was officially in panic mode, clutching Blair tightly to her once she was inside the room. The brunette decided maybe she had been jumping to conclusions when she heard Chuck and Serena had gone away together.

"I…um," she cleared her throat, "I came to see you," she said, first looking at both of them so as not to show favoritism, but inevitably her eyes landed on Chuck's. Heat suddenly flooded between them. Even Serena could feel it.

"Ever tried using the front door?" Serena asked, still a little exasperated at catching a glimpse of Blair flailing past Chuck's window on her way to the bathroom, and being right.

"I tried that. No one answered."

Chuck and Serena exchanged a concerned look and Blair very well considered leaving altogether. But she couldn't. For some reason everything else that had happened to her tonight left room for possibilities but she abandoned them all. This one instance though, she felt like fighting for. She felt it was worthy…somehow more than the rest. She couldn't explain it. It troubled her.

"Well, uh…we were just getting a drink at the bar down the hallway." Chuck gestured to where they'd been.

Blair's pursed lips and nod acknowledged the situation.

Serena looked between the two. Now would be a good time for Blair to apologize, she decided. And to explain herself. She certainly wasn't giving any apologies to her. She was her #2 priority and in all honesty, Blair would probably prefer she not be there. No, this was not the solution they'd all been waiting for whatever else it was. This was Blair coming for Chuck. Serena didn't know what to think.

"Should I make you something to drink?" she asked to fill up the silence.

"Oh, I-"

"Can we have a moment?" Chuck interrupted.

Serena's jaw dropped, surprised. After everything she certainly didn't expect Chuck to step up and take hold of the reins. He wasn't the one coming to hopefully apologize.

"Y-Yeah…sure, of course," she stuttered, smiling briefly at the two whose eyes remained glued to each other even after the door was closed.

As soon as Serena had left, Chuck went to the door to flip on the light switch. Then he turned back to Blair who hadn't moved an inch. He walked back to her and slipped his hands into his pockets.

"So…you tried to climb into my window," he informed her, smiling slowly.

She blushed.

"I think…Romeo was a bit smoother," he remarked.

Her eyes snapped up to his. She didn't know what she expected to find but the teasing smirk and the light in his eyes certainly hadn't come to mind.

"I…th-the window was locked."

He raised his eyebrows at her defense, but when she stuck to it and didn't say another word, he let it drop. Farther down than he would have liked.

"Why are you here, Blair?" he asked softly.

She thought she heard bitterness in his words. She deserved it. She deserved any and all hatred he had towards her. But on the other hand, he had just saved her life.

"Thank-you," she said, suddenly realizing, "for saving my life. Again." She seemed completely mind-boggled by that fact. She was still trying to comprehend it.

He looked tired. Incredibly tired. She wondered if their 'situation' had caused him some sleepless nights. She'd been doing alright until recently.

"You're welcome," he said, surprising her. Then he waited. That also surprised her.

As if she was discovering it all over again, how much Chuck had grown since they'd last been in this place was enormous and flashing right in front of her face. He wasn't demanding, wasn't trying to turn everything to his advantage. He was just there, waiting for her, being gentle, accepting what she had to give and preparing to deal with the hard cards she might throw at him.

Her tensed shoulders relaxed. There was a swirling energy around them now that felt very much like love. She desired it.

"I'm sorry," she said.

His brows furrowed in confusion.

She walked forward and hesitantly placed her hands on his chest, one over his beating heart. The rhythms she felt against her skin thrummed through her, like she'd been sucked into the eye of a storm that would never ceased.

Chuck gasped. If he lost his breath completely and passed out right at this moment, he would not be surprised.

She looked up at him.

"I'm sorry for what I said to you…before."

He looked at her strangely. She had said so many things. It was too much to hope for that she was apologizing for what had hurt him most.

"I still love you, Chuck."

"Blair-" He started to pull her hands off him. When was she going to get that it hurt for him to hear that she didn't love him the way she had?

She stole her hands back and cupped his face. He was tense but he didn't pull away.

"I'm in love with you," she said softly, her voice barely a whisper.

His eyes widened.

"I don't know how I ever could have stopped, or ever thought differently." She gave him a tiny smile.

"Blair…" he was completely speechless.

