When his beeper went off, Chandler groaned and tried to shut out the insistent noise by pulling the covers over his head. Then he realized that they weren't his covers and that he wasn't in his bed and furthermore that he wasn't alone. The last finally made him roll over, lean out of bed and grope for his pants to shut off the insistent signal, almost tumbling out of the unfamiliar bed in the process. When Monica stirred and shifted, turning her head to him he froze, still leaning halfway out of the bed.

"Mmh – huh?"

"Shshsh. It's okay. Just me. You know …" He sat up and clutched the covers to him. Monica screwed up her face and opened her eyes about halfway, then she started violently and grabbed at the bedclothes.

"Huh? What – oh! Oh. Oh my."

"Yeah … I know." He held up the beeper. "Sorry, Joey beeped me. I should have shut it off. Guess I'm just as bad as Dr. Ro – " he bit the name off, mentally kicking himself. "Um, so, how – how are you?"

Monica stared at him, her blue eyes widening. "Me? Oh … I'm ... I'm fine. Great. And you?"

"Fine. Really. I'm …" Just then the beeper went off again and he swore at it which made Monica giggle.

"Joey? What does he want so early in the morning?"

Chandler squinted at the beeper, realized he wasn't wearing his glasses and looked for them. They were on the nightstand, together with his lucky cap, and he remembered Monica taking them off him just before they went for round 3. He put on his glasses and sighed as the message came into focus. Code 5, which could mean anything from 'help me get to work in time' to 'get my date out of here in time'. Or just 'come and hang around'. There was no way of telling if it was really urgent or just Joey being bored.

"I guess I'd better go." He started to get out of bed, realized just in time that he was stark naked, and sank back again. "Unless you want me to stay?"

Her smile seemed a little forced to him, but then she was probably embarrassed too. After all she was just as naked as he was, and not at all used to this situation, again same as him. Naked. After a night of awesome, amazing, wonderful, hot sex. Sex. Actual sex. With him. Several times. He realized he was staring at her like an idiot, his eyes fixed on the bulges that were her breasts under the covers – oh, those unearthly beautiful breasts that he had named 'Awesome' and 'Amazing' after round 2 – and shook himself out of it. And then realized he hadn't heard a word she said. "Huh?"

"I said, if Joey needs you, you should go. I – I have a lot to do and –"

"Yeah. Right. Okay. Then … Take care, okay?" He leaned towards her a little, hesitated when he wasn't sure if kissing her was really the thing to do and then did it anyway, if only just a peck on her cheek. It made her smile and squeeze his shoulder affectionately. "Okay."

When she continued to watch him, he hesitated again. "Um, could you – you know …?"

"Oh! Yeah, sure." She actually put her hands on her eyes, like a child playing hide and seek.

"Okay, but no peeking!" That made her giggle while he got out of the bed and started to collect his clothes. The sight of his horrible old boxer pants made him wince. He really really really needed to stock up on underwear. And socks too.

As he put on his cap, ready to go, she took her hands from her face and raised herself up a little, still clutching the covers to her. "Chandler?"

"Yeah?" He came back to the bed, looking down at her, as she swallowed and blinked at him.

"I, um, I just wanted to say – last night was so - great."

"Yeah." He grinned widely. "Yeah, it was. Absolutely incredible."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah." He bent down and kissed her, this time on the lips, and then on her jawbone and neck, only letting off when she pushed him away.

"Ugh, you're so scratchy!"

.

Joey was already awake and fully dressed when he opened his apartment door. Instead of greeting him he held a finger to his lips and grinned conspiratorially.

"Pst! Come on in, I need to show you something. But quietly!" He led the way to the door to his living-room and opened it just a crack, letting Chandler look over his shoulder. There was a woman lying sprawled on the couch, fully dressed though looking rather rumpled and worse for wear. She looked vaguely familiar somehow –

"Wow, is that -?" Joey grinned triumphantly and nodded. "Rachel? What's the matter with her?"

Joey shrugged and closed the door softly. "Guess she had a little more than she could take. When I kissed her she started to throw up. And then she passed out."

"Oh. So you didn't …?"

"What? No! Not after that!"

Chandler smiled sympathetically while somewhere inside his head a part of him was dancing and shouting with glee. So Joey got none last night while he had scored? And Rachel, that snotty bitch with her overlong nails and overdone hair, who had so completely ignored him the day before and worse, patronized Monica, had thrown up and passed out? On Joey's (or as she pronounced it JOEY TRIBBI-AHHNI) couch? Wonders never ceased. How could he suddenly get so lucky?

