The Ross/Chandler's Mom story that nobody asked for. Set during 1.11, The One With Mrs Bing.
Him
She'd always liked him. Ross was barely nineteen when Nora first met him, and even then he was different, eye-catching. He was built tall and broad, but there was a softness about him. He wasn't classically handsome (and even if he were, Nora has to believe that her own son is the best-looking boy in every room), though there was an open, expressive kindness in his face, and his eyes were deep and soulful. He had a lot of soul. Ross was a ponderer and a wonderer. Nora knew that when the boys were back in college- the handful of times she'd been inside their scruffy dorm room, Chandler had been playing computer games but Ross had been reading or gazing pensively out of the window. He seemed artistic, and Nora liked to speculate that perhaps he could become a writer like her. Though Ross had ended up pursuing science over the arts, and he didn't even take a year off between finishing college and starting his PhD. When Nora visited Manhattan and asked him about his research, Ross' voice bubbled with enthusiasm. It was hardly surprising that such a passionate, handsome, intelligent, funny boy was married by the time he was twenty-four. Nora met Carol a few times, since she and Ross often tagged along for lunch when Nora came to New York (Chandler seemed to prefer meeting with Nora only in the company of other people), and she seemed pleasant enough. She was a striking-looking girl, and she had a similar work ethic to Ross, though she came across as more ruthless and extroverted. Perhaps that was a good thing, maybe Ross needed somebody more domineering (he and Chandler both seemed reliant on Ross' squawky sister to get them through the day). Besides, after a litany of divorces, Nora had accepted that other people's marriages were a mystery. Give her the first year of a relationship, the fervour and drama and sex in strange places, and let other people deal with long-term domestic drudgery.
Nora enjoyed seeing Ross on her trips to Manhattan, watching him grow older and increasingly self-assured. It was satisfying to see somebody she'd always liked be personally and professionally successful so young. It was satisfying too when, every so often, Ross would pop into Nora's head when she was engaged in activities with another young gentleman. A couple of protagonists in her novels ended up sharing some Ross-like characteristics, and she sometimes borrowed his surname to use for a character she liked. Nora remembered how infuriating the "When are you going to have a baby?" questions were for young couples, so she didn't ask, though she hoped that Ross and Carol would start a family, and perhaps Chandler would be made godfather.
And then, about a year ago, her son informed her of The Lesbian Development. After initial disbelief, Nora felt sympathetic and bewildered, and also proud of Carol for embracing her needs as a woman. She'd wondered aloud if it meant that Ross and Carol would divorce.
"Of course it does!" Chandler snapped. They were alone together for once, walking home from a Broadway play Nora suspected Chandler had only suggested because it would mean that he'd spend time with her without having to actually speak to her.
"There's never anything wrong with introducing new partners to the sexual dynamic. I wrote all about it in Hornythological Species,"
"Not listening to you, Mom!"
In the uncomfortable pause which followed, Nora realised that what had happened to Ross was what had happened to her. She hadn't seen Charles in years, and their divorce was so long and so many lawyers ago that it took her a few minutes to remember that she too had had a spouse who had turned out to bat for the other team. She knew exactly what Ross was going through.
"Sounds like a situation I know a thing or two about. How about you give me his phone number, sweetie?" she asked. It was a joke (well, half a joke. Nora wouldn't have said no to Ross Geller's phone number) but Chandler didn't take it as such, and mumbled something surly in reply.
Back in her hotel suite that evening, Nora let her mind wander back to the end of her marriage with Charles. She'd spent years ignoring the signs, or dismissing them by claiming it was wonderful that her husband was in touch with his feminine side. The bombshell, when it had dropped, was more hurtful because it made sense. Nora knew she had every right to feel betrayed, used, taken for a fool. Charles offered her no sympathy or remorse, and displayed no recognition that he had destroyed her life (because for the Nora of back then, divorce had been a life-ruiner. Nowadays divorce meant buying a new Mercedes). She got revenge by complicating the legal proceedings, taking Charles to court to battle for the house, the cat, their son, their furniture. It had made Nora satisfied, but it had made her bitter and unhappy too. Reflecting on the memories, Nora found herself getting misty, and she knew that she couldn't pass the tears off as the result of too much red wine. It was partly the gloom of the memories, but also sadness for Ross. He was a sweetheart and hard-worker, he was smart and thoughtful and a good friend to Chandler. He didn't deserve to feel this way. And Nora didn't want Ross to become vengeful and bitter like she had been.
That was a year ago, and on Nora's current New York stay, the update was that Ross had got divorced, but that his ex-wife was expecting their baby in the Spring. The idea that Carol had been sleeping with Ross while also having a lesbian affair was tremendously titillating. To complicate the situation further for the poor boy, a new girl was living with Ross' sister, and he'd fallen for her. The girl, Rachel, had joined the group for dinner tonight, and she was sensual and fascinating. She'd be a perfect protagonist for one of Nora's novels- unlike her gorgeous, meathead boyfriend who's joined them for dinner. It was clear that none of the kids had much time for Rachel's hunk, least of all Ross, who could barely look at them. He was evidently on the rebound, an experience Nora knew well. After Charles left she went after anyone she could get her hands on: the pool-boy, the receptionist, the instructor at her life-drawing class. Anybody to make her feel wanted and desired, any man whose touch could reassure her that it wasn't her body, her fault that her husband had turned to men. Ross was a romantic, so for this rebound he looked like he had fallen in love with somebody, rather than falling into bed with anybody like Nora had. Yet the girl he loved was dating somebody else, so he was crushed again. Nora wanted to comfort him, and to reassure him that he was wanted, he was loveable, and he was a very sexy and charming man no matter what had happened with Carol and Rachel.
So when he went to the bathroom, Nora waited a few moments, then pretended she had to make a phone call to her hotel. And when she cornered Ross in the restaurant lobby and he murmured despondently about his failed chances with Rachel, and he looked so miserable and hopeless and cute...well, Nora would be crazy to bypass a chance like that, wouldn't she?
After all, she'd always liked him.