David the physicist answered a knock on his door and was startled to find Phoebe on the other side. She was crying terribly, so he threw away his caution and greeted her with concern. Chandler and the other guys had told him to be more aloof the next time he saw Phoebe, so that he could pretend to have moved on, but David couldn't help being sincerely sympathetic to her now.

"Phoebe! What's wrong?" He let her in and retrieved a box of tissues while she sat down.

"Oh, David, I-I'm so sorry about Barbados! I was so cold and cruel! I mean, letting Mike barge right in to our dinner, ignoring your proposal, grinning like a fool when I dumped you, and-and making you stay in the room with us! And God, calling you Mike all those times!"

"No, no! No, let's not talk about that, Phoebe." David frowned and sat apart from her, feeling not only uncomfortable but also disappointed. She had apparently only come in a fit of guilt to apologize for her recent offenses. He didn't want her pity; he wanted her love. He wanted her.

"But, David-!"

"No, don't. Please. I'm fine."

She wiped away her tears and looked at him hesitantly, trying to read his emotions. "You're really fine? You're not mad at all?"

He was hurt, certainly, and still bitterly furious at Mike, but David just shrugged and adjusted the glasses on his face. "It's-it's all right, Phoebe. I understand. You-you weren't over him. I mean, the two of us, we only had maybe a couple of months together in eight years. Why should I think that I could just pop back into your life?"

"Oh, but David, they were wonderful months! I thought about you for years, and I always wished you could come home from Minsk for more than just a day."

"Well, I-I finally did come home, and it did me no good." He looked away and tried not to let the pain show.

Phoebe leaned closer and spoke softly, "David, when we were saying goodbye at the airport, you said, 'If I ever leave him.' Did you mean that? Would you take me back?"

David looked up in surprise, almost not daring to hope that her question was more than hypothetical. "Wh-what?"

She told him, "I broke up with Mike today. I made a horrible mistake. Can you forgive me and take me back?"

Overcome with joy, David nodded vigorously and hugged her and kissed her.

"Oh, David!" she cried and clung to his arms happily.

When he caught his breath again, he pulled back and asked her worriedly, "Wait! Are you really sure this time, Phoebe? I mean, you've picked him over me twice already." He was afraid of Mike waltzing in again and stealing her back.

"I know, and I'm sorry!" she said. "But I love you, David. I do love you. I got so jealous and upset when Ross told me that you were seeing Charlie."

"I wasn't."

"I know."

He met her eyes. "And you're really over him now? You're not going to keep calling me Mike or anything?"

"No! No, I swear, David. I've acted like a fool. I-I was just so desperate lately about getting old and never settling down. I wanted to get married and be some soccer mom."

"I wanted to marry you!" he pointed out. "And you're not old, Phoebe! You're beautiful. You're wonderful."

"Oh!" She kissed him again. "I love you, David!"

"I love you too." They sighed and held onto each other tightly, cherishing the moment.

Phoebe didn't call the others that night, but the next morning she came over to Monica's to tell everyone that she was back together with David.

"Oh great!"

"So everything turned out okay?"

She nodded and grinned broadly. "Yeah, we spent all night making up!"

"Ooh!"

Phoebe then turned to Joey. "Oh, sorry I didn't come over to meet Kate. I forgot about dinner in all the fuss!"

"It's okay. You're here now." He introduced Kate to Phoebe, and they exchanged friendly hellos. Joey suggested, "Hey, maybe you guys could get to know each other over lunch? Pheebs, you could even do your fake agent thing and help her get an audition."

"Oh, okay," Phoebe said. "What kind of stuff are you looking for?"

"Wait," Monica interrupted, "You can discuss that later. All of us are dying to know why you broke up with Mike."

"Oh, 'cause I don't love him."

"That's all? Rachel said that you said something about him lying."

"Oh, that! Yeah, that bastard! I have to see my friend Silvie later, and get her to help me put a curse on him!" Phoebe then explained to them all about the phone call from Precious and the ensuing fight.

