Chapter 12

The morning sun shone through the window, landing on the sleeping form snuggled up beneath the blankets. The room was dead quiet aside from her soft breathing as she slept soundly.

A moment later, the bedroom door creaked open as a figure silently entered and closed it behind him, careful not to wake her up. His eyes scanned the room before landing on her sleeping form. A smile appeared on his face as he saw her blanket rising and falling with every breath she took.

Ross quietly made his way over to her bedside and took a seat on the edge of her bed. Glancing over at her night stand, her clock read 11:00 and he couldn't help but laugh under his breath. He would never understand how someone so small could sleep for so long.

His eyes moved over to her as she slept and his smile grew. How could anyone look so beautiful when they were asleep, not that she wasn't beautiful when she was awake. There was just something about her as she slept that took his breath away. She was just so… angelic… so peaceful, so innocent. Whenever he saw her sleep, he felt like he was obligated to hold her and protect her. To care for her until she opened those amazing blue eyes to the world once again.

Truly a sleeping beauty.

Ross gently brushed away some strands of her hair that had fallen on her face and as delicate can be, he leaned down and planted a soft kiss on her forehead. He felt her stir from his contact and he smiled again.

"Rachel sweetie, it's time to wake up," he whispered, gently shaking her by the shoulder.

In response, she groaned, slapping away his hand and turned the other way. Ross looked at her and shook his head with a laugh. She was never a morning person, even if it was almost noon.

"Rachel," he tried again, nudging her with a little more force. "Rach wake up. You promised me you'd help me clean the apartment today."

Finally did it seem like his voice registered in her brain and she groaned again, lazily stretching out and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She rolled back onto her side facing him and slowly, she opened her eyes to meet his.

"Hi," she said in a soft, velvet voice.

"Hi to you too," Ross responded, giving her another kiss on the forehead.

What an amazing feeling it was to wake up and see his face as the first thing to start the day. She smiled lovingly towards him when she felt his lips on her head and already did she feel the warm sensation that shot through her body from his touch.

"What time is it?" she asked, sitting up a bit.

"11:00. You sure as hell can sleep on a weekend."

She laughed softly and raised her arms to stretch them out. "I actually wanted to sleep longer. Why'd you have to wake me up?"

"Because I missed you in the morning," he answered, playfully flicking her nose. She smiled. "But also because we got a whole day of cleaning ahead of us and there's no way I'm starting without you."

Rachel groaned and slipped back down under the covers. "You know what; I'm not feeling too well. Maybe I should sleep for a bit longer…"

"Haha, very funny." Ross pulled away the blanket leaving her exposed on the bed. She crossed her arms and pouted.

"Hey! I'm serious…" she whimpered.

"And I'm serious when I tell you Monica will kill us both if we don't get this place cleaned up today," he countered. "Get your lazy butt out of bed."

"I don't want to," she responded like a toddler and pulled the covers back onto herself.

"Alright then, I guess you don't want that omelet I made you…"

Rachel immediately sat up. "Omelet?"

He chuckled. "Yup, you're favourite; chicken and sautéed mushroom."

She was practically drooling at the thought of the omelet sizzling on a plate waiting for her in the kitchen. Not only was it her favourite but he made it and whenever he made her omelets, he always added some special ingredient that made her mouth water just thinking about it.

"OK! I'm up!" she said, jumping out of bed.

"That's what I thought…" He laughed, standing up as well and giving her a kiss on the cheek. "I'll brew up some coffee. Don't be too long."

"I won't, thank you," she said with a smile. Ross returned the smile and headed out the door, letting her go through her morning routine.

As soon as the door closed behind him she sighed and fell back on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. Her smile never left her face as all she could think about was how lucky she was that he was hers again.

…

With a groan and a large huff of air, Rachel forced herself up from her crouched position on the ground. Careful not to touch anything she held her hands and the wet rag out in front of her, covered in oil, grease, and everything in between, with disgust. After what seemed like hours of scrubbing, the kitchen floor was finally cleaned of stains and grim. The white tiles for once looked white again and she swore to herself to never spill anything again.

