November 2009

Monica dipped the final cake pop into the candy melts before placing it on the stand to set. She then took a deep breath as she cleaned the rest of the kitchen. She was going to visit her parents today. Not only that, but she was also going to tell them about the baby today. She really couldn't hide the pregnancy anymore. Probably the only way she could cover the bump at this point would be wearing one of Chandler's sweaters.

"You're not getting it back," she said as she climbed into bed and wrapped herself in his dark blue sweater.

"That's alright," Chandler whispered into her ear. "It looks better on you, anyway."

She turned her head so she could kiss him, pulling him closer to her. "Maybe I'll just start wearing all your sweaters and nothing else."

He groaned into her mouth as he pulled down the sleeve to expose her shoulder. He then kissed her jaw, her neck, her collarbone. His lips travelled lower and lower…until they were rudely interrupted.

"Mommy! Daddy!" Erica screamed and they both jumped apart. Luckily, Monica was able to fix the sweatshirt before Erica opened the door to their bedroom. "Jack tried to scare me!"

"No I didn't!" Jack yelled as he ran up behind his sister. Monica then sighed as she and Chandler climbed out of bed as the twins continued to argue.

She spent all morning working on the new dessert. Red velvet cake pops with sprinkles. Because Erica demanded that they would have sprinkles.

"Mommy?" Jack asked as she was packing everything. "Do we have to go see Grandma and Grandpa?"

"Why don't you wanna go, honey?"

"Grandpa always makes weird jokes and then Grandma always pinches my cheeks," he complained.

"I know honey," Monica said. "But they're always so excited to see you both. And we'll get to tell them about your baby sister."

"But I…" he suddenly stopped.

"But, what?" Monica asked.

"Nothing," Jack rubbed his eyes. "I'm just tired."

"I know things have been pretty crazy around here," Monica said as she placed her hand on his head. "But don't worry, once we get back then we can just relax and stay at home for the rest of the day. Okay?"

"Okay," Jack said.

"Now," Monica said. "Do you want a cake pop before we head out?"

Jack immediately grinned as she handed him the cake pop.

After making the drive to Long Island, where the twins spent most of the trip going, "Are we there yet?" Monica took a deep breath as the car pulled into her parents' parking lot. Although Monica's relationship with her parents had improved slowly over the years, specifically with her father, it was still mentally exhausting whenever she had to go visit them. But she couldn't let her mother's comments get under her skin. Not today.

"Look who's here!" she heard her father say as she opened the car door.

"Hi, dad." Monica said as she hugged him tightly.

"Goodness," Judy said as she looked down at Jack and Erica. "Look at how big you two have gotten."

"Hi, mom." Monica said quickly and hugged her before Judy could pinch their cheeks. She saw Jack sigh in relief as he and Erica both took off into the house. Monica followed them and brought the cake pops into the kitchen.

"Oh Monica, dear," she heard her mother say.

"What is it, mom?" Monica asked.

"Darling," Judy started. "I know that things have been busy for you recently, but you really need to watch what you're eating."

"What?" Monica asked.

"I'm just saying that you need to watch your figure," Judy said. "It looks like you've put on a few pounds. Maybe more than a few."

It felt like Monica had been punched in the gut. All of a sudden she was back in high school again. All the snide remarks, all the rude comments came crashing back. It felt like no matter what she did, she was never going to be good enough for her mother. Why couldn't she be more like Ross? Why couldn't she be more like Rachel? She blinked back tears and quickly left the kitchen, ignoring her mother's comments and nearly ran into the bathroom.

After a few minutes, she heard a knock on the door.

"Mom, I just need a moment," Monica said, trying to compose herself.

"It's me," she heard Chandler's voice through the door. "What did she say to you?" Monica opened the door slowly. "I saw you both in the kitchen and then you took off?"

Monica rubbed her eyes. "It's stupid."

