A/N: I ended the chapter where I did because it felt right to me. I can leave the rest to your imagination or I can write about her first time with Chuck in the form of flashbacks in the next chapter. Either way works for me as it does not affect the actual case. Let me know by leaving me a review.

Be My Escape


Blair tried to reach Chuck again, but she was met with the familiar sound of the busy tone. She decided to call him at his house. He could be there lounging around for all she knew. She let the phone ring. On the fifth ring, she almost hung up, but the sound of a familiar voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Hello?" Eric spoke into the phone.

"Hey Eric," she greeted him. "Do you have any idea where Chuck is? I want to fill him in on a few things regarding the case, but he's been unreachable so far."

"Oh right," Eric responded. "He mentioned his plans to convince you into working together with him on the case."

"Only because his humongous ego wouldn't be able to handle it if I were to crack the case first I'm sure," she said as-a-matter-of-factly.

Eric smiled at her assumption not that the brunette would be able to see it of course.

"Or he needed an excuse to spend more time with you," he offered boldly.

When no response was heard from the brunette, Eric decided it was best to return to the matter at hand.

"Blair, why don't you try contacting him tomorrow?" the blond suggested. "I highly doubt you'll have any luck reaching him today."

"Something is going on here," she deduced reasonably, crinkling her nose in realization. "Nate avoided mentioning his whereabouts when I called him earlier and now you are too. I don't want to pry into his private life nor do I care where he is or who he might be with, but as his partner, I think I have a right to know, especially if it's going to affect our progress with the case. The sooner we finish this investigation, the better."

Eric sighed, running a hand through his tousled hair.

"Trust me Blair," he reiterated. "Today really isn't a good day to talk to Chuck. He'll either be drunk out of his mind and brooding in a corner or fully prepared to punch someone in the face if they so much as bother him."

"I'll take my chances," Blair answered in a clipped tone.

She was starting to get extremely curious over what today was that would have Chuck so upset. She told herself she only cared because he was slowing down the investigation and that she was curious by nature. Sure thing Blair. You keep telling yourself that. Whatever helps you sleep at night sweetheart.

"Good luck getting him to talk to you then. That's if and when you find him of course. It's your funeral," Eric warned her.

"Will you please just tell me what is going on?" Blair pleaded with him.

She was bursting at the seams with curiosity. Curiosity didn't kill the cat. It killed Blair Waldorf.

"I can't Blair," he insisted. "It's not my place to tell you. He rarely opens up to me or Nate about the incident as it is and even when he does, it only rids him of his memories momentarily. They always come back to haunt him eventually."

"Maybe you two just don't know how to talk to him. Come on Eric. A woman's perspective would be nice, wouldn't it?" she pressed on.

Eric laughed bitterly at the idea. "I think even you've realized by now that he has a bit of a trust issue with women."

"You don't say," the brunette bit out sarcastically.

The blond ignored her sarcastic statement and continued.

"That's why he's never been in a proper relationship," he explained. "My brother prides himself in conquests not girlfriends."

She purposely chose to dispose of the disappointment that had fluttered into her heart at his words. My brother prides himself in conquests not girlfriends. There was a slight pause as the wheels began to turn inside her head.

"This is about your parents, isn't it?" Blair asked. "The tragic accident that happened however many years ago happened today."

"How did you know about that?" Eric questioned in shock.

"Well, your parents' death was plastered all over the news for starters," she enlightened him. "Of course, no details about the accident had ever been released. All that was known was that Mr. Bass was on his way to a gala where he was to meet up with his wife and her initially unidentified male friend. The terrible accident had been a cruel act of fate that had taken all three of their lives."

"Yeah, that was the glossed over media version of the story," Eric fumed.

Blair almost hung up the phone in fear at his abrupt change in attitude. The coldness that encased his words sent a chill down her spine. What was the real story? She was almost too afraid of the answer to ask.

"The other time when I was questioning you and Jonathan, you casually mentioned an accident because I was being harsh on Chuck and his charms," she spoke up, suddenly remembering the incident. "I was confused then as to what kind of accident could possibly be responsible for his character, but I'm assuming now that this was the accident you were referring to?"

Eric remained silent so Blair trudged on.

"What really happened that night Eric?" she urged. "It must have been horrible if Chuck is still so torn over its memory this many years after the incident had occurred."

