chapter one hundred and seven ~ the one with a goodbye party
Heather's POV

Joey and I won the bid for the house and were promised to be moved in by the end of the year, something that we were both very excited about. Even though moving hadn't been something we had been preparing for, it made sense to have a bigger place for the new baby because our apartment was barely enough room for us right now. Mozzarella needed a house with a backyard because it wasn't fair on him to be squashed into such a small place and Matteo needed his own room because I didn't want his sleep schedule to be ruined when a new baby was brought into the picture. Neither of us were really looking forward to the moving process as we knew it would be tough, especially since we had seen Monica and Chandler packing for their moving day. We had decided to pack some of the things we would need at the new house but weren't taking things as seriously as our friends. Plus, we were having remodelling for the downstairs of the house as Monica had previously pointed out that the place was a hole and we wanted to make it less of a hole before we moved in.

As exciting as the move was going to be, we had other things to focus on right now because Rachel was taking a job in Paris and would be moving tomorrow. Everyone had pulled together for a special Goodbye party but no one was looking forward to it; the truth was, no one wanted her to leave but this was her big career opportunity and we couldn't stand in the way of something so big. She had been devastated when losing her job at Ralph Lauren and not securing a place in Gucci; so, this was her big chance to make a name for herself and we had to be supportive, even if we didn't want her to move to a different continent. The person that I felt sorry for the most was Ross; we all knew that he still had feelings for her and would not only miss Rachel but would also miss out on quality time with Emma. She would be back and forth between her parents but that didn't sound healthy and she couldn't do that for another seventeen years.

Everyone was waiting for the party to start as Joey and I popped over to the apartment; we had just talked to Rachel, checking up on her because she hadn't arrived for the party yet. She was putting Emma to sleep and then she would be coming over but she had already gotten emotional several times today and we knew that this party was just going to make it worse. Matteo somehow understood that something was happening and was like Joey, he didn't like change and was being more restless than usual; fussing in Joey's arms so much that my husband ended up putting him on the ground. Matteo didn't even greet the other guests of the party and ran straight over to the coffee table where some of his toys had been abandoned, wanting to distract himself from whatever we were getting on with. Ross noticed that we had come back without Rachel, who was supposed to be the star of the show. "Hey, where's Rach?"

"She's putting Emma down." I explained, smiling at him and knowing that he was freaking out about the big move. "She'll be here soon."

"Listen, it just hit her that she's leaving and she's kind of emotional, so no one say anything to set her off, okay?" Joey said, hoping that everyone would pull together and stop Rachel from getting emotional about her leaving. Just when that warning ended, the door opened and Rachel came in. thinking that we could stop her from getting upset, everyone welcomed her into the apartment but even that didn't seem like the greatest option. "There she is." Ross cheered, as everyone else greeted her as well because this was her party and we were supposed to be celebrating her big job opportunity; not getting her upset. However, it didn't work when she covered her mouth and started crying. "Hi, you guys."

Joey frowned and glared at our friends for making her cry. "What did I just say?"

"No, no, no, no; it's okay." She shook her head and wiped her eyes so that she stopped crying. "I'm going to be fine."

"Come here, I'll make you a drink." Monica leads her away and the rest of the girls followed after them because we didn't want Rachel to be left alone right now.

Phoebe placed a hand on her arm once the drinks had been made. "Are you doing okay?"

"Well, I've been better. You guys are going to come and visit me, right?"

"Yes, of course we are!" I replied, squeezing her shoulder and trying not to get upset about it.

"You know, in six months the statute of limitations runs out and I can travel internationally again."

This just made Rachel more emotional as she embraced both of us. "I'm going to miss you so much. You know what? I have some goodbye stuff that I wanted to say to each of you, and I was going to save it until the end of the night but can I borrow you now?"

"I'll get Matteo a snack." I said, understanding that she wanted some privacy so that she could say goodbye to Phoebe properly.

"What's going on in there?" Ross pondered, trying to look over my shoulder at the other girls.

"Rachel is going to say a special goodbye to everyone individually. Phoebe's first."

"A special goodbye?" His voice cracked. "I can't do that; I can't say goodbye to Rachel."

The girls came back out of the guest bedroom, both of them crying and I already knew what was about to happen as Rachel wiped her eyes and gestured towards me. "Okay, well, if I'm going to do this then I better keep going. Heather, can you come with me?"

Even though I didn't want to say goodbye to Rachel, I knew that the time had come and I couldn't avoid it anymore. We sat on the bed in the guest room and stared at each other for a moment because neither of us knew how to start this; but eventually Rachel took the initiative and grabbed both of my hands in her own; this wasn't something we wanted to do but we had to say goodbye. Rachel's mouth opened slightly as if she was going to say something but nothing came out and instead, we both burst into tears. Rachel was one of my first friends in the city and now I had to say goodbye to her; it didn't feel right and I hated that I wasn't going to get to see her every day like we had been doing for the last few years. "I'm going to miss you so much." She blubbered and wrapped her arms around me so that we could embrace each other.

"I'm going to miss you too."

We shared a special embrace until the door opened and in marched my son; obviously sensing something was wrong and hated to see everyone so upset. Rachel pulled away from me and picked him up, placing him on her lap so that she could talk to him. "Matteo? Oh, I have to say goodbye to this little cutie too. Hey there, Matteo, I know you're really little and probably have no idea what I'm saying or who I am but I'm your aunt Rachel. I was the one who predicted that your parents would get together and I love you so much. I won't be around much because I'm moving to Paris, and I'm so sorry that I won't see you every day but I want you to remember how much I love you and your parents and your baby brother." As much as I wanted to tell her everything that was on my mind, I couldn't cope and instead, just embraced her again.