"Finally, I'm all done," she announced and Ross stood up from behind the fridge, wiping his forehead with the front of his forearm.

"Yeah?" He looked around the ground, nodding his approval. "Looks great Rach. I'm all done here too."

"Good. I'm tired of scrubbing stains. I'm so glad I don't use this place much."

Ross laughed and walked over to her. "Well I do. You're telling me you've never cleaned a kitchen before?"

"Nope. Phoebe rarely cooked in hers, Joey never cooked in his, and Monica cleaned hers twice a day."

"That's true," he laughed, making her smile. "Well now you know what it takes to take care of your own kitchen. Here, I'll take that rag."

Rachel stuck out her hand for him to take it but jerked away as soon as he grabbed onto it. Ross raised an eyebrow and he eyed her amusingly as he dropped the dirtied rags in the sink.

"What?"

"Don't touch me with those dirty hands," she said, backing away slightly.

"What? These?" Ross joked, looking at them.

"Yes! Now get away from me."

He laughed and took a step towards her. "Oh come on, it's not that bad. Getting dirty builds character."

"Shut up, no it doesn't," she countered through her own laughs as she swatted his hands away. With every step she backed away with, he took one step forward.

"A little grease isn't going to kill you Rach. Come here."

"No!"

She eventually backed into a corner and seeing him approaching her, she reached out and locked fingers with him as a desperate attempt to keep them away. They both laughed as they began some sort of wrestling match and she used all her effort in resisting his oncoming strength.

"No!" She yelled through her laughter as he pushed her hands back, his strength easily overpowering hers. Just when he pushed her hands all the way up to her head and it looked like she had lost, he caught her completely off guard by leaning in and playfully kissing her on the tip of her nose.

"Haha, gotcha!"

"That was so not funny!" she complained, nudging him on the leg with her shoe.

"It was for me. You should have seen your face. You were terrified!" He laughed and she sent him a glare.

"I hate you…" she said with a huff, pretending like she was mad.

"Aww, you're just saying that," Ross quipped and she couldn't help but laugh. He looked down at his hand as he started rubbing two fingers together. "You know, this stuff is pretty gross."

"See? I told you," she said and stuck out her tongue before walking to the sink to wash her hands. After a moment, she dried her hands and turned to face him. "So what next?"

"Well we've still got all of this stuff to put back," Ross said, motioning to the large amounts of cans and boxes on the table from when they were cleaning out the cupboards and drawers. "And let's see… we've done your room, we've done the living room, and now we've done the kitchen. All that's left is my room and the bathroom. Take your pick."

"Urgh… I don't want to get my hands dirty again. Let's do your room first," she suggested.

Ross smiled. "I knew you'd say that. Alright, you get started over there while I put all this stuff back."

"Ok." And with that, Rachel happily left the kitchen.

A moment later, she entered his bedroom, pushing the door open to a room she realised she hadn't been to in a while. A few dinosaur knick-knacks were placed on his drawer and she spotted his old air purifier stashed away in the corner of his room. She wondered when he stopped needing it as she continued to look around. Some documents here and there, some books stacked on his shelf. All in all, it felt like his room and that's what she loved about it.

After checking out the details of his room, she finally decided to get started by clearing out the stuff in his drawers so they could clean that first. She began pulling out clothes and placing them on his bed in neat piles. She blushed a deep shade of crimson red when she pulled out one of his boxers and she couldn't help but think of what he looked like in a pair of them.

Eventually the drawers were cleared out and she moved onto his desk where there were two desk drawers on each side. She emptied out the first two with ease as they were only folders that she stacked onto his desk. The next one was filled with marked papers and assignments for his class. As she brought them up onto his desk, curiosity got the better of her and she flipped through the marks he gave his students. Seeing a large number of As and Bs, and virtually no Cs or lower given to anyone, she laughed at how lazy he was when it came to marking his students reports.

When she tried to open the last drawer, she found that it was locked and she raised an eyebrow in confusion. None of his other drawers were locked so why was this one? She was curious to know what he kept in this last drawer.

"Ross, where's the key to the desk drawer?" she yelled towards the kitchen.