"Shh, don't…let me…"

She placed her hand over his lips and then replaced her fingers with her mouth. Pulling him to her, she kissed him. He returned the kiss hungrily, like a desperate man who had gone hungry for a very long time. His hands twisted in her curls as he pushed them across the room, gripping her every curve. When she moaned, it was his name he heard and he'd never felt more alive.

His mind was screaming at him that this needed to wait. He needed to interrogate her, see what had happened to change her mind, if she'd actually broken up with Dan, where things stood between them…but a switch had gone off when she kissed him, when she admitted that her change of heart had been completely untrue, and he was willing to forgive it, just to have her.

Just to have her.

…

When he woke up hours later, Blair was snuggled up against him, her back to his chest. His arm was around her waist, holding her protectively to him. His face was deep in her curls and for the life of him he couldn't believe this had happened. Here she was, his beautiful angel, in his arms again, willingly. Because she was in love with him. Only him.

You don't know that.

He wanted to swat away that doubting voice but it wouldn't leave him alone. It came to him at the most inconvenient moments, but it happened more frequently once he was on the road to recovery. He decided that probably meant it was his conscience. That made more sense than anything else, because it was perfectly understandable why someone would want to switch off such a negative, annoying…thing.

She breathed in and out softly and he got chills. Literal chills. It had been so long since he'd gotten chills like these, the good ones, the ones that told you this feels too good to be real.

It is.

He narrowed his brows even as the voice pointed its wagging finger in his mind. Did it really have to be so damn negative?

You're not thinking clearly. Do you want to have your heart broken all over again?

Evidently, this voice did not have any brain cells whatsoever.

Blair moaned in her light slumber and it happened again. Another ripple of chills down his back. She blinked when their noses touched and pulled back a little. She sighed contently and smiled. His heart soared. She touched the side of his face, pushing away the tousled hair and he wanted to marry her right there, right now.

Slow. Down. Ask. Her.

If this voice had any decent set of balls they would be kicked to high heaven by now. Because he knew the asking being referred to wasn't a question that involved going down on one knee and offering a sparkling ring in a velvet box.

Inwardly, he sighed. He knew the questions needed to be asked or everything that had happened tonight would be only a dream in the morning.

"I love you." Her fingers danced across his face.

But couldn't he just have this one goddamned moment? Couldn't he draw it out as much was possible? Couldn't he hold her just a little while longer?

The look of love in her eyes could slaughter any man, dead or alive.

And that's when he realized it.

He blinked.

This strange overwhelming feeling he was having wasn't brand new at all, and it went much farther back than just when they were almost together the night of the accident.

It went way back to the beginning.

When he'd lay with her during the night and she would give him her rapt attention and he'd swear she was in love with him. Then in the morning she'd know he wasn't because one look from Nathaniel and her heart would be someplace else.

He was still sharing her.

"Blair." He propped himself up on his elbow and looked down at her. She looked up at him with dazed, starry eyes. This was just like it was, he reminded himself, unspeakable fury growing in him. She'd be so into him. It was as if no one else in the world mattered. No one but him. He was her world.

Oh, and then that other guy.

"Mm?" she asked, her fingers still threading through his hair.

"What happened with you and Dan?"

Her fingers stilled. He braced himself. This was it. This was the end. And he was already feeling the hurt, just how it laced through him every time he saw Nate and Blair together after she'd abandoned her vow to stay away from who she truly loved.

"What do you mean?" she asked innocently, resuming her fingers' movement in his hair.

He sighed and pulled her hand out of his hair and back to his side. When she frowned playfully, he knew this was serious. He had to put some distance between them.

He stood to his feet and crossed the room to put on his robe.

"Chuck?" Blair asked, panic etching into her voice. She knew what was coming and she was in full blown denial. It reminded him very much of junior year high school Blair, but this time the triangle consisted of god-awful Humphrey, not best friend Nathaniel.

And this time Blair was incredibly secure of him leaving.

This girl had no idea what she really wanted.

"Blair, did you break up with Dan?" he asked point-blank. Her jaw dropped.

"What? I mean, uh…hmm….what?"

He walked back towards her at the bed but refused to lie back down.

