So, I'm back!

I said I would be away for a while and although I didn't plan on it being this long, I'm not gonna apologise for it.

Big massive thank you to Angkeats, she gave some great help and ideas for this story, I only hope I don't disappoint her or you.

Well, here goes nothing…I don't own anything, but I do hope that you enjoy chapter one of Crashing Down.

Crashing Down

Troy Bolton is a tall, sandy haired, blue eyed man, who just turned twenty four on October eighteenth. A little over a year ago, his parents were killed in a tragic car accident and now he's in charge of his four younger siblings. He runs and owns his own garage were he fixes and sells cars, but claims that looking after his siblings and keeping them all in order is much more demanding.

Shane and Andy Bolton turned twenty two back in July and luckily for the people around them, aren't identical, although sometimes they wish they were. Oh, the fun they could have. They're currently studying business and sports management at the University of Albuquerque and already own a building with land which they hope to turn into a sports centre when they graduate. Although they can be mischievous and cheeky, eight times out of ten, the boys do as Troy asks and keep to the basic house rules he has set out.

Anthony Bolton is going to turn nineteen on January first and is currently on a basketball scholarship at the University of Albuquerque, following in the footsteps of his Dad and eldest brother. Unlike his Dad, who also studied teaching and his brother, who also studied business and mechanics, Anthony solely studies basketball and wants to make it his career for as long as his body will allow. Although playing is what he enjoys the most, Anthony knows it's about the theory work he does as well and with graduating from high school with top grades, he's hoping to be able to do the same with university.

Isabelle Bolton, the only girl left in the household, is going to turn seventeen on November twenty ninth. She's just started her junior year in high school and is a top grade student, who's hoping to go onto university and study to become a vet. Izzy, as she's often known, is very quiet and keeps herself to herself, mainly because she's the youngest of five and the only girl, but this hasn't done her any favours while trying to make friends at school and has even meant she won't talk to Troy about things or is hesitant to be in the same room as all of her brothers when they're being loud and boisterous. There is one person she'll talk to though, Gabriella Montez, Troy's girlfriend.

Gabriella Montez is about to turn twenty four on December fourteenth, although celebrating is the furthest thing from her mind. Barely two months ago, Gabriella's father suddenly passed away, it was at the same time, that her mother Maria, found out that her breast cancer had returned. Despite his parents' death still being hard for him to talk about, Troy helped Gabriella and Maria to arrange Carlos' funeral and even helped them sort through his belongings. Troy and Gabriella first met when she joined East High at the beginning of their senior year, the pair soon got to know each other and became fast friends, they didn't become official though, until the end of their freshman year of college, when they'd both passed their business class with flying colours. Gabriella owns and runs her own mini petting farm and stables, where she also teaches horse riding, but most of her time is currently being spent by Maria's bedside at the hospital, where her weak body is slowly giving up its fight, the cancer is terminal, there's no more the doctors can do.

Now that you know all of this, I believe I have prepared you enough to begin the story.

TGTGTGTG

It was quiet, too quiet. Izzy was still at school, Anthony was round a friend's playing basketball and Shane and Andy weren't due back from work for another hour, it was a rare moment of alone time for Troy and he was going to take full advantage. He'd prepared their evening meal which was waiting in the oven to be cooked when it was wanted and their wasn't any urgent washing or ironing that needed to be done, time to kick back and watch TV. Finding a re-run of a basketball game, Troy relaxed back into the sofa and watched the game, while half heartedly checking through his emails on his laptop. Twenty minutes later and Troy's phone started to ring, after checking his caller I.D to find that it was Gabriella calling he answered it with a smile.

"Hey Brie, how's your Mum?"

"I…she…she's gone." Troy knew that could only mean one thing, Maria's body had given up its fight.

"Sweetheart, I'm so sorry." Gabriella choked back a sob down the phone line and Troy felt his heart break at not being there with her.

"Will…will you come?"

"Yeah, of course, I'll just leave a note for the others and then I'll be there." Troy had already turned off the telly and shut down his laptop and was in the kitchen writing a note for his siblings.

"Just ask the nurses where I am," Gabriella was trying to stop crying, but Troy could tell by her sniffling that she hadn't succeeded.

"Alright honey, I'll be there soon, I love you."

"I love you too Troy, thank you."

TGTGTGTG

He'd driven as fast as he could, as fast as the speed limits would allow, but it had still taken him half an hour to get there, ten minutes longer than he'd estimated. He'd parked his car in the first available space and sprinted up the stairs, the lift would take him too long. He slowed to a walk when he arrived on the ward and smiled slightly when he saw Marie was sitting at the nurse's station. Marie had been one of the main nurse's looking after Maria in her final days, but while doing that she'd also taken care of Gabriella, making sure she ate and drank when Troy wasn't around to make her.

