Monica had had enough.

Not only was apartment 19 a dingy hole, but it was also Rachel's constant nagging that was getting the best of her.

No, intense cleaning aside, this was and would always remain a boys' apartment. She and Rachel had spent hours the previous night to come up with a plan that would convince Joey and Chandler to switch back the apartments, but no such luck.

Their relentless discussion continued in the morning, including a pregnant Phoebe who had some very questionable ideas for the duo.

"Or you could strip for them!" The blonde excitedly suggested.

Rachel looked at an incredulous Monica who paused for a second and then focused on the sizzling omelette in the pan in front of her again.

"I don't think so, Pheebs," Rachel shook her head before taking another sip of her coffee.

Phoebe just shrugged before the next strike of genius apparently hit her. "Oh, oh! How about you bet a voucher for the strip club then, huh? You know how excited the guys get at the prospect of naked ladies. Especially Chandler," she raised her eyebrow knowingly.

Monica sighed while turning off the stove.

"No, I don't think that would work. First of all, you know what happened last time we bet against them – we lost and they won the Knicks tickets. And on top of that, remember two weeks ago when the guys discovered that channel with the free porn? I think they're still recovering from that experience," she paused before shivering, "in fact, I'm still recovering from that experience.

The girls mumbled something in return while nodding their heads in unison. Monica served her omelette to her friends as they all sat down on the table and started to eat their breakfast.

"You know, you should just punish them by not inviting them for breakfast anymore," Phoebe said while having a sip of her orange juice.

Monica grinned. "Well, that would certainly work on Joey."

There was another silence as they all thought of other possible ways to get apartment 20 back. Monica was certain that the main problem was Chandler. Joey could easily be convinced with anything that involved food, the Knicks or women. Chandler, on the other hand…

She racked her brain to think about her best friend's weaknesses. She was the one who knew Chandler in and out, why was it so hard to come up with something that would hit his soft spot?!

"Mon?"

Monica shook her head slightly and looked at Rachel. "Huh?"

Grinning slightly, Rachel gave Phoebe a pointed look before repeating her previous comment. "Phoebe just said something that might help us: aren't the guys going to the Knicks game this afternoon?"

Monica nodded, still confused.

Hopping up and down on her chair, Phoebe excitedly clapped her hands together. "Why don't we use that time to switch apartments?! You know, just take your apartment back! Enough with all the betting and the ridiculous competitive games; just do it."

Monica glanced over at her friends slowly and doubtfully. Those were clearly Phoebe's pregnancy hormones at work.

"I don't know… they did win that apartment fair and square," Monica admitted. Again, it was Chandler's reaction she feared the most were they to actually go through with Phoebe's clearly unfounded idea.

Groaning in frustration, Rachel threw her napkin on the table and stood up. "No, Monica, enough with this pity party! I'm sick and tired of this place and I can tell you feel the same way! So let's just get it over with! They will be gone for at least a couple of hours which should give us enough time to move the stuff. And if after all that they still want to switch back again, they'll have to do it themselves! And knowing Joey and Chandler, they will both be too lazy to actually go through with it."

Phoebe nodded and then shrugged, "plus, if they need more convincing after that, you two could always kiss in front of them for a minute."

Monica rolled her eyes before glancing at both of her friends for a few moments, then she reluctantly agreed. "Okay, let's do it." After all she wasn't one to obey all the rules, she had to admit while thinking of the infamous 'Geller Bowl' incident.

"YAY!" Phoebe got up as well as the girls all celebrated their idea in a group hug. "Let's get your apartment back!"

A few hours later, the girls were ready for their big move. Phoebe was hogging the peephole of apartment 19, not moving as she watched both Joey and Chandler closing the door of apartment 20. They were visibly excited at the prospect of watching a Knicks game from premium seats, high-fiving each other before quickly starting their descent down the stairs. Phoebe waited another minute for good measure before turning around and giving a thumbs-up to the other two. "All clear – let's go!"

