Thank you all for sticking with this and for all your comments. Very much appreciated.

Monica tried to hide her disappointment at the lack of his presence at breakfast.

"Where's Chandler?" she asked when Joey appeared a little later.

"Dunno," he shrugged grabbing a croissant, "he must have gone into work early. Probably to sort out whatever he screwed up yesterday."

"Oh," Rachel casually commented to her roommate, "he came by to see you last night, after you'd gone to bed,"

"What?" she asked surprised and slightly pissed, "why didn't you tell me?"

"Um," Rachel was confused by Monica's reaction, "because it was only Chandler and he said it wasn't important and," she glanced at her watch, "I've only been up for an hour so I haven't really been keeping this from you."

"So Joey," Ross hurriedly interjected, trying to bring the focus off his sister, "what did you guys get up to last night instead of the movies?"

She held her breath waiting for the answer.

"We went to the movies too," Joey shrugged,"Chandler didn't get back until late and refused to go to a strip club or even a bar," he looked appalled, missing Monica's relief. "So instead we went to see an action flick. Explosions, guns, kidnapping…way more exciting than some wedding film."

Monica started to smile, feeling like a huge weight had been lifted. He hadn't gone to see naked lap dancing women. He hadn't been trying to get other women's phone numbers. He'd come home and tried to speak to her. Her. She still had a chance.

Ross came over and bumped her shoulder playfully, "told ya," he whispered with a grin and she couldn't help grin back.

"It was a good film," Rachel argued oblivious to the siblings, "there was so much drama and oooh that Dermot Mulroney. Yum."

"Mmmm," Phoebe joined in, "I could just bite him somewhere rude...if I ever get to meet him in real life."

Monica had to laugh at her friends. It felt like she hadn't laughed in days. She was in high spirits. She was going to speak to him tonight. An excited shiver went through her at the thought. She was equally nervous as she was excited now and could only count down the hours...

"Hello Children," Chandler greeted as he walked into Central Perk that evening.

Work had gone well, his WENUS was back inline meaning his ANUS should be ok too. Of course his mind hadn't been completely free of Monica- he sometimes wondered if it ever would be but he'd been able to mostly force those thoughts to the back of his mind and concentrate on his job.

Now though he started to get a little nervous. The safety barrier work presented was gone and it was time to talk to her. He'd hoped she'd be at the coffee house but it was everyone apart from her. Typical.

"Hey," they all replied.

"Where's Monica?" He perched himself on the arm of the couch hoping that just maybe the fates were being kind and she was in the restroom or upstairs.

"Oh, she got called into work," Rachel informed him.

Great. He couldn't believe this was happening. Maybe they were jinxed, destiny determined to keep him from talking to her and figuring this all out, "but I thought she had the day off?"

"She did but Tony…or Dave…or someone phoned in sick so she had to cover their shift."

"Oh," he tried to keep the frown from his face.

"It's the late shift too," Phoebe commented.

"Of course it is," he muttered frustrated. There really was a conspiracy. "Anybody want anything?" he sighed gesturing towards the counter.

Receiving only shakes of heads, he headed up by himself. It was a little busier than normal so he closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. What could he do? He had to speak to her tonight, he couldn't take another day of this. Maybe he could leave her a note asking her to contact him as soon as she got home? No, she was barely talking to him, why on earth would she come over to his apartment under her own free will?

"Hi."

Not recognizing the voice he opened his eyes cautiously, surprised by the attractive blonde that was smiling at him.

"Hey," he ventured carefully, expecting her to either be talking to some good-looking guy behind him or that she was going to inform him that he'd stolen her stool.

"You look kinda down," she observed, "bad day?"

"You could say that," he was still confused why she was talking to him.

"That's a shame, can I buy you a coffee to make your day a little better?"

She winked.

She was hitting on him, actually hitting on him.

Women didn't hit on him ever, especially not attractive ones. Why today? Why couldn't this take place tomorrow? Tomorrow he'd probably be heartbroken from his talk with Monica and looking for anything to take his mind off it but not today. Today was about Monica.

"I um…" how did her politely turn her down? He was hopeless when it came to this sort of thing, probably due to the lack of practice, "that's a nice offer but-"

"Honey, what's taking so long?"

