Disclaimer: Nothing is mine here. Except Jeff and Dr.Fisher.
It had been a week since the accident had occurred. And Rachel was finally coming home. Dr.Fisher had decided to keep her there for awhile and get her started with the physical therapy. Rachel hated the physical therapy. It hurt every bone in her body doing the exercises. She so desperately wanted to give up but she didn't. Each day, someone had been there with her. Whether it was Monica during the day and Ross at night or even Joey with a meatball sub during lunch, they had been there for her through it. Now she was finally getting to go home.
"Ready, sweetie?" Ross asked her as he came in followed by a nurse with a wheelchair.
"You bet I am. It'll be so good to get out of this joint and into my own bed." As Ross helped Rachel ease herself into the wheelchair, Dr.Fisher wandered into the room.
"Glad to see you're finally going home, Rachel," Dr.Fisher said.
"You and me both. No offense, but after awhile, this place gets BORING."
Dr.Fisher laughed. "You have no idea how many times I've heard that. I simply wanted to check in on you before you left. You've made some excellent progress with your physical therapy now. You're not walking completely perfect yet and it'll be some time."
"How often are my physical therapy sessions now that I'm out of here?"
"We'll keep you going to the physical therapist every day and than when the therapist thinks you're making enough progress, we'll gradually lessen your time. Before you know it, you won't have therapy anymore and you'll be as good as new."
Rachel sighed. She'd give anything to not have to do this and go back to how things were a week ago. "Sounds good to me."
"Well, here's your first appointment slip. Jeff, your therapist, wants you to come tomorrow at 11. Is that a problem?"
Rachel looked at Ross. "Sweetie, I've got a class tomorrow but don't worry. I talked to Monica and she said she'd take you."
"Okay, you tell this Jeff guy I'll see him at 11 tomorrow. Sharp."
"He's looking forward to it. I'll check in on your progress every once in a while to see how you're doing. Take it easy. I hope I don't have to see you back here...," being interrupted by the beep of her pager. "Excuse me, I'm being paged. Just take it easy Rachel, and within time, you'll feel much better with walking. If you have any questions, don't hesistate to call me or Jeff even."
"Thanks Dr.Fisher. I appreciate it." She than left the room.
"Rach, do you have everything? Take a look around. Make sure everything you have is what you're bringing home."
"Ross, please. You're starting to sound like Monica. I have everything. Monica helped me pack last night and made sure I didn't forget anything. Let's just go home."
Ross grabbed the back of her wheelchair and wheeled her out of the hospital to outside. They got into a cab that was waiting and sped off into the busy city traffic on their way home. As soon as they got in the cab, her head hit Ross's shoulder and she dozed off. He didn't dare to move her, she looked too precious. Finally, when they reached Monica's apartment building, he gently nudged her.
"Rach," he whispered softly. "Wake up."
"Mmm? What? I just had the nicest dream...it was of you."
"Really! Hehe, well, we're home. Come on, let's get inside and see everyone." Meanwhile, at Monica and Chandler's place, they were busy helping Monica get ready for Rachel's welcome home party.
"Phoebe, make sure the flowers in her room are fresh. Chandler, move any of your porn magazines into the bedroom. Joey, get these damn Rolos out of my couch!" Monica was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off.
"Sweetie, you got to relax,"Chandler said as he kissed her head. "This is Rachel that is coming home. Not the freaking President of the United States."
"This is not the time for jokes. I'm sorry, I just want everything to be perfect. She's had a rough enough week. I just thought anything special would help cheer her up. Joey, don't eat those cookies! You'll spoil your appetite." She slapped his hand away from the chocolate chip cookies.
"Chandler, you should learn to control your woman. Tell her a man's gotta eat."
Phoebe came into the living room from Rachel's room and announced, "All done!"
"With what?" Monica pried.
"Rachel's room. I made sure the flowers had water, fluffed her pillows." She noticed Joey and Chandler were sniffing the air. "And oh, I lit some vanilla candles!"
