Anything
It was almost midnight when Monica had to drag herself out of her bed to open the door. Someone was continuously knocking on the door. And that someone was getting Monica more irritated by the second. She had been so close to falling asleep. Now she would have to start all over again.
„What the he-", she opened the door, but stopped mid-sentence when she saw who it was standing in front of her.
„Rach, what are you doing here?", she let Rachel with her tiny suitcase inside and closed the door behind her.
„I need a place to sleep and I didn't want to pay for a hotel", she said, „Can I stay here?", she asked.
„Of course, but what happened? Did you have a fight with Ellie?"
„Something along those lines. We actually broke up."
„What? Why?", Monica asked.
„I think we moved in too soon. I still had to work through some stuff and it turns out that it is much harder to do this when you live together with a girlfriend."
„So you're taking a break? Or you're actually broken up?"
„We broke up. I'm getting the rest of my stuff tomorrow while she is at work."
„Oh, honey. I can help you if you want?", Monica rubbed Rachel's shoulder.
„I would really appreciate that. Thanks, Mon. Oh, and one more thing. Would it be okay if I moved back here?", she asked with a small voice, afraid that she would say no.
„Yes, of course!", Monica smiled.
„Great, thanks!", Rachel hugged Monica.
Monica entered the apartment, greeting the gang sitting in the living room.
„Hey, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at work?", Chandler asked.
„Ugh, they sent me home. They said I can't work if I'm sick", Monica said nasally.
„Ohh", they all sympathised.
„I'm sorry you're sick", Chandler said.
„I'm not sick! I don't get sick! Getting sick is for weaklings and for pansies!", Monica defended herself, even though she was very clearly sick.
„Honey, no one thinks you're a pansy, but we do think you need a tissue", Rachel said, pointing to her nose.
Monica quickly wiped her nose. „I have not been sick in over three years!", she said, but a sneeze followed almost immediately, throwing her weak argument in the water.
„I think you're sick because that", Chandler pointed to the ground, „Used to be in your nose. I'm gonna grab you some tissue."
„I don't need a tissue! I'm fine-d!", Monica said walking towards the couch and sitting down next to Rachel, who had a concerned look on her face.
„When you put a 'D' at the end of 'Fine' you're not fine", Ross said in his annoyingly older brother way. Agreeing with him, Rachel softly shook her head while looking at Monica.
„I'm fine-d", Monica tried again. Rachel lifted her hand and placed it gently on Monica's front to see if she had a fever. „I'm fine-d! Y'know, it's a really hard word to say", Monica threw her hands up and gave up.
Chandler handed her the tissues and Monica stubbornly put them on her side without using them. Rachel, despite knowing that Monica was sick, had sympathy for her and leaned in to hug Monica. Her right arm went around her shoulders and her head leaned lightly against Monica's head. Her left hand followed Monica's left arm, which was crossed over her right arm, and she interlocked her fingers with Monica's.
„Rach", Monica shuffled out of her bedroom, „I think I'm sick."
„Really?", Rachel said amused, looking up from the magazine that she was reading on the couch. Monica had been denying the fact that she was sick all day and now, she finally admitted it.
„Okay, fine, I admit it. I feel terrible", Monica said defeated, „Could I ask for your help with something?"
„Yeah, of course, honey. What is it?"
„Could you help me to put this on my chest?", she asked, her voice still nasal because of her stuffed nose.
„Okay", Rachel got up and walked towards Monica, taking the little bottle from Monica's extended hand. Monica loosened her robe a little and took off the top of it. Her chest was now fully exposed. Rachel tried her hardest not to let her eyes travel too much, but her willpower wasn't strong enough. She took a quick glance at Monica's breasts, but tried to hide it by inspecting the bottle and opening it. She took a bit of the salve on her fingers and softly put it on Monica's chest. A shiver ran through Monica.
„Sorry, I have cold fingers", Rachel apologized.
„It's okay", Monica had been either shivering or sweating all day.
Rachel spread the salve out a bit more and took a glance every now and then at Monica's beautiful breasts once she saw that Monica had her eyes closed. She couldn't help but notice that they looked a bit bigger than when they were going out.
„All done", Rachel screwed the lid back on the bottle.
„Thanks, Rach", Monica put her robe back in place, „I'm going to try to sleep a bit. Could you wake me up for dinner?", Monica asked.
„Okay, I will."
When Monica had closed her door, Rachel went to the sink to wash her hands from the salve.
