As far as the rest of them were concerned, it wasn't so easy.

'So you mean,' said Joey, in his usual place at Central Perk, 'That she's just come back, because she's changed her mind?' Chandler was next to Monica, and Rachel and Phoebe were sitting together.

'Well, yes,' Monica said, 'But that's a good thing isn't it?'

'Is it?' Joey glowered. Chandler hadn't said anything about it yet, but he did not look as though he would be welcoming of Emily, when she turned up. Phoebe too, was looking resistant. Monica felt that she had to try and make some progress with them before Emily turned up. Emily was now a part of her family, and it was going to be difficult for her if half of her friends hated her. And not just difficult for Monica either. How would Ross feel if they didn't treat Emily with a bit of friendliness? It would drive just the sort of division between them that Emily's demand would have if Ross had gone along with it. If they couldn't like her, they at least had to be able to get along so that the rest of them could still be friends. It would have been nice if they could all be friends, but if they could at least just put up with Emily, that would be something. There were lots of people who were good friends, even if one of them was married to someone who wasn't a friend.

'Ross is happy. If she can make him happy, that's good,' Monica said.

'What really happened?' Chandler asked, 'Is she really going to change her mind about Rachel?' He glanced over at Rachel who had been the latest arrival. She had mentally prepared herself for this meeting and she felt no need to add to the conversation.

'Apparently yes.' She looked at the others, 'You know Ross, in the end, he wouldn't agree, so the only way they could be together is if she dropped her demands and started trusting him, so that's what's happened.'

'You don't trust a person just because you've been told to,' Chandler said, 'You either do or you don't. If she didn't trust him before, then I don't see how she's suddenly going to start trusting him now.'

'She's going to try, that's the important thing,' Monica said.

'So she says,' Joey said.

'We just have to see if she's as good as her word, but we might know that once we see how she behaves without being mean. If we're mean to her, then it might just make things worse,' Monica said firmly, 'So please don't judge her prematurely. If Ross is happy and she's not mean to Rachel, then we can deal with her, can't we? I don't know how I'm going to feel about her myself, but if we begin by acting hostile, then it's not going to work out.'

'Ross chose us over her, when it came down to it,' Joey said stubbornly, 'If it doesn't work, then she'll go away and it will be back the way it was.'

'I can't believe you're being so selfish,' Monica snapped at him, outraged, 'If it doesn't work, my brother will be getting a divorce – his second divorce, which will be terrible for him – you saw how he was the other night – and if you're mean to Emily maybe he'll think again about you.' Joey looked crushed by this momentarily, but then said,

'How do you know she's not just faking this to get Ross back? How do you know she's not going to slowly poison him against us? To make it just how she wants.'

'Hey Joe –' Chandler said, thinking he was going too far.

'She failed to blackmail him into doing what she wanted, so she's probably just going to manipulate it the way she wants instead,' Joey said, 'You wait, she'll fake nice, and then you'll see.' He looked at Rachel, 'I don't understand how you can just sit there, she hates you, and you're going to be nice to her.' Rachel shrugged. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't nervous.

'She was upset by me, scared of me,' Rachel said.

'And she hates you, and probably all of us.'

'That attitude isn't going to help,' Monica said severely.

'Well,' Joey said, 'I'm not staying, you can stay and have her wreck everything but I'm not getting involved,' and as he left, he pushed past Emily at the doorway.