TOW Misunderstandings Suck - 7
Okay folks. I think this will be the last chapter. (Good news for me, but maybe bad news for you who like the series!) I'll let you know. The story has done pretty much everything I've wanted it to, except for one thing...
~~~
July 2001... Monica & Chandler's house...
Monica carefully carried the package over two her two youngest children, James and Candice. It was their fourth birthday party, for which lots of people had gathered, and the event would probably get pretty hectic if she dropped what she was carrying. She approached them, who were sitting by Chandler at a picnic table. The remnants of the rest of their presents that they had already opened lay all around on the ground, and all of the kids who were in the yard that day stretched to see what was in this gift. The adults all smiled, for they'd already been told about it.
"Thank you, Mommy!"
"Thank you, Mommy!"
She smiled as her children chorused out their thanks to her and she stepped back to watch as they opened the box. Their screams of delight made her laugh when she saw the little cocker spaniel puppy jump out, eager to see what all the people were up to. All the kids flocked to see the dog, and all the adults backed away, knowing that once the group of kids lost interest in staring at the new present they would all want to go home. Monica knew that her own kids wouldn't get tired of it soon, for they'd all been asking for a pet for a while. Chandler walked up to her, giving her a kiss.
"Thanks Mommy," he said, grinning. "I was wanting one of those."
"What, a puppy?" she asked, playing along.
"No, a kiss," Chandler replied, and leaned in to get another one.
She laughed as they pulled apart. "Well, I'm glad you had a good day." She looked over at all four of her children, who were still playing with the dog in the middle of the lawn. "You know, you should really get on your mother's case to send the kids birthday cards regularly. I want them to have something from one of their grandparents so they can remember them."
Chandler sighed. "Monica, I'm sure your parents were told about the kids. They probably just forgot."
"But we don't know that, do we?" she asked. "We haven't spoken to anyone since Rachel left in February. We don't know, she maybe never even told Phoebe or Joey about her stay with us. Let alone my parents."
"Well, do you want to call Rachel?" Chandler asked, as he picked a fuzzball off of her shoulder.
"Thanks. But, I don't know. It just seems to me that if she was ready to talk to us, she would've called," she replied. "After all, she had to deal with more than we did. True, we dealt with our ruined friendship, but she had that and the fact that she knew she and Ross were mostly to blame for it."
Chandler decided to change the subject. "Whatever. We can discuss this later. Now isn't really the time; we still have guests."
Monica smiled at him. "I know, okay. It's not that big of a deal after all, I mean we have until August when Ellie's birthday comes to talk to your mother." She turned and saw Alexis heading towards them, and smiled at her. But at the same time she knew she wasn't as fine as she said she was.
"Great party, you guys," Alexis said once she reached them. "You really got your kids excited with that dog. I think every kid in the neighborhood will be at your house playing with it for the next week."
Rolling his eyes sarcastically, Chandler picked up a glass of punch from a table they walked by. "Yeah, that will be weird. 'Cause everyone's not over here every day anyway, eating all of the treats that Monica's always baking."
"Well, she could always give some of us the recipes so she wouldn't be the only one with begging children on her doorstep," Alexis replied, looking pointedly at Monica.
Monica chuckled. "You need more than my recipes. Try the touch of a magic want to your cooking skills."
"Ha, ha, funny," retorted Alexis, smirking at her.
Suddenly the woman who lived across the street from Monica and Chandler called out from the other side of the yard. She was standing near the house and could see the driveway in the front yard. "Monica? Chandler?"
"Yeah, Carol. What's up?" Monica called back.
"I just thought I should tell you, but there's a strange van that just pulled up into your driveway. Were you expecting anyone?"
Chandler shook his head, wondering who it was. "No, but we'll go see who it is."
"Look after the kids for us, will ya Alex?" Monica looked back at her friend who nodded as she and Chandler started across the yard. Just as they reached the corner of the house where Carol had been when she saw the van, they nearly ran into the woman who was walking around the corner right at them.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, and it was then that Monica and Chandler realized they were staring at Rachel.
