Author's Note: It's really late and I should be sleeping right now but I'm posting this instead. Friendly reminder to let me know if you would like to join the discord server. We can all scream about our favorite friends to lovers couple together.

December 2009

Monica rubbed her eyes as she looked at all of the papers lying on the table. It was so hard to concentrate with the mess everywhere. It was also hard to concentrate with the music blaring.

"Erica, honey?" Monica asked. "Could you please turn off the music right now?"

"But it's Taylor Swift!" Erica argued. Emma had introduced Erica to Taylor Swift recently and now it was the only thing that she wanted to listen to.

"I know," Monica sighed. "But your Daddy and I need to concentrate right now."

"Once we're done, you can put the music back on again." Chandler said.

"Do you promise?" Erica asked, her blue eyes as big as the moon.

"Yes, I promise." Chandler said. Erica turned off the music and went back into her room.

"Oh, finally some peace and quiet," Monica said.

"Look at least this means she finally stopped listening to High School Musical." Chandler said.

"Oh please," Monica looked at him. "You are almost as bad as her."

"What?" Chandler looked shocked. "No, I'm not!"

"Oh, so that wasn't you singing You Belong With Me last night in the shower?"

"I…I thought that you were already asleep," Chandler mumbled, his cheeks turning red.

Monica sighed as she turned her attention back to the papers in her hand. "I forgot how expensive babies are."

"Yeah," Chandler agreed as he looked through the bills. "And everything has only gotten more expensive in the past five years."

"You are making things a lot more complicated," she grunted as she looked down at her belly.

"You okay?" Chandler asked.

"Yeah, she's just kicking again." Monica shifted in her chair as she tried to get comfortable.

"Be nice to your mother," Chandler leaned over and pressed his lips against her stomach.

"Maybe I'll just have to go back to full time once the baby is born," Monica said.

"Is that what you want to do?"

"I love being a chef, but I wouldn't be home a lot at night. I don't want to miss spending time with the kids."

"The we'll figure something else out." Chandler said. "We've done it before."

There was a struggle after the twins had been born. They were homeowners for the very first time and they suddenly had two babies when they were only expecting one. Which meant that they had to dip into their savings account a lot more often than they initially thought. Luckily, Chandler still had a large amount of savings from his old job which helped a lot. And Joey finally decided to start paying Chandler back after he started having success in Los Angeles. It was incredibly stressful and incredibly exhausting. But Monica didn't care. She had her babies. As long as Jack and Erica were okay, then nothing else mattered. Once everything settled, they realized that they would be able to make it work even with Monica moving to a part time job. She could continue her love of cooking and not have to worry about missing out on important moments with her kids. But now she would have to reconsider.

"If I have to go back full time, then I'll go back full time." Monica said.

"Remember when you always talked about having your own restaurant?" Chandler asked.

It was something she used to think about all the time. Owning her own place. Getting to be in charge and never having to get approval from anyone else. It was something that she had told him years and years ago when she was just starting out as a sous chef.

"You should do it." He said.

"What?" She looked up from the couch. He was sitting over in the chair with his feet up on the coffee table. She constantly had to tell him to stop doing that.

"Open your own place." He said.

"Oh yeah, sure." Monica scoffed. "Because it's that easy."

"If anyone could do it, it's you." Chandler said.

"You really mean that?" Monica asked. She had never told anyone about her wish to own her own restaurant. Not to her parents or Ross. Not to any of her other friends.

"Of course I do," Chandler said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "How about this? You handle all the cooking stuff and I'll handle all the numbers stuff. Everyone will love your food and then I can finally quit my terrible job."

"You've been trying to quit that job for like a year now." Monica sighed.

"Well, maybe if I keep saying it then one day it will actually happen."

"It does sound pretty nice," Monica said. "To have my own place…maybe one day."

"Yeah," Chandler said as he looked at her. His hair was getting longer. It was starting to fall into his eyes. He gave her a look that she wasn't quite sure how to describe. "Maybe one day."

"It's been years since I've thought about that," Monica said as she looked through the next stack of papers.

"Well," Chandler said. "What if you thought about it some more?"

Monica looked at him as she pointed at her swollen belly. "You know I'm a little busy right now."

Chandler laughed. He didn't laugh very often, which always shocked her since he spent so much of his time trying to make others laugh. But when he did laugh, it was like the whole room lit up. And if she was the one who made him laugh. Well, then that was even better.

