Hi, I'm back! Sorry this update took so long, I'm studying abroad this semester and have basically spent the last two weeks either packing or travelling so I haven't had much time to write! A bit of a shorter chapter here, but honestly this was the best place I could think of stopping and I really wanted to get you guys another chapter ASAP. Things are starting to move along now! As always, thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far, you motivate me to keep this story going!

"Hi, honey," Monica greeted him with a kiss as she sat next to him on the orange couch of the coffeehouse. It was lunchtime, and Chandler had spent the better part of the morning in meetings—his least favorite part of his job.

"Mmmm, how was your morning?" he asked, wrapping an arm loosely around her shoulder and resting his other hand on her stomach as he so often did lately. "Wait…can you feel that?"

"Feel what?"

"That," he rubbed his hand lightly over her lower abdomen. "There's a bump there! There totally is, oh my god!"

"Chandler, there's nothing there," Monica shook her head with a smile. "Don't you think I'd be able to feel it if there was?"

"Apparently not because I'm telling you, that is a baby bump! How can you not feel it?" Chandler was absolutely in awe. Holy shit that's my baby.

"And I'm telling you there's nothing there," she argued, grabbing his hand. "Soon, though."

"Whatever, I know I'm right," Chandler huffed, leaning back against the couch. "Anyways, so I had an idea."

"Oh yeah?"

"Okay, so Joey wants to have a guys' night tonight. You could have the girls over? Maybe try to spend tonight apart?" he suggested. Monica raised her eyebrows.

"I thought you didn't want to try sleeping apart anymore?" she asked with a fond smile.

"Well that was before I found out they were betting on us!" he protested.

"Since when are you Mister Competitive?" she poked his cheek, causing him to laugh softly and kiss her lips.

"I guess you just bring it out in me, baby," he teased, and kissed her again.

"Hey, hey, hey, in public you gotta be doing that?" Joey complained, covering his eyes as he sat down at the table to their right.

Chandler shrugged. "I won't apologize for kissing my girlfriend."

"Aww, you're sweet," Monica cooed, kissing him again.

"Seriously you guys," Joey whined.

"Okay, okay," Chandler surrendered, Monica settling back against his chest. "Have you asked Ross about coming over tonight?"

"Oh, did you want me to do that?" Joey asked.

"Well, considering that I've been at work all day, I was hoping you'd take some initiative."

"I'll call Ross," Monica cut in, before they could start going back and forth. "I have to let Phoebe and Rachel know what the plan is anyways."

"Thank you sweetie," Chandler smiled, kissing the side of her head, then sticking his tongue out at Joey before he could comment on the display of affection. "Oh hey, Rach," he greeted as she took a seat in the armchair on their other side.

"Rachel! We're having dinner at ours tonight with Phoebe," Monica informed her.

"Oh…okay," Rachel replied, looking at her curiously. Chandler shook his head and smiled. Everyone in their group knew well enough by now that when Monica planned something, that's what was happening. "Why?"

"You'll spend all night talking about me, I'm sure," Chandler teased, and Monica shifted to mock-glare up at him.

"You wish, Bing," she responded. They held each other's eyes for a moment in what had become a mini-staring competition, and neither of them liked losing. Finally, Chandler caved and leaned down to kiss her lips, much to Joey's displeasure and Rachel's amusement.

"I have to go soon," Chandler murmured, so that only Monica could hear. "Unless I get called to something last minute I want to get out of there by four today. I could stop by before dinner?"

"I'd like that," she responded just as quietly. "I'll see you in a few hours. I love you."

"I love you too," he responded, then a little louder, "And I love you," he patted her stomach where there was definitely a bump, no matter what Monica believed.

"Okay, get out of here," she laughed, lightly slapping at his arm.

"Later, children," Chandler waved to the other two and stood when Monica sat up to let him go.

As he left the coffeehouse, he smiled fondly thinking of the beginning of their relationship. Not the sneaking around, but that early phase when all they wanted was to have sex all the time, when the most difficult part of the secret was keeping their hands off each other. They used to spend their lunch breaks in one of their apartments—or that one thrilling time in the closet of Central Perk—in a competition to see how many times they could go in the hour before they had to go back to work. It had been so exciting to have a relationship with that much passion; it was like nothing Chandler had experienced with any of his previous girlfriends.

