Chandler sighed and threw the
last bag in the trunk. They had decided to
stay away for about a month,
but Rachel seemed to think they'd decided on a
year. At first they'd thought
one car would be enough, but when they saw all
of Rachel's bags they quickly
realized they'd be needing more than Phoebe's
cab. So Ross had borrowed
the Porsche from his and Monica's father, but he
had to return it within a
week. He was planning on paying his parents a
visit to return the car and
then take the train back out.
Phoebe, Rachel and Ross were
getting in the cab. Chandler was waiting for
Monica and Joey to show up.
After a little convincing they'd managed to get
Jack to let someone else than
Ross drive the car.
Joey and Monica exited the
coffee house with a coffee-to-go each. Chandler
sighed. No drinking was allowed
in the Porsche, that was one of Jack
Geller's main rules. They
would be late if they had to stay and wait for
Joey and Monica to finish
their coffees.
"Hurry up you two, drink up!"
Chandler said, feeling annoyed. He was alloyed
very often these days. He
was bitter at Monica for having changed, but he
knew he shouldn't be and that
annoyed him. Her ignorance towards him also
annoyed him.
"Mon, you know you can't drink
coffee in dad's car" Ross said, as Monica
passed by the cab, where he
was sitting with the door open.
"Okay, then YOU drink it"
she said, casually throwing her coffee-to-go mug
in his lap. Ross yelped and
caught it just before it landed.
"Hey, be careful!" he cried
out.
Monica shrugged her shoulders
and smiled mischievously. Ross made a face at
her, closed the door and told
Phoebe to drive.
When the problem with the
coffee was solved, Joey and Chandler got another
one to deal with.
"I'm driving!" Monica said,
taking place behind the wheel.
Joey and Chandler looked at
each other. That Monica was going to drive had
not even been a possibility.
"Hey Mon, are you really sure--"
Joey begun, but got cut off by Monica
starting the engine.
"Are you gonna ride with me,
or are you going to walk?" she asked, placing a
tape in the car stereo and
putting on sunglasses to avoid the bright June
sun.
"Look Mon, honey, it's been
a while since you sat behind a wheel." Chandler
said, trying to talk her out
of it. No one was even sure if she remembered
how to drive.
"Relax" she said, and Chandler
got a strange feeling she was reading his
thoughts when she continued;
"It's just like riding a bike, you know. You
never forget."
"Funny, I've always said the
same thing about loving" Chandler said, rolling
his eyes, and took place next
to her in the car.
Joey got in right behind Chandler
and Monica showed them that she hadn't
forgotten how to drive.
'She drives like she's Nicky
Lauda' Chandler thought, amazing at the speed
she kept. This was another
thing that the old Monica would have never done.
Once they got out of the city
Monica found the silence disturbing, so she
turned on the stereo. The
Cardigans' "My Favourite Game" started to play at
a loud volume, and Chandler
couldn't help but be scared that she was going
to put on a performance like
in the video. Monica drummed her hands against
the steering wheel in rhythm
with the riff, and she did look like an
American version of Nina Persson.
"Hey Mon, slow down a bit,
would you?" Joey said from the backseat.
"Joey, do the words 'boring'
and 'dull' mean anything to you?" Monica
replied.
"Yeah, but Mon, if the cops
pull you over you won't get to drive anymore."
Monica thought about it for
a second, then slowed down some, but she was
still driving a bit too fast.
"You ran a stop sign" Chandler
pointed out, and wondered if she had
forgotten the traffic rules
but not how to drive.
"Whatever" Monica replied,
and sang along in the chorus. Ever since the
accident she had started to
sing allot, which was another thing that she
never did before. She used
to claim she couldn't carry a tune if her life
depended on it. Now she either
thought differently or she just didn't care.
Either option was kind of
scary.
