True love is not so much a matter of romance as it is a matter of anxious concern for the well-being of one's companion.


I kiss the top of Katie's head, smoothing down her hair, still delicate and baby-fine. She makes a contented noise, not struggling against me at all as I wrap my arms around her tummy. Her hands slap against mine a few times before she settles on my lap. Phoebe smiles at the two of us, reaching out to stroke Katie's cheek.

"You're so good with her, Monica."

I shrug, kissing the baby's head again. "Nah. She just likes me for some reason. Chandler says it's because I'm soft and squishy."

"He sure knows how to sweet talk a girl, doesn't he?" she asks, rolling her eyes, and I just chuckle. He's actually quite well-versed in the sweet talk department. "Anyway, I'm really glad you organized this." She pauses, snickering for a few seconds. "Organization—that's something new around here, isn't it?"

I look up at Phoebe and grin, turning my palms face up as Katie resumes her almost-rhythmic smacking against me. "No comment."

"Yeah, well, I've been to this apartment before; 'neat and tidy' weren't exactly in their vocabulary."

"Honestly? It's a nervous habit it of mine, and the first time I babysat Katie, I cleaned the place from top to bottom. Neither of them complained about it, so I just kept doing it. I do actually like to clean, though, so it's not too bad. But other than when Chandler's mom was here, I haven't touched Joey's room. I'm not brave enough for that."

She shudders, looking a little grossed-out at the thought. "I don't blame you there."

"Anyway, it wasn't easy finding a day that everyone was either free or able to change plans, but it has been fun, right?"

"Oh, so much fun," she agrees enthusiastically, grabbing her glass of wine off the coffee table.

At first, I felt a little silly suggesting some sort of game night get together to Chandler—it seemed so cliché that I figured he'd just laugh at the idea. Instead, he told me that he'd been thinking about something like that, too; he's met my friends, I've met his friends, but our friends have never met each other. We started trying to coordinate this before Katie's birthday, and finally, now that it's after Labor Day, we managed to get all of us in the same space. We decided on an afternoon instead of a night, mostly so Katie could be more involved, but it's getting closer and closer to her bedtime and everyone is still hanging out. Our two little groups of friends seemed to have meshed well, and it's kind of nice.

"So, how's married life?" I ask, standing Katie up on my legs.

Phoebe grins, stretching her feet out on the coffee table. "Better than when I talked to you a few days ago. Maybe it's my imagination, but it feels like being someone's wife gets better and better every day."

"It doesn't hurt that Mike's one of the nicest guys around," I answer, propping Katie up again after her knees collapse. "If you're going to be married to someone, he seems like a pretty decent option."

"Yeah, I think I'll keep him around for a while. At least until a shinier, newer model comes my way."

"Oh, of course," I answer, turning Katie around to face me. I shimmy her little body and she laughs, stuffing one of her fists in her mouth. "Always have to be on the lookout for something better. Right, Katie?" I lean forward and kiss her belly. "Right, Katie? Right, right, right?" She laughs again, wiggling as I tickle her. I pull her in a moment later, hugging her close. "I love you, Katie," I whisper. She kicks her feet up and down, trying to bounce some more. "You're too much. Go see Aunt Phoebe."

Phoebe holds out her arms and Katie goes willingly, happy to be with one of her favorite people. "I'm so glad she didn't forget me while I was in Europe," she says, her eyes lighting up as she bounces the baby up and down. "I was really worried she'd think I was a stranger."

"I've heard that babies don't really forget things like that. If they find a person they trust, even at a very young age, they always remember them, at least in some way. I mean, they can't really see the face when they're a newborn, but I think there's something about them that babies recognize—their smell, the feel of them, I don't know. Plus, it sounds like you spent a lot of time with her the first six or seven months—there was no way she was going to forget that." That part is definitely true. The first time we met up with Phoebe and Mike after their wedding, Katie couldn't get enough of either of them. She honestly seemed thrilled to have them back in her life.

