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Chapter 12.
When Dan stepped out of the elevator, he expected to see the entire van der Woodsen family - and by extension, Chuck, Blair and Nate as well. And maybe even Jenny, seeing as she told him earlier that she will be dropping by to drop off some sketches for Blair. Instead, he was met by only the faces of the soon-to-be married Lily, lounging on the couch.
"Dan!" Lily says as she looks up from reading the paper. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm sorry." Dan says, itching to be just a tad bit sarcastic. Wasn't she the one who called him earlier and asked him to be there? "I thought -"
"Oh, didn't your sister tell you?" When he shook his head, she continued. "Oh! Well, I canceled for today because Serena couldn't make it."
"Why?"
"Well, she called about half an hour ago, she's sick. Eric and Jenny just left a couple of minutes before you showed up." Lily answers, just as her phone suddenly rings. She grabs the phone off the table before turning to Dan. "Would you excuse me, Daniel? I have to take this call, it's William. I'm so sorry for this, you can go now."
Then she stands up and walked up the stairs, leaving Dan standing there awkwardly. After about five minutes of just standing there, he decided to pay Serena a visit, see if she's okay. After all, he doesn't see anything wrong with that, they are friends, well, sort of and he does still care for the blonde.
Gripping his messenger bag tightly, he pressed the elevator button and as he waited for it, he tapped on his phone to call Nate, who picked up after about four rings.
"Hey man!" Dan greets as he stepped into the lift. "Listen, I need something from you."
...
About an hour later, he stepped inside Serena's apartment, opening the door using the key he had borrowed from Nate. When Nate asked why he is borrowing the keys, all he said was that Serena is sick and he wanted to make sure that she's okay. Nate smirked at him all too knowingly before thrusting the key to his hand. He groaned at Nate before walking out of the office, hearing Nate shout a take care of Serena behind him.
As soon as he closed the door behind him and turned around, he saw scattered take-out cartons and an empty box of pizza around the living room. There were also a few boxes with clothes left unpack and honestly, Serena needs to unpack sooner and clean up because the place doesn't look good, and Dan thinks it's probably unhealthy.
"Serena?" He calls out, and when nobody answered he tried again. "Serena?"
He hears a loud noise - a grunt, as if in pain - come from the bedroom so he hurriedly wandered there only to find the blonde - hair all messed up, cheeks flushed, clothes all wrinkled - curled on top of the bed, coughing softly every now and then. She looks up to see who opened the door.
"Dan?" She asks, her voice almost inaudible as she squints her eyes to look at him. "What - What are you doing here?"
He quickly walks over to her and places himself by her side. He brushes the loose strands of her blonde hair out of her face before answering.
"Lily told me you were sick, I came by to make sure you are indeed still alive and breathing." She let out a somewhat strangled giggle and it worries Dan that she sounded like that - it doesn't sound like the Serena he knew.
"Are you okay?" He touched her forehead. "Gee, Serena, you're hot."
She looks up at him again and was only able to flash him a weak smile. Even moving a little bit was hard for her to do so.
"I - I mean, you're... And, I just - Erm..." Dan stammers as he looks away from Serena. "I'll go get you something to eat and some medicine. Yeah, um... okay, then."
A couple of minutes later, Dan reemerges back inside the room with a tray containing a bowl of soup, some aspirin and a glass of water and found Serena asleep, curled into a ball. He perched himself just beside Serena, pulling a chair where he can place the tray by using his foot.
"Serena?"
He pokes Serena's arm twice to get her to wake up. Several seconds later, Serena stirred and opened her eyes slowly.
"D - Dan?"
"Hey, there. I got you some soup - mushroom, because I know it's you're favorite." He looks down at her and smiles softly. "You gotta eat something before you drink medicine, you know?"
When Serena nodded her head, Dan stood up and offered to help the blonde to sit up. He places a hand on her back as Serena grips on the other, and slowly, she eases herself to sit with Dan's help. When Serena was properly sitting, he turns away from her for a second to hold the bowl. He starts feeding the soup to her, slowly, blowing it first so that she won't burn her tongue.
"Dan?"
The guy in question looks up from diligently making the soup a bit less hot, a questioning look etched on his face.
"Why are -" Cough. "Why are you here?"