"Desk drawer? Oh, check the top shelf on my book rack."

Rachel walked over to the book rack and just managed to reach the top shelf on her tippy-toes. Feeling around, she finally felt a single key in the corner and plucked it from the shelf, returning to the locked drawer. She inserted the key as it was a perfect match and she held her breath as to what secrets lied within.

But as soon as she opened the drawer, she froze.

She had expected personal documents and passports; things you would keep locked away for your own personal security. What she didn't expect was a drawer barely filled as it contained a variety of items including multiple receipts and movie stubs.

To the average person, the drawer would have been a complete mystery to them. However it only took her a second to realise what it was; partially because the photos inside gave it away but also because she too owned something like this that meant a great deal to her.

What she had found was his "Rachel box", or more specifically, his "Rachel drawer".

The movie stubs and diner receipts were all from the dates they had gone on while they were dating. The photos showed memories that she had never forgotten of both of them together; hugging, kissing, smiling. She picked up one of the photos of them leaning over the counter at Central Perk staring into each other's eyes and she couldn't help but feel a pang of pain in her chest as she thought back to the better days. Life was so simple back then, so perfect. Where did they go wrong?

As she continued to sift through the drawer that held so many memories, she was extremely surprised to find a few folded up papers inside, one of them being the 18-page letter she had given him many years ago at that beach house when they tried getting back together. She quickly skimmed it over and reading it now, she couldn't believe she had ever asked him to take full responsibility for their breakup. Like he had said before, it took two people to break up a relationship and she felt guilty knowing that they couldn't have worked things out because she was too stubborn to take responsibility for her own actions.

The other papers were documents and as she looked them over, she realised they were the divorce papers they had gotten not too long ago. Not the best part of their history but it was something that was important for their relationship, whether they liked it or not.

Everything else looked pretty similar to her "Ross box"; some more movie tickets here, some small gifts she had given him over there. She even found a dead lily at the bottom of the drawer, long wilted from the lack of sunlight and oxygen. She gently picked it up and delicately touched the pedal of the dead flower. Like the flower, at some points in the past she had thought any chances of getting back with him were dead. Her "Ross box" was pretty much a way for her to keep her feelings alive; almost a hope that one day, things would work out. And now that she found his own "Rachel box", she knew that the possibility of them getting together had never truly died.

Rachel gently placed the dead lily back inside but as she did, her eyes suddenly caught sight of something else. Hidden away in the back of the drawer was a small red bag that discretely stood out from the rest of the items. Surprised she hadn't seen it earlier; she picked up the cute little bag and brought it closer to have a better look at what was inside.

There were only two items inside the little red bag; a small blue velvet box and an old, faded receipt. Rachel brought the velvet box up to her face to carefully inspect it as she felt the soft material of the outside. Earrings maybe, or some kind of jewelry?

She set the box aside for now and took a glance at the receipt, surprised to find it was for an order of three dozen lilies. Now she was really confused. What could Ross have needed three dozen lilies for? She looked back at the small velvet box and wondered if she'd get any answers from there as she slowly opened the lid.

"Oh my God…" She gasped, cupping her mouth with her other hand in shock.

In her hand was a breathtaking white gold engagement ring, fit with a two carat diamond on the top. It was the most beautiful engagement ring she had ever seen. The diamond glimmered in the sunlight from the window and she raised it up to watch it sparkle in the light. She had so many questions she wanted to ask, and even more question to back those questions but all of a sudden, it dawned on her.

The engagement ring was in his drawer dedicated to her.

Her mind raced with thoughts of what this could mean but she already had an idea of what this was. She could feel it. She could feel it in her heart. Another glance at the beautiful engagement ring made her begin to tear up and she had to know. She just had to.

Rachel quickly grabbed the receipt and looked at it closely. In the bottom right, in the most faded of ink, she was able to make out a date that made her heart completely stop.

February 20, 1997 – the day of their anniversary.

A tear slid down her cheek and dripped to the floor as she just stared at the receipt and engagement ring with tearful eyes. She had such a strong feeling about what this meant but she refused to believe it. She didn't want to believe it. It couldn't be true…

She had to talk to someone about this.

