For Always

It was a Saturday night and Ross and Rachel were on their second official date. Of course, the term "dating" had long become trivial to them, what with their history, sharing a child as well as now living together, but they still couldn't help but get caught up in the exhilaration of feeling madly in love. They had been back "on" again for two weeks now and it felt as new and exciting as it had the first time around.

For their first date, Ross had surprised Rachel with a lavish dinner at The Plaza to mark one week since she got off the plane. He knew how much she'd appreciate the excuse to get all dressed up, and having not been on the dating scene in quite some time, he also couldn't help but want to spoil her. On the contrary, they had decided they would spend their second date enjoying a cosy dinner and evening in, with Emma spending the night at Jack and Judy's so that they could get some proper alone time together. Knowing they would be uninterrupted, Ross took it as the opportunity to have a heart to heart about a topic that had been put off for far too long now—the break. He insisted Rachel relax on the couch after they'd finished dinner, while he took care of clearing the table and doing the dishes to give himself the time to mull over his thoughts and think about what he wanted to say. Feeling apprehensive, he was taking his time in the kitchen and Rachel would surely be wondering what he was up to so after a few more moments to himself, he pulled it together and finally entered the living room.

It was now or never. Ross took a deep breath and braced himself.

"Rach, can we talk?"

"... Sure. About what? Are you breaking up with me?" she joked.

Ross chuckled before the tone in his voice became nervous. "No, although, what I want to talk about actually does, uh, involve breaks..."

"Oh," Rachel closed her book and took off her glasses. This was actually something serious.

"Yeah."

"This has been a long overdue conversation, hasn't it?"

"It has. And I thought I should be the one to initiate it... y'know, since I was the one who slept with someone."

Rachel nodded. She didn't know any other way to respond.

Ross took a seat beside Rachel and went momentarily silent not knowing how to begin the conversation. They had always been people to skirt around their feelings and being open with one another and without letting their pride get in the way was something that hadn't come so easily to them. He took her hands in his and she gave them a small squeeze looking into his eyes, encouraging him to speak.

"I knew this was going to be difficult, but I'm feeling kinda nervous right now..." Ross tried to shake it off with a timid smile, but his heart felt like it was beating out of his chest.

"Me too, but we can do this. It's okay, honey."

"Okay, well, first, I love you and you make me so incredibly happy, Rachel. I know we have our baggage, but the fact that we're here now and we're ready to have this talk, I think it shows we've already come a long way."

Rachel was on the verge of tears before they had barely said anything. Oh, how she adored this man. He always had a way with the words and knew how to melt her heart. She breathed in and then composed herself.

"I love you too, Ross, and I meant it when I said this is where I want to be."

Ross nodded and kissed her hand before they were met with another deafening silence. There was no going back now.

"So, um, the whole break thing. I'm just gonna get into it because I don't know how else to begin... I genuinely thought we were broken up, Rach, but I know it doesn't excuse what I did and I hope you know how truly sorry I am."