"Phoebe moved out."

"Right," Chandler answered softly.

"I don't understand," Monica said, depressed. "I mean, am I that hard to
live with? Is that why I don't have a boyfriend?"

"No! You don't have a boyfriend because . . ." Chandler laughed nervously
to himself. "I don't-I don't know why you don't have a boyfriend. You should
have a boyfriend."

"Well, I think so!"

"Oh, come here," Chandler said soothingly and walked up to her. He slid his
arms around her and she returned the gesture.

Chandler had meant for it to be a friendly show of support, but he found
himself thinking about how perfectly she fit against his body. How her head
was at just the right spot for him to rest his chin on. And her hair . . . it
smelled clean and peachy, and still a little wet since she'd just taken a
shower.

He found himself wanting to rip the towel from her body and to kiss her
long and hard till neither of them could breath.

"Listen, you are one of my favorite people. And the most beautiful woman
I've ever known in real life," Chandler said quickly, trying to cover his
thoughts and to distract himself so he wouldn't become aroused.

It was too late, however, and Monica felt something slowly becoming hard
against her stomach. She was a little bit shocked, but decided she shouldn't
take it to mean anything since Chandler *was* a guy and he *was* hugging a
woman in a towel.

"Um . . . this is nice," Chandler murmered as he slowly ran his hand up her
back.

"I know. It is, isn't it?" Monica replied, feeling a shiver run through her.
She wondered if Chandler knew she could feel his erection.

"No, I mean it. This feels really good," Chandler said seriously. He realized
he was saying too much and quickly added, "Is it one hundred percent cotton?"

Monica rolled her eyes. "You don't have to cover everything up with a joke,
you know," she advised.

Chandler pulled away so he could look at her. "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that you weren't saying this towel feels good. You were
saying that what's inside of this towel feels good," Monica said matter-of-
factly.

"And what makes you think that?" Chandler said nervously.

Monica stared at his groin where there was a slight bulge. One you wouldn't
notice if you weren't staring at it.

Chandler looked a little sheepish. "Sorry."

"Don't be," Monica answered. "It was actually quite nice to have pressing
into my stomach."

And with that, Monica turned to go to her bedroom. Leaving a confused
Chandler staring after her. He didn't know what she'd meant by what she said,
but he was sure that there was a second meaning to it.

* * * * *

Monica couldn't sleep. It felt too weird to have an apartment just to
herself.

And, no matter how much she tried not to, her mind was on Chandler and the
hug they'd shared.

Monica and Chandler had been best friends for several years, and they'd
certainly hugged before. But, somehow, this hug had seemed so intimate . . .
as if there was something else there that hadn't been there before.

There was a knock on the door and Monica found herself hoping it was Chandler
coming to sweep her into his arms and kiss her passionately. She laughed
shortly to help convince herself she was only kidding and went to open the
door.

"Oh, my God! *Rachel*?" Monica asked, disbelieving, as she set eyes on the
tear-streaked face of her old best friend.

"Oh, Monica," Rachel moaned, her voice trembling with tears. "I don't know
anybody else. I don't know what to do."

"Come in, come in," Monica said quickly. "And we need to get you out of that
gown. You're soaking wet!"

Monica went to her bedroom and came out a second later with a man's
sweatshirt and some black stretch pants. "We don't look the same size, so I
hope these fit."

Rachel quickly thanked Monica and went to Phoebe's old bedroom to put on the
warm clothes. When she came out, Monica was at the stove stirring something.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" Monica asked after Rachel had sat
down at the kitchen table for a minute or two.

Rachel found herself crying again and the words came out in a rush. "I
couldn't marry him. I was getting ready for the wedding and-and I was
thinking about Barry . . . when I realized that I don't really love him. I
was only marrying him because everybody expected me too; because I always
wanted a doctor husband like Barry. But-but when I was putting my hair up and
thinking about him, I realized that Barry doesn't fulfill my needs. I believe
that there is one person out there you are meant to be with and something
kept telling me that Barry wasn't that person."

Monica turned around and hugged Rachel quickly and a little awkwardly; they
hadn't even talked since college. But the gesture was friendly and comforting
all the same.

"You can stay here," Monica offered. "Until you figure out what you need to
do."

