Summary: A rewrite of S01E24 "The One Where Rachel Finds Out" where Rachel and Monica are together, and finding out about Ross's feelings sort of throws them for a loop since no one knows.
Notes: So I've been re-watching Friends again because I've been working a shit ton and have no mental energy to watch a new show and this idea took control of my brain, despite the 30 or so WIPS I have sitting in my google docs. But, I haven't finished anything in literally two years, so I'll take what I can get you know? Also a lot of the dialogue from the first like, third, of it is lifted directly from the episode.
"Presents first, food later," Rachel said, leading her friends, minus Ross, over to their living room. She knew she would probably end up enchanting some of the gifts, but she loved seeing what her friends picked out for her. (And, hey, why include the gift receipt if you didn't want the recipient to be able to exchange it, anyway?)
She rushed through opening her gifts, not really excited about any of them beyond wanting to know what her friends had picked out for her, when she reached the last gift.
"Who is this from?" She asked as she leaned against Monica, who was perched on the arm of the big armchair she was sitting in.
"That one's Ross's," Chandler answered as Rachel started carefully tearing off the wrapping paper because she knew that Monica would probably want to save it. Once the paper was off, Rachel opened the box to find a beautiful, and familiar, brooch sitting on crushed blue velvet inside.
"Oh, my god," she whispered, stunned. "He remembered."
Rachel was amazed that her friend had remembered about the brooch from months ago. Or that he'd possibly gone back shortly after they'd seen it, getting it and waiting for her birthday. It was crazy to her to think that her friend cared so much about her, but it was so sweet.
"Remembered what?" Phoebe asked.
"It was like months ago, we were walking by this antique store and I saw this pin in the window. And I told him that it was just like one my grandmother had when I was a little girl," Rachel explained as she leant back more onto Monica and held the pin up to show her girlfriend, though she didn't take her own eyes off the sweet gift just yet. "Oh! I can't believe he remembered."
"Well, sure, but can you play it on a plane?" Chandler joked, holding up the travel scrabble that he'd given her, which Monica would insist that they play even though (or probably because) Monica would thoroughly beat her at it.
Rachel chose to ignore him in favor of showing the pin to Phoebe, who commented on how pretty it was.
"This must have cost him a fortune," Phoebe continued. Rachel thought she was probably right, which made the gift that much sweeter.
"I can't believe he did this," Monica said, but when Rachel looked over at her, she could see that she was pleased. Though they weren't out yet, Rachel knew it was a relief to Monica that Rachel was so well-liked by Monica's family. And seeing an insanely nice gift from her brother was probably a little overboard, but Rachel knew it was nice for both of them.
"Come on? Ross? Remember back in college when he fell in love with Carol and bought her that ridiculously expensive crystal duck?" Chandler said before he stiffened up, like he'd just realized what exactly he'd just said.
"What did you just say?" Rachel asked him, still reeling over the enormity of what Chandler has just revealed about the pin she held loosely in her now numb fingers and about the man who had given it to her- who happened to be her girlfriend's brother.
Chandler looked around wildly for help, but found none as all of their friends looked back at him with expressions that clearly said he was on his own. Even Joey didn't offer up any help.
"Crystal duck?" Chandler tried, clearly hoping that she'd let it go. But Rachel was too busy reeling over this information that she clearly wasn't supposed to know and what it could mean for her and Monica.
"No. No. No. The, um, the love part." At least she didn't sound quite as freaked out as she felt. This was not good and also a possibility she hadn't foreseen. She wanted Ross to like her, not fall in love with her whilst she was secretly dating his sister. She'd never noticed any attraction he had for her now as an adult (His crush on her when they were kids didn't count, they were young and most people move on from their teenage infatuations. Ross Geller aside, apparently), let alone done anything to encourage it. But now she felt trapped because of it. What was she supposed to do?
Chandler just stuttered incomprehensibly in response and everyone else just watched him tensely. Even Monica sat quietly, eyes focused on Chandler as he flailed around and tried to talk his way out of the mess he'd put them in.