But now, they were just a couple. And as weird as it seemed, Chandler thought he liked this even better. They no longer desperately sought out a place to have sex whenever they had a free minute. They didn't even have sex every day now, and that was weirdly okay. Just as thrilling to him was cuddling while watching a movie, or holding hands and going for a walk, or meeting their friends at Central Perk and just being together. It was just so normal, something Chandler honestly expected to find in a relationship. No matter how much time they spent together, he couldn't get enough.

It was thoughts like these that made Chandler seriously consider a future with her. He was never that guy; no matter how serious he got with someone, the concept of forever just seemed like a far off fantasy to deal with later. But he'd known Monica for ten years now and had considered her one of his best friends for most of that time. They knew everything about each other before they started dating; no one knew how screwed up he really was like she did, yet here she was. Chandler didn't expect to find that again.

And now there was the baby on top of all that. So Chandler agreed that they shouldn't be together or live together or get married just because she was pregnant. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized it wasn't like that at all. He loved her more than he'd ever loved anyone. He really wanted to be with her forever. Seven months was too soon to get married, but maybe soon? Seven months wasn't far away from a year, and a year was good, right? People got engaged after dating for a year. He could do that. That would be around Monica's due date, he realized. Wow. They would have a baby after dating for a year.

Chandler was snapped out of his thoughts by people pushing around him trying to get on the subway. Now wasn't the time to think about all this, and Chandler wished he had someone to talk about all this with.

"Dude, will you just sit down? The game's about to start!" Joey whined, and Chandler rolled his eyes. He felt inexplicably tense; it was the first time he had spent any length of time with just the other two guys—since Ross moved out a few months ago, probably, before any either of them knew about him and Monica. They had agreed to spend the night talking about anything but his relationship with Monica—and the baby by extension—but Chandler knew better. Joey and Ross could be just as nosy as the girls when they wanted to be.

From the living room, Joey cheered as the Kincks won the tipoff, and Chandler took a seat on one of the stools at the counter, since Ross was in his usual chair. As silly as it sounded, he felt like the division was a physical manifestation of his isolation from them. In the past they wouldn't have had to schedule a guys' night, it was just something that happened. They'd go to a game, or watch one from home, or go out for drinks. Everything was different now; they all knew it. It was different than just having a girlfriend, and it was way different than when Carol was pregnant with Ben. For one, Monica was still his girlfriend; it was his number one priority to be there at all times, no matter what. As much as he hated missing out on everything, Ross had also missed out on a lot of the responsibility that came with. Chandler wasn't just attending the doctor's appointments, he was running out in the middle of the night when she wanted fried chicken at 2am, he was holding her hair and rubbing her back when she got morning sickness during the first trimester, he was giving her massages, talking her down when she got emotional. Hell, he was sitting here on a guys' night drinking orange juice instead of beer because he had given up alcohol in solidarity for the duration of the pregnancy. Not even four months in, and it was already the most rewarding experience of Chandler's life.

"That was a terrible call!" Ross exclaimed. He turned around. "Dude, are you even watching? You haven't said a word!"

"Yeah, this is supposed to be a guys' night!" Joey added. "Stop thinking about your girlfriend for a little while and watch the game with us!"

Chandler smiled and shook his head. Like it was that easy, like he could just stop thinking about Monica. He didn't disagree, though, and turned at least some of his attention to the TV. It only took two minutes after that for Ross to start rambling that he had given up a career in basketball to become a paleontologist and another thirty seconds before Chandler threatened to throw the remote at his head. From then it was almost normal, like they were three guys just hanging out and watching a game. They mostly talked about the game, commenting on the opposing players and refs and who would make the playoffs this year and it was all so easy. He had missed it.

Too easy.

At halftime, Joey stood up to grab another beer and tossed one to Ross before turning to Chandler.

"Want one?" he asked.

Chandler shook his head and held up his glass. "No, but could you pass the orange juice?"

"You're really not drinking?" Joey pressed.

"Nope," Chandler responded. "Not until the baby comes, at least. We'll talk to the doctor about breastfeeding when the time comes, but I'm not drinking again until Mon can."

"Okay, one, TMI," Ross shook his head in disgust. "And two, what are you doing?"

"What am I doing about what?" Chandler gulped down the rest of his glass before refilling it with the bottle Joey passed him.

"You, and-and my sister!" Ross exclaimed. "You-you're like a couple, but you're not? Like, seriously dude, what are you doing?"

"We are definitely a couple," Chandler responded, gazed fixed on the halftime show even though he had no real interest in what they were saying. "And I thought we weren't talking about this tonight."

