Someone To Watch Over Me~

Chapter 2: That's The Way It Is

Disclaimer: They're mine!! All mine!! Okay, maybe not, but a girl can dream…

Oh yeah, I don't own the song either. Celine Dion sings it.

Hey! How's everyone today? I'm fine, thanks for asking. Spring break is a wonderful thing! Anyway, I wasn't really sure exactly where I was gonna go with this, but I was driving home from my quartet rehearsal this morning (which was a very interesting rehearsal, I enjoyed it very much. I love the piece we're playing. Why do I care, you're asking. Well I don't know, but I don't know a lot of things). Back to the point, I was stuck in traffic this morning and I was listening to the radio. When I heard this song on the radio, I had some inspiration. Enough about me, just read it…

That same morning:

Monica comes out of her room ready for work and sits down with the other five to have breakfast. She's feeling a little weird about tripping over Chandler and really weird about what he had said the night before. She shook it off and decided that she just needed to get a little more sleep. 'Maybe I should get some sleeping pills' she thought. 'Then I'll be fine.'

"Hey Mon," Rachel was saying. "Earth to Monica. Is there a problem?"

"Nope, I'm just a little tired," she covered with a fairly convincing yawn and continued. "What were you saying?"

"I was just asking you if you wanted a date tomorrow night. You remember Angela Forrester from high school, right? Well, her brother's friend just moved here a month ago, and Angie called me and asked if I would introduce him to some people. His name is Brian and he's a doctor and you guys could double with me and Ross. I talked to him on the phone and he seems like a really nice guy."

"Do you know anything else about him?"

"I've seen a picture of him; he's cute." She sees Ross glaring at her and adds, "But not as cute as you, honey." She hugs him and mouths "Definitely cuter." She continues, "He's a doctor and he's cute. What else do you need to know?"

"Criminal records usually help," Phoebe says (as only Phoebe can). "And you should make sure that he doesn't eat chalk either" (A/N: My friend did that last year. It was really funny.) "Because you wouldn't want to go through what I went through with Carl."

"Alright," Rachel rolls her eyes, "We'll have all past criminal and chalk- related experiences outlined for you Mon. So, what do you say? Will you do it?"

"Sure. Why not?" Hmm… she thought. There are a lot of reasons why not. But why fight it? At least she wouldn't be completely alone with the guy if he turned out to be a total creep. 'And, who knows, I might even like the guy.' She thought. "But the chalk-related experience records aren't really necessary." She laughed and was out the door to work before anyone had time to say anything. "Honestly," she muttered to herself. "Some days I think that she really is possessed."

*******

(A/N: We're gonna make a little jump here and say that Monica is the head chef at Allesandro's from the beginning and that there's only one person on the staff who'll speak to her. Her name is Bridie and she's played by, oh, I don't know, you decide)

Later that day:

Monica was at work, and they were having an unusually large number of customers during the regular lunch rush. She could tell that it was going to be a long day.

"Hey Monica?" It was the assistant chef that Monica had helped hire. She was just a year or so younger than Monica and was really sweet. She reminded Monica a lot of a combination of Rachel and Phoebe. She was the only person who worked at the restaurant that would talk to her; the two of them were pretty much shunned by everyone else at work.

"Yeah Bridie?"

"Do you mind if I turn on the radio? Cuz I'm getting really stressed out by all of these people. And, from the looks of it, it's not gonna let up very soon."

"No problem. Anything to distract myself from my thoughts today. Something that my friend said to me last night is really bothering me."

"Which one?" Bridie didn't really even need to ask; she heard Monica talk about her friends all the time.

"Chandler."

She figured. Bridie couldn't figure out why those two weren't together for the life of her. She had thought that they were when she first started working for Monica. Chandler came by and took her to lunch. But Monica had been dating that older guy, her dad's best friend. No wonder they hadn't worked out. That Richard guy was just, well, there was something about him that she hadn't liked. She didn't understand how Monica could waste her time on someone like him. She flipped the switch on the radio and played with the dial until she found a station that wasn't in Lebanese. (I think that was where Allesandro said he was from, correct me if I'm wrong).

Monica sighed. She hoped that this Brian that Rachel had set her up with would turn out to be a decent guy. Then maybe her mom would get off her back. She listened to the first song that came on the radio. She would just have to give it time…

I can read your mind

And I know your story

I see what you're going through (yeah)

1 It's an uphill climb

And I'm feeling sorry

But I know it will come to you

Don't surrender

'Cause you can win

In this thing called love

When you want it the most

There's no easy way out

When you're ready to go

And your heart's left in doubt

Don't give up on your faith

Love comes to those who believe it

And that's the way it is

When you question me

For a simple answer

I don't know what to say (no)

But it's plain to see

If you stick together

You're gonna find the way

So don't surrender

'Cause you can win

In this thing called love

When you want it the most

There's no easy way out

When you're ready to go

And your heart's left in doubt

Don't give up on your faith

Love comes to those who believe it

And that's the way it is

When life is empty

With no tomorrow

And loneliness comes to call

Baby don't worry

Forget your sorrow

'Cause love's gonna conquer it all

When you want it the most

There's no easy way out

When you're ready to go

And your heart's left in doubt

Don't give up on your faith

Love comes to those who believe it

And that's the way it is

When you want it the most

There's no easy way out

When you're ready to go

And your heart's left in doubt

Don't give up on your faith

Love comes to those who believe it

And that's the way it is

That's the way it is

That's the way it is, babe

Don't give up on your faith

Love comes to those who believe it

And that's the way it is



And Monica felt better. She knew that it would work out somehow, someday. It just had to. In spite of herself, she was smiling.

