Detecting Past Truths

A High School Musical Fanfiction

Epilogue: Five Years Later

Gabriella was just getting the turkey out of the oven when the door bell rang. She quickly placed the twenty pound bird on the counter when she heard Chad call out from the living room.

"I'll get it!"

"Thanks!", she called back.

She turned around and removed her apron just as Sharpay walked into the kitchen carrying a pie pan in each hand.

"Happy Thanksgiving", she said genially. "Where do you want me to put the pies?"

"Oooo, those look great, but I told you not to bother. You're way too busy these days to worry with baking pies."

"It was really no trouble. Pecan pie is my specialty and mincemeat just requires opening a can."

"Well, just put them on the sideboard. And you're right on time; I'm just letting the turkey cool and we'll be ready. Where's Troy?"

"He'll be right in."

"Where is she?", called an excited voice from the sunroom. Taylor entered the kitchen and rushed over to envelop Sharpay in a warm hug. "You look so good; I could scratch your eyes out. It took me..."

"...two years to get my figure back, yada yada", joked Sharpay as they ended the hug. "I was there, remember? It did not take two years, Taylor. You were looking great before Corbin was even crawling."

"Well, you know I really don't give a darn about talking to you. Where. Is. Olivia?"

"Troy should be in any second. Chad went to help him." Then, Sharpay turned back to Gabriella and asked, "Where's everyone else?"

Gabriella answered the question casually, but it was obvious for whom Sharpay was really asking. "Oh, Jeremy's gone to pick up another bag of ice and the kids are in the backyard destroying the pile of leaves that poor Jeremy spent the morning raking up. Katie's keeping an eye on them."

"Do you mind...?", Sharpay inquired quietly as she motioned her head towards the back door.

"Not at all. We've got everything under control. Right, Tay?"

"You betcha. Once the ice gets here, we're ready to rock this bird", Taylor replied with a grin.

Sharpay paused on her way out the door. "You need more girl time, girlfriend. You're sounding more and more like Chad everyday. And it's disturbing."

Gabriella nodded silently in agreement.

"They've really come a long way, haven't they?", Taylor asked while motioning towards the door Sharpay just exited.

Gabriella started taking out plates for the buffet they were setting up around the kitchen island.

"Oh my, yes. There was a time when I really didn't think we'd be here."

"Amen to that."

Suddenly, a loud door slam, followed by Chad's bellowing complaints echoed into the house.

"What do you have in here anyway, man? Bricks?"

"It's just all the stuff that you need for a baby, Chad", answered Troy voice. "You should know all about that, Super Dad."

"Hey, I hardly ever wear that shirt anymore", Chad replied with a slight pout in his voice.

Gabriella and Taylor looked at each other in anticipation and then, simultaneously squeal, "Baby!"

They both go flying into the living room in search of their prize.

"Where is that precious baby girl?", Taylor cooed in her very best faux baby voice.

Troy who was still holding the baby carrier straightened up proudly, but then a small frown came over his face. "She's right here, but you might not think she's so precious right now."

Then, he held the carrier, baby and all, up to his face and said in his best faux baby voice, "I dink you did a wuttle stinky, didn't you sweetie? What do you say? Where's Mommy?"

The two month old baby was snuggled comfortable in her Eddie Bauer infant carrier and rewarded her father's silly dialog by grinning brightly and blowing bubbles while she cooed back at him. Olivia had huge amounts of hair for a two month old and it was put into two tiny blond pig tales, high on her head. Her eyes were still that newborn dark blue color and her chubby little cheeks announced to the world, "My mommy nurses me!"

"Don't you dare, Troy Bolton", admonished Gabriella. "We haven't forgotten how to change a diaper and we'd be glad to help out. Right, Tay?"

"Of course. Where's her diaper bag?", asked Taylor.

"I don't know about a diaper bag, but here's her overnight bag, gym bag and school backpack all rolled into one." Chad handed over the Bolton's Juicy Couture baby bag by hefting it up with an exaggerated sigh, as if it weighed 50 pounds.

"Oh, Chad", Taylor reprimanded her husband, "It can't possible be that heavy." She accepted the bag while Gabriella lifted the baby out of the carrier. "Omf, I take that back, honey. What is in this bag? That baby's only two months old. She's not even eating solids yet."

"Oh, don't you worry your pretty little head about it, Livie. They're just jealous is all. Yes, they are. They wish they could afford a Juicy Couture bag for themselves, isn't that right?" That earned Gabriella a smile as she continued her baby babble while she carried little Olivia Bolton down the hall.

Once they were alone, Chad turned to Troy. "So what is in that bag, anyway?"

"Chad, just lay off the bag, okay?"

Chad held up his hands, palms out. "Alright, alright. Let's change the subject... so... are things back to normal between you and Sharpay yet?"

"Uh?", Troy asked as they both took a seat.

"You know", Chad winked. "Back. to. normal."

