Love is Chapter 8: Spending Our Days with Ben, a friends fanfic

Love is…

Disclaimer: Screw it – I don't own nothin'.

A/N: Okay, chapter 8 of Love is… is finally up! Once I moved on from things that weren't working with it, everything came pretty easy. Sorry for the long wait. Anyway, I hope this is good… Please leave me a review when you're done so I can tell if I'm still on the right track. These hiatus' really take away what you know about the storyline. You forget what you've already written, etc. So – READ and REVIEW! Thanks – I love you guys!

Ding.

"We have come across a small air bubble in the atmosphere and we may experience some minor turbulence in the next ten to fifteen minutes. The captain has asked that everybody remain in their seats with the seatbelts securely fastened until the seatbelt sign is turned off."

Ben sat up in his airplane seat and pulled the end of his seatbelt, making it so tight around his waist that he could barely breathe. His little hands gripped the armrest mercilessly, whitening his knuckles straight down to the bone. Rachel reached over and loosened his seatbelt and soothingly rubbed his hand. "Ben, sweetie, you don't have to worry. The captain will make sure everything is okay. He'll make sure everyone stays safe."

"I don't want to die," he whimpered, his nose wrinkling as the tears fell quickly and silently from his blue eyes.

Rachel relaxed his grip on the armrest and took off his seatbelt, pulling over into her lap to give him a reassuring hug. "Shhh…" she smoothed his hair and patted his back as his sobs turned into sniffles. "Ben honey, you're not going to die. Okay? Your daddy and I are going to protect you. We'll make sure you stay safe." Rachel released Ben from her arms and sat him more comfortably on her lap where she wiped the remaining wetness from his face. "We won't let anything hurt you…Right Ross?"

No answer.

"Ross?" Rachel turned to see Ross sleeping, his mouth hung wide open and his face angled toward the aisle, giving the whole plane a look straight down to his tonsils. Rachel covered her mouth to stifle the laughter that was fighting its way out, and turned to look at Ben, who had not missed the humor in his father's current position. Rachel touched Ben's nose and said, "Your dad's silly, isn't he?"

Ben looked back at Ross and nodded emphatically, "Yeah!"

Both Rachel and Ben watched Ross for a minute, saw him change positions and begin to snore, and saw his head bounce off his shoulder several times before Rachel whispered to Ben with a mischievous grin on her face, "Should I wake him up?"

Ben brought his hands up to his face and started giggling as Rachel leaned over and whispered slowly and tantalizingly into his ear, "If you don't wake up right now, you won't get any for two weeks." And then, making sure that Ben couldn't see she punctuated her statement by biting and licking his earlobe, startling him awake, although she had noticed a small smile on his face a moment before. Sweetly, "Oh, I'm sorry honey. Did I wake you?"

One more grin and a wink and the three of them played games and colored for the rest of the flight, counting down the hours until they landed in New York. Home sweet home.

XoX

Their two weeks in California flew by after that first night. They'd hit Rodeo Drive (mostly by Rachel's insistence) and gone to the beach several times. They'd gone for long drives up the Pacific Coast highways and spent random nights at little country inns they found along the way. Up the highway and back, they'd made memories that would never, ever fade.

Rachel and Ben spent a lot of time together – bonding and getting to know each other - which, honestly, was thoroughly enjoyed by not just Ben, but Rachel as well. And when the time came to leave, no one wanted to say goodbye. So, after much persuasion from Ross and Rachel (and a little from Ben, too), Carol and Susan agreed to sending Ben to New York for a few weeks before the school year started.

Thus now, here they were - on a six hour flight to New York with Ben, who was terrified, but at the same time loving every minute of it. Anytime he got to spend with his daddy and Aunt Rachel, he was the happiest little boy in the world.

XoX

Since Ross and Rachel both had jobs to go back to, they'd made special arrangements for each of them to work every other day and spend their days off with Ben. Rachel was honored with the very first full day with Ben and on that first morning, over orange juice and a heaping bowl of Captain Crunch (his favorite cereal); he decided that he wanted to spend the entire day in Central Park. They got dressed and gathered up food for the day and a blanket to lie on once they got there.

Well, it's ok.
It's so nice.
It's just another day in paradise.
Well, there's no place that,
I'd rather be.
Well, it's two hearts,
One dream,
I wouldn't trade it for anything.
And I ask the Lord, every night,
Ooh, for just another day in paradise.