That evening, Monica was still asleep. Even though Monica had asked her to wake her up for dinner, Rachel figured that she could use the sleep more. If she would wake up later tonight, she would heat up the leftovers of dinner.
„So whose idea was it to put everybody in the diner on skates?", Rachel asked turning Monica around to push her back to Phoebe.
„Oh, some idiot customer put a suggestion in the suggestion box", Monica said.
„Oh my God, they took my idea!", Phoebe realized happily.
„That was you?!", Monica asked looking backwards while Phoebe was getting ready to push her back to Rachel.
„Yeah! Okay, here you go", she rolled her back to Rachel after lifting her up when Monica almost fell.
„Rachel, I made you a cocoa", Gunther stood there holding a steaming cup in his hand. Rachel looked at the cup with a massive amount of whipped cream on top. Monica, realizing that Rachel wasn't paying any attention to her coming in full speed on roller blades, tried to grab Rachel from the sides to stop herself, but she was going too fast and instead went down together with Rachel and fell on top of her.
„Oh my God, are you guys okay?", Phoebe asked, rushing towards them.
„Are you all right?", Gunther asked, feeling guilty for having distracted Rachel.
„Yeah, I feel my ribs a bit, but it's probably fine", Rachel said wincing.
Phoebe helped Monica to stand up, who was still on the rollerblades and had to hold on to Gunther so as not to fall down again. Rachel tried to sit up, but immediately winced when she felt the shooting pain of her rib.
Monica came out of her bedroom and saw that Rachel was already up. „What are you doing up so early?", Monica asked, surprised to see her out of bed so early.
„I have a meeting today with some people at work about that big position opening up", Rachel explained, „I guess the adrenaline woke me up", she shrugged.
„Oh, right", Monica smiled. She was so proud of Rachel. She was amazing at her work and the people in the company clearly saw that as well.
Having to go to work, Monica got ready and ate some breakfast. Rachel, standing up to clear the table, got two arms around her from her back.
„I'm so proud of you. You're going to crush that meeting", Monica said.
„Oh, thanks, honey", she said turning around to reciprocate the hug, but immediately winced and let out an ‚ouch'.
„What is it?", Monica asked, releasing her arms from Rachel's waist.
„Oh, my side still hurts from when you crashed into me yesterday", she said gently touching the painful spot.
„Oh, god, I'm so sorry."
„I know. Don't worry about it. Now go, before you're late at work", Rachel smiled at her.
„Okay, call me if you need me for something", Monica said, worried about Rachel.
„I will", she promised.
She was debating whether or not to call Monica. She had wanted to take an aspirin for the pain, but even opening the bottle hurt. To top it off, once she managed to open the bottle, all the pills flew out and landed all over the place. She had tried to pick one up, but bending hurt too much. In an hour and a half, she had to leave and she had tried to put on her outfit she had ready for the meeting, but even putting on clothes hurt. Now, she was standing in the kitchen, looking at the mess she made. She caved and went to the phone.
„Hello?", someone of the staff of the restaurant picked up.
„Hi, is Monica Geller there?", she asked.
„Yeah, hold on a second."
„Hello?", Monica came to the phone.
„Hi, Mon", Rachel said.
„Hey, Rach", Monica answered having recognized her voice, „What's up?"
„I need help. The boys are not at home and Phoebe is on a date and you said to call if I needed something, so I decided to call you. Sorry to bother you at work."
„Don't worry about it. What is going on?"
„Well, I wanted to take an aspirin for the pain that I would get through the meeting, but when I opened the bottle everything fell out and I can't pick them up, because it hurts too much."
„Oh, honey, maybe you should go to a doctor? I will clean up the aspirin when I get home."
„No, I can't go to a doctor, because I need to leave for my meeting in an hour and a half and I can't put on my outfit, because it hurts to get dressed."
„Can't you just go in the clothes you're wearing now?", Monica asked, searching for a solution.
„I'm wearing my bathrobe with only underwear under it", Rachel deadpanned.
„Oh", Monica realized she would have to go home to help her friend. This meeting was too important for her to miss, „Hold on, I will go ask my boss if I can get off earlier and I will call you back."
„Okay, thanks, Mon", Rachel heard the phone disconnect and put the phone down, standing next to it, waiting for Monica to call her back.
Monica knocked on the door to the office of her boss. When she heard the muffled ‚come in', she opened the door.
„Hello, Mister Davis. I wanted to ask if it would be okay for me to leave earlier today. I have an emergency at home."
„How early is earlier?", he asked looking at her sceptically.
