I own nothing!!!

I am trying to make shorter, quicker chapters. But not sure if it's working for me

Hope you are enjoying it, there should be another 7 or so chapters

Also if anyone thinks they could be a quick turn around beta please let me know. I just need someone to look it over and tell me if they get what I'm trying to say....

Enjoy.... PC

"Thanks for coming Chuck" Blair mewed sipping meekly on her Gin Martini. She was wearing a silk dress in pure white, her dark curls held in place by a gold ribbon, his mind instantly went back to the stories his grandmother would tell him as a boy about the angel looking after his mother in heaven. His grandmother had told him that she too would be with the angels soon and the young Chuck anxious that he wouldn't have anyone to tell him stories once his grandma was visiting his mother in heaven had wanted an angel for himself. Of course, she had told him that he wouldn't have an angel for many many years. Looking at Blair he thought how wrong his grandmother had been, Chuck had met his angel the following September and even though he hadn't know it, even Blair hadn't known it, she had been looking after him his whole life.

"You know that coming for you is my greatest pleasure in life." he quipped like a old Hollywood legend who had been given the script for a porn movie instead of Casablanca as he watched his angel mix him a drink, she always was the Myrna Loy to his William Powell.

"Not your best Bass, rough night?" she asked not truly wanting to know the answer, every night had been a rough night for Chuck since they had gotten back into the city, and since Christmas so had every evening, every study period and most painfully every limo ride.

She recalled the night that Lily had moved out of the family apartment, when she had finally gotten a very drunk and very angry Serena settled into her guest room she had gone over to the half-empty apartment to check on Chuck, as a friend. She had found him sitting in his bedroom, the only room that remained unchanged despite the dissolution of the family, he was drunk more drunk than she had seen him in years, and instead of dismissing her, he allowed her to hold him. He allowed her in, so she ignored the scent of the other women on his clothes the lipstick on his skin afterall friends didn't notice those things and they were friends if nothing else.

"A gentleman never tells"

"Gentlemen are overrated" she admitted as she passed him the cocktail her eyes were saying more than her admission ever could and he knew she wasn't simply responding to that question, she never was, her words were always going back to some past conversation some past life. She was giving him a concession, doors don't slam open but her eyes told him that they sometimes someone could pass you the key to a long locked door when you least expected it.

"Why did you ask me here Blair?" he looked down as he always seemed to in her presence concentrating his attention on the drink she had prepared for him, it was sweet yet dry, fun but classic, plus it was made with his favourite scotch. He licked his lips, in appreciation.

"It's called a 'ceasefire'" she supplied eyeing his drink a small smile played on her lips as she watched him enjoy the drink "I needed to know something Chuck"

"What, what could you possibly need to know from me? What scotch to buy for your new toy, because I am pretty sure he will prefer a bottle of Poitín!" he joked half-heartedly.

"Chuck don't"

"Don't what Blair?" he asked exasperated

"Don't make this about him," she pleaded reaching out to stroke a piece of fluff from the lapel of his jacket "this isn't about him. It's about us."

"You can't tell me you honestly like him Blair, a barman from Brooklyn!" he spat out incredulously both trying to change the topic and because he couldn't believe that this Donny character was any more than a game. a way of showing the world that Blair Waldorf could indeed do anything, she made the rules and she could break the rules.

"He makes me smile" she whispered quietly, dropping her hands from his jacket and crossing them across her body in an attempt to defend herself or make her words seem more believable. Not realising until then how vulnerable this conversation that she had planned to the last detail would make her feel.

"Not like I do" he trailed a finger down her cheek closing his eyes to relive and relish in the softness of her skin. He would tell himself that he had known Blair long enough, touched her enough times, that the memory of her could not be diminished by time, that his memories of how soft her skin was, how silky her tresses were, accurate. But the reality never failed to blow his mind whether it was her hair flicking across his face as she turned away suddenly or when she would give him the slightest of kisses on his cheek before she left which would have his blood boiling for hours.

"He is smart he understands everything"

"Except you" he countered his voice thick and rough with unspoken emotion

"He likes me" she added her voice almost a whisper; she was doing that thing that he hated again, every conversation, every comment full of thinly veil references to his inferiority.

"I…" he started before turning away sharply. He knew that not telling her was a mistake, but somehow whenever those words lay on his tongue his mouth filled with sand. He should have said it before, too much has happened, too many months of debauchery on both sides, too much pain disguised as friendship, they were ruined, he ruined them. so before he said the words that would destroy them both if he let them he stopped and gave her his trademark smirk. "at least his taste in women is better than his taste in clothing"

"Chuck I need to know if I should keep waiting for you to change your mind." The truth was she really did like him, this barman from Brooklyn for all the reason she said and more but her butterflies were far from dead and she couldn't bear to put them at risk not after they had survived so much, not unless she knew for sure that there was no chance.

"I never asked you to wait Blair"

"I know you didn't but I am and I will. If you tell me that one day you will be able to... to be with me, I will wait ... for as long as it takes." her voice broke on the last few words and the both knew how much it meant, she was willing to give everything up for him, her pride, her future, her chance for a fairytale.

"And if I can't say that?" he challenged not because he wanted to hurt her but because he didn't know what else to do and because he honestly needed to know the answer to the question. If he couldn't be the Prince Charming she needed, if he refused to risk her future by letting her wait for a commitment that might never come, what would be left of them then?

"If you can't say that then I guess we stay what we always were. We are Chuck and Blair, Blair and Chuck, I will be there for you through anything and I know that you will do the same for me. Your darkest thought is my most devilish plan, your worst deed my greatest triumph," she offered, as her heart died a little death. White Knights didn't need ask what would become of the princess if they didn't manage to save her from her ivory tower, they didn't consider whether the princess might actually be happier with the dragon.

"Everything stays the same as it always was friends forever" he mussed more for his own benefit than for hers, saying it aloud he couldn't believe that he hadn't thought of it before, if they never started then they could never be over. I knew that being friends with Blair hurt like hell but the thought of his life without her in it at all was even worse, that would kill him.

"If that's what you want" she choked out her words fumbling out of her mouth as she slammed the door to her heart shut and set about raising her defences.

"It is," he confessed instinctively holding her hand and pressing a kiss onto the smooth skin there.

"To Friends then" she chimed raising the glass in her other hand, he dropped her hand almost as soon as the words left her mouth almost as if hearing them from her made them made the reality of his decision more apparent. She smiled at him quickly wiping away the single tear that dared to escape from her eyes. Even as she glupped down the contents of her drink and watched him walk away she could feel the familiar sensation of bile rising inside her.