By the time Blair's car pulled up outside her loft she'd managed to get herself under control. As she waited for the driver to take her bag from the trunk she looked around her neighbourhood. God, she hated Brooklyn. This was not the first time Blair had thought this. This was her life she reminded herself, and she had to put the last week behind her. She had to forget, or at least pretend that she had forgotten.
She could hear Jenny yelling the second she stepped off the elevator. Pulling her wheely bag down the hall she allowed herself one eye roll before pushing her way into the loft.
"Three times! You only called me three times the whole time I was gone!"
Jenny paced back and forth, one arm waving, as she nearly screamed into her phone. It didn't even take one guess for Blair to know who her sister-in-law was talking to. Dan and Rufus sat at the kitchen island, a beer in each of their hands, and watched the spectacle. Blair's shutting of the door caught Dan's attention and for just a second she caught his eyes narrow on her bag, but in the next he was jumping to his feet and rushing to hug her.
She let him, and even hugged him back. Dan felt familiar, like the friend he was, but it was what Blair didn't feel that surprised her. Guilt, she didn't feel the guilt she'd expected to when she saw him.
"Welcome back." She said as she stepped away.
"You too." He commented with a pointed look at the bag again.
Blair shrugged, and moved to say hello to Rufus. She didn't have much to say to Dan about her not being here while he was gone. She'd texted him to let him know, that with him away, she was staying in the city. Bass Industries had numerous corporate apartments as well as endless actual hotels, and so she'd told him it just made sense for her to stay there. Dan really was easy to lie to.
"We ordered a pizza." Rufus said cheerfully. "Oh, and your mother called for you. Said she'd been trying to reach you for days!"
Blair could feel Dan's eyes burrowing into her back. She shrugged nonchalantly. "Really? You know how it is with mothers and daughters." Given that there was no sign of Alison, both men really did.
That night, Blair and Dan lay in their bed, side by side, but not touching. They'd had to listen to Jenny yelling at Rufus for almost an hour about how he had failed as a father because they'd been raised in Brooklyn... or it was because of waffles? Blair wasn't sure where the other woman had been going with that one. Now it was quiet, and she turned over, giving Dan her back, feeling that her home wasn't her home any more. She just wanted to go to sleep and wake up after the wedding was over.
Blair felt Dan roll towards her, and felt his hand come to rest on her hip. She clenched her eyes shut to resist the need to shudder in distaste.
"Blair?" She heard him whisper, and she knew what he wanted... especially when she felt him press against her back. She couldn't help her whole body recoiling at his arousal. She managed to pass it off with, "Dan... no. Your family..."
When she felt him sigh and pull away, Blair let out the breath she didn't know she'd been didn't know what she was going to do when Rufus and Jenny were gone in a couple of days.
After an endless morning of prepping and getting Jenny into her torn satin and lace vintage slip, and posing for forced pictures, Blair's role had eased up.
As of now, she stood in the itchy, thrift shop bought-Jenny altered blue lace matron-of-honor dress, and tuned out her recently arrived mother-in-law telling Jenny how perfect and wonderful she looked. She looked like Gothic Barbie gets married, but Blair couldn't exactly say that. So instead she looked out the window of the old industrial building they were holding the wedding in. Blair wished she was anywhere but here. That was a lie. She wished she was with Chuck.
With her back to her husband's family, she started thinking of a time, just days ago, that she was with him...
"Chuck!" She called as she got off the elevator and was startled to find the apartment she'd slept in the last 4 nights darkened. The elevator doors shut behind her and for a moment she was plunged into nothingness, but that didn't startle her here. As her eyes adjusted she realized the place wasn't pitch dark, and that there was a subtle glow of light coming from it's depths.
"Chuck?" She asked again as she carefully walked forward. Her breath caught as she stepped into the living room. There were candles and peonies... everywhere. At first that was all she saw. But she sensed him there. Watching her. She turned her head and saw him standing next to a table by the windows. The table was beautifully set with silver and trays covering the plates, but it was him. He was in a dark suit, but she could see from here that it shined. But what was more eye catching was the look on his face as he watched her. He'd done all this for her.
"What is this?" She marveled with wide, astonished yet happy eyes.
"Our first date." He said, he was so... happy that he'd made her happy.
She raised a brow at him as she slowly walked towards him, letting her hips sway. "I'm pretty sure I still have a kink in my back from our last... date..."
He shook his head and managed a scolding expression. "That was sex. This is a date... but you have to change." He told her and nodded towards the bedroom.
Her lips twitched, and her shoulders rocked back and forth. "A present?"
He said nothing but just smiled at her, and again nodded his head towards the bedroom. Blair practically skipped all the way there. She shut the bedroom doors, but as she changed into the beautiful red gown, she left the windows open into the main suite. She knew he couldn't fully see her as she changed in front of the window, but she also was aware that the bubbled glass would let him see her figure. She put on quite a show for him.
