Imagine that you have NEVER watched a Friends episode ever. Imagine if you were to watch only the first (S1E1) and last (S10E17) episodes, you might think that Ross and Rachel fell in love and were together the whole time. Of course we know this was not true. Episode 5 of season 6 (Joey's Porsche) is one of favorite episodes because it brought a lot of feelings and emotions out between Ross and Rachel. It even brought out the truth. The producers of the show really play with your emotions at the end (where Ross and Rachel are about to sign their divorce papers). The following is an alternate ending to this episode. It is meant as a one-shot story but can be expanded to another chapter if the responses merit it. Please enjoy and let me know what you think.

Her husband had said he would take care of the annulment to their marriage. Instead he lied. On the contrary, he had done nothing … they were still married. Ross had invited her to share his apartment because she had been made homeless. Instead of settling into her new place and being able to relax she had to re-pack all of her belongings and move to a new apartment. She was in no mood to see him, but it was his place. Ross enters his apartment …

"Oh honey, thank God your home, I was getting worried." Rachel stated sarcastically.

"I picked up the divorce papers. Ah, I've already signed everything and I put little X's where you need to sign." Ross replied as he sat on leather couch.

Rachel moves to the couch, sitting down on the couch next to Ross. "Oh, little Xs, that's great, that makes up for everything."

Ross was frustrated. He was about to lose her again … and her snide comments were like salt in an open wound. Yes, Ross had lied to her ... lied to stay married to someone who did not feel the same for him. Exasperated, Ross lifted himself off the couch. "You know, you've done a lot of stupid stuff too OK?"

From her perspective she could not begin to process what her soon-to-be ex-husband had just said. She was angry, and his goading was just making it worse. "How dare him try to deflect the blame for his lies back at me by dredging up the past!" she thought. It took all of her control not to jump off the couch and lay into him. "Name one stupid thing that is as stupid as this one!" She replied.

Ross's frustration was building. "Was she stupid or something or just really forgetful?" he thought to himself. "OK, how about you flew to London to stop my wedding? Ah, how about you told me you loved me after I was already married?"

That was it, she had had it. Her restraints thrown off she leapt from the couch "Hey, wait a minute, that was different; I did those things because I was in love with you!" she hissed.

"Yeah, right! Your right, that's very different. So let's, let's just sign the papers."" Ross blurted out as his gaze dropped to the floor. He had finally exposed himself and his feelings. He was now totally at her mercy. He fell to the couch in despair.

The room went totally silent. "What did he just say?" she thought. Her mind only had seconds to process the words and the implications of what they meant. After what felt like days she realized why Ross asked her to move in and had avoided getting the divorce. Her mind raced back in time. It was just over a year ago and their places were reversed. It was she that had had the feelings for him, the feelings that made her do crazy things, things that any "normal" person would never had done. She had said she wouldn't go. She discovered her feelings. She grabbed a jet plane and flew over an ocean. She had caused him to say her name. She had caused him so much pain … and all because she loved him. The memories were thick in her mind, so thick that she felt that she could touch them if she would just reach out her hand. She blinked her eyes and they were all gone.

At that moment she wanted to run, to get away to process what had been said and what it all meant. Ross was many things but he was not a liar. He had avoided getting the annulment … and then the divorce because he still had feelings for her. She was considering all of her options, to run, feign illness or consider the hardest choice with the biggest risks … stay and stand her ground.

Just then a crushed Ross looked up from the couch and asked "What?"

Looking down at the floor to answer him she somehow managed the strength to whisper "Nothing."

It had been bothering her for a long time. The memories would not leave her be. The visions of Vegas would haunt her again and again. The fact that she was well beyond legally drunk seemed not to bother her conscious as it remembered what happened that day. The only way she could hope to purge the recurring guilt from her mind was to confess them to him. "If only I could muster the courage to tell him, I would be free of this pain … even if it meant causing him further hurt." She thought.

At this point Rachel refocused on the couch, returning to the spot that minutes before she had previously occupied. Rachel was now sitting next to Ross. She was less then two feet away but she could not look at him for if she did he would see through the windows of her soul. She was not ready to expose her guilt.

