"Dad, I can't find mom and ... AAHHHHH!" Summer shrieked blocking her eyes and turning around when she spotted her parents making out in bed. "Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew."

"Oh no," Serena groaned squeezing her eyes shut as Summer sprinted from the room.

Getting over his initial shock of being interrupted, Nate burst out laughing, until Serena slapped his chest and made a move to get up to follow their daughter. "I'm sorry," he said grabbing her wrist and pulling her back into bed. "She's not going to want to see you now."

"How do you know?" Serena asked cringing, as she kept a safe distance from Nate and wrapping the covers tighter around her.

"Would you really want to talk to your mom immediately after finding her in that position?" he asked and Serena's face just got redder as she buried it in her hands.

"10 minutes earlier and she would never look at me again," Serena said as she started to laugh. "We've scarred our child for life."

"We weren't doing anything scandalous when she came in," Nate said rolling his eyes. "But if you want to ..."

"No," Serena said putting her finger to his lips and pushing his face away. "We should get up and get dressed and pretend that nothing of interest happened this morning," Serena said easing herself off the bed. "Wipe that smirk of your face Archibald, you should have locked the door."

Serena took 2 steps to the bathroom when she was picked up and thrown over Nate's shoulder.

"Nate!" She screamed, laughing and smacking his back with her hands. "We need to get ready."

"That's what we're doing," he said closing the door and setting her down. "This time I'm sure no-one will walk in," he grinned locking the bathroom door.

"You're so lucky you're better than you were in high school."

Nate and Serena walked into the dining room later that morning to find some of their guests sitting at the table. Her mother and Rufus left early in the morning and Nate's family had told them yesterday that they would let Summer have her time with her friends and they would be with her when her friends were gone.

"Good morning, what took the two of you so long?" Blair asked wiggling her eyebrows and looking down at their interlinked fingers, like she knew exactly what happened. Blair and Chuck stayed over, purely because Serena begged them not to leave her there without backup.

"I slept in," Serena said reaching forward to grab a strawberry from the middle of the table. "Yesterday was tiring."

"I bet," Chuck said under his breath and turning the page of the newspaper he was reading, Nate laughed as he slapped his best friends shoulder and Serena's cheeks turned bright red.

"So much for pretending," Nate whispered in her ear and Serena sighed, it seemed as if everyone knew what she and Nate were up to.

Serena's eyes found Summer but her girl kept her eyes firmly on the drawing Henry was doing next to her. Conversation flowed around her but Serena kept her eyes on Summer, who refused to look at her until Hannah nudged her and she was forced to acknowledge her mother.

Serena raised an eyebrow and Summer rolled her eyes but eventually nodded to say that she's not going to hold this against them and she'll get over it, just in time for Nate to place a kiss to the top of the girls head and grab Henry from his place, hoisting the giggling boy onto his shoulders.

"So are any of you ready to go riding?" Nate asked, knowing that none of these girls were awake enough to think about getting on a horse, 2 of them weren't even at the breakfast table.

"I am Uncle Nate," Henry said from Nate's shoulders, drowning out the girls groans.

"Of course you are, you slept on time," Nate said and Summer glared at his thinly veiled jab at her and her friends sleeping time. "We'll all go later when you guys are awake."

"Where are the other two?" Serena asked, Hannah and Kelly were sitting at the table but Lauren and the other girl whose name Serena always forgot were nowhere to be seen.

"Lauren's still asleep and Carson was getting into the shower when we left the room," Summer said shrugging and Serena shook her head, Summer always left her friends to their own devices.

"Honey go check if they're ok," Serena told her and Summer grumbled and looked at her mother with a face that said 'do I have to?'

"I'll go check," Hannah said getting up and Serena remembered why she liked Hannah more than any of Summer's other friends.

Just as Hannah got up the other two girls burst into the room, looking bewildered for a moment before realizing that they were in the right room.

"Get lost?" Nate asked and they nodded sheepishly, sitting down and helping themselves to breakfast.

"Nathaniel you really should draw a map," Chuck said, he walked into the wrong rooms more than enough times while staying at Nate's Grandfathers.

"They'll get used to it," Nate said focusing on not dropping Henry as Blair took the boy from him to get him dressed for the day.

"I can't believe you guys are leaving tomorrow," Summer said sadly, she missed her friends so much, they'd known each other since they were babies and not seeing them often was getting to Summer just a little bit.

