A/N: This is my first missing moment story surrounding Chandler and Monica trying to have kids and eventually adopting Jack and Erica. I'm going to write at least three or four of these on this whole thread, but we'll see if I end up with more. As always, thanks for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and suggesting new one-shot ideas. You all are the best!
Disclaimer: I don't own Friends, but some dialogue is taken from "TOW Rachel Has the Baby."
Chandler smiled to himself in the hospital waiting room. Rachel had already been in labor for over two hours, and he, Monica, Joey, and Phoebe hadn't heard anything from Ross, or anyone else, that suggested that the baby would be coming any time soon.
Despite the very long and generally boring period of waiting, Chandler was happy. He thought back to the last time he was at the hospital waiting for another friend to have a baby. It had been Phoebe with Frank and Alice's triplets, and, despite baby Chandler being a girl, adult Chandler had pretty good memories of that day.
He and Monica had only been together for a couple weeks at that point, not even Joey knowing about them, so Rachel had set up Monica with an attractive male nurse. Chandler remembered how hurt he had felt when he had heard that Monica had a date, but he had just tried to shrug it off and act like what he had with Monica wasn't that big a deal. Monica had gotten upset with him, and they had argued, but it had all worked out in the end. He remembered their conversation in a hallway where he had given Monica a definition of "goofing around" that let her know that what they had was something that really mattered to him and that he really liked being with her. And Monica's response had let him know that she felt the same way. Up until that point their relationship had been entirely sneaking around and sleeping together as often as possible, but that conversation at the hospital had been the first step toward a real, lasting relationship. And now here they were, back again and still together.
Chandler glanced up from the magazine he wasn't really reading to look at his wife in the chair across from him. He wondered if the Chandler at the hospital back then would have believed it if he were told that he would marry Monica. Chandler thought that past Chandler might think that would be too good to be true, while at the same time making some joke about his fear of commitment. But, as Chandler thought about it for another moment, he realized that maybe that Chandler from nearly four years ago would have believed it. There was one other moment from that trip to the hospital that Chandler remembered particularly happily.
Phoebe had had all the triplets without problem, and all of the gang except Rachel had gone back to see the babies. Monica was holding one of the girls as Chandler stood beside her stroking the baby's head. She had started tearing up as she stared down at little Leslie or Chandler – they never actually had found out which one it was – and Chandler had imagined, just for a moment, that this was he and Monica's baby, that they had stayed together and gotten married and had their own little girl. And Chandler had smiled because that had sounded like a pretty great future. Of course he hadn't even been close to ready for something like that back then, but that had been the first time he had ever really thought about it.
He had considered a future with Janice at one point, and with Kathy, but with Monica it was different. It was with Monica, so any future he had thought about had automatically meant more.
Chandler shook his head, smiling to himself at the thought of the days back before he knew for sure that being with Monica for the rest of his life was what he really wanted. They'd been married for a year already, and everything had really been great for them. They had their little disagreements and off-days, but he loved her now even more than he had when he married her, and he was sure that tomorrow he would love her even more than that.
He thought again of Monica holding the little baby girl at the hospital almost four years before. That's what he wanted now. Their own little baby Bing.
They had always talked about having kids someday, and he'd been thinking about it for a while now. He and Monica worked really well together; they could definitely handle it. He wasn't sure he would be the greatest dad at first, but he knew he would be able to figure it out. And Monica, of course, was more than ready to be a mom. She was a great aunt to Ben, and Chandler knew she would be wonderful with Rachel and Ross's little baby girl, but the next step was one of their own. It just made sense.
Chandler blinked and turned his attention back to his magazine.
"Honey," Monica said across from him a few minutes later.
Chandler looked up. "Yeah?"
Monica got up and walked over to him. "Listen, uh, I've been doing some thinking, and I don't know whether it's because we here or because Rachel's giving birth, but, um, I think we should try to have a baby."
Chandler stared at her for a moment, pleased that Monica was on board. "Okay." He turned back to his magazine. He knew they would have to discuss it further, but sitting in a waiting room with Joey and Phoebe didn't seem to be the most appropriate time to do that.
Monica seemed confused. "Wha– what's that now?"
Chandler turned back to her. "Okay. I've been thinking about it, too, and I think we're ready," he elaborated, nodding at his wife.
