For Old Time's Sake (part 2)
(a.k.a. The One Just By Cath #2)
Thought I'd try and take you out of your misery and continue almost where we left off...
Same disclaimers etc. apply. Would suggest you read part one (http://www.geocities.com/jellybaby_babe/old_times_sake.htm) before you continue.
Quick note: I've used stroller in the context of a pushchair - if this is wrong, please tell me, but I am English, so also forgive me…
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Phoebe thought about this momentarily before answering. "Okay. Let's get drunk together."
Monica just looked at her before heading off towards the bar.
Monica awoke the next morning with a pounding headache, and looked over towards her nightstand to see what time it was. The clock, however, was not there, and she finally remembered that she was not at home.
She rolled over and for the first time noticed that she was not alone. She groaned, not quite wanting yet to contemplate what she had done the previous night.
"Morning Monica." She was greeted, and she finally turned to see who it was.
Chandler got out of the bed, fully dressed in his pyjamas Monica noted almost in relief.
"Oh God! What did we...?" Monica asked worriedly. Chandler raised his eyebrows comically at her.
"You mean you don't remember our wild night of passion?" He asked her. Monica panicked and started hyperventilating; it wouldn't be the first time that she and Chandler had slept together in a drunken state after one of Ross' weddings. Then he smiled. "Relax, we literally slept. Phoebe and John were so drunk that they couldn't quite remember where their hotel room was so they came here and crashed in the other room where I was supposed to be sleeping. And there was no room anywhere else, and you said you didn't mind sharing."
"I was drunk!" She exclaimed indignantly after having calmed down a bit. "I wouldn't have minded sharing with Joey."
"Hey, that wasn't my fault. I was just looking for a place to sleep the night." Chandler reminded her.
"Well just thank God we didn't do anything!" She breathed a sigh of relief.
"I love you too, Mon." Chandler said sarcastically.
"I didn't mean...." She tried to explain, sitting up.
"It's okay, I know." Chandler reassured her. "Anyway, I'd better get up and ready."
He stood up and walked out the room. Monica crashed back down onto the pillows and thought about what had transpired.
By the time Monica finally emerged from her bedroom still only half the people were up and around. This included Ross and Rachel, who were still doing last minute packing before their flight, which was not for a few hours yet.
Monica, still in her pyjamas, fixed herself some coffee and sat down tiredly on a chair.
"Sleep well?" Rachel asked her as she ran round the kitchen attempting to tidy up after everyone.
"Not so loud." Monica groaned bringing her hand to her head as a signal to Rachel to quieten herself. Rachel raised her eyebrows.
"I'm not surprised." She smiled. "Just be glad you didn't make too much of a fool of yourself."
"I didn't? That's a relief, I can barely remember anything."
"I bet waking up with Chandler was a bit of a shock." Rachel grinned.
"Just slightly. Fortunately he explained what had happened." Monica took a sip of coffee before determining that it was still too hot to drink, so she placed it on the table. "You did say try and get on with him." Monica explained feebly as Rachel just looked at her.
"Yes, get on with, not demand to sleep with."
Monica looked at her in horror. "I did what!"
"Okay, so maybe I over exaggerated, but you weren't exactly going to throw him out of bed."
Monica breathed again. "I was drunk," she almost said, but decided against that, as it would have been perfectly obvious that she was. "I blame Phoebe." She said instead, but smiled whilst she did.
"Well, I blame Phoebe too. It's not all that nice having someone ring your doorbell incessantly at 3 in the morning because she's too drunk to remember where exactly she was staying. Fortunately I was still up, but it was a nightmare trying to convince her that she didn't really want to watch TV whilst there were people sleeping on the couch."
Monica laughed. Phoebe was obviously in just as bad a state as she had been. Worse maybe.
"Anyway, I've got to go finish packing. If anyone wakes up, can you tell them where the coffee is? Oh and the aspirin is on the side next to it." Rachel walked round the room as if in thought, before looking practically into space. "That reminds me...." She said quietly to herself before running off somewhere.
"Is she alright?" Monica heard a voice behind her.
"Huh? Yeah. Probably." Monica told Chandler as he sat down on the chair beside her. Monica made a conscious effort not to talk much to him. Last night had been an exception because of it being a special occasion and, well, the amnesia-inducing effect of the alcohol. Now she had no excuses. She couldn't forgive and forget. Not yet, anyway.
