By the time she got to work, Monica was already questioning her decision to take off the ring. She was grateful when the lunch hour was especially busy, but once the crowd had thinned and she had a lull in her work _ and time to think _ she found herself becoming increasingly heartsick.
She kept glancing at her finger, where the faint indentation of the ring just wouldn't disappear. She'd only been wearing the ring for a month or two, and already she had grown so used to its weight on her finger that she was painfully aware that it was missing now. And it felt wrong not to wear it.
It was that feeling, that longing for the ring and the comfort of it, that made Monica realize she was missing a lot more than a piece of jewelry.
It was halfway through her shift that she knew she would take Chandler back. That she could get over this trouble, that they could get over it. And with that realization she was overwhelmed with an instant relief, like waking up from a terrible nightmare and realizing that it was, in fact, just a nightmare. Of course, in this case, the nightmare was still there. But it just seemed a lot easier to deal with it head on, when she was fully awake and thinking straight. And it would be easier to deal with it if she was back with Chandler, where she belonged.
So Monica, pleased with her decision, was actually smiling as she prepared for the dinner shift, looking forward to going home and calling Chandler, imagining what she would say to him and how he would react. And then Ross showed up in her kitchen.
"Ross?" she said. "What are you doing here? Is everything OK?"
"No, it's not," he said. "We have to talk."
Ross had finally had enough of the mess between Monica and Chandler. He had vowed to stay out of their problems, to let them work this out for themselves. But just a few minutes ago he'd been sitting in his living room grading papers when Chandler had burst in, glanced at him, and walked to the guestroom, slamming the door behind him without saying a word.
Enough was enough, Ross had thought. Chandler was unhappy. Monica was unhappy. It was time to set things straight. He'd left his papers on the coffee table and gone straight to the restaurant.
"This is crazy, what's going on between you guys," he said.
"I know it is," Monica said, sighing. "But it will be over soon. I promise." She wanted to talk to Chandler before telling her brother that she planned to get back together with him.
"Why are you doing this?" Ross asked. "Why are you holding this against him?"
Monica debated her answers. She'd been asking herself that same question over the past few days, weeks even. And although she wasn't proud of her answer, she couldn't help the way she felt.
"I was embarrassed," she said.
"Embarrassed? That's what this is all about? You feel embarrassed?"
"Well, in the most simple terms, yes," she said. Monica took a deep breath and studied her fingers, stopping on the one missing the engagement ring. "The thing is, I've always been so proud of Chandler. Proud to call him my boyfriend, and then my fiancé, and then soon my husband. I'm so in love with him, every part of him. I mean, sure, sometimes his humor is a little inappropriate or annoying. I wish he could be a little more serious sometimes. But basically, and I know this sounds kind of sappy, but he was my prince, my fairy tale. He was everything I wanted. He was as close to perfect for me as anyone will ever be.
"But this accident is like a huge smudge on that, a huge stain, and I'm stuck with it. It's something I don't even want to think about. I'm ashamed of that part of him. I'm ashamed of him."
"You're ashamed of him? Mon, trust me, you don't have any idea what shame is all about. Imagine how you feel about Chandler, and then imagine how he feels about himself. It's like a thousand times worse."
"I know, but-"
"No, you don't know," Ross said. "Come on, sit down." He pulled over two stools and sat down on one of them.
"Look, I'm at work, can't this wait?"
"No, it can't wait. Chandler would probably kill me if he knew I was going to tell you this, but you deserve to know everything." Monica sat on the other stool as Ross paused and considered where to start. "First, about the accident? You know he doesn't even remember a thing about it?"
"Why, because he was too drunk?" Monica grumbled.
"No, not because he was drunk," Ross said. "He doesn't remember because he was pretty badly hurt in the crash. He broke both his legs and had a skull fracture. He was in the hospital for almost a month, he had like two surgeries. He was in physical therapy for almost his entire senior year. The thing is, he was about as much a victim in all this as anyone."
Monica had put her hand up to her mouth while Ross was talking, her eyes growing wide in shock. "Oh my God, I had no idea," she said when he was done. "But, he told us what happened. It sounded like he remembered all of it."
"Well, yeah, that's because he's replayed that entire night, what little he remembers of it and what he's been told about it, what he read in newspapers about it, he's replayed the whole thing over and over again. In his mind, he can see the whole thing happening. He can see the car coming at them and the woman screaming and even her kids and Amy. But he doesn't actually remember any of it."
"How do you know all this?"
