by Tina
Sorry this one's taken a little longer to come out! Notice how I said longer, not long! You can't say I'm taking too long to write this, it's not fair! lol :) I also had reasons to take so long...! First it was the cold whether making my fingers feel funny. Then I had a day full of work! I'm on vacation now, so free to write as I wish! ;) Hm, untill saturday, that is. And then I hated everything I wrote. I dislike this chapter too, but I'll get it over :P
Oh, and commenting on this review I got... Thanks for complimenting my English! ;) However, I'm not portuguese, lol! I'm brazilian!
Alright, now on with it! Oh, and Vero and Maeva waves Long time!
Rachel looked around the room and found herself quite satisfied with her work. The whole livingroom was decorated with many pink ballooms, dolls and banners. She had to be positive about everything and she had to admit she had started well. She offered to take care of the decoration for Melissa's welcome party herself and even though Ross thought it was too much, he didn't want to take this from her. It was great she had even offered to do such thing, so he didn't say a thing.
Too busy contemplating the apartment, Rachel didn't notice the approach of her best friend, Monica, who'd arrived earlier to help.
"You doing okay?"
Rachel looked at her and smiled.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Do you think this looks good enough?"
"Even better"
Rachel smiled wider.
Ross would be arriving any minute with Melissa. Other then the rest of the gang, Ross' parents, Carol, Susan and Ben were also bound to show up.
Phoebe, Joey and Chandler arrived first, quickly followed by Carol, Susan and Ben. Ross' son was almost four years old and easily considered Rachel his third mommy. He ran across the room as soon as he arrived, meeting Rachel with arms wide open to welcome him in a tight hug.
"Mommy!!" he squealed.
"Hey Ben, how have you been? I've missed you!"
"I've missed you too! Look what Mommy Susan gave me!"
And he rambled on and on about this new collective cards that were aparently the new sensation around boys his age. Rachel had learned how to deal with those situations, knowing exactly when to look surprised, amazed and, most importantly, to show interest. It was easy now, Rachel thought. She'd learned how to deal with it, she'd grown to love Ben. It filled her with confidence. So it wasn't the same thing as Melissa, but it still made a difference.
Carol and Susan approached her, greeting her with warm hugs and sweet words. It would seem strange to some how close they could be despite the fact they were all so involved, in one way or another, with the same man. Carol clearily showed concern in her eyes.
"Are we okay with this?" she simply asked, not having to waste time explaining what this was about.
Rachel just nodded, ruffling her hand in Ben's blonde hair.
Soon, the door opened and Ross entered, pushing Melissa on a stroller.
"Very ponctual, as always" Carol commented, exchanging smiles with her ex-husband's girlfriend.
Rachel looked over at Ross and they also smiled at each other. Phoebe and Monica leaned over the baby and Ross' atention quickly turned to them. Monica looked up at her brother and Rachel could see tears in her eyes. Proud tears of a woman who'd just met her new niece. They hugged and Monica quickly turned her atention back to the baby.
Soon Melissa was off the stroller, being held by any one who'd be interested. For the time being, Rachel was not one of them. She was still with Ben, who looked confused and aprehensive at the little person who'd suddenly become the new center of all atentions.
"You know Ben, you're a big brother now. See that? That's your little sister. Did your other mommies tell you about that?"
"Yes"
Rachel smiled at Ben as he just kept watching Melissa with the others. He looked thoughtful.
"But, mommy... Who's her mommy? Are you?"
"No, sweetie, I'm not her mom." and then she thought "Well... I am now, kind of. Like I am your mommy too, you see?"
"No"
Rachel sighed and smiled.
"She's your daddy's daughter, like you're your daddy's son. But I'm not really your mom." and she quickly corrected herself, not wanting this to come out the wrong way "But then again I am"
Ben looked even more confused. Rachel chuckled at her manners of trying to teach a three years old this sort of thing. Sometimes it was hard for her to understand it!
"You know what? I'm gonna give this a lot of thought and I'll come up with an easier way of explaining you this, okay?"
Ben looked interested.
"Okay" he said with a smile.
Rachel smiled and kissed the top of his head. A shadow on Ben's face made Rachel look up. Ross was standing next to them, having just managed to take Melissa from Monica's eager arms. The baby was smiling, looking as though she was having a blast being so popular. Upon seeing Rachel again, she quickly flew her hands towards her hair one more time. Ross chuckled.
