Months After London
The Wedding: Part 11
By: Haley J. The Bat

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

"Mommy, what does ewope mean?"

"Do you mean 'elope', honey?" Monica asked, picking up her four-year-old
daughter and touching her forehead with her own. Emma nodded, smiling her
sweet, angelic smile. "Are you asking because of Aunt Phoebe and Uncle Joey?"

"Uh-huh," Emma answered solomnly. "Are they gonna get hurt cuz of it?"

"Maybe," Monica said without thinking. The look of alarm on Emma's face
snapped her back to reality though. "Not that way! I mean . . . sometimes
people do bad things."

"Ewope is bad? Why did Aunt Phoebe and Uncle Joey get it?" Emma asked,
getting more confused with each second.

Monica sighed, realizing this was not going to be easy. "Emmers, elope is
another type of marriage . . ."

"What's marriage?"

Monica nearly gaped at her daughter. She had known what marriage was from
. . . well, it seemed like birth. How could her own child not know?

"Marriage is when two people fall in love and wear a ring that shows that
they love each other." Monica held out her left hand and Emma inspected the
beautiful saphire with a childish 'oooh'.

Emma looked up innocently. "Are you and Daddy marriage?"

"Yes, Daddy and I are married," Monica answered. Sometimes it was hard to
simplify things in a way that Emma could understand. "Your daddy gave me this
ring when I was pregnant with you, remember? I tell you all the time."

"Yes," Emma said absently. "What was marriaging Daddy like?"

Monica smiled instantly. "Marrying Daddy was . . . the second happiest moment
of my life."

"What was first?"

"When you were born," Monica answered, ruffling her hair. She set Emma down
in a chair at the dining room table. "Do you want to see the video from our
wedding?"

"You made movie?" Emma asked in awe.

Monica laughed. "Yes, but only we have a copy of it and only two copies at
that. It's in my bedroom. The other copy is in a metal box over at Grandma
and Grandpa's house."

"Was I at your marriage, Mommy?" Emma asked when Monica came back from
getting the tape.

"As a matter of fact, you were," Monica said, pushing the tape into the VCR
and grabbing the remote. Emma had already walked to the couch and Monica sat
down, inviting Emma to sit on her lap.

* * * * *

The tape began with a shot of Monica in a robe with a green mask on, coming
out of the shower.

"Turn that thing off, Joey!" Monica commanded. "I don't want to waste any of
the film."

"They can make the tape six hours long," Ross said.

Monica turned to him, her eyes like ice. "Why are you and Joey over here when
you should be making sure Chandler doesn't screw something up?"

"Phoebe and Rachel are over there," Joey answered. "Besides, you've got food.
Food that's not cereal."

"Well turn that off and go get Rachel, I need her to apply my makeup and I
also need Phoebe to do my hair," Monica said.

"Sure thing Mon--"

* * * * *

The next scene started immediately afterwards to a shot of Chandler jumping
around his old bedroom, talking to himself inaudibly.

"Hey, Chandler, say hi to the camera," Joey said.

Chandler stopped and looked into the lense. "Joey, turn that off! Monica's
gonna wanna watch this."

"No worries, man. It's not even on."

"Joey, I can see the red light blinking. Erase this. I want her to think I
was as cool and collected as she was. I'm not nervous," Chandler finished.

* * * * *

Joey's face appeared next. "Hey, uh, Monica, I thought this might be funny to
put in your wedding tape."

The camera shifted around for a second, then went into the bathroom where you
could make out Chandler behind the curtain and you could hear him belting out
Nsync lyrics about being in love.

* * * * *

The next scene was in the luxurious bathroom of a tiny church away from the
city. Rachel, Monica's mother, and a few other women (Phoebe was in charge of
the camera) were sitting in plush couches, chatting as the camera suddenly
spun to the doorway from the dressing room.

