I'm not so sure about this chapter. It's really hard to put characters in a situation you haven't seen them in before and try to keep it realistic. Any feedback you have would be greatly appreciated :) Oh and I know I took a while to get this chapter up but I've had a lot to do lately, sorry. I probably won't be updating for at least another week because I'm really busy at the moment, but I am continuing to write this story when I can so don't worry.

Also, about the last chapter, I know it didn't seem very in character for Blair to want to go to a karaoke bar. The way I see it, she was just realizing that once she has her baby she won't be able to go out and have fun as much anymore so when Serena suggested something that she normally wouldn't do she wanted to do it because she thought she might not get the chance to do it once the baby comes. (Does that even make sense? lol) As for Chuck, he just wanted to make sure that Blair stayed safe and Nate I believe would be up for anything that Serena suggested. This is just my take on what I think the characters would do so if you don't agree with it, that's fine.

Anyway, enjoy this chapter :)

"Are you sure you're okay to do this?" Blair asked, looking at Chuck worriedly as they walked down the hallway.

He looked to her, "You've asked me this about fifty times in the last 12 hours."

"Well are you?"

"Like I said every other time you asked me I am perfectly fine to go to this class," Chuck replied as they neared the door of the birthing class they were going to. Blair had originally planned on taking Serena with her as she wasn't sure if Chuck would be up for it, but he had insisted that he wanted to be there for the classes as well as the birth.

The previous night, Blair was lying on her back on the floor of the baby's nursery as Chuck attempted to put together the baby's bassinet. It was a simple task so he thought, so Chuck decided that he would try to do it himself. Unfortunately it was taking longer than he expected.

"Blair, I really think you should get up off the floor," he told her for the fifth time.

"This is the most comfortable I've been in a month, so leave me alone," she warned him.

"Fine, suit yourself," Chuck murmered as he turned back to the project at hand. His patience had been drained trying to put together the damn bassinet, so he definitely didn't have the patience to deal with his hormonal fiancée.

"Come on Bass, you've been trying to put that thing together for the last hour," Blair teased from her spot on the floor. "I thought you said it was a 20 minute job."

He glared at her, with a piece of the bassinet in his hand, "It's a lot more complicated than it looks."

She rubbed her 7 months pregnant belly and suggested, "Why don't you just look at the instructions?"

"I don't need instructions," he muttered, trying to figure out how to attach the top part of the bassinet to the base. He set the top of the bassinet down on the base and it tumbled to the floor.

"I don't need instructions," Blair mimicked in a deep voice with a slight giggle. "Typical."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Men hate reading instructions, it's in their DNA," she continued. "Just like refusing to asking for directions. I think it threatens your manhood or something."

"The only thing threatening my manhood right now is you," Chuck retorted, reaching down to pick up the fallen part of the bassinet.

Blair sat up slowly with a pout, "That's no way to speak to the mother of your child.

He panicked when he saw that she looked like she was going to cry, realizing that their usual banter may not be as fun as it usually is for a pregnant, hormonal Blair. "You're right, I'm sorry," he said with an apologetic look. Chuck glared at the stupid contraption in front of him, resisting the urge to kick it, "This thing is pissing me off and I'm taking it out on you."

"You're forgiven if you help me up," she offered, extending her arms towards him. She seemed to have forgotten that she was upset a moment ago.

Chuck set aside the bassinet and helped her up off the floor, kissing her on the forehead to emphasize his apology. "Where are you going?"

"To bed," Blair replied bluntly, turning to walk towards the door of the bedroom. "I need to be at a birthing class by 10 o'clock tomorrow."

He gave her a weird look, "Wait a minute, what?" She turned back around to face him with a grimace. "You have a birthing class tomorrow?"

"Yes..."

"Did you forget to tell the father of your child this important information?" Chuck asked.

Blair paused, "I didn't think you would want to go. And I thought that if you're not going to be there for the birth then there's no point in you coming to the classes, so I asked Serena to come with me."

"Hold on," he started, stepping towards her. "When did I say that I wasn't going to be there for the birth?"

"Well you didn't say it, but I just assumed-"

"-that I wouldn't want to be there?" he finished.

"Well yeah but only because I thought that after what happened to your mother, you wouldn't be comfortable with being there," Blair explained, taking a step towards him so they were face-to-face with each other.

Chuck sighed and took Blair by the hands, "I promised you that I wasn't going to let you do any of this on your own and I meant it."

