Disclaimer: I don't own Friends

A/N: Sorry the chapter took so long to get out. I've had so much to do, what with school starting, and homework, and a job, and just real life in general (I totally watched the Joey premiere).

The reviews are great.

XXX

Rachel glanced around Monica and Chandler's living room, where the whole group was lounging, minus Chandler and Joey. She thought how nice it was that they all could come together for this dinner, and was becoming steadily nervous at telling she and Ross's news.

"The dinner was a good idea, Rach. Glad you thought of it," Monica said from her lazy position in an armchair.

"Well, I know how much you like hosting things," Rachel replied from where she was nestled against Ross, knowing they never could've pulled something off like this at the apartment.

Phoebe nodded. "The food was great, Mon." She patted her stomach. "The baby liked it."

"Which is a real compliment," Mike said as he put an arm around Phoebe's shoulders. "Since she can't seem to find anything that agrees with her."

"It sounds like when you were pregnant with the triplets," Rachel noted, also remembering the days when most foods would make her throw up. She still couldn't eat tuna.

"Yeah," Phoebe agreed. "Man, I must've eaten thirty cows easy during that pregnancy." She shuddered slightly.

Monica checked her watch and sighed. "I feel kind of bad for making Chandler do a diaper-run this late. We never run out of diapers!"

Ross scoffed. "What, do you have a magic diaper closet or something?"

Rachel hid her smile as Monica glared at her older brother. She loved her friends.

The door opened at that moment, and Chandler entered with two bags, looking annoyed. Monica jumped up quickly to greet him.

"Diapers are here!" she shouted as she grabbed the bags from her husband.

Chandler let out a breath. "Oh no, I didn't mind running out in the middle of our dinner party to get diapers. You're so welcome," he said sarcastically.

Monica kissed his cheek absently. "Thanks. I'm gonna go put these in the twins' room."

Rachel sat up slightly, glancing at Ross. He nodded, letting her know that now was the time to tell them.

"Uh, Mon, before you go into 'organize' mode," Rachel started, "we'd like to share something." She took Ross's hand and they grinned at each other.

"You're not pregnant again, are you?" Monica asked seriously.

Rachel was surprised her friend would ask this, and wasn't sure if she should take offence or laugh. "What? No!"

"Okay," Monica said. Everyone gave her an odd look. "I just wanted to be sure!"

"Actually," Ross cut in, "we're uh, we're engaged."

Rachel waited for everyone to react as she kept her smile in place. It took them all a moment to absorb this, and the next thing she knew, she was being surrounded by the group, being asked to show off the ring on her left hand, which she had been skillfully avoiding using all evening.

"I knew this would happen eventually!" Phoebe announced proudly. "Took longer than I expected," she added, "but no one's perfect."

"Yeah, I guess you were right. We are each other's crabs." Ross grinned at Phoebe, who looked as if she was debating something for a second.

She decided on hugged him. "It's lobster, but whatever! I'm so happy for you guys!"

Mike shook Ross's hand as Rachel got her own hug from Phoebe. "Congrats, man. I didn't even know you guys way back when, but I've heard the story, and I'm happy you two are finally getting married. Again."

Rachel's eyebrows rose as she heard this. Phoebe shrugged. "I taught our history well."

Monica had latched on to Rachel, and she finally got free. "So you guys don't think this is too fast?" she asked honestly.

Chandler chuckled. "You two? This has been coming for years. And it looks like I just lost $20." His eyes grew wide when he realized what he'd said.

"Uh, why?" Ross questioned curiously.

"Uh, nothing. I just lost $20 on...diapers." Chandler shifted uncomfortably. "We weren't betting on you two or anything," he added, ashamed.

"Oh, yeah, tell them, Chandler!" Monica said, annoyed.

Rachel shook her head as she thought back to three years ago. "And suddenly I'm having flashbacks to the last days of my pregnancy..."

