Title: Lullaby
Pairing: Chuck/Blair; futurefic
Summary: "I'm Charles Bass and I need to report a missing child…my daughter."
Disclaimer: I don't own Gossip Girl.
A/N: Hehe, okay, so this was definitely unexpected. At first, I didn't know when I was going to update, but then last weekend, I suddenly felt this urge to write this chapter. Hopefully you guys enjoy it and a very big thank you to everyone who left reviews! :) Thanks to Nat!

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly,
Lavender's green
when you are King, dilly dilly,
I shall be Queen

"She won't come down," Serena states as she enters the room full of men, holding onto Seb's hand tightly. "Oh hello. I'm Serena Humphrey."

"Inspector DeGraw and this is Officer Holden," DeGraw introduces. He offers her his seat, but she declines politely, instead choosing to sit on the armrest, next to her husband. She throws a glance towards her stepbrother and finds him staring into the unknown, his chocolate eyes shadowed with darkness. It scares her that he's scared because he's meant to be the one with no knowledge of the word 'fear'. Seb lets go of her hands and walks over to his father, climbing into his lap with a tired face.

"Daddy," he says softly to his father, "where's Belle?" and despite his efforts for only his father to hear, the room grows silent and Seb looks up at his mother with his bright blue eyes, confused as to what he had said wrong.

Serena bites her lip and Dan cringes. Chuck falls out of his blank state and comes crashing back to reality, facing Seb with blood shot eyes.

"She's gone," Chuck mutters to the little boy as he stands up from his seat and walks away, disappearing onto the balcony.

"Seb, honey," Serena says softly, giving her son a tiny smile, "how about you and daddy go to the kitchen and I'll make you a sandwich?"

Seb nods his head and Dan follows cue, taking Seb into his arms and carrying him out of the room, after giving his wife a concerned smile.

"Listen Inspector, my brother and Blair ... they need to be alone right now. It's just their way. If there's any questions or anything you need done, I'm probably your next best option," Serena says, sighing softly as she looks down at her fumbling fingers.

"Thank you, Mrs Humphrey. Your generosity is appreciated. Currently we do have men at the scene of the crime, and an AMBER alert has been released to all police radios alerting them of Belle's disappearance. It would help if you provided us with a photograph at least of Blair, so that we may send out pictures to the media -"

"My daughter will not be the centre of a media circus."

Serena, DeGraw and Holden turn their heads toward the entrance of the living room and find a composed looking Blair Waldorf Bass, showing none of the emotions she released earlier. She moves towards Serena who shifts to the side in order for Blair to sit down and repeats again in a defiant tone, "My daughter will not be the media's newest exploit."

"Mrs Bass, to be honest, I highly recommend against that," DeGraw starts and despite the glaring from Serena, he continues on, "the media are one of the principle outlets that we use to help find missing children. A large majority of our cases are solved with the media's help."

"I don't want my daughter's face to be released. As far as I'm concerned, this matter is private. She doesn't need to be remembered as 'the girl who was taken'," Blair says firmly, looking DeGraw straight in the eye with a stare that Bart Bass would be proud of. Serena takes Blair's hand into her own and utters, "B listen, I know you're scared, but you should really listen to the Inspector."

"No Serena! Belle is coming back! She'll be back. She'll be back before tonight. You'll see," Blair says hysterically. "She doesn't need the media. She'll be back!"

Serena wraps her arms around Blair and can feel her sob softly against her chest. She realises that Blair's gone into her state of denial and for once, she hopes Blair's right. If Seb had been taken, Serena doesn't know what she would do. She laughs mentally when she figures out that she'd be in the same condition as Blair and she holds onto her friend tighter, hoping to comfort her to the best of her ability.

No one hears the glass door slide open during Blair's rant and when Chuck enters into the room, he's taken back to see his wife in his sister's arms. He tries to keep his presence unknown as he and the officers watch Serena console Blair, but it doesn't take long for Holden to turn his head and give Chuck a harsh look. He coughs 'indiscreetly' and Chuck almost kills the sorry bastard when suddenly he finds himself staring into a pair of broken eyes, reminiscent of his own.

