A/N: So I just got back from the Jersey Shore, and let me tell you, it is no party when it rains. The. Whole. Time. But lucky for you all, I came back in a writing mood, and passing through Waldorf, Maryland on my drive back only helped serve up some inspiration!

A big Jersey fist bump to those who reviewed the last chapter: livelovelaugh9704 (also for letting me bug you about ideas haha), kauraREX, and my two fabulous anons! Come join the FF fam! And now, on to chapter 15...

Chapter 15: New York City

And by the hands of man
It's a maze of bad habits
Where the rabbit in the hat
Is just a train in the fog
Yeah, you came here with nothing
And you're leaving with the same
Sometimes the road that you were walking on
Is going the wrong way

-"New York City" Among Savages

"Serena, I want you to try it again, okay? And this time make it convincing." Blair Cornelia Waldorf sat with her ankles crossed demurely, a cup of tea in her right hand, and a saucer perched delicately in her left.

"Okay, okay, just give me a second." The blond seated in front of her, however, was her perfect foil – one long, tanned leg slung over the other, both tea cup and saucer sitting in her lap, dangerously close to spilling on couture and a designer couch, and a demeanor not nearly as calm and collected as the brunette's. She untangled her legs and copied Blair's pose as best she could and remembered just in time to lift the fragile china and prevent a spattering of the chamomile. She let her sparkling eyes glaze over into a languid blue, and she took a sip of her tea in the way Blair had taught her. "Blair, darling, it's been too long. How are you?" Serena drawled, her voice syrupy but laced with a false amicability.

"Oh, I'm doing very well, Serena! It really has been too long, hasn't it?" Blair returned, her cerise lips turned up into a tight smile, the smile she'd perfected years ago and often plastered on throughout the years she'd dated Nate and sometimes still employed during her string of society events.

"It has. Now you must tell me about your latest beau. I hear he's quite the prince!" Serena fluttered her eyelashes demurely, perhaps overkill, but at least she was trying.

"Ah, yes, it seems Gossip Girl can't let anything slip through her ugly claws, can she?" Blair muttered darkly, dropping her society-lady façade.

"Does this mean we're done for today, B?" Serena asked hopefully, already growing tired of the many lessons Blair was putting her through in order to present herself as a dignified and desirable member of the elite of New York's elite.

"I guess so." Blair put down her saucer, and the cup soon landed with a clink.

"And will you be telling me about the return of the Monacan prince, or not?" Blair's face twisted into a grimace.

"I think not."

"Je vous en prie!"

"S, if your puppy dog eyes didn't work to convince me, what makes you think your badly pronounced French will suffice?" Blair uncrossed her ankles, shifted a bit in her pencil skirt, and crossed them again.

"Fine, I guess I'll just have to pull the 'I'm your best friend and best friends are supposed to tell each other everything' card."

"You pull that card far too often," Blair bit out, arms now looped together as tightly as her ankles. "Try something new, why don't you?"

"How about the 'I'm Chuck's sister, and though we're not technically blood, it's still my duty to tell him about things like this' card?" Serena volleyed, satisfied when Blair's frigidity thawed and her dark eyes grew wide and fiery.

"S, you wouldn't!"

"I would. You really want Chuck to find out that a real life prince from Monaco flew all the way here to bring you a shoe from someone else? You're lucky all Gossip Girl put up was a blast that there was a prince in town and that she hasn't connected him to you."

"Yeah, so lucky that we're now having this conversation."

"B, come on. You know you're going to have to make a decision about whether or not to give this prince guy a chance, and I don't want to see you or Chuck get hurt by any of it. So either way, you need to tell him, because I know for a fact that he hasn't even looked at another girl since you guys talked at the opera."

"I suppose I do," Blair relented with a sigh, adjusting the ivory headband that sat upon her chocolate curls. "Need to make a decision, I mean. It's just that Chuck and I have been so good together lately. It's supposed to be friendship and starting over, I know, but sometimes it feels like it's…" Blair struggled for an adequate word.

"More?" Serena supplied generously.

"Yes. Almost like old times, before everything got so complicated and messed up."

"B, you and Chuck have always been complicated and messed up," said Serena with a bright laugh. "It's what you do, and it was like that even before you got together." Blair gave a soft smile in return but didn't have the energy to laugh. It seemed her days continued to grow busier, and it was a wonder she was even alert enough to talk.

"You're right. I feel so conflicted, though, because I know a fairytale and a prince charming are what I've always wanted, but my life is so different from where I thought it would be. Hell, I thought I would be nearly engaged to Nate, if not already. And it's not just my life that's turned out differently; I'm different. I'm not the person I planned on being."

"You're better though," Serena said softly, tucking a curl behind Blair's ear. "You can't plan on who you're going to be. It doesn't work that way."

