A/N: Hey! Sorry this took so long! Hope you like this chapter! Don't have much else to say... *hugs everybody!!!* I'm in such a good mood! :D

Jen

Disclaimer: I don't own the Friends characters or Aaliyah's song "Miss You" but I do own Elizabeth! Ha!

CHAPTER FOUR - Sixteen Again

Monica called Rachel as soon as she got home from work later that day. Elizabeth was watching a "Baby Songs" video in the living room, and Monica was pacing the 10 by 12 space.

"He almost kissed me!" she exclaimed into the phone.

"What?"

"Yes, kissed me. And, oh my God, I wanted it so badly. It was like there was this magnetic pull, drawing our bodies together. I haven't felt that way since... well... since the day he left." She groaned, remembering the feeling.

"Listen, I know how you feel, and I know you still love him - but it's Chandler. You guys have so much baggage, so much history - hell, you have present! You have Lizzie!"

"But it's not really baggage," Monica rationalized. "We didn't end on bad terms, remember?"

"Uh, yeah, I remember. I remember him leaving you to go to school in Europe, I remember your heart breaking into a thousand pieces, I remember you giving birth to a baby alone, raising Liz - "

"Okay, I remember that too," Monica said, switching ears as Rachel rambled. "But Rach. Listen to me. He's right here in New York. He wants to see me again. And I love him! How can us getting together be such a bad thing? Is the chance that I could finally be happy so awful?"

"He's leaving in September," Rachel said carefully.

"Well, that's a month," Monica said stubbornly. She sat down next to Elizabeth's high chair and began to absent-mindedly stroke her daughter's hair. "That's enough time."

"I don't want you to be hurt again. Do you know how difficult it is to find one thousand different pieces of a heart?" Rachel asked lightly.

"I can take care of myself. I won't let him hurt me." And with that, Monica hung up on her best friend.

She was up all night going over the previous day in her head. Being with Chandler had been like being on a roller coaster. She could remember the time they'd had two years before; she could remember his lips and his hands and everything she felt when she was with him. But she could also remember the months of pain and loneliness and despair she'd gone through after he'd left, and the fact that she was raising his child by herself. Monica was having a battle inside her head, a battle between her emotions and her common sense - her heart and her brain. One told her being with Chandler, even just for a month, would be the best thing that had ever happened to her. But she other reminded her of what she'd gone through before - and that was not something she wanted to go through again.

Which part of her was right?

*******

The next night, Monica told her mom that she had to work an extra shift at the restaurant and asked if she could keep Elizabeth for an extra two hours. Mrs. Geller agreed.

Monica put on a red dress that Rachel had loaned her a year ago for a birthday party and she'd never returned. She swept her hair up in a graceful bun and put on more make-up than she'd worn in months. She was just about to leave when the phone rang.

"It's me," Rachel said. "I just want to tell you - don't do anything slutty."

"Same to you," Monica said, laughing.

Chandler had told her to meet him at a relatively nice restaurant near Central Park. "Relatively nice," however, was not the right word. The place was beautiful and fancy and sophisticated, and, Monica suspected, horribly expensive.

"Hello," Chandler said, coming up next to her as she stood in front of the place. He was holding a single red rose.

"Hi," she whispered, taking the rose delicately. "Chandler, this place is so expensive... " she hissed.

"Don't worry about it," Chandler said. At the look on her face, he added, "Really. Just enjoy yourself." He held his arm out for her and she took it.

"So did they teach you manners is England?" Monica joked.

"Hey, I always had manners!" he argued playfully.

"You used to call me up and grunt, 'Dinner, ten minutes,' as a way of asking me out," Monica reminded him.

"Well, maybe I wasn't always so articulate," Chandler agreed with a grin that made Monica's knees turn to jelly.

They were immediately seated at a reserved table in the back, overlooking the park. Monica sipped the expensive water nervously, feeling extremely out of place. Her leg was jiggling, and Chandler reached out to stop it. Monica was startled at the feel of his hand on her thigh, but soon she relaxed. She was surprised when a glass of wine was placed in front of her.

