AN: I know that it's been awhile since I posted to this story, but I'm having a little difficulty putting my ideas to paper. I want to thank all of you that are still following and the ones that have just started following this story. And I am also so grateful for all of the great reviews. PLZ R&R!

Disclaimer: See earlier chapters.

Chapter 17: Beginnings

Chandler was running around his apartment trying to find everything that they needed. He grabbed his tux, Sophie's dress, their shoes, and Sophie's bag of activities.

"Come on, Sophie." he turned off the TV. "We need to get to the church."

"Can I put my dress on yet?" she pleaded.

"When we get to the church." he told her as they walked onto the porch and Chandler locked up the house.

Chandler and Sophie rushed into the church ten minutes later and ran into Joey, Phoebe, and Monica near the front entrance. It looked as if Monica had been crying.

"There you are." Joey greeted him. "Ross was looking for you."

"We were running late." Chandler told them. "Are you ok, Monica?"

"It's nothing." she assured him. "The pregnancy hormones are starting."

"Her mom." Phoebe told him and he nodded in understanding.

"I want to put my dress on daddy." Sophie pleaded.

"We'll take her." Monica took her hand as Chandler handed all of Sophie's things to Phoebe.

"Make sure she stays with you guys, and far away from Judy Gellar."

"You got it." Phoebe told him as he followed Joey to the guys changing area.

"You made it." Ross smiled at him as he walked in.

"I know. We were running late this morning. That's the life of a single parent."

"Well, you're here now. Go on and get changed."

Chandler took his suit with him into the bathroom and quickly got changed. He came back out and saw that the other two were joined by Jack Gellar.

"I think I'm going to go check on Sophie and see how she's doing." Chandler told them.

"It hasn't been that long." Joey told him. "Didn't you say it takes you at least fifteen minutes to get her dressed every day?"

"Well, I know when I'm not wanted." Chandler glanced at Jack before turning back to Ross.

"If he doesn't like that you're here, he can be the one to leave." Ross told him loudly as there was a knock on the door.

"Chandler, you should come see Sophie." Phoebe stuck her head into the room after Joey assured her that everyone was decent.

"Is something wrong?"

"No. You just got to come look."

"Ok." He followed her out and down the hall to the room where the girls were getting ready.

"Is everyone decent?" Phoebe asked. "Chandler's here to see Sophie."

"Come in!" Chandler heard Carol's voice and slowly walked in as he spotted Judy Gellar sitting off to the side and Monica hiding Sophie behind her.

"Ok. Don't be mad at me." Monica told him. "But Sophie asked if we could put some make up on her. I didn't put a lot on her, but Carol styled her hair. And we thought you would want to see her."

"All right. Let me see her."

Sophie slowly peered around from behind Monica and smiled at Chandler. She was already in her flower girl dress. It went down past her knees with little frills at the bottom. She had on white panty hose with white strappy dress shoes. He could see some shading on her cheeks from he guessed some blush and a hint of some lipstick across her lips. Her hair was curled and pinned back away from her face with a few stray curls framing the side of her face.

"Well, who is this?" Chandler knelt down in front of her. "This can't be my Sophie. This little girl looks too much like a princess."

"It's me, daddy." Sophie smiled at him. "And I'm not little."

"Of course you're not." He smiled at her. "You look very beautiful, Soph."

"Ok. I need to get a picture of this." Monica found her camera and took a snapshot of Chandler and Sophie together.

There came a knock at the door and Joey told them all that it was almost time. Chandler followed Joey out and they lined up out in the hall as Jack went in to the sanctuary with Judy. Chandler followed behind Ross with Joey right behind him as the music started up.

Chandler was sitting with Sophie in one of the pews as the photographer started taking pictures. At the moment, Ross and Monica were huddled together with their parents getting their pictures taken.

"Daddy, why aren't they smiling?" Sophie looked up at him.

"I'm not sure." He told her as he glanced behind him at Joey and Phoebe.

"I want to dance."

"Just a few more minutes." Chandler placed her on his lap. "You get my first dance."

"Ok. Let's get some with the best man, maid of honor, and the flower girl." The photographer announced and Chandler took Sophie to where Monica was.

