Phike: Familiar Faces Trilogy 2 Chapter 30, 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 and mental health issues 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 30 – Mike

"It's all right, Pheebs, I'll go and you stay here and look after the kids and Mon," I said to Phoebe, looking her in the eyes across the bed to make sure she knew that I meant it.

Phoebe looked as if she wanted to say something, then faltered and then decided to just say it anyway. "I'll just feel so terrible because Rachel has been my friend for so long, and if I send you to go and see how she's doing, I just feel like it would send the message that I didn't care enough to come myself so I just sent you," she said, looking as if even just saying how she felt about it was immensely difficult.

"No," I said firmly. "I'm going and you are staying here."

She didn't try and contest it anymore, although from the fact that we ended up getting ready for the day to go downstairs silently, I got the feeling she still wasn't entirely happy with me or the decision. To be honest, in the given situation, I didn't blame her for feeling that way.

When we both went down to the kitchen, I told Phoebe I would sort breakfast and that she could go and check on the kids and our guest. I ended up making a full rack of toast and cups of orange juice for the kids and then a pot of tea for myself and Phoebe if she wanted some, but I was aware she might prefer to have coffee.

Not long after I had sat down at the table with my teapot and cup, the door opened and the kids walked in, looking like various different stages between being undressed and dressed for the day. Nevertheless, I decided since the lack of full day clothing on neither kid seemed to be particularly inappropriate, that it wasn't necessary to comment on it this morning.

"Morning, Dad," Chris said, as he pulled out a chair from under the table with a sharp screech as the legs of the chair scraped the floor.

"Morning," I said. "Can I interest you in a slice of toast on this fine morning?" I said, reaching across the table to the toast rack to move a few slices to his plate, as I heard him laugh at how posh I sounded asking him if he wanted toast in that manner. After all, I aim to please.

I push the plate towards Chris, who promptly started buttering it and then applying a further layer of marmalade, and then plated up Addie some toast, who proceeded to butter the slices and then apply chocolate spread, as she had a strong dislike for marmalade and claimed that anyone who ate it was devil spawn. Whether this comment was more of a pointed jab at her brother or at marmalade lovers in general, I would only be able to speculate.

Around thirty or thirty-five minutes later, Monica and Phoebe joined us downstairs and we all ended up sitting together until I caught a look at the kitchen clock from the opposite side of the room and knew that I had to get the kids back upstairs to continue getting ready for school otherwise they would definitely be late, and neither Phoebe nor I needed that extra level of stress given everything else going on in our lives.

"Come on upstairs, you rascals," I called to the twins, as they stood up from the table, ready to follow me upstairs. "Pheebs, I'm just going to take these two upstairs to get ready and then I'll do the school run on my way to visiting Rachel at the hospital," I said to Phoebe before leaving the room with the children.

Once I was satisfied that both twins were in their room and were actually going to get on with getting ready instead of starting to play around the minute I left the room, I decided I was going to go back downstairs as I remembered that I had promised Monica and Phoebe that I would do once I was satisfied that the kids had settled.

They both looked happy when I opened the door to the kitchen and walked over to sit at one of the empty seats at the table. "I think that's getting the kids ready for school done and dusted for the time being," I said to Monica and Phoebe, heaving a sigh of relief as it was unusual for the twins to have succumbed to the task of getting ready for school so easily.

"Honestly, babe, if it wasn't for you, I don't know how the fuck this family would survive as well as we do," Phoebe said to me, sounding as if she was almost experiencing some kind of second-hand tiredness over looking after the kids, a feeling that the both of us knew far too well. Monica probably could relate, just in her case, it was more likely to be when they were much younger.

I stood up from my seat of the table firstly with the intent of offering a drink to the others as I made one for myself, and secondly to kiss Phoebe on the cheek gently as I passed on my way over to the countertop where we kept the kettle.

"Can I interest either of you lovely ladies in a cup of tea or coffee?" I asked, getting three cups out of the cupboard whilst I waited for them to answer.

"Could I have a cappuccino?" Monica asked, as I sent a nod in her direction.

"Same for me, please babe," Phoebe said, starting to get up from her seat.

Me thinking that there was going to be a chance that she was going to offer to help me with it, I said, "Pheebs, I've got it all under control here, you just sit and relax." She gave me a look that was a little confused, as I had clearly slightly misjudged her intentions, but she sat down as I'd said so clearly she wasn't really unhappy by it.

When I'd made all three mugs, I then shot a glance at Phoebe, which I knew that she would understand was my silent cry for help with moving all the steaming mugs over to the table with minimal to no spillages as I was sure no one here would appreciate an emergency visit to the ER, especially because it would mean that I'd have limited time with Rachel inn the oncology ward.

Quite a while after we both sat back down, Phoebe looked down at the screen of her phone and then looked back up at me. "Babe, have you seen the time? Why are the twins not downstairs yet?" she asked me, eyebrows furrowing in concern.

