A.N.  Hi everyone!!! Okay here's the last chapter of this story, except for a possible epilogue that I'm considering.  Thank you so much for all the reviews, for the last chapter and throughout!!  Oh, and thanks to everyone who reviewed Long December, a fic I thought I was going to turn into a series about two months ago and just was unable to handle doing 2 at once with everything else that's going on right now.  So when this is finished maybe I'll go back to that.  Or maybe I'll start something completely different, who knows.  Anyway enough of my rambling!!!  Read, enjoy and REVIEW!!! (please).

          "Okay, don't you think that things are moving just a little fast?" Rachel asked, trying to keep all judgement out of her voice.  She and Monica had finally had a chance to sit down and talk about everything that had been going on the past few weeks, and to Monica's surprise, Rachel wasn't quite as receptive as she had hoped.

          Six days had passed since the panic attack incident, and Chandler had stayed over in her room every single night.  The last screaming phone call from her soon-to-be ex husband had been three days ago, when he was instructed by his lawyer to cut off all contact.  To Monica's amusement, he and his attorney seemed to think she was after his money.  Whatever.

          "Fast?  Come on, Rach, look at the big picture… between Chandler and I, nothing has ever been fast.  Everything is painfully slow.  That's the problem."

          "I'm not talking about being friends for a million years before you got together the first time, Mon, I'm talking about the fact that your marriage isn't even legally over, and that you broke things off less than a week ago," Rachel said gently.  Monica crossed her arms, and considered her friend's words. 

          "Listen," Rachel continued, tucking a piece of Monica's hair behind her ear.  "No one- and I mean no one- wants to see you and Chandler together more than I do.  Okay?  You guys are just… meant to be, in every sense.  I just don't want to see you get hurt."

          "Yeah… but Rach, you just said it.  We're meant to be together.  And I don't know, I know this isn't like me, and I know it's kind of risky and that Richard is definitely going to be pissed off and think I've been having an affair for years, but… don't you think we've wasted enough time already?" she asked, her eyes pleading for understanding.

          Rachel swallowed her doubts and fears along with her concern for the rapid decisions her best friend was making, and realized that nobody was going to change her mind, and that maybe this time, nobody should even try to.

          "I'm happy that you're happy," she said.

          Monica grinned.  "Me too."

          "Hey, where's Mon?" Chandler asked nearly a week later.  The group was at the coffee house, after listening to another original ballad by Phoebe.  It was amazing how much it felt like old times; Monica was back.  She was his again.  He couldn't believe how perfectly everything was turning out.

          "She's probably still at Richard's," Phoebe said absently.  Chandler's back straightened, and he pulled to loosen his collar.

          "Um, what?" he asked.

          "Nowhere," Rachel said quickly.  He shot her a look, and she sighed.  "She didn't tell you because she didn't want you to worry.  She's just getting him to sign the divorce papers," she explained.  "Way to go, Phoebs," she muttered under her breath.  Phoebe looked appropriately ashamed of her slip up.

          "Why wouldn't she just tell me that?" Chandler asked, his nerves slightly calmed by the phrase 'divorce papers' but disturbed nonetheless.

          "Why wouldn't who tell you what?" asked Monica as she approached and sat on the arm of his chair.  He jumped up.

          "Why wouldn't you tell me that you were seeing Richard?" he snapped.

          Monica groaned.  "Ugh, way to go Phoebe," she said rolling her eyes.

          "Hey!  You don't know it was me!" Phoebe defended.

          "It was," Rachel reminded her.

          "Still!"

          "I can't believe you would choose not to tell me that," Chandler said, shaking his head.

          "Because it was no big deal and I didn't want to go through this," Monica explained.

          "I don't care, you're supposed to tell me this stuff, okay Mon?" he said, raising his voice.

          The other four chorused excuses about having to leave and made a very quick exit.  Monica looked at him, sat on the couch, and held out her hand.

          "Sit down," she said.  He grudgingly complied.

          "Listen to me.  I had to go see him to get this," she said, pulling papers out of her bag.  "I didn't want to put it off any longer."

          "He signed?" Chandler asked, fingering the pages.  She wove their hands together.

          "Yeah.  He did.  I'm sorry I didn't tell you, I just… I thought he should get the divorce papers from me, not some courier.  I wanted to watch him do it.  I don't know, call it closure, call it whatever you want.  I'm sorry, but I didn't tell you because it really had nothing to do with you.  It was my problem, my problem that I'm fixing, and I want to keep it mine.  Separate from us."

          "You can't do that, you can't separate me from a part of your life."

          "Yes, I can, and I want to.  Chandler…" she searched for the right way to voice what she was feeling, "I don't want the beginning of the rest of my life to be associated with the end of a really bad mistake that I made.  Marrying Richard when I was young and stupid I can accept.  Combining the painful end of that with something… amazing, something I'm never going to let go of… I can't do that.  Please understand."

          He thought about her words.  "I understand," he said finally.

          "Really?" came her hopeful reply.

          "Really," he said.  He touched her cheek gently.  "I love you."

          She kissed him.  "I love you too."

          "So, how did it go?"

          "Not too bad.  It was pretty civil.  Very professional, pen and paper stuff."

          "No begging you to come back?" Chandler asked, only half kidding.

          "No.  He knows it's over.  I think… we both just want to make our peace with it and move on."

          "Does he know about us?" Chandler asked, drawing shapes on her thigh with his index finger.

          "I didn't tell him.  But I think he knows.  Has always known."

          "Well, I'm glad that part is over," Chandler said.

          "Me too," she agreed. 

          "Hey… I'm sorry I freaked out.  I just, I don't know, you're kind of important to me I guess," he joked.

          "It's okay.  Really," she assured him, and kissed him again.

          "Hey, I was thinking.  And, you can totally say no, okay?"

          "Okay…" she said suspiciously.

          "This morning, when I woke up and you had already left, I felt really empty, more alone than I've ever felt.  And that's when I thought about it… I don't ever want to sleep in a bed without you again," he said, holding her hand.

          "That's really sweet," she smiled.

          "I'm not finished.  I want you to be with me, all the time.  When I wake up, when I come home, when I go to bed.  So I was thinking… what if we lived together?"

          He tried for several moments to read her expression, and failed.  When he couldn't take it anymore, he broke the silence.

          "What are you thinking?"

          "I'm thinking… I'm wondering about something Rachel said," she admitted, looking down.

          "What?"

          "She thought we were moving to fast, and I don't know, I didn't think so, but maybe she's right.  My marriage is like,  barely over…"

          He nodded, disappointed.  "Okay, I see what you're saying… and I agree that for anyone else, this would be fast.  But- and I'm really not trying to pressure you here- I just think that if you look at the whole picture, this has been about 13 years in the making, you and me."

          She grinned.  "That is exactly what I said!"

          "Really?  So now what are you thinking?"

          "I'm thinking I want to wake up next to you, too," she said quietly.  "Rachel's wrong."

          "You won't regret this," he told her, unable to wipe the smile from his face.  "I'm going to be good for you."

          "You're already great for me," she told him.

          And they kissed a kiss that was thirteen years in the making.

Okay, that's it for now!!!  Please let me know what you thought!!!

Xoxo, thanks for reading

MADDY