Hey! Thanks for reviewing! For many of you who asked where I saw "The Shrink is In", it was on Oxygen, that's Oprah's network, Thursday night. I don't know when it'll be on again. If I see that it'll be on, I'll be sure to tell you. Oh, and also I made some mistakes typing up the last one, sorry. Anyway, this is the next part. It'll explain what happened with Richard. This part is more dramatic, but it'll get lighter from this point on, I promise. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were. Sigh.

"What shoes?" Monica was running around trying to get ready for her first official date with Chandler. She held up two different pairs of shoes for Rachel and Ross to pick from. Ross had Julie in his lap.

"Those ones," Rachel said pointing to her left hand.

"Those," Ross pointed to the right.

"Those Momma," Julie pointed to the left.

"These it is," Monica put on the ones that had been in her left hand.

"Mon, relax, you look gorgeous," Rachel said. "His mouth is going to drop open."

"Are you going to be okay with Julie and Nick?" Monica asked.

"Joey and Phoebe are going to be here too," Ross pointed out. "That's two people for every two-year-old." Joey and Phoebe had been hanging out with Monica and her friends more now and had really become close. They were all coming over to Monica's house to watch the kids. Monica finished getting ready and the doorbell rang.

"Go answer the door!" Monica yelled to Ross who handed Juliana to Rachel and ran down the steps. He answered the door and found Chandler standing there looking just as nervous as Monica was. Joey was holding Nick and Phoebe had her guitar.

"I thought I would sing them lullabies," she answered. Joey pulled Ross aside.

"Her lullabies are little, well, odd," he warned. Rachel came down with Julie and cleared her throat. Chandler looked up the stairs. Monica began her way down. She felt like a giddy school girl on prom night. She half expected him to have a corsage for her when she got to the bottom. Chandler's mouth dropped open when he saw her.

"Mon," he said searching for words. "You look...amazing, incredible, breathtaking." Monica blushed.

"Thank you," she said. "Hi Pheebs, hi Joe."

"Hi Monica," Phoebe said.

"How you doin?" Joey asked. Chandler flashed him a look. "What? I couldn't help it!" Chandler shook his head.

"Should we go?" Monica asked. Chandler nodded.

"Bye Nicholas, you be good," he said.

"Bye Jules," Monica said giving her daughter a hug and a kiss. "Bye Nicky." Nick gave her a hug. Chandler picked up Juliana.

"Goodnight Jules," he said. She kissed the tip of his nose. He placed her back down. They all waved as Monica and Chandler got into his car and drove to the restaurant. They were having a wonderful evening until Monica's face went pale.

"Mon?" Chandler asked. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing," she told him. He didn't buy that for a second.

"Monica?"

"Nothing, its nothing," she told him quickly changing the subject and smiling to cover her lie. In truth she saw someone that she would have hoped that she would never see again. How stupid she had been! That night coming home and finding wine glasses and candles. Richard had told her that he had set it up for her. She had believed him, how quickly she had believed him. That night, he had gotten drunk. She didn't like when he was drunk. He was known to get violent. Never to her, but he had gotten in fights at restaurants when he had gotten drunk. She grabbed Juliana, who was only one at that time and hid in one of the guest rooms in their townhouse in Boston. She had dialed Rachel sobbing that she was scared and that she didn't know if he would hurt her. That he might, that she wouldn't put it past him.

"Leave him," Rachel told her over and over again. Monica had nodded and told Rachel that she would. She would pack up and leave. She hung up and sang to Juliana. The song that her mother had sung to her.

"Smile, though your heart is aching, smile even though its breaking, when there are clouds in the sky you'll get by. If you smile through your tears and sorrows, smile and maybe tomorrow, you'll see the sun come shining through, if you just..." her voice trailed off as Richard threw open the door and found her. He took Julie roughly in his arms, causing her to wake up and scream. Monica pleaded to him to give her back. Monica had always been so strong and now, she was so afraid. Maybe it was because she had a weak spot when it came to Richard, or maybe it was because her daughter was involved. He had taken Julie to her room and laid her in her crib. He came back and pulled a hysterical Monica to her feet.

"I'm sorry babe," he told her. "I'm so sorry." And she had believed him. She had taken him back, and all plans to leave the next day flew out the window. Rachel and Ross had yelled at her.

"He never hit me," she told them. "I just overreacted." She snapped out of her funk to see Chandler staring at her.

"What's up Monica?" He asked.

"Nothing," she told him again.

"Are you ready to go?"

