Chapter 10: Finding Someone For Ross

Monica was right not to be optimistic about how Ross would cope with breaking up with Phoebe. He did not appear at all for two days, and on the third only came round to the apartment for a brief period. He looked very depressed and behaved accordingly, casting a pall of gloom everywhere. Thereafter his visits, whether to the apartment or Central Perk, were brief, and although he made sporadic attempts to be cheerful, the effort was obvious, and more often he was very withdrawn. He paid little attention to news of the progress of his sister's and Phoebe's pregnancies, was unforthcoming when asked about his work, and was very hard to bring into any general conversation. At any moment his expression might lapse into one of the deepest melancholy, and more than once Phoebe left Central Perk hastily, afraid that she would burst into tears because he was looking so sad, while Emily was almost equally affected and took care not to make too much show of affection for Janice when Ross was there, for fear of upsetting him. She also did not press him about getting their divorce organised, saying to the others that it was the only thing she could think of that she could do to make life easier for him.

Everyone agreed that this was an emergency, and that Ross badly needed to get interested in someone new. But Janice, Chandler, Kathy and Joey all reported no luck in finding anyone among their acquaintances who might be suitable. Monica and Rachel each tried to set Ross up with an available colleague, but he made little effort with Monica's junior chef, and curtly turned down the offer of a date with a fashion journalist whom Rachel knew.

"You know something?" said Rachel when she was discussing this one day with Monica. "I never thought I'd say this, but it's a pity we can't get him together with Julie again. They were good together."

"I'd be surprised if she's not in a relationship or even married by now," said Monica. "She was so cute. But I'm desperate enough to try anything."

So she rang the contact number that she had for Julie, but it had been disconnected. The problem seemed insoluble, and all the time Ross failed to improve. Since she knew a bit about it, as she had shown on earlier occasions, Janice did her best to get him talking about palaeontology, but his responses were meagre and suggested that he was even losing interest in his work.

Then fate took a hand. Rachel and Monica went together to a charity event which Ralph Lauren was co-sponsoring, and there they caught sight of Richard Burke. They tried hard to avoid him, but he caught sight of them and immediately came over, ignoring their glares. He was looking very contrite.

"I freely admit it," he said, with a disarming smile. "I behaved like a heel, and I grovel in apology. You will be relieved to know that I am now completely over you, Monica. You're looking very beautiful, but I feel only aesthetic appreciation. I have happy memories of the past, but I do not want to revive it."

Thawing a trifle, Monica asked how he was.

"I'm fine," he said. "I'm even seeing another optometrist, believe it or not. No need to ask how you are – it is pregnancy that's giving you such a glow, isn't it?"

Monica smiled and nodded. "Chandler agreed to do it, and it took first time."

"Ah, your white knight!" he said. "I was impressed by his phone call. Is he still with Kathy?"

"Yes," said Monica. "They seem happy together."

"And how about Ross and Emily?" he enquired, his tone changing very slightly.

Monica shook her head. "They've broken up."

He sighed. "Well, I'm sorry to hear it, but not altogether surprised. I was never totally convinced by that marriage, you know. Emily seemed too lively, as if she was trying to hide something from herself. But that's tough on Ross, very tough. How's he taking it?"

These sympathetic comments led them to confide in him. They told him in outline everything that had happened. He listened carefully.

"So you can't contact Julie?" he said. "Well, here's where I can make up for my crime. I met her at a reception at the Met a while back. We discovered mutual acquaintances, and talked about Ross and the rest of you. She seemed very interested in what I could tell her. I got her number, because I found her very attractive, but we didn't quite hit it off when we went on a date. I'm afraid that, for all her maturity as a palaeontologist, she seemed of a much younger generation to me, and I evidently seemed too old to her."

"Oh Richard, if you can give me her number I'll forgive you everything," said Monica excitedly.

Richard obliged, smiling. "Let me know how it goes," he said. "I always thought highly of Ross. He seemed the most mature of your menfolk."

"Huh!" went Rachel. "You try dating him."

"Not my type," said Richard, grinning broadly, and they laughed and parted on friendly terms.

