The minute she was dreading the most was creeping closer.

She was currently in her dressing room, with only 2 scenes left for her: the scene in which she would return to Ross's apartment and the final goodbye in the already empty set of Monica's and Chandlers place.

The others were currently filming the remaining scenes at Joey's place with the Fussball table, and she and David had each retreated to their seperate dressing rooms to emotionally prepare for their last scene together.

David.

The words she had said before as Rachel could not have been more true. Saying goodbye to everyone was hard, but with him, it was even harder.

She did not know what she would do without seeing him every day. They had always connected on a whole different level. He had always been her "Gold Standard" in guy: Nobody else was as smart and talented as him, as funny as him and understood her the way he did. And as if that was enough, the physical attraction had always been there, too.

He did not have the obvious beauty that for example, Matts face had always resembled and not the obvious sexyness other men sometimes had, but there was just something about him, that she could not even begin to describe that drew her to him like a moth to the flame. And that had only intensified the older he got. That boy she met back in 1994 had aged into a man that she... No, she was not allowed to even think of that. They were just friends, and she was married.

To Brad.

She obviously had been very flattered when she was set up on a date with him, after learning that he was huge fan of the show and that he really wanted to meet her. And they had hit it off immediately. He was charming and fun and treated her like a goddess, had a very laid-back view of life and did not see himself as the sex symbol everyone made him. The chemistry between them had always been great, so when he asked her to marry him a year into their relationship, who would she have been to say no to that?

Still, her weak spot for David had always remained. She knew he was hurting after he learned that she got engaged, but she was sure that he would find his peace as well, just like she had with Brad.

In another time and place, they would have been perfect together, but this would simply have been too complicated.

Somehow he had remained unsteady over all these years, interchanging girlfriend by his side all the while, without ever committing to anyone.

She refrained from asking him about it, since she was afraid that his answer to this would be something that would crash the little card house she had built for herself.

She knew what everybody would be up to after they were done with this, only he had always remained kind of vague. She knew that he was kind of lost and sad, but she did not know how to help him. If he even wanted her to say something, as he never asked.

The door opened, and he stuck his head in, a sad smile on his face.

"Jen, we have to go"

She took a shaky, deep breath, got up and followed him to the hallway, clutching his hand. They did not say anything.

He went to the set of the apartment and started the scene, while she remained in the hallway, hidden from the audience.

When he started to rewind her message on the answering machine, frantically asking himself if she got off the plane, she grabbed the knob on the door to open it and stepped in, saying her line at the verge of crying. She really was about to cry, but fortunately, it fit the scene here.

Under the frantic applause of the live audience, he stumbled over to her, pulling her into a tight embrace, which they were supposed to break after a few seconds to continue with the dialogue.

But when she was in his arms, all she could do was cling onto him and not let him go. And it seemed to be the same for him, as he pressed her closer to him as well, unable to loosen his hold on her.

The heard Kevin yell "cut" from a distance as they had obviously ruined the first take.

David whispered sweet words she did not understand because of the frantic audience into her ear, and all she could do was cry, hiding her face in the crook of his neck, now clutching her hands in his hair.

She felt that he was sobbing, too, as she was so close to him.

Someone from the crew stepped in and led them out of the sight of the audience, after seeing what was going on, to give them a moment to breathe before the next take.

Damn it, that one had to be perfect, because she did not know how much more of this she would be able to take.

The makeup crew came up to them to look after them before the next take, and she was happy to be busy so that she did not have to face David right now.

Fortunately, they got their act together and nailed the scene on the second take, so that she did not have to go through this for a third time.

She knew that Kevin normally would have done at least a third take, but knowing them, he knew that, given the circumstances, this would definitely not have been any better than the one they did, and it just would have caused the two of them to be even more agitated.

They clutched onto each others hands as they hurried back to their dressing rooms, not really having the time for words before they changed their outfits and she got yet another touch-up (why did she have to cry all the time, for gods sake?) for the final scene of the series.

She was on autopilot when she stood in the now empty set, clinging to David. That was not in the script, but damn it, why not? Ross and Rachel were together now, after all, so nobody would question that.

She heard the production assistant say

"Adios Arrividerchi Goodbye, take 1"

in a bittersweet tone and then the clap, signaling that cameras were rolling now. You could have heard a needle fall to the ground. She could not remember that it had ever been this quiet.

They managed to all get through that scene, with Matthew improvising one last joke and David closing the apartment door.

When they strolled down the hallway set, Kevin yelled "cut". They collectively broke down right there, with Kevin, Marta and David C. storming onto the set joining in.

The audience went wild, and so they collected themselves, stepping onto the main stage for the final bow for the audience, which mainly consisted of crew, family and friends in this special day.

She let her gaze wander over the crowd looking for her husband. Although she knew he wasn't coming she still had hoped that he paid a surprise visit of support as he must have known what she would be going through. But obviously, she was left disappointed. As it happened quite often over the last few months.