"He told me," Ross said. "Back in college, when we were roommates. He'd recovered physically by then, but looking back, man, he was a mess. It's funny, I didn't really notice it then, because I didn't know him very well, but comparing that Chandler to the one we know now, wow, it's like two totally different people."
"Really? How?"
"It's kind of hard to describe. He was a lot moodier. And he was always sarcastic, but it wasn't really funny then. It was meaner, and colder. He didn't laugh a lot or smile very often. He kept to himself a lot. We never would've become friends if we hadn't lived together."
Monica nodded her head slowly and stared unfocused across the room.
"There's more," Ross said. "About halfway through our freshman year, I still didn't know anything about the accident, I found him on this sort of rooftop garden thing, on top of our dorm. He was sitting on the wall, his legs dangling over the edge. I thought he was going to jump."
"He tried to kill himself?"
Ross shook his head. "I don't know. I honestly don't know if that's what he would've done if I hadn't shown up. But he was thinking about it. That was when he told me everything. We stayed up like all night, and he told me everything about the accident, and man, I've never seen anyone so upset. I was so freaked out. He was crying and sobbing and yelling and, I don't know, it was like he'd never talked to anyone about it before. Maybe he hadn't."
"He was lucky to have you," Monica said softly.
"Yeah, I guess," Ross said. "Anyway, I talked him into seeing a counselor the next day. He went into therapy for awhile after that. It seemed to help."
"I had no idea," Monica said, her eyes filling with tears. She felt overwhelmed with guilt. It was like she'd been punishing Chandler for the past few days for something he already felt terrible about, something he'd already beaten himself up over years ago. Something that had been dealt with long ago. "God, am I a horrible person? I can't believe how I acted toward him. I just didn't know."
"No, Mon, don't feel bad. That's not why I told you all this," Ross said, standing up to hug her. She immediately burst into tears in his arms. "You were totally justified in the way you've felt about the accident. I understand it, and so does Chandler. It was terrible what happened. You can't help the way you feel."
"But it's like I turned my back on him. Like I rejected him," Monica said, her voice muffled in Ross's shirt.
"No, it's not. Not yet, anyway," Ross said.
"I wasn't going to say anything, not until after I could talk to Chandler, but I already decided that I want him, that I love him and I want to marry him," Monica said.
"Really? Oh, Mon, that's great. That's great. God, I'm so glad," Ross said, and hugged her again. "Are you OK?"
"Yeah, I think so," Monica said, letting go of him and wiping her nose and cheeks with a dishtowel. "So, you've known about all this since college?"
"Yeah. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you, but it really wasn't my place to say anything."
"No, of course not. I know," Monica said. "But thanks, you know, for telling me now."
"I thought you needed to know," he said. "So, um, are you going to call him right away? Tell him the good news?"
"God, I want to, I want to clear this up right now, but I don't want to talk to him over the phone, and there's no one to cover my shift here. Can you help me out? Tell him to come over tonight?"
"Don't worry. I'll take care of it."
+++++
Chandler was gone by the time Ross got home, so he went back to grading papers. He was barely five minutes into the task when Rachel showed up at his door.
"Oh, are you busy?" Rachel said when she saw the stacks of papers on his coffee table. She didn't wait for his answer before making herself comfortable on the couch.
"I'm not getting much work done anyway," Ross said, throwing his pen on the table. "It's kind of hard to concentrate, you know, with everything that's going on with Chandler and Monica."
"Yeah, I know what you mean," Rachel said.
"But you know, I think they'll be all right," Ross said. "I talked to Monica today, and it sounds like she's gonna go back to him."
"Ross, that's great," Rachel said, and leaned up against him on the couch. He gladly pulled her into his arms, stroking her hair gently, and they sat in comfortable silence. "This is bad," Rachel said after a few minutes. Ross hugged her and kissed her head.
"No, really, I talked to Monica today, and I really think she's gonna go back to him. They'll be OK, Rach."
"No, Ross, I know," Rachel said. "But that's not what I meant."
"Huh?"
"I meant this is bad. Us. We're bad," Rachel said, brushing her hand across the arm wrapped around her chest.
"Really? Does this make you uncomfortable?" Ross asked, pulling away from her. She grabbed onto his hand to hold him to her.
"No, this is great, nice. But that's the problem," she said, and Ross suddenly understood. "This is exactly what I was afraid of," Rachel said. "I knew bonus night was a bad idea for us."
"No," Ross sighed. "Bonus night was a great idea. Bonus month, that might've been pushing it."
Rachel laughed gently, but quickly grew serious again.
