*AN - Hey team, so I know this specific idea is not necessarily original. However, it's one of those ideas that I personally love reading over and over again to get different takes and to enjoy different authors styles; so this is mine. If you're over this idea, then don't bother reading. As always, any critique is welcomed. Thanks!

This story begins during TOW Ross Finds Out during Season 2. There is a scene that was cut from syndication but is available on the full release DVDs where Monica and Chandler are running outside of Central Perk (this is the episode where Monica tries to help Chandler get in shape). Chandler stops to take a breath, and when Monica tries to physically pull him to keep running they get into a small scuffle that results in Monica pushing Chandler to the ground. Truly a hilarious scene - comedy at its best, but for the sake of my story its going to have to be a lot less funny. Monica pushes Chandler to the ground a little too hard, Chandler falls, hits his head, and the world goes dark. Don't worry, there will be no death to Chandler by way of clumsiness. This story will center around why and how his subconscious managed to take Chandler into the future while he was out cold, playing out the next 8 years like a dream, and what happens when he wakes up to find that none of it really happened.

The Dreaming Tree

Now progress takes away

What forever took to find

And now he's falling hard

He feels the falling dark

How he longs to be

Beneath his dreaming tree

- Dave Matthews

Chandler could hear a faint beeping sound and wondered sleepily how long his alarm had been going off. He tried to move to hit the snooze button but realized that his arm seemed unable to move, it felt as though it was being weighed down by a ton of bricks. In fact, now that he was aware of it, his whole body felt like it was beneath a ton of bricks, he was even struggling to open his eyelids. Chandler felt a brief wave of panic, but realized that even evoking any sense of strong emotion was costing him quite a bit of energy he didn't seem to have. He let go of his panic, and focused all of his energy on just opening his eyes. It took him several moments, but Chandler succeeded, and was soon blinking his eyelids as rapidly as he could to make sure that they were still working and to regain the sense of feeling that had moments before been gone. As his vision cleared, Chandler realized he did not know where he was. It was a room, but not one he recognized, and as he tried to piece it all together he realized that his mind was working slower than normal, almost as though he had had too much to drink. The room was too bright, he couldn't make out what anything was. The faint beeping persisted somewhere around him, but Chandler ignored it and instead tried to remember where he was and why he was there. What was the last thing he remembered? He had gone to bed late because Monica had insisted on getting everything unpacked…he had moved…the new house…the twins…it slowly started to trickle forward from somewhere in the back of his mind, and Chandler remembered. He had been dog tired after what had felt like the longest 72 hours of his life. Thursday Chandler and Monica had taken Erica to the hospital because she went into labor, Friday they took the twins home to the apartment, and Saturday they moved. Chandler didn't remember what time him and Monica had finished unpacking late Saturday night, all he knew was that he had collapsed into bed next to her and had fallen asleep almost at once. The beeping interrupted his last memories and Chandler remembered that neither him or Monica had set an alarm…but there was definitely a beeping coming from somewhere. Chandler started to search the room for a clue as to where he was, his eyes finally having adjusted to the light. It was a very white room, a TV attached to the ceiling in the corner, the bed he was in was weird, was that his old hockey stick in the corner? There was a chair next to him, and now that he was really looking at it, he realized there was someone in the chair, fast asleep.

"Joey!" Chandler tried to yell, knowing what a heavy sleeper he was, but no sound came out of his mouth. It was as though he hadn't used his voice for days, and now that he was trying to use it, he realized how dry his mouth and throat felt and began to cough.

Chandler's sputters and faint cough was enough to rouse Joey. "Oh my God, you're awake! Hang on!" And with that, Joey was gone. Chandler continued to cough wondering where Joey had gone, only hoping that he would come back with some water. Just as Chandler felt he was getting his swallowing and breathing back under control Joey re-entered the room with a second person Chandler didn't recognize in tow.

