Thanks for the reviews! Here is the next part and please review again and tell me what you thought about it. It would make my day a thousand times better! Thanks! Oh, and the song in this one is by the Beatles....well, at least I think that it is. I heard the Ben Folds version, but I'm fairly sure that it was a Beatles cover.
Disclaimer: Check the first chapter, characters-not mine. Got that? Want to go over it once more? Characters-not mine.
"You look refreshed," Phoebe said when Chandler came in after his nap. That was a lie, of course, they both knew it. He looked worse, if that was even possible, than before he had left. Sleep hadn't come to him, instead nightmares had. The images that would be burned forever in his head. Memories of what had happened.
It had been a wonderful night, that night. Or it had started out wonderful, at least. Monica had gotten off work early, and Chandler suggested that they go out to dinner. Claiming that he never got to see her anymore, and she had agreed. She wore a red dress. He'd remember that red dress for the rest of his life. The way it had gotten darker when the blood spread.
"How do I look?" She had asked.
"Stunning," he had replied truthfully. Blushing, Monica had taken his arm and they climbed into the Porsche. After a lovely dinner, Chandler had climbed into the driver's side and pulled out of the parking lot. They had gone into the suburbs for a change, and enjoyed the scenery on the drive home. He had been driving too fast, he admitted that later, but the other car cruised through the red light crashing right into them. Right into her. When Chandler had woken up, she was lying next to him covered in blood. Her blood.
"Monica? Monica? Are you okay?" Of course she wasn't. He could see the blood soaking the red dress, her face covered in blood from a head wound. His hands brushed over her face pushing the dark hair out of the way. When he pulled it back, his fingers were covered in sticky blood.
"Chandler?" She had moaned opening her eyes ever so slightly.
"Mon? Everything is going to be okay, I promise you. Everything is going to be fine." He didn't know why he was promising something that he knew that he might not be able to keep, but she whimpered and he clasped her hand in his and made that promise again. It would be fine. It would be okay. He promised.
"It hurts," she whispered.
"What hurts baby?"
"Everything. Everything hurts Chandler."
"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," he began to sob and repeat that refrain. "I'm so sorry." I'm so sorry. Sorry. Sorry. The word echoed in his head. God, he would have done anything to switch places with her. Why hadn't he let her drive that night? She had suggested it, why hadn't he taken her up on that offer?
" Please don't leave me, Chandler." He leaned forward and dropped a kiss on her bloody forehead.
"Never." And there he had stayed, right by her side as the ambulance came and did their best to get them out, and he left briefly while they checked him out to find that he had a minor concussion, but he had been back. Sitting by her bedside every day. He was fine, psychically, but Monica, the impact had happened on her side. Three days. Three days now had passed since he saw those beautiful blue eyes of hers. Three days that felt like an eternity. And every day he lost more hope. He glanced at a calendar. August 17.
Chandler snapped back to reality and saw that Phoebe was looking at him with concern written all over her features.
"Is she okay? Any change?" He asked taking his seat next to Monica's bed.
"No change," Phoebe reported shaking her head.
"She'll be okay, Pheebs," he told her. "She'll be okay." But he didn't know who believed it less, him or her.
Once there was a way
to get back homeward
once there was a way
to get back home
She was dead? How was that possible?
"Oh Chandler," she breathed leaning forward to catch his hand as he ran it over the letters. Her hand slipped right through his. "I'm so sorry, honey. I'm so sorry." It had been the same thing that he had repeated when they had crashed. I'm so sorry.
"Monica?" He spoke and she nearly jumped in surprise.
"Yes?" Chandler could see her? Could he hear her? "Honey, I'm right here."
"Oh, Mon, I miss you so much. I love you so much. I mean, Rachel was there for me and everything after you died and it just sort of happened....you know, she got pregnant with Michael and we got married, but I never stopped loving you. She knows that. She knows that she comes second. She told me that she can never compete with you. There's a piece of my heart that only you carry. Oh God, Monica! I'm sorry. I was going too fast that night, and I should have been paying more attention. I would have seen him run that red light, I would have seen it coming. I could have swerved out of the way....I could have...."