"Rachel." It was a statement, because Monica didn't really know what else to say. "Hi. How have you been?"
Rachel smiled uncomfortably at them. "Well, uh, not so good." She looked around and suddenly realized that the yard was full of people. "Did I come at a bad time? I didn't realize you had company, there were no cars in the driveway."
Chandler shook his head. "It's not really how it looks. Every weekend in the spring, summer, and fall, the neighborhood has a barbecue. We're having it this weekend since it's James and Candice's birthdays as well."
"Well I'm still sorry, you could be spending time with your kids instead of me," she replied, although she looked less uncomfortable than she had a minute ago.
"Well, you're here, aren't you?" Monica asked. "You may as well stay. We're not about to just send you right back to New York."
"Do you mind if we talk?" she asked. "I just have to get something from the car first."
Monica nodded. "Sure. I'll just tell Alexis that she's in charge of the yard for a while. We can go inside, so just come in through the front door and go to the living room when you come back."
~~~
In the living room, Monica was occupied with moving things around on the mantle that was above their fireplace and didn't hear Chandler come up behind her. He gently pinched her butt, causing her to yell and jump, and turned to face him.
"Chandler! What's wrong with simply saying 'hello'?" she cried, lightly hitting him on the arm. "You scared me half to death."
"That's not as fun," he said, wrapping his arms around her waist. He gave her a kiss, and that's when they noticed they were no longer alone.
Rachel cleared her throat to get their attention. "Hi." As they turned towards her, their eyes widened as they saw that what Rachel had brought from the van was Ross, Phoebe, Joey, and six children. They pulled apart and struggled to think of what to say.
"Um, you can send the kids out back if you'd like," Monica finally said, with a nervous tone to her voice. There's lots of food, drinks, kids, adult supervision, and also a dog."
All the kids looked up at Rachel, and she nodded her head at them. "Go on. Might as well get to know their children." The kids scampered outside, and Rachel paused before she continued. "Two of those were my kids, if you'll remember, Bobby and Ruthie. Then three were Phoebe's, and the other was Joey's."
Chandler and Monica nodded, and he motioned to the couch. "Have a seat, if you'd like. Is anyone thirsty?"
"No, we're fine," Ross said, after sharing a look with the group. "We just really need to talk."
"Well, if you won't sit, then I will," said Monica, promptly taking a place on a chair. When nobody said anything she decided to urge them on. "You said you wanted to talk?"
"Yeah, yeah," Rachel said. "I had a rough time after I returned home in February. I felt awful."
"We all felt awful," said Joey, chiming in. Monica realized that she had started to forget his voice, having not heard it in almost nine years.
Ross sighed. "Rachel and I knew we had to talk to you, to set things right again. After hearing the whole story, something we definitely should've gotten before any words were said when it actually happened, we tried to figure out how to do that. We didn't feel it was right to just walk back into your life, expecting to be friends again after everything that we did."
"We demanded that we be brought along though," said Phoebe, motioning to herself and Joey. "We didn't treat you very well either."
Ross glanced over at Monica, who was looking down at the floor. "Mon, I spoke to Mom and Dad. I take it they never talked to you?" Monica shook her head but didn't reply. "Look, we would really like to be friends again. I'm not saying that we're going to move here, or especially that you should move back to New York, but we should have contact. Our friendships have been hurt badly, and our family has been torn apart, but we really hope you can forgive us."
"It's not going to be easy," Chandler said. "Things won't change overnight."
"No, I know. We know," Rachel replied, "but at least we're all talking now. That's more than we were six months ago. We were really hasty, careless, short-tempered, and mean back then, but we hope you can see how bad we feel about that."
Monica wiped away a tear that was rolling down her cheek and looked up at them. "No, you really hurt us. It would've been one thing for you two to be mad at us," she said, addressing Ross and Rachel, "but you turned the rest of our friends against us. Once you got back from your honeymoon and talked to Phoebe and Joey, they wouldn't talk to us either. Do you know how that hurt? To all of a sudden have all of your friends ignore you and be mean when you weren't sure what you did to cause that?"
