Fresh Start
Thanks for those who reviewed! As usual I do not own Gossip Girl and its characters.
Chapter 2
Early Morning the day of the Meeting
5:00 AM
Blair woke up earlier than she usually does. She tried to go back to sleep but it is impossible knowing that her husband will be facing the Board's inquiry about Bart Bass' death. Carefully extracting herself from Chuck's arms that was on her waist. She decided to pick their outfit for the meeting. Walking to their massive walk in closet she perused Chuck's closet first. She picked a dove gray Armani suit and a pink and white striped Paul Smith tie. Next, she picked her own outfit of pink and gray printed Carolina Herrera long sleeved button down chiffon top and a gray pencil skirt from her own collection B by Waldorf. She finished her outfit with a black basic Jimmy Choo pumps and gray tights.
She called room service as soon as she finished laying out their outfits. Chuck's favorite blueberry pancakes, bacon and eggs benedict were ordered as well as coffee and orange juice. Blair will have to make sure that her husband will feel good before facing the Board. She went to the bedroom and kissed her husband's lips.
"Chuck time to wake up." She whispered on his ear.
"Mmmmm, Blair what time did you woke up? " Chuck asked, still with his eyes closed.
"Not long ago, my love." She replied.
Let's take a shower?" Blair inquired.
"Do you even have to ask baby?" Chuck smarmed.
Blair giggled while Chuck picked her up and carried her to the shower. "Chuck we have no time!" Blair shrieked like a schoolgirl.
"Yes we do!" Chuck retorted.
8:00AM
Chuck and Blair were waiting for the Board to be complete before they proceed to the boardroom. On the way to Bass Industries, while on the limo Chuck wasted no time and finalized his strategy on how to present to the Board the whole Bart debacle.
"Blair I should probably outline my presentation so that I can properly tackle every questions they throw at me. " He asked his wife.
" Lucky for you I have thought a few scenarios on how to better make them understand the events regarding Bart's death without needing a lot of explanation so I think the best way to present it to them is creating a timeline of events or a bullet type presentation. " Blair answered.
"Do we still have time for that?" Chuck asked.
"You forgot who you're talking to, dearest husband." Blair scoffed. "Did you forget that I am not just the Queen B, I'm also the reigning queen of multi-tasking or have you seen how many clipboards I own?" Blair was talking really fast now, and Chuck knows that aside from scheming and plotting, Blair is definitely a great planner and he has no doubt that she already have done something to outline the presentation.
Like a good Queen, Blair will do anything to protect her King. So when they were in their honeymoon, while her King slept or was pre-occupied with something, she already run a lot of scenarios on her head on how to help Chuck convince the Board to erase their doubts on Chuck's innocence. The private investigators were dispatched to gather more evidence before she even suggested it to Chuck, that's why she is confident that they can pull this off. More than anything else she wants to relieve Chuck of any burden of guilt about his father's death. She was just lucky that Chuck agreed to tell the truth to the board because her plan fell into place. Telling the board the truth, will eventually make Chuck see that he is the victim in all the events that happened not the criminal that the press is insinuating every time they report about Bart Bass and Chuck.
When Chuck saw the videotape the PI sent early in the morning, he's mood changed dramatically so Blair is confident that he will convince the Board of his innocence and he will not be ousted as head of his company.
9:30 AM
At exactly 9:30AM, the doors of the Bass Industries Main Boardroom opened. Charles Bartholomew Bass hand in hand with his wife Blair Cornelia Waldorf- Bass entered amidst the twitter of noise inside the room,when the people inside saw the couple entering the door, silence ensued.
"Charles, Blair I'm so happy to see you." Lily greeted them.
"Likewise Lily, we are so pleased that amidst the rumors and scandals surrounding Bart's death against me, you chose to believe me this time". Chuck said to his mother.
Blair settled on Chuck's right side, while Lily took the left. Chuck began to instruct his secretary that he is ready to start his presentation. Taking the center of the room he addressed the shareholders and Board members.
"Good morning everyone, we all know why and how we are gathered here today". Chuck said, opening his presentation.
"I am not here to plead for you to believe my innocence but to present the facts why it has all came to this".
"Why Bart turned up dead and why I was with him on the rooftop on that night". Chuck elaborated, looking each and everyone's eye showing sincerity.
"As we all know, we thought my father died years ago in a car crash which left me devastated and overwhelmed. Losing your only parent suddenly and being trusted with a multi-billion dollar company while you are still a teenager." Chuck sighed at the recollection of the night that he thought his father died.
Everyone in the room, held their breath with every word he uttered, they were all frozen to their seats grasping every word Chuck said, knowing that the next words were very important to everyone in the company.
"I found out he was alive and I was really happy that we could repair our relationship but at the night that I organized in his honor, he removed me and his brother Jack from Bass Industries."
