i'll be there - chandler bing (on hold)

the one where rachel finds out

third person pov

"and here's little ben nodding off..." the group 'awes', watching ross flick through photos of his newborn son. rachel is curled up tightly against him, pouting at the photos. 

"awww look at aunt monica's little boy!" 

"oh, look, he's got ross's haircut!" phoebe exclaims and rachel takes the picture. 

"oh, let me see! oh, god, is he just the sweetest thing? you must just want to kiss him all over!" she fawns, stroking the photo gently. ross watches her closely, practically drooling over her. 

"that would be nice." he mutters, and chandler makes a 'pfft' noise. gianna glances up from the coffee she was drinking beside joey, raising an eyebrow at chandler. 

"pardon?" 

"nothing, just a little extra air in my mouth. pfft. pfffft." chandler stumbles, wandering towards joey and gianna to escape rachel. the waitress hands joey his check and his eyes widen slightly. 

"hey, chan, can you help me out here? i promise I'll pay you back." he asks, looking up at the man beside him. 

"oh, yeah, right, okay...including the waffles last week, you now owe me...17 jillion dollars." chandler's reply was sarcastic, gianna shooting him a look before taking the check from joey. 

"I will, really. I'll pay you back this time." 

"and where's this money coming from?" gianna asks, handing the money to joey. 

"well....I'm helping out down at the nyu med school with some...research." 

"what kind of research?" ross calls loudly, overhearing the conversation as they continued to look at photos of ben. 

"oh, just, y'know...science." 

"science. yeah, I think I've heard of that." gianna teases, everyone now looking at joey for an answer. he sighs, 

"...it's a fertility study." rachel laughs, the group's jaws dropping open. 

"oh, joey, please tell me you're only donating your time." monica mentions. 

"alright, come on you guys. it's not that big a deal. really, I mean, I just go down there every other day and...make my contribution to the project." there was a shared grimace before joey continues. "hey, hey, but at the end of the two weeks, I get seven hundred dollars." the group nods, glancing at each other before phoebe speaks. 

"ooh, wow, you're gonna be making money hand over fist!" 

*

the night of rachel's birthday, monica, phoebe and gianna were setting up decorations and food for their gathering. gianna was finishing tying balloons down and hanging streamers whilst monica and phoebe continued with the food. 

"okay, we got the cole slaw, we got the buns..." 

"we've got the ground-up flesh of formerly cute cows and turkeys, ew..." phoebe interrupts, handing the meat to monica who grimaces slightly. gianna finishes hanging a streamer by the door as it opens, joey and chandler entering with a bag of charcoal. 

"men are here." 

"we make fire. cook meat." joey adds, both of the boys adopting a deeper voice. gianna stood on a chair watching them. 

"then put out fire by peeing." chandler continues. "no get invited back." he adds, glancing at gianna on the chair. 

"very macho." she teases, looking down at the boys. joey goes to sit at the table as she speaks again. "could the men help me down please?" chandler is relatively quick to place the bag of charcoal down and offer his hand to gianna. as she steps down, her free hand lands on his shoulder, his arm reacting by winding behind her back. it looked like they were about to waltz.