AN- I'm really sorry about the delay. But here it is finally. Really hope you enjoy it and thanks to everyone who is still sticking to it.
As always I could not have done this without the help of my awesome beta bsloths.
He tries. He really really tries but the most part of the night is just spent staring at the ceiling above his head as he tries to come to terms with what has just happened.
True, he could blame it all on the alcohol and mostly he does…Except there is this irritating voice in his head repeatedly telling him that none of them had been that drunk…
Perhaps Blair had been right all along, Brooklyn food had a way of messing with their heads…It had probably left his brain cells dysfunctional…Both their brain cells, because Blair had kissed him too…
And how…
There are flashes in his head of them getting into a cab, he remembers the hand he trailed up her thigh while she breathily gave the cab driver the address to her place back at the UES. He remembers, more so because his shirt is still missing three of its buttons, how she had yanked at his clothes while the taxi had made its way across the Brooklyn Bridge. He more than remembers her moan as his hands had reached her bare back while his lips had continued to trail a path down her throat, "Not in a cab Humphrey, definitely not in a cab."
And so he had pushed himself back, settling into the seat of the taxi, away from her. Each waiting for their breaths to return to normal, unsure of what was to happen when the taxi finally reached its destination.
But the moment had been killed. He could see it in the way Blair had looked at him when they had reached the elevator to her place. Her eyes, which a few minutes ago had been clouded with desire, were now looking at him with a hint of unsurety and that had been enough for Dan to question what was happening between them, "Do you want me to go back Waldorf?"
She had hesitated, he was sure she had, "Yes…It has been a long day."
At that is all it had taken; for Dan was now back in his loft, alone and confused.
Finally, at somewhere around 5:37 am, he dozes off to sleep, deciding that none of what he has yet to come to terms with could be done on a sleep deprived mind.
It's the constant vibration of her phone that finally wakes her up and she knows that it is late by the amount of sunlight which has filtered in into her room through the window.
It probably is Dan, Blair decides as she pushes her cell phone away without bothering to check. She does not have the time or the patience to deal with Cabbage Patch at the moment. She still has to come to terms with the fact that she had kissed him… Twice now, and the latest had actually been done without a motive or an audience to prove a point to.
It had been, if she could ever get around to accepting it, done without the slightest trace of scheme behind it….It was a kind of kiss she had once promised Chuck she would have one day…She had kissed Dan Humphrey, simply because she had wanted to kiss him….And it hadn't even remained just a kiss.
Blair sighs into her pillow in irritation as the phone by her bed side keeps buzzing and she finally picks it up just as it goes off to indicate that there are a good five missed calls and a voice message from Charlotte Wilkins.
Dan stares at his phone for some time before the panic hits him…eight missed calls and three voice messages from Nate Archibald? Had something happened? Had something happened to his Dad while he had been curing a hangover and over analyzing a make out session in the back of a moving cab which probably meant very little to the other party involved? Was it Lilly? Serena? Blair….?
He immediately hits the button….
"Dude, will you pick up your phone?"
"Okay, so you're not going to pick it up and for your sake you better have a better reason for it then the one you fed your dad for getting suspended from college. Any way the thing is that I really need to speak to you."
"What the hell Dan? Where are you and why aren't you picking up your phone? Listen, I'm losing my patience here so I'm just going to tell you this over the phone. I'm breaking up with Charlotte. See, I know she is your cousin and all and some of her yoga moves in bed are quite impressive but really I don't have a thing in common with her and frankly sometimes she just drives me out of my mind. I know, I know you probably are thinking 'when does Nate Archibald have anything in common with any one?' and you're probably right. But this time it's different. This time I know who is the one for me. I have realized Dan, that I have been a fool, I have lost what I once had and now I'm going to do everything in my power to get her back…"
And the line goes dead….
Dan looks shocked at it for several moments as some pieces fit together and then he is immediately bolting out of his house.
He finds her, as he had expected, in a state of a shock…
"He dumped her…Nate dumped his soul mate."
"I'm afraid 'soul mate' is stretching it a little too far…" He offers in a quiet tone but Blair carries on as if uninterrupted, "I pick up a nobody and turn her into a Serena clone and Nate dumps her?" She finally glances at him, "how did that ever happen?"
"She isn't his type Blair…"
"Don't give me that Humphrey, my sexual radar has been inhumanly perfect since middle school and this is Nate Archibald we're talking about; since when did he ever have a 'type' in women?"
"Have you had the chance to speak to him yet?"'
"No." Blair shakes her head, still in a slight trance, "he did call though. Said he had something important to discuss with me."
Just as he had expected…
"Blair…."
"Not now Humphrey. I have to prepare a speech. Charlotte is going to drop in any second and I have to have something suitable to say to her to console her."
