A/N: I know it's been a while since I've last updated, but school has made my life really hectic and busy.

Thanks a ton for all the reviews last chapter! You guys are so amazing, you have no clue how much I appreciate everything!

Disclaimer: I do not own Disney or High School Musical and I am in no way affiliated with it.

"Gabriella?" Troy repeated, his heart thumping frantically in his chest. "Oh please, Gabi, answer me…"

In some sort of miracle, Gabriella's voice filtered through the line to Troy's ears.

"Oh, Troy," Gabriella gulped weakly. "Meet m-me at the hospital, o-o-okay?"

Troy quickly feared the worst.

"What? Gabriella, tell me—"

"—Just meet me here, at that h-hospital in the City…." Gabriella stammered.

"Which—"

"—Remember the one where we went when you broke your wrist in Central Park?"

"Er…yeah," Troy answered anxiously, already jogging outside through the snow in the direction of the student parking lot.

"That one. The new one."

"Babe, I…"

"Please—just meet me h-here," Gabriella gasped, subs erupting in her throat. "Pl-Please."

"Okay," Troy agreed finally, panting.

"Okay," Gabriella squeaked before hanging up.

Troy could feel his stomach twisting into a knot inside him. His cerulean eyes were stony as he finally arrived at the student parking lot, approaching his parking space with horror paling his face.

Where the fuck was his car?

Troy reflexively ran his fingers through his damp hair, flakes of snow sprinkling the top of his head as it drifted down from the sky.

And then Troy calmed down once more, remembering that Gabriella didn't have a car. Meaning she would have had to take his. And she had a copy of the keys.

Troy sucked in a deep breath. Everything was going to be okay. Besides the fact that his girlfriend was potentially at the crossroads of life and death, he could get there. He was overreacting, wasn't he?

Breathe, Bolton.

Troy ran to the station, and managed to take a train into the City. It hadn't been the best option, but at the moment, it was his only if he wanted to pay ridiculous amounts of money for a taxi. All he could think about was Gabriella and her safety. She'd be okay, wouldn't she? On the train, Troy found himself pathetically developing fantasies in his head where he would rush into Gabriella's hospital room, see that she had only broken a bone, and he would gather her into his arms and hug her and kiss her and breathe into her hair that thank God she would heal eventually and that she hadn't suddenly fallen ill with some mysterious incurable disease. When Troy Bolton grew nervous, his mind ran reckless and stupid and dramatic.

Troy pushed through the crowd trying to get off the train. He took a taxi to the indicated hospital, and sped through its automatic front doors. He stopped there dumbly, remembering he had no idea on which floor Gabriella was. His eyes scanned the rather full lobby, and they filled with hopelessness, now disheartened.

"Troy, Troy," he heard in an impatient, shaky voice that struck his heart instantly.

Gabriella lunged herself at him from behind, swiveling him around and grasping his strong arms with urgency. Troy gaped at her.

"You're fine," he told her in elated surprise, sweeping a curl away from her face and looking deeply into her eyes.

"It's Melissa who's not fine," Gabriella gulped with terrible unease.

Troy tried to simmer the heat suddenly rising within him; Gabriella's soothing, nimble hands pressed against his chest calmed him in a way that he couldn't put into words.

"Melissa? We're here because of Melissa? That bitch who only gives you a fucking hard time?" Troy shot back crossly.

"That bitch is a bitch, but she's also my sister." Even as she said it, her mouth felt dry and tasted bitter. "Bitches will always be bitches, just like she will always be my sister."

"Half," Troy reminded her as if it didn't already stab Gabriella in the heart every time she referred to Melissa as her 'sister.' Gabriella had always longed for a full sibling, but Melissa was all she had.

"Still."

"You treat her too well," Troy found himself saying. "You treat her too fucking well for the backstabbing asshole she is."

"She has no one else."

"She's not giving you anything, Gabriella," Troy stated sternly, looking hard into her sparkling brown eyes. He saw that they were not sparkling with jollity and radiance, but with sorrowful tears. "She's just taking, taking like the greedy whore she is." Troy knew his fierce words were hurting Gabriella, but she had to hear them. He knew that he could protect her from whatever Melissa would do next to her. Besides, these words would hurt far less than the damage Melissa did to her younger half-sister. Melissa had never been good to her. He had spent the past year hearing about the horrible things Melissa had done to his girlfriend. How could Gabriella forgive such a person? Gabriella only went running back to Melissa because she yearned so much for family. No matter how much it hurt her. Troy had to show her.

And then he saw that unforgivable doe-eyed look to Gabriella's shimmering brown eyes, the eyes that were spilling silently with tears. Her head was tilted up desperately towards his.

