Disclaimer: Anyone still with me? God, I truly hope so. Anyway, sorry for the long absence. Here I am again to present you a new chapter. I hope you guys enjoy! And, oh, I still own nothing.

Chapter 27.

She remembers. She's tried so hard to forget but it seems impossible to do so. She was able to escape New York physically, but her emotions? They keep catching up to her. Two years of escaping, two long years without seeing anyone of her friends, family - the people closest to her.

Two years.

And it still hurts like a fucking bitch.

And she knows, two, twenty, even two hundred years later, it will still hurt like a fucking bitch.

...

Serena woke up with a gasp, chest heaving, hands clutching the blanket over her and it wasn't until she felt a hand trail down her arm that she realized that she wasn't alone. After a few deep breaths, she turned to her right to see Dan, eyes boring to her, worriedly as he too sat up.

"Did I wake you?" Serena let out a barely audible whisper as Dan kissed along her arm.

He shook his head, worried expression etched all over him. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

:Serena, come on." He urges gently, not wanting to startle her even more. He could see by the way she shot up from her sleep and the way she froze for barely a second when she realized that she wasn't alone that his girlfriend was tense. "You can tell me." But the blonde next to him only shook her head vigorously. "O-kay, so you don't have to tell me right now, or anytime at all... Just whatever you're comfortable with, okay?"

He takes one of her hands in both of his and gives it a gentle squeeze before getting up from the bed. Serena immediately grabs at his wrist, eyes wide and worried.

"Where are you going?"

"I'll just get you some water, okay?" He gives her a weak smile. He chuckles softly when she releases a grunt in response, placing a kiss on the crown of her head before exiting the room.

Serena lets out a deep sigh that she's been holding once Dan was out of sight. She swiped at her face to rid of all the tear tracks on her face and settled into her pillows as she waited for Dan to come back.

"Okay, so here you go." Dan assists Serena with drinking the water and once he's content with the amount that she drank, he puts the glass on the bedside table before climbing back on the back next to her.

"Dan..." It was the faintest of whispers that he barely heard her.

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

"I love you, Serena." He whispers back, tugging her closer to him.

Serena shook her head slightly in response, burying her face at the crook of his neck. She felt all tension leave her body as Dan trails a hand up and down her back and the other wrap on her waist tightly. She feels Dan kiss the top of her head as she finally allowed herself to fall back to sleep.

...

The next time Dan woke up, the sun was already shining, seeping through the curtains. He rolled over, arms stretching out, expecting to find Serena on her side of the bed. But instead, he cracked one eye open when all he felt was the bedsheets on his hand.

He thought about going back to sleep but those thoughts were thrown out of his mind when he heard the door slam shut.

Sighing deeply, he throws the covers back and started making his way over towards the kitchen where hopefully, he will see Serena, having coffee while looking at something on her tablet. She'd smile up at him, put the tablet and coffee down before stalking over to him and placing a kiss on his lips, whispering good morning as they pull away.

He had found Chuck and Eric in the kitchen instead. No sign of Serena.

"Where's - uhh.. Where's Serena?" Dan asked, confused by the presence of Serena's siblings before him.

"We were actually hoping to find her here." Eric answered, when it was clear Chuck had no intention to.

"No - Nope. She's not here."

"And, what are you guys doing here?" Dan asks and cringes when Chuck raises an eyebrow towards him. "I mean.. Not that I'm complaining, it's just.. Why are you here this early?"

"Oh, I brought Serena breakfast. Just thought I'd drop by and check on her." Then as if realizing something, Eric's eyes widened and his voice falters a bit. "See if she's alright."

"I was sent here by Blair to pick her up because they're preparing Mother's Day brunch at home." Chuck supplies.

"Oh, okay." Dan nods. "Well, do you have any idea where she might be?"

"Umm..." Before Dan could answer, the door opened a bit, and in stepped Serena, dressed in black, a frown on her face. She had shades on, although it did nothing to hide the fact that she'd been crying.

