So I've discovered that this is perhaps the most loyal fandom out there! I got so much positive feedback from my other story, TOW All the Love, I decided to try my hand at writing another Friends fic. This is basically Mondler, but focuses more on their daughter Erica. I hope you enjoy, my friends ;) Let me know what you think!

T.O.W The First Date

"You'll have to ask you father," Chandler heard Monica say as the garage door slammed. Chandler turned to look at Joey who raised his dark Italian eyebrows in a questioning look. Chandler just shrugged. His son Jack soon entered the living room followed by his daughters Erica, and Kaitlyn, and his wife.

"Good luck Dad," Jack smirked, racing up the stairs, and presumably out of firing range. Uh oh.

"Daddy," Erica squealed, bounding over to him and plopping herself down beside him on the couch.

"Hey Princess," Chandler grinned, a bit surprised by the affection his teenage daughter was showing, but accepting it nonetheless.

"Erica Roxanne Bing," Monica scolded, "don't you dare manipulate your father like that. Tell him what you told me."

Kaitlyn giggled, always finding it somewhat amusing when either of her older siblings got into trouble. Erica huffed and sat up a bit straighter, facing her father.

"Hey Joe, come help me in the kitchen," Monica motioned as she led ten year old Kaitlyn into the kitchen, wanting Erica and Chandler to have their privacy.

"I'm good Mon," Joey waved, obviously interested in what was going down between his best friend and his daughter.

"I'm making cookies," she called.

Joey jumped up from his seat and made a beeline for the kitchen. "Good luck, Chan."

Chandler sighed and shook his head before turning his attention to his oldest daughter. "Ok what's goin' on, Princess?"

"Well," Erica sighed, her gaze cast down to the couch cushions as she spoke quickly, "there's this guy and he wants to take me out to a movie on Saturday and I really want to go so can I?"

Silence.

"Dad?" she asked, looking up to see Chandler with a stunned expression on his face. She was half afraid she'd given him a stroke or something. "Daddy?"

"Um," Chandler muttered, shaking himself and forcing words out of his mouth, "who is this boy?"

"Marcus Anderson."

"A-and do I know Marcus?" he asked, still trying to wrap his head around the idea of his baby girl dating.

"Not exactly," she whispered. "He's older."

Chandler felt his heart do a back flip. An older boy. He stood up and began to pace. "How much older, Erica?" She rattled off a number so quietly, Chandler didn't hear her. "What?"

Another huffy sigh. "Three years, ok? He's a senior, Dad."

"A senior?" Chandler choked. "Erica, you are 15 years old!"

Jumping up from the couch, Erica cried, "I knew you'd freak out about this! What's the big deal?"

"It's not just one big deal, ok?" Chandler explained, fighting the urge to flat out say no. But that's what he wanted to do. Actually, he wanted to lock her up in a nunnery but didn't figure that would go over too well. "It's a lot of little deals that make up one huge deal!"

"What, don't you trust me?"

"Of course I trust you, it's him I don't trust," he said, running his fingers through his crop of brown hair Phoebe had just recently cut for him.

"Dad, he's like, the most popular guy in school!"

Sometimes he wondered if his daughter spent too much time with Rachel. Chandler scoffed, "Yeah, 'cause that makes me feel so much better."

Erica groaned. "You just don't get it!" she snapped, turning to leave and go up to her room.

"Erica, wait," he sighed. She turned to look back at him, eyes blazing. She most definitely had her mother's temper. "I do get it. It's just that... you're my little girl."

"I'm not so little anymore, Daddy," she said softly, the fire in her eyes fading as quickly as it had come.

"I know, Princess," he said with a wistful smile. "Your mom and I will talk about this... this..."

"Date?" she giggled.

Chandler shuddered. "Yeah, that. We'll talk about it and let you know what we decide, ok?"

Talk about it. A phrase no child likes to hear. Chandler saw her face fall, and he put a finger beneath her chin and tilted her head up to look him in the eye. "That doesn't mean yes, and it doesn't mean no, ok?"

She sighed. Honestly, she couldn't really say she was surprised about this. Her parents hardly ever decided on anything without the other's opinion, unless absolutely necessary. "Ok."

He kissed her on the head before watching her dart up the stairs. With a heavy sigh, he headed into the kitchen where Joey was beating the chocolate chips Kaitlyn was adding into the cookie dough.

"A date?" Chandler groaned rather pathetically.

"A date?" Joey asked, brow furrowed in confusion. "Who has a date?"

"Erica does," Kaitlyn informed him with a smug smile.

"What?" her uncle cried, looking to Chandler and Monica with a panicked expression. "No! She's too young. She can't."

Monica smirked as she slid the pan of cookies into the oven. "We knew it would happen someday."

"See, now when you say, someday," Chandler said, "I think someday after her 30th birthday."

Joey snapped and pointed to Chandler, "Oh, I like that plan!"

"So what, we just keep her locked in her room until then?" Monica asked, hands on her hips as she stared down the two men in her kitchen. Kaitlyn turned towards them too, a perfect miniature of her mother's expression.

"Maybe," Chandler shrugged.

"Anything to keep those boys away from her. I know what goes on inside their heads," Joey said, crossing his arms and leaning against the counter. "I was a teenage boy once. Think about that!"

Chandler groaned and buried his face in his hands. Monica rolled her eyes and sighed. "Here sweetie," she said, handing a plate of still warm cookies to her daughter, "why don't you take these with you to Uncle Joey's to share with Isabella and Liliana?"

Kaitlyn grinned. She loved playing with Joey's two oldest daughters, Bella and Lily. She took the cookies and began to march out the door. "C'mon Uncle Joey!"

Joey eyed Monica suspiciously as he followed his niece. "This isn't over, Gellar."

She just shook her head at the two of them before turning back to her husband. "Chandler, it's just a date."

"With an older boy, Mon," he groaned.

"So? Richard was older than me."

"Huh," Chandler said, "y'know, somehow that's not making me feel better about this."

Monica sighed and crossed the kitchen, wrapping her arms around him. He smiled a bit and wrapped his arms around her too. "Our baby's growing up. It's just something we're going to have to accept. We've raised a good girl, now we have to trust her to do the right thing."

"It's not her I don't trust."

He honked. The fool honked his horn when he came to pick Erica up for their date. Chandler was about to go out there and tell him that if he didn't think his daughter was worth coming to the door for, than he could just go to the movies by himself, but Erica came bounding down the stairs, kissed him on the cheek with a "Bye Dad!" and was out the door before he had the chance.

"Home by ten!" he shouted after her. She gave him a thumbs up before sliding into the passenger seat of Marcus' car. The tires squealed as he drove away. As Chandler stared down the street, Kaitlyn came to stand beside him. "You don't have a date tonight, do you?" he asked her.

Kaitlyn made a face. "No!" she squealed. "Boys are icky."

Chandler smiled. "Is Jack icky?"

"Yes."

"Am I icky?" he asked, pretending to pout.

Kaitlyn giggled. "No! But you're not a boy. You're Daddy. Daddies don't count."

"And that's why you're my favorite," Chandler teased, scooping up his daughter and carrying her back into the house. "Wanna watch a movie?"

"Tinkerbelle!" she cried happily. Chandler smiled. If only they would stay like this forever.