"Oh, my god," Rachel repeated, ignoring Chandler's repeated 'oh no's' as she watched him rub his forehead and thought about what she was supposed to do in response to Ross's one-sided feelings.
"That's good. Just keep rubbing your head, that'll turn back time," Joey joked as he patted Chandler's knee, clearly trying to lighten the mood a bit.
Rachel's not sure what she's supposed to do now that she knows this seemingly massive piece of information, but she couldn't just sit there anymore, so she got up and started pacing in circles while everyone watched. This could, and probably would, throw a huge wrench in any plans she and Monica had for coming out.
Beyond the horribleness of having to reject someone's feelings (and in favor of their sibling, no less), there was the added downside of having to tell Ross that she was the second lesbian that he had fallen in love with. And while Rachel knew that they'd never been together nor had she been aware of his feelings until Chandler accidentally made her aware, she also knew that Ross probably wouldn't see it that way. And that the whole conversation, which was feeling more imminent and more daunting with every passing second, was going to suck.
While Rachel was pacing, her friends continued to discuss the issue of Ross's feelings.
"This is really, really huge," Phoebe said.
"No, it's not," Chandler tried to argue, still trying to downplay this accidental breach of confidence about Ross's feelings. "It's small. It's tiny. It's petite. It's wee!" He continued, looking at Rachel desperately.
Unfortunately, she was pretty sure that she agreed with Phoebe. Even if she never brought it up to Ross, it would hang over the rest of them until it festered into some awkward thing about what she planned to do about the whole thing. Worse than that, she knew that it would eat away at what she and Monica had together, especially when they already felt guilty about hiding their romantic relationship from their friends. Rachel knew she had to handle it, had to come out and deal with everything, but, well, she was scared.
"I don't think any of our lives are ever gonna be the same, ever again," Phoebe continued, and Rachel knew she was right. She also knew that she really really needed to talk to Monica, who was sitting in the spot Rachel had recently vacated and looking up at her anxiously.
Rachel met Monica's eyes and stopped pacing. "Monica, I need to talk to you." She led her girlfriend out onto the balcony, where she knew that they could talk with little chance of their friends overhearing them.
Rachel waited until Monica had come out of the window and shut it behind her before she spoke, "What're we gonna do?" Her voice sounded almost as freaked out as she felt, and what she really wanted was for Monica to hold her and fix her problems, but their friends were doing that thing of theirs where they were definitely watching and trying to figure out what they were saying without looking like they're looking, and Rachel was too scared to have to deal with accidentally outing them on top of this whole Ross Mess.
"We could do nothing?" Monica suggested half-heartedly, with her arms wrapped around her middle, an uncomfortable look on her face, and more space between them than the friendly distance they used to keep between them before they got together.
"Even if I never say anything to Ross, the others are gonna want to know why I never went for it with him. Or why I never go out with anyone who asks. Or why we're never going to move out or get married and are gonna be 'roommates' forever. I think we have to tell them, Mon," Rachel said, eyes getting a little watery from the stress of the evening and the impending hugeness of what was ahead of them.
"They're gonna wonder why we waited months to tell them," Monica said, sounding just as nervous as Rachel felt.
"They'll understand," Rachel said softly, hoping with her entire being that it was true.
"What if Ross doesn't?" And Monica sounded so worried about any possibility of weirdness between her and her brother.
"He's on good terms with Carol and they were married. So if he's weird about it, just strong arm him into not being weird about it anymore, like you did when we were nine and he said it wasn't cool for him to play dolls with us and you pinned him down until he agreed," Rachel said fondly, though she wasn't entirely sure who she was trying to convince.
"I don't think sitting on him is going to convince him anymore," Monica said, though she had a small smile on her face.
"I'm pretty sure it would, you're a little scary when you're mad. Plus we could unleash Joey's protective instincts on him."
