It took less than an hour to gather the gang and Monica's parents, but Dr.
Bradley didn't want all of them in with the patient at the same time. Only
Chandler, who had refused to leave Monica's side since she said his name,
remained in the room with the doctor as he did a check on her and ran a few
tests to see if she was okay.

It was the most confusing thing Monica had ever experienced. The doctor
asked her a series of questions about how she was feeling and that part she
got. But she didn't understand what the other person was doing there, who he
was or why he was looking her like that. He didn't take his eyes off her,
staring at her lovingly. And she had no idea whom he was. She felt really
scared when the doctor declared he would leave them alone.
"Oh my gosh, sweetie." the man said, stroking Monica's cheek. "I never
thought I'd look into your eyes again."
"Again?" Monica said, felling freaked out.
"I'm just. Oh gosh, I'm just so glad you're back!"
Monica still had no clue over who the man was. She got that he was someone
who knew her, but she had no memory of him herself. After a while though, he
left and an older couple came in to see her. Monica didn't recognize them
either.
"So nice to see you've woken up, sweetheart" the woman said. "Your father
and I were beginning to fear the worst."
Monica weakly smiled. So they were her parents? She felt sick, she didn't
recognize them and it scared her that they were her parents. They didn't
stay for very long, and she felt it was easier to be around them than to be
around the man who'd been with her first.

Monica woke up around eight o'clock the morning after, exactly two weeks
since the accident. She looked at the chair next to her bed in fear, and
sighed in relief when she saw that there was nobody there. All night long
she'd been having visitors. After the couple that apparently were her
parents, a man who apparently was her brother had seen her for a while. She
hadn't recognized him either, nor the three people that saw her after that.
Those three all claimed to be her friends. The first one had been a woman
with light brown hair, who hadn't said much. Then a cute guy had been in to
talk to her, and even though she didn't feel like she knew him at all she'd
like the concerned tone in his voice. And then a blond woman had visited her
and talked about how one person she loved had come back.
Monica glanced over at the glass of water next to her. She was still really
thirsty. She couldn't figure out how she would be able to drink anything.
She had to ask the doctor about that.

Chandler woke up happy for the first time in two weeks. He'd fallen asleep
on Joey's couch as usual, once they'd gotten him to leave the hospital. Dr.
Barkley had said Monica needed to rest and to be alone for a while, but
Chandler had wanted to stay at the hospital and wait there until he could
see her again. The doctor had told him it was a better idea for him to go
home and sleep, and when he woke up he could come and see her again.
He leaped up from the couch and glanced down on his watch. He'd had the one
Monica gave him fixed by now. The watch told him it was nine o'clock.
"Come on you lazy Italian, let's get a move on!" he said, walking into
Joey's room, only to find it empty.

Ross, Phoebe, Joey and Rachel were gathered in the small waiting room at the
hospital. Jack and Judy were in with Monica at the moment, and they were
waiting for their turn to see her.
"I have to admit I never thought she would wake up" Phoebe said.
"I did" Joey said. "I mean, it seemed so useless that she would survive that
night only to die a few weeks later, you know?"
"Uh, guys, here comes someone that's pretty mad." Rachel said.
Chandler stormed up to them, furious.
"Oh, look, it's everybody!" he hissed. "Why the hell didn't you wake me up,
huh?"
"Chandler calm down, you needed the sleep" Joey said, being use to
Chandler's outbursts by now. "And besides, you haven't missed a thing. Mr.
and Mrs. Geller are in with her at the moment."
Chandler gave them all an angry stare, then he sat down next to Ross.
"Have you all seen her?" he asked. The others shook their heads. Chandler
calmed down a bit. "Do you mind if I go in to see her first? I want to see
her as much as I can, and I haven't seen her now for over five hours and it
feels like I can't wait another minute."
"Sure, fine, go right ahead" Phoebe sighed, having hoped to get to see
Monica first.

