Stay With Me (chapter 1)
Joey/Chandler (Friends)
Entering his office, Chandler smacked down the morning's newspaper onto his desk. A long day was ahead.
He walked across the office floor and to the window, enjoying the view of South Manhattan while sipping on his coffee. The morning was bright and sunny. He could just manage to see the Statue of Liberty in the distant, a small dot watching over New York City.
Suddenly, something appeared in the sky, something that was not supposed to be there. It looked like a bird.
Chandler slightly jumped when he realized it was a plane, and before he had any time to linger on anything, the plane crashed directly into one of the Twin Towers, sending out a cloud of smoke. His heart sank, and he found himself staring.
"No..."
Only one thought went through his mind. Joey.
He nearly dropped the coffee cup on the floor, when he quickly reached in his pocket and slipped his cell phone open, speed dialing Joey.
He kept staring out of the window, waiting. The seconds suddenly felt long.
Pick up, pick up... Please, pick up.
There was a click in the other end of the line.
"You're lucky. We've just fin-"
"Joey? Are you still at the Center?" Chandler didn't take his eyes off the northern tower.
"Yeah?"
"You're not in the northern tower, are you?"
"Nope, south. Why?"
"The..." Chandler had to pull himself together to say the words. "The northern tower... A plane just flew directly into it!"
Joey went silent for a brief moment, probably chocked.
"Tell me you're kidding."
"I'm not kidding!" Chandler almost went angry in a snap.
"I'm just gonna take a look. Hold on..." There was some noise in the background that Chandler couldn't make sense of, but he heard voices. "Oh god..." Joey was back. "What the hell's going on?"
"I don't know. Look, just stay inside-"
"You think I would actually go out there?"
"No, no..." Chandler shook his head. He felt confused. He couldn't believe what he was watching. The beautiful morning sky suddenly had this huge cloud of smoke stuck in the middle of it. This was bad. So many people are stuck up there now...
"Chandler?"
He snapped back to reality when he heard Joey's voice again.
"Sorry, I spaced out for a moment," he said, rubbing his forehead and still not taking his eyes off the building which was so far away. "This is unbelievable..."
Another bird suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and this time Chandler smacked his hand up against the window.
"Oh my god!" He watched as the second plane hit the other tower.
"Shit! What the hell was that?"
Chandler realized Joey was still on the phone.
"Joe, get out of the building!" He felt himself tremble. "Another plane just went into it! Which floor are you on?" His words came out quicker than ever. He just hoped Joey had made sense of them.
"Crap, everything's shaking!"
"Joey, which floor?"
"Um... 61."
By looking at the building, Chandler attempted to reckon up the floors, trying to find out which floor the plane had hit. He knew how many floors those huge towers had.
"Alright, I think it hit above you. I hope it did..."
He heard screams and a lot of noise in Joey's end of the line.
"We were just informed that it hit around 80," Joey then said.
"Oh god, Joe... There's a goddamn burning hole up there! In both of them! Stay on the phone, okay? Don't hang up." Chandler was one wreck of emotions.
"But, Chandler-"
"I'm serious!" he yelled. He couldn't believe that even in a situation like this, Joey still managed to be all stubborn.
"Alright." There was a sigh of frustration. "Damn, people are really starting to freak out..."
Swallowing heavily, Chandler could only just imagine pure chaos. It was surreal to stand there in his quiet office, just watching, listening to all the noise coming out of the cell phone. He cleared his throat when feeling tears in his eyes.
"How are you getting out of there?" he asked, attempting so sound calm.
"Everyone's in panic! I don't think we'll get out of here right away. There's only one staircase. The other one's blocked."
The door to Chandler's office was suddenly opened, and he looked over his shoulder, still keeping the phone close to his ear. One of his colleagues came into the room immediately.
"Have you seen it?" she asked, alarmed.
"Joey, hold on," he said quickly into the phone, then turning to his colleague. "Yeah, I've been watching it all from here."
"I think you should come and take a look at this," she said, leaving on her high heels, and Chandler followed after a brief moment of hesitation.
He felt his stomach curl up, when he watched the TV screen in the hall. In the bottom of the screen there was a sign of NEWS LIVE COVERAGE and the headline World Trade Center, New York. While the main screen was showing constant live pictures of the smoking buildings, the shaky voice-over burst out words. Unusually, the volume of the TV filled the entire room. Everyone covered their mouths, one person being more chocked than the other.
Unintentionally, Chandler had let the phone slide away from his ear. But now he realized that Joey might still be there, and therefore he quickly connected again.
"Joe?"
"Yeah, I'm here." The noise in the background was unbelievable. "I think we're moving!"
"Oh, thank god!" Chandler let out a loud sigh of relief. But he knew that this wasn't over yet. Not at all. "Remember to stay on the phone. I wanna make sure you make it outside."
"Sure."
They both went silent for a moment. Chandler faced the screen.
"Are you watching?" Joey suddenly asked.
"Uh-huh."
"What's it like?"
"You sound very calm. That scares me." Dammit, Joey was up there!
"Crap, there're too many people. The place is totally over-crowded!"
Rubbing his face, Chandler could feel how his heart raced.
"I feel bad, Joe..." The words came out low and a little shaky.
"Hey, everything's gonna be okay."
"I can't believe you're actually saying that. This is not a game! You don't have more than one life here."
"Jeez, I know, okay? I just... I'm trying to keep calm, even though it's pretty hard right now."
"I know, I know." Chandler ran a hand through his hair. "Please just... hurry."
"It'll take a while to get down all these sta- airs! Damn, this is not easy. Move!" Joey sounded frustrated. But who could blame him?
