DISCLAIMER: ~ I don’t own any of the characters or have any share in the show whatsoever- I wish I did thou~
Mia- Mine She was so nervous as she walked up to his door. She was so nervous that she nearly walked away from the lobby of his apartment building and went back to the warm cab. The fact that there wasn’t a lift didn’t help either. That meant that she would have to walk up 10 flights of stairs and during that time her legs may decide to turn around like they tended to

She was going to be friendly and at first she didn’t want to scare him off right away.

This is it. This is his apartment, above the coffee shop. She knocked on the door in the faint hope that he wouldn’t be here and she wouldn’t have to do this. She wouldn’t be rejected. A pretty woman opens the door with a little girl in her arms. They must be his wife and child.

“Hi, can I help you?”

“Um...” What the hell should she say?” I’m here to speak to Joey.” That was a start

“Oh well, um, he’s not here- you just missed him actually, he just went out for pizza” She smiled at the young girl at her door.

Crap! Am I going to have to go through this again? She thought.

“Can I say who called?”

“Um... I’ll come back in about an hour and talk to him then. Bye” She couldn’t stay there much longer. She hadn’t expected him to have a family. She turned away and walked back down the stairs and went to the coffee shop. She was going to need that caffeine boost.

***

The day before:

She was in a cab on her way to New York trying to find Joey. Her mom had always told her that New York was a place to be careful in but it seemed safe enough.

After trying to find out information for about three hours, she stopped off in a coffee house. It struck her primarily because it was named ‘Central Perk’ and she was in New York. The white haired man behind the counter seemed friendly enough so she asked him whether he knew who Joey was.

He told her that Joey usually comes in here but he hadn’t seen him today. So she sat on the big velvet brown sofa.

Then a guy with dark brown hair came and sat down beside her with lovely brown eyes. Maybe he had Jewish roots. He began to talk to her. They didn’t really talk about themselves just really about New York and their majors. She had found out that he was a doctor of palaeontology and she told him that she was just a waitress.

They decided that because she didn’t know anyone in the city they should go out for something to eat tonight.

That night: “So...um... where are you from originally then- if you’re not from New York?” He took a bit from his salmon fillet- he said that his sister worked in this restaurant.

“I come from Queens originally – well that’s where was my mom lived for most of her life until she had me. When she was pregnant with me she lived with my aunt in West Virginia. Then, when I was about five, we moved back to Queens and lived with my grandma. That where I live now anyways.”

“Really one of my best friends grew up in Queens. Do you have a big family?” he was so inquisitive

“No. It’s just me- my mom had me when she was really young. Says I ruined her chance of ever having a good relationship with anyone.” She looked down at her food and felt very bitter about how the relationship she had with her mom.

Her date sensed this and he didn’t want to get into a big conversation- she looked very young and familiar- he wondered how old she was.

“So what brings you here- a change of scenery?”

“Kind of. I’m hoping to find my dad really”

“Wow- any luck?”

“Well I got a lead from the guy in the coffee shop- Gunther I think. But all he could give me was the fact that he comes into the coffee house a lot so it looks as though I’m going to be drinking a lot of coffee. He wouldn’t give me his exact address and I don’t blame him really. I’m just a stranger who he’s never met before.”

“Really? I’m in the coffee house a lot too- maybe I’ll be able to help- what is his name?”

“Well you might have heard of him because he’s on a soap opera but his name is Joey Tribbiani- an Italian guy”

“Wh- What?” he laughed in disbelief or was it a nervous laugh? “He’s my friend who grew up in Queens!”

Finally, in the shape of a dark tall handsome-ish stranger she had found out where he was.

Present day

She had been sitting on the same sofa as yesterday for about fifty minutes now and she still didn’t really know what she was going to say to him.

Ross had been so great about it all and he told her where he lived. When he found out she was Joey’s daughter he realised how young she was- 23 years old was a little to young for him- he didn’t want to go through another Elizabeth saga.

She just couldn’t sit there anymore she just had to go and so waited for someone to go in to the building and went in after them- she couldn’t buzz up. She climbed the stairs for the second time that day.

She knocked on the door.

