A/N: OK I'm a horrible updater but I lost the final chapter to this story. It's more of an epilogue than an actual chapter and I'd like to apologize to everyone who I PM'd to say that the story was complete. I was reluctant to re-write this chapter as I knew I had a good version of it somewhere so I decided the story was better off ending on chapter 11 than on a re-write. But I hate reading a story which hasn't been rounded off properly therefore I found this in amongst the millions of files cluttering my documents.
So this is just a short end to a story that seems to have dragged on forever because of my dreadful updating. Please review! :)
Blair couldn't ever remember feeling this nervous as her mother's intern made the final adjustments to her wedding dress. She could see Serena reflected in the mirror with Annabelle sitting in her lap. Annabelle smiled at her and Blair smiled back nervously. What if Nate had gone? What if he'd changed his mind and didn't want to marry her after all? What if they fell out at the altar? What if when he saw Serena with her blonde halo of curls cascading down and around her perfect face he decided he'd rather marry her?
The intern stood up from pinning the final adjustments to the dress and Annabelle slid off Serena's lap. "You look pretty Mommy," she giggled sweetly hugging at her legs.
"You think so?" Blair said quizzically smoothing her perfect dress again and fiddling with the Vanderbilt ring. Annabelle nodded and smiled at her. Blair looked away from the mirror and smiled down at Annabelle and hugged her back. "And you're going to make the best flower girl."
"I know." Annabelle nodded assertively. Serena and Blair laughed and Annabelle looked at them in confusion. "I practiced!."
"We know," Blair stopped laughing and kissed Annabelle lightly but couldn't quite get the smile from her face. Annabelle had been very seriously tearing up paper anywhere they went for months to practice for her flower girl duties and their maid had spent the weeks leading up to the wedding running around the apartment with a vacuum cleaner after Annabelle.
Eleanor swept into the room in her elegant mother-of-the-bride dress. "You look lovely Serena dear, I knew you had to have that dress," Eleanor had taken charge of nearly every aspect of who was wearing what for Blair's wedding. Annabelle however had resisted the tradition of only the bride wearing white and, to Eleanor's distaste, was dressed from headband to ballet flats in white.
"You look beautiful," Eleanor said adjusting Blair's hair. Blair wasn't sure whether to smile or not as Eleanor smoothed out the dress which Blair had just smoothed moments before. Eleanor hugged her briefly; "I think we're just about ready to start." She looked at her daughter musingly.
"Annabelle darling," Blair said turning, "why don't you go see if daddy's ready to start." Annabelle took her job seriously and scurried from the room.
"I should go and check on all of the guests. You're father's late as usual," Eleanor sighed and left the room.
Blair sat next to Serena on the chaise. "Are you nervous?" Blair shrugged. "It will be perfect. I promise." Serena hugged her best friend.
"I can't really believe that it's going to happen."
"I always knew it would be you two," Serena smiled childishly. "You always end up together in the end."
"So this is really the end?" Blair sighed. "I never thought getting married would feel so final."
"Of course it's not; you've still got all the hassle of being married and probably more kids and then Annabelle will be a teenager and you'll have to go through hell," Serena joked. "Although none of her friends will ever quite live up to my reputation."
"Don't even joke about it S," Blair rolled her eyes.
"Hey there's a thought! Why don't you tell Annabelle about Gossip Girl! She could start it again and then we'd actually know who was behind it for once!"
"Serena; I'm leaving her with you for two weeks and when Nate and I get back I do not want her transformed into a miniature gossip-whore." Blair said sternly and Serena grinned cheekily.
Annabelle sat exhaustedly in Blair's lap huddled against her as the wedding dinner drew to a close. It wasn't late but Annabelle had been energetically dousing everyone is rose petals since the opening bars of the wedding march. Blair ran her fingers through her hair as she dosed sleepily. "Hey," Nate touched Blair's arm and she turned to face him, completely forgetting Annabelle. "May I have the first dance?" Blair smiled giddily.
"Of course you may," Blair grinned girlishly and turned to return Annabelle to her own seat. The perfect little flower girl was too exhausted to even whine as Blair and Nate got to their feet.
Blair could feel every pair of eyes on them as Nate led her to the centre of the dance floor. The music started up in a waltz tempo and Nate took her in his arms. Nate was an Upper East Side boy and knew his dance steps perfectly and spun her around the floor as if it was air.
Slowly more people trickled onto the dance floor and the night ticked on and soon their wedding day was nearly over. Blair let her fingers fiddle with the hair on the back of his neck; twirling it softly while fingering the collar of his dress shirt. A few feet away Annabelle had recovered some of her energy and was taking it upon herself to teach Nate's cousin Tripp's son, Nevan, how to waltz. Blair smiled at them as Annabelle tried to make him lift his head instead of looking at his feet. Nate followed her line of sight to watch the toddlers struggling to be quite as effortless as everyone else in the room.
"That's sweet," Nate smiled and Blair nodded. "I love you Blair Archibald," he whispered and she knew this was the happiest she was ever going to feel as they swayed in time to the music.
"I love you too; always have, always will." Nate smiled at her and lent in to kiss her again. Blair rested her head against his chest and he held her tighter.
A/N: I hope you've enjoyed the story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please check out my other stories and also my profile page where you can get links to the outfits for Blair, Serena and Annabelle in this chapter. Also PLEASE REVIEW! (good or bad) It's the last chapter… why not?