A/N: Hey guys it's your (least) favourite writer back, just to say that with the last chapter that I posted in this trilogy, I was so pleasantly surprised by the insanely good feedback it received so thank you so much. I had many doubts about making sure that what I wrote was not cringy or melodramatic, so I really hope that it stays that way. I am excited to bring you the fourth chapter in the Phoebe and Mike book, which pretty much picks up from where the Roschel one left off. Also, I have decided to change up the chapter algorithm as, even though the last chapter in this specific book had been from Phoebe's point of view, it would only be logical in moving the storyline ahead to have this chapter also be from her instead of Mike. All that being said, and a friendly reminder that I would appreciate you guys' to leave any thoughts or suggestions that you have as a review, let's continue on to the chapter:

Chapter 4 – Phoebe

"Hope these are okay," Mike said, as he bought over a plate of blueberry pancakes that he had made for our breakfast to the table.

The kids were upstairs and had already eaten, so Mike and I had taken the chance to have breakfast as a couple, as we didn't often get the chance to be alone at this time of day. I looked up and met Mike's gaze as he sat down next to me. "They're wonderful, as usual," I say, and Mike grins happily back. Sometimes I wonder why he even has to have me reassure him his cooking is good, since me and the twins are always asking for more, but he's too humble to admit it.

"Have you heard much from the others since the weekend?" Mike asks me, suddenly looking shocked at my confused expression that had appeared as he spoke. "Have you been on Facebook yet?"

"First of all," I started saying, "one question at a time. Second of all, no I haven't."

"Ohh," Mike said, and I looked at him quizzically. "That makes more sense now," he added, with what seemed to be a very grave expression on his face.

"Why the face?" I said, starting to get irritated at the lack of answers to what was going on. "Has something bad happened?"

Mike opened his mouth to speak, hesitated and shut it again. He stepped down from his seat, and walked over to where both our phones were sat charging. He unplugged mine and passed it over to me as he sat down again beside me.

I tapped in my password, and opened up Facebook. At the top of my timeline, there was a post by Ross Geller. It was from just over 24 hours ago, and I could see the top comment, which was all hearts and praying emojis with the words 'all my love'. I clicked on the comment to bring up the rest of the messages and saw that they were all very similar. Because this had given me no further clues as to what was going on apart from that it seemed to be pretty serious, I read the original post.

Mike must have noticed my expression change, as he said, "Yeah," and I knew he understood. We sat there for a couple of minutes before I finally decided to say something. "Oh, god," was all I could muster. A million things were running through my mind, mainly categorised by worrying for Monica and Ross. It was one of their parents, after all.

"Should I call either of them?" I asked Mike, trying desperately to think over ways that we could be helpful and supportive as the good friends that we are.

"Probably not either of them directly as I think it will be too soon," he replied. "But you could talk to Chandler, or Rachel. They must have been told something."

"Good idea," I agreed. "It's probably far too soon to speak to either Ross or Monica with any kind of success of getting a clear answer, so I'll try the other two to see if they have any suggestions for ways that we could be helpful."

I looked up at the clock in the kitchen, contemplating whether now would be a good idea to call. It was quarter past seven, so I assumed that Monica would be busy looking after the twins. I walked out through the door at the corner of the kitchen near the stove and into the mini sidewalk that ran down the side of the house into the garden from the garage area.

I dialled Chandler's mobile number, because I didn't want to risk Monica picking up instead. On the third ring, I got through.

"Hi, Phoebe?" I heard Chandler to say.

"Hi, Chandler," I said, mentally reviewing what I was going to say. "How are things?"

"Not bad," Chandler replied, without hesitation, which confused me. I was pretty sure that if you received news like the fact that your wife's mother was ill, you wouldn't be so quick to reply or sincere.

I paused for a while, thinking over how I would bring up the topic since Chandler had caught me completely off guard. "How's Mon?" I asked, hoping that this would be enough.

For a while, I heard no reply and thought that I had finally managed to crack it. I didn't realise that my hands had been shaking whilst holding the phone, but the shaking intensified and I realised as I had started to feel a little dizzy that I had also been holding my breath.

