Chapter 2

Wow! Six reviews in one day! Is very flattered Thanks everyone!

rachgreengeller: Thanks for reviewing every one of my Friends stories! Also thanks for the compliments (and I will get around to "TOW the Kids Take a Road Trip" eventually)!

Exintaris: Wow, thanks for the long review! You're right, they should have done something like this on the show. I am making this story very much like an episode – it's going to be pretty short, and even has three plot lines (I guess I should have titled this with "TOW" in it. Ah well, I like this one). I am going to have a scene where Monica confronts her mother (plot A), but it's going to go a little different than you might think.

Also many thanks to LucyGoose and Jayne Leigh, Melanie Geller (glad you like the title!), and DrKerryWeaver!


"You know what's really bothering me?" Chandler asked. It was getting late – almost ten at night. He knew he should be back in his apartment, but he had to talk to Joey about something first.

"What, that you keep talking when Baywatch is on?" Joey asked, irritated. "'cause it's annoying me."

"No…" Chandler responded, ignoring his best friend's tone. "It's this whole Monica thing."

Realizing he wasn't going to get to finish watching his favorite show in peace, he groaned as he unwillingly turned the TV off. Then, he turned the recliner around to face Chandler and leaned forward. "Chandler, there's nothing you can do about it."

"Why not?"

"Because this is a problem that has been around before you had even met Monica. How are you supposed to fix a problem that you don't even know the root of?" Joey smirked as Chandler stared at him, astonished.

Chandler's face changed to one of comprehension. "You've been watching Dr. Phil again, haven't you?"

"Well, yeah, but he's right," Joey said firmly, "Monica and Mrs. Geller have to work this out on their own. You getting in the middle of it will probably only make things worse."

"I don't think it can get any worse," Chandler replied. "If that's the case, the only way this can go is up, right?"

"Right," Joey agreed dryly. "Or, Monica can get so mad at you that she never talks to you again."

"Oh, come on, you don't think that that would really happen…" Chandler paused. He then shook his head. "No, I need to do something."

"Why? It's none of your business."

"Yes, it is. We're going to have a kid eventually. It has to have at least one normal grandmother," Chandler argued.

"Alright, you know what, fine." Joey threw up his hands in frustration. "You do what you gotta do. Meanwhile, I will do what I have to do." When Chandler looked at him, puzzled, Joey swiveled his chair around and turned the TV back on. Baywatch was now showing the credits. "Damn it!"

Chuckling to himself, Chandler got up and took the phone off its receiver. Hearing the noise, Joey asked, out of pure curiosity, "What are you doing?"

"Calling Mrs. Geller," Chandler responded innocently.

"You're digging your own grave, man. Hang up while you still can." Joey pleaded. At first torn between watching the next episode of Baywatch that was coming on and helping his friend. Joey again ruefully switched off the TV and turned around.

"No, I'm going to settle this once and for all," Chandler said as he heard the rings through the phone.

Despite the situation, Joey asked, "You know your mother-in-law's phone number by heart?"

"We have caller id. She calls a lot," Chandler explained quickly. He shushed Joey as the line was picked up on the other end. "Hello, Mom?"

"Who is this?" There was a pause, then Mrs. Geller's groggy voice asked, "Chandler? Do you realize what time it is?"

"I know, I know, and I am sorry, but this is urgent. You see, ah," Chandler stopped a minute. I did not think this through. "We're having a little, um, Mother's Day get together at our apartment. Yeah, Joey's, Rachel's and Phoebe's mom will be there too." He ignored Joey, who was frantically mock-slashing his throat, trying to get Chandler to stop talking. "It would be great if you could come, too.

Silence came through the other line. Then, "Monica didn't tell me about this." She was perceptibly hurt.

"In all fairness, Ross didn't tell you about it either," Chandler bravely pointed out. "But Monica doesn't know about it."

"Isn't she cooking for it?"

"Uh…" Chandler stammered. "No, we're, um, getting a caterer. Since you never seem to like her cooking."

"What? That's ridiculous. She's an excellent cook. Of course, I could never tell her that." He could tell she had rolled her eyes as she said that.

"Why not?" Chandler asked, greatly surprised.

"If I did, she would just be satisfied by what she makes. She should strive to achieve perfection," Judy said, as if it should be obvious. "But I guess I won't be able to taste her food tomorrow."

