Disclaimer: I don't own Friends or Joey, nor am I making any money of this story, I just wrote it because I wanted to.
He was walking alone, through the thick green grass, below the tall billowing trees, towards a place he never wanted to see. He had only been to this place once before and the day of that visit had been the second worst day of his life. He didn't want to be here but at the same time he couldn't think of anywhere else he'd rather go. Today was the day, the day he had vowed he would stop running from his memory's, stop running from his past and start to learn to live again, but most of all today was the day he was going to remember, he was going to remember the best part of his life.
Four years earlier –
It had been six months since Joey had left New York. His show was doing great and had already earned him a position on the front page of 'People' magazine. America had already grown to love him, not so much that he could say he was horribly famous, but more so then he had ever been while staring in 'Days of Our Lives'. These days he was known as Joey Tribbiani, that gorgeous guy on that hilarious new show 'It's a men's world'.
"Are the contestants ready?" asked the judge standing to the right of the stage.
Two nodded but one shook his head.
"There's someone missing," said Joey, indicating the empty chair to his left.
"Yeah, she's running late, we've waited as long as possible but we have to get started," said the judge, before continuing, "Pick up your forks."
Joey did so and stared down in excitement at the dozen pies that lay before him. Been a celebrity was awesome. The things you got to do for charity, eat as many free pies as fast as you could, it was his kind of thing. He looked to his left, two skinny, unimpressive looking actors, there was no way they would beat him. He was quite obviously a shoe-in for this contest.
"On your marks, get set, g-,"
"Wait!" yelled a slightly exasperated woman pushing through the crowed towards the stage.
"It seems our forth contestant has arrived," said the judge excitedly, "Please welcome Hailey Cole to the stage."
There was uproar from the audience when they realized who it was. Hailey Cole, what was the likes of her doing at an event like this, she was too good for such a thing, too high up the Hollywood scales to worry about the little people. She was loved by America and she was at a pie-eating contest at a small, outcast mall. The thoughts in Joey's head were quite different however, he couldn't believe his luck, they had put him up against two of the skinniest actors alive and a woman who was famous enough that it was very likely that she had an eating disorder of some kind, and the looks of her size two figure just made that possibility even more probable.
Hailey sat down and quickly shot the three on stage an apologetic smile for running late. The judge began again and the contest was soon underway. Joey was in heaven. Blueberry, apple, and many other flavors of pie were hurriedly consumed.
"And we have a winner!" the judge announced loudly and the crowd cheered.
"What?" Joey asked shocked, looking up from the remnants of his second last pie.
He looked to his right determined to see which skinny ass had beaten him. He was shocked to note that both still had four pies to go. 'It couldn't be,' he thought to himself, 'it was absolutely impossible'. He turned his head to his right. Her plate was empty. He couldn't believe it. A woman beat him.
"What? Are you pregnant, tell me your pregnant!" he exclaimed.
She shook her head, "No, no I'm not," she said amused and let out a small laugh as he hung his head in shame. The crowd laughed along with her, muttering about how adorable Joey Tribbiani was.
"Don't worry honey, I've never lost a pie-eating contest in my life, I've beaten many other men before."
"Neither had I," whined Joey.
He looked over at her and their eyes connected for a brief moment. He captured her bright, laughing blue eyes with his own soft brown ones and he couldn't help but be entranced. There was a definite connection there and that fact scared him. He hadn't been with a woman since leaving New York. He had had many offers but had never been able to commit.
He pulled out of the connection rather abruptly and got up to leave. He muttered a quick "congratulations" as he hurriedly walked by her, but a playful voice stopped him in his tracks.
"What no handshake?" she asked.
He turned and stretched out his right hand.
"You know," she continued, "I was thinking we could all, the four of us that is, go out for drinks or something."
"Ah yeah that sounds good, I'll buy your first one as a congratulations of sorts," Joey said awkwardly.
"Mmm, sounds good to me," she said smiling coyly.
Hours later they found themselves alone together in a dingy L.A bar. The other two contestants had left rather early and it was late enough that the rest of the patrons had started to clear out also.
"Oh come on, you have to be making that one up," exclaimed the blue eyed beauty throwing her head back with laughter, "You can't be serious, you lit a bowling ball on fire?"
"It's true, I think I freaked Chandler and Ross out so badly, but hey, it doesn't take much to freak Chandler out," he laughed.
"Yeah I kind of got that impression," said Hailey laughing once again.
"Come on, now you go. What's the stupidest thing you've ever done?" said Joey with a sudden mock serious expression.
"Are you trying to tell me that that's the stupidest thing you've ever done?" she asked while raising an eyebrow.
"Well no," he said sheepishly, "but that's not fair, I've done a lot of stupid things. Now come on tell me."
