Rachel knocked, waited patiently in the hallway until she heard the lock click and the bolt drawn back.

'Oh, hey!' Phoebe beamed at her.

'Hi. I wanted to bring you this.' She held out the potted plant. 'It's a thank-you for helping Chandler and me out the other day.'

The blonde's eyes widened. 'Oh!' She took the plant carefully, running one hand lightly over the bright green foliage. 'Hello... Hello, and you are so welcome ... Hugh.'

Rachel's eyebrows went up. 'Hugh?'

'Uh-huh. Definitely,' she nodded, 'definitely Hugh. Ooh, he can live next to Glenda!'

'Great.'

'Do you want to come in?'

'That would be nice.'

She followed Phoebe into the apartment, closed the door behind them, seated herself on the sofa and watched as Phoebe fussed over Hugh, crooning to him faintly. In anyone else she would attribute it to hormones, but Phoebe had always been that way. Nurturing, loving - she would make a wonderful mother. The thought brought a pang of sadness. After all the months of caring for the children growing inside her she would be left with nothing when it was over. And she watched as Phoebe made her way across to the sofa, with that slightly rolling gait she had acquired lately, and she looked so happy. Phoebe was the happiest person Rachel knew, something that always struck her as astonishing when she thought about it, after everything that Phoebe had gone through; but maybe she had just decided not to give herself any choice about it.

Phoebe smiled at her. 'So, how are you?'

'I'm great.'

Phoebe's eyes wandered over her and she nodded slightly, satisfied. 'Yeah, you look it. You guys are getting pretty good at this whole sneaking around thing.'

Rachel blew out a breath, ran her hand through her hair. 'Still can't quite get used to that. And I'm sorry that you're, y'know, involved in all of this.'

'Eh.' Phoebe shrugged. 'I like being the only one who knows. Besides, you guys are really cute when you keep looking at each other when no-one else is looking at you.'

'Oh, we do not- Yeah, we do that.' Rachel sat back against the cushions. 'It's hard, you know?'

'Oh, yes.' Phoebe nodded wisely; off Rachel's look she waved a hand. 'Yeah, it's a really long story.'

They usually were, Rachel thought. 'These last weeks have been amazing but sometimes I can't help thinking that my life would be a lot easier if he were still just my sarcastic friend Chandler instead of Chandler...' she sighed the name.

Phoebe looked at her sympathetically. 'But it's worth it, right?'

She paused. 'Yeah. It is so worth it.'

ooOoo

'Hey, Chandler.'

'Uh...' Chandler gave up the hunt for the creamer at the coffee station and looked at the face grinning at him, trying to place it. 'Uh... Patrick! Hey, Patrick.'

And that enthusiasm doesn't make you sound gay at all, he reflected.

Patrick leaned easily against the counter, giving Chandler a flash of his perfect white teeth. 'Hey, are you still friends with Rachel?'

'Last I checked.'

'Huh. You know if she's seeing anyone?'

The loathing that speared through him, white-hot, shocked him. He envisioned emptying Patrick's head of its collection of porcelain teeth. 'Why?'

Patrick shrugged, nonchalant. 'Well, we had a pretty great date and she's,' he offered up a faint smirk, a man-of-the-world smile, 'she's a fun girl.'

Chandler kept his own teeth tight together, smiled thinly.

'So I thought that maybe I'd give her a call, see if she wanted to go out again sometime.'

The coffee-pot and its scalding hot contents were replaced, with great care, on the plate. 'Uh-huh. I thought you dumped her because she wanted something serious.'

Patrick's hands spread. 'Hey, maybe I want that, too.' Another faint smirk accompanied it. The one that said, what she doesn't know won't hurt her.

'Yes.'

'What?'

'Yes, she is seeing someone.'

'Oh.' The smile faded for a moment, then returned for an encore. 'Maybe I should ring her anyway.'

'She's mine.'

'Huh?'

'She's my friend,' Chandler stated, while the possessive male within who got the chance to come out so rarely snarled through his head. 'She's seeing someone; it's serious. And no-one messes her around. Okay?'

The other man stared at him for a moment, mouth open comically, eyebrows raised. 'Sure. Look, I didn't mean anything by it-'

'Good.' He clapped Patrick heartily on his stupidly muscled arm and saw him buckle slightly. 'Well, see ya round.'

He took his still-black coffee, walked back to his office and his inner possessive male roared.

ooOoo

After a weekend of indecisiveness, the New York weather made up its mind, shook off its final mantle of cold and on Monday morning they were met with hazy warmth.

Walking down the street to the coffee house with Monica, only half-listening to her friend's chatter, Rachel felt blissful in her contentment. Perfect day- Well, she did still have to go to work but apart from that it was a perfect day and she had the prospect of lunch with her perfect boyfriend. Who said it wasn't easy being Green?

They reached Central Perk and Rachel tuned Monica back in.

'-like someone's got their hands full.'

'Huh?'

Monica rolled her eyes, stared pointedly through the café's window. 'Chandler.'

Rachel followed the gaze. And stared.

'I-' She cleared her throat. 'You know what, Mon, I remembered something I have to do.'

The brunette frowned. 'Are you okay?'

'Yeah, yeah, sure, I'm fine. I'm great. I just, uh, I just have to-have to go.'

ooOoo

Chandler weaved his way through the lunchtime traffic, slid into the booth opposite Rachel. 'Hey, sorry I'm late.'

