Disclaimer: I don't own Friends

A/N: I've been in a bit of a writing mood lately, so I cranked out another chapter for you guys (and it's actually pretty long!). I guess that's what post-nasal drip does to a person. (Uh, too much info. Sorry.)

These reviews help me so much to keep going. It's good to know people are actually liking what I write. Remember: be honest!

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Emma was bouncing up and down on Rachel's knee as the two sat in the waiting room of the maternity ward. The little girl had her favorite stuffed animal, a dog her 'uncle' Joey had gotten her. "Doggy woof," she said proudly, glancing at her mother for approval.

"That's right," Rachel praised, now letting her knee bounce along with Emma. "Dogs do go 'woof'."

The two-year-old went back to her stuffed dog, and Rachel felt her mind drifting. She stroked Emma's blonde hair unconsciously, remembering when she had been in the same position as Phoebe only two years ago. Back then, she couldn't have even imagined loving anything as much as she loved her daughter.

The light blue doors flew open, and Monica walked briskly into the waiting room, all business. Once spotting her friend, she made her way over to the small couch.

"No Chandler?" Rachel asked of her other friend.

"One of us had to stay with the babies, and Phoebe supposedly requested I come, so here I am." Monica looked around. "Where's Ross?"

"I called him, he should be here soon."

Emma seemed to be getting bored with her stuffed dog, and started trying to wriggle away from her mother. Rachel let her off her lap, and the little girl rushed a foot away to play with one of the children's toys the hospital had left out. Both women watched Emma for a time, something Rachel felt she could do for hours and not get bored with.

Monica turned to Rachel. "I can't believe Phoebe's having a baby. That she keeps this this time," she added. "Have you seen her, or talked to Mike?"

"Yeah, she was just waiting to get to those ten centimeters, which can be a real bitch, by the way, and Mike was with her. She's already at seven."

"Wow, this quick? It took you-"

Monica stopped from the glare she received from Rachel.

The doors burst open again, and this time it was Ross, who was out of breath and looked extremely disheveled. He quickly scanned the waiting room, then made his way over to his sister and fiancée.

"Honey, why are you out of breath?" Rachel asked carefully, watching Ross puff in front of them.

"I couldn't," he panted, "get a cab," pant, "and I didn't want to," pant, "miss it, so I," pant, "ran." Once finished, he collapsed in a chair across from them.

Monica looked as if she were stifling a laugh. "Wow, you must be in good shape. Your classroom building is like, almost two miles away."

"Well Rachel made it sound like Pheebs was giving birth now, and I wanted to be here," Ross replied, his breathing returning to normal.

At those words, Rachel cringed. "Yeah, sorry about that, I was just excited. She still has three centimeters to go."

"Oh," Ross sighed, falling back in defeat.

Emma finally noticed that her father was there. "Daddy!" she chirped, making her way over to him. Ross lifted her up onto his lap.

"Where's Chandler?" he asked.

"With the twins," Monica answered.

Emma began playing with Ross's tie, and Rachel couldn't believe how natural the father and daughter looked together. No matter how often people said Emma looked like her, she saw so much of Ross in their daughter.

Ross caught her eye. "Can you believe two years ago we were doing this?"

"We?" Rachel repeated. "I was the one who had to go through the actual birthing process." She knew the statement wasn't true, but she felt like bickering a bit.

"I stand corrected," Ross said. "Can you believe two years ago," he looked pointedly at her, "you were doing this all by yourself with no help from me at all?"

"Well, I guess you did help a little," Rachel admitted, hiding her smile.

"Yeah, as much fun as watching you two flirt is," Monica interjected, "I'm gonna go check on Phoebe."

She stood up and, after getting the room number from the desk, left the waiting room. Ross lifted Emma and situated himself in the seat his sister had just vacated. Emma settled back against her father's chest. Rachel stroked her daughter's head, thinking that the scene would make a great Kodak moment.

"You did great," Ross said suddenly.

Rachel lifted an eyebrow in confusion. "Uh...thanks? What are you talking about?"

"When you had Emma. You did really great."

"Well..." Rachel said, feeling flustered by his kindness, "I had a supportive coach."

They smiled at each other for so long that a woman waiting by them actually chuckled to herself. Rachel turned away first.

"Ross," she began, voicing what was on her mind, "after Emma was born, and after the whole 'proposal' mess... did you really want to get back together?"

He looked bashful, and Rachel was so glad they could finally talk about all these things that had happened to them without any arguments or resentment. "Yeah, I did."

"Wow. Someone up there really didn't want us together before now," she said.

"I know. I still can't believe all this stuff happened to us while we were apart. It feels like we've always been together now."

Rachel put her hand over his, so that the engagement ring glittered for both to see. "Well, we don't have to worry about that anymore."

"So, did you find your dress?" Ross asked conversationally.

"Uh huh," Rachel said, picturing the dress she had chosen out in her mind, "with Monica and my mom. All that's left is getting Phoebe's dress, and triple-checking everything."

Monica reappeared, this time with a jumpy Mike following behind her.

"She's about to be moved into delivery," Mike told them, dazed.

"Oh, that's great!" Rachel enthused.

"Yeah, good luck," Ross nodded to him.

"Make sure she knows we're all out here," Monica said.

Mike continued to stand rooted to the spot in front of them, staring ahead towards the wall. Monica sighed and turned him, then pushed him towards the doors that led out of the waiting room.

"He's a nervous wreck," Monica said as she turned back to Ross and Rachel.