~•~

The party didn't end well and Rachel said goodbye to everyone apart from Ross, which he wasn't happy about. He hated the fact that he missed out on an emotional goodbye and believed that she didn't care enough to say anything to him. Deep down I guessed that Rachel refused to say goodbye to Ross because she couldn't bare to leave him behind; they were closer than anyone else and obviously it was going to be hard for them to say goodbye to each other. Ross left straight after Rachel, to talk to her and find out why she refused to say goodbye to him; the rest of us sat at the kitchen table and waited to find out what had happened between the couple. Matteo wasn't too happy about the negative mood in the apartment and was throwing his dinosaurs off the side of the couch; not even picking them up afterwards so that there was a pile of 'dead' dinosaurs on the floor.

Monica shook her head. "I hope Ross isn't too upset."

"I'm sure he's not more bummed out than I am." Joey sighed and I rested my head on his shoulder.

Phoebe seemed to also feel the same way. "Tell me about it."

"Even Matteo is depressed." I pointed out, noticing that my son was now walking into the side of the couch over and over again.

"Well, you can't say we don't know how to throw a party." Chandler said sarcastically because this was just another party that hadn't ended very well.

"Alright, I think I'm going to head out." Phoebe walks over to the door but before she could leave, Monica got out of her seat and stopped her.

"Uh, where do you think you're going?"

"I thought I was going home to go to bed, but I'm sensing there's something less fun for me to do here."

"Well, we're moving in a couple of days, and we got a lot of packing to do." She hinted, wanting everyone to help pack. "It would be great if you guys could pitch in."

"Joey and I can finish up the guest room." Chandler said quickly, wanting to continue the game that they had been playing before the party. Joey punches his head and laughs. "Yeah, good idea!"

"Oh no, you and Phoebe are going to help me in here." Monica cut their excitement short and knew that if they went into the guest room then they wouldn't get any work done.

"You couldn't be cool."

Seeing that everyone else had a job except me, I raised my hand and wanted to get given a chore. Even though I was pregnant, I didn't want to be left out and it gave me something other than Rachel's move to think about. "What should I do?"

"You start the bathroom, pack up some non-essentials that we won't need over the next few days."

We were all about to get started on the packing when the door opened and Erica came back from her day of seeing the city. She had come back into town because her due date was approaching and Monica and Chandler wanted her as close as possible before she went into labour. I really liked Erica, even though she wasn't the smartest person in the world, she was really sweet and thanks to her, my brother and sister-in-law were going to become parents. Everyone else seemed to like Erica as well and it was hard not to, she was a really nice person and wasn't what we had expected when we were told we were meeting the birth mother. Joey knew that it was important to be chivalrous for a pregnant woman and pulled out a chair so that Erica could sit down and talk to us. "Here, sit down."

"How was your night?" Phoebe asked once Erica was comfortable and we all stood around to hear the conversation.

"It was okay, I went to a movie with my cousin and then out for dinner. We went to this place that had..." She stopped talking and reached down to hold her stomach which made everyone pause; we didn't know what was happening and wondered what was happening. "Ooh! Anyway, they had these really amazing cheeseburgers."

We were all shocked that Erica was in pain one minute and then perfectly fine straight after; Monica decided to approach the issue. "Erica, are you okay?"

"Yeah, you know, maybe I ate too much. I keep getting these stomach-aches, they come and go every few minutes."

Realisation came over me when I realised what this meant and I was sure that I knew what was going on because this sounded familiar. "Oh my God!"

"Relax, we'll just get her some antacids." Chandler shrugged because he didn't understand what was happening but luckily, Monica knew what page I was on.

"She doesn't have a stomach-ache! She's in labour!"

That was enough to freak my brother out because now he was being told that he was about to become a father as the baby was on the way. "Oh my God!"

"You got to get to the hospital!" Phoebe instructed and she was one of the only ones who could understand the pain of labour.

"Chandler, get the coats, Erica, let's go. Everyone else, keep packing! We're going to have a baby! Oh my God, we're going to have a baby!" Monica's excitement suddenly turned into worry as she was about to become a mother. "Oh God, I've got to sit down!"

"Honey, it's going to be okay!"

"You can do this, just breathe." Erica instructed her, which was ironic because she was the one in labour and was preparing to deliver a baby.

"Okay, okay, I feel a little better."

"Ooh." Erica held her stomach and was worried about Monica more than herself. "Are you sure?"

"Oh, yes, I'm sure." Monica squeezed her and smiled, so happy that her surrogate was so sweet and caring. "Honey, let's go. Okay, bye everyone!"

"Bye!" I shouted after them as they all rushed out of the door. "Good luck!"

Chandler punched the air. "We're having a baby!"

"Chandler, wait, wait, wait." Joey stopped him from leaving after the girls.

"What?"

"If you get a second, find out where she got that cheeseburger." Everyone groaned at him as Chandler rushed out of the apartment and headed to the hospital. They were going to be parents.

a/n: not long until the end now! i've had a pretty chill weekend because i'm preparing for my upcoming exams 🙄 hopefully the next two weeks will go by quickly & then i can just relax through summer 🥺 -lizzie ⭐️

6 - this series has also taken me the longest to write, i started it in september 2020 & have finished writing it in april 2021

date published: 09/05/21