Author's Note: The beginning of this chapter is so sappy oh my god why am I like this
February 2010
"Chandler!" Monica huffed as she walked into the living room. "How many times have I told you to clean the dishes-"
"Shh!" Chandler hushed, bringing his finger to his lips. Dani had nestled herself into his shoulder and was fast asleep. "She's sleeping."
Monica crossed her arms and pursed her lips. "You are very lucky right now."
"I know," Chandler said as he brushed his lips against Dani's head. Dani had recently turned six weeks old. Even though she had Monica's dark hair, she swore that every day she was starting to look more and more like Chandler.
"That's not fair," she said.
"What?"
"I did all that work and she ends up looking like you?" Monica said.
"What can I say, those Bing genetics are strong," Chandler replied.
She was still a little small for her age. But she could eat on her own, she could breathe on her own, she could do all of the things that babies were supposed to do on their own. She remembered sitting in the hospital, holding Dani, when one of the nurses told her that she could go home tomorrow. Monica nearly leapt out of her chair due to excitement and was nearly crying when she called Chandler and told him the news.
"She can come home tomorrow!" she sobbed. "Tomorrow!"
When she got back home, she spent the rest of the day cleaning every room she could, wanting to make sure that everything looked perfect.
"Mon, she's a baby," Chandler said. "She's not gonna care about how clean the house is."
"But it has to be perfect!" Monica said. "I need to make sure that she likes it!"
"As long as someone feeds her and changes her diapers then she's gonna love it." Chandler explained. Monica sighed and told him that she would stop cleaning. And then started cleaning again as soon as he left the room.
Monica felt like she was dreaming. After so many weeks of traveling back and forth from the hospital, she was finally able to bring her daughter home. Jack and Erica were arguing over who got to hold her first. Dani then decided that it would be the perfect time to spit up all over Chandler's shirt.
"Actually, I don't need to hold her right now," Jack said.
"Me neither," Erica added.
Chandler sighed as he handed the baby to Monica so he could go change shirts.
"Dani," Monica started. "It's not nice to spit up on people like that. But I would rather that you do it to Daddy instead of Mommy!"
They fell into a similar routine. It had been a while since there had been a newborn in the house. But at this point, Monica was used to getting up in the middle of the night to pump. So getting up to change diapers wasn't a very big change for her. It was interesting to see the difference between Dani and the twins when they were babies. The twins were talkers, even before they actually started talking. They would "coo" and "babble" at each other. Monica always assumed it was because there was someone else that they could "talk" to. Dani was a fairly quiet baby. She didn't usually make a lot of noise, but she was always looking around. She loved looking out through the windows. But when she did get mad, she got mad. Her face would turn bright red and she would scream and cry so loudly that Monica was convinced the entire neighborhood could hear her. The other difference was with their sleeping habits. Jack and Erica rarely slept through the night when they were babies. Dani slept through most of the night, only waking up Monica and Chandler a couple of times either for a bottle or for a diaper change.
One of the first things that Monica noticed was that Dani loved music. Every time a song would play on the radio or on the television, her eyes would light up. One night when Monica was struggling to fall asleep she heard something through the baby monitor. She turned her head and realized that what she heard was Chandler singing through the monitor. Monica slipped out of bed and quietly walked over to the nursery, where Chandler was pacing back and forth while he carried Dani in his arms, singing quietly. Monica watched from the doorway and smiled.
"I'll do anything
for you dear, anything
for you mean everything to me."
Monica was grinning so hard that she had to cover her mouth. She wished that she had grabbed her phone before she had walked over.
"I'll go anywhere
for your smile, anywhere
for your smile, everywhere I'd see."
"You'd do anything?" Monica asked as she crossed her arms. Chandler turned suddenly; even in the darkness she could tell that his cheeks were turning red.
"You're supposed to be sleeping right now." Chandler said.
"I could tell you the exact same thing." Monica said. He hadn't been sleeping well, but it had been a stressful month for the two of them, so she decided to let it go. "So what musical is that from?"
"Oliver," he said. "It's about an orphan in London. It does get pretty sad but at the end of the day, he finds his family."
"Well it sounds like she likes it," Monica said as she pointed to Dani. She was fast asleep against Chandler's chest. "Looks like you might have another musical fan."
"Jack doesn't seem to have much interest in them," Chandler said. "And Erica basically likes whatever Emma likes. Maybe it'll just be you and me, Dani. We can listen to the albums and then when you're old enough, I'll take you to some shows. What do you say?"
Dani merely slept through the entire conversation.
"Or…" Chandler started. "You'll ignore me just like your older brother and sister."
"That's not true," Monica said. "Come on, I want to go back to bed."
Chandler placed Dani very carefully back into her crib before following Monica back into their bedroom. After they both climbed into bed, Monica turned towards him.
"How does that song end?" Monica asked.
"What?" Chandler said.
"That song you were singing," she said. "How does it end?"
Uh…I don't remember," Chandler said.
