A/N: Another chapter - thanks for all the reviews so far. I am working on a much darker story in addition to this, so keep your eyes out for that if it interests you at all. This fic will probably be sad in places but generally romantic and fairly light! The song this chapter is by the amazing Alison Krauss and Union Station - it fits the fic pretty well, I reckon.

It's been a long time coming

As you shed a lonesome tear

Now you're in a wonderama

I wonder what you're doing here

The flame no longer flickers

You're feeling just like a fool

You keep staring into your liquor

I'm wondering what to do

I don't hardly know you

But I'd be willing to show you

I know a way to make you smile

Let me touch you for a while

I'm gonna ruin my black mascara

You're drinking whiskey when it should be wine

You keep on looking in to that mirror

But to me you're looking really fine

I don't hardly know you

But I'd be willing to show you

I know a way to make you laugh at that cowgirl as she's walking out your door

I know a way to make you smile

Just let me whisper things

You never heard before

Just let me touch you baby

Just let me touch you for a while

Chapter Four

"Remind me why I'm coming to this party, again?"

Monica rolled her eyes at Ross, who was reluctantly unwrapping paper plates. "Because you're my brother, and you're supposed to love me. I know, weird concept."

Ross sighed. "That's not what I meant. I'm just not really in the mood and I don't want to bring you down and stuff…"

"Aww, you won't do that," Monica said gently, giving him a hug before watching him set the plates out on the table. "Although if you keep rearranging my plate set-up, things might change," she added, grabbing them from him and doing it herself. Monica was notoriously tidy and fussy and obsessive, but Ross thought it was endearing. At least she was passionate about something, which was more than could be said for Melissa.

Ross' heart sank at the very thought of her. Things between them had deteriorated even further in the past couple of days until Ross was trying to start fights, simply to break the strained silence that hung over the apartment. He didn't know what was wrong, or what had happened to make their relationship, their marriage, take such a bad turn, and he felt such a failure for it. He couldn't stop wondering what he could do to make it better or to make her happy; after all, she'd seemed pretty happy before.

The front door opened and Joey walked in, carrying a stack of about five chairs.

"Hey, where do you want these?" he asked, at which Monica looked up from her plate-arranging.

"Just over there by the sofa, thanks Joey," she said, as Ross frowned at her. "What?"

"Please tell me we're not playing musical chairs again."

Monica stuck her tongue out. "Oh, ha ha. Very funny. Everyone liked musical chairs. No, i just wanted extra places for my guests to sit." She laughed. "Wouldn't it be cool if we got gatecrashers?"

"Uh, yeah, well, it's your birthday," Ross shrugged, moving away before she punched him. "Oh, by the way, Melissa's not coming tonight."

"She's not? Why? Did you guys have another fight?" Monica looked concerned and Ross shrugged, unable to bring himself to explain the entire miserable story. "Aww, Ross, you have to sort this out. You can't go on making each other unhappy."

"But that's just it! I don't know why I'm making her unhappy! If I did, I could stop and maybe we'd have a chance. She won't even talk to be half the time, so there's no way of finding out." He picked up his glass of wine and took a long drink, hoping that if he imbibed enough, perhaps it would blot out all thought of his distant wife.

Monica opened her mouth to speak again when the door opened again and Chandler appeared, carrying a neatly-wrapped box, which he handed to a beaming Monica.

"Happy birthday!" Chandler kissed her on the cheek and stepped back as Monica eagerly ripped off the paper. "Yeah, 'cause that only took me an hour," he added sarcastically, eyeing the discarded ribbons.

"Oh, I love it!" Monica held up a pretty blue sweater. "Thank you!" She gave Chandler a lingering hug which didn't go unnoticed by Ross, and he watched as they proceeded to look a little embarrassed before Chandler went to talk to Joey.

"Mon?" Ross began, but he didn't have a chance to finish as the first guests arrived for the party, and Monica, despite it being her birthday, went into full hostess mode. There weren't to be that many people there, just some from college and fewer from high school, plus Ross and Monica's parents had promised to drop by at some point if they were in the city, otherwise they'd see her at the weekend. Ross resigned himself to the fact that he was on coat-collecting duty, and fell into his job accordingly, glad of anything else to occupy his time and thoughts.

Two hours in and Ross was losing the will to live. He'd been cornered three separate times, twice by women wanting to discuss their failing relationships, and once by a guy whom Ross assumed was either very drunk or very gay and desperate. Either way, he wasn't having a good time, and if it hadn't been his sister's party, he'd have been gone long ago.

"Hey Mon, is there more wine?"

Monica was too engrossed in a conversation with some guy with weird dreadlocks that she didn't even hear, and Ross sighed as he crossed to the kitchen in order to find some alcohol. He was just rummaging in a cupboard when the front door opened again and he looked up to see two girls waltz in, one of whom was… the girl from the club.

It was the girl from the club!

Ross was so stunned that for a few moments he couldn't even move, until he realised the girls were standing there looking lost, and he couldn't help noticing how amazing the girl – her name was Rachel, he remembered – looked. She was wearing a short black skirt and a purple top, and her hair was shiny and bouncy. Ross only became aware he was staring when Rachel's blonde friend turned and smiled at him.

"Hey, excuse me, we're here for Monica's party. Are we in the right place?"

And then, Rachel followed her friend's gaze, and her eyes met Ross'. He thought it was a good thing he was leaning against the counter, or else his knees might have given way, such was the intensity of her look. It was as if she was just as shocked to see him, but just as pleased, although Ross knew that was probably wishful thinking on his part. As if someone like her would even remember him…

I'd better say something here.

