Gone for the Moment - Chapter Three

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3 days later...

Chandler sat alone in his new, yet old, room, staring blankly at the wall. Everybody was over at Monica's, saying good-bye. Chandler had said good-bye to his son before any of them had gotten there, and said nothing to Monica.

She wanted a divorce, that was obvious, and she had asked him to deal with the papers, of all people. She was too busy with the move and new job to find a divorce lawyer in Minneapolis.

Chandler flopped back on his bed and stared at the ceiling. His breathing was eratic from his attempts to keep from crying and his head was about to explode from the pressure.

He slammed his eyes shut and sucked in a deep breath, trying to will away the pain in his heart.

Outside his door, Joey knocked lightly. "Chandler?"

Chandler opened his eyes and sat back up. "Yea?" He called through the door.

Joey opened the door and wearily leaned against the frame. "She's gone."

Chandler hung his head and pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes.

"I'm was gonna go down to the coffee house with everybody, you want to come?"

Chandler shook his head and laid back down.

"You want me to bring something back?"

"No." He whispered.

"Ok. Well, I should be back in about an hour." Joey quietly retreated from the door and exited the apartment.

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3 weeks later...

Rachel, Phoebe, and Ross all walked into Joey and Chandler's apartment. "Hey guys!" Joey looked up from his bowl of cereal once they were all in. "What's up?"

"Well, we were gonna see if you guys wanted to go get some breakfast, but I guess you beat us to it." Ross smiled and motioned toward Joey's bowl.

"Oh, yea. I don't think Chandler would want to go anyway." Joey said before stuffing another spoonful of creal into his mouth.

"Where is he? We never see much of him anymore." Rachel asked, taking a quick glance around the apartment.

"He's in his room, he doesn't come out much."

"Well that's not healthy." Ross stated.

Joey just looked up at him. "Duh. I've tried to get him to come out and go do stuff with me, but he just...lays there and says he's not in the mood."

Phoebe nodded her head and began walking toward Chandler's room.

"Phoebe, where are you going? He's sleeping." Joey sprang out of his chair and ran to block the door from Phoebe's path.

"He always sleeps. He never eats, he never interacts with people, he never does anything. I think it's time he starts moving on. It's been three weeks. He's going to forget how to live!" She agressively pushed Joey out of the way and burst into Chandler's room.

He was sprawled out over his bed, only half of his body was covered by the twisted mass of fabric. Several alcohol bottles were scattered around the room, along with empty cigarette packs, and a full ashtray on his nightstand.

Phoebe shook her head in sympathy, she knew things were going to be bad, but from the looks of it, she knew they were only going to get worse. She crawled across the bed and shook Chandler gently.

"Chandler?" She asked, rather loudly.

He mumbled something and swatted at her hand.

"Chandler, come on, you gotta get out of bed!" Phoebe got off the bed, pulling off all the blankets with her. "Come on! Up!"

"Phoebe, please, I don't feel like doing anything right now." Chandler lifted his head up and looked at her.

"And when will you ever? You can't keep doing this!"

"Sure I can, in fact, it's going rather well. I've been laying here for three weeks and this is the first time that you've come to annoy me."

"Ah! That was somewhat sarcasm, we're progressing!"

"No, we're not. Now if you don't mind..." Chandler waved his hand toward the open door.

"No! I'm not leaving. You're getting out of bed, you're getting dressed, and we're going to go out to lunch, all of us."

"All of us? Are you trying to tell me Monica's back?"

"Chandler! If you don't get out of bed right now, I will tear your head off and spike it onto the floor of a nightmare you can't even begin to imagine!"

Chandler stared at her in shock, too afraid to move for fear that she actually would tear his head off.

Phoebe dropped her head in defeat before crawling up on the bed next to him. "I'm sorry, Chandler. I didn't mean to yell at you." She reached his head and turned around to lean against the headboard. She looked down at him and stroked his hair back. "You just need to realise that she's not coming back. I hate seeing you go through this and I hate Monica for doing this to you, but you have to move on. It doesn't mean that you have to forget everything you had, but you have to carry on with what you've been left with. We're all here for you if you need something, and please come talk to us if you do. We're going to help you through this."

"You lost her too, you know." He whispered lightly and looked away from her.

"We lost a friend, you lost a family. But hey, it could be worse. They could have died, then you would never get to see them again."

Chandler stared up at her in silence.

"I don't want them to die! I'm just saying it would be worse if they did. Now come on, I'm hungry. We're leaving in 20 minutes." Phoebe left the room before further protest could be made from Chandler.

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"Chandler, we're sorry! We had no idea it was you guys'...place." Joey pleaded, almost jogging into the apartment to keep up with Chandler.

"It's not your fault. You guys didn't know. It's just..."

"What?" Rachel asked softly, taking a few steps closer to him.

"It's just that everything either reminds me of her, or Jake! That light switch, how when she couldn't figure out what it did." Chandler said, pointing at the object on the wall. "The bath tub, crossword puzzles, this whole apartment, everything. It's like I can't get away from them when all I want is to be with them, but it's the one thing that I can't have!" He rubbed his forehead and paced the living room hurridly.

"Chandler, that's perfectly normal!" Phoebe said.

"Perfect? Normal? What's perfect about it? Who is it normal for? My heart has never hurt this much before, I've never missed two people more than I do now, and that is not normal." Chandler threw his arms in the air and dropped them back down to his sides in defeat.

When nobody said anything, he sadly shook his head and recoiled to his room, his hiding place from the world.

"We gotta do something about this." Joey said, sitting down on one of the barstools. "There's gotta be someway we can help him."

"I wonder how Monica's doing. Has she called any of you?" Phoebe asked, looking to each person for an answer.

They each shook their heads, one after the other.

"Do you think he needs...professional help?" Ross asked quietly as if saying it would label Chandler as doomed.

"I don't know. I'd like to think that there isn't anything that we couldn't help one of our best friends through, but nobody has ever dealt with this before. Nobody knows how to handle this." Rachel replied and leaned against the wall by the bathroom.

Ross looked down at his watch, checking the time, and stood up abrubtly when he noticed just how late it was getting. "Whoa, sorry guys. I've gotta get back to work. We'll...talk about this tonight." He weakly waved a good-bye and walked out the door.

Phoebe and Rachel were quick to follow behind and Joey retreated to his room to do nothing but stare up at his ceiling.

Chandler heard the voices stop and Joey's door slam, indicating that they were alone in the apartment. He rolled over on his side and burried his head in his pillows. Did Monica know what she did? How she took his heart to Minneapolis with her and broke it. Did she know how she stole his whole life away in just three days?

He rolled over to his other side and reached down to grab a notebook and pencil from his nightstand.

He popped the cap off the pen, opened the notebook, and let his heart run wild.

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to be continued...

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Well, I'd just like to say thanks to the whole...six people..that are reading this. Please, if you read it, review it! It's going to get better, I can promise you that. That drama is coming! But it wont come until I get some more feedback! Thanks for reading, you know what to do now!