Title: The Open Road
Author: Kaitlyn
Summary: "I've got some beer and the highway's free, and I got you and baby you got me."
Rating: PG
In this chapter, I'm assuming that the scene near the end of TOW The Race Car bed where Ross and Dr. Green actually get along during the luncheon never happened.
****************************************************************************
"Honey, you look fine! Stop fidgeting, you're making me nervous!" Rachel pulled down the mirror on the passenger's side of the Explorer, checking her hair and make-up one last time before pulling up to the restaurant. Ross had been tense all afternoon about this dinner with her father. Tonight was when they were going to tell him about their plans to get married. He had changed his outfit three times that night and had spent longer in the bathroom getting ready than SHE had. He had finally decided on the dark blue button-up dress shirt with the black slacks and yellow tie. She had to admit, it complimented him quite nicely. He was ruining the affect, however, with his obvious restlessness. If she were going to be honest, she felt sorry for him. She knew he wanted so badly to befriend her father, but he had always been so intimidated by him. After all, he father had always been an intimidating person.
"Sweetie, everything's going to be fine! We'll drink some wine, we'll order dinner, and before you know it, he'll be offering to pay for the entire wedding himself!" Ross threw her a doubtful sideways glare. They were not sitting in the parked car along the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, both waiting for the other to take the initiative and actually walk inside.
"I don't know. Remember last time we had dinner? I got stuck with a $200 bill and a new nickname!" His voice was doing that high whiney thing. She knew he was REALLY uneasy when he started with that. In hopes of easing some of the tension, she slid one hand up his leg and offered him a sexy, knowing stare.
"I thought you liked that nickname...Mr. Big Shot." This got him smiling. He took her hand in his and brought it to his lips.
"Okay, fine. Let's go." As they were getting out of car, he stopped and looked back at her.
"But if the next nickname starts with "little", I'm going home!"
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The inside of the restaurant was beautiful. Neither of them had ever been there before, but Dr. Green had suggested it. They saw him immediately when they walked in the front door. He was seated in a booth near the back, right besides a decorative crystal waterfall that stood in the corner. Rachel waved exuberantly, grabbing Ross' reluctant hand and practically dragging him towards the table. Her father smiled, opening his arms to embrace her.
"How's my princess been?" He glanced at Ross, narrowing his eyes slightly- not in a threatening manner, but just to size him up. Ross nodded, actually making a somewhat successful attempt at smiling. Ross extended his hand.
"Good evening, sir." Dr. Green nodded, but declined to shake his hand.
"Uh huh." The three sat, picking up their menus. There was a dead silence for a good 30 seconds, which went almost unnoticed by Rachel and her father, but seemed like an eternity for Ross. He was breaking into a sweat. For some reason, he felt an overwhelming need to entertain the other two.
"Don't worry, sir. I don't think this place even has lobster." What? he thought to himself. Why did I say that? He probably doesn't even remember that from the last time! What an idiot!
"They have tips, though," Dr. Green quipped, not even looking up from his menu. Okay, so maybe he did remember. Ross looked over at Rachel, who not looked possibly even less comfortable than he did. She cleared her throat.
"You know, daddy, Ross isn't working at the museum anymore." This seemed to grab his attention. He looked up over the top of his menu at Ross from behind his glasses, his face completely void of any emotion.
"What, did you get fired?"
"No, actually, he's working at NYU now. He's a professor there." Dr. Green's eyes returned to the menu. He was painfully unimpressed.
"What's a teach? A class on how to calculate tips in your head?" Ross could feel himself losing it. After one look at Rachel, though, he began calming himself. She looked so hopeful that they could just work past this and share the good new with her father. She laid one hand on her dad's arm.
"Now, daddy, that was a long time ago, and you taught him a valuable lesson. Can't we just forget about that and talk about something else?"
"Sure, pumpkin, we can talk about anything you want!" Rachel smiled, feeling some of the tension relieve itself from her.
"Okay, good." She wracked her brain in a desperate attempt at picking a subject that would boost Ross' image.
"Oh, you know, Ross is traveling to New Mexico in a few weeks on an excavation!" He looked Ross in the eyes, his face still emotionless. It was impossible to gage what he was thinking.
"Ah, running off on a dig to leave my daughter to fend for herself for a few months, eh Mr. Big Shot?" Ross' temper began to set again. He tried with all of his willpower to control it. He clenched his fists, which sat in his lap.