"Anyway, I guess I better wait here until she wakes up, so you need to go to the hospital for me."

"To the hospital? Why?"

"For Phoebe, you know, to keep an eye on her. Ross thinks she wants to go on a lam."

"Okay, but visiting hours only start at ten."

"At ten? And what time is it n- oh. Um. Well, then you'll have to get me breakfast, I'm all out of things, and I can't leave –"

"Yeah I get it. Anything special that you need?"

Joey stared at him puzzled. "Dude! Don't you know what I need for breakfast?"

"Pretty much everything?" Joey grinned and clapped him on the shoulder.

"That's my boy! And while you're at it, get a shower, okay? You look like you slept in your clothes!"

"Well, when you beeped me I thought it was urgent."

"Yeah, but still. And what's that smell …? Hey, it's like that stuff Monica uses. Did you steal her shampoo again?!"

.

When he got back to his own apartment, Chandler was relieved to find it empty. It looked like his crazy roommate had left sometime last night and since he never returned before it was dark outside there was a good chance he would not get to see him today at all. Which was a blessing. Over time it had gotten a little easier to live with Eddie, provided he could avoid him as much as possible. He had nearly perfected the art of avoiding him to the point where he didn't get to see him for weeks if he did it right.

In his room he went through his wardrobe to find some underwear that didn't look too shabby and a fresh t-shirt, then he headed off to the bathroom for a shower and a shave. When he checked his back in the mirror he was delighted to find a few scratches there, mostly on his shoulders. Actual scratches. From a woman. Wow. He had just about given up hope that he would ever make a woman scratch him during sex. Or that he ever would have sex, real sex, and also the kind of sex where there was scratching involved. Or hickeys. Or other marks of any kinds. He wished Joey could see this, and at the same time was glad that he hadn't. The whole thing was still so weird, he felt he really needed some time to get his head wrapped around it. He had done it with Monica, his bubbly, naïve, forever cheerful and sweet friend, his friendly neighbor whose fridge he was free to raid whenever he wanted, and who always seemed to be there for him, functioning as advisor, pal, companion and chef. Before last night he had never seen anything more in her than a friend. A person that it was nice to have around when he was lonely, someone to have fun with, laugh with, to help out and be helped out by, someone who was there for you. He had borrowed money from her more often than he cared to think about, spent more time in her kitchen than in his own apartment, and always tried out every new joke that occurred to him on her first. But never in his wildest dreams had it occurred to him that she could be hot. Or a woman, a desirable woman at that.

And how funny was it actually that the fact she had been a virgin had so surprised him? Considering how long they had known each other he should have been very aware of her situation. Maybe he had blinded himself to that fact because it had been so inconceivable to him that anyone who knew him so well would consider him as a sex partner. Strange women, casual acquaintances and flirts, yes, in that field he had never given up hope though he kept failing to score no matter what he did. But with a friend – no, that was just too weird. Until last night.

Last night, when she had been so frustrated and worked up, when she had vented her feelings in that wail 'Chandler, I'm gonna die a virgin' and he had agreed to her proposal just like that, without thinking – just then at that moment the scales had started to drop from his eyes. And made her appear to him in a whole new light.

Yes, it had been weird. And strange and uncomfortable. A good deal embarrassing too, because he had been so nervous of screwing up and disappointing her. If she hadn't been so persistent he would have chickened out even before she did. But she had fought her way through her own shyness and understandable nervousness and then, from the moment they touched, gotten physically close, it had gotten easier. Remarkably so in fact. He still couldn't get over their first kiss. How in the world had he managed not to screw that up? But it had been so easy not to. Everything about her had excited him, made him forget his nervousness and sense of inferiority in his desire for her. It had felt so good to hold her in his arms, feel all of her pressed against him – and how great was it actually that there was so much of her to hold tight? – to kiss her and toy with her lips, breathe in her scent, touch that soft smooth skin … Oh that skin. When she had taken off her undershirt and there was only her bra left, the sight of her had taken his breath away. Her skin had been so white and totally unblemished, and with that black hair and red lips she had looked to him like Sleeping Beauty. An opulent, lush beauty at that, with those smooth soft shoulders and round full breasts … Those breasts especially had bewitched him. They had been just the right size, round and full enough to fit into his hands when he cupped them, not too big so they would be too heavy to handle, but not too small either. Her skin had smelled and tasted so good too, good enough to go crazy over. Just thinking about it made him get hard again. And then she had touched him too, caressed his penis which had almost made him come right there and then, much too soon, before they had even started, and how embarrassing would that have been? But luckily he had managed to get himself under control again, enough at least to enable him to take care of her in return, make out a little more. And oh my god how she had responded to it! To see her so aroused and ecstatic had swept his last concerns and worries away and then he had completely lost himself in her, in that awesome surreal ecstatic dream of their lovemaking. From the moment she had taken him in hand and guided him to her, into her, he had operated on pure instinct alone, caught in a dream, his rational thinking drowned out and numbed by the sheer excitement and lust.

