This chapter skips ahead to about a month before the wedding, making Alexander about 10 months old. We're getting closer to the wedding now! Please review and let me know what you think. Oh and apparently they call Dorota's daughter Ana on the show so I've decided to call her that too, just to avoid any confusion :)

On a fairly warm March afternoon, Blair had decided to take Alex to feed the ducks with Dorota and Ana at Central Park. It had been a while since they had done this, so they felt that it was long overdue. The two women were standing by the pond with the children. Dorota handed 4-year-old Ana pieces of bread, which the little girl would throw into the water, giggling as the ducks fought over it and eventually gobbled it up. Alex had been in his stroller up to this point, watching the ducks swim around. However, he was starting to get a little restless, so Blair leant down to remove him from the stroller.

"I'm so excited Dorota," she beamed as she lifted her son into her arms, "Everything in my life is finally falling into place." The wedding was completely organised (with the exception of a few minor details) and Alex was doing great and had adjusted well to being away from her while she was at work. But what really excited Blair was the fact that she was up for a promotion at work. Her boss had decided to promote one of the five people that were hired at the same time as Blair, based on who came up with the best advertising campaign for one of the company's major clients. Blair already had her presentation complete and perfected for a week now and was confident that she was going to impress her boss at work the following day, and get that promotion.

Dorota looked to Blair with a pleased smile, "I'm so happy for you Miss Blair. You deserve promotion."

"I do, don't I?" she agreed with a satisfied nod. "No one deserves this promotion more than I do. I mean, are those other people raising a child and planning a wedding on top of doing this job?"

The maid shrugged, "They could be..."

She gave Dorota an annoyed look, "You're supposed to be on my side."

"I am," she insisted, handing Ana another piece of bread for the ducks. "I am always on your side Miss Blair, and so is Ana."

The little girl nodded her head enthusiastically in agreement, before turning to her mother and asking, "Can I pat the ducks mama?"

"No Ana, the ducks will fly away," Dorota responded, causing the child to pout sadly. She then told Ana something in Polish that Blair couldn't understand. She had picked up a bit of Polish from Dorota over the years, but she was definitely not fluent and could only understand a few words.

While Dorota was occupied with Ana, Blair carried Alex a little closer to the pond and began pointing out the ducks to the curious and alert 10-month-old. "Can you see the duckies Alex?" she asked, pointing to a duck and its three babies. "That's a mama duck and three little baby ducks," she continued, her son listening intently to every word she said.

"Da!" Alex cried out with a grin, reaching his hand out towards the pond.

"That's right Alex, duck," Blair replied with a proud smile. For the last month or so, he had started repeating the basic sounds of words that he heard people say.

"Da!" the baby insisted again, grunting in frustration as he continued to reach towards the pond.

"No honey, we can't touch the ducks," she told him, taking his little hand in her own and kissing it. Alex seemed annoyed at this and began to pout, making Blair laugh. "Sorry baby but you have to watch them from here. I don't think the Mommy duck would appreciate you trying to grab her babies." They watched the ducks for another couple of minutes, before making their way back over to Dorota and Ana. The little girl had apparently gotten sick of the ducks and was now sitting on a park bench eating an apple that her mother had given her.

"Does Mr Alex like the ducks?" Dorota inquired, smiling at the baby in Blair's arms.

She nodded, "Oh he loves them. He's taking after his Mommy in that regard."

"Blair?" Ana spoke up suddenly.

"Yes Ana?" she responded, turning to the little girl.

"When do I get to wear my pretty dress?" she asked curiously.

Blair smiled, realizing that she was talking about her flower girl dress for the wedding. "Very soon sweetie, just one more month," she told her.

"That's a long time," Ana insisted with a sigh.

"I know how you feel Ana," Blair nodded, proceeding to place Alex back in his stroller. "I'm excited to wear my pretty dress too."

"I'm excited to see you and Mr Chuck finally married," Dorota interjected with an excited smile. "It has been a long time coming."

"Yes it has," she agreed as she made sure that the baby was securely buckled into his stroller. "I think I can vouch for that better than anyone." Blair paused, taking a moment to smile at Alex. "And now that my mother managed to convince Serena to push back her wedding until three months after ours, I have nothing else to worry about in relation to the wedding."