Monica felt relieved as her parents left. They hadn't talked much about the
accident or anything else that would help Monica get a clue of what was
going on and whom she was. Her mum had talked about how a bunch of people
told her 'hi' and 'great to have you back'. Monica didn't recognize a single
one of the names.
Just about a minute after her parents left, the man who looked so lovingly
at her came into the room.
"Hi there, babe!" he said, happily smiling and sitting down next to her. "Hw
are you feeling?"
"Confused." Monica said, truthfully. ""My body aches allot. plus I'm
thirsty."
"Do you want me to go talk to the doctor about getting you some water?" the
man asked. Monica nodded.
Chandler smiled and hurried out to find Dr. Barkley. He was glad there was
something he could do for her. He stopped a nurse walking by, and asked her
if she knew where Dr. Barkley was. The nurse had no idea, but Chandler
thought he might as well ask her if Monica could get some water to drink.
The nurse said it was okay.
"I didn't find the doctor" Chandler told Monica when he returned to her, not
noticing how uncomfortable she looked. "But I spoke to a nurse who said it
was okay for you to drink some water."
Monica watched him as he took the glass on her nightstand and filled it with
water from the sink in the room. She realized he was going to have to help
her drink, and for some reason the thought scared her. It was really
unsettling to be taken care of by a stranger who looked that way at her.
"Here we go" the man said, helping her drink a few sips from the glass. He
gave her a smile that could melt the Antarctic as he put the glass back on
the nightstand.
"Well, if it isn't my favourite couple" Dr. Barkley said, entering the room.
Monica shivered. She wondered if he was calling them a couple as a joke, or
if she was in some way involved with him.
The doctor started checking a few machines, and then he did a quick check on
Monica's physics. Then he frowned.
"Mr. Bing, could you wait outside for a minute?" he asked. Monica was
relieved, but Chandler frowned.
"Doctor, is there something wrong?"
"I just need to talk to the patient in private, Mr. Bing."
Chandler rose and gave Monica a confused look. As soon as he left Dr.
Barkley started asking Monica questions.
"Ms. Geller, do you remember anything just before the accident?"
"No, not at all."
"That's nothing to worry about" the doctor said with a smile. "Those kind of
things can take a while to remember. if you ever do remember. How about the
days before the accident, do you remember those?"
Monica shook her head. She couldn't remember a thing. The doctor eyed her
for a second.
"Ms. Geller, could you tell me your first name, please?"
Monica looked at him for a few seconds.
"I have no idea what my first name is."
"And the man who was just in here with us, who is he?"
"I don't know" Monica whispered, feeling afraid.
"How old are you?"
"I don't know, I can't remember, okay?" Monica said, nearly starting to cry.
"That's all I wanted to ask you, Ms. Geller. Now get some rest, okay?"
With that the doctor left her, without having provided any kind of answer to
her.

Dr. Barkley looked at the four faces in front of him. Ms. Geller's family
and boyfriend were looking right back at him, wanting to know what was going
on.
"As you probably know." Barkley began. "Ms. Geller has--"
"Pardon me for interrupting doctor, but since we're probably gonna be around
this hospital for quite a while it would be allot easier to skip the
formalities and address each other by first names" Jack said.
"Okay." Dr. Barkley said, having no intention of calling Mr. and Mrs. Geller
by their first names. "Monica has suffered some lack of oxygen during the
time she was without a heartbeat."
"But we already knew that" Judy Geller said.
"Have I talked to you about the possibilities of brain damage?" the doctor
asked, leaning forward in his chair. Ross and Chandler frowned.
"Bain damage? You, you think my sister has brain damage?" Ross asked.
"I'm afraid she might have" Dr. Barkley said.
"What kind of damage are we talking about here, doctor?" Judy asked.
"Ability to speak? To hear, to see? To move?"
"Right now I think we're looking at a damage to the memory centre. Ms.
Geller, Monica, doesn't remember."
"That's ridiculous" Chandler said, leaning back in his chair.
"I spoke to her after you'd left the room, Mr. Bing. And she has no idea
what her name is, how old she is or anything else like that. Nothing. She
has no idea that you, Mr. and Mrs. Geller, are her parents or that you," the
doctor looked at Ross, "is her brother. And I'm sorry Mr. Bing, but she has
no idea who you are."
Chandler felt like he had bit hit over the head with something heavy.
"That can't be accurate, doctor." he said. "She said my name! I heard her
say my name, the night she woke up! That's what woke ME up, her saying
'Chandler'."
"I can't tell you why she said your name" Dr. Barkley said. "My guess would
be that she has no idea that it was your name she said. She probably just
remembered the name, but not anything else about it. Whom it belonged to, or
things like that."
"Oh damn it." Chandler said, closing his eyes.
"So, for how long will she have this. amnesia?" Jack asked.
"I don't know, Mr. Geller" Dr. Barkley replied. "Possibly just for a few
more days, but there is a chance she will never remember."
"A SMALL chance, I hope" Chandler said, rubbing his temple.
"Actually it's not so small as you would think. But the important thing is
now that you all need to stimulate her memory process. Talk about old
memories, play her songs she used to like, read her favourite books to her
and let her watch her favourite films. The chances are she will remember
things if she hears them enough. And single events or words can bring back
large parts of her memory. But don't try to rush her, and don't give her all
her memories in hand. Instead you should try and trigger her memories. If
you tell her everything about who she was, the chances are she will have an
identity crisis, not feeling like her memories are her own, but that they
are what you've told her. Lead her on to remembering things. For example,
Mr. Bing, what is her favourite movie?"
"I. honestly don't know." Chandler said, and sighed. "I know she loves
'Backdraft', though" he continued, desperately naming the first film he
could think of, that she liked.
"Okay, 'Backdraft'." Dr. Barkley said. "If you watch it with her, don't tell
her it was her favourite film, and don't tell her memories that are linked
to the film. Try to let her remember that all on her own. Are you with me?"
Chandler sighed.
"Yeah, I'm with you." He looked at the doctor for the fist time in minutes.
"So basically what you're saying is that she might never remember that I am
her boyfriend, and she might never remember all of the things we've shared?"
"That is just a worst case scenario, Mr. Bing. We have all the hope that
Monica will remember everything. Just give her some time."

