Rachel's Choice
Chapter 1 - Joey's The One
The holiday had been amazing. Barbados was one of the most fantastic places she'd ever been to. Despite the boring paleontological speeches and Monica's seriously bad-hair dilemma, the holiday had been a complete success. However, for Rachel, the best thing about the holiday by far; was discovering a completely different side of Joey. To Rachel, Joey was no longer her rather innocent yet somewhat sex-mad friend. Joey was now the most caring guy she'd ever come to know. Little did she think that she'd ever feel this way about him; she found it increasingly difficult to think of Joey as Chandler's ex-roommate, as the same Joey who used to walk over to the apartment she shared with Monica to fetch pizza or beer from the fridge. The Joey she knew now, the Joey who was her room-mate; was someone new and very exciting. The only problem was Ross. He knew that Joey liked her, but how would he react when he found out that Rachel felt the same way about Joey?
Rachel had just finished unpacking, totally disappointed that it meant her time in Barbados was totally over. She dreamt of returning once more.
"Hey beautiful" Joey cooed, entering their apartment.
Rachel smiled in response. She wanted to kiss him, but she couldn't. They owed it to Ross to tell him first.
"When's Ross dropping Emma off?" Joey asked, genuinely missing the baby girl.
"Any minute now" Rachel assured him.
She found the fact that Joey loved Emma almost as much as she did, so sweet. Sure enough, when Ross walked through the door five minutes later, pushing Emma in his wake; it was Joey who was the first to greet them.
"Ross, sit down?" Rachel asked, indicating to the seat next to her.
Ross did, wandering what the matter was. Joey, after fetching a doughnut from the fridge, sat on his favourite recliner chair.
"Joey and I have something we need to tell you." Rachel said.
"We do?" enquired Joey. "... Oh yeah. We do." He exclaimed after a few moments silence.
Ross egged them on, eager to find out what could be so serious.
"Joey and I are... er ... dating." Rachel said, bracing herself for Ross' response.
"WHAT!" Ross yelled.
"Ross, relax man." Joey said, oblivious to the smudge of doughnut jam on his cheek. "It'll be ok. You've got Charlie, I've got Rach. We'll be like the four musketeers."
"There are usually three musketeers Joe." Rachel informed him.
Ross claimed that he had to go; he needed to get his head around the idea of Joey and Rachel. How could it have come down to this? It was Ross and Rachel; not Joey and Rachel. He and Rachel had a child together, had the most intense history but it seemed like that was all for nothing. Sure, he did have Charlie, but would she really fill the void that Rachel had left behind.