by Tina
I'm not exactly in a writing mood right now, but I wanna finish this fic soon... Don't wanna waste time I can be up here writing doing other things! However, I am certainly gonna hear a lot from my mom once she gets home and finds out I spent my morning/afternoon off writing instead of cleaning up my room. My God, that place sure looks like a jungle right now!
But on with the story ;) I got plans of either finishing Can't fight the night or starting a brand new story (based after the last episode) right after this is done. What do you think I should do? Drop me a comment and let me know which you prefer!
It was stronger than him, Ross couldn't help it. All the effort, the hard work he had put on getting over Rachel could almost be heard running softly down the nearest drain. Having Rachel, so beautiful and delicate, set across the table from him, laughing and smiling was like a spell. And so, everytime she giggled, he felt an urge to keep on making jokes, keep on gracing the world with that magical gift that only enticed him more. It was a vicious cycle...
Not mere five minutes had passed since Lara had left, yet they were already wrapped in their own "Ross and Rachel bubble". That atmosphere that was only theirs, filled with the same old feelings. This time, however, only the good ones were allowed in. The doubts, fears and resentment were left behind. It was home.
They'd missed this.
"How's Ben?" Rachel managed to say between her latest giggles.
"Fine, he's fine." Ross couldn't help but frown a little at the sound of his son's name. Ben had had a hard time copying with his and Rachel's separation. Ross always feared taking away someone as important as Rachel was to him, only after a while he'd stopped imagining it would ever happen.
"I miss him", Ross spotted a dark cloud above Rachel's head.
"He misses you a lot too" his expression became more serious "He didn't take our break up easily, specially with Melissa and all"
Rachel felt even lower. Over the last few months, she'd never stopped to think of the so many other things going on. Things she wouldn't know because she wasn't Ross' anymore... not his girlfriend or even his friend, it seemed.
If she'd known, maybe she could've... helped? Could she? Or maybe was stepping aside for better? She'd been so busy with her own things... But still, if only she'd known. Poor Ben.
"I guess this wasn't easy on anyone, huh?"
Ross shook his head, miserable. Rachel had to lower her gaze to avoid watching it. But she shook it off. She wouldn't bring herself down for this anymore. Just a few minutes ago, things were fine and she wanted that again. So, shooshing the intruder feelings from the back of her mind, out of their bubble, she looked up again.
"Can I see him some other day?" Ross smiled at the idea "You should bring Melissa too and we could all just hang out"
But soon enough Ross' expression became thorn "Would it be okay with, hm, with Daniel?"
"Would it be okay with Lara?" she shot it back, raising an eyebrow. She chuckled and continued "You of all people know he wouldn't stop me from doing this, Ross"
"Right" he chuckled back.
They kept smiling at each other.
"So it's a date" and as soon as the last word left her mouth, she mentally kicked herself for saying it. Nevertheless, he smiled.
"It's a date"
Rachel felt butterflies on her stomach. Ross was the only man ever capable of having that effect on her with simple words or looks.
He watched as she lowered her face in the most adorable way, like she always did when she was shy. Golden locks of hair fell from behind her shoulders, covering her eyes. She quickly brushed them away and caught Ross' eyes on her. The thing about Ross was that she knew, she felt that her looks were not the main atraction he held for her. Sure she knew he thought she was beautiful, he would say it all the time. But his eyes were always full of so much more. It was the way she acted, the way she felt about things. How she moved, how she spoke... and what she spoke. Even though she wasn't an intellectual like.. Lara.
And the feeling was mutual.
Ross and Rachel were walking around Central Park. A few feet ahead, Ben was kicking a soccer ball back and forth, a broad smile on his face. Melissa was walking by herself between Ross and Rachel, holding their hands. For the eyes of strangers, they looked nothing but a perfect happy family enjoying the sunny sunday at the park. If only life was that simple for them..
"Mommy-" Ben approached them, but quickly frowned at the look on Ross' face "Rachel, look, did you see that one?"
Annoyed by what had just happened, Rachel contained herself simply nodding. It hurt knowing Ben wasn't allowed to call her mommy anymore. She'd taken care of him for so long now. Cutting the strings was sure painful.
Sensing the whole thing, Ben quietly went back to kicking his ball.
"How's your work going?" Ross tried lightening things up.
"Good, very good." she traced her mind for post break up events. Nothing too relevant. "You?"
"Fine"
Something she'd been meaning to ask him came up.
"Hm, you know, the night we uh, we broke up.. You said you were meeting your boss for something, said you were hopeful. Anything happened there?"
"Oh, right!" Ross almost kicked himself for forgetting it. "I got promoted!"
Rachel's eyes widened up with pride.
"Really?"
"Yes, it's great...! Still, you know, nothing you'd find interesting, but..." he trailed off, smiling.
She shot him a playful look, laughing.
"Gotcha!" he chuckled. "But hey, that's great, I'm happy for you"
He looked at her and saw her looking back, smiling genuinely.
"Thank you"
Their gazes remained locked, both simply unable to look away. Rachel's blue eyes were welcoming and his chocolate brown ones just so soothing. It was Melissa who made them look away, breaking their moment. She stopped walking and forcefully made Ross let go of her hand so she could rub her eyes.
