A/N: It's me again. With another story – Mondler centric with a little bit of R&R and P&M and Joey popping up now and then. It's a little bit AU since Chandler and Monica have biological kids but other that – nothing else has been changed from canon. Please don't let that deter you from reading!
It's going to be different than all the other stories I am in the process of writing. I won't give anything else away – but I will mention that this is probably the most serious thing I've posted up so far.
As usual, reviews are greatly appreciated.
Paper Cranes
Chapter One – Shadows
"Daddy!"
Chandler Bing wearily opened the front door, after a hard day's work at the advertisement agency that he had been working at for the past decade. He was immediately pounced on by two blurs – his twelve year old daughter, and his seven year old son.
"Hey guys, what's up?" Chandler swept both of his offspring in a hug – the traditional greeting ritual that had been established many years ago.
His daughter broke apart from the hug. "You should see what we got rigged up in my room!"
"Yeah!" his son Dan chimed in.
Chandler allowed his children to drag him up the stairs and into his daughter Serena's room. Her room was in tidy order – as befitted a room in Monica's house. It wasn't a typical girl's room, however. Birds were everywhere. Serena had the hugest obsession with her fellow flying creatures ever since she was born. There were scientific posters of birds, models of birds, stuffed animals in the form of every bird you could possibly name and even bird bed-sheets that matched the green bird-adorned curtains.
What was new today in her room was that Serena and Dan had set up an elaborate structure made out of Dan's wooden blocks. On top of the wooden blocks, there were several stuffed animals that were not birds.
"What's this?" Chandler looked at his children inquiringly.
"Watch this!"
Serena pulled out a Y-shaped piece of wood which Chandler could see was a large slingshot. Dan pulled out one of the stuffed Angry Birds toys and handed one to his sister. She pulled back the slingshot and launched her stuffed animal into the blocks. The tower collapsed.
"Don't let your mom see this; she's going to have a fit!" Chandler whispered in his daughter's ear.
"Oh we will clean up, afterwards. Isn't this just like the game you showed me a few days ago?" Serena asked her father.
"Pretty creative guys, but where did you get the slingshot?" Chandler looked at his children sternly.
"We made it!" Dan cried out.
Chandler smiled fondly at both his children. Serena was tall for age, jet black hair – with a mix of both him and Monica. Dan, their second miracle child was sandy-haired, but looked more like Monica.
"There you are! Chandler, don't you ever say hi to your wife anymore when you come home?" Monica teased when she entered Serena's room.
"Sorry honey, I got kidnapped by those marauders right here," Chandler went over to hug and kiss his wife.
"I see, Serena, Daniel – you better clean that mess up!" Monica told both her children after she broke apart from her husband, "And then come down to dinner."
"Kay, mom!" Serena and Dan bent down and started cleaning up the mess in her room.
Monica led her husband out of the room and downstairs to the kitchen, where she had dinner set out.
"Ross, Rachel and Emma are not coming today?" Chandler inquired his wife as he sat down on one of the chairs.
"Nope, Emma's got a doctor's appointment this evening, actually," Monica replied to her husband.
"Is she sick?"
"Yeah, flu-like symptoms," Monica sat herself down beside her husband.
"Well, it is flu season, after all," Chandler remarked.
"We are done cleaning!"
The voices of Serena and Dan could be heard from upstairs – followed by the patter of feet down the stairs and into the kitchen.
"Let's eat then," Monica said as soon as Serena and Dan had found a seat at the table.
They all tucked in – it was delicious like usual. Halfway through the meal Chandler noticed his daughter playing around with the food on her plate.
"Not hungry, Serena?" He looked at his daughter with a little bit of concern.
"Not really," she replied while rolling a pea pod around her plate with her fork.
"Are you feeling well?" Monica asked her daughter with concern.
"Just not hungry," Serena sighed.
"Okay, then just eat as much as you can," Chandler replied.
"Alright, daddy," Serena picked up her fork half-heartedly and took small bites.
After dinner, Chandler helped Monica wash the dishes – like he did every day. His children ran back upstairs to do their respective things.
"They are all growing up. Serena, Daniel, Emma, Zack and Kara," Chandler remarked to his wife over the dishes. Zack and Kara were Phoebe and Mike's two children.
