So, everything is pretty much the same, except I decided to give myself the freedom to make the Bass family childless (because I don't like to involve a kid in this messy thing). So here it is…

…..

Almost five years later, Serena is the one who practically forces him to pop the question. And he does. What else is a logical step after that long déjà vu they have? Four long years he tries to get over Blair Waldorf. Four long years Serena tries to prove him that they are meant to be. At times she succeeds, but then something new occupies her attention and although they are in this weird alliance, he's alone. She drags him to parties with people he doesn't know, they talk and drink and congratulate him on his books and… He knows he hates all of it. He knows he is trying to trick his mind, because being alone in these circumstances would be dangerous. He knows that breaking up with Serena would mean only one thing – being away from Blair, and although he knows it, he's afraid to admit it to himself. After all, it's good to have someone, even thought that someone made you feel miserable and lame more than once, even though that someone does not share your taste in anything and simply looks at you blankly when you start talking about a movie you like.

…

Everyone seems too exited, too happy and they can't stop asking questions about the proposal, about the wedding, Serena's wedding dress…everything. He is there, but it all seems like a dream. Not a nightmare, but yet, he kind of waits to be woken up.

…

Blair Bass runs Waldorf Design. And that's it.

If you think she has it all you might be wrong. Yes, she married her high school sweetheart and people say that the UES doesn't remember a couple that was so much in love, so young yet so successful. But of course, all of them know that when something is too good to be true (especially on the UES) won't last for too long.

She goes to work, and still is the little evil dictator of taste, except now she sets rules for the world fashion and makes money for yelling at people. Chuck is rarely at home, and when Dorota asks her when she plans to have a baby, she barks at her that she didn't get married just to reproduce. After Dorota leaves in silence, she closes the door from her office and starts crying. Nobody knows that Blair Waldorf, scratch that, Bass is trapped in a marriage that was set in the worst possible circumstances. The first year was fine, not great, not good, but fine. Neither of them speaks about Bart's death, but it flies above their heads and it's really better when they are in separate rooms, otherwise… it'll kill them to open the cards about the loveless marriage and the blood on their hands. She even had a paranoid episode and she was almost ready to go to the police. Jack tells her that if Chuck goes down, she goes down with him.

…

When Serena tells her that Dan proposed (she skips the part where she practically led him to do that) Blair looks at her with absolutely no expression on her face. When she asks her if she is happy for her, Blair says no.

"You are going to marry a stalker?" – Blair says like she is an old and annoying mother. – "Please, don't repeat the story that we were all Gossip Girl and that he ran it for just some time, because I'm gonna vomit. It's not a love letter!"

"B, how can you say that? We were all dumb kids, and it's all in the past" – Blair rolls her eyes, thinking that Serena will always be a dumb kid.

"He trashed you not only online, but in a book too. I would be pretty insulted, and for sure I would never trust him if I were you. I mean, that guy…" – She stops.

"Was in love with you…" – Serena finishes for her with a smile. – "It's in the past too, and for what I know, it was to get over me and…Blair, I forgave both of you, I mean it was a brief affair and we are all grown ups now".

Blair doesn't say a word and her cool exterior does not betray the fire and the anger that are boiling inside of her. With that the conversation is over and she starts being a hypocrite again, hugging her friend and being supportive. When she asks her to be her maid of honor she has to say yes.

…

The wedding day finally arrives. The town house is decorated with flowers, the catering is done, and Blair and Dorota arrive first to help the bride. Blair gives her best not to say another bad word about the hideous thing Serena picks to be her wedding dress.

"You're beautiful" – She hugs her.

"I feel beautiful"- Serena smiles. – "It's better like this. I mean, having a small wedding." – Blair feels that if Serena mentions that conversation again she will develop a disgusting rash or might even jump out of the window. But Serena continues. – "I mean, I have always dreamed to have a big wedding with many guests and a band" – Blair feels like slapping her when she says "a band". – "You know what, I'm fine. I'd rather say "I do" in front of my family, instead in front of strangers who would bet how long the marriage would last" – She smiles, but Blair can tell that she will end up just like Lily.

The guests are arriving and as much as Blair wants to stay with Serena, her phone goes crazy.

"I told you, not today!" – She barks at the person who speaks on the other side. – "I'm on a wedding. Yes, Serena's, my best friend's wedding. So, not today!" – She hears steps getting closer to her, but she doesn't lose her focus on the conversation. – "Why, why can't you be competent for once?" – She hisses. – "Call me in half an hour - forty-five minutes once this is over!" – She hangs up and when she turns around, Dan stands before her, in his gray suit, his hair combed back and a face that does not say that he's happy on his wedding day.

"Humphrey!" - She can try to sound harsh or official, but the way she pronounces his name will always cause them both warmth in their guts. - "I should not lecture you on your wedding day, but it's rude to over hear other people's conversations." – She forces a smile.

"You work a lot." – He simply says.

"Yes, some of us grownups do that"

"How are you?" –He asks. It's not that they aren't in touch, but put all together in the past five years, they shared like ten words. She was avoiding him as much as she could and truth to be told Serena didn't make any effort to take Dan near Blair.

"Good. Are you excited?" – She tries to make a small talk.