Monica looked up as Chandler entered the room. She immediately saw that
there was something different about him this time, he didn't have the loving
look in his eyes anymore. He looked almost scared. But after a few seconds
he gave her a loving glance again, before sitting down on the chair next to
her.
"Sweetheart, do you know what this?" he asked, holding up a harmonica for
her to see. It wasn't the harmonica that he wanted her to remember, he'd
just bought it in the hospital gift shop. He wanted to see if the harmonica
would make her remember her father's nickname for her, and then also her
name.
"It. is a harmonica, right?" Monica said, looking at it carefully. When she
said the word she could feel there was something about it, but she couldn't
get a grip on what. Apparently the man thought there was something about it
too, because he eyed her carefully, as if looking for a reaction in her.
"It's nice" she said, not knowing what else to say.
The man made a disappointed face, and placed the harmonica on the
nightstand. He looked at her for a few seconds, and then he looked down on
his hands.
"Honey, do you remember who I am? Can you tell me what my name is?"
Monica felt really awkward. She had absolutely no idea. She realized he
probably had some romantic history with her, otherwise he wouldn't call her
'honey'. But his name and role in her life was a blank.
"You can't can you?" he said, looking up at her. There was no accusation in
his words, just sad resignment.
"I was kinda' hoping you would at least know my name" he said, still without
accusation, but Monica felt as if she'd committed a crime or something. She
turned her head and looked on her left side, instead of watching him.
"Does this help?" he asked.
Monica turned her head and saw him fishing for something in his pocket. He
got out a necklace, a beautiful golden necklace with a heart hanging from it
with a small stone in it. Chandler knew it was her birth month stone. He
hoped it could make her remember what month she was born. The necklace
itself was a gift from Richard. Chandler had been smart enough never to
complain about her wearing jewellery that former boyfriends had given her.
Not that he liked it much, but he knew she didn't love Richard still, just
because she wore a gift from him.
Monica looked at the necklace for a few seconds.
"Who's is it?" she asked.
"It's yours, actually. Richard gave it to you."
"My brother?" Monica asked, remembering her brother's name starting with an
R. She saw Chandler shake his head, and she bit her bottom lip. It felt
awkward to mistake people for each other. What if Richard was him, and he
was just trying to see if she remembered?
"No Mon, Richard was your ex-boyfriend" Chandler said.
Monica only heard the words 'ex-boyfriend' because she had her mind
elsewhere, but it was good to know it wasn't the guy sitting next to her
that was named Richard.
"Do you see this stone in the middle of the heart?" Chandler asked, pointing
it out to her. She nodded.
"This is a rock crystal" he explained, hoping it would help her remember.
But she just gave him a confused look.
"Okay. Well, I brought another piece of jewellery that belongs to you"
Chandler continued, picking it up from his shirt pocket. It was a golden
necklace also, but a thinner one. It was one of those necklaces with a small
medallion that you could open up, and put small pictures in.
"Can you lift up your left arm?" he asked.
Monica carefully lifted her left arm. It felt heavy, and her muscle felt
really weak. She hadn't used it herself for two weeks, it was just the
physical therapist that had mover her limbs for her while she was in the
coma. Therefore her arm was very weak.
Chandler placed the necklace in her left hand when she'd moved it over to
the right side of the bed. She tried to close her fingers around it, but she
couldn't. She watched the necklace for a second.
The situation was not as awkward anymore, she didn't feel as bothered in his
company as before, but when Chandler leaned over to open the medallion for
her she all of a sudden felt very uncomfortable in his presence again. No
matter what their history might be he was still a stranger to her now. And
she didn't like it when he leaned closer like that. Chandler saw the look on
her face, and quickly leaned back as soon as he'd opened the medallion.
Monica looked at the pictures inside. The left picture was her, only she
didn't know that because she hadn't gotten to look in a mirror since the
accident. And she couldn't remember what she looked like. She could tell
though, that the right picture was of the man next to her. It was just his
face, there wasn't room for anything else in the small frame, but she could
tell it was some sort of party or public place. He was smiling, just like
the person on the left picture.
Chandler saw her confusion over the left picture and wondered if she knew it
was her. He took up a small mirror from his other shirt pocket.
"Here, Rachel lent me this" he said to her, but she didn't know the name.
She looked up at him, and understood that he wanted her to look in the
mirror. So she did.
It actually took her a few seconds to realize that it was the same face as
on the left picture. So the person was her. She wondered what exactly had
happened to her, because she looked terrible. Her face was covered with
bruises that had turned yellow by now, and she saw a few stitches on her
left cheek. And her hair hadn't been washed for over two weeks, it looked
lifeless and greasy. She looked away, not wanting to see anymore of it.
Chandler grabbed the mirror and wondered slightly scared if it had been a
mistake to let her see her reflection.
"My goodness, I look awful!" Monica said low, and glanced down at the
picture in the medallion. The woman on that picture looked healthy, fresh
and happy.
"No sweetie, you don't look awful." the man softly said, and carefully
stroke her cheek. She tried her best not to recoil when he touched her.
"So this." she said, holding up the picture to give him something else but
her cheek to focus on, "this is us?"
"Yeah" Chandler said. "This is you and me, all right. I think it's from a
picture taken in Las Vegas last year. You thought it would be cute to cut
our heads out and place them in his medallion."
He quieted, wondering if he'd said too much. He remembered the doctor
telling him not to give her all the memories, but to give her the possible
keys to her memories.
Monica handed him back the necklace and looked back down on her hands. She
felt tired, and uncomfortable. She didn't like his presence, it was
demanding too much of her. And she got scared inside, every time he looked
at her, because of the strong love she could see in his eyes. And she had no
idea who he was, so how could she love him back? Part of her even wondered
if he really did know her before. One thing she did remember, was something
she'd heard once, about people without families who claim to be related to
people with amnesias, just to get a family. She didn't know why she
remembered that, when she didn't even know her own name, but since it was
the only thing she could remember it was also the one thing she trusted.
"Are you really sure you don't know my name?" the man asked all of a sudden.
Monica nodded.
"Well do you." the man paused, as if searching for words. "Do you remember
what you said, when you woke up from your. from your coma?"
Monica did remember, vaguely, but she didn't know if he was trying to trick
her or something. So she said nothing.
"What you said honey, was my name" the man told her, and looked her straight
in the eye. "My name is Chandler."
Monica felt a bit relieved, it was as if she got one piece of her big puzzle
in place. And it did seem logical that it was his name, because she had
suspected that the word was someone's name.
"So you're. Chandler." she said, not knowing what else to say.
"Yeah, that's me" he said, weakly smiling. But he told her nothing about if
he was her boyfriend, like she thought, or if he was just a close friend or
a relative.

