Chapter 15
Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot.
Troy sat there trying to process what the doctor was saying. Why hadn't anyone told him? Did they think he couldn't take it?
"Doctor, tell me exactly what you mean….." Troy said, he realized his voice was so shaky it was extremely hard for him to get even those words out of his mouth.
"The impact of the crash caused way too much stress on her body. It just couldn't take it."
"But, she went into surgery, I mean they told me she would be ok…." Troy started to say. This was all too much for him. How could this have happened?
"The surgery just increased the damages; I know this is hard for you, being the father…" Troy sat there for a moment just hearing the blood pumping in his ears. His Gabby was gone….then he realized, he wasn't anyone's father.
"Whoa wait a minute, the father? I think there has to be a mistake here."
"No, no mistake I'm afraid. You are the father of Gabriella Montez's child am I correct?"
"Child? Gabby was pregnant?"
"Yes, about three months along. Were you not aware?"
"I had no clue. She never told me." Troy said in disbelief.
"Well, her mother knew, she was well aware of that."
"Wait, how is Gabriella? Does she know about the baby?"
"Gabriella is fine, she is recuperating from surgery. It did take a toll on her body, of course as is the case for any major surgery. She does not know about the child yet. She is still waking up from surgery. Everything went as well as it possibly could in these cases. Of course we aren't out of the blue yet, but she has shown to be a real fighter. We are expecting a full recovery."
"Doctor, thank you so much. Would you please let me know when I could go see her?"
"Yes, as long as it is alright with both of your parents, I will send a nurse to help you out." The doctor nodded and got up and walked out of the room. Troy let out a huge sigh of relief and sat back.
Then the thought hit him that Gabriella was pregnant, and that her mother was fully aware of that. Why hadn't anyone told him? Why hadn't Gabriella told him? Of course he was so relieved that Gabriella was alright, and that she would make it through this. But he couldn't help but feel such sadness over the thought that they had lost a child.
He felt tears creeping up into his eyes at the thought of raising a baby with her. Something that would have been a part of them both. He couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if she did have the baby. There was no doubt in his mind that they would keep it. And then they would have their own family.
He started to think of holding his son or daughter in his arms with Gabriella smiling by his side. He felt a smile come to his face and then he felt it quickly go away when he remembered that that wasn't going to happen. She wasn't pregnant anymore; the baby was in fact dead.
Troy buried his face in his hands and just stayed there for a moment crying to himself. He didn't know why it had affected him so deeply; he didn't even know that she was pregnant. He should be happy because she was alive. And he was, but he was still grieving the death of another.
A few moments later he heard a knock at the door and started to wipe his tears.
"Come in." he said trying to cover up the fact that he was crying. The door opened and he saw Gabriella's mother come in.
"Ms. Montez, what are you doing here?" he asked. He was completely surprised by her visit and couldn't help but think that she might be a little upset that he was the one who crashed the car, or that he was the one that had gotten Gabriella pregnant at such a young age.
"Hello Troy, I wanted to come see how you were feeling." She said. She had a very motherly aura about her, he couldn't help but feel safe just being in her presence.
"I am about as ok as I could be I guess. How are you?"
"I am fine, knowing that my baby is ok."
"Yeah, me too."
"So the doctor did come to speak with you?" she asked as she took a seat next to him.
"Yes he did. I-I have to be honest with you, I really don't know what to say to you….I had no idea." He said as he hung his head.
"I know that already Troy. Gabriella thought that maybe it would have been best to tell you later, after school was out. She didn't want to cause you anymore stress." He smiled as he thought about Gabriella worrying about him when she was the one who was pregnant.
"She was always worrying about others, never herself."
"She still is Troy, everything will be fine." She said as she placed one of her hands unto his own.
"Ms. Montez, I have something I need to be honest with you about."
"What is that Troy?"
"I asked Gabriella to marry me, before the accident. She said yes, and I intend on making that happen. I mean, if it is alright with you of course." He said trying his hardest to seem firm.
"I kind of assumed that." She said smiling. She then reached into her purse and pulled out a small bag. Inside of it was Troy's ring.
"Where did you-"
"The nurse gave it to me along with her other possessions. I know I would have noticed it before, and Gabriella doesn't keep anything from me. Now, it may have been a little hasty for me to assume that you had proposed, but lets just say it was mothers intuition."
Troy reached out and took the ring from her hand. He looked at it and remembered when Gabriella let him slide it on her finger. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by her mother's voice.
"I know that she will be wanting it back, so until then, you hold on to it. She wont want anyone else to put it in its rightful place but you." Troy smiled at her and couldn't help but give her a hug. She welcomed his hug and began patting him on the back. He knew then that he had her blessing and one day Gabriella would be his wife.
Troy tried to fall asleep but was failing miserably. Everyone had gone home, except Gabriella's mom who was still in the waiting room and Chad who was falling asleep in the chair that was in Troy's room. Troy still had to stay a few nights just to make sure he didn't have any complications with the concussion.
He couldn't stop thinking about Gabriella lying alone in her hospital bed without him. He had been reassured numerous times that she would be ok, and that she just needed to recuperate, but he wouldn't be ok until he saw her in front of him.
Every hour or so a nurse would come in and take his temperature and blood pressure. He knew that that probably had a lot to with him not being able to sleep. He looked at his best friend who was snoring now. He knew it couldn't be comfortable in that chair but Chad had refused to leave due to the fact that he had promised Troy he wouldn't.
