Disclaimer: If you own Friends, feel free to give it to me. Because, unfortunately, I do not own it.

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THE ONE WITH THE STORY ABOUT THE CAMPING TRIP

Chapter Eight: Monica the Bear

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Ross almost pulled away. But he managed not to do such a stupid thing. This was Rachel. Rachel! He'd been wanting this since ninth grade. And here he was, almost pulling away.

His mind was swimming. But somehow, somehow he managed to just sink into the kiss. Rachel moved more on top of him, and this time he did pull away.

"What? What is it?" Rachel asked breathlessly. "I mean, I'm sorry, I mean..."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, you just hit my foot, that's all," Ross said.

"Oh. Sorry," Rachel said awkwardly.

The uncomfortable silence took hold again. Rachel settled back into her old position on the log. She was still so—what was she?—almost in shock, but a good kind of shock. She'd actually kissed Ross. Already the moment seemed to be fading away, leaving her to wonder whether or not it had actually happened. But it had, hadn't it?

Well, there was one way to find out.

"Ross, let's do that again," Rachel said. She wondered if he would resist again.

"Uh... uh... okay," Ross said.

So they did.

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"You know, I really think I can talk to bears," Phoebe said. "Yeah. There was this squirrel I talked to once. But then an owl ate him. It was terrible."

"Hmm," Chandler agreed offhandedly. He was scanning the path for movement. For bears.

Something cawed loudly and then Chandler felt something latch onto his shirt. "Bah!" he yelled, batting at the thing. But it was only Joey's hand. He'd grabbed Chandler in fear at the noise.

Chandler pushed his hand away and took a deep breath. This was terrifying. He wanted to go back to his s'mores.

"Guys, let's just be quiet," Phoebe suggested. Chandler wasn't quite sure of her reasoning, but he didn't see the harm in going along with it.

And maybe bears were attracted to noise...

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Monica shoved her way through the brush. As the leader of the group, she would need some sort of plan. If she found the path, then it would be easy to go back to the campsite. Or, even better, they could wait until someone came hiking along the path and found them, because Monica wasn't sure if Ross was up to a lot of walking. Or, even even better, once they found the path she or Rachel—no, not Rachel-- could go and get help and then everything would be fine.

Monica smiled. And it would be easy to find her way back to Ross and Rachel, because in the dark she'd crashed through a lot of bushes and in that way marked her trail.

Whoops, that was another bush. Oh well.

And to think she'd been panicking before. This would be fine. Fine!

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"I still don't see them," Chandler whispered. Phoebe snorted. Yeah. That was obvious.

Phoebe just wanted to find them so that the bad vibes would go away. She wasn't too concerned about Monica, Rachel, and Ross having to spend a night out in the woods. She'd spent plenty of nights outside when she'd been living on the streets. It hadn't hurt her. Nope, she just wanted to get back to Joey and the tent without having to bother with any stupid vibes. They made everything so loopy.

"Hey, do you hear that?" Joey asked nervously.

"Hear what?" Phoebe said, a little bit annoyed that no one was going along with her no-talking plan.

"Something's crashing," Joey said. Phoebe could hear the terror in his voice.

"Crashing?" Chandler asked, sounding just as alarmed as Joey.

"Yeah... Like a bear crashing through the bushes."

Chandler stopped cold in his tracks. Phoebe nearly banged into him. "Oh hurry up," she said. "I want to talk to the bears."

"No, no, let's just be quiet," Chandler said. "No talking."

"Well OKAY," Phoebe huffed. "Now you do that..."

They moved cautiously and quietly along the path now, the flashlight beam trained on the ground before then, hardly any light in the dark. They saw nothing, but the crashing noises had made Chandler's heart pound with fear. What if there was a bear? They really shouldn't be out now. They'd never find Ross and Monica and Rachel. They couldn't even see the bear.

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Monica continued to crash her way through the thick underbrush in search of the path. It should be close. It wouldn't be that hard to see either, because her eyes had almost completely adjusted to the gloom. She wondered what Ross and Rachel were doing now. Probably sitting awkwardly with nothing to say. Or rather, Ross would be trying to say things and end up talking about ancient sewage systems or something equally boring and disgusting.

Monica smiled a little. Ross was so funny like that. And Rachel... Rachel would sit there being prissy and annoyed at Ross. Rachel was like that.

Suddenly Monica's toe made contact with a large rock sticking up in her path. She tripped and stumbled, nearly hitting a tree. "Oww," she moaned, running into another bush.

She would be fine, of course, but that damn rock had hurt!

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Something growled with a sound that almost sounded like a moan. Then another crash sounded through the forest. That was the last straw for Joey.

"I'm outta here!" he exclaimed. Maybe it was a bear, maybe it wasn't... Joey didn't want to hang around to find out.

"No, no, wait," Chandler protested bravely. That had sounded more like a person moaning than a bear, but this was Bear Mountain and it was dark and scary out. But Joey had already started back in the direction of the camp. Phoebe was following him, and Chandler did not want to be stuck out here in this possibly bear-infested forest alone. So he too ran after Joey.

