I'll Be There For You

Disclaimer: I don't own them.

Thanks for the nice reviews. This part carries on directly after the part before – i.e., Chandler and Monica are still on the bed kissing.

Monica enjoyed the kiss. She wanted to stay there forever, kissing Chandler, the man who was so kind to her, the man who she had had a crush on practically forever. But she panicked. She didn't want to ruin her friendship with Chandler. So she did the worst possible thing. She pulled away, and got up. "I, uh, I think you should go now, bye-bye, see you later, tell Joey hi for me," she babbled, pushing Chandler to her door.

"Monica, I-I don't know what happened, but I am so sorry," Chandler said. He wanted to carry on kissing her, go further maybe. He was rapidly finding Monica very attractive – she didn't even look pregnant yet. He didn't want to just 'score' with a hot girl though – he wanted to have a relationship with Monica. He could even get over his commitment fear, as long as Monica was at his side. If Monica was there, she would be patient. She loved him—huh? He didn't mean to think that. Where did that come from? She loved him as a friend – that was it, certainly.

"No, no, you have to leave, I'm sorry, I can't…" Monica trailed off. She pushed Chandler out of the apartment, and sat down, crying into the sofa.

"I shouldn't have done that!" she thought, wildly. "I've just lost my best friend, I was falling for him, I like him, I mean 'like' like him, I can't get along without his help…" Her thoughts were cut off by more sobs. Rachel came in and saw the small, sodden lump on the sofa.

"Mon?" she asked. "Is it the baby?" For she had a sudden vision of Monica miscarrying the last memory of Richard.

"No…" wailed Monica. "I-I-I-I…" She couldn't get any further.

"I'm fetching Chandler," Rachel declared, making for the door.

"No, no, don't!" Monica sobbed. "H-he…"

"Monica E. Gellar, tell me what's going on or I ring your mother," Rachel ordered.

"I-I, Chandler, he-he kissed me, I kissed him," Monica sobbed into the sofa. "I-I think I'm falling for him."

"Wow. So why are you crying?" Rachel was puzzled.

"I was scared – I panicked," Monica said, her sobs dying down. "I told him to leave, and I think – I think that he thought I don't like him. I think he thought I thought he was taking advantage and I don't know what to do, Rachel, oh, please, I need help!" This last sentence grew faster and shriller. Monica was desperate.

"Oh, Monica." Rachel hugged her friend. She paused. "Well, I think you should tell Chandler how you feel. You don't want this to hang over you, do you?"

Monica shook her head and wiped her eyes. She reached for a tissue and left the apartment in silence.

* * *

Five-and-a-half hours later, Chandler entered the apartment. Rachel was there by herself. "Hey Rach," he told her, glumly.

"Hey yourself. Did Monica find you?"

"What? D-did she tell you?" Chandler asked, worried.

"About the kiss? Yeah. Women talk, you know, sweetie," Rachel laughed. "So, how did it go? Did you feel the same? What are you gonna do now?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Chandler said.

"You mean – Monica didn't come and see you? Didn't tell you she was falling for you?" Rachel asked.

"No," Chandler said, clearly thinking that Rachel was off the rails.

"She's been gone over five hours – I thought you two were together, y'know, doing stuff," Rachel confessed. Truth to tell, she had been hoping that Monica and Chandler would fall in love for several weeks now. She could see the signs – she wasn't a soap opera fan for nothing.

"Five hours?" he exclaimed. "We have to find her!"

"No kidding," agreed Rachel. "She's a depressed pregnant woman, she needs care."

The two of them left the apartment and descended into the city. They asked everyone they saw, they went into Central Perk, they visited Monica's work, they looked everywhere. Forty-five minutes into searching, it was dark, they were tired, and they had to give up. That didn't mean that they wanted to though. Rachel was almost crying with frustration, and Chandler wasn't much better.

"I can't believe we lost Monica," Rachel sighed.

"No." Chandler seemed oddly distracted. Truth to tell, he realised that he was falling for the absent Monica, who he couldn't find. He hoped that she would come home soon.

That night, he cried himself to sleep.

* * *

The following morning, Chandler and Rachel told the rest of the gang about Monica's disappearance. Phoebe was shocked, but said that Monica would surely turn up. Joey cancelled a date with a hot pole dancer to help look for her, and Ross just sat in silence, unable to believe it.

The gang spent that day in Monica and Rachel's apartment, not going into work, just sitting by the phone. On one occasion, Chandler disappeared into his apartment, and came back with his own cordless phone.

"I wanted to keep this phone here," Chandler told them. "And I just rang the police."

"Good idea, man," Ross replied.

"Not really. They won't take any notice until she's been missing for forty-eight hours." He looked glum. "Oh, God, she could be anywhere – it's all my fault." He had told everyone all that happened with The Kiss. "I wish she'd come back, and then I could tell her… tell her that I think I've fallen in love with her."

"You don't have to wish," said a soft voice from behind him. "I just needed a little time to realise that – that I love you too." Looking radiant, Monica swept past Ross and Joey on the sofa, and sealed her words to Chandler with a loving kiss.

When they broke apart, Chandler smiled, picked up Monica, and carried her into her room. Hearing the giggles and happy moans, the rest of the gang quietly left the apartment, leaving the happy lovers to themselves.