Troy looked at the clock and saw that it was almost three in the morning. The nurse would be coming in any minute now. He laid back and started to think. Maybe he could see Gabriella. He was still in the ICU as well, just in a different room. Maybe Chad could help him find her room and he could just see her.
"Chad…..Chad wake up." He started to say. Chad stirred for a minute and then went back to snoring. Troy didn't want to say anything too loudly so he looked around to see if he could find anything to help him in waking Chad up. He saw that he had a water bottle that someone had left in his room earlier that day. He grabbed it and was about to throw it when he heard someone come into the room.
Troy quickly his the water bottle under his blanket and pretended to be asleep. He felt someone come to his side and start to shake him awake.
"Mr. Bolton?" the nurse said softly.
"Yeah." He said trying to sound groggy so she wouldn't get suspicious.
"I'm sorry to wake you but I need to take your blood pressure and temperature. Could you sit up for me?" he quickly nodded and sat up straight. He sat patiently waiting for her to finish and looked over at Chad. He really was a heavy sleeper. She finished up and left the room and he grabbed the bottle again.
"Chad..." he whispered again without any success in waking his friend. He sighed and then threw the bottle right at him. Chad quickly jumped up and started to look around.
"What the hell is going on?" he said kind of loudly. He then remembered where he was and he looked at Troy.
"Dude, what are you doing?" he asked.
"I need your help."
"What do you need to go to the bathroom? I mean I can get a nurse for you or something….."
"No, I need to see Gabriella. I need your help."
"Um ok, I understand or whatever, but how do you suggest we do that?" Chad said trying to rub the sleepiness out of his eyes.
"I need you to find out what room she is in, and then we are going to sneak past the nurse's desk, go to her room; I will go in while you stand outside watching for anyone. Got it?" Chad sat there and stared at troy in disbelief.
"Listen, I told you I would help you out, but I'm not Superman. That sounds like something out of a spy movie."
"I know, so I knew that it would be right up your alley right? I mean, you did watch Charlie's angels an awful lot when we were younger……"
"Ok, I got it. Just give me a second." Chad said cutting him off. Troy knew that just bringing that up would make Chad uncomfortable and that he would have to go through with it. He knew better, but he was desperate.
He sat up in his bed and looked around for something to put on. He saw a pair of sweats that his parents had brought over earlier in case he wanted to change. Next to them was a shirt that said East high Wildcats on it. He couldn't help but feel a sense of sadness wash over him when he looked at it and thought of Gabriella wearing it when she would spend the night at his house.
He tried to get out of his bed quickly to get dressed when he realized that an I.V. was still in his arm. He looked around to see if he could find a stand to take with him but he couldn't see anything. He knew he didn't have time to waste so he carefully took the tape off around the needle and took the needle out with one swift tug. He flinched and held his fingers on it to see if he could stop it from bleeding.
He sat there for a minute and then removed his fingers from the tiny hole. It didn't bleed a lot just like he had hoped for so he quickly got to getting dressed. When he stood up he felt a wave of dizziness hit him. He hadn't stood up since being there and it probably didn't help that he was on a lot of morphine for the pain. He closed his eyes to try and make it go away and stood still for a second. He felt it pass and started to pull the shirt on over his head. He carefully pulled his pants on over his bandaged leg and sat back down on the bed to wait for Chad.
He heard the door knob turn and was relieved to see Chad appear.
"Did you get it?"
"Hell yes I did. I was so stealth man you should have seen it-"
"I hate to interrupt you but we have about forty five minutes till the next nurse comes in to check up on me." Chad nodded and walked over to Troy to help him up out of his bed. Troy put his arm around Chad's shoulders for support and then nodded his head towards the door. They got to the door when Chad put Troy's arm down.
"Wait here while I check to see if the coast is clear." Chad said in his "Spy" voice. Troy couldn't help but smile at his friend. Chad slipped out into the hallway and was gone for about a second before he came back in and grabbed Troy's arm again. They made their way into the hallway looking for a sign to see where they were going.
"Ok she is in room 345, you are in room 335. So, we can't be that far." Chad said quietly. Troy nodded and looked at the room numbers.
"We have to keep going straight. The room numbers get smaller heading my way, so they have to get bigger going that way." Troy said back to him. Chad nodded and continued walking holding Troy to support his weight.
Walking further and further down the hall Troy couldn't help but get tense. Chad must have noticed because he mentioned it as they kept walking.
"It's ok man, I'm sure Gabriella is just fine, and she is waiting for you to come see her." Troy couldn't respond to that because all he could think about was seeing her and just making sure that what Chad was saying was true.
Before Troy knew it they were standing outside of her door. Troy let a long breath escape him as he stood next to Chad.
"Are you ready to do this man?" Chad said looking around to make sure no one was coming.
"Yeah, I am." Troy said quietly.
"Ok, well hurry dude, I mean the have cameras in this place and they might think that we are some crazy killers or something." Chad said nervously. Troy nodded and took his weight off of Chad. Chad made sure that Troy would be ok walking in there by himself and then opened the door for him. Troy wobbled into the room and closed the door quietly behind him.
Oh my gosh! So much love from all of you ! I was so amazed. I really don't hope any of you thought I was mean enough to kill Gabriella…..yet. Ok I wont tease anymore. But thank you for the reviews! I am sorry it took so long to update! I promise that wont happen again! But for now I hope you enjoyed and PLEASE keep reviewing I love it! Thanks again!