"Blair, I really can't say anything more. I've already said too much, but I promise you that what was transmitted through the media was all a lie or at least they hid the truth. My aunt made sure they did," he informed her, contempt lingering in his voice.

"I'm sorry for prying Eric," she apologized sincerely. "I just...want to...help him."

Eric could sense that her curiosity was propelled by something more than her desire to finish their investigation as soon as possible. She cared for his brother and he could see that.

"I know. Why don't you go and find Chuck Blair?" Eric suggested, his tone noticeably happier. "Who knows? You may be the key to dispelling his nightmare."

"Right except for the fact that he doesn't trust women," she reminded him.

"You would be the first in a long time if he decides to tell you the real story," Eric agreed.

"I'll do what I can," Blair promised him. "It would be nice to know where he is though."

Eric chuckled lightly. "Yeah, that would be helpful. Honestly though, I have no idea where he is. Chuck could be anywhere as long as scotch is on the menu."

"Oh," Blair sounded, her voice deflated upon hearing his response.

"I would stop by Victrola first though. He loves that place. He always mentions how that burlesque club is the perfect escape to me," the blond alerted her.

"Thank you," Blair replied, anxious to find him as soon as possible.

She opened her mouth to speak again, his farewell passing over her head unnoticed.

"The unidentified male friend was her secret lover, wasn't he?" she whispered. "Mrs. Bass had an affair."

Her suspicions were met by the monotonous beating of the dial tone.


Blair walked into the club to find Chuck sitting alone in a corner brooding with a glass of scotch just as Eric had predicted. Of course this scenario was much preferred over being knocked out even if by the hands of a hot detective.

She noticed that the place was fairly empty tonight not that she had ever been here before, but she had heard from Serena that Victrola was usually packed with people. There was no one else in her line of vision except for the bartender and a couple of dancers. There were a few customers lingering here and there as well, but they were of no interest to Blair.

She approached him with caution then, careful to minimize the clacking of her heels against the floor of the club, and took a seat next to him on the couch. She made sure to leave a comfortable space between them.

"Chuck," she greeted him as he took a swig of his scotch.

He put down his drink and turned to look at her, his face cold and emotionless. He said nothing to break the silence and turned back to face the stage, pretending to be entranced by the eloquent movements of each of the dancers. She decided to take a risk and engage him in conversation once again.

"Chuck," she started. "I know what happened."

He remained silent, although he flinched at her words.

"We can talk about it," she suggested.

"No. You know what you can do though Waldorf? You can leave me the fuck alone," he hissed.

"Chuck," she whispered, ignoring the evident pain in his voice. "I know what you're going through."

He scoffed at her pathetic attempt to appease him.

"You know what I'm going through?" he clarified, whirling around to face her. "Last time I checked both your mother and father were still alive."

The emptiness in his eyes broke her heart and she held her tongue momentarily before speaking up again.

"I meant the part about one of your parents having been unfaithful," she mentioned cautiously, offering him a chance to confirm her theory. "My father left my mother for a male model when I was just a little girl Chuck."

His eyes darkened at her words. The butterflies in his stomach fluttered at the thought of how much she cared for him to be at his side right now, but he hated that she was trying to comfort him; that she was sympathizing with him. He was unbreakable. Chuck Bass needed pity from no one. He would not be seen as a weakling, especially not by Blair Waldorf.

"How sad," he drawled, waving off her attempt to comfort him. "Now, either we start talking about the case or I will insist that you leave me in peace. Frankly, my personal life isn't any of your business Blair or did I imagine the part where we struck a deal to keeping our relationship professional?"

Blair's eyes watered slightly at his words, but she bit her lip to prevent any tears from falling.

"Trust me Chuck," she assured him, reaching out to place a hand on his knee.

She felt him shiver under her touch and her own breath hitched upon contact.

"You will feel so much better if you let go of your bottled emotions," she continued. "You can talk to me. You can trust me. I...care about you Chuck."

"You don't have the fucking right to care about me Blair," he seethed, removing her hand roughly from its place on his knee. "Now, are we going to discuss the case or not?"

He turned to look at her then and he found her eyes darken to a shade that resembled his own. He knew he had pushed her over the edge with his final words, but they had been necessary. He could not allow anyone to see him as weak, especially not when said audience was Blair Waldorf.

"Fine," she spat. "I went to see Jenny as planned. She seems like an unlikely suspect to me. I think Jenny is innocent."

