Chapter 2
A/N: Thanks for all the reviews! As promised, here's the second part. Sorry it took so long!
Rachel let out a deep breath. "Wow, I don't even know where to start."
"How about when you and my dad met?" Ben suggested.
"Well…even that's a little complex," Rachel laughed, amused at Ben's confused expression. "You see, we originally met when we were kids. Your aunt Monica and I were best friends from the ages of about five until we graduated college."
Ben whistled. "Whoa. I knew you guys were friends in high school, but I didn't know it was that long. So you two have known each other for how many years?"
"That's not important," Rachel huffed.
Laughing, Ben asked, "What happened when you graduated?"
"What sometimes happens to good friends after graduation. We drifted apart," Rachel explained, a bit of sadness in her tone. "I didn't think about Ross, or even Monica for that matter, years afterwards. I was from a whole different world – my father's a rich doctor, after all. I grew to hold a place in that society, and eventually became engaged to –"
"Barry Farber, that creep who cheated on you with your best friend at the time," Ben interrupted.
Rachel smiled at the description. "Right. But that wasn't why I left him at the altar."
"Left him at the altar?" Ben exclaimed, earning looks from other tables. Lowering his voice, he added, "That's not what I heard. I just assumed you two divorced after you found out."
Rachel shook her head. "No no no no no. I left Barry at the altar because…you know, I guess I didn't really have a concrete reason. I just didn't love him. And…this is going to sound a little crazy, but I think I knew there was something…a better life out there for me."
Grinning, Ben asked, "When was that?"
"Um, around 1994, I'd say," Rachel estimated. Her smile grew wider at the next memory that flashed through her mind. "I remember that day…so well. I had just run out on Barry, still in my wedding dress, nowhere to go, not a dollar on me."
"Were you scared?" Ben pressed.
Rachel nodded. "Completely terrified. I'm wandering around the city, when suddenly…Monica's name pops in my head. And I remember that she lived in the city. We had kept in touch over the years, on and off, nothing major, but I had visited her apartment…once, after college. By some miracle, the apartment number comes to me. To this day I still don't know how."
"And that's when you moved in with her?" Ben questioned.
Taking a second to catch her breath, Rachel continued. "More or less. I got to her apartment, but she wasn't there. But luckily her neighbor was out in the hall, and he directed me to Central Perk, which would come to be a very important place for the next ten years or so."
"I remember that place. I remember Aunt Monica's apartment too, and Uncle Joey's," Ben told her.
Getting a warm feeling inside at the thoughts of her favorite coffee place, Rachel went on, "Yes, you would have been old enough for that. Anyway, that's when she reintroduced me to Ross and Chandler, and I met Phoebe and Joey."
"Hold on, you knew Uncle Chandler before then?" Ben interrupted.
Rachel wrinkled her brow. "You don't remember the Thanksgiving story? We tell it practically every year."
"Which Thanksgiving story?" Ben teased, but he recalled the story she was referring to.
Laughing, Rachel picked up from where she left off. "Okay, so I met Phoebe and Joey. Monica was so good to me. She let me stay in her apartment, rent free, until I got a job. Everybody was so supportive. I'm telling you, Ben, if I hadn't found Monica I might have gone crawling back to Barry. Your aunt…she's the best friend, the best sister-in-law…ever. I mean, I got a job as a waitress at Central Perk the next day, but she covered the rent until I…stopped breaking enough cups to get a full paycheck."
"You were a waitress?" Ben found it hard to imagine his stepmother in an apron and serving coffee.
"I know, I couldn't believe it either," Rachel admitted. "For a while there it was like, 'okay, my life has officially gone down the toilet.' But, I eventually got a starter job at Bloomingdale's. The guys were supportive about that, too. I remember how one day, we formed an assembly line, and must have stuffed a hundred resumes before Chandler realized I spelt it 'compuper' skills."
Ben burst out laughing. "Oh, God. You must have felt so stupid…"
"I did, thanks for pointing it out," Rachel snapped, but Ben kept laughing. "Anyway, I'd have to say that those first years in Monica's apartment were the best years of my life, at least when I was single and not a mother."
As the waiter came with their appetizers, Ben calmed down. "Not that this isn't interesting, Rachel, but…what does this have to do with you and my dad."
"A lot," Rachel assured him, starting on her appetizer. "You see, Ben, the story between your father and I didn't begin that first night at the coffee house."
