A/N: I know it really has been forever. I give you all permission to be very angry with me. Anyways, here is the long overdue next chapter.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN GOSSIP GIRL

Rated: T mostly for language.

Shoutout to all my reviewers: ana-12, odyjha, damnthatmotherchucker, EZ11, tvrox12, bomb7979, Butterflies In My Stomach, smartin555, LayRay, CarolinaGirl21, broadwaybaby4205, and bluestriker666

I write for me but I post for you guys, so it's great to know that you are enjoying it :)

Blair plastered a smile on her face as she saw Marcus. "Hey! What are you doing here?"

Marcus felt thrilled simply by the sight of her. He was beginning to think that that she had run away on him and to see her again made him happier than he could have ever imagined. It was much better this way; after all the consequences that she would have received for running from him would not have been pleasant for her. "I thought you went for a run."

Blair quickly understood that her father had said that her note was about an actual run and bought straight into the story. "I did but I'm feeling so much better that I decided to get dressed and head back to the party. That's why I didn't answer immediately; I was not fully dressed."

Marcus was so relieved at her explanation that he didn't know what to say. "Oh well then perhaps we should head back."

"Yes definitely." Blair said a fake smile still on her face. Marcus was the perfect gentleman, opening her car door when they left and again when they arrived at the house; but it didn't change the fact that she was once again stuck in a relationship that she didn't want to be in. As they walked back in the door she could see everyone's faces fall and tried to give them reassuring smiles. "Oh my god guys!" She exclaimed in a high pitched girly voice, running over to her friends. "What are you doing here?"

Serena was the first to answer. She was so nervous about the entire situation. "Marcus flew us out here to surprise you."

Blair turned to Marcus and beamed. Even though she was angry as hell at him for appearing out of nowhere and making it so that she couldn't run, she had to admit that it was thoughtful of him. As she began her round of hugs she began to struggle to keep the smile in place and it somehow faded from genuine to fake even though she was hugging people that she truly cared about.

The first person she went to was Jenny, who hugged her tightly. "I'm so sorry." She whispered.

Blair continued to smile but responded none-the-less. "I know and it's definitely not your fault. In case I don't get a chance to tell Daddy, let him know that he's in the guest house."

Jenny nodded; smiling as well. She was happy to see her best friend but she knew the cost for Blair.

After hugging Jenny, Blair moved on to Dan who was standing next to his sister. Dan immediately pulled her into a hug.

"Hey Cabbage Patch." She said, doing anything not to think about Chuck right now.

Dan smiled as he was supposed to do. "You know, I've missed hearing you say that."

Blair caught onto his game and smiled, playing along. "Of course you have Brooklyn. Anytime I speak to you it's a blessing."

At that Dan laughed and jokingly shoved her away. "Go greet everyone else. We need to talk later though because with you gone I had no one to talk to when it came to literature or other academic pursuits."

"Hey!" Eric said, sounding offended from his spot next to Dan; but Blair could clearly see that he wasn't as his face broke into a smile.

Blair immediately tousled his hair and there was actually a genuine smile on her face as she spoke to him. "You're the smartest of us all and you know it. That being said, you hate reading."

"I know." Eric said before hugging her tightly. "I've missed you Blair."

"You too E." Blair said squeezing him once more before looking next to him at his sister. "Hey S." Her voice was calmer now; not so fake, but not so energetic either.

Serena looked like she was about to cry. The girl who she still considered her best friend was standing in front of her and for once she shouldn't be. She tried to force the tears back as she hugged Blair. "B, I've missed you."

Blair looked at Serena from the corner of her eye as she hugged her; S was never a good actress so she was the most worried about her giving away what had transpired. "I missed you too; sooo much."

As they broke away Blair turned to face Nate, who immediately wrapped his big strong arms around her and Blair relaxed into them. Other than inside of Chuck's arms, Nate's were the safest and most comfortable place that she could think of.

"Hey there." He said softly into her hair. It was so strange. He had hugged Blair thousands of times but not once had she felt so broken.

"Hey." She mumbled into his chest. "I've missed you a lot Nate."