Rachel opened her mouth to talk, but instead stopped and turned away. "I'm sorry. Excuse me." She quickly walked out of the room, not wanting the others to see her cry.
"Things don't have to be better immediately," Joey said. "It was hard for us too, back then. We heard some things, and with neither you or Chandler not telling us an explanation for that, we finally believed it. I guess now the reason you didn't explain was because you didn't know what it was that was wrong, and nobody listened to you anyway."
"We just want to know if there's any possibility that we could ever be friends again," said Phoebe. "Maybe even get back to the way that it was before..."
As she drifted off, Rachel returned. She had heard their conversation and just waited as Monica and Chandler thought about what they all had said. She felt nervous as they looked at each other, making their decision without speaking a word, but felt a little hopeful as she saw Monica slightly smile.
"We'll see," she said, standing up out of the chair. "I think it's very possible that we can get back what we once had." She smiled at Chandler, and then turned to the other four who were standing there, looking relieved. "How about we take a break from this at-home-therapy session that we've got going and rejoin the party that we've got in the back yard? The kids still all need to be introduced."
At that moment, they all felt some of the tension lift right out of the room. Things would be just fine, Phoebe thought. They'd have to give it some time.
"Great," said Ross, and walked over to Monica and took her hand. When she smiled at him to say that she was okay with that, they all turned and walked out of the house.
~~~
End Part Seven...
*SIGHS IN DISGUST* Well, that was awful. :( I needed a way to end the series, like a little epilogue, and that was as good as it got. This is the end of my little series, so sorry to leave it so dumbly. But oh well, I just think back to the first few stories and am happier about how those turned out than this one. I knew some of the elements that I wanted to work into this story, but incorporating them was another thing. It turned out to be kinda boring and sappy, I think, but hopefully a few of you will think differently. Anyway, I'm sorry again for the really weak ending I have here, but hope you liked the series anyway. I have another idea for a single fanfic, but it could be a while before I'm motivated enough to bother putting that actually into a story. So until then...bye!
Okay folks. I think this will be the last chapter. (Good news for me, but maybe bad news for you who like the series!) I'll let you know. The story has done pretty much everything I've wanted it to, except for one thing...
~~~
July 2001... Monica & Chandler's house...
Monica carefully carried the package over two her two youngest children, James and Candice. It was their fourth birthday party, for which lots of people had gathered, and the event would probably get pretty hectic if she dropped what she was carrying. She approached them, who were sitting by Chandler at a picnic table. The remnants of the rest of their presents that they had already opened lay all around on the ground, and all of the kids who were in the yard that day stretched to see what was in this gift. The adults all smiled, for they'd already been told about it.
"Thank you, Mommy!"
"Thank you, Mommy!"
She smiled as her children chorused out their thanks to her and she stepped back to watch as they opened the box. Their screams of delight made her laugh when she saw the little cocker spaniel puppy jump out, eager to see what all the people were up to. All the kids flocked to see the dog, and all the adults backed away, knowing that once the group of kids lost interest in staring at the new present they would all want to go home. Monica knew that her own kids wouldn't get tired of it soon, for they'd all been asking for a pet for a while. Chandler walked up to her, giving her a kiss.
"Thanks Mommy," he said, grinning. "I was wanting one of those."
"What, a puppy?" she asked, playing along.
"No, a kiss," Chandler replied, and leaned in to get another one.
She laughed as they pulled apart. "Well, I'm glad you had a good day." She looked over at all four of her children, who were still playing with the dog in the middle of the lawn. "You know, you should really get on your mother's case to send the kids birthday cards regularly. I want them to have something from one of their grandparents so they can remember them."
Chandler sighed. "Monica, I'm sure your parents were told about the kids. They probably just forgot."
"But we don't know that, do we?" she asked. "We haven't spoken to anyone since Rachel left in February. We don't know, she maybe never even told Phoebe or Joey about her stay with us. Let alone my parents."
"Well, do you want to call Rachel?" Chandler asked, as he picked a fuzzball off of her shoulder.
