A/N: This note is gonna be kinda long because I wanted to explain the idea for this story a little better. I know what you are thinking, here's a cute fluffy story about our favorite couple's family getting a puppy. And you would sort of be right, but this story isn't all about that. As I have brought up before in my other story's note, I am a lot like Chandler myself. And being like him I thought about my own fears, and why I have them. With most of them it's not as simple as just being scared of something, so I thought I could highlight Chandler's fear of dogs, and what it all stemmed from. And also how a lot of times you can be really happy, and think you have moved past certain things, but when they are brought back to light you sort of realize you pushed them aside instead of dealing with them. So just a warning, this won't all be sunshine and rainbows. But don't worry too much, I did sprinkle in a good amount of sweet Bing family moments. Also, this story was originally planned to be a one shot, but when I got about two thousand words into it and realized I hadn't even covered a fraction of what I had planned for it, I decided to extend it into a multi chapter. It's five chapters in total, and they all are already written. I will try to update weekly, but if I get too busy (or too lazy) to proofread it might take a little longer. I'll end this note now and let you get to it. Let me know what you think, and enjoy!
There was a point in Chandler's life where he had truly believed he would someday end up alone, that there was no one out there for him. It wasn't just some irrational fear, he had had a lifetime of tragedy to back up his theory. Getting past that thought was not easy either, because of all the times he chose to finally open up to another person he would find himself being crushed by them, and ultimately end up alone again. Each time it happened it would only strengthen his doubts, bringing him to a time when he had pretty much accepted it altogether.
All those thoughts stopped when he got together with Monica, he knew from that very moment on she was the person he was meant to spend the rest of his days with. And for the first time in his life, he was truly happy. Still now that feeling had remained the same, and their life together had brought them many great memories. It had been fourteen amazing years since they first got together, eleven since they had got married, and eight years since they moved their new family out to their Westchester home.
Though it didn't come without a fair amount of twists and turns along the way. The first one arising the day after they had gotten everything unpacked, and their new house set up exactly how Monica had imagined it to be. After feeding their month old twins, Jack and Ericka, the couple put them in their bassinet and sat down for breakfast together. A few bites in Monica went running for the trash can, finding herself sick. Chandler hurried over to comfort her, holding her hair and rubbing her back till she was all finished. Sitting on the kitchen floor afterwards while they waited out her bout of nausea, they came to the realization that she was already a few weeks late, neither of them thinking about it before then with everything going on the last few months.
A trip to the doctor's office that afternoon had confirmed their suspicions, Monica was in fact pregnant. The excitement coming from knowing they had accomplished what they had been hoping for two years before had gotten cut short when the doctor explained to them that it wouldn't be a pregnancy without risks. They remained as positive as possible, telling themselves that if they could already have beaten the odds and conceived, that she could make it to full term without any problems.
Their hopes didn't pan out quite as well as they had hoped, Monica delivering the baby while she was only twenty-two weeks along in her pregnancy. The doctors said the preemies' chance of survival was very low, just under ten percent. In the next few weeks they did more praying than they had in their whole lives, with Chandler claiming that if their child had Monica's strength it was able to make it through anything. Then as luck would have it, fifteen weeks later they brought their baby home from the hospital. A beautiful baby girl, named Abbey.
The years since then had treated them all well, Monica and Chandler now enjoying their suburban lifestyle with their three seven year old children. You could say being alone was the furthest thing from Chandler's mind now, the thought altogether left in the past with the rest of his misery.
"You guys, I'm not gonna tell you one more time, put down those remotes and get in here for breakfast!" Monica yelled from the kitchen, plopping a stack of pancakes on the last of the plates she was making up.
"They're still playing that thing?" Chandler asked, ruffling his damp hair as he walked into the kitchen.
"Yes, they haven't looked away from that television screen all morning." Monica said, turning to him after she set the frying pan in the sink. "Y'know, I really should divorce you for letting Joey get them a PlayStation."
"Just be happy I talked him out of buying the games he had in mind, otherwise they'd be shooting up zombies instead of taking a cute little hacky sack dude through obstacles." Chandler said, stepping closer to her and pinning her between him and the counter. "Besides, I know you would never think about divorcing me."
"What makes you so sure of that?" Monica said, smirking up at him as he set his hands on the counter behind her.
"Because you love me. And because of this," Chandler said, leaning in and kissing her passionately.
"Fair point." Monica said as she pulled a few inches apart, wrapping her arms around his neck and going in for another.
"Gross, we eat in here." Jack said, pulling their attention away from each other.