Quickly Rachel shut the velvet box shut and shoved it into the pocket of her pants. She wiped her eyes and closed the drawer before making her way out the door. She tried to pass by the kitchen as fast as she could but Ross caught sight of her.

"Hey, where are you going?" he asked as she avoided eye contact. She wouldn't let him see her eyes, knowing he'd know that something was up.

"I-I just have to go talk to Monica really quickly. It's about… it's about some girl thing."

He raised an eyebrow but seemed to believe her lie. "Well alright. Come back soon."

"Ok" she said quickly and with that, she left out the front door, shutting it behind her.

…

A few minutes later the door to Monica's apartment burst open and Rachel walked in, spotting Monica in the kitchen preparing some popcorn while the rest of the gang sat in the living room watching TV.

"Monica!"

Monica turned around, seeing the distraught look on her face and sighed. "Not again…" she muttered under her breath while the others emit a silent groan from the living room, not even needing to turn around to know who it was.

"What happened this time?" Monica asked, hiding the annoyance in her voice as Rachel sat down at the table.

"I… I found something…" she stuttered and slowly she removed the velvet box from her pocket. "Here, l-look."

Intrigued, Monica walked over and picked up the box from the table. With Rachel's eyes watching her every move, she opened up the small box and as soon as she saw the ring, her eyes shot open and a gasp escaped her mouth.

"Oh… oh my God!" Monica exclaimed and Rachel sadly nodded her head.

"What?" After hearing all the commotion behind them, the others had paused their television show to join them in the kitchen.

"Look," Monica said, handing the small box to Phoebe and like her, Phoebe gasped after seeing the ring as well.

"Oh wow…it's so beautiful. This must have cost a fortune!"

"Lemme see," Joey ushered while Chandler looked over his shoulder. As soon as the ring came into view Joey let out a whistle of approval while Chandler narrowed his eyes to get a better view. "Damn, that's one hell of a ring."

Joey handed the ring back to Rachel who merely stared at it with weary eyes. Monica leaned over on her shoulder and raised her own ring to compare.

"And it's even bigger than mine!" Monica exclaimed, shooting Chandler a dirty look, although he was still engrossed in staring intently at the ring. "Rach, where did you say you got this from?"

"It… it's Ross'. I found it… I found it in one of his drawers that was… dedicated to me," she managed to say with much effort. The others looked at her as she stared aimlessly at the ring, not quite understanding this all but seeing how much this was affecting her for whatever reason.

Meanwhile, Chandler stood off to the side, staring intently at the ring from a distance. There was something about that glimmer of the diamond that just felt so… familiar…

"Rach, can I see that ring for a second?" he asked suddenly and Rachel slowly handed it to him.

That sense of familiarity grew as Chandler picked up the engagement ring from the box and raised it to eye-level. The colour of the ring, the size of the diamond, even the weight of the piece of jewelry… all these factors seemed to jog his mind and his brain felt like it was about to explode from the effort to remember. Then, it hit him.

"Holy shit…" he whispered to himself, at first widening his eyes in realization but then narrowing them into a frown. "Idiot! I told him not to keep it!"

"What?" Phoebe asked and Chandler jumped, not knowing that he had said that out loud.

"What? I-I didn't say anything."

"Yes you did. You screamed out 'idiot' and then something else," Joey pointed out and he pulled at the collar of his shirt.

"N-no I didn't. I said… I said... I'm an idiot for not buying such a beautiful ring!" Chandler glanced over at Rachel who was looking at him intently and he gulped.

Suddenly Monica began pointing at him accusingly. "You know something!"

"No I don't," he responded, perhaps a bit too quickly.

"Yes you do! Spill!"

Chandler looked around, knowing he just put himself in a situation he was not going to get out of. The three sets of attentive eyes bore down on him and he nervously cleared his throat. "I… I can't. I promised Ross I'd take it with me to the grave."

"Well you're about to get there a lot sooner if you don't tell us what you know," Monica threatened by taking a step towards him and rolling up her sleeves.