He felt like such a fool. He had exposed his feelings to her and she had said nothing in return. Angrily he shoved the two sets of divorce papers onto the apothecary table directly in front of her. He then handed her a pen with which to sign the final death knell to their short marriage. "OK, can we just sign please?" he enquired, wanting to leave the apartment (and Rachel) as quickly as possible.

There are moments in your life when important decisions must be made. Her future was dependent upon her next action. She held the pen nervously in her right hand and lowered it to the first set of papers. She rested her hand on the document but did not allow the pen to touch. There she waited, contemplating the known present and unknown future for what seemed like an hour. She closed her eyes and wondered what to do. It would be so easy to twice sign her name and be done with it. That seemed to be her way, the easy way. She also considered her friend, her "best" friend as she called him. Would it be fair to him to just sign and let them die without another word being said?

"Rach, Rachel?" he asked as he gently put his hand on her left shoulder. "Are you all right?"

Rachel ever so slowly lifted her head, not to look at him but just to acknowledge his query.

"What's wrong? Are you sick or something?" he asked.

"No, I'm alright. It's just that I've just been given a lot of information to process in such a short time. It's a lot to absorb." Rachel said, still trying to find the means to lower the pen to the papers.

After another uncomfortable pause Ross's mood changed from anger and frustration to one of compassion for his wife. Something was wrong. She was getting what she wanted and yet she had not or could not sign them. He felt it might be better to console her before she made another attempt. "Rachel, I'm sorry, I hope you are OK. I had no intention of hurting you. That was the last thing I wanted. I am going to take the pen out of your hand. You are obviously upset and I don't want you to accidentally ruin the papers. I know how much you have wanted to sign them and get this over with. If they get ruined I will have to get another set from my lawyer and that will delay the divorce." She did not protest as the pen was removed from her fingers.

At that point Ross sat her back on the couch and proceeded to the kitchen. He returned quickly with a bottle of wine and two glasses. Filling both glasses he offered one to Rachel. Rachel's face rose slowly, still not meeting his, as she took the glass from her husband. "Thank you." She said softly. "You are welcome." he replied. "Can I get you anything else honey?" he asked. The question served its intended purpose as Rachel finally raised her head high enough to allow the two of them to make eye contact. "Honey?" she asked. "It was my lighthearted attempt to try to get you to look up and talk to me … and it worked." Ross replied.

After consuming their wine Ross made the first move toward starting to resolve Rachel's mood. "Rachel, I know that I have made mistakes in the past. The last few weeks are a prime example. Instead of talking to you face-to-face about my feelings I just dropped it all in your lap, all at one time. I'm sorry for that and I am here to say that if you have any concerns or questions about anything that has been said here today, that my answers to you will be straightforward and truthful."

Rachel considered this and with the wine finally relaxing her she decided to take him up on his offer. "Alright then, what did you mean when you said "Yeah, right. Your right, that's very different … " Before?"

"Rachel", Ross responded, "I think you know what I meant by that but I will spell it out anyway. When we got married in Vegas I was just as shocked as you were. I truthfully had no intention of marrying you. We were good friends, not engaged when we did it. It was the fact that we were drunk that we got married. Can we agree on this fact?"

"Yes" she replied. "We were so drunk we couldn't see straight. I have no idea how we ever got back from the chapel after the ceremony."

"Great, we agree on this then." Ross replied. "When we returned to New York we agreed that we would get an annulment. I resisted the idea and lied to you because I did not want three failed marriages, remember?"

Again, Rachel replied in the affirmative.

"I made a big mistake by lying to you. I did not get the annulment. I was too scared to have three failed marriages. I was thinking ONLY about myself. I was very selfish. Weeks later when you found out that we were still married you were so mad that you wanted to kill me, remember?"

For the first time in what seemed like forever Rachel actually smiled. "Yes, I was so mad at you I could have torn your heart out. I was almost as mad at you then as when you slept with Chloe."

"Then it's safe to assume that you were pretty mad." He replied, getting a slight chuckle from Rachel. "So what was going through your head?" Rachel asked. "You couldn't expect us to stay married forever without me knowing."