Joey eyed Monica for a few
minutes. "My Favourite Game" had ended, and
Meja's "All 'Bout the Money"
was playing instead. Monica was still humming
along, and Joey felt like
he was in the middle of "Twilight Zone". He
glanced over at Chandler,
who didn't bother to pretend anymore. He hated the
situation, hated the new Monica's
attitude. And he hated having to hide it
all the time.
Monica noticed the look on
his face, smiled mischievously and sang a line
from Bon Jovi's "Blaze of
Glory". Her smiled turned more pleased when she
saw his reaction, and she
felt proud of having remembered something all on
her own. Chandler had once
secretly confided in her that he liked that
particular song by Bon Jovi.
In that moment she could almost
sense what she had once felt for him. But
she brushed it off as a reaction
to his smile. It wasn't often that she
caused people to smile these
days.
A few hours later they united
with Ross, Rachel and Phoebe at Phoebe's
mother's house. Phoebe Abbot
was un Europe for the summer, so they'd gotten
to borrow her house. Rachel
came running out of the house as soon as they
parked, because she wanted
the rest of her bags.
"I don't see what you need
ten bags of clothes, we're only gonna be here for
a month" Chandler said, lifting
yet another one of her bags from the trunk.
"Yeah, yeah" Rachel said.
"Be careful with that, that's my party-dress bag!"
Well inside Ross and Phoebe
told them that there were six bedrooms in the
house, one of each of them.
Phoebe was going to sleep in her mother's
bedroom and the rest of them
in guest rooms.
"Four of the rooms are upstairs"
Phoebe said. "Three of you can get to sleep
there, so you four can get
to debate on who sleeps downstairs."
"There's five of us" Chandler
pointed out.
"I know, but since Rachel
brought half the Ralph Lauren store she sleeps
downstairs. Too hard to carry
all of her bags upstairs."
It didn't take them long to
get settled. Chandler took the first room
upstairs, Monica the second.
Opposite Chandler's room was Phoebe Sr's
bedroom and Joey took the
last room upstairs, after winning a dice roll
between him and Ross.
Chandler sat down on his bed
and wondered if this trip was going to work out
okay. He hoped for all of
their sakes that Monica would go back to her good
old self again.
The gang gathered in the living
room to eat dinner, and Chandler started to
think that Monica was starting
to remember. She made dinner for the first
time since the accident, and
while she made it she remembered that Phoebe
didn't eat meat, so she made
a vegetarian meal.
"Looks like this trip idea
was a good call" Joey said low to the other two
guys, watching Monica cook.
They were seated on the living room couch.
"It was only a matter of time
before her memories would come back more and
more" Ross said. "he can't
go on not remembering forever."
"According to Dr. Barkley
that's exactly what she can" Chandler remarked.
"Besides, no one said she
remembers everything" Joey pointed out. "But her
remembering how to cook is
something that I have been looking forward to."
Chandler couldn't help but
laugh at that comment. It was so typical Joey.
The other guys stared at him,
not having heard him laugh for so long.
Chandler quickly quieted,
and felt as if he'd committed a crime or
something.
"Okay, dinner's ready!" Monica
called out.
The gang took place around
the table, and for the first time in a year they
had a pleasant meal together.
Monica was acting a bit more like her old
self, and the food was good.
"Anyway, did I mention that
Don is coming up over the weekends?" Rachel
asked when they were almost
finished.
"Don?" Monica said. "Yeah,
he's yum. But not as yum as this guy I saw at the
hospital the other day."
Chandler nearly dropped his
fork. Although he knew she flirted with guys all
the time, he hadn't expected
her to talk about it in front of him.
"Uh, is there uh. anything
for dessert?" Joey asked, noticing Chandler's
reaction and wanting to change
the subject before they got a more detailed
description of the guy at
the hospital.
"Yeah, there's some ice cream
in the fridge" Monica said, starting to pick
up the plates. "You can probably
have one of those."
Joey shrugged his shoulders.
He wasn't really interested in dessert. As long
as they were talking about
something else.
The guys, Phoebe and Rachel
had planned on playing Trivial Pursuit after
dinner. Each one of them had
different reasons for wanting to.
