Not much talking, this is actually one of my favourite chapters from the whole fic. thanks for reading it and for replaying for those who had replied ;). Now to the story.

HEARTACHES - CHAPTER 8

Rachel stood in front of Ross' door and sighed. That was going to be a hard and long night. She had gone to her apartment to change and pick up some clothes for the next day. She hadn't wanted to disturb Joey's date, so she left really quick. Standing there she realized she didn't bring her pijamas. "Great!" she thought before knocking.

Ross opened the door smiling. He missed living with Rachel a lot. Maybe now he could ask her to come back, after all, they were still friends.

She came in and stood nervously in the living room. "And. and where am I going to sleep?" she asked

"I was thinking you could use my bedroom. I can sleep here on the couch"

"No Ross. I'll sleep on the couch. I don't want to leave you without your bed"

"It's ok. I love sleeping on the couch. you know that"

Rachel smiled remembering all those night she had woken up in the middle of the night and saw him sleeping on the couch with a book on his hands. She always covered him with a blanket and kissed his forehead before going back to bed.

"I know. but still. I don't want to bother you"

"You are not bothering me Rach. You have never bothered me" he said sweetly. "So. good night. and I'll see you tomorrow. Now go to your room" he added playfully

Rachel laugh "ok dad. I'll go to bed now, but. I need to ask you one last favor"

"And what's that" asked Ross crossing his arms

"I kind of. forgot to bring my pjs" she said shyly.

He looked at her and smiled widely "Ok. ok. you can sleep naked if you want" he joked

"What?" she asked blushing "that. that wasn't what." she rambled nervously

"I know. I know" said Ross laughing "you want me to lend you a t-shirt or something"

Rachel nodded still blushed

"I have the perfect pj for you"

They entered Rachel's old bedroom. Ross opened the big closet and took a white t-shirt from a brown box. He handed it to her and smiled again. "I'm sure this will fit you"

Rachel took the t-shirt and smiled. It was his 'Frankie say relax' t-shirt she used to wear when they were dating. She had kept it as one of the many things that reminded her of the happiest time of her life. But he had it, she looked at him confused.

"You left it here when you moved back with Joey" he explained

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked

"I thought you were so mad at me that you didn't want to know about an old t-shirt you used to wear 6 years ago. I thought that was the reason why you left it here"

"I had no idea it was here. thanks for keeping it". She looked at the t- shirt, that was her time machine, it could take her back to 1996 faster than a blink. Why would she wants to get read of it?

*~*

Rachel laid on Ross' bed sleepless. His smell was everywhere, and she couldn't get him out of her head. It was driving her crazy. She stood up and went to the kitchen to get a glass of warm milk. Drinking milk at night had became an habit for her lately. Sleep was harder every night, and when she finally managed to do so, the dreams would come, and everything was even worst.

She left the kitchen and saw Ross sited on the couch. He was awake too.

"Hey. Problems to fall asleep?" she asked handing him the milk

Ross looked at her surprised, he was sure she was sleeping.

Just the thought of Rachel sleeping in his bed made his mind wonder a thousand things, so he had already given up on sleeping anything that night. Ross took the glass Rachel was offering him and took a sip of it. "Thanks" he said.

She sat next to him and saw he was looking through their old photo album again. "Remembering stuff?" she said as she took the photo album from the coffee table.

"Sometimes remembering happy things helps" he replied

"It helps? With what?"

"I don't know. It helps me when I'm feeling down"

"Really? For me it's the other way around. Remembering only brings me down. I try not to think about what I once had and now. you know. don't" Rachel's voice trailed, maybe she had said too much she thought. "I. I better get back to sleep"

"No, wait" he called out "why don't you. uhm. stay. for a while. We haven't talked in weeks and I. I've missed you"

Rachel smiled "I've missed you too. . But sometimes is easier to be apart than together"

"What do you mean?" he asked confused

"You know what I mean"

"I really, really don't"

Rachel sighed. "It's look like. every time we are together we are either fighting or. you know. flirting. and. and I'm started to get tired of that game"

"I know what you mean. but I'm not tired. I could never get tired of being with you. Either fighting or flirting" said Ross smiling

Rachel stood from the couch frustrated "Why are you doing this? Why are you telling me that?"

Ross looked at her confused "What?"

"Why are you telling me you like being with me? you don't mean it!"

"Of course I do Rachel. What are you talking about?"

