Haley J. The Bat's Note: This is the second part of my 'A Hug Can Say A
Thousand Words' series. It might help a whole lot to read the first part.
(And I know the movies mentioned below weren't out yet at the time this
fic takes place, but I figured 'Get Over It' is about a guy who falls in
love with his best friend's little sister and it seemed fitting.)

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

About a week later, Rachel had new furniture for her room and was completely
moved in. She returned her ring to Barry and assured her family that she was
okay, but didn't want them to know where she was just yet for fear that her
dad would come and try to take her home.

The sexual tension between Monica and Chandler stayed at about the same as it
had been ever since the night Rachel came back and Rachel was trying to
figure out how to get the two together as she was convinced that they should
be together . . . and she had a lot of time on her hands.

"Do you guys want to watch some movies tonight?" Rachel asked the gang as
they were eating Monica's cooking in Monica and Rachel's apartment. "I
rented a couple earlier today."

"Sounds good," Chandler agreed, seeming to answer for the whole group.
"What'd you get?"

"Um, 'Get Over It' and 'Emma'," Rachel said, pulling out the movies. She
pretended to be inspecting her hands in case someone realized that the movies
she'd rented were significant. 'Emma' was two best friends falling in love in
the end and 'Get Over It' was a guy and his best friend's little sister
falling in love. This was the beginning of her plan to get Monica and
Chandler together.

" 'Emma' sounds--" Monica started.

"Oh, but 'Get Over It' is so much better!" Rachel interrupted. "You'll love
it, Monica, I promise."

"Um, okay," Monica said, giving her friend a quizzical look. "Go ahead and
pop it in. I'll do the dishes during the previews."

"Isn't this a teen chick flick movie?" Chandler asked reluctantly.

"Come on, don't you guys miss being sixteen?" Rachel asked, thinking quickly.
The real reason she'd gotten the movie was because it was the only one she
could find that had a plot so similar to Chandler and Monica's situation.
She puckered her lips. "Please?"

"Fine, fine," Ross said, pretending to be giving in, but he'd already decided
yes as soon as Rachel asked him. Chandler had commented that Ross seemed to
have a slight *crush* on Rachel again, but Ross had scoffed him off.

Once everyone settled down for the movie, Rachel made sure that Monica and
Chandler were sitting next to each other, and carefully watched them out of
the corner of her eye as the move progressed. The guys kept complaining about
the stupidity of the movie, but Rachel could tell they were starting to get
into it.

Monica and Chandler kept shooting glances at each other towards the end, when
the main character's chemistry bolted up, and when the girl's older brother
punched his best friend after he saw him and his little sister kissing
Chandler shot a quick look at Ross, as if trying to figure out if Ross would
do the same thing.

When the movie ended, (Happily as most chick flicks do), there were various
comments about how the movie was 'corny, but okay' and dreamy smiles on the
girls' faces.

Eventually, everybody but Monica and Rachel left the apartment. (Seeing as
it *is* their apartment)

"You rented that movie on purpose," Monica commented.

Rachel gave Monica a guilty smile. "Yeah. You figured me out. Did you know
that whenever you weren't looking at Chandler he was looking at you and
whenever Chandler wasn't looking at you you were looking at him?"

"Actually, I did notice." Monica sighed. "I appreciate what you're trying to
do, Rach, I really do . . . but I just want to leave things as they are."

"Flirty and touchy?"

"That's right," Monica said.

"Whatever you want," Rachel said in a sing song voice. "Now, I'm gonna go to
bed. See you in the morn', Mon."

* * * * *

"Phoebe, we don't really spend much time together," Rachel said as she
caught Monica's former room mate at the bar downstairs. It was two days
before the bar was closing down and being morphed into a dull coffee house,
and the gang was spending every night there. (Not unlike usual, of course.)

"I guess not," Phoebe answered.

Things were a little awkward between the two because both seemed to think
Monica was their best friend. Phoebe was a little jealous that Rachel was
taking her spot as room mate even though Phoebe left on her own and couldn't
stand living with Monica for another minute.

"What do you think of Monica and Chandler?" Rachel asked.

"Well, Monica's nice and my best friend, although she can be pretty obsessive
when it comes to cleanness. And Chandler is sometimes funny--"

"I meant together," Rachel interrupted. "Do you think there's any chemistry
between the two?"

"I never really thought about it before." Phoebe considered. "I suppose
there *could* be something between them. But Monica would never go for him,
she's way above his league. And Chandler wouldn't go for her because she's
so obsessed with babies and marriage and commitment. Why?"

"Well, I've been observing them lately and they just seem to be really flirty
and friendlier than two friends should be," Rachel said, carefully choosing
her words.