"Uh, yeah, yeah, it is, you're totally in the right place!" Ross cursed the fact that his voice suddenly sounded a lot higher than usual, and his heart was beating really fast. "Monica's just over there. Are, uh, you friends of, uh, hers?"

Great, you sound smooth. Not.

"Yeah, we know her from around," the blonde girl replied airily. "You know, just… around. Chatted a few times, knew it was her birthday, thought we'd drop by. I'm Phoebe, and this is Rachel."

Yeah, this IS Rachel. Wow.

Rachel seemed to nudge Phoebe hard in the side, and the two of them looked at each other for a few moments before Phoebe clapped a hand to her mouth.

"Oh! I mean, sorry, I just remembered, I need the bathroom! Be right back!" And with that, she darted off past Ross, who was working hard to keep his palms from sweating. As Rachel moved towards him, however, he found that increasingly difficult.

"Hi," she said quietly, stopping beside the food-laden table. It was lucky that everyone else seemed busy with dancing and chatting-up to need to eat, because if anyone had interrupted Ross was ready to kill them. "I didn't know you were…" She tailed off, and Ross knew he had to jump in.

"I'm Monica's brother," he explained, as calmly as he could. "And it's perfectly okay that you're gatecrashing her party."

Rachel looked mortified. "Oh God, I'm sorry," she said heavily. "I'm really sorry, this is awful of us. Phoebe just wanted somewhere to go and we were bored and oh God…"

Ross smiled. He couldn't help it. She was blushing and she looked so cute, as if she didn't usually embarrass easily and he was having an effect on her. A bit presumptuous to think that, admittedly, but it was nice nonetheless.

"Hey, don't worry about it," he said quickly, barely registering he'd moved closer to her. "I wasn't angry with you, I think it's cool. Monica actually said she wouldn't mind if people just came by." Ok, so that last part wasn't entirely the truth. He didn't care.

"Really? Because I never normally do stuff like this, but Phoebe is a bit crazy anyway and like I said we were bored, nothing to do, and this looked like fun." She bit her lip. "Now you think I'm crazy too, right?"

"No, of course I don't," he said truthfully, handing her an empty glass. "Would you like some wine? I was just looking for another bottle."

"Sure, thanks Ross."

As soon as the breathless words had left Rachel's mouth, Ross was staring at her in surprise and amazement. He couldn't believe it.

She remembered my name.

"You remembered my name."

Shit, why didn't that stay in my head where it belonged?

Rachel's mouth curved into a sweet smile as she nodded. "Yeah, I remembered. How could I forget?" The air remained charged between them, Ross hardly daring to move, until she laughed a little. "You gave me your shirt, after all, and not many guys do that."

He smiled back, unable to stop himself. "Yeah, well, uh, I didn't want you to be cold." He finally laid a hand on a bottle of wine. "Here we go," he said, uncorking it and pouring some into Rachel's glass before adding to his own. "So what made you guys pick this party?"

"Nothing in particular…" Rachel sighed as soon as she'd said it. "That's so obviously a lie, isn't it? The truth is, Phoebe was browsing the reviews in the paper, to see if your band was there, and she found out it was your sister's birthday. Except we didn't know she was your sister or anything, we just thought it might be fun to see famous people at a party." She bit her lip and Ross laughed a little.

"And you're really disappointed because there's nobody remotely famous here. Am I right?"

"No…" she replied hesitantly, and Ross knew she was lying again, but it was cute.

"Our band isn't famous," he explained. "We just do it part-time. We all have other jobs; it's a bit of fun at weekends and stuff. Well, it used to be. I'm thinking of quitting, to be honest." That was the first time he'd vocalised his doubts, and it was to a girl he didn't even know. There was something about her, though, that made him want to tell her everything and find out even more in return.

She was looking shocked. "Really? But why? You guys are so good and I'd love to be in a band!"

Ross shrugged, trying to act casual in the face of Rachel's close proximity to his body. She didn't seem to notice, but he certainly did, especially when she moved and he could smell her sweet perfume. "I don't have a lot of time, what with my job and…" He had been about to say 'my wife', but he'd stopped. Was there any point admitting to a marriage that was nothing but a sham these days? Maybe it would put Rachel off. Then again, who was to say she'd care at all? It wasn't as if she fancied him or anything, and he couldn't resist telling her the truth anyway. "And my wife."

It was just as the two of them looked at each other, Ross hoping he hadn't said the totally wrong thing, that Monica decided she needed him.

"Ross! Can you come here a second?"

He refrained from rolling his eyes and instead settled for shooting Rachel a nervous smile.

"Uh, my sister. I'll just see… Be back in a minute, okay?" He headed over to where Monica was standing by the TV, looking expectant. "Hey, what's up?" He tried not to sound too irritated but it was difficult when he had been interrupted while talking to the most beautiful girl, who also happened to seem really sweet. It didn't even matter that they'd probably never meet again – it was enough to have sane contact with a woman other than Melissa.

Monica was giving him her best 'Are-you-stupid?' look, before nudging him, hard. "You need to make a toast! To me!" She held up her half-full glass as an indicator and Ross nodded in recognition.

"Of course. Silly me finding something more interesting to do with my time." He ignored her stuck-out tongue, because he was only joking, and raised his own glass as Monica quietened everybody. "Uh, hey. I'd just like to thank everyone for coming tonight to help celebrate Monica's birthday. She's the best sister anyone could ask for, so here's to you Mon."

Monica beamed as people clinked glasses and drank, and Ross could have sworn he saw Chandler wink at her. Frowning, he turned to see what Rachel was doing, but his heart skipped a beat when he noticed she wasn't where he had left her. Had she gone? Had he actually really freaked her out and she'd gone?

Great. So the animal magnetism wears off pretty quick.

A/N: Please review and make me happy.