"Right again, S. I think this is a record." The two girls shared another grin. "But you know what's funny?" Blair continued.

"What, B?"

"There is one constant between my planned life and my actual one – you, as my best friend."

"Aw, B, are you going all soft on me?" Serena giggled, engulfing Blair in a hug.

"No, and I can assure you my punches will be quite hard if you don't get off me!"

"Oh my, I am so sorry, my queen," Serena amended mockingly, bowing her head as if in a curtsey. "But in all seriousness – what are you going to do?"

"I don't know," Blair whined, running her hands through her hair in a way that was so un-Blair it made Serena all the more worried. "What should I do?" And that was what really sent Serena over the edge. It was only in severe crisis mode that Blair ever asked her for advice, but Serena was prepared to answer as honestly and thoughtfully as she could without provoking the wrath of Blair.

"I think you need to ask yourself whether you choosing to be with the prince would be because you're ready to move on or because you're afraid that if you don't try to now, you're in danger of getting sucked back into Chuck world. And you also need to consider the unspoken agreement you and Chuck made when you said you would find your way back to each other. Was that an agreement, B?" Serena looked up; she had kept her eyes locked to the floor for the entirety of her speech, and she was surprised to see Blair seated Indian-style in the middle of the patch of carpet in front of her, her head cradled in her hand as her elbow rested on her thigh.

"That was a promise." Blair met Serena's questioning gaze, knowing her eyes were dry and determined. "Why should I go after a prince when I already have a king who loves me, and who I – "

Gossip Girl: While many of you were worried about the absence of C at his usual haunts, I can assure you that you have no need to be concerned about our favorite lothario losing his skill. It just so happens that he's into a different kind of working girl now – and this one has the last name Thorpe. Seems we have a new power couple in the UES. But when both parties think they're in charge, which will be the one paying, and which will be the one getting kicked out of bed in the morning? You know you love me.

"B," Serena whispered, eyeing the blast along with the accompanying snapshot of Chuck with a mature looking, dark-haired girl draped over him at a dinner table, her hand on his jacket and her face merely inches from his.

"Not another word, S. This conversation never happened, and I will be calling Louis first thing tomorrow. Well, not first thing. I have class, and then I have to stop for a new outfit for the date we will no doubt have planned for the evening."

"Please, Blair, say something…"

"I was under the impression I just said a whole mouthful," Blair snapped, perturbed at Serena's inability to understand that she wanted to drop the subject completely.

"Oh please, B, you know those few sentences had about as much substance as the conversations on Keeping Up With the Kardashians," quipped Serena, not willing to let Blair let go.

"S, you love that show!"

"And don't try to change the subject, either!"

"Oh my God, what do you want me to say?" Blair yelled, "That I'm still in love with Chuck? That I feel completely betrayed, that even though we weren't technically together, I thought we had made a promise? Or maybe you want me to say that I can't decide if I would rather that Mother Chucker fall off one of his buildings or come over here and take me in his arms and tell me it was all a big mistake." Blair's voice had dramatically quieted by the end of her tangent, and she began to shake uncontrollably as Serena wrapped her up and rocked her back and forth on the soft, white carpet.

"I guess I can't cry over him again, S," spoke Blair into Serena's shirt. "Like Carrie with Big on Sex and the City. Maybe she was right, maybe we're only allotted a certain number of tears for each of the people we love, and it's taken a whole sea, but they're finally gone. That stupid Bass and his sea of tears," she murmured. "At least I can't drown in it anymore."

…

Three Hours Earlier

"Charles? What are you doing here?" Lily's papers were left on her desk as she rose with the appearance of her adopted son. The shock was apparent on her white face, seemingly worn with exhaustion, but still coldly beautiful.

"I thought we should talk. Admittedly, I considered taking you down, but I decided to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you actually care about me enough to have a reason for what you're trying to do." Chuck didn't take another step toward her and chose to button his suit jacket rather than attempt to engage in any gracious gestures of civility.

"Well, that's very… generous of you," Lily said. "Please, sit. I don't like you standing there like some awkward, business stiff." She motioned to the set of armchairs by her desk and Chuck complied with her suggestion with only a hint of caution in his actions.

"Tell me what's going on, Lily." Chuck didn't want empty pleasantries or small talk or jokes; he wanted facts. Facts couldn't lie. Facts just were.

"After you left," she began timorously, "the company went south, and quickly. I suppose it was a twisted compliment in a way, that it had begun to rely so strongly on your presence and work that people didn't want a Bass industries without the Bass. We tried our best to salvage it, and I threw myself in full force, attempting to make the decisions I thought you would, but the longer you were gone, the worse things got." Chuck pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head in disbelief. He hadn't realized the extent of the consequences awaiting him upon his return to New York. "When you came back, I thought we would pull through, but we were already in too deep, and I didn't see another viable option but to sell and then buy it back when we found an opportunity to do so. Russell Thorpe has been courting me since your father passed, and when he heard of our struggles, he put a very solid offer on the table."

