The Bings and The Gellers Part 9

 

As usual, this story is written purely for entertainment purposes and I do not own the characters from the television show FRIENDS.

Previously on The Bings and The Gellers:

“Mrs. Geller, it’s Marie Moore. Have you seen Jessie?”
“No, I’m sorry I’m afraid we haven’t seen her for a few days. Is everything all right?”
“Well not exactly. She’s missing. She didn’t come home tonight. I wanted to call you earlier but Jacob was being well, Jacob. Anyway, would Nick know where she is?”
“I can have Ross go ask him but her and Nick don’t really see each other anymore. Hold on one second please, Marie.” She covered the mouthpiece with her hand and said to Ross, “Jessie’s missing, go ask Nick if he’s seen her.”
Ross got up and made his way down the hall to Nick’s room. He flipped on Nick’s light switch and gasped at what he saw. All of the drawers in Nick’s dresser were opened, and his bed was empty….


And now: The Bings and The Gellers Part Nine:
The One Where Nick and Jessie Take Control
Ross just stood in Nick’s room staring at the empty bed, thoughts racing through his head. He finally turned and went back down the hall to his and Rachel’s room. “Rach, Nick is gone.” He mouthed.
“Oh my God,” Rachel covered the mouthpiece with her hand, “are you sure?”
“Well his bed is empty and so are his dresser drawers. He must have taken off with Jessie.”
“But where could they have gone?” She turned her attention to the phone again, “Mrs. Moore? I’m really sorry but it seems that Nick is missing. Well, he couldn’t have left too long ago because he was here at dinner and at bedtime cause we all watched a movie together. Well, if you would like to come over here that would be better because Travis and Lauren are still asleep. Alright, well if Jacob is in agreement come over and we will try to work through this. Don’t worry they are good kids, we will find them.” She hung up the phone looking very distressed, “Ross, what are we going to do?”
“We are going to get dressed and go wait for them in the kitchen. I will make us some coffee.” He hugged her tightly, “They couldn’t have gone far, we will figure this all out Rachel. I promise you.”
Within a half an hour the Moore’s showed up at Ross and Rachel’s. Ross let them in and offered them some coffee. They sat in silence at first, Mrs. Moore and Rachel crying off and on, and Ross and Mr. Moore just sitting in stone silence. At last Mr. Moore surprised everyone in the room by speaking up first, “Well, if they have gone off and done something stupid I suppose it’s my fault. I should have listened to Jessica, I should have told her how much I care about her. I should not have tried to pass all the blame on to Nick. He seems like a good kid, who just messed up.”
Ross interjected, “they both are Jacob, they both are.”
“We have got to find them, we just have to.”
“We will find them. Let’s start by making a list of all their mutual friends. That way we can call their houses and see if they have any information about where Nick and Jessie are.”
“Should we call the police?”
“I suppose that would be a good idea. Although, they won’t start looking for them until they’ve been missing for twenty-four hours.” Rachel brought pens and paper to the table and they got to work trying to figure out mutual friends.
Several hours later the four parents had exhausted themselves and all resources as none of Nick’s and Jessie’s friends seem to know where they were. The police showed up to take a statement, and seemed unconcerned. This got under Jacob Moore’s skin and he finally asked, “Excuse me Officer, but why is it that you appear to be unconcerned with the fact that there are two teenagers missing here?”
“See cases like this all the time.” The officer replied, “two young kids, she’s pregnant both sets of parents are torn about what to do, so the kids run away to scare everybody or try to take the situation back. They will show up in a day or two. Nonetheless, once they have been missing for a full twenty-four hour period, I will put out an APB on them and that way the department will know to be looking for them. They will turn up, it sounds like they are smart kids.”
After the police officer left the four parents just sat at the table not knowing what to do next. Finally Marie Moore spoke up, “Well, Jacob I guess we might as well go home because they are most likely not going to show up tonight. If they do we’ll make sure the other family knows.“
Jacob rose reluctantly and looked at Ross and Rachel, “I owe you two an apology. I have made this terrible situation much more difficult than it already was. I hope that you will accept my apology and believe me when I say that I will not be so difficult in the future.”
Ross stood and shook his hand, “I appreciate that very much. And of course we accept your apology, and we promise to work together with both of you to make sure that the best solution is worked out for both of our kids, and for our mutual grandbaby.”
After the Moore’s left Ross put his arm around Rachel’s shoulder, “I suppose we should get to bed Rach. We need some rest, Lauren will be getting us up soon.”
Rachel’s eyes brimmed with tears, “I can’t sleep Ross, I won’t be able to sleep until I know where my baby is and that’s he okay. Ross, what if they were an accident? What if they are stranded somewhere all alone and scared?”
Ross hugged her tightly to him, “Rachel, I promise you that we will find them. We will find them. I will call Jacob once it gets light out and we will go look for them. But I think we should stay put right now in case they turn up. They are probably hiding out at a friend’s house trying to scare us into listening to them.”