In the past hours, they had even come up with a meticulous plan when clearing out the place. Monica had assigned tasks for each of them; due to her condition, Phoebe was to only carry the light stuff while she and Rachel would switch the furniture of the respective living rooms. When it came to the individual rooms, Monica had assigned Rachel to Joey's room while she would sort through Chandler's belongings, mainly because his stuff would go back into the room that she was now vacating in apartment 19.

"Okay, let's go!" she shouted excitedly. Cleaning up and sorting through stuff was clearly Monica's speciality and under her command, the girls quickly got to work. The living room was first, followed by the kitchen items – which didn't take the girls long in apartment 20 as the boys mostly ordered food in – and the bathroom. Upon seeing the questionable state of the toilet, Monica scrunched up her nose. This was not a good time for second thoughts. She would just have to devote an entire day of cleaning to the bathroom.

While Phoebe was taking a break, both Rachel and Monica moved on to sort through the boys' rooms. Equipped with three boxes, Monica entered Chandler's bedroom, which used to belong to Rachel. She was surprised by how tidy and clean it actually was as she scanned her surroundings, trying to come up with the most efficient way to move his personal belongings. The first box was quickly filled when she realised she most likely wouldn't need all the boxes as Chandler had surprisingly little clutter, just a few silly practical joke devices like a Bobblehead or a Rubik's cube. She quickly placed his alarm clock, the last item taken from the nightstand, into the second box before neatly gathering his bed sheets in her arms.

Suddenly, she stubbed her foot on a large metal item that was badly stowed underneath the bed.

"Son of a b*tch," she cursed silently while bending down and rubbing her foot. As the pain subsided, curiosity got the best of her and she carefully sat down on the carpet before getting hold of the item that had caused her so much pain in the first place.

She slowly pulled the dark blue metal box out from under the bed, cringing as she was met with a thick layer of dust on its surface. Knowing she would have to vacuum anyway, she used the back of her sleeve to get rid of it. Whatever it was that was in this box, Chandler clearly hadn't touched it in forever.

All of a sudden, Monica felt a thrill going through her body. It hit her just how forbidden and wrong it was what the girls were doing, and yet she was incredibly curious of what was in front of her. She knew Chandler better than anyone else and yet there were still sides to him that he kept hidden even from her. What she was doing was extremely dodgy and, above all, invaded his very own privacy. But she still couldn't stop herself from seeing what he kept hidden in this mysterious box she had retrieved from under the bed. The gang had often made fun of some of Chandler's belongings and kinks, like the jewellery box or the sock that he sometimes kept next to his bed (of course they all knew what that was about), so Monica could understand why he would opt to keep certain things hidden. They could really be an insanely inquisitive bunch.

She bit the inside of her mouth while holding onto the box, fighting some last doubts she had about opening it. However, Monica's curiosity was an impossible thing to beat. She held her breath as she slowly lifted the lid, coming face to face with the cover of a book. There was no title visible as she picked it up carefully and turned it around in her hands. She assumed it was some sort of scrapbook as its pages were brimming with photo paper and diverse clippings, it seemed. However, when she opened the first page she noticed that she was only partly right as the book had also been used as a diary.

She immediately recognised Chandler's untidy handwriting on the first page; he had scribbled a sentimental message across the page: "Crazy Snake Man's Tale of Suffering."

Monica furrowed her eyebrows while at the same time shaking her head. She distinctly remembered his freak-out after Mr Heckles' death and his rant about rejecting every perfect woman he had ever been with due to the most ridiculous imperfections. Still curious, Monica flipped through a few pages before stopping on one page that was adorned with a few pictures. She instantly smiled when she saw that it was a photo of her and Chandler in the hospital from the day that Ben was born. She was sitting in a chair in Carol's hospital room and was holding the newborn baby tightly in her arms, supporting his head while adoringly looking into her nephew's eyes. Next to her was Chandler who, to her surprise, looked entirely at ease while being around a baby. His arm was wrapped around Monica's small frame and he grinned as he was watching the scene in front of him, neither of them looking at the camera.

