This chapter is set 2 weeks after the last one. It's a Christmas chapter so be prepared for cuteness and no drama whatsoever.
Blair was excited, it was December 23rd which was of course 2 days before Christmas. She and Chuck had spent the day doing their last minute Christmas shopping, before heading back to their penthouse to decorate their Christmas tree. They were going to spend a quiet night together, then tomorrow morning Harold and Roman were arriving in New York for Christmas and would finally find out about Blair's pregnancy. That night they would all go to Lily and Rufus' place for Christmas Eve dinner with their friends and family. Christmas day was going to be spent at Eleanor and Cyrus'. Blair smiled as she stood in front of the fireplace, admiring the tree. She sipped her hot chocolate and thought of what Christmas would be like next year with the baby. She was due on June 3rd which meant that their baby would be nearly 7 months old next Christmas. It would still be too young to know what was going on, but Blair knew it was going to be a wonderful Christmas. Blair smiled when Chuck wrapped his arms around her from behind and kissed her on the cheek, "What are you thinking about?"
"Next Christmas," she replied simply. "When the baby will finally be here."
Chuck smiled, "I can't wait."
"Me neither," she said, turning around to face him. "Do you believe that this is our last Christmas ever just being Chuck and Blair? Next year we're going to be Mommy and Daddy."
"That's a scary thought," he chuckled, his hand resting on his fiancée's stomach. "But it's exciting too."
"Yes it is," Blair smiled, giving him a quick peck on the lips. She groaned when she noticed the many gifts that still laid unwrapped all over the living room. Blair had been feeling very nurturing and motherly lately and wanted to do everything herself this Christmas, including wrapping her own presents. She was really regretting her decision now. "We still have to wrap all of those presents," she sighed.
"Remind me again why we didn't have them wrapped for us," Chuck asked.
"Because I wanted to wrap them myself this year," Blair admitted, rolling her eyes at her own stupid idea. "I've never wrapped a gift in my life, I don't know how I expected to wrap these."
"Well believe it or not, I wrapped many gifts when I was younger," he replied, sitting down on the floor in front of the Christmas tree.
"You did not," she retorted confidently, sitting down beside him.
"I did," Chuck insisted. "Surprisingly, Bart was quite sentimental at Christmas time. When I was a child we would always wrap gifts together."
"Really?" Blair asked in surprise, not remembering Chuck ever mentioning this before. "How old were you?"
"We did it until I was about 9," he replied. "After that he was always too busy to spend Christmas with me, let alone help me wrap gifts."
Due to her raging hormones, Blair nearly started to cry. She always felt so bad for Chuck when he talked about his childhood. She pulled herself together, not wanting to put a damper on the evening. She grabbed one of the presents, a roll of wrapping paper, scissors and tape and set them down in front of him, "Go on gift-wrapping expert, show me how it's done," she challenged him, taking a sip of her hot chocolate.
"I don't know, are you sure you can handle it?" Chuck teased. "My skills are quite astounding."
"Oh I can handle it, go right ahead," Blair smiled, handing him the pair of scissors. She watched in surprise over the next few minutes as he wrapped the present perfectly, cutting the wrapping paper to size, folding it around the present and taping it in place.
He handed the wrapped present to her with a cocky grin, "What do you think?"
"I'm impressed Bass," she nodded, handing the present back to him. "If you somehow go bankrupt one day, you'll always have a career as a gift-wrapper to fall back on," she teased.
"You're just jealous," he scoffed, placing the present under the tree. "Next."
An hour and a half later, all the gifts were wrapped and under the tree. Chuck stood in front of the tree and looked at his handywork proudly. "You were right," he said, turning to Blair, "it is nice to do something yourself for once."
She nodded, "We just wrapped a stack of presents all on our own. We're going to be great parents."
"We are," he agreed, putting his arm around her.
Blair's face fell when she suddenly realized something. She bent down and picked up the box of Christmas labels from the floor, "Chuck," she started, looking up at him, "Please tell me that we labelled the presents."
He looked at her and blinked. "Damn it."
Blair couldn't help but giggle at the look on his face. "I guess people are just going to have to guess which gift is theirs," she teased.
Chuck just stared at her for a moment before replying, "First thing in the morning I'm getting someone to re-wrap all of these."
Blair laughed, "At least we tried to do it ourselves."
"So much for my career in the gift-wrapping business," he added with a smirk.
"Sorry Chuck, but I think you should leave it to the professionals," she replied, patting him on the back sympathetically.
The next morning, Chuck and Blair arrived at the airport at 9am to meet Harold and Roman, who were flying in from France. Blair was excited to see her father. She was showing a little so she couldn't wait to see if Harold would notice that she was pregnant. When Blair saw her father step out of the arrivals gate she grinned happily, waving at him to get his attention. Harold eventually saw her and waved back.