Joey wanted to see if it could
trigger some memories with Monica, Phoebe had
never played before, Ross
was always up for a game of TP and Rachel wanted
to get back at Joey for winning
over her the last time. She found it
embarrassing that he'd won
over her. Chandler just wanted to have a pleasant
night with the gang, like
the old days.
They sat down in the living
room and started discussing how to team up.
"I can be with Monica" Phoebe
said, and looked around. "And speaking of,
where is she?"
Joey and Chandler shared a
confused look, and Joey rose and went over to the
kitchen.
"I thought she was still in
here!" he said. "Where did she go?"
"Ill go up and check" Phoebe
offered, running up the stairs.
"Monica?" she said, opening
the door to Monica's room. "Mon, are you here?"
Monica was laying on the bed,
with a book in front of her, biting an apple.
"Mon, there you are." Phoebe
closed the door and walked up to her friend.
"Come on, we're playing Trivial
Pursuit."
"Nice" Monica said, not looking
up.
"What are you reading?" Phoebe
asked, trying a different topic to get her
attention.
"'Lucky'" Monica said.
"'Lucky'? But you hate Jackie
Collins."
"That was before." Monica
replied. "Probably. Because I can't see what's so
wrong with it."
"I thought you used to say
that books like that were degrading to women!"
"Look, Phoebs." Monica said
with a sigh, clearly annoyed, and turned to look
at Phoebe. "I didn't read
the first book, at least. Now what do you want,
I'm not in the mood for playing
the memory game."
"We, uhm." Phoebe all of a
sudden felt nervous. Her best friend was making
her nervous. "We're just about
to play TP. Don't you want to join?"
"As if" Monica replied, and
turned her attention back to the book.
"You sure?"
"Am I sure?" Monica looked
up at her again. "Phoebe, is there water in the
Pacific Ocean?"
"Well you obviously feel like
asking questions, come on down and play with
us. The teams won't be even
if you don't."
"I'm so glad you want me to
join just because you want to be around me"
Monica sarcastically replied,
and went back to reading.
"Monica, come on. It could
be fun."
"So could this if you kept
quiet."
Phoebe looked at Monica for
a second, then sighed and went back down. She
wondered if she should ask
Joey or Chandler to go up and talk to her, but
she gave up the idea pretty
soon.
"So, where is she?" Chandler
asked as Phoebe came down the stairs. "We've
decided to let the Gellers
fight for the family honour against the rest of
us. Phoebe, you're with Joey."
"Yeah, change of plans" Phoebe
said, sitting down.
"What do you mean, do you
want to be on my team instead?" Rachel asked.
"No, but it looks like Ross
will be defending the family honour by himself.
Monica's not coming."
"What do you mean, she's not
coming?" Rachel asked. "There is no such thing
as Monica not wanting to join
when we're playing games!"
"Well, there is now" Phoebe
said. "So I'm guessing we're playing one on one,
instead of teams?"
The others nodded, forcing
smiles to their faces, unlike Phoebe who didn't
bother. They'd all hoped for
a game with all six of them, now the thrill of
the game was somehow taken
away. It wasn't as fun playing just five, not
when they were used to always
being six.
The next day Monica came down
for breakfast long after everyone else.
Phoebe, Joey and Ross had
already gone out to take a swim, and Rachel and
Chandler were off grocery
shopping.
Monica smiled when she saw
that she was alone. She cherished her moments of
peace, she just couldn't get
used to having five people near all the time.
Last night had been a wonderful
evening on her part, she hadn't heard a word
from the others after Phoebe
had gone back downstairs.
She opened the fridge and
took out some milk, to have cereal. She then
opened the cabinet and saw
that there were four different kinds of cereals
to choose from. And she had
no idea which kind she liked.
She slammed the cabinet door
shut and sighed deeply. Would she ever remember
things like that? It was both
frustrating and annoying to not even remember
what kind of food you liked.