"Yeah, I still remember the day when you were freaking about looking after babies," Monica grinned.
"And now we have two," Chandler dried the plate with a washcloth.
"Yup, how fast time flies. It's amazing how I have everything that I could have ever wanted," Monica sighed.
"What is everything that you've ever wanted?" Chandler asked his wife.
"A big house in the suburbs close to our friends, two awesome kids, being head-chef at Javu..." Monica started to list.
"And?" Chandler looked at her expectantly.
"And the man that can put up with me!" Monica grinned cheekily.
"That's a full time job, mind you," Chandler quipped.
Monica gently hit him on the shoulder.
"Hey!" Chandler yelped, "I should file for spousal abuse!"
Monica merely smiled sweetly at him.
"Serena, you should probably go to bed now. You have school tomorrow," Chandler reminded his daughter for the umpteenth time that night.
"Daddy, did you know that birds evolved from dinosaurs?" Serena disregarded her father's previous statement.
"Really, who told you that?" Chandler looked at his daughter in amusement.
"Uncle Ross! He showed me all the fossils! Something to do with natural selection or something," she replied excitedly, "I can show you!"
Chandler sighed as he looked at his exuberant daughter, who was now combing her bookshelf for a particular book that Ross had given her. She came back with a rather thick book and flipped through the pages until she came to a page with various dinosaur fossils. Chandler leaned over to get a closer look and saw a series of dinosaur fossils that did in fact look more bird-like with each panel.
"See, they even had feathers!" Serena pointed to a picture showing imprints of feathers.
"Very nice," Chandler observed, "Do you know what colour were they?"
"Nope, no one knows, Daddy," Serena sighed before closing her book.
"Maybe one day, you can find out," Chandler placed his arm affectionately around his daughter.
"Maybe, but I like learning about living birds better!" Serena exclaimed, "Can I have a birdie of my own, someday?"
"Sure, if you can convince your mother. I don't think something that sheds feathers and leaves poo in a cage is something that your mommy would like," Chandler replied, "Off to bed now."
"Kay. Good night, Daddy!" Serena obediently crawled beneath her green sheets and snuggled under them.
"Good night to you too, see you tomorrow," Chandler watched his daughter for a moment before tucking the blankets around her more tightly and planted a kiss on her forehead. He then closed the lights and shut the door, quietly.
When Chandler returned home the next day, he was only greeted by his son at the door. He picked up Daniel and swung him around in a circle before inquiring.
"Where's your sister, Dan?"
"She's got the fever. Mommy won't let her out of bed," Daniel replied.
"Honey!" Chandler called out for Monica. A few seconds later, Chandler saw Monica descending the steps of the staircase.
"Chandler! Serena's got the fever!" Monica exclaimed.
Chandler looked worried. "How high?"
"One-hundred and two, she started burning up about an hour ago," Monica replied rather quietly.
"It's probably the flu," Chandler sighed, "She probably caught what Emma caught."
"I hope so," Monica replied, "But it just seems so odd – she doesn't have any other problems."
"Maybe they will come later," Chandler answered, "She's hasn't been sick in years!"
"That's true," Monica gave her husband a small smile.
"Is she awake?"
"Yeah, she's probably waiting for you. I have to start dinner," Monica gave her husband a quick peck before heading off to the kitchen.
"Serena, I am home," Chandler sat beside his daughter's still-form on the bed.
"Daddy," she whispered weakly.
"Are you feeling any better?"
"Yeah, mom gave me the Advil. I feel a lot better now," she replied, still huddled in her bunched up blankets.
"So what did you do at school today?" Chandler inquired.
"We built a snowman today – but it's kinda weird that Emma wasn't there." Serena replied.
Emma and Serena were best of friends – Emma being almost a year older than Serena. They went to the same school and did practically everything together.
"I also learned how to reduce fractions, how to tell between different kinds of trees and how to make a paper crane today too." Serena continued.
"A paper crane?" Chandler looked surprised.
"Yeah, my friend who is Japanese showed me how."
"You could teach me, when you get better," Chandler smiled.
"Yeah, I could," Serena grinned, "I wish I could get out of bed."
"Well, soon you can. Rest now," Chandler brushed a stray hair aside from his daughter's face before heading back downstairs.