"Lily told me you were sick. I told you that, remember?" He tells her, after she finishes sipping the soup on the spoon.
"Yeah, but..." Serena attempts to get the glass of water by herself but Dan immediately noticed and placed the bowl on her bedside table before reaching the glass and handing it to her. "Why?"
"I'll always care, remember?" Dan flashes her a cheeky grin to which the blonde simply rolls her eyes at. "Now go relax and finish your soup. You still have to drink some meds."
"Whatever."
"Do you realize how filthy your apartment is? I mean, there's scattered left-overs and discarded clothes everywhere. No wonder you're sick." Dan teases.
"Shut up, Humphrey." She hits his shoulder so lightly that he almost wondered if this person laying in bed really is Serena van der Woodsen.
As soon as Serena finished her soup, Dan even assisted her as she drank the meds. Then Dan helped her lay back down and as soon as he was sure that Serena was soundly sleeping, he quietly slipped out of the room.
"Geez, I always knew Serena's not the most organized person in the world but this is just too much." Dan rubbed the back of his neck, as he looked around the room. With a sigh, he grabbed a towel which he got from one of Serena's boxes, hang it on his shoulder and started cleaning the apartment.
He's not the greatest when it comes to house cleaning - he's a writer, not a housekeeper or maid - but he did a pretty good job cleaning Serena's apartment, if he does say so himself. He managed to clear out all the take-out cartons and all the other trash littering the place, sweep the floors, wash the dishes, wipe off all the dust on the tables and any furniture that have dust. He even stacked all the unpacked boxes Serena has - he thought about unpacking it himself, but decided against it because he really has no idea where Serena wants to place most of her things.
Several hours later and the apartment spick-and-span, he slipped inside Serena's room again to check up on her, if her temperature has gone down or not and whatnot. Serena was still sound asleep, hugging a pillow tightly, covers drawn to her chest. He slowly walked closer to her, not wanting to wake her up. He felt her forehead to see that although the blonde was still warm, her temp had gone down.
He still tidied up a bit in the room, and in doing so, he noticed that her phone had somehow tumbled on the floor. He swiftly picked it up and placed it on her bedside table when he noticed a picture frame situated just beside the lamp. It suddenly feels like something is stuck in his throat because that picture feels so long ago, feels like a lifetime ago, feels as if the guy in the picture is him, only in another life.
He stares at it for quite a while, pondering why on earth Serena kept that picture? And it is displayed in her room? Sure, he still has tons of picture of Serena and him together - an identical photo in the frame as well - but he has it hidden underneath his bed, not displayed in his bedroom, where everyone can see.
Suddenly, Serena stirs causing Dan to snap out of his reverie. He looks away from the frame and turns his gaze towards the blonde beauty to find her getting up - or, at least trying to.
"Hey, hey." He sits down on the bed beside her and gently pushes her back down. "What are you doing?"
"I'm fine." She argues, even though it's pretty clear that Dan won't allow her to do anything - not if he has anything to do with it.
"No, no, you're not. You need rest, so go back to sleep."
"Dan, seriously, I'm fine now." Then she let out a cough, and Dan raises an eyebrow at her. She simply grunts in response before sinking back into the mattress, pulling the covers to her chest.
"All right, then!" Dan claps his hands together. "I'm going to head out."
He stands up, ready to leave when suddenly, he felt Serena's hand wrap around his wrist.
"Yeah?"
She turns away from him but he hears a mumbled stay coming from her and it's almost inaudible that he's not ever sure how he heard it or if he even heard it right. Nonetheless, he perched himself on a chair beside the bed, placing his head on the mattress, letting out a yawn and slowly drifting to sleep.
...
"Humphrey."
He slowly opens his eyes as he feels something poke his sides. He slowly lifted his head to find Blair's in the room, hands on her hips, glaring at him.
"I'm here now, so you may go." Blair states as she crosses to the other side of the bed, placing a cup on coffee on the table. "Oh, but I'm going to need Nate's key to the apartment back."
He rubs his eyes with his left hand before glancing at the brunette.
"What time is it?"
"It's time for you to leave." Blair answers, albeit not the answer he was looking for. "Like I said, I'm here now and I asked Eric to drop by and help me take care of his sister."