She made a non-committal noise, studied her menu.

'Rough day at work?'

Her shoulders rose, held for a moment, fell.

'Okay...'

Chandler watched her carefully; she didn't raise her head. He opened his menu; after a moment she set to work on her chopsticks, breaking them apart and sliding the shafts against each other so hard he half-expected to see sparks. Their waiter popped up beside the table, beaming down at them.

'Are you ready to order?'

Rachel dropped the chopsticks. 'Whatever he's having, he'll take an order of cheap blonde on the side.'

His menu was snapped shut; Chandler looked up at the waiter's bemused face. 'We're going to need a few minutes.'

'Sure.' The young man backed away, turned hastily and melted into the crowd.

Chandler's hands spread, palms up. 'What the hell?'

Rachel tossed the hair away from her shoulders, leant across the table forcefully and Chandler instinctively recoiled. 'I saw you this morning,' she hissed.

'What?'

'Never mind what, I'll give you what. Do you know what?'

'What?'

'Do you know what?'

'What?'

'Do you-'

'Oh my God, Rachel!'

'I saw you in Central Perk with that-that-that blonde.'

She sat back, triumphant, her blue eyes blazing and hard.

'You saw me with a blonde,' he said slowly.

'Oh, yes, yeah, uh-huh. So don't even think about giving me any runaround, buddy. Y'know, I expect this sort of thing from Joey; God, I even expect it from Ross - but you? I honestly thought you were better than this. Even this morning I was thinking how I've got this perfect boyfriend and-'

He grinned despite himself. 'You think I'm perfect?'

Her face twitched. 'Not anymore! You didn't even take her somewhere you wouldn't be seen. Do-do' -she fanned her hand in front of her face, blinking rapidly- 'do you really have so little respect for me?'

Chandler linked his hands together on the table, leant forward a little. He kept his eyes on her face and his voice low and steady. 'Rach, that blonde girl is called Donna-'

'Donna,' a snort.

'-and she's Joey's date from two night's ago.'

'She- What?'

He fought down the impulse to laugh. 'She and Joey had a date and it followed the usual pattern of Joey dates.'

Rachel was silent for a moment. 'You mean he slept with her.'

'Uh-huh.'

'And then didn't call her.'

'Two-for-two. She turned up this morning and she was pretty upset.'

He saw her shoulders stiffen again. 'So, why were you talking to her in the middle of Central Perk?'

'Because I figured she'd get even more upset if she met Joey's date from last night.'

'Oh. Oh...'

'Yeah.'

'So...'

'So, I took her down to get some coffee and she cried all over me for half-an-hour. I was beyond glad when Monica showed up.' He paused. 'She cries really loudly.'

Rachel frowned. 'Monica?'

'Donna,' he said patiently. 'And that's not the only thing she does loudly.'

Distaste flickered across her face.

'Anyhow, that was it.'

'That-' Rachel sucked in a breath. 'That's actually really sweet.'

Chandler shrugged awkwardly. 'That's what Joey's dates usually tell me, too. I make them pancakes in the morning,' he explained. 'Joey does the sex part, then I do the other stuff. Like talking to them.'

He saw the lines of her face soften, settle, the hardness in her eyes rewrite itself into something more familiar. 'Okay,' she said, 'I'm back to thinking you're pretty great. I'm sorry.'

'It's okay. It's good; it's great. Actually, this is the best day ever.'

She stared at him. 'How is this a good day?'

He smiled. 'Because you were jealous. Rachel Karen Green, ladies and germs, was jealous of me.'

'I was not-' She broke off, twirled her hair around her fingers, resumed in a careless tone, 'I was not jealous.'

'Oh, yes you were.'

'No, I wasn't.'

'You were! Admit it. You were jealous because I had my arm around some blonde. You were jealous of me. You were jealous of me.'

'I- You- Oh, shut up.'

'Great comeback.'

'Are you done smirking?'

'Not quite, I'm doing my happy dance on the inside. Seriously, Rach, how could you think that I would cheat on you?'

She went back to fiddling with her chopsticks. 'I don't know. It's just- I don't know. I really am sorry.'

'It's okay. It's better than okay.'

Her eyes flashed a warning. 'Don't start that again.'

'Wasn't gonna.' He grabbed hold of her hand, pulled her up out of her seat, dragged her between the tables towards the back of the restaurant and a quiet corridor.

'What are you-'

He pulled open a door, glanced inside, bundled both of them into it, closed the door behind them, pressed her up against it.

'We-' She was gasping, eyes wide and darkened. 'We-we can't ... not here.'

'Can't we?'

The air between them was thickened with the brain-fogging heat-haze of desire. Her faint protests died when she twined herself around him, her neck arching under his mouth. He revelled in her. Gloried in the feeling of silken skin stretched over taut muscle, of her hair against his face, of her breath ragged, of the sweet taste of her. She was his. No-one else could have her and there was no-one else he wanted. He abandoned words - his usual defences - and made her feel it, made her say it.

She was his, and he was hers.

Afterwards, back out in the corridor, her hand in his, they met their waiter again; he stopped, startled, stared at them with the same bemused expression.

'We're going to need that sushi to go,' Chandler told him brightly and heard Rachel giggling behind him.