Encore
An Alternate Universe Mondler Fan fiction
Chapter 2:
After minutes of silence Rachel managed to break it. "Who knew he could sing so well? He never sang around us."
Joey gave a slight shrug, still struggling to find his voice. "We need to find Mon, and figure out what happened between them. They're meant to be together, they were so perfect together."
"Lets go find Monica."
The gang crossed the street once more, and made their way to apartment twenty. They had been inside maybe once in the last three weeks, for Monica often refused to come to the door and they had respected her privacy.
Ross tested the doorknob, for Monica had gotten in the habit of locking the door.
"Joey, go get your key." He ordered.
When Joey returned a few moments later with the key, they entered the apartment and were floored by how messy and unorganized it was. It didn't look like a place Monica lived. Upon discovering Monica wasn't in the living room, Rachel carefully made her way to Monica's bedroom, slightly terrified of what she may find.
As she opened the door she gasped in pity, revealing a puffy eyed Monica curled up in a fetal position on her bed. An old t-shirt she held in her hands muffled her soft sobs. Taking in the open drawer of the dresser, Rachel realized what must have happened to make her break down so badly. Rachel quickly ducked out of Monica's room and returned to the gang.
"I think she found one of Chandler's old t-shirts in the bottom of her drawer." She informed the group.
They all followed Rachel in, making sympathetic noises as the approached Monica. Phoebe slowly sat down next to her.
"Oh Mon, honey." She cooed sympathetically, hating seeing her friend in such a state.
Monica's voice broke through, ragged with tears. "One stupid fight too far, and I drove him away!"
"Monica sweetie, what do you mean? What happened? We want to know." Rachel said softly.
After some deliberation, Monica started, sitting up slightly and clutching the t-shirt close to her.
"It all started one day."
Chandler sat strumming softly on his guitar, mumbling little phrases to himself as he worked through his current mood, on of his depressed, miserable, post break up moods. He had many post break up moods. One could be anger, one could be sadness, one could be finding resolve and trying to convince himself he was over Monica…or it could be what he was feeling right now.
After about fifteen minutes of playing, he felt better, and started to sing to himself some of the phrases he had come up with.
Stop lying to yourself
Let it all out
The pain of yesterday
Are the scars of now
Yet they only hide the way you feel
His voice was soft and pained, until he finally stopped, and leaned back in his chair to watch the TV. When he felt the tour bus jolt to a stop, he knew why. It had been planned that at two o'clock his manager would come on board and they would discuss the next leg of the tour and his next possible album release date. Sure enough, he felt his iPhone alert him that it was time for a meeting. Sighing reluctantly, he rose from his seat and entered the main room of the bus. When he found his seat across from his manager in the plush captain chairs, the bus started to move forward again.
"So Chandler, how do you feel this tour is going?" his manager Aiden Donovan asked.
Chandler shrugged, absentmindedly messing with his hands on the table.
"I don't know. It's going well I guess. The fans are great as always, and then energy on stage is amazing."
"But?"
"How did you know there was a but?" Chandler asked, slightly perplexed.
"Your tone. Anyway, what is the but?"
"I guess, I'm kind of lonely. Sure, I love the staff, you guys are all amazing, but I miss my friends. I can't help but wish they could share this with me. But the circumstances don't work in my favor, so I try to ignore it."
Aiden nodded before replying, "Well let us know if we can do anything."
Chandler muttered a quiet 'sure' in response, shrugging as he spoke and leaned back. He ran his fingers through his hair, as was a habit of his.
Aiden eyed him cautiously before shrugging it off and proceeding.
"So, our next few stops are in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. You'll be performing twice in Ohio, in Cleveland and then in Akron. In Pennsylvania, you will be performing in Franklin, Harrisburg, and Scranton. Then in New York, you'll be hitting Rochester, Syracuse, and Kingston. Oh, and here's a great surprise! You're booked to perform at Madison Square Garden in New York City!"
When Chandler heard that, his first thought was that if he had been drinking water, it would have gone up his nose. He was in utter shock for a few seconds then managed to stutter, "N-New Yo-rk City?"
Aiden was slightly taken aback by Chandler's response. "Yes, New York City is where Madison Square Garden is…"
"I'm sorry, but I can't go to New York City. I can't. I just can't."
