You guys are amazing with all the reviews! This chapter is a bit shorter than the last two, but this really seemed like a good place to stop so I figured I'd get something published nice and quickly for you all before we settle into the grind that is the bulk of the pregnancy. Also, a few people have mentioned showing some conversations from Monica's POV. My original intention when I started writing this was in fact to switch between Monica and Chandler's POV, but the more I get into this I've found it just flows better keeping it from one POV (though this may change again in the future, who knows). If there are any specific events you want from Monica's POV, I may consider doing a series of oneshots to companion this piece. Thoughts? As always, reviews make me a very happy writer and also make me want to give you guys more chapters, so let me know what you think of this chapter, and the story as a whole!

Chandler gripped Monica's hand like a lifeline as silence filled the room. He couldn't bring himself to look at Ross, kept his eyes squeezed shut. Please just say something he pleaded in his head. Anything.

"Ross?" Monica prompted. "Say something?" In any other situation, Chandler would be grinning at how in tune he and Monica are, but right now he's too busy trying to keep his breathing under control to do much of anything else.

"You're…you're pregnant?" Ross finally bit out. Monica didn't say anything, but Chandler assumed she nodded because he continued, "And…it's his?"

"Yes," Monica whispered. Ross didn't respond and Chandler braced himself to look up and try to gauge Ross's expression when Monica jerked closer to him, standing in between Chandler and her brother. "Ross!" she exclaimed, and now Chandler did look up to see Ross towering over the tow of them. He jumped up himself and put his hands on Monica's shoulder.

"Ross…" Chandler started.

"What were you thinking?!" Ross cut him off angrily. "My sister?! Of all the stupid things, you go and knock up my sister?! I should kill you!"

"Ross!" Monica shouted again, pushing him backwards. "I'm an adult! I don't need you defending me or whatever the hell you're trying to do." She looked back at Chandler and reached for his hand again. He gave it to her, and she pulled his to her chest. "We didn't plan this, but it's happening, and we're really excited. Can't you be supportive?"

"Is he?" Ross asked skeptically, sending a glare Chandler's way.

Chandler knelt on the couch behind his girlfriend and wrapped the arm she wasn't already holding around her waist. He hooked his chin over her shoulder and met Ross's eyes dead-on.

"I love her more than anything in the world," he said seriously, squeezing the hand Monica was holding. "I'd never leave her, or the baby. I'm exactly where I want to be."

"It's true," Monica added. "He's been incredible, and I love him too. We really want this."

He and Ross remained locked in a staring contest for a few moments more, before Ross broke eye contact to stare at Monica again. Finally, when it seemed like Monica was about to break the silence, Ross spoke up again.

"So…when are you getting married then?"

"We're not," Monica answered and Chandler knew before she even said it that that was the wrong thing to say.

"You're what?!" Ross screamed, and Monica flinched back into Chandler.

"We're not getting married," Monica repeated.

"What do you mean 'you're not getting married'?!" he responded, growing in volume with each sentence. "Of course you're getting married! You're having a baby!"

"Oh you're one to talk!" Monica shouted back. "Marriage is the solution? Well how'd that work out for you? You're the last person to give relationship advice, and you can't tell us what to do!"

"Clearly you need someone to tell you what to do!" Ross argued. "And don't you dare throw that back in my face, at least I wasn't stupid enough to get my girlfriend pregnant!"

"Can you, give us a minute, Chandler?" Monica turned her attention back to him. "I think Ross and I need to talk alone." Chandler eyed Ross warily as he slipped past, leaving Monica with one last kiss on the cheek.

As he opened the door, the door across the hall banged shut and he sighed, knowing that the others had heard everything. He entered his own apartment where the other three were gathered around the counter, feigning casual. They all looked up when he closed the door behind him.

"I know you guys heard all that," he sighed, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge. They looked at each other guiltily and Chandler just shook his head, going to sit down in his chair.

"So was it as bad as it sounded?" Phoebe cringed.

"Probably," Chandler shrugged. "I mean, he's obviously not happy, but Monica can hold her own when it comes to him." He took another sip of his water, not feeling much up to talking. It was true, Monica was more than capable of standing up to her brother, and realistically Chandler shouldn't be worried about her. But lately "worried about her" had become his default whenever she was further than arms reach away; he couldn't help it, she was carrying his baby and he really did want to be with her every second.

"You okay, man?" Joey asked.

"Not really," Chandler admitted, running his hands over his face. "I feel so useless just sitting in here like this. I got her into this, technically. I should be in there supporting her."

"Chandler, it's Monica," Rachel reasoned. "She can take care of herself."

