Chapter 10: Reversals Keep Right On Happening

A month had passed since Chandler had finally taken the step of dating Rachel, and he had found absolutely no reason to regret it. In fact, he felt happier than he had ever been. It was not just that he and Rachel seemed to be falling completely in love. Since she had joined the staff of Monica's Place two weeks ago, the pressure had eased perceptibly, for she had shown herself to be, not only an excellent head waitress, but a capable representative for the restaurant in negotiations with suppliers and the like. Wendy, not happy about the fact that she had been effectively demoted, had left, but they had found an acceptable replacement, and were advertising for another to cope with the growing custom. Rachel had immediately made a valuable suggestion, that they experiment with opening under her management for the middle of the day, to provide coffee and light meals only, keeping serious meals for the evening. This looked likely to be a success, taking a lot of stress off Monica., which would make for greater harmony among them.

Tonight they were coming to the end of a celebratory evening. Joey had landed the lead role in the adventure series, to be called The Hero Prince, and was there to celebrate signing his contract with some of his Days Of Our Lives friends and various people connected with the new show, including the producer and writer. Ross and Phoebe had chosen to celebrate their enduring relationship the same night, with Janice as one of their guests, and Chandler and Rachel had joined them in a toast that celebrated their own first month together. Monica and Paula had surpassed themselves in the food that they had produced for the occasion, and compliments on every aspect of the meal and the service had flowed in from all sides.

Chandler surveyed the restaurant with an expression of general benevolence, that broke into a smile whenever he caught sight of Rachel bustling about in her usual cheerful fashion, smiling at everyone, and expanded into a positive grin whenever she looked at him, as she did fairly frequently, with a look compounded of love and admiration. He still found it hard to believe that this marvellous woman could love him, but he could only take her word for it, and bless her twice over, not only for making him happy, but for boosting his self-confidence by the mere fact of considering him worth loving. He had been a bit uneasy about how Janice would take his relationship with Rachel,  even though she had engineered the first date, but she declared herself pleased and showed not a trace of jealousy. She had not found anyone else, but was not making any kind of fuss about this, and when she was with her new friends always seemed in high spirits; she had in fact made Monica's Place her regular coffee shop and often brought work colleagues. Monica herself was somewhat more subdued these days, not wholly reconciled to Joey's imminent departure, it seemed, whatever she had said before. They had been continuing to see each other at mutually convenient times, of which there were more now, but it was evident that the relationship was, at best, on hold.

Somewhat distracted by these thoughts, Chandler at first failed to notice someone coming into the restaurant, until that someone gave a shout. He was a youngish street person type, dirty and unkempt, with wild eyes – in fact, to Chandler it looked as if he was high on some drug – and he was brandishing a pistol.

'Okay, now listen up, you fat cats!' the man yelled, swinging the pistol in a wide arc. 'This here's a hold-up! If nobody does nuttin' stupid, nobody's gonna get hurt. But you're all gonna take out them wallets and purses and jewelry and such, and hand 'em over!'

Everyone hesitated for a moment, and he yelled, 'Come on!'

Suddenly a chuckling noise was heard, which developed into a full laugh. It was Janice.

'What you laughin' at, bitch?' yelled the man. 'You think this is funny?' He waved the pistol at her.

'No,' said Janice, 'but a man trying to pull a robbery with his flies open sure is. Which were you aiming to fire?'

Amid subdued snickering, the man looked down at his flies in disbelief, to realise almost immediately that he had been suckered. But in his brief moment of inattention Janice – the Janice who had until recently been an object of derision among the group of friends, the Janice who even now was an affectionately tolerated hanger-on rather than a full member of the group – Janice exploded into action. At the time it looked like a single fluid motion, but as Ross reconstructed it with her afterwards, she must have risen straight onto her toes with perfect balance and taken two steps forward, before kicking the man in the groin with great precision and force. The would-be robber gave a very loud scream, dropped his gun and collapsed onto his knees, hunching up and making a continuous whining noise as he clutched himself. Janice then pivoted, to strike a raking blow along his jaw with her other foot; with a moan of agony the man went over. She stood over him, hands on hips, and heeled the gun behind her.

