He put his arm down and saw a rough looking woman stood at the door.

"Can I help you?" she said bluntly.

"Uh yeah does Daniel live here?" he asked checking that he got the number of the door correct.

"Yeah huh."

"Well can I speak to him please?"

"Yeah two secs" she said slamming the door making Joey jump.

He had to admit he was feeling a little nervous, he hadn't planned what he was going to say or do all he knew is that this guy was going to pay for hurting Phoebe.

The door opened again and large man stepped forward. Joey had no idea what Phoebe saw in him, apart from being tall and muscular this man had nothing going for him.

"You asked to see me? Who are you?" Daniel said.

"I'm Joey and yeah I need to talk to you about something" Joey replied swallowing hard.

Daniel shut the door behind him and stood with his arms crossed "alright then."

"Alright I wanna make this quick. I'm here to tell you that if you ever touch Phoebe again, it'll be the last thing you'll ever do" Joey said his jaw locking again at the thought.

"Oh great you're that Joey!" he said laughing darkly.

"What?" Joey said frustrated and confused.

"Yeah Phoebe told me about you, a lot actually, was starting to really piss me off, I should of known you were the first person she would run to."

"Yeah she ran to me because she was scared and hurt no thanks to you, I'm serious you stay the fuck away from her."

"Oh what and she didn't hurt me, I thought things were really going somewhere, turns out she was just using me."

"Phoebe would never do that, she too nice. Besides if she"hurt" you so bad then who's the girl in there with you?"

"My girlfriend."

Joey could feel himself really getting worked up now. "Oh yeah she hurt you real bad, only took you less then a day to get over, you pathetic piece of shit!"

Daniel took a step towards him "I'm the pathetic piece of shit, take a look at Phoebe, she's the pathetic one, you two deserve each other, I don't know why I stayed with her, she deserved everything she got and I wish I hit her harder."

That was it for Joey, he swung at Daniel hitting him straight in the jaw that wasn't enough to knock him down though he turned and grabbed Joey by the hair and punched him in the mouth and then again in the nose. Joey put his hand over his face and saw the blood, felt light headed but carried on punching Daniel in the stomach winding him and then took his chance of smacking him square in the face. Daniel fell to the floor unconscious as the rough woman emerged again screaming as she saw Daniel kneeling to the floor and holding up his head. She was too busy with him to notice that Joey had left.

It took him a while to get a taxi and when he did he made his way to Central Perk to clean up just in case anyone was home. He walked in while examining his sore knuckles not noticing the person sat on the couch. He looked up and saw Phoebe and tried to casually walk back out before she saw him but it didn't work.

"Joey?" Phoebe asked uncertainly.

"Hey Pheeb what are you doing here?" he said his back still turned.

"I finished my mid-day client job. Why is your back turned?"

"I was just leaving."

"But you just got here. Joey..."

Joey knew he was going have to turn around to face her so he took a deep breath and slowly turned back around.

"Hi Pheebs."

"Jesus Joey your face!" she exclaimed standing up. "What the hell happened?"

Joey desperately tried to think of a lie but all he could come up with was that he fell down.

"Bullshit!" said Phoebe as she lead him out of Central Perk and up to his apartment.

"So seriously what happened?" Phoebe asked as she put the tap on and began looking for a cloth.

"Oh uh nothing, just a random nosebleed" Joey said sitting down.

"And a random split lip?" Phoebe said suspiciously turning off the tap and walking over to him. "Joey...you didn't...?"

Joey looked up at her guiltily and smiled like a small child.

"Joey!"

"Oh I'm sorry I couldn't help it, I wasn't planning on knocking him out-"

"You knocked him out!"

"Yeah that too but he started it, he got me all angry and so I hit him and then he nearly broke my nose, bloody asshole, and so I knocked him out."

"Joey, see I knew you'd get hurt if you went to see him, now look at you!"

"I'm sorry Phoebe I really am but I was never going to let him hurt you like that" he said indicating to her cheek.

"Yeah but look how hurt you are!"

"It was worth it."

Phoebe put her head in her hands "He was really not worth it Joey."

"Yeah but you are..."

Phoebe lifted her head and looked deep into his eyes feeling the urge to kiss him. She shook it off and smiled slightly before walking back to the sink and retrieving the cloth.

"Come over here then" Phoebe said.

"Why?" Joey frowned getting up.

"I need to clean up your face, if I caused it I should at least clean up the mess."

"Phoebe" Joey said sternly "you caused nothing, it was all the prick Daniel okay?"

She nodded not convinced. She gently cleaned the blood from under his nose, making sure the bleeding had stopped. She turned back to the sink washing the cloth through and ringing it out. She turned back to continue but found herself a lot closer then before.

"Hi there" he said seductively laughing.

"Sorry" she said almost breathless as she stepped back.

She dabbed his lips lightly with the cloth and found herself unable to look away they were so perfectly shaped. She thought about the times she had kissed him before how amazing they had been, she could never do anything about it though, they were friends, he would never want more.

She placed the cloth down and bit her lip slightly looking worried.

"What?"Joey asked.

"Does it hurt?"

"What my lips?Nah, I've had much worse."

"Oh good..."she said trailing off as she felt the urge to kiss him again, her body inches from his

"I wish there was something I could do, as like a thank you."

"Well" he said closing in the inches. He looked her in the eyes and brushed the hair off her face. He didn't know what he was doing but he knew this idea was better then telling her how he felt. He slowly leant down and kissed her, half expecting her to pull away. He was pleased when she didn't instead she slowly wrapped her arms around his neck as she kissed him back. He ran his hands through her hair and she kissed him more passionately not wanting it to end. Luckily Joey had no intention of ending it there. He continued to kiss her as he escorted her to his bedroom where she could begin thanking him in there...