"That's not the point!" he exclaimed, tossing the now-empty water bottle to the side. "I know she can, but she shouldn't have to! I'm the boyfriend, I'm supposed to be there for her, I shouldn't be sitting back like this! Should I go back over there?"

"Dude, you gotta calm down," Joey prodded him. "She's fine, Ross will calm down and they'll probably be over here in a minute."

"I…I know," he finally surrendered, sinking back into the chair. "Can you guys just…not talk to me for a few minutes?"

"Yeah, whatever you need honey," Rachel soothed, patting him on the head before walking over to the door. "So are we gonna go listen some more, or?"

Joey and Phoebe jumped up, and Chandler turned his chair to face the wall with the TV unit, but made no move to turn on the TV. The door clicked shut as the other three went back to eavesdrop on whatever was happening across the hall and Chandler was alone with his thoughts.

As it turned out, that was exactly where he shouldn't be, because pretty much every thought in his head at the moment was centered on Monica and Monica and the baby and Monica across the hall where he currently isn't. He had nearly worked himself into a panic within minutes, and didn't even notice the apartment door opening.

"Chandler?" and that was Ross crap that was Ross.

Chandler spun around in his chair and stood up, still not coming quite to Ross's height but close enough to fake confidence. "Hi," he responded cautiously.

"I talked to Monica," Ross started. "Look…I'm sorry if I overreacted before. It's just…she's my baby sister, I'm allowed to be a little over protective, aren't I?"

"No, I know, you have every right to get upset," he replied, putting his hands up in surrender. "It's…it's not ideal, I know that, and I swear we never meant for this to happen. But I meant what I said before, I'm so in love with her. I'm here for whatever she needs, whatever she wants. I know this is a big deal, but I want to do this. And if I screw up, you have full permission to kick my ass."

Ross looked at him seriously. "I know you do, I can see that. Monica kinda told me off already for implying that you're not serious. That woman can be scary." He smiled and Chandler smiled back because oh boy did he know. "And sure, it would be nice if you guys were getting married, but I guess I can understand why you're waiting."

"So you're…you're okay with all this?" Chandler asked.

"Well, not okay obviously, but I'm behind you guys one hundred percent."

Chandler breathed the biggest sigh of relief of his life. "Thanks man, seriously. That means a lot."

"Alright, bring it in," Ross opened his arms and Chandler met him halfway for a semi-manly hug. "And in case you didn't know, she's crazy about you too."

And there he was again, grinning like the idiot in love that he was because it was one thing to hear her say it, but to have it come from someone else? He really felt like the luckiest guy in the world.

"Is she still over there?" he asked gesturing to across the hall.

"Yeah," Ross answered. "Phoebe, Rachel, and Joey were in the hall when I left, so everyone should be there now."

They crossed the hall between the two apartments to find the other four gathered in the living room area, Monica in the armchair and the other three on the couch.

"Hello, children," he greeted, making a beeline for the armchair. "Hey you." Monica smiled up at him and reached for him where he came within arm's length of her seat, pulling him into the chair with her. It took a minute to rearrange themselves so that Chandler was sitting in the chair with Monica seated horizontally across his lap. He wrapped his arms around her waist and found one of his hands gravitating to her stomach, where in just a few weeks he'd be able to actually feel his baby moving and growing. It was a bit surreal to think about.

"Awww would you look at them?" Phoebe cooed.

"How in the world did you manage to keep this a secret for six months?" Ross asked. "You're all over each other."

"Lots of effort," Monica responded.

"Too much effort," Chandler added, bumping his forehead against the side of her head. "Why the hell did we wait so long?"

"Hey, don't look at me, it was you're idea!" Monica laughed, poking him in the stomach.

"Yeah, but it's your job to disagree with me," he responded.

"Oh, would you stop?"

"Hmmm…nope," he grinned and kissed her cheek.

"You're cute," she commented, and Chandler felt himself blush, suddenly remembering that their friends were all there now, watching them bicker. It was so nice to have everything out in the open, but acting like a real couple in front of their friends would take some getting used to for sure. "Now lemme up, I gotta pee." He kissed her cheek one more time before removing his arms from her waist so she could move. When the bathroom door closed behind her, Chandler felt four sets of eyes on him.

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing!" Rachel rushed. "It's just weird seeing you like this. Both of you. And together, especially."

"Yeah, I don't think anyone saw this coming," Phoebe added.

"Yeah, I know," Chandler admitted. "I sure didn't. It just happened, I guess. I'm assuming Monica told you everything?"

"Told them everything about what?" Monica asked, coming out of the bathroom and returning to her spot on his lap.

