END OF MONTH 6
Jack Bass glowered at the eight pills lined up neatly on the black granite countertop of his bathroom sink. His dark eyes were weary and his formerly imposing physique was now thin and malnourished with his sickly skin pale and the bulging, eggplant hued veins threatening to burst from underneath the paper-like epidermis. Jack Bass was dying.
Dying.
His body was shutting down on him because that damned heart he so rarely used had taken to its isolation and grown a fucking tumor. A cancerous tumor. A tumor that could kill him in a matter of years. Months. Weeks. Days. Hours. However long he had, he was certainly not going to take it - he was going to fucking conquer it.
He felt a pang of guilt surge up from somewhere within his long lost soul at having to play his nephew and his statuesque blonde girlfriend so completely, but he needed every penny of what he could get. Before, when he was in control of the Bass fortune (he refused to regard that period as anything less than perfection - despite the fact that it held an eerily similar stance to that of the Nine Day Queen*), he could have fixed himself without having to stoop as low as he did - stealing from others.
Jack snorted. The only things he'd ever stolen were stocks, corporate dealings, maybe the occasional wife (though he'd discard her just as easily) but he'd never had to resort himself to having to connive money away from anyone. He was Jack Bass dammit, he didn't need money.
Only now (he winced) he did.
The stocks he had had plummeted, his software company was failing and close to filing for bankruptcy, and the fiancee he'd sworn never to marry had just broken off their engagement, taking her multimillion dollar inheritance away as well. The van der Woodsen fortune was as close to a substitute as he could get without rousing the suspicion of his keen minded nephew and hiding behind the smokescreen of Dan Humphrey was just too easy. He knew from the very get-go that the ink stained failure of a man would never give up the wealth he'd been deprived of and Jack himself had not had the full resources to steal it away.
Lulling the cretin into a false sense of security, pulling him down to levels of deep paranoia, and eventually driving him half out of his mind with fear was enough for Jack to extract from Humphrey grandiose promises enough to assure him that the Brooklyn boy was on his side.
Now, Jack smirked, picking up two pills and swallowing dry, the idiot that was Humphrey simply needed to deliver.
Humphrey -
My generosity does not last for a great deal of time. Your part of the bargain begins now - unless you want everything you have to fall out from underneath you.
He remembers. He's bitter. You may be his son but you sold out your own father to the IRS to cover up your own tracks. He'll kill you himself if he could. I should know.
My money, Humphrey. I need it by month's end or so help me you'll end up in a Russian prison so far out in Siberia that even the prospect of another nuclear war won't affect you. And get rid of that Sparks girl, will you? She's a pretty thing but you hardly have time for distractions.
The note was unsigned but Daniel Humphrey knew without a shadow of doubt that the writer of said letter was none other than Jack Bass. Cursing under his breath, the former Brooklyn rat stood upright as he paced towards the ceiling-to-floor windows of his study.
Fuck.
Dan squeezed his eyes shut. The devil was finally at his doorstep. And so was the bitch from hell.
Fuck.
"Eric!" Serena cried as she burst in through the front doors to the Bass penthouse. Her leather trench coat was untied and unbuttoned, allowing Chuck to see that she had nothing underneath save for a cream colored slip; her heels had been carelessly thrown off somewhere in the front foyer and though her hair looked windblown and her cheeks flushed.
Chuck decided she was perfection personified right then and there.
Watching her amble into her younger brother's arms filled him with a warmth that should not have arisen and watching the glimmer of happiness return to her sapphire blue eyes gave him a feeling of satisfaction - and guilt. For he was the one, Chuck mused despairingly, that had wrought misery upon her and caused whatever suffering she had to endure.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded, pushing him away to so she could scan his appearance with as intense a critical eye as she could muster. "You're so not supposed to be here!"
Eric gave Serena a weak smile before briefly glancing over at Chuck and then back to his older sister. "I'm actually here to tie up some loose ends…visit some people…apologize." he finished, his cheeks flushing red from embarrassment and guilt. Looking up into his sister's eyes, blue as the June sky and filled with such earnest love, Eric felt his whole demeanor crumbling. "Serena I'm so sorry," he choked out, "I never should have left you - for whatever reason. After everything that happened, I…I pulled the coward's move and I ran. I ran because I didn't know how I was supposed to protect you - how I was supposed to take care of you. And I just thought, I just thought if I could somehow track down mom and get everything straightened out we'd be alright and - " by now tears were streaming down the younger van der Woodsen's cheeks and his voice had begun to break as his hands trembled in Serena's firm grasp. "I'm so sorry," he gasped as his glassy eyes spilled more tears down his face.
"Eric…" Serena sighed, raising a hand to brush away his tears as she pulled him into a fierce hug. "Don't you ever apologize for doing something that I've already done a hundred times over," she joked weakly, "I know that if it wasn't for me and my shitty example as a sister then we wouldn't be in this mess." pulling away, Serena looked into Eric's eyes, blue mingling with hazel. "I love you, Eric and I'll repeat this until I'm blue in the face and Chuck has to call 911 to resuscitate me because it wasn't your fault."
The brunette merely shook his head as he looked at his older sister. "That," he breathed, "wasn't my fault, I know."
"Good." the blonde smiled, ready to lead Eric towards the couch before he stopped her.
Looking back, Serena's brow furrowed.
