Episode: The One With Chandler's Dad (7x22)

After the embarrassing meeting with Officer Petty, Ross let Rachel drive to head back home.

They didn't talk very much, but Rachel kept giggling from time to time, remembering the scene she had just witnessed.

"You want to help me out here?" Ross asked her, trying to keep his voice low not to get heard from the Officer who was waiting outside the car.

"Sorry, what?"

"Can you do your little...thing that you did before?" Ross almost begged Rachel to help him. She had flirted with the previous Officer they had met; now she was his only hope to avoid a ticket.

"Oh, I don't think so. I don't think I want to tarnish his badge."

Ross thought that he would complain with Rachel later, he knew he had this coming. He had scolded her for her flirtatious ability before and now she wasn't prone to help him, obviously.

Ross conveyed all his willpower to get a mellow attitude and try to persuade the man in front of himself.

"Y'know of-officer I uh…I had the weirdest dream last night…"

"Oh my God!" Rachel blurted out. She couldn't believe that Ross was actually using *her* flirting strategies with a man.

"Your license, please." The Officer said, not even showing signs of changing his attitude.

Ross chuckled, "You don't – you don't want to hear about my dream Officer…Pretty?" he said, noticing the name on the man's uniform.

The police officer was evidently annoyed. "It's Petty." He grabbed Ross's license. "I'll be right back with your ticket."

As the man walked back to his car, Ross sensed Rachel starting to talk: "You have a son!"

He closed his eyes, "I know. I know!"

"I can't believe what you did, Ross." She laughed, her eyes fixed on the road in front of the Porsche.

Ross sighed, "Please, could we…not tell about this to the guys?"

"And why would I do that, exactly?" Rachel replied, already savoring the hundreds jokes Chandler would invent to mock Ross's misadventure.

Fortunately, Ross had an ace in the hole, "I won't tell Monica that you drove the Porsche."

"Deal."

Rachel didn't wait a second to answer, causing Ross to chuckle for her response. They looked at each other with understanding, in a way that was so typical between them and nobody else.

That way that made them so uniquely Ross and Rachel.

They knew each other so well, partly because of the wonderful year they had spent as a couple, but mostly because even if the rest of the world thought that they were too different, the truth was that they were very in tune with one another, like chords blended together to build a wonderful melody.

And they still loved having fun together, especially when they could gang up against Monica.

The two former lovers kept smiling for a few seconds; they both had a fixed thought in their minds, though neither of them was ready to express it aloud.

Yet.

When they got home, Rachel parked the car right where Monica had left it before leaving for Las Vegas.

"So, do you want to catch up with Joey and Pheebs?" Rachel asked Ross.

"I don't feel like spending more money at the coffee house tonight, I just paid a hundred bucks for a very unfair ticket."

"Ross, you were driving at 37 miles on the highway!" Rachel reminded him.

"Well, I was just being very careful!"

Rachel chuckled again and headed for the apartment with Ross in tow.

"Do you want something to drink while we wait for Joey and Phoebe to come back?"

"Sure." Ross replied. He soon noticed that Rachel was opening Monica and Chandler's door.

She looked back at him scrutinizing his curious expression.

"Well? They aren't home and I have nothing in my fridge, it's Joey's turn to go grocery shopping!"

"So I'm not the only one you should call cheap." Ross smirked.

They both entered the apartment and Rachel went directly to the fridge.

"Are you up for some wine?"

Without warning they had touched the taboo issue.

Their memories were brought back to the night they had spent together a few days before.

Rachel's eyes grew wide for her own silliness in mentioning the wine, Ross coughed nervously and adverted her eyes to look elsewhere. Suddenly, Monica's couch became the most interesting thing in the apartment.

"Oh, margaritas it is?" Rachel almost yelled, clapping her hands together.

"Absolutely!" Ross quickly answered, nodding with decision.

Ross sat close to the kitchen table while Rachel prepared their drinks. After a couple of minutes, her cute smile was back on her lips.

