Night fell over the city and Rachel stood out on the balcony. She had watched as the sun set over Manhattan thinking how beautiful the city could be at times. Lights in the office buildings twinkled in the twilight and people wandered on the streets, going about their lives as usual.
That was something that the gang couldn't do.
Things weren't as usual.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Morning had come and the gang, minus Monica, were asleep in Chandler and Monica's living room. They had all stayed in the apartment through the night, waiting to hear news from Monica's kidnappers. They had tried their best to stay awake, but sleep had finally caught up with them, sending them all in to a restless slumber.
Joey and Phoebe were asleep on the couch, Ross and Rachel on the floor and Chandler was in the reading chair with baby Nicky in his arms, exactly as Monica had found them a day earlier.
Joey had awoken first, moving the still sleeping Phoebe from his chest and laying her down gently. He walked silently across the hall and picked up his phone, calling everybody's work places and informing them that they couldn't go to work today, using various excuses and finding out he could lie pretty well when his mind wasn't focussed entirely on it.
Ignoring the growling pains in his stomach from not eating he put the phone down and stood up, ready to go back across the hall.
There was a knock on the door, Joey's hand just inches from touching the handle. It was then that he realised he hadn't even shut the door when he had come across the corridor.
He slipped the chain on and peered through the peephole.
There was no-one there.
Hesitantly he opened the door as much as the chain would allow and peered outside again. Still no-one there.
He sighed and let the chain down, opening the door as wide as it would go. The hallway was empty.
As he went to walk back across to Chandler and Monica's apartment he noticed and small white object on the floor. As he bent down to pick it up he heard a very distant sound of the front door to the apartment block being closed. He looked back down at the object in his hands. It seemed like just a white piece of card. Then he realised what it was.
He turned it over, revealing a picture of Monica and Chandler on their wedding day. Looking so happy and excited. How had all of this happened to them?
The door to apartment twenty opened suddenly, making Joey step back in shock. Phoebe's worried face looked back at him.
'Joey! We were so worried about you!.' She cried, pulling Joey in to a hug.
'Why? I was only gone for a minute.' He argued.
'Yeah, but at a time when a friend has been kidnapped and threats made to the rest of them it's not a very good time to leave the group without telling us where you're going, even if it is just for a minute.'
Joey looked down guiltily. 'Sorry Phoebe.' He whispered. Phoebe smiled and led him back inside.
'Joey where were you.' Chandler asked, his voice breaking slightly as he rocked Nicky to stop the cries.
'I was phoning all our jobs, to tell them we wouldn't be in today. I couldn't use this phone in case they rang. I think we should all stay together, we're not safe.'
The others, including Ross and Rachel who had awoken, nodded.
'I-I um, found this outside. I left the door open when I made those calls but as I came back someone knocked on the door, it was closed.' Joey told them. The other four reacted, looking shocked. 'There was no-one there when I looked, there was this photo on the floor though.' He showed them all the photo of Monica and Chandler's wedding day.
Then the phone rang.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Monica groaned as she opened her eyes, the darkness had gone, someone had untied her blindfold and daylight was streaming through the window. She looked around at the room she had just woken up in.
There was hardly any furniture in it, just a dining table with a few chairs. A picture frame hung on the wall, no picture in it.
Grimy curtains hung around the window, a dull lifeless colour, reflecting the whole of the rooms intention. A lonely dust-filled room with no purpose in the building.
Noticing her hands were now untied she got up, walking over to the window to see where she was.
In the middle of nowhere that's where. Fields surrounded the building, which she took to be a house, in every direction. There was no other house within sight. No animals in the fields, no birds in the sky. It was as if the whole area was deserted apart from her.
A movement in a room next to her told her that she wasn't alone at all.
~*~*~*~*~*~
'Hello?' Chandler said as he answered the phone.
'Chandler, dear, is Rachel or Ross there please?' Judy Gellar asked in a panicked voice.
Chandler would have been annoyed at the call, which could be stopping the kidnappers from calling, but there was something in his mother-in-law's voice which stopped im from doing so.
He passed the phone on to Rachel, who was standing the closest.
He watched as Rachel had a rushed conversation then hung up the phone with the words 'I'll be right there.'
'What's happened?' Chandler asked.
'Emma was staying with them, she's gone. The picture of you two in your wedding day was left in her crib.'
~*~*~*~*~*~
The door was suddenly opened, a man with a balaclava on walked in, shutting the door behind him.
Monica swung round to look at him. He had a car seat in his arms.
She looked down at the baby that was taken from the car seat and placed in her arms.
'Emma.' She whispered.
Before she could do anything else the man walked back out of the door and locked it from the other side.
~*~*~*~*~*~
A woman sat in an old, battered rocking chair, the chair she had once nursed her son in.
She looked out at the view, endless amounts of fields lay out ahead of her, no animals, not even a bird in the sky.
Even though there were moments in the rooms next door, she felt alone.
She looked down at the picture in her hands. Her son on his wedding day. He looked so hansom, and his wife looked so beautiful.
'Oh Chandler.' She whispered, stroking the image of the young man in the picture. 'My baby, what have I got you in to?'
~*~*~*~*~*~
Ok ,there's the next chapter. I almost turned in to a writer from the actual show, leaving Emma out, only using her if she was important to the plot. Oh well, if the money-earners can do that then I can too ;)
Please leave a review, if there aren't enough people reading this then I wont bother continuing and I'll get on with college work. And I only know if anyone's reading it if you review.