"Chandler! This is MADISON SQUARE GARDEN! You can't pass this up! More so, we can't go back on it. We've already posted it on your website and countless tickets have been sold. But don't worry. It's just like performing anywhere else, and you've got a week or so to prep yourself for it." Aiden said, doing his best to keep his exasperation from his voice.
This isn't about nerves! Chandler thought irritably, this is about not being able to go back to the place that was my life before it became the place that my heart was shattered and going back to the time when my life had no meaning.
Chandler knew it was pointless to argue with Aiden so he caved, though his demeanor was much more subdued afterwards. "Fine."
After the meeting, Chandler retreated to his room, miserable as the tour bus made its way towards Cleveland.
"And because of a stupid fight he's gone and it's all my fault." Monica sobbed.
Ross sighed, not quite sure how to respond. It sounded as if Monica had acted illogically and got on Chandler's last nerve, and due to his own issues with relationships, didn't know how to work past it.
"Now come on Mon…you can't let this consume you. It hurts now, but you'll get over it. You need to, for your own sake." Rachel said softly.
With the rest of the group's help Monica slowly got past her pain, self pity, and self blame and on to the next stage; amplification of her anger towards Chandler. It was probably a good thing her apartment was a mess, because she would be cleaning a lot during her angry stage.
It was a few days later that Joey burst into Central Perk where Phoebe, Rachel, and Ross sat. Monica had started to join them there more frequently, but right then she was at work.
"Guys! Guess what!" Joey practically yelled in his excitement.
"Ooh! Ooh! Leave it to Beaver is doing a reunion show!" Phoebe shot back excitedly.
"Pheebs, I think that might be a bit hard for them to pull off." Ross said calmly.
"Ooh! Is-"
"Quick Joe, tell us before she guesses again." Rachel said, cutting Phoebe off.
Shaking slightly from excitement, Joey revealed why he was so happy. "Chandler is performing at Madison Square Garden next week!"
The others looked from Joey to each other, trying to gauge reactions. Joey obviously wanted to go, but the others weren't so sure.
"Joe, it might be kind of risky to show up at his concert. He may not want us there. Plus, it's one thing to listen to his CDs behind Monica's back, but she would kill us if she found out we went to his concert behind her back." Ross said slowly.
Phoebe nodded, "Yeah, especially with her being in the angry stage right now."
"Then get her to the next stage and quickly!" Joey said energetically, "I want to see Chandler!"
"It'd be hard, but we may be able to pull it off." Rachel said thoughtfully.
"Yay! Lets get started! I'll go buy tickets and you guys get Mon past the angry stage to whatever stage works best for us." Joey exclaimed.
It was a LOT of work, but Rachel, Phoebe, Ross, and Joey managed to get Monica to progress, to even go on a few dates. Now she just felt disappointed that things hadn't gone well with Chandler.
"It's just, it was what we had both feared going into our relationship. Not only did we lose our significant others, we lost each other as friends." Monica explained.
"Yeah, it really stinks that it didn't work out. He really was trying to help by disappearing. He didn't want to create more awkwardness than there was already probably." Phoebe added.
The days wore by, and soon, it was the day before the concert.
As usual, the tour bus arrived the day before the concert, leaving Chandler to explore for a day. But now, he was exploring his old haunts, trying to recapture how it was before 'the incident'. Of course, that was made substantially harder due to the fact he was recognized by practically everyone, many people stopping him to get autographs. It didn't bother him terribly, seeing as he loved his fans' devotion, but he did want time alone with his thoughts, just to reminisce.
His steps took him past his old office building, down old streets that caused memories long buried to fly to the surface of his mind; losing Ben on the bus, visiting Marcel on set of the movie, Suzy tricking him into getting stuck in a nice restaurant's bathroom stall in nothing but hot pink panties, Monica's first job at the Moondance Diner, Ross' job at the museum…he wondered if any of them had gotten new jobs since he left. Soon he found himself outside Central Perk and his old apartment building. Part of him wanted to go into Central Perk to see if any of his former friends were there, but he knew better than to try to reconnect. It would mean reconnecting with Monica, who had undoubtedly moved on, which would cause nothing but awkwardness. No, he would play this concert than move on.
AN/Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Ooh! Except I did come up with those lyrics used THIS chapter off the top of my head. If they stink, sorry, I'm not a song writer.