Thanks for the few reviews I've gotten on this one! I really appreciate them; they keep me going. I really do want to continue this particular fic, and I think that if I went with it, it could be really a good one. I promise. I have ideas. ;)

Wow, and look at me. An update of this and Beautiful in ONE NIGHT! Wow...guess who needs a life? (lol I'm kidding. I'm watching my little brother...but still.)

I hope things are starting to make sense now. (They won't completely until awhile, though. Thatmuch I can promise. After all, part of this story is a mystery. :))

Please, please, please review!

Enjoy.

"Seattle?" She sat, dumbfounded. Her heart raced along, yet her mind could not comprehend. She stared down at her hands, tracing the patterns and lines with a perfectly polished fingernail.

"Seattle," he replied, not knowing how much more to say. "But, sweetie, the pay is three times as much there. We'll be living like kings and queens!"

Though he tried, and she did admire his straining efforts, she did not nod along and pretend to agree. "Chandler, I like the way we live now. I don't want to move to Seattle!"

"Mon," he sighed exasperatedly. "I don't want to either. I don't want to leave New York. I don't want to leave our friends. I don't want to take this damn job, but I don't always get what I want. It's what I have to do. When I signed on, I agreed to possible job transfers."

Tears pooled in her blue eyes. "But Chandler, please, we can't go. How can we possibly leave all of this behind?"

Chandler took a deep breath and shook his head. "I don't know. I mean, we'll find out…" He trailed off, and it didn't take him long to realize that his meager stab at humor was not well received.

"That's not funny," she sniffed while wiping her delicate tears away. "We've been married for, what, five months? And already we're moving? What about our family?"

"Well, we'll come back and visit your parents and everyone else on holidays. As for my parents…well, not that I'm happy about it, but we will be closer to my dad. And my mom can find us."

He wasn't getting it. "No, Chandler. Our family. You, and me…" she looked off into the distance. "And what if we have kids one day?"

"The neighborhood we'll be living in is in a great school district, don't worry. And I'm sure Oak Hollow will be a much nicer environment to raise children in."

"Oak Hollow?"

"It's a small county in Seattle…where we'll be living. Our address is 667 Oak Willows Lane." He smiled at her. "It's just what you've always wanted, isn't it? A nice big house with a Victorian wrap-around porch? A place where we could sip iced tea at dusk and invite the neighbors over for dinner?"

"Wait. You already know where we'll be living?"

"Yeah. The company already paid for and picked out the house."

He handed her a brochure with pictures of their new home. True to his word, the home did have a wrap-around porch, and it looked amazing from the outside. "Wow," she breathed.

"Do you like it?"

"It's gorgeous, just like out of a fairy tale. But, Chandler, I like our apartment, too. We already have the neighbors over for dinner every night! And as for sipping iced tea, since when do you drink iced tea?"

"Okay, so you'll drink your tea and I'll drink my Yoo-hoos with my funny straw. But that's not the point, Mon. The point is that I love you. And I married you. Sometimes, we both have to do things that we don't want to do. But we have to. I can't just quit, you know."

"I know." She buried her head in his neck while he smelled her hair. The scent of daisies and honey always made him feel better. She looked up and tried to smile. "For better or worse, right?"

"Right." He kissed her on the soft pout of her lip.

"So I guess we have to tell the gang now, huh?" Monica winced.

"Yeah. Have fun with that."

"Very funny. If anyone should tell them, it should be you."

"Aw, come on. How can I tell everyone that we're moving in a month?"

"We leave in a month?!"

He stared down sheepishly and mumbled, "I guess I forgot to mention that, huh?"

"Yeah, I'll say." She surveyed the apartment, mentally packing up her life.

"Are you mad?"

"Yeah. But we'll live."

Chandler patted her on the back. "Thanks, sweetie. It's not easy, but it's something we have to do. For better or for worse."