"Did you break up with Dan?" he asked again.

"I…"

He wouldn't assume anything. He wouldn't.

"Do you love him?"

"I…"

"Are you in love with him?"

His gaze was so hot it pierced through her. She hated how he knew her so well, even when she didn't know herself, even when she thought she knew herself but found out the hard way she really didn't.

"I…" she huffed, then threw the blankets off her and stood to her feet, angrily glaring at him. "What do you want from me, Chuck? I told you I was in love with you again!"

He forced himself to remain calm.

"Did you or did you not break up with Humphrey?"

Her lips were tightly snapped shut. She wouldn't break. She wouldn't.

Finally he couldn't take it. "Should I call him myself and ask him?" he challenged.

She gasped when he started to cross the room to get his phone.

"What? No!"

He retrieved his phone but held it far enough away from her that she couldn't reach it. It was almost amusing to try to see her grab it when he clearly wasn't planning on following through with his threat.

"Blair."

Her eyes snapped back to his and she composed herself when he slipped the phone idly into his pocket.

"Tell me the truth. Do you love him?"

She sighed. "Yes."

He tensed, but knew he had to press through.

"Are you in love with him?"

"…yes," she said, much quieter this time. He could barely hear her.

But he had, and he was completely and utterly broken. He had been betrayed once again. He was the second choice. Things had gone wrong with Humphrey and he was the safety net she wouldn't have to look twice at in the morning.

The scene was all too familiar.

"Then what the hell is this, Blair?" he asked, forcing himself to keep his voice at a normal level, forcing himself to remain calm.

"I-I…I love you, Chuck," she pleaded.

He shook his head at her. "You've lost your mind." He started moving across the room, gathering her clothes together. She followed him, desperate.

"No, Chuck—I do love you. I'm in love with you. I love both of you!"

He stopped and straightened, tossing the stack of clothes onto the bed.

"Tell me the truth, Blair. Please. For both our sake's. Hell, even for Humphrey's."

Her eyes watered.

"I-"

"And please don't babble," he requested. Her words were empty enough without the stuttering that came before, after and during.

"We're on a break!" she finally said.

He gawked.

"Who?" he finally asked.

"Dan and me," she said. "We had a fight. It was about you…it was bad, and I…we, well, we decided….to go on a break."

He scoffed and shook his head.

"How very Ross and Rachel of you."

"Chuck," she cried desperately.

"No." He shook his head, grabbed her clothes and forced her to take them. "I'm not doing this again. I did this in high school. I'm not doing it now. I'm not going to be your second choice. I'm not going to share you with anyone. Not as far as love interests go. I'm just…" He tried to ignore her tear-filled eyes. "I'm not."

"Chuck," she whimpered.

Finally, he looked at her. His heartstrings were severely yanked on at the sight of her sad face, but he knew there was not a damn thing he could do about it. He had to be strong.

"You need to figure out who you are, Blair, and what you want," he said, gently now. "Somewhere along the way you lost yourself and Dan happened to be there. He took advantage of you and now you're a shell of the woman I once knew." He stared at her so sadly it made her fall apart even more. Her first instinct had been to defend her relationship with Dan, but the sincerity and seriousness in everything Chuck said and how he spoke overwhelmed her and she could not speak.

Chuck took a deep breath, cursing himself a million times over for how much he was letting go when it was standing right in front of him. But he knew it had to be done. He couldn't have her this way. Just like he couldn't when the weight of the dowry stood between them.

"When you find yourself again, I'll be waiting." A tear on both cheeks streamed down her face as he kissed her forehead.

He pulled back then and held her face in his hands.

"Because Blair, I will love you and be in love with you forever. Only you. I will wait for you. But…" he pulled back completely and shook his head. "You have to find yourself first."

He walked to the door and opened it.

"Arthur's parked in the driveway. He can give you a ride back to the city."

He didn't look at her as she left the room. He had enough of her brokenhearted face imprisoned in his mind to torture him for a lifetime.

….

She'd never seen him this determined. Not like this. He was broken inside, but you'd never know it just by looking at him. If she hadn't overheard Chuck and Blair's fight and seen Blair running down the stairs in a fit of tears, she might have missed it.

