[I like David much better than Mike, and I hated the way that David was brushed aside in the season finale. So Phoebe is going to have to agonize over that decision some more. We've seen David so rarely that I don't think I have a good handle on his speech patterns, so you'll have to excuse me if he sounds out of character here.]

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Ross returned to his hotel room to shower and pack his bags, but to his shock, he found David the physicist sitting on the bed, staring sadly at the engagement ring that he had bought for Phoebe.

Ross was just as bewildered as when Mike showed up for the keynote speech yesterday. "David? I, uh, I thought you were gone already."

David shook his head miserably. "No, um, I-I couldn't get an earlier flight from Barbados, so I had to stick around here. I couldn't even get another hotel room because this island is all booked up with paleontologists and pharmacists and girlfriend-stealing, ex-lawyer piano players."

"Oh," Ross frowned. "So you spent the night here?"

David nodded. "Yeah, um, when Monica came to tell Phoebe last night about you and Rachel getting back together, they realized that your room would be empty, so I could stay here."

"I see. But where did you spend the night before?"

David winced in agony. "With Phoebe and Mike. You see, they--they had pity on me since I had no place else to go. They gave me the couch while they slept in the bed and promised not to have sex in front of me."

"What?! That's--ugh!" Ross could imagine how awful that night must have been.

Wretched and heartbroken, David started to break down. "Just--just the fact that they were together, snuggling on the heart-shaped bed, with the m-mirrors on the ceiling..." Phoebe had specifically asked for this romantic room when she and David checked into the hotel. To find himself replaced by Mike so quickly was unbearable torture.

Although Ross didn't know David that well, he went to hug him and hand him some tissues. "Oh my God! Why didn't you guys just tell me? I would have let you stay here with me."

"No, it--it was the night before your big speech. You didn't need me keeping you up all night with my crying."

Ross felt horrible and squeezed his shoulder sympathetically. "I'm really, really sorry, David. So very sorry. If I had known--"

David shrugged sadly. "It's--it's just the way my luck's been going lately. My research failed, I lost a toe to frostbite, and I--I lost the love of my life." He sighed heavily. "And now I have to take back this pathetic ring."

Ross glanced at the engagement ring and noticed how tiny the diamond was, but unlike Chandler, he didn't comment on it. He was reminded of the time when his own life started to fall apart--losing his wife Emily, his apartment, and his job in quick succession. Ross hoped that David wouldn't start showing signs of mental instability. "Wow, uh, you--you really were serious about proposing to her, huh? After only a few weeks."

"It wasn't only a few weeks. Not to me. I've been in love with her for eight years, and now, finally it seemed like our timing was right, and I just wanted to make sure that we'd be together forever. But then that--that Mike guy had to come back and ruin everything! What does she see in that guy? Why couldn't she just forget about him?"

Ross shrugged. "I don't know. Between you and me, I think he's boring. I mean, I spent one night trying to get to know him, and we had nothing to talk about. At least with you and me, we could talk about science stuff."

David nodded. "I guess--I guess she must've started thinking of me as just a friend, like you, Ross."

"Maybe. Look, David, when we're back in New York, why don't I put you in touch with some physics professors at NYU? If they can't get you a job, at least you can make some friends or find somebody to date."

David wasn't keen on dating again, but he appreciated Ross's gesture. "Thanks. That's, that's nice of you."

"The least I can do. Come on, we've got to get ready to go, or we'll be late."

"Okay."

***

At the airport, everyone gathered for the flight home to New York, and the atmosphere was tense and uncomfortable, due to all the couple swapping. Charlie stood in a corner, pointedly ignoring both Joey and Ross, while David did the same with respect to Phoebe and Mike. Kate Miller couldn't come to see Joey off, but Joey still talked about her to Monica and Chandler, and was very excited.

Leaving Mike for a moment, Phoebe came over and told David, "Mike has to wait for a standby flight, so I'm gonna stay and fly back with him. You'll be all right?"

David tried to put on a brave face for her. "Yeah. I'm fine. Ross is gonna try to get me a new job at NYU."