"Hey..." Dan was immediately at her side, pulling her towards him. She clutched at his shirt as she buried her face on the crook of his neck. He gently rubs her back and places a kiss on her temple before pulling back an inch, so he could see her face. "What's wrong?"

"Serena..." Both turned as they heard Eric's soothing, comforting words. Serena stepped away from her boyfriend before launching herself to her brother's arms. Dan and Chuck watched as Eric rubbed Serena's back in an attempt to comfort his big sister. "Hey, it's okay. Everything's gonna be fine." Eric's soothing whispers echoed throughout the room as Serena continued to clutch onto Eric.

After a few minutes, Serena stepped away from Eric before hastily wiping at her face in an attempt to clear the tear tracks running down her face.

"I bought you coffee." Eric announced in a soft voice as he started leading Serena towards the dinner table, with Dan and Chuck in tow. "And some breakfast, I thought you might need something to eat."

"Uhh.. What is going on?" Dan asks, scratching the back of his head. He looks at the two van der Woodsens back and forth before turning to Chuck, shooting him a questioning glance that he answered by shrugging his shoulders, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Sorry to interrupt your little sibling bonding thing you got going on here, sis, Eric, but I believe Blair's getting impatient by the minute." Chuck interrupts just as Serena took her first bite of the breakfast Eric just handed her. Eric shook his head, slightly glaring at Chuck.

"Chuck, I don't think -" But Eric was cut off.

"No, Eric." She attempted a forced smile. "He's right. I did promise B I'd help her out." Taking two big gulps of her coffee, she stood up and turned to head towards the bedroom. "Oh," She turned to Chuck before continuing. "You can go back home and tell Blair, we'd be there in an hour."

"Okay then. See you later sis!" Chuck placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, squeezing it affectionately before nodding to Dan and Eric. He gives Serena one final playful wink before he shut the door behind him.

"Serena, are you sure you-"

"Eric.." Serena sighed. "I promised Blair."

"I know, but..."

"But nothing! I'll just see you there okay?" She raised an eyebrow at him. "Don't you have some errands to run?"

"Serena..." He was hesitant to leave, Dan could tell. And Dan could also tell from the way Serena's shoulder slumped that she's not quite ready for Eric to leave even though she is being very insistent on getting Eric out of the door as quickly as possible.

"I'll be fine." She stalked over to her brother, wrapping both arms around him before letting go after placing a kiss on his cheek. "You should probably drop by mom and dad's before you go to Chuck and Blair's though. Give her a bouquet of flowers for Mother's Day, tell her how she's the greatest mother ever, maybe?"

"Fine." Eric finally relents. "But I'm still going with you later."

"I wouldn't have it any other way." She smiles sadly before plastering a fake one and pushing him towards the direction of the door. "Now go. I'll see you later."

...

It was raining. On possibly the worst day of her entire life, it was raining. This day couldn't be any worse.

She feels an arm wrap around her shoulders, pulling her closer. She puts her head on his shoulder as she stares ahead, tears falling at a rapid place.

It was just the two of them, side by side, no else around.

But something's missing.

"You okay?" He asks, rubbing her arm affectionately, trying to ease her pain. It's working but only a little bit. She doesn't think this pain will ever go away, not completely.

"He's supposed to be here." She whispers, so faint that it was barely heard. She swipes at her face, trying to get rid of the water mark on her face but failing miserably because apparently, her eyes decided to unleash buckets full of tears today. "Dan." She chokes the name, hiccuping a couple times. "Dan.. He's supposed to be here, Eric. Dan should be here.. I just - I can't.."

Suddenly, she's launching herself to her brother's arms. Nevermind that Eric dropped the umbrella he was holding, nevermind that raindrops continues to pelt on them, soaking them, nevermind that no one else but the two of them were standing right there.

None of that matters.

What matters is that Dan should be here.