"If it bothered you, then it's not stupid," Chandler said

"She said that I need to watch my figure and that it looked like I was gaining weight again."

"What?"

"Yeah," Monica sighed. "And I shouldn't let those comments get to me like that. But all throughout high school all I heard were comments about my weight. It didn't matter what else I did; all anyone ever saw was what I looked like. My friends made fun of me, my parents made fun of me, my-"

"I made fun of you," Chandler said regretfully.

"You at least apologized for it," Monica said and placed her hand on his cheek. "No one else did. And then I did drop a knife on your foot so I would say that we're even now." She let her hand drop. "I just hate how much her comments affect me."

"I'm sorry," Chandler said and pulled her into a hug.

"It's just frustrating," Monica said. "I mean, of course I'm gaining weight. I'm pregnant for crying out loud!"

"You're pregnant?"

Monica and Chandler turned and saw Jack and Judy standing at the doorway.

"Oh, come on!" Monica shouted. "I had this whole thing planned! I was gonna have Jack and Erica tell you!"

"But," Jack said. "But you both had said that you weren't able to get pregnant."

"Yeah," Monica said and placed her hands on her stomach. "That's what we thought. But it turns out this little one is pretty stubborn."

"That's wonderful, honey!" Jack said and hugged Monica tightly. He then turned to Chandler and pulled him into a crushing hug. "I knew you had it in you Chandler!"

"Uh...thank you sir," Chandler said awkwardly.

"It's like I always said," Jack started. "As long as you can get in the exact, right position so that you're…"

"Ok thank you dad!" Monica said loudly. "Why don't we go see what the twins are doing right now?"

She avoided her mother for the rest of the afternoon. As she finished putting the leftovers into the containers, a wave of nausea hit her again.

"Damnit," Monica cursed. "Not now!"

She closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths to try and calm her stomach.

"Here," she heard her mother's voice and as she opened her eyes, Monica saw Judy holding a cup of tea in her hands. "It's peppermint tea. It was the only thing that would settle my stomach when I was pregnant with you."

Monica didn't say anything. She just looked at her mother, realizing that this was probably the closest thing that she would ever get to an apology. It wasn't enough, it never would be enough. She swallowed the lump in her throat.

She slowly took the cup from Judy and took a small sip. "It's good," she said quietly and they both sat in the kitchen until it was time to go home. She would never have a good relationship with her mother, but she could at least make sure that things would be different with her own kids.

Monica sat on the couch while Chandler paced back and forth in the living room.

"I don't get it," Chandler said. "She should have been here like 30 minutes ago."

They were going to meet Chandler's mother tonight for dinner so that they could tell Nora that they were having a baby. Monica was slightly concerned about how the conversation would go. Nora didn't have the best reaction when they first told her that they were adopting.

"You're what?" Nora asked.

"We're going to adopt a baby," Chandler said. "You're gonna be Grandma Nora."

"Oh…" Nora's eye twitched. "I think we'll just stick with Nora." She then took a long sip of her drink before clearing her throat. "Do you know if the baby will be a boy or a girl?"

"We don't know," Monica said. "It's gonna be a surprise."

"You know, we thought Chandler was going to be a girl." Nora said.

"Mom…" Chandler started.

"Oh we bought all of these dresses for you to wear. And they were so cute. But then, after all of those hours in the hospital, you came out and we found out that you were actually a boy!"

"Mom, please," Chandler tried again but that didn't stop Nora from telling even more embarrassing stories about his childhood.

Chandler's phone then started ringing and Monica was brought back to the present.

"Hey, mom?" Chandler said. "Where are you?"

"Oh honey I'm sorry," Monica heard Chandler's mom through the phone. "I've had something come up last minute so I won't be able to join you tonight."

"W-what?" Chandler asked.

"I promise we'll reschedule it at some point."

"But mom, Monica and I have something really important that we wanted to tell you."

"Well, I'm sure that it can wait, anyways I have to go, I'll text you later."