„Now?", she asked.
„No way."
„I know it's busy, but my roommate really needs my help."
„Monica, it's not busy. It's crazy busy. And we are seriously understaffed at the moment. If you leave now, the service will be horribly slow and we'll get horrible reviews."
„I understand that this would be bad, but is there no one we can call?"
„No. Look, you can leave, but then you don't have to come back. Ever. If you leave, you're fired."
Monica contemplated this for a moment. She hated working here, but it paid her bills. The roller skates she had to work in didn't really help in wanting to stay here. It would be hard to be without a job again, but
she couldn't let Rachel miss her meeting because of her. After all, it was her fault that Rachel was in pain right now.
„Okay", she said surprisingly cool, „I will come to empty my locker tomorrow", she said.
„I hope you don't do something you'll regret."
She most probably will tomorrow when she wakes up without having a job to go to, but she tried not to think about this right now.
She managed to get to the apartment half an hour after getting off the phone with Rachel. They still had a little less than one hour to get Rachel ready for her meeting.
Monica picked up the aspirins and gave one to Rachel while putting the rest back in the bottle. If she wasn't such a neat freak, she would have never done this, but since she cleaned the floor in the kitchen almost daily, she could be sure that the pills wouldn't be dirty.
After having taken care of this part, they moved to Rachel's room. She had carefully chosen her outfit a few days ago already, so Monica just had to help her get into it. Taking the grey pants from the bed, Monica carefully lifted each foot from Rachel up to put the pants around her legs while Rachel was holding herself in balance by leaning on her make-up table. Once her pants were on, Monica went to get the top with the spaghetti straps from the bed. Rachel liked to mix serious and casual when it came to clothes. Rachel untied the robe with her left hand and Monica took it off her shoulders.
„Okay, lift your arms a little, honey", Monica said gently. Rachel's left hand lifted to Monica's shoulder height, but the right one only lifted a couple of centimetres.
„You can't even move your right arm? Rach, are you sure that you don't need to go to a hospital? Your rib might be broken", Monica said.
„No, I'm fine. Besides, if it's broken now, it will also be broken tomorrow, so we might as well go tomorrow."
„Alright, I know how important this meeting is", Monica began while carefully putting the top around Rachel's arms, „But so is your health. So, what I propose is, we go to your meeting. I can wait in the lobby for it to end and as soon as it does, we go to the hospital."
„Okay", Rachel watched as Monica carefully tucked her top in her pants. She tried to ignore the fluttering in her belly at Monica's soft touch. „Thanks for doing this, Mon."
„Of course", Monica looked up at Rachel, „I would do anything for you", as soon as the words left her mouth, she glanced away from Rachel's face. Trying to act like it was no big deal what she just said, Monica moved to the bed and took the grey vest. Keeping her head low, she moved to Rachel's back and eased her arms in the sleeves. When she moved the vest to Rachel's shoulders, she moved it so it would lay perfectly. Before she could retract her hands, Rachel had laid her left hand on Monica's, keeping her there.
„You know I would do anything for you too, right?", she asked in a soft voice, not daring to look Monica straight in the eyes.
„I know", Monica whispered back.
„Good", Rachel released her hand and Monica's hand slid down to Rachel's waist and she gently turned her a quarter turn. Now they were facing the mirror.
„What do you think?", Monica asked.
This question could have a thousand different answers. She watched in the mirror. She was dressed in her suit and Monica stood behind her, her hand still on her waist, in her casual jeans and shirt.
I think we still look like a great couple. I think that I like the feeling of your hand on my waist. I think that you are the most beautiful woman in the world. I think that I would love to kiss you now. I think that I wouldn't mind if you would move that hand to some other places. And I also think that my rib is hurting pretty badly. But that's a whole other subject.
„I think I need make-up", Rachel eventually answered.
Monica cracked a small smile. „You don't need it, Rach. But if you want, I can help you to put some on", she proposed.
Monica pulled back one of the chairs and helped Rachel to sit down. She winced, but eventually, she managed to find a pain-free position. Monica sat on the chair beside her and took some of Rachel's make-up and brushes. Rachel closed her eyes and let Monica do her thing. She didn't ask to take a look once. She completely trusted Monica.
„You can open your eyes. It's okay what I did?", she asked.
Rachel looked at herself in the mirror. Monica put on a bit less than she usually put on for herself when she wore make-up, but she still did a great job. Before getting up, Monica quickly grabbed her shoes and put them on for her. She helped her up and went out of her bedroom.
