TOW Misunderstandings Suck - 5

Well folks, I only have a couple more things to reveal, because in this chapter most of The Incident will be revealed. Not all of it though, keep in mind. I still have a couple more chapters to go. But you're all very good at being patient. :) Okay, well this chapter will once again be rated PG-13, for the few swears I threw in here. Hey, they're mad, arguing, what do you expect? Anyway, I'm sure you can handle it. On with the show!

~~~

2011...

Monica was in the kitchen the next morning braiding her daughter Kiana's hair. It was long and dark brown, just like her own, and Chandler loved it because that was just another feature that Monica and Kiana had in common. Chandler had called the airport again this morning to check Rachel's flight, but there was still no news. It had stopped snowing so hard sometime in the night, and there was still snow coming down but not nearly as much. There was several feet of snow on the ground outside however, and Monica knew it would still be a while before the airport had cleared off the runways.

She had just finished Kiana's second braid when Rachel entered the room. She was dressed and freshly showered, and gave Kiana a little smile when she saw her. Kiana still was wary of her, but smiled quickly before leaving the room. Rachel glanced at Monica and sighed.

"Sleep okay?" Monica asked as she stood up to get a banana.

"Yeah, fine. Thanks," replied Rachel, going for some coffee.

Monica glanced at a picture of her four kids that was sitting by the fruit on her way back to her seat. She decided to use this opportunity to find out just what had been going on with the other four since they left. "So, do you have any kids of your own?" Rachel gave her a shocked look but she went on. "What? You're here, aren't you? I think it's natural that I'm a little curious."

Rachel gave Monica another look as she turned back to pouring her coffee. "Well, okay. I do have kids. Two; a 4-year old son and a 1-year old daughter, Bobby and Ruthie."

"Hmm," she nodded, biting into the banana. "What are Phoebe and Joey up to?"

"Married." Rachel's answer was short, mainly because she was still uncomfortable with the situation. "Not to each other, though. They both have kids too."

Monica was suddenly sad. She realized just how much she had missed by leaving. She tried to keep her voice from showing it though, as she replied. "I'm glad you all are happy."

Rachel heard something in Monica's voice there, and turned around to look at her. She was surprised to see that Monica had her head in her hands, looking down at the table. "Hey, I'm sorry. Don't get all misty here."

"It's not your fault," Monica replied, wiping her eyes a bit. "I mean, it was then, but not now. I'm just being moody."

"What do you mean, it was my fault then?" Rachel demanded, suddenly no longer in the mood for coffee. "It wasn't me that was going behind my friends' backs, talking about them."

"Hey, it wasn't ever our fault!" retorted Monica.

Rachel smirked. "Well, it was the way I remember it."

~~~

2003...Before the previous flashback took place...

Rachel stuck her head out of the dressing room, looking for Monica. "Monica?" Just then she heard voices floating from around the corner, and stopped to listen.

Monica and Chandler were standing in the hallway, just around the corner from the dressing room that Rachel and Phoebe were in. Monica was holding a cell phone, and was talking to Chandler.

"No, I actually think she's going to go through with the marriage!" she said, nodding her head in agreement at Chandler's shocked expression.

"She's nuts! Doesn't she realize that it will never work?" he replied, as he took back the phone.

Monica shrugged. "I don't know. Hopefully it'll be better than her last one," she grinned, getting a smirk back from Chandler. "I don't know. I was just talking to her, and she sounded really thrilled about it."

"Please," Chandler said, waving it off, "she's probably just using him. It can't be for real."

"Well, it's someone she's known for years. Maybe she just feels that he's her safety net in case she never finds anything better." Monica paused before she went on. "I'm her maid of honor. I need to act supportive of the wedding, no matter what my opinions about it are."

Chandler was surprised at that. "Well, good luck with that. She has a way of making you feel guilty about stuff without actually saying anything."

Monica nodded, "I know, I know. But I think we both should talk to her soon, let her know our opinion about this. I don't want her to make that big of a mistake with her life, and I know you don't either, although you go about showing that pretty strangely."

"Do we have to?" Chandler asked, not wanting to. "Do you really think it will make much of a difference? You know she is incredibly stubborn."

"Well, maybe we can talk to her about it without her really knowing what we're doing," Monica replied, and then leaned in to kiss him. "Listen, I should get back. Rachel's probably getting nervous, and I want to talk to her before the ceremony."

"Yeah, okay," said Chandler, and kissed her again. "See you in a bit."

Rachel was stunned. She had no idea that they felt like that. How long had that been going on? She realized that Monica's footsteps were getting closer, so she shut the door and ran back into the dressing room so they wouldn't know that she had been listening.

~~~

2011...

After Rachel had finished telling that whole story, she turned to face Monica for the first time in ten minutes. Monica had tears streaming down her face.

"I can't believe that's why you and Ross drove Chandler and me out of your lives," she said, wiping away some tears. "All of these years I didn't know, and that was it!"

Rachel sighed in exasperation. "What the hell did you think it was? Of course that was it!"

"No, that wasn't it!" Monica cried. "You know, you could never be a reporter!"

"Ooh, really hitting me where it hurts," retorted Rachel. "What the hell has that got to do with anything?"

Monica sadly smiled. "You couldn't be a reporter because you don't check to see if your information is correct."

The two women just stared at each other for a few minutes, wondering what they should do next. Suddenly Chandler walked in the back door, which was adjacent to the kitchen.

"Well, the shoveling sort o got done, Mon," he said, stamping his feet and brushing all of the snow off of himself. "I decided to start a snowball fight with the kids instead, and now they're out there making a snowman." He finally looked up and became surprised when he saw Monica, her face still red from crying, and Rachel, looking mad and sad, facing off in the kitchen. The tension in that room was overwhelming, and he suddenly felt glad that he had been outside instead of in here during that whole time. "Woah," he managed to say, "what happened?" He took off the rest of his outdoor garments and went over to stand next to Monica.

Monica stood up. Sitting down suddenly felt stifling. She didn't want to be here, doing this. What if they got everything out in the open, but it was too late? In a way that would be even worse than it was now; to know their friendship wasn't strong enough to survive even once everyone had all the facts, rather than assume their friendship had ended because of something she and Chandler had done, even if they didn't know what it was. She suddenly noticed that Rachel was still staring at her and Chandler was still waiting for an answer. "Uh, Rachel was just telling me why we left," she said quietly, looking at her husband.

"What?" Chandler was surprised. He thought they'd been fighting, not discussing old events. No wonder they both looked the way they did. "And why is that, exactly?" he asked Monica.

"Do you remember a certain conversation that we had in the hallway while everybody was getting dressed for the wedding?" She waited as he started thinking and continued when he looked back at her, clearly not remembering. She smiled ruefully. "Well, do you remember a certain phone call that day? It seems we shouldn't have had that conversation, or at least not there, at a wedding.

Chandler widened his eyes as he realized what Monica was talking about. "Oh, my God. That's it?" Monica nodded in return, and he turned to Rachel. "Okay, now I realize how that sounded and why you were so mad, but you should've let us explain what we were saying."

Rachel sighed and looked down at her feet. "Well, clearly I'm not going anywhere else. Now's your chance."

Monica and Chandler looked at each other.

~~~

End Part 5...

Well, my series is nearing the end, I hope. :) I hope this chapter was good, and I hope I'm keeping you intrigued for the next one!