Recovering the Satellites
Chapter Four
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5 or 6 chapters? Ha, I'm such a liar….
~.~Flashforward~.~
Chandler smiled as he left his office, waving goodbye to his friend Tom, who was on the phone in the cubicle beside him, before heading to the stairs, and then towards his apartment. He grinned as he walked outside, because although he had lived there for nearly three years, the 70-degree-weather in late February still made him smile, and he didn't even mind trading the snow for the rain. Although he had ended up in San Diego purely on a whim, once he spent a week there, he fell in love with the city. Through connections with someone his mom knew, he even got a job as a columnist for a less prominent paper, but after he'd been writing there for about six months, someone from the Union-Tribune, who had been following his column, offered him a column once a week to cover for another columnist who was cutting back to spend more time with her family. He was told that if it went well, the job would be his full-time, every day, after a year.
It went well. Although he didn't have as much journalism experience as they usually looked for, he had a knack for it, and the readers loved him. And, along with the city, he fell in love with the job and the people he worked with, something he never, ever in his life thought possible. And, after he was asked to stay on full-time with the paper, he even used half of the money he had saved up as a down payment for a condo in the Gaslight District. And, once again, he fell in love with it all. His neighbors were a couple also in their early thirties, and after discovering how horrible their mailman was at reading the apartment number next to the address and numerous trips trading mail back and forth, he eventually made friends with both of them, and they tried relentlessly to set him up with women. He would sometimes concede, sometimes shake his head fiercely at the suggestions of their friends whom he had gotten to know as well after hanging out with them for the past couple of years.
"Hey, Max," Chandler smiled as he opened the door, his neighbor stepping out as he walked into the building.
"Hey! What're you doing tonight? Laure's having a 'girl's night' tonight at our place, so I'm meeting a few of the guys for drinks. Wanna come?"
"I dunno, I still have this column to finish," Chandler shrugged, heading towards the stairs.
"Then stay away from me! I don't wanna be your latest topic," Max laughed. "Give me a call if you change your mind!" he added, and let the door close behind him as Chandler nodded after him.
Chandler climbed the four flights of stairs, smiling at Laure, who was letting a few of her girlfriends Max had mentioned in, before unlocking his own door. He sighed as he dropped his bag, hitting the flashing light on his answering machine. Only one person ever called him at home…Well, two people if you included his mom.
Chandler Bing, this is quite the game of phone tag, Rachel's voice cut into the silence of the room, causing Chandler to smile. I think-I think we're going on five days now, which is getting pretty ridiculous. Anyway, since I'm apparently never actually going to get a hold of you, by cell phone, home phone, or work phone, I have a conference I'm going to in L.A. on Friday morning, so I'm flying in Thursday night, and I thought, hey, while I'm out there, guess who I haven't seen in almost three years? Anyway, give me a call back, or else, well, I'll just show up there Friday night either way. Oh, and your column this morning? Cracked me up. Like, coffee out my nose cracked me up. Anyway, give me a call back, and I look forward to probably talking to your voicemail again tomorrow after receiving your voicemail, and to hopefully seeing you this weekend. Bye!
Chandler laughed, leaning against the counter, his smile slowly fading to a frown. God, he hadn't been back home in three years. He'd seen Joey, once, on a trip he made to shoot a pilot of an ill-fated TV show, but it had been awkward and uncomfortable, and Chandler had wished he had gone home to see Joey earlier. Joey hadn't spoken to Chandler for months after he left, and Rachel said to just give him some space, but it turned out that giving him space made him think Chandler cared about him even less. Eventually, they did speak occasionally, but it was forced. It wasn't the same. If Chandler had to name his biggest regret about leaving New York, it had been how he'd left his relationship with Joey. He'd spoken to Phoebe a couple of times when she had, for some reason or another, answered Rachel's phone, but he got the underlying sense that she hadn't quite forgiven him for hurting Joey like that. Or Monica. Mostly Joey it seemed, though.
Rachel, however, he talked to multiple times a week. She had understood his need to leave, and in the rough few months when he was making the transition and figuring out his new life, she had become his confidant, even if she was on the other side of the country. Monica, through hurt or anger or whatever, had never quite forgiven Rachel, and Ross stood by that decision. Though after some time they did start speaking again, it wasn't the same. They were nowhere near best friends. Probably more like acquaintances than friends at all, actually. Ross was even worse than Monica, and since Rachel was still talking to Chandler, he refused to even speak to her. He didn't understand how Rachel could still talk to him after everything he put Monica through.
Rachel probably couldn't name more than maybe two times in the past few years that the five of them had all gotten together. After Chandler left, it was just never the same. Feelings were hurt and grudges were held, and the Geller stubbornness seemed to be in the middle of the action.
Sighing, Chandler walked over to his nearly-empty refrigerator and stared into it for a few moments before closing the door again. It was very clear that he was a guy living alone. He flipped his cell phone open, then shut. He needed to call Rachel back. Although he was happier in all aspects of his life than he could remember ever being before, he couldn't help but worry that seeing Rachel again would bring up some form of regret of everything he left behind, as well as guilt for everything Rachel went through after she "sided" with him. God, he missed her, though. He talked to her all the time, but he missed actually seeing her, which seemed ironic in hindsight, because, although they had their moments, she hadn't been anywhere near his closest friend in New York. Chandler again flipped open his cell phone, deciding that, since he had nothing to eat and too much on his mind that he didn't want to write about, he'd might as well go out with the guys for awhile.
"Max? Hey, where'd you end up going?" he asked, struggling to hear him over the background noise. "Yea, I decided to procrastinate a bit and come grab a beer and some food," he paused, listening to Max's reply. "'K, see you in a bit, man."
Chandler hung up the phone, heading back to the door before scrolling down to Rachel's name. He laughed when he got her voicemail; this phone tag game was never ending.
"Rachel Karen Green, I get the feeling you're avoiding me," he began, again awkwardly waving to the girls entering the apartment across the hall as he left since he had been set up with all three of them at some point in time by Laure. "Anyway, where are you flying into Thursday? If you're flying in here I can pick you up, maybe go grab dinner or something? If not, I'll see you Friday for sure. Oh, do you wanna stay here for the weekend? I only have one bedroom, but I do have a couch, which, as a gentleman, I wouldn't let you sleep on anyway. But, anyway, I look forward to your voicemail later tonight or, most likely, while I'm in the middle of a meeting tomorrow. See ya this weekend, Rach," he laughed, hanging up the phone as he headed back out the door of the building, heading in the direction of the bar where he was meeting Max.
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I know I just skipped over three years, but it will ALL be explained, so don't freak out on me, haha. And now, in hindsight, I'm not so sure that I like that I moved forward in time and plan on telling the rest of Chandler's story through flashbacks, but it's what I'd originally set this up to do, and I don't have the time to completely reorganize this right now. And…I don't want this to be a 30 chapter fic, ha. So, when I said I hadn't originally had the last chapter in here, I meant I hadn't had it where I placed it, but had planned it as a flashback, but I decided that I needed it to set Chandler's mood immediately after leaving, so ended up putting it before this chapter.
Phew. That was quite the run-on sentence. Anyway, continue reviewing, my four loyal reviewers :) (and anyone else who would like to make my day :) )