Three months later, Monica, Rachel, and Phoebe had the whole wedding planned,
including the date, and invitations were out. Who cared if it was two months
before the wedding?

Monica's due date had been the week before, so the gang was weary of any
pain she had in case she went into labor. And Chandler rarely left her side.

She was beginning to feel suffocated, and snapped at anybody who dared come
near her.

But she was happy as the room that Chandler had been using as his "bedroom"
for the couple of months that nobody knew about him and Monica, had been
painted a soft yellow and filled with baby toys and needs and such.

Often, Monica found herself at the doorway of her baby's bedroom, putting a
hand on her now very large tummy, and just staring into the room for longer
than she knew.

Chandler would find her like that and put his arms around her to look at the
room with her. Usually, when Chandler's warm embrace surrounded her, she
broke out of the trance in minutes and turned to great her fìance and to
start up whatever meal was next.

The baby blankets were folded neatly and the newly carpeted room was
spotless, but Monica washed and rewashed the blankets -- making sure they
were soft for her child, and the gang was surprised the carpet remained
yellow after all the many times she'd vaccumed.

Chandler came into the apartment after work to see Monica at the bedroom
doorway, as usual, with a wistful air about her.

He watched her for a moment, thinking about how happy he was. How he had
finally found THE ONE. And how happy he was that it was Monica. How much
he wanted his child. How much he loved this woman and the child inside of
her.

Chandler then walked quietly to Monica and put his arms around her stomach.
He kissed her neck and whispered a soft "I love you" into her ear. Then he
settled to look at the room with his head resting on top of Monica's.

A minute or two later Monica seemed to come out of a trance and turned around
in Chandler's arm to give him a tender kiss. "I love you too."

"I gathered," Chandler said and gave her a smile. He ran a hand through her
hair and held her close. "You are so beautiful."

Monica laughed and pulled out of his comforting arms. "You're just saying
that because I'm fat and have mood swings."

"Not true," Chandler joked. "That's only half of the reason. The other half
is because you're simply irristable."

"Really?" Monica asked with a giggle. "If I'm so irristable why is there a
couch between us?"

Chandler kneeled on the couch, put his arms around her waist, and tossed her
over and on top of him. "So that I can do that."

"Ow!" Monica complained, clutching her stomach. "Don't shake me up like that,
it's not good for the baby."

Chandler sighed in mock-frustration and glanced down at her large belly. "The
things I do for you, kid," he mumbled. "Do you realize how hard it is to not
ravage your beautiful mother?"

Monica slapped Chandler on the arm. "Don't talk like that in front of him,
Chandler!" she commanded. "I don't want to expose him to that kind of
language."

"Oh, come on . . . he doesn't even know what 'ravage' means," Chandler
complained, clutching his arm and giving her a wounded look. "You love him
more than me, don't you?"

"Of course I do, sweetie," Monica said in a sugary sweet voice. "He doesn't
talk dirty or take the blankets at night."

"How do you know he doesn't talk dirty?" Chandler asked. "Have you ever
talked to him before?"

"In my dreams," Monica said. "But I doubt that's really him." She paused and
sat up. "You really hurt me," she said in anger. "Thanks for playing rough
house, this is going to hurt for hours now because of you."

Chandler rolled his eyes and kissed her stomach. "Don't hurt your mommy,
baby, I don't think I can go through the moaning." He paused for
consideration. "It's not really the moaning I mind. It's just that I usually
like her moaning because of me. And for a good reason. Not that you're a bad
reason--"

"Chandler, shut up," Monica interrupted. She stood and put both of her arms
around her waist. "Damn does this hurt."

"You just said a bad word in front of our child!" Chandler accused. "You
can't get mad at me for saying 'ravage' when you get to say 'damn'."

"Chandler, I'm serious," Monica snapped. She got a weird look on her face
then looked down at her dress. "Oh, dear God, I think my water just broke."

"What?" Chandler demanded. The smile lighting up his face was blinding and
he picked Monica up from the waist and spun her around. "We're gonna have
our baby!"

"Not if you keep doing that!" Monica yelled and hit him. But she broke her
scowl with a laugh. "I love you." She winced. "It hurts a lot, but I love
you."

"Ditto," Chandler said quickly. He began to do his jumpy-hyper-active-freak-
out thing as he ran around the apartment to get the suitcase they had
packed and then to run across the hall and tell Joey that they were going to
the hospital and he needed to call Ross, Phoebe, and Rachel.

Then he ran back to get Monica and carried her down the stairs to find a
cab.

* * * * *

Rachel, Phoebe, Joey, and Ross all came rushing into the hospital to find
what wing Monica was on and then to sit in the waiting room and . . . well,
wait. (Hence the room being called a *waiting* room.)

Chandler came out a second after they sent a nurse in to tell him they were
there.

"I'm having a baby," he boasted proudly. He shook his head, as if realizing
that wasn't the reason he'd come out there then pointed to the door he'd
come out of. "You can go in there and see her. But I don't recommend it.
She's lethal."

"I was wondering what happened to your eye," Rachel commented, pointing to
the bruise on Chandler's cheek bone.

"Yeah, well." Chandler looked sheepish. "Just try to stay away from her
every . . ." he thought for a moment ". . . two minutes twenty two seconds."

"Really?" Ross asked, looking shocked and pleased. "That's pretty fast.
She'll be having that baby soon."