On the subway, Ben was so frightened about being in a small area underground with a whole busload of people he didn't know that he held Rachel's hand so tight that she couldn't immobilize it for ten minutes once they got off. They went into the park off of 5th Avenue and made their way over to the Sheep's Meadow, and broad expanse of grass just outside Tavern on the Green to settle down. When they got there, they watched people throwing Frisbees to their friends and their dogs, and eventually resorted to watching clouds roll by in the sky above their heads, commenting on different shapes that they'd see. They had been at the park for two hours when Ben suddenly turned to face Rachel and shyly asked, "Aunt Rachel, do you like my daddy?"

Rachel looked at Ben, part of her shocked at the sudden interest, part of her expecting that question since their first days together and sighed. She looked up at the sky, as if somehow hoping that a dragon-shaped cloud could tell her how to explain the situation to a five-year-old boy. In the end, she just decided that he was no different from anyone else who would ask her that question, and that in today's world, he probably already knew all the details of sex, so why treat him like a juvenile in a matter such as this? "Well Ben, I do like your daddy. I like your daddy very much."

"Do you love him?"

"Yeah, I do." She sat up and looked down at Ben as he followed her example. "And do you know who else I love?" Ben smiled and shook his head. "You," Rachel tapped the tip of his nose and started tickling him, sending him into fits of laughter as they rolled off the cotton blanket and onto the crab grass that it covered. Out of breath, they stopped with him sitting comfortably on her stomach, elbow propped up, head in his open hand, a smile spread across both his face and hers.

They simply stared at each other, catching their breaths with Ben asked teasingly, "Why do you love me?"

Rachel only thought about her answer for a second, but wore a look of mock concentration on her face for much longer before she finally responded, "Well … because you're so cute!"

He giggled and said mockingly, "No! You're so cute!"

They kept up the argument over who was cuter for a good five minutes before Rachel said, "Hey! Y'know what would be really fun?"

Ben smiled, "What?"

"A horse-and-buggy ride around the city!"

Ben's face lit up and he started jumping up and down, screaming the question "On a real horse?"

Rachel laughed and said, "Yes on a real horse, now help me clean up our stuff so we can go!"

They cleaned up and in five minutes were on their way around the city going down 5th Avenue first past the Plaza Hotel, then down past Louis Vuitton and Saks Fifth Avenue, seeing Cole Haan and Kenneth Cole on the other side of the street. As Rachel was pretty much just people-watching, Ben was at the edge of the carriage, staring wide-eyed and open-mouthed at the buildings – both the magnitude and multitude – that were around him, every once in a while looking back at Rachel with sheer amazement lighting up every surface of his eyes.

After and ice-cream break at Ferraro's in Little Italy and a subway ride back into the village, they arrived home to an empty apartment with the Discovery Channel entertaining unfilled furniture that cluttered the vacant living room – evidence of Ross's now habitual at-home lunch breaks. As Rachel dropped their picnic basket and her purse by the front door, Ben walked into the living room and plopped down into the overstuffed dark brown leather couch, channel-surfing, trying to find a worthy cartoon to settle on. Ten minutes later, he and Rachel were on the couch enjoying together the television version of Finding Nemo, a favorite movie for them both. She was leaning back into the corner of the couch with Ben's back to her front, his head rested lazily against her chest. Every now and then, she would divert her attention to the mildly amusing cartoon just to listen to him laugh, or just to watch the deep look of concentration on this face that never once faded for even a second. It was as if he was alone in this room, in this world. He and the television were the only things in existence, and there wasn't a care in the world.

The minutes rolled by and she watched his face turn from piqued interest to pure exhaustion, and slowly his eyelids became heavy and his breathing became deeper, steadier. She watched his eyelids flutter as he dreamed, watched his toes twitch as his imagination ran wild. Soon enough, her own eyelids became too heavy for her to bear and she allowed them to close. As she fell into her peaceful slumber, a single solitary thought crossed her mind like a shooting star in the night-blackened sky. How was it possible to love something so small, so much?

XoX

At dusk in New York City, there is a special glow, a different, somewhat welcoming feeling: a general happiness that the atmosphere seems to lack during the day. It was this same general happiness that exuded from Ross now, making him a changed man not only to himself but to those around him. The reasons for this change – the reasons for his rebirth, so to speak, were the same reasons that his heart melted right down to his toes when he walked into the apartment later the same night.

