Rachel got to leave the hospital two days later. Tex insisted that she go to his house, but Tom said that Rachel was going to his house. He needed to make sure she would be safe. He didn't doubt Tex, but he would feel a lot better if she stayed with him.

Chandler took her to his house where his father and children were.

"Ashley, Sam, as you both know, this is Dr. Rachel Scott. She will be staying with us until she gets better", he informed his kids.

"Hello", Rachel greeted them and they said hello back.

"But dad", Sam said.

"What?"

"Where is Dr. Scott going to sleep? We don't have anymore room."

"She will sleep in my bed, and I will just take the couch", Chandler simply said.

Rachel shook her head. "Captain, I'm not taking your bed."

"Yes you are", he told her. You are injured, I'm not going to make you sleep on the couch. Besides, it's not like I haven't slept on the couch before."

Rachel began to smile; she knew exactly what that meant. Darien had kicked him out of the bedroom a time or two. Rachel just felt wrong taking his bed; not only was it his bed, but it was his wife's bed too. Even though Darien wasn't around, Rachel just felt wrong. Tom insisted that she take his bed and that's how it was going to be. There was nothing she could do about it.

"Dr. Scott, will you watch a movie with us?", Ashley asked her.

"Please call me Rachel", she told her. "Yes, I would be glad to."

Ashley and Sam started to argue over which movie they wanted to watch for fifteen minutes until they told Rachel to pick one. Rachel picked "Marley and Me", even though she knew she was going to end up crying by the end.

They sat there and watched the movie. Rachel sat in the middle. The three of them started crying at the end when Marley died.

"Dad!", Sam yelled. "Rachel needs tissues! Hurry!", Sam screamed, nearly needing tissues himself.

Tom rushed to Rachel with tissues, thinking that something was really wrong. "What? What's wrong with her?"

"She's just sad because the dog died", Ashley sniffled.

Tom handed Ashley tissues and even gave Sam one. He handed the rest of the box to Rachel.

"This must be one sad movie", Tom commented. "I may have to watch this myself." Sam never cried, not even when he fell off his bike and skinned his leg up, so Tom knew it had to be sad.

"No, dad. It's just too awful. You get to see the little dog grow up, and then they make you watch it die", Ashley said. She started to bawl.

Chandler hugged both of his children and smiled at Rachel. "Well, whenever you three recover from the movie, you can get some ice cream. It looks like you all need it, especially you, Rachel."

Rachel just grinned, while Tom walked away.

They sat there for a few minutes before they went to go get the ice cream.

"Rachel?", Sam asked.

"Yes?"

"You know the part at the end of the movie when everyone is saying goodbye to Marley, and then they cry?"

Rachel had a confused expression on his face. "Yes. What about it?"

"I was just thinking that's how dad looked when we went to the hospital to try to get him to come home, except he wasn't crying. He just looked really sad, like he had lost his best friend. I think that's how the saying goes. Are you and my dad best friends?"

Rachel nearly choked on her spit. His own children went to the hospital to try to get him to leave and he wouldn't? Her heart started fluttering.

"I don't know", Rachel started to say. "I know we are friends, but I don't know about best friends."

Ashley shook her head and said, "No, I think you are his best friend, well besides Mr. Slattery. I heard him whispering to Grandpa about how he couldn't lose you because if he did, he would never forgive himself or something like that. Best friends don't want to lose each other, so you are his best friend."

"He couldn't lose you" played over and over in Rachel's mind. What did that mean? Rachel thought that Ashley may have misunderstood Chandler. Maybe she didn't hear him correctly. The one thing Rachel couldn't stop thinking about was how true she wanted it to be. She HOPED he had really said it.

Rachel smiled. "Maybe we are."

She just needed to get that last bit out of her mind.

"Who's ready for ice cream?", Rachel asked.

The kids shouted and jumped off the couch and ran into the kitchen, forgetting about the whole conversation as soon as Rachel said "ice cream." Rachel couldn't forget it.

One thing that Rachel, Ashley, and Sam didn't know was that Chandler had heard the entire thing. He went to ask them what kind of ice cream they wanted, and he almost walked in at a bad time. He heard them talking about when he was at the hospital with Rachel, and he just stood there and listened. She wasn't supposed to know that part; the part where he almost cried. Then, there was the question about them being best friends. He could tell Rachel was hesitant about answering the question. He didn't know if she thought of him as her best friend, but she was his. She was the person he found himself wanting to talk ALL the time.

Tom stood there and couldn't believe how incredibly smart and observant his kids were. He knew he was going to have his hands full when they became teenagers.

Tom saw that they were getting up, and he ran back to the kitchen really quick. He just hoped Rachel didn't question him about what his children told her because, honestly, he couldn't really answer anything that she could ask. He didn't even understand his feelings, so how the hell could he explain them to someone else?

*****For those of you who haven't seen "Marley and Me", it's basically what Ashley said. You get to see a dog grow up, and then it dies. It's very sad at the end. There will be future movie days with Rachel and the Chandler family, but I will have a little post at the end describing what the movie is actually about for those of you who haven't seen the movie.**********