I fumbled inside my pocket and bought out my phone so that I could see the time, and agreed with Phoebe that it was pretty late, and was kind of concerned as well that the kids hadn't yet come downstairs.

"I'll go and check on them," I said to Phoebe, getting up from the table and walking out of the kitchen and then down the corridor to the stairs to walk up them to the twins' bedroom.

When I got upstairs and up onto the landing, I saw that the twins' bedroom door was open, but I couldn't hear any noises, which confused me a little because surely they had to have been doing something up here that would mean that they didn't want to come downstairs yet. Nevertheless, I continued to walk over to the bedroom and pushed the door open.

"Hi guys," I said to the kids, who were sitting on Chris's bed. "Are you ready for school or not?"

Addie jumped down off of the bed and went over to what I saw was her rucksack and dragged it over to Chris's bed and started unzipping things and then took a few things out. "Do you want me to help you to pack, Ads?" I asked her.

"I'll be fine, but thank you Dad," Addie said.

"What about you, Chris? Have you packed?" I asked him, as he looked up from where he was sitting with his Nintendo Switch on his lap.

"Nah," he said, looking back down at his Switch guiltily.

I thought about getting annoyed with him over that, as both Phoebe and I had given him clear instructions to get ready and he had clearly actively disobeyed that, but in the end I decided that I should just leave it and that there were greater battles to fight, especially given the stress of recent life situations, and so I just packed for Chris with him directing me as to what I would need to pack for him.

About fifteen minutes later, Addie, Chris and I went downstairs as they were finally both ready. I sent both into the kitchen so that Monica and Phoebe could see that they were ready whilst I got myself ready with getting shoes on and my jacket.

Once both kids had said goodbye to Phoebe, they both came out and we all went to my car and I started the engine and then I was off driving to the kids' elementary school. When I dropped them off, I continued to the hospital where Rachel would be waiting for me to visit her. I was less nervous about going to see her as I was hopeful that she wouldn't be in a worse state than we had seen her before, as I knew that it would be the last thing that I think anyone would need right now.

When I pulled into the hospital parking lot and had parked the car, I sat with the engine running whilst I debated sending a text to Carol or Ross just in case they were already planning on visiting her today, but in the end decided that it would just be a waste of my time to do so. I switched off the engine, pocketed the car keys after locking the car and then made my way towards the entrance to the main entrance to the hospital.

"Mike Buffay-Hannigan," I said to the lady at reception. "Here to visit Rachel Geller-Green in the Oncology ward."

"I'll buzz you through," the lady said, grabbing the lanyard round her neck and taking it off before flashing the card against some device that I couldn't see as it was behind the wall, but that I assumed activated the door mechanism. "You've been here before and know your way around, right?" the lady asked me before she sat down at her desk again. "I mean, I could go and get a colleague of mine to take you round if not."

"It's all fine," I told the lady, with what I hoped was a reassuring smile.

I proceeded to walk through the doorway and then onto the staircase that would take me up to a second floor with a landing that was opposite two elevators that would be able to take me up to right outside the massive overhead sign for oncology department. When I was standing in the elevator, my leg had started to twitch and it only seemed to worsen as I walked down the corridor to Rachel's all-too-familiar cancer ward.

Rather reluctantly, I pushed open the door at the end that I knew was where Rachel was staying, and walked straight in.

"Um, Rachel, you have a guest!" the nurse who I saw was fiddling with something to do with Rachel's treatment beside her bed called out.

Rachel turned her head towards me, attempting to shuffle herself further up against the headboard but struggling. Luckily, the nurse realised she was having trouble with it before I could get over there to help her, and so I was able to just sit down by her bed, confident as far as I knew that she was in the most comfort that was physically possible given her situation.

"Mike!" Rachel exclaimed, her tone a mixture of happiness and surprise. "This is such a nice surprise!"

She leaned across the bed to hug me and I attempted to put my arms round her without tangling any of the wires that were attached to her. Somehow we managed to make it work, and I sat back once we'd broken apart so that the two of us could just talk and catch up. It also would allow me to get a better look at Rachel to be able to judge how much she looked like her healthy self to report back to Monica and Phoebe.

"So tell me, how are yourself, Phoebe and the kids doing these days?" Rachel asked me, her eyes alight with happiness because of my presence.

"Not bad," I said, realising a minute later how enthused that made me sound. "I mean, just enjoying the run up to the holidays and family life in general," I added, hoping that this would be enough to redeem my less happy sounding answer.

"You and Phoebe both absolutely deserve that," Rachel smiled, making a lump start to grow in my throat as what she'd just said properly sank in.

"Thank you so much," I said, though I was barely able to get the words out as my throat felt suddenly far too tight.

"I've been doing all right, by the way," Rachel added, clearly interpreting my sudden silence after my last comment to be related to worrying about her current state of health, which wasn't far off the real reason for it. "Just keeping swimming along, as they say in that kids' film," she added, chuckling somewhat weakly.

I smiled politely back at her because it was all I could do without completely shattering.