Once again, in his emotionally unstable condition, Chuck had insisted on them leaving in the middle of the night to go to the laboratory and see what stage the lab scientists were actually at. He said they were just going to see the status of their progress so they would know how to plan in future days, but Serena had an eerie feeling that after that night, he would throw all rational thought to the wind and insist on going back in time tonight, if anything whatsoever was available to him.

So, she packed a small bag of her things. It would be five years back at the most, she gathered, so if she really didn't have something, it could always be purchased. There was a voice in her mind laughing at her relentlessly that she was taking this so seriously, because in reality this type of thing just didn't happen. Even in his desperation, Chuck must've realized that.

But he was not thinking clearly, and he'd be thinking even less clearly if this time travel thing didn't work tonight. She prepared herself to do whatever necessary that would prevent him from doing something stupid tonight, or something harmful.

The limo stopped in front of the almost completely dark building. There was one light igniting a room on what looked to be the basement floor.

She grabbed his hand just as he went for the door. He turned back to her.

"We don't have to do this, you know. I mean, tonight we don't have to."

"I have to," he said.

She was going to remind him what he'd told Blair. That he'd wait for her. How could he wait for her if he was going back in time to change what had happened?

But she saw the desperation on his face and knew she couldn't deny him this. She wouldn't let him go through this alone. Just like he wouldn't if the roles had been reversed.

Three long dark hallways later they found the one lit room. Serena was grateful for this one determined lab scientist. When everyone else had gone home because it'd gotten late and they were too tired to keep their eyes opened, he had stayed on. He was a workaholic. At the particular moment, she was grateful to people like that who worked too much.

The man was in his mid-30s and clearly not afraid of Chuck, but he was eager to show the progress he made and that made for an excellent combination.

"What have you come up with?" Chuck demanded. Serena wished she could blame it on him being drunk, but that couldn't possibly be used as an excuse. He wasn't acting drunk. He was acting snappy, his broken heart fueling the rage in his voice.

Very calmly, the man brought out the pile of papers he had written formulas on. Then he brought out a tray of green and red gel pills. Chuck looked down at them conspicuously.

"Explain," he said.

The man cleared his throat.

"Well, theoretically, the red pills send you to wherever you want to go and the green pills bring you back."

Chuck's brows furrowed. "Theoretically?"

"They haven't been tested," he said.

Serena gawked. "They haven't been tested? Chuck, let's go. I'm sure they'll have better results after they've been tested out."

"What about that blue one?" Chuck asked, ignoring her.

The man turned to see the small tray Chuck was looking at where a blue gel pill sat.

"Ah." He turned back around. "That's supposed to erase all your time travel."

"What?" Chuck asked, confused and a little panicked.

The man took a breath, maintaining his patience. He was tired. But this was his employer and he was proud of his progress.

"If you don't like what happens when you travel back and forth through time, this pill, also theoretically, will erase all of that and take you to the place you were before you took any of these pills."

Chuck's brows were still furrowed. "Huh."

Serena was worried by his intrigue, so she intervened before he could speak again.

"Why haven't these been tested, Mr….?"

"Daniels," he said. "Dr. Daniels," he clarified. "And they haven't been tested because no one wants to risk it, for obvious reasons."

"How do you determine with the pills where you go in time?" Chuck interrupted.

Dr. Daniels turned around to grab a tray from the table where the blue pill sat. When he came back he had a plate of syringes in his hands. Serena's eyes widened.

"We put a formula into these syringes." He pointed to the dials and mark on the syringes. "See these marks and tabs? You push it to the date you want and then we set the syringes in this machine." He led them over to a machine attached to a computer. "It configures and reformulates the formula. When it beeps, it's done. Another indication is that the liquid inside glows red."

"Then what?" Chuck asked, intensely curious now, bordering on excitement. Serena grew more concerned, but realized she was also anticipating what would happen next.

"You inject yourself like you would for a shot. It takes about five minutes to take effect."

"And then…?"

"You've travelled through time," he said, a smug smile on his face. "Theoretically," he quickly said, so they wouldn't sue him in the future on the basis that he guaranteed it.

Chuck blew out a puff of air. "Wow. Well, it's certainly impressive."