Breakfast soon ended, as a lot of them had to go to work, or look for work. Monica decided to call Ross and Rachel (who were home with Emma) and tell them the news.

Joey and Kate went on a double date with Monica and Chandler that night. Kate was having better luck finding work, and she also said that she had a great time with Phoebe.

Kate laughed. "She was so funny, doing the fake voice on the phone! And everybody completely bought it! I told her that she could be an actor herself, doing impressions and voice work. Then she said that she already had a job where she acted on the phone, but she didn't like saying 'spank' so much!"

They all laughed and talked about Phoebe's weird history.

"So how did she ever get off the streets and become your roommate, Monica?"

"Oh, she didn't go into much detail about it, but she told me that she had a chance meeting with her grandmother here in New York. Phoebe had gone missing for so many years ago, and never been found, so her grandma thought that she had been dead all this time. They were very happy to get back together, and Grandma paid for Phoebe to learn how to massage and get a job at a parlor."

"Oh, that sounds so sweet! I love happy endings."

"Well, it wasn't completely happy, because Grandma also tried to get Phoebe to make up with her twin sister Ursula, but they still didn't get along after all those years."

"That's a shame! Why?" Kate felt that siblings were precious, and that petty disputes ought to be set aside for the sake of familial bonds. When Kate's own brother had died years ago, it was quite a blow, and she grew closer to her other brother as a result.

Monica explained, "Well, Ursula isn't a very good sister. She was always lying to Phoebe and breaking her stuff and keeping secrets, like about their mother's suicide note and their birthmother."

Joey said, "I dated Ursula too, and she blew me off after we had sex. She even gave away the birthday present I got her! I think I told you about her before, Kate."

Kate had to think back and remember one of their all-night conversations. "Oh! I forgot. There's so many women that you've told me about, Joey. Um, didn't you get into some fight with Phoebe about it?"

Joey nodded. "Yeah. At first Phoebe said it was okay, but then she changed her mind and got mad at me. But Phoebe was really nice in the end; she even pretended to be Ursula and broke up with me, so that I wouldn't keep wondering what happened."

"Aww!" Kate was touched by what a good friend Phoebe was. "Well, I guess Phoebe does have serious reasons to be mad at Ursula. Still, I would hope that someday Ursula might apologize and make up with her."

Joey shrugged. "I'm not sure that she'll ever learn her lesson, though. Ursula always acts like she never cares when she hurts somebody."

"It can't be hopeless. I mean, you learned your lesson, didn't you?" Kate said with a smile.

Chandler was rather offended by that remark. Did she have to keep harping on Joey's past like this?

Joey just smiled and held her hand. "Yeah."

Kate kissed him lightly and murmured, "I did too."

Chandler nearly scoffed with disgust, but Monica kicked him under the table. He settled for just picking at his food and shaking his head.

Meanwhile, Mike reluctantly moved out of Phoebe's apartment and went to stay with his sister. Phoebe was happy, and began singing at the coffeehouse again while David looked on admiringly. She got to a song about her birthmom that he hadn't heard yet, and after she finished, David asked whether he could meet Phoebe Sr., because he'd been curious ever since she told him the story of what she found out in Montauk.

"Okay, I guess I could call her, and we could drive out there sometime."

"Good. Also, did you say that you had met your father too?"

"Um, yeah, at my grandma's funeral. He tried to apologize, you know, but if he was so horrible at being a father, then why'd he go and get married again to Frank Jr.'s mom? And why'd he run off from them after 14 years? That was his second chance to do things right, but he just messed up again."

"That is sad. So you drifted apart again?"

"Yeah. It's sort of like with me and Ursula, you know, just avoiding each other. But, um, you could always come with me to visit my stepdad in prison."

"Sure. Maybe we could swing by and see your brother upstate, too." He also invited Phoebe to meet his family, though they didn't live in the area.

When they visited Frank and Alice's house, the parents were rather tired because their five-year-old triplets were such a handful. Phoebe offered to babysit more, but Frank and Alice thought she meant right now, so they disappeared upstairs for a nap.