Not to mention that it was embarrassing when
she had to ask her friends.
"To hell with breakfast" she
said, putting the milk back in the fridge.
She decided to try and spend
the day all by herself. She went upstairs and
got changed. She'd only brought
three suitcases, which was little compared
to Rachel. But the difference
was she had all new clothes in hers. She had
lots of money in the bank,
'cause she had once decided that she never wanted
to go broke again if she was
unemployed. She saved as much of her pay check
as she could every month,
and by the time of the accident she had over $10
000 in her account. That amount
had gotten higher during her time at the
hospital, since money had
been put in the account, but she hadn't been
around to take any of it out.
So the day before they left for Montauk she'd
taken out $2000 and gone shopping
for it.
She put on an armless purple
top with a v-neck and a short white skirt,
complete with pockets. In
one of the pockets she placed her wallet and keys,
and she put her sunglasses
in the other. Then she hurried down the stairs
and outside before anybody
came back to ask her questions.
She remembered at the last
minute to write down a note, saying she was out.
The others would probably
get mad at her if she didn't.
She took her father's Porsche
and drove away, planning to be gone for about
five our six hours.
Ten minutes later Chandler
and Rachel came back, bickering. Chandler was
carrying both the grocery
bags.
"Well you're not exactly off
on a good start, are you?" Rachel said.
"Hey, nobody expected her
to be back to normal the first day" Chandler
defended himself. "Now would
you please give me a break and open the door?
Don's not here, she can't
hit on him while he's in New York."
Rachel opened the door and
they went inside. Chandler started unpacking the
groceries and Rachel pulled
herself up on the counter and sat there,
watching him, with no intention
of helping him out.
"Is that the receipt?" she
asked, pointing to a small piece of paper next to
one of the bags.
"'I've gone out. Will be back
later. MG'" Chandler read from it, and sighed.
"Well, look at the bright
side. at least she left us a note."
"At least who left us a note?"
Ross asked, entering with Phoebe and Joey.
"Ross? You're, you're here?"
Rachel asked, slightly confused.
"I think so, yeah" Ross sarcastically
said, after having looked around.
"You haven't gone to return
the Porsche to your father?" Rachel asked.
"Relax, I'll do it tomorrow."
"But then who's got the Porsche?"
Rachel said, even more confused.
The others looked at each
other.
"Monica" Joey, Chandler and
Phoebe said in unison.
"What? My, my sister has taken
of with the car?" Ross asked, clearly
starting to freak out.
"Don't worry, she'll be back.
later" Chandler said, waving the note in front
of Ross.
Ross shook his head. He didn't
trust his sister with the car in her current
condition.
"Is that a note from her?"
he asked. Chandler nodded. "Well does it say
where she's gone?"
This time Chandler shook his
head. Ross frowned.
"So my unstable sister has
taken of with the Porsche and nobody knows where
she is?" Ross summed up.
"Hey, don't call her unstable!"
Chandler said, offended. He couldn't take
any bad words about Monica.
"Fine, my not-as-stable-as-she-was
sister."
"This isn't a joke" Chandler
replied, placing the last item from the bags in
the cabinet. "Now I'm gonna
go upstairs and get some work done, and I trust
Monica and I know she won't
get into trouble. Just let me know when she gets
back."
With that he was up the stairs,
leaving the others to wonder if they should
trust Monica or not.
Monica returned seven hours
later, around five o'clock. She had a pet-bottle
of water in her right hand,
and the keys to the Porsche in the left. She was
pleased with her day, she'd
had a very good time. But one look on the
others' faces told her they
hadn't.
Everyone except for Chandler
had waited down in the living room for over two
hours, and Ross flew to his
feet and yanked the keys away from Monica.
"Don't ask me why we weren't
smart enough to take the keys back last night"
he said.
"Excuse me?" Monica said,
getting defensive.
"What on earth were you thinking,
taking off with dad's car?"