"Yeah..." – It's so obvious he lies she almost laughs.

"Ok then" – She steps aside. – "I'm gonna go and take my spot." – She doesn't like the way he looks at her. A groom should not look at his bride's best friend the way he looks at her. – "Fix your bow tie, by the way" – Right before she walks out of the room he says:

"Can you do that for me, I really don't know how." –She stops, raises her brow and looks at him with pity.

"I can't believe she is marrying a guy who doesn't know how to tie a bow tie. This is a disaster" – She comes closer to him on a decent distant and unties the bow tie that was pretty lamely tied. – "I can tell you did it yourself" – She doesn't dare to look up at him and she can tell he stares so intensively at her face it makes her hands shake.

"Go ahead Blair" – He says with low voice. She keeps trying to untie the knot pretending as if she didn't hear him, or even understood what he says. – "Tell me not to and I'm not gonna do it!" – He says. Now her hands are shaking visibly but she still doesn't give up on the damn knot. When she finally unties it, she keeps her hands inches away from his chest, trying to focus on what she is actually supposed to do. – "Tell me not to and I'm not gonna marry her!" – Her fingers are flying nervously in lame tries to tie the tie. – "Just say it and I'm out of here" – He repeats with low tone and she feels he's leaning.

"I…" – She clears her throat still tying lamely his bow tie. – "Don't know why should I say anything?"

"You know why!" - If she only dares to look up into his eyes…

"Since when my words are relevant?" – She sounds so terribly quiet she hates herself.

"Say it Blair. At least one of us won't be a coward"- She stops and finally looks at him.

"What?" – She asks.

"If you didn't laugh in my face five years ago bragging with that ring your finger, or even if I had enough time to understand what you were actually doing there…on our spot…or if I actually had any voice to say anything, I'd have try to…" – Blair laughs cynically, but they both know it's too forced up to be real.

"As I heard what was happening between us was a brief affair" – She emphasizes the last words. – "...so you could have get over your now wife to be.

"You married Chuck Bass in the MET!" – He raises his tone and she shuts up.

"It's fixed now" – She taps the bow tie with her fingers and steps back.

"Is it really, Blair?" – Dan asks and she bites her cheeks harder than she meant to.

"I won't say that!" – She says a bit mortified from her feelings and the way he looks at her.

"You don't have to say anything..." – The way he stares directly into her eyes so fearless, it makes her feel so small.

"Life doesn't always go by the plan, Humphrey" – That's all she says before he phone rings.

Getting out of the room, pretending that everything is all right, gluing her fake smile so she can be the happy best friend makes her feel like vomiting, but she promises to do it after the wedding.

….

Rufus doesn't speak to him anymore. Jenny flies back to London mumbling things that she spent money on a plain ticket for nothing.

Life goes back to normal, except the fact that New York has a new gossip topic. Serena van der Woodsen failed to become a Brooklynite's wife. Stories are so well build up – some say he was gay, some say she dumped him for some older millionaire from California, but almost everyone mention Blair Bass as the main reason. But people don't really know the real reason how the whole thing went.

The night after the wedding that didn't happen Blair takes a shower and gets ready to go to bed. Chuck is already asleep. As she massages the cream on her hands her phone vibrates. A text message.

"I just want to know if you actually read the whole book, not just the parts that "never happened"?

She sneaks out of bed and goes to the living room so she can calm herself down and think of a proper reply. Her brain screams "do not text back" but her fingers are already flying on the screen.

"Моre than once"

She sends it. Fifteen minutes later there is still no reply and she assumes he won't text back. She would call him, but she knows Chuck will hear her, so she decides to go back to bed. Just when she starts falling asleep she gets another text.

"Your hands were shaking, it was enough for me. Anyway, it would have never worked."

She reads it and doesn't know if she reads a real message or if she hallucinates. She was forcing herself to hate him, she was insulting him in front of Serena for too long, she almost forgot what he had done for her. Within seconds she receives another text.

"Whenever you're ready…"

….

While the UES talks the newest divorce, Serena actually marries the older millionaire somewhere in Mexico. There are pictures, a beach wedding and she wears something even more nastier – pink long beach dress and flowers in her head.

Blair keeps overworking herself. Being the last one going home becomes a habit. She doesn't have anyone waiting for her, so staying in the office isn't quite a punishment. But that night she feels a bit nostalgic and melancholic. Her driver drops her to the MET steps and she tells him to call the night off.

She just sits there alone, smelling the spring air. Maybe it's too late after everything that happened, but she takes her phone out of her bag and types a text.

"I'm at the MET steps."

Just before she thinks she made a fool out of herself, a messy haired guy gets out of a cab and sleepily climbs the stairs.

"Do you still keep the plastic tiara?" – She smiles in disbelief.

"Why didn't you say anything on my wedding day?" – She looks at him and than looks away and lets her eye drops on her legs. – "Deep down I wanted to hurt you, because you chose her"- Dan sits next to her, this time too close for his own good.

"You are an evil dictator Blair. I was sleeping, yet I'm enough stupid to just get up and run to where you are" – He kisses the inside of her wrist. She smiles and she turns his face to hers and kisses his lips.

"Shut up Humphrey and follow my lead" - She whispers between kisses and he does shut up.