"Oh, good. Hopefully the curtains or something won't catch on fire," Monica said. She heard a little giggle behind her and turned around, realizing Rachel and Ross were behind her. "Hey Rach. Welcome home!" They all went in to give her a little hug. It took Joey a tad longer than usual to realize why she was still in a wheelchair.
"Hey, um, Rach?" "Yeah?" "You're not um, paralyzed....right?"
"Oh, you mean the wheelchair? No," she stated. "I'm not a hundred percent steady with the walking yet so this is just to get around."
"How much more time are you going to be stuck in it?" "Hopefully not too long. My butt is already starting to fall asleep! So, Mon, what'd you make? Hopefully it's better than that food they tried to feed me at the hospital."
"Hey," Joey said. "I liked that food. It was good!"
Bewildered, Chandler asked, "Joey, why would you eat her food?" "She was sleeping. I didn't want it to go to waste." They all just shook their heads at him while Rachel laughed.
"It's okay, Joe," she said with a laugh.
"Come on everyone," Monica interjected. "Let's eat before this food gets cold."
Chandler helped wheel Rachel over to the table and everyone followed. Except Ross. He stood back and just observed his surroundings.
Monica stopped and saw him looking at everything. "Ross?" she asked.
"Yeah?"
"Something the matter?"
"No, everything is perfect. I just can't be thankful enough that she's home and everything is going smoothly."
"I know," she said hugging her big brother. "It's good to have her with us."
"Hey Ross," Rachel called from the table. "You better get over here and get some food before Joey eats it all." Joey was sitting next to Phoebe and shoving the ziti Monica baked into his mouth by huge portions. Monica and Ross couldn't help but laugh. That was just one of the many things Joey normally did. They both walked over and before he even sat down, he planted a kiss on Rachel's head, inhaling the scent of her coconut shampoo. Then, he simply wrapped his arms around her.
"So good to have you here sweetie," he whispered.
"I know. I feel the same way," she whispered back. Ross took his seat next to her and the gang had one of their usual times together.
The night went by fast and it seemed too short. Sound asleep, Rachel was woken up by the knocking on her door. Something she did not want to hear this early in the morning. She looked over at her alarm clock and noticed it was 9:45AM. She groaned and plopped her face back into the pillow.
"Rach?" Monica called from outside her door.
Grumbling, she turned back over. "What?"
"Can I come in?"
"Sure." Monica came in and sat down on the bed. "Feel like breakfast? We've got a little time before you have to go to physical therapy. I made you chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, toast, squeezed some fresh orange juice. How about I bring it to you in here?"
"No, Mon. That's fine. I'll come eat out in the kitchen since there can't be any crummies in the bed. Help me up into the chair, will ya?"
She helped her best friend into the wheelchair and out into the kitchen they went. They munched on the yummy food Monica prepared and than Rachel got ready to go to her therapy appointment. ------------------------- "Hello, you must be Rachel," said Jeff. "I'm Jeff, your physical therapist."
"Hi. This is my friend Monica."
"Nice to meet you Monica. Well, Rachel, how ambitious are you?"
"Pretty ambitious....I guess. Why?"
"Well, I just want to know how hard I'm going to have to push you to get you out of that chair or if you're going to push yourself to do it."
Rachel laughed. "I want to get the hell out of this thing!"
"Then let's get to work," Jeff said with a smile.
"Monica, you're welcome to stay and watch."
"Thanks, I'll take a seat over there," pointing to where she planned on sitting.
"So first, we're going to start doing some exercises to help you build up your strength and endurance again."
"Alright buddy, let's get cracking!" Rachel joked. And away they went with the therapy session. ----------------------- "How'd the therapy go today, sweetie?" Ross asked Rachel later that night at dinner.
"Excellent. I really like the guy. He's very agressive and that's good considering I want to be back walking again very soon." "Good I'm glad. When's your next appointment with him?"
"Tomorrow at 3. I switched it from 11 hoping you could come to this session."
"I wouldn't miss it for the world," he told her. ------- Each time as her therapy sessions went by, Rachel kept making progress. She was so ecstatic with the progress. Only three weeks after coming home from the hospital she got rid of using the wheelchair. The day that happened Ross took her out to dinner to celebrate. Even Jeff was thrilled with the progress.