"It's an early flight tomorrow girls," Serena reminded them, it was a long flight and they all had school on Monday. Erik was going to be the responsible adult, making sure they all got on their flights ok while Serena and Nate stayed behind with Summer so she could spend the afternoon alone with Nate's parents. "So make tonight an early night."

There was a chorus of 'ok's and grunts as the sleepy girls acknowledged her warning and Serena knew that whatever she said was going to go straight over their heads and she was going to have to drag the sleepy girls from their beds.

"Is Erik still asleep?" Chuck asked and Serena shrugged, her brother was the laziest person, adding the fact that he was up till late to keep an eye on the girls, they probably weren't going to see him that day.

The girls started giggling and all three adults groaned. "What did you guys do?" Serena asked pulling Nate's arm around her waist as he came to stand next to her.

"Nothing bad," Lauren said giving Serena her most innocent smile.

"It really wasn't anything bad," Hannah confirmed and Serena sighed, not believing them because her daughter still hadn't stopped giggling.

"Ok," Serena said reluctantly, looking down at Chuck who shook his head and muttered something about teenage girls.

"Walk?" Nate asked in a whisper and Serena nodded, tilting her head to bump her nose with his and then lead him out the door.

"Your parents are ridiculously cute," Serena heard Lauren say to Summer as they left and she couldn't agree more, she and Nate were the cutest.

Nate and Serena took a leisurely stroll through the grounds, acting like total teenagers in love, kissing in the shadows of the trees and giggling when someone from the staff happened to come across them. It felt good for both of them forget their responsibilities for a while and retake what they lost as teenagers.

With Summer and her friends comfortably in Chuck, Blair and Erik's care, all Serena needed to focus on was Nate, and she enjoyed it. It took them a few hours to decide that they couldn't just leave their responsibility to their friends and return to the house.

"Where is everyone?" Serena asked when she saw Erik sitting on the couch, looking sourly out the door.

"They're in the next room," he grumbled and Serena raised an eyebrow at her very irritable brother. Nate looked over at her and tilted his head to the door to let her know he was going to check in on what was happening with the girls.

"Ok, tell me why you look like that," Serena said sitting next to her brother once Nate had left.

"Like what," he asked, still not looking at her.

"Like a 5 year old that just had his favourite toy taken away," Serena said rolling her eyes.

"Go ask your daughter what they did to me," Erik said narrowing his eyes when he looked at her. "Never again am I babysitting those girls."

"Erik," Serena began in a questioning voice when Summer burst through the door and into the room.

"Hi mom," she said smiling widely. "Dad said to let you know he's taking us horse-riding, bye mom."

Summer was out the room and down the hall before Serena could blink, even Erik turned to see what was happening with her.

"She's excited," Serena stated.

"She's evil," Erik muttered.

"Ok seriously, what happened?" Serena asked exasperated. "Usually Summer is the one angry with you not the other way around, what did she do?"

"She and her friends just had a little fun," Chuck said from the doorway with a chuckle and Erik's frown got deeper. "Here," Chuck said handing over his phone.

"Oh," Serena said slapping her hand to her mouth to cover her smile as she looked at the phone in her hand. "It's not that bad honey."

Erik said nothing, he just stared at his sister like she had lost her mind.

"You make a very attractive clown," Chuck smirked and Erik glared at his siblings until they couldn't hold in their laughs.

Summer and her friends had waited until Erik was fast asleep before busting out the make-up set Summer received for her birthday. As far as Serena could tell they were trying to contour his face, his cheeks were so pink Serena thought they might have just drawn and smudged lipstick on his skin. His lips were a mixture of red and black and both his eyes had different colours on them, with roughly drawn and some of the most dramatic wings Serena had ever seen. But they didn't stop there, Erik had lipstick drawings down both his arms and on his chest where his sleep shirt wasn't covering.

"Oh E, it's all gone now," Serena said reaching out to touch his clean face as he tried to avoid her touch.

"I don't know how Blair did it," Chuck said shaking his head.

"A scrubbing brush," Erik huffed and both Serena and Chuck had to press their lips together to stop themselves from laughing.

"Where is Blair?" Serena asked noticing her friend's absence.

"She decided that she couldn't let Nate be in charge of all those kids by himself," Chuck said and Serena rolled her eyes. It was weird at first to see Nate and Blair be so platonic considering where they were when she left but when she looks at them now it's like they're siblings.

