Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. They belong to Cecily von Zeigesar and The CW.

"Where's Chuck?" Serena asked her best friend as she sat down next to her on a bench in Central Park. Blair had called her half an hour ago and asked her to meet in the park. She was flipping through a real estate book that Chuck's realtor had put together for him.

Chuck Bass had proposed moving out of his sleazy penthouse suite at The Palace and into a real home almost two weeks earlier. He concluded that if he was adult enough to have a serious relationship with Blair then he was adult enough to own his own home. He had blown her away when he had asked her to help him look. They had spent almost every night after he finished with work, going through the various listings and touring their options.

"At the office of course," she frowned as she looked up to see Serena smiling at her.

"What's that?" Serena asked as she took the book from her, "It looks like a home fashion design catalog."

"It's actually an Upper East Side real estate brochure," Blair corrected her. Of course it looked like a catalog. UES was the elite part of New York City. They didn't do anything small, especially for real estate.

"Real estate," Serena responded in confusion. "Are you moving? I thought you were going to live at the dorms at NYU."

"And I still am," Blair replied as she began playing with the gold key charm around her neck, "Chuck is the one that is moving, and that Basstard won't tell me where."

"He's moving and he's not telling you where. I thought things were going so well for the two of you," Serena chuckled.

"They are . . . or at least they were until he had this package delivered this morning by messenger," Blair stated as she showed Serena the necklace and the hand written note that had come with it.

- The key to my Heart is in your hands. You have twelve hours. – Chuck

"What does that mean?" Serena asked as she read and then reread the note.

"I don't know, and that motherchucker won't answer my calls. His secretary isn't any help either. She said that 'Mister Bass is in meetings all day and cannot be disturbed'." Blair mocked viciously.

"I thought you liked Eugenia," Serena laughed.

"I did until she stopped cooperating with me," Blair snapped, "Now I have to figure out what this cryptic message means, and all I have is this key necklace and a two hundred page real estate brochure to go through without the slightest hint of what I'm looking for."

"What do keys do, Blair?" Serena asked as a thought occurred to her.

"I realize that you may have lost a few brain cells over the summer with all of the fun you may have had with Carter Baizen, but keys still do the same thing they always do, unlock things," Blair responded in her sarcastically sweet voice.

"What if this key unlocks something in one of these pictures?" Serena exclaimed, ignoring the sarcasm of Blair's comment, "Maybe he's trying to tell you something, give you a hint like a romantic scavenger hunt."

"Come on, Serena, this is Chuck Bass," Blair chuckled, "The man doesn't have one romantic bone in his body."

Serena raised an eyebrow in response.

"Okay, he has one romantic bone in his body," Blair blushed. She actually downplayed how romantic he had been since they got together. It was a part of him that was reserved for her. She didn't feel comfortable sharing it with anyone, even her best friend.

"Seriously, Blair, I think you should try to figure out what this key around your neck could unlock in these photos," Serena pressed.

"Fine," Blair responded as she undid the clasp and looked at the key, holding it against anything in the pictures that might need a key to unlock it. They spent thirty minutes combing the pages, but weren't even ten pages into the book.

"This is impossible!" Blair exclaimed as she slammed the book shut angrily, "That man has given me less than four hours to figure out this stupid riddle. We're ten pages into this book, and we don't even know if we're on the right track!"

Suddenly the messenger from earlier that day appeared.

"You!" Blair exclaimed as she pointed to the man that was stepping forward and handed Blair another letter, "How did you know I was here?"

The man didn't answer. He simply held out a clipboard for her to sign before he handed her Chuck's next clue.

"Did Chuck hire someone to stalk you?" Serena mused as she waited for Blair to open the envelope.

- Four hours, Waldorf, and the Clock is ticking. You're on the right track. See page 139. - Chuck

"I have to give the man some credit," Serena laughed as Blair eagerly flipped to the page Chuck had instructed her to, "This is pretty well planned out."

"Credit is not helping!" Blair exclaimed as she finally found the right page, "Help me look!"

Blair and Serena took another hour to scanned the entire page. There were dozens of possibilities.

