A/N: sob I've just been watching TOW Rachel's Going Away Party and she and Ross are just the best. Anyway. Here's a longer chapter for you as a reward for all your lovely reviews. And also, I felt like writing more, lol! I've been alternating chapters between Rachel and Ross's viewpoints, but this one has both because it's much easier for me to switch during a chapter than wait till the next one. I'm sorry there's not much from any of the others but this is primarily a RR fic. Oh, and I know it's not a very realistic chapter in parts, but then Friends wasn't always realistic and it doesn't matter! ;)

I'm missing you, girl even though you're right here by my side

'Cause lately it seems the distance between us is growing too wide

I'm so afraid that you're saying it's over

It's the last thing that I want to hear

But if your heart's not in it for real

Please don't try and fake what you don't feel

If love's already gone it's not fair to lead me on

'Cause I would give the whole world for you

Anything you ask of me, I'd do

But I won't ask you to stay, I'd rather walk away

If your heart's not in it

Westlife

Chapter Seven

It took a good few minutes for Ross to recover from the immediate shock of seeing Melissa anywhere near a club he was playing at. He walked right around the echoing dancefloor, every now and then casting suspicious glances her way. She was sitting on the edge of the stage, swinging her legs and staring down at her hands, looking distinctly uncomfortable.

"Ross, I…"

"You know, I don't get it, Mel," he said angrily, going up the steps to the stage and standing behind her. "You've never once come to a gig, and suddenly you're here, trying for a quick shag? What is going on?"

Melissa sighed heavily and stood up, brushing her skirt down. "Ross, calm down. Nothing is going on! I just thought it was about time I came to one of my husband's band… things. I was sure you'd be pleased to see me."

"I would, if I believed you really came to see me," Ross shot back. "Since when have you even noticed me? Not for a long time, Melissa! We share an apartment and somehow we don't know anything about each other's lives any more. You come home and go to bed, or I'm home and you ignore me. We don't even fucking talk! And now you're here, pretending you give a shit about what I enjoy doing?" Ross found he was out of breath, and stepped back a little, avoiding Melissa's eyes. He closed his eyes and ran his hands through his hair, wishing this wasn't happening now, while everyone else was sitting a room away, including Rachel.

Why the hell am I thinking about Rachel? Melissa's here. She's my wife. Rachel's nobody.

Ross shook his head at his own transparency. It really was something else, trying to lie convincingly to yourself, he thought, before opening his eyes and seeing Melissa watching him beadily.

"Why don't you want me?" she asked accusingly.

This took Ross aback. "What?"

"You. Why don't you want me? Don't you fancy me any more? Am I not pretty enough? Maybe there are too many groupies hanging around."

"Of course I fancy you! And of course you're pretty! And come on, the groupies always go for Joey." Ross attempted a smile, but Melissa wasn't playing. He sighed. "Please, Mel. I just don't understand."

She moved closer, pressing herself up against him. "Let me make it easier for you," she purred, kissing him possessively on the lips, moaning deep within her throat and tugging at his jeans. "Mmm… We've got time, right?" she said, her lips dangerously close to his ear. He gulped and staggered backwards under the force of her assault.

"Uh, not really, Mel, everyone's next door, can't we just…"

"Ross? Where are you? We need to set the keyboards up!"

The sound of Monica's voice brought Ross harshly back to reality, and he broke away from Melissa. She glared at him and wiped her mouth before stalking away, off the stage and over to the main exit. Ross was breathing rapidly by the time Monica was by his side.

"What's going on? Who was that who just ran away?"

"Melissa," he replied, almost sadly, as his confusion heightened. He had no idea what kind of game his wife was attempting to play, but it didn't sit well with him. She didn't seem to have a concept of what he felt and how he wanted things to work between them. Instead, she chopped and changed and didn't ever explain herself, so Ross didn't know how to work through whatever problems they might be having. And as for the sudden re-awakening interest in having sex with him, Ross really didn't know what to make of it. He'd been pretty sure Melissa didn't find him remotely attractive any more, if indeed she ever really had, so these last couple of surprise encounters had thrown him off balance.

None of this, however, could be explained to Monica, and certainly not when the two of them were joined moments later by Chandler and Rachel, both carrying other pieces of equipment.

"I've never been a roadie before," Rachel giggled as she set down the other mic stand. "Maybe this is my calling, rather than serving burgers in that crappy diner."

"Which crappy diner do you work in?" Chandler asked. "Because I frequent many, and it would be an added bonus to be served by you."

Rachel smiled. "You know the place with the red plastic chairs and the weird ketchup?"

Chandler's face broke into realisation. "Oh yeah! Is that place still open? Last I heard it had been shut down… I mean, uh, improved beyond all recognition." He sighed. "Sorry."

