Epilogue
"All right, Erica! Come out to me!"
From the edge of the pool, Monica watched with a fond smile as her and Chandler's daughter hesitated before leaping into the water. Her water wings bobbing, their little girl started to splash clumsily across the pool in Chandler's direction, giggling and shrieking with laughter.
Chandler encouraged Erica, a beaming and very paternal smile on his face. As an expression, it had always been one of Monica's favorites. In defiance of his own insecurities when they were younger, he had turned out to be an amazing dad to their eldest son, his namesake, and then later their twins, Jack and Erica. Monica was only sad that she had ever even doubted his abilities as a parent even one time. The ache she now felt from that fraught time, when she had been pregnant with Chandler Jr., was duller than it had been in past years. The relief she felt that she and Chandler had fought through that time to save their friendship and ultimately become a married couple, still brought tears to her eyes even now.
Erica had finally reached Chandler and he was lifting her high, tossing her and praising her to the skies. Erica's shrieks of delight were a balm on Monica's soul.
Suddenly, she thought she heard a rustling behind her. Smirking, she slowly stood, and tried to move away from her lawn chair and skirt the backyard of their little house in the suburbs of Westchester County. She and Chandler had finally moved out of the beloved Apartment 20 on Bedford Street soon after Jack and Erica were born. Chandler Jr. had been nearly seven years old at the time, and the adjustment had been hardest for him.
"NOW, Jack! Get her!" The voice of her eldest son now hollered out and suddenly Monica found herself surrounded on all sides, swarmed by her sons. Almost 12 and sprouting through a growth spurt, there was no doubt that Chandler Jr. was his father's son – indeed, his spitting image. He had Chandler's tendency for mischief and jokes, even as his humor was more dry, rather than sarcastic.
Monica made a show of acting frightened and overwhelmed as Chandler Jr. and Jack herded her towards the edge of the pool. Steered her to the water. Down in the pool, Chandler and Erica were shouting encouragement, their peals of laughter fueling the boys on.
"And a one…. And a two…. and a THREE!" Chandler Jr. and Jack finally pushed their mother over the edge; with a shriek, she tumbled into the pool in her sundress, surfacing soaked but beaming.
Erica and Chandler roared with laughter as the boys cannonballed in after their mother. The family swam to each other and quickly instigated a splash fight.
Monica knew that Ross and Rachel, her brother and sister-in-law, would be over soon for the barbeque, followed close behind by Phoebe and her husband Mike, and Joey, the bachelor and lovable uncle who was such a frequent guest, he had his own guest loft above the Bings' garage. It wouldn't do for them all to be soaking wet once the rest of the extended family arrived, but at present, she didn't care. For now, Monica just soaked in the moment, being with her family, one that might have been born in an unintended and unexpected way, but thank God it was! She couldn't imagine having any other family now.
Through the spray, her eyes met those of her husband and she beamed at him with love. … And she certainly couldn't now imagine parenting and having babies with any other partner but the man she had married. The man who had given her a baby because he loved her and wanted her to live her dream. Her Chandler.
He was, and had been for a long time, her dream now, too.