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drabbles-mc · 11 months

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The One Where It's The Right Time

Rachel Green x Joey Tribbiani

Gift written for the 90's Channel Exchange: AU where Joey and Rachel stay together after Emma's birth

Warnings: fluffy fluff

Word Count: 2.1k

A/N: Participating in fic exchanges has really gotten me out of my comfort zone in the best way. I've never written a Friends fic before but I love Joey and Rachel together too much to give up on the opportunity when it presented itself. Hope you enjoy!

It had all been so chaotic when she got out of the hospital. It was a bit messy for the first couple of days, too, if she was being honest with herself. Not Emma, of course. Emma was everything that Rachel ever could’ve hoped for and more—so small and beautiful and perfect. Every day that went by Rachel felt like her heart was growing more and more just to make more room for all the love that she felt for her daughter.

She sat in one of the chairs in Joey’s apartment, the apartment that was now filled with half-unpacked boxes of her things and Emma’s. That was part of the chaos of it. Most of the chaos of it, really. It was tough to figure out what stayed across the way and what came back to Joey’s, what things it was worth it to just buy two of so they didn’t need to lug it back and forth depending on who was watching Emma at any given time.

Emma cooed against Rachel’s chest, pulling her back from the ledge of spiraling thoughts. Looking down, Rachel smiled through the exhaustion that she was feeling. Motherhood was as tiring and fulfilling as people had told her it was going to be. She knew that they’d find their rhythm eventually—it was just going to take a little doing.

“Hey,” Joey’s soft voice sounded through the living room as he emerged from his bedroom. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, looking at Rachel and Emma on the chair for a moment before turning to look at the window to try and gauge just how early or late it was. “Everything okay?”

Rachel nodded, bracing one foot on the floor so that she could rock the chair that she was sitting in ever-so slightly. “Yea, we’re okay.”

Joey walked over, resting his hand on Rachel’s shoulder. He looked down at the two of them through half-lidded eyes, still heavy with the sleep he’d just woken up from. “You sure? What,” he tried to bite back a yawn and failed, “what time is it?”

“Early,” Rachel said with a soft laugh. Tilting her head up to look at him, she said, “You can go back to sleep, Joe. I think she’s almost ready to go back down.”

A small smile twitched the ends of his mouth. He could feel the tiredness in him, and he wanted to go back to bed and get right back to snoring through what little was left of the night. But he wasn’t going to leave Rachel alone now that they were both up and in the living room. There had been a couple times in the short span between all of them leaving the hospital, and the moment they were currently in, when Joey would hear the two of them on the other side of the wall from him. He was tempted to go over and offer to help, but Rachel always seemed to get it under control so quickly.

He wondered when the right time would be to offer shuffling around the sleeping arrangements. He wanted to tell Rachel that the room the two girls shared could be turned into a room that was just Emma’s, and that Rachel could stay in his room with him. But it felt so soon.

“You can join us, you know,” Rachel said as she nodded to the chair that was next to hers. “If she wasn’t so close to falling asleep again I’d offer you this chair, but…”

Joey chuckled softly, shaking his head as he sat down in the seat next to them. “I wouldn’t wanna disturb the princess.”

The apartment fell silent again. It was dark, the slightest bit of grey light coming in through the slats in the blinds. It wasn’t going to be long before the grey started to shift into the first colors of the sunrise. As Joey sat there, staring at Rachel as she stared at Emma, the thought crossed his mind that even though he’d never been a morning person by any stretch of the imagination, he wouldn’t mind being up to see the sunrise with the two of them every morning.

Rachel didn’t have to take her eyes off her daughter to know that Joey was staring at her. “What’re you thinkin’, Joe?” she asked, still looking at Emma.

There were so many things that he wanted to say to her, but it wasn’t the right time. He didn’t know when the right time would be, but it didn’t feel like he’d reached it yet. “Nothing.”

Rachel hummed, finally peeling her gaze away from the baby that had just gone back to sleep in her arms. “I don’t know if I believe you.”

“When have I ever lied to you?” he asked, and once he saw the disbelieving look on her face he chuckled and added on, “Successfully.”

The tired smile on her face grew a little wider as she stood up. “Let me put her back down,” she stepped between the chairs and towards her room that doubled as Emma’s nursery, “and we can talk.”

He wanted to argue but he knew that it wouldn’t be any use. He was never good at saying no to her, but he was even worse at winning arguments against her. Instead, he just watched her slowly, quietly pad off into the next room. In the quiet of their apartment, Joey was able to hear the rustling of Rachel getting the baby situated. He smiled, tilting his head to hear it a little better. He never would’ve thought that he would be living with a woman who had a baby, definitely didn’t think that he would be enjoying it.

He also never thought that the woman would be Rachel.

She tip-toed back out of her bedroom and into the living room. Even though there was no way that she wouldn’t hear the baby cry, she still had the baby monitor in one hand. With her free hand, she raked her fingers back through her hair. It had that slight bit of messiness to it from her tossing and turning, but to Joey she still looked just as beautiful as ever.