When she came out of the bedroom he couldn't take his eyes off her. He held out a chair for her, and then they sat over one of the best meals Blair had ever had. They talk, and flirted, and she didn't want it to end... or she did, but only if it ended in the bedroom.
After they'd finished he stood, and she almost laughed. "Don't tell me you're going to clear the table?"
"No quite..." He walked over to the bar, where his iPod was docked, and queued up a little Frank.
He walked back over to her and held out his hand.
"My, my. This is a full service date..." She said, and tried not to sound as swept away as she was feeling.
He just smiled. "Shut up, and dance with me."
She put her hand in his and he pulled her onto her feet and into his arms. Holding one hand, her other found his shoulder, while his other found her hip, and they started to sway to the music. As the gentle melody continued, their bodies drew closer and closer. She let go of his hand so that both of hers could come to play in the hair at his nape as she rested her head on his shoulder. His hands moved in searching circles up and down her back.
As they danced, they slowly moved closer and closer to the bedroom, until they were right next to his king sized. They stopped moving and she lifted her head from his shoulder to look deeply into his eyes.
"Unfortunately for you... I don't put out on the first date." She whispered against his lips, and had try to fight hard not to smile.
"I'll take my chances." He smirked before he kissed her deeply, pushing his tongue past her welcoming lips.
They kissed and kissed, because, while they loved having sex, they also loved this part too. The heat. The passion. The play. All of which started with these amazing kisses. After long minutes he pulled his mouth away, and chuckled at her disgruntled pout. But soon his hands found the zipper to her dress and he slowly, ever so slowly, pulled it down to where it stopped at the base of her spine. His fingers traced up her arms to her shoulders, where he started to gently tug the material forward and down, down, down, till it pooled in an expensive puddle at her feet. He caught his breath. She wasn't wearing the expensive lingerie set he'd left with the dress. She was wearing nothing, nothing at all.
He swallowed hard as his eyes slowly moved from her feet to her knees, up over her hips and slim belly, to her breasts that swelled for her touch, and finally up to the face that was looking at him with such wanting... and something else. Reverently one hand reached out to cup her jaw, and he ran his thumb over her now bare lips. Her mouth parted, catching his thumb, and then sucked it rhythmically, circling her tongue around its tip. Chuck groaned and pulled his hand away, but then reached down to trace one of her hardened nipples with its damp pad. Her moan turned into a cry of pleasure as his caress turned into a tug.
Just as her knees were giving out, he pushed her back onto the bed, and she fell with a laugh onto the duvet. Her laughter died as he pushed her legs apart with his body, and fell to his knees. She lifted her head to look at him there, between her spread legs, and the crooked smile he gave her had her falling back again. Sweat drenched her body, and he had barely even touched her yet. The backs of her thighs rested on his shoulders and his suite jacket scratched at her skin, but it didn't irritate. It heightened.
"Chuck..." She whimpered as he ran his tongue from her knee, up her inner thigh, and to the base of her hip. She was so wet she was pooling.
For a moment he just stayed there, and every sweep of his breath across her sensitive skin was sending chasing tremors through her. He pressed her open, revealing all of her to him. Her own hands found her breasts and she squeezed and massaged them. She was writing and desperate for Chuck. She nearly came at the first touch of his lips, which started with one, featherlight kiss, on her clit. The circling of his tongue undid her.
Her head shot back and her chest arched off the bed as an orgasm ripped through her. Her body contracted and released in a pulsing rhythm that seemed to last forever. She was pretty sure he was going to have to buy a new duvet. When the stars stopped shooting behind her clenched eyes, and her breathing had somewhat returned to normal, she propped herself up on her elbows to look at him with glittering, bliss filled eyes.
Chuck hadn't moved, and he looked up at her with a raised brow and a smirk on his face. "Mind if I continue?"
"Just try not to kill me." She said as if put upon, but flopped back onto the bed with an excited sigh.
"Blair..."
"Blair!"
Blair jumped as she was brought back to the present by her husband's voice.
"What?" Blair asked sharply.
"I've called your name like 3 times..."
"I'm sorry I don't always jump to attention. I must have missed basic training." She quipped.
"I didn't mean it like that." He snapped.
"Sure." She said non-committal back.
"I need to speak with you in the hall." Dan said in a voice she recognized well. It was the one that sounded calm even though he was upset. It was the one he often used around his sister.
She followed him out into the hall, and folded her arms across her chest. "What?"
"I can't find Nate."
"Maybe he got lost." Blair deadpanned without missing a beat.
"Do you think this is funny?" Dan demanded.
"Hilarious." Blair said with annoyance. "Have you tried calling him?"
Dan nodded. "Yes! I even tried his family... and since they refused to come to the wedding in the first place... they seemed pretty happy about him not being here now. So?"
"So?"
"So that leaves you as the person that knows him best here."
"I would say the blonde in the almost white dress would be your best bet for that." She pointed out.
