Chapter 7: How I Love You

"Here she comes!..." Rachel trilled, opening up the door ahead of the happy little family. "The proud mommy….!"

Down at the other end of the foyer, all of Monica's loved ones – her friends, her brother, her parents, and her stepchildren all burst into applause. Curling into Chandler's side with a shy smile, Monica beamed with pride and gushingly showed off her son.

"This is Daniel. Daniel Chandler."

Judy lips twisted in bemusement upon hearing the homophonic name, but Jack Geller rubbed his hands together with relish. "Can you believe it? My first grandchild!"

Everyone turned on a slow swivel to stare.

"Dad!" Ross bawled. "What about Ben?!"

"Oh, well, him, too. I just meant my first grandchild from my little Harmonica…!" Jack stooped to kiss his daughter on the cheek, which she leaned into with a shy smile. "Congratulations, my dear." He then nodded to Chandler. "And Chandler: I'm told you're the one to thank for saving my little girl's life."

Chandler sloughed it off. "I'd do it again, and more, Jack. Besides, it wasn't just me. Michelle gave blood too." Michelle jumped at being singled out for praise like this and stared at Chandler as if she had never seen anyone quite like him.

Judy bustled in to embrace her daughter. "Oh…. it's more than I could have ever hoped for, dear…." She drew back. "But are you sure you can raise this baby all by yourself?"

Chandler frowned in bemusement, working to keep his temper in check. For a woman like Judy Geller, image, optics, held an outsized importance. "Mon is definitely capable of parenting Daniel alone, if she wants to."

"But I won't be alone," Monica insisted, leaning into Chandler where he smiled and gave her a one-armed squeeze. "Daniel will still have a dad." She grinned weakly. "He just has two dads." Beaming up into Chandler's eyes, she reached up to kiss him softly.

Judy glanced between the couple, blinking. Then she softened. "Chandler, I…." She halted abruptly.

Chandler just nodded. "I'm going to be there for both of them."

She nodded. "Thank you…."

Tim Burke now awkwardly cleared his throat and stepped forward. Monica studied her stepson, her lips pursed in a thin line, waiting expectantly.

"You, uh…. you guys…. really look great together," he mumbled. A beat, and then he hissed through a clenched underbite, glancing back to where his sister now prompted him with a kick in the shins. "And, well… I'm sorry – for the way I acted."

Chandler and Monica shared a look, before the new mother finally nodded. "Apology accepted."

Tim turned to Chandler, who just smirked.

"Watching Joey ream someone out was enough schadenfreude for me!" He grinned deliciously when he saw how Tim flinched and glanced back at the struggling actor.

Joey just smiled broadly. "Speaking of…." and he turned to the Burke children. "…. did I tell you guys about the time that I played Freud….?" Michelle appeared horrified in her attempt to envision it.

Monica smiled softly and turned to glide towards the stairs leading up to the master bedroom, Daniel in her arms. Turning at the base of the stair, she smiled at Chandler.

"Are you coming, sweetie?"

Chandler glanced towards her parents, Tim and Michelle. As for his friends, the rest of them were grinning knowingly, even Ross.

"Chandler:" He turned back at her soft voice. "… I need you…."

Chandler nodded and followed her up the stairs as if in a trance, enraptured by her.

In the bedroom that had once been hers and Richard's, everything pertaining to the nursery had been set up exactly to Monica's specifications. Chandler watched as Monica gingerly lowered her son into the bassinet at the foot of her bed.

"There we go…." she cooed. Circling the bed, she threw back the coverlet, then tilted her head towards her lover.

"Care to join me?"

Gulping through his dry throat, Chandler acceded. The pair climbed into bed together, Monica sleepily laying her head on Chandler's chest, nuzzling him at the feel of him stroking her hair.

"You deserve a rest, after what you just went through…." Chandler murmured. "You're…. amazing, Monica…."

He felt her smirk against him. "Who says I want to rest?"

And with that, she was swinging her creamy thighs over a shocked Chandler as she moved to straddle him. He could tell from her eyes how she was nervous.

"Monica…. We…. we don't have to…."

She just grinned down at him. "I told you I was ready, darling. And I am."

"But…. but the birth…. Aren't you still sore…..?" He gestured lamely down there.

Monica shook her head. "It was a C-section, remember? The doctors said I can still have sex." Stretching out over him, she kissed Chandler tenderly. When they broke apart, her blue eyes had dilated to black pools of lust and pure love:

"…. Make love to me, Chandler…."

