Was it me? Did I do something wrong? Could I have prevented it? Was I not looking close enough? Questions, questions, questions drowned Serena's thoughts. Did he hear my confession at the hospital? Was that why he was so angry with me? It was too much for him to handle right now you stupid idiot. Why did I have to go and open my big mouth, why couldn't I have just let it go? I always go and ruin every good thing in my life. Stupid cow. Serena continued arguing with herself as she walked through the park they had visited on many occasions. After their break-up she had often come here and simply sat on the swings. She would find herself wondering around the lake when she couldn't sleep, which was almost every other night. She found something so calming and relaxing about the gentle ripples of water. The way the leaves blew softly in the midnight chill, or the way her reflection flickered on top of the water.
"So this is where you escape to in the middle of the night?" Eric sat beside Serena.
"You know you shouldn't creep up on a girl like that"
"Well it's not like I'm going to jump them is it? Now if it were a man then maybe yes" they laughed. "What you thinking about?"
"Nothing much" she lied. She kicked her feet back and forth through the gravel.
"Come on Serena, I'm your brother, I know you, I watched you before, your confused face, your overactive hand gestures you often do it was like you were talking to someone, yet there was nobody here except you. Tell me, what was it?"
"That's right, Zach Fairman, Mason Gilford and Rhys Jones. I want information on them by 5' o'clock tonight." Chuck Bass may be a bastard but he had his uses. One of those uses was having a P.I on speed dial.
Dan rolled his head to his right; sadness filled his eyes as the cuffs around his wrists clanged against his bed frame. Had his life really took this turn? Was this what he had resorted too? Chained, locked and confined?
The staff had decided to leave him to cool off after he had tried to attack one of the nurses who had tried to restrain him after his family visit. Everyone knew he wasn't a bad kid, they knew that he didn't mean any of his harsh and cutting words they were sometimes subjected to every now and again. When he had come down from his 'high' it was almost like a new person, the old Dan. He couldn't be lovelier to the staff. It was times like this when they had wondered how he had run down his own life. How such a caring young man could end up in a place like the Ostroff Centre.
Bright sparkly lights, beautiful fancy dresses, a blonde blue-eyed princess twirling on the dance floor flashed through Dan's mind. He was transported back to the night of the Debutant ball. The night they were finally approved of by her family. The night they showed that against all of the odds set against them they could pull through and peak their heads over the other side of the barrier. Just another hurdle they would jump together, hand in hand, side by side. He would never forget the smile she gave him when she turned around and saw him standing, waiting to rescue her. A smile he gladly returned with the same amount of love and adoration.
Charlotte, part of the nighttime team, Dan's favourite actually had been doing her rounds when she peered through his window, he was not one of her patients but she had liked to just check in on him when on shift. Checking her watch she had decided she was a little ahead of herself on her time scale so she thought she would pop in and see how he was doing.
"Hey, what's wrong?" she touched his leg tentively when she saw how cut up he was. As his face was still turned to the right when she peered through the window she never saw his bottom lip trembling like a little baby who had fell over and graved their knee badly. His eyes red and full with what looked like a non-stop river of tears. He shook his head unable to really speak at the moment.
"Can I do anything? Get you anything?"
He let a minute pass as he tried to sustain his sobs. Once he was sure he could be understood he quietly asked "Serena. Serena. Please. I beg you. Can you get me Serena Van Der Woodsen?"