~* Okay, not to sound too stalkerish, but I love you people!!!!! I want to come to your houses and give you big hugs. I won't....but I could. Anyway, thanks for your nice reviews. They made my day! I'm sorry this took so long for me to get it up. I was a busy little girl, but here it is and please drop me a note and tell me what you think. Thanks!~*

Disclaimer: Um, not the characters aren't mine. Is that a problem?

Three years before:

The plate that Monica held in her hands dropped to the floor and shattered into a million pieces.

"Chandler?" Her voice begged for him to tell her that it wasn't what it looked like. Her eyes begged for him to tell her that it was a mistake.

"Mon, I know what this must look like." Her breathing was level and she was trying her hardest not to cry, he knew her well enough to know that. To know that she was fighting back tears.

"Chandler, did you sleep with her?" The question came out in a half sob, and Cindy kept her eyes glued to the floor unable to look up at Monica.

"Mon..."

"You did!" She shook her head. "You slept with her. I can't believe you!"

"Monica, I'm sorry."
"That's it? You're sorry?"

"Monica....please..."

"Screw you Chandler," she replied and she stepped over the broken shards of glass mixed with strawberries and walked into her apartment. Chandler ran after her, and tried the door knob. It was locked. She had locked it for the first time in years.

"Monica! Please open up!"

"Go away."

"Please."

"Go away, don't make me say it again." Rachel stuck her head out of her bedroom at all the commotion.

"What's going on?"

"He slept with someone, some whore!"

"Who? Chandler?"

"Yes!" The tears fell fast and furiously down Monica's cheek.

"Mon!" He was still banging on the door outside.

"Don't." Monica reached out and grabbed her best friend's arm to stop her from opening the door. Rachel did what Monica asked and instead gathered her friend in her arms and let her sob her heart out.

Present:

Chandler leaned over and scooped Emily into his arms and made his way to the ice cream stand.

"What flavor Em?"

"White." Understanding what that meant Chandler laughed.

"So vanilla." She nodded enthusiastically. It had been two weeks since he had come back. He was trying to spend as much time as he could with Emily. It was hard being around Monica and Joey, but he tried his hardest to ignore it. In fact, he was getting pretty good at ignoring it. It was one of his amazing talents.

"We need to get back home, Mommy is taking you out to dinner." He didn't add with Joey. That part he avoided. They ate their ice cream on the way back to Monica's apartment. When he opened the door, he found Monica standing at the kitchen table packing her purse to leave. She was already dressed for dinner. God, he was amazed by the fact that she could still take his breath away. She was dressed in a blue dress with a plunging neckline and a diamond necklace sitting at the base of her neck. Her dark hair fell in curls to her shoulders.

"Hey!" She smiled when they walked in. Chandler knew that her smile was for Emily, but he still fantasized that it was for him too. No, she reserved that smile for Joey now. He still couldn't get used to that. She hurried over and took Emily off of Chandler. "Let's go get you cleaned up."

"Mon?"

"Yes?"

"You look great." He had to say it. He couldn't help it. Just as she couldn't help the blush that spread on her cheeks.

"Thanks," she told him and disappeared from the room.

"So I'm going to go," he called.

"Okay."

"Can I come see her tomorrow?"

"Pick her up from daycare and then you can have her until I get home," she answered.

"Okay."

"Great." He shoved his hands into his pockets. That was the longest conversation they had had since he first came back. They had only allowed for very short conversations. As he opened the door, Joey came in dressed in a suit.

"Chandler."

"Joey." Their conversations were even shorter than his and Monica's.

"Is she ready?"

"She's getting Emily ready right now."

"Oh."

"Okay. So I better go."

"Chandler?"

"What?"

"Is this weird for you?"

"What?"

"Monica and me. Is it weird?"

"Truth?"

"Yeah."

"Kind of."

"She's a great girl."

"Yeah." Joey's eyes got a far off look and Chandler pondered the conversation for a moment. Great girl? That wasn't something you said when you were madly in love with someone. Hmmm. This presented a whole new side to things. Maybe things weren't definitely over between him and Monica. This made his head hurt and so he said goodbye to Joey, and shaking his head, disappeared out the door.

Three years before:

"And this is yours! Take this!" Monica hurled another book at him. This was hit him in the head. God that hurt. Everything right then hurt.

"Monica..." He tried to get a word in.

"And this is yours!" She wailed a shoe at him. He stopped and looked down.

"Why do you have my shoes?" He asked confused.

"I don't know! But here's the other one." He leaned down and picked up and studied it.

"These aren't mine." That stopped Monica who breathing heavily began to cry.

"I don't want them," she managed to get out between sobs. Chandler didn't know what to do. He didn't know if he should make a move to console her, but knew that he was the last person that she wanted to do that right then, so he just stayed where he was and watched her cry. The door opened and Joey and Rachel walked in.

"What did you do now?" Rachel asked running to her best friend.

"Nothing, I swear," Chandler said shaking his head.

"No, I just can't be near you right now," Monica replied standing up and walking into her bedroom and slamming the door.

"I think that you should go," Joey said softly.

"Fine." And Chandler put his hand on the door, opened it, and walked into the hallway. He didn't want to go back to his apartment where he would be alone, and Joey wasn't speaking to him. So instead he went to the only place he could think of to go. He went to Cindy's.

Present:

"Monica?" Joey asked as they sat eating their dinners that night.

"Yes?" She looked up from where she was cutting Emily's dinner.

"Where do you think we're going?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I mean, do you see us getting married?" The truth was, that before Chandler came back she had. But her mind kept telling that she was settling for Joey. He was there for her when she needed him to be, and as much as she hated to admit it, he reminded her in a slight way of Chandler. And since she saw Chandler standing at the doorway a few weeks ago, she couldn't get him out of her mind. She knew that it wouldn't be fair to marry Joey, and be in love with someone else. He didn't deserve to be someone that she settled for. That anyone settled for.

"Honestly?"

"Yes." It broke her heart to say, and it broke his heart to hear the next words that came out of her mouth.

"No," she said softly.

"No?"

"No."

"Okay."

"Tell me what you're thinking."

"I was thinking that it could never work between us."

"What?" Of all the things she thought that he was going to say, that certainly was not it.

"I mean, I always knew that you were in love with him still. Of course you were, but I don't know, I just thought that if I loved you enough and was there for Emily that one day that would change. But the thing is Mon, that I'm really not in love with you. I'm in love with the idea of loving you. I love you, of course, but I don't want to marry you any more than you want to marry me." They sat in silence contemplating this latest revelation.

"So you don't want to marry me?"

"Not really." She nodded.

"And this means we're done?"

"I guess so."

"Does that make you sad?"

"A little. You?"

"A little."

"One last kiss?"

"Sure," she smiled and leaned over the table and gave him a kiss. A goodbye kiss.

~* Again, sorry this took so long, and it's a little shorter, I know, but I wanted to get something up. So please review!~*