Disclaimer: Amazing, isn't it? After ten chapters, I still don't own Friends.

A/N: It's over. Hard to believe, for me. This is probably my favorite story I've written so far. You all have been wicked awesome in your reviewing, and keeping me going, and giving me incredible feedback that I've immensely enjoyed.

This epilogue is just something pretty short, and hopefully sweet, to finish off the story. I'll let you all guess when it takes place (it isn't that hard to figure out).

Thanks for reading.

-Kate

XXX

Finally.

As I think back, that's the only word I can articulate that would capture that moment perfectly.

Finally.

Finally, not only do I have an amazing, beautiful daughter, the best of friends, but now, also, the greatest man in the world. My other half. My soul mate. My "lobster".

My Ross.

He's belonged to me for years, and I've belonged to him. And finally, we really, truly, belong to each other.

He grabs my hand easily as we enter the elevator, and, only a few floors up, I feel his gaze on me, and lift my head to look at him. He's smiling a killer smile, and I blush, knowing he knows I'm thinking about him.

He lifts my hand to his lips and kisses it softly.

I melt.

The elevator dings and the doors open. We step out, and he places a protective hand on the small of my back, gently guiding me towards his apartment door. Well, I guess it's my apartment now, too.

Our apartment. That sounds really good.

He opens the door, and the teenage girl from a few doors down we had babysitting Emma stands, greets us, makes a bit of small talk before reluctantly accepting some money from Ross for her service, and then leaves. Emma is napping peacefully on the couch.

We just came back from Central Perk. After a tearful goodbye to the apartment I've called my real home since I came into the city as a young, spoiled girl wearing a wedding dress, totally dependant on other people, me, Ross, Monica, Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe all had one last cup of coffee together in our hangout spot. Then, we had another long goodbye, this time wishing well the new parents and their twins as they left for their house in Westchester, the newlyweds as they departed to spend the rest of the day together, and to our favorite actor as he bid farewell to call his sister in California.

Now, it's just me, Ross, and Emma. The thought isn't as scary as I thought it would be.

Ross exits to the kitchen to whip up some lunch for us as I sit down on the couch next to my sleeping daughter. I spot a photo album, fresh from Monica as a parting gift, on the coffee table in front of me, and decide this is the perfect time to delve into a nostalgic mood.

The front cover declares it as, "Reminiscing". My eyes water up a bit just at the word, because Monica had given this to me at my 'bon voyage' party. If Ross hadn't shown up at the airport in time, right now I'd probably be sitting in my new apartment, boxes everywhere, looking through this photo album and crying my eyes out at how much I missed my friends.

The first few pages are filled with candid shots of the group right after I moved in with Monica. I have to hand it to the woman; she organized this book very well, as it goes in chronological order.

I pause over a picture of Ross and I right after we initially got together, and smile slightly.

I chuckle over one of Phoebe playing her guitar at Central Perk.

I shake my head with amusement over a photo of Joey eating a sandwich and smiling at the camera with the food he was chewing for all to see.

I sigh as I pass by ones of Monica and Chandler, before they got together.

The pictures keep growing more familiar by the page. I let my eyes rest on a snapshot taken right after Emma was born. I'm sitting in the hospital bed with the baby in my arms, oblivious about what was going to happen to me within the following two years.

When I come upon a picture of Joey and I that I remember from our short time of "dating", I almost cringe. I don't know why I let things get so complicated back then with him. It was probably because Ross had turned me away.

I skip by the few shots that include Charlie in the background that I know Monica probably didn't mean to put in the album.

Emma's first birthday. I grin and glance at the girl, who's gotten even bigger. She's waking up slowly and rubs her hands over her eyes tiredly.

The last picture is of the six of us (plus Mike), taken by Gunther in Central Perk. Was it really taken only a week prior to today? We're all sitting in an order I should've realized was foreshadowing future events: Joey sitting in a chair by the small table on the farthest left, Monica leaning comfortably against Chandler on the couch, Phoebe and Mike beside them, still starry-eyed in their newlywed stage, and then Ross and I sitting together on the armchair. Well, it was more like I had fallen into the armchair while he was sitting in it, and we had just decided to stay like that.

"What're you looking at?" Ross asks from behind me, carrying three plates, each with a sandwich on it.

"Oh, just the photo album Mon gave me," I tell him, and he sits beside me, setting the sandwiches on the coffee table and taking the photo album from my lap and placing it in his own. I lean on his shoulder, letting my head rest in the crook of his neck. I've missed being like this with him.

"It's a good picture," he decides, and then sets it back on the table and turns to me to give me a quick kiss.

Emma crawls closer to us and tries to reach for her sandwich. Ross chuckles and gives her the plastic Elmo plate she's come to love as I brush a few stray blonde hairs away from her face.

We watch her quietly, with adoration only two parents can really exhibit towards their child.

"I love you," Ross says quietly, and I turn towards him, not expecting this.

I smile slowly. "I love you too."

"Have I told you how glad I am you got off the plane?" he asks as he takes my hand and kisses it, just like in the elevator.

I shrug, pretending to consider. "Once or twice."

I know this is really it. I can feel it to the tips of my fingers and down to my toes. This is where I belong, and this is where I'm going to stay.

And when I reflect back on this moment years from now, thinking of all the other times before this one, and what it took us to get here, I'll have only one word to express how I feel:

Finally.

XXX

End.