"We're not," Joey agreed. "But come on, man, you never tell us anything anymore!"

"What are you talking about, I tell you everything!" Chandler argued.

"Not the real stuff!" Joey complained. "Come on, man, we wanna know!"

"You don't want to know, you just want to be nosy," Chandler responded, still pretending to be interested in the TV. He was so not in the mood for this tonight. He really had wanted one normal night, without dealing with the constant questioning that he already got from the girls daily. Was that really so much to ask?

Apparently yes, because neither Joey nor Ross seemed likely to give up, Joey even going so far as to turn off the TV to get Chandler to look at him. That certainly got Chandler's attention.

"What, okay? What could possibly be so important that we can't spend one night not talking about this," he caved.

"So what's going on with you two?" Joey grinned and bounced childishly.

"You already know what's going on with us," Chandler reminded him. "It's not like it's some big secret." Anymore, anyways, he added to himself.

"Straight answer: are you getting married or not?" Ross cut in.

"We're…not," Chandler responded slowly. Hell, if only he knew the answer to that one. "It's complicated, I guess."

"You got my sister pregnant, what could possibly be so complicated about that?" Ross asked.

"It's…I don't know," Chandler sighed. "I asked her if she wanted to, and she doesn't. Just the other day she said that we're moving too fast, and that we should slow down a bit. I don't even know what to think."

"Yeah, sure, after getting pregnant is the time to slow down," Joey huffed.

"It's because it's all happening so fast!" Chandler defended her. "Can you blame her? Everything is changing, she doesn't want to change too much at once. It's good this way, it'll give us the chance to date for a while, then who knows," he shrugged.

"You keep saying that Monica doesn't want to get married," Ross spoke up after a pause. "Which is...so weird, by the way. But what about you?"

"What about me?" Chandler gulped.

"Do you want to get married? Like, baby thing aside, do you want to marry her?"

"I…" Chandler hesitated. "Yeah, I do," he admitted. "I'm so crazy about her, and I know I'll never feel this way about anyone else. I mean, if things were different and we weren't having a baby, I probably wouldn't even be thinking of this, but we are. We are, and it's, like, the best thing to ever happen to me. It's just…" he took a breath and ran his hands over his face. "It's Monica, y'know? She's everything. I just want to make her happy, and if that means we don't get married, or we wait, or whatever she wants, then…that's how it's gonna be. Okay? Happy?"

The other two were dead silent, but Chandler couldn't bring himself to look at them, keeping his gaze focused on the half-empty cup of juice in his hands. He didn't know how he felt having all that out in the open. He wasn't used to being so vulnerable, but he just had to tell someone. A weight had been lifted off of him for sure, but in its place was a sense of dread that they wouldn't understand, or that they would laugh at him, or that Ross would be angry. He didn't know what to expect and that scared him.

"I'm just…I'm gonna go to bed," he said after a moment of silence. "Tell me how the game turns out tomorrow."

"Chandler, wait," Ross stopped him before he had gone more than a few paces. He turned back to meet two sympathetic gazes and heaved out a shaky breath of relief. "Is…is that true? What you just said?"

"No, Ross, I've had that scripted out for weeks just in case we had this very conversation," Chandler huffed, rolling his eyes.

"That's…I had no idea, man," Ross shook his head.

"Yeah, well," Chandler rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly very uncomfortable with the whole situation. "I'm just gonna…" He pointed vaguely in the direction of his room, and retreated without another word from any of them. Some guys' night that had turned out to be.

Chandler had just flooped down backwards on his bed when there was a quick knock at his door, and not a second later Ross poked his head in.

"What?" Chandler sighed.

"I know…I know Monica's my sister, and it's my job to be a little protective of her, but you're my best friend," he started, and Chandler shifted up on his forearms so he could look Ross in the eye for this conversation. "I've known you for a long time and I've never seen you feel like this about someone. I don't want to see either of you get hurt. That includes you. So be careful, okay? Don't hurt her, but try not to let her hurt you either?" He looked so serious that Chandler had to huff out a laugh.

"I'll do my best big guy," he responded. "Night."

"Night," Ross responded before turning and closing the door behind him as he left. Chandler stared at the ceiling for a long time. Don't let her hurt you. Yeah, it might be too late for that, because if anything ever happened, if she ever left him for any reason, Chandler honestly didn't think he'd survive.

So there's that! Thought? Compliments? Criticisms? Anything you want to see happen in this story? Leave me a review!