"So what do you think?" Serena asked Nate as they walked back to the Empire from the restaurant where they had lunch with Lily and Erik, Chuck had a meeting and Blair's mother and Cyrus were in town so she was spending some time with them.

"I think maybe you're over-thinking," Nate said taking her hand and linking their fingers as she shrugged her shoulders so her scarf pressed harder against her neck.

"Nate you don't understand what a big decision this is," she complained huffing out a breath.

"Babe it's not life and death," he said and immediately regretted it when she turned to look at him with burning eyes.

"It is," she protested, not moving her hand from his even though she wanted to just to make the moment more dramatic but she was too cold and his hands were just so warm. "If I don't make the right decision my mom might just kill me."

"Just choose," he said, wondering why he brought up the topic. "Lily will be fine would whatever you decide."

"It's my mom's birthday Nate I can't just choose which handbag to buy her," she said. "I need your honest opinion, the black or the orange?"

"This is really a question you should be asking Blair," he told her and she scowled at him. "Ok if I were you I'd go with the orange, your mom already has a lot of black bags so maybe a colour change would be a good idea."

He looked at her a little worriedly as she contemplated his answer and let out a sigh of relief as she smiled at him approving his answer. "See I knew there was a reason I was with you," she said as she kissed him.

"For my genius fashion advice?" he asked laughing.

"That too," she said wrapping her free hand around their linked fingers to warm it up. "You give me explanations when you choose so I don't even need to ask."

He rolled his eyes at her and called a cab, she raised an eyebrow as he opened the door for her, he told the driver where to take them and settled back next to her. "My turn to ask your opinion on something," he said and she tilted her head to the side trying to figure it out. "Don't worry it's not about what colour bag to get for my mom," he said and she laughed at him.

"Mmmm-hmm," she said cuddling against him as the cab weaved its way to an apartment building on the Upper West Side. "Why are we here?"

"Don't ask questions," he said taking her hand after paying the cab driver and walking into the building. "That will be my job."

"Ok," she said rolling her eyes. "What do you want my opinion on?"

"What did I just say about the questions?" he asked as they got into the elevator and she giggled. "I just need your opinion on this place, the apartment, the view."

"Are you planning on buying the building?" Serena asked turning to look at her boyfriend.

"No," he laughed, poking her nose on her shocked face. "Just the one apartment."

"The penthouse Natie," she said giggling, opening her eyes wide like their friends used to when they were younger and going up to 'the penthouse'.

"Like we'd ever get anything less," he joked.

"Did you buy this place?" she asked as they stepped out of the elevator and into the empty room and he nodded. "Its huge, its perfect."

"Yeah I bought it, figured it would be better to get to Campus from here then from the Empire," he said as he watched her inspect everything in the apartment. "Living with Chuck is awesome but I have to get out of there sometime."

"Yeah I know, I was thinking about that as well," she said turning to face him. "I need to stop relying on Blair so much as well."

"Well that actually brings me to the real question I wanted to ask you," he said walking forward to take her into his arms as she looked up at him questioningly. "You like this place right?"

"I love this place Nate," she says looking around the room before looking at him smiling at her.

Nate moves closer to her, holds her tighter, looks more nervous than she's ever seen him. "Move in with me?" he asks shyly, unsurely, maybe even a little afraid of what she may say.

"What?" she asks stepping out of his arms with a tiny smile on her face, she looks around the room again taking it all in and then she looks back to him with a questioning face.

"It doesn't have to mean anything like huge or serious but you know you like it and it's close to Columbia and I know Blair would want you to be with her but when is she ever at the Waldorf penthouse anymore? And," Nate was going to say more on why he asked her to move in when she cut him of with a kiss, keeping his face in her hands. It took him a few seconds to respond and place his hands on her hips.

"I'd love to move in with you Nate," she said pecking his lips again, loving the huge smile he had on his face. "And who knows maybe soon it could mean more, could be more serious," she says shyly and his grin gets bigger, knows they are young but the fact that she's thinking about them being serious for a long time means what they have right now is huge, he'd love nothing more then to put a ring on her finger now and declare to the world that she's his girl but it wasn't the right time.

"I'd love that too," he whispers kissing her again.

She looks around the room again when they break apart, she can't get enough of it, it's beautiful and reminds her of Nate's townhouse from when they were younger, even though it's much, much smaller, everything about it screams Nate. There's a view from the balcony that she doesn't think she'll ever get enough of, Nate walks up behind her and holds her tight and she feels like there is no where else in the world she'd rather be than in Nate's arms on the balcony of their new apartment.

"I'm giving you the freedom to decorate the apartment just please don't make me suffer too much," he begs and she hits him playfully relaxes more in his arms.

It all feels like a fresh new start to her and she loves it, loves that she can leave her past in the past, that Nate knows everything she's ever done and still loves her. Boarding school only held so much of drama and all of that came out within the past two weeks so she thinks they'll be ok as long as she doesn't mess up in the future.

They go back to the Empire all giddy and ready to face the world, together. Chuck and Blair are on the couches when they enter, Chuck looks mildly amused and Blair looks a little disappointed.

"Hey guys what's up?" Serena asks.

"How could you not tell me that you're leaving me?" Blair asks taking a deep breath and looking away and Serena bites her lip and looks guiltily at her friend.

Although she didn't even know until Nate asked her a few hours ago so now she wonders, "How do you know?"

"Did you lose your phones?" Chuck asks with a raised eyebrow because Gossip Girl is sent to them instantly so there's no way they could have missed any posts.

Nate takes out his phone out his pocket as Serena shrugs at her brother. "Phone died on the way to lunch."

"And mine was on silent, here we go," Nate says as he opens the blast, holding it out so Serena can see what Blair's so upset about.

