Disclaimer: I do not own Friends.

Ross, on some level, knew that Rachel would say yes, but still he couldn't believe what he had just heard. She wanted to marry him. The girl that he had been in love with for 20 years wanted to marry him. This is the greatest day of my life. He kept thinking over and over again. He got up, tearing uncontrollably and grabbed Rachel and hugged her. She returned the hug, and gave Monica a quick look. Monica got the hint. "Okay everybody let's give them a little bit of alone time!" Monica and the rest of them, except Chandler went back inside. Walking through the door to go inside, Monica found Chandler ducked down behind a table, watching them. "Chandler!"

"What? I wanna watch."

"They don't want you to watch."

"Did they tell you that?"

"Well no, but Rachel gave me a look."

"Oh so now you can tell what Rachel is thinking by her look?" Monica glared at him. "Can you tell what I'm thinking by this look?"

"That if I don't get inside you're going to yell?" Monica had already been yelling at him. She had taken them farther away from Rachel and Ross though, so she didn't disturb them. "Okay smartass go inside." Chandler mimicked her the way he always does. Monica grabbed his arm and drug him inside. Ross was watching the whole thing. He just laughed. Rachel was laughing to, but she stopped, and put her head into Ross' chest and whispered "I love you." He smiled, although she couldn't see him, and said it back "I love you too Rach, more than you will ever know." She started tearing up again. Monica had put a cd player out in the opening to outside, and she pressed the button to play. Rachel and Ross noticed what song it was. "With or Without You" by U2. It was one of their songs. They both smiled and held eachother like that for what seemed to the rest of the group like an hour. Rachel pulled away from Ross and motioned for him to sit down next to her. "Ross, all you said was true?"

"Yes Rach all of it."

"So you loved me all these years when I thought and everyone else thought you didn't?"

"Yes. Well actually Phoebe knew."

"Phoebe knew?"

"Yeah."

"I can't believe she didn't tell me!"

"I can't either," he said laughing. "Well Ross for what it's worth, I loved you all those years too." He smiled. "Really?"

"Uh huh." She smiled and leaned over to kiss him, but she stopped. "Ross if you loved me as much as you said you did, why didn't you tell me?" He looked down at his feet. "Ross, what's wrong?"

"I hurt you bad when we were together. I still remember your face when Gunther told you I slept with Chloe," Before he could finish he noticed Rachel shudder. "See, you're still bothered by that. And you always will be. I didn't think you would take me back even if I begged. I begged that one night."

"Ross, you don't know how bad I wanted to forgive you. GOD I loved you, I don't know why I loved you so much, but I loved you more than anyone. That's why it was the hardest thing to tell you that I was leaving for Paris. But, even though we were on a break, that doesn't mean that it didn't tear me apart. When I found out what had happened, I started to believe that you never loved me in the first place. Imagine that it had been the other way around, and that I had slept with Mark. THREE HOURS," she emphasized, "after we broke up, and I had slept with Mark. Wouldn't that make you think the same thing?" Ross was still looking down at his shoes. "Ross, it made me think you never loved me in the first place. It hurt. I wanted to take you back, but I couldn't, because I thought, at the time, that you didn't love me."

"Rachel I ALWAYS loved you."

"I know that now." He smiled and watched her start to cry. She leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder. He wiped the tears from her face. "I am so happy that you said yes Rach. I was scared."

"Of what?"

"That you would say no, because you still hadn't forgiven me for that one night eight years ago."

"The reason I said yes is because I love you and I want to be with you forever." He smiled and kissed her head. "I have forgiven you Ross, but I will never be okay with what happened. It will always make me sick when I think about it or you talk about it."

"I know. I won't talk about it."

"Okay." Rachel smiled and kissed him. "Do you want to go get everyone?"

"Okay." Ross got up and opened the door. Joey was the first to run out. He ran over to Rachel and hugged her so tight he had picked her up off the floor. "Hey Joey."

"I'm so happy for you guys!" He then put Rachel down and went over to Ross. Ross was expecting a pat on the back, but Joey did the same thing to Ross that he had done to Rachel. "Joey, could you put me down?" Joey put him down once he saw the sandwiches on a tray on one of the tables. "You guys brought SANDWICHES?" Ross laughed. "Yes, it's for the proposal ceremony. I thought it would be fun to have a proposal ceremony." He couldn't finish because Joey had run off towards the sandwiches. Monica and Phoebe, along with Rachel's parents, had gone to congratulate her. He kept staring at her, still not believing that he was actually marrying her. "Um, Ross? Hello?" He noticed it was Chandler. "Oh hey Chandler." They started talking while everyone else was mingling. His parents had come over to congratulate him as well. Carol came over next. "Hey Ross."

"Oh hey Carol."

"Congratulations."

"Thanks."

"You know Ross, everything happens for a reason. You couldn't figure out why I had left you, well you knew, obviously, but you couldn't figure out why that happened to us. Am I right?"

"Yes."

"Now you know. It happened because fate had a plan for you to end up with your first love."

"Wow, I guess you're right. I thought it had been against me all these years, but with all the failed marriages and everything else, it was really working for me."
"That's what I believe."

"Thank you Carol, and thanks for coming."

"You're welcome Ross. But Susan and I have to be going now. We need to get to our hotel. Susan wanted to go swimming."

"Okay. Thanks again." Carol gave him a quick hug and Susan nodded at him. He looked at Rachel again, talking to her parents. He saw that she was holding baby Emma. Our baby is going to smart AND hot in high school. Lucky girl. He knew because of how hot Rachel is to him, and how smart he is. Rachel was thinking the same thing. Thank God Emma got Ross' nose, and my eyes, and my hair, and Ross' brain. She laughed to herself. Wow Emma is going to be hot in high school, and smart. Lucky girl. Then Rachel and Ross both caught each other's eyes, and smiled.