"You know what?. talking to you about this was a bad idea. Good night!" she said before storming out of the living room and slamming the door of Ross' bedroom. She throw herself to Ross' bed and started to cry

Ross was numbed by Rachel's reaction. He wasn't expecting her to throw herself at him, but he sure wasn't expecting this either. He stood up from the couch and walked to his bedroom.

"Rach... open up!" he said knocking "Come on Rachel" he kept on knocking "talk to me... don't do this"

Rachel looked at the door and then burried her face on the pillow again. Ross' smell wasn't driving her crazy anymore, it was actually calming her. She stood up and opened the door. Ross was still standing there. They looked at each other, none of them knowing what to do next. He wiped a tear from her cheek and stroke her hair with the other

"I'm so sorry" he said softly "but I have no idea what I did wrong. I can't stand seeing you cry. I would never do whatever is that I did in purpose"

Rachel kept looking at him expresionless. Was he telling the truth? And if he was, how could he explain all of the times he let her down in the past?

"But whatever I did... I'm sorry" he said before hugging her

She didn't hug him back. She still couldn't understand. "Why are you doing this?" she asked again quietly

"What?" asked Ross with a tone of desesperation in his voice, as he let her go from his embrace "What the hell am I doing?"

"You are hurting me... please... stop" she begged, and a tear rolled down her cheek.

Hurting her?... how? Ross wondered. How could he hurt her? By loving her so much? But that wouldn't hurt her, that only would hurt him. And it did. He was standing there, in front of her, speechless. He had prepared every word for when the moment to confess her his love came, and now that moment was here, and he didn't know where to start, or even what to say

***FLASHBACK***FLASHBACK***

Rachel was feeling really happy although the day had started in an awful way. For the first time in a year she had felt alone and broken. The night before she and Ross had had an awful fight, the biggest one since they were together. He had wanted to celebrate their first anniversary and she had been so busy that everything had ended in a mess, wich later leaded to a fight, to end up with her asking him for a break she didn't want. Just the idea of living without him was enough to try to fix everything that was wrong between them, because she couldn't live without him. He was her everything. And she had found out that the previous night, as she tried to reach him all night to ask him for forgiveness. Finally she had decided to leave him a message on his answering machine saying there was nothing too big that they couldn't work pass through, that she couldn't and didn't want to live without him in her life, and that Mark was her friend and nothing more. She had even consider cutting Mark out of her life, it wasn't worth risk her relationship with Ross because of him.

She had decided to take a break from work to spend the whole evening with Ross, cuddling in bed, kissing and making love. But before going to Ross' she stopped by the Central Perk to grab a cup of coffe. She entered the coffe house and looked at the couch where the gang used to hang out, there was a couple there and she didn't want to disturb them, so she approached to the counter where Gunther was cleaning and smiled at him widely. He would probably think she was crazy, but she didn't care, she couldn't stop smiling

"Hey Gunther!!" she greeted

"Hello Rachel!!" replied the blond hair man, looking at her weirdly "how... how are you?"

"Fine... great... couldn't be better" she said smiling

"Really? I thought you'd be crushed"

"Why?" asked Rachel weirdly

"Well... I heard about you and your boyfriend..."

"We fixed that" said Rachel interrupting him "there's nothing too big that we can't work out Gunther, we love each other way too much". She had no idea why she was telling him all this. But she felt like a teenage girl in love, and wanted to shout it to the whole world

"Wow... I never thought you would forgive him that easily. I remember when you worked here and that costumber you used to serve called Mary... you yelled at him like crazy for cheating on you... remember?" asked Gunther

"Yes... I do remember that. But what does that to do with this? I mean... the agument Ross and I had last night was kind of my fault... I was the one who asked him that damn break"

"And what about the fact that he slept with that Chloe girl from the copy place? I don't think that could be your fault"

"What?!" asked Rachel confused. She had no idea what Gunther was talking about

"Oh, you didn't know it?" he said smiling to himself

"What?... no... that... that... can't be true... no" she said walking away from the counter, not wanting to believe what Gunther was telling her. It couldn't be true. They had worked everything out that morning, they were gonna spend the rest of the day together. Ross would never do that to her. "Can... can you bring me a latte please?" she asked to a waitress as she sited on the little table by the window, with her eyes fixed on Gunther, not believing why he would came up with such a big fat lie.

In that same moment Ross had stomed into the coffee house, so fast that he didn't notice Rachel's presence. She wanted to run to him and tell him everything about Gunther's lie. But she didn't. The second she saw his face she knew there was something wrong, so she stood there, waiting for whatever that was going to happen.

