Looking Deep Chapter 7: The problems at heart
Dedicated to my gorgeous puddy cat, Willow, who sadly had to be put down on 02/02/10 after a happy 13 years. Goodbye, my precious baby, and I hope you have a cosy rug in front of a fire and plenty of dogs to glare at. I need to go cry now...
Disclaimer: I don't own Friends
Previously on Looking Deep...
Rachel had the sense to try and stop the bleeding, whilst telling Phoebe to phone for an ambulance.
2 Months Later
The friends gathered at the graveside with the other mourners. Monica's dad looked like a broken man as he sprinkled earth over the coffin's nameplate so he didn't have to see the awful truth glaring up at him any longer. It was all so sudden. Everyone thought she was getting better, then her vitals took a sudden nose-dive. She fell into a coma and died. Judy Gellar was no more.
After the car accident that had claimed his wife's life, Jack Gellar was just muddling along, so when Ross and Rachel asked him to come and live with them in Boston he said yes.
It suited everyone; Ross and Rach needed help with the kids and Jack wanted to be near his family. Especially Monica. After the close call two months ago, she was attending regular therapy sessions to talk about her feelings and the events leading up to her suicide attempt.
The children went to stay with Ross and Rachel. Monica asked them to look after them for a while so she had some time to get back on her feet. The kids hadn't been told about Mon's breakdown or suicide attempt. Erica and Jack were told that their mummy's job was very difficult at the moment and the babies were really too young to notice her absence.
Without them to care for and a lack of a job (she was 'made redundant' after her superiors heard of her breakdown), Monica had more than enough time to delve into the deepest depths of her psyche.
It was NOT a nice place to examine in fine detail. Monica's mind was a fragile place, held together by the most tenuous of bonds. At every turn her psychiatrist found new levels of insecurity, parental pressure, failure phobias and body image issues. By the end of a twelve session round of therapy, spanning six weeks, Monica was finally ready to face the REAL problems at the heart of all this.
The real problems being the baby she gave up when she was sixteen. No one but her mother knew about it. She had gotten pregnant four months before her sixteenth birthday. Her first thought was to tell Rachel but she got the distinct impression that if she did that the entire student body of Lincoln High would know within an hour.
She turned toward the inevitable but unenviable choice of telling her mother. Judy hit the roof. Actually that's an understatement, she hit the O-Zone layer. Monica was just glad that Ross and her dad were in Utah, looking around a university. When Judy calmed down, she immediately asked what Mon planned to do about 'solving' it.
Monica knew she could never have an abortion, so they decided that the best option would be for her to have the baby in secret, then give it up for a closed adoption. She had yet to lose any weight at this stage, so hiding the bump wouldn't really be a problem.
It was a short but difficult pregnancy. By the sixth month mark the doctors were predicting many complications with the birth, so they were suggesting a caesarian at thirty-six weeks. That turned out to be a week too late. Monica went into early labour at thirty-five weeks, resulting in an emergency caesarian.
After the birth of her lovely baby girl, Monica was given a few minutes to say goodbye, before the new parents came to take their baby home. They couldn't have children of their own, and had been ecstatic when Judy had phoned them to come and get the baby. To be holding this precious bundle in her arms, knowing all too soon she would have to give her up, was almost more than Monica could bear. She wanted to stay in this little bubble of tired bliss forever.
Eventually the adoptive couple came in to take her. Before they left Monica called out,
"Please, can I know her name? I just want something to hold onto, please?" she was nearly begging.
"Of course, sweetheart. We're going to call her Erica, after my twin sister." said the pretty young blonde woman.
"Thank you. I hope she's the best daughter in the world for you." replied Monica.
"Thanks. Take care of yourself." answered the proud new father as they were exiting the room.
A.N. Come on, none of you were expecting THAT were you? I hope you enjoyed it. Please review honestly, but if the person who's been flaming my stories is lurking amongst my nice readers then beware the wrath of an extremely upset author. You have been warned...