'Nobody – nobody – robs my friends while I can do anything about it,' she spat at the fallen man. Then she looked round at the stunned company and grinned a very fierce, almost feral grin. 'Jeez, I never thought it could be that easy.'

There was a moment more of silence, then uproar, compounded of shouts of congratulation, exclamations of amazement, and a certain amount of laughter. Almost all the assembled company crowded around Janice apart from the producer and main writer of Joey's new show, who were huddled in excited discussion. Rachel and Phoebe got in first to hug her, babbling their fervent admiration.

Joey grabbed her hand and shook it warmly. 'That was the bravest thing I've ever seen. And you were so fast!'

'Yes,' said Ross, following suit. 'You couldn't want a better demonstration of martial arts.'

'Well, it wasn't that exactly,' said Janice. 'I got the basic idea from what Paul Newman does early on in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, when Harvey Logan challenges him for leadership of the gang. But I have taken self-defence classes and tried out with various martial arts, and I go to the gym regularly.'

'You must be in great shape,' said Monica enviously as she pushed through the crowd. She threw her arms around her. 'Thanks a million, Janice. We have all underestimated you.'

After ringing the police and ensuring that the would-be robber was safely immobilised, Chandler now approached the throng around Janice and caught her eye. 'Name your poison,' he said, beaming. 'Absolutely anything you like, and you can have a bottle. The most expensive in the house, I don't care – just name it.'

'Ooh, I'm not sure you should encourage me to drink, Chandler Bing,' she said, grinning at him. 'But thanks: I'll take a bottle of whatever you think is your best tasting red.'

'Coming right up,' he said, and went to the wine rack. As he returned, Joey's producer and writer rose to their feet, looking as if they had decided something, and came forward..

'Young lady,' said the producer, 'do you have any acting experience?'

'Not really,' said Janice, looking puzzled by the question, 'a little amateur stuff, and otherwise only what you get by living in New York.' She gave a brief burst of her machinegun laughter.

The producer winced, then smiled. 'We could use that,' he said to the writer, who nodded eagerly. Then he turned back to Janice. 'You probably know that we are starting a fantasy adventure series with Joey Tribbiani as the male lead. Would you be willing to consider taking a major female role? We think you have enormous potential.'

'Me, be an actress?' said Janice in amazement. 'Could I do something like that?' She looked around at the others, seeming to be desperate for reassurance, suddenly a quite different person from the totally self-confident woman who had routed a gun-carrying criminal.

'Sure you could, Janice,' said Rachel warmly, taking her hand and giving it a little pat. 'You could do anything if you set your mind to it, I'll bet.'

'Absolutely,' said Chandler simply.

'You really should go for it, Janice,' said Monica emphatically. 'You'd be a hit.'

'I'd pay good money to see you do martial arts stuff on the screen,' said Ross.

'You'll never know, if you don't try,' said Phoebe, winking.

'It would be great to have you on the team,' said Joey, beaming at her. 'Come on, acting's not so hard, really. I can tell you all kinds of stuff that will make it easier.'

Tears welled up in Janice's eyes. 'Thanks, you guys,' she said hoarsely, then, turning to the producer, 'Okay, I'll … I'll give it a whirl.' She gave her laugh at full strength, but nobody minded; instead, everyone cheered. Then the police arrived, and the tedious business of giving statements began.

-----

The imminent departure of Joey and Janice to begin filming The Hero Prince, now renamed The Hero Twins, proved to be a catalyst for many changes. Ross and Phoebe got engaged, explaining that they had to do this before Joey and Janice went away, and began looking for a new apartment closer to Monica's Place. Boosted further by the publicity surrounding the attempted robbery, Monica's Place became known as one of the best small restaurants of New York. Chandler and Rachel felt that the love between them had become so well established that they could seriously discuss moving in together, but Rachel decided she should stay with Monica for a while, to help her through the first days of Joey's absence.

This was, indeed, an increasingly difficult time, for there was no word from Joey.

'It's been nine days!' Monica said explosively early one evening when she and Rachel were sitting in the restaurant, relaxing before the customers started arriving. 'Time enough for a letter to get here, even from New Zealand. And he could have phoned any time.'

'I doubt if Joey could work out when it was daytime here,' said Rachel.

