Celestial

Chapter Three

The silence was for once, deafening.

Ross and Rachel sat quietly in front of each other in his apartment's dining slash living room. It was Sunday night and they had agreed to meet here in order to get as much as privacy he could get.

Ross casted his glance toward the room, looking anywhere but her. And it wasn't like he didn't want to fix this; he just simply didn't know where to begin. Rachel was awfully quiet ever since she arrived merely ten minutes ago - he had noted, and the silence was getting more and more unnerving. It was only when he felt like her gaze was finally resting on him, he averted back his attention to her and he sucked his breath at the sight waiting for him.

Her eyes were red with unshed tears.

Oh, Rachel...

It broke his heart into a million pieces seeing her like this.

"Rach..." he breathed out, his hand already reaching out to wipe the first tears dropped from her blue ones.

The gesture, it appeared, didn't seem to console her. Instead, it was like the dam finally broke, she cried openly. Instinctively, he shifted from his seat and sat next to her. He then cradled her head, pulling her into his chest – murmuring soft reassurances into her ears.

"S-sorry," she whispered into his chest as her tears slowly subsided.

"It's going to be okay, Rach," he whispered softly, stroking her hair into a soothing motion and even dropped a kiss to her head at some point. "We're going to be okay."

It seemed like it was what exactly she needed to hear, because she finally pulled away, looking at him with her big blue eyes – still filled with tears, but instead of a look of despair, this time it was hope looking straight back at him.

"Y-yeah?" she hiccupped.

"I promise," he murmured as he dropped another kiss, this time to her forehead.

For the first time that day, she finally cracked a small smile as she squeezed his hand. He squeezed her hand back before he moved into his original seat.

Ross was about to open his mouth to say something when he heard her voice - small, with a hint of anguish in it.

"I had a nightmare the other night," she confessed quietly, almost like a secret.

"What happened?" his voice was soft, tinged with concern.

"We had a fight, a huge fight," she clarified. "It was almost like the fight we had, only bigger... and this time..." she sucked a breath, closing her eyes as the nightmare flashbacked.

His hand reached across the table, finding her hand for support, and at his touch, she finally lifted her head to look at him again.

"What happened?" he gently repeated his earlier question.

"I-I don't know if we had broken up, it was fuzzy now, but what triggered the fight – what made it worse than the one we had, is because in my dream, you slept with someone else."

He let out a loud gasp, detaching his hand from her as he shook his head almost desperately, "I-I wouldn't. You know I wouldn't do that to you."

"I know," she sighed, assuring him that she was telling the truth as this time, it was her who reached across the table to hold his hand. "I know," she repeated firmly. "-but we eventually broke up, Ross... We didn't make it," she whimpered, the anguish on his eyes still haunting her until now.

"Rach..." he breathed, holding her hand tighter as it could anchor them both back to reality.

"It's only a dream," she wiped her tears away – refusing to let the nightmare ruin it for them. "It's just a silly dream, Ross. But it only solidified what I already knew. I love you and I don't want to live my life without you."