A.N.  Hey everybody… I am so sorry about how long this has taken me to write.  The only explanation I can offer is that I've been dealing with a lot of family stuff right now and haven't had time to do much of anything.  Things seem to be settling down so I'm hoping to finish this story before school starts again.  If you haven't completely lost interest, I hope you enjoy chapter 7!  Read and please review!

Love, Maddy.         

                Chandler had been up the entire night feeling literally sick since watching Richard and Monica go home together after Phoebe's birthday party.  He had finally forced himself to crawl into bed around one, and had laid restless for another two hours.  The phone was ringing now, and its shrill interruption was the only thing that showed him he had fallen asleep at all.  It felt like he had only blinked, but the clock reading six forty five insisted he had been sleeping for almost three hours.  Groggily, he pressed the talk button on the phone and hoped whoever was on the other end had a really good reason for the early morning wake up call.

            "Hello?" he asked into the receiver.

            "Put Monica on the phone," an angry voice barked back.

            "What?" he asked, trying to shake exhaustion and confusion.

            "Don't bullshit me Chandler, I don't have time for this," the man said impatiently.

            "Richard?"

            "Who the hell do you think it is?" Richard said coldly.

            "Mon's not here," Chandler said, still confused.

            "Oh she's not," Richard replied sarcastically.  "I'm sure."

            "I don't think she's here… I've been sleeping, but maybe she's out in the living room."

            "Why don't you go ahead and check," Richard snapped.

            "Richard, what the hell is going on?" he asked, irritated, as he opened the door to reveal the empty and still dark living room.  "She's not here, did she say she was coming over?"

            "She doesn't have to tell me where she's going anymore."

            Chandler's heartbeat increased slightly.  "What does that mean?"

            "It means both that she is no longer required to tell me where she's going, and that after three years I've sort of caught on to the pattern anyway."

            "Listen, Richard, it's not even seven am yet, so if you want to actually tell me what's going on, fine, otherwise you're gonna have to make accusing phone calls to someone else."

            "Just tell her I'm on the phone," Richard snarled.

            "She's not here.  I can say it again, if you want."

            "You're lying.  Chandler just put my wife on the goddamn phone."

            Chandler rolled his eyes and sighed.  "I'll check Rachel's, hold on a second."

            It wouldn't have been the first time Richard and Monica had gotten in a fight and she had showed up at his apartment in the middle of the night, so he understood Richard's refusal to believe she wasn't there.  Monica showing up at Rachel and Phoebe's would have been slightly more unusual, but again, not unheard of.  Chandler braced himself for the wrath of a prematurely woken Rachel and opened the door with his spare key.

            "The living room is dark, Richard, it doesn't look like she's here," Chandler said through gritted teeth as Rachel hurried out of her bedroom shushing him. 

            "You know what, fine.  Tell her I called," Richard said angrily, followed by a dial tone.

            "Would you be quiet?" Rachel hissed, and he realized she hadn't been sleeping at all.

            "What are you doing up?  And what the hell is going on?" he stage whispered as she grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into the hall.

            "She just fell asleep, can we keep the noise to a minimum?" she asked, frustrated, as the door closed behind them.

            "Monica?  She's in there?  What happened?"

            "Maybe she should tell you herself," Rachel said hesitantly.

            "Rachel…" Chandler warned.

            "She left him."

            Chandler stood there gaping at her for several moments. 

            "Left?" he finally managed.  She nodded.  "Why?"

            "She can tell you that herself."

            "Rachel, please.  Was it… for me?" he asked.  Rachel avoided his gaze.

            "It's complicated, Chandler, she's completely wrecked… we've been in my room talking for about five hours straight and she finally passed out about twenty minutes ago."

            "Why didn't she tell me?" he asked, for the first time realizing that he was hurt that she went to someone else first.

            Rachel looked at him pointedly.  "It's not all about you," she said bluntly.  "But in this case, it's too much about you for you to be the one she talks to about it."