That night Monica woke up around one o'clock. She was alone, and she felt
relieved. She didn't like it that people she had no memory of constantly
came to talk to her, and try to get her to remember. The only one who hadn't
tried to get her to remember was the cute guy who had come to see her the
night she woke up, after the brown haired woman. The guy had told her his
name was Joey, said he was an actor, and then started to tell her about an
audition he'd had the same morning that had gone pretty bad because it had
turned out he'd gone to the wrong one.
She had liked his presence, unlike the others, because he was friendly and
didn't act all awkward around her. And he didn't try to get her to remember
his name or his job on her own, he'd just told her straight out. And he'd
joked with her and talked to her as if they'd met at a bar or something,
instead of at the hospital. And then he'd played a song for her on the
harmonica, but he hadn't been very good at it.
Monica turned her head to look at the small instrument. She wondered why it
was the name always got her thinking, it was as if she had a piece of memory
just beyond reach. She tried picturing all the people who had visited her
during the day say the word 'harmonica', to see if that helped her put some
pieces together. And when she pictured her supposed father saying it, it
clicked.
"That's what he calls me." she whispered. "'Little harmonica', or something
like that. But why?"
After thinking about it for a few seconds she realized it had either to do
with her having played the instrument, or it had something to do with her
name. She couldn't figure anything else out though, so she decided to ask
Joey if he came to see her the next day.
She shut the thought of what it meant out of her head and went back to
sleep.