"Oh, my God, thank you," Rachel breathed. "I wish we had kept touch after
high school."

"So do I," Monica said quietly.

"What are you making?"

"Cookies," Monica said. "Some nice warm cookies should cheer us up, don't
you think?"

"Oh, that sounds good," Rachel agreed. "Are you still into cooking?"

"I'm a chef at a restaurant a couple of blocks away," Monica told Rachel.

"Oh, wow! That must be so great, having a career you actually enjoy," Rachel
said.

"It isn't," Monica informed her former best friend. "I hate the food I have
to serve and I hate the big ugly men who try and hit on me when I leave the
restaurant and they see me. I hate everything about my job."

"Oh," Rachel said, deflated.

"You really need some cheering up," Monica said. She reached for the phone
and dialed a number quickly. "I'm calling some friends to come over, that
sound okay?"

Rachel nodded.

"Hey, Chandler?" Monica laughed and rolled her eyes. "Chandler, this isn't
a midnight phone sex call. I need you to come over . . . an old friend is
here and I'm trying to cheer her up." She paused. "I'm making cookies. And
I promise to be wearing only a T-shirt."

She clicked the phone off, the matter obviously dealt with, and dialed
another number. "Ross, get over here. Remember Rachel Green? Yeah, well,
she's here and I want to cheer her up. Um . . . would you call Phoebe for
me? I-I'm not comfortable with . . . thanks."

"Hey, babe," Chandler said, coming into the apartment with his new room mate.
"Whoa. Hot friend. What's your name?"

"Rachel," Rachel said hoarsely.

"Rachel just ran out on her wedding," Monica said. "She's going through a
tough time. Please, be a normal person for once. Pretend you're not guys."

Chandler shrugged and sat down. "I'm Chandler."

"Joey," Joey said, holding out a hand. "How you doing?"

Rachel stared at him blankly. "How do I look like I'm doing?"

Joey looked terribly upset as he sat down heavily.

"Believe me, Rachel, if you want to be cheered up about something you just
need all of my friends around," Monica explained to Rachel as she set the
timer in the kitchen for the cookies. "Although . . . I don't really know
Joey that well. He just moved in with Chandler."

"You seem familiar," Rachel said, looking at Chandler.

"Um, remember Thanksgiving when Ross brought that friend with the freaky
hair?" Monica asked.

"Hey!" Chandler protested.

"This is him," Monica said, ingnoring Chandler's protest and pointing at him
with a big spatula.

Chandler took the spatula from Monica with a dirty look and quickly licked
the end of it -- which was covered in cookie dough.

"Oh, yeah . . . he's the one who you--"

Monica shushed Rachel by clamping a hand over her mouth. She smiled at
Chandler and Joey. "Rachel was going to finish with 'cut off his toe'."

"Where's Rachel?" Ross asked, coming into the apartment with Phoebe behind
him. When he set eyes on Rachel he seemed to soften. "What happened?"

Rachel told the story again for Chandler, Ross, Phoebe, and Joey. Just as
she finished the ringer went off for the cookies and Monica went to take
them out.

"Food!" Joey said, excited.

Monica laughed and began to put the cookies onto a plate. She felt at home
with all of these people -- even Rachel, whom she hadn't seen for years, and
Joey . . . who had shown her more of him than she ever wanted to see. He
seemed like a pig, but he was nice enough as well. And Chandler liked him.

"If it makes you feel any better, Rachel," Ross began, "I'm divorcing my
wife because she's a lesbian."

"Really?" Monica gasped. Chandler looked shocked at the same time.

"Cool," Joey said, giving Ross a wink.

Ross gave Joey a look as if to say 'what the hell'.

"My new room mate," Chandler explained. "Joey."

"Oh, hello, Joey," Phoebe said, shaking Joey's hand and giving him a flirty
giggle. Joey gave her a wink as well and she giggled like crazy.

"I invited Rachel to live here," Monica said. "In Phoebe's old room."

"Great!" Ross said quickly.

Monica and Chandler exchanged an amused look. Both of them knew that Ross
had had a crush on Rachel in high school.

* * * * *

The next day seemed to go by quickly as Monica and Rachel went shopping for
furniture and bonded back to the best buds they used to do.

The morning afterwards Monica had just finished breakfast when Chandler came
in with the excuse that Joey was having an early morning ride with some girl.