"No, sir. It's not as if she'll be playing homemaker. She has a lot of..." He was cut off.
"The what? Homemaker?" The blood drained completely from Ross' face. He swallowed deeply. Dr. Green looked over at Rachel. Wrong thing to say.
"Homemaker? Are you two living together?" Rachel bit her lip, not sure of what to say. There was no tactful way of going about it. She knew her father, and he was about to lose it. He removed his glasses, his eyes intensifying their death-stare on Ross.
"Are you meaning to tell me that you've been living with my princess out of wedlock?" After a moment of Ross' silence, he raised his voice.
"Answer me, Geller! You think you can just have your way with her and then, and then just DUMP her when you're done!?" He was practically screaming.
"Daddy, stop it, you're making a scene! It's not like that!"
"Then tell me how it is, Rachel Karen Green! I'd expect behavior like this out of your sisters, but not you!" Ross spoke for the first time in several minutes.
"Sir, it's not like that at all. I love your daughter very much. That's actually something I wanted to..." He was cut off again.
"Let me tell you something, Geller! I don't like you! I don't want you to have anything to do with my daughter! What you do on your own time is your business, but I won't have you treating my daughter like some whore!" That was the last straw. Ross lost it.
"Excuse me, sir, but your daughter is 28 years old! She's not a child anymore, and she can do whatever she damn well pleases!" Ross slid his chair away from the table, blind with anger. He stood, punctuating his speech.
"Now, I love your daughter! In fact, I'm SO goddamn in love with her that I agreed to come here tonight, even after being insulted and humiliated by you on several previous occasions, just because I wanted her to be happy! In fact, I'd do ANYTHING to make her happy! That's why I'm marrying her!" The entire restaurant was silent. Everyone in the room had stopped eating and now all served as onlookers to the quarrel.
"What did you say?" Dr. Green asked, staring up at Ross with utter disbelief painted across his face.
"That's right! I'm marrying her! I proposed a few weeks ago, and we've already started planning it! Now, we CAME here tonight intent on telling you and counting on your being civil and happy for us! But if that's just TOO damn hard for you- if you refuse to even make an ATTEMPT at liking me- then you don't have to come!"
Ross looked down at Rachel, who sat with her face buried in her hands. She had not said a word through the entire thing. Dr. Green just stared at him in shock. There was nothing left to say. With that, he took his jacket from the back of his chair, turned on his heels, and existed the restaurant.
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About 45 minutes later, Rachel emerged from the restaurant. Ross watched her from the car as she walked towards it. She looked completely spent. Stands of her hair had fallen from the meticulously fixed and intricate bun that sat atop her head. It was cooler than when they had first set out that evening and she was still wearing a strapless dress, so she hugged herself tightly. He could not tell if she had been crying. His guess was that she had been. He hung his head and closed his eyes. He knew that what he had done had been emphatic and immature. He knew then that he had probably been in the wrong. Even with as incorrigible as Rachel's father was, he had no place to say the things that he did. Rachel probably hated him. He had screwed this one up big time.
When she opened the door to the car and climbed inside, he did not even looked up at her. To the naked eye, he was not even aware of her presence. On the inside, though, he was screaming. He wanted to say so many things to her. He wanted her to say so many things to him. He wasn't exactly sure what was to come next, but he knew that it wasn't going to be good or easy.
He kept his eyes fixed to his lap. With his tie hanging loosely from around his neck and the top button of his collar undone, he looked slightly disheveled. Even his usually precisely styled hair was tossed and messy. He looked just as tired as she did. Depending on how the rest of the meal went with her father, however, he wasn't sure he could claim to feel as tired. Finally, he cocked his head slightly to the side and glanced at her from the corner of his eye. He had to admit, he was more than a little relieved to find that she wasn't crying. Part of him had been expecting it, and he honestly didn't know if he would have been able to handle that. Instead, she was just sitting there, her face devoid of sentiment. She looked lost in though- undoubtedly suspended in her recount and analysis of what had just taken place. He couldn't stand the silence any longer. Even if yelling at him would have been preferable. Slowly, he extended his arm and placed his hand over hers where it sat on her thigh. She didn't looked at him. The gesture didn't even register, as far as he was concerned. She just swallowed deeply and continued her bank stare. Her deep breath triggered his.
