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Chapter Ten: Burning Bridges, Breaking Hearts

(Disclaimer: I own none of the characters except Eliot)

Serena woke from a sleep she had never been meant to have.

It was dark. Waves everywhere. She couldn't see a thing.

But Dan still lay next to her. She searched for his pulse and found it, but it was weak, too weak, and when she shook him, he didn't respond.

She wanted to cry, to scream at the dark, but she didn't because she believed that once it was morning again, once sun warmed their shoulders and illuminated the ocean, she could steer the armchair around, get them back to the island, and she would patch up Dan's leg and everything would be alright.

With this single spark of hope in her heart, she held Dan's hand, and waited for dawn.

The fire died soon enough.

There were still patches of jungle burning, but Chuck had managed to stifle most of the fire with sand, and now only the poisonous smoke remained.

Ignoring the pulsing pain in his leg, at first given chance, Chuck had run back to the camp and fetched a backpack full of medical supplies, remaining fresh water and some food, then he'd come back and fixed up Blair as best he could.

He had never seen her in such a state before – usually she was energy incarnated, scheming and planning and caring, all the things that she did best, and now only a ghost of her past self remained. She drank and ate and didn't complain when Chuck poured disinfectant over her wounds, but she did little else either.

Most of the time, she had her eyes closed, but sometimes, she'd open them so that they mirrored the sky that she looked up into. She didn't look at him. Or talk to him. If he hadn't known any better, he'd say that she was still angry with him, despite that he had saved her life. But he did know better, and he knew that she was going through something of her own, and that she had to go through it alone, because sometimes, that was the only way.

So he remained patient and took care of the fire and took care of practically everything and he realized that in himself, he saw glimpses of a person that he had the possibility to be. A person he could be proud of. Maybe even a person his father would have been proud of.

It was just stupid that it had taken a plane crash, a fire and a weak Blair for him to realize this.

Night came surprisingly quickly, and it was a small mercy – combined with the fire, the heat of the sun had been nearly unendurable, and now they were cast in shade and cool winds blew the smoke away and they could breathe fresh air again.

He covered Blair with a blanket so that she wouldn't freeze and lay down on the softest patch of sand he could find.

He was about to fall asleep, when suddenly there was a sharp sound in the air, like a gunshot.

Blair inhaled sharply and sat up. Chuck immediately rushed to her and tried to calm her down. "It was probably just some animal, Blair, OK? Calm down. I'll go look. But it's nothing, I promise."

For a moment, her gaze wavered, then she looked at him, and nodded. "OK," she said faintly.

He would have smiled there and then – it was the first word he had gotten out of her for who knew how long.

He himself felt shaken by the sudden sound, and though he was afraid of what it could have been, he was determined to prove to Blair that it was nothing serious – a wound can never heal if you constantly open it and in Blair's case she had to recover first before she could deal with stuff like this.

"I'll go look." He grabbed the thickest branch he could find and lit one end of it on a patch of dry grass that was still burning. "You stay here. I swear it's nothing serious, but hide in the jungle just in case, OK? Take the medicine and food and water with you. I'll be right back. I'm just going to look."

And then he couldn't help himself and gave her a brief hug – if something happened to him, at least he would die with the memory of her touch fresh in his mind.

Before he disappeared into the green depths of the jungle, Blair whispered in a tiny voice: "I love you."

"I love you."

It wasn't difficult to say those words anymore, it was so easy he could have laughed. Of course he loved her. Despite all her faults and despite all his faults, he loved her and it was wonderful, to be able to tell her that.

Then, because otherwise he'd never be able to, he left urgently and hurried through the jungle with his make-shift torch illuminating his path.

He felt completed. And happy, probably for the first time in his life.

But then he had to focus on finding the source of the sound and all his senses were preoccupied and he decided to think about Blair later.

It became clear quickly enough that there was nothing to be found. He saw animals, but no dangerous ones, no animals that could create the sound he had heard. The night was surprisingly still as well. He wondered if maybe one of the others – Dan, Serena, Nate or the pilot had maybe broken something. That was actually not impossible.

After about half an hour of blundering aimlessly through the jungle, he gave up and decided to head back and reassure Blair that it had been nothing.

He was about turn around when another sound made him freeze.

It wasn't a gunshot-like sound this time. Instead, it was a voice. The voice didn't seem familiar, which was strange, because he thought he and his friends were the only ones on the island, but then he remembered the pilot. Although, how could it be her? The last time he had seen her, she had been unconcious and severely injured. So what she was doing, walking through the jungle like that, chatting cheerily?

Then he heard another voice. It was Nate's.

Chuck breathed out in relief and hurried towards his friend and the pilot.

He jumped over murky logs and small streams in his eagerness, forgetting his bad leg completely, and suddenly ran out into the open. Or at first it just seemed like the open – then he saw that it was a clearing and he was surrounded by the jungle on all sides.

At first, as he saw Nate, he was jubilant.

Then he saw the pilot. And her gun.

He frowned, wondering what the hell was going on here. And what is her name, he asked himself, Elena... Elinor, and then he remembered it – Eliot.

Eliot was not like he remembered her. For one, she wasn't injured anymore, however that could have happened. And she was smiling, which was very unsettling, considering the fact that she was holding a gun.

The sight of him made her laugh for some reason.

"It seems as though it is my lucky day today. I mean, not only Nate Archibald but also Chuck Bass. It's like killing two birds with one stone. And you Chuck, you came to me. Oh, the irony."

Chuck wondered what she was rambling about. She seemed pretty crazy, as well. He wondered if it was possible, with a little help from Nate of course, to somehow overpower her and take her gun.

It was as if Eliot read his mind. Her smile evaporated and she directed the gun at him. "If you're thinking you can overpower me, think again. I'm not alone here. And we can spare many lives if we cooperate. Now, follow me."

Chuck exchanged glances with Nate. Nate nodded.

Then – because she was afterall training a gun at them, they followed Eliot out of the clearing into the lush, dark jungle, clinging to the hope that they would come out of all of this alive.

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Music: Burning Bridges, Breaking Hearts by Arcade Fire

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