'I'm sure he couldn't,' said Monica. 'If he wanted to ring, he'd just have picked up the phone, and been surprised to discover it was the middle of the night here. But he hasn't!'

'But didn't you two agree that you couldn't be expected to wait for him?' said Rachel gently.

'I know,' Monica groaned. 'But I can't get the big lunk out of my head. Oh God, I'm sure he's with someone else.'

'You need to meet someone else, too,' said Rachel.

'Oh sure,' said Monica derisively. 'All kinds of guys pass through the kitchen!' Seeing the hurt in her friend's eyes, she patted her hand. 'Sorry, Rach. This was my choice, and most of the time I'm happy with it. I'll get over Joey in time.'

She went back into the kitchen. Rachel could see nothing that needed doing – Conchita, who was on this evening, was very competent – and so enjoyed the chance to sit and watch Chandler, who was at present checking the wine rack, while he was unaware of her. He looked so romantic and distinguished in his tux that she wished an orchestra would strike up so that they could dance. She felt she was so lucky to have fallen for someone who was already her friend, and was able to work with him at a job they both enjoyed.

Suddenly a shadow fell across the table. 'Rachel Green?' said a familiar voice.

She looked up, to see a well-remembered face. 'Dr. Burke!' she gasped, getting to her feet. 'How are you?'

He smiled. 'I could be worse. But did you hear, Barbara and I broke up?'

'Oh no!' she cried. 'Oh, that's so sad.'

He shrugged. 'We had been growing apart for a long time. I've become reconciled to it.' He looked around. 'So this is Monica's Place, is it? Her parents told me about it. Looks nice. Is she here?'

'Sure,' said Rachel. 'Hey, Mon,' she called, 'look who's here!'

Monica emerged from the kitchen, to see the man on whom she had had a hopeless crush when she was a fat teenager. He looked a little older, but his curls were still black and plentiful, and his smile …!

'Monica, I'm amazed!' he said. 'You look so good. What happened to … I mean, you're so slim!

And running a restaurant, no less.'

'Part-running,' she corrected. 'Chandler and Rachel share with me in running it, and Ross and other friends have invested. So, why don't you stay and try one of our specials?' She flashed a warm smile at him, and he blinked.

'Well, I just dropped in to say hi,' he began. Rachel grabbed his arm and pulled on it as if to get him to a table.

'Oh, do, Dr. Burke,' she begged. 'We can give you as good a meal as you'll find anywhere in New York.' She knew all about Monica's old crush on him, and wanted to keep him there. At least it would distract Monica from thoughts of Joey, but she thought there was a good possibility something could develop here.

'Good wine, too,' said Chandler, coming up. 'I guarantee it.'

'You must be Chandler,' said Dr. Burke, holding out his hand. 'I'm Richard Burke, and I've known these two since they were babies.'

'I envy you,' said Chandler, shaking his hand vigorously. 'I'd have liked nothing better than to grow up in Rachel's neighbourhood.' He gave her a loving smile, which she returned.

Richard Burke smiled too, feeling a strange lightness of heart at the realisation that Chandler was clearly involved with Rachel, not Monica.

'Well, won't you try our Fish Plaki?' said Monica enticingly. 'The fish was fresh in today.'

Richard Burke found that he could not resist the two pairs of beautiful blue eyes gazing at him with exaggerated pleading expressions, and, even more important, that he did not want to part from Monica after having encountered her as an adult.

'Okay, okay, you got me,' he said, throwing up his hands. 'But it better be good, or I'll sue.'

Monica and Rachel beamed at him. 'Step this way,' said Rachel, leading him to their best table. 'I'll get you the menu – but Monica's Fish Plaki is to die for.'

As it happened, there were relatively few customers that evening, and Monica was able to spend several periods chatting with Richard. It was obvious to Rachel and Chandler that a powerful attraction was developing between them. When he finally left, after complimenting them on the food, the wine, the service, everything, Rachel asked Monica excitedly, 'Well, did he ask you for a date?'

'A date?' said Monica. 'I can't date Richard Burke! He's old enough to be my father!'