"Well, this is his first child. He has a right to be nervous," Ross stated.

"I just hope everything goes okay. She's like, a week early," Rachel commented.

XXX

This place has got nothing on Central Perk, Rachel thought as she sipped the hospital coffee she and Monica had just gotten in the cafeteria. They had been waiting almost ten hours, and neither she, Monica, or Ross had left yet. Rachel knew she owed Phoebe; her friend had stayed the whole time when she had Emma.

"This stuff is gross," Monica commented, sniffing at the paper cup that held her coffee. "We should go to the coffee house soon, I haven't been in two weeks."

"Definitely," Rachel agreed, and both women dumped their drinks in the first trash can they passed.

When they returned to the waiting room, Rachel had to smile at the sight before them. Ross and Emma had fallen asleep in such similar positions that she'd swear their daughter copied her father.

"Ah, like father, like daughter," Monica voiced from beside Rachel.

She nodded. "Eerie, isn't it? Hopefully she'll get a few of my qualities."

Monica nodded. "Of course she will. She's like your mini-me, in looks."

Rachel had to agree. There was no doubt at all that Emma was Rachel Green's daughter.

Mike stumbled into the waiting room only seconds after they had arrived back, and both women jumped up at the sight of him. Rachel nudged Ross to wake him up.

"So?" she asked nervously.

"It's...a boy," Mike stated proudly, looking excited and terrified all at once.

"Aw, that's great!"

"Congratulations!"

"Yeah," Mike said, sitting down slowly. "I just...can't believe it. I'm a dad." He began smiling. "I have a son."

"It's a great feeling, isn't it?" Ross clapped Mike on the shoulder with his free hand, the other holding up a sleepy Emma.

"I'm gonna call Chandler, then Joey," Monica said, giving Mike a quick squeeze on the arm.

"Hey, you two can go if you want. Phoebe is just resting now, they said no visitors for a few hours, and it's pretty late already," Mike told them.

"Yeah, we should probably get her home," Rachel said, indicating Emma, who had fallen asleep again on Ross's shoulder.

She hugged Mike tightly, Ross shook his hand, and the two gathered their things to leave.

"We'll find Monica and tell her we're leaving," Ross said. "Congrats again, man."

"Thanks," Mike replied dreamily, standing up and exiting the waiting room.

Rachel glanced at Ross, catching his eye. They smiled at each other, and as they left, Rachel felt his free arm snake around her waist.

XXX

"So, do you want to head over to the hospital now? I don't have class for another hour and a half," Ross asked Rachel as she hung up the phone. They hadn't gotten home until almost eleven the night before because of traffic by the hospital.

"Yeah, sure,"she agreed. "So that was Monica, and she said Joey's flying out in a few days."

"Oh, wow. That's great."

"Yup. And he's staying with them until the wedding."

Ross glanced at her, surprised. "Monica is willingly letting Joey stay with them for a month?" His sister had never seemed to be the most hospitable person in the world, and even when she was, no one really wanted to deal with her for long periods of time.

Rachel was putting some things in her purse. "Uh huh. But I think she said something about keeping him out of the house for most of the time. She really did it to please Chandler."

"Well, that was nice of her," Ross commented. "So Paula is taking Emma for a walk, so we can get going," he said, grabbing the keys.

Glancing up nervously, Rachel's eyes shifted to the door. "Shouldn't we wait until they get back?"

Ross rolled his eyes. "Rach, she's not going to steal our child."

"Hey! She said she's wanted kids for a long time, but doesn't have any! How can we be sure? It-it could be like that movie!"

"What movie?" Ross asked as he pushed Rachel towards the door.

"You know, the one where, uh, the babysitter steals the baby!"

Grabbing her arm now, Ross pulled her out into the hallway. "I left her a note, let's go."

He wondered sometimes how she had gotten so paranoid.

XXX

"He's beautiful," Rachel said softly as she, Ross, and Mike stood by the baby's bassinet. Phoebe was watching on from the bed.

"Yeah," Ross agreed, "He's really great." He glanced at Mike. "What'd you name him?"

"Christopher." Mike stated. "Christopher Michael."

Ross could see Rachel practically melting. "Aw, Christopher Michael Hannigan. You can already tell he's going to have your blonde hair, Pheebs."

"But he has Mike's eyes," Phoebe said as Rachel lifted Christopher and carried him over to his mother.

Ross and Mike looked on for a moment, before Mike turned to Ross, since both women were too busy cooing over the baby. "It's amazing, isn't it? I just can't believe I'm a father."

"You'll get used to it," Ross promised, nodding his head.

"Did you feel like this after your kids were born?"

Ross contemplated the question. "Well, uh, it's hard to compare between the two," he began honestly. "With Ben, it was my first child, so I really didn't know what to expect. But I wasn't going to be his immediate parent; that was Carol. I never wanted to leave him at first, but then I sort of got used to it. I missed a lot of stuff with him."

Mike nodded along sympathetically, but Ross began smiling a bit as he continued, "But with Emma it was different, especially since it was Rachel I had her with. I was around Emma more often for the beginning than I was with Ben, since Rachel and I lived together. And even after she moved out we saw each other every day."

Thinking about his two children brought an even bigger smile to Ross's face. He just couldn't believe how fast they were growing up; Ben was going to be ten in May, and Emma three next October. The two men glanced back at their respective significant others.

"I'm gonna be there for everything with him," Mike said suddenly.

Ross watched Rachel closely. "Good."

XXX