Disclaimer: I do not own 'High School Musical' or any related characters.

A/N: I want to thank everyone for their reviews so far! I realize that this story may be a touchy subject for a few people and I hope that at some point I do it justice! Anyway, I want to clear something up before you all delve into the next chapter. In the prologue when I mentioned Troy's girlfriend, I never actually said that it was Gabriella; I just said he had one! So I hope none of you were too confused by that because I didn't realize the story was that confusing! Before you all ask, yes it is a Troy/Gabriella story! I do feel slightly weird writing Troy/Sharpay too but that's how the cookie crumbles!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the new chapter and MTLFM should be up soon as well!

Still Frame Memory

Chapter Two

The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives - Albert Schweitzer

He hadn't dreamt.

Troy wasn't sure whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that he hadn't dreamt about the accident and he knew that he didn't want to find out. The thought of remembering what had happened before the ambulance and the police had arrived at the scene made him nervous for a reason that Troy wasn't sure he understood. He could only assume there was a reason that he didn't remember what had gone on in that short period of time between the impact and the arrivals and that reason was something Troy didn't want to remember at all.

At least, he was sure that the reason he couldn't remember was why he didn't want to remember.

Wanting to groan and then realizing that maybe it wasn't a good idea to, Troy turned his head to look out the window. The sun was lower in the sky now and Troy could only assume that it was approaching late afternoon as he watched a school girl skip up the path towards the entrance of the hospital. As he watched her, he wondered how she could look so happy when the place she was visiting was so clinical and depressing. Even though he was in a private room and he wasn't surrounded by anyone else, Troy understood the suffering that occurred within it. From cancer patients through to day patients, he was aware of the pain that they all went through. He was somewhat surprised that he had been there for only a day and yet, he could understand something like that.

Troy watched the girl curiously as she came to a stop just before he would have lost sight of her and motioned for the person she was in front of to hurry up. Troy's attention switched from the little girl to the person following her and he took in a sharp breath at the sight of the tall, dark haired man that was following her and grinning slightly. It was a normal, warm sight and Troy couldn't understand why his chest tightened at it. He couldn't understand why his thoughts immediately turned to –

"Troy?" The sound of Barbara's voice had him jerking his eyes away from the father and daughter and to his doorway, where she stood looking at him kindly.

"Uh…yeah?" He asked, coughing slightly as she continued to look at him sympathetically. He didn't know why she was looking at him like that and had been completely unaware that when Barbara had walked into the room, she had been struck by the sadness of the picture he had made staring out the window, broken nearly beyond repair but still whole. It was a paradox that she didn't wish upon anyone.

"You have some visitors." She said quietly and Troy nodded, glancing around the room and hoping that they didn't bring presents

His room, while he had been asleep, had been brightened considerably by the array of flowers that had been sent to him during the week he had been in a coma. The emotionless white was now a simple backdrop against the bright colors that made up the flowers. Even brighter than the flowers were dozens of get well cards that were from family members and school friends, some of which he knew others he didn't, they stood proudly in front of the flowers and upon waking up a little over thirty minutes ago, Troy had wished for the clinically emotionless room he had originally woken up too. The bright, cheerful colors were beginning to be too much to handle.

"Well it's about time you woke up!" Startled, Troy glanced up from his expressionless examination of the colors and looked even more surprised as he drank in the sight of Chad Danforth.

Chad stood in the middle of the doorway, where Barbara had been only seconds before, wearing a bright smile and a shirt that was as loud and obscene as his personality. The shirt was one that Troy had seen before and had laughed at, now he only stared at it, almost thoughtfully Troy reacquainted himself with Chad's gleaming face and cheerful brown eyes.

"Hi Chad." He said and was surprised when Chad's face dropped slightly at his greeting. He wondered why his friends face had dropped and then raised his eyebrows when Chad suddenly stumbled forward and a blonde blur flew into the room.

"Baby! We t-thought you were dead!" Troy let out a loud yelp as Sharpay Evans launched herself onto his aching chest and clung tightly to his neck. He sent a pleading look to Chad as Sharpay sobbed into his chest, who shrugged helplessly.

"Sharpay…your hurting me!" Troy hadn't realized how loud he'd yelled until Barbara stepped through the doorway and her face became tight at the sight of the sobbing girl on a patient.

"Young lady, I will have to ask you to remove yourself from Troy. He broke his ribs and at the moment you are certainly going to make it worse." Barbara's frosty words had Sharpay jerking away from his and Troy stared at it.

Tearstains ran down her cheeks as she sniffled and Troy's eyes swept over the ruined make-up and knew that it said a lot about Sharpay's personality. For a moment, one heartless moment, Troy wondered if his girlfriend of two years was just putting her acting skills to use and playing the part of the distressed girlfriend. The moment he'd thought it, Troy pushed it away, feeling guilty that he'd even thought about something like that.

"S-sorry. Its just t-that-" Chad cut Sharpay off as he settled himself into the hard plastic seat that the hospital offered to visitors.