"I knew Ms Eleanor would be able to make Miss Serena change wedding," Dorota replied. "She is scary when she is mad." She shuddered at the thought.

"I didn't want to have to do that to Serena, but I didn't have any other options," Blair reasoned. "She wouldn't have listened to me." The maid nodded in agreement. "Anyway Dorota, we have to get going. I want to go over my presentation again tonight. It has to be perfect!"

Blair said her goodbyes to Dorota and Ana, then left with Alex, taking out her phone to call Arthur to tell him to come and pick them up.

The next day at around lunchtime, Blair arrived at Chuck's office in an extremely good mood. She had presented her campaign that morning and was confident that hers was the best. Since it was Friday, her boss had then given them the afternoon off, so Blair had decided to surprise Chuck and take him out for lunch. However, when she arrived at Bass Industries Chuck's receptionist had informed her that he was out.

"Did he say where he was going?" Blair inquired, crossing her arms over her chest impatiently. She hoped that he wasn't already busy, she had been looking forward to having lunch together with just the two of them.

Paula shook her head and responded, "No he didn't. He just said that he had something to attend to...whatever that means." She shrugged, before turning her attention back to her computer.

Blair rolled her eyes as she turned and made her way back towards the elevator. She really had to remind Chuck to fire that useless receptionist. Blair pressed the button for the elevator, then took out her phone to call her M.I.A fiancee. As soon as he answered the phone, she asked, "Where are you?"

Chuck paused for a moment, before responding smoothly, "I'm at work love, where else would I be?"

"You're at work?" she repeated in confusion as she stepped into the empty elevator. "So you're sitting in your office right now?"

"Uh-huh," he responded distantly, as if he were distracted by something.

Blair's eyes widened in alarm, worried as to why he was lying to her. She cleared her throat and tried to keep her cool. "You know, it's funny that you should say that..." she started with a fake chuckle. "I'm just leaving your office and you were nowhere to be found." Chuck winced, trying to think up an excuse. "Spill it Bass, where are you?" Blair demanded, tapping her foot impatiently as the elevator began to descend to the ground floor.

He paused for a moment, taking a seat on the lounge in the living room of their future home. He had taken the morning off work to inspect the renovations that had been done on the penthouse he had bought for Blair as a wedding present. Chuck couldn't tell her exactly where he was without ruining the surprise, but he had to say something to avoid her becoming suspicious. "I can't tell you," he confessed. "All I can say is that I'm arranging a surprise for you."

She thought about what he had said for a minute, becoming extremely intrigued about what Chuck was planning. "What kind of surprise?" she asked calmly, numerous possibilities coming to mind.

"If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise," he pointed out teasingly.

Blair rolled her eyes at his cliched remark as the elevator opened onto the ground floor of the building. "You know I hate surprises," she objected, stepping out into the lobby and making her way towards the building's main exit. "I hate not being in the know."

"You liked your surprise birthday party a few months ago."

"I liked the party. The surprise element of it, not so much," she clarified as she exited the building. She made her way to the side of the road to hail a cab. "I'm about to get into a cab, just tell me where you are and I'll meet you there."

"Fine," Chuck relented. "Here's the address," he started. Blair grinned victoriously.

"Where are we Chuck?" Blair asked in confusion, as she entered the lobby of the apartment building to find him waiting for her.

He gave her a quick kiss, then remarked teasingly, "I believe it's called an apartment building beautiful."

"I'm aware of that you idiot, I mean why are we here?"

He ushered her into the elevator and started to explain, "Well since we're going to be married in a month's time and therefore starting a new part of our lives together, I figured that we were going to need a new home to live in."

"You bought an apartment?" Blair asked, turning to face him with a surprised look.

Chuck smiled and corrected her, "We bought an apartment. The penthouse of this building actually."

She looked at him for a moment, before shaking her head, "I don't know what to say."

"Do you not like the building?" he asked, his face falling in disappointment. Blair hadn't even seen the penthouse yet and she was already unhappy with his selection.

"Of course not, it seems like a lovely place to live," Blair assured him. "I just thought that choosing a home for our family would be something that we would do together."

