A/N - OK thanks for the reviews! ( They were really sweet! And thanks to Bob who made me aware of what a pathetic, untalented little nobody sounds like when they are jealous! I'm not going to rant too much COS, well everyone's entitled to an opinion and that's his so anyway. . . I went Alton Towers yesterday and OMG!!! Air is AMAZING!! You all HAVE to go on it!! I will now continue. . .

Part 6

"Well?"

Chandler looked them all up and down, his eyes moving from Monica to Joey and back again, sometimes making a quick stop-off at Rachel. No one spoke. And the more there was silence the more worried he got. If Monica, the women he loved and the women he thought could tell him anything, couldn't tell him the story of her and Joey then it must be too terrible to even contemplate. He was just in the middle of the 'Someone Killed Someone's Mother/Sister/Pet Rabbit' theory when Monica cleared her throat.

"So" she said staring Joey straight in the eye, "Whose going to tell him?"

Chandler watched as Joey squirmed under her gaze and dropped his eyes to the floor. Focusing on the chipped tile underneath him. A thought struck him then. They had dated. Monica and Joey must have been involved and then broke up. It was probably just awkward for them. That was all. He breathed a sigh of relief and tried to force his smile to reappear. Monica chose that moment to speak. After a quick glance to Rachel she looked at Chandler. Her normally beautiful blue eyes clouding over. He looked at her, his heart once again plummeting.

"You remember how I told you about Craig?"

Chandler flicked through his memory until he came to the name, "You fiancé? The one who. . . "

". . . cheated on me. Right. And the friends?. . . "

". . . who didn't tell you?"

"Yeah. Well you're looking at one of them"

Chandler was confused for a second. Looking at them? But he was looking at. . . And then it hit him. It was Joey. Joey was the one who had hid everything from her. The friend she had moved all the way to LA to escape. And he had just introduced the two of them. As he stood in the middle he didn't know whose side he should be on. Joey was his roommate, his best friend, a guy he would do anything for. But Monica was his girlfriend, the love of his life. His soul mate. How was he meant to choose between them?

His eyes flickered on each of them. Best friend. Soul mate. Best friend. Soul mate. Best friend. Soul mate. Before he could make the decision it was taken out of his hands.

Monica burst into tears and ran from the kitchen. Both Rachel and Chandler tried to run after her but Joey stopped them both.

"No" he said quietly, but forcefully, "I'm the one who did this. I'll go"

Chandler and Rachel just watched in silence as he went. Only speaking after they heard the door bang shut.

"Was that the right thing to do?"

Chandler gave a wry smile, "Well, there's not much we can do about it now"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Monica looked down at the sea. It always looked so black at night (*A/N - I've forgotten if this is at night or not. Sorry. If it started off during the day pretend Monica's been gone for ages (or there's been an eclipse. . .*) Almost like oil. But not quite, oil was ugly and this just looked like the most beautiful thing ever. It was almost completely still. It seemed a shame to disturb it. Monica picked up the small stone that was lying close to her plastic cup of tea and threw it. Threw it as hard as she could. Despite ruining the peaceful ocean she felt some satisfaction as the stone hit the water, throwing spray around. Monica felt a little, just a little, of the tension leave her.

"Hey" she heard someone whisper, "OK if I join you?"

Monica remembered that voice. It was Joey. Joey who she'd just run away from. But right now she just didn't care. "Sure" she said shrugging. Her eyes remaining on the few ripples left in front of her. For a minute they both sat there in silence. Neither wanted to initiate the conversation, although both knew one of them had to. Eventually Joey spoke.

"I think we need to talk"

Monica smiled at this statement. Joey Tribianni. The Joey Tribianni starting a conversation with 'we need to talk' it was almost too much to believe. But Monica knew he was right. She'd abandoned her friends to move here and, at first she had hated them, but now she was just sick of being angry. She missed them all, even Phoebe sometimes. Missed when Joey did his fake ' no call-back' thing, she missed Phoebe coming over and telling them what her psychic had said this week, heck, she even missed Ross boring them all with tails of dinosaurs. She sometimes missed Craig's dumb jokes, the little things she saw and knew he'd have something to say. But she missed him less than all the others. She still associated him with all the pain she had felt when she left; she never did that to Phoebe. She didn't know why. Maybe she was just never that happy with Craig, had just convinced herself that he was The One because he was the one that was there. It was still easier to hate Craig than to try and forgive him.

Joey started again, unsure of what to say to her. He took a deep breath and just said the first things that came into his brain, "I'm sorry Mon. We all are. We never meant to. . ."

"Hurt me?" she spat out, "No of course not. Why silly you! Thinking I'd be upset by the fact that my fiancé was cheating on me and all my friends knew! Like I'd be upset!"

"We tried to find you. Ross was distraught. We thought you'd done something stupid. There was no note. Nothing. Just an empty apartment. Hell all your clothes were still there! Ross kept thinking that every time the phone rang it would be the police. Saying. . . saying. . .saying. . . "

"That I'd killed myself? Joey, Craig was good but he wasn't THAT good"

"I'm sorry OK? It was a stupid thing to do and I know your not going to believe me but we only did it because we cared about you. Craig said he was gonna finish it and we believed him. I'm sorry and I honestly don't know what else to say except I'm sorry"

Monica smiled, the sea breeze soothing her as she remembered all the good times. Joey was her friend and it must have taken some guts to apologise to her tonight. I mean for one thing he was a guy and guys just don't do apologies. And then he was Joey. She smiled again before picking up the cup of tea, which had probably gone cold by now. Ah well! Let him suffer. She turned towards him and offered the cup.

"So what's going on with you?"

And so they sat. Talking for the next few hours. Talking until the ocean was no longer black but invisible. Talking until they could no longer see their own hands in front of their faces. As they walked back to Chandlers apartment. Chandler and Joey's apartment, Monica corrected herself. They talked some more. By the time they had reached the front door they were both exhausted. Having walked and bared their souls at the same time. Well, the last one was mostly Monica.

Joey placed his hand on the small of her back as he opened the door and guided them in. He assumed Chandler would be asleep. It was nearly one AM. He assumed wrong.

"Jesus! Monica!" He yelled as he raced towards them both, grabbing Monica and pulling her into a gigantic bear hug, swinging her round the room not daring to let go in case she went off again. "I was so worried" he whispered into her neck, "I thought something had happened . . .I thought"

"Sssshhh" Monica soothed, "It's OK" she whispered as she kissed his neck reassuringly.

She entangled herself from his embrace and walked over to the counter, pouring herself a glass of water.

"So" Chandler asked as he walked over to her, "What did you two talk about?"

"Not much. Just stuff"

Chandler smiled, "Am I to take that as a 'None of you business Chandler'?"

Monica laughed, "If you don't mind"

Chandler shook his head and leaned over to kiss her. "Rachel's in the spare room. I'm heading on up. See you in the morning"

Monica nodded and watched him go. He was so much better than Craig. Heck anyone was better than Craig, but there was only one Chandler. As she finished her water she started the slow walk to the bedrooms. Suddenly all she wanted to do was curl up in bed next to a man who loved her. At the door of the bedroom she turned towards Joey, who was still standing in the hallway behind the kitchen.

"You not tired?"

Joey looked at her, unsure of what she was implying. Unsure of why she was suddenly acting as if the past year had never happened. He looked at her and for the second time that evening said the first thing that came into his head,

"Why are you doing this Monica?"

She smiled, "I'm just an incredibly nice person" With that she turned and walked through the door, leaving Joey standing still, staring after her. Wondering what had possessed him to jeopardize a friendship with a girl like Monica.