The Man in 12D.
A bad idea. This was a very, very bad idea. It was twenty steps backward. It was a hundred miles in the wrong direction. Chandler was sure of it. Returning home was the stupidest thing he had ever let Joey convince him to do. Since the first days of their friendship, Joey had spent a large portion of his time trying to convince Chandler to do something dumb, but it was always to no avail. Until now. Chandler just couldn't believe it. Of all the times to start letting Joey win arguments – why now?
He glanced over at Joey, who was passed out in the seat next to him. Joey had insisted on taking the window seat, and Chandler was now sure it was simply because he had wanted something to rest his head upon.
Drink followed drink for Chandler, and the flight attendants on the plane were beginning to worry about him. They gathered in the back and whispered together, all of them staring directly at Chandler. Of course, they didn't have much else to concentrate on. It was late night on a trans-Atlantic flight and most of the passengers were dead asleep. A petite, charming attendant named Amy was particularly worried about the depressed looking man in seat 12D. He obviously had problems, and the friend he was traveling with was too busy snoring to provide him any comfort.
Chandler reached up slowly, his coordination and movement somewhat distorted from the all the alcohol he had consumed. His finger pressed against the call button, and a small beep emitted from the speaker next to Amy. She didn't bother asking what he needed; she simply began to make another drink. After she fixed up his trusty Rum and Coke, she wrapped it in a napkin and brought it to him.
She began to speak before she was at his side, but she was sure to whisper. She didn't want to wake any of the other passengers. "Here you are, sir. A Rum and Coke, just for you, but I think this is going to be your last one, okay?" Her voice had somewhat of a southern twang to it, not enough to distract you, but just enough to charm you.
"The last one! Why?" Chandler really wasn't that upset about it. He had seen the drunks on television and movie airplanes throw quite a fit about it though, so he figured he could at least try to fit the cliché. "But I demand more drinks! It is my right. It is my privilege as a citizen of the United….Airlines…." Chandler sighed and smirked at the attendant. "The last one, yeah, that's fine. I don't care that much anyway."
Amy smiled at him. There was something somewhat charming about his drunken rambling. "You should try to get some sleep, sir."
"Are you kidding? Listen to this." He nodded toward Joey, who snored again right on cue. "Why do you think I'm drinking so much?"
She laughed lightly and nodded her head in understanding. "Well, originally I thought it was because you were some kind of emotional disaster area."
"Well, that too."
"Listen, there are some empty seats in the back, why don't you go back there and stretch out. I really think some sleep will do you some good." Her eyebrows jumped a little and hung over her eyes as she stared at him, waiting while he considered her proposition.
"Yeah, okay. That sounds good." He grabbed his drink and pushed his tray back up into place. "Now I just have to remember how to walk."
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"Has anyone discussed where he's going to stay?" Phoebe asked and then took a sip of her tea. Ross, Rachel, and she were sitting in their private office area at Central Perk, their new co-owned business. Monica was out in the kitchen, cooking away, so the three of them were taking the opportunity to discuss some issues that they normally couldn't - Chandler issues.
"No. I really don't want to bring it up with Monica. I thought she was a mess before, but she's been even worse since she found out he's coming back." Rachel leaned back against one of the large wooden desks, her arms folded across her chest. "She just doesn't know what to do with herself."
"But we can't just put Chandler in a hotel room," Ross said. "He's one of our best friends in the world; we haven't seen him in forever…I mean he's been in another country for god's sake! It's just not right." Ross shook his head in disbelief. "I mean I would love for him to stay with us, but with Phoebe so close to popping, it just wouldn't be comfortable for him. We're going to be on high alert for the next two weeks."
"I guess he can stay at my place with Joey, but that's really going to get in the way of our alone time." Rachel paused and thought it over. "Joey's going to be really upset about that."
They all knew what the obvious solution was, but they just didn't want to say it. Monica had a guest room, free, clean, and ready for use, but none of them had the heart to bring it up. It wasn't a suggestion any of them were capable of giving to Monica. Besides, Chandler wouldn't be too happy about it either.
"No, that's just not right," Phoebe complained. "You and Joey deserve this time together, and Chandler isn't going to get in the way of that. I'm sure he wouldn't want to anyway. I'll ask Monica about the guest room, and if she says no, then he'll stay at a hotel. There's nothing we can do about it." She looked back and forth between Ross and Rachel. "It sucks, I know. But there's just nothing we can do about it."
"What if she says yes, but then Chandler says no?" Rachel couldn't help but ask. After seeing the look in Chandler's eyes the day he and Joey flew to Italy, she just couldn't picture him being okay with staying in the guest bedroom of the apartment that used to be their home.
