Author's Note: Please do me a favor and review this story!  I'd love to hear your opinions on how this is going, and to anyone who read my first version, which one do you like better?  Also, Chandler left New York during Season 5 (which I think was '99), just to clear things up.  So some of things that happened from then on Chandler does not know about.  Oh, and there is no Emma.  Ross and Rachel are living together, but have no kids.  Thanks for reading!

Chapter 2

When Ross had finally gotten to his apartment and found a parking space, Chandler was relieved.  He had forgotten how horrible traffic in Manhattan was, that was one aspect of the city that he did not miss at all.  Ross unlocked the backdoor and retrieved Chandler's duffle bag and suitcase, while Chandler picked up his daughter who, at the sign of her rubbing her eyes, was coming out of her slumber.  "Daddy, where is this?" Sadie softly whispered as she looked at her new surrounding, her blue eyes beginning to brim with tears.  Chandler could sense that she was overwhelmed with the new atmosphere, so he gently kissed the top of her soft brown hair.

"Remember, I told you that we were going to meet some of daddy's friends." Chandler explained to his daughter, "This is where they live."  

Sadie buried her head in Chandler's chest. "Too many people! Too big! I want go home!" Sadie cried.  Chandler could feel his shirt moisten as Sadie cried.  He gently rubbed her back, trying to get her to calm down, as he softly told her that everything was going to be all right.

"The apartment is just across the street, I'm sure that she'll be fine, once we get inside away from all of the commotion."  Ross told Chandler.  Chandler nodded and followed Ross to the building across the street.  Once they got inside, memories began to flood back to him.  He couldn't help but chuckle when he saw the stairwell that he, Ross, and Rachel tried to get that huge couch up.  But, Chandler was snapped back to reality, when he felt Sadie's arms drape around his neck.  He needed to forget about the past and focus on her.

Ross led father and daughter into his apartment; he put his keys down on the table and left the bags at the door, when Rachel entered from the kitchen.  "Oh Chandler, I'm so happy to see you! How have you been?" Rachel warmly greeted him, and was going to embrace him in a hug, but stopped when she saw what Chandler was holding.  "Now, who is this young lady?" Rachel questioned, tickling Sadie's stomach.

"I'm Sadie! Who are you?" Sadie giggled, as she tried to wriggle away from Chandler's clutch.  She already liked Rachel, and was beginning to get more comfortable in her new environment, away from the busy city streets.

When Chandler set her down, Rachel bent to her level, "I'm one of your daddy's," Rachel looked up at Chandler when she said daddy, he never said that he was Sadie's father, but any idiot could tell that she was, she was his spinning image, "friends from way before you were born." 

"Really?" 

"Uh huh." Rachel replied.  She stood up at looked at Chandler who kept a watchful eye on his daughter.  "She is the cutest little girl that I have ever seen!" Rachel marveled, "How old is she?"

"Just turned three in May." Chandler replied proudly never taking his eyes off of his daughter.  Rachel smiled, she couldn't believe that Chandler had a daughter, and how fatherly he was acting.  She imagined how Ross must have reacted when he saw Chandler at the airport with a little girl in his arms.  She glanced at Ross, and then at the apartment across the street.  Rachel could not help but notice that Monica was watching them from her apartment.  She knew how much pain Monica must be in right now, and she wished that she never told her that Chandler was coming to visit them.  It had been months after Chandler's departure that Monica had finally gotten over him, and Rachel knew that Monica saw Chandler, with a kid nonetheless, it would rehash her old emotions and pain.

"So, is her mommy back in California?" Rachel questioned.  She then looked at Ross who was shaking his head.

"I'm a single parent." Chandler plainly stated.  He didn't want to get into anything about Sadie's mother; it was too soon.

hr

Monica looked at the sight before her.  She had been sitting at the window all day, waiting for him to come.  She had hoped that he would have returned as an ugly, bearded, dirty, scoundrel, but that was not the case.  He was more handsome then she had last remembered him.  Tears slide down her cheek as she thought about everything that she had lost.  Carefully she thumbed the cool golden ring in her hand.  There had not been a day in the whole five years since his disappearance that she had not held that ring.  She always thought about what could have been.  Monica closed her eyes and imagined how her wedding would have been.  Chandler would be standing at the alter, happily smiling as she walked down the isle.  However, when Monica opened her eyes, she was faced with the cruel reality that that wedding had never happened.  Sleeping with Joey was the biggest mistake that she had ever made, and it had cost her so much.  She had lost her soul mate and she had lost her future.  Monica would do anything to turn back time, but she couldn't.  She had to live with the consequences of the biggest mistake of her life.