"But why did you meet with him behind my back?" Chuck asked in a mix between frustration and hurt. "Why didn't you tell me what's happening, and that everything I've built is about to come crumbling down?"

"Because I knew it would feel like this," said Lily, folding her hands together. "You were already going through so much that I thought it would be best for me to deal with it and face your anger later. I was trying to protect you."

"I don't feel protected," answered Chuck harshly.

"That's because I failed." Lily laughed, but it lacked all sense of mirth. "I'm so sorry, Charles, but I mean it when I claim that I was looking out for you. I thought I was doing the right thing, and while I see now the errors of my theory, I do still think selling to Thorpe is the best move for the company."

"So there's nothing we can do," Chuck said in understanding, torpor about him as he spoke, his lips scarcely moving and the rest of his body rigid.

"Not that I've figured out, but perhaps you'll find something. You are a Bass, after all."

"I don't deserve the name," deadpanned Chuck, still floating in inertia.

"The only way I can see you losing your claim on the Bass name is if you give up." Lily placed a hand on his charcoal Armani-clad arm. "Charles, this may not mean much coming from me, but I think your father believed in you, and now, you have others who believe in you. So don't give us a reason to stop."

"How can I get other people to believe in me when I don't even believe in myself?" he asked, finally turning his haunted eyes toward the warm, brown ones.

"Fake it 'til you make it is what I always say," Lily said affectionately, patting his forearm. "And who knows? You might just start to trust in it yourself."

"I know you think we should sell, but, Lily, I – "

"You're going to fight for the company. I wouldn't expect anything less from a Bass, nor from any son of mine." Despite his resentment at her before, Chuck couldn't help but feel a swell of fondness for Lily.

"I hope you won't get too upset if I decide to fight dirty," he said with a smirk.

"Whatever it takes, Charles. And I know by now that you only ever fight dirty." She laughed and retreated to her desk to pick up a file to give to Chuck. "Here is all the information we have on Thorpe, his company, and his offer."

"Did you run a background check on him?" he asked her. It would have been his first move.

"It didn't occur to me," admitted Lily, pushing back her light blond hair. "I've known him a long time, and he knew your father too. I assumed he could be trusted."

"No one can be trusted in business," Chuck retorted, regretfully rather than irritably. "And everyone has things they like to keep hidden in deep, dark, pass coded safes. I just have to find his, and that will get him off my back so I can deal with the shambles that Bass Industries has fallen into."

"What do you plan to do about that?"

"I have to make sure it's clear that I'm coming back full force, and then I'll get some promising projects up and running, very public projects that stock brokerscan see. What those will be yet, I'm not sure, but I know I have enough money saved to get a couple going while the company gets back on its feet."

"Sounds like a good plan," Lily commented, approval in her smile. "Now, I suppose I'll go ahead and cancel the meeting I was set to attend with Russell and his daughter."

"Don't cancel it," Chuck said, a new plan coming together in his mind. "You know what they say. Keep your friends close – "

"And your enemies closer," finished Lily. "Shall I let him know about the change in representatives for Bass Industries?"

"No, I think I'll give him an unpleasant surprise. And during dinner, I'll make sure the conversation is steered at him, about how he knew my father, his past, and his business. Do you know anything that could be useful about the daughter?"

"I'm not sure. All I know is she is extremely close with her father and fiercely loyal. She always puts her father and their work first. I think she's about twenty-four, and she graduated near the top of her class, so she must be intelligent. Cunning too, if what I've heard is correct, though she seems sweet upon first impression."

"Well the loyalty thing does throw a wrench in the one possibility I was thinking of," Chuck replied, scratching his chin. "I thought I could possibly entice her into jumping ship, a godsend if her relationship with Russell had been anything like mine with Bart. But maybe she has a looser tongue than her father, and with the right amount of alcohol…" He trailed off, his thoughts still continuing to thread through his brain in knots.

"These people are no ordinary victims of a scheme, Charles. They're not the band geeks from your days at Saint Jude's. Just be careful, okay?" Lily's brows were raised, implying that this was no request.

"Oh, Lily, aren't I always?"

Follow your dreams
But beware of the illusions
You won't feel the void in your heart
With a bank statement and a car
What is it worth, what is it worth
Have you given up on freedom
You spent your life earning the keys to set you free
When you were free all along

Until next time – xoxo

P.S. That song was on Gossip Girl and I listened to it nonstop for like three weeks after it aired until I got sick of it. I do that with all my songs, but I'm on a Bloc Party fix right now, and I feel like "Signs" is the one exception to my rule. It never gets old, I tell you!