„Perfect, we still have five minutes to spare. I'll call a cab", Rachel said, going in the direction of the phone.
Not much later, they arrived at Rachel's work. They took the elevator to Rachel's office. Monica was in awe every time she entered her friend's office. It was like a reminder of how important Rachel actually was inside this company. Monica sat down on the couch that Rachel had recently added to the furniture in her office and Rachel, after having assured that Monica didn't need anything else and whether she was really okay with waiting for so long, left for her meeting on the top floor.
Rachel's meeting couldn't have gone better. It turned out that it was her that they were thinking about giving the big promotion. They said that they really loved her work and her work ethic and that they were excited to see more and even bigger things from her. She still needed to write an application letter, since they couldn't accept anyone who didn't write an application letter, but it was pretty clear that as soon as she sent this letter, she had the job.
There was just a little problem. The job was in Paris.
This was the most amazing, but at the same time the most difficult thing about this promotion. She would have to leave behind all her friends, her family, the city that she had grown quite fond of. And most of all, she would have to leave behind Monica.
Though, maybe this would be healthy for them. It was obvious that they had a hard time moving on from each other and maybe if there was more physical distance between them, it would be easier.
Anyway, it was a lot to think about. She was for sure going to start writing that application letter, but she needed a bit of time to think things out before deciding whether she would actually send it or not.
„So? How did it go?", Monica asked excitedly when Rachel entered her own office.
„Really, really good! The job is practically mine, I just have to write an application letter", Rachel smiled. She decided that right now was not the time to tell her that there was a chance she would move to an entirely different continent.
„Ohh, I'm so happy for you!", Monica stood up and squeezed Rachel's hand. She would love to hug her now, but she didn't want to hurt her rib.
The hospital visit was quite quick and they were taking a cab back home around midnight. „God, I'm sorry. You're going to have to get up early tomorrow to be on time for your work", Rachel said feeling guilty when she realized how little time Monica would have to sleep tonight.
„Oh, actually, there's something I didn't tell you yet", Monica fidgeted with her fingers, „I kind of got fired."
„What? Why did you get fired?"
„Because I wanted to leave early and we were understaffed and the restaurant was really busy."
„Nooo, you got fired because of me?", Rachel clasped her left hand in front of her mouth.
„No, it was my choice. I chose to leave. And I loathed working there anyway. Maybe I will be able to get a better job soon", Monica shrugged.
„I can't believe it. You chose to lose your job to help me to get a promotion. Mon, you really didn't have to do this. I would have understood, you know", Rachel felt extremely guilty now.
„Please, don't feel bad about this. I had been having an annoying headache all day and when you called, I was actually really glad to have a better excuse to leave work than just a headache."
„Do you still have a headache?"
„It's better now, but I think a good night of sleep will help a lot too. And now I don't need to get up early", Monica tried to be positive.
The food in the pans in her kitchen was making sizzling sounds. Monica was trying out the dishes that she had planned on making for her brother's wedding with Julie. After he found out that she was fired from her job, he immediately offered her the catering job for his wedding. Monica had gratefully accepted it. When the vegetables and the sauce were nearly done, she took the still-closed package of fish. She opened it to put it in the third pan, but she gagged as soon as the scent got to her nose. Pushing the fish away from her, Monica took a step back from the counter.
This is weird. normally I never have this reaction to fish. It doesn't smell good, that's for sure, but I've never gagged at this smell before. Okay, I'll just breathe through my mouth while I prepare the fish.
With outstretched arms, Monica took the fish and put it in the pan.
„Rach?", she called.
„Yeah?", her voice came from her room.
„Can you get Phoebe, Julie and the guys? Dinner is almost ready."
„Alright", she entered the living room and went to the guys' apartment. They were having a groomsmen meeting, but Julie wanted to join to make sure they wouldn't do anything inappropriate.
Monica served dinner. Thankfully, Phoebe was a vegetarian. She still couldn't stand the fish and she wasn't planning on eating it either. She would just serve herself the vegetarian option too, like Phoebe.
„It smells delicious!", Ross announced when he came in.
Everyone sat down at the table and after a quick explanation of what Monica had made, they dug in. The mutual appreciation sounds made it clear that Monica had, once again, done a fantastic job. Monica smiled. It made her happy to see people enjoying her creations. When she caught Rachel's eyes, she received a wink and a slight smile before she continued eating her food. It made her feel warm inside.
S6E13 tow Rachel's sister
S3E21 tow a chick and a duck
Thanks for the suggestion Hailey :)