Chandler bit his lip. His palms had started to sweat and his hands were trembling.
"Promise not to hang up. Please." He knew that his voice were full of concern.
"I promise."
Again, Chandler was left with nothing but loud noise.
"You remember where my office is, right?" he asked after a moment.
"Not exactly," Joey answered.
"Okay..." Chandler left his colleagues and went back to his office. "Okay, just move uptown." He reached the window once again and watched the view. "Follow an avenue."
"Got it."
"How far are you from the ground floor?"
"I'm not s- Hey, watch out, man! Jeez..."
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah... Um, I just reached 23."
"Good. That's good." It wasn't good, but Chandler knew that Joey couldn't move faster than he did. He pictured himself in the same situation. He wasn't going to tell him to hurry up more than necessary.
"Have you talked to the others?"
"Not yet. I called you because I knew you were-"
"Maybe you should call them?" Joey's voice had started to get heavy, probably from the running.
"I'm not hanging up on you!" Chandler couldn't believe that Joey was asking him to do such a thing.
In the same moment, the phone in his office rang. He stared at it.
"Hold on," he told Joey before moving to his desk and picking up the phone, letting the other rest in a loose hand.
He didn't even get to say anything, before Monica's voice was there.
"Chandler! Oh, thank god, I'm so glad you picked up. Have you seen it?"
"Yeah... Thanks for calling. How're the others?"
"Rachel, Ross and I are all here. Phoebe's on her way. Are you with Joey?"
Chandler had to take a deep breath before answering.
"No, but I've got him on my cell phone... He's still there."
"Oh god... No wonder that I couldn't reach your cell phone then. How's he holding up? Is he alright?"
"They're on their way down. God, I don't know what to do..." He felt the tears welling up.
"Chandler, listen, he's gonna be okay. I'm sure about that. Hey, 'you wanna come over here and join us? I think it would be the perfect time to... just being together." He could tell that she tried to sound reassuring.
"I'll be there, just not yet. Look, I really have to get back to Joey now."
"Sure. Call us, alright? And tell Joey that... you know."
"I know." He hung up in the same moment and quickly held his cell phone back against his ear.
"I'm here. How's everything?"
"We slowed down for a moment, but we're moving again. I'm at 7 now... I should really start working out a lot more."
Chandler actually found himself smiling a little at that statement. Even in a situation like this, Joey managed to joke around. That was really one of the things that Chandler adored him for.
"Monica told me to say hi. They're all worried about you."
"Did you need to tell them? Now they won't relax for one minute."
"Of course I had to! I couldn't just lie."
"Nah..."
They went silent. Chandler felt the tears again.
"Joey, I love you," he said. He knew it was stupid. It was like an early goodbye. He didn't know why he said it. He just wanted Joey to know.
"And I love you!" He assumed that Joey had to yell the words because of the noise which Chandler was left with once again. Once in a while, he sensed Joey's breathing.
"We made it." The words were music to Chandler. Joey was finally one step closer.
"Great." Again, he found himself just looking at the towers, resting his palm against the window. After a moment, Joey spoke to him again. He sensed sounds of traffic in the background.
"Damn, all traffic has just stopped! Oh my god..."
"What is it?" Chandler leaned more heavily on the phone, looking down.
"It's... Oh shit, Chandler, this is bad!"
"What's wrong?" Chandler stared blankly into the distant.
"There're people jumping up there! Shit! Chandler..." The voice was just pure chocked and lost, cracking in the end.
"Get away from there!" Chandler was almost furious. Not at Joey but just at the world – at the entire situation. "Try to stay calm and start moving!"
"Yeah... Yeah, sure." For the first time, Joey actually sounded panicked.
In the background, Chandler could now hear screams and voices and beeps and sirens from the traffic. On one hand, he was glad that Joey had made it so far. On the other, he suddenly became aware of how far away Joey still was. His fingers curled on the window.
"Joey, keep talking to me," he said. "How's everything down there?"
"It's basically a huge mess."
"I can imagine."
Suddenly, a sound of connecting objects exploded close to the phone.
"OW! Crap! Mmh..."
"Joey? Joey, what happened?" Chandler leaned in, looking at the floor.
"Something... God, something hit me!"
"Are you okay?" His voice cracked slightly.
Joey hissed in the other end of the line.
"I think so... God dammit! I'm bleeding."
"Where're you hurt?" Chandler walked away from the window.
"My- Ngh, my shoulder... It hurts!"
"Remember to keep moving!" The words were almost yelled out. "Don't stop."
"Shit... Mmh..."
Chandler couldn't handle the pained noises. He turned to the window again. Dammit, Joey was out there, hurt and scared and... No, he wouldn't imagine losing Joey. It was too painful. Joey wasn't going to die. Not now, not right there, not in that way.
"Joey, I'm right here with you." He tried to reassure his lover.
"I- I know." There was something in Joey's voice that Chandler didn't hear quite often. It was the voice of pointlessness, exhaustion and defeat.
Chandler's eyes widened suddenly, as the southern tower started collapsing.
"Oh my god! Joey, run!"
"What... Oh god."
"RUN!" Chandler had ended up against the window again. "RUN!" He yelled of his full power, even though he knew that his voice couldn't help Joey.
He listened closely. The screams had suddenly become much louder.
"Joe? Are you there?"
"Chandler!"
"Get into a building!" Chandler screamed. "Doesn't matter which one! Save yourself!" There was a bunch of noises, as he listened closely once again. His eyes were wide open, angst and panic written all over his face.
It happened in a snap. He heard a cough followed by a huge scream of terror. It cut itself into his brain, and he felt his tears spill at last.
"JOEY!"
Side 11 af 11