chapter ninety one ~ the one with dinosaurs
Heather's POV

Barbados was beautiful this time of year, maybe it was beautiful at every time of year but I hadn't experienced enough of it to know. All I knew was that it was beautiful right now, in this very moment, it was the most beautiful place in the world. And in that moment, a part of me knew that something special had happened. As I lay naked under the sheets of a queen-sized bed, in a country that I had never been before and next to the man that I would love for the rest of my life. A part of me knew that this was it. Nothing else mattered, none of the crazy things meant anything and I was leaving them behind in the past because right now was all I cared about. the man next to me was deep in sleep and I watched the rise and fall of his chest as he relaxed, the moonlight from the island poking through the thin fabric of the curtains. Nothing could ruin this moment...apart from our friends running into the room without any warning.

Monica was leading the others, Chandler, Phoebe and Mike behind her as she opened the door without any resistance. "Guys, you'll never believe what...oh my God!" Immediately she covered her eyes and stopped coming into the room, meaning the others all bumped into her and complained until they realised the situation and started complaining, covering their eyes.

My scream had been enough to wake Joey up and both of us scrambled to cover any bit of skin that might have been on show. Luckily the lights were off in the room and they couldn't see much, just the outline of our bodies and from there, they could guess what had happened. The worst part was that my brother was one of the complaining bodies, and would never get that image out of his mind because no matter what we went through; he'd always think of this moment. I was more annoyed than embarrassed about the situation because our friends should know better than to just run into a bedroom and not question why all the lights are off; what did they think we were doing in here?

"What do you want?" I shouted, ensuring that they definitely couldn't see anything that I didn't want them to see; as close as we were, this wasn't a situation that I was comfortable with.

"We just wanted to tell you that we could hear Ross making out with someone through the walls." Mike answered, in between the voices of complaints from everyone else.

"And you couldn't wait to tell us another time?" Joey yelled, just as irritated as me because this was the first time that we had been intimate since the doctor's appointment and everything had been perfect until our friends ambushed us.

Phoebe kept her eyes covered but managed to argue with us. "It was important!"

"Obviously not that important." I threw one of the pillows from the bed at them. "Get out!"

Luckily, they took the hint and began to leave the room, tripping over bags and furniture that they had managed to avoid on the way in but now that they were covering their eyes, they couldn't see anything. This was just our luck, of course, when we finally decide to be intimate again and share a special moment on an island; our friends come in and ruin it. I'll be having words with Monica and Phoebe about what is deemed appropriate and they will be taught not to barge into hotel rooms without giving some kind of a warning first. If the lights had been on or if we had still been in the middle of something then that interaction may have happened a lot differently. Thankfully, we were finished and were just resting after a busy evening. But if anything, else had happened then I would never be able to look at Chandler again and he'd probably be scarred for life, that is, if he isn't already.

~•~

Back in New York and things went back to normal. I was working in my office, where the interns were doing really well and Melissa was keeping everything in check while I had been away. Numbers were steady and our reputation was still as squeaky clean as when we first opened; soon enough, things would be working so well that I wouldn't have to worry about leaving the company to get on with family life because it would be working perfectly. Joey was back and forth in work, making money with the scenes that he was shooting and we were juggling time between our careers and taking care of our son. Matteo was almost two now and was becoming his own little person, already I could see bits of his personality shine through and it was adorable. He was definitely taking after Joey, not only with his looks but also with his personality and was charming anyone that he met. My worries about his speech were long gone as he babbled more than any other baby, about anything that he had heard which meant we all had to be more careful about what we talked about in front of him. "I should head to work, are you okay to stay with Matteo?"

"Honey, he's nearly two." I laughed at my husband as he grabbed his jacket and prepared to head off to work. "I've spent a lot of time with him before."

Joey rolled his eyes, realising his mistake and leaned down to kiss both of us goodbye. "Okay, well, I love you."

"We love you too." I sang happily, watching the door close before turning to my son. Matteo was fascinated with the dinosaur figurines that Ross had bought for him and was busy making them fall off the coffee table; I hated to interrupt his playing but there was something that I wanted to talk to him about and I had to do it when no one else was around.

