"Okay guys, you wanna know why we wanted you all here today?" Monica asked the four people she loved most in the world.
"You're not getting a divorce, right?" Joey worried, panic-stricken.
"No, we're not getting a divorce." Chandler assured him.
"Well then what is it?" Rachel chimed in.
"We think it's time we tell Jack and Erica the truth." Monica revealed.
"About the adoption?" Phoebe asked.
"No about our criminal pasts-of course the adoption!" Chandler replied.
"How are you gonna do it?" Ross inquired.
"Well that's kinda what we need to figure out. And we thought you guys could help us?" Monica suggested.
These six people had come so far. They'd all met as struggling twenty-somethings just trying to make ends meet, and they were all now in their forties...and still trying to make ends meet.
Rachel worked at Ralph Lauren for a long time before eventually calling it quits when Gucci offered her the same job she'd given up, but this time in their American branch. She was now a high-flying VP of their American office, her hair was still a dirty blonde though the roots slightly more grey than they used to be.
Ross was still a palaeontology professor at the university and had been promoted to Head of the Department. He still struggled to gauge certain students' interest in his field but he didn't care. Ross and Rachel had finally tied the knot in a real wedding ceremony in 2006 welcoming their second daughter, Electra a year later. They also ended up purchasing the house next door to Monica and Chandler's in Westchester.
Phoebe stayed in the city, buying a larger apartment for her and Mike. She still played regular gigs at a variety of quirky cafes and coffee shops, her and Mike even performed as a pair occasionally. The couple had decided to have a children and after having a baby boy, Ace (who Phoebe rashly named much to Mike's dismay) they jointly realised that perhaps one was enough. They're currently paying through the roof for Ace's drum lessons (apparently he's going to be the best 10 year old drum player ever).
Joey is still hanging around being Joey really. He moved out of the apartment him and Chandler shared and into one nearer to Phoebe's new place. After his big break movie back in 2004 he began appearing in hundreds of action movies and became the token 'muscle' in many many films. Now a little older, he tends to appear as various actors' older brothers or some other kind of relative and is happy this way having landed himself a talk show on Friday nights aptly named, 'How You Doin''. On the first show he surprised Monica and Chandler with a new car, finally having written off his debt to Chandler.
As for Monica and Chandler themselves? Chandler continued to progress in advertising and his commercials have become well-known across the country. His favourite thing to do is hear people jokingly quote them in conversation, he's even employed Phoebe and Mike to write a few jingles for him. Monica has worked in tons of restaurants over the years and finally decided in 2012 that she'd had enough. Her and Chandler took all their savings and bought a small restaurant in the middle of nowhere. It was named 'Monica's' and business was thriving, she finally achieved her dream of completely designing her own menu and as much as she'd deny it, she loved bossing other people about!
Yep they truly had come far together and now they needed each other once again.
"Well honey, what do you want us to do about it?" Rachel asked gently holding Monica's hand.
"I don't know, okay? I just...I don't know how I'm supposed to tell my children that I'm not their mother." Monica buried her head in Chandler's chest and he rubbed her back.
"You'll always be their mother, Monica. Always. So they have someone else's chromosomes, who gives a crap? You're their mother." Ross comforted his baby sister and slowly everyone crowded around Monica enveloping her in a massive group hug.
"We'll figure this out right?" Monica asked.
"We always do." Joey smiled kissing her on the forehead.
