A/N: Ok, here’s the deal on this one: It’s season 3 and Ross and Rachel are having their big “we were on a break” fight. Mon and Chandler are secretly together…not even Joey knows. So let’s see what kind of tension we can stir up when they listen to their best friends breaking up and start to doubt their own relationship. I’m so sorry that I had to use so much dialogue from the episode in this chapter, but it’s just to set things up and I tried not to go word-for-word.

“Okay, Phoebe, we’re just going to have to do this,” Monica said, gritting her teeth as she reached down and grasped one of the wax strips that now, unfortunately, covered her entire leg.

“Do we have to?” Phoebe whimpered.

“Yes we have to!” Monica exclaimed. “There’s no way that I’m going to walk around like this for the next six weeks!”

“Does it really last 6 weeks?” Phoebe asked in awe.

“All right, come on, on the count of three…,” Monica continued, and Phoebe looked at her with a scared look on her face.

--

“Dude, I’m starving. Let’s get pizza,” Joey said right as Chandler walked in the door.

“Uh, hello to you too.”

“I’m serious! I’m so hungry, I’ve been waiting forever for you to get home!”

“Joe, it’s 4:00.”

“Yeah, whatever. Can we order now?”

“Look, I don’t have any money. And if your last audition really went like you said it did, you probably don’t have any either,” Chandler said with a knowing look.

“I told you, man! They’re gonna call me!” Joey protested.

“Joe, the audition was 3 weeks ago. They’re not going to call.”

“All right, whatever,” Joey pouted. “So the bottom line is, we can’t get pizza.”

“Yeah, sorry, man.”

“That’s okay, we’ll just raid the girls’ fridge,” Joey said, already heading for the door.

“Wait!” Chandler exclaimed, stopping him, knowing how much Monica hated when they did that.

“What?” Joey whined. “I’m so hungry!”

“I’m just saying that maybe we should see if we have anything here first before we go over there.” Chandler offered lamely.

“What are you talking about? We have nothing!” Joey exclaimed impatiently. “What is the matter with you? Why don’t you want to go over there?”

“No reason,” Chandler stammered. “I just thought-“

But Chandler found out that he wouldn’t have to come up with another excuse as Monica and Phoebe’s yells reached their ears.

“Ow!”

“Ow!”

“Ow ow ow ow!”

Chandler and Joey burst into Monica’s room seconds later, carrying pans as weapons. As the girls explained about the wax (and Phoebe gave Joey a taste of the pain they were experiencing) they heard Ross and Rachel come in.

“Come on Rachel, talk to me!” Ross was pleading.

“I can’t talk to you, I can’t even look at you right now!” Rachel yelled as Chandler quietly closed Monica’s bedroom door.

“What’s going on?” Monica whispered. Chandler just shook his head and their eyes met for a period that was longer than both intended. They only looked away from each other when they heard Rachel’s next words.

“Ross, you had sex with another woman!”

Both Monica and Phoebe gasped loudly. “Oh my god!” Monica exclaimed, shocked.

“Yeah, well, I guess they had a fight, and he got drunk…” Chandler started to explain before Monica slapped both him and Joey on their heads.

“You guys knew about this and you didn’t tell us?” She asked, more to Chandler than anyone else. How could Chandler keep something this important from her?

“Sorry,” he said quietly, and he meant it. They heard Ross further apologizing and they moved closer to the door to hear better.

“I don’t think we should listen to this anymore,” Joey said suddenly, moving to open the door.

“We can’t go out there!” Monica protested.

“I’m still hungry!” Joey whined to Chandler.

“No, she’s right,” Phoebe agreed. “They’ll know we’ve been listening.”

Chandler, more than a little uncomfortable spending so much time in Monica’s bedroom when he had been in there with her recently doing…other things, started to agree with Joey until they heard Ross tell Rachel that the reason he didn’t tell her about being with the copy girl was that Chandler and Joey convinced him not to.

“You know what, wax the door shut, we’re never leaving!” he said to Monica, who was staring at him, bewildered.

“You really told him not to tell her?” she whispered to him. If this was the kind of advice her boyfriend gave to others having relationship difficulties, what did that mean for them?

Chandler froze. How was he going to explain this? “I don’t…I didn’t mean to-,” Chandler stammered before Joey interrupted.

“Do you really think we’re never going to get out of here? ‘Cause Baywatch is on tomorrow night!”

Chandler took advantage of Joey’s question to not answer Monica. She, in turn, gave Chandler a hurt look as she went to sit next to Phoebe on the bed.

About an hour later, they overheard Rachel ordering a pizza.

“Oh man, pizza?” Joey complained and then proceeded to send a telepathic message to Rachel to put olives on the pizza.

“Ooh!” Phoebe exclaimed excitedly. “We could eat the wax! It’s organic.”

“Oh, great,” Chandler answered disgustedly. “Food with hair on it.” His comment reflected his mood. He and Monica had spent the past hour giving each other tense looks. Monica hadn’t been able to hide the fact that she was really shook up over her brother and best friend’s breakup. Chandler couldn’t help but wonder if she was rethinking this whole “date your best friend” thing. He looked at her, and wondered if it was really worth it. He’d almost prefer being able to know that he would be able to see her every day in a friend-like situation, than go on with this relationship thing and leave it all up to chance. What if something did go wrong? What if he could never see her again?

Chandler joined Joey, Phoebe, and Monica on Monica’s bed as they all attempted to eat the wax. All four were lost in thought. Ross and Rachel had been quiet for awhile, but they all knew that there was more to come.

Phoebe’s voice broke through the silence. “They’re gonna get through this, aren’t they?”

“Yeah, I mean, it’s Ross and Rachel. They’ve got to,” Chandler said, his voice shaking as he spoke. It’s me and Monica. We’ve got to. We’re totally different people. This could never happen to us…could it?

Monica thought back to what they’d overheard and then to how Chandler had convinced Ross to lie to his girlfriend. “Wh-what if they don’t?” she whispered.

Chandler’s heart literally stopped. What if we don’t?

A few hours later, as they overheard Rachel telling Ross to leave, Chandler couldn’t help but put a comforting hand on Monica’s shoulder. She turned to face him, silent tears coursing down her cheeks. He hugged her tightly. Seeing her face had convinced him of what he had to do. Chandler vowed to himself that he would do whatever it took for her to never look like that again.

It would be extremely hard to break up with her. But it would be for the best. That’s what he kept telling himself. It’s for the best.

Tbc…..

A/N: Thanks for reading! I’m thinking a fairly short story here, 4-5 chapters max. I’d love to know what you think!