Adultery, Part8


INTRODUCTION: Well, now Chandler knows that Monica and Joey have had an affair. And he ain't happy about it... Read and find out. Btw, the raiting is for language, not for anything sexual. Maybe the rating is too high, but they're different from the ratings where I live so I'm unsure of which ratings to set sometimes.
DISCLAIMER: The "Friends" characters belong to Bright, Kauffman and Crane. The rest is mine. Well, except for the letters, who belong to Rome I guess, and the words who belong to about a billion ancient languages... lol!


Joey sat down by the writing desk in Chandler's downstairs office. Chandler had called and told him to come over. He wanted to talk. Lukas had opened the door for him and told him that Chandler was just finishing a conversation with Monica. Joey said he would wait in the office, and so he did.

He looked up when Chandler entered. He frowned slightly. Chandler didn't look as usual. For one thing he had shaved off the beard. That would have made him look younger, but the look of frustration and anger in his eyes made him seem older. He looked worn and haggard, and he had dark rings under his eyes.

Chandler sat down on the writing desk and stared on the wall. He couldn't look at Joey. Not just yet. He couldn't bare to look at the friend that had betrayed him in such a disgusting way.

"So how did you think she was?" he asked.

"Who and what are we talking about?" Joey asked.

"My wife," Chandler said, "how did you think she was when you slept with her? Good? Bad? Medium? You must have thought she was at least medium, after all, you slept with her for months!"

Joey flew to his feet, completely shocked and very scared.

"What? How did you know?"

"Oh how do you THINK I know?" Chandler asked coldly. "She told me."

"Monica TOLD you?" Joey asked, shocked and unable to believe it. This was a nightmare. He had thought it was all over, that he wouldn't have to worry about Chandler finding out anymore. And then Monica had told him!

"Yeah, she told me."

"But we said you would never find out!" Joey objected to no one, frustrated. "We didn't want you to find out, we didn't want to put you through that!"

"Well then you shouldn't have had sex in the first place!" Chandler bawled, rising to his feet. "Now sit down, I am far from done with you!"

Joey quietly sat down, trying to keep the panic at bay. He knew this would get ugly. There was no chance that Chandler would let him off the hook easily. He was loosing his best friend, correction, he had already lost him.

"What in the name of hell made you think you could put your hands on my wife?" Chandler asked, furious. "Let alone your mouth, tongue or 'little general'?"

"Look Chandler, it's not something we PLANNED! It just HAPPENED!"

"Oh I see, it just kinda' happened for three months" Chandler said sarcastically.

"No, I meant the first time! And after the first time we just… I don't know…" He sighed. "Well you know how intoxicating she can be! You did the same kind of thing with her yourself once!"

"Wrong!" Chandler said. "In my case there was a little something called 'love' involved. I'd had a crush on her for YEARS, and you damn well know that, I confided that in you right after Janice and I broke up when she went back to her husband!"

"Well then it IS like in your case, Chandler…" Joey said. "Look, I LOVE--"

"No you don't!" Chandler bawled, cutting him off. "Don't you dare say that you do! Don't you dare even THINK that you do! Let me tell you a little something about love, Joseph. Being in love does not mean that you want the other person to do you! Being in love means wanting the other person's happiness."

"I never said that--"

"You betrayed me in every possible way!" Chandler cried, cutting him off again. "I even confided in you when Monica and I had problems! Little did I know that YOU were our problem!"

"Chandler doesn't it matter at all that I HELPED you when you had problems, that I ADVISED you on how to make things right between the two of you again?" Joey asked, rising again.

"Not when you only knew HOW to advice me because you were SCREWING her!"

"Chandler--"

"I thought you were my friend, I thought I could trust you! The worst betrayal ever is what I got in return."

"We never meant to hurt you, Chandler I swear!"

"Well what the hell did you think?" Chandler hissed. "That I would just shrug my shoulders and say 'thanks for returning her as good as new'? You know what, I, I cannot believe this! It's SICK, don't you understand that?"

"Hey it was NOT sick!" Joey objected. "It was a lot of things, it was wrong, it was stupid but it was not sick! It was BEAUTIFUL even!"

"Shut up!" Chandler yelled. "It was UGLY and it was sick and twisted!"

"Well you weren't there Chandler, you don't know!"

"The both of you satisfying perverted lusts isn't beautiful!" Chandler replied. "All I ever wanted was her! All I ever asked for and so much more than that! She was my best dream come true, my heart, my love, my LIFE! And you just couldn't leave her alone, could you? No, you had to send the little general in! You should call him the little TRAITOR!"

"Dude--"

"Quiet!" Chandler said, the anger shining in his eyes. "I just can't believe you did this! What if you hadn't ended it when you did, you probably would have continued seeing her when she was pregnant!"

"Chandler her pregnancy wasn't exactly a picnic for me!" Joey said. "I mean, I had to wonder if she wasn't carrying MY child--"

He got cut off by Chandler hitting him in the face. The force in the hit made him loose his balance, and he fell back down on the chair again. His hand went up and rubbed his aching cheek, and he realized he had gotten a few tears in his eyes.