Monica and Rachel needed to nerve themselves to make a call. It had been a long time, and though Julie had evidently been without a man in her life when Richard had met her, that could have changed at any time since. Finally Monica picked up the phone, with Rachel in close attendance, listening in. When Julie replied, both breathed a sigh of relief. She responded uncertainly to Monica's greeting, asking how she had got hold of her.

"Oh yeah, Richard Burke!" she said, when told. "He's a charmer, isn't he? But he certainly blew it with you. He told me things I found hard to believe. You're with Rachel now?"

Monica swallowed her irritation. "Yes, in fact we're married," she said, "and very happy."

"Mmm. Ross is married again, too, I understand," said Julie just a shade too casually.

Monica sighed. "That's come apart," she said. "I don't know if you'd be interested in the details …"

"What happened?" said Julie, suddenly sounding interested.

Once again Monica outlined the situation.

"And you're calling me because I was close to Ross once?" asked Julie in a neutral voice. "Am I your last hope?"

Monica gulped. Julie did not sound in a very receptive mood. "I know it's a lot to ask, but … Julie, he's becoming permanently depressed." She thought for a moment. "We aren't even hoping that you will get together with him again," she said, ignoring Rachel's expression of surprise, for surely that was their hope. "But if you could just get him to show some interest, by talking to him about dinosaurs and stuff – Janice has tried, but she doesn't know enough to get him going. Just so that he could find some pleasure in life again."

Julie made a noncommittal noise. "Once upon a time it would have been my dearest wish to get back together with Ross," she said. "I might as well admit that I have not found a man who could compare to the old Ross – but that was a long time ago."

"Oh God, that makes me feel so bad!" Rachel blurted out.

"Is that Rachel?" said Julie in a reasonably friendly voice. "Well, yeah, you did take away the man I really cared for, but don't feel too bad. It was his decision, not yours, in the end."

"Julie, if you could find it in you just, just to meet Ross again, I'd love you for ever!" said Rachel impulsively. "I can't bear to see him like this, when there's not a thing I can do that will help."

"Well," said Julie slowly, "I'll tell you what I'll do. I'd like to talk with him about our subject anyway, because he has some interesting ideas. So I'll come to Central Perk. But this is not with any idea of reviving our relationship, though I do care about him. He would be a great loss to the subject if he became clinically depressed. But I'd like to see you guys and learn how you got together. That must be quite a story. And now there's no rivalry between us, Rachel, it would be nice to be friends with you."

"I'd like to be friends too," said Rachel wholeheartedly. "No more miss nasty bitch here."

"You were never that bad," said Julie, chuckling. "Or if you were, I didn't notice. Okay, I'll see you in Central Perk tomorrow, early evening."

Julie was already there when Rachel arrived, looking just as attractive as she remembered. In fact, Rachel had to control herself and break away from the rather too warm hug that she was giving Julie. For once she felt empathy for married men who met an attractive unattached female.

Julie looked at her with amusement. "I'm flattered," she said. "So, you really have switched sides?"

"You bet," said Rachel enthusiastically. "Oh Julie, I never hoped to be so happy – and now Monica's pregnant, and it's all so exciting!"

Julie looked at her indulgently. "I'm glad to hear it. Monica deserves to be happy – as do you, of course, but I really felt for Monica at that time."

They settled down to chatter cheerfully about their lives since Julie had broken up with Ross. There was much that Julie had not heard from Richard or Monica, including about Phoebe's pregnancy. She burst out laughing when told.

"I shouldn't laugh, I know," she said, her eyes twinkling, "but Ross does get himself into situations, doesn't he?"

"Yeah," said Rachel. "Given his luck, it's a wonder I didn't get pregnant, or you, come to that!"

They giggled together happily. Then they looked up as the door to Central Perk opened, and there were Monica and Ross. He was looking slightly less depressed than usual, and when he saw Julie his whole expression changed, to one of surprise and, Rachel thought, delight.

"Julie!" he said, sounding stunned. "It's so good to see you. How did you, I mean, why did you … come here?"

"I came to see you, Ross, and the others," said Julie, smiling at him. "I've heard some things about you all from a mutual acquaintance, whom I met at a reception at the Met a while back, and Monica and I got in touch again just recently. So how are you, anyway, and more to the point," she grinned, "I'm really interested to know what you think of these new finds in Argentina. Are we going to see bigger herbivores yet?"

