Club Denpasar

AN: this fic is inspired by the Schappelle Corby case, which you do not need to know about to understand the fic. If you do know about it, the fic will not have the same ending (though Schappelle's story isn't over, and there might still be a happy ending for her too).

"Death sentence to drug traffickers"

Inside the dark, hot, humid and cramped cell, Rachel huddled in a corner, holding her abdomen. This was a nightmare. This couldn't last, she thought against the background of unintelligible foreign female voices. She had to get out of here, somehow. She shouldn't be here at all. She was an American citizen, and the Indonesians couldn't hold her in this prison for no reason. Why wasn't the American consul doing anything about it?

Her stomach cramped up. She would never get used to the food here – it was making her sick, and she would eat as little as possible. Someone was going to have to get her out of here. It was a mistake, a terrible mistake. She closed her eyes, seeing her bag open on the customs table, with the enormous clear package with the green stuff lying on top of the things she'd packed herself, only hours before. She hadn't put that package in her bag. She had never seen it before.

They decide to go to Bali

It wasn't really Ross's area of expertise, but he wanted to attend the conference in Indonesia anyway. For one thing, it could be interesting being at a meeting where people were talking about things generally – things that worked in related areas sometimes worked in your own. He was also interested in the star attraction – a talk and some exhibits on a prehistoric vegetarian crocodile. Knowing what he knew about crocodiles and alligators, the idea of a vegetarian form of a well known carnivore intrigued him.

"Hmm," Rachel has said when he had mentioned it to her. "Maybe there were vegetarian sharks as well."

"Sharks are really interesting. Did you know that they are actually prehistoric? The first sharks were around more than 300 million years ago, before the dinosaurs, and they've hardly evolved since the Jurassic era," Ross said.

"That's a long time," Rachel said.

Ross knew that she wasn't really interested in what he did for a living. It seemed certain that Ben would not follow in his footsteps although he hoped that Emma might, or perhaps future children. But before they had more children, they should really get married, properly. It was something they had already discussed, and in fact, Rachel had an engagement ring, but the date and the details of the wedding they had not decided on. He was not enthusiastic about the wedding, as such, at least not if that meant a big family extravaganza.

He had caused that twice, and his sister once. Rachel had already been through the big family wedding once, and imagining how the combination of both families would work made Ross shudder. There were boundless opportunities for tactless remarks, harking back to the past when they wanted to go forwards.

It didn't have to be an extravaganza. In Las Vegas, they had not needed it, but then, neither of them could clearly remember that, and the hangover the next day was no honeymoon. To get married because you both drunkenly think that it is a good idea is a terrible way to start a marriage. They were destined to be together, but not like that. Even so, he couldn't help wishing that they had found a way to get around that, to not look on the thing as an unfortunate escapade, but to look on it as fate taking them each by the scruff of the neck and saying,

"You two belong together, geddit?" They hadn't got it. It wasn't so much that he regretted the course of his life between the Las Vegas marriage and the day Rachel didn't leave for Paris, but things had to have been better if they had been together all of that time.

For one thing, the fling between Rachel and Joey would never have happened and he would never have to imagine what it had been like between the two of them when they were alone. It didn't matter that he didn't think that Rachel and Joey were suited and that it wouldn't have lasted. There had been plenty times when he and Rachel weren't suited either.

In some ways that was still the case – what does a person in fashion have to do with a person in palaeontology? But then again, he remembered he'd rather be with Rachel than Julie, who was another person in palaeontology. He still saw her around from time to time, and she would even be at the conference but everything between them was finished, and comfortably finished.

As for Ross and Rachel, they did not want a wedding like Las Vegas, sober or not. They were proud to be together and they want the people who were important to them to share a wedding with them. They liked the idea of a marriage with friends only – the ones who had been there for them over all of this time. The ones who would understand what they had been through and celebrate the marriage wholeheartedly. Even Joey, Ross had to admit.

"People get married in Bali," Rachel said, when she had heard that this was where the conference was to be based.

"Of course they do," Ross said.

"I mean people who are not from Bali. Like Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall." Rachel frowned, "Though that marriage wasn't legal."

"No," Ross said, instantly hating the idea of a Bali wedding. There were going to be no complications at all in their wedding, not a singe one. "We'll get married properly when I get back, in City Hall, with all of our friends. Let's work out a date."

It had taken over a week to decide on the date. There had been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between everyone as various dates were chosen and rejected.

"Now I really feel we are getting married," Rachel said contentedly. She had already amassed a pile of bridal magazines. Ross looked at them uneasily. They were going to have their extravaganza.

"It's friends only Rach," he said.

"Of course," she said. It turned out that she had agreed with him about this strategy, but he wondered if it would spiral out of control. And then she said,

"Why don't I come with you to Bali?"

"We're not getting married there," Ross said nervously, "We're doing it properly here in New York."

"I know that, but a holiday would be nice. There won't be time for a honeymoon afterwards." That was true. Ross had to be at work, rain hail or shine, the Monday after his wedding.

"That's a good idea." Since he had to be in Indonesia anyway, he'd save on his own air fare.

"It won't be that much of a honeymoon because Emma will be there." Having a two year old around cramped your canoodling style.

"I don't want the kind of honeymoon that requires us not to have Emma around," Ross said.

"Neither do I," Rachel said. "I really just want the holiday. After all, when Emma's asleep…" she winked at Ross. He grinned back at her.

"Well how about I arrange to stay in Bali for a few days after the conference, and you and Emma can join me then?"

"Okay," Rachel said.