"Oh don't you EVER talk about Max like he was yours!" Chandler bawled. "Max is MY son! He's MINE! And you take my word for it you weasel, Monica is NEVER gonna have ANY baby together with you, she ain't EVER gonna carry your child, and you just TALKING about it is sick!"

"Well Chandler I had to wonder!" Joey objected. "I was really scared the baby was mine!"

"Well luckily enough for Max he got a father who WANTED him. A father who's not a slimy scumball driven only by his sex drive."

"You're not being fare!" Joey said. "I made a damn mistake four years ago, I have been NOTHING but a great friend to you except for that!"

"You may have been a friend before you did my wife, but your friendship ended the same second you even TOUCHED her! I don't call it friendship to deceive and lie, to keep somebody in the dark for four damn years! And especially not when your hypocrisy goes so far that you act like my friend during these years."

"Damn it Chandler, I AM your friend!"

"Like HELL you are!" Chandler yelled.

"What wrong have I ever done you except for this, huh?" Joey asked. "Just minor stuff, you've done minor stuff too! And for crying out loud Chandler, you've done the same thing to me that I did to you four years ago."

"I would never do anything this, this SICK!"

"Remember Kathy, Chandler? I dated her, you made out with her."

"Yes, I made out with her ONCE. I then confessed it all to you! And you weren't even in love with her, damn it Joey you KNOW how much I love Monica! And I was in love with Kathy, that's why I kissed her, but you're not in love with Mon!"

"You think you've got monopoly on loving her?" Joey asked. "Did you really think that someone so wonderful--"

"Hey shut up!" Chandler yelled, and once again cut him off. "Just shut the hell up Joey, you don't know what love is! You don't know what it's like to give your heart to someone 100%, to know you'd gladly die for that someone, to be there for her whenever she needs it and to just be unable to function without her! But I do! And I also know what it's like to find out that the woman you love is a damned slut."

"Hey!" Joey said, annoyed. "Don't talk like that about her!"

"Oh what are you, the knight in shining armour?" Chandler hissed. "She ain't Monica Monogamy, she is EVERYTHING I thought she could NEVER be! I thought she was good-hearted, faithful, EMPATHIC! All she is is a deceiving tramp."

"How can you say that?" Joey asked. "How can you stand here and first say that you love her, then say that she's a tramp? Look, she did something wrong, and I don't expect you to be able to look at her and be unaffected by what she did! But come on Chandler, she LOVES you so much! She wouldn't do it with me doggy-style, because she said that was your favourite position!"

"Oh, well that changes everything then, let's crack open a bottle of champagne and Monica and I will renew our vows" Chandler spit out, full of sarcasm. "What are you trying to do here, you can't even defend yourself, let alone her! You're not my friend anymore, and if I could, I would go back in time and make sure you never were."

Chandler turned on his heel and stormed out.

*

Monica lay on her side on the bed, staring into the wall. The tears wouldn't stop falling. The night had been hideous, Chandler had been so frustrated and so hurt. He had banged his fist in the wall crying 'no!' and later even thrown things while shouting 'no', and he had been as close to crying as she had seen him since the first time he'd held Max. It was a real wonder that he hadn't woken the kids up, but somehow they had stayed asleep.

By the end of the night Chandler hadn't even let her be near him. He had recoiled as if she had leprosy and sometimes even whimpered slightly whenever she got closer than two meters. Finally he had locked himself in the bathroom and shaved off the beard. Monica didn't dare to ask him why. Then he had gone downstairs and fixed breakfast for the kids, and called Joey up. Then he had returned upstairs to get dressed. He had tried to avoid Monica, but she had tried to talk to him. He had only answered her in short, cut off phrases, and she had eventually given up. And now Joey was there.

She could hear Chandler yell every now and then, but she couldn't hear what he was yelling. More tears fell down her cheeks. Her sweet, gentle Chandler had never yelled at her, she hadn't heard him yell for an eternity. But she knew he was yelling now. Twice she heard Joey raising his voice as well, but she didn't know what he was saying either. Then it seemed to get quiet.

After ten minutes, Joey showed up in the doorway. He had gone up to yell at her, he was furious with her for telling Chandler without consulting him, Joey, first. This wasn't her thing alone to tell him it was just as much Joey's. But when he saw her on the bed in such a mess, he didn't have the heart to yell at her. His heart still belonged to her, she was his soft spot and he couldn't be mad at her for long. Chandler had always said that it was impossible to be mad at her for more than twenty minutes, and Joey knew what he'd meant. He wondered if Chandler would say the same thing today.

"Oh Monica…" he said and walked over to the bed. He sat down next to her and put an arm on her shoulder.

"He's so hurt, Joey…" Monica sobbed. "And it's all my fault. I have never seen him like this, never seen ANYBODY like this, not with that look that's in his eyes… Have you seen the look in his eyes?"

"He looks older… and worn…" Joey said slowly.

"And look at you…" Monica said. "Did he hit you? Your eye…"

"I… mentioned that when you were expecting Max I kept wondering if he could be mine. And Chandler hit me" Joey told her.

