"You're back, in New York," Nate said taking her in. "When did you get here?"
"I landed yesterday," Serena said letting go of Summers hand and taking a small step closer, bringing her arms across her body so she could hold her elbows. "It's been a while."
"13 years, give or take a few months," Nate said smiling. "You look good."
"So do you," Serena said biting her lip, he was older, different, confidant, the past 13 years were good to him. Serena looked down to find his hands stuffed in his pocket and sighed because she couldn't see his left ring finger, while her bare finger was on display.
"You're Nate?" Summer asked piping up from behind her, Nate nodded glancing over to her and Serena froze forgetting that her daughter and brother were right there. "We're going to the ice-cream shop you used to take my mom to when she was sad, do you wanna come?"
"Mom?" Nate asked, his eyes snapping from Serena, back to the little girl that stepped up to stand next to her, looking at her properly. "You have a daughter?"
"Yeah," Summer said slowly like the fact that she called Serena mom should have been obvious. "Summer van der Woodsen, nice to meet you."
"van der Woodsen?" Nate repeated her surname wearily shaking the girls outstretched hand and giving Serena a bewildered look. "Nathaniel Archibald, nice to meet you too."
"I don't think I can say that name," Summer said thinking about it.
"It's ok, you can just call me Nate," he said smiling at the girl, who reminded him of Serena when she was younger. "Only my mother and Chuck call me Nathaniel anyway."
"So do you wanna come with us?" she asked grinning and Serena gently cupped her arm so Summers attention will go to her.
"Summ, I'm sure Nate has other things to do today than sight-see with us," Serena said nervously finding her voice again and Erik snorted. "Maybe next time."
Nate looked at her curiously but nodded his head. "I am meeting someone here now but that place is still open and still awesome, you should check it out, maybe next time I can come with," Nate said before turning toward Erik. "Little Erik van der Woodsen, last time I saw you, you were 8 years old and trying to get into the candy cupboard."
"Oh yeah I remember that," Erik said laughing at his need to have anything sweet when he was a child, it didn't matter where it was he would find it and get to it. "How've you been Nate?"
"Good, good, how long are you in town for?" Nate asked, his attention back on Serena, occasionally flickering to Summer.
"Just for the week and if Summer here decides she wants to stay for the rest of her vacation then we'll see," Serena said tugging on the girls hair and Summer squished her nose.
"Well I should leave you guys to carry on," Nate said stopping when someone came to stand next to him. "Hey," he said kissing the new woman and Serena swallowed and waited for the pain in her chest to pass. "Guys this is my girlfriend Lola, Lola this is Serena, Erik and Summer."
"Hi," Lola said smiling at them tightly and then looking to Nate before walking away.
"She's having a bit of a crises, we'll see you guys tomorrow," Nate told them before turning and sprinting off to where Lola was still walking away from them.
"Well she was rude," Summer said and both Serena and Erik turned to look at her. "What? You were both thinking it."
"Come on kid, let's go get you that ice-cream," Erik said touching his sisters shoulder as he walked with his niece.
Serena stood for another moment watching Nate and Lola's retreating backs and she sighed, it's not as if this weekend was going to be complicated enough, now there was a familiar looking girlfriend involved.
For a moment Serena was focused solely on trying to figure out where she knew Lola from and then it all stopped as her heart caught up with her brain and all those feelings for Nate she thought would fade once she saw him burned just as bright as they had when she was 15 and trying not to love her best friends boy. When she looked at him he was all she saw, no-one else existed, he looked happy to see her, she thought he might be like Blair but he was fine, probably because he had Lola and he'd moved on while she ran away, had a daughter and couldn't move on because she couldn't let him go.
When they were finally out of sight Serena turned and walked faster to catch up with her daughter and brother, wrapping an arm around Summer's arm and holding onto her for comfort like she'd done since the girl was born.
"Mom?" Summer asked looking down at the way her mom was holding her hand and then up at her frazzled mother. "Are you ok?"
"Yeah honey I'm fine," Serena said squeezing Summer's arm gently and looking away. Summer gave her a quizzical look before turning back to Erik and continued trying to tell him all the reasons her mom should get her a duck as a pet.
"What's the story with you and Nate," Summer asked once they were back at Lily's, relaxing in Serena's room, Serena shot Summer a surprised look and wondered how long she was itching to ask that question. "Well when you make it that obvious, you can't expect me not to notice."
"She does have a point," Erik commented and Serena glared at him but kept her mouth shut so Summer turned to Erik. "I was still a kid so I might have this all wrong but Nate was at the house all the time, not only when Blair was there and Blair was his girlfriend at the time."
"Really? Wasn't she your best friend?" Summer asked and Serena put her hand over her face. "Mom, no wonder she was so mean to you."
"Erik you are doing a horrible job of telling this story," Serena said tilting her head to the side and looking at Summer. "The three of us were best friends since we were in diapers, he and Blair started dating when we were young but they were both my best friends, I gossiped with Blair and goofed off with Nate."
"The sexual tension did not look like goofing off," Summer grumbled and Erik burst out laughing while his sister stared at her daughter. "What'd I say?"
"Where did you even learn that?" Serena asked having another moment where she realized her kid was not a baby anymore.
"Lauren says it all the time," Summer said waving it off.
"Remind me again, who is Lauren?" Erik asked, still laughing at his sisters expense.
