Mason Park - Chapter Three
Three days later.....
"Well, it's good to be out of that bed, and that hospital." Chandler commented as he, Rachel, Phoebe, Monica, and Ross walked up the stairs.
Monica and Ross were holding on to him, helping him up each step with his broken ankle.
They reached their floor and Rachel handed him his crutch.
"Could you guys give me some time alone?" He asked, looking to all of them before he opened the door to his apartment.
"Oh, no problem, what ever you need, you got it. We'll just be over here." Monica said, motioning toward her door.
"OK, thanks you guys, for everything." He smiled before opening his door and hobbling inside.
It looked the same, save for the absence of the fooseball table. Instead a square, brown table sat in it's place, surrounded by four chairs.
The barca loungers were still there, the couch, the entertainment center with the TV that appeared "as if from nowhere", and the big white dog, tucked away in the corner of the room.
Before going into his own room, he went over to Joey's old room and opened the door.
The only occupants of the room were a metal bed frame with a box spring and mattress on top of it, an empty dresser, and a bare night table. The window blinds were drawn shut, sealing off all light from the room except for where the door was open.
Everything was dusty, the closet doors were open, and the bed had no sheets on it. Nobody had probably been in here since Joey left.
He quietly shut the door, tears threatening to spill from his eyes. He went over to his room as quickly as possible and opened the door, quickly shutting it behind him and throwing himself on the bed.
The room was the same as it had been before he moved in with Monica.
He angrily threw his crutch across the room, knocking a lamp off of his dresser in the process.
He closed his eyes, willing sleep to take him away from the reality that he swore was just a dream.
Five hours later.....
"Chandler?" Monica knocked on his apartment door, waiting for an answer.
When one never came, she let herself in, heading for his bedroom door.
Again she raised her hand and knocked on the door. "Chandler, are you in there?"
He didn't answer so she opened the door, poking her head around it.
She looked down at him, tangled in his sheets, his clothes wrinkled, his face covered in a thin sheen of sweat.
Deciding against waking him, she quietly shut his door and headed back to her own apartment.
"He's sleeping." She said when she walked through the door. "I'll just fix him a plate of food in case he's hungry later."
A couple minutes passed before anybody said anything again.
"So, what do we do now?" Rachel asked, her eyes fixed on the empty plate in front of her.
"Well, we could watch a movie or--" Phoebe started, oblivious to the actual meaning of Rachel's question.
"No, not like right now. What do we do about Chandler? Do we just go back to normal? What happens now?" Rachel cut in.
Monica stopped washing the dishes and slowly turned around to look at her. "I...I don't know. I never thought about that." She took off her rubber gloves and threw them on the counter before moving to sit at the table. "I guess we just wait and see what happens."
He quickly got in the car and told the driver where to go before opening his briefcase and sorting through some papers.
A few minutes later, the taxi got on a bridge, just as the driver dropped the cigarette he was smoking.
His hand searched the floor beneath him, but found nothing. He bent down so he could reach his hand further but still, nothing.
He took his eyes off the road, and bent his head underneath the steering wheel.
A car horn blared and his head shot up, swerving just in time to miss the oncoming traffic, but he swerved into a construction zone where cars were not allowed.
The car swerved back and forth, just narrowly missing machines and other large equipment. The driver lost control and hit the bridge railing.
The taxi and its two passengers went careening over the bridge, free-falling toward the water below.
Chandler shot up in bed, his breathing erratic, his pupils dilated, his head splitting in two.
His t-shirt was soaked through with sweat, he hastily pulled it over his head and threw it to a corner of the room before standing up on unsteady legs to get his crutch.
He exited his bedroom just as Monica entered the apartment.
"Hey, you're awake. Where's your shirt?"
He blinked at her a couple of times, his brain trying to register her words. He waved a hand behind him, motioning toward his room. He was too shaky to form words as the pain in his head became more and more unbearable.
"Are you OK? You don't look so good." Monica walked over to him and put a hand on his chest to steady him. "Chandler, you're burning up."
He took a few deep breaths before attempting to walk toward the bathroom. "I know." He croaked out, his throat dry and scratchy. "I need--something." He waved his hand toward the bathroom and started walking toward it.
"No, Chandler, sit down. Let me get it. What do you need?" Monica asked, pressing her hands firmly on his chest to stop him from going any further.
He plopped back onto the couch and attempted to sooth his migraine by rubbing his temples. "The little orange pill bottle. It should be the only one in there."
