"Van der Woodsen?" Blair asked furrowing her eyebrows. "Where's her father?"
"Not in the picture," Serena said as Summer dropped her head to look to the floor, Serena bit her lip at the tone of Blair's voice and looked toward her brother. "Erik, why don't you show Summ her room."
"Yeah, come on kiddo," Erik said bending down to scoop his niece up and make her laugh as he took her away.
"That was tacky even for you Blair," Serena said crossing her arms over her chest and clenching her jaw. "Whatever problems you have are with me not her."
"You come back into our lives after more than 13 years, with a daughter and you expect me not to ask?" Blair asked raising an eyebrow. "Besides I just wanted to know why she didn't take her father's surname."
"You have a beautiful son Blair," Serena said sighing as she changed the subject, she was not going to get into that tonight, not yet.
"Thank you," Blair said furrowing her eyebrows, the Serena she knew would have gone on the defensive, attacking her for saying what she did. But the girl in front of her, this Serena, she was a mother, she was different, mature, she looked exhausted but she still held the charm of the 15 year old that left them all those years ago. "How old is she?"
"She's 12 ... and a half," Serena said with a half smile as she thought of the trouble she'd get into if she didn't add that part in.
"Did you leave because you were pregnant?" Blair asked her, still trying to figure out who she was now. "Or did you fall pregnant after you left?"
"Can we not do this now Blair," Serena asked taking a deep breath. "It's been a long week and I'm exhausted and all I really want to do is get into bed after that flight."
Serena turned before Blair could say any more and walked away, she found Chuck in the hallway on his way back to Blair, Henry still asleep in his arms.
"You didn't tell her about Summer?" she asked him, Summer was about 4 when Chuck came to visit so it was hard to hide her from him, she asked him to keep it a secret but she never expected that he would.
"As far as everyone here knows, we haven't spoken in 13 years, I know how to keep a secret sis," Chuck said raising an eyebrow, he started calling her sis after their parents got married but they'd spoken so little over the years that she's still not used to it. "Isn't that what you wanted?"
"Yes it was, thanks," she said. "Blair might kill you for it though."
"Blair just needs to get used to having you back here, it took her a long time to get over the way you left and you know how long she can hold onto a grudge," he warned gently and Serena smiled in thanks.
"I know I hurt her, I thought I was protecting her," Serena said and Chuck looked at her skeptically but nodded. "How is ... he?"
"You'll see soon," Chuck said knowing exactly who she was talking about and Serena didn't think she had the mental capacity to think about any of that tonight. "Night sis."
Serena waited until Chuck was out of sight before going into the room and jumping onto the bed next to Erik and Summer.
"What are you guys up to?" she asked making herself comfortable.
"We're playing thumb wars," Summer said concentrating on what her thumb was doing. "Uncle Erik is cheating."
"Me? Cheat? Never," Erik said grinning. "Tell her S."
"Erik? Cheat? Never," Serena said playfully and Summer huffed as she narrowly missed her thumb being covered. "You're on your own kid, I'm going talk to mom for a bit."
Serena kissed her daughters head and poked Erik's side before leaving the room to find her mother. She found Lily and Rufus in the kitchen of all places cooking.
"Wow, who knew you'd be helping out in the kitchen?" Serena asked amused and Lily laughed and looked up at her.
"Well darling when you date someone who refuses to hire a chef, you just have to learn," she said finishing what she was doing and rinsing her hands before turning to Rufus. "We'll be at the table."
"This whole domestic thing seems to be working well for you," Serena said when they sat down and Lily smiled sadly. "He's nice."
"Oh he is, I think you'll like him," Lily said reaching out to take Serena's hands. "Erik loves him."
"Tell me about him," Serena said, she was curious to know what was going on in her mothers life, what this man was doing to keep her in one place that every other man she's ever been with couldn't do, her own children couldn't do.
"Well I met him after high school," Lily said folding her hands together and resting her chin on them. "I followed his band around the country."
"Mom," Serena exclaimed laughing. "I didn't know you were a groupie."
"I was not a groupie," Lily said almost repulsed. "I took pictures when they were on tour, it was for a magazine I free lanced for."
"So what happened," Serena asked, enjoying this carefree side of her mother that she never saw.
"There came a time where I had to choose whether to come back home and go to college like my family wanted or stay on the bus with him and enjoy the music," Lily said taking a breath as if she wishes she could change her decision. "As you know I chose to come home, it was one of the hardest decisions I had to make, then of course I met your father in college, he was so charming and I fell in love, well you know how that ended."
"I do," Serena said, the wonder and excitement of the story her mother was telling left her for that moment as she repressed the memories and pain of that time.
"Bart and I were happy for a while and then it just went downhill," Lily said drawing Serena out of her thoughts and back to the story. "I met Rufus, again, when I was thinking of getting a divorce and it was like we were never apart, he was going through his own divorce and he had his two kids to think about. Bart died before we could divorce and I'm sure he knew of my affair but I don't think he really cared."
"Chuck could not have been happy about it," Serena said, thinking of the boy she knew when she was growing up. He may be changed now but back then he was just a few years out of high school.
"Charles and I fought, oh he hated me, he refused to be in the same room as I was," Lily said shaking her head as she recalled that time. "He was always drunk, pushed everyone he knew as far away from him as possible, the things he would say, it was so evil."