"Oh," he mentioned sarcastically. "Well, as long as you think Jenny Humphrey is innocent."

Blair sent him a hard glare and that shut him right up. He motioned for her to continue.

"I also discovered that Georgina was one of the clients who had purchased a dress with that particular thread. There were other clients, but none of them seemed to be of interest for this case. I took the liberty of speaking to Georgina already."

"Without consulting me first?" Chuck asked in disbelief. "She could have killed you to keep her dirty little secret if she thought you knew too much!"

Blair couldn't help but smile at the evident concern in his voice. He seemed to notice it too because he cleared his throat in a failed attempt to dispel the evidence from the depths of his mouth.

"She would have had to be the murderer for that scenario to have possibly occurred and technically, I don't have to ask your permission for anything," she reminded him. "I don't work for you Chuck. I'm your partner."

"Too bad you're just that," he mumbled miserably under his breath.

"What?"

He shook his head, covering his outburst with another sip of his scotch.

"Nothing. So, what did the wicked witch have to say?"

She could have sworn she heard him say something, but she let it go. There was no use arguing over pointless things.

"The bottom line is that she had more to lose than to gain with him dead," Blair answered him, releasing a disappointed sigh. "What motive could she possibly have for killing him?"

Chuck scoffed. "Are you sure she wasn't just playing you? Georgina Sparks is as manipulative as they come."

"I've had enough encounters with her to know her games Chuck," Blair insisted. "She's not playing me this time. I don't think she did it."

"With the way we're crossing these suspects off the list Blair, sooner or later we'll be investigating each other," he teased, trying to lighten the mood. "I think you're simply too trusting of people."

She was about to retort with a comment about his severe lack of trust in people, but decided against it. He seemed to be less tense since they had started discussing the case and she really didn't want to burst his bubble.

"Did you have any luck on the Bart and Vanessa front?" she inquired.

"Bart admitted to Vanessa being his pretend alibi," he revealed. "That means Vanessa is no longer a suspect or at least not a very likely one. As for Bart, he still claims he had no part in killing his son even with his lack of alibi for that night."

"That still makes him a suspect," Blair reasoned.

"He is still a primary suspect," Chuck agreed. "We still need cold, hard evidence to accuse him of murder though."

Blair sighed. "Well, I still plan to finish investigating Serena. I can drop off a hair sample with Daryl tomorrow by the way."

"I know you don't want to hear this Blair, but Serena is a primary suspect as well. I'm really starting to think she had something to do with Pete's death," Chuck mentioned as casually as he could. "Daryl, who took it upon himself to obtain a strand of Jenny's hair somehow, sent it off to the lab for tests today. Her DNA doesn't match the strand of hair we found at the crime scene, making her even less of a suspect than she was before. I'm not eliminating her completely as you are, but she is ridiculously low on my suspect list right now. Serena, however, is right up there next to Bart."

Blair shook her head to denounce his words.

"I'm investigating her to prove her innocence," she told him. "I'd like to think I know Serena well enough to know that she would never resort to killing someone."

Or was she being too sure of herself?

"You're awfully defensive about your best friend," he observed, smirking in her direction.

He lifted his drink to his lips once more as Blair crossed her arms in defiance.

"So, you wouldn't get defensive if I thought Nate was the killer then? He could be a suspect too you know," she shot back at him. "Does he have an alibi Detective Bass?"

He tucked a loose curl behind her ear and leaned in close until they were one heated breath away from the other.

"Then Miss Waldorf, I'd like to think I know Nate well enough to know that he would never resort to killing someone," he said, echoing her earlier words regarding his suspicions of Serena. "If it pleases you though, feel free to investigate him."

His words escaped her mind and Blair almost stopped breathing at the ever close proximity of his soft lips to her own. She shifted back slightly towards the right arm of the couch and although he sensed her growing discomfort, he closed the space between them once again.

To his utter and complete surprise, she did not back away this time. Instead, she leaned forward as if preparing herself for a kiss. He mirrored her movement, but stopped himself short on the reminder that she was off limits; that he had promised to keep their relationship professional for the duration of the investigation.

"Would you like me to take you home?" he whispered instead.

She cleared her throat, blushing slightly at her misinterpretation of the situation. She pulled back from their almost kiss and mentally scolded herself for having almost given in to her desires rather than listening to the logic of her mind.

