Mid 2005

"I just got off the phone with Ross", Chandler said as he entered their living room. Monica was on the ground, re-dressing Jack who seemed to be a little too excited to keep his little hat on.

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah, he's on his way with Rachel and Emma. Also, I guess he decided that beating around the bush wasn't the way to go, so he just flatly told me he's going to leave a little early."

Monica rolled her eyes. "Rachel called me yesterday for no apparent reason. I bet that's what she wanted to tell me."

Chandler laughed a little, sitting on the ground and crossing his legs in front of his wife and children. Erica crawled onto his lap, cutely slapping his thigh. "Well, I guess we could cut them some slack. It is their anniversary."

"Well, we also had an anniversary on Emma's birthday!"

They did, but no one knew about their anniversaries. It wasn't anything like a first kiss or a first time sleeping together. It was about the moment they had become exclusive, and the trip to Vermont had sounded like a good idea when combined with the special date. Monica and Chandler were actually quite romantic in their own weird and private way – they had many celebrations that nobody knew about. They wouldn't always celebrate them – busy schedules and raising twins didn't allow them to have that much time. Having passionate sex and deep, meaningful conversations until they fell asleep was often their choice for special occasions.

"Yeah, we did, but it's not like we had broken up while still loving each other and only reunited the day you were about to leave the country. Not to mention having a daughter out of wedlock in-between."

Monica chuckled, then seemed to realize something unpleasant. "Do you think Ross is going to tell the Rachel-got-off-the-plane story again?"

"Do you not know your brother? I'm one hundred percent certain he will."

"Ugh. I swear to God, if he does, they will leave a lot earlier."

That's another thing that differed a lot between the two couples. Monica and Chandler had been through a good amount of sweet, life-changing moments, but just like their special occasions, not many people knew about them. In fact, most people didn't know the big stuff that had happened between them, especially the ones that took place while they'd been sneaking around. Monica could remember the dictionary definition moment, or that one time when Chandler had told her he was the best sex she'd ever had only because she had made him the best. She could also think about the hot couple contest, when he'd told her that dating her was more exciting than having sex all the time. The engagement night too, and also their talking about the future when they had been engaged for only a week. All those moments were private memories. None of their friends had any idea about these – Monica had only casually told the girls about one thing or two from these events, but, in general, the big moments were something they'd always preferred to keep to themselves. That was completely different from Ross and Rachel's relationship. Everyone had heard the Rachel-getting-off-the-plane story nearly a thousand times, with the eventual overtly emotional narrative – Ross would tear up sometimes, flailing his hands around and gasping a lot to depict the intensity of the emotions he'd been through. God knew how often Monica would feel a little annoyed at the fact that everybody seemed to take Ross and Rachel's story as the epitome of a romantic tale. She had gotten over feeling bitter about it though – now she just (secretly) found her brother's overdramatic storytelling cute, and was happy that what she shared with Chandler belonged to them only.

The couple sat in silence, watching the one-year-old babies crawl around while making the cutest noises in the world – those noises filled Chandler and Monica's hearts with joy in a way they could have never expected.

"Can you believe we've been parents for a year?", Monica wondered out loud, putting into words the question that had already been hanging onto Chandler's mouth since the minute he'd waken up that day.

"I know. And we're parents of the best babies in the world."

"We're so lucky."

"We sure are."

The house was fully decorated for the birthday party – after all, their children would only turn one once. That's something Rachel had said about Emma and they couldn't understand at the time, but now they totally did.

The gang had been a little apart when compared to how close they used to be. Joey had moved to Los Angeles, after being offered the greatest acting opportunity ever – he was now completely able to support himself, with no worries, for a long time. Chandler had calmed himself down about leaving his friend behind when he'd learned about the moving, even though he still missed Joey the most. The actor promised to arrive at their house on time for the party, and had called already to inform them he was on his way – on a private plane, apparently. Chandler and Monica still had a hard time digesting their friend's recent wealthy status.