"Yes, it is…" Serena said skeptically. She latched onto Chuck to prevent him from downing any of the pills without thinking. "What do the pills have to do with it?"

"The pills activate the formula. They're a means of making sure you make it through time without disintegrating into a million pieces in the process. You need both to travel through time. They act as so much sugar water on their own."

"Sugar water," Chuck repeated, smirking.

"Mm," he acknowledged.

"Well, let's do it."

Dr. Daniels' jaw dropped. So did Serena's.

"It hasn't been tested, Chuck." Serena tightened her grip on him.

He turned to her. "Relax, Sis. We'll formulate all the possible times we can go back to, so we can sort of 'escape' if something goes wrong."

"And what about the process? What if something goes wrong there?"

"What could possibly go wrong there?" he asked nonchalantly.

She was starting to wonder if maybe he HAD had something to drink when she wasn't looking. When she came to the conclusion that all his rational thought had gone out the window, she hadn't realized that literally all of it had.

"Possible scenarios, Dr. Daniels," Chuck requested.

"I…uh," he stuttered. Serena gave him a very serious warning glare. She was desperate now. He cleared his throat. "The formula is not toxic to the body per se, but if it were, most likely all that would need to happen would be for it to…pass through the other end, if you get my meaning."

Chuck smiled, satisfied. "See, sis? Nothing to worry about."

"Couldn't we also be shattered into oblivion or stuck in some in between time place?" Serena fumed.

Dr. Daniels gulped. "That is also a possibility, yes."

Chuck brushed it off. "I doubt that'll happen, and even if it does, it can't be much worse than what I'm going through now."

Serena's face softened, compassion engulfing her like it had a week ago and tonight before they left, and on the way over.

"Chuck…" she said, soothingly touching his shoulder.

He turned to her though, without a single sign of heartbreak on his face.

"I'm doing this with or without you, Serena," he said, dead serious. She gaped, but didn't recover long enough to stop him from giving Dr. Daniels the details of each red pill's destination. By the time she'd come up with more reasons to stop him, the first syringe with glowing red liquid as predicted was being put into his arm and when she finally got her mouth shut from it dropping open once again, he had swallowed the red pill.

"Chuck!" she cried.

"Serena," he walked towards her. "I have to do this. I have to fight it. This isn't the first time Blair's lost her way. I have to stop it from happening. I have to make it right."

"Not like this," she begged. "Please. Take the other pill. Don't go."

"I left the details with him," he said, gesturing back to Dr. Daniels. "If I make it there, follow the same dates."

"Where do I meet you?" she asked desperately, unsure of how much longer he'd be there with her.

"The Palace."

"Chuck. That's too close to your younger self. Isn't—wait, when are you going back to?"

"Room 1813," he clarified.

And then he was gone.

Her jaw dropped. "He's gone." She turned to Dr. Daniels and looked at him as if he'd lost his mind. "He's gone," she said again, this time extreme anxiety in her voice.

He rushed to her, afraid she was going to faint. He managed to get her to a chair and offer her water, but she declined.

"When did he go to?" she asked, deciding trying to analyze what had just happened would be completely pointless, no matter how mindboggling it was.

He turned back to the notes and the various dates written down. He found the first one.

"Uh…December 1st, 2007."

She sat up, alarmed.

"What? Does that mean something to you?"

She gawked and then turned away, running a hand over her forehead. "Yes, god yes. That…oh my god. He's going back to Cotillion."

His brows furrowed. "I'm sorry?"

She snapped to her feet and walked straight towards him, abandoning all fears and anxieties to the wind. "Alright, fix me up. Same dates. Everything."

"Uh…"

"Duplicates! Now!" she said, suddenly much louder than before. "He's not paying you to look pretty. If he screws up, I have to save him."

Looking more agitated than he had during the entire conversation, Dr. Daniels shuffled about between the pills, syringes and large computerized formula machine, setting up the identical dates on all devices while Serena stood there staring at him and tapping her foot impatiently.

….

A/N: Sorry I didn't go back in time yet, but I still needed build up! XD And besides, Chuck is traveling as we speak…lol Also, as I'm sure you're well aware, I heard your cries about a CB reunion being ridic right now! ;D Hope you enjoyed. Please review. :P