"No, it's fine," Rachel replied, nodding. "It's true, it ought to be closed, but for some reason it's still popular. I'd much rather be doing something else, like… Well, I don't know! I've never given it a lot of thought. I'm trained for nothing!"

"Yeah, but you can always find an opening somewhere," Monica said. "You come across well. I bet you'd have no problem if you went for a few interviews." She turned to Ross, who hadn't noticed he'd been staring at Rachel the whole time. What she didn't know was he hadn't really seen Rachel at all. His mind was too full of Melissa to pay attention to much else. "Are you ok?"

He nodded. "I'm fine. You'd better find Joey, we need to practise." He wandered over to his keyboard, wondering when and why marriage had become so difficult – and then, when and why Rachel had started staring back at him, and by the looks of things, not unseeingly.

As the four band members went offstage for intermission, Rachel turned to Phoebe expectantly.

"Well, what do you think?"

"Yeah, they were pretty good, although I think I preferred the songs they sang last week."

Rachel shook her head. "No, not that! I mean about Ross! He was definitely looking over a good few times, and he smiled once. AND earlier, he stared at me for a while!"

"Oh, yeah, he did," Phoebe agreed. "But Rach, didn't you tell me he's married?"

Rachel paused to glance across at the stage, imagining Ross there, singing a song to her. Sure, she knew it was foolish to get carried away when the guy had a wife, but he hadn't seemed that happy. And it didn't hurt to remind him of what else was out there. Rachel explained this to Phoebe, who sighed.

"Look, I know you really like him, but that's not the point! You don't know how he feels about you, even if you remove the whole marriage problem. I want you to be careful, Rach; I'd hate to see you get hurt."

"I know," Rachel nodded. "You're right, this is crazy. I can't help it, though. I don't even know what it is. There's something about him, and not just the fact he's really cute." She giggled slightly nervously, even more so when Ross and the others came back on stage and waved to the two girls. "Maybe I haven't been with a man in so long and it's messing with my mind. I mean, I hardly know him!"

"Yeah. That's all true. I hardly know Joey either and we're going out tomorrow night." No sooner had Phoebe said it then she suddenly pretended to be very interested in her cocktail umbrella.

Rachel's jaw dropped as she stared at her friend. "Pheebs! You're sitting there lecturing me and all the time you're about to date Joey? You are such a hypocrite!"

"I am not!" Phoebe protested. "Joey isn't married, and I know he likes me! That's not the same thing as going after some married guy who's probably all confused and vulnerable!"

Rachel folded her arms and fixed her gaze on Monica, who was singing a song Rachel had never heard before. On one level, Rachel was angry with Phoebe for saying all those things. On another level, she knew they weren't all entirely false things, and was more angry about the fact Phoebe was basically right. Rachel couldn't even try to start something up with Ross, because he was married to some other girl. Whether she made him happy or not wasn't the issue. Rachel so badly wanted to be able to accept that and move on, and as she watched him, she tried to convince herself she wasn't really attracted to him after all. It might have worked, too, had he not chosen that moment to look over at her again and smile, sending Rachel's pulse soaring. She didn't know the reason, and she didn't care. All she knew was she wanted him so badly it was starting to hurt, and she had to have him, no matter what.

After the gig, a somewhat reluctant Rachel and a much more eager Phoebe piled into the back of the van along with Monica, Chandler and Joey, who had lost the coin-toss to Ross over whose turn it was to drive next.

"I don't get it! Five times in a row!" Joey moaned as he pulled the van door shut. "Heads he wins, tails I lose!"

Monica and Rachel exchanged glances and smiled, while Phoebe was too busy attempting to sit on Joey's lap to even notice what he was saying.

"So we're going to the coffee house," Monica said to Rachel and Phoebe. "We hang out there pretty much all the time. They do really good muffins, too."

"Great, I'm starving," Rachel replied. "We didn't have enough money for dinner tonight, so I brought home some stuff from work. I honestly have no idea why people pay to eat that stuff!"

Ten minutes later, Ross stopped the van outside Central Perk, and Rachel followed Monica out, straightening her skirt once safely on the pavement. The others got out too and Phoebe shut the doors, while Ross was locking up at the front.

"Well, this is it," he said, walking towards the front door of the coffee house. "This is where we spend loads of time." He led the way inside and Rachel immediately found herself liking the place. It had a very homely feel to it, and there was a comfortable-looking sofa on which Ross had just sat down. "This is our sofa!" he added, grinning.

"You can't see our names, but if you look closely our assprints let everyone know it belongs to us," Chandler quipped, taking a seat at the other end. Monica sat beside him, and Rachel hovered, especially when Joey pulled Phoebe into his lap over in the large armchair.

