Act Four: The One Where They're in London

Scene One: Parklife

Rachel sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the buff-coloured carpet. It was so blandly tasteful it hurt her eyes.

'Rachel!'

She started, looked up. Monica looked down at her, arms folded.

'What?'

'Ten bucks if you can tell me what I just said.'

Rachel grimaced. 'I'm sorry, sweetie.'

Monica sighed, sat beside her, tucked her hair behind her ears. 'What's wrong?'

Rachel angled towards her, breathing deeply. 'Honestly, I think- I've been thinking maybe I should go back home. I don't know what I'm doing here, Mon, and-and really one of us should have stayed with Phoebe-'

'Phoebe's fine,' Monica said firmly. 'She has Alice and Frank Junior with her and she's not even due until after we get back. And Ross is counting on you being here and so am I. Coming all this way with everyone else to watch my brother getting married and you not being here... That would just be weird.' She paused, watching her friend keenly. 'And you said it yourself, this-this could be good for you - finally close that chapter. You know?'

Rachel put her head in her hands, said through her fingers. 'I know, I know, and you're right.' She straightened up. 'You're right. And I really hate that, by the way.'

Monica smiled, patted her knee. 'I know.' She paused again. 'Is it really bad?'

She teetered, thought about telling her everything; she pasted on the approximation of a smile. 'I can live with it. It's okay. Really. It's just, y'know, something in the water over here.'

Monica still watched her, a hundred questions behind her eyes that she didn't voice. That must be killing her, Rachel thought, the restraint; and she loved her for it.

'What are you doing today? You want to come with us?'

Rachel regarded her dubiously. 'Wedding talk? Really?'

'Yeah, maybe not.'

'I think I'll see what the guys are up to.'

ooOoo

'Come on! Do something!'

Chandler glared at his flatmate balefully. 'I am, I'm ignoring you.'

Joey came up from behind the viewfinder, passed the camera along. 'Okay, here. I want to be the on camera guy. All right, first stop, Westminster Abbey.' He unfolded a sheet of paper that could have wrapped up the Abbey and still had some acres to spare for the cathedral; carefully-rendered paper monuments sprang up like a child's pop-up book. Chandler stared in horror.

'Oh, what the hell is that?'

'It's London, baby! All right, the hotel's here. Wait. No, we want to go... No. I know.' He put the map down. 'I'm going to have to go into the map.'

Chandler watched as Joey stepped into the unfolded map, staring down at it with furious concentration. 'Okay, if you see a little version of me in there? Kill it!'

Joey, undeterred: 'I got it! Here we go.'

Chandler started following him, more out of morbid fascination and a lack of anywhere else to go. 'Okay,' he said. 'Listen-listen, we're not gonna have to walk this way the entire time are we?

'Shhh!' He stopped. 'Man, you made me lose it!' Map back on the pavement. Chandler felt a massive headache start to build behind his eyes.

'Hey, guys!'

He turned and found Rachel, pink-cheeked and slightly breathless jogging down the street towards them. The hazy sunlight turned her hair deep gold. He caught his breath, looked away, looked back at her.

'Hey.'

It had been better between them lately. Mainly because she seemed to ensure that they were never alone together as much as he did and because he very carefully excised all thoughts of Rachel from his daily routine.

That part was not made easier when she smiled up at him, squinting against the sun, her face full of laughter and her eyes dancing. He caught the scent of her perfume and his stomach flipped.

'What are you doi-' She lowered her voice, kept her eyes on Joey. 'Oh, what is that?'

'It's his map of London.'

'You're kidding me.'

He turned wearied eyes on her. 'You have no idea how I wish that were so.'

'Okay, I found it again. We're- Oh, hey, Rach!'

She smiled at him.

'You coming with us?'

'Yeah, if that's-' she darted a look at Chandler '-if that's okay.'

Joey grinned at her. 'Yeah, baby!'

She turned her gaze - questioning, hopeful - to Chandler.

'Yeah,' he said softly, 'yeah, that's okay.'

ooOoo

They saw Westminster - Palace, Abbey and Cathedral - and at Rachel's request (or wheedling) also Harrods, Selfridges and Fenwick. They lunched at a pub-

'What the hell is that?'

'Mac-'n-cheese, lasagne and fries. The Brits call 'em chips - weird, huh?'

'Oh yes, that's what's weird.'

'We're in London, baby!'

-and while Joey's camera caught every sight from the Changing of the Guard to the buskers at Covent Garden, both he and it remained oblivious to the little human drama unfolding in their proximity.

It did not catch the way that Rachel and Chandler watched one another when they thought the other wasn't looking; it captured hints but not the full force of the overly-bright smiles of one and the other's jokes that were laden with too much cynicism.

But there was one scene that did make it through.

ooOoo

Rachel stretched out her arms, turned her face up to catch the rays of late evening sun. The air was balmy, hazy over the trees. It was a reminder of home, this expanse of green in the middle of the city. A feeling compounded by the sight of fellow countrymen, expatriated, playing American football alongside one of the pathways. It seemed at once familiar and alien.

Over their cheerful shouts came the sound of bickering, the same sound that had haunted her all day: Chandler trying to wrest the camera from Joey, and the latter stubbornly refusing and still committing every detail to celluloid.

A lull in the exchanges - Joey had returned to being the man with a movie camera.

She poked Chandler in the ribs. 'Stop being such a grouch.'

He turned on her, pained. 'I am not! Just- Just look at him!'

She had to admit the hat was taking the whole London experience a bit far, but, after all, they were tourists - a certain amount of bad judgement was to be expected.

'Y'know, you'd probably enjoy yourself more if you'd just relax.'

'I am relaxed,' Chandler replied stiffly.

'Oh, really?'

'Yeah, really.'

Her fingers found the spot just under his ribcage and he sucked in a breath.

'Hey!'

'Ooh, someone is ticklish...'

She was merciless, her hands moving fast, locating the places they had already found once before. Soft flesh and muscle and bone sliding under her touch. He tried to evade her but she followed him. His face was suddenly bright with laughter, eyes dancing, glowing. He caught hold of her wrists with one hand and got his revenge: her shrieks echoed across the park and she writhed under his fingers.

'You guys are so cute!'

They stopped, locked together. His arms were around her, somehow, and she was staring up into his face. Somehow. And Joey had it all on camera. He was still staring through the viewfinder, grinning at them.

Rachel eased herself out of Chandler's embrace.

They stood apart, staring at each other, both horribly aware of the other's proximity and the sudden loss of it.

'I guess we should back,' he said.

She trailed after him, glad only that Joey was too busy getting footage of the local pigeon population to document her misery.