He really began to sweat as he backed down from his fiancée's challenge. If there's anything he's learned over the years, it's that there's nothing scarier than an angry Monica. His heart was racing and his palms were sweating. As his eyes darted back and forth they eventually found Rachel's large begging eyes that made him completely stop.

"Please Chandler," she begged in a soft whisper, "please tell me."

That was all he could take before he snapped. With a long sigh, he ran a hand across his face and hoped to God Ross wouldn't kill him for doing this.

"Alright, I'll tell you but you have to know, Ross made me swear not to tell anyone about this. He didn't want to hurt you anymore than he already did."

Rachel didn't say anything, just staring at him to go on as were the others who were looking on with attentive eyes and ears.

With another sigh, Chandler continued. "Ok, I know what the ring is from. 5 years ago, while you two were dating, Ross had this plan… and he had come to me about a week before asking if he should go through with it. I thought it was a great idea at the time, I thought nothing could have gone wrong…" He paused. "The plan was to ask you to marry him on your anniversary."

Gasps were spread throughout the room and Rachel lifted a hand to cover her mouth, her eyes already showing the sadness she felt on the inside.

"Are you serious?" Monica asked.

"Yeah, he told me that it might have seemed a little rushed but that Rachel had always been the love of his life and that things just felt… right. I think he said something about bringing you to the planetarium, with music playing in the background and lilies scattered across the ground, and up in the stars there would be the words 'Will You Marry Me?'" Chandler looked at her with the sympathy written all across his face. They all knew what happened that night and how Ross had never gotten a chance to ask before he was given an answer. He reached out and took a hold of one of her hands, giving it a light squeeze. "I'm so sorry Rachel."

"I can't believe it… I just…" she sniffled and held back the tears threatening her eyes. "I can't believe I missed out on that… all because of some stupid brea!. We could have been married! We could have had kids and a family by now! We could have been… together…"

She buried her face in her hands but she refused to cry. She had done enough of that lately and even if this hurt like a bullet to her chest, there was nothing she could do about it. What's done has been done. It's all in the past and she just had to live with the fact that she ruined the best thing that may ever happen to her.

"Honey, I'm so sorry. Are you going to be alright?" She heard Monica ask her in a whisper while gently rubbing her shoulders.

Rachel raised her head and wiped the tears in her eyes away. "Yeah… yeah I'll be ok."

She looked at the sympathetic looks on each of her friends face and she let out a soft sigh. The amount of drama she's been putting her friends in lately has been ridiculous and she felt a tad guilty for making them worry so much.

Suddenly her eyes caught sight of the time and she saw that she had been gone for almost half an hour. Ross was no doubt still waiting for her back at their apartment, or worse, cleaning up all by himself.

"I've gotta go. I told Ross I'd only be gone for a few minutes," Rachel said, standing up quickly.

Her friends gave her a quick goodbye and she quickly left out the door, but not before grabbing the engagement ring once meant for her but would now sit in a drawer filled with memories of the past…

…right where it belonged.

…

Hours later, the four friends sat around the kitchen table, simply talking about the TV show they had just watched while eating some of Monica's freshly baked cookies. Suddenly a knock was heard followed by the sound of the front door opening as Ross walked in, whistling to himself.

"Hey guys," he greeted as he head towards the fridge.

"Hey Ross," they all chorused and watched as he grabbed a beer from the fridge.

"All done cleaning?" Monica asked and he chuckled.

"Yup, took up the entire day but we did it. Believe it or not but Rachel actually got her hands dirty."

The four friends shared a look as they all thought back to the little incident with Rachel a few hours earlier.

"Where is she now?"

"We were out of food for the week so she went out grocery shopping," Ross answered, popping open the beer bottle. "She stopped by here earlier right?"

"Uh… um… yeah, she just wanted to talk about something," Joey responded, shooting Chandler a nervous eye.

Ross nodded. "Ah ok, she told me she had come over for some girl talk." Suddenly he paused. "Wait hold on, you two were here too?"

Chandler sent a glare at Joey before clearing his own throat. "Um… yup! We were! That's us, we just love to…uh…gossip." Ross just raised a confused eyebrow.

