One-Shot: Something Wonderful Has Happened
Monica Geller was crying.
Weeping, in fact, even though she also had a beaming smile of joy across her face. Either her eyes were deceiving her, or she was just seeing what she wanted to see.
She shifted to glance at the test strip from a different angle under the lighting. Then, she turned off some of the lights just to make sure that the second pink line wasn't actually a glare of sunlight beaming down onto the paper.
No mistaking it – there were indeed two pink lines, clear as day.
Pregnant…. she was pregnant!
Over the last several months, Monica had been grieving what she thought was the death of her dream. Dr. Connally had told her and her husband that they were essentially infertile – stuff about 'low sperm motility' and an 'inhospitable utero environment.' Chandler had gotten right to the heart of the matter: "It means that we can keep trying," he had said. "….. but there's a good chance this may never happen for us."
Except, apparently, it had.
It had to have been a one-in-a-million bank shot. Despite her competitiveness athletically, Monica had never bothered herself with many of the granular terms in sports, yet this one seemed to fit. Chandler (or really, Chandler's sperm) had to have drained an impossible basket from half-court, as it were, sending one of his swimmers up to an egg the way a salmon fights upstream. Then that swimmer would have had to survive against Monica's womb essentially targeting and destroying any sperm that threatened the eggs for fertilization to take hold.
Monica started to weep again, letting happy sobs escape her. She began to dance, leap about her kitchen. She wanted to run out onto the balcony and yell it at the top of her lungs for the world to hear; she almost did, and only just enough self-restraint made her refrain. She was ecstatic, even more than she had been when Chandler had asked her to marry him.
She clutched at her stomach, still flat but where she knew a real life baby was growing inside of her.
"A miracle!..." Monica wept. "….. It's a miracle!"
She heard the key turn in the lock of Apartment 20 and she glanced up, not bothering to move quickly and wipe her tears. Chandler strode into their home, stopping short when he glanced up and saw his wife with moisture clinging to her cheeks.
He immediately cast his briefcase aside, not even bothering to ask her what was wrong. From the soft, sympathetic look in his eyes, he thought he already knew. If only he really did! For the past several months, Monica had been prone to moments of weepiness, grieving the loss of their dream. Her husband had held her each and every time she cried.
"Oh, honey….. It's gonna be OK – Monica….?" Chandler blinked at the radiant smile that suddenly dawned on his wife's face amidst the tears and suddenly she was running at him, leaping into his embrace and throwing her arms around his neck.
She kissed him full on the mouth. Kissed him again and again everywhere she could reach: on his cheeks, on his eyelids, on his nose, on his mouth once more.
She felt Chandler move to kiss her back, even as he was clearly bewildered.
"Mon? What's…. what's going on…..?"
Monica leaned back, wet eyes shining. "God bless you, Chandler Bing!" And then she was hugging him tight, leaning into him with utter contentment. "Ohhh….. you did it! We did it!"
Chandler chuckled awkwardly. "Yes, I did – wait….." he frowned. "What did I do now?"
Leaning back to peer into his face, Monica laughed brightly, tickled by the wary expression she found there. "Nothing's wrong," she assured him. She hugged herself, still beaming, breathless. "Something wonderful has happened!"
Chandler stared at her. "Wonderful? Then…. why are you like this? Why are you crying?"
Monica smirked and rolled her eyes in amusement. "Oh, come on, sweetie, haven't you ever heard of tears of joy?"
Chandler's face started to brighten considerably. "Well, all right!... What's the good news?"
Monica drifted into him, her hands on his chest, peering up into his face. "Chandler…. Sweetie…. I'm pregnant."
Chandler's jaw dropped. Of all the possibilities that had been just running through his mind, he hadn't expected this. Besides, it wasn't possible….. Dr. Connally had told them they….
But then Monica was showing him the pregnancy test strip, practically thrusting it under his nose, and he squinted. True, his wife had been feeling sick lately, but the news of their infertility had caused him not to wonder if perhaps….
He was glad Monica had had such intuition, even if they had been beginning to accept there was no hope – or so they had thought.
He wasn't imagining it, and it wasn't a trick of the light: there were two pink lines here. A baby? We're going to have a baby?
Chandler glanced up, gaping, to where his wife was anxiously searching his face.
"Say something!" she begged.
….. We're going to have a baby….. Chandler began to cry tears of joy himself.
"Congratulations….. I love you…." he warbled, and he gave her a big hug and a kiss. "That's….. that's wonderful….."
Monica softly studied him, at rest in his arms. "Are you happy?"
As if she had to ask! Chandler beamed wetly and kissed her squarely on the mouth. "Of course I am! This is a happy moment…. the happiest moment of my life!"
Nine months later, Monica was sitting up in her hospital bed, tenderly nursing her baby girl. Her daughter. Her and Chandler's daughter, whom they had made, together, and against steep odds.
Slipping quietly back into the hospital room with a tray, Chandler sent his wife his signature cocksure, boyish smirk. "Hey…. Brought you something to eat…."
As he bent over to lay the tray across her lap, Monica beamed and craned up to kiss him softly on the lips. "You're wonderful…." she cooed, turning back to beam glowingly at the little bundle in her arms. Erica, their little girl, opened her sleepy eyes and Monica was transported all over. It was transcendent, to feel such crippling, intense, primal love for such a little, helpless person. To fall in love instantly. She and her husband hadn't even fallen in love so fast.
Monica couldn't believe it, and once again hoped it wasn't some cruel dream from which she would suddenly wake up. It would be the cruelest thing of all, if this wasn't real.
Except it was real. She was happily married to a husband who loved her so deeply, he seemed convinced the sun rose and set on her shoulders. She had a career she loved. And now – she was a mother. She was somebody's mother! At last! At last!
Pressing her lips to Erica's forehead, Monica beamed up at Chandler and reached up to kiss him soundly again, caressing his face.
"Thank you…." she breathed, choked up. "For giving her to me….. To us….. I love you….."
Chandler gazed at her adoringly. "I'm in awe of you, Mon. You're the one who got us here. Just….. you're amazing! I love so much!"
"I know!" Monica squealed, turning back with shining eyes to drink in their daughter. "Oh, Chandler…. Just look at her!….. Look at what we made….. She's so…. beautiful….."
Chandler watched his girls with a soft, enraptured smile. "Shall I let the others in? Pheebs and Rache practically attacked me at the drink cooler, and I think Angry Ross is about to make an appearance!"
Monica smirked and dramatically rolled her eyes. "Chandler…. He's my brother, not the Incredible Hulk!"
Chandler grinned, impressed. "Excellent comic book reference! You're learning, my love!"
Monica giggled and nudged him away. "You'd better let them in, dope, before Joey tries to break the door down!"
She watched with sentimental affection as Chandler ambled away with a laugh, turning to open the door and let in their family and friends to see the new baby.
Monica grinned glowingly and cuddled her baby close, whispering covetously:
"I love you, Erica Chandler Bing…." When she had first named her, she had been pleased when Chandler hadn't even put up a fight about the middle name. Hey, Chandler could be a girl's name, right?
Monica glanced up at the gasps and awws from her loved ones now moving into the room, and she leaned back contentedly into the pillows, showing off her daughter proudly as the friends gathered around to see the new baby.
