~* Thanks again for the reviews, and since this will probably be the last chapter, once more and I'll love you all forever.*~

Disclaimer: I don't own any of them. Okay, happy now? I own not a single one of the characters that appears on the television show Friends.

The house was quiet. Rachel and Eva sat in the Bing's living room and read a book. Monica had taken Maddie and Jamie out shopping with her, and Chandler was at work and Juliana was at school. Eva slipped off the couch and started looking at the photographs all over the mantle and the bookshelves.

"Mommy! Look, you're in this one!" Evie grabbed the frame from it's position and ran over to Rachel. It was Monica and Chandler's wedding picture. And Eva was right, there she was, smiling while holding her flowers and posing with her best friends. Well, former best friends. She felt like a fifth grader saying that. Her former friends. She reminded herself that she had no one but herself to blame.

"That's me all right," Rachel said and she felt tears rim her eyes. She stood up and walked over to examine the photographs. There were some of Juliana that she was in, but then she disappeared and was replaced by Jamie and Maddie, and Ross's wife and Phoebe's husband. She picked up the photo album labeled James Daniel and began flipping through it. Monica shined radiantly while she held up the newborn for the camera, but Rachel could see something in her eyes. Sadness maybe? Why would she be sad? She vaguely remembered something that Chandler had said about Maddie , and how she wasn't supposed to be born. He had told her that she had missed it all. What happened? The door opened and Monica came in with shopping bags in one hand and Maddie in the other.

"Do you need help?" Rachel asked coming into the front hall.

"If you could take the bags?" Monica asked and Rachel grabbed them and Monica gave her a grateful smile as she balanced Maddie on her hip. "Jamie! Come on in!" The little boy ran past his mother and up the stairs.

"Where do you want me to put them?" She asked.

"In the kitchen is fine," Monica waved her hand towards the kitchen and walked into the living room to set Maddie down in her playpen. "Thanks." She pulled her coat off and placed it down. Rachel was summoning enough courage to talk to Monica. She was dying to know what had happened. Why had Monica looked so sad in the picture where she's holding Jamie?

"Mon?" She asked softly. Monica turned around surprised.

"Yes?" She waited for Rachel to continue.

"What happened when Jamie was born?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Evie and I were looking at some pictures, and you look so sad in the one picture when you're holding Jamie. Your eyes are red from crying...."

"Did you think that maybe my eyes were red from crying because I was happy? I just had a baby," Monica retorted with her hands on her hips in a defensive stance. Now Rachel knew that there was more to that then Monica was telling.

"Is that the reason?" Rachel asked softly. Monica sighed.

"No," she admitted. "That was not the reason I had been crying."

"Then why?"

"Why do you want to know? You left remember? If you had been there, then you would know. You would know how I had a c-section when I had Jamie and almost died and as a result they told me I couldn't have any more kids. You would know how worried Chandler was my entire third pregnancy, and how I was on bed rest for the entire last month. But you don't. Because you weren't there." Monica grabbed the shopping bags from off the table and stormed out of the room. Rachel let herself slip into a chair and ran her hands through her hair. She should have never come back. No good was coming from her being back. The door opened and Chandler walked in with Juliana.

"Where's Mon?" He asked.

"She's in the living room," Rachel told him. Chandler eyed her suspiciously.

"What happened?"

"Nothing, I screwed up. I always screw up. Always." She fled the room and ran up to the extra bedroom and pulled the suitcase out and began to throw things into it.

"What are you doing?" Juliana stood poised at the door.

"We have to leave."

"Why?" The little girl sure was inquisitive.

"Because your mother doesn't want me here," Rachel told her honestly. "And if she doesn't want me here, then I'll leave. I don't want to cause her anymore trouble." Juliana thought about this for a moment.

"She was sad without you," she told Rachel coming into the bedroom and sitting on the chair across from the bed. Her legs swung back and forth. "She would talk about you." Rachel was surprised.

"How would she talk about me?"

"She would tell me how you were best friends and how much fun you used to have together," Juliana shrugged. "She doesn't hate you. She just can't figure out why you left still and it hurts. But if she didn't love you then it wouldn't hurt," Juliana stated pensively and Rachel saw wisdom in the six-year-old's eyes far beyond her years. She kicked her feet a few more times and hopped off the chair.

"What should I do then?" Rachel was asking a little girl for her advice, she was asking a person twenty-eight years younger than herself what to do. But she was Monica's daughter, there was no mistaking that. She had her mother in her, and if anyone knew what to do, it would be this girl, this child.

"Mommy says that if you talk things through then you can forgive and forget," Juliana told her. "That's what she tells Jamie and me."

"Thanks Jules," Rachel said and then after she left, sunk down onto the bed holding her hands in her lap and contemplating what to do next. There was a small knock on the door.

"Can I come in?" Monica stood there.

"Sure, it's your house," Rachel said and stood up nervously.

"I don't want you to leave," Monica said. "I can't understand, Rachel, I still can't understand what had happened. What we did to make you go away?" Monica began to cry. Years of wondering left her unable to control the tears that fell.

"You didn't do anything," Rachel said and her eyes filled with tears. Is that what she thought? Did she think that she was to blame for Rachel going with Chris?

"But, then....why?"