"I know. He had a crush on you when you all were high school. I saw the prom video," Ben supplied, finding it very hard to picture his mother and her friends around Emma's age.
Rachel smiled. "That video was actually how your father and I got together…however, I'm getting way ahead of myself."
"Wait…how far ahead can you be?" Ben questioned. "You became roommates with Aunt Monica, it couldn't have been that long after…"
"A year," Rachel interrupted.
Ben put down his fork, staring at her, his mouth hanging open. "What took him so long? How bad at flirting could Dad have been?"
"Pretty bad, but we're getting off topic," Rachel joked, then took on a story-telling tone of voice. "It all started on my first night at Monica's. We were alone – Monica had gone to bed – watching the end of a movie…":
"And you started making out?" Ben guessed.
Rachel gave a short chuckle. "Far from it. He asked me if he could maybe ask me out some time."
Ben rolled his eyes. "Smooth, Dad. Let me guess – the next day he asked if he could hold your hand?"
"Not even that…I'm serious!" Rachel protested at Ben's look. "He didn't say anything for at least a week."
"A week?" Ben exclaimed, shaking his head in shame.
"Imagine how hard it was for me," Rachel huffed. "'Is he going to make a move? Should I wait?' Finally, I mention that Monica and I are going to be doing laundry at the local Laundromat. He makes up an excuse about how the washing machine and dryer don't work. Monica cancels, and there you go – our first date."
Ben smirked. "Your first date was at a Laundromat? That's kind of sad."
"Well, it was unofficial, of course," Rachel defended. "But it was the first time we would be spending some time alone together. Anyways, he comes with me. There's this horrible woman who keeps bothering me the whole night…I think she could tell I was a spoiled princess who'd never done laundry before."
That had Ben giving her an incredulous look. "You were in your mid-twenties, and you'd never done laundry? Come on now."
"Is it my fault that Daddy hired maids?" Rachel retorted. "So, first this lady steals my machine. I do my laundry...and after making the old 'red sock in a load of white laundry' mistake…"
"You didn't," Ben laughed.
Rachel also found it hard to keep a straight face at the memory. "Yeah, I looked like a Marshmallow Peep until I could afford new clothes. Let me see…ok, then I needed a cart for my laundry after it got out of the dryer, only that mean woman wanted to use it and was willing to fight for it. We argue, tugging the cart…eventually I sit in the cart, threatening that if she took it, I would be going with it. She leaves, and Ross is so proud of me that…he kisses me. Our first kiss."
"First kiss?" Ben repeated. "But in high school…"
"I was a cheerleader and your father was a science geek. He didn't stand a chance," Rachel finished with a note of regret. "Sometimes I wonder what our lives had been like if we got together then and married young."
"I wouldn't be here. Nor would Emma," Ben pointed out.
Rachel sighed. "That's what I tell myself. It wasn't meant to be."
"So, go on. What happened next?" Ben prodded, getting into the story.
Pausing, Rachel gathered her memory. "I'm not sure. Nothing for a while. I started dating this gorgeous guy who only spoke Italian…I think his name was..Paolo? I met him during the big blackout that year. It was totally superficial and reckless...we eventually broke up when he hit on Phoebe. But even though it was meaningless, it drove your father crazy, as I later found out. Every time so much as mentioned Paolo's name Ross got all jealous."
"That's when you got together, right?" Ben guessed. "You were heartbroken, Dad comforted you…"
Rachel gave a short laugh. "Not even close. The rest of that year is kind of a blur. I remember he got a monkey...if I could just remember what the animal's name was…"
"A monkey? An actual monkey?" Ben inquired, his eyebrow raised.
"Yeah, his friend rescued the monkey from a lab. It was one of those little Capuchin things," Rachel explained. "He was cute. I had to baby-sit him once, and lost him…it took a lot of effort to prevent animal control from getting him. I think Phoebe got shot with a tranquilizer dart."
Ben was gaping at her. "Wow…"
"Anyway, so Ross gets a little mad at me for that, but all the while he was thinking of ways to make a move on me," Rachel continued. "Nothing happened, though, until he went to China."
Ben interrupted, "I knew that. Wasn't it shortly after I was born? He met that Julie girl…'
"Julie," Rachel seethed, the name still giving her a bitter taste in her mouth. "She made things so complicated. See, when your father left for China for work, Chandler accidentally let it slip that Ross had feelings for me. It was my birthday, and Ross had gotten me this beautiful pin. Chandler mentioned how I shouldn't be surprised, after he fell in love with Carol and got her a ridiculously expensive gift too…"
"Good old Uncle Chandler," Ben chuckled.