"Gunther!" she heard him calling out the man behind the counter "please tell me you didn't say anything to Rachel about me and the girl from the copy place" said Ross

"I'm sorry. Was I not supposed to?" answered Gunther, and went back to clean the counter.

Ross turned around and saw Rachel sited by the window. She wasn't crying, but just by the look in her eyes he could tell she was hurt, she was devasted, and it was everything his fault

***END FLASHBACKS***END FLASHBACKS***

Both remainded silent. Rachel was still crying. Ross stepped closer to her and hugged her once again, trying to confort her. He wanted to kiss all her pain away. But how could he do that when it seemed that loving her so much was what was hurting her so much. Ross carried her by the hand to the couch area. They sitted. Ross looked at her looking for answers. He found none. She just looked at her hands, still crying.

"Can you... can you explain me... how?" he asked her, breaking the silence

She looked at him and asked "Why do you keep acting like you had feelings for me when you don't?"

"What are you talking about Rachel?"

"It's always the same thing, 'we are just friends Rach'; 'we shouldn't mix up feelings, for Emma's sake'; 'it was just a mistake, I'm sorry'... why?... why do you keep playing with me like this?"

"Rach... after that kiss YOU were the one who said we were just friends, nothing more. I just wanted to make it easy on you ok?" he said standing from the couch and pacing around

"I never said that!!... you were the one who went to my apartment to tell me it was a mistake!!"

"But you told Charlie that day... you told her we were just friends!"

"Of course Ross!!. She was your ex-girlfriend, you had broken up with her just the day before. Did you want me to tell her 'you know what Charlie?, Ross and I are much more than just friends... in fact, we kissed last night!'. I didn't even know how you felt about it!! Cause you are the best when it comes to hide your feelings from me"

Ross looked at her and didn't answer

"How many times, along this long way we have walked, we had the chance to get back together?. But no... you were too afraid to tell me anything. You are such a coward!!"

"you are right... I am a coward" he replied softly

"Why?... why are you so affraid of being with me Ross?"

"I'm not affraid of being with you... I'm... I'm affraid of losing you... of hurting you again. Everytime I get the chance to tell you about what I feel , the look on your face when you found out about me and that girl from the copy place pops into my head. So broken, so hurt... I had always hated those guys who made you cried. When we were in highschool, I used to dream I beated all those morrons up. Then, when you came back into my life, it only took me one look at your face to fall in love with you all over again. You have NO idea how much I wanted to hurt Barry and Paolo... and then... all of the sudden, I was no better than them. I hurt you more than anyone before. And I hated myself for that" Ross looked down "I was so thankful when we managed to become friends again... at least I would still have you in my life"

Rachel stood up from the couch and approached to him. He looked so vulnerable, more like a little boy than a 36 years old grown up man. She stood in front of him and hugged him. All this time he had been trying to protect her without caring about what he was going through, without caring about anyone's happyness but hers. And all this time she had been so blind, acusing him of being heartless and unsensitive, when the truth was, he had only taken the wrong way to protect her. As she hugged him, she didn't know if he was crying, but she was.

"I'm sorry... I never... I never knew" she said

"It's ok... it wasn't your fault" he replied

Both got locked on a fulled of love hug. Both wanting to tell each other so many things that they didn't know where to start. But somehow feeling that the hug they were sharing, the contact of their bodies, could say it better than words.

Ross looked at her and she looked back at him, still with their arms around each other. At the same time they reached for the other's lips. Sharing a magical kiss, a healing kiss, a kiss that reasured them there were there, they were awake, they were real, none of them was dreaming, and that they still had a chance to be happy.

Ross broke the kiss just to look into her blue eyes. Those eyes he loved so much, those eyes he had fall in love with 20 years ago were now smiling at him again, smiling like they used to do 6 years ago. And he kissed her again, this time trying to recover all the time lost, knowing that after the kiss, they won't have to worry about what it meant, cause both knew it ment they still loved each other, probably more than ever, probably more that anyone in the world.

They broke the kiss once again and looked into each other's eyes. Without saying a word they headed to Ross' bedroom. They closed the door leaving the past behind, returning to the way it was 6 years ago. But now they weren't remembering, they were living it, enjoying it, sharing it.

TO BE CONTINUE...

If you love this chapter as much as I did.... wich I'm sure you did... you'll know why I said the last one was boaring . Stay tune for what it's going to happen now ;). PLEASE KEEP REVIEWING