The cartoons had by now disappeared, replaced by the ever-popular All in the Family and the infamous Archie and Edith Bunker. As the beginning credits began to play and Edith's shrill voice echoed through the apartment, Ross set down his briefcase and carefully made his way across the room, first stopping to turn off the foul-sounding vocals, and then to kneel to his knees on the floor before his sleeping beauties: the two people that he loved most in the world.

I'm gonna be here for you baby
I'll be a man of my word
Speak the language in a voice that you have never heard
I wanna sleep with you forever
And I wanna die in your arms
In a cabin by a meadow where the wild bees swarm

They were rested now just as they had been when they'd fallen asleep: Ben's head settled comfortably on Rachel's chest and her hand rested atop his on his stomach. Their breathing synchronized as Ben rose every time Rachel exhaled.

Ross smiled as he brushed a few strands of hair out of Rachel's face and kissed Ben's forehead. Being a light sleeper, even this soft and subtle contact woke Ben, causing him to stir and struggle to open his eyes. "Daddy," he finally managed to ask.

"Yeah, Ben, I'm home. But sh… I don't want to wake Aunt Rachel." Ben nodded and carefully removed his hand from under Rachel's, allowing Ross to pick him up and take him quietly into the bathroom there they quickly brushed his teeth before bringing him into his room to go to bed. "Get some sleep okay? You have to get ready for our big day together tomorrow." Ross kissed Ben's forehead as he rolled over, whispering "Good night daddy," before the sound of his rhythmic breathing filled the silence of the tiny New York bedroom.

And I'm gonna love you like nobody loves you
And I'll earn your trust making memories of us

Once back outside in the living room, Ross noticed that Rachel had changed positions, now teetering dangerously close to the end of the couch. Carefully he slid her away from the edge and covered her with the blanket that hung over the back of the couch, tucking it safely around her before kissing her forehead and standing up, heading towards his own bathroom to get himself ready for bed. He had just rounded the couch when he heard Rachel whisper drowsily, "Don't go."

He turned around and saw he stretch, eyes now open, beginning to turn her body towards him. Ross walked back over to her and murmured, "I'm right here, baby." They were eye level now that he'd kneeled down on the floor before her and for a few seconds, they just stared into each other's eyes, in a way making up for all of the lost time, since they hadn't seen each other since earlier that morning when he'd left for work. Still whispering so as not to disturb the peaceful silence that had draped itself over the apartment, he asked, "How was your day?"

"Amazing," she smiled, knowing she'd never find a better way of describing it, "Yours?"

"Dreadfully boring, long, and significantly incomplete because I didn't see you near as much as I wanted to." Ross kissed her nose and placed his hand over hers when she touched his cheek.

We'll follow the rainbow
Wherever the four winds blow
And there'll be a new day
Comin' your way

"You're too sweet."

"You're too beautiful," he countered, smiling at how even now, after they'd been dating for so long, she still blushed every time he said she was beautiful.

With her thumb, she traced his lips and studied each detail of his face as she asked, "Ready for your big day with Ben tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I'm so excited!" She smiled. "What did you guys do today?"

"We went to Central Park and hung out there for a couple of hours, and then we went on a horse-and-buggy ride around that part of the city – just to sort of show him around a little bit. Then we went to Ferraro's for ice-cream before we came back here and fell asleep. We had a lot of fun."

"Good, I'm glad." Pause. "Hey, what time do you get off work tomorrow?"

"Umm.. I think around five. Why? What are your plans?"

"Well, I don't exactly have any yet, but I was kinda thinking that you could meet us somewhere nice for dinner at around six. What do you think?

"Sounds great," they smiled and gazed, once again, into each other's eyes before Rachel started to get up. "Listen, I'd love to chat, but some of us have to get up early and go to work tomorrow." She looked at him and smiled, reaching out for his hand, looking confused when he shook his head. All became clear, however, when he stood up and bent down, wrapping one arm around her back and the other behind her knees, picking her up softly from the couch and bringing her back into the bedroom, her head resting comfortably on his shoulder.

Life couldn't get much better than this, she thought. Little did she know, the wheels were turning in his head, too, and he had much more in store for them the next day than he let on.

I'm gonna be here for you from now on
This you know somehow
You've been stretched to the limits but it's alright now
And I'm gonna make you this promise
If there's life after this
I'm gonna be there to meet you with a warm, wet kiss

XoX

7:30 AM the next morning

Rachel was sitting at the kitchen table nursing a huge mug of coffee, hoping that the keg of caffeine would aid her in regaining her consciousness. Ross was in the shower, and Ben, the lucky kid, was still out cold in his bedroom. Rachel was already dressed, wishing that maybe if she went into work early, they would let her go home early, giving her more time with two of the three men whom she loved with every beat of her heart – the third, of course, being her father.