One end of Joey’s mouth lifted into a soft smirk. “If you’re tired we can always—”

Rachel stopped him short by plopping down on the arm of his chair. She slumped against his side, one arm snaking around behind his neck and draping over his shoulders. Joey huffed out a quiet laugh as his arm reflexively wound around her waist. She leaned a little more into him, resting her head on his shoulder, somehow managing to be as close to him as she could possibly hope to be without falling completely into his lap.

He chuckled quietly as he let his head rest against hers. “How you doin’, Rach?”

She laughed quietly against his shoulder. “It’s impressive, really, how you can be pervy and caring at the same time.” They both chuckled once more before Rachel took a deep breath, letting her body relax against his a little more. “How are you, though, Joey?” She tilted her head just enough so that her eyes could meet his. “I know we haven’t really gotten a chance to talk since everything at the hospital. We sorta agreed to try and figure this out without ever really, you know, talking about what this is.”

“I’m, you know,” he nodded, shrugging with that same smile that Rachel had come to know so well and love so much, “I’m good.”

“Really?” she questioned. It was hard for her not to doubt him, not because it was Joey, but because it was all so much to ask of anyone.

He laughed and nodded. “Of course. I’ve got you back,” he squeezed her gently, “Emma’s here,” he nodded towards the other room, “how could I not be good?”

Rachel smiled, but it didn’t fully reach her eyes. “I know that it all got a little mixed up there for a bit…” she trailed off, knowing that she was putting it more than lightly.

Joey chuckled. “It did.”

His expression shifted from one of amusement to one of deep thought. He wanted to have the right thing to say about it all. Things at the hospital had gotten mixed up. It was a straight-up mess for a little while there. If one was being unforgiving, they’d say it was a mess that they were all still trying to clean up. But Joey didn’t really think of it that way. Despite the confusion, despite the difficult conversations, despite having to take back a ring that hadn’t been his to give away in the first place, Joey knew that it had all gotten them to the right spot, to where they were now. Maybe he wasn’t in any position to propose now, and Rachel wasn’t in any position to be proposed to, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t work towards that. If he hadn’t blundered the way that he had, Rachel and Emma wouldn’t have come home with him, and she wouldn’t be a few inches away from sitting on his lap right then.

“I’ve been thinking about,” Rachel started, giving his shoulder a tiny squeeze, “us. All,” she nodded towards Emma’s room, “of us.”

“Yea?” Joey wished that he didn’t feel as anxious as he did about where Rachel’s train of thought was going.

“Yea. But first I wanna know what you’ve been thinking. If, you know, if you still want everything that we talked about before. I know it’s different now that Emma and I are actually here, but—”

“I still want everything that I said,” Joey cut her off, but gently. Feeling a little braver than he had a few moments before, he pulled Rachel closer so that she was fully on his lap, her legs draped over his own. “It is different with the two of you here, but it’s only made me want this more.” His heart pounded in his chest but the smile on his face just kept growing. “I’m crazy about you, Rach, just as much now as before. And I, I love Emma. I love having the two of you here.”

She wanted to blame the tears stinging her eyes on the hormones and the exhaustion, but she knew what the real reason for them was as a smile stretched across her face. “Oh, Joey.”

“And I know,” he chuckled through the emotional lump building in his throat, “I know the ring wasn’t mine, and the proposal wasn’t really one, and it’s probably not really the time right now,” his grin grew a little more with each word, knowing just how ridiculous it all was, “but I do want that with you one day. With my own ring, and a real proposal, and when—”

“When it’s the right time,” her voice was hardly a whisper as she finished the sentence for him.

He nodded as he leaned in, resting his forehead against hers. “Exactly.

She gently cupped both sides of his face in her hands. “I’d like that.”

His body sagged with relief, letting go of tension he hadn’t even felt himself holding onto. “Yea?”

She laughed as she nodded, the motion causing their foreheads and noses to rub against each other’s. “Yea, I really would.”

“I love you, Rachel.” It was a sentence that he’d said countless times over the course of their friendship, but he knew it was different this time, he could feel the shift in the weight behind it.

Rachel’s thumbs grazed along his cheeks. “I love you too.”

He felt his breath threatening to get stuck in his throat as he started to ask, “Can I—”

She closed the sliver of a gap left between them before he got the tail-end of his sentence out, pressing her lips to his. Joey’s arm wrapped tighter around her back, the other reaching up so that his hand was resting on the back of her head and pulling her closer to him. Her lips were soft, gentle against his, and he didn’t try to push it to be anything more. He wondered, if he kissed her for long enough, if the rest of the world outside their apartment wouldn’t just fall away, if it would just be him and his two favorite girls in the world.

When Rachel pulled back, the rest of the world was still there, but more importantly Joey knew that this wasn’t all just some dream that he was going to get yanked out of as he woke up. The rest of the world was there, sure, but more important than that, Rachel was still there, Emma was still there.

“We’re gonna figure it all out,” she said to him after a few seconds of silence.

She was close enough that Joey could feel her breath against his skin as she spoke. He nodded. “I know. We’ll figure it out together. Just like always.”

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