"Someone's feeling a little less stressed out now, yes?"

"I have a date tomorrow night."

"Ohhh, now we get to the good stuff. So, what's his name?"

"His name is Brian, he's a doctor, and by tomorrow Phoebes will probably have made Rachel get me a list of all of his previous experiences with chalk, which is a long story that I don't want to get into now."

"I wasn't gonna ask about the chalk thing."

"It's usually better if you don't."

"Hey, if it doesn't work out between you two, will you give him my number?"

Monica laughed. "Sure. But the last time you went out with one of my old boyfriends, didn't you end up running up and down the fire escape of your aunt's building completely drunk?"

"No that was the time before last. The last time I went out with one of your rejects, I got myself covered in Tapioca pudding."

"Yet you still seem surprising excited about repeating past mistakes. And why? The world may never know." The two chefs laugh through the rest of the lunch rush before they could finally break for their own lunch. Monica's spirits had been lifted up considerably. 'Maybe today won't be so bad after all,' she thought. 'Even if it doesn't work out between me and Brian.'

*******

But two weeks later, things were going really well between Monica and Brian. Monica and Chandler had been a little awkward around each other for a couple of days, but that had cleared up rather easily on the surface. Monica was able to throw whatever consideration that she had given to what Chandler said to her that night when they were watching the movie to one side as she began to fall for Brian. Chandler, on the other hand, was a basket case. He had been so depressed one night that he called Janice up and they had gotten back together. That, however, was a short-lived comfort to him, and he dumped her again (how many times does this make it…) after a short five hours of a relationship, which made Joey a very happy roommate.

Two weeks into Monica and Brian's relationship was also four weeks after Monica had broken up with Richard. Everyone was really surprised that Monica had gotten into another serious relationship right after breaking up with Richard, none of them moreso than Monica. But Brian was a really nice guy; everyone really liked him- even Chandler, though he hated to admit it. And, as Rachel put it, "When the right guy comes along, you just can't fight it." Although when she said this, Monica pointed out that it was a little early to be calling him "the one," but Rachel refused to listen to her.

Rachel herself was flying high. She had just gotten a job at Bloomingdale's, and her one-year anniversary with Ross was coming up. Even when Monica caught the flu from someone at work, Rachel wasn't extremely worried about her best friend. She just figured that it would take a few days for her to get over it and, knowing Monica, she would be extremely irritable. Monica hated being sick even more than she did. But just when you think things are going really well and that you're on top of the world, life decides that you're just a little too happy. And it's always then that life chooses to pull you down off of the mountain.

It all started when Ross began to get jealous of all of the time Rachel had to spend with her new co-worker Mark. Between all of the time that she was putting into her new job and all of the stress that she was now under, he felt like she didn't care about him anymore, and she accused him of not trusting her. They were in the middle of a heated argument on the night of their anniversary. They were so frustrated with each other and the circumstances that they didn't even notice Monica coming into the apartment, going immediately into the bathroom, and shutting the door. She came out of the bathroom a few minutes later, sobbing, ran into her room, and slammed the door. It was only then that Ross and Rachel noticed that she had even come home from work.

"Do you think she's okay, Rach?"

"I thought she was going out with Brian tonight. Do you think they had a fight?"

"No, Brian's out of town this weekend. He's at some C.H.E conference thing. I don't really know."

"Oh right. He's at a C.M.E. conference. It stands for continuing medical education I think. Doctors have to get a certain number of credits each year to stay doctors, or something like that." (A/N: Both of my parents are doctors and they have to go to those conferences. I'm not quite sure exactly how it works, but that's the general idea. Some conferences are just a couple of days and others last longer.)

"Nature calls, so I think I'll go use your bathroom," Ross says, but he immediately comes out of the bathroom, holding a positive pregnancy test (I bet you saw that one coming…). "So!" he yells. "This is why you've been so distant! What is your problem?!?! Were you just never going to tell me, the father? Or is that it? Am I not the father?"

"Ross," Rachel cries silently, "That's not mine. Listen to me. It's NOT mine!!! And I can't believe that you would even accuse me of cheating on you! So I've been a little preoccupied with my job, that doesn't mean that I don't still love you!!!"

"Well then, how do you explain this?"

"STOP IT! Both of you!" Monica had come out of her room, her eyes red. She had obviously been crying. "Now I love you both, but you guys are gonna have to stop fighting if you want to make this work. Why don't you guys just let it go for tonight? You can talk it out tomorrow after you've gotten some sleep. Rach, you've gotta remember that Ross loves you; he just misses you. And Ross, she's telling the truth. The test is mine."

Without another word, Monica goes back into her room and flings herself down on the bed in another fit of tears, leaving her best friend and her brother staring after her, wondering what on earth is going on.



That's gonna just about do me in for the day. I know that this part is pretty predictable, but aren't they all predictable in one way or another (like C&M almost always get together). And remember, things aren't always as they seem…

Oh yeah, and the chalk idea and Phoebe's old boyfriend Carl aren't mine either. It was referenced in an early episode, I think maybe it was the pilot, about Phoebe's boyfriend who ate chalk. Although one of my friends ate some last year on a dare, which was amusing.

Thanks for the reviews from the last chapter, and again, constructive criticism is encouraged. PLEASE REVIEW unless you want me to bring Janice back again and have Chandler and Janice live happily ever after. Oh wait, I wasn't supposed to give away the ending, j/k. I would never do that with Janice. Now Kathy, well, she's another story…

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