He waits patiently for Blair to finish consoling a very tearful Charlotte. He needs to warn her against what is going to make the Gossip Girl blast soon before Nate himself makes it known to her. And he knows it isn't going to be easy.
"He…He told me that he was in love with s…somebody else, Blair. Someone else! All this time he has been hanging out with me he has been in love with some one else…"
Blair throws a pleading glance towards Dan, help me out with this!
Dan hesitates, He doesn't think getting further involved in Charlotte Wilkins' love life is a very wise idea but another pained look from Blair and he isn't left with much choice, "Charlotte, Nate is a very dear friend but he must be blind to not notice your uh…uh…" he throws a glance at Blair who motions him to stop stalling and continue, "your charm." He finishes lamely.
"Right." Blair continues, rolling her eyes at him for the half hearted attempt, "For once I'll agree with Humphrey. Nate is an idiot and whoever he thinks he is in love with can not be half as perfect as you are."
"You…You, really think so?" Charlotte asks in between sobs.
"I'm positive." Blair answers.
It's a good half an later that a still sobbing Charlotte leaves the penthouse to head back to NYU and Blair taps her heels impatiently to let Dan know that his work here is done.
All she needs right now is to get Dorota to bring her some cleansing tea as she ponders alone on how to make Nate Archibald get back to his senses. There's no way that a project she has now worked on for several months would meet with such a disappointing end. There is no way that somebody would break up with her prodigy; It wasn't time yet, Charlotte still had to climb up the social ladder to be considered Blair Waldorf's 'friend' at NYU.
And being dumped by Nate Archibald within three-four weeks didn't quiet make the mark.
"Don't you have to head back to college or something?" She tells Dan as he stubbornly ignores what she has been aiming at as a very pointed attempt at dismissal.
"I was suspended, remember?"
"Yeah…" Blair quickly averts her eyes. She very well remembers what their last conversation on his suspension had led to, "well, then what is it that is keeping you here?"
Dan throws her an irritated glance as something like anger flows in him…She was really going to do the denial thing after what had happened between them last night? But, no he isn't going to talk about it either if she refuses to not even acknowledge his presence, "I know who Nate fancies himself in love with," he tells her instead.
He plays back the voice messages for her and watches as a look of understanding finally settles on Blair's features, "Oh my God!"
"Yeah."
"He is in love with me!"
"Yeah…What?" Dan takes a double take at her, "what?"
"Of course. 'I have lost what I once had and now I'm going to do everything in my power to get her back.' Who else could it possibly mean?"
Dan can easily come up with a couple of names, one almost slipping out of his tongue as he watches Blair incredulously, "Seriously?" he finally draws out, "you seriously believe that it all has something to do with you?" his voice takes on an uncharacteristically steely tone, "are you that naïve Blair, or just that conceited?"
"How dare you Humphrey? I know Nate and I know what I'm saying. Sure it's a bit surprising that Nate should return back to me after so many years, but it isn't impossible."
"What about Charlotte then?" he humours her.
"Oh, well we will just have to find some one equally well suited for her. Heaven forbids if that Tom Shepard finds his way back to her."
He has had it that, "For your sake Waldorf, I hope you do realize soon enough that people are not your play things," he picks up his things and is almost at the door when he turns around, "This was very badly done Waldorf."
"Badly done? What are we in? A Jane Austen novel?"
"No. No I wouldn't say so. Even the worst of her characters do not think as little of others as you do."
She squares her shoulders at him, "It should take you four seconds to make it from here to that door, Humphrey. I give you two."
Once outside, Dan rubs his eyes at the absurdity of the past two days.
He cannot believe that Blair had not as much as mentioned last night and to think that the only thing playing in her mind now is how Charlotte Wilkins must not return to Tom Shepard, the only one person who probably genuinely cares for her.
And how exactly had he himself had managed to jump from being friends with Blair to caring for her to getting suspended for her to making out with her to fighting with her the way they just had…?
And there was still the issue of Nate and his mystery girl. And Dan was willing to bet his life that it wasn't Blair.
Nate Archibald, Dan assumes isn't a man who over thinks before doing something. He has been friends with him for long enough to know that when he says that I have found the one, it probably means that it could well be anyone in the whole of Manhattan….And Nate would assume it to be love. However, this time Dan does think he knows who Nate is talking about.
He has been there and Nate probably has been there longer and to assume that Serena is the love of your life is probably the easiest folly to make.
He just doesn't know how he is to save Blair from another heart break she is definitely heading towards.
AN-The Austen fans would realsie that I have altered Nate's feelings a bit here, as Elton he should be in love with Blair but I decided to do the change to suit it more with the GG characters. I hope you guys are not too disapointed. So? How was it ? Please do review.