Author: Toni McIntyre

Title: The One Where Nothing’s Easy 3/4

"This one?"

"Too blue."

"This one?" Monica holds up another outfit on a hangar.

"Too flowy," Rachel says, sure of herself.

"FLOWY? How can something be too FLOWY?" Monica asks, exasperated. They had already gone through everything in Rachel’s closet and had moved on to Monica’s to no avail. Phoebe and Monica were pretty sure they were going to die here amidst designer dresses.

"I don’t know why you’re bothering too much anyway," Phoebe says, sifting through Monica’s drawers. "He’s JOEY. You’ve known him for years."

"Yeah as a friend," Rachel points out. "Now he’s my boyfriend!"

"Aw!" Phoebe and Monica both coo.

"Okay you two have really got to get over that," Rachel says but smiles anyway. "I mean, I just want to look good."

"Okay, I think I may have found something!" Phoebe announces and disappears into Monica’s walk in closet. She walks out a second later carrying a black sleeveless turtleneck.

"Oh Phoebe I like that," Rachel agrees. "Just one problem though."

"Yeah?"

"It’s January," Rachel states simply.

"Oh right! Okay, totally forgot," Phoebe laughs and tosses the shirt over her head, making Monica wince.

"Well maybe if you tell us where you’re going that’ll help," Monica says and twitches from the growing need to clean her cluttered room.

"We’re going to see Harry Potter," Rachel smiles and her friends just look at her, eyebrows raised. "What?"

"Harry POTTER?" Monica says slowly, hoping she got it wrong.

"Joey’s a big fan of the books," Rachel grins. "He’s been reading chapters to the baby." Rachel rubs a hand along her growing abdomen.

"Yeah you two are such a weird couple," Monica comments and pauses before rushing forward the envelope Rachel in a hug. "But such a cute one!"

"Okay how do I look?" Joey asks, throwing a trench coat over his black turtleneck and blue jeans.

Chandler pauses, looking him up and down before saying, "You’re seeing Harry POTTER?"

"Will you let that GO?" Joey begs, rolling his eyes as he walks to the desk to pick up his wallet and keys.

"Why of all the places you could bring Rachel for your first date did you choose Harry Potter?" Chandler asks in his usually sarcastic tone.

"Hey have you ever READ these?" Joey asks, picking up a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

"No, but I’m amazed you have," Chandler quips.

"They’re really good," Joey says. "And I have to say I’m not much of a book person." Chandler smirks as Joey shrugs. "But I’ve been reading them aloud to Rachel and the baby."

"My how domestic of you," Chandler teases but smiles. "Seriously man, this is…surprising."

"Yeah I know," Joey smiles. "But I guess it just took Rachel, ya know?"

"Yeah I do," Chandler smiles. "But please god tell me when you read that book out loud you don’t do voices." Chandler points to the Potter book in his hand and Joey instantly looks guilty as all hell.

A knock at the door however, lets Joey off the hook and Monica pokes her head into the apartment.

"Joey, Rach is ready to go," she says and disappears again.

"Ready man?" Chandler asks.

"Yeah," Joey sighs, trying to convince himself that he really is. Not that there should be anything to worry about: this is Rachel. The same woman he brought to his first awards show, the same woman who didn’t get quite as mad as she could have when he accidentally bought that boat. This is Rachel, his friend…his girlfriend.

Joey follows Chandler out into the hall to find Phoebe and Monica waiting for them.

"Joseph," Phoebe smiles. "Your date."

They move aside and Rachel is standing with a grin on her face. She has a simple red turtleneck on with a black leather jacket and black stretch pants that accented her pregnant stomach.

"Hey you look great," Joey beams.

"You look pretty sharp yourself," Rachel smiles and walks up, kissing him gently before taking his hand. "Come on."

"See you guys later," Joey waves to Monica, Phoebe and Chandler as he and Rachel take off down the stairs.

Unfortunately they aren’t quite out of earshot when Monica and Phoebe start shouting in delight.

Almost three hours later Joey and Rachel are walking towards Central Perk on the way back from the movies.

"I have to say I like your voices better," Rachel laughs.

"I do a better Ron at least that kid was just wrong," Joey smiled. "Hey maybe I should try to get a role in one of the later films!"

"You would have to go to England or something," Rachel complains. "And then I’d just miss you too much."

"Well that settles it, can’t go to England," Joey announces loudly and pulls Rachel too him, kissing her softly. Rachel smiles against his lips and Joey opens the door for her.

