Chapter 67: Survival Strategy in a Crisis
The Bar
Clang.
The door swung open and Monica, Chandler, and Joey walked in together.
Ross shot Adam a look of pure desperation across the bar.
Adam gave a small nod. Your story to tell.
"Hey." Monica looked at her brother immediately. Something in his posture registered. "Ross, what's wrong?"
Ross looked at her face — his sister, who knew him better than almost anyone — and whatever composure he'd been holding together quietly came apart.
"Carol is gay," he said.
A beat of silence.
"Cool," Joey said.
Ross turned to look at him.
"What?" Joey shrugged. "That's the dream scenario, man. Two women, one apartment—"
"Joey," Monica said sharply.
"I'm just saying."
"Great," Chandler said, with the flat delivery of someone processing information through the filter of his own very specific childhood. "Now I'm going to have nightmares again. Perfect evening."
"Are you absolutely sure?" Monica put her arm around Ross's shoulders.
"Carol didn't leave me a written statement," Ross said, "but yes. I'm sure."
"So what are you going to do?"
Ross glanced at Adam, then looked back at his sister. "I think I should go talk to her. Find out where things actually stand. Maybe there's still something worth saving."
"I'll come with you," Joey said, already standing up.
"Sit down," Monica said.
Joey sat down.
"Seven years is a long time," Monica said to Ross, more gently. "You two have real history. The question is whether you both want to try to figure this out together. Do you?"
"Carol is the only woman who has ever—" Ross stopped. Started again. "Of course I want to."
"But she's not the woman you love," Adam said.
The table went quiet.
Monica looked at her brother carefully. She'd always assumed Ross had put Rachel behind him when he married Carol. The way he'd phrased it just now — the careful distinction between who loved him and who he loved — suggested otherwise.
"Ross," she said slowly. "Rachel's engaged. She's marrying Barry."
"I know," Ross said, with the tone of someone who had known this and decided not to think about it. "And that has nothing to do with this. This is between me and Carol." He stood up. "I'm going over there."
"Good luck," Joey called after him. "If you happen to get any phone numbers while you're there—"
Ross left without acknowledging this.
The group talked about it for a while after he left, then gradually let the conversation drift to other things.
"Adam," Joey said, settling into his usual curiosity. "College courses — are they actually hard? You always seem so relaxed."
"The first two years are mostly general requirements," Adam said. "If you're organized about it, it's manageable. The major-specific courses in junior and senior year are a different story."
"He got 1500 on his SAT," Monica announced, with the satisfaction of someone who had found a fact worth announcing.
"Seriously?" Chandler looked impressed. "I thought Ross's 1450 was impressive, and he's been talking about it for three years."
"Ross got 1250," Monica said. "He rounds up."
"Wow," Joey said, with the genuine admiration of someone who found academic achievement completely mysterious and slightly magical.
"Are you pre-med?" Chandler asked, noticing the heavy textbook that had been sitting at Adam's elbow.
"Biology undergrad, then medical school," Adam confirmed. "I want to be a surgeon eventually."
"A surgeon," Phoebe said, with a look that communicated several things.
"Shouldn't you be enjoying college first?" Chandler said. "This is the time. Later you'll have responsibilities."
"I am enjoying it," Adam said. "I'm here, aren't I? The studying and the living aren't mutually exclusive." He paused. "I'm also applying for hospital volunteer work."
"Volunteer?" Monica and Phoebe said together.
"Medical school applications weight it heavily," Adam explained. "They want to see that you understand what the work actually looks like before you commit to it. Some programs expect thousands of hours of documented volunteer time. It filters out the people who like the idea of medicine versus the people who can actually handle it."
He didn't mention the other reason — that each hour he spent around patients increased his lifespan counter in ways that no amount of studying could.
"I finally understand," Monica said, half to herself, "why everyone thinks doctors are the most eligible people in any room."
"Same," Phoebe agreed, with feeling.
Ross's Apartment
Ross came in through the front door quietly, heart hammering.
He followed the light in the back hallway.
He found Carol and Susan together in the bedroom.
"Ross!" Carol's voice jumped with alarm.
Susan recovered faster. She put a calm hand on Carol's arm and said something quiet and reassuring.
Ross stood in the doorway. Every instinct he had was telling him to react — to say something, to make the moment as big as it felt. But for a strange second, Joey's expression from earlier flashed through his mind, and the words that came out of his mouth were not the words he'd prepared.
He was trying, in his desperate way, to find some version of this he could survive.
The silence stretched.
Then Carol's voice, clear and final:
"Ross. Get out."
End of Chapter 67
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