"Can you take her for a bit?"
"Sure"
Rachel picked her up and placed her in her lap, sitting down on the couch. Ben remained next to them, resting both his hands on Rachel's knees. For a moment, Rachel glanced from one to another child of Ross'.
"Can she play, mommy?"
"Well, she can't play as well as you, Ben. She just plays with dolls and teddy bears and all."
"Oh..." he kept watching Melissa holding strands of Rachel's hair, standing up on her lap, being fussy. "That's boring"
Rachel chuckled, taken by surprised.
"But she'll grow up quickly"
"Still... she will play with dollies!"
"Okay, that's truth. But there's plenty of other things you guys could do together"
"Like what?"
"Like... you could teach her the cool things you can make with Lego! Or you could teach her about the dinosaurs your father taught you about, remember?"
"But dinosaurs are boring too!"
Rachel chuckled again. Ben was turning into such a smart little boy. Ross did not look so happy about this last comment though, and the dreamy smile he had on his face vanished for a few seconds. He and Rachel kept looking at each other and then he picked Ben up in one quick movement.
"Oh yeah, dinosaurs are boring, are they?"
Ben was giggling. Ross held him and tickled him till Ben was beginning him to stop almost incomprehensively.
Rachel was smiling truthfully watching them. She looked at Melissa again and saw her smiling at her. She was really kind of cute. It seemed Isaak had managed to attach a bow to her hair for that special night. It was red, the perfect contrast against her bright white skin and her dark eyes and hair. For the first time, Rachel changed roles with Melissa and allowed herself to run her own fingertips along the dark locks that ended in soft curls. It was so smooth. Out of impulse, she leaned over and burried her nose in there.
She smelled like... a baby.
Rachel let her nose travel from the hair down to Melissa's neck. Melissa giggled loudly and Rachel backed away, chuckling. When she looked up at Ross, she saw true love in his eyes. But when she turned her sight slightly to his side, she saw surprise in his parents'.
Rachel had already taken a shower, blow dried her hair, applied night cream on her face, brushed her teeth and read two chapters of her book. Meanwhile, Ross was still tucking Melissa down. That's okay, she thought. It's her first night at a strange house, it's only normal. And just when her book was starting to get interesting and finally compete with the thoughts in her head, she heard the door to their room open. Ross was holding an eletronic device Rachel didn't recognise.
"What's that?" she closed her book and set it on the nightstand, sure she'd have to re-read whatever it was she ran her eyes over.
"Oh, it's a baby monitor. This way we know wh-"
"Right, right, baby monitor" she cut him.
"I just couldn't leave her in there" he raised a hand to his chest "she looks so cute when she's sleeping"
Rachel smiled weakly at him. Being already ready for bed, Ross crawled next to her.
"But, you know, then I missed my other cute girl"
He kissed his way up her right shoulder, taking his time once he reached her neck.
"Oh yeah?"
She caressed his biceps for a while then moved her hands to his back as they began to lie down. She quickly wondered if this was the right thing to do. They'd always avoided having sex when Ben was around. It was not that they had an agreement, they just didn't have that habit. It always just seemed like they were too tired from keeping the child entertained all day. And Rachel always wondered that maybe Ross felt weird about it.
But then she thought of how Melissa will be always around now. Everyday, everynight... Always.
And if Ross was now okay with doing this under the circunstances, she was not about to stop him. For some reason, celibate didn't seem very much appealing. Specially not with his his hands running up her leg, giving her goosebumps. His lips found hers and their passion soon grew as they sunk into it.
But noises came from the monitor.
"Hewo?? Saa!! Mommy!"
Melissa's voice was emotional and they could tell she was quietly crying. Ross and Rachel pulled apart and looked at each other. She had to admit Melissa's last word broke her heart. Ross quickly got up and left the room, without a word.
Rachel sat up and wondered if she should hop on the shower again. Icy cold water, this time.
"It's okay, Mel, everything's gonna be okay..."
Rachel laid her head back down on the pillow and pretended Ross' sweet words were for her. Drifting off, she still managed to hear him one last time
"It's gonna be aright, I'm right here with you"
I'll try getting the next chapter done later on today! ;) Now please leave me a few words, I love it when you do that! :)