"Please," she said and he paid the check and led her out of the restaurant with his hand on the small of her back. He knew something was wrong and he knew that it had to do with the woman who had walked in.

"Monica, I want to know who that woman was," he told her. She sighed. He had won, she was going to tell him. He pulled over to the side of the road so that his full attention would be on Monica.

"That woman," she said. "Was having an affair with my husband." He had not expected this. "I don't know what she's doing in New York. She lived in Boston." She went on to tell him what she had been thinking about, that first night when she knew something was wrong.

"Oh Mon," he said wrapping her hand in his.

"Anyway," she continued. "I kept having doubts that something was going on. I always thought that I was so smart, but I acted so dumb. You know, Ross always called me freakishly strong, I was so weak. I finally caught him. Red-handed. I was driving home from work one night. I worked once a week at a help hotline, and I saw them kissing and making out. This was about two months ago. They were heading back to our house. He was supposed to be home watching Juliana. The babysitter later told me that he had told her that he had gotten a call from a patient. She knew he was a doctor, she didn't know that he was just an eye doctor. Anyway, I got there and caught them right about to get ready to go to bed. I began to cry and scream at him. She sneaked out during all the yelling. He told me that he didn't love me anymore, and that even though he would continue to give me money for child support, he didn't really want anything to do with Juliana. I threw many things at him and unfortunately they all missed." She laughed and Chandler smiled. She was crying telling him all this. "Anyway, that's when he had the heart attack. I got all of his money in his will, and I sold his practice. His kids from a former marriage hate me, because I took everything. He gave me everything. I didn't think twice before selling our townhouse and moving here. I know that the house is a little big for just the two of us, but I could see Julie growing up there. Now I have everything back in order. Well," a smile crept across her face. "I did until you came and shook it back up again."

"I'm so sorry Monica," he told her honestly. She nodded.

"That felt good to get it off my chest," she said.

"I'm sure that it did," he said. He kissed her without thinking.

"I'm sorry I ruined our night," she said.

"Listen, you didn't do anything. I'm glad you told me."

"How'd the date go?" Joey asked when they were sitting in Central Perk the next day. They had gotten back late and Chandler had slept over at Monica's like everyone else.

"We didn't have sex," Chandler said watching with amusement as Joey's face dropped. "I just held her all night. It was wonderful."

"How was the date, date?"

"It was nice," Chandler said. "I think that I'm starting to fall in love with her."

"Really?" Joey smiled. "That's great!" Chandler nodded.

"She told me about her husband," Chandler said.

"Rachel and Ross told me everything that they know," Joey admitted. They sat in silence for a few minutes. "Did you tell her about Jane yet?" Chandler shook his head and took a sip of his coffee.

"Not yet," he said. "Soon. I will soon." His story was less complicated then Monica's, but it was still something that she should know about.

"Monica?" They were out at dinner two nights later.

"Hmm?" She looked up from her menu.

"I just wanted to tell you how gorgeous you look tonight," he said smiling. She smiled back.

"Thanks," she said.

"There was something that I wanted to talk to you about," he told her. She urged him to go on. "My ex-wife. I guess you wondered about her. Anyway, Jane, that was her name, Jane and I got married on a whim. I was lonely, and so was she. We thought that we could make it work. She got pregnant with Nick and everything was fine for a while. Then one day, when Nick was about eight months old, she came home, packed a bag and left." Monica watched him. "She called a few weeks later saying that she just couldn't handle being a mother and that she would be hurting Nick more then helping him if she stayed. So I became both his mother and his father. But he's a great little guy and so I don't worry about that." Monica smiled at him.

"He is a great kid," she told him taking his hands in hers.

"So is Jules," he told her honestly. "We certainly did a horrible job picking our first spouses." She laughed.

"Yeah well, we were young and stupid. We're now a little older and a little wiser," she said returning her attention back to her menu. He could see a small tear roll down her face.

"You okay Mon?"

"Yeah," she paused. "No. I'm sorry, I was just thinking of all the mistakes I've made."

"You made choices," he told her gently. "And granted, some of them weren't the best, but they were choices none the less." Chandler kissed her. "I love you." He had opened his mouth and said it without thinking. He stopped. He felt like time slowed down for those few minutes where Monica didn't say anything.

"I love you too," she finally said.

To Be Continued.....

***I hope you enjoyed this part. I'm sorry that it was a little more depressing, but now that their past is explained I can focus on their relationship. Please review and tell me if you like it and I should keep going, or if it's the worst piece of crap you've ever read. Thanks!***