"I'm sorry." That was all he could think to say. He knew it wasn't all he WANTED to say, but there was nothing else in his mind. Everything else got lost in the translation between his heart and his brain, and those were the only two words that he could find. For the first time since she'd entered the car, she looked at him. Her face was pale and still showed no signs of emotion. He could usually read her like a book, but there was nothing to read this time.
"You always are." He nodded. He didn't really know why he did it. It was the worst form of self damnation- passive agreement. He didn't care, though. He knew it was true. He was always sorry. That's because he was always messing up. He waited for her to say something else, but instead, she just turned her attention back to the windshield. He didn't want the conversation to end that way. They had to fix this. He had to let her know what he had been thinking- how he'd been feeling. Maybe then she would understand. He squeezed her hand.
"Look, Rachel, I..."
"I know, Ross. You don't know what you were thinking, right?" He didn't say anything. She scoffed.
"Well, that makes two of us." She turned her head the completely opposite direction now, directing her attention out of her passenger's side window. She wasn't looking at anything. She just couldn't look at him. It was silent for another few minutes
"Rach, you have to understand..." She whirled her head back around to meet his gaze.
"...that you love me? That you're sorry? That it won't happen again? Which one is it this time, Ross? How many times can you let your temper get the best of you and say things that you don't mean before you run out of excuses?" He couldn't let himself get defensive. That's exactly what this was about- his pride and his anger. She inhaled deeply, trying to suppress the tears that were welling up.
"God, Ross, he's my father! Of course he doesn't like you! He doesn't like you because you're not perfect! You're not good enough for his 'little princess'! He doesn't like you because you're sleeping with me! He doesn't like you because we're living together! But mostly, Ross? Mostly he doesn't like you because he knows that you're replacing him!" She was crying freely now. Tears rolled down her face, staining her cheeks. He felt like such an ass.
"It's not the gel in your hair, or your boring job, or the fact that you tip too much! It's because he knows that day has come when his daughter- his little girl- has found another man who she loves just as much as him! And you couldn't keep your temper in check long enough to tell him that we're going to be spending the rest of our lives together!" She buried her head in her hands, her shoulders taking violently with her tears. This was the worst torture he could ever experience. He partly wished that she would just jump into his seat and run him over with the damn car. That would have been better than knowing that he had caused her to cry. ANYTHING was better than that.
"Just drive us home, Ross." And so he did.
Author: Kaitlyn
Summary: "I've got some beer and the highway's free, and I got you and baby you got me."
Rating: PG
In this chapter, I'm assuming that the scene near the end of TOW The Race Car bed where Ross and Dr. Green actually get along during the luncheon never happened.
****************************************************************************
"Honey, you look fine! Stop fidgeting, you're making me nervous!" Rachel pulled down the mirror on the passenger's side of the Explorer, checking her hair and make-up one last time before pulling up to the restaurant. Ross had been tense all afternoon about this dinner with her father. Tonight was when they were going to tell him about their plans to get married. He had changed his outfit three times that night and had spent longer in the bathroom getting ready than SHE had. He had finally decided on the dark blue button-up dress shirt with the black slacks and yellow tie. She had to admit, it complimented him quite nicely. He was ruining the affect, however, with his obvious restlessness. If she were going to be honest, she felt sorry for him. She knew he wanted so badly to befriend her father, but he had always been so intimidated by him. After all, he father had always been an intimidating person.
"Sweetie, everything's going to be fine! We'll drink some wine, we'll order dinner, and before you know it, he'll be offering to pay for the entire wedding himself!" Ross threw her a doubtful sideways glare. They were not sitting in the parked car along the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, both waiting for the other to take the initiative and actually walk inside.
"I don't know. Remember last time we had dinner? I got stuck with a $200 bill and a new nickname!" His voice was doing that high whiney thing. She knew he was REALLY uneasy when he started with that. In hopes of easing some of the tension, she slid one hand up his leg and offered him a sexy, knowing stare.
"I thought you liked that nickname...Mr. Big Shot." This got him smiling. He took her hand in his and brought it to his lips.
"Okay, fine. Let's go." As they were getting out of car, he stopped and looked back at her.
"But if the next nickname starts with "little", I'm going home!"
****************************************************************************
The inside of the restaurant was beautiful. Neither of them had ever been there before, but Dr. Green had suggested it. They saw him immediately when they walked in the front door. He was seated in a booth near the back, right besides a decorative crystal waterfall that stood in the corner. Rachel waved exuberantly, grabbing Ross' reluctant hand and practically dragging him towards the table. Her father smiled, opening his arms to embrace her.