Only, he wasn't.

And it's her fault.

...

"Serena, what is going on?" He gently grabs her arm and pulls her towards him. He has been watching her for the past hour as she scurries around the apartment, taking a shower, gathering her things, exchanging messages with Eric, not once sparing him a glance. She's either avoiding him or she's completely unaware of his presence in the room - which, given what he's currently seeing of Serena, he wouldn't put it past her.

But he can't for the life of him figure out what's gotten Serena acting this way. Although, now that he thought about it, her bubbly sunshine optimistic personality dimmed down a little this past week - not completely gone because she is still Serena. He just doesn't know why. And god, does he want to know.

Because other than the fact that he seems invisible right now, every once in a while he would see her swipe under her eyes and he's pretty sure she's wiping her tears away each time she does that - which is happening more often than he would like.

"Serena, hey." He pulls her down next to him on the bed then kneels down in front of her, tilting his head so that he could look at her face. He nearly gasped when he caught sight of her face - it's not an expression he wanted to see painted on her face, ever.

Serena blinks once, twice. Then suddenly, she throws her arms around him, pulling him impossibly closer, burying her face in the crook of his neck. He could feel her tremble as he rubs her back, soothingly, even though he has no idea.

They stayed like that for what felt like hours before she disentangled her hands from around him and gave him a shaky smile.

"You know you can tell me, whatever it is, you know that, right?" She immediately nods before he's even finished talking. She grasps his hand in one of hers, squeezing it for a second before she stood up, pulling him up with her.

"I know."

I want to tell you. I want to tell you everything Dan.

I'm so so sorry. I hope you can forgive me. I'm sorry.

"Whenever you're ready." He smiles at her, glancing down at their joined hands, rubbing his thumb against the back of her hand affectionately.

Oh god, I don't think I'll ever be ready for this. Not then, not now, not ever.

I'm sorry, Dan.

She sighed, swiped at her face once more before grabbing her purse.

"Let's go. Don't wanna get on Blair's bad side, right?" She nudges her shoulder against his, laughing along with Dan.

Get it together, Serena. You can do this.

I know it hurts but you'll get through this. You can do this Serena.

.to be continued.

A/N: First of all, if you're still with me, THANK YOU! I know I said I would never not update for so long, then I go and not update for months. I broke my promise not to do that again, but I do it anyway. I'm so sorry for that. It might seem like I am abandoning this story. But let me assure you, once again, I am not. I will complete this story. One day, this story will be marked 'Complete' and until then, I will still post new chapters - though it might take a while.

There are actually two things that made updating took so long; the first one is of course, the school stuff I had - with exams, projects, homeworks and what not. School keeps me busy. Secondly, there's this thing called writer's block and it's a real bitch. For a time, I had absolutely no idea how I'm going to put into words all these ideas for this next chapter. But, hey, here's a new chapter, so, I kind of figured it out.

I won't announce when a new chapter is going to be posted, because seriously, I don't know when I'll be able to finish the next chapter. I'll try my best though.

My apologies again for the super late update, and for any spelling and grammar mistakes I made in this chapter. I literally just finished writing this and did not proof read this whatsoever. I just wanted to publish this immediately, hopefully to make up for my absence.

AGAIN, THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU GUYS WHO HAVE STUCK WITH ME! TO ALL THOSE WHO ARE STILL READING THIS AND TO THOSE WHO JUST STARTED READING THIS AS WELL. I LOVE YOU GUYS! YOU GUYS DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH IT MEANS TO ME THAT YOU'RE STILL HERE WITH ME. YOU GUYS MEAN A LOT TO ME. I LOVE YOU GUYS!

Please tell me what you think of this chapter. Pretty please leave me reviews, share your thoughts, opinions, views on the chapter. I am really curious of what you guys think, so please, leave a review!

Again, I'm so sorry and thanks for still being there for me, with me. I love you guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and stay tuned for more! xx