"I know and you've kept your promise, but I just don't want you to be worrying about me on what should be one of the best days of your life."

"Whether or not my mother died giving birth to me, I'm still going to worry about you when you're in labour," he replied sincerely. "I know this is going to be difficult for me, but I want to be there."

"You do?" she asked hopefully.

Chuck nodded, "I want to be one of the first people our child sees when he's born. I don't want to confuse the little guy about who his father is."

Blair smiled, "Okay, I'll go call Serena and tell her that she won't be needed tomorrow." She gave him a quick kiss before leaving the room in search of the phone, while Chuck returned to trying to put together the bassinet.

"You don't have to go to these classes with me if it makes you uncomfortable," she told him. "It's not too late to call Serena."

"Do you not want me to be here?"

"Of course I do," Blair said sincerely. "I just don't want you to be here if it's going to be an unpleasant experience for you." She continued, "I mean, there's going to be birthing videos, breathing exercises...I just don't want you to feel-"

"Blair," Chuck interrupted, taking her hand. "I'm doing this. Nothing you say is going to talk me out of it." She nodded. "Going to these classes and being at the birth isn't going to be easy for me but I'm willing to do it for you and Alexander."

"Okay," she answered softly. "As long as you're sure."

"I'm sure," he replied strongly as they entered the room the classes were being held in.

She smiled, grabbing his hand, "Come on, let's go choose a mat."

"A mat?"

"To sit on," she replied slowly, as if she was talking to a child.

"We have to sit on the floor?" Chuck asked, making a face as she led them to one of the dozen mats that were placed in two rows on the floor.

Blair nodded sympathetically, "I know it's horrible, but we're at a birthing class not a 5-star restaurant." He helped her sit down on the floor, then reluctantly sat down beside her.

They sat talking for a few minutes as more couples entered and took their seats on the mats around them. To Blair's surprise, there was a mixture of people at the class, from Upper East Siders like themselves, to Brooklyn-ers. A couple who were definitely not from the Upper East Side sat down on another mat beside them. Blair wrinkled her nose at the woman's grey sweatpants. Blair wouldn't be caught dead wearing anything like that in public. In fact, she had bought a whole new outfit for the the sole purpose of wearing it to the birthing class. Her outfit consisted of a pair of black tights and a cute yellow dress that to her surprise, didn't make her look like a blimp. Of course this went against her not wearing tights as pants rule, but it was better than wearing sweatpants in her opinion.

Blair subtly moved closer to Chuck and as far away from the couple as possible. Chuck noticed this and whispered, "It's the sweatpants isn't it?"

She nodded, grabbing onto his arm. "Why on earth would someone wear something that hideous?" she whispered back.

"Comfort?"

"That's no excuse," she retorted. To Blair's horror, the woman caught her staring at her and smiled at her. Blair smiled back hesitantly.

"Is this your first?" she asked, rubbing her belly affectionately.

Blair nodded, "Yes."

"Oh isn't that sweet," she grinned, nudging her partner. "This is our seventh so we're pros, ask us anything."

"She can't keep her hands off me," the man added, giving Chuck a wink. She slapped him playfully.

Blair and Chuck just looked on in horror, not knowing what would possess someone to have that many children. They laughed nervously, thanking the couple before turning away from them, hoping they wouldn't speak to them again. "Seven!" Chuck whispered frantically.

"I know! Haven't they heard of birth control?" Blair hissed.

"Well if it isn't Charles Bass," a voice said from beside them.

Blair and Chuck turned to find a blonde man who looked to be in his mid-thirties and a dark-haired heavily pregnant woman sitting down on the mat to their right. Blair recognised them as one of Chuck's business associates and his wife. They had had dinner with them once nearly a year ago. "Timothy," Chuck smiled politely, obviously knowing the man better than Blair did. He leaned over and shook the man's hand, "Of all the places to run into each other."

"Tell me about it," Timothy chuckled. "We had no idea that you two were expecting."

"Likewise," he nodded, turning to Timothy's wife. "It's Angela, isn't it?"

She nodded, shaking Chuck's hand, "Good memory. How are you?"

"I'm well thanks, you remember Blair," Chuck said, putting his arm around Blair's lower back.

"Of course," Angela smiled.

"Please tell me that you have a reasonable number of children," Blair said, only half-joking.

The couple just laughed. "This is our second," Timothy told her.

She breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh good."

"Do you know what you're having?" Angela asked.

