Gone for the Moment - chapter five
By the way, Ross and Rachel are together, not married, but dating.
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Joey strolled into the apartment, snapping his fingers and humming his rendition of Bright Sun Shiny Day. After finally getting Chandler to talk and then having a fantastic date with a girl he was actually starting to see a future with, life was finally starting to look up. Ever since Monica left everybody had been out of step with each other and too busy to find time to talk and catch up. It seemed like she actually was the glue that held the group together.
Joey tossed his keys down on the counter and began to head to his room, but stopped when a small pool of red spilling out from under Chandler's door caught his eye. A wave of panic rose in him and he dashed across the apartment. He tried opening the door but only got it a few inches, something was in the way.
"Chandler!" he shouted and slapped his hand on the door. "Chandler, come on!" he leaned more weight into the door and got it open just far enough so he could slip in.
"Oh my God," he said, barely audibly, and ran back out of the room as quickly as possible to grab the phone, almost diving across the living room in a desperate attempt to reach it.
After hanging up with 911 he hastily called Ross and told him to get over to their place as quickly as possible. He didn't even stop to disconnect the call, he threw the phone down and ran back into Chandler's room.
Gently, he kneeled down on the ground next to him as tears started pooling in his eyes and bluring his world.
"Please, Chandler, not here, not now. Please don't die," he said as strongly as his voice would will.
A few minutes later Ross burst into the apartment with Phoebe and Rachel in tow. "Joey?" he called out and began frantically searching the place.
"Joey!" he shouted, poking his head around Chandler's bedroom door. "Chandler!"
Joey had Chandler's upper body cradeled in his arms as he rocked back and forth, whispering "it's going to be okay" over and over again.
Ross stared down at the two of them and only turned away when he heard a thud in the living rom. Rachel had fainted and Phoebe sprung to action, half pulling half carrying her to the couch.
Ross snapped out of his daze and leaned all of his weight into Chandler's door, pushing both Joey and Chandler out of the way. "Joey, come on, we have to get him out into the living room."
Joey suddenly shot off the floor and to the other side of Chandler's room, slowly backing away from the blood covered body on the floor as if he had just realized something.
"Joe?" Ross asked, but Joey seemed to have gone into a trance with his eyes transfixed on Chandler.
Ross turned away from him and grabbed onto the shoulders of Chandler's shirt and began dragging him out of the room.
When Rachel came to, she wearily sat up on the couch and prayed that the scene she had walked in on was all just a horrible dream. Looking over the apartment, she realized it coudn't have been more true. Phoebe was standing in Chandler's room trying to comfort Joey who was knelt on the floor, choked in sobs. Ross was standing over an unconcious Chandler, with a leg on each side of him, clapping in front of his face and yelling at him in an attempt to get him to wake up.
Just then, two paramdedics came rushing into the apartment carrying a stretcher. They checked some things on Chandler, got him strapped down on the stretcher, and hauled him away with Ross trailing behind to ride along in the ambulance.
Rachel slowly got off the couch and wandered into Chandler's room. "They took him to the hospital," she announced. "Ross went with, do you guys want to head down there?"
Joey lifted himself off the floor and sat on the edge of the bed. His eyes were red from crying and his face was still pale from the shock of everything.
"Joey?" Phoebe asked, bending down to try and look him in the eye. He paused for a few seconds before nodding his head and standing up. He pushed his way past them and out of the room, careful to step over the giant blood stain on the floor, and grabbed his keys.
"Hey, wait for us!" Phoebe called after him as she and Rachel rand to catch up.
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They all jogged into the ER and past the receptionist, who was about ready to take off after them, when they spotted Ross sitting in a chair a ways down the hallway.
"Ross!" Rachel called, running up to him and wrapping her arms around his chest.
"Have they told you anything?" Phoebe asked.
"No, they haven't. They just ran him right into that room and they haven't come out yet," he explained, wrapping his arms tighter around Rachel.
Joey hopelessly plopped down in a chair and stuffed his hands in his coat pockets, letting out a shaky breath.
Phoebe glanced back at Joey and then turned to Ross again. "Do you think we should call Monica?"
"I don't know if Chandler would want us to, but I think we have to. They are still married and he is the father of their child." Ross said, looking at the doors that Chandler was behind.
"I'll go call her," Rachel said, unwillingly pulling away from Ross and heading back down the hallway to find a pay phone.
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Rachel nervously clutched the phone in her shaking hand and tapped her foot against the floor impaciently. "Come on, Mon, pick up the phone," she whispered, looking at the clock on the wall and glancing around the bustling emergency room.
"Hello?" Monica's voice answered on the other end of the line.
"Monica, hey, it's Rachel."
Rachel! Hey! Sorry I haven't called you guys, I've just been so busy with unpacking, getting settled in, work, and Jake, I don't have much freetime."
"Yea, that's okay, I understand. Um, listen..I'm at the hospital"
"The hospital? Oh my god, are you okay?" Monica cut in.
"Yea, yea, I'm fine. But...it's..um...it's Chandler." Rachel stuttered, just wanting to get off the phone and back into Ross's arms.
"Chandler? Wha...what happened? Is he alright?" Monica asked quietly with an unrecognizable tone of voice.
"Mon, he wouldn't be here if he was alright. I think you should come to New York, I don't want to explain everything over the phone."
"Okay, I'll get there as soon as I can. How bad is it, Rach?"
"We don't know yet, just..get here fast."
"I'm on my way. I'll see you soon."
Rachel hung up the phone, shaking even more than she was before, and slowly walked back down the hallway.
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to be continued...
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Thanks for reading! This chapter was a little longer than the last one, it could have been longer but I wanted to get this up and it seemed like a good place to stop. Let me know what you think! Please review!
