Chapter 3: A Man Like That

The two combatants in the center ring circled the blacktop like tigers, fists cocked and ready to start swinging. All around them, comrades on both sides yelled and catcalled, encouraging their two representatives to leap in and start wailing on each other.

Seeing this sight up ahead, Chandler lengthened his stride and leapt for the chainlink fence, quickly scaling it.

"HOLD IT!"

He dropped to the ground, ignoring the surprised stares from the Geller-Tribbianis, the elated looks from his brothers-in-arms, and the shocked and pleased look from Ross.

"Chandler, excellent! Over here!" Tag motioned to him. But Chandler dove into the center ring and intercepted Pete, holding him back.

"No, don't!"

"Chandler, what are you doing…..?"

"Maybe he was found the guts to fight his own battles," Ross sneered, seeming quite ready to change sparring partners.

Chandler turned back. "It doesn't take guts to have a battle. And we don't even have a beef with you, not any of us! OK, Ross?" He held out his hand to shake. He didn't have to like the guy, but she was the brother of Monica, the woman he loved. Which meant he had to care about Ross's well being too. Chandler liked to think that, if things were different, he and Ross might even be friends.

Ross quickly put a damper on that notion as, disgusted by Chandler's refusal to fight, punched at his arm and then shoved him to the ground.

"Hold it!" Tag moved between everyone. "Listen here, Geller, we agreed it was a fair fight between you and Pete!"

Ross grinned and backed away, hands shoulder height. "It's all right, I'll take pretty boy as a warm up!" His gaze bore a hole into Chandler's back, taunting him. "What's the matter, pretty, pretty boy? You afraid? You chicken?"

"Cut it…." Tag growled warningly, moving in furiously, only for Chandler to hold him back.

"No!" He faced down the brother of his lover. "I don't want to fight you, Ross."

"Oh, I'm sure you don't!" Ross sent another goading punch into his arm.

"Now, listen to me! There's nothing to fight about!"

"Come on….. Come on!" Ross kept trying to nudge and provoke Chandler into a fight, until Chandler had backed up into his friends. "You weren't so pussy when you were kissing my sister, chicken!"

The allusion to Monica caused fire to briefly burn through Chandler's blood, provoking him just enough to spin into the center ring, fists cocked.

But then he could see Monica's lovely face before him, her eyes – Ross's eyes – pleading with him, imploring.

He couldn't do it. He lowered his fists.

Ross watched the entire exchange with disbelief. "…. He is chicken!..." The Geller-Tribbianis now began making chicken noises, surrounding Chandler, lightly slapping his face until they had backed him up right into Tag's group.

"DON'T PUSH ME!" Chandler yelled, thinking someone had nudged into him from behind.

A fist suddenly flew out, connecting with Ross's jaw and sending him tumbling. Freezing at what he had just done, Tag quickly removed his jacket as the two groups backed up. Leaping to his feet, Ross had a hand to his jawline with shock.

Faces hardening, the two men faced off, drawing small objects from their pockets, which now caused Chandler's blood to run cold as they caught the light:

Switchblades. Both groups had broken the terms of the deal.

"No! Tag, what are you doing?!"

"Get out of here, Chandler!" When Chandler persisted, Tag ordered some of his men to, "Hold him!"

Tag and Ross were hacking and stabbing at the air, their faces alive with malice. At one point, Tag lost his grip on his knife and was forced to retreat flush against the chainlink faces. Both gangs surged forward as one to instigate a mass brawl.

"KEEP OUTTA THIS!"

Tag's bellow caused everyone to freeze in silence, only broken by Chandler:

"Somebody stop him! Let me GO!"

Ross rushed Tag, who dodged and managed to dance away long enough for a fellow brother to pass him a new knife. He managed to knock Ross down, and just as he was closing in for the winning blow, Chandler broke free and seized Tag by his arm, holding him back.

"Tag, STOP!"

With a growl, Tag threw Chandler off, turned back and charged forward….

…. Right into Ross's waiting knife.

Stillness permeated the blacktop. Tag staggered back, going through a kind of pirouette as he extended his knife hand out in Chandler's direction before collapsing, nearly in his good friend's arms.

Feeling Tag's rapidly cooling body, Chandler felt his own body run hot. His fingers closed around Tag's knife and before he even realized what he was doing, he had dashed at Ross and plunged the blade into his stomach in a rage. Ross went down.

"GET HIM!" A melee ensued, Tags and Geller-Tribbianis attacking each other without regard. Chandler didn't fight back, letting the fists come raining down on him from all sides.

Monica….. I'm sorry….

Sirens split the air. The mass brawl broke, men fleeing into the shadows like mice. Some scaled the chainlink, other managed to clear the tall, stone wall on one side with a pull-up from a friend.

Chandler roused himself, now left alone on the blacktop with two dead bodies. He crawled over to Ross's still form and let out a scream of his lover's name:

"MONICA!"

Suddenly, a shadowy figure darted into the blacktop. "Chandler!" The feminine voice urged him, shaking him, and Chandler dully looked: It was Phoebe, the streetwise tomboy. "Chandler, come on! We have to move!"