The man approached Chandler quickly and immediately shone a very bright light into his eyes and began to speak very loudly. "Chandler, my name is Dr. Coleman, try not to speak right now, but I want you to try to answer my questions by shaking your head up and down for 'yes' and back and forth for 'no'. Do you understand?" He asked as he seemed to finish examining Chandler's eyes and put the small light back in his pocket. He looked at Chandler expectantly, and Chandler obediently nodded his head up and down to indicate that he understood. He didn't understand though, it now seemed clear that he was in a hospital, but he had no idea why. Where was Monica? Where were the twins? Chandler could feel the panic begin to rise in his chest, the beeping in the background began to ring in his ears as he realized it was not an alarm but some kind of monitor, what the hell had happened.

Dr. Coleman recognized the panic immediately and rested his hand on Chandler's shoulder to try to reassure him. "Chandler, try to calm down. Everything is okay, and you are okay. You had a small accident a few days ago, do you remember it?" Chandler shook his head from side to side quickly, but immediately began to regret it as spots began to dance in front of his eyes. "Chandler, try to focus on my face, Chandler." Dr. Coleman urged as he recognized Chandler becoming dizzy. "You're coming off of a heavy dosage of drugs right now Chandler, so if you're confused that's okay." Dr. Coleman continued to speak as he reached over to the table next to the bed and began to pour water into a paper cup. "I want you to drink this very slowly, it will help." Dr. Coleman offered the cup to Chandler, and began to speak again, "when you feel like you can, I want you to tell me when your birthday is."

Chandler swallowed the water slowly as instructed, not wanting to begin choking again. As the water trickled down his throat it not only alleviated the dryness in his chest but also seemed to bring some clarity back to his mind. "My birthday is April 8th, 1968." Chandler spoke slowly, still not trusting his own voice. It came out ragged and whispered, but nonetheless he could speak.

Dr. Coleman nodded his head but offered no facial expression to relay whether or not his answer was correct. "Who is the last person you remember being with?" he asked, his face still blank.

"Monica," Chandler answered immediately. "Where is Monica, is she here?" he asked quickly, looking to Joey. Joey's eyes went wide at the question, clearly not expecting to be involved in this process. Joey, not knowing what he should or shouldn't say, looked quickly to Dr. Coleman for help.

Dr. Coleman held his hand up to Joey to keep him from answering and began to speak again, "Chandler, do you remember your accident?" Dr. Coleman knew that Chandler had already answered no, but also knew that patients were capable of recovering memories quickly when coming off of heavy anesthesia.

Chandler racked his memory, but all he could remember was going to sleep with Monica. Maybe because those 72 hours had been some of the most important in his life, maybe that was why they were the last he could remember now. Chandler considered voicing this thought to Dr. Coleman, but decided he didn't want to get ahead of himself when he didn't even know what had happened yet. "No, I don't remember, what happened?" Chandler asked, desperate to try to figure out why he was lying here in this hospital bed. Desperate for any answers, really.

Dr. Coleman decided to go ahead and allow for his patient to be reminded of the accident. This wasn't always the best thing to do, but Dr. Coleman could see that Chandler had regained lucidity, seemed to know who he was with some confidence, and had some sense of who he had been with last, even if he couldn't remember what had happened. "Joey, would you like to tell your friend how he wound up here?" Dr. Coleman asked, knowing that the information would be easier to take from a friend.

Joey swallowed, not expecting to be called on, but shaking his head as a sign that he was willing to take on the task. Joey turned to Chandler, and began to explain the best way he knew how to, "so, you and Mon were going for a run, and I don't know why, but you started to fight. Not like a bad fight, just playing really, and then she pushed you, and you fell, but you hit your head pretty hard on the sidewalk and you passed out. Phoebe and I watched the whole thing 'cause you guys were just right outside of the coffee shop, but we didn't know anything was wrong until Mon came in screaming that you weren't getting up, I guess she thought you had been joking for a minute. We called an ambulance, and when I came out to get a look at ya you were still out. We tried to get you to wake up, but you just wouldn't, it was really scary, man." Joey finished the story, his eyes still slightly larger than they normally were, the memory of what had happened still in the pit of his stomach. He looked over to Dr. Coleman to see if there was anything else that he wanted him to tell Chandler, but Dr. Coleman looked keen to take over the story telling duties from there, which was probably a good thing, because the rest of it had been so terrifying that Joey wasn't sure if he could get through having to tell it.

