I can't believe I said that, Ross thought in horror as Rachel stared at him in dismay. I could kill myself, he thought as the hurt registered in her eyes. He felt the pain they reflected in himself. How could he have said that? He'd hurt her so much...
While nearly everyone else stared in horror at Ross, Chandler and Joey looked back down the aisle to see Emily who was standing open mouthed, halfway down the aisle.
'The bitch,' Chandler growled to himself 'I'm gonna kill her.' He headed towards Emily in unaccustomed fury. She'd done it, she'd ruined Ross and Rachel's wedding day after all. They'd failed to stop her. They'd failed Ross and Rachel.
'I -' Emily began, but Joey who had been closer to her in the first place had grabbed her roughly.
'Oh no you don't, you bitch,' he said, starting to drag her away.
'But I -' Emily began but Chandler had reached her and he slapped her face, the force knocking her back.
'You'd done enough already and you're leaving,' he snarled. Emily was twisting out of Joey's grasp, saying,
'No, you don't under - ' Joey clamped a hand over her mouth and Chandler said,
'We understand all right. You're finished, you're out of here.' She was struggling hard against their restaint, not allowing them to pull her back down the aisle and Joey kicked her legs out from under her so that she fell to the floor. Chandler helped him hold her down and then together they dragged Emily out, kicking and struggling all the way.
Back at the top of the aisle, Rachel had absorbed her shock and horror and slapped Ross.
'How could you?' she screamed, 'How could you do that to me? Say her name? Her name, of all names!' Tears were streaming down her face.
'Rach, I'm sorry, I love you,' Ross pleaded. How could he make this better? Emma, in his mother's arms had started wailing.
'You said her name! Don't tell me you've still got feelings for her?' She had known what that had meant when he'd said her name instead of Emily's, really deep down, even though it had taken him so long to realise it.
'It was the shock,' Ross said. 'I never expected to see her and there she was - I just thought Emily, it can't be her and it just sort of came out. It was the last thing I wanted to say. i never want to say or hear that name again. I'm stupid, that's all.'
'You've got that right,' his father added.
'I love you Rachel, you're the only one, the only one I'll ever love,' Ross continued.
'I've never been so humiliated,' Rachel, turning away. Monica and Phoebe were at her side and stopped her running off.
'Sweetie, don't,' Monica said, with tears in her eyes. 'Don't blame Ross, it's not his fault, blame Emily.' They'd failed, failed dismally. This was the worst thing that could have happened.
'Is this what you call a teeny weeny problem?' Rachel raged, throwing off Monica's grasp. 'Everything's ruined.'
'I'm sorry Rachel,' Monica pleaded, 'I'm sorry, I never meant for this to happen.'
'Hold on,' Ross said, sharply. 'You knew about this?' Rachel suddenly became alert. Had Monica known something about this?
'I'm sorry Ross,' Monica said.
'This is why you've been acting weird?' Rachel asked. Monica nodded.
'What's going on Monica?' Ross demanded.
'Emily was asking for you before the wedding,' Monica said in a small voice.
'She what?!' Ross shouted, making Monica jump back. 'And you didn't think to tell me? Warn me?' Monica burst into tears. He was right to yell at her, she'd done the wrong thing. Everyone had only to look around and see the trouble this had lead to. Phoebe wrapped her arms around Monica protectively.
'Don't blame Monica. Emily was asking all of us where you were. We all decided that if we could keep her away we wouldn't tell you until afterwards. We didn't want to spoil things,' Phoebe said.
'You knew and didn't tell me?' Rachel asked Phoebe feeling shaken. How could her friends have kept a secret like that? Did she have a right to know that Ross's ex was wandering around, looking to cause trouble.
'You all decided to keep it a secret?' Ross asked.
'Yes,' Phoebe said, 'We thought we could keep her away from the wedding. That's why we changed the venue.' She decided that she'd keep Joey's stupidity out of it for now. There was no use in blaming Joey - Emily was responsible for what she did and Phoebe wouldn't let her divide the six of them with blame. 'Somehow, she found out where the wedding was.'
'And she turned up!' Ross said, 'Not to wish us all the best.'
'Obviously not,' Rachel said. Her tears had stopped flowing. She wiped her eyes and realised she had smeared her mascara. She could bet her whole face looked blotchy. She must look a sight. She glanced at the person taking the wedding video and realised they had captured everything. Great. Her big day, her first proper wedding, captured for life in all its awfulness. She felt a surge of anger against Emily. 'She's ruined it. The evil bitch, she must have been plotting to ruin our wedding, ever since she found out about it. I'd like to kick her head in - ' she followed this up with a stream of insults and names her friends didn't realise she even knew, and shocking those guests within earshot. Several children found that their ears were suddenly covered by their parents' and grandparents' hands. 'Everything's ruined,' Rachel said when she ran out of insults. She wanted to cry again but she was out of tears.
'No it's not, we can still get married,' Ross said. 'Everyone's here.' Chandler and Joey hadn't come back.
'We can start without them. They'd want us to start without them, they'd want you to go ahead and get married,' Monica said. 'If you don't get married, Emily will win after all.' Phoebe started trying to get the worst of the mascara smudges away.
'Yes, Rachel,' Phoebe said, 'Emily will win if you do that. You can't let her succeed.'
'Please Rachel?' Ross begged, 'Let's get married. Sure Emily's ruined the video, and your make up, and everyone will talk about this wedding for the rest of our lives, but she hasn't ruined the wedding unless we don't get married. Please, let's get married. We've waited so long for this.' Rachel stood silent in the middle of them all. She loved Ross and she knew he loved her. 'I would do anything for you,' he added. 'And you won't have to ban me from seeing Emily, I'll ban myself.' Rachel looked at him. He was right. It would only be a failure if they didn't go ahead. She'd turned down Paris for him, they had a child together, they had never been off the table. She was going to marry him. What difference would it make if they cancelled today and chose another day? Why should they wait?
'All right,' she said. Chandler and Joey still weren't back but they wouldn't wait. They got married and everyone did a good job of pretending that nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
But Mike asked Phoebe as they were leaving,
'What do you think Emily was going to say?'
'Oh, who cares?' Phoebe answered lightly. But Mike's question nagged at her. Maybe they should care.
AN: Two more to go!