'That doesn't mean a thing,' said Rachel. 'It's not like he's really old. Why, if I weren't with Chandler I might try to angle for a date myself! You can't let this one go, Mon. You were so into each other.'

'Weeell,' said Monica slowly, 'I am seeing him to have my eyes checked tomorrow.'

Rachel had the sense to say no more, simply hoping that the obvious chemistry between them would do its stuff. And so it proved. Their mutual attraction surmounted all obstacles, including the fact that he was twenty-one years older than her and had grandchildren, and they were an established couple within the week. Monica stopped fretting about why Joey hadn't written, and instead started fretting about how to tell him. Breaking the news of her relationship with Richard to her parents was another hard thing for Monica to do, but with the support of Ross, urged into it by Phoebe, who was delighted to see Monica so happy, she did so. Her mother, perhaps still remembering the phone call in which Monica had so effectively demonstrated that she would no longer tolerate her endless criticisms, was remarkably restrained in her comments.

Then came a development that was completely unexpected. In the course of bidding Joey an extremely fond farewell, Monica had taken a risk. She soon discovered that possibilities at reasonable odds come up reasonably often. She had begun to have suspicions when she first started dating Richard, amd these were confirmed by a missed period and a pregnancy test taken to be absolutely sure. Overcome by a feeling of elation that swept aside all considerations of any practical difficulties, she rushed out of the bathroom as soon as the test had shown positive and into Rachel's bedroom, though it was still rather early in the morning. A bleary-eyed Rachel and Chandler looked up at her.

'I'm pregnant, I'm pregnant, I'm pregnant!' she shrieked, jumping up and down in her excitement.

'What?' screamed Rachel, jumping out of bed.

'I'm pregnant!' Monica yelled again. 'Isn't it great?'

'Oh honey, it's what you've always wanted!' cried Rachel, folding her into an embrace. 'It is Joey's, of course?'

As the two clung to each other, babbling excitedly, Chandler felt it necessary to introduce a note of reality. 'Joey's thousands of miles away,' he said. 'So what are you going to do?'

Monica and Rachel fell silent and looked at him; then Monica's face went down.

'Oh God,' she said quietly. 'I can't tell him. He'll want to come back and marry me, but how can I do that? I'm with Richard now. Rachel, what shall I do?' she wailed, reverting for once to the schoolgirl who had always relied on Rachel to give a lead.

Rachel hugged her. 'You must tell him; he has a right to know. It's his kid too. But it doesn't have to be just yet. I hate to mention it, but miscarriages do happen, so maybe you should wait a while to broadcast this anyway. When you do tell him, you should insist that he stays where he is until the filming's finished, unless he can get time off without his producer and director getting mad. As for marrying, I think it would be crazy to marry if you don't love him. But whatever you decide, Chandler and I will give you all the support you need, though it's after the baby's born that you'll need it most.'

'Oh Rachel, you're such a friend!' Monica wailed, dissolving into tears on Rachel's shoulder.

'Now's my chance to pay you back for all you've done for me,' said Rachel lovingly, patting her on the back.

'You've already done that,' Monica sobbed. 'I couldn't have better help at the restaurant than you and Chandler.'

'Come on, cheer up, Monica,' said Chandler, also patting her. 'The worst is yet to come: you have to tell your parents, not to mention Ross.'

Monica gave a watery giggle. 'Trust you to come up with a joke like that. Well, I know it's going to be difficult in some ways, but I can't help feeling happy!'

-----

After a further month, Monica could not wait any longer, and told everyone who mattered in her life that she was pregnant, and that Joey was the father. Her parents, her mother in particular, took it better than might have been expected, while to everyone's surprise Ross did not act the outraged brother at all, simply offered any help that she needed, as did Carol and Susan, who were overjoyed that Ben would have a cousin near his own age. The difficult bit was telling Richard. Finally she did so, one Monday evening when Monica's Place was shut and he had come to the apartment for dinner.

'You're pregnant?' he said in disbelief. 'But I thought we'd always been very careful.'

'It's … not yours,' she said hesitantly. 'It's Joey's. We were together before he went to New Zealand, and, well, I took a risk when saying goodbye to him.'

Richard sat back on the couch in her apartment, looking thoughtful. After a while, he turned, to see her looking at him with such apprehension that he had to smile.

