Disclaimer: I don't own Friends.

A/N: I love the reviews! I don't think I've ever gotten this many by seven chapters!

How freaky is it that my three Friends-chaptered stories all have the same amount of reviews (59) right now as I post this? Just thought I'd share. And also: I've done an outline for another Friends story. I need help, guys; these fics are taking over my brain. Seriously.

XXX

"Oh, my little boy is all grown up," Judy cried as she patted Ross's cheek. The graduation had ended an hour before, and now the families were being reunited with their graduates.

"I'm so proud of you, son," Jack said, his voice choked a bit.

Monica grinned at her brother. "You did it," she said simply to him, and he smiled and hugged her tightly. "It's going to be so weird to not have you around next year."

"You'll get used to it," Ross replied. "I'm sure you'll be at the apartment all the time with Chandler."

"Yeah, but still, I'm gonna miss you. And you better miss me," she added threateningly.

"I will. I'll miss you a lot," he agreed, and hugged her again.

Ross couldn't have asked for a better graduation. The sky had been blue, with a few clouds floating along just for show. The sun had been bright, everything had been green, and even traffic hadn't been that bad. The day had been perfect.

Well, almost perfect.

"You graduated!" Rachel shrieked, and rushed into his arms when Monica stepped back.

Ross could almost imagine that Rachel was his girlfriend at that moment; his girlfriend who had come with his family to see him accomplish one of his largest goals in life. She didn't know it, but he'd gone through a lot to get her a ticket to the graduation, since she wasn't family. Chandler had been lucky: Monica had been there for her brother anyways; seeing her boyfriend was a plus. And yet, Ross had managed to get his friend a ticket, too.

The night before, after getting himself an iced coffee, he'd walked Rachel back to her dorm room in relative silence, each wrapped up in their own thoughts, which were more similar than either could've known. She'd said a simple goodnight, and that had been it. Now, with his family around, they acted as if nothing had happened.

"You've probably heard this a million times already, and you're probably gonna hear it a million times more, but I'm proud of you," Rachel told him as they disentangled from the hug, her eyes showing the honesty she meant.

"Thanks," Ross replied, almost shyly. A fellow graduate who he was friends with called out to him, wanting him to get in a picture with some people. Ross nodded, but looked back at Rachel once more.

Feeling slightly out of place, Rachel just smiled and patted his arm. "I've got to get going."

"Alright. You're coming to next week's party, right?" Jack and Judy were hosting a graduation party for their son, and had planned it for a week after the actual event so some of their far-away family could make it. Ross wanted nothing more than for Rachel to come.

She grinned. "Of course I am." With those words she hugged him once more, said good-bye to his family and Chandler, and disappeared in the crowd.

"I think you're drooling," Monica joked as she approached her brother, catching him staring after her best friend.

Ross turned and looked at her, but decided not to fight it. "Yeah, yeah." He put his arm around her shoulders as they made their way towards his friends who wanted the picture. Chandler was already joking around with them. "Hey, are you the one who got Chandler to shave off his goatee?" he asked suddenly, the thought clicking into place.

Monica smiled towards her boyfriend. "Maybe."

"I bet you two are gonna get married," Ross teased.

"Is that a bad thing?" his sister questioned.

Ross was surprised she took it so seriously. He shrugged. "I guess not."

"Good."

"C'mon, Geller, get your ass over here!" one of Ross' friends called, and he did as they instructed, his thoughts moving too fast for him to keep up.

XXX

"Mon, I can't believe you did this for me!" Rachel grinned as she watched trees pass while they sped along the highway.

"Well, it's for both of us, really," Monica replied as she took the exit that led them into Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Rachel's early birthday surprise had ended up being revealed the day before, when Monica had burst into her best friend's room at her home and told her to start packing, just a day after they'd moved back home from NYU. Jack and Judy were friendly with a couple who had a house in Chatham, which was at the elbow of the arm that Cape Cod shaped. The friends had offered the house to the family for that weekend, but the two eldest Gellers hadn't been able to coordinate their schedules to get there. At Monica's pleading, they'd agreed that she and Rachel could take the weekend at the house, instead. Chatham had quaint shopping and a nice view, two things Monica knew her best friend would appreciate immensely.

Monica had to admit, she already missed Chandler. He and Ross had just moved into their new place across from Nana's, so they'd been spending much of their time unpacking. But this was a boys-free weekend, so Monica had decided that unless Rachel brought him up, she wasn't going to mention her boyfriend.

She glanced out of the corner of her eye at her friend. Rachel was sitting there, looking out the window. Nothing looked to be bothering her on the outside, but Monica knew this girl almost as well as she knew herself. They'd been best friends since the age of five.

Something was up.

"Hey, Rach?" she asked tentatively.

"Yeah?"

"Is something…bugging you?"

Rachel looked at her friend, then turned her head to face straight ahead. She played with her hair as she replied unconvincingly, "Uh…no."

"Oh," Monica said slowly. She waited a beat. "You sure?"

"Definitely."

"Okay." A beat. "You're positive?"

"Yes."

"Alright."

The rest of the drive was spent in relative silence. Rachel seemed to be lost in thought, while Monica longed to know what exactly those thoughts were about. She hated not knowing what was going on.

"Here we are!" she announced cheerfully as they came up a short driveway to a nice, two-story, off-white colored house that was only a block away from the beach.

Rachel smiled as she got out of the car. "This place is great, Mon."

