A/n: I've decided to be nice and not make you all wait forever for the next installment. So here it is, enjoy! Also, I am very well aware that copying the script isn't something that's good to do...but I do have a method to my madness. My prologues are always taken from the script, it's just how I work. Thanks for the reviews, hope you all like this one!

Disclaimer: STILL don't own 'em. I promise.

One: New beginnings

"Oh, God, Monica, hi!" Rachel squealed, hugging her friend. The group continued to stare at this strange woman in the wet wedding dress. Chandler swallowed thickly; maybe she didn't remember him. He glanced down at his knuckles as Rachel continued talking. "I just went to your building and you weren't there and then this guy with a big hammer said you might be here, and you are, you are!" She hugged Monica again, and the waitress behind the counter asked if she wanted coffee. Monica ordered a decaf for Rachel and shuffled her around the couch to meet her friends.

"Okay, everybody," Monica started, "this is Rachel, another Lincoln High survivor. And this is everybody, this is Chandler, and Phoebe, and Joey, and you remember my brother Ross?"

"Hi, sure!" she said, going to hug hum...and then his umbrella opened instead. Defeated, Ross sat back down in his chair, and Rachel took a seat on the couch. Chandler could do nothing but stare at her. What are the odds? he asked himself. I have a one-nighter with this woman a year ago, after Monica told me she'd probably never see her again...and she never even knew my name....and now she's here? This kind of thing only happens to me. The five of them sat quietly, all staring at Rachel, waiting for some kind of explanation. Monica finally broke the silence.

"So, are you gonna tell us now," she said, "or are we waiting for four wet bridesmaids?" Rachel chuckled and shook her head, before regaling them of her wedding from hell.

"Oh, God," she started. "Well, it started about a half hour before the wedding. I was in the room where we were keeping all the presents, and I was looking at this gravy boat. This really gorgeous, Limouges gravy boat. When all of a sudden, I realized that I was more turned on by this gravy boat than by Barry! And then I got really freaked out, and that's when it hit me: how much Barry looks like Mr. Potato Head. Y'know, I mean, I knew he always looked familiar, but...Anyway. I just had to get out of there, and I started wondering, why am I doing this and who am I doing this for? So, anyway, I just didn't know where to go, and I know you and I have kind of drifted apart, but you were the only person I knew who still lived here in the city."

"Who wasn't invited to the wedding," Monica replied. Rachel grimaced.

"Ooh, I was kind of hoping that wouldn't be an issue," she said with a sigh, and leaned back into the couch.

Later that day, it was determined that Rachel would be moving in with Monica, because her father had decided to stop giving her any money. Chandler couldn't believe it. After Monica got in from her date with Paul that night, Chandler was at her door, banging on it. Monica, clad in a robe, wearily stepped out into the hallway and closed her door behind her.

"What is the matter with you?!" she snapped. "It's three in the morning!"

"I know," he said, "but I needed to talk to you about this whole...Rachel moving in thing."

"What about it?"

"Does she have to move in with you? I mean, can't we, like, put her in with Phoebe or something?" Monica laughed.

"Chandler, what's the matter with you? No, we can't put her in with Phoebe...do you...do you have a problem with Rachel?" Chandler froze. He had never told any of them about that night at the bar. "Well?"

"I, uh...." he ran a hand through his hair as he spoke, avoiding her eyes. "No, I don't, it's just that, uh..." He was stuck. He was going to have to tell her. Monica impatiently crossed her arms over her chest and sighed.

"Chandler, do you mind? I sort of ," she said, glancing back over her shoulder at her apartment. Chandler grinned.

"Company?" he said. "Did you....is Paul in there?" Monica visibly blushed and glanced at her feet.

"No..."

"Yes he is!" Chandler exclaimed, louder than he should have.

"Shh! Yes, okay? He's in there!" Monica snapped. "And if I stay out here much longer he might leave! So, can we talk tomorrow?" Chandler sighed and ran his hands through his hair again.

"Yeah, we'll talk tomorrow," he said. Monica smiled and patted his arm.

"Thanks, Chandler. Now, if you bang on my door again tonight, I will have to kill you," she said, and turned and went back into her apartment. Chandler returned to his and went to bed, knowing he wasn't going to be able to fall asleep. Knowing that she was just across the hall was enough to turn him into an insomniac.

Meanwhile, across the hall in her bedroom, Rachel was having trouble sleeping as well. And all the noise coming from Monica's bedroom certainly wasn't helping things. But the thing that was keeping her up the most wasn't the fact that Monica and Paul were having loud sex in the next room; it wasn't even that she was feeling guilty for leaving Barry at the altar. It was the fact that Chandler was across the hall. She thought about that one night they had all the time; she had regretted not getting his name, and in a way he was indirectly responsible for making Rachel change her mind about getting married. She was shocked to see him sitting there in the coffee house that afternoon, and since she'd moved her stuff into Monica's, they hadn't said two words to each other. They hadn't even looked at each other, and it was bothering her. After mulling over it in her head for about fifteen minutes, she slipped her robe on, and quietly padded across the apartment and out into the hall.

Chandler was watching late-night infomercials when there was a light knock at the door. Thinking it was Joey, who often locks himself out late at night, he shouted over his shoulder that the door was open. He heard it open and waiting to hear Joey come in with a girl, but when he heard nothing, he turned around and saw Rachel standing there. She smiled softly, her hands in the pockets of her robe. Chandler nearly jumped out of his chair.