"Is there any of that going?" Chandler asked, referring to the coffee.
"Over on the counter." She said indifferently. "I'm gonna go get dressed." She explained before she walked off.
If Chandler wasn't already confused by the situation, this puzzled him greatly. And only last night they had been getting on so well. He wondered what he had done.
There was no understanding women.
"Hey Chandler." Phoebe said drowsily. "What's up?" She asked sensing his confusion.
"Nothing...nothing important anyway." He said before getting up to get the coffee. "You want some?" He asked Phoebe.
Phoebe nodded. "Make it very strong please."
Chandler set about making the coffee.
"You and Monica looked very friendly last night." She said wondering what his reaction would be.
"What?" He asked distractedly. "Oh, that was nothing. I think it was more of an act on Monica's behalf for Ross and Rachel judging by the way she was around me this morning."
Phoebe wasn't surprised. She thought that Monica would probably regret the over friendliness that she had shown.
If only someone could get Monica to realize that it was a mistake to do so.
Later, after Ross and Rachel had left for the airport, leaving many instructions for Monica, and saying goodbye to Jessica for almost eternity, Phoebe found Monica lying on the bed in her room, eyes open. Monica sat up when she saw her friend.
"Where's Jessica?" Phoebe asked, not too worriedly, however, as she knew that Monica would be one of the last people to be irresponsible.
"Chandler took her out to the park."
"Really?" Phoebe asked surprised. "I didn't know Chandler was into looking after children."
"I think it was more to do with the fact that that was about the only way that he could get out of the house with a believable excuse." Monica said tiredly.
Phoebe looked disapprovingly at her. "I don't think it really helped that you were ignoring him, you know."
Monica decided not to respond to this.
"Anyway, John and I are leaving now, I just thought I'd come and tell you." Phoebe said sitting down on the bed beside Monica. There was a short period of silence before she spoke again. "Monica, I know you hate the situation, but you're in the house with him. Alone. You're going to have to talk to him."
"Jessica's here." Monica protested feebly.
"All the more reason to promote a happy atmosphere. It's not healthy for children to be around all this negativity. And it is only until Friday." Phoebe reminded her.
Monica looked at her in understanding. "When do you go back to Chicago?" She asked.
"Not until tomorrow afternoon. Call me if you need anything." Phoebe said, giving Monica a quick kiss on the cheek and a hug before standing up. "I'll see you sometime. And if I don't hear from you soon, I'll call you when you get back to Seattle."
"Bye Pheebs. Love you." Monica said as Phoebe walked out the door.
"Love you too." She replied, shutting the door behind her.
Monica started to think about what she had said. It was a most awkward situation, living in a house with your ex-boyfriend for 5 days. At least they wouldn't be there all day long, as Chandler would most probably be working almost all day long and maybe most of the night, too, if his habits of their last years together had remained the same. She looked at her watch. Almost time for dinner, she thought, and set off down the stairs towards the kitchen.
Chandler and Jessica arrived back shortly later, as Jessica had begun to get hungry.
"Has everyone left already?" Chandler asked Monica as he came into the kitchen with Jessica.
"What does it look like?" Monica replied shortly, before realizing what she had done. "Sorry." She said apologetically.
"It's okay. I can hardly expect you to be my best friend, now, can I?" Chandler replied with a half-smile.
Monica looked down at Jessica. "Do you want some dinner?" She asked her, grinning widely.
Jessica nodded, and so Monica lifted her up and put her in the high chair at the table. Chandler started to make his own dinner, but Monica stopped him. "I'll make you something." She said. Chandler looked at her almost in amazement. "There's not enough room in here for the both of us." She explained.
Chandler nodded in agreement. "Are you sure?" He asked finally, not wanting anything to come between them.
Monica nodded. "Go, sit down." She told him. He did as told and sat down at the table beside Jessica.
"Did you have fun at the park?" Monica asked Jessica as she continued preparing the food. Jessica nodded.
"We went and fed the ducks, didn't we." Chandler asked Jessica.
"Yeah." She said enthusiastically.
"We had a great time." Chandler told Monica.
Monica was amazed. Was this really the same person that she had known all those years ago? The man who couldn't cope with the idea of commitment, let alone children. He seemed totally comfortable with Jessica and Jessica with him.
Monica brought over the food that she had made and placed it on the table, Chandler getting the appropriate silverware.