"There's no way we can say no to her, Troy. Her baby is coming early."

Troy stifled a rude sigh and ran his fingers through his hair once again.

"It'll be my niece or nephew, Troy. Maybe half, but we're still related, and I'm still going to love it."

Troy looked down at his shoes and then after a moment met Gabriella's steely gaze.

Even with somber tears rolling down her face, her makeup runny and her eyes swollen, she was the most beautiful person in the whole wide world. Troy didn't know what came over him when he pulled her face to his and kissed her sweetly on the lips. His thumb rubbed her cheek, so soft and so smooth, and Gabriella knew that he had surrendered. He reluctantly nodded, and she pulled him toward an elevator.

Troy had to admit that he felt a pang of pity when he saw Melissa in the bed. She looked disgustingly frail and scrunched up in the big white bed, her head poking out drowsily from beneath the layers of blankets. Her eyes shone green in the light, and were half open, half shut.

Gabriella hustled towards her sister and immediately began to fuss over her. Melissa genuinely seemed thankful, and milked the attention.

Troy quietly plopped down into a plastic chair the furthest corner, slouching as he watched Gabriella do too much for the older sister that had done nothing but create trouble for her.

Gabriella fawned over the infant in the little incubator, as scrawny as she was. She had a tuft of coffee-colored hair on her soft head, and her translucent green eyes were the only trait she had of her father's.

The first thing that Melissa thought when she saw the baby was just how much she looked like Gabriella. For some reason she could not articulate, this made her heart sink and her stomach turn over.

"Isn't she beautiful?" Gabriella had whispered lovingly to Melissa, whose forehead was crinkled as she examined her undersized daughter in the clear cage.

She was too beautiful. So beautiful that she needed an ugly name.

Melissa's heart faltered once again.

There was no name in the whole world that was repulsive enough for this surreally fine-looking child.

"What are you going to name her?" Gabriella asked curiously, staring at her sister for the answer.

Melissa shook her head mutely, her eyes glazed and far off.

She wished so much to tell her sister that she hadn't meant half the things that she had said at the play, she had just been so angry at everything and everyone at the time. She still was, but not as much.

Melissa expressionlessly looked at the unnamed baby from her wheelchair once again. For her very own, she had a miniature copy of the person she had envied her entire life. And this miniature copy was most likely going to stick with her, stick to her business like superglue, for the rest of her life.

Melissa gripped the armrests of the wheelchair with sudden force.

"You okay?" came the angelic, caring voice of her sister.

Melissa nodded, and Gabriella wheeled her out of the room.

It was late at night now. Troy was keeling over with sleepiness in that uncomfortable plastic chair, worn-out from the day's startling events. He had cruised through the TV channels, watched a basketball game and a Seinfeld rerun, and then turned it off out of boredom. He dozed off not much longer after, his head lolled back and his legs stretched out in front of him, and that was how Gabriella found him when she and Melissa returned to the room. She nudged him, and Troy awoke to the comforting scent of her perfume.

"I'm going to stay here for the night," Gabriella told him. She glanced back at Melissa, reading a tabloid in the bed. "I'm going to see how she is tomorrow morning, and then go back to Bentley."

"You're going to sleep overnight here?"

"In that chair."

"Not a fucking chance. I'll rent you a hotel room—"

"—No, that's too much trouble and money, Troy—"

"—No, it's not!" he argued back fiercely.

"It is!" Gabriella hissed. "Stop trying to be a gentleman, go back to the school, and sign me in sick for today."

"Stop acting like you never spend money on things like this when you do," Troy snapped all in one gigantic breath.

"You're being so difficult, Troy. I'm not a princess. I do not want to spend money on a hotel room. I would go back to Bentley, but again, I just want to check up on Melissa tomorrow morning, make sure she's fine, and then come back. Is that so much of a problem? One night you'll be alone, okay, Troy? You can handle that, right?"

Troy ended up winning. Gabriella didn't know if it was his charm or witty debate skills. It had had happened so fast.

Troy got her a hotel room in at the Marriott nearby. Gabriella insisted Troy leave her at the lobby elevator, but Troy insisted in turn that he ride up with her. The things he did. Then Gabriella corrected herself. The things he did for her.

The room was the last one down the hall. It was cozy and warm in the December chill, and one big bed sat grandly against the right wall. Two chairs and a wooden desk were situated on the far side of the room, a cabinet with a new TV sitting atop it was across the bed, and a door leading to the bathroom was next to that.

Gabriella released the exhaustion from within her, collapsing onto the bed. It had been so inviting, she couldn't resist. The room's pleasant darkness was lulling her to sleep, and the mattress was cushiony and comfy.

