Title: Can't Turn Back

By: Myra

Status: Incomplete [7/?]

Summary: "Time is free, but it's priceless. / You can't own it, but you can use it. / You can't keep it, but you can spend it. / Once you've lost it you can never get it back." ~ Harvey MacKay

Disclaimer: I own this laptop… And this plot. And some OCs... But I swear that's it! Also changing the set up to my stories.

Thank You's: Everyone. I left this story in sort of an odd place and I always trying to find my way back to it.

WARNINGS: Abortion and depression, heavy implication of Dangina, Serena bashing (sort of), Georgie defending Blair, Dan/Chuck friendship, Nate/Chuck enemies, at least 4 OC (Melanie Coarsen-Bass, Casey Abbot, Arthur 'Ari' Rose, and Edward 'Eddie' Charles Waldorf), baby!Milo is Dan's son. I don't how much of season 3-6 that I will use be warned. Actually, it's mostly AU.

Warning 2: A bit filter-ish at parts, but it connects with the overall story, especially Nate's part and Serena's part respectively.

Can't Turn Back:

Chapter 7: Time Mends All Things

There was a point before Blair departure when Chuck noticed a slight change in her. Of course, he asked several times if there was any room for concern and she brushed him off insisting that whatever problems she had she could handle it.

Time and time again, he had insisted that she had someone to rely on, someone who loved her, someone like him.

He wished that he had gotten to the bottom of Blair's problem. Had he realized the problem was this severe, there might have been a chance he could have gotten the help she needed. Maybe, he could have saved her from herself.

If only she had stayed.

There was too many what if's and could have been's, but there was never a certainty of anything anymore. Not after she left.

Had he taken a few moments from Bass Industries, had he stop and really thought about everything, had he been there…

Chuck wished a lot of things differently; from the time of Blair's departure, to his accident, to his sham of a marriage, even now. He just wished he had the chance to go back and change everything.

But they weren't those people anymore and too much had changed. Too many secrets had been kept, too many people were hurt.

It was time to move forward, it was time to come to terms with Blair and her secrets. It was time for them to stop running and face the problems head on. With a bow tie firmly in place and peonies in one hand.

"I'm here for you," he stated simply.

In the months that followed his exile from Manhattan, Nate Archibald found himself growing restless with the lack of direction that his life had currently taken. He was living off his grandfather trustee with no friends, no real home, and no future.

He had failed.

The word itself made his stomach revolt.

He did what everyone expected him to—fall so far from grace to never get back up. Now he was stuck in limbo waiting for absolutely nothing and no one. He would have laughed at how pathetic he sounded, if it weren't so true. Indeed, the months of solitude, had turned him into a very bitter man and he knew exactly who to blame. The last two remaining Non-Judging Breakfast Club members: Chuck Bass and Serena van der Woodseen.

There was a point in time when Chuck believed in him and Serena as well. Before the "incident".

Serena had been the source of his problems, she always had been. She stood by him, she advised him, she then ruined and then abandoned him. How could she call what she did love? How could she justify everything she had done and then walked away?

She was no better than Chuck as far as Nate was concerned. Part of him would always blame her for abandoning him when he needed her the most.

Thinking about her now didn't hurt so much. Over the years, Nate came to the conclusion that Serena was the biggest mistake that ever entered his life. And he was happier man for never hearing about what became of her.

But then again, he had to thank Serena for leading him to Casey-however, indirectly it may have been.

"Deep in thought?" He heard Casey ask and he nodded his head in acknowledgment. "Do you ever miss it?"

He glanced over at his fiancé— who stood at the polar opposite of his desk with her arms crossed—but he said nothing. "You're not that difficult to read." She added after a brief silence, "You get this crinkle above your eyebrow when you're thinking of home."

"It's not home," he said instantly, "it's just a place where I grew up and then it spit me out."

"But you miss it still," she insisted.

"Drop it, Case."

Nate knew from experience that she would push and push until she got her way. Casey Abbot had to be one of the most frustrating people he had ever met. She was smart and beautiful, of course, but so utterly stubborn. It was a big part of why he loved her.

She never gave up on him.

Her pale green eyes soften when she saw the look his face. "You can't keep doing this you know?" she said softly.

His eyebrows furrowed again. "And what exactly can't I keep doing?" he asked her.

"Holding on."

To what, he almost asked, but he knew.

"Case…"

She dropped her arms and sighed heavily, her pale green eyes never leaving him. "Do you want this?" she asked pointedly, "Well?"

He gave her a look of pure confusion before answering, "Of course I do."

"Then you will pack your bags and get your ass straight to Manhattan, you got that? Oh don't give me that look— you want me to marry you, Archibald? Then I suggest you listen up because I need you understand something. I love you but you can't pretend like our problems—yes, we have problems—will go away because you refuse to acknowledge them. You go to wherever the hell you're from and you face your problems. Is that understood?"

All Nate could do was nod his head and Casey smiled brightly. Did he mention that she might be the death of him one day?

"How? How could you still want this? Us?" Blair was the first to recover from the long extensive silence that filled the room after Ari spotted Chuck in their hotel room. She hadn't realized she had spoken, until she realized Chuck walked towards them.

"A wise person once told me: The worst thing you've ever done, the darkest thought you've ever had, I will stand by you through anything."