"Apparently you hit your head pretty hard, Chandler. When the ambulance arrived you began seizing. In fact, you seized the entire way to the hospital, indicating a very severe trauma to your brain. When you arrived, myself along with the head of the neurology department made a decision to put you into an induced coma. The induced coma helped us reduce pressure and swelling in the brain, and gave us some time to figure what was going on without us having to worry about your body's natural metabolic system kicking in. Your CT scan showed some intracranial hemorrhaging, which is what caused your prolonged seizure. We were able to treat the hemorrhaging with some drug therapy, and in combination with your induced coma, you've seemed to have made a full recovery. All of your CT scans look clean, and even though everything I just said sounds pretty scary, I assure you, your scans show no lasting brain damage." Dr. Coleman finished with a smile on his face to help reassure Chandler, knowing full well that the information he just unloaded would be a lot to take in.

Chandler blinked slowly. Induced coma? Intracranial hemorrhaging? Prolonged seizure? No wonder he felt like he could barely move. It didn't make any sense though, when had he been running with Monica. And if they did go running, why were they running outside of the coffee shop, and not in their new neighborhood?

"You okay man, you look confused," Joey asked. Joey didn't know much about medicine, if the doc said Chandler was fine, then Chandler was fine, but he definitely did not look fine right now.

"I just…" Chandler began trying to remember, "why were Monica and I running outside of the coffee house?" Chandler asked.

"Oh," Joey laughed slightly, "See, Phoebe got it in your head that you had gained some weight, so Monica said she'd work out with ya, remember?" Joey asked. "No need to worry though man, you've probably lost like 10lbs over the past 4 days you've been out," he added, laughing slightly at how this whole thing had started over something so stupid.

Chandler wrinkled his forehead as Joey explained why he had been running with Monica in the middle of Greenwich Village. He remembered now, but that couldn't be right. That had been years ago, Chandler couldn't even remember how many years, thats how long it had been. Chandler remembered it exactly, they had been running, and he had stopped to take a breath, which had resulted in a minor physical altercation with Monica, which had resulted in her pushing him to the ground. But he hadn't hit his head, he had gotten back up and had chased her all the way back to the apartments. Chandler suddenly became very aware of the fact that his heart was hammering in his chest.

Dr. Coleman who had been studying Chandler's facial reactions closely while being filled in on what had happened began to notice something was wrong. Chandler's face clearly indicated some kind of panic. "Chandler, is everything alright?" Dr. Coleman, asked concerned.

"What year is it?" Chandler asked, not knowing how else to begin to solve this riddle.

"What year do you think it is?" Dr. Coleman asked, suddenly concerned. While there was no set of behaviors to look for in a patient recovering from brain trauma, this was certainly unusual.

"20.." Chandler began to answer, but stopped himself suddenly. It was clear to Chandler what had happened now. The whole thing had been a dream; some crazy, drug induced, brain hemorrhaging dream. It had felt so real, though, he could swear he could still smell the fabric softener on his and Monica's sheets. Whatever was going on in his head, one thing was for sure, and that was that Chandler wasn't going to figure any of it out if he got himself locked up in a looney bin by telling his doctors that he had traveled to the future in his coma.

"Chandler, what year is it?" Dr. Coleman asked again, more urgent than before. It had been clear that Chandler had been about to answer with a very wrong year.

Chandler racked his brain, trying to remember what year it had been when he had Monica help him to try to lose weight. It didn't help that his brain and body were still recovering from the effects of an induced coma. There had been a party, girls had ignored him, thats when Phoebe said that he had gained weight, and Monica said that she would help him lose it. It was a guy he worked with, Gary, it had been his birthday party, his 30th birthday, which meant Chandler would have been about 27 at the time, which meant that it was 1995, "It's 1995!" Chandler exclaimed, excited that he had been able to force his brain to work.

