Chapter 1 of The Butterfly Effect

Author: Isabelle

Rating: PG-13

Summary: AU. At age 36, Chuck Bass dies. His daughter, unable to stand the pain and her mother's tears, hires a mad scientist to send her back in time to prevent her father's death. She arrives at present day, Chuck/Blair's senior year, and attempts to get her parents together before the disaster can occur in the future. Has nothing to do with the film other than the title.

Disclaimer: I don't own Gossip Girl, Back to the Future, The Butterfly Effect, the Time Machine or anything else you can relate to this. The only character that is mine is Kitty, CB's daughter.

A/N: I have honestly no clue as to how this idea came about. It's a bit mystical, completely AU, and out of the realm of possibility, but that's the writing I enjoy. I hope you all enjoy it, too!!

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"Because I could not stop for Death --
He kindly stopped for me –"
Emily Dickinson

Chuck Bass promised his Blair Waldorf nine things. Nine things he promised her. In the end, he failed at one.

She was sitting on the steps of the MET, avoiding his eyes for as long as she could. He finally gave up and stepped into his limo. She sighed, because now she could breathe.

"Ian left," Heloise said next to her.

She nodded. "Thanks."

"You can't avoid him forever." Heloise bit into her watermelon ball. Kitty gave her a sideways glance and sighed.

"I know," Kitty said. "It's just that… I can't… I don't know how to answer him."

Heloise nodded. This was why she loved her cousin; she didn't have to pretend with Heloise. Heloise loved Kitty's father as much as Kitty did; Chuck Bass was, after all, Heloise's godfather, just like Eric was her own godfather. The girls huddled together, shivering slightly against the cold.

"Are you heading there after school?" Heloise asked her.

Kitty nodded, checking her cell phone once more. Her mother hadn't called her, so she suspected everything was the same as it had been that morning.

"Yeah." Kitty said absently, studying the student population. Many were looking, many more speculating. Everyone knew about her father, and it burned her stomach that she was getting their pity.

Katerina Bass was not one to receive pity well. It was in her blood. She always walked with her head high – from the time she was very little. Pity from people was exhausting to deal with, and it burned her, making her feel angry and completely helpless.

"Want to get out early?" Heloise asked her, running her hand over her long blonde hair.

Kitty's dark eyes blinked at her, and she nodded. "Yeah."

The girls held hands as they walked to the curb and hailed a cab. The stares were threatening to engulf her completely. She held on tighter to her cousin's hand, and Heloise didn't protest. Not once.

When they made it to the hospital, she let Heloise lead her through the corridors until they found the private sector. She felt slightly relieved that her aunt was there – Serena always had a calming effect on everyone around her. Next to her was her very loving godfather, Eric. Eric smiled at them, but Serena looked concerned.

"Aren't you two supposed to be in school?" She asked, accepting a kiss from her daughter, Heloise.

"Serena, please," Eric chided her and embraced Kitty, kissing the top of her head.

"Any change?" Heloise voiced Kitty's own thoughts, and Serena slowly shook her head.

"We're expecting the results for the CTX scan any minute," Eric told them.

"Mom?" Kitty asked, removing her coat and scarf.

Serena's lips thinned, and she pointed to the room. Kitty nodded and walked to the door. She looked in the room and swallowed, her jaw twitching. She took a deep breath, bag still in hand and walked in.

Her father was now on life support, and she could barely glance at the man. Her father had always been larger than life for her and seeing him like this destroyed her.

She studied her mother, and her heart clenched in her chest. She had never seen her mother look so lost and frail, so thin and alone. Like she was standing in the middle of a snowstorm with only a thin shirt on. Like the world was caving in around her.

Blair Waldorf had always been an imposing figure in her life. While her father was always doting on and spoiling Kitty, Blair taught her how to be a society woman. How to dress, how to act, how to plot – how to become the woman Kitty now was.

Blair sat next to her husband's bed, holding his hand and just looking at him.

"Mom?" Kitty said quietly, walking closer.

Blair raised her head and looked her over. "Hello, darling."

