Chapter 15
Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with friends.
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Monica opened her eyes to see darkness envelope her. For the first few seconds of consciousness she thought she was safely in her hotel room, but as she turned on her bedside light she realised she was in a strange room.

She sat bolt upright in bed and reached for her handbag, drunkenly fumbling for her cell phone. She punched in Rachel's cell number and waited for her to answer. After a few rings a very tried sounding Rachel answered. "Hello?"

"Rachel its Monica, where am I?" Monica whispered so she didn't wake anyone.

"What? You're in Stuarts house, don't you remember? You got sick and passed out so we left you to sleep it off." Rachel spoke as coherently as she could for 4am.

"You all left me with complete strangers!" Monica sounded harsh, but still talking in whispers.

"No, Chandler stayed with you, he's down sleeping on the couch."

"Aw, Chandler stayed with me?" Monica's harshness turned into sweetness.

"Yeah, he wouldn't leave you. I think he feels the same for you as you do for him."

Monicas eyes widened in astonishment at Rachel's groggy announcement.

"What did you just say? What feelings?" Mon's denial made her stutter.

"I take it you don't remember our conversation either?" Monica couldn't see Rachel rolling her eyes on the other end of the phone.

"Oh my God, I told you everything didn't I? Monica didn't know whether to be surprised or embarrassed.

"Are you going to tell him?" Rachel's tiredness made her question sound less eager than it would normally have been.

"Do you think I should? I only want to do it if he's in the same place as me, I don't wanna be making a fool of myself!"

"Monica, just do it, what have you got to lose?"

"Eh, my dignity?" Monica replied sarcastically.

"True, but I honestly don't think he's gonna reject you, do you?"

"I don't know?" But I suppose there's only one way to find out."

"Ok that's the spirit, you go declare your love and I'll try and get back to sleep," Rachel had her eyes shut and was already starting to drift off into a deep sleep.

"Sorry for waking you, speak to you later, wish me luck!" Monica replaced the handset and took a deep breath. This was it; she was going to tell Chandler everything. How would he react? She wouldn't let herself think about the answer, if she started to analyse she knew she would manage to talk herself out of it.

After a few more minutes of deliberation Monica rose from the bed and started her Journey to Chandler. Was that voices she could hear? No surely not, she shook her head. She continued to walk towards the stairs, but suddenly she wished she hadn't. A sight before her made her skin crawl and the blood drain from her. She desperately wanted to scream, but her lungs wouldn't allow it. Instead she turned on her heals and ran back to her room as quickly as she could, slamming the door behind her. She threw herself face down on the unmade bed and cried like her heart was breaking, "this wasn't how it was supposed to turn out," she sobbed, "How could he!"
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Chandler tossed and turned in his sofa-come-bed. Every time he tried to sleep he thought of Monica upstairs alone, maybe being sick? What if she chocked? What if she was scared again? Should I go to her? He had no idea what to do; he didn't want to go wandering around his cousins' house in case he went into a room he wasn't supposed to. He decided to stay put for the time being and go check on Monica in an hour or two when it was a bit lighter. He turned onto his left side, facing the sofas back and nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Nicola?! What are you doing?" He couldn't help but wonder what it was about him that made people want to stare at him sleeping. He pulled himself up into a sitting position and waited on Nicola answering him.

Her staring made Chandler extremely uncomfortable. He wished she would just say something to break the awkward silence. Instead of talking she walked from behind the couch and tried to take a seat next to Chandler but his feet were blocking her from doing so. Seeing this he scrunched his legs up towards his chest to allow her to sit.

"Are you awake Nicola? Are you sleep walking?" Chandler gave her a weird glance, trying to figure out the answer for himself. Nicola burst into quiet laughter. "I'm very much awake." "Oh good, cause you were scaring me then!" Chandler sighed with relief.

Nicola didn't say anything again; she just continued to stare.

"Ok, you're scaring me again," Chandler was trying to lighten the situation, but deep down he did feel a little frightened by her eeriness.

His fear soon turned to caution as she leaned in closer to him, running her hand over the blanket he was under.

"Chandler, I want you!" She spoke lustfully.

"Wh- what? You're my cousins wife!" Chandlers fear was back as he realised her intentions.

"You don't even know Stuart! Would it really hurt just this once?" An evil grin spread across her face causing Chandlers mind to race.

Before he could answer she pounced on him, forcing her lips onto his, running her hands through his hair vigorously. For a few seconds Chandler responded but the sound of a door slamming jolted him back to reality. He pushed Nicola off of him as powerfully as he could without hurting her. "I can't do this Nicola, im sorry. This isn't about you, or Stuart. Im in love with someone else!"

Nicola glared at him in a way that showed she wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"Who?" She sneered.

"Monica," Chandler couldn't believe he had just said that. He had never said he loved Monica outside his head before.

"Yes, that's right, I love Monica," he repeated what he had said, proud that he had finally admitted it, and not just to himself.

"Well I have news for you, your precious Monica doesn't feel the same way!" Nicola's tone of voice turned spiteful. "When I went to check on her and Stuart earlier, I found them in bed together! Does that sound like either of them love us?" She felt proud that she had managed to pull off the lie as she watched Chandlers smile vanish and tears materialize in his eyes.

"You're lying!" Chandler stuttered, not wanting to believe what he had just heard.

"Really? Well why don't you ask them? Nicola tried to call his bluff, knowing full well he would never do that.

Nicola watched Chandler as his brain went into overdrive. "I'll leave you to think about that!" Nicola tickled Chandlers' knee with her fingernails and stood up, retiring to her bed.

Not once did Chandler imagine Monica loved him back, but in his heart he still held a little bit of hope that one day she would see how good he was for her. After Nicola's revelation his hope had diminished. He still loved her so much, but slowly hatred for her crept through him, he didn't know how he was going to react to her when he saw her, but of one thing he was certain. He was going to have to put his feelings away for good and get over Monica. For the time being at least.
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Ok this one was short but its all leading somewhere I promise :o) Next chapter (which will be up tonight) im going to focus on Rachel and Ross then ill be back to Phoebe and Joey. Be warned. its gonna be sad all round :o) Thank you all for the reviews again. Especially starfriend who is a loyal reviewer.luv ya xxxx :o)