Chandler glanced over at his three children as they all took a seat on the bar stools next to the island where their food sat atop of, then he looked back at Monica with a confused look. "Oh my god, did these kids just break into our house?" He asked, staring back at them as he made him and Monica take a step further away from them.
"It's our house too, dad." Erica said, laughing at her father's antics.
"She called me dad, does she think I am her father?" Chandler asked, turning to his wife. She gave him a simple shrug, playing along. "Who are these children?"
"Daddy, stop it." Abbey said, giggling along with her siblings. "We are your kids!"
"My kids? You couldn't be." Chandler said, walking around the counter and standing behind them. Starting with Abbey he leaned in and got closer to her, examining her facial features with his hands. "Let's see, dark brown hair, blue eyes, chubby little cheeks."
"My cheeks aren't chubby!" Abbey defended, her words muffled as he squeezed them.
"Sorry, perfect little cheeks." Chandler said, letting go of her face and moving to the next kid, Erica. "Okay, sandy blonde hair, blue eyes. I'm still not sure, give me your best grumpy face?" He asked, and she dropped her upper lip into a pout. "That's it, that's the one." He said, walking to Jack last and putting his face right in front of his. "Now this one, I don't recognize at all. What is your name, little dude?"
"It's Jack. You know that, dad." Jack said, trying to hold back a laugh as his dad pinched his nose between two fingers.
"The name sounds familiar, and you do look just like that little girl." Chandler said, letting go of his nose and glancing between him and Erica.
"That's because we're twins."
"Twins?" Chandler asked, looking back at Monica. "Don't we have a set of twins? And another daughter?"
"I seem to recall that." Monica said, smiling as she watched him turn back to examine them all again once more.
"Oh my god, it is them!" Chandler said, pretending to come to the realization. "I'm sorry, you didn't look like my kids at first. You have all grown so much since the last time I saw you, what has it been? Three, four years?"
"What are you talking about?" Jack asked. "We already saw you this morning when we woke up."
"That was today?" Chandler asked, getting nods from all of them. "Wow, it felt like an eternity ago. Last I heard you were going to play video games, then I never heard from any of you again."
"Very funny, dad." Erica said, sitting closer to the island and picking up her fork to start eating.
"You do all know that it is summer now, you can go outside." Monica said, walking over next to Chandler who was helping Abbey with the cap on the syrup bottle.
"It just started yesterday, we still have time to play outside before school starts again." Jack said, taking a bite of his food.
"Yeah, when are you going to do that?" Monica asked.
"August?" He said, chewing a mouth full of bacon as he spoke.
Monica glanced over at her husband, raising her eyebrows to him. "How did you ever doubt that these were your kids?
"You're right, the resemblance is uncanny." Chandler said, looking over Abbey as she blew into her straw and made chocolate milk bubbles.
"Abbey, you're making a mess." Erica said, reaching for the paper towel roll and pulling off a few sheets to clean off what she had spilt on the counter.
"Definitely your kids too." Chandler said, smirking over at her.
Monica smiled back at him, sliding a plate of food over to him on the counter. "I gave you an extra pancake, you're gonna need your energy today."
"Really?" Chandler asked, glancing back at the kids to make sure they weren't paying attention. When he saw they weren't he looked back at her, stepping a little closer. "What might I need that for?" He whispered, the corner of his lips curling upwards.
"For taking care of seven kids all on your own."
"Well, that doesn't sound as fun as what I was thinking."
"I gotta go into work today." Monica said, scrunching up her face as she waited for his reaction.
"What?" Chandler said, not sounding too thrilled.
"I'm sorry, but Alan called in sick, so I have to."
"Correct me if I'm wrong here, but a couple weeks ago when Ross and Rachel asked us to watch their kids so they could go away for the weekend to celebrate their anniversary, and then Phoebe asked if we'd take her and Mike's kids the first day too because they got a gig playing music at a big graduation party, I seem to remember you saying 'sure, you guys, don't worry about it, me and Chandler will both be home from work the whole time'."
"I know, but I really didn't think anything was going to come up." Monica said, putting her hands onto his arm. "And they won't even be here with the kids until one, so it will only be like five hours of watching them without me."
Chandler exhaled. "Fine, I'll take care of them all on my own."
"Thank you." Monica said, happily.
"Seven kids." Chandler muttered, taking a bite of his pancakes. "I should be getting more than an extra pancake for this."
"Well, if you aren't too exhausted later after all the kids go to bed I will give you a little something extra." Monica whispered, smacking him lightly on his back end before walking over to the sink to start washing the frying pan.
Chandler smiled watching her walk away, then turned back to the kids. "So, Jack, Erica." He said, getting them to look away from their food and over to him. "The big eight birthday is coming up in a couple weeks, you start coming up with any ideas for what presents you want?"