"I didn't think he was gonna react this way" Monica sobbed in a whisper. "I mean, I knew he would be shaken and that he would take it hard… But it's been four years, I guess I just thought he would be able to see that we don't want each other you and I, and that we know it was a mistake…"

"Well how would you react if he told you that a couple of years ago he had an affair with Phoebe?" Joey asked, trying to look at the situation rationally.

"I don't know" Monica said. "I really don't, I think I would be too shocked to know what my reaction was. But I just can't stand the look in his eyes, and his face, and the tone of his voice… His desperation is driving me insane, I can't stand to look at him, to hear it. He even vomited last night, Joey! He was so disgusted…"

Joey sighed deeply and wished he could say something to comfort her. He couldn't. In fact, he was close to tears himself.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the lovely couple" Chandler's sarcastic voice said.

Joey and Monica both looked up and saw him standing in the doorway, arms crossed and casually leaning against the doorpost. Monica sat up and avoided his eyes. She couldn't handle the look in his eyes.

"Now let me see what they are saying to each other…" Chandler continued in sarcasm. Then he started mocking them, using an Italian accent for Joey and a feminine voice for Monica. "'Don't worry. Everything is going to be okay'. 'Oh honey do you really think so?'. 'Yes. He has to come to his senses'. 'But what if he doesn't?''"

"Chandler enough!" Joey said, seeing the look in Monica's wide eyes. "Don't act like that."

"Don't sit like that" Chandler replied. "You two are so sick. Pathetic. You both go on about how it's over between you and how you don't feel anything. Then as soon as you're alone you cuddle up on my bed."

"Chandler…" Monica said. "Honey please don't be like this… Please don't take cheap shots at us, you're bigger than that, aren't you?"

"You shut up" Chandler said, and turned to Joey. "You, get off my bed. And I mean NOW!"

The last sentence was screamed out, and Joey darted up from the bed. Chandler turned his eyes to Monica, and spoke to her this time with his voice full of hatred and spite.

"What the fuck are you crying about? Huh? I don't want to see a single tear in your face, IS THAT CLEAR? *I* am the one who should cry here if anyone should, you're only reaping what you've sown! So stop crying or I'll give you something to cry about! And I mean it!"

Monica bit her lower lip and used the back of her hand to dry her wet cheeks. She had to fight hard not to cry, she was sad, scared and hurt. He had been a mess during the night but he had not once said anything in an angry tone. Now he was more mad than she had ever seen him.

"You two are the most disgusting people I have ever met!" Chandler said, and he seemed to get more angry each time he spoke. "Damn it, I LOVED you guys! I loved you and trusted you! The two people I loved, the slut and the home wrecker."

"CHANDLER!" Monica said sharply. "What's your problem, you've never talked like this before!"

"Oh I'll tell you what my problem is!" Chandler hissed. "My problem is you screwing my best friend, Monica!"

"Don't call it screwing, I hate that" Monica said and took a deep breath to keep her tears at bay.

"Well maybe I should go back through time four and a half years and say 'don't screw Joey, I hate that'!" Chandler replied, then turned to Joey. "And what the hell are you still doing here? GET OUT! NOW!"

Joey walked out of the bedroom and Chandler gave him a look filled with such spite and disgust when he passed him that Joey for a second wondered if he was going to be hit again.

"I just want to make one thing absolutely clear!" Chandler said once Joey was outside the bedroom. "From this moment on, you are no longer a friend of mine Joey. And you," he said and turned to Monica, "some wife you are!"

"Chandler come on, it was a MISTAKE!" Joey said.

"A MISTAKE?" Chandler yelled and turned his head to stare at Joey. "That might have worked if you had done her ONCE, but for three goddamned months, THREE GODDAMNED MONTHS?"

"CHANDLER!" Monica said loudly, causing him to turn and look at her again.

"And what the hell do YOU want?" he asked.

"The boys, Chandler!" Monica said. "Don't yell, think about the boys, do they really need to hear this?"

Chandler sighed deeply. He didn't want his sons to have to hear this, she was right.

"Then go get them dressed and ready. I'm calling Ross, he can come pick them up. I am far from through with the two of you."

"Why don't I call Ross, I don't want the boys to see that I've cried" Monica said.

"You're just feeling sorry for yourself, that's why you're crying, it's pathetic! What, are you afraid that they'll see you for who you really are? GO, Monica!" Chandler said.

She jumped off the bed and dried her best to dry her cheeks as she hurried out of the bedroom and down the stairs to go talk to the children. When she ran down the stairs Chandler turned to Joey and gave him a look that could kill. His voice wasn't loud when he spoke next, it was cold and calm.

"I am not a killer, but if I ever did kill someone then by god I swear that that someone would be you" he said to Joey, then walked past him to go call Ross.


Okay, so please review. And feel free to give me suggestions, 'cause even though I've planned how this thing is going to end I might change my mind... :)! Btw, I'm sorry all Joey and Phoebe fans but I'm personally an anti-fan of theirs, I don't think they should be together, so they won't get together in this series. You're gonna have to look elsewhere for that... But please review even if you're a fan of them, lol!