"Wait a minute!" Blair exclaimed as she threw the book at Serena and grabbed each note in one hand. "Clock and heart, both have beats, quick show me that page again. Is there anything on the page that has a beat?"

"You mean other than the grandfather clock with a heart shaped lock," Serena stated as she pointed at the picture. The key Blair was holding in her hand looked like a perfect fit.

"This has got to be it," Blair exclaimed as she looked at the photograph.

"Now all we need to do is figure out where this place is," Serena concluded.

"These pictures in this brochure have addresses," Blair stated as she flipped to the page once more. "All of these homes are for sale. It's the purpose of the book."

"Not this page," Serena stated as she scanned the page looking for details or an address. She flipped to the page before and after as there were more details, but this appeared to be the one listing with no address.

"He is making this downright impossible!" Blair screamed in frustration.

"Maybe he doesn't know there is no address," Serena suggested.

"No, he knows and I'm sure that he's sitting in his office right now laughing with that sinister grin of his on his smug face," Blair cursed. "Why is he so good at pushing my buttons?"

"Because he's Chuck," Serena shrugged, "Why don't you just call his realtor and ask for the address?"

"Using your brain, van der Woodsen," Blair smirked as she pulled out her phone and began dialing the number of the agent. At least there was the agent's card attached to the back cover, "It's good to know that Bazien didn't kill all your brain cells."

The agent was remarkably cooperative, but only after Blair threatened to have whatever deal Chuck had made on the piece of real estate pulled. She was Chuck Bass's number one trusted advisor, she told the man. He wouldn't do anything without her okay.

Serena was laughing as Blair hung up the phone with her mission accomplished expression.

"I should make that Basshole suffer for awhile," Blair mused, "It would serve him right from messing with my nerves."

"Don't you think that you should go check this place out to make sure that it really is the right place," Serena suggested.

"I don't have time," Blair smiled as she looked at the clock on her phone to calculate that she only had a few hours to get home and get dressed before she had to leave for the address the realtor had given her, "Although, I should have an opinion on if I like the place or not. This is the place I will be spending a lot of my time."

"Knowing Chuck he's probably having a mirror installed above the bed, a stripper pole in the middle of the room, and a swing over the bed," Serena cringed at the thought.

"No, he won't," Blair laughed, "He's with me now. He doesn't need all of that excitement."

"We're talking about Chuck Bass right?" Serena responded in mock confusion, "About five nine, brown hair, brown eyes, and a permanent scowl on his face."

"He says that I'm more than enough excitement for him in the bedroom," Blair shrugged as she dismissed Serena's snide remarks.

"Are you sure we're talking about the same Chuck Bass?" Serena pressed as Blair stood up with her hand bag slung over her shoulder and the real estate book tucked under her arm.

"Come on, Serena, I have a date to get ready for and only a few hours to do it," Blair responded as she pulled Serena to her feet, linked her arm with her best friend's and dragged her back to her home to get ready.


"Mister Bass, the realtor just called frantically inquiring if you had hired an advisor to assist you in purchasing real estate," Eugenia stated when she entered his office. Chuck raised an eyebrow as he waited for her to continue. "I assured him you had. I take it that Ms. Waldorf has figured out your clues."

"Excellent," Chuck smirked devilishly, "Is everything arranged?"

"Exactly as you have requested it," Eugenia nodded.

"Thank you," Chuck grinned as Eugenia left him to his work. Her sinister mind worked just like his. Of course she would figure it out in plenty of time.


Blair entered the penthouse of the address the realtor had given her earlier that day at promptly eight p.m. which was exactly twelve hours after the messenger had delivered her first package. The lights were off and she was suddenly fearful that she had misinterpreted the clues and gone to the wrong address. She began walking through the residence with her fingers crossed that she wasn't intruding in someone else's home. The rooms were completely bare so she was pretty sure nobody was currently living there. Still it could be someone else's property, and she didn't feel like going to prison that evening. Chuck would never let her live it down.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Chuck looking at a breathtaking view of the New York City skyline as the grandfather clock from the earlier picture began chiming that it was eight o'clock. She gasped in surprise as she took in his silhouette. He had a glass tumbler in his hands full of his favorite brand of scotch.