"Red head, had a major crush on you," Serena replied and Erik winced. "Still does, I think."
"You should stay away from that girl," he said shivering. "She creeps me out."
"Seriously though mom, you and Nate," Summer asked staring at her mother and Serena sighed and looked away.
"Like you said he was my best friends boyfriend," Serena said shaking her head. "And I left before a possibility of something could happen."
"I don't believe you," Summer said squinting at her mother and pointing to her eyes. "It was all in the eyes, there was and still is something there."
"Yes and now that something is Lola," Serena said and Summer's shoulders dropped and she frowned at the mention of Lola. "She looks familiar."
"You know her?" Erik asked raising an eyebrow. "Coz I got that feeling too but we only saw her for a second so I couldn't be sure."
"Yeah maybe it's just my mind playing tricks on me," Serena said sighing. "We should probably get some sleep before tomorrow."
"Mom wants us up early," Erik said and Summer groaned. "Rufus' kids are gonna be here in the morning to meet us."
"Well as long as they aren't anything like Clause with a C's kid, I think we'll be fine," Serena grumbled, he was a teenager and she was about 10 and he tormented her and blamed everything on her and of course her mother took her boyfriend's word over her daughters.
"I don't remember him," Erik said, scratching his chin.
"You were like 2 or 3 and we only met him twice," Serena said shaking her head, it was about the same amount of times they'd met Claus.
"Who's Claus?" Summer asked, curiously when no-one actually mentioned who he was to them. "And why do you say with a C."
"Clause with a C, his name starts with a C, was grandma Lily's first long term boyfriend after she and my dad divorced," Serena said laughing. "Klaus with a K was her second or third husband, I forget the order."
"Wow she's been married alot," Summer said scrunching her nose.
"Yeah she has but don't let her hear you say that," Erik told them getting up to leave the room and switching the light off. "G'Night."
The next morning went fairly well, she met Dan and Jenny the next morning and Dan's fiancé, Vanessa and learned way more than she needed to about how they were in the same school from Dan's rambling, Vanessa eventually stopped him but Serena didn't mind, he wasn't that bad.
He was a writer, Vanessa was a film maker and Jenny was a fashion designer or just a seamstress now but she was working for it, it all seemed so exciting compared to Serena's office job that she took over a few years ago. She always wanted to get into modelling and photography like her mother, she even took a few courses in photography but she was never really sure so when Cece got sick she was more than happy to take over.
It was a short service, with the bare minimum people in attendance. Serena wasn't sure that was what her grandmother would have wanted but her mother assured her it was.
Chuck stayed close to Lily and Blair close to him, her mother's sister Carol was there as well which Serena thought was weird since she'd never seen the woman before aside from pictures, she didn't go to her mother's after so Serena didn't get the chance to talk to her. Nate was at the back, away from everyone with Lola. He caught her eye a few times and smiled comfortingly. Serena had Summer glued to her side for as long as she could, the only way she felt she was going to get through the day was if she was there, her comfort blanket.
Most people came straight to the house afterward, some gasping when they saw her, some whispering and pointing, some people looked at her like she was just a memory, all she was expecting, all the while hoping that Summer didn't notice.
"This dress itches," Summer said trying to adjust her dress as inconspicuously as possible coming to stand next to her mother when they were back at Lily's apartment. "Can't I go change?"
"Grandma Lily wants to show you off a little first," Serena told her, watching as her daughter tried to scratch her back but her hand wasn't reaching. "Would you stop that?"
"I don't know why she's showing me off now when she didn't the last 12 years," Summer mumbled as Serena discreetly found the pin that was giving Summer so many problems and pulled it out.
"I wouldn't take it personally, Summ," Serena said patting her daughters back when she was done. "But if you really want to complain to someone, Uncle Erik is standing right there."
"Hey look Nate's here," Summer piped up with a huge smile on her face and Serena's heart started working overtime and she looked up to find Nate and a very frustrated looking Lola walk in. "Oh and look, he brought her."
"You could try to sound a little more sincere," Serena said nudging her daughter and Summer just shrugged, and Serena beamed with pride, yeah that was her kid.
Blair caught Serena's eye a few seconds later and she smiled but not one of those genuine Blair smiles that she missed so much, this was a smile Blair had saved specifically for when she was up to something and she knew a secret that no-one wanted her to know. Serena took a deep breath and held it in for a moment as Blair's eyes flickered to Summer and her heart sank.
"Honey, I'm going outside, go stand by Erik or Jenny if you don't want to be alone," Serena said, Summer and Jenny became easy friends that morning and she always wanted to trouble Erik. Summer looked up at her mother curiously and Serena shook her head. "I'm fine, I just need some fresh air."
As soon as Summer left her side Serena fled the room, the look in Blair's eyes wasn't one she wanted to see until she spoke to her family but it told her everything. She knew.
A/N : Hey guys heres the next update yey lol I know theres still not an over load of Nate but he's finally in the story now haha
Thank you for all the wonderful reviews, I love reading your comments of the way I'm writing this, I know there are a few people that aren't that happy about the speed of this but just bare with me, I'll get to the point eventually lol
Guys I have written a chapter or 2 ahead of this but now I'm stuck, so if the next few chapters come out a little slower I apologize, theres alot that I need to think about to make sure it gets to the end properly
Please review and let me know what you think
Until Next Time (^^,)