A/N:Thanks to all my faithful reviewers.

TOW they're still friends

Joey sat down in front of his friend who put down the newspaper he was reading. He nervously fidgeted with the salt shaker on the table before Chandler prompted him.

"What is it you want to tell me, Joe?"

Joey took a deep breath and looked up at Chandler unsure. "Rachel is gonna move in with me again."

Chandler's face didn't betray a thing about what he thought. "Okay. Anything else?"

"You're not gonna tell me this is a mistake? Or that I should think about it again?"

Chandler seemed to have to think about that for a while, and then he leaned a bit forward to be closer to Joey. "Look Joey, a few weeks ago, I probably would have told you exactly that. But now... I don't know anymore. First of all, in the end, it's your decision. If this is what you want, who am I to tell you you're making a mistake?"

"What if I asked you?"

"Okay, so here is what I think. Remember what you told me when I was with Janice?"

"That I wanted to throw my arm at her?"

"No, that I should bow out and let her get together with her husband again because they were a family. I mean, you two have a child on the way, you could be... a family. It's not just about the two of you anymore. I think it's worth trying."

"Yeah... it is. That's what I thought."

"And then... a few days ago I saw Rachel. She looked... Joey, I've never seen her look like that, even after she broke up with Ross. She looks every bit as broken and sad as you do. I couldn't even be mad at her anymore, I just... felt sorry for her. If you two can fix it..."

"Chan, I don't know if I want to fix it. I don't know if I can, if I have that in me. But I know I don't want her to live at Ross's or somewhere else. They are my responsibility."

"But you shouldn't just do it because you feel responsible. If living with her again hurts you..."

"No, I don't think it would hurt me. At least not more than living without her does."

"So you think it's worth trying?"

"Yeah, I think it is."

"Then you should try it."

………

(Week 23 of pregnancy)

When Chandler came home from work, both the doors to the apartments 19 and 20 stood open. He would've had helped Rachel to move in with Joey again, but he had to go to work, and seeing his wife excitedly helping Rachel to put all her stuff back to where it had been before made him realize that probably he would only have been in their way anyway.

Joey seemed to be trying not to be in Monica's way, too, but the quiet happiness he exuded made Chandler smile to himself. Maybe things weren't as messed up as they had seemed to be a few months ago.

"Hey, I hope you left some work for me," he said loudly while entering the apartment.

Everyone turned to him and smiled. Monica came over and gave him a smacking kiss. "We thought it would be better to be done before you had your chance to break things."

"Hey," he complained, knowing she was right.

"Hi, Chandler," Rachel smiled at him and he smiled back at her. There was still something hovering around her like a dark cloud. Her eyes still didn't sparkle like they used to, but he hoped that maybe Joey would manage to bring that back eventually.

"Hey dude," Joey greeted him, and slapped him on his shoulder a bit too firmly for his taste.

Chandler turned to him and said, "Seems like it was a really good idea you had, to move in together again."

To his surprise, Joey sighed at that and looked down at his feet. "Can't take credit for that one. I mean, I had thought about it and Rach had too," at that he turned his head and looked at Rachel, who nodded in confirmation. "But it was Ross who brought it up, who actually made us talk about it."

Chandler tensed up and felt his stomach clench at the mention of the name of his former long-time best friend. He shook his head to get rid of the weird feelings coursing through him, but when they persisted, he turned and went over to the other apartment. He put his briefcase on the kitchen chair and felt himself drawn to the big window, staring over at Ross's apartment. Ross was busy putting his stuff back into the places Rachel had vacated.

Ever since he had forgiven Rachel, he had thought about getting things right with Ross again. They had seen each other on occasion at the coffeehouse, but they had barely talked at all, and then only about superficial things. He didn't feel like he had to apologize, but he wanted him to know that they were still friends. He just hadn't figured out how to approach him about that.

A gentle hand was placed on his shoulder and he felt the tension drain out of him at the feeling of his wife's presence beside him.

