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A New Beginning
Chapter 11. Painting-fun With the Family
When Ross, Rain, Jonathan, Joshua and Gretchen showed up, they couldn't believe what they saw.
"Are we going to live here?" Rain breathed.
Rachel stood up, "Pretty much, sweetie. Come here, you have to choose a room, but I've already thought about what might be best for all of you"
The kids nodded, and followed her, "I think this is best for you Rain, you share a wall with Becky there, and Joshua here, I mean if he wants to?"
Both of the kids nodded, that seemed really fair.
"This could be Gret's and, here would Jon's be"
"I'm on it" Jonathan said.
"Doesn't that seem fair, Gret?" Rachel asked.
"Mine is the smallest" Gretchen said.
"I know, but you're the youngest, and this next to yours are even smaller, so you don't want that" Rachel smiled.
"I'm happy, mom" Gretchen said.
"Plus" Rachel continued, "I figured you would rather live with your father, then me, so that's why…"
"How come you think that?" Gretchen asked.
"You have more in common with him then with me" Rachel smiled.
Gretchen hugged her mother, "We'll see mom"
"So is this guestroom to when I come visit?" Ross said, pointing at the smallest room.
Rachel nodded, "Could be"
"Can we begin or what?" Rebecca asked.
"Just begin" Rachel said, "Joshua and Rain, you can help Rebecca, Gretchen and Jonathan, you guys can help Clara. Ross? You can help me"
They all nodded and took each a brush and went to paint the rooms.
Ross followed Rachel till her room and they went in.
"Is this were you're gonna have room?"
"Yeah" Rachel smiled, "Far away from the kids, you know"
"That's good, I mean, if you're supposed to have guys coming and stuff"
Rachel laughed, "I doesn't have time for that, but look" she opened the door to her office, "Home office, and.." she opened the next door, "My own bathroom, I'm thinking about having a bathtub, you know, the kids doesn't get one, they only get a shower"
"Wow" Ross said, "You don't care how much you spend on it?"
"I have lots of money Ross, and I'm not afraid of running out, you know, it seems like the world cant live without RG"
Ross laughed, "So wanna start with the bathroom?"
"Sure" Rachel said, "That's supposed to be white and light blue"
"All right, then let's begin"
He opened up a paint pot and they started. It went quick, because Ross was good with his hands.
"You know" Rachel said, "It's supposed to only have one time, it's a really good paint"
Ross nodded, "Then you can soon move in"
Rachel looked at him, with the sound of his sad voice, "Are you okay?"
Ross put down his brush, "It's just that.. all the kids will move with you"
"How come you think that?" Rachel asked.
"Because you can give them the fancy apartment, the fancy clothes and all what they need"
"Maybe" Rachel said, "But I cant give them all the love they deserve, I cant give them all the attention they need, but you can"
"What do you mean?" Ross asked.
"I'm not gonna be home much, they're gonna take care of themselves, Gret, Rain, Clara and Josh are used to that, but if Jon and Becky moves here, they're gonna wanna move back in like a week"
Ross laughed, "Is it really that bad?"
"My work takes all my time" Rachel sighed, "But I love it, I mean, I love my children so much, but if it wasn't for my work, then we could say goodbye to all of this, I just think that I need to slow down, you know? I mean, sometimes there's nothing for me to do, and other times there's so much run that I barely sleep"
"I'm sorry" Ross said.
"I mean, I can only imagine finding time to work AND kids, I'll never get time to find a guy too"
"Come here" Ross said, hugging her, "You don't have to, you know? I'll help you"
"Thanks, Ross" Rachel smiled, "Gee, I'm hungry, do you think we should order some food from a take-away?"
Ross nodded, "Come"
They walked into the hall where Gretchen and Joshua had decided to take some time off.
"Are you guys hungry?" Ross asked.
"God yes!" Clara yelled from her room.
"We're gonna order some pizzas" Ross said. He took his cell phone and dialled, then he ordered and a half an hour later they all sat at floor, eating pizza.
"That's so gooooood" Clara said.
Rebecca lied down, "I'm so tired, cant we do the rest tomorrow?"
Rachel nodded, "We can also buy the rest of the paint to the rest of the rooms, you know? Let's just finish eating and then drive home"
They all agreed and two hours later the hole family were asleep, exhausted after the long day.
--
The next morning Rachel woke up next to Ross (he was now sleeping on the floor, so technically next to) and looked at him sleep. Ross knew she looked at him, he was awake and could feel her eyes on his back. He turned around and Rachel smiled at him, "You look cute when you sleep"
"Thanks" Ross said, "You look beautiful when you sleep"
Rachel blushed, "Aren't we a little too divorced to be saying stuff like that?"
Ross laughed, "Gee, I don't know, if you tell me to stop, I will"
"Aw, that's okay" Rachel said, "Uh, it's already 8.30., I gotta go wake up the kids, we have so much to do, you know. Gotta be done with the apartment soon, we cant take all your space forever, and the kids don't have any good beds"
Ross touched her arm, "Rach, you guys doesn't take my space, they're my kids.. and you're.. you. And no matter what I'll have to buy beds for the rest of the kids, but I just figured I'd wait with that until you guys were ready, take it step by step you know"
Rachel looked at her arm, and then at Ross, she closed her eyes for a second, and lay her hand over his at her arm. She could hear Ross' silent breathing next to her, and she let herself sink into the moment. All Ross wanted to do was throw himself at her like an animal, but he knew he shouldn't. Rachel moved her hand.