"Honey, it's not your fault," she told him. But his attention wasn't towards her, it was towards the grave. Realization struck as she figured out that he couldn't see her, he was talking to her grave. His demeanor suddenly changed.
"Why did you leave me? We were supposed to grow old together! I loved you! I loved you with everything that I had, why did you go? Why did you...." his voice trailed off as he fell to his knees and sobbed horrible sobs that racked his entire body. Tears slipped down her face as she tried to embrace him.
"I'm sorry," she repeated again. I'm so sorry."
sweet, pretty darling
do not cry
I will sing a lullaby
The sound of beeps filled his senses. The same beeps that had lulled him off to sleep earlier now woke him up. Joey was there this time. Sitting holding her hand on the other side of the bed, and talking to her. Telling her stories, as if she could hear. As if at any second, she would wake up and smack him on the back of the head for being an insensitive jerk.
"Joe?" Chandler struggled to sit up and rub the sleep from his eyes.
"Hey. I didn't wake you did I?"
"No. When did you come?"
"A little while ago. They just brought her back."
"Where was she?" It was a good thing that he hadn't woken up when she was away, he would have panicked to see her empty bed thinking and fearing the worse.
"To get some tests."
"Did they say anything? Did they tell you when she was going to wake up?" Joey shook his head.
"Sorry." Chandler slumped back against the chair and ran a hand through his hair.
"Telling her stories?"
"Yep. The ones that you wouldn't tell her." Joey grinned mischievously.
"What wouldn't I tell her?"
"Oh you know, the stories about Kathy and the time that you two got caught...."
"Enough! You're telling her those?"
"I thought that maybe if she got angry enough she would wake up to kill you," Joey shrugged. Chandler shook his head and almost laughed at the vision of Monica sitting up and grabbing him by the neck and trying to strangle him. Anything, he would give anything to see her wake up.
"That's a good plan Joey," he told him seriously.
"I'm going to get some coffee," Joey told him standing up and stretching. "Want some?"
"Sure." Chandler nodded and Joey left the room leaving Chandler alone with his slumbering wife. If only she was just slumbering, if only it was that easy. If only he could lean over and give her a kiss on the lips and see her eyelids flutter open.
"Oh Mon. What are you dreaming about? Wake up, baby. Please, please wake up now."
golden slumbers fill your eyes
smiles awake you when you rise
sweet, pretty darling
do not cry
I will sing a lullaby
Blinking, Monica looked around. She wasn't in the graveyard anymore. It was a house again, but it wasn't Chandler and Rachel's. It was white, with a swing set in the back yard. It was her house. And there she was, a little five year old. This was before she had ballooned to the size of a baby elephant. She was still little here, and playing with her dolls in the backyard. Ross came running through and grabbed it.
"Hey! You big meanie!" She cried jumping to her feet. "Give it back! Give it back now!"
"Make me," Ross taunted getting ready to rip off the doll's head. "All you do is play with these dolls. You have no real friends. No one wants you. Not even Mom and Dad." The words stung and angered both Monicas even more.
"Now!" Monica, the five year old, demanded stomping over to him and whapping him hard on the arm. "I said now." Yanking it out of his grip, she stuck out her tongue and hurried back over to the rest of her dolls and scooped them in her arms and ran away from Ross. Monica knew where the five-year-old version of herself was going. And she followed the little girl as she ran through the woods ignoring the branches that whipped back at her and stung her face. She followed her all the way down to the stream at the end with the weeping willows hanging over making a canopy. The little girl climbed underneath, and the adult Monica followed inside. Dropping the dolls to the dirt floor, little Monica fell with them covering her face and sobbing.
