Chapter 12 of This is Life

"Love is life. And if you miss love, you miss life."— Leo Buscaglia

Author: Lily

Disclaimer: I do not own Gossip Girl or any characters. Gossip Girl belongs to Cecily Ziegesar, Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage and the CW.

Summary: Post 1.10 — Takes place after Chuck sees Nate and Blair kissing. What would have happened, if Blair hadn't slept with Nate and Chuck would have apologized to her?

Rating: T / PG-15

Pairing: Chuck/Blair

A/N — A special thanks to Anki for her BETA. *hugs*

*

"That's the way things come clear. All of a sudden.
And then you realize how obvious they've been all along."

Madeleine L'Engle

*

Nate sat on his couch, staring at the clock, hypnotised.

After his conversation with Blair, he had realised that her relationship with Chuck was indeed - as silly as it sounded - real. At least as real as his had been with Blair.

It had become clear to him that he wouldn't be able to win her back with just words and apologies. He had to do something. So, he plotted like Chuck had taught him all those years ago. He knew his plan would work.

He wasn't anxious about whether or not she would show up at his house. He knew Blair would come. Although she was always suspicious of people and cautious about trusting anyone, she usually chose to see the best in them.

Nate grinned. Had Chuck really thought that he could steal Blair away from him?

Blair was his.

Always had been, always would be.

--

Chuck – I'm not coming for dinner 2day. Going 2 Butter w/ the girls for revenge on little J. Good luck with Bart! I hope everything goes well. – B

Chuck adjusted his bow-tie nervously. He had been working towards this very moment for over half a year now. No, even longer, considering the work he had done for Victrola.

Knocking on Bart's door, he adjusted his bow-tie once more and waited with a thumping heart.

Finally he heard his father's voice. "Come in."

Chuck entered the office and his father looked up from his papers briefly.

"Charles. Sit down."

Chuck thought he had heard a small hint of benevolence in his father's usual frigid voice, but quickly pushed the thought into the back of his mind.

His father and benevolence? No.

"You've done good work on Mr. Chen," Bart announced, his voice shaking Chuck out of his thoughts.

Chuck looked at him expectantly.

"He's willing to let you be one of his… let's say interns at his burlesque club, to see if your ideas are good and if a merger with Victrola, which is of course a part of the Bass Industries' investments, would be worth his time."

Bart was looking at Chuck proudly, something that Chuck had never experienced, and his chest swelled in response.

Bart cleared his throat and continued, "Now, Charles, I need to know if you really want to be an intern at his burlesque-"

"Of course I do father," Chuck interjected immediately.

"I would have expected nothing less from you Charles."

Bart was now smiling at him haughtily and Chuck suddenly realized that he had never seen Bart smiling. Not once in his entire life.

He would nod politely or raise the ends of his mouth a little in public at times for interviews and pictures for newspapers, but he had never witnessed a real smile from his father. Until now. And the best part was that Bart was smiling at him.

"But you have to understand that Mr. Chen is extremely critical of his business partners. So, you'd have to temporarily, for the duration of the internship, stay in Bangkok.

Chuck started to say something, but Bart raised his hand to stop him.

"Yes, this would be a great business opportunity for us, but of course, I would understand if you needed some time to think about the offer, especially since you have school, your soon accruing SATs, and almost importantly, Blair. If you should decide to stay in New York, be assured that there will be someone else to represent you."

Chuck nodded in understanding.

"The plane leaves early in the morning tomorrow."

Chuck choked. "So… soon?"

Bart looked at him with scrutiny before he answered him with a single nod.

--

Blair hasted down the street to Nate's house, still feeling bad about lying to Chuck, but she was doing the right thing, wasn't she? She wanted them to be okay again so badly. After all, she had created this mess, so she should also be the one to set things right.

Right?

Looking up and down the street carefully to ensure that there were no gossip spies spying on her, she rushed to Nate's door and knocked.

Then, her paranoia took over and she turned around again. The street was deserted though, so she let out a sigh, turning back towards the door.

Come on Nate. Hurry up.

Blair tapped her feet impatiently against the ground.

Finally, the door opened and Nate's face appeared. A glimmer of light lit up his handsome face and Blair would have noticed immediately, if she hadn't still been checking the street for gossip spies.

"Finally! Hurry before someone sees us." Blair pushed him into the house, closing the door swiftly behind them.

"You came." Nate smiled brightly.

"I knew you'd be clueless about how to make up with Chuck. You guys have never had a serious fight before." Blair shrugged her shoulders.

"Let's go into the living room and sit down," Nate suggested.

"Before we do this Nate," Blair stopped him, "You should know that I'm doing this for Chuck. Only for Chuck."

Nate nodded seriously.

"Good. Because whatever happened between us is completely in the past now."

Nate nodded again. "Good. And I'm also only asking you for help because you're the only one who knows Chuck as well as I do," Nate joked.

"Not bad Archibald," Blair retorted, obviously impressed with his response as she walked into the living room.

Nate stared after her, baffled.