"It's a boy," Chuck interjected proudly before Blair could answer.

Angela gasped, "We're having a girl! We could be future in-laws."

Blair didn't get a chance to reply. The woman who was running the class had made her way to the front of the room and began to speak, "I want to start off by welcoming you all here today. I'm going to do my best to prepare you for the births of your babies and for their care in their first few months of life." The woman, who introduced herself as Marie, went on to describe what they would be doing over the next six weekly lessons, then suggested that everyone in the class get to know each other better. "We're going to go around the room and tell the class your names, when your babies are due and anything else that you want to share."

Chuck and Blair looked at each other with a sigh. They really didn't see the need to bond with a bunch of strangers. The couples who introduced themselves included two teenagers who were having their first baby, an older couple that was having their first baby, another couple that was having twins and finally the woman in the sweatpants and her husband. It was then Chuck and Blair's turn to their dismay. She looked to him, indictating that he was going to be the one to speak. He shook his head, "You do it."

"There's no need to be shy," Marie said cheerily. "We're all on this journey together."

When Blair elbowed him in the ribs, Chuck gave in. "I'm Chuck and this is my fiancée Blair. We're both 22 and Blair is 28 weeks pregnant with our son."

"Welcome Chuck and Blair!" Marie exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Thanks..." she replied, forcing herself to smile at the overly-excited woman before her.

"That's...great," Chuck muttered as the woman's attention moved to Timothy and Angela.

As Timothy and Angela began to introduce themselves, Blair and Chuck looked at each other and grimaced. This was going to be a long hour and a half.

45 minutes later, Marie had put on a video of a women giving birth and the twelve couples were watching it with mixed reactions. Half the women in the class looked horrified, the majority of men (including Chuck) looked disgusted and the remaining people were watching calmly. To Chuck's surprise, Blair was in the category of those who were watching the video calmly. Even through the blood and the screaming, she seemed quite okay with the fact that she was going to be doing the same thing in 12 weeks time. "I could totally do this," she whispered to him as the woman on the screen screamed through yet another contraction. Chuck gave her a questioning look, not believing that she seemed so confident about giving birth.

"Why do babies have to born in such a disgusting way?" he whispered back.

Blair frowned, "It's not disgusting."

"So it's not disgusting for a 7 pound baby to come out of a woman's-"

"Shhh!" she scolded him, hitting him on the arm before returning her attention back to the video.

"Okay, so if you look closely here," Marie began, pointing to the screen with a smile, "You can see that the baby's head is crowning. This is a particularly painful part of the birthing process." As if to assentuate this point, the woman on the screen screamed louder than she had before, causing the entire class to wince.

"But really," Chuck continued when Marie had sat back down, "I'm probably going to have nightmares about this for the next week."

Blair rolled her eyes, not taking her focus off of the screen, "Imagine if you actually had to do it." He shuddered at the thought. "Now shut up, she's starting to push."

Chuck hadn't thought it was possible, but somehow the women in the video started screaming even louder as she attempted to push the tiny human being out of her. After a few more pushes, the baby was out. Chuck looked on in amazement as the doctor cut the umbilical cord and handed the tiny, pink and screaming infant to the nurse, who set it on the mother's chest. What really got to him was the way the woman was looking at her newborn baby like it was the most amazing thing in the world. He couldn't help but wonder if his own mother had the chance to look at him like that. He had never asked Bart if his mother had gotten to hold him before she died.

Blair looked over at Chuck and noticed the sad look on his face. She knew that he was no doubt thinking about his mother and his own birth, so she grabbed his hand and squeezed it. He looked to her with a small smile. "Are you okay?" she whispered. He just nodded in reply.

After the birthing class, Blair and Chuck were in the limo and Chuck was being unusually quiet and staring out the window. "Thank you for coming today," she said, breaking the silence.

He looked to her, "You don't have to thank me-"

"Yes I do," Blair persisted. "I know watching that video brought up some difficult issues for you. Thank you for doing this for me, for Alexander."

He smiled, "Well you're both worth it."

She smiled back, then looked down to her hands, "So tell me Charles, what's going on in that head of yours?"

Chuck sighed. Blair only used his full name when she was trying to have a serious discussion with him. "I just, don't understand..." he began, trailing off.

"You don't understand what?" she asked, looking back up at him.

"How...how you were so calm when we were watching that video," Chuck finished. "I mean, that video scared me and I'm not the one that's going to be giving birth in 12 weeks time."

