Home again

…and so the weary trio returned to Central Perk, weary and, yes, hungry.

It was only a matter of minutes after they had arrived until Emily, Monica, Chandler and Phoebe converged on them, having arranged to be tipped off to their arrival by Gunther. Ross, who had been lolling on the couch looking washed out and tired, sat up and looked alert.

'There you are!' Emily exclaimed. 'I've been so worried about you.'

'I can't believe you did that,' Monica said, this to all three of the miscreants. 'You know you've been completely irresponsible.

'You three have caused an uproar,' Chandler said, but he could see the funny side of it all so accompanied this with an eyebrow twitch. After all, they looked all right.

'I think they should all be sent to bed without supper,' Phoebe said.

'Hey,' Joey said, 'We did leave a note. No-one meant missing.'

'But you didn't say you were going to go to Coney Island,' Emily said.

'We didn't know we were going to Coney Island,' Rachel said, 'That was Ross's idea.'

'But you've got a broken leg,' Emily said.

'I know,' Ross said, 'But I just wanted to go out and do something different.'

'But if you'd wanted to go out, why didn't you say?' Emily asked. 'We always go out if you want to.'

'I know,' Ross said, 'But we don't just go out. We decide to go out, and it's a hour before we do go out, because we've got to plan everything.'

'You like plans,' Monica said. 'Don't pretend you don't.'

'Yes, I do like plans,' Ross said, 'But sometimes it's just nice to go. To just open the door and go.' But then he winced and his upbeat mood could no longer hide his pallor. The day had taken more out of him than he had wanted to admit. Rachel bit her lip in consternation. She had done nothing wrong, though she could see that she was at risk of being blamed for it.

'I bet your impromptu plan left out the pain killers,' Emily said, rummaging through her bag.

'It's not that bad,' Ross lied.

'Yes it is,' said Rachel. 'That's why we came back. It was worse when he was walking around. But he didn't say it was that bad.'

'It isn't that bad,' Ross interrupted. Emily handed him the pain killers which he took without arguing.

'His leg isn't used to it yet,' Emily said, rummaging in her purse. 'It would be bound to ache after all that walking.'

'We thought it would do him good,' Joey said, while Rachel looked stony at the implied reprimand.

'The exercise would do him good, in the long run, with muscle strength and circulation and things, but it would have been better if he'd taken some pain killers before he went.'

'Hey, he's still in the room,' Ross said. 'I know my impromptu outing could have been better planned, but nothing actually went wrong. I never even came close to breaking my leg again, or breaking the other leg, or anything at all. I just got a bit tired, that's all. You've got to let me do things for myself,' Ross said.

'Did someone get that on tape?' Chandler joked, 'Emily, you'll have his own words to quote back at him forever now.' The others grinned.

'Seriously,' Ross cut in, 'I won't break in two if I go out and do stuff.'

'I just worry. You can't always control what happens to you,' she said.

'I know you worry, but I'm not going to let a car or van or bus or anything like that hit me again.'

'Or a motorbike,' supplied Joey.

'Thanks Joe,' Ross said shortly.

'Horse,' Joey added.

'What?' Rachel asked incredulously.

'Police horse,' Joey explained.

'Roller blader,' Chandler said. 'Large man running for bus. I sure wouldn't want to get in his way.'

'Who?' Joey asked, 'What large man? Have I met him?'

'Or anything else,' Ross said, to shut them up. 'And even if something does get me, after all, this is New York, then… stuff happens.' He wasn't quite as resigned to the possibility of being injured again as he'd tried to make out. 'I hope it doesn't. But otherwise, to be totally safe, I'd have to stay in the apartment all day.'

'And even that might not be safe,' Phoebe said, 'Because your apartment building might catch fire or collapse, or get overrun by giant rats.'

'Ugh!' said several at once.

'I thought you liked rats,' Chandler said.

'One by one I do, as long as they're not giant rats,' Phoebe said.

'That's good, I won't get you a giant rat for Christmas then,' Chandler said.

'Anyway,' Ross said, looking around, 'I wasn't the only reason we came back. Joey was sick. Very sick.'

'It was terrible,' Joey said.

'No descriptions, please,' Monica said quickly.

'To tell you the truth, I'm hungry,' Joey said. 'Let's order pizza.'