"Hey there, Ms. Patient, your favourite actor is here!" Joey said,
announcing his arrival to Monica the next morning. He was the first one to
arrive at the hospital this morning, and he happily smiled as he sat down on
the chair next to her.
"Hi Joey" Monica said, lightly smiling back. "I was hoping I could ask you a
question."
"Sure!" Joey said. "Joey Tribbiani at your service!"
"Do you see this harmonica?" Monica asked, nodding in it's direction. Joey
nodded. "Well, my father used to call me Harmonica, right?"
"Oh my god!" Joey said, and flew up on his feet, smiling big. "You
remembered something!"
"Joey, please." Monica said, not wanting things to get awkward around Joey
as well.
"Sorry." Joey said, sitting down again.
"Why did he call me that?" Monica asked. "Do you know? Has it got to do with
me playing the harmonica, or does it have to do with my name, or is it
something else?"
"Well, I would have to ask Chandler." Joey said, not noticing how Monica
frowned upon hearing the name. "But I'm pretty sure it's because of your
name."
Monica sat quiet for a while, and ran a few possible names though her head.
She felt really awkward not knowing her own name, having to think of a few
options to see which one seemed most correct. When she came to 'Monica', she
thought it felt familiar.
"Monica" she said. "Is that someone I know, or is it me?"
Joey smiled and gave her a pat on the shoulder.
"That's you, all right!"
At that moment Chandler entered, slightly surprised to see Joey being there
already. And even more surprised to see the first honest smile on Monica's
face since she'd woken up.
Monica didn't really reflect on how she felt when Chandler was near, she was
so proud of herself for remembering, so when she saw him enter she gave him
a smile and said;
"Chandler, I just remembered my name! Monica!"
The look on Chandler's face was priceless. Even though the uncomfortable
feeling came over Monica quite quickly again, she still couldn't help
feeling happy over causing him to smile so widely.
Joey looked from one to the other.
"Uh, I'll leave you two alone" he said, rising.
Monica wanted to ask him to stay, but she didn't dare to. Joey left and
Chandler walked over and sat down next to her.
"Wow, that is so amazing" he said, still with the bright smile in his face.
"Yeah, I fell pretty relieved" Monica said, feeling awkward as well as
relieved. She couldn't understand why she felt that way as soon as Chandler
was near. She felt awkward around most people who had come to see her, but
it was worst with Chandler. And then she felt guilty for feeling
uncomfortable, which just made it worse.