"So Ross," Phoebe jumped in, saving them from anymore questioning. "How are you taking this whole Mona thing?"

"Surprisingly well actually," he said truthfully. "At first I didn't take it too well but Rachel cheered me up and I've been doing pretty good ever since."

The four friends nodded as he took a seat and continued. "I don't know, I guess I've always kind of known things weren't going to last. Mona was great and all but we just didn't have that… spark, you know? Kind of like the one that you two have," he motioned towards Chandler and Monica. "You know, one of the reasons why I started dating was so I could experience that connection myself and for a second, I thought maybe Mona might have been it. I guess some things just aren't meant to be."

A silence passed between the group as they all kind of got lost in their own thoughts. Ross' thoughts were filled with the imagination of how it would be like to find that passion with someone else but what he didn't know was in the minds of his four friends, they already knew who the missing piece of his puzzle was.

Ross took a sip of his beer and broke the silence, catching everyone off guard by his words.

"Tell me about that… that bond you two share."

Monica scratched her throat and looked at Chandler. "What exactly do you want to know?"

"I don't know. Kind of like what it feels like or how do you know when you have it?"

All of a sudden Chandler rose from the seat and pointed towards the clock. "Oh look at that! Look at the time! Joey we better go if we want to catch that movie!"

"Oh no, you're not getting out of this this time," Monica said, pulling her fiancée back down in his seat. He sighed and slumped in his seat as she cleared her throat and turned to her brother's awaiting eyes.

"Alright well, this feeling… it's kind of like warm sensation you have in your chest that you get when you're around that person. You just feel connected to them somehow, like you're two people but sharing one mind and one heart. It's the feeling of caring for someone so much that you never want to leave their side."

Chandler smiled lovingly at his fiancée and she smiled back. Gaining more confidence in his voice, he straightened his back and continued. "Yeah, it makes you want to protect and care for her for the rest of your life. She's like the missing half of your everything and all you've ever really wanted. She makes you smile whenever she's in the room and sometimes you wake up and can't believe that she's actually real. You want to spend every second of every day with her and she's always the first thing in your mind in the morning and the last thing in your mind at night."

Monica rubbed his leg showing him how much she appreciated his kind words and they both just kind of stared at each other with smiles on their faces. "You'll know when you have it because… well, you'll just know. You'll feel it in your heart and once you have it, you'll never want to let go of it."

"Wow, that sounds… amazing…" Ross said, amazed at how this feeling can change everything about a person.

"Aww! I want it!" Joey whined and Chandler patted his friend on the back.

"Well I think I might have it, with Mike!" Phoebe revealed and Monica squealed.

"Really? Oh that's so great!" And they both embraced in a hug. Then, as Monica pulled away she looked towards her brother who was deep in thought and a sudden idea came to mind.

"Hey Ross, do you have someone like that in your life?"

Ross looked down and thought for a moment. "Well somewhat, yes. I mean, I care a lot about all of you and same with Ben, but I don't think it's the same thing."

"Not exactly. It's kind of the same thing but it's different from what we're talking about. Of course we care for each other and we all have this bond with one another, but this bond you share with someone else is special and is so much more. Do you have a special someone in your life?" She continued to press on and her friends all saw what she was doing. They all looked at Ross, holding in their excitement as they waited for a response.

Ross fell deep in thought, going through everyone in his life that he held close to his heart. Like Monica said, his friends and his family were always the ones he cared about the most, and he knew his father-son connection he had with Ben was also one-of-a-kind as well. But as he thought long and hard about this 'someone special', there was only one face that could possibly fulfil those requirements and suddenly, his eyes finally his eyes were opened.

"I… I think there is…" he said almost in disbelief and the excitement in the room rose.

"Well who is it?" Joey questioned and they all leaned in.

Ross looked down at his hands then back up at his friends, feeling his heart beat begin to beat faster for some reason. Was this also part of that feeling?

"I think… I think it's… Rachel."

Cheers erupted in the room as his four friends jumped up and began to celebrate. They hugged each other and gave each other high fives before they all came over to him and hugged him as well. Ross simply sat there, a little confused as to why everyone was so hyper over what he said.