Monica was standing there, looking nervous as she brushed at the hem of her
dress. The dress was gorgeous, in the style with a tight top that lead out to
a skirt so wide she could fit several people underneath her. At the hem
leading to the full skirt were cream colored baby roses, silk and fake, but
realistic all the same.

Phoebe had entwined baby's breath into Monica's hair -- beautiful was the
sharp contrast of Monica's dark locks and the white and green of the flower.
Her veil was sheer and silky to the touch, letting you see her hair which was
so meticulously done. Her hair had been piled high at the top, with the veil
hanging around it, a clump of real roses surrounding the messy bun.

A sharp quietness permeated the room -- soon broken by the squeal of Rachel
at how beautiful she was and the camera coming closer as it was assumed
Phoebe was giving Monica a hug.

* * * * *

Switch to a shot of the gang except for Chandler, Monica, and Ross who was
supposedly taking the shot. Everyone was chatting avidly about the wedding
and Phoebe and Rachel kept gushing about how beautiful Monica looked.

* * * * *

Scene: A small church, a white, luscious carpet is layed out along the aisle;
the pews' ends are covered in white roses of all sizes and baby's breath --
fitting.

The wedding march begins and you see Chandler, staring, unblinking at the
door where Monica will enter.

The camera shoots backwards to see Ross and Rachel, followed by Phoebe and
Joey, walking slowly with smiles on their faces.

The music picks up and Monica stands at the doorway, locking eyes with
Chandler. She moves slowly, a tear escaping down her cheek that she's too
emotional to wipe away. She gets up to where Chandler is standing and he
wipes away the tear with a loving look in his eyes.

The priest coughs slightly, interrupting the moment between the two in love.
"Shall we begin?"

The wedding paces out in the normal way, but the most important part brings
tears to Monica's eyes, sitting on the couch with Emma curled up on her lap.

"Your vows, Monica?"

Monica on the TV swallows noticably, then begins: "Chandler, I know it's been
less than a year since we first got together, and mere months since we
officially got together, but I feel so . . . connected to you. When I'm with
you, I feel a thrill that you only read in books, only see in movies. A
feeling that I've dreamed of having since I was a little girl. I've been
planning this wedding since I knew what a wedding was, but--" chokes back
tears "--I never dreamed it could be so wonderful as this. I knew, from
the first moment our lips touched, when we passed that line from best friends
to lovers, that I was in love with you. Maybe, not exactly *knew*, but I felt
something deeper than I'd felt before. I thought I'd been in love before, I
*know* that I have been, but all of that seems meaningless to the love I feel
for you. Because I know that this love is everlasting, that *we* are
everlasting."

Chandler was itching for his turn, you could see. You could also see how
touched with each word Monica spoke; could see that he was taking it to
heart, was on the verge of tears as well as Monica.

"Monica, I don't know exactly what to say now. Whatever I do say will seem so
plain and simple compared to that. I'm just going to say what comes to me.
Look, I was brought up to be afraid of commitment, and you know as well as
everybody that at the first sign of commitment I run without thinking. But
when you told me that you were pregnant . . . when everyone, including me,
expected me to freak and I didn't, I think it was then that I first realized
that I might just be in love with you. To tell the truth, this scared me. But
it wasn't as scary as imagining myself running and losing you, my best
friend, whom knows everything there is to know about me and vice versa. I
spent most of my nights staying up, scrutinizing my feelings for you, and it
didn't scare me one bit. And then we finally got together . . . but I
couldn't tell you what I'd been thinking. I finally blurted it out, but I was
too busy kicking myself to realize that you might feel the same way too. I
mean, of course I knew you did, but my thoughts weren't, and aren't, exactly
rational. So after thinking about it, I realized that you are the one I am
supposed to be with. The rest of my life is a blur because nothing matters
unless you're with me. And I don't want any more of my life to be a blur, I
want you to be with me. I want to grow old with you and love you until my
last dying breath and even beyond that. I love you so much, Monica."