"That looked like it was painful." Chandler looked at Monica.

"A little bit." She sighed as she stood beside him with Sophie standing in front of them with her flower girl basket.

"Ok. I believe that is all we need." The photographer announced.

"Hold on." Monica said suddenly as she looked at Chandler. "Stay right here."

"Ok." Chandler watched her go to Ross and Carol and whisper to them.

"What's going on, daddy?" Sophie looked at him.

"I'm not really sure." He watched as Ross nodded and talked to the photographer as Monica came back to them.

"So when was the last time that you had family pictures taken?" she asked him.

"Um, never. That's too expensive."

"Well, you're getting some now." Chandler was a little bewildered as Monica directed him to sit with Sophie on the steps leading up to the altar.

"Thank you for that." Chandler told Monica as they entered the hall where the reception was being held.

The hall wasn't that packed. They had only invited family and close friends.

"It was no problem." She told him as they got situated at the first table reserved for the wedding party. "I noticed you didn't have any photos sitting out at your place."

"Not any professional ones." He smiled as he sat beside Sophie. "So thank you."

They all stood as Ross and Carol were introduced as a married couple for the first time and sat back down as the dinner plates were placed in front of everyone.

"Daddy, what is this?" Sophie asked.

"Chicken." He told her. "You need to eat it all, along with the vegetables."

"Yuck!"

"Then I guess you can sit here all night while everyone else gets to dance."

Everyone at the table chuckled at Sophie's expression as she slowly ate what was on her plate. Chandler glanced at the table beside them where the parents of the bride and groom were sitting, and noticed the stony gazes of Ross and Monica's parents.

"What's up with them?" Chandler inclined his head towards them.

"They didn't like that we took extra pictures of you two." Ross told him.

"Don't worry about them." Carol told them. "It's not like it cost us anything extra. We were happy to let you guys get your pictures."

"They really need to stop looking over here." Chandler could tell that Sophie was getting upset.

"Just ignore them." Monica told him. "You deserve to have fun tonight."

The band started playing a little while later, and after some arguments with Sophie about eating more Chandler took her out onto the dance floor. She placed her feet on his and they started swaying. He looked up as all his friends joined them on the dance floor; everyone except Monica. She sat all by herself at the table just watching everyone else.

After awhile only a few people remained; the bride and groom's parents and all of their friends. Chandler looked and saw Monica still sitting glumly at their table.

"Hey Soph, would you like to dance with Uncle Joey for a little bit?"

"Where you going?" she asked him.

"I'm going to ask Monica to dance. She looks kind of lonely over there."

"Ok." Sophie ran to Joey and pulled him away from the snack table as she pulled him out to dance.

"Hey." Chandler approached Monica. "Would you like to dance?"

"What about Sophie?"

"She's dancing with Joey now. So would you?"

"Sure." She took his hand as they walked out and started dancing.

"I didn't want to see your glum expression any longer."

"It's no big deal." She looked at him as he kept stumbling. "No offense, but you're not very good at this."

"I know," he sighed. "Luckily, Sophie is still young enough that she can't tell."

"Here," Monica guided him to move like she was. "Much better."

"Maybe I should take lessons from you." He smiled at her.

"You're not that bad."

"Really?"

"No. You're pretty bad."

"So how are you doing-with everything?"

"I'm fine." She sighed. "I'm just trying not to stress out too much about everything right now."

"So when do you plan on telling the Gruesome Twosome? No offense. I probably shouldn't talk about your parents like that."

"It's fine. I've said worse things about them." She assured them. "I plan on telling them when Ross and Carol get back."

"If I can help in any way, just let me know."

"Actually, Nana says the apartment is ready now. So would you mind helping me move out of my parents' house this weekend?"

"Not at all. Will they be there?"

"They said they're going away. That's why I'm doing it then."

"I'll be there." He assured her as she suddenly stopped dancing with him.

"Um, excuse me." Monica suddenly rushed out of the room and Chandler knew that she was experiencing morning sickness.

"Hey. What happened?" Phoebe came up to him.

"I think it's the morning sickness." He told her. "I'm going to see how she is. Can you keep an eye on Sophie for me?"

