Chapter Two

After taking a walk home a few blocks Rachel reached her apartment building. She felt worthless after her date. She was upset from what he had said and the realisation that she could not just go out with guys anymore, there would be complications.
She reached her apartment door and walked in to find Chandler with Emma on his knee entertaining her. Rachel stood for a moment in awe of his unexpected skills with the baby. Emma was giggling and he was not even singing Baby Got Back. Rachel smiled at the irony that Chandler could even make babies laugh with his sense of humour.
Chandler did not even notice Rachel standing in the doorway until she uncontrollably let a laugh escape her. He turned his head to her. "Hey, Rach! You're back early," he said surprised.
Rachel sighed, suddenly zooming back to reality. "The date went terribly. It was just awful." She walked across and sat down next to Chandler.
"What went wrong? Everything seemed to be going great when you called me," Chandler said, turning his position on the sofa so as he was facing her.
"Yeah, that was before the jerk found out about Emma, that's when he seemed to have a problem with the situation," Rachel explained. Chandler realised that she sounded upset and so he put his arm around her and pulled her closer, still holding baby Emma securely with his other arm.
"He's an idiot, Rach; he doesn't know what he's missing. You're a great person and Emma is wonderful, in fact we had some great conversations while you were out, and I tell you she's got a quick-wit, seems I've got some competition!" He joked, trying to lighten Rachel and make her feel better.
"Thank you, Chandler, that's very sweet," she smiled and gave him a light hug. She suddenly realised, "Oh, you can go if you want now?"
"No, if it's ok with you I'd rather stay a bit longer, Monica and Ross are staying over at their parents' house tonight, and I don't want to leave you and Emma alone." Chandler said.
"Aww, that's very sweet, thank you," Rachel smiled.

Rachel and Chandler sat watching the television with Emma for a while. Chandler showed Rachel all of the things he had done with Emma. Rachel could not get enough of Emma giggling at Chandler when he pulled faces.
"You are so great with Emma," Rachel told him. Chandler looked at her and smiled. "Thanks, I'm actually surprising myself tonight." Emma was now dozing off in his arms. He cradled the small baby and rocked her. "She is so beautiful."
Rachel smiled. "She is."

Emma was now in her cot and Rachel and Chandler were just watching a movie. Chandler suddenly felt a weight on his shoulder...literally. Rachel had nodded off and was leaning gently against his arm. He felt sorry for Rachel. She had explained more about what the guy had said to her in the restaurant and he knew, from experience, that guys do not usually like women with children. It was a shame, really. In the past, when he was dating, he would get freaked out at the prospect of dating a girl with a child. Now, however, he realised that he may have been missing out on a lot...on children like Emma, and women like Rachel. He felt guilty as he realised that he probably hurt women like Rachel was hurt tonight. Chandler gently moved Rachel's head off his shoulder and he stood up and put Emma in her cot. He put on his coat to leave. When he opened the door the noise woke Rachel.
"Hey, are you going?" Rachel asked, "Why don't you just crash here on the sofa tonight?"
"Are you sure you don't mind?" he queried.
"No, not at all," she smiled. She walked into her bedroom and cam back out with a pillow and blanket. "Here, I hope this is okay?" she said as she handed them over to Chandler.
"That's great, thanks," he gave her a smile. They looked at each other for a moment. It was weird, they both realised how each had matured. "Well you go get some sleep, don't worry about Emma tonight I'll look out for her." He told her.
"Thanks, Chandler, for everything tonight," she put her arms around him and gave him a hug. He wanted to hug her back; however he was holding the blanket which made it difficult. Rachel smiled and then retreated to her room.

Lying awake in bed, Rachel found herself thinking about the moment she opened the door to her apartment and saw Chandler with Emma. She had never seen someone so good with children. He seemed to spend time with her rather than leaving her in her cot.
Rachel could not quite understand why she was thinking of Chandler...of all people. She also could not understand why she got no sleep that night because of this.

*** Ok, there's the first two chapters, I was only going to put up one first but there wasn't really much of a cliff-hanger! (I suck with cliff- hangers!!) Anyway I hope you enjoyed it, I've written Chapter 3 and some of 4 so I should be adding them shortly when I've been over them (