"There's plenty of room here, Rach," Monica offered, patting the space between her and Ross. Rachel nodded, although her palms were sweating a little. She hadn't expected to be so close to Ross, and she wasn't sure it was such a good idea, given the circumstances and how much she was starting to like him. One look at Phoebe told her the blonde agreed, but Rachel didn't have much choice when Monica reached up and grabbed her hand.

"Come on, we're about to have muffins!" she exclaimed, as Rachel was brought down on the sofa with a bounce.

"Oh, um, I'm okay thanks," Rachel said quickly, surprised to see a plate of three or four muffins already on the table. "I mean, I paid rent today, so I can't really afford…" She felt herself blushing and again cursed her rotten job and terrible apartment.

"Don't worry about it Rachel, you can share this one with me if you like." Ross held out a delicious-looking blueberry muffin, and as Rachel met his eyes, she swallowed hard. He was so sweet and his eyes were really lovely…

"Well, uh, if you're sure," she said, as casually as possible, which in reality wasn't very. "I mean, it's yours, I don't want to be rude or anything…"

"No, it's fine," he insisted, handing the plate to her. "You're not being rude at all. I offered. In fact, just have the whole thing, I'll get another one."

"I can't let you do that," Rachel protested, trying to shove the plate back into his hands. Momentarily, she was unsure why she was refusing nice food from a cute guy she fancied, but it pleased her to realise her spoilt streak was actually disappearing.

"Of course you can," Ross said gently, getting up from the sofa. "I'll be back in a minute."

Rachel bit into the muffin and sighed. She hadn't thought it was possible to want Ross more, but now she did. Why did he have to be so nice to her? Guys she liked usually treated her like dirt once they got what they wanted, or at least tried and were refused. Ross seemed to have respect and he was generous. It made such a pleasant change, and also made it all the more infuriating that he was already married.

Rachel's thoughts were interrupted by giggling, which, when she looked up, saw was coming from Phoebe. She was being tickled by Joey and from the looks of things, not putting up a lot of resistance. Rachel rolled her eyes. She didn't really want to be alone when she went home, but she guessed that Phoebe would probably end up going back with Joey. Suddenly it seemed to Rachel as if everyone except her was happy in some sort of relationship, and it was rather depressing.

Ross returned and sat down beside Rachel, who brightened. "Hey, apparently they're looking for waitresses here. I thought maybe you'd be interested, Rachel? I mean, I know it's not that great, but you sound like you hate your job and at least this place is clean and…" He looked apprehensively at her. "I didn't mean to sound like you can't do better than here, because you can, it's just…"

Rachel smiled. He was too adorable! "I know you didn't mean that," she said reassuringly. "Thanks for letting me know, I'll go and ask. Anything is better than the stupid diner." She glanced around. "Besides, I think I like it here already."

Ross smiled back. "I'm glad. Maybe we'll see you around more often, then?"

Rachel nodded. "Yeah, definitely," she said, and a shy silence hung in the air around them until Joey started telling everyone about another audition he had the next day.

Six days later and Rachel was almost jumping for joy. She'd handed in her notice at the diner and was working her very final shift. It was difficult to contain her excitement about leaving, but Alice had already warned her twice, so she was trying. It had turned out that Ross had been right, and Central Perk was in need of a new waitress. Rachel had explained to the manager, Gunther, that she had some experience of working in a restaurant and she could give references, but he hadn't appeared to need them, telling her she could start straight away. And quite apart from the Ross-issue, Rachel was simply over the moon to be able to work in a much nicer part of town, and hoped that one day she might be able to live there as well.

Just as Rachel was carrying a tray over to the corner table, she glanced out of the window and noticed Ross walking past. She quickly set the tray down and smiled as she was supposed to, before running to the door and stepping outside.

"Ross!"

He turned and when he saw it was Rachel, his face broke into a smile.

"Hey Rach," he said, coming back towards her. "How are you doing?"

"Oh, fine, you know," she replied, hoping she didn't look too run-down and sweaty. "Just doing my last afternoon, I can't wait to leave!"

"Is this where you work? Wow, I never knew that. I guess I could come in for a coffee if it's your last day." He looked hesitantly at her, but Rachel wasn't about to say no. She beckoned him inside and showed him a small table in the middle of the floor.

"I know this isn't the best but it's the only one of my tables free," she explained, handing him a menu. "And I know you said coffee but seriously, I wouldn't order that from here. Maybe a milkshake would be better?"

Ross nodded. "Okay, sure, whatever you recommend." He smiled. "So, you're not sorry to be leaving, huh?"

"No way," Rachel said firmly. "It barely pays my bills. I mean, I don't imagine the coffee house will be mega-bucks either but at least it's closer to home and I can catch up with Monica properly, and of course you'll be in sometimes…"

"All the time," Ross corrected, and held her gaze for a couple of seconds. "Because we practically live there anyway," he added quickly.