"Do you want to talk to him?" she asked quietly.

"I really think I should."

"Then do it. Right now would be a perfect opportunity. I think he might be happy to know that he still has friends left."

He turned to Monica and swept her into a tight hug. "You're right as always," he murmured into her ear, which earned him a passionate kiss that promised a lot more.

"I'll wait for you to come back," she purred with a familiar glint in her eyes.

He let her out of his arms reluctantly and headed out of the apartment.

………

Ross's door stood open; someone had probably forgotten to close it behind them.

"Knock, knock," he said before he stepped in and Ross, in the middle of putting some stones onto a shelf, spun round to him.

"Hi," he said tentatively, looking down at his feet.

"Hi," Chandler greeted back, feeling painfully at a loss for words. It was clearly a situation where he would normally have a joke handy, but he doubted that Ross would appreciate that much.

"So, she's all moved out, huh?" he asked rather stupidly, knowing the answer already.

"Yeah," Ross answered shortly, turning back to his stones again.

"I think you did the right thing," Chandler finally said.

Ross turned around again and shrugged helplessly, while gesturing for Chandler to take a seat on the couch.

"I wish I had done it a few months ago," he said after sitting down next to him.

Chandler asked the one question that had been on his mind for months. The one thing he couldn't wrap his mind around. "Why didn't you?"

"I thought that this is where she belongs. Here… with me. It took me far too long to realize that she stopped belonging to me a long time ago."

"What made you realize that?"

"Seeing those two in the hospital. I mean… before… I couldn't understand what they felt for each other, what was between them. I kinda thought – and I know how stupid it sounds now – that they could never have what she and I had, that he could never give her what I could give her. They always seemed more like brother and sister than anything else and – let's face it – he's Joey… it was just so incomprehensible."

Chandler nodded along. Just like anybody else – from what he had gathered, Phoebe and Monica thought about it almost the same way – he had never considered Joey and Rachel a possibility. Learning that they had obviously been so much in love was still something that he could barely believe. If it wasn't for the quiet desperation both of them showed so visibly, if it wasn't for Rachel's growing belly, it would still feel unreal that they had been a couple once.

"Anyway," Ross interrupted his musings, "…in the hospital, they were standing there, not even talking, just looking at each other and holding hands and… it was… it was like there was this invisible wall going up, separating them from the rest of the world. And I… I was definitely on the other side of that wall."

Again, that was something Chandler could empathize with. He'd felt that often enough over the past months. If he thought about it long enough, he had even felt it sometimes before he knew that they were together.

"You think they're gonna get back together?" he mused aloud, not even expecting an answer. It might even have been somewhat insensitive to ask Ross that question.

"God, I hope so," Ross replied, apparently without having to think about it. "They're so much in love and… they seem to be themselves only when they're together. I don't think I could live with myself, knowing that I had wrecked that for them."

Chandler shook his head, thinking back to the many times he had almost screwed up his relationship with Monica, sometimes even with the best of intentions.

"Blech … love. Makes you do the stupidest things," he stated with mock disgust.

Ross chuckled. "Couldn't agree more."

Chandler heaved an inward sigh of relief that the lightness was back so easily between them. Without many words, without long explanations and apologies. He just wanted it to be behind them and so, it seemed, did Ross.

"Would be boring without it, though," Chandler mused.

"Yeah, you're right. Boring and… kinda pointless, too," Ross said while getting up and vanishing into his kitchen.

He came back with two beers, handed him one and sat down again. They drank their beers in comfortable silence. As Chandler stole a glance up to his apartment, he could see a dark haired head vanishing quickly out of his sight. It made him smile.

"So, you think you're gonna fall in love again sometime?" he asked Ross after a while.

"Definitely," Ross stated with so much conviction, Chandler couldn't help but believe him.

He raised his beer in Ross's direction and said, "To love."

Ross clinked his bottle against his and said, "To friendship," while favoring him with a small and thankful smile.

tbc