Chapter 2: Reunited

He was coming home tonight.

Monica let her thoughts be consumed by Chandler, even as she kept herself productive with the mindless task of cleaning her apartment in time for his arrival. When not at the restaurant, she had spent the better part of a week spending however many hours she needed to driving the commute to Buffalo to visit and be with him. For all the doctors' erring on the side of caution, no heart attack had been forthcoming, brought on by the pneumonia or otherwise.

And now Chandler was coming home to her, tonight. Ross had called from the Buffay taxicab he had borrowed from Phoebe, letting them now they were just outside the city.

Voices could now be heard in the hallway. Familiar ones. Monica clutched at the broom she was using, as if it might help her stand. She could feel herself shaking with both elation and terror.

What would Chandler say, when he saw her? For all the talking they had engaged in this week, they had yet to discuss the kiss they had shared the night of his hospitalization. Would he reject her love? If he did, Monica already knew she could not bear it.

The door to Apartment 20 opened, admitting Ross first, carrying an overnight bag and beckoning to someone behind him. Her brother finally stood aside…

… and there he was. Monica nearly lost her breath.

He looked healthy and whole and alive, walking under his own power. Eyes met, from across the room, and there was a heat in his gaze Monica couldn't explain.

Chandler seemed unfazed, if also patient, as he was promptly mobbed by his other, relieved friends. Joey appeared on the verge of emotional; Rachel and Phoebe seemed to fuss over every inch of him. The group finally parted, giving each other intrigued looks as Chandler and Monica faced each other.

She smiled at him weakly. "Welcome home…"

Chandler crossed the room in a few strides. Monica trembled. "Did… did you have a good drive….?"

With a growl, Chandler knocked Monica's broom aside, bent her back in a kind of dip and kissed her.

His lips were hard, unyielding and passionate against her own. Monica squeaked and then she moaned. Her eyes fluttering shut, she swooned, melting into the kiss. Her arms looped water-soft about his neck, her fingers weaving dazedly into Chandler's bronze curls as she returned his kiss.

When he finally let her up for air, Monica touched his face, her eyes shining. "Thank goodness you're back… I'm whole again. I'm-"

Her next words died a peaceful death in her throat as Chandler kissed her again. Her knees now damn near gave out from under her (Sweet Jesus, could the man kiss!); tucking his arms under her knees, Chandler lifted Monica in his arms, bridal-style, intent on carrying her off.

"Mon? Is everything all right…?"

Monica dismissed Rachel's bemused question with a wave of her hand, engrossed in kissing her lover as she surrendered and allowed him to carry her away to her room.

He closed the door behind them both. Then locked it.

Chandler's lips didn't leave Monica's until he had deposited her gently on the bed and rolled on top of her. Yanking him back into another kiss, Monica parted her lips willingly under his at the same moment she opened her legs, allowing her Chandler to settle between them.

When they broke the kiss at last with a sensuous POP!, Monica's sapphire eyes had become black pools of yearning. "What… what are you going to do to me?" She moaned with lust.

Chandler smirked, a glint in his eye. "First: I'm going to kiss you breathless. Since the hospital, I've been able to think of nothing else."

She gaped at him, flushing pink down to her chest.

"Then, I'm going to make love to you over and over again until we pass out." Chandler kissed Monica's nose, then her lips, chastely. "I'll take you on dates, from which we'll come home and I'll make hot, raw, passionate love to you again. Eventually, I'm going to marry you." Monica's eyes expanded with wonder at how Chandler, her commitment-averse true love, clearly meant every word. "And then, after we're married, I'll make love to you some more, until you fall pregnant with our baby." He kissed her flat belly. "I'll give you everything you've ever wanted because I've fallen madly in love with you, Monica Geller."

Beaming through tears, Monica wrapped her legs around him. "Well, we'd better get started, then…."

They had sex. They made hot, raw, passionate love to each other, just as Chandler said. Monica's opened legs scrabbled for purchase along the mattress as her fingers scratched up her lover's rippling back, sinking dreamily into his broad shoulders.

When she at last came with a pleasured whimper, a satiated and satisfied Monica held Chandler close and practically sang how she loved him. How at last she had found him. She wept over the bliss he had brought her. A part of her hoped that he had filled her womb with his seed. His child.

As they lay together in post-coital bliss, Chandler kissed the swell of her breasts, listening to Monica's heartbeat.

"I missed you, Mon…."

She shivered in the circle of his arms. "I've been living with such unbearable dread. I thought…. I thought…." Her throat hitched.

"I'm all right…" Chandler rumbled.

"Ohhh…" Monica snuggled against his chest, an utterly content smile on her face. "Couldn't you just stay like this forever?"

In her arms? Oh, Chandler could. And he fully intended to.