"They *have* been like that a lot this past week or so," Phoebe said. "But I
think it's just because of all the stress everyone's been under. Things will
go back to normal in another week or so."

"I guess so," Rachel said quietly, though she knew that Phoebe was wrong. She
didn't want to correct her however because she knew that they had an
awkwardness between them that needed to be overcome before she could confide
in her.

But that was fine. Rachel decided not to talk to Ross since Monica had
mentioned him being overprotective, so she decided to talk to Joey.

Joey had started to fit in with the group, as did Rachel, and everyone was
just beginning to get used to each other.

Rachel cornered Joey in the bar next, and kept him from hitting on a hot
girl at a nearby table; upsetting Joey a little bit.

"I know you've only been hanging out for as long as I have, but do you think
that Monica and Chandler have feelings for each other?" Rachel asked,
deciding to be blunt since Joey seemed to be sweet, but a little dumb.

Joey looked at the woman uneasily and then back to Rachel. "They're close, I
guess. But Chandler told me that they don't go out. He said he want--" Joey
stopped himself just in time, remembering that Chandler had confided
privately in Joey. "Never mind."

"No, Joey, you can tell me," Rachel pressed. "How about this, we exchange
information. I tell you what Monica's been telling me and you tell me what
Chandler's been telling you; I can tell he told you something."

Joey considered. "You won't tell anyone I told you, right?"

"Of course not, honey."

"Chandler told me that he wants Monica, she's way above his league, she
caught him hugging her with a hard on, afraid of Ross, afraid of rejection.
You go."

"Monica wants Chandler too," Rachel said. She smiled at the shocked look on
Joey's face and continued: "She thinks that if they got together it wouldn't
be good because of Chandler's commitment issues and the fact that they'd be
risking their friendship."

"Really?" Joey asked, interested. He seemed to forget the girl at the table
as he focused his attention on Rachel. "Monica just seems so . . ."

"Above his league? I know."

"Hey, guys, what are you talking about?" Ross asked as he came up to Rachel
and Joey. He had seen them talking for quite awhile and was starting to get
suspicious that Joey was hitting on her.

"Nothing," Rachel said quickly as she gave Joey a look that said to keep his
mouth shut.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, Chandler had walked over to Phoebe and they had begun to talk.

"What do you think of Rachel?" Phoebe asked Chandler.

Chandler felt a little uneasy. He knew Phoebe was jealous of Rachel, but he
liked her. And he didn't know how Phoebe was going to act if he told her so.
"She's nice," Chandler said cautiously.

"She is," Phoebe said, shrugging. Chandler let out a sigh of relief and
Phoebe looked at him funny. "She thinks there's something between you and
Monica."

"Really?" Chandler asked, looking surprised.

"I think there might be something too," Phoebe continued. "You two have
gotten awfully touchy for a while now. What happened?"

Chandler studied Phoebe for a minute, then decided he could tell her. "The
night Rachel came, the night she found out you'd moved out, she was upset. I
went into her apartment for some beer and she was just standing there,
looking lost and empty. So I hugged her. And I have no idea what the hell
happened. We've hugged before." Phoebe nodded in agreement. "But it just
seemed different this time. And, sure enough, I got turned on. I mean, for
God's sake, the woman was only wearing a towel! And she felt it, but didn't
say anything. But then I used my humor as a defense mechanism and she
pointed to it and I appologized and she said that it felt good against her
and then left."

Phoebe nodded along as he talked, considering the possibilities. "Ross and I
also almost did it that night."

"We didn't almost do it." Chandler paused, taking in the rest of what she'd
said. "You and *Ross* almost did it? What happened?"

"I was comforting him about Carol and one thing lead to another . . . but we
didn't. His foot got caught in the pool table pocket."

"Phoebe, are you telling me that *Ross Gellar* almost fucked you on a pool
table?"

"I know!"

"Wow." Chandler shook his head. "That's like a miracle in itself. You do know
he's never slept with anyone but Carol, right?"

"Yeah. I just felt sorry for him. Then I realized that that is *not* a reason
to sleep with your best friend. And it would have made things awkward between
us."

There was a comfortable silence as the two sipped their drinks before Phoebe
finally said: "So about you and Monica . . ."

Chandler sighed. "I don't know. But I got the feeling that the last words
she said had some . . . girl . . . hidden meaning."

"It probably did. Now, you need to tell me the *exact* words she said,"
Phoebe commanded.

"Um . . . something about how it felt nice pressed into her," Chandler said
after thinking for a moment.

