Thank you guys for all the reviews! You seriously have no idea how happy they make me to read.

I would just like to take a moment to apologize to anyone reading either of my other two stories for how long it's been taking me to update them. The way I write my stories is I have three Word documents open all the time on my computer, and I write in whichever story I feel like writing at the moment. Since I've been getting so many ideas for this story and very few for my other two, then I've been able to update this one a little quicker. I am striving, however, to work more evenly on each story so that their updates come more regularly.

Another reason why I find this story easier to update quickly than the others is because of all the feedback I've been getting for it. It seems fairly popular and, based on reviews, fairly loved. If you don't write stories yourself, you have no idea how encouraging a simple review is to work on the next update.

I really don't want to hold you guys up any longer reading this explanation and excuse stuff. I just want to get on with the story. I think you guys are going to like this chapter. It's a little longer than the past two, but it's also much more eventful. I couldn't help but make it as long as it is, yet I still had to break it up into two parts.

Anyway, without further ado, here is Chapter Three – Age Two (2006) – Part One. (Dang, that's a long title.) I hope you guys enjoy!

May 6, 2006

2:56 P.M.

Monica had never anticipated the second birthday of her young children, Jack and Erica Bing, going so horribly, horribly wrong. How could she have seen it coming? The doctor had said that Anna's twins weren't due for another two weeks. Why did it have to work out this way?

Though, she had to admit, there was some good to the situation. It wasn't like it would be all bad to have all four of her children celebrating their birthdays on the same day. In fact, it even sounded kind of fun. It would make May sixth just that much more special.

Plus, would her two-year-olds even remember this birthday anyway?

No, Monica told herself with bitter sarcasm. They won't remember the most mentally scarring day of their lives. No, they won't remember their own parents abandoning them on their birthday. She had to take a deep breath as she once again felt tears prick her eyes. Stop thinking like that, Monica. Those thoughts aren't going to fix anything. Just stop.

Noticing her sorrow, Chandler reached for her hand and squeezed it comfortingly. His soft touch caused a smile to involuntarily crease her lips. He smiled back.

"Jack and Erica are going to be fine," he said in a soft, soothing voice.

She nodded her head. Her smile faded for a moment but quickly returned. "That's what I keep telling myself." As her loving husband pulled her into a hug, she couldn't help but recap in her mind every little detail of what had gone wrong today that had caused them to wind up in their current situation.

May 6, 2006

9:33 A.M.

"Jack! Erica!" Monica called upstairs to her now two-year-old children. "Breakfast!" Within seconds, the twins were hurried on their little feet down the steps as fast as their new-to-running-and-using-stairs legs could carry them. Monica cringed slightly at the thought of one of them tripping and tumbling down, but she knew deep down that they would be fine and that she was just being one of those overly-protective mothers. When they reached the bottom of the steps, she bent down and pulled them both into a hug. "Happy birthday, my little bunnies!"

Jack hugged back, but Erica pulled away. "Where's Daddy?"

Monica's smile dropped slightly, but she willed herself to bring it back. "I'm sorry, honey, but he's at work. As soon as he gets home, though, he'll be ready for your party."

Jack pulled out of the hug as well now. "Uncle Joey?" he asked.

"Yes, Uncle Joey is coming," Monica replied. She loved that her children were now old enough to fully communicate. Now, they were less of babies and more of miniature people. They had their own personalities and differentiating appearances. Erica now had short black hair, which oddly reminded Monica of when she herself used to cut her hair short. Jack finally had enough of his brown curls that he no longer looked so bald. And they both still had Monica's eyes—even if it wasn't possible. By this point, there was little chance their eye color would change, especially since it hadn't changed even slightly since the day they were born.

"Yay!" Jack and Erica simultaneously shouted with glee, causing Monica to chuckle.

"Come on guys," she said to her twins, waving them into the kitchen. "Let's go get some food in you two."

"Yay!" they cheered once again in unison. Monica had promised to make a special birthday breakfast for them, and she had delivered. As the twins ran into the kitchen, they found two towering stacks of chocolate chip pancakes waiting for them on the table.

The two-year-olds stood wide-eyed as they stared at their breakfast. Jack pointed a shaky finger toward the table and asked with the slightest quiver in his voice, "Can we?"

Monica nodded and smiled. "Go ahead. Eat up."

Two huge grins broke out on two adorable faces. The twins were just learning the concept of favorites, and as of now, pancakes were their favorite food. They ran up to the table and took their respective seats. Monica helped them pour on syrup and cut their pancakes, but she let them take over in the eating process in which they clumsily moved their forks from the plate to pick up a bite of pancake to their mouths to eat it. Erica seemed to be getting the hang of utensil-use better than Jack, but Monica knew he would catch up soon enough. After all, they were still only two, and barely two.