They spent the rest of the meal not in silence, but surface talking, with polite discussions pertaining to mundane things such as the weather and his flight and how nice the wedding was. No one watching this little scene would even realize that they were more than strangers who had just met at the wedding.
The rest of the day was spent in a similar manner, sitting round, watching children's videos, playing games with Jessica, and talking as little as possible.
Finally, Jessica went to bed, and Monica opened up a bottle of wine and decided upon a video to watch for her evening. She sat down, glass of wine in hand, video in VCR, and started fast forwarding all the trailers.
"You don't mind if I join you, do you?" Chandler asked her as he slowly entered through the door.
"I thought Sunday night was always a work night?" Monica asked incredulously.
"Not anymore."
Monica gestured to the space on the couch beside her. "Then, by all means, be my guest." She offered. "Here, do you want some wine?" She asked as he sat down.
He showed her the full glass in his hand. "I kinda already..." He half-explained.
Monica nodded, and then looked back to the TV where the movie had just started. She pressed play.
They sat in silence for the majority of the movie, intercepted by short breaks for going to the kitchen to get more wine or food, or visiting the bathroom, etc.
The movie finally finished, but it was still too early to contemplate going to bed, even with the late night that they had had previously.
However, as in past years they would start immediately to have a conversation, they were almost stuck for things to say.
"So...the reception yesterday was nice." Monica started feebly.
"Come on, Monica, can't you do better than that? I think that's almost all we've discussed all day." Chandler complained.
"Okay, you suggest something then." She told him.
Chandler pondered over this a while. "Okay, I can't think of anything either." He confessed.
"We've got to be able to talk about something. There must be something."
"Okay, how about...okay, how's Danny." Chandler asked finally. Monica looked uncomfortable. "See, there's nothing we can talk about." Chandler said after noticing this reaction.
"No, I'll talk. I'd prefer not to, but if we've got to talk about something we may as well start with him." Monica decided.
"So...?" Chandler prodded. "Married life not suit you? Divorced? It can't be anything worse than that. Last I heard you were off down the aisle quite happily, next I hear, you're off to Seattle."
"We didn't even get as far as the wedding. I found out that he was only marrying me because if he'd married his girlfriend - that none of his family approved of with whom he had a 3 year old son - he wouldn't have gotten the inheritance off his grandmother when she died. Which would have been a hell of a lot of money." Monica told him unemotionally.
"Ouch." Chandler said in reaction. "And you knew nothing about the girlfriend or son at all?" He asked, but not patronizingly, more sympathetically.
"Not until about a week before the wedding. I called it off. Then went to Seattle. Left him to tell everyone as my only revenge. And there ends the story."
"Wow." Chandler said. He was not expecting anything quite like that. "So you're happy in Seattle then?" He asked eventually.
"Now I am, yes, but at first it was more of a way of escaping from New York and the memories of everything." She explained then realized that that was what Chandler had done after their own break-up. "And what about you? How was married life?" She asked taking a sip of wine.
"You heard about that, then?" He asked, surprised. He didn't realize that Monica had had any interest in his life at all.
"Well, Ross did mention something." She admitted.
"Well, what can I say? I got married; I got divorced. That was all there was to it."
"Any particular reason?" Monica asked inquisitively. She thought about what she had said. "You don't have to answer that, I was just being nosy." She apologized.
"It's okay, I guess if I didn't tell you, you'd only get Ross to tell you. Basically we had no time for one another and it finally drove us apart. Phillipa, my ex-wife, had a job offer in Minnesota, and so we decided to call it a day." He explained.
"Similar to us then?" Monica suggested without thinking. "Sorry." She apologized again.
"Don't be." He paused. "I've been thinking a lot recently about us. How we ended it. How I worked too much and we communicated too little. I'm sorry about that, and if I could go back and change it, I would."
Monica sat there completely speechless. She never ever thought the day would come when Chandler would apologize for what had happened. That he thought about what could have been, too.
"I know it sounds sudden, what with only having seen you again for the first time in 4 years, but I think what happened with Phillipa made me realize how important communication is. We didn't communicate and look what happened. I know we can't go back and change anything, but at least I learned from my mistakes. I realize this doesn't make up for what happened, and you'll probably still hate me forever, but still, I wanted to apologize whilst I could." He finished. He stood up, about to leave it at that, knowing that now he had apologized for his mistakes and hoping that one day she might be able to forgive him.