"Thanks. But, I don't know. It just seems to me that if she was ready to talk to us, she would've called," she replied. "After all, she had to deal with more than we did. True, we dealt with our ruined friendship, but she had that and the fact that she knew she and Ross were mostly to blame for it."
Chandler decided to change the subject. "Whatever. We can discuss this later. Now isn't really the time; we still have guests."
Monica smiled at him. "I know, okay. It's not that big of a deal after all, I mean we have until August when Ellie's birthday comes to talk to your mother." She turned and saw Alexis heading towards them, and smiled at her. But at the same time she knew she wasn't as fine as she said she was.
"Great party, you guys," Alexis said once she reached them. "You really got your kids excited with that dog. I think every kid in the neighborhood will be at your house playing with it for the next week."
Rolling his eyes sarcastically, Chandler picked up a glass of punch from a table they walked by. "Yeah, that will be weird. 'Cause everyone's not over here every day anyway, eating all of the treats that Monica's always baking."
"Well, she could always give some of us the recipes so she wouldn't be the only one with begging children on her doorstep," Alexis replied, looking pointedly at Monica.
Monica chuckled. "You need more than my recipes. Try the touch of a magic want to your cooking skills."
"Ha, ha, funny," retorted Alexis, smirking at her.
Suddenly the woman who lived across the street from Monica and Chandler called out from the other side of the yard. She was standing near the house and could see the driveway in the front yard. "Monica? Chandler?"
"Yeah, Carol. What's up?" Monica called back.
"I just thought I should tell you, but there's a strange van that just pulled up into your driveway. Were you expecting anyone?"
Chandler shook his head, wondering who it was. "No, but we'll go see who it is."
"Look after the kids for us, will ya Alex?" Monica looked back at her friend who nodded as she and Chandler started across the yard. Just as they reached the corner of the house where Carol had been when she saw the van, they nearly ran into the woman who was walking around the corner right at them.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, and it was then that Monica and Chandler realized they were staring at Rachel.
"Rachel." It was a statement, because Monica didn't really know what else to say. "Hi. How have you been?"
Rachel smiled uncomfortably at them. "Well, uh, not so good." She looked around and suddenly realized that the yard was full of people. "Did I come at a bad time? I didn't realize you had company, there were no cars in the driveway."
Chandler shook his head. "It's not really how it looks. Every weekend in the spring, summer, and fall, the neighborhood has a barbecue. We're having it this weekend since it's James and Candice's birthdays as well."
"Well I'm still sorry, you could be spending time with your kids instead of me," she replied, although she looked less uncomfortable than she had a minute ago.
"Well, you're here, aren't you?" Monica asked. "You may as well stay. We're not about to just send you right back to New York."
"Do you mind if we talk?" she asked. "I just have to get something from the car first."
Monica nodded. "Sure. I'll just tell Alexis that she's in charge of the yard for a while. We can go inside, so just come in through the front door and go to the living room when you come back."
~~~
In the living room, Monica was occupied with moving things around on the mantle that was above their fireplace and didn't hear Chandler come up behind her. He gently pinched her butt, causing her to yell and jump, and turned to face him.
"Chandler! What's wrong with simply saying 'hello'?" she cried, lightly hitting him on the arm. "You scared me half to death."
"That's not as fun," he said, wrapping his arms around her waist. He gave her a kiss, and that's when they noticed they were no longer alone.
Rachel cleared her throat to get their attention. "Hi." As they turned towards her, their eyes widened as they saw that what Rachel had brought from the van was Ross, Phoebe, Joey, and six children. They pulled apart and struggled to think of what to say.
"Um, you can send the kids out back if you'd like," Monica finally said, with a nervous tone to her voice. There's lots of food, drinks, kids, adult supervision, and also a dog."
All the kids looked up at Rachel, and she nodded her head at them. "Go on. Might as well get to know their children." The kids scampered outside, and Rachel paused before she continued. "Two of those were my kids, if you'll remember, Bobby and Ruthie. Then three were Phoebe's, and the other was Joey's."