'Monica, relax!' he said. 'I'm not going to go ballistic. So, are you going to marry him?'

'I don't want to marry him,' she said. The unspoken corollary, I want to marry you, hung in the air.

'Mm,' he responded, and sat back to think some more. Unable to keep still, she got up and started to make some more coffee. She could not bear waiting on what he had to say without occupying herself. Finally he looked at her again.

'Okay,' he said. 'Here's what I think. Monica, I love you very much – but I don't want another baby around. I've been through all that. So, what say we just keep on as we are? We don't live together, but we remain lovers.'

 'Would – would that be enough for you?' she stammered. He had been speaking of their moving in together recently.

'A lot of men would see it as ideal,' he said. 'As you know, I'd like to have you around a lot more, though, given the hours you spend at that restaurant, it might not make all that much difference whether we lived in one place or two.' He grinned. 'But I can easily stand going on like this. Having you in my life, on any terms, is infinitely preferable to not having you in my life.'

'Oh Richard!' she cried, and went to hug and kiss him. For a while they embraced on the couch, but finally she pulled back.

'Don't you mind, that I'm having another man's child?' she said.

He shook his head. 'Not when I have children of my own, who are beginning to have their own children. But you know you're going to have let Joey know.'

She pulled a face and looked obstinate. 'I don't see why I should, when the rat still hasn't written.'

He looked at her mock-severely. 'Monica! You write to him now!'

'Yes, dad,' she said meekly.

'I'll give you dad,' he growled, grabbing hold of her again. The letter did not get written that evening.

In fact, it took a further week of nagging from her friends before Monica finally wrote to Joey. She was quite clear now that, though she wanted to acknowledge him as the father and share the child's upbringing with him, she would refuse to marry him. Having him away for so long allowed her to see that their relationship had been based on shared fun, which had been extremely good for her at the time, but would not have been a solid basis for a marriage even if she had not established a steady relationship with Richard. She put all this in her letter, and when it was posted sat back with as much patience as she could manage to await a response.

This came very swiftly, and she could feel the relief coming off it. He apologised for having failed to write, but the truth of the matter was that he had not only been having a great time filming the show and hanging out with the actors and crew, but he had formed a great relationship with Janice, which was the icing on the cake. He did not know if it would last, but he definitely felt that he and Monica were over, though he wanted to share responsibility for their baby and help raise it as far as he could. This news made Monica so light-hearted that she simply had to go tell Rachel, who was at Monica's Place managing the coffee shop side as usual. Rachel was slightly startled to see a beaming Monica come in waving a letter.

'You're never going to believe this,' Monica cried. 'As I suspected, Joey's in another relationship, and guess who with?'

Rachel took in the mischievous expression on Monica's face. 'Nooo!' she said in overacted amazement. 'Not Janice?'

Monica nodded and burst into a fit of giggling, which Rachel joined in immediately.

'When I think how he used to hate having her around!' Monica gasped at a pause in their laughter, and then broke down again.

'Well, I think it's great!' said Rachel firmly, when she had got herself under control, 'though I hope Janice isn't building any hopes on it. Joey managed to have a real relationship with you, but I'm not sure he's the settling down kind.'

'Me neither,' said Monica, wiping her eyes, 'but I think Janice can take care of herself. You know, I'm finding I miss her as much as Joey.'

'Yeah, I do too,' said Rachel. 'Maybe she'll be back in time for the birth.'

At that moment Ross and Phoebe came in on their lunch break, and demanded to know what had brought Monica there. When they were told, Ross collapsed into a chair, laughing his head off, while Phoebe threw her arms round his shoulders and shrieked with laughter too.

'Someone – or something – is playing games with us,' said Ross, when he had recovered. 'It's the only explanation.'

'There you go with that mystical crap again,' said Phoebe in a loving tone.

'Well, how else do you explain how we've all changed?' said Ross. 'I mean, it's not like we decided to change – we just did, all of a sudden.'

Phoebe looked uncertain. 'Well, maybe. But some of us did make deliberate decisions to change jobs, and like that. Whatever, I like things much better the way they are.'

'So do I,' said Ross, Monica and Rachel in virtual unison.