Rachel grinned at the memory. "Yeah. So, I realize that I have feelings for Ross too, and run to the airport. But he's already boarded the plane. When he gets back, I meet him at the gate, with flowers in my hand…and out he walks, with that annoying Chinese woman on his arm. I feel like an idiot."
"So that's why it took so long for you to get together," Ben remarked, staring at her with rapt attention, his food forgotten.
Not having touched her own plate in quite a while, Rachel nodded. "The situation became reversed. I was harboring feelings for Ross, while he got closer to Julie. I remember something about them getting a stupid cat…It stayed that way until I finally decide to go on a date, get piss drunk, and leave a message on his machine, saying that I was over him."
"But he didn't even know you were under him!" Ben exclaimed.
Rachel cringed. "Exactly. I was hung over, he came to the apartment for something, and asked if he could use my phone to check his messages. I come to my senses, tell him to drop the phone…even jump over the couch, onto his back, and throw the phone in the sink. But it's no use. He heard it anyway."
Ben interrupted, his tone hopeful, "Then that's when he dumped Julie…"
"Nope, not yet. We're getting there, though," Rachel assured him. "So, now he's faced with a dilemma. Julie or me? He eventually decides to make a list. Chandler got a new computer and was eager to use it for something, so he makes a Julie/Rachel pro-con list. I find the list, and get really mad because there's more pros in Julie's column…"
"But I thought he was in love with you?" Ben asked.
Rachel admitted, "Yeah, I still don't get it either. He ends up breaking it off with Julie anyway, thinking that I'd take him back…but I'm so angry that once again, nothing happens. Until I see the prom video."
"And there you go, happily ever after," Ben finished.
Shaking her head, Rachel continued, "For a limited time, maybe. We made it a year, and it was such a great year! I won't give you the details, but it was just so nice…but then…."
"The break," Ben supplied.
"Right," Rachel agreed. "Well, from his point of view anyway. See, we had been on the rocks for a while. He was insanely jealous because I was spending a lot of time at work, and had a really hot co-worker, Mark, who he believed was hitting on me. Finally it's our one-year anniversary. He's planned this romantic dinner, but I have to work late. He ends up bringing dinner in a lunch basket to the office. Now, ordinarily that would have been very sweet, but I was just so busy and frazzled that I yelled at him to go home. We end up having the fight to end all fights, over how we never have time for each other. I remember saying that we should take a break, and he storms out…"
"So you're the one who suggested the break!" Ben accused.
Indignant, Rachel huffed, "Technically, but I didn't mean it! And then he goes off and sleeps with another woman that very same night!"
"Whoa…that doesn't sound like Dad," Ben commented.
Rachel sighed. "Well, I guess in his defense Mark had come over, and he thought I was sleeping with him. But I wasn't, and he still shouldn't have cheated. The next morning, I feel really bad and come over his place to say that we should talk. But I end up finding out from a Central Perk worker about it…don't ask, something about a trail…and then he lets slip that she was still there when I came over! We get into a huge fight that lasts the whole night long. I didn't know this until many years later, but Chandler, Joey, Monica, and Phoebe had been in Monica's bedroom and heard the whole thing."
Ben was silent for a minute, then asked quietly, "That was it? You never got together again until you had Emma?"
"I wouldn't say that…" Rachel corrected.
She was about to continue when a waiter approached their table. "Excuse me, are you done with your appetizers? Your dinners are ready."
The two glanced down, realizing they had barely touched their food. Grinning sheepishly, Ben replied, "Sorry, we've been talking. Give us a few more minutes, please?"
"Of course," the waiter answered with a resigned sigh, walking away.
Picking up a fork, Rachel took a bite of food before going on. "Where was I? Oh yeah, we had just broken up. Things don't happen again until three years later, when we all go to Vegas for a movie Joey was in…it gets cancelled because of lack of funds, by the way. I'll tell you the details about that some other time…so, we take a separate flight because we both have reasons we can't go the same time as the others. In short, we get totally drunk. And married."
"You got married?" Ben yelled, again drawing attention from other diners. Lowering his voice, he added, "When was this? Why didn't I know? What…"
"Relax, it wasn't that big of a deal. We got divorced right afterwards, well, he put it off because he didn't want to be divorced three times…o wait, how could I forget!" Rachel snapped her fingers.