Monica stood up, clearly getting worked up over Chandler's response. "Wha–? Are you kidding me? You– you think we're ready to have a baby? Now?" Apparently Chandler's "okay" wasn't the response she had been looking for.
"Oh, this is fun!" said Phoebe, smiling, evidently enjoying herself.
Monica turned from Chandler to Phoebe, her mouth open, clearly shocked.
"You're ready to have a baby?" Joey said, grinning as he lightly tapped Chandler's arm. "My boy's all grown up!" He clapped Chandler on the back.
"And you said you were ready too," Chandler said to Monica, trying to figure out why she was acting so weirdly about him being okay with having a baby.
"Yeah, but I was just screwing with you," Monica almost squeaked in a very high pitched voice, "to try to get your voice all high and weird like… mine is now."
Chandler stared at his wife as he stood up. "Yes, but haven't you wanted a kid, like, forever?" Monica had wanted to be a mom for as long as he could remember. He wasn't sure why him being fine with the idea had caused this reaction from her.
"Yeah, but no one ever wanted to have one with me!" she replied, her voice still pitched higher than usual. "I mean, now I could just have a baby if I want to? What are you doing to me?"
Chandler gave her a weird look, but decided it would be best for him to just back down. "I'm… sorry I brought it up?"
"Yeah," Monica replied. "Okay then, back off mister." She shooed him away with her hand.
He sat back in his chair, but continued staring at her, confused.
"Cause I am ready to have a baby," she continued, her arms folded, "I just want Joey to be the father."
Chandler narrowed his eyes at her, but then momentarily grew concerned at the seriousness of his wife's expression.
"WHAT?" Joey cried next to him. "Are you crazy?"
"That's it, right there, that's all I wanted!" Monica said pointing at Joey and sitting down, as Joey continued to stare at her, worried.
Chandler stared at her for a moment, too, trying to figure out what was going on with Monica. Had his being afraid to have kids too quickly made Monica think that it would be ages before he wanted them, or did she actually feel like she wasn't ready yet? Chandler didn't understand it. They needed to talk. Chandler shrugged it off for a moment and returned to his magazine, but then stopped, turning to Joey. If she thought she was going to freak him out by talking about having a baby, maybe he could do the same to her. He grinned to himself. Oh, this is gonna be funny.
Monica sat in a chair in the hospital waiting room staring into space, not seeing anything. How could Chandler suddenly be okay with having a baby? Monica thought. We're not ready for that! How could we be ready for that? Sure, she and Chandler had talked about having kids, even right after they had gotten engaged he had said that he wanted four: a boy, twin girls, and another boy. But anytime they had talked about kids it had only been as a part of a hypothetical "future" that they assumed would come someday, though the actual time of this "someday" was never specified. And now, suddenly, this hypothetical future day could be today? This was all too fast for Monica.
"Monica," Chandler said across from her.
She looked over at her husband.
Chandler cradled his magazine like it was a child and started making baby noises.
"Okay," Monica said, putting her hands up and turning her head away from Chandler. "Alright, stop it. You're freaking me out!"
Chandler and Joey started laughing like gleeful children, as Joey encouraged him to "do it again."
Suddenly Ross burst through the door. "Hey! Rachel had the baby!"
The entire gang that was in the waiting room stood up in one motion.
"REALLY?" Monica cried excitedly.
"No," Ross admitted. "I don't know why I thought that'd be funny." He scratched his head and then pointed to Monica. "You said hi to mom before she left, right?"
"I thought that was her!" Monica said, annoyed, recalling a woman earlier fleeing the waiting room quickly before Monica could catch her. "Yeah, I called her name, and she ducked into a stairwell!"
"Well, you know what? Consider yourself lucky," Ross replied, obviously upset by something. "Okay, she pulled me out of the labor room to ask me why I'm not with Rachel."
Monica, Phoebe, Chandler, and Joey all looked down at the ground, trying to look sympathetic, but Monica, at least, didn't think their mother was really out of line asking that question at all.
"Why aren't you with Rachel?" Phoebe asked finally.
"I– you're kidding right?" Ross replied. "Look, we're not gonna get together just because we're having this baby, and I know she's just some girl I humped."
Joey interrupted him, questioning his word choice.
"But you know it just seems that you two belong together," Phoebe said, and Monica agreed with her.