Monica thought about that. She too had thought a lot about what happened and why. Although she had completely blamed Chandler for the demise of their relationship, she realized somewhere - deep inside - that she was equally to blame, although she didn't like to admit it.
"Chandler, wait." He stopped and turned. "I'm sorry too. It takes two to make or break a relationship. It's time I got over it. I stopped hating you a long time ago. I just needed to stop being so bitter." Monica explained. "Listen to us, here we are after 4 years, only just able to actually talk to each other." She laughed shortly. "It seems a bit lame, really. Considering we were such good friends, and yet only just talking about what happened between us."
"If we're ever going to be friends again, we've got to be able to talk about it." Chandler said.
"Friends?" Monica asked, astonished. "You want us to be friends?"
"Well, if it's okay with you, I wouldn't mind."
"I'd like that." Monica decided. She gave him a quick hug, which he willing reciprocated.
Finally, she was able to do what she had wanted for the longest time: to put the past behind her and move on. To be friends with Chandler again was something that no money could ever buy her, and she was glad that she'd listened to him.
The next day being a Monday meant that Chandler had to go to work, leaving Monica and Jessica alone together for the day. Monica had planned to spend the morning with Phoebe and John, depending on their reaction to being asked, and then go to Central Park in the afternoon.
Phoebe and John were more than receptive about the idea, and so Monica and Jessica took a taxi to the hotel in which they were staying - after a long struggle with the stroller.
Joey and Sarah had also had a similar idea, apparently, and they were there as well.
"I had this great idea." Phoebe started. "Maybe we should go back to Central Perk for a coffee first."
"With a baby?" Joey asked, unsure as to whether it was the right environment for a child.
"We'll only be there a short while, so if she gets restless then one of us can take her to the park." Phoebe suggested, looking at Monica for approval, as she was the one taking care of Jessica.
Monica nodded with enthusiasm. "That sounds like a great idea. I've not been there in years." She said, reminiscing back to the times that they had spent there.
"So, what is this Central Perk place?" Sarah asked as they walked the streets of New York in search of their past.
"It's this little coffee house that we all used to spend all our time in." Monica explained to both her and John, who also had never been there, whilst she pushed Jessica in the stroller, who desperately tried to escape. "In fact, Rachel even worked there for a while before she got bored and quit."
"Actually Chandler convinced her to quit." Phoebe corrected her. Monica smiled with the memory. They'd had some great times back then.
They eventually found the place, no different for it's aging of 5 years in Monica's opinion, and even Gunther was still there behind the counter, serving the coffee.
"Gunther, my man! Long time, no see!" Joey greeted Gunther, giving him a big bear hug, which Gunther didn't exactly appreciate. "Wow, I so missed this place!" Joey exclaimed, sitting down in his usual seat, followed closely by Phoebe, who took Jessica out of the stroller and placed her beside her, and finally Sarah, Monica and John who handed out the drinks they'd purchased at the counter.
"It's a shame the rest of the gang couldn't be here." Monica thought aloud.
"Yeah, it's not quite the same without them." Phoebe said sadly. "But we do have John, Sarah and Jessica here, and they more than make up for that." She completed, moving closer to John on the chair, who put his arm around her.
"What did you do here, exactly?" Asked Sarah, bewildered.
Joey, Phoebe and Monica thought about that. "Well, we drank coffee." Joey started.
"And talked." Phoebe suggested.
"Yeah, we talked a lot." Monica remembered.
"I remember the time that we were all here and we were teasing Ross about being divorced lots of times." Joey recalled, laughing.
"Which time was that?" Phoebe asked. "We did that all the time."
"How about the time that Rachel gave us all the wrong drinks?" Joey asked.
"Lots of times, Joe." Monica reminded him.
"Monica got really obsessive and clean?"
"Also lots of times." Phoebe said, and Monica gave her a bit of a scowl.
"How about the time that Chandler said something funny?"
"All the time."
Sarah laughed, and gave Joey a hug as she saw the lost look on his face. "Aww, honey, it's okay." She said mock-patronizingly.
"I remember playing here at the coffee house, and singing Smelly Cat for the first time." Phoebe remembered. John smiled this time. He had heard renditions of Smelly Cat many times, and loved the song. It was so Phoebe. "And I remember meeting my dad here for the first time." Phoebe thought back happily. She was in touch more often with her father now, but that was still not with any regularity. "What about you, Mon, what do you remember when you come back here?" She asked, noticing that Monica had remained quiet for a while now.