Dr. Coleman narrowed his eyes at Chandler, trying to figure out what was going through his head. There was something obviously wrong, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it, "What's the last date you remember," Dr. Coleman asked, trying to gauge whether or not Chandler was lying.

"Well, I don't like to kiss and tell doc, but it went pretty well, if you know what I mean," Chandler laughed, knowing full well that Dr. Coleman had meant calendar date, but there was no way Chandler was going to remember the actual date, it took him three minutes just to figure out the year. Joey laughed along with Chandler, apparently reassured by the return of Chandler's sense of humor that he was going to be just fine.

Dr. Coleman continued to stare at Chandler, but decided against pressing the issue. "Okay, Chandler. Here's the deal, we get to keep you for another 24hrs, just to make sure that you're okay, and then you get to go home with the giant crowd I've had sleeping in my visitors lounge for the past four days."

"Who's here?" Chandler asked, confused that there should be a crowd of people just for him.

Dr. Coleman smiled, "Mr. Tribbiani can have a few more minutes with you and then you can see for yourself, one at a time, please. I'll be back to check on your vitals in about an hour." Dr. Coleman walked out of the room, allowing Joey to jump on to Chandler's bed in a heap of excitement.

"Everybody's here, dude!" Joey exclaimed, a giant smile plastered to his face. "Your mom and your uhhh…dad flew in, we've had to keep them on opposite sides of the room. Mr. and Mrs. Gellar have been in and out, Carol and Susan have been by with Ben a ton, and you've had a bunch of coworkers come by to see ya."

Chandler couldn't believe it. It may have been 8 years ago in his head, but he couldn't remember being that popular. "Geez, Joe, what'd you guys think I was gonna die or something?" Chandler asked, laughing slightly. When Joey didn't laugh with him, Chandler looked up and saw that Joey's faced had changed quickly from one of excitement to one of someone who just lost their puppy. That's when Chandler realized, "Oh wow, you guys thought I was going to die?"

"No one would tell us what was going to happen. They didn't know how bad the damage was until all the swelling went down, and that was just yesterday. We uh, we just didn't know," Joey continued, looking down, not wanting Chandler to see the moisture that had formed in the corners of his eyes.

"Hey man, I'm alright," Chandler said, patting Joey on the shoulder for reassurance. Although Chandler wasn't 100% sure that he was alright. Sure, he had managed to recover full function of his body now, and it seemed like most of the drugs were finally letting up a little, but he was definitely still off. Didn't most dreams sorta fade away after you woke up? It seemed to Chandler that most of the dreams he had ever had seemed to trickle away with each passing second after waking, but this weird future dream didn't seem to want to budge. "Hey, is Monica here?" Chandler asked suddenly, knowing somehow that if he could just see her, he would be able to convince himself that it wasn't real.

"Yeah, are ya kidding? She hasn't left your side since you knocked out. We flipped a coin to see who could wait with you while they pulled you out of the coma. Boy, she was not happy about losing that coin toss," Joey laughed.

"Yeah, I bet," Chandler laughed too at the thought of Monica throwing a temper tantrum over a coin toss. "Can you go get her?" Chandler asked with an eagerness building inside his whole body. He wasn't sure why, but Chandler just knew that as soon as he saw Monica he would forget all about his stupid dream.

"Alright man, I'll go send her," Joey said, getting up off of Chandler's bed. When he reached the door Joey stopped for just a moment before bolting back to Chandler's bedside and throwing his arms around his best friend. He quickly pulled himself together and walked back to the door and walked out of the room without saying another word.

Chandler laughed quietly to himself. He must have had his friends pretty worried, but did they really think that he might die? Chandler wasn't so sure, Joey had a tendency of overreacting during dramatic situations. Chandler was pulled from his thoughts by a soft knock on his door, "come in," he answered. The door opened and Chandler's heart jumped straight into his throat. Monica looked so different than how he had just seen her in his head. Despite the differences, there was no denying it, this was the woman that Chandler was completely head over heels in love with. So much for it being just a dream.