"Spotted out and about on the Upper West side, S and N apartment hunting? My sources tell me N's already bought the apartment and wanted S's approval, could he have asked her to move in? I don't need anybody to tell me the answer to that and judging from the smiles when they left the building I know I'm right, looks like our Golden Couple are taking the next step, congrats guys."

"So when were you planning to tell me?" Blair asked shooting a look at Chuck because Nate discussed this with him before buying it so he already knew and didn't tell her.

"I was going to tell you as soon as we left the apartment which took a little more time then I expected," Serena said blushing a little.

"Huh so overactive hormones win over telling your best friend life changing news," Blair asked and Serena shrugged.

Serena didn't even have a chance to respond before their phones beeped again signalling another Gossip Girl post, Serena leaned back so she could look at Nate's phone.

"Hey Upper East Sider's do I have news for you, remember last week I told you big bad Ben was taken away by the one and only G and her parents, well so soon after getting a new toy to play with G was spotted getting of a plane with baby M in her arms. G seems to be the mother of the year, surprising isn't it? Rumour has it G's moving into S and B's building, no-one knows why she's back yet but when has G ever needed a reason to make our girls lives miserable. With S moving out, I'm sure B could always move in with C but then again she's never backed out of a challenge especially one involving G. D better watch out as well, seems G has her eye's on him as well but not just so he can pose as her baby's daddy. Whatever the case I'll keep you posted."

"That's a cute picture," Serena said and Blair's head snapped up.

"Georgina is back and living in our, no wait my building and all you can comment on is the cute picture?" she asked menacingly.

"Come on B, it'll be like old times, Georgina plotting against you and you getting revenge on her, fun times," Serena says pressing her lips together to keep her giggles hidden.

"That was not fun times S, I'll find a way to get rid of her, there's only so much she can do before she gets bored anyway," Blair said passing it of.

"By the sound of it I think Dan's the only one who has to worry," Nate said chuckling as he puts his phone away.

"As long as she's back to make Humphrey's life hell I don't mind," Chuck said.

"And what if she's here to make my life hell, she's moving into my building Charles," Blair said.

"I have the number of Milo's biological fathers wife, I'm sure she'd love to take Georgina away from us if tell her that she has a step-son somewhere out there," Chuck smirked.

"How do you even know who Milo's father is?" Serena asked.

"Dan kinda told me and I kinda told Chuck about it when we were looking for something to threaten Georgina with if she turned on us," Nate said.

"In other words Humphrey confided in you and you screwed him over to your best friend," Blair said and Nate looked a little horrified. "I'm impressed Archibald."

"Thanks," Nate said slowly, a little confused.

"Hey, what you thinking about?" Nate asked, kissing her neck before dropping next to her on the couch. They were in their newly furnished apartment, they'd moved in a few days after Serena finished decorating because she wanted them to live in the finished product not in something they were still doing.

It had been two weeks since Georgina moved back to New York, Blair threatened her before she even had a chance to do anything and Georgina hadn't taken any chances yet, Serena assumed the woman must be really scary if Georgina Sparks wanted to avoid her at all costs. With Blair not an option anymore all her time was spent on Dan, which meant Dan left Serena and Nate alone and focused on running away from Georgina. Vanessa crawled back to her mother and with a few pushes from Blair and Chuck, Lily convinced Rufus to put Jenny into a centre much like the Ostroff in Hudson, where the only visitors or contact with the outside world was her parents and on occasion Dan.

"Just thinking," she said cuddling closer to him and pulling his arms tighter around her. "How is it that you haven't gotten tired of all my drama from my past?"

"If you hadn't noticed S, I was part of almost all of that drama," he said and she laughed. "Why, expecting me to leave?"

"Kinda," she admitted. "Its just when I was with Dan and he found out about what I did in the past, he broke up with me and he thought it was a mistake to be with me and I just, I don't want us to feel like a mistake," she said biting her lip. "Especially not us."

"I'm not Dan," Nate said. "I know everything about your past, even things I wish I didn't," he said and she smiled. "We will never be a mistake, we're fate, destiny, we're forever."

She kissed him with everything she had, she needed to feel like he wasn't being scared away by what she's done, like he would stay with her no matter what. Serena had never dreamed of happily ever after's, of a prince taking her away on his white horse, of dancing in fields of flowers or having a white picket fenced house, never dreamed of having a family portrait above the fireplace or her children's pictures lining the walls next to hers. She just needed to know that the man she was with would never leave her, so when Nate kissed her back with as much passion she did, she knew he would never let her down or let her go and that's all she needed, all she wanted, all she's ever dreamed of having.

"I'll never leave you alone," he promised, loving the feeling of her smile against his lips when he kissed her again.

A/N : And this brings me to the end of 'I'll never leave you alone', its been an absolute pleasure to see your reviews and read what you think and your frustrations and views on the show and the story. I know alot of you were disapointed with the way I ended to Ben situation and how easily Georgina left but I've tied up as many loose ends as possible in this chapter and I apologise if it's still disapointing...

Thank you so much to all of you who've read, followed, favorited and reviewed this story, it's means so much to me and I promise to do better in my future stories

Thanks to MarkandLexiefan, EndlessStarlight, BBM13, journey17, Adriss and honourmariejolie for the reviews and for being honest in your reviews lol

Honestly for this story I wanted more drama but the NS fuff just took over me and I couldnt put them through anything bad, I just had to have them together hehe dont forget to check out my other NS story called 'Cant plan fun' and leave a review if you think its good or bad hehe

I really dont wanna say goodbye but I have to *sniff**sniff* I'll write again soon hopefully so I can talk to you guys again hehe, for those of you who have accounts I will thank you personally when you review this chapter but for those of you that dont just know that I really really appriciate the reviews and I think you're amazing for taking th time to tell me what you think!

Until next time guys (^^,)