"I remember...I remember..." She started, softly. "I remember the time that Rachel ran in here in her wedding dress; and Ross' monkey, Marcel; and I remember when Carol was having Ben; and when Rachel blurted out that it was a boy; and when Ross and Rachel finally got together; and when Joey got the job on Days of our Lives; and when Carol and Susan got married. I remember when Phoebe went out with Ursula's stalker; and when Phoebe's submarine guy came back for her; and when Richard and I broke up; and when Ross and Rachel broke up like a million times; and Pete and his Ultimate Champion thing; and Emily; and the disastrous wedding; and when Chandler and I finally got together...." She broke off her stream of recollections, beginning to cry.
Phoebe gave her a big hug. She smiled. "I remember all those times, too. Those were great times, weren't they?" Joey nodded in agreement.
"They do sound like fun," Sarah agreed, playing with Jessica, "But sometime it had to end. It couldn't be like that forever. You had to move on, get married, have children and all that." She reminded them.
Monica's tears began to subside as she remembered the events that had transpired last night. "I suppose you're right, I guess someday we did have to grow up."
After a long goodbye with promises to be in touch soon, Joey, Phoebe, Sarah and John finally left with the intention of last minute packing before their flights home. Monica then took Jessica to the park, and they walked round for a while, before sitting down on a bench, Jessica with ice cream in hand.
They sat quietly, Monica helping Jessica eat her ice cream, and Jessica managing, as many children do, to get most of it on her face and, well, all over herself really. Fortunately Monica had thought to bring tissues, so they started to clean her up.
"I don't think that kids can eat ice cream without getting it all over themselves. It's like a requirement or something." Monica jumped as she heard the voice behind her.
"God, Chandler, you scared me."
"Hi!" Jessica greeted.
"Sorry!" He apologized. "Hi, Jess." He then said, patting her head in an attempt to avoid the hug she was giving, not wanting to be covered in ice cream.
"Shouldn't you be at work or something?" Monica asked suspiciously.
"Well, seeing as I am boss, I get to dictate hours, so no."
"You got promoted?" Monica asked almost incredulously, as Jessica indicated that she wanted to go play on the swings. They started to walk towards the swings.
"Yeah, a couple of years back. As long as I get everything done, I can work when I want - well, almost." He said lifting Jessica up out of the stroller and putting her in the baby swing and then pushing her gently.
"Well...congratulations." She finally said.
They spent the rest of the afternoon in a similar fashion, letting Jessica play in the park under careful supervision, and just generally talking amongst themselves.
They finally got back to the house after 6 o'clock after having an evening meal at McDonalds (much to Jessica's delight and Monica's chagrin), Jessica fast asleep in the stroller and Monica trying hard not to fall asleep herself.
Monica sat down on the couch, as Chandler had agreed to put Jessica to bed, exhausted. Chandler joined her after a while.
"I'm going to have to do some work now if I want tomorrow off." He told her, as he had offered to join them on their expedition to the zoo.
"That's okay, I was thinking about going to sleep myself." Monica said, closing her eyes. Chandler laughed, but couldn't quite help himself from staring at her as she slowly drifted off, and it took him a while to remove himself from the room in order to do some work.
The next day they set out early in order to go to the zoo, although it took them slightly longer than anticipated to start as Jessica was not entirely in a particularly helpful mood.
By the time they got to the zoo, however, all was forgotten, and Jessica was very excited about seeing all the animals.
They spent the morning walking round, looking at all the animals, Monica and Chandler taking it in turn to push Jessica in the stroller.
They decided to have lunch at the restaurant in the zoo, and so sat down at a table near the windows, looking out onto the rhinoceros enclosure.
A waitress soon came and took their order, and they were just discussing the afternoon's schedule when an older woman who had been sitting at the table next to them approached them.
"I was just noticing what an adorable daughter you have," she said. "So sweet!" She smiled widely at Jessica, who smiled back.
"She's not..." Monica started, whilst at the same time Chandler said: "Thank you."
The woman left, and Monica looked at Chandler.
"Chandler!" She admonished him.
"What?" he asked. "I didn't want to embarrass the woman."
"Oh, okay." Monica half-replied, whilst at the same time enjoying rather too much the idea that she and Chandler were part of a family.