"Why are we celebrating?" he asked in an amused tone as his sister gave him a big hug.

"Because this is huge! This is… this is amazing!" she answered, giving him another tight squeeze. "You have no idea how long Rachel has been feeling the same way about you!"

"Really?" he asked in disbelief. Rachel had these feelings for him as well? For some reason this piece of information made his heart beat even faster, confusing him even more. What was going on?

"Yes! Oh, she's going to be so happy when she finds out! She's been waiting so long for this! I'm so happy for you guys!"

Ross just smiled as everyone came around him in a group hug. He thought about the idea of him and Rachel together and the more he thought about it, the more he began to like it. Ross and Rachel, Rachel and Ross. It had a nice ring to it.

But there was something more. He truly felt it in his chest; the warm sensation Monica was talking about, the fast pace of his heartbeat. There was something so familiar, yet unfamiliar about this feeling and he felt his brain working hard to figure out what this all meant. He felt the word on the tip of his tongue and then suddenly, everything just clicked.

"Love."

Everyone stopped and the whole room went silent. He felt all four sets of eyes looking at him in disbelief but he ignored it as he was in disbelief himself.

"Love," he repeated, this time with a little more confidence. "Yes… that's it…. Love…"

He looked up and saw how every one of his friends' faces were wide-eyed and mouth gaping open. The feeling in his heart gave him more confidence to say the words that were building up in his throat since the beginning.

"…I love Rachel…"

All of a sudden another round of cheers broke out but this time louder than the first one. His four friends literally went crazy with excitement, yelling and screaming all while crushing him with tight hugs. He laughed through it all, welcoming all the comments they were giving him all at once but truthfully, his mind was somewhere else. He couldn't stop thinking about Rachel and how much he truly cared about her. Her beauty, inside and out, her personality, her laugh, her smile, he loved everything about her. Now it all made sense. Now, things were finally clear.

Eventually things finally quieted down and his friends took their seats once again. Excitement still buzzed around them and all he could do was smile. But there was still one burning question he had to ask.

"So what now?"

They all exchanged glances with each other.

"Well you have to tell her, obviously!" Monica said.

"No wait, he shouldn't just tell her like that."

"I shouldn't?" Ross asked, a little confused.

"No you shouldn't!" Phoebe reiterated. "You should make it a surprise and tell her when the time is right."

Ross scratched his chin. "Umm… ok, but how do I know when the time is right?"

Suddenly Joey snapped his fingers. "You should take her on a date!"

"That's a great idea Joe!" Chandler commented and the two girls nodded in agreement.

"A date huh?" Ross thought about it and thought of the other times they had gone out for dinner or movies or any of that. Technically all of those could be counted as dates but they were only friends then. Now it was different. This had to be special. "I like that… a date…"

"Do you have an idea of where to take her?" Monica asked.

He thought about it once more and suddenly he remembered something that would be perfect. He saw the date unfold in his mind and he couldn't help but smile at the thought of telling her about his feelings.

"I think I have an idea…" And everyone smiled.

There was only one thing on his mind at the moment.

He was in love with Rachel.

…

Author's Note: Well, we did it! We finally made it to the last chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed this one as I did making it and I'm sure you'll all love the last one. Also I just want to remind everyone that my next update will include both the last chapter as well as the Epilogue. I don't really see a point of holding out this story any longer just for an Epilogue so instead, I'll be spending a little more time to end this whole thing off with a bang.

Also if you're wondering, no I'm not a Mondler fan so don't expect much of that from me. Don't get me wrong, I've never had a problem with them being together and in fact, I think they fit well together as a couple. I just don't see them as a couple that would experience as many bumps in the road as Ross and Rachel do, making them a little boring and too perfect. They're great for each other, just a little too great in my opinion to a point where there are huge limitations in what you can really do with them. I hope you Mondler fans aren't too upset about that but I can assure you I'll always have a little C&M in the background.

Thanks again guys and be sure to leave a review. I can use as much support as I can for this last stretch. Hope you guys liked it and I'll see you all next time.