Mason Park - Chapter Two

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About half an hour after everybody left, the doctor came back to his room to talk to him about the accident and his condition.

He pulled up a chair next to his bed and took a seat, sliding a pen out of his shirt pocket, his clipboard at the ready.

"You know, you look like a shrink when you sit like that?" Chandler gave a small laugh, despite the situation, he still felt the urge to hide beneath the laughter.

The doctor looked up at him and smiled. "Yes, that's not the first time I've heard that."

Chandler's laugh faded to a smile as the doctor initiated the purpose of his presence.

"So, Chandler, can you tell me the very last thing you remember?" The doctor asked, pushing his glasses back up when they slipped to the tip of his nose.

"I--I really can't. The life I remember all seems to be just a dream now." He sighed, remembering back to before the accident.

"Well, why don't you explain this dream?"

Chandler smiled at the thought of a pregnant Monica. "Well, I was married to Monica and she was pregnant with our first child, a baby boy. Now she's not my wife anymore and she's not carrying my child. My friend Joey lived across the hall, now he lives in Los Angeles and I guess we're not friends anymore. Ross lived across the street with his girlfriend Rachel and daughter Emma. And Phoebe and Mike lived together. I don't know if Ross and Rachel and Phoebe and Mike are still together, we never got that far."

"Well," The doctor started. "I don't know much about the life you and your friends had before last Friday, but I can tell you that you are not married to Monica, and no she is not carrying your child. I can't tell you about Joey, or Rachel, or Ross, or Phoebe, or Mike. I can tell you that this is real though. And from the tests I got back, I can also tell you that you have amnesia. We're hoping it's just temporary. We have to keep you here for a few more days to see the full extent of it. It could take days, weeks, months, even years to get your memory back, and even then, it's not for sure that you're going to get all of it back. You won't get it all back at once, it will come in bits and pieces." The doctor stopped and stared at Chandler for a few seconds.

"Do you remember the accident?" He asked.

Chandler's eyes didn't move from the blanket that covered his legs. He didn't want to believe this, this couldn't be real. He was happy, he had a wife, he had a baby, he had a family, how could all of that be just a dream? "No, I don't."

"I can tell you now, or you can wait and see if it comes back to you."

"I want to wait, I want to do this on my own, I don't want anybody to tell me anything else."

"OK, that's fine. I will tell you about your injuries though." For this, the doctor stopped and flipped a few papers over on his clipboard. "You broke your left ankle, as you can probably already tell by the cast. You also broke your right arm, again you can tell by the cast. Other than that, it's pretty much just scratch and dent. I can't really tell you much else without telling you what happened, so we'll just hold off on that. Do you have any questions?"

Chandler shook his head, still not looking up at him.

The doctor sighed as he stood up. I'm sorry about this Chandler. Nobody wanted this to happen, but never give up. It's going to be hard, but never stop trying. Now get some rest, it's late." The doctor glanced at his watch and headed for the door. "I'll be back in the morning."

Once the doctor was gone, Chandler laid his head back, staring up at the white ceiling. Why did this have to happen to him? Of all the people in the world. He was finally happy, he had everything he could have ever asked for, and now he got the one thing he prayed would never happen.

To have it all taken away.

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They all arrived back at Monica's apartment, deciding against sitting around at Central Perk, they needed a quiet place to talk.

"Should we call Joey now?" Phoebe asked after sitting down on the couch in between Monica and Ross.

Everybody looked to Monica again. "Alright, but you guys have to do something."

She reached over and took the phone out of it's cradle, quickly dialing Joey's number and putting it to her ear.

After three rings, Joey's voice came over the line.

"Joey Tribbiani." He answered in a somewhat cheerful voice.

"Hey Joey! It's Monica."

"Monica? Wow, I haven't talked to you in a while. I think the last time I talked to you was last year. How are ya?"

"I'm good, I'm good. Listen, there's a reason I'm calling. It's Chandler." She waited for him to respond before continuing.

"Wha..what about him?" He was quick to wipe the smile from his face and replace the happy tone of his voice with one of slight anger.

"He...he was in an accident." She said quietly, trying not to cry again.

"Is he...is he OK?"

"Well, he's alive. He doesn't remember anything, Joe. He doesn't remember what happened between you guys, he doesn't remember you moving away, he doesn't remember the fight you guys got into when you broke the fooseball table, he doesn't remember--"

"I got it, Mon. He doesn't remember."

"Joey, I know this isn't what you really want to deal with right now, but I think you should come out here and talk to him. You haven't seen each other in over five years."

Joey took a deep sigh and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I can't get out there right now, Monica. I'm really busy, I've got things lined up for the next few weeks. And--"

"Joey. I'm not asking you to forgive him and drop all of this stuff between you. I know this doesn't change anything, but you never even let him tell his side of the story, and now he doesn't remember it."