"Uncle Mike and I can't wait to give you a little cousin to play with," Phoebe tells her, keeping her upright. "You need somebody else around, don't you?"

"So, the two of you are trying?" I ask, feeling excited for my new friend. I feel like I'm just scratching the surface of her life, but she did tell me that before she met Mike, having a family wasn't a huge concern of hers, nor did she ever feel like she was in a stable enough position to handle it. However, in the last couple of years, she said she's started to think that having kids and a house and a dog might be what she's wanted all along.

"Well, not really. Not yet, anyway. We want kids, but we kind of want to just be married for a little while first, too. Neither of us really want to try try, you know? Unless it's absolutely necessary, we don't want to have to do the whole ovulation tracking, temperature taking thing. We're hoping to let nature take its course. I mean, if I get pregnant before then, so be it. We're not going to complain. But, we kind of figured we'd give it a year before we give it a go, with the option to renegotiate at any point in between, so we'll see. What about you and Chandler?"

I pause mid-sip of my wine, looking at her in confusion. "Me and Chandler what?"

"Are you two trying for more kids?"

I feel the wine lodge in my throat for a few seconds before it tries to come out my nose, burning and making my eyes water. "Excuse me?" I gasp as I cough. I glance over my shoulder and see Chandler giving me a questioning look, but I just wave him off, shaking my head.

"Katie's going to need a brother or sister at some point," she answers, smiling at the baby before she sits Katie on her lap.

"Okay, Phoebe? We can't possibly try for more kids because we don't even have one child."

She looks confused for a split second before her cheeks turn pink. "I'm sorry—I just keep forgetting that you're not Katie's mother. I don't know how—I was here for that whole Corinne thing. You're just so at ease with her that…"

"It's okay," I answer, taking a careful sip of my wine. "I just wasn't expecting that. I mean, we do get that a lot when people see us in public, but I guess that's the natural assumption. But in answer to your question, Chandler and I definitely are not trying for a baby. Katie takes up enough time as it is."

"Well, you know, it could happen anyway. It's not like—"

"I know, I know," I answer, cutting her off. "We usually double up on contraception, just to be sure. Unless we don't have time for multiple methods. You know how that is—sometimes, you're just in the mood and you've gotta get some."

"Oh, do I ever," she answers with a smile, looking far off and dreamy for a few moments. "But I never pictured Chandler as that sort of guy. I mean, not that I ever pictured him, you know, that way, really, but he never struck me as Mr. Gotta-Have-It-Now, you know? He seems more like the romance guy, I guess, or the roll over in the morning and go for it guy, but—"

I burst out laughing, finally saving Phoebe from herself. "He's all of those things. He likes romance, I promise you that, but we do a lot of other stuff that probably can't be classified as romantic."

"Such as?"

I look at her dubiously. "Are you sure you want to hear about this? I mean, isn't he one of your oldest friends? Won't it be weird to hear about all this?"

"Oh, God, no. I've been curious about him for a while, I've just never been close enough to one of his girlfriends to think I might get an answer. You don't have to go into details or anything—you don't have to answer any of it, really. I'm just nosy."

I lean forward and whisper, "He's the best sex I've ever had." Her eyes grow wide and I nod. "Yeah. He's amazingly attentive and so good at it." I don't know this woman all that well, so I really don't want to get too personal, but at the same time, I haven't been able to talk to anyone about this. "Sometimes, we do the whole candles and music thing, and it's fantastic. Sometimes we surprise each other in the shower and that's really fantastic. Sometimes we wake up early for it, sometimes it's in the middle of the night after we've gotten Katie to go back to bed, sometimes we do it when he gets home from work. There's no real rhyme or reason to it. All I know is that we can't get enough of each other."

"Really?" she asks, eyes wide.

"Oh, God. I'm addicted to him. That sounds bad, doesn't it?"

"No, not at all. I think it's great…addicted? Honestly?"