"Rachel, this is just amazing," he said to her one day at one of her sessions after she got rid of the wheelchair. "I've never seen one of my patients work so hard to get back to the way they were before."
"Well," she said, "I just couldn't let myself down and just wanted to not be stuck in a bad mood for many weeks. I think my friends and boyfriend would get sick of me."
"Well, you're doing awesome. Just a few more weeks and you should be done!"
--------------- More weeks of physical therapy passed and Rachel was finally done with it. "I'm so happy!" she cried bouncing around at her session.
"You should be," commented Jeff. "You made incredible progress and according to your boyfriend Ross and the rest of your friends, you seem to be back to yourself."
"Thanks so much for your help, Jeff," she said. "You don't know how much I appreciate it."
"Hey, I was just doing my job," he told her. "And plus, you had that little fiesty attitude most days that made you work ten times harder than most of my other patients. You should go out and celebrate your recovery."
"Thanks, I will," she said as she noticed Ross coming into the room with Dr.Fisher.
"Hey, sweetie!" she called to him. He walked over and gave her a kiss. "Rachel, glad to see you're finally back to yourself," Dr.Fisher told her. "Yeah, I don't feel like Humpty Dumpty anymore!" They all laughed.
"Well, just wanted to say goodbye and wish you the best of luck with everything. I've got another patient waiting so I've gotta scoot," the doctor said. They waved goodbye and than she left.
"Thanks so much for helping Rachel," Ross said while shaking Jeff's hand. "It's means so much to everyone that she's still here and now back to walking."
"Well it was a pelasure to work with her. I wish you the best of luck with everything, Rachel," Jeff told her.
"Thanks." She turned to Ross and hooked her arm through his. "Let's go home," she whispered lightly in his ear. ---------------- "So good to be walking again," Rachel commented as her and Ross headed into the apartment building. "I feel like a brand new person. Does that seem strange to you," she asked him.
"Not at all. You're still the same beautiful girl I have loved since I was fifteen. And I don't think anything can change that...again," he said with a smile. "Come on. I know Mon probably has a big dinner prepared for us."
They rushed up to the apartment and walked through the door. Mon was busy setting the table by herself since Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe seemed so involved watching something so they wouldn't have to help. "Hey guys. I'm baccccck!" she squealed in delight. The three looked from the TV set and saw it was her.
"Hey Rach!" Phoebe squealed like a school girl and ran to hug her. After a round of hugs from all of them, Mon came and grabbed her best friend. The two were in a tight embrace. "Come on Rach, want something to eat? You must be starving," she said as she dragged Rachel into the kitchen with Phoebe not far behind.
As the three girls stood in the kitchen and talked amongst themselves, Ross followed Chandler and Joey over to the couch. "It's so great to see Rachel this happy again," Joey commented. "I can't remember the last time I saw this much joy on her face." "I can," Chandler said.
Ross was intrigued. "Really? When?"
Clearing his throat, "When you asked her back out around New Years eve, man. We all knew something was going to happen."
"You all knew?!"
"Yea, even Joey knew something was firing up between the two of you," Chandler joked.
"Yep, it's true," Joey commented. "But Ross, what are you going to do now?"
"What do you mean, Joe?"
"Like do you just want to date her for awhile. Or are you going to go further and eventually propose?"
"Well, you know I though a lot about this ever since the accident," he said as he looked over his shoulder at the girls in the kitchen, hoping they weren't hearing the conversation.
"You know, it just felt so right. I mean, her and me. We just fit together. I've actually thought about this alot and I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna propose to her."
Chandler and Joey were totally shocked by this. "Are you sure Ross," Chandler questioned him. "This'll be like...your third marriage."