And she led him away, leaving Tag and Ross's bodies to rest on the blacktop.

Meanwhile, Monica blissfully awaited Chandler and his promised coming to her. She anxiously yearned for him to tell her that the rumble instigated by her brother had been successfully averted. Her thoughts turned giddy as she thought of how she might reward him, and she blushed.

Her happy musings were interrupted by Joey suddenly bursting onto the balcony, looking strangely ashen.

"Monica! Come inside, where it's safe!"

She smiled at him bemusedly. "I'm fine, Joey….."

"Please!" Joey begged. "Just stay in your room; it's important. The rumble…."

"Oh, but there was no rumble!" Monica trilled out through a laugh.

"Yes, there was."

Monica froze, turning back to Joey and for the first time registering just how pale he looked. More than that: frightened. She drifted into him.

"Tell me."

Joey gulped. "There were knives….. Tag and Ross…. They…. They were hurt…."

Monica drew one hand to her mouth to hold in a gasp. "And Chandler? What happened to Chandler?! Please, Joey, is Chandler all right?!"

Too late, she realized her mistake. Joey flinched away from her, eyes burning in absolute revulsion. "He killed your BROTHER!" And he pelted back through the apartment and out the door, howling in his grief. Out in the hallway, Monica could hear Rachel screaming, wailing.

Monica floated to her room in a kind of trance. Ross…. Dead? My Chandler killed him? Locking herself in her room, she knelt before a small statue of the Virgin Mary she kept by her bed and prayed.

"Oh, Mother of God, please don't let it be true! Please don't let it be true!"

She suddenly spotted movement by her bedroom window as someone slipped in. She froze. It was Chandler.

Relief and rage went to war in Monica's heart and she flung herself at him, into his arms, even as she beat on his chest with her fists, howling.

"KILLER! Killer! Killer…."

The lovers sank to the floor, Monica sobbing. "I tried to stop it, but…. Tag was one of my oldest friends and when your brother shanked him, I couldn't think straight, and…" He sighed. "Mon, I came to say goodbye?"

"Goodbye?" she shied back from him, tears blinking in her eyes.

"I have to turn myself in to the cops!"

"NO!" Monica yelped, burrowing herself in his embrace. "Just hold me! Stay with me! I…. I love you!" She even forgave him, for what he had done to her brother, impossible as it seemed.

"I'll do whatever you want – forever, if you'll let me," Chandler promised her. "You…. make me happier than I ever thought I could be…."

Drawing back, eyes growing heavy, Monica tenderly kissed him. The kiss quickly deepened in its passion until both Chandler and Monica were backing up to, and then lowering themselves onto, the bed.

There, they made love….

"Monica!" There was a thwapping sound on the door. "Monica, are you in there? I'm sorry to wake you…."

Monica jerked awake sharply against Chandler's naked form, one that matched her own. Sharing a worried glance, the pair quietly dashed about, hurriedly redressing.

"Run!" Monica told her love, kissing him desperately. "Run away…."

"Only with you," Chandler told her.

"OK," she nodded. "How?"

"Come to the Central Perk Coffee House at midnight, and ask for Gunther. He'll help us!"

Nodding, Monica drew Chandler close and kissed him again. "Be careful!" she whispered. "Now, go!"

"Monica!" Rachel's voice was tear-choked and impatient.

"Coming, Rache!" Monica watched as Chandler slipped out the window before diving and opening the door to her bedroom.

Rachel walked in, and from how stony her face was, Monica knew she was immediately suspicious.

"Were you speaking to someone just now?"

Before Monica could lie and say no one, Rachel drew to the window, just in time to see Chandler hustling out of the alley beyond. The blonde whirled back to her lost love's sister in a rage.

"You slept with HIM?! The man who killed your brother?! I have half a mind to call the cops on him right now…."

"Rachel, don't, please! Please…." Monica began to cry. "I….. I love him….."

"Love?!" Rachel screamed with derisive laughter. "A boy who kills cannot love! A man who kills has no heart!"

Monica gulped. "Ross killed Tag," she told Rachel quietly. "Would you still love him, after what he had done and if he were here?"

Rachel faltered. She was almost embarrassed to nod her head Yes. Monica smiled sadly.

"I love Chandler, Monica. I love him enough even to forgive him for killing Ross. I don't expect you to, but I do hope that you would be supportive of my choice."

That was a tall ask, Rachel knew, but seeing the hopeless adoration in Monica's eyes, she could only sigh and slowly nod. Monica hugged her.

The girls were interrupted just then by a police officer coming in, asking questions about the rumble. He seemed very interested in speaking with Monica. Looking at each other, Monica passed Rachel some money.

"Central Perk Coffee. Tell Gunther I've been…. detained."

Eyes widening with understanding, Rachel nodded. Then she slipped out of the apartment.

"Now, Miss Geller: a couple of nights ago, you were seen dancing with a boy. Who was that boy?" the cop asked.

It only took a split second for Monica to decide to lie.

"…. Richard."