"Are you coming?"

"Uh, yeah. I'm coming."

--

"So basically, all you have to do is apologize for the way you behaved when you found out about us because you now realise that you did indeed break up with me first and that none of this is his fault at all. And that…well… you just overreacted because you still had feelings for me," Blair said.

"Oh, and don't forget to mention that you know that he's always been there for me and that he really deserves me. That is important, okay?."

"Nate? Is something wrong?" Blair asked him in confusion when he just kept staring at her.

Nate eventually shook out of his reverie. "No, everything's fine. It's just… you're so beautiful."

Blair blushed when she saw him staring at her adoringly, his eyes shining brightly.

Nate was the guy who always gave such compliments like 'You look beautiful tonight.' and 'Pretty, as always.', but this time, she knew he was talking about her as a person and not how she looked.

"Nate…" Blair said warningly nonetheless. It wasn't Nate's place to tell her something like this anymore.

"Oh, sorry. Forget it." Nate replied hastily.

"But thank you," Blair answered politely and an awkward silence followed after that.

"I'm just… going… to the bathroom. I'll be right back, okay?"

Blair watched him get up and rush down the hall.

Nate exhaled deeply. His brief encounter with Blair had completely thrown him off course. It wasn't worth it to mess up things between Chuck and Blair. Whatever they had, it wasn't what Nate had thought it was.

He's always been here for me.

Maybe Chuck was better for Blair than him. He remembered the spark in Blair's eyes after Cotillion, how she was suddenly… lighter, happier. That had supposedly been after she had gotten together with Chuck. He made her happy.

Nate sighed, taking his cell out of his pocket. He was on good terms with Blair now and soon, he would be with Chuck too if he really wanted to be.

"Jenny? It's Nate."

"Nate!" Jenny answered the call excitedly. "I have it! I…"

"Jenny, I've changed my mind. I don't want to do this."

Silence.

Then, she answered. "It's too late Nate. Gossip Girl is about to post it right now."

"What!? Jenny, I told you to wait! Why didn't you-"

But she had already cut off the connection. Nate cursed, turning around, only to see Blair standing there in the doorframe.

--

"Blair, wait."

"Let me go!" Blair wriggled her arm out of his grasp and hurried away, taking her coat and rushing towards the front door.

"Please, Blair…"

"Don't, Nate," Blair stopped him. "I trusted you! I was helping you and all you wanted was to get your revenge on Chuck without thinking about how it would affect us. How could you?"

Nate looked down at the floor, not daring to meet her gaze.

"People always think you're the better person between the two of you, but…it's not true."

Nate looked up at her, shocked, but she didn't care to explain what she had said any further to him.

"Your plan worked. In no time, our cells will go off with the latest Gossip Girl post and Chuck's going to hate us both forever. Congratulations."

As Blair walked out the door, realisation hit Nate. Blair wasn't just together with Chuck.

She loved him.

--

"I can't believe Bart threw you a celebration party!" Eric said to Chuck, who was pouring him a scotch.

"Me either," Chuck smiled at one of the investors politely, who had just come over to congratulate him.

"Here." Chuck gave Eric the glass.

"And it's good?" Eric looked up to him doubtingly.

"How dare you Chuck!" Serena suddenly appeared seemingly out of nowhere and wrenched the glass out of Eric's hand, before he could find it out.

"Hey!" Eric exclaimed and Chuck looked at Serena in complete amusement.

"Has anyone seen Blair?"

Chuck rolled his eyes. "She's your best friend. Why don't you just call her?"

"We… I - I'm asking you, Chuck!"

"Why don't we play a game?" Chuck grinned, taking out his vibrating cell.

Serena groaned. "Chuck, please just…"

Then her cell vibrated too. She frowned. Gossip Girl?

1 new message.

Serena quickly opened it.

Well, well, Upper East Siders.

Looks like we've found our Queen doing something... She was spotted at…

Oh, why ruin the surprise? See for yourselves.

XOXO

Serena looked at Chuck worriedly and opened the video.

She saw Blair knocking on someone's door. What was wrong with that? Serena pressed forward and then realised exactly what was wrong. It was Nate's door.

Serena glanced at Chuck.

His jaw was clenched, his body was rigid, and the expression on his face was unreadable.

"Chuck…" Serena didn't know what to say. Should she comfort him? Tell him that Blair was probably just there to shout at Nate? Anything?

"What's wrong?" Eric asked, instantly regretting not having his cell with him.

Neither Serena nor Chuck said a word and Eric grabbed Serena's cell as Chuck stormed off to his room.

--

To be continued

A/N: Aw I think some of you are going to hate me now, but I just thought Jenny would never let Blair get away unscathed, no matter what dumby Nate thinks ;) Oh, and I think this fic will be finished soon, just a side note. A huge thank you to Mel for her ever helpful corrections. I don't know what I would do without you anymore. Yes, I am going to reply to the lovely reviews now you left me last time. La wee!

Let me hear your thoughts on this chappie, yes, yes? :)