"Kendra?" Chandler sputtered. "What, uh, what d'you mean?"
Monica looked at him. "I mean, that when we slept together, I got pregnant. And nine months later, I had a baby. That baby was Kendra."
"I, uh, oh, God," he stammered. "I, I had no idea."
Monica laughed. "Yeah, I guessed that."
"So, you've, uh, you've just muddled along without a dad for Kendra?" Chandler asked, still trying to comprehend how he could have a daughter.
Monica glared at him. "Y'know, you don't need a father for a kid," she said, haughtily. "Kendra and I are perfectly happy."
"B-but, you've, like, given up everything for her?" Chandler said.
"I've given up some things, yes," Monica replied. "But it's been the greatest thing I could do, Chandler. You gave me, you gave me the greatest gift… that I could ever have." She was starting to cry when Shawn emerged from the bathroom.
"All done!" he said, chirpily.
Chandler nodded, numbly. He turned to Monica. "I don't know what to say," he mumbled. "I don't know whether I can deal with this right now."
"No one's asking you to deal with anything," Monica replied, acidly. "I just thought you should know. I would have felt really guilty if I'd hidden this from you."
Shawn had run off to the sitting room by now, to be with his Uncle Joey. Chandler looked back to Monica. "I feel like I deserted you, Monica. You and Kendra. But, it's, well, I would have been fine with keeping in contact with you, but, well, I felt it was really going somewhere with Mary. I tried to find you, but then Mary told me she was pregnant, and it all happened so fast – we moved to England, we got married, and I almost forgot about you, Monica."
"Eh, get over it," Monica said. "You can't just expect to come and everything's perfect, I know that. You haven't seen me for nearly fourteen years, and even then, it was just one night. And you've never met Kendra."
"But she's my daughter," he said, shakily. "I've never met her, but I helped you create her!"
"But you can't expect to have a father-daughter relationship with her the first time you meet, can you?" Monica asked, reasonably. "I mean, you've known Alice for years, right? And you're close with her, but that's because you know all about her and what she likes and stuff. You were there when she was born, you saw her walking for the first time, she goes to you with her problems, right?"
"Yeah. But, well, surely there would be some, well, connection with me and Kendra?" Chandler said, softly.
"No," Monica replied, calmly. "There's no guarantee for anything, you know. Sure, you might get along with her, but at first, I don't think it'll be any different as how you'd get along with, say, Ben."
Chandler was thinking. "Does anyone else know?" he asked.
"Me, Phoebe, Kendra," Monica ticked the names off on her fingers. "That's it. Ross and Rachel don't know, and I don't know if they're ever gonna know."
"Joey!" Chandler gasped. "Oh God, don't tell Joey – or Alice."
"Why not?" Monica asked.
"Cos I was dating Mary Angela when it happened, wasn't I?" he demanded. "And he's still sore about losing Mary and the baby… he wanted to be Uncle Joey again. He was really excited about it, he was gonna be the baby's godfather."
"I'm sorry," Monica mumbled. She was never sure what to do when it came to death.
"It was a girl," Chandler continued. "We were gonna call her Katy – Katy Bing. Mary was nearly eight months pregnant when she was killed. We were, we were going for a sonogram. Mary was dead as soon as the ambulance got her to the hospital. They, they tried to save Katy, but she died before they got her out. I couldn't even cry when they told me." The tears that had not come then came now, and soon he was sobbing like the child he had lost.
"I'm sorry," Monica repeated. She felt useless. Here she was, springing a bombshell of a child on him, when the man was obviously still grieving for his wife and daughter.
Chandler shook his head. "Don't… it's not your fault," he said, trying to stop crying.
"Chandler, what I said before, about Kendra," Monica began. "Don't, I mean, don't leave 'cause of it. Please!" she begged.
Chandler was shocked. "So, uh, you want me to stay?" he asked, drying his eyes. He suddenly realised how it had sounded, at the same moment that Monica did.
"Not, not in that way!" Monica blurted out. "I just don't wanna kick you out, and, well, I think we could be friends, if, well, if we gave it a try."
Chandler nodded. "Friends with a daughter," he corrected her. "We can, we can do that."
* * *
Alice, Ben, Emily, Julia and Kendra were still talking.
"Did you want to come to New York?" Kendra asked.
Alice thought for a moment. "Mmm. I didn't wan' ter leave me friends, see. But, well, Dad always raved 'bout New York, an' I thought it'ud be fun."
"What's your accent?" Ben queried. "It's not like any English accent I've ever heard."
