A/N: Hey! Thanks for the lovely reviews so far, I'm glad you're liking it! Ok, so here's the next chapter. Just to set things straight, Ross has never been married to Carol here and his wife's not a lesbian. Sorry but hey, tis my world :P And this will probably be mainly a Ross/Rachel fic, but I won't forget the others - I just can't write any of them as well as RnR. I can get deeper with these two! Oh and askterisks don't work here so when you see XXXXXXXX it's a break in the story. And it's time for this chapter's song, so even if you don't know the tune... sing along! It's by Ronan Keating & LeAnn Rimes.

Four o'clock in the morning

My mind's filled with a thousand thoughts of you

And how you left without warning

Looking back I'm sure you tried to talk it through

And now I see it so clearly

We're together but living separate lives

So I wanna tell you I'm sorry

Baby I can't find the words

But if I could, you know I would

No I won't let go, know what we can be

I won't watch my life crashing down on me

Guess I had it all back there before my eyes

Girl I'm sorry now

You were the last thing on my mind

Chapter Two

"Ross? Hey, Ross!"

Joey's voice snapped Ross out of the weird daydream he'd been having about the girl at the club. Rachel. She was surely the prettiest girl he'd ever seen in his life. There had been an elegance about her that was coupled with her aura of innocence, and together they made a lethal combination. He hadn't been able to stop himself following her out of the club, just to make silly small talk in the freezing air, but it had been so worth it. He'd been chivalrous and given her his shirt, and she'd smiled at him. It didn't matter that he'd just met her; he couldn't stop thinking about her.

Now, though, he was being forced to return to reality as he sat with his sister Monica and their friends Joey and Chandler, in their favourite coffee house. It opened late on Saturdays and it might not have seemed the most likely place for a band to end up, but after a gig all any of them wanted to do was wind down.

"Want another coffee?" was Joey's question, and Ross nodded absently.

"What's wrong?" Monica followed up with concern, as Joey went to get everyone's orders. Even though she was the younger sibling, Monica was the protective and responsible one of their little group. She had an incredible motherly instinct that Ross greatly admired.

"Nothing," he said unconvincingly. He couldn't very well tell them his mind was filled with a girl he didn't even know. He knew how stupid that would sound and also, how inappropriate, given the fact he'd been married for just over two years. His wife, Melissa, had stayed at home that night; she didn't like coming to horrible venues to see the band.

Monica gave him her best 'I don't believe you' look. "Ross, come on. You can tell me if something's bothering you. Is it our set tonight? 'Cause I thought it wasn't as good as last week either, there's a load of things we should change..."

"No, it's not that." It was best to cut Monica off before she got a full head of steam. "I'm just tired, that's all. I didn't think we did badly tonight at all."

"Hmm, we did ok, but there is always room for improvement!"

Chandler did a 'yes ma'am' salute while Monica was looking the other way, and Ross couldn't help laughing. Chandler always made him laugh; he had done ever since they'd been roommates in college. It had been their idea to start a band way back, but neither had ever intended to actually end up playing real clubs. It was only when Monica forced herself into the equation that they realised she was a great singer, and that they had a decent thing going on. They auditioned for a fourth member and found Joey, who turned out to know Chandler from years ago, though they had lost touch over time. And so, the band was born.

Except Ross wasn't so sure he wanted to be in the band any more. Sure, it was fun and something to do with a Saturday night, but he wasn't convinced it was worthwhile. He and Melissa hadn't been getting along in the last couple of months, and Ross was considering that maybe the time he spent doing the band thing – which, admittedly, was not all that much, seeing as they all had jobs – would be better spent saving his marriage.

But then, if he wanted to save his marriage so badly, what the hell was he doing imagining what it would be like to kiss a girl he'd only said a few sentences to?

"So I was thinking we should definitely see about playing the college union," was what Monica was saying now that Joey had returned with the drinks. "How cool would that be? Going back to how it all began." She looked nostalgic and Ross exchanged a nervous look with the other two guys.

"We can't do that, Mon, we'd be chased off campus," he said seriously, taking his coffee from the tray. "I hate to break it to you but Chandler and I were never the most popular people at college and if I remember rightly, neither were you."

Monica rolled her eyes. "So what? We're not in college now, are we? We have the upper hand! We have to go and show them what we can do! Prove they were all wrong about us!"

Chandler's fixed smile was starting to really waver. "Show them what, exactly? We're not the Beatles!"

"And I have a lot of work coming up at the museum soon," Ross shrugged, avoiding his sister's eyes, which he knew would be narrowed in his direction right now. He wasn't telling a lie – work did seem to have become more hectic lately, or maybe it was an illusion created by the fact he preferred to spend more time there than at home. Whichever, it wasn't wrong to claim a heavy load, and that was the priority over the band.

"I have an audition next weekend, too!" Joey suddenly announced, making everyone congratulate him happily. "Yeah, I know, it's a great part! I don't wanna tell you about it though, in case I jinx it."