They don't say a thing to each other. They just stare. And through their eyes, they reveal everything that they're feeling, everything that they're scared to admit. He knows that she's scared and she knows that he's hurting. They can't deny the fact that they believe that they're both at fault, but their stupid egos refuse to let them express it. He makes the first move and steps towards her, but she stiffens and breaks eye contact with him, directing her attention towards DeGraw. Chuck takes this as a hint. It's no surprise that Blair would act this way. In fact, if she hadn't, he would've thought that something was wrong with her. It just upsets him that after all their years spent together, she still manages to break him with a single stare. He moves towards the wall and Serena gives him a concerned look that he brushes off immediately. He doesn't need pity; he just needs his daughter back.

"Mrs Bass," DeGraw interjects, breaking the silence. "I do have to urge you to reconsider your decision. A picture in the media will increase our chances of finding your daughter."

DeGraw's words shock Chuck and he stands up straighter, looking at the man like he would an insect. "Wait, what are you talking about?" Chuck says confused, but seemingly knowing where this conversation is leading. Everyone in the room, except for Holden looks away from Chuck and he repeats again, "What is going on?"

"Mr Bass, your wife is refusing to release any photos of Belle to the media," Holden states, and even though he knows that he's pitting the Bass' against one another, it's for the best.

Chuck understands completely and stares at his wife, not understanding what's going on in her head. Despite her animosity towards him, he talks to her, saying, almost begging, "Blair, they need the photos."

Blair seems oblivious to his words and ignores him, which merely annoys him more. He knows she's aching, he knows she thinks its his fault, but right now, he couldn't care less. He's doing everything that he can to find their daughter and she's merely acting like a selfish queen.

"Blair, they need the photos," he says again, a harsher tone present in his voice that goes noticed by Serena and the other men.

Blair turns her head slowly towards her husband, fury and anger highlighted in her dark eyes and says firmly, "No, Charles."

He can't take this anymore. Mother may know best, but in this case, father's doing what's right. Chuck walks towards DeGraw without so much as a backward glance to Blair and pulls his wallet out of his pocket. He flips it open and pauses when his gaze drops upon a photo of his angel staring back at him with Blair's eyes. The resemblence between his daughter and her mother is overwhelming and for a moment, he's tempted to just forget about the photo and follow Blair's instruction. But no. He can't, he won't. This is about his daughter and trying to get her back into his arms. For once, he's going to do things right.

He slips the photo out of his wallet and hands it to DeGraw, ignoring Blair's piercing glare and Serena's short intake of breath.

"Will this do?" he says, and DeGraw nods his head approvingly. Chuck nods too and knows that he's stepped across Blair's tolerance line, but he's prepared. He turns around and their eyes meet, and the first thing that crosses his mind is that this is the last thing he needs right now, especially from her.

"Blair, I had to. It's the only way he way do his job," Chuck says, trying to convey his point with calm eyes. Blair stands up from her seat and tramps towards him, a death sentence written in her cold expression.

"You mean unlike how you did yours," she throws at him harshly before walking out of the room, a heavy tension remaining in the room. If Chuck was hurting before, he's dying now. Her words slice through him and the guilt that he's feeling would easily send any innocent man to the pits of hell.

He drops into Blair's empty seat next to Serena and once again, drops his head into his hand. It scares him that all it took was three hours for his family and marriage to crumble. It scares him that he doesn't know where his daughter is or what's happening to her. He gulps back tears when he thinks of what her kidnappers could be doing to her, and he clenches his fists, determined to find the sorry bastards and kill them … and what scares him the most, is that he'll have no hesitation to do so.

DeGraw examines the picture of Belle Bass in his hands and can easily see her resemblance to her parents with her mother's sparkling amber eyes and her father's impish smirk. He smiles at the little girl as she does to him in her pink tutu and immediately wishes – hopes – that they find her soon. As he tears his gaze away from the photo, he suddenly realises that there are more photos of the once happy Bass family hanging around the room. Nothing but genuine smiles crowd around him, but remembering Chuck and Blair's breakdown, he begins to realise that life isn't perfect for the Upper East Side royalty.

Who told you so, dilly dilly,
Who told you so?
'Twas my own heart, dilly dilly,
That told me so