A/N - Woah. Overwhelmed by the feedback, thanks guys! I really appreciate every review; taking time to write something, good or bad, still means something, so thanks!

This chapter actually does not follow up the Chandler-Monica story, but goes along with the Ross-Rachel side. And, we get to see some familiar characters introduced!

BA-DUM, Chapter 4. (I don't know why I wrote, 'ba-dum').

Carol closed her eyes and groaned in utter frustration. Writing a 'how-to-meet-my-parents' guide for Ross proved more difficult than she thought.

She knew Ross was a wonderful boyfriend and a friendly, smart guy - the perfect boy to bring home to the folks - but her parents were quite picky people and she wasn't sure how accepting they would be over her new boyfriend.

"Hey, Carol," a dark-haired guy nestled close to her on the couch. "What's up?" he grinned as he peered over her shoulder.

"Go away, Joey!" Carol chided, gently shoving him away from her. "I'm working."

"Ah, still working on that piece for the boyfriend, huh?" Joey asked.

Joey Tribbiani was the first guy Carol had met at NYU; she was dragging her luggage into her dorm and he had asked if she needed any help. She complied, only to find him naked in her room moments later - apparently, to Joey, 'help' was considered getting it on with your new classmates.

He was charmingly handsome and had a killer smile, but she had been through her share of men to know that he wasn't the one to stick around. Joey proved to be loyal and affable, though, and she decided that despite their first meeting he was a good guy. He reluctantly accepted her friend-zoning him, but remained friends with her. He still liked to playfully flirt with her, but was completely aware she would never reciprocate and was actually on good terms with Ross.

"Yeah," Carol confirmed.

"Hey, let me know when that doesn't work out," he poked her in the stomach teasingly.

Carol rolled her eyes and elbowed him. "Quit it!"

"C'mon, take a break! You've been sitting here for ages!" Joey cried.

"I'm sorry, this takes effort!"

She was grateful to have such a devoted friend, but she needed space right now.

"Alright, fine, but when you're done I'm taking you to that new Japanese place," Joey said.

Carol sighed and scanned the room.

"There," she pointed to a woman with curly auburn locks cascading along her back, "go hit on her."

"Ooooh, nice one," Joey complimented her find as he shifted his gaze over to the woman immediately. Carol rolled her eyes again. "How do you think she's doin'?"

"Just go!" Carol forcefully pushed him off the couch, eager to get back to work in her own private sanctuary.

/

"Are you done yet?" Joey approached Carol again, who was buried deep within her piles of pages and broken pencils.

"What happened to the pretty girl?" Carol asked, not looking up from her work. "Weren't you busy trying to sleep with her?"

"Apparently, she's a lesbian!" said Joey.

"Really?" Carol looked up to examine the woman again. She looked even more radiant this time around - her long, sweeping hair tumbling all the way down to her hips, long legs, and brilliant green eyes. "Wow."

"I know!" Joey said animatedly, "that's so hot!"

"What's her name?" Carol fixated her gaze on the beautiful woman.

"Ah, Sarah. No, no... ah... Sharon. No, that's not it. Uh..."

Carol realized she had been staring at the girl longer than it had taken Joey to recall her name. She quickly returned to her work, slightly blushing from embarrassment.

Joey continued his rambling.

"Maybe it was Sabrina. Or Sally, I think."

"Forget it, Joey."

Joey took his place next to Carol. "Wow," he sighed in complete awe. "I mean, can you imagine her with-"

Carol clenched her teeth. "Joey," she placed a hand on his shoulder and interrupted him, "if you shut up for five minutes, I will go to lunch with you. On me." The thought of that girl with someone else was a needle to her skin, and she didn't want to hear anymore of Joey's fantasy.

Joey sighed. "Okay."

A few minutes later, Carol was scribbling down the last of her notes as Joey tapped her on the shoulder.

"Just one more minute Joe, I swear, I'm almost done!"

"She's coming over here!" he hissed into her ear.

Carol discreetly glanced upwards to see the gorgeous girl heading their way.