Chuck was about to respond, when the elevator doors opened at their floor. He looked back to her and stated, "I didn't realize that you felt that way."

"I didn't think we were going to start looking for somewhere to live until after the wedding," she said, biting her lip nervously. She felt bad because Chuck had obviously put a lot of time and thought into finding this place, but at the same time she was really looking forward to finding their dream home together in the future.

"Can you at least take a look at the place?" he asked hopefully.

Blair nodded, "Well we're here now, so I might as well."

The mood was tense as they exited the elevator and approached the front door of the penthouse. Chuck unlocked and opened the door, before gesturing for Blair to enter. She stepped inside and he followed, shutting the door behind them. Blair couldn't help but smile as she looked around the perfectly decorated penthouse. Chuck had obviously chosen a good interior decorator. From what she could see, the place was beautiful. It was everything she imagined their first home as a married couple to be. But somehow, it just didn't feel right. "What do you think?" Chuck asked gently, bringing Blair out of her thoughts.

"I like it," she nodded, turning back to him. "I love it actually."

"But..." he started expectantly.

Blair took Chuck's hands in her own and finished softly, "But it doesn't feel like home because we didn't find it together."

He sighed and responded, "This was a stupid thing to do, wasn't it?"

"Of course not, it was a really thoughtful thing to do," she replied. "I'm just a control freak," she added with a chuckle. "You know that."

"You're not a control freak," he insisted. "You have every right to want to choose where you want to live."

Blair smiled, "So you're not mad at me?"

"Why would I be mad at you?" he asked in confusion. "I was worried that you would be mad at me."

"I'm not mad at you," she insisted. "How could I be mad at you for doing all of this for our family?"

Chuck smiled, "So neither of us is mad at the other?" She shook her head. "That's a rare occurence."

Blair hit him on the shoulder playfully, before beginning to play with the lapel of his suit. "You know, I was actually hoping that we could have lunch together today," she started. "We can celebrate my perfect presentation at work this morning."

"I'm sorry, I didn't even ask how that was," he apologized, leaning in to give her a brief kiss. "So everything went well?"

"Better than well, I was fantastic," Blair responded confidently, making Chuck laugh. "I'm practically guaranteed that promotion."

"I don't doubt that for a second," he agreed. "We definitely need to celebrate this over lunch."

She grinned as they proceeded to leave the penthouse. "Then afterwards we can pick up Alexander from my mother's early," she suggested. "Maybe spend the afternoon at the park? Alex has gotten quite fond of the ducks at the pond."

"That's obviously yours and Dorota's influence," Chuck replied, holding the front door open for Blair.

"Definitely," she agreed as they left the penthouse. "Well at least he hasn't developed a fondness for scotch and womanizing. I was worried that it was genetic."

He chuckled, "Don't be ridiculous, it's not genetic. I'm going to have to introduce those things to Alex myself."

He smirked as he received an unamused glare from Blair. "Over my dead body," she retorted, shaking her head.

The following night, Blair and Chuck had invited Serena and Nate over for dinner to discuss their duties for the wedding as maid of honor and best man. Unfortunately, both parties had brought their significant others, Dan and Juliet, which was making for a tense and awkward night. They had managed to get through dinner and the three couples were now seated around the coffee table having tea and coffee. Despite it being nearly 9 o'clock, Alex had refused to go to sleep and was still wide awake and interacting with their guests. Blair was actually relieved that the baby was still awake as he was drawing the focus away from the awkwardness in the room, by acting as everyone's main source of entertainment for the evening.

Serena laughed as her godson began making faces at her from where he sat on her lap. Alex loved being the centre of attention and began to giggle whenever he received a positive reaction for his silly behaviour. "He's hilarious Blair," Serena gushed, hugging the baby tightly. "Can I keep him?"

She shook her head with a smile. "Make your own baby," she retorted teasingly. "I know that your and Humphrey's attempt at procreating won't be as successful as mine and Chuck's, but don't let that discourage you."

"Let's just get through our wedding first," Dan interjected. "Then we'll think about babies."

"I agree," Serena nodded. "Plus, I want to focus on my career for a few years first."

The topic of Serena and Dan having babies was making Nate a little uncomfortable, which Chuck picked up on. He decided to change the subject, to avoid any tension. "How is your career coming along sis?" he asked, trying his best to sound interested.