"Sure, no problem." She assured him as he rushed down the hall towards the bathrooms and found Monica coming out into the hall.

"Hey. Are you ok?"

"Fine. It was probably the chicken."

"Do you want to head back?"

"Sure."

"Everyone is almost gone anyway. It's just your parents and our friends."

"All right." They started down the hall as they heard crying. "Chandler, I think that's Sophie."

"Oh no." Chandler rushed in with Monica right behind him.

They rushed in to see Phoebe and Joey trying to hold Sophie who was kicking her legs. Ross and Carol were glaring at Jack and Judy.

"This is our wedding." Carol told them. "We get to choose who is in the wedding party and on the guest list."

"She's just a little girl." Ross added.

"What happened?" Chandler stormed over to them. "What did you do to my daughter?"

"Excuse me, but your daughter just kicked me." Jack was rubbing his knee.

"Why?"

"Maybe because she doesn't have any real guidance."

"I meant that my daughter is not a violent child unless she's around you. So what did you do to make her do that?"

"They were saying some really bad things about you guys." Joey took a hold of Sophie after she calmed down. "So she just kicked him."

"And then they said something else bad." Phoebe added. "That's when she started crying."

"Unbelievable." Chandler took Sophie from Joey. "You can't even act civil at your own son's wedding. How either of your kids turned out normal, I'll never know."

"If you're so concerned about your child, maybe you shouldn't have left her in a room full of strangers."

"They're not strangers. They're my friends. And the reason why I left the room is because I was checking on your daughter who isn't feeling well. If you were paying attention to anything besides me and my daughter, you would know that."

"Come on, let's go." Monica told Chandler. "All of this tension is not helping Sophie any."

"Let's get her out of here." Phoebe told him as Joey found all their things and they started to walk out.

"Daddy," Sophie started to cry.

"Don't worry, sweetie. We're going home now." Chandler got her into her seat in the back of his car as Joey put all their things in the passenger seat.

"I'm going to drop Joey and Phoebe off at her place." Monica told Chandler. "Is it ok if I spend the night again? I really don't want to go home to them."

"Sure. Come over whenever." Chandler told her as he got into his car and he pulled away from the church.

Chandler reached the apartment and got Sophie inside, who had turned quiet.

"Let's get you in to the bathtub." Chandler got out some towels and a pair of pajamas for her. "I'll let you stay up a little later tonight."

Sophie was quiet the whole time she was in the tub no matter how much Chandler tried to engage her in conversation. Chandler got her changed into a two piece Elmo pajama set. He combed her hair-an act that would usually produce tears and a temper tantrum, but tonight there was no reaction-and took a book off the top shelf of her bookcase and took her out to the living area to read it to her.

"Ok. You're really scaring daddy here." He sat beside her and pushed her hair away from her face. "I'm sorry that Ross and Monica's parents upset you. And I'm sorry if daddy scared you when he started yelling."

"I wasn't scared." She whispered. "They said bad things. Bad words."

"I thought so." He pulled her closer. "Nothing they said was true. I would not change even one thing that led to me having you in my life. You are my whole world, and I love you."

"Love you, daddy."

"Now do you want me to read you a story, or do you want to pick out a video to watch?"

"I want to watch the dinosaur movie." Sophie went to their collection and found it.

Chandler was setting up the VCR when he heard the door open and Monica came in with a bag of overnight clothes. She smiled as she saw Sophie sitting on the couch with a blanket and a stuffed Elmo.

"Hi Monica." Sophie smiled at her. "Are you spending the night?"

"Is that ok with you?"

"Yeah. I like it when you're here when I wake up."

"Ok." Chandler fast forwarded through all the advertisements and pressed play when he got to the beginning of the movie. "I'll get you some water, Sophie."

Chandler went to fill one of her sippie cups with water and brought it back out to Sophie. He got situated on the couch with Sophie lying against him as he covered her with her blanket.

Monica went to change into a pair of pajamas and joined them on the couch as they all watched The Land Before Time together.

AN: So what'd you all think? I know that Jack and Judy Gellar seem a little out of character, but this way works for my story. Also, Sophie's vocabulary might be a little more advanced than an average toddler. But each child is different. this is how my story is. PLZ R&R!