Kitty walked closer and pressed her lips against her mother's forehead.

"I love you," Kitty said quietly.

Blair gave her a strained smile. "I love you, too, baby."

Kitty took a deep breath, pulled a seat next to her mother and stared at her father. All the memories that she held of her father were of an unsinkable man. A man who knew what he wanted, who knew what to do, how to act, how to behave, a man that – though wild and untamed – was also poised and intimidating. A man that provided for his women without failing. Ever.

Her father was also everything to Kitty. Whatever Kitty wanted, Kitty got.

They were a small family, but they were as close as could be. Losing her father would mean a broken artery to their frail little family. Her father couldn't leave his girls behind. He just couldn't.

But here he was, in a hospital bed at barely over 35, dying. Kitty wiped the tear that escaped her eye angrily. Basses didn't cry.

"He's going to be fine, baby," Blair told her daughter, but Kitty felt the lie in her voice and closed her eyes.

"I know, mom." And now they were both lying to keep their hearts from breaking.

Kitty pulled a book from her purse and began reading out loud – just to pass the time and prevent the heart monitor from being the only conversation in the room. When she got tired, she began pacing while her mother sat, poised.

She wished she could have her mother's stillness. She was impatient like her father; always pacing when something bothered her. It was an hour later that the doctor finally came with the results of the CTX scan.

The CTX scan was an advanced version of the CT scan – it was 100 accurate and left no room for questioning. Apparently the CTX was the new voice of God.

The man sat down next to Blair as Kitty loomed over him. His words were distant and dreamlike.

"…. Bleeding in the brain… most likely caused by a concussion years before, and the recent fall just 'activated' it, if you will…"

Kitty just looked at her father as her mother asked some quiet questions.

"… He was eighteen. He was in a bad car accident, and there was brain trauma, but he recovered…"

"Yes, I believe this is where the fracture initiated." The doctor nodded. Kitty desperately wanted to punch him.

Blair was still composed, silent, and still holding her father's hand.

"What can we do?" Blair asked the question, and Kitty felt her heart stop.

The doctor looked down, and that's when Kitty knew.

"Unfortunately… there's nothing we can do, Mrs. Bass. I think you should say goodbye before he leaves us."

Kitty watched the doctor leave to inform the rest of the family of Chuck's condition and then turned to her mother. Blair's back was rod-straight and her face was stony. Kitty felt this horrible huge lump in her throat that prevented her from breathing.

"Mom?" Kitty asked, sitting next to her, and Blair finally looked at her. Her eyes were wide and red.

"Hey, baby," Blair said, and Kitty saw her throat move.

Kitty's lip trembled, and she pressed the palm of her hand over her eyes. "I don't want Daddy to leave," she admitted.

That's when she felt her mother's arms around her, pulling her in.

Two hours later, Chuck Bass died.

Chuck Bass promised his Blair nine things. One of them was that he would never leave her. He didn't count on this.

She left Serena holding a crying Blair as she stepped out to face her uncle. Eric's eyes were red and puffy, but she couldn't look at him, she couldn't be here. It smelled like alcohol. It smelled like death.

"I need some air," she told Eric and Heloise. She dimly noticed that Nate, her uncle Dan, and others were there.

"Kitty!" She heard Heloise cry after her, but she quickened her steps. She couldn't breathe. She reached the exit doors, and her breath caught at her throat when she saw Ian standing there, lounging before his limo, his dark eyes boring into her.

That's when she broke. She felt her knees give out under her, and then she felt his arms around her, pulling her up and onto him. She felt like she was floating, and that's when she realized her was carrying her, cradling her, and putting in her his limo.

She clung to him like he was her salvation. She heard him whisper things to her, but all she knew was that she was broken. She dimly realized they had made it to his place.

Ian Winters lived in the penthouse of one of the tallest buildings in New York. His father, a real estate tycoon, left his son to his own devices, and his mother spent her days drugged up between L.A. and London when she wasn't working on her newest film.

The elevator ride took some minutes, but he never let go of her. They entered the home she knew so well. No maids, just them.