"What?" Monica was getting
angry. "It's a car! What else was I supposed to
do with it? Eat it?"
She coldly stared at him,
her eyes warning him not to accuse her of being
untrustworthy, and at the
same time daring him to pick a fight.
"Sorry" Ross mumbled, deciding
it was better to let it go. He went back to
the couch and sat down.
"Great, now excuse me for
a second, I need a shower" Monica said, heading
for the second floor.
Once she was gone the others
shared a look.
"Where did she get that outfit
from?" Rachel said, breaking the silence. "I
don't recognize it."
"Oh, does it matter?" Joey
said, clearly annoyed. Then he turned to Ross.
"Ross, you shouldn't let it
go like that! She shouldn't have left with the
car for hours, you should
have told her that!"
"She's not a kid, Joey" Phoebe
pointed out. "For crying out loud, she's 29
years old and she has the
right to do whatever she wants."
"Not with my dad's car, she
hasn't" Ross replied, whining like a little kid.
"Someone go up and tell Chandler
she's back" Rachel said, changing the
subject.
"I think he knows, he probably
heard her" Ross replied, leaning back in the
couch. "And if not, he'll
find out when he hears her singing in the shower.
Why does she always insist
on doing that these days? She sings everywhere."
"Yeah, in the shower and in
the car." Joey sarcastically said. "That's
everywhere."
The next day Monica tried to
take the car down to town again, but found out
Ross had taken it back.
"Phoebe?" she said, walking
into the kitchen where the others were. "Can I
borrow your cab?"
Chandler stared at her. She
was wearing a skirt similar to the one she'd
worn the day before, only
it had no pockets and it was a few centimetres
longer. To that she wore an
armless brown top with a small v-neck and collar
and she had her wallet in
a small purse, the same colour as the top. He'd
never seen her in any of it
before, and he wished he hadn't now either. She
looked great, but he felt
he couldn't tell her.
Phoebe was also staring at
Monica, but for different reasons.
"You, you want to borrow the
cab?"
"Yeah. How am I else supposed
to get anywhere?"
Phoebe quieted for a minute
while she thought of an argument. She didn't
want Monica to take the cab,
but she knew she'd get mad if she found out
why.
"Uhm. Joey's gonna take it
soon to go pick Ross up" she blurted up, urging
Joey with her eyes to play
along.
"Well great, he can drop me
off. And pick me up on his way back."
Joey glared at Phoebe. Trapped.
And now he would have to go pick Ross up,
even though Ross would already
be on the train by the time Joey arrived at
Jack and Judy Geller's.
"He's, uh. going another way"
Phoebe said.
Monica looked from one to
the other.
"Fine" she said. "I know what's
going on."
She turned on the spot and
left, slamming the door behind her. If they
didn't trust her with the
cars, she could walk. And she knew she'd only have
to walk one way, she was sure
to find some guy who could drive her home.
At eight o'clock that night
the others were seated in the living room,
wondering where Monica could
be. Chandler feared the worst, was only waiting
for a phone call saying she'd
had another accident. Ross was mad at Phoebe
for not letting her take the
cab.
"But you did the same thing
yesterday!" Phoebe defended herself, near tears.
"You didn't want her to take
the Porsche, you would have lied to her too if
she'd asked for the keys!"
Ross knew it was the truth,
but he still needed someone to blame. Phoebe was
the easiest target.
"Enough, both of you!" Chandler
said, not wanting the fight to continue.
"Until Monica comes back,
if she ever does come back, I suggest you two shut
up and act adult!"
Phoebe and Ross angrily glared
at Chandler, and declared peace between
themselves to stand up for
each other against their common enemy, Chandler.
"Stop fighting EVERYONE!"
Joey said. "No one fights with no one, and
Chandler, no more name calling."
"I didn't call them names"
Chandler pointed out, and returned his stare to
outside the window.
Less than a minute later Monica
entered, with Rachel's boyfriend Don with
her.
"Don!" Rachel said, taken
by surprise.
