A/N: Wow! There has been such a great response to this story. THANK YOU to all of you reading and reviewing. Your support has been incredible.
Disclaimer: Believe me, if I owned it you'd know.
NNNNNNNNNNNNGabriella wanted to cry, but there were no tears left to shed. She sat in a wheelchair between two beds in the NICU. In one bed lay Aurora, Gabriella's first born. The tiny baby weighed just under a pound and had startlingly underdeveloped lungs. On Gabriella's other side was Jacob. At one pound two ounces, he was far healthier than his sister. Dr. Stevens, who had delivered the twins had told Gabriella that he appeared to be doing fine, with no immediate health problems. His outlook was much better than his Aurora's.
Still, Gabriella refused to give up. She had lost to much in her life to let her daughter go. She read to them from her pregnancy book, ignoring the fact that they probably couldn't hear her and definitely couldn't understand her. She plowed through, pointing out inaccuracies as she read.
"Once you hit the sixth month of your pregnancy, baby will still be unable to regulate their own body temperature-Wait a minute. We know that's not true, don't we Ari? Dr. Stevens said herself your body temperature was healthy and a good indication of your development." Gabriella begged the nurses to let her stay with the twins, and most of them, at the sight of her heartbroken face, allowed her to. One nurse even brought her a hot cup of tea to drink when she shivered and cleared her throat in the cold, uninviting room. The hours passed slowly and Gabriella's exhaustion slowly took hold as her head rested on her shoulder.
NNNNNNNNNNNNN"Mrs. Montez, we are very sorry to wake you, but you asked that we do if something happened," a women with wide blue eyes stood next to Dr. Stevens, clearly unsure of whether or not she had done the right thing.
"Huh? Oh, yes. Something's wrong? Is it Aurora, did she die? Is Jacob alright?" fear seeped into her voice as she came to.
"Several minutes ago, Aurora stopped breathing. Her right lung collapsed because it is so underdeveloped. We re-inflated it almost immediately and put in a chest tube to insure that it wouldn't collapse again. I want to remind you Mrs. Montez, that this does not mean Aurora is going to die. She is now breathing normally with the tube. At the moment Jacob is doing very well. It's just a waiting game at this point," Dr. Stevens took over for the frightened looking blue-eyed girl.
"Oh, alright. So both twins are alive?" Gabriella wanted definite answers.
"Both twins are alive. As for you Ms. Montez, we need you to stay in bed. You just had major trauma to you lower abdominal in giving birth to twins. So I'm afraid you'll need to keep your visits to fifteen minutes every two hours. We need you to be doing well," the doctor smiled sympathetically, knowing how hard it was to be separated from one's ailing children.
Gabriella took the news in stride, for something else had caught her attention. "How did I get into this room? I was with Ari and Jacob when I fell asleep, but now…?" she looked up at the doctor questioningly after glancing around the hospital room in the maternity ward, not the NICU.
"The father of the twins, Mr. Bolton, I believe his name is, came to your room to visit, but, obviously, you weren't here. He found you in the NICU sleeping, and brought you in here with another visitor, the one who was here earlier, with the curly hair."
Gabriella nodded and smiled at the doctor's, giving them their cue to leave. Almost as soon as the door closed, it was opened again by Troy.
"Hey, you're up. Can I, uh, come in?" his voice was quiet and shy.
"No," her voice was flat and nearly emotionless, "You can't. I will raise Aurora and Jacob. I will send them off to college and watch them both get married and start families. I will baby-sit grandchildren. Me. Not you. You are going to get back in your car and go back to New Mexico. You will play basketball and go to school and get a scholarship to a prestigious university. You will graduate, play in the NBA, fall in love get married, and have kids. You will be happy. I will raise the twins, I will go to school at night, I'll be fine. I won't let you be a father now. I don't have a choice, but you do, and I'm making it for you," her voice was strong and steady despite the quaking nervousness she felt inside.
"I don't want to fall in love. I already did. Gabriella, I love you. The only person I want to marry is you. I want to be father to…" his voice trailed off and shame filled his face as he realized he didn't know the twins' names.
"Aurora and Jacob," her resolve was crumbling underneath his pleading eyes. Slowly, she got out of bed and made her way over to the door where he stood. As she brushed past him, she whispered, "Follow me." He obliged, trailing behind her quietly.
The solemn pair made their way into the neonatal intensive care unit and over to their children. "This," Gabriella said, caressing the plastic crib, "Is Aurora. That is a chest tube. It's keeping her lung from collapsing. Her lungs are severely under developed. She can't breath on her own." She turned to the crib on her other side. "Over here is Jacob. He's doing very well, considering. No major health problems." She turned back to face Troy.
"These are my children. Someday, if you still want, they'll be your children too. But not now. I am a mother now, but I won't let you be a father. One day, I don't know when, I will give you the opportunity to be a father. I will call you and tell you that they are your children too. If you don't think you can be a father to these babies then, it won't make any difference to me. You will get the chance to be a father someday. But not now," she finished speaking and walked quietly out of the room and into her own room in the maternity ward, leaving him alone. When she got to her room, Chad was waiting there for her.
"Talk to Troy," she spoke first, not giving him an opportunity to say anything, "When I come back, and someday I will, then you will be an uncle, if that is what you want. I 'm not going to distract you from your life. That is what matters. Now get off my bed."
She slid underneath the covers and closed her eyes, feeling Chad kiss her platonically on the forehead. "We'll be waiting Gabriella," he whispered as he walked out the door. She dozed off, dreaming of what could be.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNTa-da! I'm not all that proud of this chapter, it was done a little haphazardly. Most likely, the next chapter will be set in the future. As always, review are greatly appreciated!