XXX

Emma made a gurgling sound as Rachel and Ross entered the apartment later that night. Rachel set down her coat and carried their daughter into her room, lying her in her crib and tucking her blanket over her.

Rachel heard Ross follow her in as she stroked Emma's head as the little girl slept. Ross came up beside her.

"I can't believe she's gonna be two soon," Rachel said wistfully as she watched her angel sleep. She still sometimes couldn't believe she had this wonderful child.

"I know," Ross agreed softly. "It seems like just yesterday I was rapping to get her to laugh."

Rachel tried to resist rolling her eyes at the memory, but couldn't help it as she and Ross exited Emma's room, shutting the door quietly behind them. The two entered their bedroom.

"Tonight went really well," Ross said as he sat on the bed and began to remove his shoes.

Taking her earrings off, Rachel nodded. "Yeah, it really did. I just wish Joey had been there."

"Monica did make us call him."

"I know, but it isn't the same as seeing him in person," Rachel said as she sat next to Ross and took off her heels.

When they had called Joey from Monica and Chandler's house, he had taken the news of the engagement quite well. Rachel knew that they were pretty much past the awkward phase of their post-breakup, if you could even call it that. Some part of her had always known it wouldn't work with Joey, and yet she had still persisted with her feelings for him because everyone had someone, which had really been starting to bug her. Deep down, she had always considered Ross to be the guy she could picture herself with; that guy had never been Joey. It was really mostly attraction, she concluded.

Done with her musings, Rachel tuned back into what Ross was saying. "He promised to fly out for the wedding and officiate." Ross stopped a moment, then asked, confused, "Why did we agree to that again?"

Rachel stood and threw her shoes in Ross's closet that she had pretty much taken over. She felt so tired. "Because Monica and Chandler, and Phoebe and Mike, had him do theirs, so we'd be like, odd-men-out if he didn't do ours."

"Right," Ross said as he lied back on the bed with a yawn.

"Now we just gotta tell our parents," Rachel sighed after a short silence as she changed out of her skirt and into some pajamas. She took her place beside Ross on the bed, her eyelids growing heavy.

Ross had his eyes closed, but still managed a guffaw. "Oh, this is gonna be great for your father's heart condition," he said sarcastically.

"He likes you!" Rachel protested, then considered. "A little bit." She thought a bit more, then went on, "Not as much because of when we saw him in the hospital. Or when you got me pregnant."

"Well, my parents will be thrilled. Maybe we should tell them last," Ross said, changing the subject off Rachel's father.

"We'll tell my dad first," Rachel decided as she yawned widely and closed her eyes, burrowing closer to her boyfriend.

As she drifted off into sleep, Rachel heard Ross mumble, "Great," as he slung an arm around her.

XXX

"There's still time to run," Ross muttered as he entered Rachel's childhood home.

Rachel rolled her eyes while she pushed Emma's stroller into the large living room. "Ross, please,"she said as she glanced around, thinking back to the days she had once called this place home. "Daddy! It's me!" she called loudly.

Leonard Green entered the living room and smiled at his oldest daughter. But his smile turned to a frown when he spotted who she was with.

"Why're you here?" He asked Ross as he approached the two.

Rachel shook her head and hugged her father. "Daddy, I told you, Ross and I are back together."

"Sure, for how long this time?" Dr. Green questioned. Rachel resisted the urge to roll her eyes for the second time in two minutes.

Ross was smiling tightly. "Nice to see you too, Dr. Green," he said as politely as possible.

Rachel was proud of him, since her boyfriend and father had never really gotten along. Towards the end of her relationship with Ross, Dr. Green had come to an understanding of his daughter's feelings for the man, but after the horrible break-up, he had never really forgiven Ross. And then he had gotten her pregnant and they hadn't gotten married, so that hadn't really helped much either.

"Yeah," Rachel's father muttered, ignoring Ross for the most part. He bent slightly to see Emma sleeping in her stroller. "Well, look how big she's getting!"

