This story takes place when Monica and Chandler decide to take their relationship no further after sleeping together in London. We join them after Chandler has walked out after telling Monica he was going to unpack.
Monica watched as the door closed behind him. Why was this so hard? Meaningless sex; that was all she wanted, so why was she having these feelings? Its Chandler for gods sake; the same Chandler who called her fat at Thanksgiving all those years ago, the same Chandler who she laughed in the face of when he offered to be her boyfriend at the beach last year. My how the tables have turned, I bet he's not feeling like this.
Chandler closed the door behind him and stood still. Should he go back in? No! She doesn't want a relationship with him, that's clear for all to see. He can't be around her anymore though; how awkward would that be? There's only one thing for it.
"Hello children" said Chandler as he walked in from work.
"Hey, what's new?" inquired Joey.
"Well actually I've got some pretty important news which you lot may or may not be happy about." He replied apprehensively.
"Oh yeah what's that?"
"Well, you'd better sit down."
The rest of the gang joined him in the living room, nervous of what he was about to tell them.
"Well, thing is, I've been relocated to Columbia…permanently."
"What?" "Why?" "No!" were the replies that followed.
After an uncomfortable silence, allowing the news to sink in, Ross piped up.
"Are you gonna go?"
"I don't really have a choice. If I refuse to take the job I'll be fired and I'm not in the right frame of mind to be establishing a new career right now."
"Well when do you go?"
"Next week. They can't put it off any longer."
Monica, who had been unusually quiet finally found her voice.
"So, are you coming back…ever?"
"I honestly don't know, I could be back in months or I could be back never, it all depends on when they get sick of me and decide to send in a replacement."
After another extremely uncomfortable silence Chandler decided to end the conversation.
"Well, I'm gonna go start packing. I just wanna ask you lot one favour; whatever you do, please don't try and talk me out of this. I know it must be a shock and I'm sorry, but my mind's made up."
With that he left the room and went to his apartment.
"I can't believe he's leaving" said Monica, who now had tears streaming down her face. She felt like someone had just reached down her throat and ripped her heart right out. She'd recently realized that what she was feeling for Chandler after their night together wasn't just some meaningless crush, this was real and now he was leaving she wouldn't be able to act upon it. She got up and went into her bedroom before flopping down on her bed and sobbing uncontrollably. Of course, the other four thought nothing of this as they all knew how close her and Chandler were, hell they were close to breaking down themselves but they controlled it.
The week before Chandler went away was the worst week of both Monica and Chandler's lives. They both tried their best to ignore each other to stop themselves blurting out their feelings to each other, feelings that they thought weren't reciprocated, and finally the day of Chandler's departure arrived.
"You guys, I've just come to say goodbye, my cab's here."
"Oh right ok, well we'll come down with you," said Ross, making his way to the door.
"Actually, I'd prefer if we said our goodbyes up here, little less emotional."
Oh, alright then. Well bye man, we'll miss you," Ross embraced him, close to tears. "You're gonna call though aren't you?"
"Yeah buddy, course I will. Everyday."
Monica, who by then was in tears, was the last to say goodbye.
"Chandler, I just gotta know, are you leaving because of what happened between us?"
Chandler looked at her, surprised at being rumbled.
"No, of course not" he replied a little too quickly.
Monica, who noticed the uneasiness in his voice, looked up into his eyes.
"Really? Cos you said that a bit too quickly for my liking."
"Mon, look, why are you bringing this up now? Even if I am leaving because of you, nothing you say will make me change my mind."
Chandler tried to walk away but she pulled him back.
"What if I was to say that I want what happened in London to continue?"
Chandler looked at her as if to say "yeah right"
"Come on Mon, we both know that you don't mean that so just let me go."
"Chandler, I really like you, we could have something good together."
"No Monica, you're just saying that to get me to stay and as soon as we bring this up again you'll decide that you want us to be just friends and that it will be too uncomfortable. I can't stay here for a love which I know in the end will not be reciprocated. So, let me go."
With that, he walked away, leaving them both heartbroken. What they hadn't realized was that the rest of the gang had heard everything they had sad to each other and we now looking at Monica for an explanation.
"Bye guys," shouted Chandler from the car.
They all broke out of their daze and turned to say goodbye to Chandler. As he drove off in to the distance they turned back to Monica, their eyes demanding details as to what their two friends were talking about.
"Just leave it guys, I'm really not in the mood" Monica stated, as she made her way back to her apartment.
Over the next few days Monica was very subdued, she hadn't yet explained what had happened between herself and Chandler, and they were all getting quite agitated with her. Finally, she decided they deserved to know the truth.
"Guys, I know you all want to know what went on with me and Chandler so I'm just gonna come out and say it. We slept together in London."
On the shocked looks of her friends she decided to elaborate her story.
"When we got back we decided to just try and forget about it, but obviously Chandler couldn't, hence he left, and what you heard the other day was me finally facing up to the fact that I have feelings for Chandler."
After an extremely uncomfortable silence, Joey finally spoke.
"So, it's your fault he left."
"No, he left of his own accord, we agreed to take it no further and he couldn't handle that."
"Oh please Monica, we all know how he felt about you before London, you can't tell me that you thought about his feelings before you launched yourself at him."
"What do you mean, launch myself at him?"
"Oh come on, we know he would never start on you, he wouldn't let himself get into to that, he loves you too much to just have a one night stand, he obviously thought you wanted something more and then you turn round and use him just to ease your depression."
"Hey, why are you making out I'm in the wrong here, I didn't know he felt that way!"
"Really? So him offering to have a baby with you when you were 40 didn't give you an inkling? Or offering to be your boyfriend at the beach? Or just purely the fact that every time you broke up with a guy he was there for you? Eh?" With that he got up from the table and went back to his empty apartment, leaving Monica and the gang to muse upon what he had said.
"Did you guys know he felt that way about me?" asked Monica after a few minutes.
"Yeah" "He made it pretty obvious" and "Little bit" were the replies that came.
Monica couldn't take it. She got up and went into her bedroom and flopped down on the bed.