I don't really have much to say this time. Just thank you all for the reviews. Keep them coming. You guys are the best. :-D

Oh, and how FAST did I write this part. Huh?

Ok, now on with the story.

DISCLAIMER: The characters are not mine.

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On the way to the hospital Rachel groaned with pain every half minute and just mumbled incoherently in response to Chandler's anxious questions. He was getting more worried with every mile they got nearer to their destination. And just when the driver said it would only take another couple of minutes Rachel's water broke.

"Oh god. Her water broke. Her water broke!" Chandler screamed. He had Rachel's head in his lap und was stroking her hair in an attempt to reassure her as much as trying to calm himself down.

But his cool was forgotten by the time he discovered that her water had broken. And then he was terrified to his core when he saw the liquid soaking through Rachel's white skirt.

"Oh dear god." He murmured. "There is blood. She is bleeding…down there. Drive faster, man. She needs a doctor. Right now!" Chandler shouted to the cabbie and turned his attention back to Rachel who lay motionless in his arms by now.

"Rachel? Rach?!" He tried to reach her through her anguish. "You can't go to sleep now, hun. You don't want to miss the birth of your little baby girl now, do you?"

Rachel's eyes flattered a few times before they opened to small slits, staring scared up at Chandler's tear brimmed eyes.

"This is my punishment, Chandler." She whispered barely audible. She took a shaky breath as Chandler shook his head. "Please…just save my baby…I know I deserve to die, but…" Rachel stopped when a new wave of cramps shot through her abdomen.

"Rachel, don't say things like that. You don't deserve to die." Chandler was frightened by the direction Rachel's thoughts took. Sure, she had hurt him and all the others. But he had never wanted anything to happen to her. "Maybe a little suffering…" He tried to joke. Rachel gave a slight chuckle.

"No." She replied surprisingly firm. "No, I deserve this. What I did was…"

"Rachel. Listen to me." Chandler interrupted her. "What you did was wrong. We both know that. But you are a good person. You were my friend for a long time." Chandler grasped just how true that was. In all the years he had known her she had always been a good friend. "You made a mistake. But you didn't know that your action would trigger all the mess that followed." Chandler reasoned. And then he surprised them both with his next sentence. "I don't blame you."

Rachel was shocked by that and forgot her pain for a moment. "But what I did, it destroyed the group and it made Monica and you file for divorce." She whispered.

"Yeah, that's right. But I just realized I don't blame you for that. Not anymore at least." Chandler said and took one of her hands in his own hand. "When you think about it, we all reacted wrong to the situation. The others believed the lie without questioning it and I was so hurt by that, so I didn't really try to make them see the truth. I did what I'm best at. I ran." Chandler saw the whole situation for the first time objectively. And it made him realize something. "I'm tired. I'm tired of running. My dad told me a little while ago that I should give people a chance to get to know me." Rachel gave him a confused look from her position on his knees. "I realize that you already know me. What I'm trying to say is…I want to give you a second chance. So after you gave birth to your little girl we sit down and talk. What do you say?" He asked, giving Rachel's hand a squeeze.

"Oh Chandler…" Rachel didn't know what to say. Tears of relief mixed with her tears of pain. "I can't believe you mean that." Rachel closed her eyes, again trying to breath through her pain.

"There's the hospital." The driver pointed his finger to a building right in front of them. He drove over to the emergency room entrance and shut off the engine.

"Rach, we are at the hospital. Can you get up?" Chandler asked her. But he didn't get a response. "Rachel?" He repeated. "Rachel, wake up!" Chandler turned his head when the cabbie opened the door beside him. "She doesn't wake up. Please, go in there and get someone."

The man turned on his heels and sprinted through the glass doors. He almost ran into them because they didn't open fast enough.

A few seconds later he came back with a few people wearing blue scrubs in tow.

"What do we have here?" A doctor in his late forties asked after he reached the open cap door.

"She is pregnant and…and she fell onto the sidewalk." Chandler replied.

"Do you know in which month she is? And did her water break?" The doctor questioned.

"I…I don't know." Chandler tried to calculate the right answer. "She has to be somewhere in her eighth month. But I'm not sure. And her water broke a few minutes ago. But…she is bleeding, doctor. It's soaking through her skirt. And now I can't get her to wake up." Chandler added while climbing out of the car. He noticed the worried glance the doctor exchanged with a nurse beside him and got even more nervous. "Doctor?" He asked in a worried voice.

"Ok, now get out of the way and let us do our job." The nurse took him by the arm and led him a few steps away from the car. He watched over her head how two orderlies leaned into the door and pulled Rachel carefully out of the car to put her onto a gurney. Then it all happened really fast. The group of medics rushed Rachel into the building and pushed her over to some doors. Chandler followed closely behind and took a place beside Rachel's head after they transferred her onto a bigger gurney.

He held one of her hands again and stroked her hair with his other one. He couldn't take his eyes of the professional rush with that the doctors and nurses worked on Rachel.

"Ok, she is hemorrhaging, so we need to get the baby out of her and stop the bleeding." One doctor said to Chandler. "And we have to get her to an OR soon if we don't want to make an emergency c-section right here. Why don't you wait outside and I let you know what's going on?"

"No." Chandler said so forcefully that the other people in the room stopped what they were doing for a moment. "I promised her that I would stay with her. And I'll not break that promise."

"Ok." The doctor replied after a moment. "You can come with her into the OR. But you have to get into some sterile clothes. Why don't you go with a sister and get them while we prepare your wife for the surgery?"

"Ok." Was all Chandler said before he followed a nurse outside. He didn't even acknowledge the fact that they thought he was Rachel's husband. He was still in shock about what was happening.

After he got cleaned up and clad in scrubs he was brought up to an OR. Before he went in there he turned to the nurse and asked her to call Ross. Then he pushed the door open and entered the room. Once in there he immediately rushed to a place beside Rachel's head. The medical team had obviously not waited for his appearance to begin because short after his arrival they introduced Rachel's little daughter to the world. Chandler had tears running down his face after he caught a glimpse of the small, blood smeared newborn. By the noise she was making with her crying it was pretty clear the she was going to be ok.

Chandler returned his concentration on Rachel once again. He hoped that his friend would make it to see her sweet baby, and to work things out between them. All his feelings from before and his fears seemed ridiculous now. There were more important things in live. And as clichéd as it may seem, life was just too short to waste. All these and more thoughts ran through Chandler's head as he watched the doctors frenetically trying to save Rachel.

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Ok, I hope you enjoyed this part. It has gotten longer then I intended it to be. So I didn't come to the point I wanted to reach. As someone put it: "get Monica and Chandler in the same room". That's my goal for the next chapter. ;) But...I don't promise anything.

Now if you leave a review I try to write the next part as fast as this one. Oh, and I go to an Eminem concert today, so if you never hear from me again that probably means I didn't make it out of the stadium. ;)