"Yeah, she's growing fast," Rachel agreed, not wanting to think about her little baby aging quickly. "She'll be two in a week."

Dr. Green nodded, and stood again, glancing between Ross and Rachel. He then sat down with a sigh. "So, is this a social call, or is there a reason you two decided to drive all the way here to visit me?"

"Actually, there is," Ross said affirmatively, then waited for a moment. "Rach, how 'bout you tell him." He shrank behind her slightly.

"You're not pregnant again, are you?" Dr. Green asked his daughter in an accusing tone.

Rachel mouthed soundlessly for a minute. "No! Why does everyone keep asking me that?!" She was really starting to wonder about this. Did she look pregnant? Was it peoples' way of telling her she was getting fat?

She pushed these thoughts away for the moment, and sat beside her father, resting a hand on his arm. "Daddy, Ross and I are...uh, getting married." Rachel flashed the ring on her left hand, giving a visual to her statement.

Both she and Ross waited on bated breath as Dr. Green looked back and forth between the couple. Rachel saw Ross timidly catch her father's gaze, knowing he wanted to stay strong in front of this intimidating man.

Rachel almost fell back as her father hugged her quickly after nodding once. "Good for you, Rachel," he said, not sounding excited, but not sounding angry either.

"You mean it?" she asked.

"Yes. Congratulations, sweetie," he replied, seeming genuine, though Rachel was never sure. "And Ross."

"Uh, yes?" Ross stood at attention now, taking a step closer to his fiancée.

Dr. Green shook the younger man's hand. "Don't mess up this marriage like your past three."

"Thanks," Ross said dryly.

"Well! This calls for a celebration! Drinks all around!" Rachel's father announced.

Rachel shook her head. "Daddy, I thought you weren't supposed to be drinking since the heart attack," she said softly.

"Right, of course," he said, deflated. "How about some, uh, sparkling water," he unenthusiastically offered.

"I'll get it," Ross said quickly, and Rachel could tell he was looking for an out from the room.

He left before anyone could disagree, and Rachel took this moment of her father's distraction to examine the ring Ross had given to her. It wasn't exactly simple; it seemed like it may have cost a lot of money when his grandmother got it. It looked like an heirloom-type object, and Rachel knew this ring would be passed down throughout their family, most likely to Emma next, unless she and Ross had more kids. Then it'd have to be given fairly to the child who was either getting engaged first, or if Emma or another daughter of theirs' boyfriend asked to present it to them...

Whoa, where'd these 'more children' thoughts come from? She wondered suddenly.

"Are you happy?"

Her father's question shook Rachel back to reality. She wasn't twenty-five years in the future, suddenly watching her daughter (daughters? sons? She didn't know anymore.) get engaged; she was in her childhood house's living room with her father, having just announced her own engagement to the man she had loved for ten years, though it seemed longer.

"I'm really happy, daddy," she said genuinely, knowing she never felt happiness like this before.

"Good." Dr. Green watched his oldest daughter. "And now I actually get to walk one of my girls down the aisle,"he said.

"Oh, you'll do it again," Rachel replied absently, then looked back on the matter of her two flighty sisters and changed her mind, "Well, maybe not."

Rachel's father sighed. "So, what'd your mother say when you told her?"

"Actually, Ross and I decided to tell you first."

"Thank you," Dr. Green said, sounding almost touched. He smiled slightly at Rachel, then cleared his throat when things were getting mushy and shook his head. "How long does it take a man to pour three glasses?! I'm going to check on him."

He stood and left for the kitchen, and Rachel smiled after him, glad that she had actually achieved her goal of getting her father's approval of marrying Ross.

She turned to watch Emma sleep soundly in her stroller, the little girl unaware of the big changes going on around her. "That wasn't so bad, huh?"

Ross's head poked out from behind the wall that separated the living room from the kitchen. "Save me!" he said pleadingly, then disappeared again when Dr. Green began admonishing him.

Rachel chuckled to herself. One down, three to go.

XXX