"Do you have to go?" Summer asked through her yawn as they sat on a couch in the lobby in her mother's building. Since she was still supposed to be running her grandmothers business (technically now hers), Serena had meetings that could not be postponed just because she was in New York for an extended time.
"I do, but it's only a 2 hour flight away, I will be back before you know it, hopefully in time to tuck you in," she said brushing back her daughters hair with her fingers as the girl leaned sleepily against her mother's side. "You could always come with me," Serena offered.
Summer opened one eye to look up at her mother as she seriously considered it. "But you'd be in meetings all day and I'd be bored."
"That's true and Nate's pretty excited to have you all to himself the whole day, without me being too close by," Serena said and Summer nodded yawning again, it was still much too early for her to be awake. "If there are any problems, I'm just a phone call away, I kinda wish Erik was still in the city."
"It's ok, I can call grandma Lily if I need to but I'll be with dad so I'll be fine," Summer said and Serena smiled and rubbed her arm. "It's so weird, last month I didn't even want to be in the same room as Grandma Lily and now I'm calling her if I have problems."
Serena chuckled as Summer made her observations, "I was like that with Grams, you'll get used to liking her soon enough," Serena told her and Summer 'hmph-ed' in response. Serena couldn't believe that it had been such a short time since her return to New York, it felt like it had been so much longer.
"Come on baby, time for me to leave," Serena said nudging Summer to wake up and handing her bags to Vanya to put into the town car that finally pulled up in front of the building to take her to the airport. Summer stood with her mother wrapping her arms around Serena's waist and holding her. "Summ, I need to go."
"But dads not here yet," Summer complained and Serena frowned, Nate as supposed to meet them in the lobby of her mothers building and get Summer from her before she left but he wasn't there yet. "I don't want to wait here alone and I don't wanna go all the way back up to grandmas."
"You can wait here with Vanya," Serena said glancing at her watch, if she didn't leave soon she was going to miss her flight. "Let me call him, he's probably still asleep."
Serena was about to call Nate to get him up when he came barreling in through the door, looking like he just ran from his house to get there. "Sorry, I overslept," he said apologizing and then he looked from Serena down to their daughter still wrapped around Serena's waist. "She doesn't want you to go?"
"She's fast asleep," Serena said shaking her head and nudging the child. "Nate's here, honey."
Summer made a grunting noise and turned her face in Nate's general direction but her eyes were firmly shut. Nate chuckled and gently pried Summer away from Serena and into his arms, bending slightly so he could heave her into his arms. "It's been a while since I've carried anyone heavier than Henry but I'm sure I can manage carrying a 12 year old to the car," he said adjusting her so her head was on his shoulder and Serena handed him Summers bag.
"Twelve and a half," she mumbled and Serena let out a startled laugh.
"She's heavy, you could just turn her in the direction you need her to go and she'll walk," Serena told him because while Summer was still tiny enough to be carried by Nate without it being too awkward or even looking awkward, she was much too old to be carried around.
"It's fine," Nate said, rocking slightly on his heels and Serena knew that he was just happy to be able to carry her while he still could, after missing out on all those times when she was younger.
"I need to go, have fun," she said kissing Summer's head and thanking Nate again before rushing to the taxi. It was only when she waved to Nate as the taxi pulled away did she realize how domestic that scene was, trading Summer between them. She smiled to herself and leaned her head back onto the headrest, it was more than she expected from him and she was so thankful he was who he was.
Summer frowned as she watched her dad and Lola being cute in the kitchen when she woke up later that morning, they hadn't seen her yet but she stood in the passage where she had a full view of the common rooms in the house.
When she woke up, it took her a few minutes to realize that she wasn't at her grandmothers or at her house but at her dads house, she assumed it was a spare room because it wasn't very personal, it took her a few excited moments to calm down and look around before getting up to go find him and that's when she stumbled upon ... that.
Lola was dangling a piece of what she could only assume was bacon over her father's mouth and he was trying to catch it, when he finally did they shared a kiss and Summer made a disgusted face and shivered uncomfortably before making herself known.
"G'morning," she said walking toward them, Lola said hello and then went back to the frying pan and Nate ran to her.
"Good morning sunshine," he said gathering her up in a tight hug and Summer laughed.
"Morning daddy," she said sweetly, noticing Lola roll her eyes out of the corner of her eye. "You're in a good mood."
"I have my two favorite girls with me today," he said ruffling her already messy hair and pulling her to the one of the chairs at the table. "Don't tell Blair I said that though, I'd like to keep my head."
"What are we doing today babe," Lola said setting the bacon on the table and sitting next to Nate, her arm draped possessively over his shoulders and Summer raised her eyebrows, this lady had deeper issues than she thought, her aunt Blair wasn't kidding.
"I thought we'd let Summer decide," Nate said watching his daughter. "But if you didn't have any plans already, I'd like to introduce you to my parents and a little more of my side of the family."
Summer paled at the mention of her grandparents, she'd never met them, her dad barely spoke about them but every time she brought them up in conversation people always had a grim expression on their faces and that made her very nervous. "Yeah sure I'd love to," Summer said swallowing hard, she was terrified but the smile on her dads face was worth it.
"Am I supposed to be a normal 12 year old? Am I supposed to look like I was already 16 like those pictures of you when you were 12 or should I be dressed like Aunt Blair at 12, because I do not think I could wear stockings without ripping them," Summer asked her mother as she stared at the mess of clothes now piled up on her bed. "I didn't pack for this, maybe I should go back to grandma's and-"
"Honey, Summer, stop," Serena said putting a hold on whatever rant her daughter was getting into. "First you need to take a breath and then you need to explain to me exactly why I was pulled out of my meeting to consult you on clothes."
