Blair didn't know how long they stood at the window, staring out, but finally she spoke.

"I guess I owe you an explanation..." She blinked, but continued to gaze out at the city.

"You don't owe me anything." He said quietly, turning towards her, his shoulder resting against the glass. A chill seeped through his shirt and jacket, and down his arm, but he barely felt it. He was trying to look into her eyes. She ducked her head as she stepped away from him and walked over to the sofa. She sat down, mostly lost in her own thoughts, but as he sat next to her, he grounded her with him just by being so close to her. He felt solid.

Chuck sat quietly beside her, not touching her, or asking her anything, or pressing her for anything more than she was willing to give. Her hands folded in her lap, and she clutched them so tightly that her knuckles went white.

"It's so stupid, really?" She said with a fake smile that fell away, and she looked down at her own hands. It was as if she realized they were a tell, and she slowly unfurled them from her own grasp, and placed them carefully on her thighs.

"We both worked on the paper at Yale. I had my sights set on being Editor by Sophomore year, and Dan..." A humourless laugh escaped her. "Dan wanted to be a writer and change the world. We hated each other on sight of course. I've never cared much about saving the world, and he'd never cared much about basic human hygiene."

Her voice was hollow, and the attempt at lightening the conversation fell flat. Chuck didn't even blink, he just listened intently to her.

"One night, after a barely met deadline and too many drinks..." Blair sighed heavily. "I knew it was a mistake. It shouldn't have happened, and I was ready to pretend that it never had..."

"But?" He asked softly. Chuck thought he'd already guessed what had happened, but he just knew she need to talk about it.

"I was pregnant." She said with a shrug, but for all her cavilers, he could tell it affected her still. On instinct Chuck's hand reached out and covered one of hers. Soothing.

"I..." A ghost of a smile played against her lips. "I didn't handle it well."

"Really?" He was unsurprised, and a hint of a smirk lifted the corner of his mouth.

"I tried to run Dan over with a campus golf cart."

He did smile then.

She shrugged a little but managed to smile herself. "Luckily for him driving has never been my strong suit. So instead of spending the rest of my life in jail, I spent that night talking with Dan... and talking... and talking... and then there was a plan."

She nodded. "My parents... were... I couldn't tell them. They were divorced, Daddy came out and fell in love with Roman. What was worse for my Mother was that they were all still broke. So I took the stance of it being better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission... and Dan and I got married in the courthouse with just his sister and parents present. We called to tell my parents a few days later."

"My dads were thrilled. My mother... Well, she didn't say anything at all... Anyways, everything was all set. And then..." Blair took a shuddering breath in. "We'd only been married a few weeks..."

"I hadn't planned on getting pregnant. I hadn't particularly wanted to get married. Everything was a mess... but I... I had wanted my baby. And now it was gone... and I just..." She stopped talking, and her chin dropped to her chest. Her eyes had been brimming with tears, and now two escaped and left we trails down her cheeks.

Before she could wipe the tears from her skin, Chuck's hand was there, sweeping across one, then the other cheek. But he didn't withdraw his touch, he kept his hand there, cupping her face, and drawing her to meet his gaze. What she saw in his eyes had more tears escaping from her.

And that's how Dan found them. They weren't having sex. They weren't ripping each other's clothes off as they kissed passionately. They were just sitting on the couch. Chuck's hand cupping her cheek.

"Blair?" Dan said, his voice tight. "We should go."

Blair quickly jerked away from Chuck, and immediately felt cold. Without looking at him she got to her feet, and quickly followed Dan out of the hotel room. She felt Chuck's gaze follow her out, his presence still wrapped around her.

They didn't speak in the elevator down to the lobby. Nor in the taxi with his sobbing sister between them. They didn't speak for nearly 24 hours as they holed up in their loft with his parents and sister, as the Humphreys tried to pull Jenny back together.

Blair mostly sat quietly, her mind contemplating nothing more than wishing she was almost anywhere else but there. She checked her nails for chips and her hair for split ends. She ignored the repeated calls from her mother. She knew there was a reckoning coming with Dan, but rather than fear or dread, the emotion she mostly felt was boredom.

Finally his parents left, and took Jenny with them. Blair vaguely recalled the saying they were headed back to Florida for some sun and to get away from New York. It was probably for the best since pictures of Nate and Serena were popping up in the papers and on social media with growing frequency.

In the quiet of the apartment, Blair sat on the couch, watching Dan as he made tea. She thought it may have been the stupidest thing in the world she'd ever seen him do. But she didn't say anything. She just sat there and waited for him, watching as he set a mug in front of her. She stared at the mug for a long moment, until she realized that he was sitting next to her and was ready to speak.

"Are you sleeping with him?" He asked intensely.

"Yes." She said simply.

"God damn it, Blair!" He exploded.

He jumped to his feet and strode across the room. He stood, with his back to her, and took several deep angry breaths. She watched him as she would watch theatre, and was still sitting passively when he came back and sat next to her one the couch.

"Well, you're quitting, obviously." Was the first thing he said.