Ross refrained from rolling his eyes and instead wished Joey luck, echoed by Monica and Chandler. Then, without warning, Ross' thoughts drifted back to the gorgeous girl in the club. There had been something in Rachel's eyes which made the breath catch in his throat, and even the memory was eliciting a scaled-down version of the effect. He wished beyond anything that he'd been smart enough to get her number, but then who was he kidding? Since when did any women as amazing as Rachel even look twice at someone like Ross? She was way out of his league and he knew it. There would have been no real point pursuing it, he told himself firmly.

It didn't help, though. He still wanted to see her again.

XXXXXXXXXX

It was a good two hours later when Ross finally stepped inside the apartment he shared with Melissa, flicking the main light on before closing the door behind him and gazing around. Nothing had changed from that morning, when Melissa had gone to work with barely two sentences said between them, except the discarded shoes by the sofa and a used glass by the sink in the kitchen. Sighing, Ross went to get a drink of water, staring out at the streets below as he thought about how his relationship with Melissa had disintegrated so dramatically. He wondered if it had started when he'd been promoted at work, but he didn't remember them having any major fights about that. In fact, she hadn't seemed bothered one way or the other. What if they'd both lost interest in each other? Maybe Monica had been right and they had got married too young. Ross was still only twenty-five, and if this was how things were going, he wasn't sure he wanted to waste time trying to salvage something unattainable.

As his eyes traced the sparkling stars visible in the clear night sky, Ross' mind once again returned to the girl from the club, and he couldn't help wondering where she was right now, and what she was doing. He didn't think there was the slightest possibility that she might be having similar thoughts, but it wasn't important anyway. He'd been so stupid not to even get her number – not that he would have called it. The option would have been nice, though.

His head aching from the music and from his own mind, Ross called it a night and went to bed, unable to notice how Melissa was curled up right on the edge of her side. It was as if she was trying to position herself as far away from him as possible, and it made a lump rise in his throat. She'd been his first real love, the only person who he'd slept with and wanted to spend his life with – or at least that was how he used to feel. Now, he just felt sad at the prospect of a separation.

Quickly, Ross undressed and climbed into bed before realising that Melissa had most of the duvet over her, and there was practically none left for him. There was no way he wanted to risk waking her and somehow starting another argument, so he got up, grabbed his pillow and a blanket from the wardrobe, and made a half-decent bed on the sofa. It wasn't perfect, but at least here he could close his eyes and fall asleep to images of Rachel, playing over and over to the soundtrack of stars.

XXXXXXXX

"Close your eyes, give me your hand, darling... Do you feel my heart beating? Do you understand...?"

Ross smiled as The Bangles sang their song sweetly through the radio. It sounded totally different when Monica gave her rendition on stage, but Ross liked both versions. The original reminded him of the days in high school when all the girls loved Eternal Flame, and any boy worth his salt would include it on a mix tape for his intended sweetheart. Ross remembered giving one of those to Melissa, during the time when she hardly acknowledged his existence. He liked to think that the song contributed, in some way, to their eventual union, although whether he could consider that a good thing now was debatable.

"Hey."

The sound of Melissa's hoarse voice broke into Ross' reverie and he looked round to see his wife standing in the doorway of the bedroom, her blonde hair dishevelled and her eyes heavy.

"Hey," he rejoined, going over to her. He frowned. She wasn't looking too well. "Are you ok?"

She nodded. "I'm fine. Think it's just a cold coming on. Do we still have that honey and lemon stuff?"

"Yeah, I think so. Wait, I'll check." He rummaged in the medicine cupboard above the sink, wondering how the two of them had managed to accumulate so many random boxes of tablets and sachets of weird cough mixtures. He'd just laid eyes on his target when Melissa spoke again from behind him.

"Why did you sleep on the sofa?"

She doesn't sound very bothered about it.

"Uh, I came home late and I didn't want to disturb you, so I just stayed out here." He pulled out the packet and began making her the drink. "Did you have a good evening?"

"It was ok," she said. He could see her shrugging out of the corner of his eye. "And my afternoon was ok, too, but my morning sucked."

Ross knew what she was getting at; the fact they hadn't seen each other all day yesterday. That hadn't been his fault, though. He'd had to be in work really early, and then there was dinner with Monica – whom he'd never thought Melissa liked much – and after that, the band gig. He hadn't deliberately set out not to see her, but he knew what she meant. Somehow, they ended up in the same situation and it was just becoming repetitive.

Neither of them spoke again until Ross handed Melissa her drink, for which she thanked him.

"You should stay off work today," he said as he headed out of the door. "You don't want to make it worse, whatever it is."

Melissa nodded from where she was sitting in the armchair. "I'll phone them. See you later, Ross."

"Yeah, see you." He gave her a cursory smile before departing, knowing that one way or another, things were going to have to change and soon, before both of them went crazy.

A/N: Aww man, I love Ross! Like, I do anyway, but I'm making him suffer, bless him. Anyway, please go press the submit review button and make me a very happy gal! Cheeeers!