"Alright, alright," she submitted finally, holding her hands up in surrender. "Well, it was only about a year ago. I had a real blonde moment. I was watching T.V with my brother and an add for 'That 70's Show' came on. The priest guy on it was talking to the young guy…I forget what his name is. Anyway, the priest goes to the young guy 'I don't get high on LSD… I get high on G.O.D' and me in a pure blonde moment asks my brother in a completely confused voice, 'What's Jod?' and my brother just looked at me…it took me about five minutes to work out what I said." She finished her story and looked at Joey completely unabashed, finding no embarrassment in it, only humor at her own expense.
"Jees, not even I'm that dumb," said Joey laughing at her story.
"I beg to differ," she said not believing that for one second.
"Do you want another drink?" asked Joey.
"Um… just let me check the time." She reached into her bag and pulled out her cell phone. "Holy hell, its 2am!"
"What?" Joey asked incredulity.
"I better be getting home," she stated.
Hailey got off the bar stool and started for the door but almost fell over in the process. She laughed loudly as she stumbled into the table in front of her.
"God how much did you have to drink?" asked Joey, also rising. He too stumbled a bit.
Laughing loudly Hailey asked, "Me you're the one falling over yourself." They were both completely oblivious to their slurring words and weren't even aware of the bar tender directing them outside and putting them into a cab. Joey told the driver his address and they sped off to his place.
"I had a really great night tonight Joey," Hailey said after a moment of silence.
"I did too," he said, "I haven't had that much fun in so long. It's been a while since I laughed hard enough for wine to come out of my nose."
"Wine?" she asked laughing slightly, "Wasn't it beer?"
"Yeah it was now I think of it," he chuckled, "kind of stung a bit, its not as smooth as wine." They laughed together once again. The laughter however came to an abrupt standstill when their eyes connected.
Joey didn't know if it was the alcohol, or the months of absentness or something else but he couldn't seem to stop himself from leaning in and placing a delicate kiss on her sweet, supple lips. The kiss deepened rather quickly and before either one of them knew what was happening they were in Joey's bedroom tearing off each other's clothes.
"I shouldn't be doing this," murmured Hailey, "We shouldn't be doing this."
"We don't have to do this," said Joey before hungrily kissing her once again.
She moaned into him before pulling away once again, "I just got out of a huge relationship, I shouldn't be doing this."
Joey pulled away, looked over her gorgeous face and stated, "We can stop. You can walk away right now if you want to."
Hailey looked up at him and stared deeply into the chocolate swirls of his eyes. She became lost in them and all her worries flew away.
"I don't want to stop, I don't know why, but I don't want to stop," she stated in a husky voice.
"Your beautiful, you know that," said Joey, and for the one of the first times in his life he truly meant it.
Hailey blushed which was not something Joey was expecting. She was a movie star. Movie stars don't blush for complements.
"You said that so sincerely, no one has said that to me like that in a very long time." She lifted her head off the bed and captured him in a deep, passionate kiss.
The rest of the night Joey was in euphoria. Never before had he spent a night with a woman that felt like that. As the night went on he felt a part of himself come back, a part of himself that he hadn't been in a very long time. Bits of it were exposed at the club earlier in the evening but he could feel it full fledged now. He was back, and it was this woman who brought him back, this woman that he barely knew and he was sure that was completely out of his reach. He was capable of getting a hypothetical 11 in looks, but this woman surpassed that with just personality alone.
Morning arrived and Joey had only a fuzzy recollection of the events that took place the night before. He woke feeling complete but one glance to the left made that feeling dissipate. The other side of the bed was empty.
He walked downstairs to find everything as it usually was. Michael was sitting at the table studying, Gina was in the kitchen making eggs and Alex was standing off to the side of Gina trying to think of comebacks to the insults Gina was throwing at her and failing miserably, but Joey had to admit, her attempts were far better than they'd been months ago.
Life went on normally from that day on. Joey didn't speak a word of his night with Hailey Cole and knew she hadn't either. He'd seen her on T.V a few times since the night, walking down the red carpet at various events and always sent a silent thank you to her. She had brought him back. His family had noticed it and Alex had noticed the changes in him. He was alive and happy too. The sparkle in his eyes had reappeared. He was moving on from Rachel and it was such a great feeling. He noticed other girls in the street these days and even wondered why nothing had ever happened between him and Alex. That wonderment only lasted a brief moment before she slapped him on the arm and exclaimed rather defensively that she was married.
Joey was nearing his destination by now. Flowers surrounded the area he could see in the distance, the area he was heading towards. He was dreading reaching where his feet were taking him, he didn't know if he was ready to go there again but he had to. That was a fact, not a decision by any means. He absolutely had to. And if he were facing the truth, he could admit if he didn't have to he would still go. It was time to say goodbye.
A/N: Terribly sorry about the delay. I've been really busy, I'm in the middle of exams at the moment. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, you guys have been so kind. Please continue to do so.