A/N: Hi! Thank you for all the reviews! I feel so loved :D And congrats to Lindsey... the line was "Shit. Sorry! Shit!" and it's from Fools Rush In, which is like my favorite movie! And the prize is... a big hug from me! *Hugs Lindsey* Don't you feel special? Hehe, anyway, hope you like chapter two!

CHAPTER TWO

June, 1987

"Elizabeth Jean, where have you gone?" Monica shouted, running through the house with a phone clutched in the crook of her neck. "Oh! Oh, yes, Mr. Franklin, I'm here. No, I was just calling for my daughter. She's one. Yes, I'm just 19," she said with a sigh. "Oh my gosh, really? Oh, thank you so much, Mr. Franklin, you won't regret this!" She hung up the phone and let out a cheer as Elizabeth, now a little over one, catapulted herself at her legs. "Whoa!" She picked her up. "Babygirl, Mommy just got a job in the city! Yeah!" Elizabeth grinned widely, not quite understanding.

"Mom!" Monica cried, racing into the kitchen. "Mom! I got the job at Morningstar's!"

"Oh, that's wonderful, darling," Mrs. Geller said with a tight smile. "Maybe you'll be able to pay your own rent at that apartment by next year."

Monica swallowed hard at her mother's snippety comment. I should be used to these by now, she thought. Mrs. Geller always seemed to hate Monica, always just wanted to get rid of her. She suspected that was why she and Monica's father had agreed to pay for the first few months rent at Monica and Elizabeth's new apartment in the city.

Trying to brush off the criticism, Monica carried Elizabeth upstairs to their room, which was full of boxes. "Tomorrow's moving day, Lizzie! Tomorrow we're off on our own!"

It was almost summertime. Monica had graduated from high school without a ceremony, but quietly, receiving her diploma in private. She'd missed most of her senior year, spent the past three years at home, and had not experienced life as a teenager - no, she'd been too busy raising her child all on her own. Because Monica had not spoken to Chandler since the day he'd left. He still had no idea that he had a child back home, and Monica had decided to keep it that way.

Now she was 19, and the next day she was moving to a tiny one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan. Monica had always wanted to live there, and her parents had agreed after her many arguments that she and Elizabeth could live on their own - not the least being that Ross would be eight blocks away, starting his senior year at NYU, ready to help if she needed anything. Now, with the job as a waitress/assistant chef at Morningstar's, Monica would be set. She would also start going to school at night when the fall semester started.

Monica's life would not be easy - she knew this. But she craved to be on her own, raising her daughter like a real mother, not like some teenager stuck at home with her parents. She was going to make something of herself; she was going to give Elizabeth a good home. She was leaving.

She hummed merrily as she loaded neatly folded baby clothes into a box. "Goodness, Elizabeth, you have more clothes than Aunt Rachel does!" Monica told her daughter, who was playing with a Barbie on the bed.

"Did someone say Aunt Rachel?" a familiar voice called. Monica and Elizabeth both perked up as Rachel Greene, new nose and all, poked her head through the doorway.

"Hi, Rach!" Monica said as Rachel came over for a hug. Rachel was going to be a junior at Dartmouth University in the fall, and she was home for the summer - when she wasn't vacationing around the world.

"How was the Caribbean?" Monica asked as Rachel went over to kiss Elizabeth.

"Oh, it was gorgeous," Rachel replied. "Check out my tan!" She lifted her shirt a little to show Monica her dark brown stomach. "It was a blast! In fact, I even picked up a guy."

"Don't tell Ross," Monica kidded.

"I thought he was with Carol," Rachel said in surprise.

"Oh, he is, but he's still in love with you," Monica said. Rachel nodded shyly. "Okay, so this guy?"

"Oh, he is one hunk! His name is Evan and he's 23 - plus he just lives over in Jersey!"

"Oh, that's great," Monica said, trying to keep the envy out of her voice.

"Oh, Mon, I wish you coulda come," Rachel said emphatically, wrapping one arm around her best friend. Monica had been invited on several of the Greene's vacations - before Elizabeth.

"Yeah, me too," Monica sighed, looking at her daughter.

They didn't talk anymore about the Caribbean, but discussed Monica's new neighborhood, new job, and new life. Later that night, after Monica put Elizabeth to sleep in her crib, she and Monica climbed into Monica's large queen bed. Rachel reached under the pillow, trying to find a patch of cold, and pulled out - a picture.

"Mon, what's - oh, no, you do not keep this under your pillow!" Rachel cried, sitting up and flipping on the light next to her bed. Monica reached for the picture and tried to snatch it away, but Rachel held it away. "I don't believe you."

"Come on, Rach, it's not a big deal," Monica said, turning red.

"Monica, you keep a picture of Chandler Bing under your pillow - it is a big deal!" Rachel cried. "Honey, please don't tell me you're not over him."

"What if I'm not?" Monica countered, grabbing the photograph as Rachel's jaw dropped.

"Monica, it's been almost two years," Rachel said. "This - this is just sad."

"Will you just drop it?" Monica snapped.

"You're not thinking of trying to find him, are you?" Rachel asked incredulously.

"He's Elizabeth's father!" Monica cried. "He deserves to know her, and she deserves to know him! Just because I fucked up doesn't mean the two people that mean the most to me should suffer..." Monica trailed off, trying not to break into sobs.

"You can always explain to her that you were very young and Chandler had to... go to England," Rachel said dully. "Listen, if he can just leave you like he did, Lizzie deserves a better father."