He looks at Serena and found that his left hand was intertwined with the blonde's, her grip tight on his.
"Seriously, Humphrey. Stop holding hands with Serena and just go already."
He jerks his hand away from Serena's as he heard Blair, who was now standing beside him and he's just thankful that he didn't wake Serena with the sudden movement. Blair practically shoves him out of the seat once his hand was completely free of the blonde's, and she now sits on the chair.
Rolling his eyes at the brunette, he moves to grab his things, which had somehow moved to the foot of Serena's bed.
"You might wanna head over to your girlfriend's apartment, Georgina's been blowing up your phone and has been demanding to know where you are."
He stops, glances at Blair for a second before going back to fishing his phone out of his bag. He manages to find Nate's keys first so he handed it to the brunette as soon as he found it.
"You read my messages?"
"Your damn phone kept ringing and it's been irritating as hell, and since you weren't the easiest person to wake up, I decided to see what's up with that phone of yours." Blair said with a shrug, her eyes never leaving her phone.
"How did you even know what my password is?" He asks, finally managing to grab hold of his phone and when he opened his phone, password and all that, he sees that Georgina's indeed been blowing up his phone, demanding where he is and why the hell he isn't answering.
"Tried a bunch of numbers. One-Zero-Eight-Five. Not my fault you and Serena have the same codes." Both of them suddenly stops, and Blair looks up from typing in her phone and looks at Dan accusingly. "Why do you have the same passwords?"
"I have no idea." It was Dan who shrugs this time. "Maybe it's just coincidence."
"Coincidence?" Blair scoffs, as if she knows why his password are those numbers or why Serena's code are the same, why hers are still 1-0-8-5? "Is there something I'm missing here, Humphrey?"
"Why don't you ask her?"
"Oh, I don't know, maybe because she's still asleep, not to mention sick." Blair quips, shooting Dan an irritated look.
"I don't have to explain anything to you, Waldorf." He says as she shoves his phone in his pocket. "I'm just gonna go now."
He's almost out the room when Blair calls his name. He turns around to see her walking over to him, so he quirks an eyebrow and waits for what she has to say.
"Thanks." Blair smiles at him, only briefly. "For, you know... Taking care of S."
"Anytime. Like I said to her, I'll always care." He nods at her.
"Yeah, well... thanks."
...
He knocks on the door, tapping his foot impatiently - and yes, nervously. Several seconds later, the door opens and standing there was his girlfriend, Georgina, who was glaring at him so hard.
"About time you showed your face here." Georgina snaps at him, blocking the door when he tries to enter. "No, you do not just come here late at night, flowers in hand, and act like everything's just dandy. Where the hell have you been?"
"I -"
"Oh, I heard Serena's sick. You went to see her, right?"
"What?! Georgina -"
"Going to try and deny it, Dan?" Georgina cut him off, raising a hand in front of his face to stop him from talking. "Blair answered one of my calls earlier to tell me that you're asleep and to quit calling because the irritating noise that your phone makes might wake up precious little Serena."
"Look..." Dan starts, running a hand through his hair. "...I'm not going to deny anything, okay? Yes, yes, I went to see her, but just to see if she's alright."
"And after all the time you spent there, you never even bother to check your phone or I don't know, call or send me a text?"
"I know, I know. I'm sorry."
"How did Blair even manage to mess with your phone?" Georgina wonders, eyes softening, if only a little. "How does she know what you're code is? Heck, even I don't know that and I'm your girlfriend."
"Beats me." He shrugs before stretching his hands out to her, offering her the bouquet of roses. She looks at it for a while before begrudgingly accepting it.
"Am I forgiven?"
Suddenly, the flowers hits his face before it drops to the floor and before he can even react, the door slams in front of him.
"Roses are so overrated, Dan."
"I'm guessing that's a no?"
He jumps a bit when he hears something hit the door and break into pieces so he's guessing Georgina chucked a vase or something similar towards the door. He only groans before kicking the door once. He turns to leave but stops to call out to her for one last time.
"So, I'll just see you tomorrow?"
"Suck it, Humphrey!"
.to be continued.
A/N: Yeah, this is way longer that I expected. The next update will probably be faster, probably next week or so. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. :)