"Oh, no, what I meant was that we're only partially ordering from a caterer. Most of the food will be made by Monica." He could see Joey shaking his head, knowing what trouble Chandler was going to be in.

"But you said that Monica didn't know about this."

Chandler wanted to shoot himself. "I, uh…meant that she didn't know that you didn't know about it." He saw Joey give him a thumbs up sign. Smooth. "Yeah, she told Ross to invite you so she could spend more time preparing everything else."

"Oh," Judy said, confused. "I'll have to give him a call after we finish talking."

Chandler tried to keep in his laughter. "Yes, you will. So I will see you tomorrow at around…five?"

"Five? That's a little late for a 'Mother's Day get together,' isn't it?"

"Yeah, well, I wanted this to be different." In reality, he wanted to give Monica more time to cook. "Now you can have some of Monica's newest dinner entrees." Chandler sighed. This was getting better and better.

"Alright, then. See you tomorrow." He could hear the click on the other end. She had hung up.

Glad it was over, Chandler replaced the phone on the receiver. He muttered under his breath, "If I live to see tomorrow."

"You are in so much trouble, dude," Joey laughed.

"Not if you help me," Chandler told him, a smile on his face.

Joey sighed, not really wanting to get involved. "Alright, I will. Just promise me one thing."

"What?"

Joey smiled. "I get to be there when you tell Monica about this."


The clock now read 12:00 AM. Joey and Chandler sat opposite each other, Chandler on the couch and Joey still on his recliner. "Yeah, and we would really like you to come." Joey was currently talking to Mrs. Green. Rachel was going to kill him.

A few minutes passed, then he turned the phone off. "Ok, that's the last of 'em."

"She's coming?" Chandler asked. When Joey nodded his head, Chandler crossed her name off the list he held in his hand. "I can't believe all our moms are able to come. Even mine."

"They were probably waiting for us to call them with plans for the day," Joey inferred. "Although I am surprised your mother was free."

"Yeah, apparently she was in New York anyway and didn't have any book signings tomorrow," Chandler explained. "The worst part was that she didn't even bother to tell me that she was here."

"Dude, we got way more important things to worry about. Like how we're going to tell the guys that their moms are coming." Joey said.

"Oh God I forgot about them," Chandler exclaimed, "What are we going to do?"

"Hey, this was your idea," Joey responded. "Don't expect me to think of everything."

"Yes, 'cause we all know that would be impossible!" Chandler retorted testily. He couldn't help it – he was tired and couldn't wait for this to be over. Sighing heavily, he rubbed his face with his hands and said, "Alright, alright. We'll tell everyone at the coffee house tomorrow morning."

"How about you tell Monica now?" The guys froze, then slowly turned to the front door. Monica was standing in the doorway, arms folded across her chest, dressed in her robe, pajamas, and fuzzy slippers. She looked very angry – probably since Chandler hadn't come home yet. "Because whatever it is, not telling me now won't make it any better."

Joey suddenly got up from his recliner for the first time in a few hours. "You know what, I think I'm going to bed. Monica, see you tomorrow. Chandler, it was nice knowing ya." Forgetting the request he made earlier, Joey practically ran to his bedroom and shut the door behind him.

Monica stared at the spot where Joey had been, even more worried and confused than before. "Ok, Chandler, what's going on?"

"Ok, well, before I tell you this, you have to promise not to yell at me before I finish."

"Chandler, that is never a good way to begin an important conversation." Monica sat down across from him on Joey's recliner. "But, alright, I promise."

"Good." Chandler sighed, and started, "Now, don't be mad, but…I invited your mother over for dinner tomorrow."

Monica stared at him a second, then burst out laughing. "Wow, you really had me going there for a minute. Come on, what's the real bad news?"

Chandler groaned. "No, really, that's it."

Monica abruptly stopped laughing and smacked him upside the head. Then she shouted, "Why would you do such a thing! Do you not remember that conversation I had with Ross?"

"I know, but, " Chandler rubbed his head. He thought he felt a bump. "It really bothered me that you and your mother don't get along. I thought maybe you guys could talk things through."

Monica's expression softened, but not completely. "Chandler, that's sweet, but a whole evening alone with my mother? Are you nuts?"