Monica still felt her heart surge with love whenver she remembered what he'd
said to her that day. She still was caught on the emotion choking his last
words and didn't come back to reality until she saw herself and Chandler
kissing passionately on the screen.

* * * * *

The next scene came after everybody throwing the rice and Monica and
Chandler's deliriously happy smiles as they got into the limo. It was at the
reception, which was decorated in the same white flowers as the wedding.

The first shot was of Joey gorging food and Phoebe's scolding voice, "Joey,
you're at the main table. Do you want Monica to kill you?!"

Joey looked sheepish and began to eat more slowly with a panicked glance to
where Monica was kissing Chandler, after the tapping of the glasses and the
satisfying 'aws' of the guests.

Next came Monica and Chandler's first dance. Monica could remember the
details without even watching the tape. She had felt like her world was
shrinking to just her and Chandler as his arms enveloped her and their love,
announced to the world, shown in their eyes.

Then came Monica dancing with her father and Chandler with his mother. The
rest of the dances seem to blur until the camera suddenly switched scenes to
Monica holding Emma as she talked to Ross.

"Now remember, if she so much as coughs, sneezes, or has a runny looking
diaper you call me on my cell phone faster than I can answer. I will haunt
you in the afterlife if anything happens to my baby." Monica paused for a
second to look down at Emma, then back up to Ross with her fierce gaze. "She
eats at six--"

"Goes to bed at six thirty, then wakes up at noon to eat again," Ross began
reciting along with Phoebe, Joey, Rachel and even Chandler.

Monica puffed out her cheeks in annoyance and reluctantly haded Emma over to
Ross with the reminder of haunting him if anything should happen to Emma.

* * * * *

The camera once again switched scenes. This time to Ross's apartment where
Ross was holding what looked like a baby. A choking sound began to ring out
and Ross looked down in alarm at Emma. "Oh, God! I forgot -- you can't eat
solid foods when you're only a few months old. Okay, okay, um . . . hold on,
I'll give you that thing they taught us in Boyscouts."

Monica laughed, remembering the horror she'd felt the first time she'd
watched this video, after the honeymoon. After Ross did what would have
killed a real baby he grinned into the camera and held up a baby doll.

* * * * *

"Was that good?" Monica asked Emma, using the remote to flick off the TV and
rewind the tape.

Emma nodded. "You really love Daddy?"

"Yes," Monica answered.

"You were really pretty," Emma said.

"Thank you," Monica said, brushing Emma's hair away from her forehead and
taking the words more to heart than when anyone else had said them. It meant
to much more to hear her own daughter say them, with the simple truth of a
four-year-old.

The door opened and Chandler came in, interrupting the moment between mother
and daughter.

"What were you watching?" he asked, taking off his coat and leaning over
the couch to kiss Emma on the head, then give Monica a quick kiss on the
lips.

"Our wedding," Monica sighed.

Chandler grinned. No matter what, everytime Monica watched the wedding video
that night she always put out better and with more energy than any other
time. "Really?"

"Pretty marriage," Emma said, looking up at her father and pleading with her
eyes for him to pick her up. Chandler got the hint and spun her around before
setting her on his side.

"Your mommy designed the whole thing," he said proudly.

"Pretty Mommy," Emma said.

"Yeah, she's all right," Chandler agreed nonchalantly. Monica laughed and
smacked his arm lightly. "Okay, so she's the most beautiful person I know,"
he admitted reluctantly.

"Ditto, sweetums," Monica said sarcastically.

Chandler let Emma down and grabbed Monica around the waist, swinging her
around to kiss her passionately, then to whisper 'I love you' into her hair
as he inhaled deeply the scent of her shampoo. And even the faint scent of
him. He had a feeling he was often wrapped around her more often than
clothes, but it didn't bother either of them. Four years into their marriage
and they were still like a young couple in love.

Chandler just hoped that they'd be like that all their lives.