Both Monica and Joey were on the verge of crying and they knew if one started, the other would go too. "Monica, I can't come out right now. I'll try to get out there but don't expect me any time soon. It was nice talking to you again. Tell everybody I said hi."

He hung up the phone and left Monica to a dial tone.

She slowly pulled the phone away from her ear and pressed the off button before setting it back in it's cradle.

She looked over at the waiting faces of Ross, Phoebe and Rachel.

"He's not coming." She said quietly.

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Chandler was blankly staring out the window of his room when Ross, Phoebe, Rachel, and Monica came in the next morning.

"Morning, Chandler." Monica said, walking over and sitting next to him on his bed to give him a hug.

"Oh, hey guys." He smiled up at them, trying his best to appear happy. After the doctor had left last night, he thought a lot about the future, and about what he had lost. The life he had before could not have been a dream. It just wasn't possible, and neither was this.

"Did you guys talk to Joey?" He asked, looking between all of them.

Monica looked to the others before looking back down at Chandler. "Yea we did honey. He said he's really busy and that he'll try to get out here, but he probably won't be able to come any time soon. I'm sorry." She sat back down and rubbed his neck.

"So, why don't you guys tell me about yourselves? I don't mean like where you grew up and stuff, I know all that, but what's going on with you right now?"

Before they came to see him this morning, his doctor stopped them in the hallway and told them about his situation. About the amnesia and how he wanted to remember everything on his own.

"I guess we could do that." Ross said as Rachel sat down on his lap.

"I'll go first!" Phoebe threw her arm in the air excitedly.

"OK, calm down." Chandler laughed, putting his hands up in front of him.

"Well, I'm married to a guy named Mike, whom I met when Rachel, Monica, and I went to a karaoke bar."

Well, Joey couldn't have set them up if he was in Los Angeles. He thought, remembering back to when Joey had picked a random guy to be Phoebe's date.

"We've been married for just over a year. You actually gave me away at our wedding since my dad couldn't get out of prison, Joey was in LA, and Ross had to carry Mike's family dog down the isle." Phoebe laughed and pointed at Ross in a joking manner. "He went to visit his parents a few days ago and said that he'd come by when he got back. We've been trying to have a baby for a few months, and I was going to wait to tell you guys but..I'm pregnant!" She yelled, jumping up into the air when Monica, Rachel, and Ross went over to congratulate her.

Chandler winced at the word pregnant. He was no longer a soon-to-be father, and now Phoebe was a soon-to-be mother.

He smiled up at her when she turned to him. "I'm happy for you." He said quietly, still trying to appear upbeat about it.

"OK, I'll go next. Rachel said, sitting back down on Ross' lap. "Well, Ross and I had a baby, Emma, about two years ago. My boyfriend had dumped me and Ross was there to comfort me, we went to a bar, got drunk, and well, you can imagine what happened after that. We decided to start dating again after she was born and we've been together ever since. I live at his place across the street from Monica." She smiled and leaned down to kiss Ross sweetly on the lips.

"My story is pretty much the same, except I never had a boyfriend." Ross laughed and looked to Monica.

"Well," Monica started. "I still live in the same apartment, obviously. I've been dating a guy since around the time that Phoebe and Mike got married, I actually met him at their wedding. His name is Tom and he's really nice. You two actually hang out quite a bit and get along really well. He's on a business trip in Boston, which is why he hasn't been here yet."

Chandler stared at her intently after she finished, he was very curious about the life she had without him. But are you happy? He asked in his head, dying to know the answer.

"Well it sounds like you guys are doing well for yourselves." He smiled, picking at the edge of the blanket that had become his distraction. "So what about me?" He asked, not sure if he wanted to know the answer or not.

Ross cleared his throat and shot everybody else a worried glance before starting. "You, um, just got out of a two year relationship with a girl named Ashley. She's a singer, not real famous or anything. For the past few months, she's been spending a lot of time recording her first album and couldn't find much for you. You guys had a pretty healthy breakup, nothing was thrown or broken." Ross smiled when Chandler laughed.

"You still live in the apartment that you've been in for over ten years. And you still have the same job that you've had since you started renting that apartment, simply because you're too afraid to quit." Ross smiled again when Chandler laughed.

Chandler closed his eyes for a minute and rested his head back. This was going to take some getting used to, especially without Joey around to talk to.

It'll be easier when you get home. He had to stay strong, he couldn't tell everybody about how his life had taken a tumble, they would think he was crazy.

Joey would have believed him though.

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to be continued.....

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Wow, thank you SO much for the reviews! That's the most I've ever gotten on one chapter! Now let's try and beat that with chapter two! School started September 1st and I haven't written anymore to this story since before them, I just have absolutely no time. So I might be spacing these updates out a little more so I don't run out of chapters before I get a chance to write more.

I'm going to leave you guys with a question (it has something to do with this girl in my biology class, I'll explain next time I update).

Do you know what a snowblower is?

Please review!

-McB