Chandler and Monica nodded, and he motioned to the couch. "Have a seat, if you'd like. Is anyone thirsty?"
"No, we're fine," Ross said, after sharing a look with the group. "We just really need to talk."
"Well, if you won't sit, then I will," said Monica, promptly taking a place on a chair. When nobody said anything she decided to urge them on. "You said you wanted to talk?"
"Yeah, yeah," Rachel said. "I had a rough time after I returned home in February. I felt awful."
"We all felt awful," said Joey, chiming in. Monica realized that she had started to forget his voice, having not heard it in almost nine years.
Ross sighed. "Rachel and I knew we had to talk to you, to set things right again. After hearing the whole story, something we definitely should've gotten before any words were said when it actually happened, we tried to figure out how to do that. We didn't feel it was right to just walk back into your life, expecting to be friends again after everything that we did."
"We demanded that we be brought along though," said Phoebe, motioning to herself and Joey. "We didn't treat you very well either."
Ross glanced over at Monica, who was looking down at the floor. "Mon, I spoke to Mom and Dad. I take it they never talked to you?" Monica shook her head but didn't reply. "Look, we would really like to be friends again. I'm not saying that we're going to move here, or especially that you should move back to New York, but we should have contact. Our friendships have been hurt badly, and our family has been torn apart, but we really hope you can forgive us."
"It's not going to be easy," Chandler said. "Things won't change overnight."
"No, I know. We know," Rachel replied, "but at least we're all talking now. That's more than we were six months ago. We were really hasty, careless, short-tempered, and mean back then, but we hope you can see how bad we feel about that."
Monica wiped away a tear that was rolling down her cheek and looked up at them. "No, you really hurt us. It would've been one thing for you two to be mad at us," she said, addressing Ross and Rachel, "but you turned the rest of our friends against us. Once you got back from your honeymoon and talked to Phoebe and Joey, they wouldn't talk to us either. Do you know how that hurt? To all of a sudden have all of your friends ignore you and be mean when you weren't sure what you did to cause that?"
Rachel opened her mouth to talk, but instead stopped and turned away. "I'm sorry. Excuse me." She quickly walked out of the room, not wanting the others to see her cry.
"Things don't have to be better immediately," Joey said. "It was hard for us too, back then. We heard some things, and with neither you or Chandler not telling us an explanation for that, we finally believed it. I guess now the reason you didn't explain was because you didn't know what it was that was wrong, and nobody listened to you anyway."
"We just want to know if there's any possibility that we could ever be friends again," said Phoebe. "Maybe even get back to the way that it was before..."
As she drifted off, Rachel returned. She had heard their conversation and just waited as Monica and Chandler thought about what they all had said. She felt nervous as they looked at each other, making their decision without speaking a word, but felt a little hopeful as she saw Monica slightly smile.
"We'll see," she said, standing up out of the chair. "I think it's very possible that we can get back what we once had." She smiled at Chandler, and then turned to the other four who were standing there, looking relieved. "How about we take a break from this at-home-therapy session that we've got going and rejoin the party that we've got in the back yard? The kids still all need to be introduced."
At that moment, they all felt some of the tension lift right out of the room. Things would be just fine, Phoebe thought. They'd have to give it some time.
"Great," said Ross, and walked over to Monica and took her hand. When she smiled at him to say that she was okay with that, they all turned and walked out of the house.
~~~
End Part Seven...
*SIGHS IN DISGUST* Well, that was awful. :( I needed a way to end the series, like a little epilogue, and that was as good as it got. This is the end of my little series, so sorry to leave it so dumbly. But oh well, I just think back to the first few stories and am happier about how those turned out than this one. I knew some of the elements that I wanted to work into this story, but incorporating them was another thing. It turned out to be kinda boring and sappy, I think, but hopefully a few of you will think differently. Anyway, I'm sorry again for the really weak ending I have here, but hope you liked the series anyway. I have another idea for a single fanfic, but it could be a while before I'm motivated enough to bother putting that actually into a story. So until then...bye!