They returned to Ross and Rachel's house about 3 o'clock, and Chandler went into work, as he could not afford any more time off than necessary.
Monica was left to entertain Jessica, and so they played for a while before dinner.
Rachel rang shortly before 6 o'clock and as Chandler was still at work, after Rachel had quickly tried to speak to Jessica, with "Hi" being Jessica's only reply; Monica put her in her playpen and started to talk to Rachel.
"So, how's Hawaii?" Monica asked Rachel.
"It's great, lots of sea, sun, surf..." She replied. "How are things back there?"
"Okay. Me and Jessica are having fun."
"So she's not pulled a tantrum on you yet?"
"Well...she did try this morning, but it wasn't for too long as she wanted to go to the zoo and we threatened not to take her." Monica replied reluctantly. "So, we went to the zoo and saw all the animals."
"Sounds exciting!" Rachel said almost sarcastically. "So has Chandler been working all the time then?" She asked, wondering what the response would be.
"No, not at all. He met us in the park yesterday, and came to the zoo with us this morning."
Rachel was more than shocked. She was speechless. Whatever response she had expected, it hadn't been that one.
"Rach...Rach, you still there?" Monica asked.
"Umm...yeah, sorry, there was just this..." She sought for an excuse. "Really cute guy who was looking at me and Ross got a bit mad..." Rachel mouthed an apology to Ross who was standing next to her looking perplexed.
Monica laughed. "I can quite believe that!"
Rachel fake-laughed. "Yeah. Well, it happened..."
"Yeah."
"So, you and Chandler, eh? Getting on well?" Rachel decided to find out more about this. Ross leaned in to listen into the conversation, and Rachel moved him off.
"Yeah well, I think we're friends again."
"Oh, really?" Rachel motioned for Ross to go away so that she could have a more in depth discussion with Monica, sensing that there was more in it than that. Ross went away, sulking slightly, and went and sat down on a near-by chair that was out of earshot.
"Yeah..." Monica replied, unsure as to what she should say.
"So, nothing more than friends?" Rachel pried.
"Rachel! We're barely even friends!" Monica exclaimed, laughing. Inside, admittedly, she had thought about the possibility, but dismissed it quickly, realizing that most of it was a reminiscence of their previous relationship.
"Well, you never know. Just tell me before the wedding, okay?" Rachel asked half-sarcastically.
"Sure. But do I have to tell you about the kids?" Monica asked sarcastically.
Rachel laughed.
"Oh my God, I've just realized, this is going to be costing you a fortune. I'd better let you go." Monica exclaimed.
"Okay." Rachel said reluctantly. "Look after Jess for us, okay? See you soon. Bye."
"Bye." Monica replied, and with that they hung up.
"What was that all about?" Ross asked after Rachel had hung up.
"Well, Monica and Chandler are talking again." She said, half-enthused.
"Wow! That's great!" Ross exclaimed.
"Yeah." Rachel said sadly.
"What's wrong then?" Ross asked.
"I don't know, I just always thought they'd stay together, and when you think of it as they've only just started talking to each other again, well..." She trailed off.
"Yeah, I know what you mean. It doesn't seem right." Ross said, hugging Rachel from behind her before turning her around and pulling her into a kiss, which she willing reciprocated.
"Hey, honey, I'm home!" Chandler announced jokingly as he arrived home after work on Thursday evening.
Monica entered from the living room to greet him.
"Wow, I can't believe this is our last night together." She said sadly.
"You know what I can't believe?" Chandler asked. Monica shook her head. "I can't believe we managed to put up with each other for almost a week. It's got to be a world record!"
Monica laughed.
"So, what's for dinner then?"
Monica just looked at him in mock disbelief. "Nothing."
Chandler looked back, mock angrily. "I've been working all day, woman, I expect a meal on the table at the end of the day."
Monica couldn't stop laughing. "Woman?" She asked.
"Well, it was the worst insult I could think of." Chandler admitted. "So what is for dinner?" He asked sheepishly.
Monica hit him lightly. "I was thinking that maybe we should order take-out pizza."
"Sounds good. What about Jessica?" He asked.
"I gave her some food a while ago, and then she quite willingly went to bed, very surprisingly." Monica said.
"So, the children are in bed? So how are we to celebrate having the house to ourselves?" Chandler asked after he'd put his briefcase on the floor and followed Monica into the lounge.