----

"You two are moving?" Joey exclaimed as Monica and Chandler braced themselves for their friend's reactions.

"Yeah, Joe, we are. My job…it's moving me to Seattle."

"And Mon…you're going to?" Ross couldn't bear the thought of the only family member he was close to leaving.

"Yeah. I kind of have to."

"Oh my God, I'm going to miss you guys so much!" Rachel said between the tears streaming down the slope of her cheek.

"But…but…can't you process data somewhere else?" Phoebe inquired.

"Well, they just built a new office and branched out to Seattle. A few 'lucky' members from our staff got chosen and they have to move out there to join the team."

"But…but…this is just awful! How can you just leave?" Joey walked over to Chandler and stood in front of him, almost willing Chandler to yell at his so-called selfishness of character so Joey wouldn't be so saddened at the thought of his friend moving across the country.

This was the question. "How can you just leave?" Chandler wondered with all his might how someone could even ask that of him. It wasn't a question of how they could just leave; it was the question of how it would affect them. There was no choice; the move was a complete and total obligation. Yet part of Chandler wondered…how could they just leave?

"We just…do."

Later that night, Phoebe pulled Monica aside. "Mon, listen, I don't think you should go."

"What? Phoebe, I can't just let Chandler go alone. I'm his wife now."

"Please listen, Mon, I have a really bad feeling."

Monica smiled in spite of her friend. "Pheebs, you always have bad feelings."

"No, no. This is different. Stronger. Something…awful. Please trust me. Chandler can find another job."

"What do you think will happen, Phoebe?"

"I don't know, Mon. I don't know. But no good can come of it. I know you don't think your life and relationships will change much…but please hear me."

Monica moved in and hugged her worried friend. "Sweetie, we'll be fine. Homesick, but fine."

The blue in Phoebe's eyes seemed as sharp and as frozen as icicles. In a deadpan voice, she whispered, "But Monica, the winters there are cold."

"They're cold here, too, though."

"No. This will be a chill that you have never known."

Ignoring her friend's prophetic predictions, Monica led Phoebe into the living room, reassuring her all the way.

If only she had listened.

----

One Month Later

Tall oak trees paved the way for the long winding street. The grass was as lush and green as it had ever been, and the sun polished the hoods of each shiny new car residing comfortably outside the three-car garages. Children's laughter rang throughout the air, a lovely melody in tune to the harmony of the tinkling music of the ice-cream truck and the bluebirds in their trees.

"So…how do you like it?"

"Sweetie, it's incredible! Just like the brochures!"

During the past month, Monica had packed, sorted, listed, and re-packed. She wanted everything to be perfect in their new home. Better yet, everyone was coming for a visit in a month after they got settled in. She didn't like to admit it, but Monica was a bit excited at the prospect of her new life with Chandler. It was new, but an adventure nonetheless.

In front of them stood a house more magnificent than the others, towering over the neighborhood. It was a clean shade of off white, and the idea of cleanliness sat well with Monica. Supported by two pillars, the second story overlooked the first. As promised, the wrap-around porch stretched the distance of their new home.

"This is it," Chandler held their shiny new key in one hand and Monica's in his other. "Ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

He fit the key into the lock and the two proceeded to marvel at their new home.

"Oh my God! Chandler, look at these stairs!" Monica gleefully scaled them and slid down the banister into Chandler's arms. "Try it!"

He laughed at her childish delights. "All right."

She doubled over in fits of laughter as Chandler began to slide down the stairs. Certain parts of his body seemed to…get in the way.

"Ow, ow, ow!" He hopped off onto the winding staircase and crouched down, trying to soothe himself.

"I'm sorry, sweetie. I forgot that it might hurt you."

"Forgot?" His voice was high and squeaky which made her giggle even more. "How could you forget? It's why you married me!"

"I know." She smiled and kissed the top of his forehead. "All better?"

"I guess."

"Come on, let's go look around more."