Monica hurriedly walked into the bathroom and searched the medicine cabinet for the pills. "Got 'em!" She yelled, holding the bottle triumphantly up in the air before filling a glass with water and bringing both things out to him.
He opened the bottle and poured two pills into his hand, throwing them into his mouth and then drinking the whole glass of water.
Monica took a seat next to him on the couch and gave him a worried look. "Better?"
Chandler closed his eyes and rested his head against the back of the couch. "They don't start working right away, Monica." He said, sounding irritated. He mentally kicked himself for using that tone with her.
A good five minutes passed without words spoken. Monica looked up at Chandler again, his head was still rested back and his forehead was wrinkled.
"Do you think every thing is going to be OK?" She asked, looking back across the apartment.
He opened one eye and glanced down at her, still keeping his head where it was. "It has to." He answered nonchalantly.
"What do you mean?"
Chandler sighed and sat forward with his elbows on his knees.
"Well, when I first moved out here by myself after college--before I started hanging out with you guys--I had this friend that really put life clearly for me. He said, life does not have two roads, it's just one. You're driving your car down that road at a mile a minute, and you can't stop it. Your car is time. And along the way, you find things that you bring with you. People you meet, friends you make, houses, cars, pretty much anything that makes a big impact on your life, is a hitch hiker. They get in your car, and you bring them to where they want to go, they just come along for the ride, but you are the one driving, it's your choice as to where you go. And when your car breaks down, so do you, you're done, finished, terminated. I know that may not make much sense, but it really does to me."
Monica pondered his theory for a few seconds before looking back to him.
"What happened to him?" She asked.
"I don't know, nobody does. He moved to Los Angeles--he was a musician--and then we never saw him again. Never heard from him again. His parents don't even know where he is. He could be dead for all we know."
"Huh." Monica nodded her head and leaned back, failing to stifle a yawn.
"Hey, how long was I asleep for?" He asked, looking around for a clock.
"About six hours. You must have been tired. It's about midnight by the way."
He stopped looking around and focused on her. The apartment was dark, the only thing lighting it being the moon. She was just as beautiful as he could remember, possibly even more, but he wasn't allowed to have those thoughts anymore, she wasn't his.
"What, do I have something on my face?" Monica asked, her hand flying up to search for anything on her head that wasn't supposed to be there.
"No, no, I was just thinking. You should go to bed, you look exhausted." He said, rubbing his thumb along her jaw.
"Yea, I am. There's a plate of food for you in your refrigerator in case you get hungry." Monica replied as she stood up and headed for the door.
"Night Monica." Chandler waved his hand and she gave a smile before closing the door behind her. "God, why does it hurt so much?" He said to the empty apartment.
the next day (monday).....
Ross, Phoebe, and Rachel were already over at Monica's when Chandler arrived.
"Morning guys." He said, taking a seat at the table.
"Hey Chandler. Monica said you had a really bad headache last night, are you OK?" Ross asked, taking a bite of his eggs.
"Yea, I'm fine now. The painkillers my doctor gave me really go far, ya know?"
"Are you sure you should be taking them for headaches though?" Rachel asked, stealing some of Ross's food to give to Emma.
"Oh, I'm sure it's OK. Nothing bad has happened so far." He smiled and took a sip of his coffee that Monica had placed in front of him.
"Good morning everybody." A man said, walking in the door and going over to give Monica a kiss.
Chandler almost shot out of his chair to jump on the man that was kissing Monica, but quickly remembered that she wasn't his wife and threw Ross a confused glance.
"Tom." Ross mouthed before taking another bite of food.
Chandler looked back up at the man that now had Monica locked in a passionate kiss. He didn't look too bad, the suit he was wearing and briefcase in his hand didn't really scream serial killer.
Once Tom was done kissing Monica he walked over to Chandler and placed his hand on his shoulder. He flinched at the man's touch but tried to hide his hatred for him the best he could.
"Chandler, I heard what happened, I'm sorry I couldn't get here any sooner, I had back to back meetings. How are you feeling?"
Chandler swallowed the coffee that he had had in his mouth since Tom walked in and stood up. "I'm doing OK. I feel fine so that must mean I'm doing pretty good."
Tom burst out laughing and Chandler jumped back at his over enthusiastic response. Tom slapped him on the back and Chandler fell back into his chair. "Well, I'd love to stay here and catch up with you guys but I've got to get in to work. I'll see you all later." Tom rushed out of the apartment and Chandler turned to Monica.