There he was- he man of mystery for so many years- the man who had betrayed her mother all those years ago.

“Hi-“who was this beautiful girl knocking on his door?

“I called about an hour ago.”

“Oh yea Rachel said that you called about an hour ago. Are you a fan? Because you may recognise me- I’m from days of our lives”

“Um... I’m not a fan of the show really- I’ve come to talk to you about some issues I have with you mainly.”

“Okay then shoots”

“Don’t let her just stand there Joey. What’s your name honey? Come in and take a seat.” Rachel was curious as to what this was all about- “I’m Mia, “Um... do you remember Maria Giovanni?”

“Err...” he was never good with names but then it clicked, ”Yeah my first girlfriend. “He pondered on her name for a while.

Well I’m her daughter and well....” Oh my god- this was it-“And you’re my father...”

“Oh my god... Joey?” Rachel put down her pizza slice.

He was just sitting there not saying anything.

This *really* wasn’t going well...

*** He was sitting there in disbelief for about ten minutes. Mia just couldn’t sit there any longer she had to leave- the tension was unbearable- so she got up to leave.

“Don’t leave honey”

“I’m sorry I shouldn’t have come here- I didn’t mean to disrupt your domestic bliss- you already have a family together- I don’t want to break that up.”

“Family? - me and Joey aren’t together we just live together as roommates- and you’re not intruding on anything is she Joey?”

“How bout I call you later when I have figured all this out. Huh?”

“O...Okay then- I’ll leave my cell number “

Her mom would kill her if she found out that she had actually visited him. She had only found out that he was her dad about two weeks ago. Her mom was depressed again and was drinking a lot. When Mia went over there she was watching Days of Our lives:

“Look at that a**hole-he’s you dad you know”

Her mom told her that qhen joey found out he didn’t want anything to do with her. Maria never saw him again. Was he really an a** hole? Maria was under the impression that he was.

***

23 years earlier

“Hey Mary Beth- where’s Maria?” “Dunno. Her parents drove off last night with her in the back and she never came back with them.”

“Okay. Well I really think that we should end it between us anyway and I wanted to tell her in person “He wasn’t looking for serious relationship- they were only 14.

He went to her house and her ma was the one who opened the door.

“She’s not here and won’t be for a while. Don’t let me see you calling her again- you hear?”

“Yes m’am” and he just accepted it like that.

“Still no sign of her- He asked Mary Beth again.

“No- nothing” “Oh well- I guess its over between her and me anyhow.” He suddenly realised that Mary Beth was kind of cute too- “So Mary Beth, how you doing?”

*** Present day

She went back to the coffee house and waited for that all important call.

*** He had always wondered what had happened to Maria but then he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the box when figuring things out...

It all made sense now. That was why she never came back to school. Why none of her friends were told where she went. He had heard that she came back about five years later but by that time he wasn’t that bothered because he was trying to get his acting career off the ground. By the time that he was about 23 he moved to New York. What the hell was he going to do? It was so surreal for him to think that he had a daughter.

“Joey?” Rachel wanted to know what was going on in his head at this moment. Monica comes in to the apartment.

“Hey, just coming over to get some pans that I lent you- I’m making some jam...”

She saw the look on both of their faces, “Hey what’s up?”

Rachel knew that it wasn’t her place to say and she waited for Joey to- after all it was him that it concerned the most- she was just an eyewitness.

“Rach? Joey?”

And then Joey finally told her.

Monica couldn’t believe her ears. Joey was a great person and she loved him dearly but he wasn’t someone who she thought wouldn’t take his responsibility seriously.

“What did you think she would just never want to know who her dad was Joey?”

“What do you mean?

“Didn’t you ever think that she might come to find you one day?”

“I didn’t know she existed until today.”

“Oh my God! Oh sweetie”

The he explained what had happened about an hour ago and what was said.

“So what are you going to say to her? I mean are you gonna get to know her?”

“I have to do that now?” “hey Joey. Do you know what the name Mia means?” “Um...” Then it finally dawned on him, ”Yeah. Mine.”

*

Please please review this is my first fan fiction!! All criticism is welcome!