"Daddy!" Blair exclaimed as her father approached her, Roman following close behind.
"Blair-bear!" Harold grinned, setting down his suitcase and pulling his daughter into a hug. "Merry Christmas!" As he pulled away he noticed something different about her, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
"What's the matter?" she asked as her father looked at her strangely. She waited in anticipation to see what he would say.
"Nothing sweetheart," he replied. "I'm just so happy to see you." He turned to Chuck, "Chuck, how are you?" Blair frowned disappointedly.
"I'm good thanks Harold," he nodded, shaking his hand politely. "How is Paris life treating you?"
"Blair!" Roman greeted her in his French-American accent, hugging her tightly.
She smiled, "How are you Roman?"
Then unexpectedly, Roman looked down at Blair's stomach and gasped, "Oh my," he commented, glancing up at her in surprise. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"Tell us what?" Harold asked, Roman's surprised tone distracting him from his conversation with Chuck.
"Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that Blair is with child," Roman replied, gesturing towards Blair's slightly protruding stomach.
Harold looked at his daughter's stomach, before looking up at him strangely, "Don't be ridiculous Roman, Blair isn't pregnant."
"Actually it's not that ridiculous," Chuck said, causing the older man to look at him in surprise.
"Surprise Daddy," Blair said with a nervous smile.
Harold paused for a moment, taking the news in. A grin suddenly broke out on his face, "This is wonderful news!" he exclaimed, hugging Blair for the second time that morning. "Congratulations!"
"I knew it," Roman grinned, hugging Chuck happily. Chuck wondered why both of Blair's step-fathers felt the constant need to hug him. As Roman finally released him from his grasp, Harold pat him on the back.
"Congratulations Chuck, you're officially stuck with this family for the rest of your life," Harold laughed.
He chuckled, "There's really no way out of it?" he teased, receiving a glare from Blair.
"You know, I did notice that something was different with you Blair," Harold remarked as the four of them made their way towards the airport exit.
Later that night, Lily, Rufus, Dan, Jenny, Serena, Eric, Nate, Chuck, Blair, Vanessa, Eleanor, Cyrus, Harold and Roman were gathered at the Van der Woodsen/Humphrey penthouse for Christmas Eve dinner. It was a tradition they had started two years ago to get together on the night before Christmas, no matter what they were all doing at the time. The group was standing around, talking and having drinks before dinner. Serena practically ran up to Blair excitedly, "Can I see it again?"
"See what?" Blair teased, knowing that she meant her engagement ring.
"You know what I'm talking about," she replied, grabbing her hand and examining the obviously expensive diamond ring. "It's so beautiful B."
"It's just lovely," Eleanor gushed, admiring the ring on her daughter's finger. She had been absolutely thrilled when she found out about Blair and Chuck's engagement, her only concern was that they were waiting until after the baby was born to get married. "You have impeccable taste Charles."
"Well Blair deserves the best Eleanor," Chuck replied, making his fiancée blush beside him.
"I can't wait for the wedding," Lily commented dreamily, obviously picturing the big day in her mind.
"You may have to wait a little longer Lily," Blair told her. "We're not going to even start planning the wedding until we get settled in with the baby, which won't be for a couple of months after it's born."
Eleanor, Lily and Serena all sighed in disappointment, to the amusement of Blair, Chuck and Rufus. "You're going to be the most beautiful bride Blair," Serena smiled, finally releasing her friend's hand.
"I know," she replied, only half-joking. Everybody laughed.
"If you'll excuse me, I'm going to see when dinner will be ready," Lily excused herself.
"I'll go with you," Rufus added, then the couple made their way towards the kitchen.
Eleanor turned back to Serena, "So, when are you and Nate going to get engaged?"
"Oh mother, leave Serena alone," Blair said, taking a sip of her water.
"I think your mother's right Blair," Chuck spoke up. "It's about time dear Nathaniel popped the question."
Serena glared at her step-brother, "No it's not. We are perfectly happy just living together. Well, for now anyway."
"You're telling me that you don't want one of these?" Eleanor asked, grabbing Blair's left hand to show Serena the ring once more. Blair pulled her hand back in annoyance. Being engaged was fun, but she was getting tired of her ring being the focus of everybody's attention.
"Not right now Eleanor," she smiled politely. "But I definitely want to get married in the future." Eleanor seemed satisfied with her answer. "Speaking of Nate, I think I'm going to go find him. Excuse me." With that, the blonde began making her way across the room to find her boyfriend.
"I'm going to go make sure that Cyrus isn't trying to convert people to Judaism with his Hannukah stories," Eleanor told her daughter and future son-in-law.