"We all thought you were dead. You've been out for a week, Troy. It's been a while." Chad said and all Troy could do was nod as he allowed Sharpay to lace their fingers together and hold onto his hand for dear life, reminding Troy of his mother.

"Well I'm not." The bland statement had Chad blinking and Sharpay's tears flowing again. This time Troy could only assume that it was out of relief and not distress.

"And thank god for that! You have no idea how worried we all were Troy. When your mom rang me up the morning after and told me what had happened, I freaked." Sharpay said and Troy nodded, glancing once again out the window and sighing softly when he saw that the father and daughter he had seen before had gone, no doubt seeing the mother that completed the trio.

"Oh. You were still at the party right?" Sharpay gave Troy an odd look as he asked the question. It was almost disbelieving but she quickly rearranged her features to appear sympathetic rather than incredulous.

"Uh-huh. Don't you remember? I told you I was going to stay so you only had to deal with one drunk instead of two." Troy winced slightly at the mention of the other person who he had been responsible for that night. He noticed the way Sharpay and Chad exchanged a glance of worry at his reaction to even an allusion to Daniel and wondered if he should call them out for it and then thought better of it.

"Sorry. I don't. How's school been?" The deliberate change in subject should have been a signal for both Chad and Sharpay to leave the subject of that night alone. Instead, Sharpay pressed on, whether or not she got the hint Troy didn't know.

"You've got to remember something. It's not like its something that you forget," Sharpay said, ignoring Chad's warning hiss. "I mean, your mom said that you were conscious when the ambulance arrived and your doctor said that you shouldn't have a loss of memory or anything-"

She was cut off harshly by Chad, who was watching as Troy's face grew blanker and blanker, what little emotion he had displayed when they had arrived disappearing as Sharpay rambled.

"Sharpay shut the hell up." He snapped and Troy shifted as Sharpay turned to glare at Chad. "Schools been okay. Everyone was pretty shocked when we heard what had happened. Matsui actually held an assembly as a way of telling everyone what had happened." Troy wasn't sure if he felt grateful or not for Chad answering his question. In fact, Troy wasn't altogether sure he wanted to see Sharpay and Chad at all. He wasn't sure if he wanted to deal with people who wanted to talk about it. Something Sharpay obviously wanted to do, badly.

"Oh. What'd he say during it?" Troy asked, turning his face away from Sharpay and concentrating on Chad, who shrugged at the question.

"Not much. Just that you and Dan had been in accident and well…you know," Chad said cautiously and when Troy didn't react, he continued, "and how we should all be respectful of you when you came back and then he had both the juniors and the seniors stay back. We had the counselor sprout some bullshit about how it's alright to grieve and it's only natural. Then Matsui got up again and told us that no matter what, we were to be kind and respectful to Gabriella Montez. Because she lost someone as well and would be feeling it more than any of us." Chad said and Troy felt something inside him wrench. Gabriella. Gabriella Montez. Daniels sister. Daniel's much loved sister.

"Troy? Are you alright?" Sharpay's worried voice broke through his thoughts and Troy looked at her. Slowly, he nodded.

"Yeah. Yeah. Fine." He nodded hastily and chose to ignore the look that Sharpay sent him. One that told him she didn't believe him at all.

"Anyway, that's how that went down and then we all went to class. Jason asked the dumbest question and all tension was broken. It was easier laughing than thinking." The thought was a deep one and Troy knew that if he didn't know Chad as well as he did he would have never believed it had come from the boy with the ready smile and easy manner. Instead of questioning Chad, he nodded, accepting the comment for a statement of the truth instead of something that was unexpected.

"Only Jason could do that. What else has been going on?" Troy asked and Chad shrugged, glancing at Sharpay who took it as her cue to speak.

"Not much believe it or not. Darbus' has got it in her head that she wants to do 'The Wizard of Oz' for the musical and Ryan and I are trying desperately to convince her that it's more than a really bad idea," Troy nodded, his mind clicking slightly at the mention of her twin brother and his homeroom teacher.

"No sparkles in that ay, Shar?" Chad quipped and hoped for at least a grin from Troy. His stomach dropped when a small, amused smile passed across Troy's lips as Sharpay huffed and played with his fingers.

"That's not the point Danforth. The point is I doubt anyone we have would be good enough to play Dorothy and a live dog in the theatre? Dream on." Sharpay scoffed and Troy frowned at her, narrowing one eye as he thought about what she'd said.

"Don't you take your dog to theatre anyway?" He asked and Sharpay let out an exaggerated breath that triggered something in Troy he chose to ignore.

"So not the point Troy! Ryan and I are actually thinking 'Mama Mia!' but its going to take a little convincing before Darbus agrees." Sharpay said. Chad coughed slightly and Troy had a feeling he was trying to cover a laugh at what Troy was sure were his thoughts on how 'gay' 'Mama Mia!' was.