Monica looked at him grinning. "Tell me that you wouldn't be like this if we really were married?"
Chandler laughed. "What? Have no sex for a week? You've got to be kidding."
Monica laughed, and went into the kitchen, picked up the phone and ordered their pizza. She then took the bottle of wine out of the fridge that she had put in a few hours ago. She took two glasses out of the cupboard and poured some wine into both.
She then returned to the lounge.
"Pizza's on its way." She said, handing Chandler a glass of wine.
"So, what movie is it tonight?" He asked, taking the wine.
She showed him the jacket of the movie that she had rented and left him to read it.
"Sounds intriguing." He admitted.
They started watching the movie, talking animatedly throughout the trailers, a silence ensuing as the feature presentation started.
However this was disturbed 10 minutes into the film when the pizza delivery guy rang the doorbell.
Chandler got up, and returned a few minutes later with a large hot pepperoni pizza.
"That smells sooooo good." Monica exclaimed, breathing the aroma in deeply. "I've not had one of these in ages."
They finished watching the film, eating the pizza and then popcorn, and drinking a fair amount of wine.
The movie finally finished and Monica set about tidying up the mess that they had made.
"Here, let me help you with that." Chandler offered taking the pizza box from her hand and dumping it in the trash, which was situated right in front of her.
"Wow, cos I couldn't do that myself?" Monica asked sarcastically.
"Hey, at least I helped." Chandler protested.
"Well, okay, I'll give you that." Monica admitted.
After tidying they sat down again, wine in hand.
"So what time is your plane tomorrow?" Monica asked.
"About 10:00 in the morning." Chandler said. "Why, do you want to come?" He asked.
"Well, if you want..."
"Yeah, I'd love that." Chandler replied.
"Okay, that's sorted then. Jessica and I can come to see you off." Monica decided, smiling.
They spent the rest of the evening talking, in a stark contrast to the evening in which they had first spent alone together there, totally relaxed and at ease with one another.
They arrived at the airport with plenty of time left. In fact the check-in time wasn't for another 10 minutes.
"Are you sure you picked everything up?" Monica asked panicked.
"Relax, Mon, you checked everywhere at least ten times. And besides, if I've left anything behind Ross and Rachel know where I live and they can always send it to me." He said, trying to calm her. He wasn't overly successful.
"Just make sure, okay?" Monica told him.
Chandler rolled his eyes, but none-the-less did as was instructed.
He was almost relieved when he heard the announcement for check in to commence.
"Just wait here and I'll go get my luggage checked in, okay?" Chandler told Monica, and she agreed, pulling the stroller containing Jessica to one side to avoid being trampled by travelers.
After waiting only a short while, Chandler returned, and then followed Monica through the hustle and bustle of the airport towards the gates.
They arrived at the gates, checking the time of the flight before deciding upon a café to sit in and wait.
Monica got them both a coffee and Jessica a juice and then sat down next to Chandler.
"I wonder what Ross and Rachel are doing right now?" Monica asked, trying to think of conversation to pass the time.
Chandler looked at her pointedly. "Monica, they're on their honeymoon. What would you be doing if you were on your honeymoon?" He asked.
"Okay, okay. I was just trying to think of an interesting conversation."
Instead they talked about home life until eventually Chandler's flight was called.
"Well, I'd better be going..." He stood up slowly.
Monica also stood up, and followed him, pushing Jessica, as he slowly walked towards the gate.
They arrived at the gate and they both stood there awkwardly, unsure as to what to do.
"You will call me, won't you?" Monica asked.
"I've got your number in here." He patted his bag. "Just make sure you call me sometimes, too."
Monica nodded. "Don't be a stranger, okay?" She asked, before the call for the flight to Boston was recalled.
"I'd better go..." Chandler repeated, quickly giving Monica a hug before turning and starting to leave.
Monica was trying to decide whether she was satisfied with just a hug, when she saw Chandler turn around and approach her.
Without any previous warning he came close to her, and kissed her passionately on the lips.
Monica stood there dumb founded.
"I apologize, I've just been waiting 4 years to do that." He explained quickly before turning back and heading out through the gates, leaving Monica standing there, still speechless.
That was definitely more rewarding than a hug, she thought, smiling, before turning herself and leaving the airport with Jessica.
To be continued...
Okay, so it wasn't any of my best work, however I would be interested as to what you think of it…