"She looks tired", Rachel commented.
Ross picked her up.
"Home, daddy, home" she kept saying, getting crabbier by the moment.
Taking notice to the fact of how weird yet not so bad it was to have Melissa calling Ross "daddy", Rachel failed to hear the call of her name. It was the look on Ross' face that brought her back.
"Rachel?", it sounded like it was the millionth time that name was being called.
She turned around and faced an older woman. She looked old enough to be Rachel's mother, though you had to look really closely to say such thing. She looked young for her age, had short blonde hair and wore colorful, yet fashionable, clothes.
"Emily, hi"
The woman gave Rachel a brief hug. Things were formal, but Ross could see that despite the looks, this Emily person cared about Rachel. He couldn't, however, figure out who she was. She turned her gaze over to Ross and Melissa, spotting Ben right after. Dissatisfaction was clear. Pointing the tip of her nose slightly up, she turned to Rachel again.
"Where's Daniel, my dear?"
Ahh, the mother, Ross concluded.
"He's at home, got a lot of work to do", Rachel half lied. "This is my friend Ross and his kids Melissa and Ben"
"Nice meeting you" Emily said with nothing but a polite nod. Not too satisfied himself, Ross simply nodded back.
"I'll call him later about this dinner at our place later on this week. We'd be delighted if you'd come again"
"I'll see what I can do"
Quickly saying their goodbyes, Emily left without even a further glance at Ross.
"Sorry about that", Rachel said after a long sigh. "She's nice to me now, but sure is overprotective with her son"
"Ah, but you have a way with the mothers, don't you?"
"I guess I do"
Rachel shifted her eyes to Melissa and felt bad that she had forgotten about her condition.
"Alright, ready to get the hell outta here?" she said. Melissa nodded excited and Rachel chuckled.
"Oh, Rachel, you could come and see my new Pokemon card collection!"
"I would love to, Ben!"
Grinning from ear to ear, they made their way to Ross' apartment.
Folowing his sister's steps, Ben had just fallen asleep to a brief afternoon nap. Being so tired from running and playing at the park, after a good snack and hot shower it didn't take him too long to surrender. Ross and Rachel closed the door to the kids' room, like they'd done so many times on the past. This felt just like that.
Rachel sat down on the couch, making herself at home. This still felt so much like her own home.
"Do you want something to drink?"
"Do you have some diet coke?"
Ross smiled. Rachel always drank that and so he always bought it at the supermarket. After the break up, he still kept on doing it. Out of habit or simply to keep something still the same. Or just so sometimes he'd drink it himself and remember the taste of her kisses.
He put it in a long glass with a lot of ice, just like she liked it.
"Here we go"
"Thanks" she took it and watched him sitting down next to her. Sipping it, she asked "Aren't you gonna have anything?"
"No, I'm still full of Melissa's milk. I don't know why I always make so much. She never drinks it all and I have to have the rest"
"Admit it, you like that vanilla thing you put in it!" Rachel giggled.
Ross laughed.
"Well, it's not bad"
Rachel's laughter died out as she kept drinking her coke. Her eyes were busy looking around now, noticing things that were different.
"Is that a dart board?"
"Oh yeah. I got it a few months ago..! You know, it was something to do after the kids were down. Much like now"
"Am I getting in the way of the three o'clock dart throwing session then?" Rachel joked.
"Nah, as it turns out I'm not really good at it, the walls were paying for it! So I had it fixed and just leave it there... It's a fine piece of decoration, don't you think?"
Rachel laughed.
"Yes, very much"
This was so easy...
"A bigger t.v., more eletronic things... my God, Geller, you really got lonely without me, didn't you?"
Ross chuckled. In any other ocasion, this would only bring him more down. But not around Rachel, not right now.
"What, and you didn't?"
Rachel's expression turned into a caring, warm one. She sipped her coke one more time and set it on the table ahead.
"Sure I did. You know who made a lot of money out of this though?" Ross shook his head "Macy's!" Ross chuckled and Rachel smiled. "I'm thinking about renting one side of Monica's wardrobe from now on"
"I've missed this. This is just so right" Ross said it without controlling his words.
"I know" Rachel said truthfully. She really did.
And their gazes were locked once again. The smiles were replaced by serious looks. Their breathing was beginning to sound uneven, due their hearts racing madly. How had they come to this again? It was like a magnet. They couldn't pull away, it seemed humanly impossible this time.
Rachel simply looked away from his eyes to his lips. She longed to kiss him again... Being kissed by Ross was not like kissing any other guy. This was, oh, so much different. She softly just closed her eyes and waited for it to happen.
Ross sent his promises to get over Rachel to hell by then. He had been given another chance and he was not about to waste it this time. Also, even if it didn't work out and she turned him down again, it would still be worth it. In moments like this, it seemed like anything would be worth it if he got to kiss her one more time.
And in a way... it was.
So he leaned in closer and brushed his lips against hers. Upon Rachel opening her mouth for him, Ross was able to taste her kiss again the way it was meant to.
Awful place for me to leave you hanging, eh? I know :) But we'll see...! lol! Reviews are still very much welcome ;)