Chapter 23
Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with friends and I am in no way affiliated with NBC or Warner Bros.
The 5 friends rushed to Rachel's rental car and squeezed in. The car was tiny and resulted in Monica having to sit on Chandler's knee, much to their embarrassment. Ross tried again to question Rachel but she was too upset to talk. All she kept mumbling was "baby," leaving everyone confused.

~*~
Phoebe lay in the hospital bed hooked up to numerous machines, covering her in tubes and drips. She laid in silence, sobbing and clutching her stomach where her baby had once been. She was completely alone, no friends around her to give support to her and no Drs to tell her what was happening. She had really hit rock bottom this time.
~*~
Everyone ran through the automatic glass doors, each trying to outrun the other in desperate attempt to find out what exactly had happened.

Joey threw himself at the reception desk; hitting it so hard he almost flew over the top of it.

"PHOEBE BUFFAY?" He screamed out of breath.

"Hold on one second sir and ill get a Dr. out to speak to you." The receptionist lifted the phone and called through to Phoebe's nurse. After a few seconds of discussion she returned her gaze to Joey and the others.

"The Dr. will be with you shortly, please take a seat in the family's waiting area."

Shortly after sitting down, Rachel, who had just parked the car joined them.

"Rachel what happened?" Joey was close to breaking down.

"She mis- she mis" Rachel couldn't get the words out for her tears choking her. Ross placed a comforting arm around her and told her it would be ok. "Hey calm down. Take a deep breath," Rachel did what he said and tried to finish her sentence, but was interrupted with a tall, bald man wearing a white coat entering the room.

"Hi all, im Dr. Phillips. Who is Miss Buffay's next of kin?" Monica rose to her feet. "I am. Monica Gellar," she stated. Phoebe had made Mon her in case of emergency person when she was her roommate and hadn't changed it since.

"Could I speak to you outside for a moment please?" The Dr asked patiently.

"Could you not just tell us here? We are all just as close to her. We all need to know what's going on." Monica tried to remain calm.

"Ok sure, if that's ok with you its fine with me."

Monica retook her seat and waited on Dr. Phillips informing them of what had happened. Everyone sat with bated breath, petrified of what he was about to say.

"Miss Buffay is in a stable condition at the moment, but she has lost quite a bit of blood. We have given her a transfusion, but we don't know if her body will reject it yet. We have to wait a few hours to be certain.

"But what caused her to be here?" Monica was still confused, as were the others.

"Miss Gellar your friend gave birth 3 months prematurely. Both are lucky to be alive!"

"She didn't miscarry?" Rachel's eyes lit up knowing the baby was alive.

"No. The baby is stable also, but we have her in ICU just to be on the safe side. She only weights 2lbs so we have to keep an eye on her."

"It's a little girl?" Monica and Rachel both started to well up.

"A perfect little girl!" The Dr smiled at their excitement.

Chandler and Joey stood up and joined Rachel and Monica in a group hug. Joey remained seated in the blue plastic chair going through the event in his mind.

"She got pregnant with another mans baby while she was away!" He said despondently to himself. He got up slowly and exited the room without anyone noticing he had gone. He needed some space to be on his own. This was too much for him to deal with. She had managed to stab him in the heart again and he didn't know how much more he could take. He walked slowly his head hung low, ignoring the rooms at either side of him as he did so. He could hear the cries of hundreds of babies all around him, and a repugnant smell that reminded him of bleach mixed with illness. He continued to stroll through the hospital aisle in search of the exit, but came to a dead end. He put his hands on the whitewashed wall, wanting to bang his head against it and never stop. Instead he spun himself around and began to retrace his steps, bursting to get out of this place. But a weak sounding voice calling his name made him stop in his tracks. He turned his head to his left and glanced into the room where the voice was coming from.

"Phoebe?" He looked at the frail blonde woman lying on her back in a shabby little bed.

"Joey we need to talk." Phoebe replied faintly.

Joey entered the room, looking a little scared to be doing so. The sight of Phoebe shocked and terrified him, but he needed to get something's off his chest. And the results wouldn't be good.
"Miss Gellar would you like to see your friend? She was sleeping when I last left her, but im sure she would appreciate the company when she wakes up." The Dr placed his hand out to Monica, silently offering to show her the way to the room.

"Can the rest come too?" Monica felt guilty for leaving the others out.

"Im afraid its one person at a time, until she's got her strength is back at least"

Monica looked at her friends nod her towards the door, giving her the ok to go to Phoebe without them. She followed the Dr. and waited at reception while he saw to an emergency, promising he would be 2 minutes maximum.
~*~
Phoebe lifted her needle-punctured hand, motioning Joey to come closer to her. He paused cautiously before taking steps towards her.

"Joey I didn't mean to hurt you." Phoebe had just started to apologise but Joey cut her off irritably.

"You have no idea what you have done to me! You have ruined my life! I can't eat or sleep and breathing hurts so much! When I lost you I lost a part of me too, my world ended the minute I read the last word in your letter. I held onto all hope you would see sense and come back to me, because you loved me. But did you? Did you hell! Don't try to lie to me Phoebe, I know you don't love me and you don't care about me. If you did you would never have had another mans baby!"

"What do you know about the baby?" Phoebe was jolted back to the memory of giving birth.

"I know that you didn't tell me you were pregnant when we slept together!" Joey's eyes flared with anger.

"I've lost the baby Joey," Phoebe sobbed devastatingly.

"What? Don't try and pull at my heart Phoebe, you know as well as I do that she's going to be fine!" Joey didn't know Phoebe was under the impression the baby was dead.

"She? It was a girl?" Phoebe was perplexed.

"She still is, she's in ICU" Joey still didn't pick up on what was going on.

Phoebe tried desperately to push herself up on the bed, urgently trying to get to her daughter. She let out a loud shriek, the pain knocking her back onto the bed. She clutched her stomach again, desperate for the agony to halt, but the pain vibrated like waves through her. She could feel the blood drain from her as she urgently tried to call out Joeys name, but he had turned his back on her and was heading for the door.

"Joey," she cried out faintly, but before she could see if he had heard her the room went black and her world stopped.

Joey heard the monitor behind him bleeping furiously; unlike before when it sounded steady, it was now a continuous noise, ringing through his ears like a wailing.

His body froze on the spot as numerous Drs and nurses rushed past him to Phoebe's aide. He was afraid to turn around and see what was happening, but he knew it wasn't good. 10 seconds later a Doctors scream confirmed the worst.

"Get the defibulator, she's flat-lining!"
~*~

More very soon :o)

xxxx