"If you make breakfast I'll wake up the kids?"
Ross nodded, and Rachel got up and walked out the room.
Ten minutes later all of the kids plus Ross and Rachel were gathered in the kitchen, eating Ross' breakfast.
An hour after that, they all drove into the city, Rachel and the kids minus Jonathan went to the apartment while Ross and Jon drove to the store to buy the rest of the paint, the kids had already choose what they wanted. Jonathan wanted a green/grey, Rain wanted light yellow, Joshua wanted white/brown and Gretchen wanted red.
When they came back, Rebecca and Clara's rooms were already done, now they could begin at Rain, Joshua and Jonathan's. Two people in each room. After that, they would paint Gretchen's room, their bathroom and the guestroom.
Ross and Rachel went to Rachel's bathroom and finished, they only needed to paint one more wall. Rachel felt awkward after their little ´thing´ this morning and tried all she could to act normal. When they were done they went into the office and started painting the walls a light grey colour. They worked really close because the office wasn't that big, so Rachel felt herself being more and more attracted to him, he was sweaty, he was hot. He looked sexy and she could see his muscles working.
She closed her eyes and started concentrating on the wall.
Ross kept sending Rachel small glances. He wish he could just tell her that he thought she was sexy. She was wearing one of his old shirts and had tired it a little over her waist. He couldn't tare his eyes from her stomach and couldn't believe that she was still trim, after giving birth to 6 children. And she didn't look old at all, she was still that smiling, beautiful woman she was when she left 13 years ago.
When they were done, they went to look at the children. Clara and Rain were painting the guestroom, Jonathan and Rebecca were painting the bathroom and Joshua and Gretchen were painting Gretchen's room. Rachel liked their work, they were good at it, they'd tried to not splash on the floor, and they hadn't.
"When are we eating lunch?" Clara asked.
Rachel laughed, "Can't you think of anything else then food?"
"No, mom. Don't you know me?" Clara said, "Food comes first"
"Well, we can go to Monica's?" Ross said, "Because I don't think we can go any place else with this clothes, you know?"
Rachel nodded, "Come on"
They decided to walk because It wasn't far away. Clara and Rebecca was embarrassed walking around looking like some handymen, and it wasn't doing any better that Rain was taking the attention from other people at the street, because she decided to sing a little song for Ross. Rachel walked a little behind the rest of them, she liked to watch her family from a distance. Suddenly, she walked into a woman.
"God" Rachel said, "I'm so sorry. Oh, look, I got paint on your dress.. I'm sorry"
The woman looked at her, and then at her dress, "No!" she said, "It was a Rachel Green, I just bought it when I was I London"
"I'm so, so…" Rachel looked at her, "A Rachel Green?"
"Yeah, it's one of the most expensive dresses in that store"
"I know" Rachel said.
The woman gave her a strange look, "What?"
Rachel gave her, her hand, "My name is Rachel Green, so you like my designs?"
"Are you Rachel Green?"
"Yeah, sorry, I'm looking like this, I'm painting my new apartment right now, you know I moved over here"
"Yeah, you're opening a store here, right?" the woman said, "My name is June by the way, June Robinson"
"Nice to meet you" Rachel said, "I'm sorry about the dress, here's my number, sometime when I've got more settled in with my store, you can come by and I'll give you a free dress again"
"No, you don't have to" June said.
"That's the at least I can do" Rachel smiled.
June smiled, "Thanks"
"Mom?" Gretchen yelled, running back to her, "Are you coming or what? Who's this?"
"Oh, Gret honey, this is June, I walked into her and ruined her new Rachel Green dress"
"Wow" June said, "So you have a kid? She doesn't look like you at all!"
"Oh, yeah, that's my daughter Gretchen, she looks like her father, but I do have more kids, they look like me!"
"Oh, hi Gretchen, nice to meet you"
Gretchen smiled, "Nice to meet you too. Mom, we gotta go. Clara and Bec are really embarrassed about their clothes"
"Sorry" Rachel told June, "I gotta go, my family are waiting, but give me a call. Bye"
She hurried after Gretchen and soon they were sitting in Monica's apartment.
"It's been so long since we've seen each other" Monica said, "By the way, what's up with your clothes?"
"We're painting the apartment" Rain said.
"Wow, isn't it great or what?" Monica said.
"Yes, thank you very much for getting that for me, Mon" Rachel said, "So how's everything going with Lena?"
"Well, she sleeps at the couch because we don't have enough rooms, Chandler are trying to find another apartment it this city. We don't wanna move to the suburbs, because, let's face it, now you work here, so…"
"Yeah, I love you too, Mon" Rachel smiled, "But maybe, you know, I saw an apartment on my street, I looked at it, four bedrooms, you know? They're really small, but I went in there, I wanted to see if maybe it was something for Ross, I mean if I could get him to move, but I guess I cant, maybe it was something for you?"
Monica looked thoughtful, "I think we'll go look at it sometime"
"Great" Rachel said, "And thanks for lunch by the way"
"No problem"
--
Three days later, they were done painting the whole apartment, of course the kids had went to school, but Ross had taken time off to help Rachel, and soon they were about to look at furniture.
Sorry that this chapter was mostly fluff. On the other hand though, it's my story, and yeah, I decide what to write, that's the beauty of it! Anyway, next chapter is up soon… Leave a review, thanks, Stefania