"Oh", Troy exclaimed when he finally got it. "That's none of your business ...". Then Troy beamed a big smile back at his life-long friend and added, "But yeah, things are way better than normal."

They, of course, were talking about one of the two things that all men always talk about when they're together: sex and sports. And since Sharpay cared absolutely nothing about sports...

"I know what you mean. Absence makes the heart (and other things) grow fonder."

Just then, they heard the back door open and Jeremy call out that he was back with the ice.

"Hey man, how are you?", Jeremy said as walked into the room with a bottle of beer in his hand. "You guys want one?"

"Heck, yeah", confirmed Chad.

After Jeremy retrieved beer for the other two, he rejoined them. "So Chad, I read your final piece in that series of articles you did about corruption in the county housing system. Great body of work. One of your best."

"Thanks, man. And to think I owe it all to Vance Evans. Actually, our whole family owes Vance Evans. I wrote the article and Taylor prosecuted the case. Yep, that man single-handedly started Corbin on his college fund. We both got raises because of that man."

"Well, it was a good thing you did, really. And how about you Troy? In five years you've shifted your focus from cheating spouses to missing persons. That's got to be much more gratifying."

"Yeah, it is... as long the missing person isn't a cheating spouse. That's happened more than once, but Sharpay has an inner sense when it comes to these things and she usually steers us away from those cases."

"No offense man, but I can't believe she gave up Hollywood for you", Chad commented as he took a swig of his beer.

"She didn't exactly give it up, Chad. She still does an occasional charity concert and she's signed on to do a movie next summer. All three of us will go with her to film on location in France."

"Sounds like a lot of babysitting to me."

"Sounds like a loving husband to me", Taylor said as she reenter the room with the diaper bag in one hand and an oblong plastic device in the other.

Then, Gabriella came twirling into the room with little Olivia giggling like mad.

"Troy, why, exactly, do you carry an ear thermometer in your diaper bag?" She is holding up a rather large digital ear thermometer.

"In case Olivia gets sick. We need to be able to tell, right?"

"Oh, then that also explains the baby Tylenol, baby Motrin, mylicon drops, baby Dimetapp, baby Benadryl (both liquid and ointment), bulb syringe, saline drops, antibiotic ointment, bandaids, gauze bandages, temporary splint, triangle bandage, SPF 100 sunscreen, and finally, a tooth repair kit. Does the child even have any teeth yet?"

"Well, no, but it never hurts to be prepared."

"Not to mention...", contributes Gabriella, "the four complete sets of designer baby clothes, the Gymboree blankets (two of them) and the Baby Banz sunglasses."

Troy sat up a little straighter. "Now, those were Sharpay's ideas. I told her she had too many clothes in there."

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Sharpay quietly walked into the backyard and immediately saw Katie sitting in one of the two swings on the set while the boys, her two brothers and Taylor and Chad's son, five year old Corbin, played in the leaf pile. They were currently searching for any unsuspecting worms hidden in the leaves that they could torment.

"Hi, Katie. How are you?", Sharpay said quietly.

"Oh, hi, Sharpay. I'm fine. Isn't it a beautiful day?", Katie replied.

"Yes, it certainly is."

Sharpay took the other swing and they stayed that way in companionable silence for a while. Although logically Sharpay realized that she couldn't take any credit for how Katie turned out, she still felt an inner sense of pride at what a fine young woman she was becoming. Katie had managed to grow at least three more inches since they'd become reacquainted five years ago. And now at almost 18, she towered over Sharpay at an even 5 feet, 9 inches. She had grown into that height with curves in all the right places, some more than others. Sharpay had no earthly idea where Katie got her chest, but it certainly wasn't from her. She started having her hair streaked during the summer and it was a great look for her and, although Sharpay would never admit it out loud, it made them look more alike. There was a time when Katie would have gone to almost any lengths to distance herself from her mother. This made Sharpay think back to five years ago.

A week after she signed away her parental rights, everyone, the adults, that is, decided it was time to tell Katie the truth. What sounded simple, wasn't. What should have been a joyous occasion of the adoption finally coming to fruition, wasn't. What it was, was many hours of teenage, hormone-driven screaming and shouting left with no resolution and only sad outlooks for the future. To say that Katie didn't take the news well would be the understatement of the century. Words like "lies", "abandoned", "not wanted", "a mistake" were followed by even harsher language which culminated in "I hate all of you." This epiphany was directed at Sharpay and, Gabriella and Jeremy. Of course, it actually made no sense for Katie to take this out on adopted parents, but Katie was a teenaged girl and they aren't known for their logic.

Then, she reserved the most cutting blow of all for Sharpay. Katie turned on her birth mother and spit out, "I thought you were dead. That's the only thing that made sense to me. Why else would someone gift me up only to have me trapped in this foster care limbo? Where the people who actually do love me aren't allowed to legally adopt me? Well, you know what? I wish you really were dead!"

