Phike: Familiar Faces Trilogy 2 Chapter 21, a friends fanfic

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 21 – Phoebe

"Kids, can one of you get the doorbell?" I yelled, from the kitchen where I was making some of the finishes touches to the food that I was making for lunch, which was a BBQ.

I heard the patter of footsteps down the hallway and felt confident whoever was at the door wouldn't be kept waiting for much longer.

From the noise at the door that followed, I couldn't quite tell whether Ross and Rachel had arrived or whether it was Monica and Chandler. That changed however, when the sound of multiple footsteps got louder and Chris burst through the kitchen door, closely followed by Rachel, Ross and their three kids.

"Hi, Pheebs," Rachel said, as I dropped the salad tongs that I had been using down onto the chopping and walked over to join her and the others.

"How are you doing?" I asked Rachel whilst hugging her gently, conscious to keep the concern I was feeling towards her as far away from being in my tone as possible, as she didn't need to be worrying about me as well as everything else that was already going on.

"Not bad," she answered, though her tone seemed a little wearier and tired than usual. I guess that was to be expected, although it didn't help the already uneasy feeling I had towards her situation.

"That's good," I said, feeling satisfied about how convincingly happy I sounded, despite knowing that of course I was far from that. I hoped it would ease off a little as we got further into the day, because I did desperately want to enjoy this get together, particularly as it may end up being one of our last for quite a while.

After hugging Rachel, I proceeded to do the same to Ross and all their kids. Afterwards, I went back over to the stove and continued arranging and preparing the salad and other food for later.

Meanwhile, I could see that Ross and Rachel had made themselves comfortable on the couch and Chris was entertaining Ben and Lara. I hadn't noticed where Emma had gone, but presumably Ross and Rachel knew, and so I didn't think anything more of it.

Not too long after, Mike walked into the kitchen with Mon, Chandler and the twins in tow. Erica rushed over to hug Lara, as the door opened once again and Addie joined us. She looked a little hesitant at first, perhaps a little overwhelmed by the sudden amount of people in the room, before Erica gestured over to her to join her and Lara, and she was pulled into a group hug between the three of them.

Chris left the room with Ben and Jack in tow, presumably to go upstairs or something, leaving the other adults chatting and the girls to do their own thing.

I wrapped the salad bowl in cling film and then wedged it into a space within the fridge, before joining the others, as I had done all the food prep that was needed for the BBQ at the present moment.

"I should probably go get the BBQ going," I heard Mike say as I joined them.

"I'll help," Chandler offered. Mike accepted the offer, and Ross joined them, presumably more for the chance to be able to talk to them as opposed to actually wanting to help cook.

"That was a brave move from Mike," Mon said, sounding a little surprised. It took me a moment to realise that she was probably saying that because she was the one who always insisted on cooking – with good reason – but was understandably a little questioning toward Chandler's cooking abilities.

"I'm sure he's better than you might think," I said, attempting to fight Chandler's corner a little.

"Maybe so," Mon shrugged, not quite agreeing with me but not quite disagreeing either.

"I feel ya, Mon," Rachel added, clearly referring to Ross. "I feel ya."

Mon snorts with laughter in response to Rachel's comment.

"Is it okay if we go upstairs for a while?" Erica asked me.

I nodded that it was fine, and Erica, Addie and Lara proceeded to leave the room and walk upstairs. Since now a space on the couch had freed up, I made myself comfortable, feeling glad for the time I would get before Mike would instruct me on what needed to be done next for the BBQ.

"How have things been for the both of you?" I asked, realising afterwards that there was no real point in asking apart from for the purpose of making small talk, which would be futile either way since I doubt they wanted to have to talk about the issues going on in their life right now.

There was an uncomfortable silence that followed, almost definitely because of my question.

"Have either of you heard from Joey recently?" Rachel asked, breaking the silence much to my relief.

"Not really, no," I replied. "Why do you ask?"

"He spoke to Ross whilst I was in hospital and said that he really missed the five of us, and said that there was apparently some scenes coming up for his film that need to be shot in New York, and that he wanted to see us then," Rachel explained.

"If he or Gina – I think that's his agent now as well as obviously being his sister – need somewhere to stay whilst they're here, we're always welcome to having them," I said.

"I'll make sure to tell Ross to tell Joey," Rachel said, sounding as happy as we all felt at the possibility of seeing him again. I think we could all agree that it had definitely been far too long since we'd last seen each other.