As they walk towards the couch Ross brings up his paper to shield himself behind it. He’s sitting the love seat by the door and looks over the top of the paper closely as Joey and Rachel sit down next to each other on the couch.

"You want some de-caff?" Joey asks her.

"No thanks," Ross hears Rachel reply airily. "I’m really very comfortable here." She smiles and curls herself up against him.

"Yeah?" Joey smiles. "You want to go upstairs?"

Rachel looks up at him whispering, "Joey…"

"Just to sleep," he insists. "You know, I don’t need anything else right now.

"No something else would be nice," Rachel smiles slowly. "But do you mind if we hang out here for a bit?"

"That’s fine," Joey smiles and cups her head in his hands.

"You don’t mind?" she asks.

"Nah," Joey shakes his head and Rachel laughs as the kiss tenderly. "I mean if it were anybody ELSE…"

"You’d be out the door by now," Rachel nods and pats his shoulder. "Sweetie you should probably stop talking about it now, I believe you."

"Okay good," he says and kisses her again before getting up and walking towards the bar to get himself some coffee. Rachel sighs and leans against the back of the couch.

"Hey!" Phoebe and Monica announce themselves as they walk in the door and strait to Rachel. In his corner Ross raises the newspaper just a little higher. This was fast becoming a nightmare for him.

"How was the date?" Monica asks, her voice strangely high pitched. Rachel turns to her as she sits slowly down in the armchair to the right of the couch and Phoebe sits next to Rachel.

"Fine…" Rachel raises and eyebrow as her friend winces in pain. "Mon…what happened to you?"

"Huh?" Monica asks, playing dumb and Rachel gestures at the now revealed bandage around Monica’s ankle. "Oh it’s nothing…I just, er, slipped in the shower."

At this Phoebe erupts into giggles and whispers to Rachel, "Ask her what she was doing when she fell."

"Uh, Phoebe, I thought we AGREED not to talk about this," Monica mutters through clenched teeth.

"Nah uh, you and Chandler agreed on that, I wasn’t there," Phoebe says and starts laughing again.

"Mon…what were you doing?" Rachel asks, her interest peaked.

"We-uh, that is, I um…"

"They were DOING it," Phoebe announces in an entertained hush. Monica gets a horrified look on her face and Ross pretends to no avail that he didn’t hear it. He knew woman talked about sex all the time, so did men for that matter, but did they have to be so loud?

"Okay so, um, let me get this strait," Rachel clears her throat. "You FELL in the shower while you and Chandler were…having sex?"

"Yes," Monica grumbles.

"You FELL?" Rachel chokes back a laugh. "How?"

"I couldn’t get my footing right," Monica explains. "I just slipped right off the side as he was about to slide right in there."

Rachel and Phoebe erupt into fits of laughter and even Monica smiles. Joey meanwhile, has finally gotten his coffee and sat himself on the couch between Monica and Rachel.

"Oh shut up, the bathroom is a dangerous place," Monica insists and throws a couch pillow at them.

"Your tellin’ me," Joey nods, unaware of the cause of the conversation. "Once I…uh…someone left a block of soap right where Chandler could slip on it." He nods. "He wasn’t talking to that someone for quite a while."

"See Mon there’s your problem," Rachel says. "Chandler’s prone to bathroom injuries."

Phoebe and Rachel laugh again and Monica just rolls her eyes and resigns to leaning back in her chair.

"Here I got you a water," Joey hands her a bottle. "I mean, I know you didn’t get soda at the theatre because you had another cavity last week and the diet has that artificial stuff you don’t want for the baby but you ate popcorn and you always say it gets caught in your throat."

Behind his paper Ross raises his eyebrows. It was frightening how much Joey knew Rachel, and how unaware Ross was of it.

"Oh honey thanks," Rachel smiles and rubs Joey’s back.

"May I say that was just creepy," Monica says but smiles too. "God I can NOT get over you two!"

"Yeah I know, you’ve only said it fourteen timed in the past hour," Phoebe rolls her eyes.

"Yeah I can’t really get over it either," Rachel says and leans back to look Joey in the eyes. "In my life I never thought I’d end up with you."

"You say that like it’s a bad thing," Joey says.

"Nope not at all, just a surprising thing," Rachel says and kisses him.

From his corner Ross lowers his paper slowly to watch Rachel and Joey mid- kiss. His anger was surprisingly fleeting and instead he felt a knowing realization of just what he had to do.