Phoebe proved to be indeed super fertile – as if getting pregnant of triplets in a complicated medical procedure wasn't proof enough. She'd suggested having kids the moment she'd seen the twins for the first time, and Mike had seemed to get on board with the idea. Not long after the birth of Jack and Erica, Phoebe had announced her pregnancy. Little Sophie was two months old, and together with her mother and father, she was about to attend a birthday party for the first time in her short life.

The most complicated situation of their friends' lives had been, of course, Ross and Rachel's. As much as Monica wanted them to finally be together, she would never, not in a million years, be okay with the idea of Rachel giving up her dream job for Ross. Because of that, Monica had been the happiest one when finding out that Rachel getting off that plane hadn't meant giving up a career – her best friend just needed to straighten things out with the love of her life before she left the country. That very same day, she had contacted Louis Vuitton, claiming to having had some serious family emergency and booking a trip for the following week. She had finally flown to Paris then, and with the advent of technology – and the fact that the company had been really willing to do anything to have her –, she'd been able to talk to Ross every day. Everybody had kind of expected everything to go to hell – the first time Rachel had put her career first had been the moment their relationship had crumbled. This time though, they'd had an intervention from Chandler and Monica. Having had the experience of dealing with a long distance relationship because of work issues had made the couple very good at giving advices in that area – despite the stress and compromised time from raising two kids, they would go out of their ways to keep Ross grounded whenever he wanted to let his selfish urges out. Luckily, they had only had to deal with that problem for about six months – that's how long it had taken for Rachel to come back for good, being able to work for the company from New York. The internet, oh yeah, that had come to stay and had definitely been a blessing for those two. They lived together and had a daughter but weren't married yet. As dumb as that sounded to everybody, Monica and Chandler rejoiced in the fact that at least they were engaged. This time, it seemed like everything was in its right place, and there was no breaking up for them in sight.

Besides friends, family members were coming to the party too, such as the Gellers.

Jack and Judy had been fine, but some specific doctor's appointments seemed to make Monica and Ross aware of the fact that having to deal with the death of a parent was something more tangible now that it had ever been before – it was crazy how not even having children had been such a wakeup call about the fact that they were getting older.

Losing a parent, that thought didn't haunt Chandler that much. Instead, he had been dealing with the fact that Nora and Charles had been actually trying to be an integral part of his life. He had been responsible for pushing his parents away, sure, but they had never been that much invested in getting close to him. Proof of that was the wedding – they had both been invited, but after the special day, they had still been distant, even though Chandler had opened the door that could bring them back to his daily life. The turning point had been the moment they'd met their grandchildren – only then, real magic happened. They were now able to be around each other with no bantering or yelling or snickering because all their energy was directed at the babies. Chandler kind of saw that behavior as an attempt of doing right this time – they were putting a lot of effort into being the best grandparents in the world because they wanted to make up for having been terrible parents to their only child. One might have expected Chandler to be bitter about it, but he was actually more than okay with that. Being a father had changed him – if anything, he wanted his children to have everything he'd been deprived of.

The writer and the drag queen would probably arrive soon.

They could watch their kids play with each other all day long – their cute little clothes were already getting wrinkled but Monica had learned, painfully, that being a mother meant not being able to avoid wrinkles and stains. Chandler's hand reached for Monica's, and their fingers entwined on their own accord. He pulled her hand to his lips, kissing her knuckles. A blissful smile reigned over his face, which matched his wife's. They didn't need to say anything – as if they shared one mind, they knew exactly what the other one was thinking.

Things had never been easy for them. They had always had to deal with self-doubt and self-loathing, with heartbreak, with loneliness. They had always faced frustration while hoping that one day things would be at least bearable. They had been denied the things they'd wanted the most – and even after having what they'd longed for, things had never happened effortlessly. If you think about it, that's life in a nutshell – people are always struggling, dealing with problems that never seem to end. They counted themselves lucky though – as hard as everything had been, they were now exactly where they wanted to be, living what they wanted to live, being around the ones they loved the most. It had been a long road, but it had led to a wonderful place.