Alice laughed. "Ent you never heard an accent like this before?" she said. "'S a Midlands accent, I guess," she elaborated.
"Your dad doesn't have it," Kendra pointed out.
"Neh, 'e's from over 'ere," Alice explained. "Mum an' Uncle Joey, they were from England, though. 'S got an American accent though, does Joey."
"I thought English people had really snooty accents," Emily said.
"Ha!" Alice said, scornfully. "That's a right stereotype. I've never 'eard anyone 'ave such a posh voice as some a those people on the telly do." She paused. "'Cept the Queen, p'raps, an' she's not 'zactly a normal person."
"What's England like?" asked Julia. "Do they have TV there?"
Alice stared. "Sure we do. Good TV an' all!" She looked around. "Right, now I'm goin' ter ask some questions about America."
"Shoot," Kendra said.
"First – what's the schools like? They was 'orrible in England! We 'ad ter work really hard."
Ben thought. "They're okay, I guess. We work pretty hard, but—"
"Ben, Emily, Julia!" Ross' voice called. "We're going home!"
Ben finished his statement quickly. "They're okay." The children all left the room, and entered the sitting room, where the adults and Shawn were.
"There you are," Rachel said, smiling. "So, uh, we're gonna take Mr. Tribbiani—" Joey cut her off.
"Mr. Tribbiani?" he repeated. "My name's Joey."
Rachel laughed. "'Kay, so we're gonna take Joey home, and then it's time for Julia to go to bed, I think!" she added, smiling.
"But Mommy…" Julia whined.
"No, Juju," Rachel replied. "Remember, we went over this, didn't we? No coaxing Mommy and Daddy about bedtime. It'll be quarter past eight when we get home, and that's more than time for you to be in bed."
"Ha!" Emily crowed.
"You'll be going to bed soon as well, Ems," Ross pointed out. "Your bedtime is half past eight, remember?"
"Do I have to?" Emily complained. "I don't wanna!"
"But you will," Ben said, cheekily. "And I can stay up 'til nine!"
"That's enough, Benjamin!" scolded Rachel. She stood up. "Right, we're off then."
"Bye you guys!" called Phoebe.
"Yeah, see ya," Kendra and Monica echoed.
"Where's Uncle Joey goin'?" Shawn asked Chandler, almost crying.
"He's goin' ter stay with them," Alice explained.
"I don't want Uncle Joey ter go!" Shawn whined.
"But he has to," Joey said. "Because Monica and Phoebe don't have enough room at their house."
"Are you comin' back?"
"I promise," Joey confirmed. "I'll be back tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that. I'll come and see you and Alice as much as I can, okay?" Shawn nodded. "Okay, take care, man," he told Chandler. "Nice to meet you, Monica, Kendra – and it was great to meet you, Pheebs," he added.
With that, they left. Chandler stood up. "I'm gonna go put this little guy to bed, if that's okay," he told the room.
"Yeah, it's fine," Monica agreed. "You and Shawn will be sharing a room, you don't mind, do you? It's the room at the top of the stairs."
"Okay, thanks," Chandler said. "Maybe Alice wants to go as well? We had a long flight today."
"It's only eight o'clock!" Alice protested. "But I could do with goin' ter the loo."
"The what?" Phoebe asked.
"Bathroom," Chandler translated. "C'mon, Allie, I'll show you where that is, then I'll take this one to bed." The Bings left the room, and all eyes turned to Monica.
"What?" she said, noticing Phoebe and Kendra's stares.
"Oh you!" Phoebe said, exasperated. "Is he the one?"
"The one what?" Monica joked. Then, noticing their annoyed looks, she complied. "Yes, he is."
"Does he know?" Phoebe asked.
"Uh huh. I told him," Monica informed them.
"So he's my dad?" Kendra said, wide-eyed.
"Yep, sweetie. That's your dad," Monica said, smiling. "And he doesn't want anyone else knowing for now, all right, you two?"
"Not even Ben?" Kendra queried.
"Not even Ben," Monica confirmed. "And especially not Alice."
Kendra's mind was diverted. "I like Alice," she announced. "She's got a weird accent, but she's nice."
"Yeah, I like Chandler," Phoebe said. "And we know that Monica does!" She paused. "And Joey's cute!"
At the same time, Chandler and Alice were talking.
"I like Kendra and the others," Alice was telling her father.
"Yeah, Phoebe and the Gellers are nice, too," Chandler replied. "And Monica's lovely."
* * *
That night, the house slept peacefully, little dreaming of what might happen over the next few months.