Blair scoffed, "You actually bought that?"

"Huh?"

"You know me better than that," she started. "I'm completely terrified of giving birth, I just didn't want to show anyone else that."

"You are?" Chuck asked, turning his body towards her abruptly. He looked relieved and almost excited about what she had just revealed.

"You don't have to look so happy about it," Blair replied, resting her head on the back of the seat with a pout.

"It's not like that," he said, grabbing both of her hands in his own. "I thought that I was just being irrational by worrying about the birth since it didn't look like it was bothering you."

"It looked so painful," she commented, having flashbacks to scenes in the video in her mind. "How am I going to do it Chuck?"

Chuck thought for a moment, "Okay, here's what we're going to do." He cleared his throat, "We're going to stop by a book store on the way home and get another birthing video. Then we'll go home and watch it together."

"You want to watch more of the horror that is the miracle of life?" Blair asked in disbelief. "Do you have some weird labour fetish or something?"

He made a face, "That's disgusting, not even I would go there."

"Do we have to watch another birthing video?"

"We don't have to if you don't want to, but I think it would be helpful," Chuck commented, surprised that he was even suggesting this.

Blair looked hesitant, "I don't know..."

He looked at her, "You know what was the best part of that video for me?"

"When it ended?"

"No," he chuckled. "When the mother got to hold her baby. Did you see how happy she was?"

She nodded, "She did look really happy."

"So as scary as the thought of you giving birth is for both of us," Chuck started, "it mustn't be all that bad if it's going to lead to something that's going to make us that happy."

She peered at him, "Okay imposter, tell me what you've done with my fiancée. My Chuck would never in a million years have made peace with the idea of childbirth."

He smirked, "It's quite empowering, you should try it."

"I'm trying to, believe me I am," Blair replied. "Can you help me?"

"Of course," Chuck said, leaning over to give her a quick kiss. "It's going to involve watching another birthing video though."

She sighed, "Okay, I'm up for it."

He smiled at her, then pressed the intercom button on the side of the limo, "Arthur, change of plans. Can you take us to the nearest book store please?"

"Right away Mr Bass," the driver replied.

Blair relaxed into the seat and rested her hands on her belly. "Chuck," she said softly.

"Blair," he said, resting his hand on top of Blair's hands.

She smiled, "I'm sure that if she got the chance, your mother looked at you that way when you were born."

Chuck sighed sadly, "You think so?"

Blair nodded, "Absolutely."

Later that afternoon, Blair and Chuck were in the middle of watching the birthing movie they had bought on their way home when Nate and Serena stepped out of the elevator. When Serena heard the sounds of a woman breathing heavily and screaming, she groaned, "Oh God, please don't tell me we caught Chuck watching porn."

"I hope not," Nate retorted as they entered the living room cautiously. They looked at the image on the screen in horror. "That's not porn!" Nate exclaimed in disgust.

Chuck and Blair both turned around to face their friends. "Of course it's not porn, it's a documentary about giving birth," Blair told them as they continued to gape at the image on the screen.

"Remind me never to get pregnant," Serena commented, sitting down in an armchair with her handbag on her lap.

Nate sat down on the arm of the armchair, trying not to look at the television, "Why are you continuing to watch this?"

"I'm trying to make peace with the idea of childbirth," Blair told them simply, turning down the volume.

"It's empowering," Chuck added. She nodded in agreement.

Nate and Serena exchanged amused looks. "Empowering?" Nate repeated with a laugh. "What are you, a girl?"

Blair frowned, "Leave Chuck alone, we're trying to prepare for the arrival of our child here. If you want to be negative you can leave."

"I'm sorry B, we'll try to be more supportive," Serena said, trying to hold back a giggle. "So...what's going on here?" she gestured to the television.

"The woman's pushing a baby out, it's pretty self-explanatory," Chuck retorted.

"I can see that," she grimaced as Blair turned up the volume and she could hear the woman's screams once more. "Is that really necessary?"

She blinked, "Yes it is."

"Come on Blair, turn it off," Nate persisted, grimacing as the image on the television screen became way too graphic.

"No."

"Chuck, make her turn it off," Serena whined.

He just laughed, but nevertheless told Blair, "Why don't we finish watching this later?"

"Fine," she rolled her eyes, pressing the pause button on the remote at the worst time. The blonde couple grimaced.

"Oh god, now the image is permanently lodged in my brain," Nate groaned.

Please review :)