Chandler attempted to smile. "See, I figured that, so I invited everyone else's mom too. They all should be here around six tomorrow night. But your mother will be here at five. That way, you can talk to her before they get here. If things don't go well, you can avoid her the rest of the night."

At that, Monica sat there, amazed at her husband's stupidity. Not able to contain herself, she smacked him on his arm more than a few times. "I. Cannot. Believe. You. Did. This! Now I have to get ready for an entire part by tomorrow night! You know it takes me a week to get ready for company! How am I supposed to set up an entire party in less that twenty-four hours?" She calmed down, then thought aloud, "Well, maybe it won't be so bad. I could always hire a caterer for the food."

Chandler's face blanched. "Uh, about that…"

"Oh, no…"

"Yeah, well, your mother told me how much she liked your cooking, so I told her that you were preparing most of the food…"

"You IDIOT!" With that, she smacked him again a few times, a little harder than before. Composing herself, she stood up, and stomped to the door. "I am going to go to bed, since I have to wake up early tomorrow. And, as I am going to lock up, I suggest you get comfy on that couch." She then stormed out of the apartment and slammed the door behind her.

Upon hearing the door bang shut, Joey poked his head out of his room, "So…?"

Massaging his hurting arms, Chandler replied honestly, "I think it went well."


"Morning, Ross," Chandler mumbled as he stretched and rolled off the couch. Then he did a double take. "Ross? What are you doing here?"

"Making breakfast." It was true. Ross had an apron on, and was at the moment using a spatula to cook the sausage that was in the frying pan. Another pan held simmering scrambled eggs, and bread was in the toaster.

"I see that." Chandler ambled over to a stool at the island and sat down. "I meant why are you making breakfast. In our kitchen." Just noticing the delicious-looking bacon, he added, "Not that I'm not grateful."

"I'm doing what you guys said I should do. This is part one of 'Rachel's Special Mother's Day Surprise,'" Ross informed as he slid the bacon onto a waiting plate. "And since when did this become 'our kitchen'?"

"Since Monica kicked me out last night, as you can tell by the me-shaped indent on the couch," Chandler answered bitterly. Of course, there was also the twisted comforter and mashed-in pillow.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that I got a certain call last night," Ross told him, not without annoyance. "I wasn't exactly sure what she was yelling at me for, seeing as it was around eleven when she called, but it was concerning a Mother's Day dinner? I would guess that that also has to do with you and Joey having a sleep over."

"Right…I need to tell you something."

"You don't say."

"Well, you see, I kind of, arranged a little dinner for all our moms. It was very short notice." That's the understatement of the year, Chandler thought.

"Uh huh. And I take it my sister didn't like that very much."

"The reasoning behind this is that, if I force Monica to spend time with her mom, they'll talk out all of their problems."

Ross shook his head, full of pity. "Mon and Mom have spent plenty of time alone together. The only thing that happened is that by the time it ended, they wanted to kill each other even more than when it started. It's never going to work. Face it – Monica and Mom will never be the ideal mother and daughter."

"Says you," Chandler said defiantly. "But if I time this correctly, Monica and Mrs. Geller will be just like Lorelei and Rory Gilmore by the end of the night."

"You watch 'Gilmore Girls'?"

"It was on before 'Full House'. Which is not much better," Chandler mentally smacked himself for the millionth time that weekend. "I'm sorry, but can I help it if Michelle is so darn cute?"

Pretending he didn't just hear that, Ross asked, "Ok, you wanna bet on it?"

"On what?"

"Twenty bucks says that Monica and Mom are exactly the same by the time everyone goes home tonight," Ross offered.

"You're on."

"On for what?" Chandler and Ross turned their heads. Phoebe was standing in the front doorway. She was clearly a morning person. Her hair was done, her outfit matched, and she had an upbeat, but curious, look on her face.

Chandler stared at her, frustrated. "Can't two guys talk without being interrupted anymore?"


A/N: Yes, I know this story is slow moving, and yes, Rachel hasn't shown up yet. But you have to remember, this entire story is taking place in just one weekend, so I can't speed it up too much. As for Rachel, well, the next chapter will explain where she was last night. Oh, and yes, I now realize this story will most likely be five chapters in total. I can't write a short story to save my life.