“But Nick doesn’t even like Jessie! Why would he go with her? He doesn’t want to be with her, she loves someone else. Why would he suddenly care about what happens to her?”
“Rachel, this is still his daughter. He seems to feel responsible for her which is what we want. We tried to raise him to be a child who takes his responsibilities seriously. Maybe Jessie was just feeling alone and scared so she came to Nick because she doesn’t know where else to turn. Nick is a sensitive kid so he is not going to turn her away, just like he didn’t before.”
Rachel sighed heavily, “I hope you’re right. You can go to bed, sweetie, I’m just going to sit out here and think about all of this.” She kissed him, “I love you.”
Ross kissed her back, “I love you too. You really should come to bed, Rach.”
She pushed him towards the door, “I’ll be fine. You go, if I hear anything I’ll wake you.” After Ross had disappeared into their room Rachel grabbed the phone off the table and curled up on the couch the phone wrapped in her knees. She sat on the couch tears were streaming down her face and she thought of all the things that goes through a Mother’s mind when her child is missing. She saw images of Nicholas Ross Geller’s pictures on the back of milk cartons, on the missing bulletin boards at Wal-Mart and on America’s Most Wanted. Her mind kept going back to happier times when Nick was an innocent little boy who gave her crayon drawings of dinosaurs and hugged her with sticky hands.
In their bedroom, Ross was laying in bed staring at the ceiling, though he knew he desperately needed to go to sleep, he just couldn’t sleep. He was so worried. His insides were in complete turmoil, but he didn’t want Rachel to know. She had been through so much over the past seven months with Lauren’s birth, and all of the problems with Nick. She was such a great Mom, so loving and caring, and he felt so lucky every day to have Rachel as his wife. His love for her was more than he ever thought possible and watching her go through all of this was tearing him apart. He tried to think about all the possibilities about where his son could be, but coming up empty frustrated him and he finally fell into a light, and unrestful sleep.
In the morning the kids still had not turned up. Rachel was so exhausted that Ross finally got her into bed. Then he and Jacob Moore went out to look for Nick and Jessie. They spent the whole day out visiting the kids’ friends, and school. Their search turned up nothing except for that both Nick Geller and Jessica Moore were absent from school that day. They went back to Ross’ apartment feeling hopeless and dejected. Marie and Rachel could tell by the looks on their faces that the news was not good. For days both families fell into the same cycle. Rachel and Marie not sleeping all night, Ross and Jacob going out all day to search for Nick and Jessie and coming back empty handed.
Monica and Chandler tried to help by bringing over dinner every night and by keeping Travis and Lauren. But Travis was really starting to feel the effects of all that had gone wrong in his family. He was starting to having trouble in school and was lashing out against his parents for attention, any attention. Chandler decided to try and help by taking Travis away on a little fishing trip at the lake for a weekend.
As the days turned into a week, Rachel started to lose what little control she had left. “Why hasn’t he called? Why won’t he at least let us know that he is safe? He owes us that much, damnit!” She would crumple into Ross’ arms every night and sob. It seemed as if Nick Geller and Jessie Moore had completely vanished and did not want to be found by their parents or anyone else.
Nine days after Nick and Jessie disappeared, everyone tried to get back into some sort of routine. Rachel tried to go back to work, and Ross went back to teaching. Travis had come back from his fishing trip with his Uncle but still seemed to need extra attention. Monica and Chandler kept Lauren as much as they could while Rachel was at work so that Lauren wouldn’t have be to with strangers. The thought of her daughter being left with strangers totally freaked Rachel out with what had happened with Nick. Rachel and Ross were both exhausted. They worried desperately about Nick, yet tried to appear strong for each other and also give their two remaining children a sense of normalcy and security. Neither of them was entirely sure how long they would be able to hold up.
At about two in the morning eleven days after Nick and Jessie disappeared, there was a strong, urgent knocking on Phoebe’s door. She stumbled out of bed half asleep and made her way to the door muttering something about the impatience of aliens and how they could at least wait until it was light outside so she could see if they were really green. What she saw on her doorstep shocked her to her very core. Before her stood Nick Geller, with his arm draped around Jessie Moore.
“Hey, Aunt Phoebe.”
“Nicholas Geller! What in the hell is wrong with you? You need to go home right now! Your parents are sick with fright! They are so terrified that something bad has happened to you. Where is your head?”
“Phoebe, wait, please hear me out.”
“I won’t hear you out until you call your parents and tell them that you are safe. Where in the hell have you been for eleven days? Do you think it is funny that you have scared the wits out of everyone that loves you, both of you?”
Nick interrupted Phoebe with a shocking statement, “Phoebe, we’ve came here to ask for your help. We didn’t know what else to do, no one would listen to Jessie and what she wanted for her daughter. So we took matters into our own hands. Pheebs, Jessie and I are married……..”

Part Ten coming soon!