And then she had come. Oh my god she had come, he had made her come, come out of her ears by the sound of it, come so hard she had screamed and bucked under him, actually clawed his back – he only regretted that there weren't more marks to see in other, more accessible places too. And then he had come too, with an unheard of intensity too, in a way he had never ever achieved on his own. It had swept through him like a tidal wave, leaving him empty and exhilarated and gasping for breath like a fish on the sand, and yet when she had been so eager and ecstatic about doing it again, the desire had returned like a flash, his weariness immediately forgotten, and he had wanted to do it again too. There and then, again, and again, and again … Until their strength had given out and they had fallen asleep almost on top of each other at last. And never stirred until that damn beeper went off.

And after all that, should he really have left her? Maybe not, maybe he should have ignored the beeper and stayed with her, talking it over. But he had left, and there was nothing he could do about it now. Except go to see her this afternoon, as soon as she was back from work, and tell her how he felt about the whole thing, what it had done for him. That it had been simply too amazing to just leave it like that, like it had really been about that one night only. That it was inconceivable that it should just end there and then. There could be a chance that it hadn't. Anything was possible, right? Especially with her. With them.

.

When he sauntered into her apartment later that afternoon, she was in the kitchen slicing bread and humming with it, the way she always did when she was in a good mood.

"Let me tell you about this chick I scored with last night! Oh no wait a minute that was you!"

Monica laughed and his heart leaped in his chest. "Hey, check me out, I'm a slut!"

Yeah right. But she did look adorable, especially in that red suit. How had he never seen that before?

"So you uh, want to do something tonight?" Like some more hot stuff, maybe some new hot stuff …

"Oh I can't. Dr. Roger is coming over again."

Oh. My. God. Dr. Roger. He was still in the picture? Why? Why? Why him? What had he done for her, except bore her to death and then leave her high and dry when she needed him?

"Oh. Oh right! Right! Because you're still seeing him and uh, he's a good guy. I mean, I remember a time when …" He let his head drop, snoring loudly and rolling his eyes, inwardly seething. Monica just looked puzzled.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah! Totally! Totally, and you?" He couldn't, wouldn't ever want her to think he was needy. Insecure. Whiny. No, anything but that.

"Great! It's so amazing! I mean, last time Dr. Roger came over, I was so nervous, but then after being with you I'm all like, "Can the doctor see me now?"

"I bet he can." And he would. As soon as he saw her he would notice how different she was, would sense how desirable and hot she had become all of a sudden. It would wake him up, get him interested and then he would take her for himself and she would be lost to him. Forever. And Monica would not even think about him again, would forget him, let him fade out of her life completely. And now she was still living out her fantasy of surprising Dr. Eternal Bore.

"Y'know, I don't have an appointment, but I sure could use a physical!" Haha, very funny. He'd laugh himself to death in a minute. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Oh yeah! Yeah! Don't worry about me, I'll be fine!" Then he remembered how Ross had dealt with a similar situation and tried out that wild Karate (or Kara-tay?!) move of his. "Hah-eeh!" And clenched his teeth when a muscle in his shoulder wouldn't cooperate. Monica was now frowning at him, and he gave her a deprecating smile. "I'll just practice some more Karatay ..."

.

A short while later he left again, mumbling something about Joey needing him after all, and then went to sit at the kitchen counter in his apartment, holding his head in his head and groaning. This was unbearable. That he should have found a girlfriend at last – yes, a girlfriend, he was sure all of a sudden that she had to be just that, that she was the one for him – only to lose her so abruptly again was simply too much. There had to be a way. Why couldn't he fight for her? What did the doctor have that he hadn't? Right, he was a doctor. And he was – nothing. A living joke. A good for nothing loser. But someone who cared for her, who wanted her, who would not leave her alone to hurry to the hospital to repair a damaged kidney, someone to whom his beeper summons wasn't more important than - - -

Wait a minute. There was an idea, right there. Hadn't the good doctor shown them how his beeper worked the other day, including a long, self-important lecture about all the codes he'd thought up, and how proud he was about his beeper handle '24/7Roger'? Oh wow, and who would have thought that Joey's beeper handle "Dr. Drake" would come in really useful one day?!