"I'm sorry," Summer said deflating as she collapsed onto her bed and all the clothes. "Was it important?"
"It was," Serena said. "But you did me a huge favor, I think I might have strangled one of those old men if I didn't leave, so I owe you one."
Summer giggled and Serena smiled on her side. "Mom, I'm really nervous, dad's taking me to meet his parents," Summer whispered. "What if they hate me? I mean you would have told dad if you thought they'd approve."
"You're a really hard person to hate Summer," Serena said, trying to ease the girls worries while having the same thoughts running through her head because Anne Archibald and William van der Bilt were not the most welcoming and accepting people. "They have no reason to disapprove of you."
"Lola hates me," Summer mumbled and Serena sighed, choosing not to say anything this time. "I really don't like her."
"I know honey, I've heard you say it at least once a day since you met her," Serena said rolled her eyes and Summer grunted. "But this isn't about Lola, Nate's family will accept you because you are their blood and if anything they are fiercely protective over their blood."
"You make it sound like they're vampires," Summer mumbled and Serena shook her head, laughing.
"You will be fine," Serena assured her, hoping that Nate knew what he was doing. "Go, have fun, try not to scare them," she said and Summer giggled. "I love you."
"Love you more," Summer said softly as the call cut, she bit her lip and sunk down to the floor. Why did she agree to do this without her mother at her side? As much as it was exciting to know her father and do things with him, her mom was all she's ever known and that's who she needs when she's afraid and nervous.
Summer dressed quickly into jeans and a pretty blouse and ballet pumps, it wasn't that casual and it wasn't formal, she felt as if maybe she could fit into the upper east side dressed like this, it wasn't too different from her normal. She wanted her dads family to like her, she didn't want to come across as trying too hard and she wanted him to be happy, more importantly she wanted him to be happy with her in his life and this was step one.
"Is that what you're going to wear?" Lola asked from the door and Summers head snapped up to look at her in the mirror. "It's a little casual."
"I'm twelve, I'm allowed," Summer snarled, glaring at the woman leaning smugly against her doorway, dressed in a tight knee length green dress and heels. "Why are you so dressed up?"
"I'm visiting my future in-laws," Lola said grinning at her. "I can't go looking like a heathen."
'A what?' Summer mouthed to herself, stiffing the urge to scream. "Is this the first time you're meeting them or something?" Summer asked raising an eyebrow and turning to face Lola instead of scrutinizing her 'casual' look any longer.
"I've met them before, they love me but I have a feeling something special is going to happen," she said looking very pleased with herself as she clasped her hands together and sighed dreamily. "I think I might be able to officially call them my in-laws after today."
Before Lola could look back Summer made a gagging face and shivered, why was this lady talking to her about this right now. "There's no ring on your finger just yet," Summer said and Lola gave her a knowing look. "And if it were up to me there never would be, at least not from my dad."
"Oh sweetie, the things you think you can control," she said and Summer ground her teeth together, today was not the day for this crazy lady to be pushing her. "He isn't even your dad, not really, you may share blood but he's only been in your life a couple of weeks, you don't have a strong enough bond to stop this."
Summer took two deep breaths and thought about her mothers pep talks about dealing with Lola, to control herself before the smug look on Lola's face became too much for her temper to handle. She was about to scream when Nate walked into the room and flashed them both a megawatt smile.
"Nice to see you two talking," he said smiling at the both of them and the fight left Summer just like that. Lola was right, he still didn't know her well enough to believe her if she had to tell him that Lola was a bitch and she didn't want them together but he was her dad and she was determined not to let him make a mistake.
"I was just telling Summer that she should dress up a little more for our trip today, darling," Lola said and Nate looked at her weirdly before walking up to Summer and holding her out in front of him to see what she was wearing.
"I think what she's wearing is perfect," he said and Summer smiled relieved and tucked herself against her fathers side, grinning up at Lola who looked like she would have stuck her tongue out at the girl if Nate wasn't there. "Come on, let's go if we want to spend some time there before we have to leave again."
Summer tensed as she was lead out of the room toward the door and Nate slowed his pace to match hers, stopping completely when she slowed down enough and gently cupped her elbows.
"I know you're nervous," he told her as reassuringly as possible. "But they know about you and they are excited to meet you, you have nothing to worry about."
Summer took a deep breath and smiled, that made her feel better. Not alot better but a little better coming from him. Nate threw his arm around her shoulder and pulled her with him to where Lola was waiting with an annoyed look on her face and Summer wiggled her eyebrows, whatever 'bond' Lola thought was missing was being formed faster than she anticipated and Summer was planning on rubbing that in her face as much as possible.
A/N : So I wanted to have the next chapter done before I posted this but that chapter is going nowhere so I thought I'd rather post this now before I forget and it goes over a month that I haven't posted!
I really hope you guys like this chapter, I think I said a while back that I wanted to bring Nates family in for their bit of drama lol but I don't know yet how I want them to receive Summer, what do you guys think? Will they accept her and love her or will they just be cold to her and only tolerate her for Nate? If you have any other reactions, that would be a huge help
I've been feeling like Nate and Summer took to each other too easily and they have that father daughter relationship just like that, so in this chapter I sort of had Summer be a little uncomfortable with him, not in any huge way but just so that we see how close she and Serena actually are
ok this has gone on forever, please review and let me know your thoughts
Until Next Time (^^,)