"Yeah, yeah, you're right. Plus, I've really wanted them to know since we started dating and to be able to be all couple-y with you more than just in our apartment when we're alone," Monica said, now with a full-fledged smile on her face and Rachel just had to hug her, so she stepped over to her girlfriend and pulled her into a hug with her arms around Monica's waist and Monica's head on her shoulder.
They stayed there for a couple moments, until Rachel saw Phoebe and Chandler looking out the window at them and not even bothering to pretend they weren't looking and speculating over what was going on out on the balcony. Rachel separated from Monica and nodded to their friends through the window.
"Time to do this?" Monica asked, taking her hand and pulling her over to the window to go back inside.
"Yeah," Rachel agreed, following her inside.
"So, did you figure out what you're gonna do about the Ross thing?" Joey asked just as soon as they'd stepped over the windowsill and into the apartment, never one to be patient or subtle.
"Um, sorta," Rachel answered as the knots in her stomach tightened. Monica squeezed her hand, reminding her that she could do this- that they could do this. "There's not really much to do with Ross's feelings because, well, I'm sort of seeing someone already."
"Then why were you freaking out so much? Just bring him around and Ross will mope for like two weeks and then he'll get over it. Mostly," Chandler said, looking less stressed than he had since he accidentally made them aware of Ross's feelings for her.
"Well, because, uh, I'm dating, um-"
"She's dating me," Monica interrupted quietly, putting Rachel out of her misery as she tried and failed to figure out how to just say they were together.
"Yes!" Phoebe said, making both Rachel and Monica jump. "Joey owes me 10 dollars!"
"You guys were betting on us?" Monica asked, hands on her hips, sounding much more like her usual self.
"Yeah and if you guys had just lasted another 2 weeks, I would've won," Joey responded petulantly, crossing his arms.
Part of Rachel wanted to join Monica in being upset about the betting (even though she and Phoebe may or may not have made a similar bet about Chandler and Joey), but mostly she was just so relieved that her friends were so okay with them.
"Well, as someone who didn't have money riding on his friends' love lives, may I just say congratulations," Chandler said, pulling them both into a hug that Phoebe and Joey almost immediately joined in on.
After they'd separated, they sat back down around the living room much like they had been before while Rachel was opening presents, only Rachel and Monica were sitting pressed together in the big armchair and Rachel was feeling so weird in such a nice way at being able to act like a couple with Monica in front of other people.
When they'd tired themselves out and Joey and Chandler had gone home and Phoebe had sprawled out with every throw blanket in the apartment piled on top of her, Rachel and Monica went into Monica's room to go to bed, no longer so freaked that their friends would come over unannounced and see them come out of the same room in the morning.
"I'm really glad we told them," Rachel said into Monica's hair as she laid wrapped around her, Monica's back to her chest, about to fall asleep.
"Me too," Monica whispered, squeezing her hand.
'Now we just have to tell Ross,' Rachel thought to herself, though she was too busy feeling pleased about her other friends' reactions to muster up any real dread. Maybe it would all be fine, or at least that was the hope.
A week later, when she and Monica were waiting for Ross at the airport, Rachel was feeling month''s worth of nerves swarming around in her stomach, making her a little nauseous. One look at Monica's strained expression told her that she wasn't faring much better. However, when the crowd from Ross's flight started to disperse, they caught a glimpse of Ross with his arm around a girl they'd never seen before.
Before they had even gotten a chance to do more than look at each other in confusion, Ross spotted them. "Hey guys!"
"Hey, Ross," Rachel said awkwardly as Ross and the mystery girl made their way over to them.
"Monica, Rachel, this is Julie," Ross said, introducing the girl he was with. "Julie, this is my sister, Monica, and her roommate and one of my best friends Rachel."
"Hi, it's so nice to meet you guys. Ross has told me so much about all of you!" Julie seemed really nice, but she was throwing Rachel for a loop. But maybe this would actually make things easier. At least that was the hope.
After a slightly awkward cab ride spent with a very cute and couple-y Ross and Julie telling them stories about China that they'll definitely have to listen to again when Julie was introduced to the rest of the group, the hope that this would go over well was growing. They were very sweet and Rachel was very happy that he didn't seem as hung up on her as Chandler had made it seem a week ago at her birthday party.