.

When he heard the doctor rush out of the apartment again, he gave it another five minutes to make sure he wouldn't come back, then took a deep breath and opened the door of apartment 20, cautiously sticking his head in. Monica was just starting to blow out the candles she had distributed all over the room. A shame really about them, the soft candle light looked really nice.

"Okay to come in?"

She looked like she wanted to kick something. Or someone. "Yeah, come on, eat, whatever you want. Dr. Roger got beeped again."

Alright here goes … "Yeah I know, guess who beeped him?"

"What?!"

"I'm the ruptured spleen." he raised his hand and just couldn't suppress a fake laugh. Code 33 that had been, the only one he could remember from Dr. Roger's endless lecture. Monica stared at him.

"Why would you do that?"

"Because you shouldn't be with him." He shifted uneasily on his feet, only too aware of the scrutinizing she was giving him, but held his ground. "You should be with me."

There, he'd said it, and it was true. He'd never meant anything as much as this before. He really wanted her. She was everything he could ever desire, everything he could ask for. And she must have seen it on his face because she didn't appear angry in any way. Or even much surprised. Just somehow – puzzled? Unbelieving?

"Really?"

"Yeah! When you were talking about Roger, that was killing me! Look, things like last night they don't just happen. You know? Or at least not to me."

And not to her either, he was sure of that.

"And with the other two women – " oh shoot, wrong number, and she had caught on immediately too, but never mind "- in the morning you know, I was just lying there and I couldn't wait to just go hang out with my friends, but with you I was, you know, already with a friend."

Her face softened at that and he thought he saw pity in her eyes as well as understanding.

"Chandler!" Oh yeah, now she would be like, oh I like you too but not that way, can't we stay friends, should we really risk our friendship for this … He stepped back from her and turned away a little, fighting against his self-loathing with everything he could muster.

"I know you probably don't want to go out with me, because I make too many jokes and I've never been in a serious relationship and I guess I'm not technically a 'doctor'…"

There was more, but he never got to say it because Monica was suddenly running at him, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him hard on the mouth. For a moment the world seemed to shift around him, the very floor beneath his feet wobbling. Pure instinct made him hold her against him and then everything steadied again as he closed his eyes and kissed her back as hard as he could, all his anxieties and self-hate dropping away. Then there was only her mouth on his, the feel of her body pressing against his, and her heartbeat in his ears – or maybe it was his own. Or both of theirs. After what seemed like an eternity they had to come up for air again and Monica held herself a little away to look at him searchingly, with a knowing smile.

"There was just one woman, wasn't there?"

Actually that made more sense, but unfortunately it wasn't quite the truth.

"No, there were two." He winked at her and she laughed.

"Including me?"

"Oh yeah." As she squealed with delight he pulled her close again, claiming her lips once more. When he slid his hand under her jacket and up her back, she moaned into the kiss and clutched him even harder. He was already trying to steer her into the direction of the bedroom when she broke the kiss again to look at him challengingly, narrowing her eyes.

"So what was she like?"

"Who?"

"That – first woman."

"Oh. Um, she was – it's a long story."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yes. It really needs a different – setting, you know. Something more comfortable."

For a moment she stared hard at him, then she giggled.

"Okay … so let's get comfortable then. Do you want to eat first?"

"I want you." He kissed her again and held her tight until she relaxed against him.

"Mmmh … mmmh … yes … oh god … At least let me – the candles, I can't …"

