Mondler: Familiar Faces Trilogy 1 Chapter 34, a friends fanfic

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 34 – Monica

"Like I said, disappearances happen

Pains go phantom

Blood stops running

and people, people fade away

There's more I have to say

So much more

But I've… disappeared"

~ Meredith Grey

(Copyright to Shonda Rhimes)

"Has he got back to you yet?" I asked Phoebe, who was sitting at the kitchen table, as I walked across the room to the kettle where I had plans to make myself a cup of coffee.

"No, but I'm sure it's probably because he's waiting for the right time to talk to you personally," Phoebe reassured me, as I managed to successfully cover up my scoff at the chances of that ever happening with a well-timed cough.

"What's the good of us just sitting here and dwelling on it anyway?" I said to Phoebe, though I knew that it was going to be damn near impossible for me to not do that.

"Exactly," Phoebe replied, smiling, completely oblivious to the fact that I had no intention of pushing my thoughts about Chandler to the back of my mind.

We sat at the table for a little longer, Phoebe discussing with me the fact that Joey would soon be coming to stay in New York, and we both started to talk about what plans we would make whilst he was here. I was thinking about how nice it would be have all six of us together for the first time in, what, a decade when Phoebe suddenly spoke.

"What about Rachel? We don't know, with her treatment and everything, how we could make things work so Joey and the rest of us can see her too," Phoebe said, as I nodded along, realising that this would definitely complicate any plans that we did try to make. That, and the fact that with the rifts that have been created between Ross and I's families, doing anything together as the six of us would be pretty damn awkward at this time.

"I'll send her a text later," I said, feeling better about at least being able to sort that out ahead of the rest of our planning.

"Thank you so much, Mon," Phoebe said, giving me a grateful smile as she stood up from her seat at the table and went over to the other side of the kitchen, clearly in search of something.

"It's nothing," I said, smiling back at her as she walked back over to the table, now armed with a notepad and pen, presumably so that we could write down what we already had confirmed about the plans for when Joey's in the city.

Half an hour later, we had written down all the plans that we knew could definitely take place and also written down the things that we could have to confirm at a later date. I had also received a reply from Rachel, which explained that for the holiday period, she had been temporarily discharged, meaning that she would be able to join in with any plans made with Joey.

"Are we just waiting for the kids to get back from school now?" I asked Phoebe as I looked down at my phone lockscreen to see what the time was.

"Yep," Phoebe said. "Though, I would imagine that Mike will be back before then, and then I can send him off to go get the children so they don't have to walk home, which they'd definitely appreciate on any given day."

I chuckled because Phoebe's comment about her twins didn't sound too far off from how Chandler's and I would about a similar situation, despite the four year age gap. Mind you, at 8 years old, I don't think that I would've trusted neither Jack or Erica to walk home by themselves, not because they weren't capable of doing so but just because I would drive myself insane with worry and no one would benefit from that in any way.

Sure enough as Phoebe had predicted, we both heard the front door slam and then Mike's cheery tone as he called out his greetings to us as he walked down the hallway and into the kitchen. Phoebe immediately got up from her seat and started to walk over to the kettle asking, "Babe, do you want a coffee?"

"That'd be wonderful," Mike said in answer as he sat down at the table next to me.

"Phoebe told me you went to see Rachel, right?" I asked Mike, hoping that he would excuse my rudeness for going straight into asking him a question without returning his initial greeting.

"I did," Mike said, fortunately for me with no indication with his tone, body language or facial expression that he'd minded about my slight lack of manners.

"How was she?" I asked, though soon after I felt a pre-emptive sinking feeling in my chest ahead of the answer, as I knew the probability of her health being worse was more likely than it being good.

"I think she's managing all right, all things considered, and she is definitely excited about the fact that she gets to come home over the holiday period," Mike replied, clearly under the assumption that it was likely that I already knew about that.

"How are things with the treatment, then?" I asked, even though I really didn't know whether I actually wanted to hear the answer.

"The doctor said that her cancer has definitely started to spread further, but before proceeding with any treatments they need to have an idea of the rate at which the cancer is spreading and to whereabouts, hence why they wanted to be able to temporarily discharge her so badly," Mike said, his facial expression clearly illustrating the fact that talking about this was making him a little more uneasy than usual.

"Yeah," I agreed, as I knew that giving any more of an answer was going to be almost impossible because of the heavy weight of the news that was bearing down on me.

"It will do wonders for the kids and Ross to be able to see her though," Phoebe said, clearly trying to remind us that there would definitely be members of the family that were more desperate to see her and needed to see her more than others.

"And take slightly less of the pressure that Carol and Ben have been feeling since Rachel left," I added, knowing first hand that things hadn't been quite so easy at the Geller-Greens' since Rachel left for her latest bout of treatment.

"Agreed," Phoebe said. She seemed to stop to think for a minute before adding, "Wait – who will tell them that Rachel's going to go back home for a while soon?"

"I'll message Lara, and get her to keep it a secret from Ross but to tell the others as well, just because it could get a little messy otherwise," I said. "Ross will best appreciate the news if it's kept a complete secret from him," I added a little more firmly, as being his sister, I felt like I had the rights to be a pretty good judge of what Ross would like to happen and what he wouldn't.

"That's all sorted, then," Phoebe said, looking happy as she bought the cup of coffee that she had made for Mike over to the table and then sat back down in her own seat.