Ross's eyes lit up, and he eagerly sat down beside her and began giving his opinion. Beaming at them, Monica went to the counter to get his favourite coffee, though she was willing to bet he wouldn't notice what he was drinking. Rachel, she was pleased to see, was doing everything she could to help the conversation along when it moved from dinosaurs to catching up with each other, giving Julie opportunities to tell Ross things that he was too shy to ask.

"He doesn't seem very depressed to me," Julie hissed to them later when Ross went to get her a second coffee.

"That's because of you," Rachel hissed back. "He's so happy to see you."

Julie smiled, but a little uncertainly. Rachel wondered whether, in implying that Ross might be interested in Julie romantically, she had gone too far. But Julie was quite happy to arrange a further meeting with Ross in Central Perk, and after that they heard that she had gone round to the museum for a quick lunch with him, and her visits to Central Perk continued. Meeting her again certainly did seem to do wonders for Ross. He was easy with her from the start, and soon began confiding in her about the situation that he was in and all the awful things that had happened to him, as he saw it. She had the sense not to let on that she knew it all already, and displayed strong sympathy, but this was not unmixed with criticism.

"Ross," she said, when he had been running on for a while about the Emily-Janice business, at a time in Central Perk when only Rachel and Monica were present beside themselves, "you really have to try not to feel so sorry for yourself all the time. You always had this tendency, and it means you just sit and mope and get nothing done. Now, for example, have you started divorce proceedings?"

"Er, no," said Ross, "I have been just too depressed to face it."

"Well, there's obviously not a chance in the world that you and Emily will get back together," said Julie. "So you should do that. And how are things between you and Phoebe?"

"We don't talk," Ross muttered, looking a bit shamefaced.

Julie tutted. "Breaking up was just as hard on her as on you, I suspect," she said. "Maybe worse, since she now has to face bringing a baby up on her own. You should try to be friends with her again. You guys used to be such a good, supportive group."

Ross sighed. "Yeah, you're right." He was silent for a while, then he said, "Um, Julie, you wouldn't, er, like to go out for dinner with me and maybe catch a movie some time?"

"That would be great," said Julie, grinning as Monica and Rachel did silent hurrah faces behind Ross's back. "Then we can really sort out the Mesozoic, without boring all the others except Janice to death."

They clearly both enjoyed the dinner date, and other such dates followed, but it did not look as if things were going to develop further. Monica and Rachel still cherished hopes that they might, for Julie had effectively become another member of the group. Almost everyone was pleased with this, for she had such a naturally sunny disposition that it was impossible to dislike her. Phoebe remained distinctly cool towards her, showing signs of jealousy that reminded Rachel of how she had felt when Ross was dating Bonnie, but even she was not hostile so much as offhand. But Emily took to Julie at once, and she and Janice would have animated discussions with her on all kinds of things, for Julie had a great many topics of conversation, and could talk as easily with Joey about acting and with Rachel about fashion as with Ross about palaeontology.

She and Ross continued to spend a lot of time in each other's company over the next weeks, but it became more and more apparent that theirs was a purely platonic friendship, based in a shared love of their subject and genuine liking for each other. As if to underline the professional nature of their association, they agreed to collaborate on a joint paper on a topic of mutual interest, and managed to get it written without serious disagreement – no mean achievement in the academic world, Julie gave her new friends to understand.

This failure of the revived relationship to proceed beyond a certain point disappointed Monica and Rachel, particularly Rachel. Now that she had become truly friendly with Julie and got to know her so much better, she really felt that she would have been very happy to see her and Ross get together, and Monica agreed. But they acknowledged that at least Julie's company had had a very positive effect on Ross. He was now back at the stage he'd been in once he'd recovered from the break with Rachel, and was a lively member of the group, quite capable of enjoying himself. He acted like a real friend again towards Phoebe especially, and began to show a proper interest in their child, but he also showed renewed friendliness towards Janice and Emily. Janice particularly liked to sit in on the dinosaur dialogues, as Emily called them, which delighted Ross and Julie, because she showed real interest, and it pleased everyone else because she absorbed all the excess dinosaur output, as Emily phrased it. On such occasions, Emily herself would, in her words, "flee to the woods", hanging out with Monica and Rachel, or any of Phoebe, Chandler, Kathy, and Joey, or going round to Carol and Susan's to see Ben, of whom she had become rather fond during the time when she was, technically, his step-mother.