Chandler kissed along Monica's skin in wonder, undressing her reverently. He shivered in delight as her silky hands wandered and stripped him of what needed to be stripped. When his stiff and firm cock brushed up against the inside of her spread thighs, Monica chuckled throatily.

"Someone's happy to see me…."

Chandler swallowed. "You've been the thought that's led to these for…. forever…" He blushed and glanced down.

Monica tenderly cupped his face. "I'm honored…"

He had waited so long for her. Suffered in silence. Slowly, Monica regally enthroned herself on him. She threw back her head and sighed as his large member stretched her, sheathing itself into her warm and wet heat.

As she began to move against him, Monica pulled out of the passionate kiss with Chandler and brought his lips to her breasts. Arching her back, she pushed her tits into his face.

"I want you to taste them," she rasped. Chandler did so, if cautiously. He had to imagine they were still painfully tender from her nursing her son. Monica tugged at Chandler's hair, holding him close as he feasted on her swollen nipples. Cupped the swell of her breast. The couple rocked against each other, learning together. Showing their partner what they liked and where they liked to be touched.

Monica began to bounce on Chandler in time with his strengthening thrusts. She felt his teeth graze along her skin, leaving a hickey, and she moaned into his mouth.

"That's it…." she breathed. "I need…. You…. to….. Oh, Chandler….. Oh, God, Chandler….!"

"Monica….." Chandler groaned. "Jesus, you're so beautiful….. I love you…. I always have…." A slight pause, during which he mated with her in a powerful thrust. "…. and I love Daniel…."

Tears pricked at Monica's eyes at the thought of how her best friend loved her child. "I love you too…." she moaned. "We love you…." She rubbed against him faster, lolling her head into the crook of his neck. "Fuck….. faster…. Faster…. Harder! Fuck me, baby….. Fuck me until I can't walk tomorrow….. Make another baby with me!"

Chandler jerked into her wetness more forcefully, arduously, even as he felt tears come to his eyes for they both knew they would never conceive together.

Monica began to sob from pleasure, happiness and grief all at once.

"Make me pregnant again…." she wept. It killed Chandler that he could not grant her wish. He wondered if this was a first sign of Post-Partum, and resolved that he would have to watch his love closely. Monica kissed his face, his neck, on his lips once more, her fingers weaving into his hair. "Ohhhhh….. Ohhhhhhhh! OHHHHHHH my goodness….!"

Throwing her head back with a cry, she came. Climaxed so deliciously that it brought Chandler to orgasm right behind her.

The couple held each other, wrapped in her bedsheets. Glancing back over her shoulder, Monica smiled helplessly at the little creature sleeping in his bassinet. The baby that, while they may not have made him together, they intended to parent together.

"He's beautiful…." Chandler warbled, nearly overcome with emotion. He turned to gaze at his lover. "Just like his mother…" Monica beamed at him wetly, pressing her lips to his in a light peck.

When they broke apart, she was combing her fingers through his hair, pondering him deep in thought.

"….. Monica….?"

"If I asked you someday, would you….?" Monica stopped. Tried again.

"Mon…."

"Will you marry me, Chandler….?" she proposed quietly.

Chandler stared at her in wonder. And despite his fear of commitment, he knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt as he glanced between her and her child, that, yes. He would.

"Yes…." He croaked. Monica let out a happy sob and framing his face in her hands, she kissed him again sweetly. She drew back, then was diving back in again before Chandler held up a hand to her lips.

"But it has to be when you're ready." At her studying him quizzically, Chandler smiled softly. "I want you to grieve what you need to for however long you need to. However long it takes. You deserve the time and the space to grieve Richard…. Grieve… how we… won't ever have our own baby…" He laced his fingers through Monica's. "When you've done that…. ask me again…." He touched her face. "It's a Yes for me, please don't misunderstand. I'm just…. holding that Yes in reserve. It has to be a Yes from you, too. Just let me know."

Monica grinned emotionally. "You'll be the first…."

Three Years Later

Monica took a deep breath as she consulted her note cards. Standing in her white dress, she was trembling with emotion and excitement.

"Chandler…. " She glanced up at her intended. Her husband-to-be, whom she was about to take in marriage: her second, his first. "For so long, I wondered if I would ever find my prince…. My soulmate…. Then, almost four years ago now, when I lost my husband and was left pregnant….. I turned to a friend for comfort… and instead found everything I've been looking for, for myself and for my son…. my whole life. Now, here we are…. With our future before us…. and Daniel and I only want to spend it with you: my prince – our prince. Our soulmate…. Our friend…."

Ross, the Best Man, stepped forward with note cards of his own, but Chandler waved him back.