"But mom-" Chandler started but Nora had already hung up.

"Honey," Monica asked. "Are you alright?"

"She always does this," Chandler sighed, he looked like a lost little boy. "Every single time. I can't tell you the number of times she would cancel on my birthday and then say that 'she forgot'. I mean it's not that hard to remember. It's on April Fool's Day and I'm the biggest joke out there!"

"Chandler!" Monica said.

"Sorry," he said and rubbed his hand over his face. "I always turn to self-deprecating jokes when I'm upset."

"Come here," Monica said and reached her hand out to him. Chandler sat down next to her on the couch and she pulled him into a tight hug.

"Our moms suck," Chandler said.

"Yeah," Monica agreed. "You have to promise me that you won't let me turn into my mother."

"Only if you promise that you won't let me turn into mine." He mumbled into her neck.

"Remember you still need to tell Helena," Monica reminded him.

"Well I was planning on calling tomorrow," Chandler said. "But since our plans were cancelled, we probably could call now. I don't think she has a show today." He took his phone out again and put in her number.

"Hello?" Monica heard Helena on the phone. "Oh Chandler, it's so good to hear from you."

"Hey," Chandler said. "Monica's here, too."

"Monica!" Helena said. "Honey it's been far too long."

"Hi Helena," Monica said.

"Now, I heard that Erica started taking ballet lessons and you must tell me when her first recital is."

"You would come all the way to New York to see that?" Chandler asked.

"Of course I would," Helena said. "I wouldn't miss that for the world!"

Monica watched as Chandler beamed. "We actually called because we have some really exciting news." He turned and held the phone to Monica.

"I'm pregnant!" Monica said.

"What?" Helena gasped. "That's such wonderful news. I thought you two were unable to have kids?"

"Well it's a long story," Monica said.

"I've got time," Helena said.

Monica looked at Chandler and smiled before starting the story. Chandler and Helena's relationship had really changed ever since the wedding and after so many years of neglect from both of his parents, it was nice to know that he now had a parent he could rely on.

"Well," Helena started. "I'll definitely have to come see the little one when she arrives. I remember when Chandler was born. Oh I was a complete mess."

"You were?" Chandler asked.

"Oh, absolutely," she answered. "I thought your mother was playing one of her pranks on me."

"Pranks?" Monica asked.

"Yes, she kept complaining about how much her stomach was hurting…I thought it was an April Fool's Joke."

"What made you realize it wasn't a joke?"

"Her water broke."

"That'll do it."

"And then we had to rush to the hospital. I nearly got us into a wreck because my hands were shaking so badly." She laughed. "When will the little one arrive?"

"Either the end of February or the beginning of March."

"She'll be here before you know it."

They talked on the phone for a little bit longer before saying goodbye. Monica stretched and placed her hands on her swollen belly.

"Hi, little one," she said and suddenly felt something shift. "Oh!"

"What's wrong?" Chandler asked. She didn't answer him, just grabbed his hand and placed it on her stomach. She watched as his eyes went wide. "She's kicking!"

"Yeah!" Monica said. "And kicking pretty hard, too! Maybe she'll be a soccer player!"

Chandler grinned at her and placed his lips on her stomach. "So we're almost done, right? The only person left to tell is my mom?"

"I think so," Monica sighed. "So, we have the place to ourselves tonight. Since Jack and Erica are with Ross and Rachel, you know what we could do?"

"What?" Chandler asked as he placed his hand on her knee.

"We could pack the hospital bag!" Monica said happily as she stood up.

"Now?" Chandler asked.

"Yes, now! Don't you want to be prepared?" She then started walking up the stairs. "Come on, it'll be fun!"

She heard Chandler sigh before he reluctantly followed her up the stairs.

Author's Note: So Chandler's birthday is never actually mentioned in the show, but I always thought it would be cute if his birthday was on April Fool's Day. So in my mind, his birthday is April 1st.