"She didn't actually," Rachel answered. "Why, did you tell Joey?"

"No, I just assumed you girls talked about everything last night."

"No, we just talked about how cute you are," Monica assured him. "And I showed them the sonogram."

"I wanna see!" Ross interjected. Monica pointed to the end table where she had left the picture the night before, and though he had spent hours looking already Chandler itched to see it again.

"So, tell us then!" Rachel prompted when Ross had the sonogram in hand. "How did it happen?"

"Well," Monica began. "I was having a kind of rough night after the rehearsal dinner. My mom said some stuff, some…guy said some stuff," both he and Monica cringed at the reminder of the drunk man. "I drank…probably too much, and Chandler was just really sweet, and made sure I got back to my room safely."

"And…?" Joey prompted.

"And about an hour later I didn't want to be alone anymore, so I went back to his room, somehow ended up kissing him…"

"Yeah I don't think either of us will ever know how that happened," Chandler inserted.

"Do you want to tell this?" she glared at him, and he shot her an innocent smile. "Anyways, we kissed for a bit, and it just kind of went for there. And we never stopped." She shrugged and smiled at him, and he playfully poked his nose against hers before kissing her quickly.

"We didn't want to tell anyone until we were sure that it would work out," Chandler explained when he had torn his gaze away from Monica again. "It wasn't something either of us had thought about before, so we wanted to be really sure we were on the same page before getting the rest of you involved. Clearly someone had other plans," he sent a glance down to Monica's stomach and she rolled her eyes fondly. "I think this has all worked out for the best."

"What about when you got pregnant? When did that happen?" Phoebe asked, earning a "Phoebe!" from Ross.

"Pheebs, we'd been dating for like four months at that point, we were having a lot of sex; how are we supposed to know exactly which time it happened?" Monica asked, and Chandler lightly slapped her arm at her honesty.

"Okay, I so did not need to know all that," Ross whined and in fairness Chandler was on his side on this one (not that he would ever voice that—Monica was calling the shots here).

"Shut up, the rest of us did," Rachel scolded.

"Wow Chandler, didn't know you had it in you!" Phoebe exclaimed.

"Ooookay, time to change the subject," Chandler interrupted.

"When's your next doctor's visit?" Ross asked.

"Two weeks," Monica answered. "We should be able to hear the baby's heartbeat by then!"

"Oh man, are you gonna cry," Ross stated, and Chandler didn't even bother with a response, just shrugged, because it was almost certainly true. He had already teared up at the tiny, unidentifiable blip on the sonogram; the rest of this pregnancy was sure to bring waterworks for both of them.

They chatted for a few minutes longer, reminiscing about when Carol had been pregnant with Ben, and Ross had gone through it all with her. It felt so unbelievably good to sit in a group of the six of them and not feel a huge secret weighing him down. He felt freer than he had been in months. Finally someone suggested heading down to the coffeehouse for a while and everyone quickly agreed. Chandler got Monica's coat for her and helped her put it on to yet another chorus of "awww"s from their friends, and it felt so normal, like they had been doing this forever. He hadn't been scared before, not really, but now, with the full support of their friends, he felt ready to take on anything the next few months would throw at them. They were strongest as a group; nothing could tear them down.

"You okay?" Monica whispered to him as the followed the other four downstairs, hand-in-hand.

"Honey, I'm amazing. You're amazing. Everything is amazing," he responded giddily, and she giggled.

"I am pretty amazing," she agreed with a smirk.

"I'm not even gonna respond to that, that's how happy I am," he added, taking his hand from hers to wrap it around her shoulders.

"Wow, that's pretty happy."

They stopped just in front of Central Perk. The other four had already gone in, but Chandler wanted just one quick moment alone with her before they rejoined the group. That was one thing he would miss about keeping it a secret; any privacy they had had in the previous few months would now be completely replaced by their nosy friends' desire to be involved in each other's' lives. Oh well, you can't have it all, Chandler thought to himself, looking into the beautiful blue eyes of the girl he loved.

"I love you," he said out loud, because he could, and reveled in the blush that still always tinted her cheeks whenever he spoke those words.

"I love you too," she responded, and he was sure his smile would tear his face in two. He still couldn't believe how incredibly lucky he was to have all of this, to have a girlfriend as wonderful as Monica, to have a baby on the way that he already loved more than anything in the world, to have friends who supported them unconditionally.

On second thought, he mused, maybe you can have it all.

Questions? Comments? Criticisms? Leave them all in the reviews! Also, if there's anything you want to see happen in this story, feel free to let me know! I have the general sequence planned out, but I'm all for making adjustments!