DISCLAIMER: The characters in this story are not mine.
Monica was sitting on the couch in her nearly empty apartment. 'Well, empty wasn't the right word' she thought with a quick glance at all the boxes standing neatly piled near the door.
She and her husband Chandler were moving out of the city. They had found the perfect house in Westchester where they would start their new life as a family – with the new baby they were adopting which could be born any day now, a new car fitting the then bigger family, new neighbors who – thank god – didn't include a certain ex-girlfriend of her husband, and even new friends they would make.
Often the thought of leaving behind her friends made her depressed. So she wasn't surprised when tears started to shine in her eyes. She took a tissue out of the box sitting on the end table at her left side and dabbed it at the corners of her eyes. Monica didn't know what was going on with her. She was very moody the last couple weeks but she shrugged it of as moving anxiety and smiled as she thought about the new life she and Chandler were about to start.
Later that day Monica was sleeping on the couch when someone barged through the apartment door startling her awake. She bolted upright and turned around to see who had woken her so harshly that her heart was trying to jump out of her chest.
Her eyes fell on a scared looking Joey. He held up his hands in front of him in an apologizing gesture.
"Hey, Mon. I'm so sorry that I woke you. But I didn't know you were sleeping."
"Well, maybe you should always assume someone's sleeping before you storm into someone else's apartment. Just to be on the safe side, you know." Monica growled.
Joey looked around the apartment trying to find something to avert Monica's attention.
"Hey, where is Chandler?" was all he finally came up with.
"At work." Monica answered as if it was obvious.
Joey made his way over to the fridge to help himself to some food – the reason why he came in to the apartment in the first place.
"So, he's working late today?"
" Nooo…why do you ask?" Monica rubbed her eyes while getting up.
"Because he usually works till four sometimes four thirty and now it's already half past five." Joey stated, his head buried deep inside the refrigerator.
"What? Really? Is it already that late?" Monica asked. If it was true she would have napped for almost three hours. She walked over to the kitchen to look at Joey's watch wrapped around the wrist he held in her direction demonstratively.
"You are right…that's weird." Monica said letting go of Joey's hand.
"Thank you very much." He said sarcastically before biting into the apple he had pulled out of the fridge with the other hand.
Monica made her way over to one of the chairs and plopped down. "No, I mean it's weird that Chandler isn't here by now. He didn't say anything about coming later today."
"Hmm…then where is he?"
Chandler felt like whistling when he stepped out of his office building but since he couldn't whistle very well he suppressed the urge and settled for expressing his mood by smiling brightly. His life couldn't get any better. He was married to the love of his life. They were adopting their first child to complete their little family and were moving to a new house. And to top it all off he finally had a job he loved. Just that day he and his team had finished a big project and now he had all the finished paperwork inside his briefcase. The next day he had his first really big presentation in the office building of an important client.
Chandler looked up at the clear blue may sky and breathed in the warm and for New York somewhat fresh air and decided to walk home since he got out of work a little early today and he loved walking in New York – letting himself be carried away by all the other people going in his direction. He knew he would miss the crowds when he lived in the suburbs. But that was a price he was willing to pay because he knew that what he would get in return was worth so much more.
Chandler was pulled out of his thoughts when someone going against the walking direction bumped into him. Chandler smiled at the man and wanted to step around him when suddenly he saw him pull a knife out of his pocket. Before Chandler knew what happened the man pulled him closer and hissed in his ear.
"No sound or sudden move or I'll stab you."
Chandler was so shocked he could only nod his head.
"Now give me your wallet and your watch – faster." The man demanded when Chandler slowly pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. He gave the man his watch too and hoped the mugger would leave.
"And now the briefcase." The thug said after putting away the other items.
"No, come on, please. There is nothing valuable in there. Just a few papers I really need." Chandler pleaded clutching the briefcase to his chest.
"But is it worth dying for?" The man snarled before raising the knife. Chandler couldn't even do anything before the grip of the knife came down on the side of his head. For a moment everything went black and he closed his eyes. When he opened them a second later he saw every thing blurry due to the tears of pain pooling in his eyes. He felt the briefcase being ripped from his arms seconds before a push sent him falling into the street. He came down hard on the asphalt and hit his head on the street. The last thing his mind registered before it all went black again was screams and a car coming right at him.
"Hey Mon. Is Chandler here?" Monica's brother Ross came into the apartment fifteen minutes after Joey. "He has to check out my new, edited Alumni Page. I printed him out a copy. I hope that way he won't get any ideas messing with it." Ross told his sister excited waving a few sheets of paper. When he looked up he saw his sister crying in Joey's arms.
"Oh Monica, what happened?" Ross went around the sofa and sat down on the coffee table placing a hand on Monica's arm. The first thing that came to his mind was that something had happened to Erica's baby.
"It's Chandler." Joey said with a sympathetic look cast at Monica when she didn't answer Ross.
"Oh my god, what happened?" Ross asked with a choked voice, already fearing something terrible judging by his sister's state. He could swear his heart skipped a couple of beats by the mention of Chandler's name. He didn't want to believe that something bad could've happened to his friend. No, Chandler was more than a friend. He was his brother. And he became his brother long before he became his brother-in-law.
"We don't even know if anything happened to him." Joey tried to calm down Ross when he saw the panic in his eyes. "It's just that he isn't home by now. And I called his work. He left there around three and now it's…quarter to six." Joey explained after a look at his watch.
"Did you try his cell phone?" Ross asked already taking his own out of his pocket.
"Of course, Ross. That was the first thing I did when I realized he was late." Monica said.
"Oh, ok. But let me try again anyway. Maybe he couldn't answer the phone before." Ross said and hit the speed dial number connecting him with Chandler's cell phone. It rang five times and just as Ross wanted to take his phone from his ear he heard an answer.
"Hello, hello? Chandler?" Ross nearly screamed. "Who is there? And what are you doing with my friend's phone?" Ross asked.
Monica and Joey who had perked up with hope as soon as Ross started to talk assuming it was Chandler looked really frightened when they realized it wasn't Chandler on the other end. Then they saw Ross' face lose all its color.
"Oh my god." Ross whispered his wide eyes focusing on Monica.
TBC...
That's all for now. If you wanna know what happened to Chandler you have to review. I need to know if someone is reading and maybe even liking this story. ;)