Chapter Thirty

It was 3:30am and Joey had just got in. Alex was sound asleep in their bed alone and probably subconsciously waiting for Joey to return home and Lola-Marie was fast asleep too, in her new bedroom beautifully decorated in yellow and pink with randomly painted animals all over the walls. Joey was finally done moving everything from LA into the new house and the old LA house was on the market. Everything in Joey's life was going very well. He was back where he belonged, in New York with his bestest friends, Alexis Tribbianni, his beautiful wife and Lola-Marie his wonderful daughter. He had this beautiful house, which was even better than the old one he had given up in LA. He was grateful to Alex for agreeing to the big move, he knew what she had given up to be here, a wonderful apartment, her family, her job. He thought that one day she would go back to being a lawyer, but then he also thought that Rachel would go back to working in fashion, Monica to working in a restaurant and Phoebe to giving free massages outside the UN, selling knives, teaching a massage yourself at home class, playing guitar or whatever quirky idea was the latest at that moment, there were lots of possibilities for Phoebe when it came to jobs and Joey didn't even want to begin to think about what the next thing would be. But he did know that, for now, they were all happy as stay at home moms with the eleven children they had between them. With that thought Joey had to sit down he was suddenly overwhelmed by the thought of everything that had happened to him recently, he thought back ten years. If some one had told him ten years ago that today he would've been in two successful television shows, a real movie, had a brief fling with Carmen Electra, found the woman of his dreams, got married and had a kid he would probably laughed you out of central perk and then asked Chandler to pay his bill. Life was completely different now, they all knew it and they all loved it. The next thing but one on his list was a dog. A beautiful pet dog for him, Alex and Lola to enjoy for the next fourteen or so years. But first he wanted a holiday. Somewhere really hot and sunny, somewhere they hadn't been before and somewhere that not one of the other people would have thought of and he wanted all nineteen of them to go. Well, if that was going to happen it would have to be in the school holidays, and he would have to get to organizing it straight away.

Mike was hammered again. Phoebe knew that him going out two nights in a row was asking for trouble. On previous occasions, when he had woken up on the Sunday morning or afternoon, depending on how good or bad the night was, he had been good for nothing. The girls would all dance around him speaking particularly loud for a Sunday afternoon and making really unrealistic demands on him. Today, Libby had asked Mike to take her swimming, where their, now reaching four girl had got the idea that swimming would be fun Phoebe and Mike didn't know. When Mike declined, they didn't know what had hit them. Liberty Hannigan was, as everyone else was concerned, the blue eyed little girl, helpful, polite and generally well behaved, but on this fateful day she morphed from the wonderful girl into a monster. No swimming? Libby wasn't going to take no for an answer,

"I WANT TO GO SWIMMING!" Libby howled at the top of her lungs "DADDY, TAKE ME SWIMMING NOW!"

"No way" Mike answered as firm but fair as his hangover allowed him "Not after you shout at me like that, you'll be lucky if you can go and play with the others for the rest of the week!"

"DADDY I HATE YOU!" Libby screamed, tears falling down her face, Mike and Phoebe simply didn't know what to do. Where was that little girl who spoke politely when she was spoken too, never before had Phoebe allowed any of the girls to utter the words Daddy and Mommy in the same sentence as the world hate.

"Liberty Hannigan" Phoebe said in her sternest loud mommy voice that was one step away from being a shout "get up to your room, and stay there until I come and get you!"

Libby stayed still, rooted to the spot, Phoebe knew that her stubborn side was turned on today and Libby wouldn't back down until she was forced sobbing violently, that to the outside world it would have sounded like Phoebe, Mike, Summer and Daisy were all torturing this little girl into doing something that she had no intention of doing. Just at the wrong moment, the doorbell went. Phoebe was in silent negotiations with Libby who was starting to behave more like a teenager than a four year old and Mike's head really wasn't taking all the shouting and screaming, let alone dealing with the major task of opening the door. The doorbell went again and Mike reluctantly hoisted himself out of the couch that he had become quite comfortable and happy to sit on. Libby and Phoebe stayed exactly where they were until Libby gave up and stomped upstairs to her room.

Ross had seen the last bit of the commotion and wasn't exactly sure what to say. He knew who the offender was and he also knew her track record

"Sorry" Phoebe smiled at her friend just two seconds after hearing Libby's door close "Liberty appears to have found her temper, did you know she had a stubborn side?"

"It's okay" Ross remembered back to Emma's terrible two stage that seemed to start at sixteen months and not stop until she was five. Ross and Rachel had spent many an evening worrying about Emma starting school and would she throw a tantrum in front of her teacher, or worse any other parents. They needn't have worried though, because the week before her first day they had stopped, it was almost as if someone had pressed a switch and the old Emma Geller-Greene was back. She was slightly different of course. There was no Emma Geller-Greene, just Emma Geller and she was a few years older, slightly taller, and her hair had grown, but she was beautifully behaved again and Rachel and Ross were so pleased. "Charlotte's next, and if she's anything like her sister, that will be difficult to deal with."

"Just wait until the twins go through it," Mike added, unhelpfully "you wont know what's hit you"

"Thanks, Mike" Ross glanced him a 'you really shouldn't have said that, don't you dare tell Rachel' look and swiftly changed the subject "have you seen Chandler?"

"No" Mike thought for a moment, obviously trying to recall the shenanigans of the previous evening "at least not since I got up"

"which hasn't been long" Phoebe added obviously unimpressed by Mike's late awakening "why, haven't you?"

"No" Ross shook his head "Monica, called this morning, he didn't come home last night"

"We've not seen him" Phoebe clarified "have you tried Joey's?"

Ross nodded, clearly upset by the fact that his brother in law hadn't been seen since the previous evening "I have no idea where Chandler could be"

Chandler woke up with a start. He looked down at his watch 10:30am, Monica would be annoyed but suddenly he realized he didn't recognize these sheets, the pillows even the smell of the place was different had Monica brought new sheets, pillows and air fresheners while he'd been out? He looked around the room and then it hit him, why he didn't recognize anything about this bed. It wasn't his bed. He turned to look to his left hand side where Monica should have been and instead saw someone who had the power to make his balls jump back into his body. Janis.

"oh" Janis sang out loud "my Bing-a-Ling"

"Hi" Chandler thought for a second, what could be the worst thing that he could call her right now "just Janis"