"Aha!" Phoebe said triumphantly. "As a girl and Monica's best friend, I know
that she wasn't rejecting you. She was actually trying to tell you, without
coming right out and saying it, that she wanted you to kiss her."

"She wants me?" Chandler asked doubtfully.

"Yes," Phoebe said. "Well . . . first, you have to show her that you can
commit to her. The only way Monica is ever going to consider you is if the
two of you have potential to be together forever. So you have got to get rid
of all of your commit-related crap freak outs."

Chandler considered. "It doesn't sound as easy as you're implying."

"It isn't," Phoebe said. "But it would be easy to *pretend* you're not the
terrified of commitment guy we all know and laugh at."

"No, see, that's the same thing as *being* that guy," Chandler said.

"Ugh! Do you want Monica or not?"

"Need I say duh?"

"Then you have got to stop freaking about commitment," Phoebe said. "That's
the only way you have a chance with Monica."

There was a pause before Chandler finally said: "And what exactly do
non-freaked out-by-commitment-guys act like?"

* * * * *

The next morning Monica woke with a pounding headache -- the mark that she
drank way too much the night before.

With a groan she pulled herself out of bed and clumsily walked to the
bathroom for some painkiller.

"Hey," Rachel greeted as Monica came out of her room. Rachel was sitting at
the kitchen table with a mug of coffee and the painkillers already sitting
in an opened bottle on the table.

Monica grunted in response and moved to sit down at the table as well.

"Tell me, do you guys get that drunk every night?" Rachel asked. "If so, I'm
not so upset they're changing the place into a coffee house."

"No, thank God," Monica said after gulping down four pills. "Usually we just
have a beer or two. But these are the last couple of nights the place is
open so I guess unofficially we've decided to get hammered every night."

"Really?" Rachel asked, sparking interest. If Monica and Chandler were
planning on getting drunk every night for the next couple of days then she
might not need to work as hard on getting them together.

At that minute Chandler came into the apartment alone. "Coffee," he said
and started to pour himself a cup.

"Rough night?" Monica asked sympathetically.

Chandler took a long drink out of his mug and then wiped his mouth on his
wrist. He gave Monica a 'ya think' look and joined the two girls at the
table.

"You going to work today?" Monica asked.

"Do you even have to ask?" Chandler replied. "You?"

"Ditto," Monica said in the same dull voice. "I haven't gotten that drunk in
a long time."

"Are we gonna hang there tonight?" Chandler asked.

* * * * *

Sure enough, around nine that night the gang was playing pool in the bar,
already starting to get dizzy from standing because of all the serious
drinking they'd been doing.

"Pheebs," Ross said, "remember when we almost did it on the pool table?"

Phoebe nodded and burst out laughing. "Your foot got stuck in the hole!"

Ross joined her in laughing.

"So, um, you wanna try and do it again?" Phoebe asked, sobering up from the
laughter.

"Uh-oh," Ross said. He whispered in a stage voice: "I can't. I'm in love with
Rachel."

"Oh!" Phoebe said. "That's fine. I'll just ask Chandler--oop! No. Monica
already called him."

"I can do it with ya," Joey offered. He'd been standing near and could hear
the two's conversation.

Phoebe turned and looked Joey over. "Well, hello, you."

Monica and Chandler, meanwhile, were starting to get out of control.

"Want me to take my bra off for you?" Monica asked, nodding towards the
wall that was covered in lace. "Cuz I would do that for you. With the right
convincing."

Chandler looked her over and then stared at her breasts for quite awhile. "I
don't know. Will Ross get mad?"

Monica looked around and then pointed to Ross leaving for the bathroom.
"He'll never know."

"What color is your bra?"

Monica reached behind her back and unhooked her bra with her hands. She then
pulled out of one strap underneath her shirt and began to pull the bra out
from the other sleeve. She held it up in front of Chandler's amazed and
eager face. "Red."

"Red's my favorite color," Chandler said, mesmerized. "Can I keep this?"

"Sure," Monica said and handed Chandler the bra. She giggled. "Are you gonna
use it to masterbate with?"

"It depends on whether I can get the real thing or not," Chandler said,
looking into Monica's eyes.

Monica got a 'take me now' look in her eyes and sat up on the edge of the
pool table. She took her legs and used them to pull Chandler to her, then
wrapped them around his waist so that he was pressed right up to her.

"We should be doing this without clothes on," Chandler commented. "It's the
natural way."

"And I think it might be a little weird to do it with these clothes on,"
Monica added. She paused and smiled at Chandler. "Although it might be so
hard seeing as I'm not wearing underwear."

"God, you're hot," Chandler said, his eyes bulging.

"And wet," Monica informed him.

Chandler growled and pulled Monica into a deep, searing kiss.