"I mean it's something that you've always wanted to do." He explained. "You would be in charge of your own place. You would still be in charge of the hours and the menu. And you would still get to do what you love."

"Do you know how hard it is to open a restaurant, Chandler?" Monica asked.

"You could do it." He said.

"How do you know that?" She asked.

"Because I know you," he said softly.

"We've got bigger things to worry about right now," she said.

"I'm not saying to do it right now," he said. "It's just something to think about."

"Maybe one day," she said and all of a sudden it felt like she was back in Apartment 20.

"Yeah," Chandler agreed. "Maybe one day."

"Mommy!" Erica interrupted them. "Are you done with all of the boring adult stuff now?"

"Yes, honey." Monica smiled.

"So can I play more Taylor Swift now?" she asked.

"I suppose so," Monica sighed and Erica jumped up and down and clapped her hands excitedly. She then turned on the music and then ran and grabbed Chandler by the arm, demanding that he danced with her. Monica just laughed as she watched the two of them dance in the living room.


Monica looked at herself in the mirror. Erica's dance recital was tonight and Monica realized that none of her dresses fit anymore. Luckily, she was able to borrow some of Rachel's old maternity clothes. It was the first time she had worn something that really accentuated her belly. Even after all these months, she would still have days where she didn't believe that she was actually pregnant. That this was all some strange dream and one day she would wake up and realize that none of it was real. But every day her baby continued to grow and grow.

"Hey, Mon?" she heard Chandler open the bedroom door. "Are you almost…" the words stopped as soon as he saw her.

"Do you like my new dress?" Monica asked softly. Chandler just nodded, his jaw practically on the floor. "You'll catch flies with your mouth hanging open like that."

"You…" Chandler tried to find his voice. "You look…"

"What?" she asked. She shouldn't tease him like this, but she couldn't help it. It was too much fun to mess with him.

She suddenly found herself pressed up against the wall with Chandler's mouth on her neck. She tilted her head so that she could expose even more to him. "Chandler," She sighed. "We're going to be late."

"Late for what?" Chandler asked as his lips traveled from her neck to her mouth. He sucked on her lower lip and she was having a hard time concentrating.

"Our daughter's dance recital," Monica said as she pulled away and placed her hands on his chest.

"Oh, right." Chandler wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "W-where did you get that?" he asked as he pointed to the dress.

"I got it from Rachel," she said. "I thought it would be a good idea to have a nicer dress I could wear to events like this."

"It's a very good idea," Chandler nodded. "In fact, you don't have to wear it just to nicer events. You could where it to any event. Or just wear it every day instead."

She grabbed his hand and walked out of the room. "Come on, let's get going. And once we get back home…you can help me take it off."

Chandler groaned as he followed her through the door.

Monica arrived at the dance hall with Chandler and Jack. Rachel had picked up Erica earlier so that she could get ready with Emma. Monica practically had to force her way through the crowd so that she could get a front row seat. There was no way she was going to get stuck in the back row. More and more people began to fill the auditorium and so Monica took out her camera so that she could get ready to record the recital. Helena had ended up getting sick and was unable to make the trip to New York, so Monica promised her that she would film the performance. Just as she was starting to get comfortable, she heard someone call out her name. She turned her head just in time to see that Emma rush down the stairs and grab her arm.

"Aunt Monica!" she shouted. "You have to come right now!"

"Emma?" Monica asked. "What are you doing? You're supposed to be backstage right now."

"It's Erica!" Emma said. "She locked herself in one of the dressing rooms and won't come out!"

"What!" Monica panicked. "Did she get sick?" She was acting completely normal this morning. She was over the moon about tonight's performance and kept asking when Aunt Rachel was going to pick her up.

"I don't know!" Emma said. "She won't tell me anything!"

"What's going on?" Rachel asked. She had rushed over when she saw her daughter run down the stairs of the auditorium.

"Something's wrong with Erica," Monica explained as she turned off the camera and stood up. "Come on, we need to hurry."

"I'll watch your seats," Rachel said as Monica, Chandler, and Jack followed Emma back up the stairs.

"So, what happened?" Chandler asked.

"I don't know," Emma said. "We were looking through the curtain so we could see where everyone was sitting and then she just ran off." They moved through the crowds of dancers before finally reaching one of the dressing rooms backstage. "She's in here."