"I don't know what to do, Ross. I'm just not ready for this yet. I don't know what I want."
"But you don't want me."
"No, no, that's not it at all," Rachel said, turning to face him. "It's us. That's what I'm not sure about. We've been through all this so many times before. I don't know if I can do it again. At least, not right now."
Ross nodded and looked away.
"What about you?" she asked. "What do you want?"
"Well it doesn't really matter, does it? You've kind of decided for both of us."
"Of course it matters," she said. "I want to know what you think."
Ross sighed. "I want you to be happy."
Rachel smiled at him, rested a hand on his cheek and kissed him once on the mouth. "I'm sorry," she said. Ross shrugged and nodded.
"I should get going," Rachel said, and stood up. Ross got up to walk her to the door. She stopped suddenly as she was reaching for the doorknob and turned around.
"Oh, I almost forgot," she said, laughing. "I didn't come here to see you."
"And now the rejection is complete," Ross muttered.
"I think I left my bra here the other day. Have you seen it lying around?"
"No," he said. "Where'd you leave it?"
"Well, it was the day we did it on your grandmother's dresser." Rachel paused and smiled wistfully as she recalled that afternoon, then shook her head to clear the image. "So, um, I guess it's in the guestroom."
"Go ahead and look," Ross said. He followed her to the spare bedroom and watched from the doorway as she searched the room, opening the closets and looking behind the dresser before she finally found it under the bed.
"Got it," she said, standing up from the floor. She took one more look around the room. "Um, Ross? Isn't Chandler sleeping in here?"
"Yeah," Ross said.
"Well, where's all his stuff?"
"What do you mean?"
"There's nothing here," Rachel said, looking around the room again. Ross could see that she was right. The closet was bare, and when Rachel opened the drawers in the dresser, he saw those were also empty, save for a condom wrapper that he immediately grabbed and threw away. Ross went to the bathroom and saw that all of Chandler's stuff there was gone.
"He left," Ross said.
"Maybe he went home," Rachel suggested. "You said things were looking better, right? Maybe they made up."
"I don't think so," Ross said. "Monica said she wasn't going to talk to him until tonight."
"You don't think he ran away, do you?"
Ross shook his head. "I don't know. I don't think so. But he looked pretty upset when he came home this afternoon. That was why I went to talk to Monica."
"Well we should find him. Where would he go?"
"Rach, I don't know."
"God, what if he ran away? What are we going to tell Monica?"
"He went out for frozen yogurt?"
+++++
Monica lasted barely 30 minutes after Ross left her kitchen before she decided that she couldn't wait through the rest of her shift to talk to Chandler. She had to find him right away. She had to set things straight. She couldn't concentrate on a thing but him, and her heart raced with anxiety every time she thought about what Ross had told her.
She told the restaurant owner that she had a family emergency and was on her way home 45 minutes after her conversation with Ross. She wanted to stop by the apartment first to retrieve her ring, and then she would find Chandler. As she walked through the front door, she didn't even stop to set down her keys or her purse before racing to her bedroom, already planning what she would say to Chandler.
She saw immediately that the ring was gone. She remembered where she'd set it down that morning, in front of the picture of them. In a split second she was frantic.
"No," she moaned. "No, no, no." She was on her knees, searching the floor around the nightstand, sweeping her arms under the bed. She threw back the bed covers, shook the pillows, picked up everything on the nightstand to look underneath. She knew exactly where she'd left it, but it was gone. Monica didn't believe in signs, but losing her engagement ring at a time like this couldn't be good.
She was tearing through her dresser now, losing all control as she tossed aside Chandler's socks and her underwear. She went back to the nightstand, pulling it away from the wall, and in the sudden movement knocked over the lamp and sent it tumbling to the floor. The crash was loud enough to get the attention of Joey and Phoebe in the other bedroom.
They ran to Monica's doorway and stopped to watch her frenzied search _ Joey dressed only in boxers, Phoebe in skimpy lingerie.
"Monica?" Phoebe said. "Monica? Monica! What's wrong? Are you feeling dirty again? Do you need a Tic Tac?"
"Or two?" Joey asked.
"My ring," Monica said, barely looking up at them and not noticing their unusual attire. "It's my ring. It's gone."
"You lost it?" Joey asked.
"No! I don't lose things," Monica yelled, her voice cracking. "It's just gone."
"Maybe someone borrowed it," Phoebe suggested.
"My engagement ring?" Monica said, throwing more clothes out of the dresser now. "Who would borrow my engagement ring? Did you borrow my engagement ring?"