"You're not 21 yet, are you?" she asked, smiling.

"I've got connections," he answered coolly, sipping his own.

"I feel a little out of place amid all the thousand dollar evening gowns and Tiffany necklaces," Monica whispered to him.

"You're the most gorgeous woman in the room," Chandler assured her, and Monica felt herself blushing again.

Three glasses of wine and an hour and a half later, she and Chandler were walking hand in hand through Central park, the dim lights and sparse people making in incredibly romantic.

For a while Monica forgot about her life, forgot that she was a teen mother, forgot she waitressed for a living. She was sixteen again, walking with her boyfriend at night, excited about what was to come. She had butterflies in her stomach and she was afraid her hands were unusually sweaty. They continued to walk until they found themselves in front of the Plaza Hotel, where Chandler was staying.

"Do you want to come up?" he asked, his eyes staring straight into hers. he looked confident and composed, but Monica knew her was just as nervous as she was. His hand gently stroked her cheek, and Monica wanted nothing more than to have him again.

"Yes."

******************

Hours later, they lay together in the white sheets of Chandler's bed. Chandler was playing with Monica's hair, gently pushing it behind her ear and then caressing her shoulder and neck. She rolled over to face him, their bodies pressed close again. She gently kissed his cheek, and then stood up, holding the sheet around her.

"Stay," he whispered.

"Elizabeth," she whispered back. Chandler nodded, resigned, as she looked for her clothes.

"I'll call you tomorrow."

Monica nodded, and then, on impulse, strode over to him and grabbed him. They kissed one last time, and then she left, her head still spinning. She drove to her parents' house and picked up Elizabeth, who was sleeping, and avoided her mother's angry, "What the hell took you so long? It's after midnight?" She only smiled and kissed her surprised mother of the cheek, then left. Nothing, not even Judy Geller's irrepressibly annoying attitude could bother Monica.

There was a message from Rachel on the machine when she got home.

"Well, as you're not there yet, I expect things went well with Chandler. Hope you're having fun being a slut. Just kiddin'. Bye." Monica smiled and erased the message.

*********She awoke the next morning with a migraine. Monica thanked God that it was Saturday and she didn't have to go in until one. She swallowed three aspirin's dry and gave Elizabeth a bottle, recounting in her mind the night before. The experience was worth the headache and nausea.

Ross and Carol were taking Elizabeth to the zoo today, and Monica called and asked if they could pick her up early. When they got there, Carol offered to change the baby into warmer clothes, and Monica pulled Ross aside.

"I went out with Chandler last night," she said in a low tone.

"What?" Ross practically shouted. "I mean - what? What were you thinking, Monica?''

"He doesn't know about her," Monica said, titling her head toward her bedroom, where Elizabeth and Carol were. "Well, he saw her, but he doesn't know she's his."

"Why not?" Ross asked in surprise.

"Because I told him she wasn't?" Monica offered, biting her lower lip.

Ross rolled his eyes. "Good goin'. Are you going to tell him?"

"I don't think so," Monica said. "I don't want to mess up what we have."

"What you have?" Ross repeated. "You - you're not back with him, are you?"

"Don't act so incredulous, Ross," Monica snapped. "You know how we ended. We're still in love."

"Do you realize what you're getting yourself in to?" Ross asked angrily. "He left you. And he's going to leave you again in September!"

"Maybe he won't," Monica said obstinately.

"Why wouldn't he? He's going to Oxford - he can't just stay and not go back!"

"I shouldn't have told you," Monica said sullenly, turning away.

"No, wait, Mon - " Ross said. He took a deep breath. "All right. I guess it's okay for you to see him. I just don't want to see him hurt you again."

"That's exactly what Rachel said. I can take care of myself! Don't worry so much! I know him, and I know he loves me. He won't hurt me, all right?" Monica said, shaking her head and turning away from her brother. "At least I hope not," she muttered under her breath.

I can't wait no more

Since you went away

I don't really feel like talkin'

Don't wanna hear them bug me

Tell me do you understand me...

Aaliyah, "Miss You"