Spotted YOU

Notes:

I hope things will get better this time*crosses fingers*; I mean I’m liking a lot what I’m creating, but I could be the only one ^^’

Chapter I: Not even if the monkey is so pretty?

                                                                                                                                                      London, Kings Cross St Pancras Station

“That girl has passed out!” Screams a woman near Joe, who has noticed the scene.

Of course, this causes a crowd of people huddling around them.

“Let’s call an ambulance!” One of them suggests.

“There’s no need for that!” Joe protests. “This girl just needs some quiet and you’re just suffocating her, please, move on.” He makes his way through the crowd, with the girl still in his arms.

- Why don’t you all useless people do me a favor and throw yourselves under a train? We’re in a station, There’s plenty of choice. -

Socializing has never been his strong suit.

He takes her to an available bench, lays her down and lifts her legs for a while, for good measure.

“I’m going to take care of her and if she doesn’t regain consciousness I’ll be the first to call 111!” He explains and this seems to calm down the crowd of onlookers, which walk away.

Joe just kneels down, watching over her, feeling the urge to protect her.

He is staring at her so intently that he doesn’t miss the slight blinking of her still closed eyes.
The mysterious girl first moves her feet, then she stirs with her whole body.

“Good girl, yeah, that’s it, I knew you would wake up.” He soothes her, lulling her with his tender tone.

Serena still has to pop her eyes open, but her mind is already working.

- I can’t have seen what or rather whom I saw before.  I’d swear I ‘ve just even heard his voice. Maybe now I suffer from that syndrome which brings you to see only the face of the person you’re obsessed with, whoever you look at… What’s the name of that syndrome? Wait. Does that syndrome exist for real? Geez, I should have paid more attention at Psychology lessons… -

With slow movements she tries to sit up, finally opening her eyes.

She takes a look around, scannering the whole station.

- Well, that woman has a woman’s face, that baby just looks like a baby, that guy near the bar looks totally different from Dan… Whatever it was before, I’ve healed. - She sighs with relief.

“So glad you’re awake. “ Murmurs a voice next to her.

Not any voice.

- Dammit, I still can hear that voice!-

Laboriously, she forces herself to turn to the direction of that voice… and it’s a miracle if she doesn’t pass out a second time.

Serena startles, about to rise and go, but the mysterious guy gently grabs her hands, holding her still.

“Hey relax, I swear I don’t have any ill intentions!” He chuckles.

Serena feels like a sort of shake crossing her body.

Strange infatuation seems to grace the evening tide

I’ll take it by your side

Such imagination seems to help the feeling slide

I’ll take it by your side

Instant correlation sucks and breeds a pack of lies

I’ll take it by your side

(‘Without You I’m Nothing’, by Placebo)

The fact he just touched her means only that he’s real, not an hallucination.
 

- He even has his same smile. Well, now that I heard it better, his voice is almost the same as Dan's, but a bit more man-like… He’s utterly more man-like. -

There’s something in that stranger, something beyond the astonishing physical resemblance, that she finds so appealing.

And she finds herself already daydreaming of her and the mysterious stranger taking a walk, hand in hand, maybe along the Thames.
She oddly feels at ease with him and she still has to talk with him.

“Huh, no, it’s not that I’m afraid of you;” She smiles at him.

“Who are you? And why did you look so shocked when you saw me?” He politely asks her.

“Who are you?” Serena strikes back. “And why the hell do you look so scarily identical to my … huh… friend?” 

- I guess there’s no need to talk about my former lovers with a total stranger! No matter if I already feel such a connection with this guy I could talk to him about everything! It’s better to resort to a little amount of lies. - She ponders.

“I do… what?!” He chuckles again.

“Yeah, just with more beard and, please, don’t be offended, just  a bunch of years older!”

“Older?” He repeats, really amused.

“I know, I know, this is so weird and you're never gonna believe me, but… wait, there’s a way for you to believe me!” 

She fiddles around on her phone and a few instants later she can display some of Dan’s pictures, strictly alone; it’s better to avoid every sort of implication.

The mysterious guy almost loses his balance and falls on the ground, but grabs the bench on time.