"I can take a cab. Thank you for the offer though," she finally responded after a moment of brief silence.

He downed the rest of scotch and shook his head, standing up from his place on the couch and offering her his arm.

"I insist Blair," he said simply.

The tone in his voice told her that she had no choice in the matter so she hooked her arm in his without complaint as they headed for the door.

"Consider this an apology for the way I treated you earlier," he added.

Blair stopped in her tracks and titled her head to face him. She had never expected Chuck Bass to apologize for his behaviour not that he really needed to. She completely understood that his rudeness had merely been a mechanism to mask his pain just as she waved off his apology now to mask her shock.

"Apology accepted," she assured him, offering him a genuine smile. "I apologize for prying into your personal life as well. I had no right to do that."

"Weakness is not a personal characteristic I wanted to share with you is all," he confessed absentmindedly.

He paused upon hearing his own words. Even his mind had a mind of its own whenever he was around her. He cursed himself silently for his blunder.

"What?" Blair clarified, thinking she had heard him wrong.

He did not answer her. It was better that she hadn't heard his confession. Chuck started walking towards the limo and he opened the door for her, waiting for her to climb into the vehicle. Blair stood where she was for a moment before she slipped onto the leather seats. Chuck slid in after her and rolled down the window separating them both from the driver, signalling for him to drive in the direction of her house.

They rode in complete silence for a while though it seemed like an eternity to them both. He nursed yet another bottle of scotch as she stared out the window, mesmerized by the falling rain. He spoke up eventually, interrupting the comfortable silence between them.

"The sky is crying," he told her, his voice cracking slightly at the notion.

She snapped out of her trance and turned to look at him in curiosity. She witnessed a single tear slide down his cheek, marking its territory. She could tell that he was trying his best to control his emotions because she wore the same expression on her face whenever she tried to hold back her own. It took every ounce of strength left in her body not to reach out to him. She doubted that Chuck wanted her to see him cry. She waited patiently for him to finish his thoughts.

"It weeps for the dead," he explained in a barely audible whisper.

Blair felt a tug on her heart then for the vulnerable boy before her. He had chosen to surrender to her; to trust her and she knew he probably hated himself for his weakness. He took another swig from the bottle as a second tear joined the first in its course. She had no idea what to say in response to his somber statement, so she shifted closer to him instead and embraced him, resting her head on his shoulder.

He froze under her touch, but eventually relaxed into her arms. He tilted his head slightly and captured her warm lips with his own. He was done keeping things professional. Something exploded inside of him then at his abrupt decision and it had served to numb the pain better than any amount of scotch he had consumed that night. She pulled away only when the driver had tapped lightly on the tinted barrier to inform them that they had arrived at their destination.

"Good night Blair," he mumbled.

He knew she was probably waiting for an apology of sorts for taking advantage of her, but he held his tongue. He did not regret that kiss one bit. He continued to stare down at the carpeted floor of the limo unable to watch her exit, afraid that if he did, he would pull her back in an instant and beg her not to go; beg her not to leave him.

He inevitably heard her step out of the limo and of course his driver was careful to hold an umbrella over her head to keep her sheltered from the rain. To his surprise though, Blair returned mere seconds later, a few water droplets accentuating her chocolate hair.

The limo began to move again and he opened his mouth to address her lingering presence. Was she merely a figment of his imagination? To answer his burning question, she kissed him full on the lips. No, he would never be able to imagine a kiss like that. She was real. He kissed her back hungrily, relishing in the feel of her now swollen lips against his own. He melded her tongue with hers and she opened her mouth to receive him. They broke from their heated kisses to regain their steady breathing and the look in both of their dark eyes was unmistakable – lust.

"You sure?" he murmured into her hair as she leaned into him once more.

"Yes," she whispered as she straddled his hips.

She paused momentarily at her own sudden boldness and looked at him questioningly, running a finger down the length of his jaw. What was she doing? She had a boyfriend! Their anniversary was tomorrow and she was about to lose her virginity to Chuck Bass! But the moment her eyes locked their gaze on his, she knew there was no turning back. Her heart was beating faster than it ever had before. Even the increasing strength of the pounding rain paled in comparison to its steady rhythm. It was at this exact moment that she knew that she had irrevocably fallen for the man before her. Blair Waldorf was in love with Chuck Bass and so she decided to surrender herself to him; to be his escape.