"I think she's okay," Chandler's voice was louder than I had expected and I realised that I had been out of it and I couldn't remember whether it had been for long or not. "It's really strange, but we haven't really spoken about anything but the kids and just functioning around each other since Monday. I keep on asking if something's up, but all I get is the same answer that's she's totally fine."

I can hear Chandler's concern, and that he also doesn't believe her. Wise move, I think, reminiscing over how they are still so perfect for each other even after 17 years of being together. I contemplate whether it's a good idea just to tell him just now.

I start pacing up and down the alleyway from the spot right outside the door back into the house that I had been subconsciously standing in front of.

"Don't panic," I say, trying to tread very carefully with what I said because I knew Chandler all too well, and couldn't have him be packing and leaving Monica for any reason, especially when he probably needed her most. I take a deep breath in and continue.

"On Monday, Judy was admitted to the ICU in a critical condition," I say, trying to listen out for any sign of a reaction. "Ross also knows, and I don't know who else besides Mike and I."

I still heard nothing, which didn't surprise me, but also didn't help the shred of anxiety that hoped that Chandler was okay. I was just contemplating saying something else, when I heard a shaky, hesitant breath.

"I just wish she'd said.." Chandler said, and I almost had to ask him to repeat it again because it was so quiet. He let out another shaky, exhausted-sounding sigh.

I didn't know what to reply. What shocked me most is that Chandler clearly hadn't been the first person Mon told. Why wouldn't she trust him to tell him the truth when she was clearly not as okay as she was making out? I didn't want to presume anything, so I just decided to say, "Just try and remind her that you're there for her if she wants to talk." I realise afterwards how unsuccessful that would be and hope desperately it wasn't reflected in my voice just now.

"Thanks," Chandler said, entirely unconvinced from the tone of his voice. He had picked up on my uncertainty. "I guess I gotta speak to Mon."

I didn't want to leave Chandler whilst he felt so helpless, but I didn't want to drag out the conversation for longer than he was comfortable with. "I should go," I said.

"Okay," Chandler replied, and the line went dead. I took the phone away from my ear, and looked at the time as I walked back down the alleyway to the door into the kitchen. I had only 45 minutes before work

started to finish getting ready and get the kids out of the house.

Mike looked up from breakfast when I walked in, and immediately shot me a concerned look. "Everything okay, Pheebs?"

I racked by my brain to think of the best way to explain. "Monica didn't tell Chandler," I said, watching Mike's reaction. He looked as confused and surprised as I felt.

"That's seriously odd," Mike said. "I'll take the kids to school if you want."

"Oh!" I exclaimed, caught off guard as I'd been busy puzzling over the situation. "Thanks, babe."

"You're welcome," Mike replied, trying to catch my gaze with a sympathetic smile.

I smiled back, appreciating the sentiment, but definitely not completely feeling it.

Mike slid off of his seat at the breakfast bar, and came over to me. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into a hug. It was a comforting reminder that Mike would still be with me whilst we tried to look after Mon and Ross so I wasn't worrying about them alone. I desperately hoped that we would all get through this, because I knew how difficult worrying about losing people very close to you was and would never want my friends to have to go through the same experience as I did.

As if Mike had read my thoughts, as he pulled away and kissed me he said, "We'll all get through this Pheebs."

"I really hope so," I said, as we both walked to the stairs to go up.

A/N: Sorry that this chapter is a little shorter than usual, I just thought this would be a good place to end it. Thank you endlessly after the last chapter in my Roschel fanfic with all the support it got, I'm so happy that you guys are happy with the direction I'm taking the trilogy. I'm pretty sure you can already guess what the next chapter on the Mondler fanfic is going to be, and I am going to say that in terms of emotional content and angst, this is going to be the first of many chapters that I really won't hold back on. With all that being said, I hope that you will enjoy this chapter that is more of a filler, and review and make suggestions for improvements for my writing across all three books. Thank you and I hope that you will also check out the most recent chapter from the Roschel book in particular as the rest of the chapters for all three books won't make sense otherwise, and I also hope that you will generally check them out as whole books as well.