            "So it is about me?" he asked, his hopes again rising.

            "I'm not doing this.  It's not sixth grade.  You'll have to talk to her yourself."

            "Fine."

            "Fine," Rachel echoed.

            "How long do you think she'll sleep for?" he said after a moment.

            Rachel made a frustrated noise and walked back into the apartment, Chandler at her heels.

            "We might as well make a pot of coffee, since we're both…" he trailed off as he looked up from opening the door and saw Monica standing in the kitchen, filling a glass with water.  She had on a pair of Rachel's pajamas, and her hair was pulled into a loose ponytail behind her head.  Her gaze fell upon him as he walked in the door, and he saw that her eyes were glazed and red rimmed from crying and exhaustion.

            "Hi," he offered finally.

            "Hey," she replied quietly.

            "You're up," Rachel said, rubbing her back sympathetically.  "That wasn't long."

            "I couldn't sleep.  Why are you holding the phone?" she asked Chandler.  He looked down at the cordless phone in his hand.

            "Oh… uh, Richard called.  For you.  Before," he stammered.

            "Oh," she said, staring at her bare feet.  "Did you… I mean, did he tell you…"

            "I did," Rachel interrupted.  Monica looked at her in alarm.  "Not everything."

            "Hey… do you want me to go?" Chandler asked her softly.  The distance from the couch to the sink had never felt so far as it did to him at that moment.

            "No," she said quickly.  "Please, don't go."

            Rachel excused herself to lie down in her room.  Monica and Chandler stared at each other in awkward silence.

            "Before you say anything, I need to know something," he said.  She nodded.

            "Is it because of what happened, with us, last week?"

            "Because of what?" she asked.  "Because we had sex, or because you told me you want me again?"

            He shrugged.  "Both.  Either."

            She exhaled shakily and sat down at the table.  "No.  That's not why."

            He hesitated for a moment, and then went to sit with her.  "I don't know if I'm relieved of disappointed."

            "It just got to the point where I couldn't remember any of the reasons we were together," she said, looking him in the eyes for the first time since the conversation begun.

            "So you left for good?  You're not going to change your mind this time?"

            "It's over, Chandler," she said quietly.  Tears stung her eyes and nose and she couldn't will them not to fall.  He scooted closer and put an arm around her shoulder, because he couldn't think of a single appropriate thing to say.

            "That's the first time I said it out loud," she explained, sniffling.  "My marriage is over," she repeated.

            "This is a good thing," he finally said.  She looked at him. 

            "My failed marriage is a good thing?" she asked sarcastically. 

            "Yes, it is, and not just for me."  She looked at him quizzically.  "Look, Monica, I don't know if this means that we have another chance here, or if you and I were supposed to be together back then.  But I do know that you and Richard weren't.  And I know that what happened last week probably sucked, a lot, for you-"

            "It didn't suck," she interrupted.  He silenced her with a gesture.

            "Okay, it didn't suck at the time.  But it caused a lot of problems, a lot of anxiety you didn't need.  And that was my fault.  But the other thing I know, is that I meant every single thing I said that night.  Letting you go was the biggest mistake of my life.  I love you, I've only ever loved you, and I can't see myself loving anyone else.  It wasn't the time for us five years ago, and it may not be the perfect time for us right now, but I'm not giving up on us, and if I ever do get you back… I'm never letting go."

            His words touched her in a way she wasn't expecting, and she broke down crying in his arms.  He held her as she sobbed for the marriage that was over, the years that were wasted, and the bitterness of bad timing that seemed to sum up their entire relationship.  She just let him hold her while she cried herself out, the hot tears running themselves dry and leaving her feeling empty and numb.

Will Monica and Richard go through with the divorce?  Will Chandler and Monica ever get together?  Have Ross, Phoebe and Joey died?  Review if you are interested in learning the answers to these burning questions J