"Oh, yes you do!" Monica said. She watched him rub the back of his neck before he started singing the final part of the song. He looked so nervous, which just made Monica grin even more.
"I'd risk everything
for one kiss, everything
yes I'd do anything,
anything for you."
Chandler finished the song, his voice low and soft. He really had a wonderful singing voice. Monica reached over and pulled him into a long kiss. His arms wrapped tightly around her as she kissed him.
"So you'd do anything?" She asked again, mumbling into his mouth.
"Y-yeah," Chandler gasped. "Anything."
"Oh, come on!" Monica groaned. "Just latch!"
Monica was trying to move away from the pump and start breastfeeding. Dani did not seem to show much interest. "Are there something wrong with my breasts?"
"You do know who you're talking to, right?" Chandler asked.
"I just don't get it," Monica said. "She does fine with the bottle, but whenever I try to breastfeed her she just turns her head away."
"Well it's probably just used to the bottle," Chandler said.
"I'm just so tired of pumping," Monica sighed. After about 10 more minutes of struggling, Dani finally latched on.
"You see," Chandler said. "She's a real natural."
Monica waited for Dani to finish her meal and then stood up so she could burp her. She sighed as she patted Dani on the back. She always heard all these wonderful, magical experiences when it came to breastfeeding. But honestly, it made her pretty miserable. It would leave her sore and exhausted and she was still struggling with D-MER as well. Talking about it with Rachel and Phoebe made her feel better about the whole situation.
"Oh breastfeeding was the worst!" Rachel had said when Monica first brought it up. It felt like there was a huge weight lifted off of her shoulder to know that she wasn't the only one who struggled with it.
"Oh yeah I thought he was gonna rip my nipples off!" Phoebe agreed.
"Look, Mon," Rachel said. "Some women love breastfeeding and some women hate it with a passion. The most important thing is that the baby is eating."
"Yeah," Phoebe said. "And also if you need to use formula, the just use formula."
"Yeah, don't let any of those weirdos make you feel guilty for using formula."
"I've already had to deal with that," Monica said.
"With who?" Phoebe asked.
"Who do you think?" Monica said.
"Your mother," Rachel answered. "Well she doesn't need to know."
"Yeah there's a reason I stopped talking to her about it. I just end up feeling worse about everything. I'm just glad that I can talk to the both of you instead." Monica said. "It's not like I can really talk to Chandler about this."
"How is Chandler?" Rachel asked.
"He's okay," Monica said. She took a sip of her tea. "I can tell that he hasn't been sleeping well but I think it's because he's been stressed with work."
She had started to notice that he was spending more time on his laptop late into the night. She would find him in the middle of the night, staring at his screen and she would nearly have to drag him away. One night, she heard him talking on the phone and she sneaked over and listened to the conversation.
"Mom, this is insane," she heard him say. He was pacing around the room, running his hand through his hair.
"What's wrong?" Monica asked.
Chandler didn't say anything and just handed her an envelope. She opened the envelope to find a check addressed to her and Chandler from Nora Bing.
"Oh my god!" Monica exclaimed as she looked at the check.
"Consider it a late Christmas present," Nora said through the phone. "Or an early birthday present…whatever is easier."
"Mom…we can't accept this! You're in the middle of treatment!"
"I can handle my finances, Chandler." Nora said. "My most recent novel is getting turned into a movie and I got quite a nice deal from that."
Nora's doctor had found a tumor in her left breast. Luckily, the tumor hadn't spread to anywhere else in the body. She had to have surgery and was currently in the middle of radiation therapy, but the doctors were hopeful that the chances of the tumor returning were low.
"Mom, I appreciate this," Chandler said. "I really do, but we're doing fine."
"Really?" Nora said. "Those stacks of medical bills I saw on your table would say otherwise."
"Chandler," Monica said. "I understand you're worried about your mom…but this would really help us out."
"You should listen to your wife," Nora said through the phone. "She's right."
"I know," Chandler huffed. "She's always right. Okay, if you are sure that this doesn't hurt you in any way."
"I told you I've got this great movie deal lined up," she said. "I'll be fine."
"Okay," Chandler said. "Bye, mom."
"Bye, dear."
"Are you okay?" Monica asked.
"Yeah," Chandler sighed. "I guess I'm just worried about her."
"I just don't know how she does it," Monica said. "She's making it sound like she's just going out to get her hair done instead of going through radiation therapy."
"I don't know either." Chandler said. "She never really talked about how she was feeling. Just bottled everything up…it's the Bing way."
"Why don't we head off to bed," Monica said. "It's getting late and I think you need a break."
"I gotta finish working on this next project," Chandler said. "I'll be over there soon."
"Okay," Monica sighed. He had been working later and later into the night recently. She would try and wait for him but she always ended up falling asleep before he was done. She stood on her tip toes and kissed her forehead. "Don't take too long."
"I won't," he said quickly. "I'll be there soon."
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
Author's Note: Let me know if you would like to join the Mondler discord server. It's really fun and we have emoji's now!