"He didn't know I was pregnant," Monica argued. "I didn't even know! He would have stayed, I know he would have - "

"No, you don't know that," Rachel insisted. "He might have just run away anyway! Or worse, he would have forced you to get rid of it! Monica, I hate to say this, but I've always agreed with your parents on this one. Telling Chandler would have been a mistake."

"All of this was a mistake," Monica moaned, rolling over. Rachel lay down, and they did not speak for the rest of the night.

The next day was a frenzy of cleaning and packing and loading stuff into cars. Ross and Rachel both helped, and before one, everything was loaded into their two cars.

"Bye, Mom," Monica said, stiffly hugging her mother. "Bye, Daddy." She hugged her father, and during the hug, he slipped a stack of bills into her hand. "Dad - " she whispered.

"Take them, my little Harmonica," Mr. Geller said. "Please." Monica glanced down and saw it was a stack of twenties.

"Thank you, Daddy," she murmured. Her parents hugged and kissed Elizabeth, asked her to call when she was settled in, and with one last wave, they drove away.

Ross helped the girls unload, kissed them all good-bye, and left for a date with Carol. Rachel and Monica, taking turns unloading boxes and playing with Elizabeth, started to put together the apartment.

After Rachel left that night, and when her daughter was asleep, Monica looked around at her apartment. Her apartment. It had a nice ring to it. Sure, the place was small and cramped, but it was in a pretty good area, and her work was close, as was the daycare center Monica would take Elizabeth to three days a week (Mrs. Geller would watch her on one of the other days, and until school started, Ross, Rachel, and Carol would take her the other). But despite the humble furnishings and close quarters, Monica had her own place for the first time in her life. It was an amazing feeling.

She started work the next day, and for a while things went smoothly. She used coupons for food, didn't buy any new clothes or furnishings, and walked instead of riding the subway. But soon, the money her parent's had given her and her measly, one-a-month paycheck just wasn't making ends meet. Monica couldn't sleep at night, but was too busy stressing about how many days they had left before she had to either go on welfare - something incredibly shameful - or go back to her parents, which was, perhaps, worse.

Monica hated the feeling that she wasn't providing well enough for her daughter. She worked long, hard shifts at the restaurant, but between food, her portion of the rent, and childcare, there just wasn't enough. Rachel brought Elizabeth home from her place one night at the end of July to find Monica, surrounded by bills and paperwork, slumped over at the kitchen table, sobbing.

"I just can't do it," she cried as Rachel handed her tissues. "I don't have enough money! I'm going to apply for welfare tomorrow - my parents are going to kill me! My mother always thought I wouldn't make it alone, and she was right. I just - "

"Monica! Calm down! You're getting all crazy and freaked out again!" Rachel soothed her friend. "Everything's gonna be fine, honey, just chill out!" Monica continued to wail into her arms, and the noise made little Elizabeth start to cry as well. "Listen, if you need some money, you know I'll give you some!"

"Thanks, Rach, but I don't want your charity," Monica said, frustrated. She had way too much pride to accept money from her very well to do friend.

"Not charity, a loan. I promise, I won't just be giving it to you. I'm gonna need it back, once you get back on your feet!"

"Right, like you're gonna need it back. You're Rachel Greene the trust-fund baby, helping her poor friend out of debt!" Monica said crossly.

"Monica, listen to me," Rachel said, getting sick of Monica's unwillingness to admit she needed help. "I'm not giving you money because I pity you. I respect you so much for raising this baby on your own! Oh, I can't imagine what your doing for her, what your giving up! I think you are the bravest and strongest person I know. Please, Mon, just take the money." Rachel looked at her friend desperately.

Monica sighed. "Well - I guess. But I promise, I'll pay you back as soon as I can - "

"You can pay me back whenever," Rachel assured her. "And if you ever need anything, even just a twenty for diapers or something, please know you can ask me!"

"Thanks, Rach." Monica looked at the floor as Rachel wrapped her arms around her friend.

"I love you, Mon," Rachel said, hugging her tightly.

Monica hated taking money from Rachel, but she knew that was what she had to do to feed her baby. Her parents weren't helping out with anything but rent and sometimes clothes for Elizabeth, whom, despite being Monica's offspring, they loved to death.

Monica only wished her parents had loved her that much.

***********

A few hectic nights later, Monica was on the phone with the people from the junior college she was applying to, waiting to be told if they had any spots in their culinary class still open. She was also making cheap spaghetti with no sauce (she'd explained to Elizabeth that they needed to "pinch some pennies"), trying to calm the her daughter, who had a cold, and hurriedly cleaning the living room/dining room of the apartment, because Rachel was coming over for dinner. Someone buzzed, and Monica ran to the speaker, and, assuming it was Rachel, yelled, "Come on up!" and buzzed open the door.

A minute later there was a knock on the door. Monica, still clutching the baby and the phone, opened the door.

The phone fell from the crook of her neck and her heart dropped. There was a man standing at the door, smiling at her. A man Monica didn't think she'd ever see again.

"Chandler?"

Come back to me

Can you feel me

Hear me callin' for you

Cause it's, it's been too long and I'm lost without you

So what am I gonna do, said I've been needin' you

Wantin' you

Wonderin' if you're the same and who's been with you

Is your heart still mine, I wanna cry sometimes

A/N: Sorry if you thought this was a little predictable... it'll get better! Please review!

Jen