"Oh really? That's great! Good luck." She made a mental note to thank Ross for this kindness. He really was a great friend.

"I-I guess this is goodbye, then."

She nodded and squeezed his hand. "Goodbye." After a hesitation, she leaned in to kiss his cheek.

Mike cleared his throat behind her. It was bad enough that Phoebe had insisted on him staying in the hotel room with them that one night, but did she have to keep touching him too?

David closed his eyes and couldn't help whispering, "If you ever leave him--"

"No, no," she interrupted quickly. "Shh. I'm sorry, David. But it was great what we had, you know."

David let go of her reluctantly and turned away.

Phoebe went back to Mike and they left the gate together, calling out "See you later" to the others.

David sunk down on a chair again and tried not to cry in public. Charlie finally stopped pacing around and sat down beside him. "So you got dumped too?" she asked.

David nodded.

Charlie said angrily, "You know, Rachel even lied to me and said that Phoebe was the one who had a crush on Joey. And Ross lied to me about being married only once. If you ask me, those two deserve each other!"

David wasn't really listening.

Charlie vented more of her frustration and disappointment, then the flight began boarding, so the whole group got up and got on the plane. Ross and Rachel sat together, then Monica, Chandler, and Joey. On the other side of Phoebe's empty seat, David and Charlie sat together.

Charlie sighed and said to David, "Anyway, enough about me. Why don't you say something, huh? Come on, get it all out about Phoebe. It'll make you feel better."

David shook his head. "Nothing could make me feel better. Nothing but Phoebe dumping Mike and coming back to me. She already chose him over me before. Why did she have to do it again? Why?"

"She picked him before?"

David nodded and explained how the love triangle extended back months earlier, when he'd come back from Minsk. "I-I couldn't stay with her then, so of course she chose him. But I thought this time, when I was back for good, she'd pick me."

"When did you guys first meet?"

"Eight years ago, at the coffee shop. She was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen. She's still--still--" He choked up, and Charlie patted his arm comfortingly.

"Wow. Eight years. That's a long time."

David sighed. "I never should have left for Minsk, but she told me to go, and I loved her for it, and if we had just known each other a little longer, I would have asked her to come with me, or write me, or call me. But I didn't, and I tried to just focus on my work and my colleagues, but I could never forget Phoebe. She was so amazing and incredible, especially after her rough life. That a woman like that could want to be with somebody like me, even for just a little while... But I knew it would be stupid to think that she wouldn't find somebody else to be happy with; I should just let her go like she let me go, but I couldn't. When I finally got the chance to come back to New York a couple of years ago, I didn't want to intrude on her life, but I thought if I could just get a glimpse of her and find out if she was happy, I could learn to let her go. But then she saw me and she remembered me and she wanted to see me. We had this wonderful night, and it got all my hopes up. I thought she loved me like I loved her, and if I could just work harder on my research and finish it, then I could come back to her and we could be together. But it never worked, and I might as well have not come back at all."

David broke down into tears, and Charlie hugged him, so moved by his story that she forgot about her own romantic disappointment. She frowned. "You know, you--you almost sound like Ross, explaining why he loved Rachel so long and why he wanted to get back to her now."

"Yeah," Joey said. He had stopped talking about Kate and turned to listen in to David. Joey moved over to the empty seat and touched David's shoulder comfortingly. "It's like me and Kate almost. It's like... soul mates."

Monica and Chandler also turned to look at David, and the irony was not lost on them that most of the couples that had reunited in Barbados were soul mates who had pined for each other for years, not the mere months that Phoebe had spent away from Mike.

Monica bit her lip and regretted her decision to meddle in Phoebe's love life. Mike had never seemed this heartbroken about Phoebe, and even his recent proposal looked like some last ditch effort like Richard had made before Chandler's proposal.

Seeing his wife's guilty look, Chandler shrugged and said, "Two out of three ain't bad." Ross and Rachel. Joey and Kate. But not Phoebe and Mike.

Monica sighed and wished she knew what to do.