"How's my princess been?" He glanced at Ross, narrowing his eyes slightly- not in a threatening manner, but just to size him up. Ross nodded, actually making a somewhat successful attempt at smiling. Ross extended his hand.
"Good evening, sir." Dr. Green nodded, but declined to shake his hand.
"Uh huh." The three sat, picking up their menus. There was a dead silence for a good 30 seconds, which went almost unnoticed by Rachel and her father, but seemed like an eternity for Ross. He was breaking into a sweat. For some reason, he felt an overwhelming need to entertain the other two.
"Don't worry, sir. I don't think this place even has lobster." What? he thought to himself. Why did I say that? He probably doesn't even remember that from the last time! What an idiot!
"They have tips, though," Dr. Green quipped, not even looking up from his menu. Okay, so maybe he did remember. Ross looked over at Rachel, who not looked possibly even less comfortable than he did. She cleared her throat.
"You know, daddy, Ross isn't working at the museum anymore." This seemed to grab his attention. He looked up over the top of his menu at Ross from behind his glasses, his face completely void of any emotion.
"What, did you get fired?"
"No, actually, he's working at NYU now. He's a professor there." Dr. Green's eyes returned to the menu. He was painfully unimpressed.
"What's a teach? A class on how to calculate tips in your head?" Ross could feel himself losing it. After one look at Rachel, though, he began calming himself. She looked so hopeful that they could just work past this and share the good new with her father. She laid one hand on her dad's arm.
"Now, daddy, that was a long time ago, and you taught him a valuable lesson. Can't we just forget about that and talk about something else?"
"Sure, pumpkin, we can talk about anything you want!" Rachel smiled, feeling some of the tension relieve itself from her.
"Okay, good." She wracked her brain in a desperate attempt at picking a subject that would boost Ross' image.
"Oh, you know, Ross is traveling to New Mexico in a few weeks on an excavation!" He looked Ross in the eyes, his face still emotionless. It was impossible to gage what he was thinking.
"Ah, running off on a dig to leave my daughter to fend for herself for a few months, eh Mr. Big Shot?" Ross' temper began to set again. He tried with all of his willpower to control it. He clenched his fists, which sat in his lap.
"No, sir. It's not as if she'll be playing homemaker. She has a lot of..." He was cut off.
"The what? Homemaker?" The blood drained completely from Ross' face. He swallowed deeply. Dr. Green looked over at Rachel. Wrong thing to say.
"Homemaker? Are you two living together?" Rachel bit her lip, not sure of what to say. There was no tactful way of going about it. She knew her father, and he was about to lose it. He removed his glasses, his eyes intensifying their death-stare on Ross.
"Are you meaning to tell me that you've been living with my princess out of wedlock?" After a moment of Ross' silence, he raised his voice.
"Answer me, Geller! You think you can just have your way with her and then, and then just DUMP her when you're done!?" He was practically screaming.
"Daddy, stop it, you're making a scene! It's not like that!"
"Then tell me how it is, Rachel Karen Green! I'd expect behavior like this out of your sisters, but not you!" Ross spoke for the first time in several minutes.
"Sir, it's not like that at all. I love your daughter very much. That's actually something I wanted to..." He was cut off again.
"Let me tell you something, Geller! I don't like you! I don't want you to have anything to do with my daughter! What you do on your own time is your business, but I won't have you treating my daughter like some whore!" That was the last straw. Ross lost it.
"Excuse me, sir, but your daughter is 28 years old! She's not a child anymore, and she can do whatever she damn well pleases!" Ross slid his chair away from the table, blind with anger. He stood, punctuating his speech.
"Now, I love your daughter! In fact, I'm SO goddamn in love with her that I agreed to come here tonight, even after being insulted and humiliated by you on several previous occasions, just because I wanted her to be happy! In fact, I'd do ANYTHING to make her happy! That's why I'm marrying her!" The entire restaurant was silent. Everyone in the room had stopped eating and now all served as onlookers to the quarrel.
"What did you say?" Dr. Green asked, staring up at Ross with utter disbelief painted across his face.
"That's right! I'm marrying her! I proposed a few weeks ago, and we've already started planning it! Now, we CAME here tonight intent on telling you and counting on your being civil and happy for us! But if that's just TOO damn hard for you- if you refuse to even make an ATTEMPT at liking me- then you don't have to come!"