The rest of the house was even more superb than the staircase. Six bedrooms graced the home, as well as a library, den, study, and a crawlspace that neither one really knew what to do with.

"Mon, look at this," Chandler had beckoned when he discovered it.

"Woah. What is it?"

It was a space big enough to hold two people or a vacuum cleaner, nothing more. Perhaps in the olden days it had been used as a place to store food, yet neither could figure out what to do with it.

"Here, I'm going to go in it." Chandler took off his sweatshirt and climbed in.

"Sweetie, imagine how dusty it is!"

"Wow…you're right." He coughed loudly. "It is. Come on in!"

"No way. I'll hold your sweatshirt…which, by the way, I still don't know why you're wearing in the middle of May, but whatever."

"No, you have got to come in here!"

"Why?"

"It's cool."

"And so all of the sudden 'it's cool' makes me want to come in a dirty crawlspace? Do you not know me at all?"

Chandler poked his dust-laden head out. "You made me slide down the stairs."

She groaned. "All right, scoot over."

Immediately after venturing in, she wished she hadn't. "Gross!" She sneezed. "How can you sit in here?"

"Well, I can't really move, and it's kind of cool. But apparently, that's not enough for you," he chided.

"Haha. I'll get up." She pushed to open the door and made a discovery. "Oh my God. It has a lock on it! Wow, this would be some hiding place if we ever played hide-and-go-seek!"

"Well, honey, next game I'll know where to look for you."

"Shut up," she tapped him on the nose playfully and kissed him. "You always know where to find me."

----

The road stretched on for miles. She didn't even know where she was going. With any luck, she'd know when she got there.

For now, Monica would keep on driving.

It all seemed like a dream. No, a nightmare.

Only five years ago she had been happy.

Happy- that word sounded like a stranger to her now. Strangers…they had ruined her life. Friends…they had ruined her life. In essence, the two were one. She didn't know friend from foe or vice-versa.

Chandler was her only friend. Was…now he was gone. She left. She was two hours out of Oak Hollow and it felt good to know that. "Hollow," she laughed bitterly as lightning struck across the sky. Lightning and snow at the same time- it may as well have been the apocalypse. "They're all hollow in their hearts back there."

She switched the car into cruise, not wanting to drive or steer. It was a long stretch of road ahead, and a long one behind.

Looking behind her, she half expected a train of cars to follow. However, her fears were silenced as she watched on. There was no one.

Was there ever really?

A crew of invisible shadows teetered along the road behind her. Only she knew who they were. They were her friends, her allies. As she drove further down the strip of barren wasteland, or so she thought it was, she blasted the heat higher.

The small ragged rabbit beside her was practically on fire; the heat was up as high as it went.

Focusing on the shadows her headlights played on the snowy roads ahead, Monica realized why the heat didn't affect her.

She had been cold for far too long.

Soon, the moon began to sink as the sun crept over the horizon. Hues of pale pinks, blues, incandescent oranges and yellows were painted across the morning sky. Rich colors spread over her car and heart. She pulled over to the side of the road to fully appreciate the phenomenon.

It must have been twenty minutes later when Monica realized she was crying.

It had been so long since she'd truly seen the sunrise.

Thank you for reading this, I do appreciate it. I think I may set up chapters like this: the past first and then aview of the present. Is this a good way to do it or should I alternate chapters? My full intention with this was to make the picture easier to understand...you know, how the past affected the present.

Anyways, please let me know if anyone really has a preference.

I hope I get some reviews on this story. I don't know why I haven't been getting many, aside from the fact that many people may be turned off by the 'angst' category. (Personally, I love angst, but I'm a strange one.)

I'd love some feedback on anything: the storyline, my writing style, the fact that you aren't interested in this fic. ;) Whatever.

Happy new year, and I'll be updating Love at First Sight and Let me Let Go shortly into the year! (I promise...lol, I updated Beautiful tonight so there's one down!)

Mel