She rinsed out her coffee mug and was checking her makeup in the mirror next to the kitchen door and was getting ready to scribble a not to Ross and Ben when Ben himself appeared behind her, clearly still fighting off sleep as he rubbed his eyes awake. She kneeled down to be eye level with him and smoothed his sleep-disheveled hair. "Good morning, Benny."

"Good morning Aunt Rachel."

"What are you doing awake so early, mister?" She asked, playfully tickling his stomach a little bit.

"I wanted to say goodbye before you went to work."

Boy, could that kid tug the heartstrings… "Aw.. well, that was sweet of you!" Pause. "Do you want me to set you up with some breakfast and cartoons?" Ben nodded and yawned. "Okay, you go turn on the TV and find what you want to watch and I'll go get some cereal for you." And with that, she headed into the kitchen, not really concerned anymore with getting into work early. No, she'd much rather spend her time with the people and things that she really cared about. Sure, she loved her job and she loved fashion, but the love that she had for those things paled in comparison to the love that she had for her family and friends. She brought a bowl of Captain Crunch out for Ben as Ross walked out of the bathroom with his hair still sopping wet and a towel wrapped snugly but dangerously around his waist. This, she decided, was her cue to leave.

"Hey," he said, smiling.

"Hey… I'm gonna head into work now. I'll call you later. I love you!"

And I'm gonna love you like nobody loves you
And I'll earn your trust making memories of us
I'm gonna love you like nobody loves you
And I'll win your trust making memories of us

"I love you too." He walked over to her and planted a soft, yet lingering kiss on her lips. She tore away much sooner than she would've ordinarily liked to, but she was on her way to work and there was a child in the room. Ross saw the turmoil in her eyes and grinned naughtily, loosening the towel around his waist, heightening her senses so much it was unbearable. She kissed the top of Ben's head and said "Goodbye," to both of them before practically running out of the apartment leaving Ross chuckling back into the bedroom, and Ben completely oblivious to it all.

XoX

"Come here, Ben. Do you think she'd like this one?" Ross asked, holding out the object in his hand so that it was easier to see.

"Yeah, that one's almost as pretty as her." Ben alleged enthusiastically.

They'd been at this store for almost two hours and it seemed like every two minutes Ross was asking Ben's opinion on something different. He'd narrowed his choices down to ten from about thirty and the salesman was hovering over him, waiting to make the sale that could send him and his wife to Hawaii for their anniversary.

"Tell me about this one." Ross said, turning the item around in his delicate hands while Ben looked on in awe.

And I'm gonna love you like nobody loves you
And I'll earn your trust making memories of us
I'm gonna love you like nobody loves you
And I'll win your trust making memories of us

"That, sir, is an emerald cut white diamond, set into a white gold band." The salesman said, "There isn't another one like it out there," he added for good measure.

Ross stared at it for another minute or two before finally deciding, "I'll take it!" Ross looked down and smiled at Ben as he got his wallet out for his credit card.

"Can I give it to her, daddy?"

Ross was getting ready to say no when he stopped to consider his son's request. It was definitely original, he thought. Plus, Rachel would love it so much.

"Actually Ben, that's a great idea! Now, I just need to make some phone calls at home, and then we're going out again."

XoX

Two hours, six phonecalls and one crossing of the Long Island Expressway later, and Ross was in the Green living room sipping tea. Rachel's mother and father were sitting opposite him.

I wanna honor your mother
I wanna learn from your pa
I wanna steal your attention like a bad outlaw
I wanna stand out in a crowd for you
A man among men
I wanna make your world better than it's ever been

He looked up at them, smiled, and said simply, "Dr. and Mrs. Green, I need to ask you a question."

XoX

A/N: Ahh, so three months later and here's chapter eight. I hope it fulfills all of the expectations that I'm sure you guys have built up. I see maybe 3 chapters for this in the future, give or take. You never know. Anyway, songs used in this chapter: "Just Another Day in Paradise" Phil Vassar, and "Making Memories of Us" Keith Urban. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave me a review – I really want to know what you think about this so that I can make the next chapter better if I need to. I hope you enjoyed this.. Now, review!