“What the… ? Of course you must have had a heart attack when you saw me! It’s like seeing pictures of myself more or less ten years ago… with the only difference being that I’ve never had such messy hair!” He makes her laugh. “I’m Jonathan, nice to meet you.”

“At least the name is different.” She makes him laugh, shaking the hand he reached out. “I’m Serena, and the pleasure is mine.”

The more time he spends talking to her, the more Joe feels that that meeting was meant to happen.

- It’s like all the pain I had to face, all the awful things I’ve done, all the towns I had to leave… All of this brought me here, right here, right now to meet you, awesome creature who radiates light. Could you heal my darkness… maybe? Hello, you… no, no, what the hell am I doing? Why can’t I remember the rules I gave to myself? No more love. Only books. So whatever happens around  me, I must not care. Not my circus. Not my monkeys… But… not even if the monkey is so pretty?- Joe fights with his conscience.

“Are you okay? Did I say something wrong?” Serena tries to take him off his thoughts.

“Trust me, I have the feeling that nothing wrong could come out from that pretty mouth of yours.” He makes her blush, before finding another way to break the silence.

“The accent can’t fool me, Serena: you’re American, aren’t you?”

“Yep, I come directly from the City…” She smiles, before narrowing her eyes. “Wait, you’re American, too, right?”.

“Yep and now I feel less alone here. I used to work on the Upper East Side, but I’m from Bed-Stuy.” He explains.

- Dammit. Walking distance from DUMBO. This is bad, this guy keeps reminding me of Dan in everything... this is not healthy!- Serena gets aware of the first red flag.

- I felt so nostalgic of my hometown, after all these years and now a small piece of it has reached me. A very graceful, handsome piece. This must be a sign of destiny. Destiny is asking me to give another chance to love. - Joe ponders, before reminding to himself he’d better keep the conversation alive.

“I’ve been around many places and now I’m here because I’m a professor.  Well I wanna be one, and one of my job interviewers was supposed to reach me here but the train has been delayed…”

- I had almost forgotten the naturalness I can lie with. Which brings me to think about the real reason I was here. Marienne. There was something I had to do with her, but I can’t recall what… probably checking she was okay when she got on her train… -

“Uh, a professor? Cool!” Serena pretends to rejoice.

- Oh no, another teacher! Looks like history repeating. At least this time I’m anything but underage. No, Serena, this is not the proper time to joke; can’t you see? For different reasons, this guy reminds you too much of Dan and Ben, your most painful heartbreaks, especially the first one. These are huge red flags you shouldn’t ignore. -

“Huh. Thanks for your help, I really feel better now, I think it’s time for me to go.” Serena quickly gets up, but not too quickly to feel dizzy.

Joe frowns.

“What? Already? Why?” He tries to hold her arm, but she wriggles, rather harshly.

- No, no, where are you going, pure creature of light? I need your sun! - He grows worried.

“No, Jonathan, please, don’t insist! You seem a rather kind guy, but my life is already such a mess and I don’t need it to become even more messy!” She sorts of snaps, although she’s not really angry with him.” I have to go… I lost my train, but it’s better if I recover a couple of days before taking another.

- Oh no, not only do you want to go away now, you even plan to leave London!- Joe grows definitely alarmed, as she grabs her trolley.

“Thanks for everything you did for me Jonathan. Who knows? If we’re meant to meet again, we’ll do.” She waves her hand goodbye, before walking away.

-If my fake name sounds so good said by you, I wonder how the real one would. - He waves goodbye back.

I’m unclean, a libertine

And every time you vent your spleen

I seem to lose the power of speech

You're slipping slowly from my reach

You grow me like an evergreen

You've never seen the lonely me at all

I

Take the plan, spin it sideways

I

Fall

(‘Without You I’m Nothing’, by Placebo)

-That’s it. I’m impure. I lived in a dissolute way. I’ve done awful things; that’s why I don’t deserve such a creature of light as you. - He ponders as he’s already following her from a distance. - And yet I already feel so drawn to you to resist. Even when you snapped and that bewildered me. That’s why I don’t want to let you go. I want to show you every side of me, even the loneliest ones. These few moments we spent together made me richer... and I’m not talking about the fucking Quinn’s money!-

However, Joe is not on an average street, he’s in a very crowded station where he can barely move, so it’s very easy to lose track of Serena, as it happens.