"Yeah, like I'm going to tell her that her fiancee isn't here right before the wedding is going to start." He looked at her like she was crazy.
"Alright, so what do you want me to do?"
"Find him." Dan begged.
"Dan-"
"Please, Blair."
Blair rolled her eyes. "Fine. Stall the wedding."
Twenty minutes later Blair's cab pulled up outside her office, and five minutes after that her heels were clacking into Chuck's. She came up short as she found him there. Why was he here on a Saturday?
Her gut clenched at the hope she saw rise up in his eyes, and suddenly she couldn't meet his. She fidgeted slightly and cleared her throat. "Nate's gone missing... I... I was hoping to use your computer."
Still saying nothing, but with steel now in his eyes, Chuck pushed his chair back and waved a hand over his keyboard. Blair walked over and then tried to ignore how close he was as she started her search.
"Damn it!" She sighed as she stepped back. "He's not registered at any hotel in the city!"
She started pacing and cracking her knuckles.
"Maybe, since he's on the run... he thought to make it at least out of the state."
She shook her head. "He doesn't think that way. Whatever reason he has for not showing up, it's usually a physical one..." And then it hit her. "I'm an idiot."
She charged back to the computer and Chuck raised a brow at the name she now punched in to the search engine. She stood back and cracked her knuckles again.
"We'll take my car." Was all Chuck said as they looked at the single result on the screen.
Soon they were standing outside the bridal suite at the Palace, and Blair was rapping sharply on the door. A moment later a tousled Serena, wrapped only in a sheet answered the door. She blanched for but a moment before smiling at her friend.
"Oh! Hey, B..."
It was at this point that Nate wandered by the end of the long entrance hall, in nothing but hotel towel slung low on his hips, and Blair saw red. She charged passed Serena towards a doe in the headlights eyed Nate.
"Hello, sister." Chuck drawled as he walked passed Serena.
"Hi, Chuck." Serena replied as they followed the action.
Blair's eyes were locked on Nate's befuddled, happy face, and she lost it. Did he have any idea of what he'd done to her life? Did he know the hell of having to clean Jenny up after this? Did he know how much would fall on Blair?
She spotted flowers on a side table, snatched them up, and started beating him about the head and shoulders with the bouquet.
"What... did... you...do?!" Whack! Whack! Whack! "Do... you... have... any... idea... what... you've... done?!"
Nate tried to protect his face, but it was nearly impossible to avoid her wrath. The siblings stood off to the side and watched.
"Blair, stop!" He begged, and finally she stepped back, nearly toppling over, but righting herself.
The nearly life-long friends faced off with each other, both out of breath and out of sorts.
"I couldn't do it, Blair! I can't do it!" Nate managed desperately, not really thinking about what he was saying, but just speaking his truth. "I can't do what you've done!"
"What?! What I've done!?" Blair barked, confused and angry.
"Settle!" He burst out. "Settle! I couldn't settle!"
Blair stepped back from him and grew unnaturally still.
"I know, Blair, I know why you married him... And it made sense. God, it made sense... but it doesn't anymore." Still panting he looked at her with such sympathy that she wanted to hit him again.
"I don't know what you're talking about?" She lied, her voice distant, her heart in her stomach. She was suddenly so cold.
"You don't love Dan, and you never have." Nate looked at her still. "And I don't love Jenny."
"What?!" A devastated Jenny gasped from the door. "What did you just say?!"
All eyes shifted to see Jenny, in full gown, standing in the doorway, her brother right behind her.
"Wow. Did they announce in Time Square that we were here?" Serena raised a brow.
"She texted the bride's brother from the limo..." Chuck mentioned off hand, his eyes not on any blonde.
With the focus off her, Blair was able to step back, and grew lost in her own thoughts. Thoughts of the past. Well, one focus was still on her, and he watched her carefully.
"Jenny... I'm so sor-" Nate started, but when he shifted his towel fell, and almost the whole room rolled their eyes as he picked it up and secured it.
"Shut up!" Jenny screeched and her eyes went red as they saw the barely covered Serena.
"Oh, crap..." Serena muttered, bracing herself.
"You do tend to get yourself into these little situations..." Chuck commented to his sister, but his eyes were still on a lost Blair.
"Chuck..."
And then Jenny launched herself at Serena and there was a mass of long limbs and blonde hair battling on the plush carpet. The next ten minutes were spent with Dan and Nate pulling the women apart, both taking on physical damage as they did so. After that Nate and Serena quickly ducked into the bedroom, and Chuck highly suspected they were sneaking out a servant's door, while Dan dragged a still wild Jenny out into the hall, with promises to get her home. With all the noise and craziness of the last few minutes the room was now deadly quiet in all their wakes.
There was only Blair and Chuck. Chuck and Blair.
He walked over to her, but didn't touch her.
For long moments they stood at the window together, looking out over Manhattan. The city was rushing towards sundown, but they weren't rushing with it. He had waited for her to be ready to talk to him, and now she was.