A watery smile appeared on her face, as much as she tried to stop the tears from falling."Even now? Even with Ari? And Edward? And what happened?" Wordlessly, Chuck reached out for her hand and held on to her as a new set of tears rolled down her face.

She felt Ari bring his hand to her empty one. This was her family, her broken and wonderful family, almost complete. Years ago, she hadn't known she would ever reach this kind of happiness, but here she was—7 years later. While they had issues to sort out, it was nothing they could not handle.

Chuck looked down at Ari. "Thank you, Arthur, for keeping her safe. I thought I lost her, but you took care of her. So thank you for everything."

Ari stared back at him and carefully choosing his next words and replied simply, "She's my mom, she saved me."

"Your mom is the best person I know," Chuck said in a matter-a-fact tone, "And I hope that one day, I'll be part of your family."

Ari nodded his head.

Much to Georgina's dismay, she had not managed to lose Melanie Coarsen in the Manhattan crowd. And she tried everything. As the day wore on, she was no longer in the mood of being chased all around the city by some crazed—well, crazier than her at the moment—society wife. Not that she particularly fond of the idea in the first place, but at least the idea of losing crazy-Mel sounded like a good plan.

To certain extend, after all that wasn't the whole plan. She still needed to locate a certain Bass.

When Melanie decided to follow her after Chuck's disappearing act back in the café earlier, she hadn't anticipated that it would take up her whole morning. It's not as if she asked Chuck to abandon her with Melanie or left her to deal with his mess. But she did it without much complaint…

Not that he would appreciate it, but at least Dan would. So she supposed that was a good thing.

'If Melanie got hit with a bus or a taxi', Georgie thought, 'that would solve a lot of problems. It's not like anyone would really miss her.'

But no form of public transportation had yet to hit the current Mrs. Bass and that put a damper on Georgina's current mood.

For a second, she was actual considered forgetting about Chuck entirely, but this was the most excited thing that happened since Dan finally put a date on their wedding. And that was two days ago. And Georgie had done her waiting, almost a decade, if anyone was counting.

Adventure and scheming had always called to her and she had no idea why, until Milo and Dan. Then it hit her, this wasn't her life anymore. She was about to marry a multi-best-seller and was currently raising a hellion. It may not have been like before, but life wasn't dull with them either.

Just as she head back, she spotted a tall, thin, blonde… Well at least she could say she tried to avoid the drama.

Serena van der Woodsen stood at the entrance of Palace Hotel waiting for the answers to fall from the sky, what she got were not one but two craze sociopath.

"How did I get so lucky?" she asked out loud as the two started to argue again about Chuck and his whereabouts. Georgie nearly strangled her sister-in-law and Melanie was making a scene in front of the whole of Manhattan to see.

"Enough!" Serena finally managed to pull them apart, "Not that this hasn't been fun or anything, but I'm get really sick of trying to pull you two apart before security gets here. So please, stop."

"I'm just looking for my husband! I know he's here," Mel snapped.

"Oh please, the only reason you think he's here is because of Serena," Georgie counter back, "You haven't a clue where he is or what he's doing."

"I know him—"

"No one cares."

"You're just bitter because Dan has never—"

"Dan proposed already. And I didn't even need to drag him to a hospital to get him to like me."

"How dare you insinuate—"

Serena understood immediately the clear implication of Georgie's words. The days of Chuck hospitalization had been some of the worst in her life. She had lost Blair not too long ago and Nate shortly followed… But losing Chuck was not an option. She couldn't lose one more person in her life. One more person who she had left to care about.

But Melanie had been in the picture just a few months before he was sent down his depression. Could she have done something to secure a spot in Chuck's heart? To be his so-called "savior"? To be a certain doe-eyed brunette's replacement?

"It was your fault," Serena said softly, "You're the reason he was hospitalized. Get. Out."

Melanie was finally silenced, it seemed to dawn on her that all of her secrets were slowly coming apart and she would be alone in this world.

"Serena, I—" Melanie tried to defend herself, but came out blank.

Georgie took this opportunity to add, "You're no longer welcomed. I suggested you run as far as you can where we can't find you. But may I also say, sign those divorce papers. The sooner the better."

Melanie left with her head held low and Georgie almost giggled with delight.

Serena, however, was dealing with some internal demons that have plagued her for the last few years.

Ari watched his mother as she spoke to this kind stranger because after all that what all he was a stranger from his mother's past. A notorious past that was never talked about or mention to anyone.

He didn't want to sound jealous or angry that this stranger knew her from before. That he got to understand more about his real dad or even his Uncle Nate and maybe his Aunt Casey. But he was. He knew about things that Ari, still wasn't allowed to know.

"Did you know my da?" he found himself wondering out loud. The stranger looked mildly embarrassed.

"Only shortly," the stranger confessed, "He didn't linger in Manhattan for too long. From what I gathered he was a great artist."

Ari smiled brightly at that.

"But you should be very proud of your father," the kind stranger continued, "he worked hard for what he believed in and loved what he did. Not many people can say that."

Ari let go of Blair's hand and extended to Chuck, and Chuck did the same.

"My name is Arthur Cyrus Rose, but everyone calls me Ari."

"I'm Chuck Bass."

The two shook hands, somehow Ari had a feeling that this Chuck Bass would be everything his mother would need. Everything his family would need.

Hope you enjoyed that ^_^ Thanks for all the reviews on the last chapter! I never meant to abandon this fic!