"Totally sure. I mean look at her. She's everything I've always wanted and more. So when she goes back to work, I'm going looking for rings. I can't wait to ask her. I just hope the answer is yes." ------------- AN: Sorry for such a long chapter! I figured it was worth it and needed because the next one will probably be the last for this fic. Please read & review! Thanks! ;)
It had been a week since the accident had occurred. And Rachel was finally coming home. Dr.Fisher had decided to keep her there for awhile and get her started with the physical therapy. Rachel hated the physical therapy. It hurt every bone in her body doing the exercises. She so desperately wanted to give up but she didn't. Each day, someone had been there with her. Whether it was Monica during the day and Ross at night or even Joey with a meatball sub during lunch, they had been there for her through it. Now she was finally getting to go home.
"Ready, sweetie?" Ross asked her as he came in followed by a nurse with a wheelchair.
"You bet I am. It'll be so good to get out of this joint and into my own bed." As Ross helped Rachel ease herself into the wheelchair, Dr.Fisher wandered into the room.
"Glad to see you're finally going home, Rachel," Dr.Fisher said.
"You and me both. No offense, but after awhile, this place gets BORING."
Dr.Fisher laughed. "You have no idea how many times I've heard that. I simply wanted to check in on you before you left. You've made some excellent progress with your physical therapy now. You're not walking completely perfect yet and it'll be some time."
"How often are my physical therapy sessions now that I'm out of here?"
"We'll keep you going to the physical therapist every day and than when the therapist thinks you're making enough progress, we'll gradually lessen your time. Before you know it, you won't have therapy anymore and you'll be as good as new."
Rachel sighed. She'd give anything to not have to do this and go back to how things were a week ago. "Sounds good to me."
"Well, here's your first appointment slip. Jeff, your therapist, wants you to come tomorrow at 11. Is that a problem?"
Rachel looked at Ross. "Sweetie, I've got a class tomorrow but don't worry. I talked to Monica and she said she'd take you."
"Okay, you tell this Jeff guy I'll see him at 11 tomorrow. Sharp."
"He's looking forward to it. I'll check in on your progress every once in a while to see how you're doing. Take it easy. I hope I don't have to see you back here...," being interrupted by the beep of her pager. "Excuse me, I'm being paged. Just take it easy Rachel, and within time, you'll feel much better with walking. If you have any questions, don't hesistate to call me or Jeff even."
"Thanks Dr.Fisher. I appreciate it." She than left the room.
"Rach, do you have everything? Take a look around. Make sure everything you have is what you're bringing home."
"Ross, please. You're starting to sound like Monica. I have everything. Monica helped me pack last night and made sure I didn't forget anything. Let's just go home."
Ross grabbed the back of her wheelchair and wheeled her out of the hospital to outside. They got into a cab that was waiting and sped off into the busy city traffic on their way home. As soon as they got in the cab, her head hit Ross's shoulder and she dozed off. He didn't dare to move her, she looked too precious. Finally, when they reached Monica's apartment building, he gently nudged her.
"Rach," he whispered softly. "Wake up."
"Mmm? What? I just had the nicest dream...it was of you."
"Really! Hehe, well, we're home. Come on, let's get inside and see everyone." Meanwhile, at Monica and Chandler's place, they were busy helping Monica get ready for Rachel's welcome home party.
"Phoebe, make sure the flowers in her room are fresh. Chandler, move any of your porn magazines into the bedroom. Joey, get these damn Rolos out of my couch!" Monica was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off.
"Sweetie, you got to relax,"Chandler said as he kissed her head. "This is Rachel that is coming home. Not the freaking President of the United States."
"This is not the time for jokes. I'm sorry, I just want everything to be perfect. She's had a rough enough week. I just thought anything special would help cheer her up. Joey, don't eat those cookies! You'll spoil your appetite." She slapped his hand away from the chocolate chip cookies.
"Chandler, you should learn to control your woman. Tell her a man's gotta eat."
Phoebe came into the living room from Rachel's room and announced, "All done!"
"With what?" Monica pried.
"Rachel's room. I made sure the flowers had water, fluffed her pillows." She noticed Joey and Chandler were sniffing the air. "And oh, I lit some vanilla candles!"