Heading to the bathroom, I pulled out something that I had been hiding from everyone for the past few days and went back to the lounge where Matteo hadn't even noticed that I had been gone. Instead of the dinosaurs jumping off the coffee table, they were now marching down Mozzarella's back as the dog slept and didn't care that he was being used by the baby for his little game. I crossed my legs on the floor and patted my lap which Matteo heard and moved away from his game, bringing one of his favourite dinosaurs with him and planting himself on top of me so that we could talk for a second. This was something that we always did, usually when I wanted to practise words with him but today was something different and my heart was pounding at the news that I had.

"Hey buddy, do you want to know a secret? This is such a big secret that not even your daddy knows, you're the first person to know. If I tell you, you have to promise not to tell anyone, okay? This is a big deal, Matteo, this is trust." I pulled out the object that I had taken from the bathroom and showed him, he didn't really know what it was but listened to me intently. "Do you know what this is? It's a pregnancy test, and it means that mommy is having a baby. Isn't that cool? She carried you in her stomach and now she's carrying another little baby. Don't worry, this time I did nine tests, just to make sure and they all said positive. Trust me, I'm never making that mistake again. Another little baby, huh, are you ready for that? Are you ready to be a big brother? You're going to be the best big brother! I love you Matteo and I love your little brother or sister so much too."

"Hey, Heather, did you see my script..." Joey trailed off, stopping in the middle of the room when he saw what was in my hand. "What's that?"

I hadn't been expecting him to come back so soon but he must have forgotten his script which was on the bedside table and now he had walked in on me telling our son a huge secret. "Uh, well, I was going to wait until you got home but now's a good time too. I'm pregnant."

"Really?"

Feeling the tears in my eyes, I carefully stood up and balanced Matteo on my hip because he could sense something was happening but didn't seem to know what was going on. "Really, I took nine tests and they're all positive."

"We're having another baby?" Joey questioned, his eyes wide and I could tell that he was just as excited with this news as I was. Before I could answer him, he wrapped his arms around me and I tightened my free arm around him; sandwiching Matteo between us as he giggled at the embrace. Loving the attention from his parents, even if he had no idea what was going on.

"Prepare for a chaotic few years, Mr Tribbiani."

"Anything for you, Mrs Tribbiani." He smirked, pressing a kiss to my lips and sealing this perfect moment; something that hadn't been planned but something that I would never change because it was perfect in its own way.

The next thing to do was to tell our friends and sticking true to our promise, we decided to tell them together. That evening, we called them all over to our apartment and got a strange sense of déjà vu because this was how we told them that we were getting married; something that they all seemed to remember because they weren't excited about the call. Joey and I could barely hold our excitement because this was something that we had been waiting for, for a while and it was finally happening. Of course, I was worried that Monica and Chandler would react differently because of their struggles; so, the whole thing was a mixture of excitement and nerves.

"Okay, will you just tell us what the big news is already?" Phoebe asked, getting bored of waiting.

"God, you're not getting married again, are you?"

Rachel frowned at the idea. "Yeah, guys, it was original the first time but now it would just be tacky."

"We're not getting married again, but thank you for your opinions on that matter." I adjusted Matteo on my hip as we stood in front of them. "We have something big to tell you and-"

"Can we just tell them?" Joey interrupted, pleading with me.

"Can I just say something first? Okay, well, last time we made the decision to tell you all separately but this time we wanted everyone here so that we could tell you together-"

"I can't hold it any longer..." He paused before blurting. "Heather's pregnant!"

"What?" All of our friends looked shocked because they weren't expecting that kind of news.

I was angry that he had spilled the beans without me and slapped his arm. "Joey!"

"I'm sorry, you were talking too much and I just wanted to tell everyone."

"You're pregnant?" Chandler asked before wrapping us in a warm hug. "You're pregnant!"

"We're having another baby!"

"Congratulations guys!" Ross cheered as all of our friends gathered around to congratulate us.

"I'm so glad you told us all this time; but just to be clear, this wasn't the time that we walked in on you, was it?" Monica winced as Joey and I shared a guilty expression because that seemed to be the most obvious time that we had sex.

Guess it really was a special moment.

a/n: i can't believe it's the first chapter of the final season 😭 this is so surreal but thank u so much for 20k! i literally can't believe it, you guys are amazing!!❤️ -lizzie ⭐️

date published: 20/04/21