"Well, at least I know those kids will be taken care of," Serena said sighing with relief and Erik rolled his eyes.

"I hope they fall of their horses," he grumbled and Serena punched his arm.

"Erik van der Woodsen, that is enough from you," Serena scolded.

"You might want to reconsider sending him with them to the airport tomorrow," Chuck mentioned and then asked Erik something about his degree and school, distracting him from his annoyance and let Serena check out of the conversation and think about other things.

She would actually like to have left Grandfathers estate when Summer's friends did, but Anne Archibald insisted on keeping her granddaughter and son for one night without any other family or friends around and Nate had managed to convince her to stay there with them... It's too bad she could convince Chuck and Blair to stay one more night for the sake of her sanity.

Even though his family looked as though they were accepting her back into their lives, Serena wasn't sure what alone time with them would bring. Then again, she had Nate and Summer with her and they would keep her sane, they always did, her little family.

"Why don't you and Blair take the devils," Erik grumbled looking pointedly at Chuck who shrugged.

"We are heading in the opposite direction, and you, Mr. van der Woodsen are flying back to collage," he said with a smirk.

"Plus you volunteered," Serena offered and Erik almost growled. "You'll get over it," she said pulling him to her and hugging him tight.

Summer promised to massage Erik's head anytime he wanted it for the rest of his life and gave him her best puppy dog eyes and he forgave her in a heartbeat, Serena and Chuck stood there shaking their heads and wondering how to toughen Erik up when it came to Summer, he complained about her so much but all she had to do was look at him sadly and he would give her anything she wanted. Come to think of it, Nate was exactly the same, Serena sighed, between the two of them Summer would literally be able to get away with anything.

"What are you thinking?" Nate asked as Serena collapsed on the bed next to him and snuggled close to him.

"I'm thinking that I'm so happy she only has one of these a year," Serena mumbled tiredly and Nate chuckled, running his fingers through her hair gently. "And I'm so happy that Blair decided to stay over tonight."

"We could have survived without her," Nate said rolling his eyes and Serena picked her head up to give him a look. "You could have handled those girls by yourself."

"You are delusional," Serena laughed, kissing his chest, in all of Summer's other sleepovers with her friends she had her Grams and those girls were terrified of defying the old lady, the same way they were terrified of defying Blair. "But I love you for thinking that."

"Are you ok?" Nate asked after a quiet moment, and Serena made a noise, tilting her head to rest her chin on his chest.

"I'm fine, just thinking," she said biting on her lip and Nate bobbed his head to gesture to her to continue. "The townhouse is basically done right?"

"It's just the guest bedroom's that need work now," he said after thinking about it for a moment. "I've been living there for the past 3 weeks, I'd hope it was done," he chuckled.

"Ok, cause I was thinking that maybe Summer and I can move in there ... permanently," Serena said biting her lip as she waited for his answer, it had been a while since he asked her to move in the first time, and every time she came over to help him decorate he and Summer would look at her like it would be perfect but there was something stopping her, something that was missing when she thought about it now. "Say something," she whispered, pushing herself of his chest, when he didn't speak.

"Are you serious?" he asked a smile threatening to break out on his face.

"As serious as can be," she said shrugging and waiting for it to sink in. "Ahh," Serena squealed when Nate grabbed her and flipped them over, kissing her.

"You have no idea how happy this makes me," he said brushing their noses together.

"I know, Natie, I know."

A/N : So this story is basically at it's end, its about time NS move in together right lol I am so sorry I haven't updated in so many months, but I have begun my new job and its a little daunting and exciting and there's so much to learn that I feel like I'm in school again with all the studying lol and then there's my assignments that I have to complete to hopefully, finally be done with my degree

Anyway the point is, I apologize for the long waits between chapters, I have written out 2 more chapters to bring this story to 25 chapters and it's end but I am a little worried about how you guys are going to react to those chapters. It sort of sets up for a sequel if I decide to write one so hopefully I get the inspiration because I am horrible with sequels

I do have a question, would you like to see a sequel to this story or a series of one-shots like i attempted with Misguided ghosts? I realize that wasn't the story to write a one shot series on and that this story has alot more to tell from before they came back to New York to what their future brings but I will ask again after I've posted the final chapter

So since i'm done, i will be editing in my free time and hopefully i'll have the chapters out to you by next week :D my cousin is getting married this weekend so maybe not both chapters but definitely one lol

Please please review and let me know what you think

Until next time (^^,)