Two months passed by. Monica had gotten rid of the casts on her arms, Dr.
Barkley said that her wrists and her right arm were very well healed. But
her legs were still in the casts.
Monica woke up every day wishing Chandler wouldn't come to see her, but he
always did. She wondered if he was aware that she felt uncomfortable around
him, or if he hadn't noticed. There were three different things he did when
he came to visit her. He either tried to get her to remember stuff, told her
about his day or brought movies for her, and them, to watch. Once a week he
brought her a new book, and when she opened the covers she often saw her
name written with a dainty hand writing. Other times she saw Chandler's
name, and wondered where the name Bing came from.
Her parents rarely visited her anymore. Usually one of them would come visit
her over the weekends, to see how she was doing and to hear if any part of
her memory had come back. She remembered very little still, and other than
her name she knew nothing about herself. It was mostly that she remembered
how to do a certain thing, or a detail from one of her friends' lives.
Her friends visited her often, but it was only with Joey that she felt
relieved and relaxed. There was nothing romantic between them, it was pretty
clear that he saw her as Chandler's girl and Ross's sister, and she didn't
feel like getting involved with him either. He was the one friend she really
felt like she was friends with, and she didn't want to ruin that by a love
affair.
Ross, her brother, came by every day, and now that the scars on her face had
more or less disappeared and she'd gotten rid of the casts on her arms, he'd
started to bring his son when he came to visit.
Monica loved to see her nephew, she had instantly remembered him when she
saw him, and he felt like an important key to her memory. And he was the
sweetest kid. When Ross didn't bring Ben, he usually brought pictures that
Ben had drawn for her at school. Monica had a notice-board in her room,
which was full of pictures from Ben.
Rachel and Phoebe were the ones who came by the least. Phoebe usually came
every other day, and sometimes gave her little massages to keep her muscles
from growing weak. Rachel came by around three times a week, sometimes two.
She had a new boyfriend and she was at work all day, so when she got home
from work she usually went out with the boyfriend instead of coming to visit
Monica. Monica wasn't mad at her for that, she had no memory of Rachel,
other than that her nose had been different once, so she didn't really feel
like she was missing out on anything.
After the fist hectic days she had been left alone a few hours every day,
and she cherished those hours.
Chandler usually came over before he went to work and then came back during
his lunch break. She wondered if he ever ate, he looked so thin and Ross has
said that he'd lost allot of weight. Monica knew that after his work,
Chandler went home and ate and did what he had to do around the apartment,
and then came back to be with her until eleven, which was when the doctor
wanted her to get some sleep, alone. She fell asleep before eleven many
nights, but she'd heard from one of the nurses that Chandler didn't leave
until he had to. She wondered what he was doing while she was sleeping.

Chandler entered the hospital, whistling to himself. It was two o'clock and
he'd gotten the afternoon of, so he'd decided to spend it where he preferred
to be, which was with Monica. He'd noticed that she was a bit tense during
his visits, but he told himself it was just because of the memory thing. Not
once had it struck him that since she couldn't remember him she had stopped
loving him. If he'd thought about it, he would have realized it was a crazy
thought. You can't love someone you don't remember, but Chandler didn't see
it that way. To him they would always love each other, and it was only a
matter of time before she would remember more about them. He did see that
maybe her love wasn't as strong at the moment, but he was still convinced
that she loved him. She'd even asked him once if he was her boyfriend, and
it had been more of a statement than a question.

Rachel was in with Monica at the moment, so he sat down and waited, giving
them some time alone. These days he was more patient when it came to waiting
to see her. And Rachel came by so seldom these days, so they should get all
the time they needed.