He led her to his room, sat her on the bed, and took off her shoes. She watched his dark head, bent over and calm.

When he looked up at her, she pulled on the lapels of his jacket and kissed him.

"Help me forget," she whispered to him, and he didn't protest.

When she woke, there was a glass of water next to her, and she reached for it gratefully. He walked out of the bathroom wearing jeans and nothing else. The jeans hung low on his hips and it showed off his slim but built soccer-body.

"You're awake," he stated.

She nodded and drank her water, pulling the sheets to cover her bare chest. He adverted his eyes. He sat next to her, grabbing her glass once she was done. She sighed and sat back on the pillows, staring at him. His light brown hair fell slightly over his eyes and his hazel eyes were small and questioning. She reached out to comb his hair back, and he leaned into to her touch.

So she'd slept with him. Again.

She was so dammed. She couldn't fall for Ian. He was her friend, her life-long plotting partner, her constant companion. She was just weak and vulnerable. William and she had broken up after three years of dating, and she had jumped right into Ian Winters' bed. A week after her breakup.

"You can stay here as long as you like," he told her, grabbing her hand and slowly playing with her fingers.

She wished she could hide. She really wished she could.

"I ordered breakfast from downstairs," he continued, and she closed her eyes because she knew he was falling for her. Falling fast.

"I'm not hungry," she stated and looked around the room, trying to spot her clothes.

That's when she saw it. The morning paper.

Billionaire Chuck Bass dies, age 36, after a fatal fall.

Ian's eyes traveled to where hers were glued, and he hissed, quickly standing and grabbing the paper.

"Sorry," he mumbled. "I didn't notice…"

"Let me see it," she told him in her best Katerina Bass voice. She saw his jaw twitch, but she didn't back down.

They eye-struggled for a minute and he finally gave in, throwing the paper on the bed.

Kitty stared down at her father's face on the paper. It had been taken some years ago when the Basses threw a no-expense-spared charity event. He was smiling, as much as her father smiled in public. He reserved his real smiles for her and her mother. And sometimes the extended family. Sometimes.

She touched the black-and-white photo and sighed. She read the article, stoically, scanning over her own name – as she was his only child and only surviving heir.

The paper named her 'Kitty Billionaire'. Another sad story. She closed her eyes, knowing Ian was studying her.

"Hand it over," he said, his hand reaching out.

She did, but it was in the moment that the article right under her father's name jumped out at her.

"Wait." She grabbed it back. He sighed, allowing her to have the paper, and then turned as their food arrived.

She scanned the article. A mad scientist, or so they called him, had been banned from Smithsonian after claiming he had invented a time machine. To her rational mind, it should've been hilarious. Another crazy person claiming more crazy things. She'd seen it all in New York.

But the idealist part of her began dreaming and, in dreaming, she sprang into action. She grabbed her clothes, listening idly as Ian talked from the next room, explaining the breakfast to her. The paper was clutched in her hand as she stepped out, still rumpled but refreshed. She had hope.

"Where are you going?" His eyes were dark as he studied her.

"I have to go," she said quickly, but he stepped in front of her. She could never lie to Ian. Since she'd known him, and it had been some years since Chuck Bass and Toby Winters made their first business deal, she never could. For many years they had played as children in the park, observed by their nannies.

He grabbed the paper from her and found the article faster than she would've given him credit for. His green-tinted eyes looked up at her, and he studied her, brows furrowed.

She set her jaw, and he instantly noted it.

"Are you out of your mind?" He snapped.

"No. I'm out of a father," she growled, going around him. He grabbed her arm and forced her to look at him.

"Look," he attempted, almost tenderly. "I know you're in pain-"

"It's probably shit, but I still want to see him." She pulled herself from his grasp.

"Katerina," he was one of the few people that always used her full name. Her name on his lips set shivers down her spine.

She turned her back on him; she was going to get her father back. She was going to fix her family, she was going to fix her mom and that was that.

"Thank you for last night, Ian," she said coldly, and she saw his face fall. "But it won't be repeated."

She met his eyes fully, cold and calculating, and then turned, closing the door behind her.

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To be continued