"I'd like another video game." Jack said.
"Yeah, what one you thinking?"
"Uncle Joey was telling me about this one game, Call of Duty, you go around killing-"
"No!" Monica said sternly, cutting him off as she turned around quickly to face them.
"You were right, that was funny." Jack said, holding out his hand to high five with his dad.
"Like I said, these are your kids." Monica said, turning back to the sink with an eye roll.
"Seriously though, you two got anything in mind?" Chandler asked.
"I want the Minecraft game." Jack said.
"And I want the Toy Story one." Erica said.
"Don't either of you want something other than a video game?" Monica said, drying her hands off as she walked back over by them. "Like a toy, or anything that you can play with that isn't digital?"
"We do want something else." Jack said, him and his sister sharing a look.
"What?" Chandler said, chuckling at their nervous demeanor. "I hope it isn't new parents you want, because I gotta tell you you're all stuck with us for the rest of your lives."
"No." Erica said, looking over at them. "We want a puppy."
"A puppy, like a dog?" Chandler said, his eyes widening.
"Is there a different kind of puppy?" Jack asked.
"There's wolf puppies." Erica pointed out.
"I don't want a wolf, they are scary." Abbey said.
"We are not asking for a wolf, we are asking for a dog." Jack clarified.
"Oh, then I want one too!" She said, excitedly.
"I'm sorry, but we can't get a dog." Monica said, all their faces dropping.
"Why not?" Erica asked.
"Your dad is allergic to dogs, which means he can't be around them."
"Really?" Jack asked, looking at his dad.
Chandler glanced over at Monica, and she nodded for him to let him know that she was fine with that remaining the reason. "Sorry, but yes, I am." He said, looking back at them.
"That means we can never have a dog?" Abbey asked.
"Yeah." Monica said, the kids sharing a look of disappointment.
"But we could get you another pet." Chandler said, trying to cheer them up. "Like a fish, or a hamster? Oh, how about a turtle? Those things are pretty cool."
"Oh, can we get a cat?" Erica said, a little bit of excitement coming back.
"Sorry, your mom is actually allergic to those." Chandler said, getting an elbow to the side from Monica. "I mean your mom is allergic to those, just as I am with dogs." He said, all the happiness leaving once again. "But hey, what about that turtle?"
"No thanks."
"Yeah, just the games are fine." Jack added, looking down sadly at his food as he kept eating.
Monica glanced over at their kids, frowning at their gloomy faces. When she looked back to Chandler she noticed he was doing the same, looking just about as depressed as them, if not more. "I'm sorry to leave you with them right after killing their spirits, but I gotta get going or I'm gonna be late for work." She said, quietly.
"It's fine, I'll make some stupid jokes and they'll be back to normal in no time." Chandler said, looking back over at them. "Okay, children, mom's gotta go to work, so say goodbye." He said, all of them glancing up and saying bye.
"I will see you later." Monica said, walking over and giving each of them a kiss on the cheek as she spoke. "Be good for dad, okay? No getting the little kids to team up against him and tackle him to the floor again."
"Hey, I let them tackle me." Chandler defended. "I could have stopped it."
"I'd believe you if you weren't on the floor yelling for my help when I got back downstairs that day." Monica said, walking back over to him.
"I was just pretending so that they felt tough."
"Ah ha." Monica said, setting her hand on the back of his neck and pulling him down for a goodbye kiss. "I'll see you later. Call if you need anything, and please don't let any of them burn the house down."
"Will do." Chandler said, giving her another peck before she walked away. He stood silent for a few moments, listening for the front door to click shut and signifying that she was gone. "Okay, mom is gone. What trouble should we get into today?" He said, getting no answers other than a shrug from Jack. "Come on, think, anything you want. We could go into the pantry and turn everything upside down again, remember last time how much we laughed when mom walked in there and screamed?"
"I think I just wanna go back upstairs and play our game more." Jack said, pushing his plate away and climbing down from his stool.
"Yeah, me too." Erica said, doing the same.
"Abbey, you wanna hang out with daddy?" Chandler said, looking at his little girl as his last hope.
"No, I wanna go play with them." She said, getting down and following her siblings upstairs.
Chandler watched them leave the room, their feet practically dragging on the floor for how little enthusiasm they walked with. When they were out of his sight he leaned back onto the counter, exhaling. It hurt him to lie to them the same way he used to with his friends, and it hurt even more to see their reactions, but the thought of having a dog in their house terrified him to no end. It was gonna be miserable to see them like this, but for now he just had to wait till they got over it, if they ever did.