"It's great," she nodded. "I'm loving it so far." Serena had just graduated from Columbia University and was pursuing a career as a publicist once more, after her failed attempt to do so with KC a few years ago. However, this time she had gotten a job with a company that handled the publicity for a number of high-profile celebrities in New York City. The blonde continued talking about her job, answering questions about her job from Chuck, who was trying to keep the conversation away from Dan and Serena's upcoming nuptials, and from Juliet, who seemed to be genuinely interested in what Serena was talking about.

Despite doing her best to focus on and contribute to the conversation, Blair's mind was still on whether or not she had gotten the promotion. Her boss was supposed to call whoever the position had gone to that night, but so far she hadn't gotten a phone call. This was making her extremely nervous, and she was a lot less confident about her presentation than she had been the day before. "I think I'd better go put the baby to bed," Blair announced, taking Alex from his godmother. "If he stays up any longer, he'll be over-tired and it will be even harder to get him to go to sleep."

"I'll help you," Chuck offered, starting to get up from his seat. However, he realized that he probably should stay behind so he could divert the conversation away from risky topics, such as Dan and Serena's wedding, and Nate and Juliet's relationship. "Actually, I should probably stay here," he stated, receiving a confused look from Blair. "It's rude for both of us to leave the room when we have company."

"Man, it's just us," Nate pointed out. "We don't mind if you leave us alone for a few minutes so you can put your son to bed." Juliet, Serena and Dan all nodded in agreement.

Chuck looked to his friend and responded tensely, "Thanks Nathaniel, that's very thoughtful of you." He stood up and followed Blair to the nursery, looking back to their friends one more time worriedly.

"You're being weird Chuck. What's wrong?" Blair asked, as she laid Alex down in his crib.

"Nothing," he insisted. "I just don't think we should be leaving those four unattended. We're one comment about Serena and Humphrey's wedding away from a full-on argument out there."

"I know, this has been so awkward," she agreed. She tucked her son in and began removing the various stuffed animals from the crib so Alex wouldn't get a hold of them during the night. "You probably should've stayed with them."

"I tried, but then Nate made that comment and I had to come with you," Chuck explained. "I didn't want them to think that I'm a terrible father who doesn't even want to say goodnight to his son."

"Goodnight sweetie," Blair whispered, kissing Alexander on the forehead. The baby's eyes were beginning to close and she knew that it wouldn't be long before he fell asleep.

Chuck also said goodnight to their son, before turning back to Blair and asking softly, "So what's the plan?"

"We'll just keep the conversation on our wedding and what we need Nate and Serena to do on the day," she replied in a whisper, not wanting to disturb Alex.

"We already discussed that during dinner," he pointed out.

Blair shrugged, "I'll just say that we want to go over it again, just in case we forgot anything."

"Is that even possible?" Chuck wondered, shaking his head. "You gave them itineraries."

"I just want everything to run smoothly," she insisted. "And besides, giving Nate and Serena itineraries was Rachel's idea, not mine." As they left the nursery, Blair turned on the baby monitor, before returning to the living room to their dinner guests. Their four friends seemed to be in deep conversation about something, but surprisingly they didn't look mad, just amused. "What are we talking about?" Blair asked as she and Chuck took their seats once more.

Serena and Nate exchanged grins, before Serena stated, "Well, there's one detail about the wedding that we haven't discussed."

Blair's eyes widened in alarm, "Oh my God, what is it? Don't tell me that I've forgotten something!" She grabbed the itinerary that was sitting on the coffee table and began flipping through it frantically.

"B, calm down. You haven't forgotten anything," Serena insisted.

"Do not scare me like that Serena," she retorted with an intense glare, her grip tightening around the pieces of paper in her hand.

"Breathe," Chuck instructed, removing the papers from Blair's hand and setting them down in front of them.

Blair ignored him and asked bluntly, "What are you referring to S?"

"Well there's the little matter of organising the bachelor and bachelorette parties," Nate answered with a grin.

"I thought we decided that we weren't going to do that?" Chuck asked, looking to Blair for clarification.

"We did," she confirmed.

"You can't not have a bachelorette party Blair," Juliet said. "They're so much fun."