Rachel promised she'd return and went to get the milkshake, when she heard someone calling her name and spun around to see Melissa, the woman who had been in the week before.

"Oh, hi!" Rachel said brightly, fetching a tall glass from behind the counter. "You came back then."

"Couldn't stay away," Melissa deadpanned, taking a seat at the long counter and sighing. "This is a great place to hide from my husband. He'd never set foot in here, which is fine by me."

"Aww, things still no better?" Rachel asked, her eyes flicking momentarily to Ross at the other table, where he was leafing through a magazine. Rachel had time to muse at how good he looked in a suit, before Melissa's voice brought her back to reality.

"No, if anything they're worse. I don't know why I'm even telling you this, I don't know you." Melissa ran a hand through her hair. "Can I get a tea please?"

"Sure, let me finish this first. And hey, don't worry about talking to me. I hear a lot worse, believe me, and anyway it might be better to get advice from someone impartial. You have to do it today, though, because this is my last shift." Rachel couldn't help noticing she sounded prouder every time she uttered those words.

"Really? Good for you," Melissa smiled. "You're right, though. At least you don't know my husband and you can't tell him…"

"Exactly." Rachel searched for a straw and decided two would be so cute.

"Well…" Melissa leaned across the counter. "I'm having an affair."

Rachel's jaw dropped and it was all she could do not to let the same thing happen to the full glass she was holding. "What? You're married! Are you crazy?"

Melissa frowned. "You're meant to be impartial."

"I am, but come on, no wonder you're having problems, Melissa. An affair? Does he know?"

"Of course not, neither of them do, I know how to cover my tracks. I'm confused, Rachel. Has this ever happened to you? I don't know what to do, which guy to leave."

Rachel restrained the urge to point out that she had never had any sort of affair and neither was she going to; that it was exactly the behaviour which had led her mother and father to fight like cat and dog for weeks on end, and if it didn't end up in divorce Rachel knew she'd be more than surprised. Instead, she settled for a forced look of sympathy.

"Look, I'm impartial, remember? All I can say is it's not worth it, and you're hurting both these guys. And also, it's a good thing I'm leaving, because I just realised I'm rubbish at giving advice. I have to serve someone, excuse me." And Rachel walked over to Ross, who looked up from his magazine. "Sorry I took so long, I was chatting to customers," Rachel said, setting the glass down. "Apparently people are going to miss me."

"Yeah, I bet," Ross said sincerely, blushing a little. "It'll be better at Central Perk, though, honestly. Gunther's cool and I don't think the hours are bad." He looked as if he was toying with the idea of saying the next part. "Maybe one day we can…"

"What?" Rachel couldn't help interrupting as she stared at him, wondering what he was going to suggest. Maybe one day they could stay behind after work? Maybe one day they could go out to dinner? Maybe one day they might end up…

"Oh my God!"

Rachel blinked. That was not what she had been expecting to hear from Ross, even less so when he stood up and marched over to the counter, right up to Melissa, who nearly fell off her seat at seeing him.

"Ross! What the hell are you doing here?" she hissed.

"I could ask you the same question," he retorted, as Rachel rushed over.

"Just leave me alone, I'll talk to you later," Melissa said, sounding irritated. "Please."

"Hey guys, calm down." Rachel didn't want a scene, especially on her last day, and she was also intrigued as to how the two knew each other. Then it dawned on her, and she moved closer to speak to Melissa. "Is this him?" she demanded, suddenly annoyed. She wasn't sure whether she was more annoyed on Ross' behalf, or for the fact that it mean he was taken and in a messy situation. All she knew was Melissa's pretty blue eyes seemed to have lost their friendly quality, particularly when she glared at Rachel and told her to be quiet. "No, I won't! He deserves to know he's being messed around, okay? He deserves to know that you're married!"

A hush descended upon the restaurant, letting Rachel know that she hadn't been remotely discreet. She felt her cheeks burn with embarrassment, until her eyes fell to Ross and it hit her. He wasn't the other man. He was the husband. How had she been so stupid? Had she actually forgotten he was married?

As it was, Melissa was glaring even more at Rachel, while Ross was simply staring at Melissa, the reason behind Rachel'swords sinking in. Rachel didn't think she could remember feeling more terrible and more foolish. This wasn't even any of her business.

"I'm sorry, Ross," she said at last, so quietly she wasn't sure he could have heard it. She didn't find out if he had, either, because he turned on his heel and stormed out of the diner, leaving a fuming Melissa and a very unhappy Rachel.

A/N: Dun dun duuuuun! Rachel's mistake is exactly the sort of thing I do. Anyway, if you liked that please review, you know what to do, don't make me blue, 'cause you know it's true, I love reviews! Wow, really missed my calling in poetry.