"Oh, good. Hopefully the curtains or something won't catch on fire," Monica said. She heard a little giggle behind her and turned around, realizing Rachel and Ross were behind her. "Hey Rach. Welcome home!" They all went in to give her a little hug. It took Joey a tad longer than usual to realize why she was still in a wheelchair.
"Hey, um, Rach?" "Yeah?" "You're not um, paralyzed....right?"
"Oh, you mean the wheelchair? No," she stated. "I'm not a hundred percent steady with the walking yet so this is just to get around."
"How much more time are you going to be stuck in it?" "Hopefully not too long. My butt is already starting to fall asleep! So, Mon, what'd you make? Hopefully it's better than that food they tried to feed me at the hospital."
"Hey," Joey said. "I liked that food. It was good!"
Bewildered, Chandler asked, "Joey, why would you eat her food?" "She was sleeping. I didn't want it to go to waste." They all just shook their heads at him while Rachel laughed.
"It's okay, Joe," she said with a laugh.
"Come on everyone," Monica interjected. "Let's eat before this food gets cold."
Chandler helped wheel Rachel over to the table and everyone followed. Except Ross. He stood back and just observed his surroundings.
Monica stopped and saw him looking at everything. "Ross?" she asked.
"Yeah?"
"Something the matter?"
"No, everything is perfect. I just can't be thankful enough that she's home and everything is going smoothly."
"I know," she said hugging her big brother. "It's good to have her with us."
"Hey Ross," Rachel called from the table. "You better get over here and get some food before Joey eats it all." Joey was sitting next to Phoebe and shoving the ziti Monica baked into his mouth by huge portions. Monica and Ross couldn't help but laugh. That was just one of the many things Joey normally did. They both walked over and before he even sat down, he planted a kiss on Rachel's head, inhaling the scent of her coconut shampoo. Then, he simply wrapped his arms around her.
"So good to have you here sweetie," he whispered.
"I know. I feel the same way," she whispered back. Ross took his seat next to her and the gang had one of their usual times together.
The night went by fast and it seemed too short. Sound asleep, Rachel was woken up by the knocking on her door. Something she did not want to hear this early in the morning. She looked over at her alarm clock and noticed it was 9:45AM. She groaned and plopped her face back into the pillow.
"Rach?" Monica called from outside her door.
Grumbling, she turned back over. "What?"
"Can I come in?"
"Sure." Monica came in and sat down on the bed. "Feel like breakfast? We've got a little time before you have to go to physical therapy. I made you chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, toast, squeezed some fresh orange juice. How about I bring it to you in here?"
"No, Mon. That's fine. I'll come eat out in the kitchen since there can't be any crummies in the bed. Help me up into the chair, will ya?"
She helped her best friend into the wheelchair and out into the kitchen they went. They munched on the yummy food Monica prepared and than Rachel got ready to go to her therapy appointment. ------------------------- "Hello, you must be Rachel," said Jeff. "I'm Jeff, your physical therapist."
"Hi. This is my friend Monica."
"Nice to meet you Monica. Well, Rachel, how ambitious are you?"
"Pretty ambitious....I guess. Why?"
"Well, I just want to know how hard I'm going to have to push you to get you out of that chair or if you're going to push yourself to do it."
Rachel laughed. "I want to get the hell out of this thing!"
"Then let's get to work," Jeff said with a smile.
"Monica, you're welcome to stay and watch."
"Thanks, I'll take a seat over there," pointing to where she planned on sitting.
"So first, we're going to start doing some exercises to help you build up your strength and endurance again."
"Alright buddy, let's get cracking!" Rachel joked. And away they went with the therapy session. ----------------------- "How'd the therapy go today, sweetie?" Ross asked Rachel later that night at dinner.
"Excellent. I really like the guy. He's very agressive and that's good considering I want to be back walking again very soon." "Good I'm glad. When's your next appointment with him?"
"Tomorrow at 3. I switched it from 11 hoping you could come to this session."
"I wouldn't miss it for the world," he told her. ------- Each time as her therapy sessions went by, Rachel kept making progress. She was so ecstatic with the progress. Only three weeks after coming home from the hospital she got rid of using the wheelchair. The day that happened Ross took her out to dinner to celebrate. Even Jeff was thrilled with the progress.