"And bachelor parties are better than the actual wedding," Nate added.

Chuck had to chuckle at his friend's comment, "We just thought that it would be kind of inappropriate because of the baby. Aren't bachelor and bachelorette parties meant for couples who are currently living apart and not raising a child together?"

"Just because you have a baby, doesn't mean that you shouldn't have a little fun," Serena pointed out. "Just get a baby-sitter for the night."

Dan spoke up, "Chuck's right though, it could be a little inappropriate."

Nate looked to him in disbelief, "Don't kill the dream, man."

"I think this may be a dream, Humphrey just agreed with me," Chuck pointed out in disbelief.

Dan grimaced, "Yeah that was weird. I won't do it again."

"I don't know about this," Blair interjected. "Aren't bachelorette parties kind of trashy? I mean what are we going to do, get drunk and watch some stripper take his clothes off?"

"What part of that doesn't sound appealing?" Juliet giggled.

"We'll keep it classy B," Serena assured her, knowing that that was her best friend's main concern. She looked to Juliet and added, "But hell yes to the stripper."

"If you get a stripper, we get to have a stripper as well," Nate stated. "Actually we should probably make that strippers, plural."

"Nate," Juliet objected.

"It won't be too many strippers," he assured her. She rolled her eyes.

Chuck cleared his throat and announced, "Wait a minute, at what point did Blair and I agree to take part in all of this?"

"Chuck Bass is saying no to strippers?" Dan asked in amazement. "Are you sick?"

"What have you done to him, Blair?" Nate added teasingly, looking to the brunette for an explanation.

She frowned in annoyance. She didn't want to be seen as the controlling woman who wouldn't let her fiancee do anything. She hadn't done anything to Chuck; he had simply realized that a life with her was more fulfilling than a life of alcohol, drugs and sleeping around. "I think we should do it," she announced, looking to Chuck. "I'm going to have a Bachelorette party, and you're going to have a Bachelor party."

"You would be okay with that?" he asked suspiciously.

"Of course I'm okay with it," Blair insisted, trying her best to be nonchalant. "Why wouldn't I be? I trust you. Besides, it's just a bit of harmless fun."

"So you're both on board then?" Serena asked excitedly.

Chuck exchanged one last look with Blair, who nodded, before telling his step-sister, "We're on board."

"Yay!" the blonde exclaimed. "We have so much planning to do," she said, turning to Juliet. "Will you help me Juliet? Please, please, please."

"Of course," Juliet responded. The two women immediately started discussing their plans, as did Nate and Dan.

Chuck smirked, before leaning over to whisper in his fiancee's ear, "Who would of thought that talking about strippers would break the tension in the room?"

Blair chuckled and was about to reply when her cellphone began to ring from the pocket of her dress. She had been keeping her phone on her at all times, in case her boss called about the promotion. She took the phone out of her pocket and gasped when she read the caller ID. "Oh my God, it's my boss!" she exclaimed in disbelief.

"Answer it," Chuck instructed with a grin.

She jumped up from her seat and answered the phone, while making her way into the hallway where it was quieter. Chuck got up and followed her, but stopped a few feet away to allow her to take the call. He could immediately tell from the ecstatic look on Blair's face that it was good news. He heard her thank her boss before hanging up and looking over at him with a grin. "I got the promotion!" Blair announced, jumping up and down excitedly.

He immediately pulled her into a hug. "Congratu-" he managed to get out, before Blair cut him off with a passionate kiss.

She eventually pulled away from him and exclaimed, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"For what?" he managed to reply, still a little stunned from the kiss.

"For not letting me give up on this job," Blair told him. "If you hadn't encouraged me to stick with it, I probably would've quit."

Chuck shook his head, "This was all you Blair. You worked so hard, you deserve this promotion. I'm so proud of you."

"I love you," she beamed, giving him another quick kiss. She then hurried off to tell everyone else the news. Chuck grinned when he heard her announce that she had gotten a promotion once more.

I know the promotion probably happened a little too soon, but whatever. Blair never has things go her way on the show so she deserves it. I also thought about making Blair love the fact that Chuck bought the penthouse for them, but I figured that buying their first home would be something that she would want to be a part of. Please review!