I scoot closer to the edge of the couch, leaning in toward Phoebe and lowering my voice. I reach out and cover Katie's ears just in case. "We have sex at least once a day, sometimes more. I want him all the time. I'd think I have some sort of problem except I've never wanted another person the way I want Chandler. It's just him. He's that good at sex. We're that good at sex."

"Once a day? Really?" She looks down at Katie, who's giving us a confused look in return. "Is that possible?"

I shrug. "It has to be. I mean, I stopped keeping really close tabs on it—the number started to get too high in too short of a time. I guess there could have been a day or two that we've missed in there somewhere, but I think the days we do it more than once make up for it."

"What about during…" She glances around the room before lowering her voice. "Shark week?"

I blink at her a few times before a snort escapes me, and I clamp my hand over my mouth. "Yes, even then. I never thought I'd be into it, but all that additional—" I glance down at Katie and cover her ears again. "Spasming and contracting kind of helps things along. We usually do it in the shower then, for the sake of cleanliness."

"Wow. Even Mike doesn't want to do it then, and he's pretty adventurous. It doesn't bother me but it doesn't seem to do much for him." She leans back against the chair, looking amazed. "Addicted to Chandler. Who would have ever thought that about him?"

"Hey! That's my boyfriend you're talking about."

"I don't mean anything by it, Monica, I promise. I've just known him for such a long time, and he's usually pretty hard on himself about all that. I wasn't ever going to try him out myself, but, you know? I mean, you hear something enough times, especially from the source, and you start to believe it."

I shrug, pulling Katie to me when she holds out her arms. "I think it's just one of those things, Phoebe. It's like those people who say they're really good at singing only to be tone deaf, but the ones who say they can't sing usually have the best voices." I look around again, making sure to lower my voice. "And if this is bad sex, it's the best bad sex I've ever had. Hell, I bet he jokes about the size of his equipment, too."

Phoebe starts to nod before her mouth drops open. "No. He's not—is he?"

"He is…" My voice trails off. I don't want to tell her anything that'll be embarrassing to Chandler. Then again, most guys seem to like it when you tell other people good things about their junk. "He far surpasses expectations."

She looks over at Chandler, who's now engrossed in conversation in the kitchen. "Well, all right then."

Rachel flops down on the couch next to me then, balancing her wine glass precariously on her lap. She completely bypasses me as she reaches over to Katie, tickling her side. Katie scrunches up bashfully, still not completely acclimated to her or my brother. "Hi, Katie," she says, her voice soft and high-pitched. I see the baby turn her head at the sound of her name, though she looks away a moment later. "Why doesn't she like me?"

"She just doesn't know you yet, Rache. Give her some time."

"How long did it take before she warmed up to you?"

I shrug, grabbing playfully at Katie's feet with one hand, trying to keep her balanced against my chest with the other. Phoebe answers for me. "Chandler said that Katie took to Monica immediately."

Rachel makes a face before taking a sip of her wine. "So what're you two talking about? I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

"Not at all," Phoebe answers. "We were just talking about men and their views on themselves."

"How so?"

"Just that mice among men tend to have delusions of grandeur, while the great ones always seem to give themselves underwhelming reviews."

She looks back and forth between the two of us, her brow furrowing. "Is there any reason we're using these euphemisms?"

"Well, several of the guys we're talking about are right over there, for one," I answer with a nod of my head in their direction. "Secondly, Katie is starting to understand more and more, and the last thing I want her to do is repeat something she shouldn't."

"Yeah, but even if she repeats it, she's not gonna understand it, right?"

"Not the point, Rache. I don't want to have to explain to her daycare or her father why she can suddenly say the word—" I cover her ears again for a second and whisper, "sex."

Phoebe giggles, grabbing a piece of celery off the tray on the coffee table. "I can't imagine that conversation."

Rachel laughs a little, too, before clearing her throat. "So, you were talking about men's tendency to exaggerate their…thing-a-dings?"

"That, and how some of them try to lower expectations unnecessarily," Phoebe confirms.

