FRIENDS Til The End

Chapter 11 - The One With Rachel and Her Kids

Back to present time...

                I still remember that very day when dad told us about what was going on with Mom. I think I almost fainted... with the thought of having given her a look that told her I hated her for what I thought she’s done... with the thought of my Mom being gone from us for the rest of our lives. It was more painful than anything I had been through all my life and it still hurts me how I managed to not do anything to make her feel better.

ROSS’

                “That’s not true.” Emma stood up. “How can you make up something like that, Dad? I know that you don’t want us to hate her for what she’s done but to actually tell us that she’s dying just for us to feel sorry for her? It’s just not possible. We still hate her and nothing could ever change that. So please. Take that back.”

                Ben couldn’t believe what he just heard. All his life, he looked at Rachel as one of the strongest people in the world and not even once had he thought that she’d suffer from this. He suddenly looked at Emma and he had never seen her worse. So he stood up to calm her down, to make her sit, in an attempt to make her feel somehow better. “Emma... Emma, it’s okay—”

                “Okay?! How can you say that this is okay?? He just told us that our mother is dying! How can you expect me to think that this is okay??” She started walking away.

                Ella just started crying in her seat, not sure if she even understood what her father just told them, wishing she had heard him wrong. Ross didn’t know whom he should deal with first. He looked at Ben and the latter immediately understood that he had to get Ella out of there.

                When the two had left, Ross started to run after Emma. “Emma!” He held her.

                “Let go of me!”

                “Emma, listen to me. Honey... Emma, this is not what your Mom needs right now. You have got to pull yourself together.”

                Emma started crying. “How could you hide this from us??”

                “Your Mom thought it was for the better. She just wanted to do what she thought was best for you...”

                “Dad, I don’t wanna lose her... Tell me we’re not gonna lose her. I can’t. She can’t leave us...”

                Ross, who was doing all he could to prevent himself from crying, started to well up, too. “She won’t. I promise you, she’ll stay with us, okay?”

HOSPITAL

                Monica, Phoebe, Chandler and Joey were all their looking after Rachel. She was asleep but none of them wanted to leave. “I never saw this coming, you know. It just didn’t seem possible for me before. It still doesn’t.” It was Monica, who was looking at Rachel, trying to remember all those good times they’ve shared before this.

                “I know.” Phoebe, who was probably the most positive of all of them, felt like she was losing all the positive things she could hold on to, for the first time in her life. “I just hate seeing her like this.”

                Chandler, wanting to keep the humor in the group, started saying, “I know what you feel. I’ve been missing on a lot of gossip nowadays. She needs to get back to her old self.”