The younger van der Woodsen took a deep breath. "But this is. Serena, I…I was uh, with Georgina Sparks and she is now pregnant. With my child." he rushed out as Chuck's scowl, epitomizing the evil eye, glared him down. Before he could interrupt, Eric continued, "everyone thinks it's Dan's so the Sparks family has an entire army searching for him and the reason why I didn't come back to you was because of that." Eric pleaded, willing Serena to understand, "if the Sparks family can access the Humphrey bank account and get into their files, they could see everything's thats happened. They could could give us back what's rightfully ours, Serena." his voice had turned beseeching as he tried to convince an increasingly disturbed Serena.
"You…you got Georgina Sparks pregnant so you could use her family's resources to hunt down Dan?" Serena repeated, her voice incredulous as she looked at her younger brother. "What's wrong you with you? Did someone switch your mind with Blair's? Eric! How could you even…how could you possibly…? You don't just leave a girl pregnant and alone, Eric van der Woodsen!" Serena shouted, her voice rising as her arms unconsciously wound around her own stomach.
Chuck had already made his way across the foyer to the two van der Woodsen's and whilst his hand was itching to wrap around Serena's waist, he knew full well that with her raging pregnancy hormones and otherwise chemically unaltered rage, he would most likely get slapped.
And Chuck Bass was not in the mood for a red mark of that variety.
"Serena, you have to understand why," Eric argued back, shaking Chuck from his thoughts.
The younger van der Woodsen was now simply appalled at the extent of his sister's exclamation. "Georgina Sparks hates you and nearly ruined your life on more than one account so I don't even understand why you're trying to paint me out to be the villain here!"
"Because you left a girl alone and pregnant!"
"Well it's not like she's just any girl, Serena - she's Georgina Sparks! She's not some dainty little farm girl whose spent her entire life milking cows - she's spent the majority of her demented and twisted existence ruining the lives of others and breaking every law ever written in the English language!" he countered just as fiercely, wincing at the tone of his voice. Taking a breath, Eric tried to soften his gaze and expel the irritation that was consuming him. "Serena this is not how I wanted our reunion to go, you have to know that. I just…" his voice trailed off when he saw that Serena had begun to retreat into Chuck, arms still clutched around her midsection whilst the Bass president glared down the younger van der Woodsen. "Wait…Serena, are you pregnant?" he demanded, praying to a god he'd long since forgotten that his assumption would be false.
When Serena merely buried her face in Chuck's chest, Eric swore his heart temporarily stopped before his mind kicked into overdrive.
How stupid can I be…?
"Serena, I didn't mean - " Eric began but was cut off by Chuck's disapproving glare.
"Make yourself at home, van der Woodsen," he said easily with only his eyes betraying the genuine agony he felt for the blonde in his arms, "evening meal begins around six. Welcome back." pulling Serena closer into his arms, Chuck hoisted her up bridal style before making his way down the hall, completely bypassing the guest bedroom that Serena had locked herself up in for the past few weeks.
Despite Eric van der Woodsen's idiotic and rather rash play, Chuck felt a small appreciation on the fact that the younger boy's fumble was his gain.
"Chuck?" Serena whispered tiredly into his chest.
"Yes?"
"Don't ever pull this shit on me again or I swear to god I'll get Nate to come and beat you up."
A chuckle escaped the mocha eyed businessman's lips. "Believe it or not princess, I actually didn't plan anything this time."
Serena lifted her head. "You didn't?"
"Surprised?"
She scoffed. "Oh please, this was so your plan. Keeping me surprised is what you're best at Bass."
"So would it be surprising if I, hypothetically of course, apologized and informed you that you have every right to know what's going on?" he inquired, his voice neutral but the meaning behind his words touched Serena.
"You mean you're letting me into your little super spy association?" she teased lightly, a small smile tugging on her lips.
He gave a nonchalant shrug as he opened the door into the master suite. "It is your money, S. You have every right to know." Chuck repeated again, looking down at the blonde in his arms.
She smiled. "Okay."
He supposes he'll tell her about his own involvement with Georgina Sparks at a later time…
From: Carter Baizen
Subject: Yellow Roses
Date: November 30, 2013
To: Daniel R. Humphrey
Humphrey -
Someone's leaked our plan. Bass knows.
- C.B.
Uh-oh, looks like someone's never heard of the phrase 'loose lips sink ships'. But shouldn't we all stand back and applaud C and S's reunion? After all, it's been a while since the UES has seen its king and queen and quite frankly, it's boring without them here. Speaking of which, I do hope B's not letting herself go - doesn't she know? Florida beach babes don't get their figure from sipping mojitos all day!
Poor N…stuck here while B's down there. Well, you know what they say - c'est la vie!
You know you love me,
XOXO,
Gossip Girl
*Nine Day Queen refers to history's Lady Jane Grey who was an English noblewoman that became England's monarch for only nine days (before Queen Mary I usurped her).
A/N: No, no, no - I have not forgotten this story! It just took me a little while to update but I said the plot would be moving and so it has...information is coming to light and I promise we're going to see Queen B next chapter.
Thank you all so much for the reviews - each one makes me smile, really :)
So keep on reviewing and tell me what you think now that the Humphrey-Baizen-Jack triangle has come to light...oh, and Georgina Sparks' baby will be a girl!
Any name suggestions? My favorite so far is Viviana!
Tell me what you think!