Ross and Rachel took Emma upstairs to Monica and Chandler's apartment, where the rest of the gang were chatting.

"Hey!"

"What's wrong?" They saw the strained looks on their faces.

Ross put down their coffees and described their tense run-in with Gunther and Bonnie.

Rachel added, "That cat still hates me!"

"Wow." Phoebe reacted with surprise and concern. "So they gave you a hard time? Well, um, maybe I should go down and have a talk with Bonnie and Gunther."

"Will you kick her ass for me?"

"Rach! Bonnie's still my friend."

"Oh, right." Rachel sighed and sat down, cradling Emma on her lap.

Monica glanced at her with silent envy.

Phoebe stood up and went to the door. "Okay, I'll be back soon."

"Thanks, Pheebs," Ross said as she left.

Gunther was still busy serving customers, so Phoebe came over to Bonnie's table and greeted her.

"Oh, hi Pheebs!" She smiled cheerfully and invited her to sit. Then Bonnie lifted up the cat again to show her. "Isn't she cute? I always wanted one like this, but they cost so much money."

"Um, yeah. She's cool."

Bonnie affectionately pet the cat and talked in baby speech to it. "Oh, listen to her purr! She's the sweetest thing!"

"Uh-huh." Phoebe got to the point. "Look, Bonnie, I need to talk to you a minute. It's, um, about what happened with Ross and Rachel just now."

"What?" Bonnie finally put Snake back into the bag and rolled her eyes. "Oh don't tell me, the poor little princess cried her eyes out! Boo-hoo!"

Phoebe sighed. "That's just what I'm talking about, Bonnie. You have a grudge against her."

"So what if I do?" Bonnie shrugged. "She pretended to be all nice to me at the beach house, but then she stabbed me right in the back! She kissed Ross, and got him to dump me--"

"I know, I was there too. But it was six years ago, Bonnie. I mean, um, you don't still have feelings for Ross, do you?" She worried for a moment that Bonnie might be carrying a torch like she had for David, or Joey had for Kate. "Because that's not fair to Gunther."

Bonnie shook her head. "No, no I don't want Ross anymore. Especially if he preferred that spoiled bitch to me. He's got no taste at all!" She sighed. "But it's just, I thought she was cool, Pheebs, and that we might become friends. Besides, I'd thought that he and Rachel had moved on already. You even asked Rachel if she minded, remember?"

Phoebe nodded. "Yeah, they had started dating other people, but I guess they were still obsessed about each other. Like, on your second date with Ross, she was already panicking about whether you'd marry him."

"Marry him? I never even got as far as meeting his parents!" Bonnie answered. "But he was cute, and we were having so much fun, you know? She ruined it all. And then to find out from you that they didn't even stay together longer than a day after leaving Montauk--it was like I lost him for nothing!"

Phoebe understood. "I know, Bonnie. We were pretty frustrated with them too. They've been bickering and interfering in each other's love lives for years, you know. But now they're back together, and we're hoping that it'll stick this time, or at least that they'll have an amicable divorce for Emma's sake."

"Yeah, that poor baby!" Bonnie did have some sympathy for Emma, because she had heard stories from Phoebe about how incompetent and flighty Rachel was as a mother.

Phoebe said, "Well, she might get better with time, and Ross makes up for it. But anyway, Bonnie, I set you up with Gunther to help him come out of his shell and get over Rachel, not for you to start fights and run them out of here."

"I-I do like Gunther, Pheebs! He's cute and funny, and I love his cat too. I guess I just lost my temper when I saw those two."

"Yeah, but you should really let go of your grudge," Phoebe told her. "All this negative energy is, like, not good for your karma or anything. And you're not poisoning Gunther's mind and feeding his resentment of Ross, are you?"

Bonnie shrugged and looked guilty. "Well..."

"Knock it off, then! Come on, the six of us are his regular customers, you know. Do you really want to drive away Gunther's business?"

"No, I guess not. I'm sorry, Pheebs. I'll talk to Gunther too."

"Good. I mean, you don't have to be best friends or anything; just try to be civil and level-headed if you run into them again."

"All right, I promise." They hugged, and were soon interrupted by Gunther's arrival.

"Honey, I'm off work now."

"Oh good!" Bonnie kissed him and started to get up, grabbing the tote bag with the hairless cat in it.

Gunther smiled at Phoebe and thanked her for fixing him up. "She's so great!"

She smiled back. "I know, and you're welcome!"

"Bye!" They waved to Phoebe as they left together, arm in arm.

When Phoebe came back to report success, Ross and Rachel were happy and grateful for her help. Feeling more relaxed now, they now told everyone about their plans for Emma's first birthday party.

To their surprise, the gang grumbled about the party. They had already made other plans for work or dates on that night.

Rachel was offended. "What? How could you forget your own niece's birthday?"

