Joey met up with the rest of them later in the morning. He had a big grin on his face that suggested he had a pretty good night last night.
"So….how are you?" Chandler asked as Joey just kept grinning like a fool.
"...London, baby!" Joey said.
This caused the group to exchange grinning looks and roll eyes. That was their Joey, alright.
They had arrived to the hospital shortly after. Inside Ross's room, Emily had beaten them there (As expected of course). Her and Ross seemed to be in a deep conversation.
Despite her aching feelings towards this, Rachel kept her cool around them. Her time would come soon enough.
When Ross's eyes turned and saw his friends standing at the door, he invited them inside.
"You're looking better today, Ross" Chandler said.
"Yeah, I guess so. I'm lucky I got off as well as I did though. I actually feel more bad about the man who accidentally hit me" Ross said.
"He was very nice. He just left a half hour ago. He wished us luck and actually got us a wedding card" Emily said, passing a card that was on Ross's beside to Monica.
"Aw, how sweet of him" Monica said, smiling as she read the card. She nudged Rachel to read it as well.
"Yeah….very nice" Rachel said, reluctantly agreeing. Monica took this to be slow but steady progress. At least she wasn't being hostile like she was last night.
"So it looks like you guys forgot about that whole name-switch thing, huh?" Joey asked.
Ross rolled his eyes and sighed. "Yeah, Joey. We did"
Emily nodded. "Absolutely. I'm just glad I have the most wonderful and loving husband by my side now. I can't wait until we go back home so I can take care of him"
Her and Ross nuzzled into each other's faces and gave each other small Eskimo kisses.
Rachel breathed slowly in and out but did nothing in reaction to this (Though it was getting harder by the minute).
Joey was feeling the opposite of Rachel on this and playfully suggested that they get a room.
Ross and Emily parted and both looked to the said man.
"You know, Joey, speaking of 'getting rooms', you and Felicity seemed to be having a good time last night" Emily said with a playful grin.
Joey shrugged with a small grin of his own. "What can I say? Me and the ladies get along very well"
"...right before you move on and never call them back" Chandler said.
Joey turned and gave a little glare to Chandler. "Hey! Come on, dude. You have to say this now?"
"Don't feel bad, Joey. Felicity doesn't have the best relationships either. She'll fall for any good looking man at the drop of a hat and then moves on the next one she sees" Emily explained.
Joey then gave a small frown. "Huh…..you know now that you say that, I feel so used now"
This caused the entire room to chuckle. After the laugh died down, they decided to move on to another topic.
"I got off the phone with Phoebe this morning" Ross decided to say to the group. This caused Rachel to widen her eyes and shoot her head up on this revelation, worried as hell that she might have told Ross why she came.
"How is she?" Monica asked. She was very worried about her especially since Rachel left her all alone.
"She's doing alright. The babies are doing very well. Frank Jr. and Alice are going to have 3 little munchkins running about soon enough" Ross said. Rachel gave a silent sigh of relief.
"You know, that reminds me, Rach. Why'd you leave her all alone like that?" Chandler asked.
Rachel looked to Chandler and started searching for a good answer for that.
"Oh….well….I mean I think she'd be alright for a few days" Rachel said.
"I don't know. Maybe we should call Gunther or someone to watch after her. I understand you wanted to be here but Phoebe's in her late stage. She could go into Labor any day now" Chandler said.
Rachel sat down in a chair in a sort of defensive position, her face dropping down.
"Leave her alone, Chandler. She just wanted to come to the wedding. She didn't do anything wrong. I'm actually really touched she wanted to be here as much as she did" Ross said.
Despite being through emotional hell throughout the past few days, she had to smile at this.
"It's my pleasure….I'm happy for you, Ross" Rachel said. She didn't mean it, obviously. She wasn't happy at all. The man she was meant to be with was completely out of reach from her and he didn't realize he was still in love with her.
"So what are your guys' plans for the rest of the day? I know you don't want to stay here with boring old me the whole time" Ross said.
"We don't mind, Ross. We're your friends. Anyways, me and Rach are going around sightseeing today. She didn't get the chance the time she's been here" Monica said.
"I've got plans for tonight" Chandler said with a big grin on his face.
"Hey, I know that grin. Someone got a hot date tonight?" Ross asked with a suggestive smile.
"Eh, sort of" Chandler said, shrugging but still grinning. He didn't want Ross finding out or anyone else finding out for that matter. He didn't exactly know why but he just didn't want them to know. Made the potential relationship exciting.
"Well then, have a nice night. I'm happy for you. You haven't been with someone since Kathy" Ross said.
"Thanks, pal. Appreciate it" Chandler said.
"Who is it with, Chandler?" Joey asked, getting interested. As Chandler's best friend, he was curious and was wondering why he hadn't been informed about this already.
"Hm?...Oh….just a girl I talked with at the rehearsal the other night" Chandler said, telling a half-truth.
"What's her name?" Joey asked.
"Uh…..Well…" Chandler said, stammering. The whole room was looking at him oddly.
"Are you ok, Chandler?" Ross asked.
"Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm good" Chandler said, nodding.
"You do remember her name, right?" Rachel asked.
"Yeah. Of course I do. It's….uh…" Chandler said.
"Veronica. That's her name" Monica said, cutting in. For some odd reason, she didn't want anyone else finding out either. She still wasn't sure if she could even consider her and Chandler officially together.
The room turned their heads towards the 28 year old chef.
"Veronica? Huh, that's odd. I didn't talk to anyone named Veronica at the wedding. Is she a friend of the family?" Ross asked Emily.
"Not that I know of. Maybe she's one of my mum's friend's daughter or something" Emily said, confused as well.
"Yeah...me and Veronica are going out tonight and going to have a good time tonight" Chandler said, vigorously and awkwardly nodding.
Everyone turned back to Chandler. Seconds of staring later, there were shrugs all around the room. They decided that getting into another one of Chandler's misadventures wasn't worth it.
As they were moving on to a new topic of conversation, a nurse came into the room.
"Mr. Geller? I'm sorry to interrupt but there's someone to see you. He says he's a friend of the family. Should I let him through?" The nurse asked.
Ross raised an eyebrow. A friend of the family? Who could that be? As far as he knew, his parents came by themselves with no guest.
"Uh…...yeah. I guess so. That sounds fine" Ross said.
The nurse nodded and left the room. Looks of confusion were passed from one person to another.
Moments later, a man the group knew quite well came into the room. Particularly, Monica.
"Hey, guys. It's good to see all of you again" The man said.
After a few moments of silence, Monica (Who was in a state of shock and bewilderment) spoke up.
"...Richard?" She asked softly.