"I know," Monica agreed. The two women stood outside for a moment, admiring the house. "Let's go in," she finally said.

XXX

They spent the day unpacking. The house ended up having three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Neither took the master bedroom, since they couldn't decide who got it in the first place. There was a cozy kitchen, a good-sized living room, a closed-in porch, and then a small TV room off to one side of the house.

"Wow," Rachel proclaimed as she and Monica fell onto the over-stuffed couch in the living room. They'd gone out into town for awhile and picked up some pizza. "I haven't been to a beach house this nice since the one we rented three years ago. My dad…"

She trailed off sadly. Monica rubbed her friend's arm gently, understanding that it was still hard for her to talk about her late father.

"So," Monica said a few minutes later, confident that it'd been a long enough silence to be deemed 'polite' for her friend. She switch her position and sat on a nearby chair on the other side of the coffee table that separated the two pieces of furniture. "Let's do some girl-talk."

"Monica, all we do do is girl-talk," Rachel said. She grinned though, and sat, Indian-style, on the couch. "So what do we talk about?"

"Anything. Everything."

"Okay."

Monica sighed. "Fine, I'll go first. What was really bothering you in the car?" she quizzed.

Rachel shook her head as she took a sip of her strawberry margarita. She wasn't sure if she wanted to tell anyone just yet what had been consuming all of her thoughts as of late. "Well…"

"Rach, it's me you're talking to. You can tell me anything."

"I'm not sure you'd want to hear this one."

"Try me."

Setting down her drink and taking a deep breath, Rachel waited another minute before beginning, "Okay. When did you really start liking Chandler? Like, really liking him?"

Monica smiled slowly. Hey, Rachel had brought it up. Now she got to talk about her boyfriend. "Well, uh, I'd have to say…the end of freshman year."

"Not the Thanksgiving where we first met him?" Rachel asked, confused.

"No," Monica said, shaking her head and thinking back. "That was a stupid crush. I really started liking him when we were moving our stuff back home from the dorms. Ross had just gotten together with Carol, and you were dating some guy, and you both were gone a lot. Chandler had come to the room to see if Ross was there, and when he saw that he wasn't, he offered to help me pack. So…we packed. And it was the first time I actually saw him as more than just my older brother's jerky, annoying best friend."

Rachel was nodding, enraptured with the story. Monica scrutinized her. "Why do you ask?"

Now, her friend became apprehensive. "Uh, you know, I'd just always wondered. You two seem so happy."

"Yeah," Monica agreed dreamily. Her head came out of the clouds quickly, however, when her mind began to question if that was the only reason Rachel had asked. "I think it helped that we were friends first," she informed the other woman, who looked up suddenly from her pizza, which was only halfway to her mouth.

"Oh, uh, good," Rachel said.

"Yeah, sometimes the best romances blossom from friendships. Don't you think?" Monica pressed, everything fitting together in her mind like a puzzle that was missing one more piece. "I mean, friendship is important in a relationship."

Rachel nodded, looking uncomfortable. "Sure."

"I'll bet that if you ever tried being friends first with a guy, instead of rushing to date them, you'd find yourself in a very good situation."

"Uh huh."

Monica was becoming aggravated. She just wanted Rachel to spill! "Do you like my brother?" she enquired bluntly, and loudly. The gasp that Rachel emitted was enough for Monica to prove her theory correct.

"Ah ha!" She shouted, triumphant. "You do like him! When? How? I mean, I thought you always just saw him as my older brother; a friend, nothing more!" The questions were spilling out of her mouth like a bad drink.

Rachel didn't reply for a long time. She wasn't sure if she should be divulging in this secret.

Oh, what the hell. "Okay, Mon. I may…be feeling…something…for Ross."

"Thank you!" Monica yelled. She thought her friend would never admit it.

"I don't know why," Rachel started, shaking her head. Outside, the sky was growing darker as the seconds ticked by. "I mean I always just saw him as your geeky older brother, and then he's taking me to prom, and then he's talking me out of joining that sorority, and then we're hanging out just the two of us more and more, and then he's with me at the hospital when my dad dies, and then you and Chandler get together and we spend even more time together, and one minute I'm smiling at him while we walk in the snow because he's making me feel good about myself, and the next minute we're walking home from a fancy restaurant and I'm smiling because I'm realizing how incredibly amazing your brother is."

When she was done, Rachel fell back against the chair cushion, letting out a long stream of air. Monica blinked slowly.

"Wow," was all she could think of to say.

"I know," Rachel agreed quietly.

Monica waited a moment, before starting in on the subject. "You know, he's been in love with you since the ninth grade. I'm sure if you told him you like him, he'd be so excited he'd wet himself."

Rachel cracked a smile. "I don't know, Mon. I don't want anything to become weird between us. I mean, we're such good friends. Best friends, only second to you and me. And if it didn't work out…"

"Who says it isn't going to work out?" Monica protested. "Personally, I think you two would be great together."

"You really think so?"

"I know so."

The two women sat in silence. Outside, the sun kept fading behind the house. People were talking and laughing as they barbecued outside. The sea roared every so often.

"Wanna take a walk?" Rachel asked, standing up.

Monica nodded. She could tell Rachel didn't want to discuss Ross anymore. The two left, avoiding the revelation that had just been announced and was now floating in their minds.

She'd get more information out of her later.

XXX

A/N II: Had to give a shout-out to my home state, and my favorite vacationing spot within it :)