"You shaved off your goatee!" Monica noticed. She ran her hand across his
cheek and felt satisfied to find it smooth.

Monica and Chandler had both noticed that in the last day or so things
between them had gone up a level. Both were hypersensitive to the touch of
the other, and they flirted a lot more.

To think it only took one hug for it to happen.

It was later that afternoon when Rachel and Monica were looking for a
suitable bedroom set when Rachel brought it up.

"Do you and Chandler go out?" Rachel asked bluntly.

Monica laughed. "God, no," she said. "We're just really close friends. He's
Ross's best friend and we hang out all the time."

"It's just that . . . well, you both seem to have this *thing* about you,"
Rachel explained. "You know? Like . . . anybody who would see you on the
street would think you went out."

Monica looked thoughtful at this. "I suppose it could seem like that. It
hasn't always been like this between us. Surprisingly enough it changed the
day you came. I was upset because Phoebe moved out and he was comforting me
and we hugged . . . I mean, we hug all the time, but this hug was different.
It lasted for a couple of minutes and, well, Chandler had a slight hard on."

"Really?" Rachel looked interested. "What did you do? Rip off his clothes
and make love to him on the floor?" She blushed. "I watch a lot of soap
operas."

"It was nothing like that," Monica assured her. "I decided the best thing to
do would be to be cryptical. I told him without telling him that I wanted
him too. But, Chandler being a guy, I don't think he got it. I could tell he
knew I was saying something, but he can't figure out what I meant."

"So you *do* want him too," Rachel said, smiling. She still loved gossip,
just like high school.

"I didn't even think about him in that way since Thanksgiving when we first
met," Monica said. "Every once in awhile thoughts will run through my mind,
but not as strong as they did the the other day."

"Why don't you just sleep with him?"

"Because it's more complicated than that," Monica said, sounding a little
exasperated. "Ross is . . . well, very overprotective of me and if he found
out his best friend was sleeping with me, he'd take it personally. I don't
know how he'd react. And Chandler is, like, my best friend . . . next to
Phoebe. In fact, Chandler is more of my best friend than Phoebe is. I mean,
it's hard to talk to Phoebe sometimes, you know? She's a little . . . out
there. Anyways, we're such good friends that I don't want to risk ruining
our friendship if we ever broke up. That's what happened with me and Kip."

"Kip?"

"Chandler's old room mate. We dated and then we broke up just recently and
our group hasn't been the same since. Kip finally just left. That's why
Chandler had to get a new room mate," Monica told Rachel.

"It *is* complicated," Rachel agreed after they both had a few minutes to
their own thoughts. "But, I mean, if Chandler is such a good friend then
why would you ever break up?"

"Chandler is one of those guys that's so freaked out by commitment that he
would rather be stoned than tell a girl how he really feels," Monica said.
"I want marriage and kids and all of that kind of stuff. And if I went out
with Chandler it would have to be for good. I don't want to go out with him
if he's not serious because that's not enough to risk our friendship. But
he would never want to commit so much as to tell me how he really felt
about me, let alone marriage and kids. As soon as we'd start to get serious,
he would get freaked out and break up with me or tell me we were going too
fast or do that distant thing."

Rachel nodded along as Monica talked. "I don't know . . . he just seems
different around you."

"Yeah," Monica said, shrugging. "I don't know what I'm going to do. But
there's a definate attraction between us. I'm just not sure if he realizes
that I want him just as much as he wants me."

"You could tell him," Rachel suggested half-heartedly.

Monica shook her head vigerously. "No. I'd be too embarrassed."

"I could tell him for you," Rachel offered.

Monica shook her head again. "I think it's best if we just leave it."

"Okay," Rachel agreed, but she wasn't about to listen to Monica. Chandler
and her obviously needed a push in the right direction. And Rachel wanted
to be the one to make that push.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Haley J.'s Notes: Thanks for the great reviews! And thanks for liking my
fic Sympathy. This is the beginning of a series, so expect more chapters to
be coming up.
And, for the fic Months After London, I'm having serious writer's block. I'm
thinking about just leaving it as it is, but I'm not sure. If I do update it,
it'll probably be a little while.
Hope you liked this one!
~ Haley J. ~