Disclaimer: Friends belongs to someone. I am not someone. Therefore I do not own Friends.

A/N: I said more would be coming soon… I'm sorry! I lied! But …drumroll… here is chapter twelve for your reading pleasure.

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THE ONE WITH THE STORY ABOUT THE CAMPING TRIP

Chapter Twelve: Back Home

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They said goodbye to Joey (who admitted that he had seven sisters that were probably wondering where he'd gone), and Monica, Rachel, Phoebe and Chandler began to haul the camping equipment back to the car.

The last thing they dragged into the car was Ross, who sat looking very pale and miserable in the back seat.

The drive was uneventful, for the most part. Monica took the wheel, though when she got tired she let Chandler take over. She'd considered letting Rachel or Phoebe take over, but based on Rachel's last driving test and Phoebe's general insanity, Chandler had been the best choice.

Though, Monica mused as he took them ten miles above the speed limit through a rather sharp turn, maybe she should have kept driving.

"There's a truck stop," Chandler said, pointing to a sign on the side of the road.

"Okay…" Rachel answered. It was obvious she didn't care.

"Do you want me to stop there?" Chandler sounded as if he was talking to a child, and Rachel curled her lip indignantly.

"No," Ross said morosely.

"Actually," said Monica, "Maybe we should call our parents… you know, let them know that Ross needs to go to the hospital?"

They had almost passed the exit ramp, but Chandler swerved into it. Someone behind them honked their horn angrily, and Chandler muttered, "Oh, shut up," under his breath.

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"How much longer?" Rachel asked tiredly, reaching her arms up to the sky in an effort to get rid of her stiffness. It felt like they'd been in the car for hours and hours…

Chandler looked at her in disbelief. "Are you asking me 'Are we there yet?'" He shut the front door and started walking to the truck stop.

Rachel turned to Monica. "He's rude," she whispered. Monica nodded.

Rachel spotted the pay phone as soon as they got inside. She pointed it out to Monica, who hastened over to it.

"Damn," Monica said, "I don't have any quarters."

Rachel fished in her pockets. "Well, I do." She handed the coin to Monica.

"Hi, Mom," Monica said into the reciever. "Yeah…we're on our way home…um, he got hurt actually—no, I didn't do it!...he fell out of a tree, hurt his foot…yes, Mom, I know how terrible that is…okay, Mom… I was just letting you know… we're going to bring him to the ER on our way home…we weren't ignoring him, we got lost…yes, all night…I think my time's running out…okay, bye."

She hung up a bit more forcefully than necessary and shook her head. "Talking to my mom makes me want to kill things," she said.

"What did she say?" Rachel wanted to know.

"Oh, pretty much 'Why isn't Ross on the phone?' 'What happened to him?' 'Did you do it?' She could have cared less that we all got lost."

"Hmm," Rachel said.

Phoebe bounded out of the bathroom. "Guess what?" she said breathlessly.

"What?" Rachel and Monica asked at the same time.

"The soap is… pink!" Phoebe giggled. "Is that awesome or what?"

Rachel raised her eyebrows. Many things were awesome, but on her list, pink soap was not included. "What," she said.

"What?"

"Oh, never mind."

Chandler came from the direction of the pizza shop, munching on a deliciously cheesy slice. He held another on a plate in his hand. "We ready to go?"

"Yeah, I think so," Monica answered.

Chandler handed the pizza to Monica, who was currently sitting next to Ross. "Give that to your brother," he said as she raised it to her mouth to take a bite.

Monica snorted. "Fine."

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Rachel went home, and, by the next week, everything seemed back to normal. As soon as Chip had taken her up in his strong arms and kissed her, the memories of Ross had fallen away. It was all in the past, wasn't it?

They were watching a movie now, huddled up on his couch. The whole world of camping seemed distant and far away, as if it had happened to someone else. She reached out an arm and grabbed a handful of popcorn, bringing it to her mouth and chewing thoughtfully. She tried to imagine what it would be like to be leaning up against Ross instead of Chip. Somehow it just didn't work.

Rachel smiled. Yes, this was where she was meant to be.

She had changed a bit towards Ross, though. She wondered if he'd noticed at all. Like, just last week, she'd told Chip not to push his head into the water fountain. Chip had laughed, said, "Okay, Rachel," and Ross had mumbled a word of thanks and hobbled away on his crutches.

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Monica went back to life as she knew it. She supposed that had Phoebe stayed, life might have changed in that she would have spent time with Phoebe, but the girl had left a few days after the trip. Said something about "learning how to do something useful." Monica wasn't entirely sure what this was.

Chandler had left too, actually. This wasn't on his own whim, however. It had been his father's idea to send Chandler to an all-boys school, though it was his mother who had decided she would leave. As far as Ross knew, Mrs. Bing had decided that Chandler was hanging out with the wrong crowd. Monica didn't know what this meant, either.

Ross and Rachel were the same as ever, though. Monica had hoped a little bit that they would have bonded when they were in the forest, but there was no such luck.

Monica chewed the end of her pencil and tried to listen to her history lecture. There would be plenty of time to think about her friends when she didn't need to take notes.

"And can anyone tell me some of the reasons that the plague spread so quickly?" the teacher drawled.

Monica rolled her eyes. Nothing much happened after that.

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Next chapter should be up soon-ish. The more reviews I get, the faster I'll write. (Hint, hint).