"Have I got the stuff for you!" Rachel exclaimed, pleased with herself. "I
heard a little bird whisper that your prince charming is coming by soon, so
I thought maybe you'd like to freshen up before he comes."
She put down two bags on the small table in the corner of the room.
"Not that it would matter" she continued, picking up stuff from the bags.
"He'd be crazy over you no matter how you looked. But I thought it could be
fun to surprise him, don't you think?"
Monica didn't answer. She grabbed a bottle that Rachel had placed on her
nightstand when the other table got full of things.
"Dry shampoo?" she read of the bottle. "What kind of a product is that?"
"That, my friend, is gonna help your hair look. well. almost like it used to
look. I mean, don't get me wrong, but it will take a while for your hair to
regain it's former look."
"So in other words I'm gonna look like a scarecrow for a while" Monica said,
suddenly concerned about her appearance.
"No." Rachel said, avoiding to answer further.
She helped Monica wash her hair with the dry shampoo, and afterwards it
looked a bit fresher than before. It was still lifeless, but it wasn't as
greasy as before.
"Now, for the good stuff." Rachel said, returning to the table to get some
more things. "Now, I know that you won't like this, but I brought you some
makeup. I just thought it would be fun to put some makeup on you, so you
could feel a little bit like normal again."
She brought over the makeup she'd brought from home, and did Monica's makeup
in about ten minutes. When she was done, Monica asked for a mirror. Rachel
handed her one, and saw in amazement how Monica, after a quick look, grabbed
the lipstick and mascara and improved the makeup quite allot. Her lips were
now bright red, and her eyelashes looked really long.
"Wow, you need to teach me that trick with the mascara." Rachel said in
amazement.
"Don't talk so silly and hand me the eye shadow" Monica replied, carefully
checking the makeup in the mirror.
"Wow, you really want to give Chandler something to look at, huh?" Rachel
said, as she watched Monica put on more eye shadow.
"Chandler?" Monica said confused, looking up. "Chandler's coming?"
"Yeah, didn't you hear me when I said that?" Rachel asked, and wondered why
Monica was putting so much effort in the makeup if it wasn't for Chandler.
To get her mind of that, she went over to the bags and picked up the last
item she'd brought.
"What's that?" Monica asked, placing the makeup on the nightstand next to
the book that lay there.
"Well, Phoebe thought you might be getting sick and tired of wearing those
hospital gowns, so I brought one of your favourite t-shirts to sleep in."
She walked over to Monica, who took the t-shirt and looked at it, confused.
She wondered to herself how she could have such bad taste. The t-shirt was
really old, it just took one look to know it had been washed several times.
It said NYU on the chest, and on the back it said something that was no
longer readable because of all the washes. Monica looked up on Rachel.
"You're kidding, right?"
"What?" Rachel asked. "Ever since you got together with Chandler, that is
all I've seen you sleep in. Almost. Now hurry up and change, I think he's
waited long enough."
"How come everything has to be about Chandler?" Monica asked, frowning. "I
must be either a real geek or a real wuss."
"Isn't that the same thing?" Rachel asked. "Either way, hurry up now, he's
waited outside forever!"
Monica mumbled something Rachel didn't hear, but judging by the tone of her
voice it was just as good she didn't hear it. Monica got out of the hospital
gown and pulled the old t-shirt over her head.
"This thing smells" she said, wrinkling her nose.
"I know. That's why you said you liked it. because it smelled--"
"Be quiet, I don't want to know what it smells like."
Rachel gave her a confused look, gathered her things and went outside. She
thought of saying something to Chandler about Monica's weird behaviour, but
thought the better of it. And either way he was already through the door.
"Hey Mon" he greeted her, closing the door behind him. He immediately
noticed the change. She was no longer wearing the hospital gown, her hair
looked allot fresher and she had lots of makeup on.
"Goodness, what did Rachel do to you?" he said, going over to sit next to
her.
Monica just wanted to ask him to leave. She was feeling really weird, and
she didn't want his company. He asked to many questions, either with his
lips or his eyes.
"How are we doing today, anything else going on?" Chandler asked, picking up
the hospital gown from the floor and folding it.
"No, not much." Monica said, pretending to be very tired. She hoped that
might give him a hint that he should leave her alone. But he didn't seem to
notice.
"Well, same on my part. Nothing new, really" he said, looking up on her and
seeing the look in her eyes. She looked sad, sad and tired.
"Honey, are you okay?" he asked her.
She flashed him an 'of course I'm not okay, I'm in a hospital!' look, and he
decided to rephrase.
"Are you feeling all right, or is something the matter? Other than the
obvious."
"Anything the matter should be obvious" was her reply, her voice weak.
Chandler looked at her for a second. He felt scared. It was obvious that she
didn't want him to be there right now, and he wondered why that was. He
decided to be a coward and leave her alone, and telling himself it wasn't
him that she didn't want to see. She was just in a bad mood.
"Look hon, I'm gonna go home and get something to eat, 'cause I'm starving"
he lied. "I'll be back to see you in a few hours, okay?"
She didn't answer. He kissed her on the cheek and left the hospital gown on
the table before he left.
Out in the hall he met Rachel, who was talking to Joey.
"Wanna split a cab, Rach?" Chandler asked, feeling numb inside.
"Wow, that was a short visit" Rachel remarked. Joey waved 'hello' to
Chandler and went in to see Monica.
"She was really tired, and I hope Joey doesn't stay in there too long,
because I think she wants to be alone."
"Well, maybe, but she seemed okay while I was in there" Rachel said, knowing
it wasn't true. But she felt Chandler was overreacting.
"She seemed okay?" Chandler asked, confused.
"Yeah, but. I mean, we had a whole freshen up thing going on, hair washing
and putting on makeup and things like that, maybe that just made her really
tired" Rachel said.
"Maybe." Chandler said.
The next second they could hear Monica laughing happily, probably at a
comment from Joey, not sounding tired at all.
"Or maybe actors are just allot more interesting and entertaining that data
processors" Chandler continued, nearly spitting out the words.
He ignored the fact that he's just asked Rachel to share a cab, and walked
away from her. He didn't know if he was angry or said. But he did know he
was hurting. For he had just realized Monica didn't feel the same way about
him any longer.