"Forget what?" Ben asked, almost afraid to know.
Wrinkling her brow, Rachel continued, "I guess I repressed the memory or something. But you know about Ross' second wife, Emily, and what happened there?"
"Him saying your name at the altar? That I knew," Ben answered.
Massaging her temple, Rachel groaned, "I can't believe I forgot about that! But in the grand scheme of our relationship, it really didn't change things that much. Yeah, he said my name, but they still got married. He tried to win Emily back, but it was hopeless. In my defense, that marriage was doomed to fail. He only knew her for, like two months tops."
Ben whistled. "Two months, that's it?"
"Yeah, ask your father about what he was thinking, because I honestly don't know," Rachel joked.
Thinking, Ben absentmindedly took a few bites of his food. "Okay, so we have high school, you leave Barry at the altar, the Julie ordeal, the break, the London wedding, and the Vegas wedding. You left off with getting divorced."
"Right, my first divorce, his third," Rachel clarified. "Let's see. There was that whole student thing I told you about, and then a few years after the London wedding. Chandler proposed to Monica…well, technically it was the other way around, but whatever. I won't go into the details of that relationship right now because, well, that waiter over there is giving us the evil eye."
Ben laughed. "Understood."
"So, the night of the proposal," Rachel continued, "I start to get a little sad that Monica's getting married…for real…before me. I'm slightly depressed, and I bring up the prospect of a bonus night to your father. You know what a bonus night is, right?" When Ben nodded, she went on, "Well, we started kissing in the hallway, and Monica catches us. She gets all ticked that I was 'stealing her thunder.' We get into the huge fight, but by the end of the night we're okay. Just so you know, Ross and I never actually...you know."
"I know, believe me," Ben assured her.
Laughing, Rachel added, "Then that was it, until…"
"Emma," Ben finished. All the kids knew the story of Emma's birth.
"Right, and you know what happened there. We were drunk and horny and right next to each other stuffing invitation envelopes…" Rachel trailed off, noting Ben's uneasy expression. "Anyway, then there was Joey's 'proposal,' Ross dates someone else, and another chance for rekindling the romance bites the dust."
"You two are a piece of work," Ben muttered, then purposely took another mouthful of food.
Rachel was about to reply when the waiter came over again, this time with their dinners in hand. He didn't say a word, just deposited the plates and took the appetizers without asking if they were done. Once the waiter had left, Ben and Rachel laughed for a good minute after that.
"I guess that's our cue to hurry it up," Rachel chuckled, sipping her near-empty margarita. "All right, here it comes, the point where we finally get together for good."
"Finally!" Ben cheered.
This time they made sure to keep eating while they chatted. Between bites, Rachel narrated the beginning of the end. "Well, Monica and Chandler were moving to Westchester. Jack and Erica were just born. I was in the airport, boarding a plane to Paris to accept a job offer. Ross and I had a 'bonus night' the night before my flight…"
"Too much info," Ben moaned.
"Shut up, it's important to the story," Rachel teased. "The next morning, your father has the idea that we're getting back together. I think we said good bye, and go to the airport. He realizes he doesn't want to let me go, and Phoebe rushes him to the airport in the cab. Only problem? They got the wrong airport! They do make it to the other, thanks to some illegal speed limits from Phoebe, but…I get on the plane."
"Oh, come on!" Ben nearly shouted, dying with suspense.
Smiling, Rachel finished, "But I think about it, and as soon as I sit down I realize I do love Ross. But the flight attendant won't let me off because they're about to leave. In the end, though…I get off the plane."
"And that's the story of Ross and Rachel," Ben finished.
Nodding Rachel agreed, "Pretty much. A year later, Ross proposed, and we got married.. When we were sober. We bought the house in Westchester, down the street from your aunt and uncle...and became the couple you know today."
"Wow," Ben breathed, sitting back in his seat. "Wow. All that stuff…do you realize you had an on and off relationship for ten years? That has to be some kind of record."
Grinning to herself, Rachel picked up her fork. Her steady gaze on her stepson, Rachel suggested, "Okay, we've been talking about me all night. Tell me about living in Joey's apartment!"
A/N: Wow. This took a long time. I never realized how…lengthy Ross and Rachel's relationship is. If it feels like Ben didn't say much, it's because I was trying to squeeze all events Ross and Rachel into one story. Hope you enjoyed!
I have to say one thing: Nine full Microsoft Word pages!