Deciding to give them some independence, Monica moved away from the table. What was the worst that could happen anyway? Jack spills some syrup on himself? Monica chuckled at the thought. Having kids really helped her change her obsessive cleaning habits. She had gotten used to the house being a little more of a mess. Some things still bothered her, but she didn't let the little things get to her. In her two years of parenthood, she had learned to fully accept the fact that her children would leave toys around the house, that they would make messes, that not everything could be perfectly and completely clean and organized all the time.

As she heard the phone ringing from the living room, Monica darted for it and checked the caller ID. She felt her heart drop. Swallowing hard, she pressed TALK. She held the phone up to her ear and braced herself for the news.

"Hello?" she asked, her voice trembling slightly at the thought of all the possibilities of why she was receiving a call from the hospital.

"Hello," a woman on the other end replied with a sense of urgency in her voice. "Are you Mrs. Bing?"

"Y—yes," Monica answered. "Why? What's wrong?" Her mind raced with questions, but she was too much of in a haze to recognize any of them. All the words seemed to blend together in her brain to the point of being indecipherable.

"It's Anna," the voice answered.

Monica's blood ran cold. Anna was the mother of the twins Monica and Chandler were to be adopting. She was due in just two weeks. Well, at least that was the plan.

"What about Anna?" Monica asked, no longer caring how high-pitched and worried her voice sounded. Jack and Erica were probably too distracted by their pancakes to notice their mother panicking in the other room.

"She just went into labor."

May 6, 2006

10:14 A.M.

Monica had initially been relieved at the news. Anything was better than finding out something had happened to her babies. But the closer she came to the hospital during the taxi ride there, the more she thought over how terrible this situation really was.

When the cab stopped in front of the hospital, Monica paid the driver and stepped out, her legs suddenly feeling too weak to walk. Could there be a better way to ruin a child's birthday than by having both their parents gone all day? Monica had called Ross and Rachel to watch the twins, so at least they still had some company and could play with Emma. Sadly, Ben was with Carol and Susan this week. Not that Monica thought Jack and Erica would want to hang out with a nine-year-old anyway.

Once Monica finally built up the courage to go inside, she entered the hospital and walked up to the front desk. Before she could ask anything, however, Chandler appeared next to her. She immediately wrapped her arms around him.

"How long have you been here?" Monica asked her husband.

"Only, like, ten minutes," he replied.

"Have you had a chance to see Anna yet?" She stepped back out of the hug slightly so she could more easily speak to him.

Chandler shook his head. "No. I figured I may as well wait for you." He paused, thinking. "Who's watching the twins?"

"I called Ross and Rachel," Monica answered. "I told Jack and Erica I would be back in time for their party, and I sure hope that's true."

"We'll be back in time," Chandler reassured her. He glanced at his watch. "It's not even ten-thirty yet, and the party isn't until tonight."

"Do you remember when Rachel was in labor with Emma?" Monica reminded him.

"This isn't going to take two days. The universe has screwed things up for us enough. We deserve for this to go right." He gave her a warm smile, and she couldn't help but smile back. "I just have a feeling the universe is going to lay off, at least for today."

Monica stroked his arm. "Okay. You're probably right." She took a deep breath to calm her nerves. "Let's go see Anna."

May 6, 2006

10:36 A.M.

By the time Monica and Chandler had found Anna's room information and actually physically found her room, Monica was shaking with worry. Chandler continuously fed her reassuring comments of how everything was going to be alright, but she wasn't buying it.

Chandler was right in saying that the universe had a tendency to mess things up for them, especially when it came to children. First with Chandler being afraid of the whole idea of being a parent in itself. Then, when he finally agreed, when he was finally ready, they found out they couldn't even have kids. And then the adoption agency mixed up their files, almost leaving them childless once again. Finding out they were having twins nearly caused Chandler to freak. He had actually considered splitting them up.

And now this.

Now that they finally had the children they had wanted for so damn long, the universe was determined to ruin it for them. Both possibilities at this point seemed like bad alternatives. Either Anna's labor was a slow one, causing Monica and Chandler to miss Jack and Erica's second birthday, or the new twins were born today, leaving Monica and Chandler with babies to take care of instead of being able to celebrate their children's birthday, which would also mean that all four kids would have to share a birthday. Monica figured it had to be bad enough already to share a birthday with a twin—she had heard plenty from Phoebe—but with three other siblings? Way to make a person's birthday not special to them at all.

Taking notice to her distress, Chandler wrapped an arm around her. "Come on," he said gently. "Let's go inside." Monica nodded. He opened the door to Anna's room and stepped inside, Monica following reluctantly behind.

Inside the room lay a woman in her early twenties with sandy brown hair and blue eyes in a hospital bed. She had a very significant bump in her stomach area. A doctor and two nurses surrounded the bed. Seeing Monica and Chandler approaching, the nurses walked off, and the doctor gave them some room.