"That's a very good question." Ross replied "Honestly, I wasn't thinking straight. I was afraid of the three failed marriages, but my thinking about the whole subject changed literally overnight."

"How, when, in what way?" she asked.

"Well, it was because of Phoebe. She has always been the most outspoken champion of our cause, you know. She thinks we are lobsters and that we were meant to be together forever. Phoebe started convincing me that the reason I was avoiding the annulment was not because of the three divorces but because I was still in love with you. After weeks of hearing her talk about how in love I was with you I started to believe it, and then something happened."

"What?" she asked, moving to the edge of her seat.

"You were made homeless and you needed a place to stay so I offered to be your roommate." He said.

"You were just being Ross, you know, a nice guy."

"I was a liar, not a nice guy" Ross replied. I told you that you could stay here with selfish intentions. I was trying to make you fall in love with me all over again. We were still legally married. I was planning on making your stay here so memorable that when I eventually told you we were still married you would decide to stay with me as my wife. It was another big error in judgment on my part. I got my just desserts when my plan began to unravel."

"What do you mean? How did your plan unravel? What are you talking about Ross?" She asked.

"Well, do you remember about a week ago when we were at Central Perk. You were talking about a "system" that we could use to signal each other when we each had a hot date over so that we could have some privacy? You suggested using a hanger on the front door, remember?" He replied.

"I remember." She said.

"Rachel, could you imagine how devastating it would have been for me to come home and find a hanger on the door handle, to find you alone, in our apartment with another man? I had created my own version of hell!"

"Now I understand. And then I made things even worse by lying on the divorce papers and perjuring ourselves in front of the judge." She said as her eyes moved toward the floor, tears forming in her eyes.

Ross, noticing that he was losing her again moved his hand to her chin and gently pulled until she had raised her head to his. Rachel looked sad. "Rachel, you have nothing to be ashamed of. I lied to you time-and-time again. I was finally married to you, something I had dreamt about for over half my life and I freaked out. I hurt my best friend in the process."

"Confession is good for the soul" Rachel thought. After a short pause she surprised Ross by standing and walking around the couch. Her eyes told him that she had something important to say.

"Ross. Um, I kind of have a little confession." She started.

"What?" Ross replied.

"Ahh, well, you know this whole marriage thing? … kinda my idea."

Stunned, Ross replied "Excuse me?"

"Ah, remember how we were too drunk to remember anything the night we were married? … and ahh, and I didn't really, I didn't want to say anything but it just kinda just kept coming back to me and, uh, remember we were in the casino and for some reason you though it would be funny to eat a lotta grapes? (Ross looks up toward ceiling trying to remember) And I thought it would be funnier if we got married. So, as a compromise we decided first to get married and then (Ross parrots exactly what Rachel says) … to eat a lot of grapes. Sorry I got us into this whole thing."

Recovering from her admission, Ross replied with the first words that came to mind, "So then if you think about it this is all your fault."

"Yeah don't push it though!" She replied in frustration.

By this time Ross had had an epiphany. He was really beginning to believe that they were meant to be together. She had initiated the wedding in Vegas. He had spent the better part of two years trying to get over her but had failed miserably. "I gotta say I, I know I divorce a lot of women. Never thought I'd be divorcing you." Is the only thing he could think of saying.

"I know. I always thought if you and I got married that would be the one that stuck." She replied through a slight smile.

It was now Ross's turn to make an important decision. He had feelings for her that could not be ignored. Was he to open and honestly share his true feelings or was he to bury the truth and ignore it as they had often done in the past? Ross decided for openness. He also realized that even an admission of love might not be enough to bring them together. It might not be the right time.

"Rachel. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you being honest with me. Can I ask you a few questions?" He asked.

"Of course." She replied.

"Rachel, how many times have I apologized for the Chloe incident?"

"Oh, about a billion." She said.

""I could apologize a billion times more and still not explain to you how truly sorry I am for it. What we had together was magical; it was the best time of my life. You were many things to me. You were my best friend, my lover, my confidant. And when I got possessive and jealous I killed our relationship. The reason I asked you if you forgive me was that I was hoping that ONE of us could forgive me because I couldn't. I never have forgiven myself for hurting you so much and destroying "US"."