"Uh, sorry, David."

He took it in stride. "It's all right. I wanted to meet your family. Here's three of them right now!" He played with the kids, and Phoebe got out her guitar and sang songs to them.

Since the chick and duck were back living in Joey's apartment, Chandler liked coming over to visit his old pets, and when alone, he even asked them their opinion of Kate.

"Are you sure he's not rushing into it? Come on! She's been gone six years, but he decides to have her move in right away!"

The birds replied-or so Chandler interpreted their nonverbal cues-that at least Kate liked them and didn't feign allergies.

Deflated, Chandler returned to the other apartment and tried to persuade Monica to accept the birds. "Come on, please! Why can't they visit sometimes? I mean, it's only fair. I-I let you bring that dog back here on Thanksgiving despite my-my allergy."

Monica rolled her eyes and finally relented. "Oh, all right, Chandler! But you have to clean up after them, not me!"

"Of course! I cleaned up after them for three years! I even gave them baths in the tub."

"Fine," she said with an irritable sigh. "Just don't bug me about it anymore."

"Okay. Thanks!" Chandler grinned happily at having finally won a fight. "I knew I could wear you down!" He felt like celebrating.

Monica said, "I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing it for Joey and Kate."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I mean, Joey loves the birds like you do, and other than the crowing, Kate doesn't mind the birds much, so we might as well try to get along." She looked accusing. "What with you giving her the evil eye constantly, I don't want us to come off like we're unfriendly or mean. We have a hard enough time finding a couple to go out with as it is."

"We have couples to go out with, like Ross and Rachel!"

"Ross and Rachel have a baby, so they can't go out as much as they used to. And even when they do bring Emma along, it-it just makes me ache with jealousy." She glanced miserably at the huge pile of paperwork that they had to fill out for the adoption agency. "And we'll still have to wait months, or a year, to get a baby."

Finally seeing her point, Chandler sat down and hugged her. "We'll be all right, Mon. Or maybe if we keep trying, we'll have a miracle baby like your mom did."

"I hope so," she whispered, laying her head on his shoulder.

After a pause, he asked curiously, "About couples-what about Phoebe and David?"

She shrugged. "They live farther away, and I don't think he liked your sarcastic jokes the last time we hung out. Maybe you'll win him over later, but right now they're too wrapped up in getting back together. Besides, don't you like Joey more?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I do." That was why he was having so much trouble accepting Kate. He feared that Kate would drop the niceness eventually and turn into some heartless, lying bitch like Ursula, or herself six years ago. Chandler worried about Joey all the time.

Gunther was still having a hot fling with Bonnie, so for the past couple of weeks, she often showed up at the coffeehouse to hang out with him.

Ross and Rachel ran into them when going to the counter to order, and they felt rather awkward about the reunion.

"Uh, hi! I-I see you have hair again."

"Yes," Bonnie replied tartly, "And I see you have Little Miss Backstabber again."

"Hey!" Rachel started to protest, but then Bonnie picked up the hairless cat out of her tote bag, and it hissed, "Rachel."

"Whoa!" Ross and Rachel both backed up, shielding Emma from the cat too.

"By the way," Bonnie said to them, "Her name is Snake now. She doesn't miss you."

"I-I don't miss her either," Rachel replied. She still recalled having her arms scratched up by Mrs. Whiskerson.

Gunther softly warned Bonnie not to hold the cat too near the food and cups on the counter, but he still gave Ross a disdainful look.

"Okay, honey." Bonnie took the cat away and sat down at a nearby table. She was waiting for Gunther to get off work, so that they could take the cat to have its claws trimmed.

Ross then ordered coffee, to go, since they didn't seem very welcome here.

When Phoebe first met Frank Jr., he was still in high school and the mother said that Frank Sr. had disappeared four years ago. If you want a more detailed theory about how Phoebe ended up on the street and how she got reunited with her family, then see chapter 16 of Naked Thursdays, at Forever Fandom.