"So?"

"Act cool," Joey tried to advise her, but Carol ignored him.

"Hi," the girl said. "Can I have one of those pillows?"

Joey stared at her, open-mouthed, while Carol reached behind her and plucked a plump orange pillow from the sofa. "Here."

"Thanks," the girl gave a bright smile. "I'm Susan."

Carol stuck her hand out in an amiable greeting.

"Carol."

"What do you usually order here?" Ross toyed with the packaged chopsticks lying next to his fork as his eyes skimmed over the foreign characters on the menu.

"Well, I don't really know," Rachel admitted sheepishly. "Someone usually order for me."

"Oh," Ross nodded, and tried to reread the menu. All the words were in Japanese, with no translation for him to use.

"I do know they serve really great unagi, though!" Rachel advised, tapping her acrylic nails against the wooden surface of the table.

Ross nodded knowingly. "You know, that's not just a eel."

Rachel head cocked like a confused puppy. "What?"

The waiter approached their table before Ross could delve into the double meaning of 'unagi'.

"What would you like to drink?" the waiter asked, deliberately impassive.

"Two waters?" Rachel replied.

She turned to Ross. "Do you want anything else?"

"Nah, I'm good with water," he shrugged.

"Okay, two waters it is," Rachel smiled up cheerfully at the waiter, whose name tag read, 'Tate.'

"Alrightie," he deadpanned, and slowly strolled away.

"I'm glad I ran into you!" Rachel leaned in to talk to Ross. "It's been a long time. How's your girlfriend?"

She had remembered the numerous mentions of Ross's infamous girlfriend during their last Thanksgiving meet-up.

"Great, I'm going to meet her parents this weekend," Ross bragged. "We've been together for quite a while."

"Oh, how exciting!" Rachel clapped her hands together gleefully and squealed. "I wish I could have one of those," she sighed longingly.

"One of what?" Ross's brow furrowed and he leaned in closer.

"You know, just those old-fashioned relationships. You meet in college, you fall in love, you date for years on end, to the point where you're practically married. That's true love," Rachel continued on dreamily, unaware that the waiter had returned.

"Can I take your order, miss?" he asked.

"Oh," Rachel realized she hadn't been paying attention, "you know, we're not ready yet!" she made an apologetic face. "Give us a few more minutes!"

"Okay. I'll be waiting to jump off my seat when you decide," Tate said expressionlessly.

"Thank you," Rachel smiled politely at the waiter - indifferent to his impassive service - then shooed him off.

Ross looked over at Rachel, who was now reading the menu.

"Why don't we just ask that guy what he recommends?" Rachel asked.

"Sure," Ross agreed.

"Ah, excuse me!" Rachel called out, and the waiter slowly approached the table.

"Yes?"

As Rachel listed off a few terms Ross couldn't understand, fidgeted with the extra silverware. He was used to people classifying him and Carol as 'one of those couples.' The couple that falls in love and stays in love and gets married and spends the rest of their life together. Ross always knew he was that type of guy as well - he wanted to find a girl and spend the rest of his life with her. Chandler often made fun of him for it, but that's who he was.

He had usually imagined his life together with Rachel; during his high school career at least. A life in Scarsdale, with a few kids. Now that he had fallen in love with Carol, his future fantasy had shifted slightly, but that projected image of a family together was still set in his mind.

Six months was definitely not serious enough that they needed to start picking out baby names, but Ross knew that he and Carol were pretty much the only ones in their group of friends who were in a committed relationship and not living off one-night stands.

He was glad to know that Rachel was another romantic - that she believed in true love too, and that she adored those kinds of relationships.

"Uh," Rachel glanced at Ross, who was still distracted and lost in his thoughts, as Tate finished detailing a few special delicacies. "We'll just take them all!" she shrugged.

Tate rolled his eyes. "Sure," he said indifferently, and walked away.

Ross smirked at Rachel. "Do you know what you're doing?"

"Ah, whatever!" she waved a careless hand and laughed, "we can take leftovers."