"I don't know," Rachel told her shrugging. "It seemed like a good idea at the time. I loved him, I didn't want to be a single mother, and I was jealous."

"You were jealous? Of who?"

"You."

"Why? I was jealous of you. This great career, and all this freedom that you had." Rachel had never considered the other side of it. She had never looked at it from Monica's point of view.

"Oh Mon. I was so jealous of you I couldn't breathe! You had everything that I wanted. And I guess deep down I always thought that I would get those things first," Rachel finally let the truth come out. "And I let my stupid mouth get the better of me and said things that I really, truly didn't mean." She felt relieved, as if a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

"But they hurt Rach, and not just me, everyone. You hurt everyone."

"I know. But I couldn't think straight and Chris just...he was an ass Mon. You were absolutely right." Then they both giggled through their tears. "And he cheated on me! And...I hated Chicago. I wasn't happy there. It's a great city, but all I could think of was coming here. Coming home." Monica moved closer to her best friend. She was ready to forgive. She was ready to let the past go. It was time to move on.

"I'm sorry Rachel," she said tearfully.

"No, I'm sorry Mon. I was so wrong, I missed you so much," she began to sob as her best friend threw her arms around her and they rocked back and forth crying and laughing. Crying because of all the years they missed, and laughing because they now could make them up. A knock on the door caught their attention and they looked up to see Chandler standing there with Maddie in his arms smiling.

"Oh Chandler, I'm so sorry," Rachel said she went and gave him a hug. Maddie giggled and everyone else laughed.

"It's nice to have you back where you belong," he whispered in her ear. His wife laughed and wiped the remaining tears from her eyes. When they went back downstairs, they found Eva and Juliana sitting on the floor playing perfectly content.

"I think that they're going to be the very best of friends," Monica told Rachel slipping an arm around her waist, Rachel leaned her head against Monica's as they watched their daughters. Rachel hoped for both of them that they never let any man come in between them. She hoped that they didn't make the same mistakes that she had.

"If Monica could forgive you, then they will too," Chandler reassured Rachel. Monica gave him a look and hit him lightly. Rachel laughed nervously. It was true, Monica had been the toughest battle, or so she had thought. The way that Phoebe had glared at her hadn't given her high hopes for a happy reunion.

"We're leaving," Monica called. The babysitter holding Maddie came into the hallway. "We won't be home too late. Jamie goes to bed at eight, and the girls go to bed at nine."

"Okay, Mrs. Bing," she said nodding.

"Bye darling," Monica gave Maddie a kiss and then Jamie came running in and wrapped his arms around his mother's legs.

"Gotta go Momma?"

"Gotta go sweetie," she said scooping him up and giving him a hug. The three adults walked out to the car together and climbed in.

"I don't know if I should go," Rachel said. She wanted to back out. She wanted to run into the house and not go. She didn't want to face the music. It was too much, too much emotion had already been spent. She didn't know if she had any more to waste.

"I can't do this," she said again.
"Rachel," Monica said sharply turning in her seat to look at her in the back. "You're going. That's final." Rachel felt like a kid again with her mother making her go somewhere that she didn't want to. She felt like whining, "But I don't wannna!" She shut her mouth and shivered as she pulled her coat closer to her body. Chandler glanced over at his wife and Rachel saw him take her hand and squeeze as they drove to the restaurant. He parked and they all made their way to the front door. Monica gave Rachel a smile before opening the door and slipping inside. The rest of their friends were waiting for them.

"Monica!" Phoebe stood up and gave Monica a hug before she caught sight of Rachel. "I told you not to bring her." Rachel would have thought out of all of them, Phoebe would be the easiest. She was so able to forgive and forget. She had forgiven her real mother for giving her up, and almost always just let things slide. Monica had explained that Phoebe never trusted anyone because she was afraid that they would leave her, but she had with the friends and when Rachel left, it was just a slap in the face for Phoebe.

"She doesn't hate you ," Monica told Rachel. "She was just betrayed by a person that she never expected to betray her."

"Phoebe, I thought that Rachel could join us for dinner and we could talk," Monica said calmly using a voice usually reserved for her children. Joey, however, was sick of being bitter towards his former friend and roommate.

"Rachel," he said setting down his napkin and climbing to his feet. "I'm glad that you came home." She nearly shouted with joy and wept tears of relief when she fell into his open embrace.

"Thanks Joey," she said and kissed him on the cheek. Ross also got up and gave her a welcome home hug. So these types of reunions do exist, Rachel thought. You just have to be able to forgive and forget. Monica gave Phoebe an imploring look.

"Rachel?" Phoebe stood up and stood opposite her.

"Yes?"

"Do you promise never to do it again?"

"I swear," Rachel told her honestly. "Never again." Phoebe wavered for a moment before allowing herself to hug Rachel.

"Then welcome home." Monica leaned against Chandler who kissed her head.

"She's home," Chandler whispered into her ear.

"I know," Monica smiled whispering back. "She should have never left." Chandler nodded and they sat down to eat dinner with their friends. All of their friends.

~* So that's the end folks. Please review and tell me what you thought about the end. I'm hiding away in my bedroom because they're redoing our kitchen and frankly, I'm frightened to go down there. But drop me a note and make me feel better!~*