"You took it off?" Joey asked. "Why would you do that?"
"I took it off this morning," Monica said frantically. "I put it down right over there, and now I have to find it. I have to put it back on and go to him. I can't see him without the ring."
"Oh God," Phoebe said suddenly, covering her mouth with her hands.
"What?" Joey asked.
"Chandler. He was here today."
"What?" Monica said, stopping suddenly with fistfuls of panties in each hand. "He was here? When?"
"This afternoon," Phoebe said.
"He was in the apartment? Did he go in our room?"
"I don't know," Phoebe said. "Joey and I were coming up the stairs, and we saw him in the hallway on his way out."
"Oh my God, what if he saw the ring?" Monica asked. "He knows I wasn't wearing it. When you saw him, how was he?"
Joey and Phoebe looked at each other before answering. "He was pretty upset," Joey said.
"We didn't really think anything of it, because he's been kind of like that all week," Phoebe said.
"Yeah, but this was definitely different," Joey added. "He seemed angry. He didn't even talk to us."
"Oh my God," Monica said. "What have I done?"
Ross and Rachel came bounding through the front door in the next second. They stopped to stare in shock at Joey and Phoebe.
"What are you wearing?" Ross asked.
"You never mind that," Phoebe said, moving to Monica and wrapping an arm around her shoulders. Ross noticed then that Monica was crying.
"What's wrong?" Rachel asked.
"Monica's engagement ring is gone, and we think Chandler took it," Joey said.
"What? How did that happen?" Ross asked.
"I took it off this morning," Monica said thickly through her tears. "And Phoebe and Joey said they saw him here this afternoon, and now it's gone. I can't find it anywhere."
"Why did you take your ring off?" Ross asked. "I thought you were OK."
"I wasn't this morning," Monica said. "I was so confused. I, it, it seemed like the best thing to do then." She finished the sentence in a sob, and Phoebe held her.
"So I take it Chandler isn't here," Rachel said slowly. "Then where is he?"
Monica looked up suddenly. "What do you mean? You don't know where he is?"
"All his stuff is gone," Ross said. "His suitcase, I think he packed it all up and left."
Monica rubbed at her eyes. "Maybe he just went back to work. Maybe he's coming back here tonight. He, he decided to come home."
"Honey, we called his office and they said he didn't come back after lunch," Rachel said, and moved to join Phoebe in rubbing Monica's back. "We don't know where he is."
"Well, we have to find him," Monica said wildly. "I have to see him. I have to talk to him now." She sprinted toward the door, and then turned when she saw no one was following her. "Come on!"
"Mon, where are we gonna look?" Ross asked.
"He could be anywhere," Phoebe said.
"Honey, I know you want to find him, but I'm-"
"I don't care," Monica yelled. "I'm going out there, and I'm going to find him. You can all help me or not, but I'm going." She turned and left the apartment. Everyone followed her.
"Um, Phoebs, Joey, don't you guys want to put on some clothes?" Rachel asked when they stepped into the hallway.
"Oh, right," Phoebe said, and turned around.
"You know, speaking of-"
"Rachel! We have more important things to think about now than why you're turned on by my incredibly sexy body," Phoebe chastised. "Now go! We'll catch up to you."
+++++
Chandler was hunched on a bench outside the Port Authority, his suitcase on his lap and a bus ticket in his pocket. He was chain-smoking in the unbearably hot, humid night air. The bus station made him feel dirty and queasy, or maybe that was the cigarettes and the heat. But the people here all looked like they were about as lonely as he felt, walking alone, ragged backpacks dangling from their shoulders with all their belongings inside.
His bus was leaving any time now.
He wasn't sure why exactly he'd ended up at the bus station. When he'd seen the ring, his first instinct had been to run, to get away from this mess as fast as possible. He'd packed up his things and ran out of Ross's apartment, but as soon as he hit the street, he lost all of his determination. Running seemed like such a bad idea, but he didn't know what other options were left.
So he walked. He wandered mostly aimlessly for awhile, not paying much attention to where he was going, focused entirely on the ring in his pocket and the woman who had been wearing it. When he finally looked up at a street sign, he realized he was close to the bus station. And so he thought he'd leave town.
That had always been Chandler's plan, to leave the city altogether if anything bad ever happened to him and Monica. It wasn't that he liked planning for such an event, or expected anything bad to happen, but he couldn't help but worry sometimes. He considered himself so lucky to have found Monica. It was natural to think how miserable he'd be if he lost her.