Blair shrugged. "You say quitting, I say divorce. Both seem about right."

"Wait!" He looked flabbergasted. "That's it? You're ending our marriage?! I was talking about quitting your job, not our relationship!"

"Dan-" She began but he cut her off.

"Couples have rough patches. We've gotten through them before, and we'll get through this one!"

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Dan, we've never really been a couple."

"Really? The last couple of years of marriage would seem to negate that statement!"

"Dan, we got married for a reason... that doesn't exist." She said patiently. "And I think... I think we stayed married... for all the wrong reasons. Maybe for the chance to have another baby... maybe because I didn't want it to seem like I'd made a mistake marrying you in the first place... I don't know. I just know... I don't want to keep making this same mistake."

He looked at her like she was crazy, and she remembered something she'd realized a long time ago. Dan really did love her. And maybe it was yet another excuse she'd had to stay with him. But she didn't love him, and this one-sided marriage wasn't enough for her anymore. And oddly she felt it shouldn't be enough for him either.

"I'm not happy." She told him honestly.

"And Chuck Bass makes you happy?" He asked incredulously.

"Yes." Again she had answered simply, but even she was caught off guard by how honest it was. Chuck Bass made her happy. She smiled at the thought.

"Chuck Bass makes me happy." She glowed for a moment, and then looked at her husband with serious eyes. "But even if I'd never met him... I still think this marriage should end."

She touched his shoulder as she stood up. "Goodbye, Dan."

Her eyes fell on the mugs on the coffee table, and they were in her thoughts as she picked up her purse and walked to the door.

Her brain suddenly realized that while this should have been one of the hardest conversations of her life... it had ended up being remarkably easy. This had all become clear because she realized that she was a person who liked to drink tea in a tea cup, preferably fine china, and he was someone who would always drink anything, anywhere, anytime... in a mug. She almost thanked the mug for providing her this further clarity.

She didn't look back at the loft as she walked out of it. It was only when she reached the sidewalk that she realized she had no fucking idea where she was going to go. Her phone chimed again, and, being lost, it seemed like a good enough idea to finally answer her mother's call.

"Hello, Mother!" Blair managed brightly, trying to avoid her mother picking up on anything being wrong. Given what her mother said next, she wouldn't have anything to worry about for awhile.

"Oh, my god. You have got to be kidding me!" Blair rolled her eyes as she hailed a taxi.

That evening, in the better borough, Chuck sat on a chair in his mother's living room, and sipped his scotch broodingly, thinking of Blair. It made it easy to ignore his sister and her new boy, cuddled and happy, together on the couch. Lily sat next to them as they all got to know each other, and they were all so blonde and shiny that Chuck was going to need another drink.

"Well, I have to say, Nathaniel, I don't think I've ever since my daughter look so happy!" Lily smiled.

Chuck rolled his eyes. It probably also didn't hurt that Eric had clued Lily in to the fact that Nate was an Archibald. Chuck probably would have been happier for Serena himself, if he could think of anything other than Blair.

The ping of the elevator had him looking hopefully in that direction. He was disappointed at the sight of not Blair, but her husband, storming off the elevator and into the room.

The four of them had stood, Chuck in preparation, Nate and Serena in alarm, and Lily out of curiosity.

"Hello? I'm sorry, but the caterers are to use the back entrance-" Lily reprimanded royally. She was cut off as Dan's fist slammed into Chuck's jaw. Chuck's head flew back, but he stayed on his feet. Dan had just straightened when out of reflex and defense of his growing friendship with Chuck, Nate punched Dan in the nose.

Lily and Serena's screams rang everyone's ears.

Dan swore and cupped his now bleeding face, but he looked at Chuck with hate filled eyes. "Where is she?!"

"I don't know..." Chuck muttered as his brain quickly started putting things together.

Suddenly security was rushing the room, having been summoned by Lily's signal to a maid, and they were quickly dragging Dan from the penthouse.

A short time later they were all seated again, with Lily nursing a fresh gin and tonic, while Serena held ice to Nate's knuckles, and Chuck pressed a cold pack to his own jaw. While they all spoke, Chuck's free hand worked his phone rapidly.

"I would have thought he'd have punched me for leaving his sister at the alter?" Nate mused.

"Chuck's sleeping with his wife." Serena said cheerfully.

Lily pinched the bridge of her nose, threw back the last of her drink, and signaled a maid for another.

"Oh, yeah, that would trump my thing." Nate nodded.

"Nate, you're my hero! You defended my brother's... questionable honor!" Serena gushed and enveloped Nate in an exuberant hug.

Chuck rolled his eyes as he put the ice pack down to more fully text with his PI. Suddenly he got to his feet, kissed Lily's cheek, and then strode out of the apartment.

Serena smiled. "Somebody found Blair."

Chuck stepped off the elevator and quickly walked into his apartment. He came up short when he saw her, perfect and beautiful, perched on his couch. She stood and faced him, reading the question in his eyes.

"I had to leave him." She said quietly, her dark eyes luminous. "Because I'm in love with you."

A/N-I think the next chapter is the last chapter, fyi.