"We didn't forget," Chandler said in their defense. "We just weren't expecting a big party like this. We thought you'd do something low-key and private just for you guys. I mean, Emma's too young to understand what's going on at a party, so what's the point?"

"The point is to make nice memories," Ross said. "Come on, we'll videotape the whole thing so that Emma can watch it when she gets older."

The friends shrugged and reluctantly agreed to change their plans.

Joey asked, "Can I bring Kate?"

Chandler resented that question. She wasn't even related to Emma! She'd only been here a couple of weeks!

Monica caught his reaction and hushed him. She muttered that they had planned on having a double date anyway, and besides, Monica could use the company of someone who'd never had a baby there.

Rachel just answered Joey's question with "Sure," and Ross added that Phoebe could bring David too.

Then they told everybody the time of the party and who else would be invited. Jack and Judy Geller had agreed to come, but the other grandparents had declined because Leonard and Sandra Green still couldn't get along even all these years after their divorce. They weren't even willing to make an effort to be civil just for an hour or so.

It was good that Joey had invited Kate, because she reminded him in time that he needed to bring a birthday present for Emma. So they went shopping together, and Joey cooed over all the adorable baby merchandise, even the infant stuff that Emma had already grown too big for. Kate watched him with amusement and said that the gang had told her stories about how he cooed over the baby chick like that too.

Joey chuckled. "Yeah! She was so cute and fluffy and chirpy--I mean, I guess that's why I thought the chick was a she, not a he. Ooh! Look at the little booties!"

Kate laughed and marveled at how Joey somehow retained a sweetness and purity, despite his not-so-innocent treatment of women over the years. That was one of his charms.

At the party, too, Monica was glad to have Kate around, especially when Ross and Rachel made everyone say sentimental messages on tape for Emma. Monica tried to be cheerful and keep the heartbreak out of her voice, but as soon as Ross turned the camera to someone else, Monica escaped to the bathroom with Kate, who comforted her.

"It's not fair!" she cried softly. "They even stole the name I wanted for my baby, but now they make me stand there giving Emma my best wishes, when I'm trying to adopt and don't know if I'll ever have a baby!"

"Oh, Monica." Kate hugged her sympathetically. "I'm sure they don't mean to be so insensitive."

Meanwhile, Chandler was glad to have some time with Joey, and they sat on the couch talking about the plans to make the guest room into a nursery. Joey had many suggestions of cute baby stuff that he had seen in the store, and he offered to help assemble any furniture.

The party went awry later when Rachel discovered that the cake she had ordered turned out to be an erotic cake. This sight caused both shocked gasps and amused giggles as everyone gathered around in the kitchen.

Joey was slower to grasp the problem, and he just stared hungrily. "Wow! That looks delicious!"

Phoebe burst out laughing, and Kate had to whisper a discreet explanation to Joey.

"What? No way!" he said, refusing to see the resemblance. "No, it's not! Phoebe and Rachel gave me a cake just like that, and it was just a microphone and two tennis balls."

Everyone then turned to Phoebe and Rachel, who looked guilty. They reluctantly explained that, back when planning Monica's surprise bachelorette party, they had ordered an erotic cake, but had to get rid of it after they found out that Monica thought such cakes were tacky. So they gave it to Joey, while lying to him about what it was.

Joey gasped and blushed deeply.

David wiped his glasses and couldn't understand Joey's blindness, if it looked exactly like the phallic cake before them. "I can't believe you didn't figure it out."

Phoebe grinned and teased, "You know, Joey--he'll eat anything!"

Joey slunk away in embarrassment, while both Kate and Chandler followed him. Joey went to hide in the nursery, but Kate and Chandler tried to get through the door at the same time, getting stuck.

Chandler pushed her and complained, "He's my friend."

Kate resisted and said, "He's my boyfriend."

"You weren't even there when they had the secret bachelorette party!"

"Neither were you!"

"No, I mean I--"

Joey sighed and turned around, getting irritated by their struggle. "Chandler, stop it!"

"Joe--"

"Come on!" He moved Chandler back from the doorway. Seeing Chandler's hurt look when Kate passed into the room, Joey suggested softly, "Just--just go back over there with Mon. Make some jokes about them! For me."

"O-okay." Chandler reluctantly turned to go, but he glanced back for a moment as Kate kissed Joey and spoke tenderly, "They're the ones that lied to you about the cake. Of course you'd believe your friends. You're so innocent and trusting."

Yeah. Too trusting, Chandler thought.

Back in the kitchen, Ross and Rachel debated whether to try to get a replacement cake, until Ross finally decided to grab a spatula. He used the edge to cut and rearrange the cake into an innocuous bunny. After a few more jokes from Chandler about how stupid Rachel was not to check the cake when she bought it, the party got back on track, and Joey returned with Kate.

The "microphone and two tennis balls" cake was a running joke in the uncut DVD version of TOW Joey's Award. Also, in the season 10 episode with the cake, Joey thinks the cake looks more delicious in its phallic state.