- Stupid, useless people! Now I can’t see her anymore! And even stupid Malcolm whom I was supposed to meet this afternoon, who would give me that job at Darcy College. Something practically already mine. I had established everything, but now my plans definitely changed. For you. I’m going to reject that idiot’s offer. I can’t get a job, if first I have to find you and find a way to keep you here. And I will, no matter what. -

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                                                                                                                                                                              New York, Simon & Schuster 

Dan hasn’t utterly lied to Blair the day before.
He has met his editors for real, just after collecting the Gossip Girl’s computer, taking his power back.

After replacing the password -better safe than sorry!- he has checked the mail box, where there were already interesting things.

Someone has managed to take a picture of Serena at the airport, but someone else, thanks to more and more powerful zooms and resolutions of the newest generation Iphones has even taken a pic of Serena’s digital plane ticket.

So Dan knows for sure Serena must be in London now, but he chose not to let the rest of New York know that, and especially Blair.

So he just accepted to post the first picture, with a rather mean blast:

Spotted: S at JFK, all busy doing what she can do better: run away from uncomfortable situations. Once it definitely  becomes an Olympic Sport, no one will be able to deny our fave IT girl a medal!

Dan has to be a little mean, otherwise it wouldn’t be Gossip Girl.
 

His editors are still busy with the previous meeting, that’s why he has some time, as he’s waiting in the hall.

Time he spends checking on the last received mails.

Curious how among tons of new social media such as Tik Tok, snapchat, Instagram etc., Gossip Girl insisted with all her followers that the main way to send her pictures and videos was through the good old e-mails.

Gossip Girl has to be a little vintage, otherwise it wouldn’t be Dan.

Of course there’s nothing new about Serena, so he just posted some minor blast about Ivy and Lola, nothing that could give him any real satisfaction.

And then he takes advantage of the time he has to call his girlfriend.

Someone who can give him a lot of satisfaction.
 

“Hey!” Blair chirps happily.

“Hey!” He smiles, although it’s just a normal phone call and she can’t see him.

Just hearing her voice makes him smile.

“What are you doing?” He asks her.

“Just getting ready for the interview about the umpteenth charity event I’m setting.”

“That’s my girl!” He chuckles. “And.. nothing else? Such as spreading your minions around in search of Serena as you did yesterday?”

“Huh! Nope, of course no; not after Gossip Girl proved to be utterly useless giving me the only news I already knew, of course she was at the airport!” She snorts.

- Checkmate, my love. - He sneers.

“So, did you stop torturing or bribing those poor hostesses trying to get info about where Serena went?”

“What?! For which despicable person did you mistake me for?” Blair acts as innocent as she can, her tone getting a higher pitch.

“For Blair Waldorf, simply. So, whatever else you’re planning, cut Serena some slack, please. Just stop… blairing.”

Blair just chuckles.

“Blairing? From such a talented writer as you I expected a stunning language property!” She comments as she sets her desk.

“Believe me, this is.” He strikes back.

“What about you? Still waiting for the meeting to begin?”

“Yup. Thanks to Chuck’s very appreciated trick I spent a whole afternoon yesterday convincing the Publishing House that ‘Monarch of Manhattan’ is not plagiarism and I succeeded, since they agreed to examine the real thing that I had to rewrite and call to mind, since I haven't saved the original file anywhere…" Dan grumbles.

“Well, we can say Chuck taught you an important life lesson: always take good care of your stuff. Don’t you agree?” She ventures.

“Well, I’m afraid we have different visions of life lessons; mine was more like: never let your enemy screw your literary agent in order to screw you up!” He growls.

“Huh, right, that’s a very remarkable one, too. Okay, I guess it’s a tad soon to already joke about it, right?” She rhetorically wonders.

“What do you think?” He snaps, before calming down. “Sorry, Blair, it’s just that the tension is eating me alive!”