"Rachel, this is just amazing," he said to her one day at one of her sessions after she got rid of the wheelchair. "I've never seen one of my patients work so hard to get back to the way they were before."
"Well," she said, "I just couldn't let myself down and just wanted to not be stuck in a bad mood for many weeks. I think my friends and boyfriend would get sick of me."
"Well, you're doing awesome. Just a few more weeks and you should be done!"
--------------- More weeks of physical therapy passed and Rachel was finally done with it. "I'm so happy!" she cried bouncing around at her session.
"You should be," commented Jeff. "You made incredible progress and according to your boyfriend Ross and the rest of your friends, you seem to be back to yourself."
"Thanks so much for your help, Jeff," she said. "You don't know how much I appreciate it."
"Hey, I was just doing my job," he told her. "And plus, you had that little fiesty attitude most days that made you work ten times harder than most of my other patients. You should go out and celebrate your recovery."
"Thanks, I will," she said as she noticed Ross coming into the room with Dr.Fisher.
"Hey, sweetie!" she called to him. He walked over and gave her a kiss. "Rachel, glad to see you're finally back to yourself," Dr.Fisher told her. "Yeah, I don't feel like Humpty Dumpty anymore!" They all laughed.
"Well, just wanted to say goodbye and wish you the best of luck with everything. I've got another patient waiting so I've gotta scoot," the doctor said. They waved goodbye and than she left.
"Thanks so much for helping Rachel," Ross said while shaking Jeff's hand. "It's means so much to everyone that she's still here and now back to walking."
"Well it was a pelasure to work with her. I wish you the best of luck with everything, Rachel," Jeff told her.
"Thanks." She turned to Ross and hooked her arm through his. "Let's go home," she whispered lightly in his ear. ---------------- "So good to be walking again," Rachel commented as her and Ross headed into the apartment building. "I feel like a brand new person. Does that seem strange to you," she asked him.
"Not at all. You're still the same beautiful girl I have loved since I was fifteen. And I don't think anything can change that...again," he said with a smile. "Come on. I know Mon probably has a big dinner prepared for us."
They rushed up to the apartment and walked through the door. Mon was busy setting the table by herself since Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe seemed so involved watching something so they wouldn't have to help. "Hey guys. I'm baccccck!" she squealed in delight. The three looked from the TV set and saw it was her.
"Hey Rach!" Phoebe squealed like a school girl and ran to hug her. After a round of hugs from all of them, Mon came and grabbed her best friend. The two were in a tight embrace. "Come on Rach, want something to eat? You must be starving," she said as she dragged Rachel into the kitchen with Phoebe not far behind.
As the three girls stood in the kitchen and talked amongst themselves, Ross followed Chandler and Joey over to the couch. "It's so great to see Rachel this happy again," Joey commented. "I can't remember the last time I saw this much joy on her face." "I can," Chandler said.
Ross was intrigued. "Really? When?"
Clearing his throat, "When you asked her back out around New Years eve, man. We all knew something was going to happen."
"You all knew?!"
"Yea, even Joey knew something was firing up between the two of you," Chandler joked.
"Yep, it's true," Joey commented. "But Ross, what are you going to do now?"
"What do you mean, Joe?"
"Like do you just want to date her for awhile. Or are you going to go further and eventually propose?"
"Well, you know I though a lot about this ever since the accident," he said as he looked over his shoulder at the girls in the kitchen, hoping they weren't hearing the conversation.
"You know, it just felt so right. I mean, her and me. We just fit together. I've actually thought about this alot and I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna propose to her."
Chandler and Joey were totally shocked by this. "Are you sure Ross," Chandler questioned him. "This'll be like...your third marriage."
"Totally sure. I mean look at her. She's everything I've always wanted and more. So when she goes back to work, I'm going looking for rings. I can't wait to ask her. I just hope the answer is yes." ------------- AN: Sorry for such a long chapter! I figured it was worth it and needed because the next one will probably be the last for this fic. Please read & review! Thanks! ;)