~Okay here is the next chapter, please, please review again! That would be super, super awesome! You guys are the best! I'm sorry this took so long. I had it done, but then I couldn't log in and I went on Spring Break (which by the way was fabulous...it really sucks to be back actually) so....anyway, here you go. Please, please review. ~
Disclaimer: Oh, so you mean, I'm actually supposed to own the characters? Well, I don't.
Chandler had not let go of Rachel's hand the entire way there. They rushed into the emergency room and found Richard sitting with his head buried in his hands.
"Is she okay?"
"They're still in there," Richard said looking up. Chandler felt his fists clench at his side. He was the reason that Monica was in there. He was the reason that she was possibly dying. Richard was the reason, and it was taking everything that Chandler had to not punch him in the face. The words his fault, his fault, all his fault, swam through Chandler's head.
"But she'll be okay," it was Rachel who spoke up this time. Clinging to some, both Richard and Chandler knew, naive belief that Monica had not fallen hard. That Monica had not fallen in a way so that her body laid at an inhuman angle. Richard opted for silence instead of telling her. Instead of telling exactly how little of a chance there was that Monica was perfectly all right.
"Mr. Burke?" The nurse appeared and all three spun around. "Are you with Ms. Geller as well?"
"I'm her roommate," Rachel spoke up. "And this is her best friend." The nurse nodded, there was no way to soften the news that she had.
"Okay, Ms. Geller suffered a severe head trauma and some spinal injury, they've taken her upstairs to do a CAT scan and to determine the extent of the damage. And I'm sorry, Mr. Burke, there was nothing we could do to save the baby." The baby? Rachel put her hand to her mouth and Chandler felt dizzy. Monica had been pregnant? Had she known? Was she just waiting to tell Richard?
"Oh my God," Chandler said out loud. He reached for a chair to slip down into and felt the room spin around him. She was pregnant. Richard suddenly realized that the miscarriage at the bottom of the stairs would account for the blood that had pooled where she had been laying. He had wondered because he couldn't find any wounds, and he hadn't thought of it coming from between her legs because he couldn't move her and she was wearing a skirt. But she had been pregnant. And all Rachel could think of was that she was going to be horribly upset. That was her dream, and the timing had been so terribly off.
"We need to call the others," Rachel finally spoke up breaking through the other two's individual thoughts. "Want me to do it?" She looked at Chandler who was having trouble breathing.
"Could you?" He asked meeting her eye. There was no way that he could explain what just happened. There was just no way. She nodded and left the waiting room to call the other three. She knew that calling Ross would be the worst. With shaking hands, she dialed his number and he picked up after the second ring.
"Sweetie, what's wrong? Where are you?"
"Beth Israel...."
"What happened? Rachel, are you okay?" His voice immediately panicked.
"It's not me...it's Monica." It was all that she could get out before she broke down and began to sob into the phone.
"I'm coming," he told her. "I'm on my way. I'll call the others."
"Just Phoebe and Joey. Chandler's here with me already."
"Okay, I'm coming." He hung up the phone, his head spinning and picked it up again to call his friends.
Rachel walked back into the emergency room with Richard and Chandler.
"I called Ross, he's passing the message on," she told him. He nodded and noticing her red eyes, opened his arms to her and they stood in the middle of the waiting room holding each other and hoping that this was all just a horrible dream from which they would all wake up from soon.
When Ross rushed in a half hour later with Phoebe and Joey, they still didn't know anything about her condition. Rachel managed to fill in the details and they all sat down to endure what they all figured would be a hard and long night. Possibly the hardest and longest of their lives. Monica. Monica didn't deserve this. And taking it the hardest was Chandler who sat a few chairs down by himself and tried to keep control. The doctor finally walked in and they all jumped up from their seats.
"The CAT scan looked good, she has a severe concussion from which she still hasn't woken up from, but on the bright side, there seems to be minimal permanent damage. Of course we won't know this for sure until she wakes up."
"When will that be?" Ross asked. The doctor had no real answer for him.
"Whenever she decides to," he said. "We've moved her to a private room and you can all go up and be with her. She's stable. It could have been a lot worse, she's very lucky." Ross shook his hand and thanked him and they all trekked up to her room. Lucky, Chandler thought bitterly. She's lucky. No, if it wasn't for Richard than she wouldn't be here at all. Lucky. Right.
"I'll go in first," Rachel said. "Chandler, why don't you come in with me?" Ross looked hurt at first, and then he saw the condition that Chandler was in and the murderous glances that he kept shooting at Richard, and figured that Rachel was right in getting Chandler in there with her as soon as possible.
He walked in the room where she was laying. She looked small and pale against the white sheets and he felt his heart lurch. A monitor beeped and he walked over and took her hand and fell into the chair next to the bed and did nothing but cry for a solid hour.
Ross ran into the emergency room holding Rachel's hand tightly in his.
"Chandler!" They called out. Chandler looked up and gave a small wave.
"What did they say? How is she?" Ross asked trying to catch his breath.
"She's still in surgery," Chandler said. "They really haven't told me anything."
"It's going to be okay," Rachel said reaching for his hand. "It's Monica. She's not going to give up easily." Chandler nodded, but didn't speak.
"Did you call the others?"
"Joey's coming as soon as he's done with his audition, and Phoebe is on her way now," Ross told him. Chandler didn't know if he could hold off without breaking down for very much longer. He was hanging by a thin thread of sanity. It was straining and thinning and threatening to break any second.
Be okay, he thought silently. Just be okay. For me. For everyone. We can't live without you. I can't live without you.
It was amazing how fast life could change, he mused. How he could have gone from the happiest he'd ever been, to wondering and waiting what was going to happen to the one person that he loved more than anything else in the world. He loved her. He hadn't even gotten a chance to really tell her, really show her that he loved her. He had loved her for as long as he could remember. She was everything that he had ever wanted.
Let her be okay, this time he directed his thoughts upwards, despite the fact that he had never been an extraordinarily religious person. I'll do whatever it takes, just let her be okay.
"Ross!" It was Joey, he came running in.
"How did the audition go?" Rachel asked trying to take her mind off the of the constant stream of memories of her and Monica. Of Monica.
"Terrible. I couldn't concentrate at all. How is she?"
"We don't know anything," Chandler spoke up. Phoebe ran in a few minutes later and they filled her in on the very little that they knew. She was in surgery. It wasn't good.
It wasn't good.
And they all knew this. As much as they hated to admit it to themselves, they knew that it wasn't good. And so they sat there, the five holding on to one another, afraid to let go.
~Okay children, there's going to be another chapter or two after this, but you need to review! Please, oh please, it would make me so very happy! Thanks~