“But it’s your writing we are talking about, you’re always so smug about it!” She counters.

“Well, not this time. I would lie if I told you I’m not nervous about what they’re going to say…” He bites the nail of his index finger.

“Oh c’mon, I’m sure it will be a success! Never forget how much I believe in you, Dan.” She empowers him. “Gotta go facing my afternoon now. See ya tonight, can’t wait!”

“Already missing you, love.” He blows a kiss on the phone, before hanging up.

A few minutes later Dan’s mobile chimes and seeing the notification he genuinely smiles.

It’s a story on Blair’s instagram, where she took a selfie, sitting on her desk, with the above written ‘Doing good makes you feel really good.’, then the hashtag of the event in the middle and another written ‘I must have charity in my D.N.A.’

The thing Dan loves the most is that on the desk he can clearly see the pencil case with the pictures from the  ‘Roman Holiday’ movie.
No one knows it’s a gift from Dan, just earlier that morning.
No one knows they spent half of that morning daydreaming about a holiday in the Eternal City.

She’s not shouting from the rooftops that she and him are together now, but she’s sharing something that it’s only theirs.
And for Dan intimacy has even a deeper value.

Finally the door of the Simon & Schuster’s editorial board office opens and the two editors Dan has already met appear on the threshold.

Dan tries to read something in their faces but it’s worse than playing poker with certain Carter’s friends.

“Hello Dan, come in…” One of them invites him.

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                                                                                                                                                                               Paris, Montmartre

When Blair has told him that there’s someone else in her heart now Chuck has reacted in the most reasonable way possible.

He has put as much distance as possible between him and her.
He has decided Paris could be enough distance.

- Not the wisest decision going just to the second city she loves the most!-

He shrugs, as he walks around Montmartre.

- Blair would spend half of her time at the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, her hands full of shopping bags; at least I’m not crossing her same path. - 

He stops when he reaches one of those artist haunts it’s very easy to bump into.

He feels almost bewitched by one of the exposed paints: it portrays a beautiful African American little girl in a white ruffled tutu as she dances in a starry sky.

As an artist's signature there’s only an elegant M. in italics.

 -Right. Work is a perfect way not to think about anything else. -

He has been thinking for a while about inserting an art gallery inside the Empire and this could be the kind of artist he’s looking for.

He approaches the curator of the exhibition and with the naturalness that visiting almost every part of the world gives to him he speaks to her with fluent French, but the woman figures out he’s American anyway.

“Monsieur, don’t worry, I can speak English, too, without problems.” She smiles. “So you were seeing you’d like to know more about this artist?”

“Yeah, I mean, is it the artist’s only work? Could you show me more? I’d really like to engage her, well I assume she must be a woman, due to the delicacy of the brush strokes and the choice of the subject.”

“Well, she is. And you have a great spirit of observation, Monsieur…?”

“Bass. I’m Chuck Bass. I’m an art connoisseur. And an aesthete. Every beautiful thing in the world deserves to be loved by me.” He whispers the last part, as he does a perfect gentleman hand-kissing, flattering the woman around her fifty.

“Well, Monsieur Bass, you’re very lucky: the artist is here, she’s come bac yesterday from London, so you can speak directly with her…” The curator announces, before increasing her voice. “Marienne, come here, ma belle!”

“Que s'est-il passé, Jacqueline?” Marienne reaches her friend and Chuck has an unexpected, very pleasant surprise.

He stares enraptured at one of the most beautiful women he has ever seen.

She has long blond dreads in total contrast with her milk chocolate skin, eyes that are darker than the deep night and the slender figure of a top model.

“There’s a Monsieur here that’s very intrigued by your paint…” Jacqueline explains.

“Enchanté to meet you, Marienne…?”

“Bellamy. And you are… ?”

“I’m Chuck Bass. I have been bewitched by the beauty of your work, now I am by the beauty of its author.” He starts displaying his charm, as they shake their hands.

-Well, I said that focusing on work is a perfect way not to think, but having sex with a beautiful stranger is even a better one. - He plots in his mind.

And it’s well known, Chuck Bass always gets what he wants.

--

TBC