I always thought it was weird how there never was any awkwardness around sexual situations when J/R were living together. I mean, friends can be down with a little love/self-love, but, those walls couldn't have been that thick.

She turned the volume up even louder, and she was sure her headphones were leaking sound all the way out to the living room.

At this volume, she could no longer hear the jolly morning humming coming from her neighbor's window.

Her eyelids drifted shut and her fantasy resumed. The man from her office had been making several appearances behind her eyes lately. Dark hair, hazel eyes, broad shoulders, plenty of muscle...

Her body was rising and rising and she closed her eyes tighter, blocking out the first direct ray of sun. She felt soft, cool fabric sliding over her unclothed body as she squirmed out from under the sheets, pushing them down. She held her breath and tilted her head forward, looking down at her body, imagining his face looking up at her from between her legs.

Bang!

Rachel's orgasm hit just as the door flew open and then instantly stopped as she launched herself up onto her knees, and somehow managed to pull the sheet up to her neck.

The headphones slipped out of her ears and her cd-player launched across the room, propelled by the jerked headphone cord.

A battery shot over and hit Joey's foot. He was standing with his mouth agape and hand still out, as if on her door handle.

A second bang and the front door burst open, and in quick succession, a third bang, and Joey slammed her door shut.

A moment after he did so, he looked horrified.

"Joey!" Rachel hissed from her sheet, "what the hell are you doing?"

"I don't know!" he said, face crinkled, and voice high.

"You guys?" It was Monica's panicked voice, "hurry!"

She looked at Joey, confused, and he seemed to come back to himself. "Fire."

Rachel started and moved too quickly to grab her robe from behind Joey in her closet and slipped. She reached out to arrest her fall and to her horror, left a wet streak across his arm. She could smell her hand! Her sheet slipped just as the door knob turned and Monica's panicked, and now confused, voice called out- "Guys?"

Their eyes now slid in an entirely new panic toward the door Monica had just opened.

"Fire!" Joey exclaimed and walked straight out the door past Monica, looking at neither of them.

"Coming!" she managed.

Rachel had slipped behind her closet door just in time and fought her way into her robe and shoved her feet into a pair of flats as she ran out behind Joey.

In the living room, she could hear the faint alarm.

"We have to go, now! You can see black smoke from our living room window." She was running now, in a near panic, metal tackle box jangling in one hand and an accordion file flopping around in the other.

Outside, the street was bustling with neighbors, approaching sirens, and loud conversations every few feet. While Monica was asking around for information, Rachel was intensely aware of Joey standing slightly behind her.

He was looking over her head when his eyes momentarily bulged. He hastily put his mouth on his forearm.

She felt her face burning, and if it were possible, even more horrified. Even though it was his arm, he was quite literally tasting her at this moment.

"Joey, what are you doing with your arm?" Ross's whiny condescension was the picture of calm amidst the yelling.

"Got some syrup on it," he said grinning nervously, giving it another big dramatic lick.

Ross had an unusually strong sense of smell.

Rachel was suddenly aware of her lack of underwear and her current state of dampness as Ross closed in on her.

"You must be cold," he said, wrapping his arm around her. A moment later, he pulled a face. She lowered her offending fingers, wrapped them in her other hand, trying to shift away.

"But, I'm even colder," he said, in a high voice, walking away. "Looks like our building is allowed back in."

"What's his problem?" Monica asked, shifting her tackle box noisily, following after Ross. "Aren't you coming?" she asked them when she noticed they weren't following.

An hour later Joey closed the door a stride behind Rachel. She had stopped in the middle of the living room, not turning around.

"Joey-"

"Look, Rach, it never happened, it's fine."

"But you-"

"Didn't happen"

"And you saw-"

"I saw nothing."

"And you licked-"

"Rachel!" Joey pleaded, frazzled.

She turned around to see his eyes squinted together.

"Um, ok, I'm, um - going to take a shower," she said, her head slightly down, making a bee-line to her room.