He chuckled; still stuck in his thoughts, though, he decided to divert the topic.

"So, how's... Barry?" he deliberately used the wrong name.

"He's great!" Rachel said. "He's studying to be an orthopedist, or something," she expanded.

"Oh, that's cool," Ross complimented, though that sounded kind of weird. Rachel was never into the nerdy type (hence, why she never showed any interest in him), so why start now?

"My dad set us up," she explained. "He's, like, an old family friend, or something."

Ross nodded in understanding - he knew how his mother frequently tried to set up Monica with boys she knew.

"Yeah, I hope he's the guy for me," Rachel smiled, and her hands made her way over to Ross's across the table.

"Just like you and Carol."

"I'm telling you, the full gallon!" Joey insisted.

"No way, Joey, that's physically impossible," Carol tried to explain to him. There was no way someone could drink a whole gallon of milk in ten seconds, without dumping half of it on himself.

"I agree," Susan added her two cents.

Instead of just borrowing the pillow and leaving, like she had planned on doing, Susan had spent the past hour talking to Carol and Joey. Well, actually, she talked with Carol, Joey just gazed and her and tried not to drool, off the side.

They had really hit it off, the two of them. Carol, she discovered right off the bat, was a good-natured girl with a gregarious personality. Susan normally went for brunettes, but truly admired Carol's long blonde hair, as well as her glowing brown eyes and the cute way she bit her lip.

Finally, Joey invited her to lunch at his favorite Japanese place with them, proclaiming he was starving because he hadn't eaten in two hours.

Carol smiled graciously at her new friend, who returned with an equally convivial grin. "Thank you!"

She turned to Joey. "See? A voice of reason!"

"Whatever," Joey said grumpily. "I"ll prove it to you after lunch," he promised, pushing the door open.

"Welcome, how many?" a greeter asked them at the door.

"You can't count?" Joey asked bluntly. He didn't care how he came off at the moment, he just wanted to eat.

Carol bit her lip, and stared at the ground shamefaced. She knew Joey became a bit of a prick when he was hungry.

"Excuse me?" the greeter asked, an icy glare cast upon Joey.

"Three, please," Susan intervened.

The greeter broke her glare at an unabashed Joey, and led them to a clean, open table.

Joey observed the tables all around him, spying for a pretty, single girl who he maybe could use his infamous, classic New York pick-up line, "How you doin'?" on.

His eyes settled on a girl with shoulder length hair and chocolate eyes; wait, no, she probably wasn't single, she was holding hands with... wasn't that Ross?

"Is that Ross?" Joey wondered aloud, not meaning for Carol to hear.

Carol turned her head to stare at the pair. In an instant, her eyes flashed angrily.

"Who is that?" she demanded quietly to Joey, who shrugged. She had just confronted Chandler a week ago, and he had told her there was nothing to worry about. Maybe that was true, but she was going to find out herself.

"I don't know, but she is hot!" he exclaimed.

Carol didn't even have time to spare him a glare. She strolled over to the table, and the couple looked up, surprised.

"Hey, Carol!" Ross stood up to kiss his girlfriend, who backed away, displeased.

Carol didn't want to lose her cool, especially not in public, in front of Susan, Joey, and a bunch of other strangers, but she was a little pissed. She had spent half of the day preparing for Ross's meeting with her parents, and he was having lunch with another girl? She didn't want to immediately jump to cheating, but she had never seen this girl before and Ross was holding hands with her.

She took a few deep breaths, and tried to keep from raising her voice.

"Who is this?" she asked coolly. Rachel brushed a strand of cinnamon hair out of her eyes as she stared up at the unfriendly blonde and smiled timidly.

Ross frowned at the unfamiliar tone. He wasn't doing anything wrong, he reasoned. He wasn't cheating, this was catching up with an old friend!

"Oh," Ross was glad to introduce the pair and get the air cleared up, "Carol, this is Rachel Green. Rachel, this is my girlfriend, Carol Willick."

And then, Carol lost it.

A/N - poor Rach. What'd you think of Joey? Of Susan?