And here he was. He'd always suspected that his past, that one horrible night, might catch up with him one day. But in recent years, he'd started to think maybe not. That maybe he was safe. He couldn't have been more wrong. Now he was faced with truly leaving Monica and his friends and, really, his whole life, for good. He would get on a bus and watch the city pass before his eyes and finally disappear behind him. He wouldn't even say goodbye.
"Bus No. 451, No. 451, to Topeka, is boarding at terminal B. No. 451 to Topeka is boarding at terminal B."
That was Chandler's bus. He took the ticket out of one pocket, and the ring out of the other, and stared at them both for a moment. Then he stood up and walked into the crowd.
+++++
Ross thought he was the first to get back from searching for Chandler. When he returned to Chandler and Monica's apartment it was nearly midnight. The lights were out and the place felt empty. They had split up as soon as they left the building, each person searching a handful of places Chandler may have run to. Ross wasn't hopeful of finding his friend, and he didn't think anyone but Monica was either. He was exhausted now. He felt tired and dirty from searching the city for more than five hours.
"Monica?" Ross called softly as he pushed open the door to her bedroom. He wasn't surprised to see that she still gone, although the mess in the room shocked him. Phoebe had told them about her frenzied search for the ring. Monica must have been in a total panic.
Phoebe's bedroom was also dark, so Ross went to Joey's apartment, hoping to find Rachel. Her bedroom door was ajar, but it was dark inside, so he knocked softly and called her name. There was no response, but from the light in the living room, he could tell that someone was in her bed.
"Hey, Rach," Ross whispered, entering her room and closing the door behind him, casting the room in total darkness. He made his way carefully across the floor, stumbling into the bed, then sitting down next to her. He reached a hand out to stroke her hair. He knew he should stay away from her after what she'd said this afternoon, but he also suspected she wouldn't object to just one more bonus night. A bonus night to mark the end of their bonus month, perhaps. Anyway, he was willing to give it a shot.
"What do you say, Rach? Just one more time?" he asked softly.
"Mmmm," she moaned, and grabbed his hand, pulling him toward her. Yup, she was definitely game. He smiled and leaned in to kiss her, dragging his hand slowly down her arm, under the blanket. She was naked underneath. He smiled to himself.
Ross pulled his T-shirt over his head, and tugged off his shoes and finally his pants, then pulled the blanket back so he could lie with her. He ran his fingers over her bare back and kissed her neck, then moved to suck gently at her ear. She giggled softly.
"Joey, that tickles," she laughed. Ross jumped.
"Joey?" he yelled. He reached over Rachel to turn on her bedside lamp, and saw that it wasn't Rachel at all. "Phoebe?!"
"Mmmm, don't stop," Phoebe mumbled.
"Phoebe, what are you doing here?" Ross said, jumping out of bed and taking the blanket with him. Phoebe was suddenly lying totally naked in front of him. "Oh my God, you're naked. You're Phoebe, and you're naked." He covered his eyes.
"Ross?" Phoebe said, finally opening her eyes and looking dazed. "Ross? What are you doing here?"
"I asked you first! What are you doing in Rachel's bed?"
Phoebe looked down then, saw that she was naked, and saw that he was standing over her covering himself. She grabbed the blanket back from Ross and wrapped it around herself, ignoring his sudden embarrassment at standing there in only his boxers.
"I was asleep," Phoebe said.
"Yes, I know that. But naked? And in Rachel's bed?"
Phoebe sighed. "Doesn't anyone know me at all? I always sleep naked."
"I thought you napped naked."
"It doesn't matter! It's all sleeping."
"Why are you in Rachel's room?"
"Because Joey's in mine."
"Why is Joey in your room?"
"Because, well, that doesn't matter. But he snores, so I couldn't sleep there."
"Why didn't you just sleep in his bed?"
"Because Rachel's smells better."
"Why-"
"No, no, my turn!" Phoebe said. "What are you doing climbing into Rachel's bed like that?"
"Because, well-" Ross was saved by a shriek coming from across the hall.
+++++
Rachel arrived at Monica and Chandler's apartment just a few minutes after Ross had left. She also saw that Monica was still gone, but she was too wired and too upset from the frustrating search for Chandler to go to bed, so she thought she'd see if Phoebe was up to talking.
Phoebe's door was slightly open and dark inside, so she was probably asleep. Rachel pushed the door open further, peeked inside, and saw that Phoebe was indeed in bed already. She was about to close the door when a deep snore caught her attention. That wasn't Phoebe.