Chandler froze in confusion as Ross walked up to the counter and hesitantly put an arm around his shoulders, pulling him closer than he was comfortable with.

"Ross, what-?"

"Oh," the blonde smiled, understanding creeping into her voice as Ross give a peck of a kiss into Chandler's hair, "I get it, sorry."

As she walked away Chandler quickly shook Ross off him, "what the hell are you doing?"

"You looked like you needed the help," he shrugged unapologetically, "or at the very least reminding that you're in love with my little sister."

"Dude," he hissed, looking over to the couch to ensure the others hadn't heard, "keep your voice down, will ya? And I didn't need the help or the reminder ok, I was already declining. I had no interest in her."

"Oh," Ross felt a little silly.

"Besides," Chandler sighed, "I doubt Monica would care if I was talking to some girl. She'd probably be grateful that she doesn't have to worry about me being in love with her, that I'm moving on."

"What?" Ross asked.

Chandler ignored him for a moment, placing his order with Gunther before turning back to his friend.

"She's avoiding me Ross," he admitted. "She's awkward and uncomfortable around me. I obviously did something to freak her out big time. It's just about damage control now. I need to find out what I did to her and work out how to fix it."

Ross studied his friend for a moment. He hadn't realized that Chandler had picked up on so much and had come to these conclusions. It was time to put him straight.

"It wasn't you it was me."

Chandler frowned at him, "is this still part of the gay couple act?"

Ross shook his head frustrated that Chandler chose to joke now of all times.

"No, would you just listen?" he hissed, ignoring as Chandler's coffee was pushed towards him. "You didn't freak her out, I did. I…" he looked down nervously, "I told her."

"What?!" realizing that he'd drown the attention of many people around him he took a deep breath and calmed himself. "Why the hell did you do that Ross? You're supposed to be my friend."

"Look," he tried to explain calmly. "It was on Friday night and she kept asking questions. You were so upset over it and then I watched her tuck you in and-"

"She tucked me in?" he asked incredulously.

Ross shrugged dismissing his question. "I thought she deserved to know for both your sakes. I thought it would help things."

"Yeah, you did a great job," he said sarcastically, still angry at him, "she's now freaked and avoiding me. Thanks man," he shook his head turning to leave.

"Chandler," he grabbed his arm but Chandler shook him off and stalked out of the door. He needed to clear his head. "Damn it!"

Chandler paused just outside the coffee house, his frustration growing as he realized Ross had followed him outside.

"Leave me alone," Chandler demanded.

"No," Ross argued, "look, I told her because I care about both of you and yes, maybe she's been acting a little weird around you but only because it was a lot for her to think about."

"Think about how to let me down gently?" His sarcasm was still strong but his anger was dissipating slightly. "You know when I told Rachel about you it was a total accident and I felt terrible afterwards."

"She's not trying to let you down gently," Ross informed him, choosing to ignore his reference to Rachel. "She wants to talk to you, talk this through and see if, well, see if you guys could work."

Chandler froze, so many emotions crashing through him all fighting for his attention. Disbelief, confusion, hope, fear, "what?" he finally croaked out. Did he really mean…

Ross took a deep breath, glad that he'd gotten through to him.

"She wants to speak with you and see what could happen. Last night I got a phone call from her, terrified that you and Joey were out at some bar or strip club and that you'd meet someone and she'd miss her chance with you."

"R-really?" Chandler stammered unbelieving.

Monica knew and didn't hate him? She was being weird around him not because she was working out the best way to reject him but because she was contemplating the idea of them being together?

"Yeah, look you guys have really just got to talk before you both go crazy."

"You're right," he nodded, looking into Ross' eyes with new determination.

Now that he knew what had happened and that he may actually have a shot with her, this changed things. Before he was going to talk to her afraid of what she thought about him and expecting to have to belittle his feelings to help her feel comfortable around him. Now that he knew she was possibly considering entering into a relationship with him, he had to show her that they could be so good together.

He wasn't going down without a fight.

Smiling and patting Ross' shoulder he ran towards his apartment entrance.

"Where you going?" Ross called, but Chandler ignored him. He had some planning to do and was determined not to screw this up.

This was the chance he'd been praying for.

His chance.

A/N...ok probably not the talk you were hoping...