Bloomingdales

The next morning, the other staff elevator ground to a halt with five people in it and the technicians were called in to fix.

'We need the other one working too,' the Saturday manager said. 'Will you do that one now?'

'No-one's stuck in that elevator?' asked the technician asked.

'Of course not, we knew it was going wrong so we put Out of Order signs on it yesterday and sent out a staff memo.'

'What out of order signs?' the technician asked.

'Oh,' said the manager, 'These signs keep falling off,' he said picking the fallen sign up and sticking it back on the door. 'Anyway it doesn't matter because the doors won't open anyway.' He jabbed the elevator button. 'See?'

'I'll fix them both,' the technician said.

Monica's

'The police must start taking it seriously now,' Ross said. No-one had gone home and Ross had just called his apartment, yet again, getting no answer.

'It isn't twenty four hours Ross,' Chandler said.

'But there's two of them missing - it's twice as serious!' Ross exclaimed. It was now ten o'clock in the morning and it was very clear that Rachel was missing. However good a night she had had - especially if she had had a good night - she would be Monica's kitchen telling her all about it.

Suddenly the phone rang. Monica was closest and answered it.

'Rachel! Where've you been?' The others crowded close to the phone but they couldn't understand what Rachel was saying and Monica's side of 'yes' 'yes' 'omigod' didn't help them work out what it was. Monica hung up.

'She wants us to meet them at Central Perk.' She looked stunned.

'Them?' Chandler asked.

'Emily's with her.'

'Emily was with Rachel?' said Ross and Joey at once.

'They've been stuck in the elevator at Bloomingdales all night.'

Ross, Monica, Chandler, Joey and Phoebe reached Central Perk first.

'I can 't believe it, they were together all this time,' Phoebe said.

'And they're coming here together,' Monica said. Together. Just then, Rachel and Emily both looking exhausted walked in. Ross jumped up and hugged Emily tight. Monica followed suit with Rachel.

'Come on you guys, sit down,' Monica urged. 'We can't believe you were stuck all night.'

'Yeah, neither could we,' Rachel said. She was next to Monica and Emily was next to Ross but Rachel and Emily were also next to each other. No-one seemed to have contrived that and neither Emily nor Rachel seemed to have a problem with it. Monica frowned.

'So you two have become friends?' Monica asked.

'Whatever gave you that idea?' Emily asked.

'No way,' Rachel said.

'If we talked to each other it was because there was no-one else to talk to,' Emily said.

'Believe me, we looked for other people,' Rachel said.

'Very hard,' Emily added. Ross and Monica looked at each other, not sure whether they really meant it. Emily and Rachel seemed very relaxed.

'Oh,' Monica said.

'Well what are we waiting for?' Rachel asked. 'We want coffee - '

'Tea, at once.' Emily cut.

'Don't make us wait,' Rachel said. 'We've been through a terrible ordeal and we need comforting right away.' Chandler jumped up to give the order.

'How did the interview go?' Emily asked Ross.

'I messed up,' Ross said.

'Oh darling,' Emily hugged him. 'I'm sure you didn't, you're being too modest. You must have been the cleverest person they interviewed.'

'No I was the stupidest. I got some names wrong.'

'What?' Both Emily and Rachel spoke together.

'You know how I was supposed to give McFadyen the credit for that idea? I gave it to Quist instead.'

'How did that happen?' Emily asked, mystified.

'He just turned up, in the corridor. I was so surprised to see him.' Emily stared at him while Rachel looked at the floor.

'So you said the wrong name,' Emily slowly, 'By accident.'

'It was the last thing I wanted to do,' Ross said.

'I see,' Emily said. She hugged him again. 'My poor darling. But it's not the end of the world and there are other jobs.'

'Yeah,' Ross said. Maybe he'd feel better about it in a year or two.

'What about this Quist person? He might be able to help.' That idea hadn't occurred to him yet. It was a good one and he kissed Emily lightly on the lips. 'And this McFadyen person should understand that...' she tailed off. 'Accidents happen.' She finished. She suddenly felt so overcome with shyness that she buried her face in Ross's shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her. His eyes met Rachel's over Emily's head and they shared a smile. Things really weren't that bad.