Nate rubbed her back gently. "You too Blair." He held her another moment before whispering in her ear. "Are you okay? Is there something I can do?"

Blair smiled. Nate was so cute when he was trying to be helpful. "Just distract me. Try to keep me smiling because it's really hard to fake it all the time."

"That I can do." Nate said with a reassuring smile before releasing her from his embrace.

Blair knew that she had to hug Marcus now. Most everyone at the party knew that she was married to him, plus she needed to stay in his good graces, things were so much easier when she was. So she walked over and wrapped her arms around him. "Thank you for bringing all my friends to see me as a surprise."

Marcus was the one who was surprised when Blair first hugged him. He hadn't really expected it and needless to say it pleased him. "You're welcome." He said, still holding her.

Blair couldn't help but think that it felt weird to be in Marcus's embrace for so long but he didn't seem to want to break and right now she couldn't care less, she was so dead to the world; so she allowed it to continue.

Marcus was even further surprised that she continued to hug him. It felt so good to have her in his arms that he didn't want to stop. "I did it because I want to make you happy Blair. I want you do be happy with me."

She knew that she couldn't say what she really wanted to say at that point. She had tried that route before and it did her no good; she wasn't going back there. So instead she nodded her head and with that he let her go.

Marcus looked at the clock above Blair's head before looking back down at her. "Less than one minute before the New Year Blair."

Blair looked behind her, seeing the digital clock that even counted seconds that they had installed for the party and sure enough it was under a minute. She knew that she was going to have to kiss Marcus when the clock struck midnight. She had resigned herself to that fact, the moment that Marcus found her at the guest house. So as everyone began to count down from 10 Blair readied herself.

"10 . . . 9 . . . 8 . . . 7 . . . 6 . . . 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . HAPPY NEW YEAR." Called the crowd.

Blair was ready to kiss Marcus but suddenly she was flipped around and kissing Nate.

Nate had known that Blair was going to have to kiss Marcus so at the last second he jerked her around and placed his lips on hers. After the acceptable amount of time had passed to be kissing one's ex, even on New Year's he passed her to Eric who he knew would follow suit.

At first Eric was hesitant but this was Blair, so he placed a light kiss on her lips before passing her to Dan.

Blair couldn't help but smile at her friends' effort as from Eric she was passed to Dan as everyone throughout the room continued with their rounds of kissing. She looked at Dan with raised eyebrows and he shrugged.

"What the hell." Dan said before pulling Blair's mouth to his. Surprised at the kiss which lasted almost as long as Blair's and Nate's kiss had. It was strange, it wasn't that Dan had really thought about kissing Blair before but the kiss wasn't what he expected. It was softer. When she pulled away he was almost disappointed.

Blair pulled back from Dan, knowing know that she had gotten out of any kind of long term kiss with Marcus and he would now have to be satisfied with just a quick one before everyone started singing Auld Lange Syne. So she turned to Marcus who was waiting rather patiently and placed a hand on his shoulder before giving him a kiss and pulling away as soon as the song started.

Marcus had been disappointed by Blair's friends' display of affection but he reminded himself that she was his wife and before long they would be back in England together and her friends would be on the other side of the ocean and was satisfied.

As the party continued, Jenny walked over to Harold and started talking about how wonderful the party was. After a moment, when she was positive that no one was paying attention to them, she mouthed, "Kitchen."

Harold nodded and followed immediately. He had known that it would have looked strange for Blair herself to talk to him for a great length when she had so many visitors; so he had been expecting one of Blair's friends to come talk to him with Blair's explanation for what had gone wrong.

As soon as they reached the kitchen, Jenny spun to face him. "Before you ask, I don't know how he caught up to them or any of the particulars. I think it's safe to assume that he didn't actually catch them though because he is in too good of a mood."

Harold nodded again. "I assumed as much. Where's Chuck? Did he leave?"

Jenny shook her head. "No he's in the guest house. Which means that Blair and Marcus are going to have to stay in the main house to avoid encounters."

"I'll have Roland get her stuff from the guest house and bring it over while the party is still going so that Marcus won't realize what's going on." Harold said, thinking quickly. Everything had to be done precisely so that Marcus wasn't tipped off.