"Oh! That reminds me," I exclaim. "Endurance, too. The same is true about that. When they say they can go all night long, what they really mean is that they can sleep all night long, but if they say they're kind of a one-hit wonder, they're going to be able to last long enough to make your toes curl. Like Chandler." I glance at Phoebe apologetically, but she just shrugs. "Chandler told me that he wouldn't be able to last very long, but—"

Rachel groans loudly, making both Phoebe and me jump. "Oh, God."

All I can do is stare at her. "What?"

"Again? Do we have to talk about him again?"

"Again?" I repeat incredulously. "You don't want to talk about him again?"

She nods enthusiastically. "Yeah, if we could go one time without talking about your boyfriend, that would be great."

I turn to face her fully. "Okay, what is your problem?"

"My problem?" she asks innocently. "I don't know what you're talking about."

I pause, looking down at Katie. She looks back at me with her wide, serious eyes, so I give her a kiss and stand, moving over to the kitchen table where the guys are sitting and playing a couple of casual hands of Texas Hold 'Em. "Honey, Rachel and I need to talk for few minutes." I plop Katie in his lap. "You're up."

He grabs my arm as I start to walk away. "Everything all right?"

"It will be," I answer. "One way or another, it will be."

He takes my hand and brings it to his lips, kissing my palm. "Love you."

"Love you, too," I answer, and I can hear the others heckling him as I walk away.

"Oh, no, I love my girlfriend, I'm such a pansy," he tells them sarcastically; none of them have anything to say in response to that.

I take a deep breath and step up to the couch, tapping Rachel's shoulder.


*A/N…I hate posting on Fridays. They're the worst for reviews (people have lives, I get it), and it's terribly disheartening. You pour your heart into something and post on a Friday and no one bothers to read it. Basically, that's what caused me to stop writing Where Life Leads. Kept posting on Fridays and I wasn't getting any bites and it just kinda broke my heart and already weakened spirit, so…stopped. But, here I go, posting on a Friday. I guess I'm an eternal optimist.

Of course, though, only review if the chapter inspires you to do so. Seriously. It's just a strange correlation that I've noticed with Mondays and Fridays and how those days seem to get the least amount of traction.

Also…my stories are sappy. Not all the time, but I like fluffy stuff. Life is too serious, so I like to make my little fictional people happy and delightfully sentimental. If that's not good enough for you guys, well, write the stories you want to read. That's the only way to do it. Otherwise, and I mean this sincerely for all of those out there who keep posting, just be kind. Constructive is nice, but just saying things like "I don't like…" can actually do more harm than good. There's such a small community of active writers in this fandom, and I'd hate to see any single one of them leave because of feedback that's just too demanding. Not every chapter/story is going to have all of the elements that you want (and believe me when I say—you guys want lots of things, and there are almost as many things you don't want. It's hard to keep up, even if one uses requests as inspiration, which I often do), but please be appreciative of what these stories do have: Mondler. They have our favorite couple out in the world on crazy or mundane adventures, and it's awesome. Legit, I feel like the reason I'd stop writing fic would be because of you out there who are just too hard to please and are so unkind and not cool about it. Hell, I very nearly said, "Screw this" after some of the reviews of this chapter. It's tough on this end of the document. A lot of people are writing things very dear to them in some way, you know? There are often a lot of elements that come from hidden parts of our souls and psyches, and it costs us a lot to put it out there. I mean, it's tough to put something out into the void and hope for something that'll build you up and wind up with someone letting you know that it's just not enough. I mean, this is probably a personal problem, but it's been sitting wrong with me all week, so I wanted to put it out there. Mostly just to be kind to those few and proud who are still keeping Mondler alive. If something you read doesn't have every single part that you want, at least try to focus on what it does have. I mean, because that's still cool, right?

And, after I've been a total twat with saying all that, I put "You" into a fanfic contest on inkitt so, you know, go vote me and stuff. Go team go?