"One day," she told her dolls. "We're going to be married, and wanted. And our prince charming will do anything to protect us. And he'll open the door for us and pull out our chair for us, just like Daddy does for Mommy. And we'll have kids ourselves, but I'm not going to love one more than another. I'll love them all the same, and they'll know it. And they'll know that their dad loves their mom more than anything else in the world. They'll know that they're wanted. And we'll be wanted, really we will be, and he'll be so sad if we leave him, but we won't. We won't ever leave him, because we'll be meant to be, as Rachel says. And that means that we'll never be apart, because we can't be apart, because it hurts to be apart." And as her tears fell, so did the adult Monica's.
"We have that," Monica whispered to the little girl. "We have a husband that pulls out our chair for us, and protects us. And it wasn't his fault. The accident wasn't his fault." The memory came rushing back to her and the world began to spin, and she closed her eyes and wished for it to stop.
once there was a way
to get back homeward
once there was a way
to get back home
"She looks so beautiful when she's sleeping, doesn't she?" Chandler asked Joey when he returned holding the two cups of coffee.
"Yes," Joey agreed. "She does."
"I just want her to wake up," Chandler told him breaking down into sobs. "I just want to hold her in my arms again and tell her that I'm here and that I will do anything to protect her."
"I know," Joey said reaching out and placing a hand on his friend's back. "I know. We all do. We all want her to wake up."
"You don't understand though!" Chandler looked up at Joey. "She's my everything. She's my world. That's my world right there Joe, that's my reason for living." Joey wanted that. Joey wanted what they had, and he wanted them to still have it. He wanted Monica to wake up. Because Chandler was right, he needed her. He wasn't complete without her.
"I do, Chandler," he assured him. "I do understand how much you love her."
"Do you think that she does? Do you think that she knew how much I loved her?"
"I'm sure of it."
"Are you?"
"As positive of that as I am that the Knicks are the best team in the NBA." Chandler had to laugh at Joey's comparison.
"Good."
"And she loves you. She won't leave you without a fight," Joey said gently. "She'll fight with everything that she has."
"What if its not enough?" Chandler asked finally admitting what he had been thinking all along.
"It will be." And Joey sounded so sure, so certain that Chandler didn't argue, couldn't argue.
sweet, pretty darling
do not cry
I will sing a lullaby
She was standing in the middle of the street now. Monica could feel the asphalt beneath her feet and could see the traffic light above her. She wasn't just in any street, she realized, she was in the street. The street where the accident had happened. Everything came rushing back to her. The sound of tires screeching against the pavement and the sound of a scream. She whipped around, it was her screaming. She had been the one whose screamed pierced the night air. The other driver wasn't hurt. A little dazed maybe, but not hurt. Not seriously at least. As soon as he got his wits together again, he dialed for an ambulance, but she wasn't watching him, she was watching her husband lean over her own body and plead with her to wake up and be okay.
"Please don't leave me Chandler," she heard. And she heard him promise.
"Never," he had promised. "I'll never leave you." Monica's entire body filled with sharp pains, making her double over and fall onto the black street. The world swirled around her once more. Everything hurt, everything hurt so much.
"I'm sorry Chandler," she whispered. "It hurts. It just hurts too much. It just hurts." The pain was too much, sobs racked her body. The pain was blinding, but she could hear something. Someone. She could see the hotel room in London. She could see herself dancing around with a turkey on her head, and then Chandler proposing the first time, and she could see Vegas, and the dice on the floor. Then, oh, the last proposal, the one that she said yes to. And her wedding, and Chandler. She could see Chandler, and he was smiling at her and telling her it was okay. Everything would be okay.
And then everything went black.
~*Don't you just love cliffhangers? I love cliffhangers. But, okay, okay, I'll hurry up and write the next part, but only if you review. You have to review! Do you think that she's dead? Hmm? I don't know! Okay, now I'm just being mean, but leave me a little note. Thanks! *~