Once the cab had dropped them off and they'd gone upstairs and Julie had been introduced to everyone else and she and Ross had re-told their unfortunate bus incident story, Rachel and Monica shared a look and Rachel went to pull him aside.
"Ross, before you and Julie go, could I talk to you for a second?" She asked, pulling him over through the living room, and stopping just outside her room, far enough from the group that they could have a fairly private conversation but close enough that the rest of their friends could step in if things started getting too terribly awkward.
"What's up, guys?" Ross asked, clearly a bit confused.
"Oh, uh, nothing, we just really needed to tell you something," Monica said awkwardly.
"Um, Monica and I just wanted to tell you that, um, we're together," Rachel continued carefully, looking at Ross and trying to gauge his reaction.
At Ross's kind of blank look, Monica elaborated, "like romantically. We're dating."
After a moment of awkward staring and silence, Ross finally spoke, "R-really?" He didn't sound mad, mostly just a little shocked.
"Yeah, we've been together for a few months now actually. But we just told everyone else a few days ago, so obviously we had to tell you too," Monica explained, sounding and looking slightly more confident.
"Oh, well, I'm really happy for you guys," Ross said, though he sounded a bit forced.
"Really? Because you sound a bit… weird about it," Rachel said gently.
"I really am happy for you guys, but why didn't you say anything sooner? Was it something I did?" Ross sounded genuinely concerned and Rachel was relieved that this was what was bothering him and not their being gay or jealousy over Rachel seeing someone else, especially since that someone else was his sister.
"Well, you know, after everything with Carol, we just didn't know how well it would go, honey," Monica said.
"Oh, my god, I'm sorry. That was more about us being married than the fact that she was a lesbian. I'm so sorry, Mon," Ross said, pulling his sister into a side hug.
"Well you have been in love with Rachel since you were like 15," Monica joked.
"Yeah, I, uh, did have a bit of a crush," Ross said awkwardly. "But I think I kind of always knew it was never gonna happen. Besides, I've met Julie and she's really great. But even if I hadn't, I'm really happy for you guys," Ross said, pulling Rachel into his and Monica's hug.
"You mean it?" Rachel asked, grinning up at him.
"Of course, I do," Ross assured them, squeezing their shoulders. "Now that you guys have told me the big news, can I please go home and sleep off my jet lag?"
"Yeah, I guess you could do that now," Monica said, backing away from their hug and pulling Rachel to her side.
After they saw Ross and Julie out, their other friends turned to them expectantly.
"So, how'd it go?" Chandler asked, very poorly feigning nonchalance.
"Very well, as I'm sure you eavesdroppers heard," Rachel teased, though she was grinning widely.
"You know what this calls for?" Monica asked her with her arm still around Rachel's waist.
"Hm?" Rachel hummed, happily standing with her girlfriend and their friends in their kitchen, stress-free for the first time in months.
"That fancy bottle of red wine that you convinced me to buy on our second date but we never drank because we couldn't find an occasion special enough."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, I think this is just a special enough occasion," Monica agreed, kissing her on the temple.
"Right, well, we'll just leave you two love birds alone," Chandler said, making Rachel blush, as she had kind of forgotten that three of her friends were still in the kitchen with them, too caught up in her moment with Monica. But her friends were all grinning at them, so she didn't feel too terrible.
"Bye, guys," she and Monica said together as the last of their friends left them alone for the night.
"So, drinks?" Rachel asked, turning to Monica.
"Yes, I think so," Monica agreed, smiling softly.
After they'd opened the bottle, poured their glasses, and had snuggled together on their couch, Rachel leaned against Monica and started speaking softly, "I'm so happy all this went so well, Mon."
"Me too," Monica agreed before leaning in and kissing her sweetly. "I love you, Rachel, and I'm so glad that I can show everyone else that too," Monica continued when they broke apart.
"I love you too. So much," Rachel said, leaning her forehead against Monica's and grinning broadly.