Surprisingly, Troy was the only one with whom she would speak. Katie thought of him as an outside party since he wasn't one of her three parents. He took Katie out to local park so they could talk alone. There he told her all about her dad, Zeke, and what a truly great guy he was. Troy assured her that if Zeke hadn't died, the three of them would have been a fantastic family. And Sharpay really wasn't to blame. She was an 18 year old girl, alone in the world, and she did what she thought was best for Katie. No one had any idea things would turn out the way they did.

Maybe it was what Troy said or how he said it or his eloquence or maybe, just maybe, even 13 year old girls aren't immune to those striking blue eyes. Whatever it was, Katie agreed to come back to the house and talk to everyone (without screaming). She did. It started out slowly, but gradually over the next few months she and Sharpay got to know each other and actually got to like each other. Sharpay would never replace Gabriella in Katie's eyes and Sharpay didn't want to. She understood that the time for that had well passed.

"So, have you given any more thought on where you want to go to college?", Sharpay asked casually. She really wanted Katie to go to Juliard since that was, at one time, her own dream, but the girl had a mind of her own.

The lights came on in Katie's eyes when she turned to Sharpay and said, "Oh yes, I'm absolutely sure this time. I know I said some things about drama, but really, Sharpay, I'm not nearly as gifted as you are." She paused for a second to ready the moment. "Okay, here it is. I want to go to culinary school."

The expression on Sharpay's face never wavered, but her heart hit rock bottom. "Really?", she said in disbelief.

"Yes, it's something I've been messing around with secretly for a few years now. I just love to bake! In fact I have an appointment for an interview with the The French Culinary Institute in New York City next week." Then, her face inexplicably fell.

Sharpay reached an comforting hand over and touched her shoulder. "What's wrong, baby?"

"Well, Dad's traveling to California next week and Mom has this really big meeting up in Sante Fe on Wednesday, so I probably won't be able to go."

"I'll go with you" was out of Sharpay's mouth in a heartbeat. "That is, if you don't mind that Olivia goes with us. We're sort of attached right now", she said with a shrug.

Katie looked stunned. "Really? That'd be great, but I'm surprised. I-I mean, not that you aren't great or anything, but I know how important it was to you for me to pursue something in the performing arts. I'm surprised you're giving me this kind of support because, to tell the truth, Mom and Dad aren't. You see", she took a deep breath and a dreamy look came over her, "I have this dream to make the world's most perfect crème brûlée. Have you ever had that?"

Sharpay turned her head away to hide the tears shining in her eyes. Even after all these years...

She managed to choke out, "Yeah, yeah, I have; it's one of my favorites."

"Are you okay, Sharpay? You sound odd."

Sharpay stood up and blinked away the tears before turning back to her daughter. "I'm fine, Katie." Sharpay managed a weak smile.

Katie hopped off the swing and ran over to Sharpay. "Great! Maybe I could make some after dinner. Would you like that?"

"I'd love that. Thank you." Her smile was genuine.

She took Katie's hand and they started to walk towards the house just as Troy opened to door to call everyone into dinner. He noticed immediately that something was distressing his wife, so he gently guided her off to the side while the others entered the house.

"You okay, babe?", he asked with concern.

"I'll be fine in a minute. You won't believe it, Troy. It's that whole nature/nurture thing." Troy handed her a handkerchief and she dabbed at her eyes without smearing her makeup.

"Uh? You lost me, Sharpay."

"It's Katie. S-she wants to be a chef. And you won't believe what her specialty is", she choked out. Her tears were definitely a combination of post-pregnancy hormones and deep seated memories. Sharpay still didn't allow herself to become overly emotion in public.

Troy remembered very clearly the day that Zeke confessed his deepest and darkest secret to his two best friends. He was a closet chef. Zeke loved to bake and his favorite dish was...

"Crème brûlée?"

"Yeah...", she said sadly. "Zeke gave me a dish of it the night he gave me the ring." Sharpay involuntarily looked down at her left hand where her promise ring sat for 14 years. Now, her wedding ring and the diamond solitaire that Troy gave her for their engagement was on that finger. She suddenly looked up guiltily when she realized what she was doing.

Troy reached over and took her hand. "Don't worry about Shar. You loved Zeke for a long time. I don't expect you to just forget about him. I know you love me now."

"You know I'm not really sure if I loved him or I loved the memory of him. We had such a short time together." She sighed and looked towards the door. "But I do know this... I love you and Olivia with every fiber of my being and that's never going to change."

Troy beamed down at her and gave her hand a squeeze. "Come on, babe. They're waiting for us."

"Our whole life is waiting for us."

The End

That's all, folks! Hope you liked it. If you've been waiting to review until the end... well, this is it. Please take the time to push that little button.

I know some of you may be disappointed that Sharpay didn't 'get' Katie, but she's not a possession to be fought over and it just wouldn't have been right.

Hey, there's another one-shot based on those Elle pics. This one's called "The Fence" by secretcastle. Go check it out. It's great, just like all her stories.