Monica and Chandler stood to the right of Anna's bed to speak to her.

"Wow. That looks painful," Chandler commented.

Monica elbowed him slightly. "What did we agree?" she asked sternly.

"I don't talk unless absolutely necessary," Chandler muttered.

"More specifically?" Monica inquired.

"I'm not allowed to bring up the pain of pregnancy, labor, or childbirth," he replied. "Nor am I allowed to make comparisons to the pain of pregnancy, labor, or childbirth."

"Oh," Monica said with a sense of sarcasm in her tone. "You do remember the rule."

"Sorry," Chandler murmured.

Speaking now to Anna, Monica asked, "How's it going?"

"Well, Chandler was right in that this is very, very painful," Anna replied. "But, on the bright side, I know it only gets worse from here on out."

"That's the spirit," Chandler remarked.

"Anything we can do for you?" Monica asked.

"No, I'm fine," Anna said. "They actually said it's going to be a fairly slow labor, so yippee!"

"If that sarcasm gets passed along to the babies, they'll never even suspect they were adopted," Chandler pointed out.

"I think it's just the pregnancy talking," Anna replied with a shrug. "So, you don't plan to tell the twins they're adopted?"

"We decided against it," Monica said. "If that's alright with you, I mean."

"Yeah, sure. That's fine," she said. "I would prefer it that way anyway. I don't want the kids wondering where their real mommy is."

Monica's expression dropped. "I'm sorry you have to give them up."

"It's okay. I probably wouldn't have been that great of a mother anyway. Plus, you guys seem like amazing parents based on what your kids say about you."

Monica's eyes lit up at that statement. "What have they said about us?"

"Well, I know Erica once called you 'the best mommy ever'," Anna replied to Monica. Then, to Chandler, "And I believe Jack said you were 'cool and funny'."

"I'm cool?" Chandler questioned. "My son thinks I'm cool?"

Monica chuckled.

"By the way—just wondering," Anna began, "How exactly did you explain to your kids that I'm pregnant with their new brother and sister?"

Monica answered. "The way we described it to them, we made it sound like you're a surrogate."

"Way easier than giving them 'the talk'," Chandler commented.

"I would imagine so," Anna agreed with a laugh. The laughter suddenly stopped when she looked to be in serious pain. "Ow, ow, ow!" After a couple seconds, she took a deep breath. "Damn those contractions," she muttered.

"Are you sure you don't need anything?" Monica asked again.

"No, really, I'm fine," Anna replied. "The contractions aren't all that bad. They're fairly far apart right now, so that's good, I suppose."

"You suppose?" Chandler questioned.

"Well, yeah," Anna answered. "Like I said, it's gonna be a slow labor."

"How slow?" Monica asked with a barely recognizable quiver in her voice. She strained to keep her pitch level.

"We're not really sure," the doctor—a woman who looked to be in her mid-forties—cut in, overhearing the conversation. "It's hard to tell at this point."

"Can you at least make a guess?" Monica half-begged. "A couple hours? A couple days? What is it?"

The doctor chuckled slightly as she spoke. "I doubt it'll be a couple days. A good number of hours, yes, but nothing more than a day, I'm sure."

Monica swallowed in an unsuccessful attempt to clear the lump in her throat. "Well . . . goody," she said, running both hands through her raven-black hair.

Chandler wrapped his arms around her. "Hey," he whispered calmingly in her ear. "Hey, it's—"

"Don't tell me it's okay, because it's not okay!" Monica snapped, pulling away from him. "Just . . . just stop. Okay, Chandler? Just stop!"

"Stop?" Chandler questioned, drawing back at his wife's sudden outburst. "Stop what?"

"Stop . . . stop telling me everything's going to be alright, because it's not. I know it's not. I'm not fooled, Chandler."

"I'm not trying to fool you," Chandler defended.

"Just stop," Monica repeated. She suddenly started moving toward the door. Chandler tried grabbing her arm to halt her, but to no avail. She simply shoved him off, shooting him another "just stop", and stormed out of the room.

Whoa, Monica! What's wrong?

What will happen next? Will Jack and Erica's party be ruined?

You'll have to wait to find out.

I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, and if you're really enjoying the story in general so far, then you might want to read the following message. I'm posting the message at the bottom of the next chapter for all three of my stories.

This is an opportunity for those who are fans of any of my three stories. If you PM me or write in your review of this chapter stating which story you would like to follow updates of, then I will PM you with what will most likely be daily updates of how I'm progressing with writing the next chapter. Details such as the number of words I've written that day, hints at what's in store for the next chapter, and even sneak peaks at a paragraph or two of the next chapter will be included in these messages.

Once again, if you are interested, all you have to do is write a review for this chapter or send me a PM stating which story or stories you wish to follow the updates of.

I hope at least one person decides to follow my story updates. I will very much enjoy informing you guys of what's next to come. ;)