Troy smiled to himself and walked slowly towards the edge of the bed.

"Goodnight, Troy," Gabriella sighed, sounding completely satisfied and relaxed on her bed. Her eyes were already drooping, her body gradually stilling more and more.

Troy really didn't want to say goodnight and goodbye. He sat down gently on the bed, slipping Gabriella's shoes and socks off, sitting them neatly upright on the floor. His gaze drifted towards Gabriella's quiet form, his eyes flickering fixedly up and down her beauty. He leaned cautiously over her, his hot breath warming her skin. Gabriella shivered at the pleasant change of temperature on her cheek. Troy gingerly snaked his arms around her thin body, hugging her close to his chest and kicking his shoes off at the same time. Gabriella felt warm both on the outside and on the inside.

"I want to come back in a few days," Gabriella said sensibly. "Melissa needs me."

Troy wasn't sure what to say, and was fumbling for inoffensive words when Gabriella spoke again.

"I think she's changed, Troy. I think she is going to change because of her baby."

"I hope so," he blurted, but it didn't come out rudely.

"I hope so, too," Gabriella responded in a small voice. Then she sighed, as if letting out all her problems.

"I love you," Troy told her out of the blue.

Gabriella listened to her heart pound wildly in her chest, in her ears, and then she repeated back the same three words with just as much love saturated into them.

Troy's grip on his girlfriend tightened, and he rested his chin in Gabriella's hair. He wished he could see the thought in her eyes at that very moment, but he didn't want to wrench Gabriella out of her deep contemplation. Their intertwined bodies faced a huge window—from floor to ceiling, wall to wall—and a spectacular view of sleepless New York City under a blackened sky.

"I really miss it here sometimes."

"Like now?"

"Like now," Gabriella squeaked. After a peaceful minute of silence, Gabriella mused aloud, "I love all the lights and the signs. I love the busy streets. It lets you know that someone is always going somewhere, that someone is always coming back, that nothing ever stops and nothing ever stops going. That people have places to be, that they have places, that they belong somewhere. I love how alive everything seems. It keeps you alive, assures you you are alive. I love how the buildings are so big and so tall, and how the skyscrapers seem to go so high they reach heaven. It gives you hope in the weirdest way. It feels good to know that something real and harmless can be bigger than you are and reach a good place."

Troy felt her breathe deeply against him, in and out. He liked to know that she was alive, too.

Troy sat up a moment, stripping off his coat and zip-up and finally his shirt. He lay down on the bed on his back, staring up at the plain white ceiling. Gabriella turned around slowly, her limbs tired. Her mouth crinkled, and a hint of a smile was visible on her soft face. Troy's muscular abs glowed at her in the darkness, just only lit up by the lights outside. The flashing red and orange and yellow and green lights were reflected around the hotel room, even onto the floor. Gabriella spotted a single curl of hair peeking out from beneath the top rim of her boyfriend's jeans, both his pants and boxers having sagged too low. More of a smile edged onto Gabriella's serene face. She slowly removed her own jacket and shirt and bra, discarding the items carelessly onto the floor. She lay down next to Troy on the bed, shimmying off her pants and panties. Troy, having seen her do this, did the same.

Gabriella's heart halted in her chest at the feel of her naked skin rubbing against Troy's, in such an inexplicably intimate way. Troy framed her calm face with his hands as he hovered over her, peering down into her brown eyes.

"I'm going to love you like you've never been loved," Troy promised, and Gabriella nodded, and he did.

Gabriella awoke in the middle of the night. She couldn't remember how or why; but all of sudden, her eyes were blinking, and she was staring at an assortment of bright lights over a street through a wide window. She heard cars rushing by along the street, and a distant elevator ding. These background noises were familiar, and thus soothing. She turned to her other side, her eyes hitting Troy's nude back. She scooted closer to his larger figure in the darkness, and pressed the left side of her face to his warm skin. Troy shifted at the feel, turning over completely. Suddenly, he too was blinking—and he was awake, to his surprise.

"Hey," he muttered softly to her.

Gabriella slid closer to her lover, a full smile on her face that she couldn't explain. Troy's arms looped around her, pulling her close.

"I don't want to go back to school tomorrow."

"You mean, today?"

"Don't remind me," Gabriella groaned in repulsion. Troy opened his mouth to say something, but Gabriella interjected. "—And we have to go back."

"How do always know what I'm going to say?"

"I thought you would be the one to know. You're always the one who knows what I'm going to say."

Troy only placed a chaste kiss on her soft lips. "I guess we're just made for one another."