Phoebe shrugged her shoulders, "Then he stays in a hotel."
"Yeah, I bet Monica would take that well." Ross hated everything about the situation. At first it had been ideal – his sister and his best friend. What better guy could he want for his little sister? But now things had gone to hell in a hand basket and everything had become much harder. Now, his sister and his best friend couldn't be in the same room. Their names could not be mentioned to one another, and more recently, the two of them couldn't be in the same country.
They stood in silence for a few contemplative moments before Monica walked in, her white chef outfit stained with random things ranging from burn marks to condiments. "Hey guys." Monica, always alert, quickly picked up on the rather depressing vibe inside their office. "What's going on?" But she knew what was going on. They were talking about her and Chandler; she had no doubt about it. It was a feeling she had gotten many times since their divorce. She knew that while it was excruciating for her and Chandler to go through, it was very painful for their four best friends to go through as well.
Phoebe decided it was now or never – she had to ask. Joey and Chandler were arriving at Kennedy in less than a day and some plans were going to need to be made. "Monica, we need to know whether or not Chandler can stay in your guest room while he and Joey are here, because if he can't, we need to look into finding him a hotel room." Rachel and Ross looked on in semi-shock. They hadn't expected Phoebe to bring it up to Monica so soon…or with them in the room.
Monica had been thinking about it a lot lately, and she had decided that if she was going to attempt to repair some of the damage she had done, then proximity would help. After agonizing over it for days and days, she had decided the night before that if he wanted to; Chandler could stay in her apartment. "Yeah…well, if it's okay with Chandler then its okay with me."
Monica had no desire to discuss it beyond that, so she quickly snatched up a pen from the desk, which is what she had come to retrieve in the first place, and exited the room. She walked back to her chef station and began signing her signature on the bottom of some order forms. It was all out of her hands now, she knew that. The ball was in his court, and he was going to have to decide whether or not he could handle living in the same quarters as her. She hoped and prayed that he would say yes, but she was almost certain that he would say no.
It was not the answer they were expecting. Before she answered, not Ross, nor Rachel, nor Phoebe could fathom Monica actually allowing Chandler to stay there, it was just something that they felt they had to ask. While they were all joyous to see that Monica was taking a positive step forward, they were all left with one terrifying realization – one of them was going to have to ask Chandler.
They glanced back and forth at each other, each of them trying to come up with a fair and simple way to decide which one of them was going to be the poor soul that had to bring this up to Chandler. None of them wanted the job. As curious as they were about Monica and Chandler's relationship, it had become quite clear over the last few months that it was something they just shouldn't talk about.
"There has to be some kind of fair way to decide this," Ross ran a hand through his hair and continued to think.
Then, a light bulb flashed over someone's head as the idea arrived with full force. A hand shot up as two words echoed throughout their small little office area. "Not it!"
"Not it!"
"Damn it!" The two winners stared at the one loser, whose face was flooded with frustration. "This sucks…'
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Joey awoke with a gasp. He had been having a nightmare, the same one he had been having for quite sometime. In the dream, he is tired and sweating, carrying a bag on his back and another two in his hands. He climbs hundreds of flights of stairs until he reaches a golden door with big black letters on it reading, "Rachel's Apartment." A smile comes over his face as he pushes the door open, but as he does so; his girlfriend's apartment does not come into view. Instead, the room is nothing but black, with a large bed in the middle of it. Rachel is lying on the bed, completely naked, with her arms wrapped around a person whose face he cannot see. She hears him come in, and looks up. "Oh, I'm sorry Joey, but I just got tired of waiting." She shrugs. "Can you be sure to shut the door on your way out?"
It was a haunting nightmare that had been plaguing him since shortly after he and Chandler arrived in Italy. It wouldn't go away, no matter what he did. He was about to turn to Chandler for some words of comfort, when he realized his best friend wasn't sitting beside him. Joey sat up a little straighter in his seat and began to glance around the darkened plane for his friend.
On the first sweep, his eyes found nothing, but on the second trip he spotted Chandler in the back of the plane, smiling and talking with a girl who Joey remember as a flight attendant. It immediately struck Joey as strange and extremely uncommon, but yet he was fascinated by it. Just the way Chandler looked captured his curiosity. He looked different. He looked refreshed. He looked…happy.
Joey couldn't believe his eyes. Chandler Bing was talking to another woman, and he actually looked happy. And as if that wasn't crazy enough, the girl looked happy, too,