Chapter Twenty-One

Luckily the paramedics got to Charlotte in time, it was touch and go for a few minutes but eventually she made it through, Rachel and Ross were allowed to take Charlotte home later that day but Rachel refused to let her out of her sight while Ben was in the house. Ross finally had an idea about Ben, Rachel didn't want him in the house and Ross didn't really either, and knew that while Ben was living in the house Rachel would never relax the only way to keep Ben out of trouble and out of Rachel's way was to send him to boarding school, so that is what would happen. Ross would make sure that he got him into one where he could have counseling so he could talk to someone who could hopefully sort him out. Joey had come out in the Porsche to collect them from hospital, as they had gone in the ambulance and by the time they got home from the hospital everyone had heard about what happened to Charlotte and was disgusted with Ben, who, as usual had gone out.

"Is Charlotte okay?" Joey asked calmly but seriously "what happened?"

"Charlotte's fine" Rachel assured him "we've just got to keep an eye on her, Ben on the other hand is in deep trouble"

"What are you going to do?" Alex asked with a lot of sympathy "with Ben I mean"

"I don't know" Rachel answered, tears streaming from her eyes "but somethings got to be done, and soon!"

"he's going to boarding school" Ross announced "I'm going to make some calls and try and get him into one on Monday"

"Thank you, Ross" Rachel gave him a cuddle "I think that's the best thing for every one"

"I just wish I'd have thought about it before," Ross held on tightly to Rachel "and then maybe Charlotte wouldn't have gone through what she did"

"well at least you've thought of it now" Rachel kissed him on the cheek "and no one else will have to be hurt by him"

Ross made some calls and managed flirt his way to getting Ben into a good High School in New York City that Monday. It would mean that Sunday was out for Ross this weekend as he would be taking Ben to school and getting him all ready for his new week, but Rachel didn't mind her husband giving a whole day to his eldest son to get him out of their hair as long as Charlotte and Emma were safe. On that Sunday morning Rachel helped Ross and Ben pack up all of the stuff that Ben would need until he came home at Christmas, all of the things that Ben insisted go with him and all of the stuff that Rachel and Ross thought were necessary filled up the whole of the Porsche,they both commented that that they would need to get a people carrier like Phoebe and Mike had once the new baby was born. Rachel decided to take the train into the city and take the girls shopping. Seeing as Phoebe had asked her if they would all like to meet up. Rachel had reluctantly agreed but she was worried that she wouldn't be able to hold her tongue about Phoebe's obvious night with David the scientist guy, however Rachel needn't have worried about it because once they got there Phoebe didn't beat around the bush, she started talking about it straight away

"I can't believe what I did" Phoebe was obviously freaking out, Rachel could tell by the way she was dancing around and unable to keep still, she looked like she'd caught Ross's case of stvitus dance "I can't believe I had an affair, me?" Luckily Mike and Libby were having some one to one time and Emma had asked to stay with auntie Monica and play with Erica otherwise that would have been the cat out of the bag.

"I was shocked and disgusted" Rachel told her honestly, "I couldn't believe it"

"I know, what am I going to do?" Phoebe sobbed into her coffee mug in Central Perk "I hate myself, I'm so guilty for what I did"

"Have you told Mike yet?" as soon as the words came out of Rachel's mouth she realized what a silly question that was "sorry, its obvious that you haven't"

"no" Phoebe assured her "but I'm going to have to aren't I? It's going to break his heart"

"I'm sure he'll forgive you" Rachel rubbed her friend on the back, Rachel's hand itched like mad after rubbing the woolen cardigan that Phoebe was wearing "Mike seems to be a very forgiving kind of person, and he loves you more than anything in the world"

"I know" Phoebe nodded her head "but if it was the other way round I wouldn't forgive him"

"I bet you would" Rachel knew that she had to find some way of assuring her and trying to make things seem better "I bet you would shout and scream at him and then forgive him, Mike will no doubt do the same"

Phoebe knew Rachel was right, but it didn't stop her feeling guilty and it didn't change anything, she was dreading telling Mike and breaking his heart. After a lot of talking, Rachel and Phoebe decided that Mike had to know, but they also decided that Monica could be forgiven for what she had done to Chandler, but again she would have to tell him at some point.

Ben's new room was huge, the only problem was he was sharing it with three other boys. Ben didn't mind though, he was happy to get out of the house where he was living in with people who he thought hated him

"Thanks for this, dad" Ben sat on his new bed and looked around at the belongings of other boys that lived there and had been for what looked like forever, he had been told their names, his new room mates would be Elliott, Stuart, Harrison and Jacob "this is what I wanted from day one"

"why didn't you tell me?" Ross begged him "why did you have to go to such lengths to get what you wanted?"

"I didn't think you would let me" Ben confessed "I wish I had asked"

"I wish you'd asked too, you could have saved Rachel and Charlotte a lot of suffering" Ross shook his head "I'm so angry at you for what you have done to them both"

"I know dad" Ben started crying "I'm sorry"

"it's unacceptable, Ben, you could have killed Charlotte" Ross was getting very angry with Ben now, "you know what, you don't deserve to be getting all this help moving in"

"dad, please" Ben could see where this was going and didn't like it "don't leave me"

"I'm just going to say goodbye Ben!" Ross told him "you can unpack you're things, I'll see you at Christmas"

With that Ross left, he was heart broken that he had done that, but he had to, Ben needed to know that he wasn't going to get away with what he had done to Charlotte and Rachel, he was lucky that Rachel hadn't wanted to hand him into the police and let them deal with him. Ross managed to make it into the driver's seat of the Porsche and halfway up the road before he had to pull over because he was so upset and emotional. He thought of what could have done differently to make Ben not do this and not have to be sent to boarding school, he couldn't think of anything, both him and Rachel had been accommodating, in fact Rachel was eight and a half months pregnant when she climbed up the ladder and painted Ben's room blue like he had wanted. After about twenty minutes Ross decided that he'd done enough crying and wanted to focus the rest of his weekend with his wife and daughters. He pulled out his Blackberry and typed a text message to Rachel that read 'meet u outsde Cntrl Perk 20min, luv u, Rxx' after no time at all he received a reply that read 'lookin 4wrd 2 it, miss u lotz, luv u 2 R+Cxx'