"Yeah. Right. Actually –" he released her and went to the door, turning the key and putting on the chain too for good measure. "Just in case the Doctor turns up again …" That made her laugh again, and they hurried to blow out the candles and cover up the food. Then they met at her bedroom door and kissed again as she turned off the light. As soon as they were in the room he shut the door behind them securely and took her in his arms again. Again there was only the light from the streetlamp illuminating the room, but after a moment she released him again and went to her night-stand to light a candle. Obviously she had placed it there earlier in preparation for her seduction of Dr. Roger, and he felt a slight pang of jealousy again, but shook it off impatiently. Monica came back to him, smiling widely and holding out her arms, and before he knew it they were in each other's arms, sinking down on the bed and moaning. He fumbled the buttons of her jacket open and she pushed up his sweater and t-shirt, and after they had both wriggled out of those garments they grabbed at each other hungrily once more. When he finally figured out that her bra opened in front, he got it open and immediately claimed her breasts, pressing his face against them and stroking them with a deeply contented sigh. Monica laughed softly, her breathing getting noticeably harder now. She took off his cap and then his glasses, putting them carefully on the night-stand and then drew his head down again, cradling him against her breasts. When he started to suck and lick her nipples she squirmed and moaned, clutching his shoulders and running her fingers through his hair. Before long he got her pants off her and let her push and tug down his and fondle him while he got between her legs to take care of her even though he hardly felt able to hold back any more. Once more her body, her scent and taste, the feel of her seemed to induce a kind of dreamlike frenzy that claimed all his senses. Then she pulled at him, drawing him up and they pressed together and kissed deeply as he entered her, their arms and legs wrapped around each other, rolling and writhing on the bed that rattled and creaked alarmingly beneath them.

.

Much later, when they had finally finished – for the time being - and settled under the covers, holding each other and starting to get their breaths back, she raised her eyes to his, frowning a little.

"Chandler …?"

"Mmmmmh ….?"

"Do you really want me to be your girlfriend?"

"That depends. Do you really want me to be your boyfriend?"

Her face broke into a smile. "Oh my god, of course! I just thought –"

"What?"

"Well, this morning, when we got up I thought about how we had agreed it was only for one night, you know, just a friend helping a friend … and that you wouldn't want to, you know, go on."

"What? Of course I did. Why shouldn't I want to go on? You're the best thing that ever happened to me. But I thought you wanted to be with Dr. Roger."

She winced. "Yeah, that was … stupid. I think I just wanted to sort of show off to him."

"Well, I hope he was suitably impressed?"

She grimaced. "Not really. When I served up the risotto, it reminded him of the kidney he took out this morning. Ugh."

"Ew. Oh god. Well, I hope we're cured of him now … Seriously, I think we should give it a shot. This is so good. So much better than – well, everything else really."

She laughed. "But you've never been in a relationship before."

"So? Neither have you. You've got to start sometime. Why not now?"

"Yeah … why not! Oh my, I've finally got a boyfriend. This is so amazing! What about the others?"

"The others? Don't you think we should do this on our own?"

She cuffed him playfully. "I mean, do we tell them?"

"I guess so, sure. I mean it's not as if they'll catch on by themselves anytime soon. This morning Joey thought I had stolen your shampoo –"

"Oh, that was you? I thought it was Phoebe!"

.

And then they were all together again, sitting on the big orange couch in Central Perk. All except for Phoebe actually, who after her second heart attack had finally seen reason and was trying her hand at her old game of singing and accompanying herself on her old weathered guitar. Her song though told him and anyone who cared enough to listen that she still harbored a little grudge.

It only takes two heart attacks to finally make you see…
One of them won't do it, but the second one will set you free…
Tell all your hate and anger, it's time to say good-bye…
And that is just what I will do, soon as those bastards I work for die!
La, la-la-la, la-la-la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la…

And she wasn't the only one with a grudge or so it seemed to him as he looked around him. Joey was still upset because Phoebe had managed to get out of the hospital right under his nose, and maybe because Rachel had apparently decided that an affair with a famous actor wouldn't solve her problems and moreover meant too much bad publicity or even worse, losing alimony. Now she sat next to Ross, as fellow new members of the divorce club, and it was almost funny how similar their expressions looked as they both glumly contemplated their failed marriages. Except for Monica and himself everybody was in a bad mood. And how awesome was it that the two of them, the eternal losers, were finally coming out ahead? Both of them together? And that they were together? And everything looked up?

He tightened his arm around Monica's shoulders and kissed her on her hair. Absolutely awesome. Top of the world awesome.

And he meant to keep it that way. That was just what he would do.

.

.

.

A/N: When I started to write this I wasn't sure if I would or even could take it further than the episode, but since then the ideas have been coming. Some of them I already hinted at in this chapter, and in my upcoming vacation I'll try to get those and the others still in my head in line and brought into shape. And of course ideas for the next updates of my other stories. Which won't happen for 2 – 3 weeks unfortunately, since I'll only have my phone with me, but there will be updates after. That's a promise.

And a big thank you to everybody for all your amazing reviews and support!