Ross looked down at Rachel, who sat with her face buried in her hands. She had not said a word through the entire thing. Dr. Green just stared at him in shock. There was nothing left to say. With that, he took his jacket from the back of his chair, turned on his heels, and existed the restaurant.
****************************************************************************
About 45 minutes later, Rachel emerged from the restaurant. Ross watched her from the car as she walked towards it. She looked completely spent. Stands of her hair had fallen from the meticulously fixed and intricate bun that sat atop her head. It was cooler than when they had first set out that evening and she was still wearing a strapless dress, so she hugged herself tightly. He could not tell if she had been crying. His guess was that she had been. He hung his head and closed his eyes. He knew that what he had done had been emphatic and immature. He knew then that he had probably been in the wrong. Even with as incorrigible as Rachel's father was, he had no place to say the things that he did. Rachel probably hated him. He had screwed this one up big time.
When she opened the door to the car and climbed inside, he did not even looked up at her. To the naked eye, he was not even aware of her presence. On the inside, though, he was screaming. He wanted to say so many things to her. He wanted her to say so many things to him. He wasn't exactly sure what was to come next, but he knew that it wasn't going to be good or easy.
He kept his eyes fixed to his lap. With his tie hanging loosely from around his neck and the top button of his collar undone, he looked slightly disheveled. Even his usually precisely styled hair was tossed and messy. He looked just as tired as she did. Depending on how the rest of the meal went with her father, however, he wasn't sure he could claim to feel as tired. Finally, he cocked his head slightly to the side and glanced at her from the corner of his eye. He had to admit, he was more than a little relieved to find that she wasn't crying. Part of him had been expecting it, and he honestly didn't know if he would have been able to handle that. Instead, she was just sitting there, her face devoid of sentiment. She looked lost in though- undoubtedly suspended in her recount and analysis of what had just taken place. He couldn't stand the silence any longer. Even if yelling at him would have been preferable. Slowly, he extended his arm and placed his hand over hers where it sat on her thigh. She didn't looked at him. The gesture didn't even register, as far as he was concerned. She just swallowed deeply and continued her bank stare. Her deep breath triggered his.
"I'm sorry." That was all he could think to say. He knew it wasn't all he WANTED to say, but there was nothing else in his mind. Everything else got lost in the translation between his heart and his brain, and those were the only two words that he could find. For the first time since she'd entered the car, she looked at him. Her face was pale and still showed no signs of emotion. He could usually read her like a book, but there was nothing to read this time.
"You always are." He nodded. He didn't really know why he did it. It was the worst form of self damnation- passive agreement. He didn't care, though. He knew it was true. He was always sorry. That's because he was always messing up. He waited for her to say something else, but instead, she just turned her attention back to the windshield. He didn't want the conversation to end that way. They had to fix this. He had to let her know what he had been thinking- how he'd been feeling. Maybe then she would understand. He squeezed her hand.
"Look, Rachel, I..."
"I know, Ross. You don't know what you were thinking, right?" He didn't say anything. She scoffed.
"Well, that makes two of us." She turned her head the completely opposite direction now, directing her attention out of her passenger's side window. She wasn't looking at anything. She just couldn't look at him. It was silent for another few minutes
"Rach, you have to understand..." She whirled her head back around to meet his gaze.
"...that you love me? That you're sorry? That it won't happen again? Which one is it this time, Ross? How many times can you let your temper get the best of you and say things that you don't mean before you run out of excuses?" He couldn't let himself get defensive. That's exactly what this was about- his pride and his anger. She inhaled deeply, trying to suppress the tears that were welling up.
"God, Ross, he's my father! Of course he doesn't like you! He doesn't like you because you're not perfect! You're not good enough for his 'little princess'! He doesn't like you because you're sleeping with me! He doesn't like you because we're living together! But mostly, Ross? Mostly he doesn't like you because he knows that you're replacing him!" She was crying freely now. Tears rolled down her face, staining her cheeks. He felt like such an ass.
"It's not the gel in your hair, or your boring job, or the fact that you tip too much! It's because he knows that day has come when his daughter- his little girl- has found another man who she loves just as much as him! And you couldn't keep your temper in check long enough to tell him that we're going to be spending the rest of our lives together!" She buried her head in her hands, her shoulders taking violently with her tears. This was the worst torture he could ever experience. He partly wished that she would just jump into his seat and run him over with the damn car. That would have been better than knowing that he had caused her to cry. ANYTHING was better than that.
"Just drive us home, Ross." And so he did.