Monica felt something pull at her heart strings as she looked at the picture more closely. She vaguely remembered that Ross had taken pictures that day, but she'd had no clue he had captured this specific moment between her and Chandler. Her eyes slowly wandered to the opposite page that was almost entirely covered in Chandler's handwriting.

May 11th, 1995: Wow, like you wouldn't believe today! Ross is actually a father! A FATHER! I should have seen that coming, but it's still weird to see one of my best friends with their baby. And this is me – commitment-phobic crazy snake man, who's afraid of babies and marriage and… well, babies and marriage. And yet today made me realise that maybe, one day, I'd like to be that guy.

I think it was because I was there with Monica, too. The scary thing is that she's there already… she is ready to be a mum. I could see it in her eyes when she was holding Ben. The phone call she had with Judy earlier didn't help either – she was ready to steal those twins from the lady in the wheelchair within a second!

It kills me that she doesn't think she'll ever get there. I know she will. And if that day doesn't come soon enough for her, I wanted her to know that she has other options… Yes, that's right, crazy snake man offered to be her B-A-B-Y's daddy! She didn't take it well, though. I wish she could see just how amazing she is. I wish I could protect her from all the bad guys out there.

Okay, I'm getting carried away here… it was just a very memorable day; look at how beautiful she looks holding Ben!

One day it'll happen for you, Mon. One day…

Monica wiped away a tear she didn't know she had been crying, but the second one quickly followed and hit the paper in an instant. She cursed silently as she tried to wipe away the wet spot, accidentally smudging the ink writing instead. "Sh*t!"

She attempted to calm down as she listened for any sounds that might come from the other room where Rachel was clearing through Joey's mess, but it was just the usual moving of boxes.

Before she could think about Chandler's sweet words even longer, she quickly flipped through a few more pages. In between, she scanned her name on almost every other page, which gave her chills. Was this entire diary dedicated to her?

The next photo she saw was from their trip to Montauk. It was a group picture, but it was obvious that the focus of the picture was on Monica and Chandler. It was taken before the jellyfish incident and she could swear they looked like a couple, even though she remembered continuously turning his advances down that weekend.

Now all she could think about were the words he'd said to her during the trip.

"Am I not boyfriend material?!"

Her heart beat faster in her chest as something dawned on her. Was he serious all this time? Did he really consider being in a relationship with her back then? She was almost scared to read through the next handwritten paragraph.

May 15th, 1997: So this weekend was a total bust. It started out pretty great, we were going to have fun at the beach house and then it all went downhill. After a couple of margaritas and a game of strip poker, idiot me couldn't shut up any longer. I still have no idea why, but I asked Monica out! Multiple times! And obviously she shut me down. Every. single. time. What was I thinking?! She's way out of my league and I'm just her stupid, commitment-phobic, sarcastic, immature friend. A friend, that's all I am to her and all I'll ever be. I'm just trying to come to terms with the rejection. Which shouldn't be too hard now given the fact that I've peed on her. Yes, that's right. I peed on the love of my life!

Monica swallowed hard as she read the paragraph's last sentence over and over again. She was the love of his life? She'd been so clueless. The diary entry was longer, but she was interrupted all of a sudden.

"Mon, how's it going in there? You about done? I think we should hurry up," Rachel said from the living room as Monica quickly closed the diary and put it back into the metal box before contemplating what to do with the precious item. Of course she had to move it into apartment 19, but she was almost certain that Chandler would find out that someone had touched his diary. She still couldn't believe what she'd read.

"Yes, I'm almost finished, just a few more minutes," Monica quickly replied before stowing everything in the second box and getting up. Why the hell did she have to go through his private stuff?! She silently cursed herself before getting up to move the boxes of Chandler's stuff into the other apartment. They still had a lot to do before the guys came back from the game.

Now she knew what Chandler's weak spot was – it was her.

A/N: Many thanks to the lovely Beth (simplymondler) who gave me this idea quite a while ago; not sure if she remembers. ;) I've been feeling like writing some Mondler fic again so here it is! And it was so much fun; I got a lot done within a couple of hours so I figured this little fic will be more than just a one-shot – so expect one more chapter! As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this; reviews make me a happy gal!