love's such an old-fashioned word

just being honest

It was the next day. Lily still hadn't fully processed the recent day, she felt the happiest she ever did since a pretty long time now. Way happier than when she was with Bart. It was a feeling, that even Lily Van der Woodsen couldn't really explain. It must've been love.

At the penthouse, 9:23

Lily had invited Dan for breakfast, just to talk with him and then drive to the hospital together with him. The elevator turned open.

"Oh, hey Dan! It's so nice to see you!" Lily welcomed him, but then noticed the hurt look on his face. "Are you okey?"

"Yes, yes I am Lily.. but dad doesn't seem to be. At my way here, the hospital called and told me that he's in not-so-good conditions. I think we can't even visit him because they will be operating him the whole day. I'm sorry for coming with such bad news, I know that you two are becoming closer again.. I don't even know in what way either as a friendship or-" He stopped. "Well that's none of my business, sorry for coming up with that, again."

"Stop apologizing, please. It's okey, I understand that you don't understand this whole thing between me and your father, but anyway, I'd still like to go to the hospital and maybe talk to the doctors." She fell out in tears.

"Lily, please don't cry. He'll be fine." Dan said and took Lily in his arms. He wasn't sure if she would allow him to hug her but he just assumed that she would need it.

"But I just can't live without him." Lily said as she wiped the tears from her cheek. "Dan, I gotta be honest with you. Your father and I, we.. I think we still do love each other. I mean, we are in love. And I also think that I want to be with him, perhaps, forever. I know that you and Serena have a thing going on right now and it probably seems so weird to see your own parents together but.. your father and I both believe that we should stop putting our love aside just to make everyone else happy. I'm sorry Dan, I know how awkward this must be for you."

"Nonono Lily, it's okey.. well, not completely but, you know, when Dad's fine again we could talk, talk about everything. The relationship between you two, between me and Serena and what this means for all of us. We could even talk about the past of you two." Dan laughed, "We will be fine, don't worry."

"Oh god, thank you Dan. You don't know how much this means to me. So now that you know about that, could we just please go to the hospital?" Lily said, still stuttering a little.

"Of course! I want to see him too, honestly.." 

As worried as the two of them were, Lily and Dan drove to the hospital. When they arrived, a doctor already came up to them.

"Dan Humphrey? So luckily, your father's conditions are the best they've been since he came here. We're not sure how they changed so quickly, but he seems to be just fine. You can take him home in half an hour."

"Thank you so much doctor, that's great to here!" Dan said and then turned around at Lily. "Did you hear that?"

"Yes.. wow that is.. awesome! I'm just so glad that.. you know, that he's still here with us." She nodded at Dan and then they both decided to visit Rufus in his room.

"Room 536.. yeah, I guess this is the right one, let's go in. Or Lily, I can actually wait. I think you should go in first, he probably needs you just as much as you need him." Dan smiled, he knew that there must be much love between his father and Lily, and so he decided to let them have their time. They really deserved eachother. Of course, Dan didn't know how close exactly Rufus and Lily had been in their past, but as he could guess from their behaviour, it must've been very close. He could tell by the way they had looked into eachothers eyes at Thanksgiving.

"Thank you Dan." Lily answered as she hugged him again. He was a very nice and polite boy, Lily knew that. He was Rufus' son so of course he was just like him.

As Lily entered the room, she saw Rufus sitting at his bed, wearing his actual clothes and pretty much looking like his real self again. She started to smile brightly, it hadn't even been a full day and she'd already missed him incredibly much. 

"Hey Rufus, I'm here with Dan and we can take you home in a few minutes. I'm so glad that you're okey, I couldn't even imagine what I would have done if-" Lily wanted to continue but Rufus had already stood up and stopped her from talking when he started kissing her, passionately. 

"Oh well, that's how we say 'hello' to eachother now, hm?" Lily laughed. 

"Yes, definitely. Looks like you're going to have to do this every single day in your life from now on, sounds pretty terrible, huh?" 

"Oh, absolutely  terrible Humphrey!" Lily kissed him again, just a little shorter. "So terrible." She giggled.

"Let's stop with that, you know how much I love doing this.. and alsp, you know, recently I think I've-"

"You've what Rufus?"

"I've felt such a strong love for you Ms Van der Woodsen."

"Oh you're allowed to call me Lily! Okey, I need to stop with the joking now.. this 'love' thing you've mentioned, I think it's based on reciprocity."

"That's good to hear, Lily! God, please tell me, why are behaving like this?" 

"Probably cause we're in love, and the last time that happened was when we were teenagers.. that just reminds me of how much I've missed you."

"You don't even know how much I've missed you! I love you Lil, but now, I really wanna go home."

"I understand that, but there's one thing I should probably tell you.. I've told Dan about us. Not our whole story but I did tell him about the fact that we're in love. Is that okey for you? I'm sorry, I just had a breakdown this morning, when Dan arrived at my penthouse, because I didn't want to loose you and so I figured that I should just tell him why I care so much about you."

"Ohh uh, yeah, I guess that's fine... I mean, that's great. Because I really do love you a lot, he should know. And so should everyone. How about we call the kids and we sit down with them at the loft and talk about.. this whole situation?"

"I guess that'd be even greater!"