"We…" she hesitated for a few seconds. "We never really talked about it."

Ross stared intently at the two glasses Rachel was pouring the margaritas into.

"No, uhm…we didn't." he agreed.

Rachel nodded, still trying to avoid eye contact with him. "Are you sure that you want to drink with me…again?"

Their eyes finally met.

"I think I will take the chance." He smirked slyly at her.

"I'll drink to that." Rachel replied.

She smiled back at Ross and they clinked their glasses.

After swallowing twice, Rachel found the courage to say something she had wanted to confess Ross since they had slept together.

"Great night, wasn't it?"

Ross nodded slowly, "Yeah..."

They both had little smiles on their faces.

Ross felt this was the right time to excuse himself for his behavior.

"By the way, I'm sorry that I left in such a hurry that morning. I was late, I had a class and I had a huge headache with the worst hangover…"

"Ross, it doesn't matter, really… I slept-in and…you going away was the right thing, at least Joey didn't see you. I mean…How could we tell the others something like that?"

"What do you mean?" Ross wondered. Was she regretting this?

"Well, they would have false hope about…you know…us."

Ross understood what she meant and felt a bit disappointed. "Because in the end it didn't mean anything, right?" He said with resignation because the truth was that Ross felt that night had meant everything.

"Of course, it was…nothing. Just a bonus night…"

After hearing the lack of conviction in Rachel's voice and noticing that she had lowered her eyes, Ross couldn't help but sigh.

Maybe he wasn't the only one who was concealing his real feelings.

On the other hand, Rachel hoped that Ross would say something to disagree with her.

Their eyes met again when she finally managed some courage to look at him. They smiled tenderly at each other, both realizing that this might be the umpteenth turn back point in their relationship.

They wanted so much for this conversation to mean the beginning of something, but they were also scared about the thousands of implications.

Ross was the first to break the silence, "Well, this doesn't change the fact that it was amazing. And I want you to know that…in spite of whatever happened between us, you know – when we were together and after we broke up…every single night that I spend with you – " Ross was looking for a different verb to use other than mean. "Well, it matters."

Rachel stared at him with gratitude.

"You know what I mean, it's never just…sex, with us."

Ross sighed again after this confession, releasing a breath he didn't know he was holding. He felt his cheeks burn, he was probably flushing as he used to do years ago, before getting together with Rachel.

However, Rachel cut his embarrassment by taking his hand in hers.

"Thank you, sweetie. This is important to me. It makes me feel…special."

Ross squeezed her hand, "Rach, you know how special you've always been to me."

As he said this, a vivid memory came back to Rachel's mind.

It's always been you, Rach.

"You've always been the most special woman in my life. And on some level, I think you'll always be. At least until I have a daughter!"

Rachel chuckled for his joke, trying to keep the tears that were forming at the corner of her eyes.

She considered telling him the truth. That she missed him; that she really enjoyed the time they had spent together lately. Babysitting Ben and teaching him all those pranks, or going out with the car like tonight.

Last, their bonus night.

That awesome, incredible moment of bliss, come from nowhere but oh, so well received.

She opened her mouth, "Ross…"

He was captivated by the way she had just said his name; he swallowed hard, feeling his throat getting suddenly dry.

"What?" he murmured.

"Hey, there you are!" Joey's voice forced Ross and Rachel to let go of each other's hand.

"We've been looking for you!" Phoebe sentenced.

"Margaritas! Such a great idea!" Joey yelled, catching two glasses from the sideboard. Phoebe took the pitcher on the table and started to fill them.

Ross sighed and shot another knowing smile at Rachel; she nodded with understanding and immediately stood up to help her friends.

As she had feared, this moment would be another unsuccessful attempt to talk about their real feelings.

Eventually, both Ross and Rachel couldn't imagine what would happen in two weeks.

Yes, they had been interrupted tonight.

But they didn't know that the result of their bonus night was already growing inside Rachel's belly.