"Good luck with that," Blair told her mother, before the walked away, leaving Chuck and Blair alone once more.
"Are you feeling okay?" he asked her, taking her hand that wasn't holding her drink in his own free hand.
"I'm great, I haven't felt nauseous since this morning," Blair replied. "I think my morning sickness is finally isolating itself to the mornings where it belongs."
Chuck smiled, "Good, the last thing I want is your morning sickness ruining Christmas Eve for you."
At that moment, Harold came up to them, "Sorry Chuck, do you mind if I steal Blair away from you for a few minutes?"
"Not at all," he shook his head. "I might go catch up with my old friend Daniel," he smirked, leaving Blair and Harold to their conversation.
"So how are you doing sweetie?" her father asked, leading her to one of the couches in the living room. "I mean, there's so many changes happening in your life."
"They're good changes Daddy," Blair told him. "Insanely scary changes, but they're still good."
"I'm glad that you're happy Blair-bear," Harold smiled, kissing his daughter on the forehead. "I've missed you, you know. You and Charles don't visit nearly as often as we would like."
"I know, I wish I could come see you every week but Chuck has a company and a hotel to run and I have classes..."
"It's alright, I understand," he said. "It was my decision to move to France. I knew seeing you less would be a consequence of that."
Blair though for a moment, "Why can't we change all of this?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, why don't you and Roman move back to New York?" she suggested. "It would be perfect. You could spend more time with me, be around more for your grandchild when he or she is born..."
Harold smiled sadly, "That sounds wonderful Blair, but I simply can't. Roman loves Paris, it would break his heart to leave it."
"But it breaks your heart to leave me," she said, unsurely. "Doesn't it?"
"Of course it does," he replied, "but you know as well as I do that one must make sacrifices for the people that we love."
"That isn't fair," Blair argued. "Roman loves you and he wants you to be happy. I'm sure if he knew that living in France isn't making you happy anymore that he would be open to the discussion of moving back to the city."
Harold sighed, "I can talk to him, but I'm not promising anything Blair."
"Please try," she pleaded, "If not for me, than for your grandchild who is going to need their Grandpa around."
"You're very hard to say no to, do you know that?"
Blair nodded, "It's a gift."
Chuck and Blair stepped out of the Empire Hotel elevator just before midnight, after dropping Harold and Roman off at their suite on the floor beneath them. It had been a long night and Blair was exhausted and wanted to climb into bed right away. Chuck on the other hand had gotten a little tipsy off of a bottle of champagne he had shared with Cyrus (because of course one glass was "Not enough!"), and was a little too upbeat and happy compared to his usual self. "We wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas," Chuck sang as he walked through the penthouse, holding Blair's hand, "We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!"
"I think someone's had too much champagne," Blair giggled, pulling him in for a kiss.
Chuck laughed, "Come on Blair, dance with me."
"There's no music," she replied, as he rested his hand on her waist and began moving her around the room.
"We don't need music," he told her. Blair squealed softly as Chuck dipped her, before bringing her back up to face him. "I can always sing if you like."
"I think you've done enough singing for one night," she replied, wrapping her arms around Chuck's neck as they slowed their pace. "I'm sure my father and Roman loved your take on Jingle Bells in the elevator."
"Do you want to hear it again? I think I have one more number left in me," he asked. Before Blair could say no, he started singing, "He's making a list and checking it twice, he's gonna find out who's naughty or nice-"
"That's Santa Clause is Coming to Town," she laughed.
Chuck thought for a moment, "So it is. Oh well." He began singing again, "He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're...not sleeping..."
"When you're awake," Blair corrected him. "You're drunker than I thought Bass."
"I'm not drunk, I'm tipsy," he said, "there's a difference."
"You're fun when you're tipsy," she smiled, leaning in for a kiss.
He pulled away from the kiss slightly, "I'm always fun Waldorf. I'm like...the King of Fun."
"The King of Fun," she repeated in amusement.
He nodded, "And don't you forget it," he told her, pointing at her when he spoke each word.
Blair laughed, she was going to have so much fun teasing him about this in the morning. "Merry Christmas Chuck," she smiled sweetly. "I love you."
"I love you more," he replied with a drunken smile.
"Okay, I can live with that," she smiled. "Now, am I going to have to drag you to bed?"
"That all depends on what we're going to be doing there," he replied, moving his eyebrows up and down.
"We're going to be sleeping Chuck, I'm absolutely exhausted," she said, trying to hold back a laugh at the expression on his face. "By the way, you look so creepy right now," she told him, leading him into their bedroom.
"You love it," he murmered, planting himself face down on the bed.
I had so much fun writing that last part. Tipsy Chuck is so fun to write. Reviews would be lovely =D