So much improved did Ross become that about a month after Julie had first come to Central Perk, Sita and Mary, who were still seeing Joey, entered Central Perk to meet him, to find he had not arrived. Ross managed to keep them entertained very well, being able to discuss their degrees and career prospects with them seriously and also plying them with broad compliments, the nearest he could manage to flirting. They were so taken with him that they insisted that he come to dinner with them, along with Joey, and Joey made no objection. No more was seen of Ross until the following lunchtime, when he dropped into Central Perk for a quick coffee, looking a very relaxed and happy man.

"Well, Ross," said Phoebe, who never shrank from asking the intimate questions that most of them were too embarrassed to ask, even when they were dying to know the answer, "who was the lucky lady?"

Ross smiled beatifically and shook his head. "My lips are sealed," he said teasingly. "All I can say is, not only is Joey a very lucky man, but I have new appreciation of his stamina. To handle both of them on a regular basis …!" He shook his head in apparent wonder.

He left soon, but then Joey appeared. Phoebe tried to get the information out of him, but he just grinned. "No dice, Pheebs," he said. "But I will say this – I got a good report of Ross."

"Oh God," said Julie quietly, but with considerable feeling.

"What is it?" said Rachel, who had sneaked away from her work for a longish lunch break.

Julie turned a rather long face towards her. "I'm finding … I don't want to be just Ross's friend any more," she confessed. "Those feelings for him that I once had are definitely beginning to develop again."

"But that's great, Julie," Rachel cried. The others turned round at her outburst, and she realised that this might be embarrassing to Julie, so thought fast. "Just something about her work," she said. They nodded and turned away. She looked back at Julie apologetically.

"Nice save," said Julie appreciatively. "What worries me is," she dropped her voice, "what if Ross doesn't feel the same way? We're really good friends now, but I'm afraid friends may be all that he wants us to be, and he'll go chasing those hot MA girls." There was real pain in her expression.

"Julie, you can't know that," Rachel said encouragingly, giving her a consolatory hug. "He may just be shy of you, like he was with me, especially because you were in a relationship before. He may be afraid you won't want him, because of the way you broke up. I say, you need to give him some hint that you'd welcome an approach from him. If I see a good opening, I'll try to help things along, and I'll tell the others too, if that's okay."

Julie looked thoughtful. "No, let's keep it between ourselves," she said eventually. "If too many know, someone may say something that would unsettle Ross. You know how Phoebe can be, for instance."

"Okay, whatever you want," said Rachel. Suddenly she spoke from the heart. "I really want this for you and Ross, Julie. He may not realise it yet, but I think you would be better for him than any of us."

"Oh Rachel!" said Julie, deeply touched. "That's very generous of you, when you loved him so much –  and I think Phoebe did too."

"I've been thinking about this a lot recently," said Rachel. "Sure, I loved him, but I could never share the interests that mean so much to him. I liked seeing him being impressive when he gave that public lecture at the museum and got congratulated by important-looking people, but I could never understand any of it or share his enthusiasm. To me it was all deadly boring. And Phoebe would be worse than me, if anything, for she actively disbelieves in science."

"Dear Phoebe," said Julie, shaking her head. "There's no reasoning with her. She just doesn't understand how science works. I can handle it, because she's not around trotting out her weird stuff all the time, but I can see why it would drive Ross wild eventually. Well, I'll see if I can give him a hint without seeming to beg, and if you can think of a really good way to do that, I'd be grateful."

Rachel decided to discuss the Ross and Julie situation with Emily and Janice, and invited herself round to tea that Saturday. They agreed that a relationship with Julie would be just the thing for Ross, and were ready to join in plots to move things in that direction, but Emily felt strongly that Monica would resent it if she were left out of any plan. Rachel undertook to bring her on board, but the next time Emily and Janice heard from Rachel, it was on a very different matter.

(Author's Note: sorry, couldn't resist the cliffhanger! There is a final chapter to come).