"But you're so close now," Serena said almost confused, she envied the relationship Chuck had with her mother, she always thought that it was an instantaneous loving of each other, she didn't think there was such a back story.
"We are, I had to build that trust with him," Lily said smiling and Serena knew that smile, it was how she smiled when she spoke about her daughter. "He ended up needing me to help him overthrow Bart's brother and from then on I just kept proving to him that I wouldn't let him down until one day he started trusting me completely and I became the closest thing he had to a mother."
"The Chuck I see now and the one I knew back in high school, are two completely different people," Serena said with a small shrug. "I like the change."
"A lot of it was because of Blair, that girl just latched onto him and refused to let him out of her sight until she was positive he wasn't going to drown in the deep end he'd just gone off," Lily said laughing. "And somewhere in that struggle, they fell in love."
"What happened to her and Nate?" Serena asked a little timidly not that Lily would notice that, she desperately wanted to know about him but no-one wanted to hand her the information, she had to keep asking.
"Nathaniel and Blair broke up for reasons no-one actually knew," Lily said looking up as if the reason would come back to her. "One day they were fine and the next they refused to talk to each other and that was it, Chuck and I weren't close at this point and the only reason I ever knew about your friends is because I'd hear whispering's from school girls who couldn't really whisper."
"Mother, didn't anyone ever tell you not to eavesdrop," Serena asked and Lily rolled her eyes.
"I spoke to Blair a few times about it when she visited Chuck, since you were gone and she and Nate were over, he was the only one she could talk to," Lily said trying to remember. "I know she told me they just weren't going to work out and it had taken her too long to realize that and he was the one who really ended it but she didn't elaborate on that."
"I wonder what it was," Serena said wincing at the thought of Nate telling Blair what had happened between them and if maybe that added to the anger Blair threw her way earlier.
"It must have been something big," Lily told her smiling at Rufus when he set down a tray of tea and pouring two cups for them. "They were such a perfect couple, Anne and Eleanor had their lives planned too, but now she's with Chuck and we have Henry and oh Serena when you see him awake tomorrow, he's such a sweet child, you'll just adore him."
Serena smiled sadly and looked down at her tea, her heart clenched in her chest as she thought of how her mother spoke of Henry and how she barely bothered to get to know Summer, how she didn't want her. It was feelings that she had long ago dealt with but she couldn't help the jealousy that bubbled up.
"Serena darling, you always say that you don't know who Summers father is but you have to have some idea," Lily pressed and Serena pressed her lips together to hold in a snippy comment that she knew would not help anyone. "After all, you fought me to keep her."
"I don't want to talk about this now," Serena said taking a breath.
Her mother looked at her, ready to argue her case as Summers grandmother. "But-"
"Tea," Summer exclaimed moving to sit on her mother's lap, even though she was much too big, so she could help herself to what was on the table. Lily looked at Serena to let her know that she wasn't done with this conversation and Serena hid her face in Summers hair. "Ahh too hot."
"Thumb wars are only fun for a little while," Erik said coming to sit with them.
"You're just saying that because you lost," Summer said smiling wide and sticking her tongue out at him before ducking behind Serena's hair when Erik glared at her.
"Enough you two," Serena said when Erik stuck his tongue out as well. "Erik you're a grown man."
"She started it," he said huffing and Serena rolled her eyes wondering how her grown brother could be this childish, in a way she always thought of Erik as her kid even though he was her brother, her dad left when he was just a few months old, their mom shortly after and Serena had stepped up to take on the role of mom for him especially being 7 years older, she raised him as well as she could, ignoring whatever nannies her mother might have sent, until she had her own baby and he chose to go to boarding school but he spent every holiday with her, she was always the first person he went to if he needed to talk, Summer and Erik acted like brother and sister most times instead of Uncle and niece and it felt right to her. "What are you guys talking about?"
"Mom was taking me down memory lane," Serena said resting her chin on her daughters head. "Filling me in on what's been happening."
"We'll go onto Gossip Girl later," Erik said pouring himself a cup of tea and Serena looked up at him shocked. "Yeah I know, I didn't think it would last that long either."
"Who's Gossip Girl?" Summer asked raising an eyebrow.
"No-one knows, it was an anonymous blog someone created when I was in High School, nothing for you to worry about," Serena told her, she glanced up at Erik and he smiled, they knew what they were going to be doing tonight.
A/N : Hey guys heres a new chapter yey, hope you're still enjoying the story :D I've been writing as far ahead as I can and I've changed it so many times that when I re-read this chapter I got a little lost lol but please let me know what you guys think of it, Nate will make his appearance in the next chapter I think, the timeline here is a bit different from the show but I'll keep it as close as possible, just changing the things I have to.
So I went to see The Fray live last Friday and it was amazing, my cousins and I were in the back of an open van and it was freezing to get to the place and my hair was an absolute disaster when we finally arrived but it was worth it haha, those guys are absolutely incredible, their songs and the atmosphere and ah everything was perfect, I love The Fray! Do you guys like them? What bands do you listen to?
Ok back to the story lol, let me know what you think and if you want to see something specific that I can add, I've been watching alot of NS scenes online and I miss them so so so much
Anyway please review
Until Next Time (^^,)