"I know. Thank God she's not having one of those long, twelve hour labor
things," Chandler said with a grin. "She's determined to get this baby out
and this baby is determined to get out. Monica's strength and stubbornness
are definately the genes this little man picked up. Dear God, what am I
going to do with my family bossing me around all my life? Especially if he
has eyes like his mother."

"So it's a 'he'?" Phoebe asked.

Chandler shrugged. "Who knows."

Phoebe looked confused. "Then why do you refer to it as 'he'?"

"Because I don't like refering to him as 'it'," Chandler explained.

Dr. Vale came out of the swinging door and tapped Chandler on the shoulder.
"I'm sorry, but she's demanded that we get you. She was about ready to jump
up and tear off all of the tubes connected to her body to get you." She made
a terrified face. "Good luck in there."

Chandler laughed and waved to his friends before going into the door that
lead to the childbirth wing and down the hall to Monica's room. He stepped
inside to see Monica sweating and exhausted on the bed. Her eyes lit up
when she saw Chandler.

"Make it go away," she mumbled. "I don't want to have your baby anymore."

"Oh, honey . . ." Chandler murmered, coming close to run a hand down her
cheek.

"Why can't you have the baby?" she demanded. "Why do women have to go through
everything? Whenever we don't have blood staining our underwear every month
we have a child causing us pain or hot flashes. Why can't *you* do some of
this crap sometime?"

"I wish I could," Chandler said truthfully, looking at the pain on Monica's
face as another contraction hit.

The nurse in the room said suddenly, "These contractions are moving fast."
Then, to another nurse, "Go get Dr. Vale -- this baby is going to come any
second now."

But, surprisingly, Dr. Vale stepped in the next minute with ice chips in her
hand for Monica. "Sorry, dear, it's the only thing you can have. But look
forward to caffiene and alcohol as soon as this baby comes out." She paused
as she looked at the nurse. "Which seems to be right now."

After everybody was read and Dr. Vale was positioned at Monica's uterus,
Chandler at her head with kisses along her forhead and a comforting hand in
her own.

"I'm so sorry for giving you a bruise," Monica cried to Chandler. "And if-if
I don't make it tell everybody I said I loved them."

Chandler wanted to laugh -- but Monica was serious. She was going through
so much pain she thought she wouldn't make it through. He cracked a smile
and simply kissed her cheek.

"Monica, you're crazy," he informed her in an affectionate tone.

"You're not so great yourself," she snapped back.

"Push," Dr. Vale's voice interrupted. "My God, this has got to be one of the
shortest labors I've ever seen."

Monica glared at Chandler then took a deep breath and began to push. She
seemed to know what she was doing and Dr. Vale gave words of encouragement
mixed with commands for two minutes until a baby's cry broke forth in the
room.

Monica collapsed onto the bed with a look of exhausted pleasure on her face
and she looked up at Chandler with a silent question.

"What is it?" Chandler asked Dr. Vale, knowing Monica was too weak to form
audible words herself.

"It's a girl," Dr. Vale said, giving Chandler and Monica a proud look.
She gestured to Chandler. "Would you like to cut the cord?"

Chanlder glanced at the bloody mess and felt his stomach heave. "I'll pass,
thank you."

Dr. Vale laughed and the nurses went to work on the little baby until a few
minutes later it was wrapped in a pink blanket and placed into Chandler's
arms.

Chandler leaned down and put the baby in Monica's tired arms. Knowing that no
matter how weak and exhausted she felt, she wanted to hold her little baby.

Monica looked at the baby girl with such love that Chandler's throat choked
and tears of joy and amazement slowly fell down his cheeks. This was his
family.

These two, cuddling on the white hospital bed, were going to be his life
from now on.

And he was happy. Happier even than when he had proposed to Monica and she'd
said yes. Happier even than when he kissed Monica during her sonogram,
leading up to falling in love with her.

He could safely say this was the happiest moment of his life. And from the
look on Monica's face he knew the same went for her.

* * * * *

Chandler hadn't been told to leave the room, but shortly after Monica and
his baby girl were asleep he left quietly to tell the good news to his
four best friends.

Rachel, Ross, Joey, and Phoebe all stood when they saw Chandler come out the
door with an impossibly giddy smile on his face.

"I'm happy to tell you that Monica and I are now the proud parents of Emma
Michelle Bing," Chandler said with joy leaking through that simple sentence.

Everybody cried out at once, giving congratulations and hugging Chandler.
Rachel started to cry -- as she always does at any and every occasion, and
the five stood with pure happiness on their faces.

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

Okay, so maybe it's obvious I've never been through a birth before. And some,
if not all, of the things in here are not factually accurate. But I don't
care because all that matters is that they had their baby, Emma Michelle
Bing.

Michelle I decided because I attended a wedding today and got to see my
beloved cousin Michelle. She's one of those people with a smile on her face
and a hug for everyone, and I have to say that I look up to her and hope
that maybe I'm like that. (Though I know for sure that I'm not. I can be a
bitch when I want to be.)

Anyways, I'm sad to say that there are only a few more fics for this series,
but, come on, I can't let this go on forever now can I?

~Haley J. The Bat~
If you're not reading this from my homepage -- you should be.
www.geocities.com/haleyj_the_bat/index.html
(I also have the tenth part to this series up on my site. This is more than
likely the last of my fics I'm going to bother putting up at ff.net until
they start running smoothly again, so if I were you I'd go to my site for
updates. I have a lot of my fics on my site that aren't here at ff.net.)