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{The Night Before Chandler And Monica's Wedding}
Chandler paced back and forth across his old bedroom in Apartment 19, wearing a groove into the carpet.
Rachel’s perfume still lingered in the air, but it did nothing to calm his nerves.
He couldn’t stop thinking about how every marriage he’d ever known had ended in disaster.
Ross and Carol. Ross and Emily. Ross and Rachel.
His parents.
To Chandler, marriage wasn’t a happy ending — it was the beginning of the end.
The nail in the coffin for a relationship.
And he loved Monica too much to let her be part of that same failed cycle.
He had to talk to her.
Even if it meant breaking the “no seeing the bride before the wedding” rule, this was an emergency.
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In Joey’s room, a bag zipped shut.
Ross met him halfway to the door.
“Hey, where’s Chandler?”
Joey shrugged. “Oh, I think he’s in Rachel’s room.”
Ross frowned, walking towards her room.
He pushed open Rachel’s door — empty. His stomach dropped.
“Oh no,” he muttered.
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Across the hall, Monica stirred at the sound of the door creaking open.
“Monica?”
She blinked, disoriented. “Chandler? What—what’s wrong?”
He closed the door quietly behind him, his hand trembling.
The last thing he needs is the best man or maids of honor finding him with the bride.
“Chandler, why do you have your hand over your eyes?”
“I’m not supposed to see you before the wedding,” he said, voice shaky. “But… it doesn’t say anything about talking.”
Monica sat up, instantly alert. “Sweetie, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?”
Monica turned on the lamp. She knew in her heart something was wrong.
“Chandler, please. You can’t expect me to talk seriously like this.”
“I can’t see you, Mon. It’s bad luck.”
“Honey, it’s a stupid rule. Please… let me see you.”
Chandler slowly lowered his hand.
Monica saw the tears brimming in his eyes.
“Honey?” she asked.
“I—I’m scared, Mon.”
She reached for him.
“About what?”
“Tomorrow. The wedding. The future. Everything.”
“Chandler, what are you talking about?”
“Mon… every marriage I’ve ever seen… fails. I can’t let you be a part of that.”
Monica's voice tightened.
“Are… are you saying… you don’t want to marry me?”
“Monica, that’s not it. I want to be with you. But I can’t divorce you.”
“Chandler… that’s not going to happen. I’m not Ross. You aren’t your parents. We can make this work. I know we can.”
Monica knew something had been eating at him since the rehearsal dinner.
Every time the Bings were mentioned, Chandler recoiled.
“Mon… I’m too scared. The message on the machine… the Bings… I can’t…”
“Oh, Chandler. That was just a joke. I was excited for the wedding. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
Chandler sniffled. Monica wiped away his tears.
“Chandler, look at me.”
He did, hesitantly.
“You and I are a team. We’re going to make this work. There will be no divorces. No Ross-and-Rachel drama. We are not them. We’re you and me. Always.”
Chandler looked down.
“But… what about tomorrow? We’re getting married tomorrow.” He said.
“Yes, we are. And it’s going to be the happiest day of our lives. I promise.”
“I want to believe you, Mon. I do. It’s just…”
He hesitated, voice cracking and eyes darting away.
“What’s going to happen if we fight? I mean, fights are inevitable, Mon. I've seen what they do to people—how little arguments turn into months of silence, how couples drift apart without even realizing it. I don’t want that to happen to us.”
Monica cupped his hands, grounding him.
“Honey… of course we’re going to fight. Everyone fights. But we’re not going to run when it happens. We’re going to stay. We’re going to talk. We’re going to fix things together. That’s what we do. You don’t run, and I don’t give up. That’s our thing.”
“What if I screw it up?”
"Then I'll help you unscrew it."
Monica held both of his hands.
“Let’s make a promise. A real one. A vow between us and only us.”
“A vow?” he asked.
“A vow,” she said.
She lifted their linked hands gently.
“I vow that no matter how angry I get, or how loud things get, I will never walk away from you. I won’t shut you out, not for a night, not for an hour.” Monica said.
Chandler blinked hard, nodding.
“And I vow,” he said shakily, “that I won’t run. Not to another room, another apartment, or Chandler’s Emotional Emergency Motel—wherever that is. I’ll stay. Even when it’s scary.”
Monica smiled, brushing his cheek.
“And I vow I’ll never use your fears against you.” Monica adds.
“And I vow,” Chandler added, “that I’ll try… really try… not to joke my way out of serious conversations.”
She laughed softly. “One joke per fight.”
“Per hour?”
“Chandler…”
“Fine. One per fight.”
Their foreheads touched, breath mingling.
“And No matter how big the fight is,” Monica whispered, “we end it together. We choose each other. Every time.”
Chandler exhaled shakily, his whole body loosening.
“I can do that,” he murmured. “I want to do that.”
Chandler breathed out shakily.
Monica frames his face.
“Chandler, I know you're scared, but I want you to understand something. The only thing happening tomorrow is we come home with wedding rings on our fingers. That’s it.”
Chandler looked up, surprised.
“What?” He asked.
“Honey, how long have we been living together here?”
“Two years… almost.”
“Exactly. That’s not going to change. The only thing changing tomorrow is we promise to be with each other for the rest of our lives.”
Chandler absorbed her words.
“That’s it?”
“That’s it. Other things might change over time, but I’ll be there every step of the way—as long as you promise to be there with me. Forever.”
“I promise.”
“No, don’t promise me now. Promise me tomorrow.”
He blinked, swallowing hard.
“I just… I just want to do right by you. I don’t want to mess up and have you regret this.”
Monica smiled.
“You won’t. And even if you did, I’d still choose you. We’re a team. Forever. That’s the whole point. You can’t scare me away, Chandler. Not tonight, not ever.”
Monica kissed him.
“I’m sorry.” He said.
“For what?”
“For ruining tonight. You’re supposed to be sleeping, thinking about tomorrow. And I came in here crying over nothing.”
“Chandler, no time spent with you is worth apologizing for. You’re the only person I can say that for. I’m glad you came to me. I hate to think you were scared and alone the night before our wedding…”
The apartment was quiet except for muffled frantic voices in the hallway.
“I should get back to Rachel’s room,” Chandler said, getting up.
“Hey, wait. Stay.”
“Are you sure? Rachel and Phoebe will kill me—literally—if they find me in here.”
“Then they’ll have to get through me first. No one messes with the bride on her wedding day.”
Chandler smiled. He crawled into bed with Monica, letting her warmth calm him.
He shuts his eyes, drifting to sleep with Monica in his arms.
"What if I can’t be the husband you deserve?"
"You already are."
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{The next morning}
"We-we have to tell her." Ross says, crying.
"I know, this is going to crush her." Rachel says.
"She deserves to know the truth." Phoebe says.
Rachel breaths deeply.
"Okay, I'll do it." She says, sheepishly.
She opens Monica's bedroom door.
"AHHHH! RACHEL! GET OUT!" came Monica's shriek.
Rachel shuts the door and looks back wide-eyed at Ross and Phoebe.
"They were having sex." Rachel says, flatly.
"WHAT?" Ross says.
"You mean?! You mean the whole time we've been looking all over Manhattan for him, he's been with her the whole time?!" Phoebe yells.
"It seems so." Rachel says.
Ross feels relieved.
Phoebe huffs, crossing her arms. "I was ready to strangle him, but… okay. This is fine."
"Hey! Shouldn't we be glad he was with her instead of God knows where?"
Ross lets out a shuddering breath. "For once, I'm glad they were having sex."
-End-