"Okay, stop it. I can't deal with this right now. I have to go have a baby." Ross turned and began to walk out of the room.
"Right, and with who again?" Phoebe continued to press him, clearly not going to let the subject drop.
As he finally left the waiting room, Joey spoke. "He's crazy! Why doesn't he want to be with Rachel?"
"I know!" Monica replied, sadly.
Joey began going on about how perfect Rachel was until he realized what he was saying and stopped, instead turning back to his magazine.
"I'm gonna go take a walk," Chandler said, putting down his magazine and standing up.
Monica watched him leave, her thoughts returning to them having a baby. Of course she wanted one. Chandler was right; she had always wanted one.
She thought back about seven years to another day when she and her friends had sat around a hospital waiting room as her brother had a different baby with a different woman.
All around her had been babies, and she had wanted nothing more than to have one of her own. She remembered complaining to Chandler about it multiple times over the course of the several hours they sat around at the hospital. He had assured her that she'd get a baby and then offered to have one with her if they were both unmarried by the time they turned 40. Monica had interrogated him about why she would ever still be single when she was 40 instead of thanking him, but, after the fact, Monica had really appreciated the gesture. Chandler had been such a great friend to her, and she knew that she was so incredibly lucky to have gotten to marry him.
He's gonna be a really great dad, she thought to herself. Maybe we really should talk about this.
Monica stood up, turning to Joey and Phoebe. "I'm gonna go see what Chandler's up to," she said, walking out the same door her husband had gone through several minutes before.
When Chandler had left the waiting room, he had wandered down a few hallways and ended up in front of the window to the room where many of the hospital's newborn babies were sleeping in their little beds. Each one had a tiny hat, pink or blue, and they were all swaddled in white blankets.
Chandler stared down at them, lost in thought. He put his finger up to the glass, as though to stroke the cheek of one of the tiny people in the other room. Wouldn't it be so wonderful to have one of these little guys with Monica? Chandler thought to himself. For years he had been terrified of being as bad of a parent as his parents had been to him, but now he knew that he would love that little baby so much and work as hard as he could to be a great dad. He had worried about his marriage to Monica actually working out, but it had been a year, and everything was fine; he knew that he could do this too. He loved Monica more than anything in the entire world, and he knew that a baby should be the next step for them, but, if she wasn't ready, it didn't have to be right now. He was just glad that she knew that he was ready for this.
"Oh good God!" Monica's voice came from behind him as he turned around. "If you want a baby so bad, just go steal it!"
The woman taking care of the babies in the next room gave Chandler and Monica a horrified look.
"Oh no," Chandler called to the woman, backing away from the window, "these babies are far too ugly for us." He took Monica by the shoulder and pushed her lightly down the hallway away from the babies and the distraught looking woman.
"What is going on with you?" she asked him, seriously. "Since when are you so crazy about babies?"
Chandler stared back at her, answering honestly. "I'm not crazy about babies. I'm crazy about us."
A pleased smiled appeared on Monica's face. "What?"
"Look," he began, "we've always talked about having babies someday, and I'm not saying it has to be right now, but I'm starting to think that we can handle it." He smiled at her. "We're good. We're really good." He leaned over and kissed her.
"We are pretty good," she said in reply, still smiling.
"But nothing has to happen until you're ready," Chandler said, reassuringly, trying to be sure not to pressure her.
Monica took a deep breath and shrugged slightly. "Well maybe I am ready now, I mean it's a little scary, but maybe it's right."
Chandler jumped at the opportunity. "WHAT! It's not RIGHT! We're not ready to have a kid NOW!"
"WHAT?" Monica exclaimed, looking at him, upset.
"I'm kidding," Chandler said, his voice returning to its normal tone and volume. "This is gonna be fun."
Monica looked at him exasperatedly for the briefest of moments before smiling. "So, we're gonna try? I mean, we're trying?" She wrapped one arm around his neck and the other behind his back.
"We're trying to get pregnant," Chandler affirmed, smiling at his wonderful wife as he leaned in to kiss her.
Chandler was incredibly happy. The idea of kids wasn't just some hypothetical thing for "someday" anymore; it was actually going to happen. They were going to try to have a baby, and Chandler knew he had never loved Monica more.
A/N: Thank you so much for reading, and review are so appreciated!