"I was worried you wouldn't make it in time," Chuck smirked as he heard her heals click on the floor. The sound had been coming closer and closer since he heard the elevator chime her arrival. He didn't turn towards her. He was waiting for her to get closer.

"You think you're pretty clever with this treasure hunt, don't you, Bass," she responded seductively, "But if you really were, you would have turned on the power before showing me your new home."

"The power is on," he assured her as she came close enough for him to reach out and pull her into his arms so she could enjoy the same view that he had been.

"But its pitch black in here," she stated as she leaned into his embrace, the back of her head coming to rest on his chest as his arms came around her waist.

"I just wanted to take in the view," he whispered into her ear, "There is nothing better than standing on top of a tall building with nothing but the city lights shining below. It's why I like rooftops so much."

"Chuck, this view is amazing," she stated breathlessly.

"Even more so now that you're here to share it with me," he whispered as his lips brushing lightly against her ear as he spoke. A shiver coursed through her body before the flames he was so good at igniting began to take over.

"Why all the secrecy?" she inquired as she turned in his arms so that she was now able to see his face, full of shadows that the dark city provided, "It would have been so much easier if you had just given me the address and told me to meet you here."

"It wouldn't have been nearly as amusing," he purred as her arms came around his shoulders as she pulled herself closer to him, "We like the game, Waldorf. We always have. I don't want us to lose what makes us 'us'."

"What if I had misinterpreted the clues?" she inquired with a glimmer of teasing in her eyes.

"I wouldn't have let that happen," he assured her as his lips began making a path down her neck to her collarbone, "I had several clues ready for you covering dozens of angles, and my PI was following you to make sure you didn't veer off track. He was the messenger, by the way."

"So that is what he looks like," Blair smirked, "I'll have to remember that."

"He won't be following you anymore," Chuck mumbled into her skin, "I trust you, Blair. I have no reason for him to plot your every move."

Those three words meant as much to her as the phrase he had finally spoken to her after he returned from his misguided European adventure.

"Say it again," Blair requested with a moan as he kissed the sensitive spot on her neck.

"I love you, Blair," he smiled into her skin as he blazed a trail back up to her lips. The words came so effortlessly now.

"Not those three words," she chuckled softly.

He pulled away suddenly to stare intently into her eyes. "What game are you playing?"

"No game," she assured him, "I just love hearing you say that you trust me. Those words are as precious to me as your confessions of love. Chuck Bass trusts one person in his life, himself."

"Now it's two. I love you, Blair, and I trust you," he assured her as he pulled her away from the window, setting his drink down on a nearby counter on the way by.

"Where are we going?" she asked as he pulled her briskly through a vast hallway. She was practically running to keep up with him which wasn't an easy thing to do in three-inch heals.

"To the most important room in the place," he stated as they rapidly approached the one room that was giving off light. Just before they crossed the threshold he stopped suddenly and insisted that she close her eyes. She did so without hesitation. He guided her forward gently, stopping her after a few steps before he told her she could open her eyes.

She gasped in delight at the candlelit bedroom. Candles were covering every flat surface and rose pedals were spread over the floor and giant king size bed in the middle of the room.

"Chuck," she whispered as his arms came around her waist from behind as he began nibbling her neck once more.

"Do you like it?" he whispered as he held her, pressing his body as tight against her as he could.

"It's wonderful," she responded as she spun in his arms for the second time that evening. As the words came out, his lips captured hers leaving her breathless.

"I know you want to live at the dorms and have the full college experience, but this will be waiting for you whenever your heart desires," he stated as he tore himself away from their kiss to allow her a much needed breath.

"Will it have more furniture next time?" she smirked.

"Only the most important piece of furniture has been brought in," he stated as he began backing her towards the bed, "You can decorate the rest of the rooms however you please."

"Me," she responded in surprise as the back of her legs made contact with the bed.

"Do you know of anyone better to make this place feel like a home?" he teased as he lifted her easily into his arms and laid her out on the bed and proceeded to make love to her.

TBC. . .