Rachel laughed softly to herself and figured that Joey and Phoebe had probably hooked up again. But another glance at the bed showed that only one person was sleeping there. Rachel took one more confused look around the bedroom, wondering who was asleep in Phoebe's bed. That was when she noticed Ross's jacket, cast in a narrow strip of light from the living room, hanging over a chair near the door. So it was Ross. She smiled and walked into the bedroom, closing the door behind her. She didn't think Ross would mind just one more bonus night.
She wondered briefly why Ross would be sleeping in Phoebe's room, but figured that Phoebe had let him crash here so he could be nearby when Monica came home. Which meant Joey and Phoebe were probably sleeping together across the hall, Rachel thought, and smiled to herself.
"Ross," Rachel said softly as she neared the bed. "Ross. It's me. You awake?" Another soft snore came from the bed. Rachel sat down next to Ross and took off her sandals, then slid her shirt over her head. She left her bra on. For now.
"Ross? You wanna wake up for me?" Rachel leaned over him and touched his face in the near-total darkness. She kissed his nose and his closed eyes, then reached under the covers to stroke his chest. She could feel him smiling in his sleep as she kissed his mouth.
Rachel reached further under the covers and was surprised to find that Ross was naked in bed. He rarely slept naked, even when they were together. But it was still awfully hot outside, so maybe he just wanted to cool off. Too bad, Rachel thought. Cooling off wasn't what she had in mind.
She scooted down the bed and planted soft kisses on his chest, then his stomach, moving down to his thighs. As she started kissing her way back up his thighs, he mumbled softly in his sleep.
"Mmmm, Phoebe, how you doin'?"
"Joey!" Rachel screamed. "Joey! You're Joey!" She shrieked and jumped off the bed, falling to the floor. Joey sat up and fumbled in the darkness, trying to figure out where exactly he was. And he'd been having such a nice dream.
"Rachel?" Ross yelled as he burst into the apartment, having heard her shriek. He was walking lopsided, pulling his pants up as he walked. Phoebe was right behind him, tying a bathrobe around her.
Rachel ran out of Phoebe's room screaming, buttoning up her shirt. "Oh my God, Joey. I just, I just, I almost, oh my God!"
"Rachel, what's wrong?" Ross asked, just as Joey followed Rachel out of Phoebe's bedroom.
"What's going on?" Joey asked sleepily, yawning and rubbing at his eyes. He'd managed to drag his boxers back on and was pulling on the jacket he'd borrowed from Ross. "Did someone find Chandler?"
"No, but Ross just tried to sleep with me," Phoebe said.
"What?" Joey yelled, suddenly wide awake.
"I did not," Ross said. "I thought you were Ra-, um, someone else."
"You slept with Phoebe?" Rachel asked.
"What were you doing with Joey?" Ross asked.
"Yeah, what were you doing with Joey?" Joey asked.
They all stopped when they heard the front door slam. Monica had returned.
"He's gone," she said miserably. "I, I can't, Chandler's gone."
After all of the recent screaming, the following silence was almost unbearable. Phoebe was the first to recover. She moved to Monica's side and enveloped her in a hug.
"I'm sorry," Phoebe said. "But I'm sure he'll show up."
"Phoebe's right," Ross said. "He'll come back when he's ready."
"Honey, he loves you. He'll be back," Rachel said.
"Yeah, he's probably just at The Lusty Lady, thinking things over," Joey said.
Monica perked up. "The Lusty Lady?"
"Sure, it's a strip club. That's the best place to go when you're feeling down about something."
"Chandler goes to The Lusty Lady?" she asked.
Joey looked suddenly nervous. "Well, not for the girls," he said. "He, um, he goes for the chicken wings."
"Joey," Rachel chastised.
"OK, I'm the one that goes for the chicken wings," Joey admitted. "Chandler and Ross go for the girls."
"Ross!" Rachel yelled.
"Joey," Ross hissed.
"Wait," Monica said, and backed away from Phoebe. "He goes to The Lusty Lady? I didn't check The Lusty Lady. Maybe that's where he is. I'm going there."
"Mon, are you sure? It's really late, and we checked the whole city," Rachel said. "At least, it seems like we did."
"Not there. I didn't look there," Monica said, and raced toward the door. She was running full speed by the time she hit the hallway, and she never even saw Chandler before she hit him head on. He was caught completely by surprise, and stumbled backwards, his suitcase flying into a corner and his head whipping against the edge of the wall. He fell hard to the floor.
"Oh my God," Monica said, stopping where he had fallen. "Chandler's back."