"I hope he's not like that in bed." He joked and took another sip of his coffee. Monica walked past him and slapped him on the shoulder as Phoebe, Rachel, and Ross started laughing.
"Well I happen to..." Ross's voice faded out, just like Monica's had in the car before the crash, along with all other sounds.
A flash of white came before him and then the image of his apartment, but Joey was there too.
"God, Chandler! I can't believe you would do this to me! First Kathy and now Janine! I thought you were a better friend than that!" Joey screamed, walking into his room and grabbing a suitcase.
"Joey, nothing happened! I swear my life on it! I can't believe you think I would do something like this!" Chandler screamed, trying to get Joey to stop throwing clothes into the case.
"Well, that's what I thought when I was going out with Kathy. But I guess I was wrong! I can't trust you anymore, Chandler!" Joey threw his closet open, angrily grabbing clothes and stuffing them into the suitcase.
"Joey stop! You're not leaving!" Chandler stepped in front of Joey, blocking his path to the closet.
"Get out of the way!" Joey pushed Chandler but he didn't fall, he stumbled back a few steps before pushing Joey back. Joey fell out into the main area of the apartment and stood up.
He swung his fist at Chandler and hit him square in the jaw. Chandler fell back against the wall, holding his jaw in his hand. He brought it away from his face and looked down to find blood on his fingers. He swung back at Joey but he ducked, narrowly missing Chandler's fist.
Joey wrapped his arms around Chandler and tackled him into the fooseball table, both men flipping over it, smashing the wood to pieces in the process.
Chandler came back to reality and gasped for breath. The pain mounted in his head and he stood up, only to fall down to his knees.
Monica had stopped talking and they all rushed to Chandler's aid. "Chandler!" Rachel screamed, flying out of her chair and to his side.
"Chandler?" Ross yelled. "Can you hear me?"
Joey landed on top of Chandler, pummeling his fists into his face. Chandler brought his knee up and hit Joey in the back, sending him rolling to the side.
Chandler quickly stood up and kicked Joey in the side once before letting him get up. Joey tackled him to the ground again just as Ross, Phoebe, Rachel, and Monica came rushing into the apartment.
Joey was vaguely aware that somebody had wrapped their arms around him and were attempting to pull him off of Chandler. "Get off of him! What are you doing?" He recognized the voice as Ross's and didn't fight when he pulled him up.
He looked back to Chandler and saw that Monica and Phoebe were helping him to his feet.
"Chandler?" Ross yelled again.
Chandler took deep breaths as he sat down, leaning heavily against the door. "I'm OK, Monica, go get the pills."
"You're in the way, I can't get out." Monica stated, helping Chandler scoot to the side so she could open the door.
She rushed out of the apartment and was back within seconds with two pills in her hand, a glass of water in the other.
He quickly swallowed the pills and handed the glass back to Monica, resting his head against the door.
Rachel, Ross, and Phoebe stood speechless, shocked by the scene they had just witnessed.
"What's going on?" Phoebe asked, looking from Monica to Chandler.
"I don't know, I get these really bad headaches whenever I remember something. It's like my brain is forcing the memories back to me." Chandler replied, his eyes still closed.
"You want to go sit on the couch for a while? I've got to go to work, but you can stay here if you want." Monica said, waving her hand toward the couch.
"No, I've got stuff to do today anyway. Plus I should really go see my doctor about these." Phoebe and Ross helped Chandler stand up.
"Are you going to be OK by yourself?" Rachel asked, glancing over to check on Emma. "I can stay home you know."
"No, no, I'll be fine. You have a job to go to anyway." Chandler smiled and put his hand on the door handle.
"I'm gonna go lay down for a while but I'll see you guys when you get home OK?" He opened the door and waved to his four remaining friends before heading back to his own.
to be continued.....
So I think that's a pretty good update. A nice long chapter, possibly long enough to leave me lots of reviews? I'm just kidding. About the snow blower question last week, I was just asking because a girl in my biology class had no idea what a snow blower was and I thought that was kind of sad, I mean, living in Minnesota and everything. People put more miles on their snow blowers than on their cars in this state! But she was from California, so I'll let that one slide.
Anyway, I've had a fun week. Two weeks ago, my great aunt died, Tuesday was the wake, and Wednesday was the funeral...how fun. I got to meet a lot of relatives that I haven't seen since before I had teeth, so that was pretty cool. But the majority of them were old, so I just hung out with my cousins when we went out to lunch with all of them.
But enough of my pointless rambling...I'll let you get to your reviewing! Thanks!
-McB