"Monica, I thought this was going to be the most difficult thing I've ever had to do…. but when I saw you walking down that aisle, I realized how simple it was: I love you…" She beamed at him beatifically. "Any surprises that come our way, it's OK, because I will always love you. I'm so in love with you…. I waited as long as I did for you, because you are the person I was meant to spend the rest of my life with…" He stepped into his bride amorously. "You wanna know if I'm sure….?"

He kissed her, long and lingering, and closing her eyes, Monica melted and kissed him back.

They had ended up ignoring Joey, who had agreed to marry his friends, completely; the struggling actor cleared his throat. "Er – you may kiss the bride…."

Chandler and Monica dreamily broke apart with blinding smiles.

Joey now knelt down and beckoned to someone just a ways down the aisle. "Hey, little buddy…. You mind bringing Uncle Joey those rings for Mommy and Daddy…?"

Three-year-old Daniel Chandler Burke stepped forward dutifully as the ring bearer. He was already starting to look more like Monica (thank God, Chandler thought), and was perhaps the chillest child Chandler had ever met. He and Monica had been starting to talk with him about Richard, although for as long as he could remember, Daniel had called Chandler 'Daddy.'

"Chandler, do you take this woman to be your wife?"

Chandler's lips quirked at Joey's questions. "Yeah, I do."

"Monica, do you take this man to be your husband?"

"I do….." Monica beamed, lovesick.

"Yeah, you do!" Joey squealed as the newlyweds exchanged rings solemnly. "Go on, kiss her again!"

Chandler took Monica in his arms. Stretching towards him, Monica beamed happily into their kiss as their lips met.

The new Mrs. Bing tossed aside her wedding bouquet of lilies almost absently as she embraced her husband and deepened the kiss, not looking and not caring to see where the flowers fell. Everyone laughed when the entire clump ended up clocking Tim Burke in the eye.

Chandler and Monica Bing sensuously broke apart, beaming into each other's eyes.

Monica searched her husband's face as she watched his expression suddenly dim thoughtfully. "What is it….?" she cooed.

"…. Do you think he'd be proud of me?"

"Who?" she frowned.

Chandler lifted an eyebrow. "You know who…."

"Richard?" At her husband's nod, Monica slid further into his arms. "Oh, sweetie…. I think he'd be proud of us. Happy for us…."

The happy couple left the hotel ballroom to well wishers. Chandler felt a small weight plow into his back, and glancing behind him, he laughed at how Daniel was clambering up him like a monkey. Monica's smile was as blinding as the sun, as she laughed at her family.

Once Chandler had shaken his stepson off, the bride and groom led off signing the guest book. Then, ducking into a shadowed alcove so they could be alone, Chandler took his wife aside.

He presented her with a page of documents.

"Wow. Divorce, already? That was fast. You probably beat Ross's record…." Monica quipped.

"No….." Chandler rolled his eyes, even as he felt like divorce was not a thing to joke about. "Read it."

Monica did. When she lifted her head from the paper, her eyes had flooded with tears. "Adoption papers….?"

Chandler nodded. "I want you and Daniel to discuss it – first without me – and then the three of us can talk about it together. It can happen whenever you want to, or not at all, but I…." His throat constricted. "You know I love that kid more than anything, Mon, and I don't want to diminish Richard's memory in any way by pushing him out completely, so if you want Daniel to stay a Burke…. I…."

Monica cut him off as she threw her arms around him and kissed him fiercely. When they broke the kiss at last, her tears were slipping onto his face like sweet rain.

"You…. you absolutely amazing…." She couldn't finish, overcome. "In all my life, I never thought I would be so lucky…. as to fall in love and marry my best…. my best…." Monica collapsed in tears and sagged into her husband's arms. "I love you!" she whispered, her voice hoarse. "So much…"

"I love you…." Chandler tightened his grip around her. "So much…."

And the wedded couple held each other in the darkness, celebrating and crying and kissing, until Daniel found them, and asked his parents if he could join them in their first dance at their wedding, as husband and wife.

Chandler laughed and slung Daniel across his shoulders, piggyback. "Come on, kid…." Then taking Monica's hand, he led his bride onto the dance floor and held her in his arms.

Resting against her husband, her head on his chest, and while holding her son's little hand, Monica smiled contentedly.

She had been through a lot to get here – more than most women had to endure. But Chandler had saved her. Had loved her enough to marry her. Had loved her enough to accept Daniel, and perhaps even eventually adopt him. Lifting her head to beam into her husband's eyes, Monica wrapped herself around Chandler and kissed him dreamily.

She was home. She and her son were home. This was where they belonged.