"Ross" She started. "Why are you torturing yourself about this?" I thought we both had moved on?"

"Rachel, I thought so too but two things have made me think twice about this. First, I've had a long time to deal with our divorce and as I explained before I did some irrational things to keep us together, married. A marriage is between two consenting people. In our case it was only one, me."

Rachel replied "What was the second thing that made you think?"

"Isn't it obvious?" He implored. You just told me not 5 minutes ago that it was your idea to get married, not mine. When we went to Vegas we spent most of the time at each other's throats. You wet my pants and I wrote on your face. But in the end you thought it was a good idea to get married."

"Ross, we were drunk! It meant nothing. We didn't know what we were doing."

"And yet we did it Rachel. As your friend and soon to be ex-husband I have to, no I WANT to be totally honest with you. A blind man with a cane could see things about us that we cannot even see. It took this latest incident for me to see it. There is something that always seems to keep us just one step away from being together. One time it is you telling me that you love me and then the next it is me telling you ..."

"Ross, please tell me what you are saying, plain and simple." She interjected.

"Plain and simple? Is that what you want? Then here goes … you know how much I loved you, right? Well imagine tripling that. That is how much I love you now. After all this time of trying to get over you I have failed so miserably that I love you that much more. The few hours I spend with you are worth the thousands of hours I spend without you! Until the angels close my eyes, I can't imagine seeing life without you."

"Ross, please don't. It's been over for a long time. "Us" is just too difficult. We have moved on."

"Rachel, I used to believe that, believe me. Please believe me when I say that I am not trying to convince you to be with me. I have grown since I made my fateful mistake(s). I've learned that I should have put you and your interests before my own. I should have made you more important then myself. When we were dating I tried to possess you, to own you. I became jealous every time you talked to another man. Instead I should have encouraged you, even helped you to be everything you could have possibly been. I should have helped you be whatever you wanted to be. You are not a thing to be possessed but a living, breathing person to be nurtured and raised above me."

"Ross, please stop. You have this ability to do things with your words. You need to stop thinking these things and move on."

"Rachel, do you know how unfair you are being to ask me that? I need to move on? That would be like me telling you that you need to fall in love with me all over again! How dare you tell me to move on! I've tried for years to do so and have failed so badly. I have to deal with this in my own way. Do you know what it feels like to love someone so much and for them not to love you in return? "

Ross was getting very emotional and he could see that Rachel was crying a river. He paused and took a long deep breath before continuing. "I found the one my heart loves and that one is you. I have to face the truth. If I am so serious about the truth then I also have to face the fact that you do not feel the same way. You are also my good friend and unlike most ex's we continue to see each other on a daily basis. I do not want to lose you as a friend. I just want for you and me to know the truth."

By this time both Ross and Rachel were crying. He knew he had struck a chord within her but he also realized that he was hurting her. He made a decision to stop the drama and try to heal as many wounds as possible before he left. "Rachel, I think it's time."

Rachel brushed aside her tears and asked "Time for what?"

"I think it's time for you to sign the papers."

Rachel, taken aback replied "What? After all the feelings we admitted to tonight you still think I should sign the divorce papers?"

"I think that it is your decision. I have already signed. If it were not for my confession I believe you would have already signed them. The admission of my feelings for you was not based upon you telling me about Vegas but by a need for me to tell you to the truth. We have spent so much time hiding our feelings, of being afraid of being hurt by them. In a way our failure, MY failure to express them has itself become a lie, a lie that prevented me from seeing the truth. Don't you find it at all funny how our friends talk about us behind our backs when we cannot even broach the subject of "US" face-to-face? The truth can be a very liberating experience."

He could not make the decision for her but at least he could be a friend and help. As slowly and gently as he could he raised his hand, taking hers in his. He then slowly led her back to their original positions on the couch. Sitting next to each other Ross would hand her the knife that would ultimately kill them. As she signed the papers he looked away. Wiping away the tears he thought "It is finished …"

Please review and let me know what you think of this short story. If you would like to read more I can add perhaps one more chapter … let me know.