Monica knocked softly on the door.

"Go away, Emma!" she heard through the door.

"Erica," Monica said. "Honey, please open the door."

After a few moments she heard the door unlock as Erica slowly opened the door. Her face was red and blotchy and there were tears streaming down her face.

The four of them entered the empty dressing room. Monica grabbed some paper towels that she saw so she could clean her daughter's face.

"Sweetie, what's wrong?" Monica said. "Do you feel sick?"

Erica shook her head, unable to form any words. She then immediately launched herself into Monica's arms.

"Hey, it's okay," Monica tried to calm her. "It's okay."

"Honey," Chandler knelt down next to her. "Can you tell us what happened?"

"T-there's s-so many p-people out there," Erica choked out.

Monica almost didn't believe it. Little Erica Bing. Her little firecracker, who wasn't scared of anything or anyone, who seemed to make friends with everyone she met, had stage fright.

"I know there's a big crowd out there," Monica said. "But they're so excited to watch you and everyone else dance. You have nothing to worry about."

"B-but what if I m-mess up," Erica sniffled.

"You're not gonna mess up," Monica said. "You know that dance so well."

"Hey," Chandler said to her. "Remember when we were dancing to all those Taylor Swift songs last week?"

Erica nodded as she wiped her nose.

"And even though Mommy was watching us, it didn't matter because we were having so much fun." Chandler said. "It doesn't matter how big the crowd is because you'll be up on stage having so much fun with everyone else."

"And we'll be right in the front row," Monica said. "You can't miss us."

"It's really fun," Emma added. "I promise."

"Okay," Erica said softly.

"Here," Monica turned towards Chandler and Jack. "You two can head back to the seats. Emma and I will help Erica get cleaned up and then I'll join you."

Monica wiped Erica's face again and fixed her hair before they walked out of the dressing room together.

She brought Erica back to her group and hugged her tightly, reminding her that she was going to do great. She then watched Emma head back towards her own group. She then snuck back over to her seat and grabbed her camera right before the lights started to dim.

The dance instructor walked onto the stage and introduced herself and welcomed everyone to the winter recital. Monica could tell how excited she was about tonight. She explained that they would be watching dancers from all different age groups. The younger groups would go first and the performance would end with the high schoolers. She then introduced the first group of dancers, which was Erica's group.

Monica held her breath as she watched the curtain rise and all of the little five year olds walked out onto the stage. The music began to play and Monica immediately spotted Erica at the very end of the line. She was staring out into the audience, frozen in fear.

"Erica!" Jack whispered loudly and started waving his hands around to get her attention. Once Erica saw her brother, she immediately grinned and waved back at him. She then saw Monica and Chandler sitting next to him and she grinned even more. She looked at the other girls around her dancing and started following the steps. Monica zoomed in on her camera to make sure that she did not miss anything. Erica's stage fright seemed to melt away as she continued to dance. Watching her daughter up on stage made her heart swell. As the music ended, Chandler practically leapt to his feet, clapping and cheering. Erica continued waving and smiling at the crowd. She was so distracted by the audience, that she didn't realize the rest of her group had already left the stage. Once she saw that she was the last one, she gave one final wave before rushing off the stage to join her group.

"That was amazing!" Chandler exclaimed. "She did so good!" Monica beamed at him as he sat down again and the next performance began. They watched the next group of dancers walk on stage. Emma was in this group and Monica cheered along with Chandler, Rachel, and Ross as they saw her.

The rest of the night passed in a blur. After the final performance, Monica, Chandler, and Jack went to meet Erica backstage. She immediately rushed towards them as Chandler picked her up and spun her around.

"I did it!" she said happily. "I did it! I did it!"

"We are so proud of you, honey!" Monica said.

"We all knew that you could do it!" Chandler said. The group said goodbye to Ross, Rachel, and Emma as they needed to get home. It was getting pretty late and Monica could tell that Jack was starting to nod off. Erica exclaimed that she wasn't tired at all and could stay up super late. Although about 10 minutes into the car ride, Monica turned around and saw that she was fast asleep in her car seat.

After they made it back to Westchester and after the kids were asleep in their beds, Monica kept her promise and had Chandler "help" her take her new dress off.

Yeah she would definitely have to wear that dress more often.

Author's Note: Listen, Chandler Bing would be buying Eras Tour Tickets the second they dropped.