"After I helped him get out from his mess, he threw me and Jack to the curb." Chuck's voice starting to show anger but he immediately controlled it.
"After that, we looked for a way how to discredit him and we found sufficient evidence of Bart's true reason why he was blackmailed and why he chose to fake his own death." Chuck said, while looking at Blair, Lily and the Bass lawyers that were also present. Chuck signaled the secretary to open the file, "Bart Bass had been involved in an illegal oil trade." Everyone in the room was shocked.
I already informed the lawyers before about this information and we have been reviewing BI's deals and business transactions that corresponded to Bart's business deals.
Pete Holmberg, one of the Board members said, "If the government finds out about this, our company is in really big trouble, Charles."
"I know that, Bart knows that, he covered his tracks well and we found out that his illegal business dealings were his very own and did not involve any financial backing from our company." He has a bank account in the Cayman Islands and that's where the money from the illegal trade goes because if he involves Bass Industries, he knows that the government will find out. "Chuck showed them the information on the screen of the big monitor on the wall.
"So far the only connection we have is the use of the company cars in Dubai and the Bass Yacht which doesn't really directly involved Bass Industries. Chuck added.
"Bart knows that I have been investigating his backdoor deals and that I may have seen evidence to incriminate him". I have talked to people that may have knowledge about the deals or put Bart in the place where the transactions took place. Some of them even suspiciously had an accident or suddenly went under the radar." Chuck sighed.
"When he thought that I was gaining a lot of ammunition against him enough to overthrow him in BI, he threatened Blair's life by hi-jacking her limo and telling me that he can easily make it look like an accident and I don't want to take the risk. He gave me an option" Chuck posed for effect. It's either I go to exile in Russia or he makes good with his threat to harm my wife". Chuck looked at his wife and Blair looked at him with tears in her eyes recalling their brief goodbye. "So I boarded the Bass Jet, accepting the fact that I will be alone on the other side of the world," he inhaled deeply as he continued to narrate the next thing that happened.
"Captain Michael Wallace her have been a good person and he cannot go through with Bart's orders of crashing the Bass Jet and leaving me to die, so he informed me before I boarded the plane and we made a plan to make Bart believe that we crashed. I called in a few favors to our friends in the media and they run the story in the news about the jet crashing. We flew to a private airfield somewhere in New Jersey and lay low for a while. On the night that Bart will be awarded as the Man of the Year for real estate, I came back as you all witnessed. He threw me out of the party. I went to the roof and somehow he followed me, turned off the surveillance cameras and he attempted to push me to my death." Chuck shivered with dread as he remembered that moment he thought that he's going to die. And you know what really made me believe that he has no conscience and no regard to me, his son is that he said that my death will not be a surprise to everyone and it will be expected that I will jump to my death. He made it clear that he owns the police force and no investigation will be done because he will say that I killed my self. Chuck paused for a while, looked up as he tried to stop the tears that was about to fall. Blair came to his side and squeezed his hand. "Blair found me struggling to fight Bart off; somehow I pushed him hard enough that he lost his balance, fell off the ledge and held for his life. He was trying to reach my hand but I did not know what to do, my heart is trying to say to reach for him but somehow my brain and body was still in shock and I just stood there like I was frozen like a statue with Blair by my side." Chuck released his breath that he did not know he was holding. He felt his burden on his shoulders lighten up.
The Board members where chattering and one elderly gentleman named Maxwell Jones raised his hand and cleared his throat. "Mr. Bass, I am sorry to say this but although I know that you were convincing, how could we make the press believe your side"? Maxwell cautiously prodded. The chatter became louder, when suddenly Blair stood up and addressed everyone.
"We anticipated that so, we asked our neighboring buildings if they have cameras that might have showed or caught something during that night". Luckily for us one of the executives working in the building was having a smoke on the rooftop facing the building where Bart and Chuck were. He knows Chuck and he thought of videotaping the scene when Bart and Chuck started the fistfight with the intention of sending the tip to the press but he became afraid after he saw Bart fell". When our PI's started to ask around he came forward because he said and quote "I can't sleep knowing that Mr. Charles Bass is taking a lot of beating in the media even if he didn't kill his father but I was too afraid to come forward as I don't want to get involved". "He sent us the footage and here it is, the evidence that Charles did not murder his father he was merely defending himself".
As the video footage finished, the Board decided that the best approach would be to release the footage to the press and Bass Industries will issue a statement of support to Charles Bass and reinstating him as the CEO of Bass Industries as well as Jack Bass as Head of Bass Industries in the South Pacific.
AN: I saw an off cam video of the shooting of Bart and Chuck's scene on the rooftop on YouTube that was filmed by a fan who filmed it while he was on a nearby building that's why I had this idea on my head. Anyway I will try to update if I can get a new idea on what will happen next on this fic.