"I'll go too. That way Roland will have a reason to be out there. Plus, you can just house, me, Serena, Eric, Chuck, Dan, and Nate out there right?" Jenny said, brainstorming as well.

Harold was surprised by all the ideas the young blonde was throwing. It was certainly different than dealing with Serena; in fact Jenny reminded him a lot of his own daughter. "Yes there are four bedrooms out there and I think five individual beds because one room is twin beds."

Jenny laughed. "I can think of two pairs who won't mind sharing." She said with a wink.

Harold just shook his head. "Crazy kids, I'll go get Roland and you two can head out." Harold said leaving the room.

Jenny followed but split from him when she saw everyone gathered together talking. "Hey guys, I'm beat. I think I'm going to head out to the guest house." She said with a yawn.

Blair immediately saw through the act but played along. "Really J? But I guess you have had a long day." She said hugging her. "I'll see you tomorrow. All of us girls can go shopping in the city!"

Jenny smiled as Roland appeared at her side. "Are you ready Miss?"

"Yes. Thanks for driving me." Jenny said to Roland before waving to everyone else and shooting a glare at Marcus.

As soon as they were outside, she hurried over to the car Roland appeared to have the keys to. "We've got to hurry," she said climbing in. "All of her stuff has to be back upstairs before she and Marcus go up. He can't know that she wasn't living in the main house or he'll get suspicious."

Roland just started driving and before Jenny knew it they were at the guest house. She practically ran from the car, inside. She needed to check on Chuck, he must be devastated. He wasn't downstairs so she jogged up the stairs yelling his name. "Chuck, where are you? CHUCK!"

Eventually she heard someone say from behind a closed door. "In here." And she knew that Chuck was in worse shape right now than he was when Blair first left. She opened the door finding him sitting on the bed amidst three packed bags. "I went ahead and got her things together. I figured someone would be by to get them soon enough." He spoke dejectedly.

Jenny didn't respond to his words, she simply walked over and hugged him. In fact she didn't say anything at all; there was nothing to say to make things better so she was just going to be there for him.

After some time, Chuck spoke. "We were going to run. We were going to get away from all of this crap."

"I know." Jenny said softly as Roland walked into the room. He nodded at Chuck before gesturing to the bags. "Is this all of it?"

Chuck nodded and Roland got the bags and left. As he did, Jenny turned back to Chuck, sitting down next to him on the bed. "Can I tell you something?" She asked timidly.

He looked at her with his ever discerning eyes and nodded. "Always."

Jenny bit her lip and opened her mouth once before closing it and opening it again. "I think I might be pregnant."

Blair was exhausted. The party was over and all of the guests who weren't now staying with them had gone home. Even the guests who were staying had headed out to the guest house and she and Marcus were heading upstairs. As she walked into her bedroom, she was surprised to see everything back in order and all of her stuff from the guest house back in the closest. Everyone had done well.

Immediately Blair got her night clothes and went to the bathroom to change. She was so tired that she could barely keep her eyes open. She almost didn't get out a goodnight to Marcus before her head hit the pillow and she was out.

As soon as Marcus was certain that Blair was asleep, he got the pills out of his luggage. Of course he had wanted to see Blair, he had thought something was amiss, plus he missed her terribly, but on top of all of that, he needed to switch out the pills since it was the start of a new month.

It took some time but he finally found her new birth control pack and switched her pills for simply placebos. Doing so reminded him of the first day he had found her birth control pills. Upon doing so, his first thought was that if she was on birth control, she must be considering sleeping with him, which immediately made him happy. Then the more he thought about it, the more he realized that he would rather Blair not be on birth control when they slept together. Babies did special things to couples; they tied them together in a way that nothing else was capable of doing. So he started replacing her pills with placebo at the beginning of December.

When he finished the switch he was careful to put the birth control exactly where he had found them. He certainly didn't want Blair to realize what he was doing. That would ruin everything.

A/N: I'll have another update sometime around next Monday *hugs*

Reviews are always appreciated.

xoxo

kate