They'd just have to find the others tomorrow in the light.

And, Joey reasoned with himself as he ran for his life, it wasn't bad for him to be that scared of the forest. He was, after a city-boy. This wasn't his natural habitat. He belonged in a place with a lot of concrete. And no spooky night noises. Or bears.

He kept running.

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Monica almost hear something moving or running, but she wasn't sure. It didn't matter, anyway. She'd finally found the path. Grinning broadly, she turned around and started back to Ross and Rachel. They were going to make it out fine, and all because of her! She'd saved them.

Hey, maybe as a reward Ross would do her share of the dishes for a week or two. But no, he was hurt, so he would be fawned upon by her parents and treated like a wounded soldier.

That sobered Monica up a bit. And there was still the problem of getting Ross and Rachel to the path, then figuring out which path it was, and where the campsite was. But this was a start. Yes, this was definitely a start.

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"Ow. Ow! Don't go on top of me!" Ross exclaimed. He had been kissing Rachel again—that had been nice—but then she'd kicked his foot again. The original pain of the injury had been kind of overridden by the fact that Rachel actually wanted to make out with him, but now it was starting to come back. And instead of making him confused and lost, as it had before, it was making him irritable.

"Oh, sorry," Rachel said. "Again?"

"Yeah. But hang on. Just hang on a second! That hurt a lot!"

"What we're doing is really, really stupid, isn't it," Rachel said. It wasn't a question. "I mean, I've got a boyfriend, and you're... Ross. Ooh, that didn't come out right."

"No, no, it didn't. But we can't... we can't tell anyone we did this! I'd get killed! And I think I've been killed enough for the day!" Ross exclaimed.

"Okay. You're right. You're absolutely right. So what do we do now?" Rachel asked.

"I don't know. Pretend we never did anything?"

"Guess so."

There was another awkward silence. What had he been thinking? Ross wondered. He couldn't just make out with Rachel and expect anything to work out. She already had a boyfriend, and even if she hadn't, he was Ross, extraordinarily unpopular, not fit for Rachel, the queen of popularity. At least to everyone else in the school. He had no idea what Rachel thought. But even that didn't matter. If anything was to happen between them, Rachel's popularity group would become jealous of angry or whatever, and would start to hate her, which would make her resent him for taking her away from them. And of course, they would kill him.

Why did everything have to be so confusing? And why did his foot have to throb like this? He cupped his chin in his hands and stared out into the dark. The forest offered no answers.

It did, however, offer Monica, who chose that moment to burst into their clearing.

"I found the path! I found the path!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, great!" Rachel said. Ross couldn't hear anything in her voice that suggested anything out of the ordinary. Ross knew that he would be acting a little strange for the rest of the night. But hey, he could blame it on his foot.

"How far?" Rachel was asking.

"It's not bad," Monica said. "I don't know what the path is, really, or which one, or how far from the campsite, but we can deal with that tomorrow."

"Yeah, tomorrow," Rachel agreed. "Wait... so we're actually, like, sleeping out here in the woods?"

"Do we have another choice?" Monica asked. "Unless you want to go out there in the dark and try to carry Ross through the forest without a path."

"I don't need to be CARRIED—"Ross protested, but the girls ignored him.

So where do we sleep then?" Rachel asked. "On the ground?"

"Would you rather sleep in a tree?" Monica asked impatiently. "Come on, this is fun! It's an adventure!" She might as well look at the bright side.

"Some adventure," Ross said in his best depressed tone. Monica rolled her eyes, though of course neither Ross nor Rachel could see.

"Well, then," Monica clapped her hands together. The other's jumped. "How are we gone sleep?"

"Outside, on the ground. You just told us that," Rachel said.

"I meant does anyone have a jacket or anything that could be used as a blanket, or a flashlight or something?" Monica asked.

"If I had a flashlight, I think I would have given it to you," Ross said. "But yeah, I do have a jacket."

Monica nodded. "Hmm, good... Anyone else?"

"It's just me, but no. Nothing."

"We could all cuddle under my blanket," Ross suggested. Monica waited for Rachel to scoff at the idea of sleeping so close to Ross, but surprisingly enough she offered no argument.

Maybe they hadn't just sat in awkward silence the whole time she had been gone...

But what else could they have done? This was Ross and Rachel, after all.

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Reviewer Replies (Sorry everybody it's been forever since I updated last...)

iluvjoey4lyfe – The finale really was great... It was hard to believe Friends is over. Oh well. We've got... reruns!

Freezyboncoolipants – Still very happy you like it... Oh, I haven't really updated in a while, have I. A soggy! (I'm sorry!)

qwerty – Hmm... Maybe Chandler and Monica have a fling... you'll just have to read and find out!

saRa – Fretting IS a cool word... Again, I'm very glad you like the story...

Emma – Hope things are still good... :) I know I can't believe Friends is over. But again, we've got reruns and DVD's!