"Guess who gave me a ride
back home?" Monica said. "I guess some people
stand up for others and help
them out."
After that, she strolled right
past her five friends who had all risen to
give her a piece of their
minds. She completely ignored them and went
upstairs to her room.
"She's like a rebellion teenager."
Joey sighed, sinking back down in his
chair.
Chandler couldn't let it go
that easily. He was furious with her for scaring
him like that, and even more
mad because she had ignored him once she got
back. He hadn't even gotten
a look from her. He stormed outside, to get the
anger out of his system somehow.
He was afraid that if he stayed indoors he
would end up throwing something
of Phoebe's mother's in the wall, breaking
it.
Rachel forgot all about the
fact that Monica had been gone for long once she
got home with Don. It was
the fact that she had gotten home with Don that
she worried about. She wondered
if Monica had tried some flirting to get him
to take her back to the house.
And she wondered what had been said between
the two in the car.
"Uh, come on Don, let's go
out and eat!" she said, tugging his arm. She
didn't want him anywhere near
Monica at the moment, and at a restaurant
they'd be far away.
"Thanks Rachel, but I'm not
hungry" Don said. "Monica and I ate before we
went back here."
He didn't see how Rachel froze
at that, and he didn't see how her face
turned angry. She had had
enough of Monica's tricks and she wasn't willing
to take it anymore.
"Remember your promise to
Chandler" Phoebe said, guessing what Rachel was
thinking. "Don't you let him
down as well."
Chandler returned about an
hour later. It was dark out, and he felt like his
heart was just as dark. She
hadn't even looked at him, she'd just walked
right past him. As if he didn't
exist.
He felt relieved when he saw
that the living room was dark. That would mean
the others were in their rooms.
He didn't want to meet anyone.
"Chandler this has gone too
far" Rachel's voice said when he entered.
Chandler recoiled, slightly
startled by the sound of her voice. He squinted
and saw that she sat on the
couch.
"There's a light switch, you
know" he said, switching on the lights.
"She had dinner with Don.
With MY boyfriend" Rachel said, low but annoyed.
"Yes, apparently her own boyfriend
isn't that fun to have dinner with"
Chandler replied, discreetly
trying to remind her that this subject was one
he didn't want to hear about.
"Tell her to keep her paws
off, Chandler."
"You tell her yourself" Chandler
replied, getting angry. "You think you're
the one to feel sorry for?
Yeah, well it's not your partner who's hitting on
others big time. And it's
not your girlfriend, or, well, boyfriend, who
would rather spend every night
alone than to touch you!"
Chandler heard her say something,
but he didn't hear what. He hurried up the
stairs, upset. It was hard
to tell himself that Monica was just going
through a rough time when
she was hurting him like that. Hurting him by
hitting on others. And the
question that tormented him more than anything,
was if she did it to hurt
him. He hated himself for even thinking the
thought, but he couldn't ignore
the fact that it was a possibility. He hoped
that it wasn't, because he
loved her so, and he wanted to believe that even
if she didn't love him back,
she at least didn't want to hurt him.
The next day Monica came down
for breakfast last again. The others were
waiting for her, planning
on giving her a piece of their minds.
Monica came down the stairs,
and as if nothing was wrong she poured herself
a cup of coffee and headed
for the living room. And as far as she was
concerned, nothing WAS wrong.
"Monica, where the hell were
you last night?" Ross asked.
"Yeah, and don't you DARE
go near Don again!" Rachel said, getting an angry
nudge from Chandler.
Monica turned on her way to
the living room, sighed and glared at the
others.
"What are you after?" she
asked. "Has it skipped all of you that I'm grown
up? I don't need to tell you
everything I do, or DON'T do." She turned to
Rachel. "And just because
you're so insecure in your boyfriend that you
can't trust him with another
woman it DOESN'T mean that you've got every
right to take it out on me."
Then she turned to Chandler. "And that goes for
you too!"
With that she was gone.