"Sharpay, how many people from the drama club who aren't gay will willingly become involved in something like 'Mama Mia!'?" Chad asked obnoxiously and Troy snorted slightly at his question, finding it a rather good point as Sharpay pouted.

"Meryl Streep did it! So did Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan and heaps of other people!" Sharpay defended the choice of musical as Chad and Troy exchanged an amused glance that had Chad's stomach rising slightly as he felt some normality within what was happening at the current moment.

"Sure Sharpay and they're all grown men, comfortable with their sexuality and don't see 'Mamma Mia!' as a way of coming out." Troy replied and Chad was the one who snorted this time. Sharpay rolled her eyes, apparently at the immaturity of the boys and Chad and Troy once again exchanged a glance.

Silence slowly fell over the room and Troy found himself falling out of the façade of normality which he had found himself in as Sharpay had spoken. Glancing around the room again, Troy found his mind returning to Gabriella. How had he forgotten she had existed? He wondered, he had been awake and alert for nearly two days and yet, he had never once thought about the Montez family. What did that make him? Did it make him a horrible person for not even thinking about someone else? Or was he avoiding thinking about them because he hadn't even begun to suffer yet?

Troy sighed and then glanced at the doorway when he heard a quite knock echo through the silence that had been left after they had stopped speaking.

"Barbara. Why are you here?" Troy asked and she once again smiled kindly at him before speaking.

"There's a young lady here to see you Troy." She said and before Troy could respond, Barbara had once again disappeared and this time was replaced with someone who Troy hadn't expected to see. Ever.

His eyes swept over the tumbling brown curls, nervous brown eyes and whitening lip as his breath caught in his throat.

"Gabriella." He choked out and watched as she jumped slightly at her name. Her eyes swung from the flowers to him and Troy watched as she blanched slightly before releasing her lip and speaking.

"Hi." She said softly and Troy struggled to sit up straighter as she took another step into the room and silence once again fell over them.

They had gotten out of there as soon as they could. Not only had it felt completely awkward to be around Troy while he was awake, neither of them had known what to do when Gabriella had walked into the room. Escape had seemed like a damn good option when silence had once again fallen over them.

Sharpay walked beside Chad silently, her heels clicking on the marble floors of the hospital reception as they silently made their way to the car park. As they stepped out into the warm afternoon air, she turned to look at him, wanting to at least hear his thoughts on what had happened within the room they had left only minutes before.

Chad seemed to sense what she wanted to speak about and raised his hand as a way of telling her not to talk.

"I told you it would be weird." He said quietly and Sharpay wrapped her arms around herself and nodded in assent.

"I know. I just didn't think that it would be that weird. He's so…different." Sharpay said and Chad let out a harsh, cynical laugh that Sharpay cringed at.

"What'd you expect Shar? That he would still be Troy? He was in a car accident that not only messed him up badly but killed one of his best friends. I think we're lucky he was even speaking to us." Chad said and Sharpay winced slightly at his words. Knowing that he was right in saying that but unwilling to acknowledge it.

"Why do you think that?" She asked quietly and Chad shrugged, looking from the blonde in front of him to the lined cars that sat opposite them. He wasn't sure Sharpay was equipped to deal with Troy anymore than he was at the moment and then sighed. She might as well know what he was thinking before somebody else spat it out.

"Because Troy's been known to shut people out completely when something bad happens to him and this is worse than bad, Shar, this is worse than worse. What happened to him…is something that I doubt any of us can actually imagine enduring. So for us to go in there and actually be able to get him to speak is something we should be grateful for." Chad said and then wished he hadn't when Sharpay let out a soft sob at his words.

Because they'd been comforting each other ever since they'd both found out, Chad didn't hesitate to pull Sharpay into a hug. Rubbing her back soothingly as she sobbed against his chest.

"H-he's so different. I-I want the o-old Troy b-back." She sobbed against his chest and Chad sighed, biting his lip and trying to push away any cynicism. For a moment, he wondered how Sharpay was going to survive being Troy's girlfriend for the next couple of months if she was breaking down after being in a hospital room with him for less than twenty minutes.

"I know Shar." Chad sighed and Sharpay's sobs ceased slightly at his low voice. They stood there as she calmed herself even more and Chad waited for her to speak again before he pulled away.

"Its like something inside him died." She whispered mournfully. Chad squeezed his eyes shut at her words, her words were a painful acknowledgement of something that neither of them had wanted to think about while Troy had lain in a coma.

They'd both wanted to old Troy back instead they had received someone who was dead almost as much as he was alive.

A/N: Damn. It's sad isn't it? Anyway, who wants to kill me because Gabriella walked into the room, yet you all have absolutely no idea what's going to happen next? Because I hope that's your reaction. It seemed a bit…awkward when I wrote it. Anyway, the next chapter of MTLFM should be up in the next couple of days so I hope you enjoyed it and as I mentioned in the prologue, I would love to hear your thoughts because this isn't an easy subject to write about and I would love to know how I'm going with it!