Hearing footsteps approach, Marie lifted her head to see Troy walking towards her and stood up to greet him.

"Is she okay? Well obviously she's not okay, but I told her I'd get here soon and the traffic was bad so I took longer than I thought and…"

"Troy its fine, calm down. I'm just filling out some paper work while the others are taking all of the medical equipment out of Maria's room and making her presentable and then Gabriella can go in and spend some time with her, that's when she'll need you the most Troy."

"Yeah I know…where is she?"

"She's in the relative's room, it's just at the end of this corridor, I'll come and get you both when we're ready for you." Troy nodded in understanding and made his way down the corridor to find Gabriella.

Opening the door to the relative's room, Troy found Gabriella curled up in the corner, under a blanket, staring blankly out of the window. Silently he made his way over to her and knelt down in front of her, moving her hair behind her ears and wiping the tear stains off of her face.

"I was about to phone you," Gabriella told him quietly as she flipped her phone around in her hands.

"I'm sorry sweetheart, I drove as fast as I could but the traffic was bad."

"It's okay, you're here now," Gabriella's voice was incredibly quiet as she put her phone back in her bag and then uncurled her legs and put them on the floor, leaving room for Troy to wiggle in between them. It was quiet for a while as Gabriella played with Troy's fingers and refused to look him in the eye, but finally she gave in and looked into those electric blue depths she loved so much.

Just as she'd predicted, the tears she'd tried so hard to banish came flooding back, but this time Gabriella wasn't alone. She allowed Troy to take her into his arms, as she buried herself against him, holding onto him as if her life depended on it.

All Troy could do was hold Gabriella as the heart broken sobs racked through her body and she trembled with the stress and fatigue of the situation. He ran a comforting hand through her hair as he rubbed the other up and down her back in hope of warming her up and calming her trembles. It was about ten minutes later, when Troy had moved so that he was now sitting next to Gabriella, that the door opened and Marie popped her head in.

"Gabi when you're ready you can go and say your goodbyes to your Mum," Gabriella nodded blindly in understanding, not turning to look at Marie, but keeping herself firmly buried against Troy. Troy thanked the nurse who then left them in peace again as he waited for Gabriella to tell him she wanted to say her goodbyes, he couldn't rush her with this, it had to be something she did in her own time.

"You'll stay with me right?" She asked the question as if she'd doubted that he would.

"You know I will, I won't leave your side, I promise."

"Good 'cause I can't do this by myself."

"That's okay then, because you don't have to." Troy said as he stood up and helped Gabriella up too, knowing this was her telling him that she was ready to say goodbye.

TGTGTGTG

The car ride from the hospital to Gabriella's flat was quiet, as the lack of sleep from staying with her Mum began to catch up with her and she began to droop. Arriving at her flat Troy sat her on the bed and told her to instruct him on what she wanted to bring back to his with her, there was no way he was letting her stay here by herself, the others would understand, they understood all too well.

Pulling into the driveway and parking up next to Shane and Andy's shared car Troy hoped that they'd managed to cook dinner without too much trouble and that they'd even cleared up after themselves, maybe even starting on the washing up, although that was pushing it.

Getting out of the car he grabbed Gabriella's bag out of the back and met her on the other side of the car, happy to see that she'd at least stopped trembling, even if the odd tear was still falling.

"Do you mind if I have a shower?" Gabriella's voice was quiet, but she did sound more in control of her emotions.

"No, not at all, go ahead sweetheart, you can use my one and you know where the clean towels are right?" Gabriella nodded and took her bag from Troy as he unlocked the front door and held it open for her to walk in, sneaking a quick kiss from him before she made her way upstairs.

Troy continued down the hall and into the kitchen where he was surprised to find that dinner had been successfully cooked and eaten, but so had the clearing up after wards because the dishwasher was on and the washing up was resting on the draining board waiting to be wiped up and put away. Placing his keys and wallet on the side counter, Troy walked through to the living room where he found his brothers sprawled out on the couch watching a very loud action movie, a movie which was soon turned down when Anthony noticed his presence.

"Hey Troy, how's Gabi's Mum? Your note didn't really explain much."

"She died Ant, that's why my note didn't explain much, I wanted to get to Gabi as quickly as I could."

"Is Gabi okay?" Shane asked.

"Where is Gabi?" Andy asked, in quick twin like succession.

"She's not great, she's pretty upset and scared, but she'd calmed down a lot since I first got to her. She's upstairs having a shower, she's gonna stay here for a few days, I didn't want her to be by herself."

"That's understandable," Shane answered. "Dinner was great thanks, we left yours in the casserole dish in the over so you can heat some up, there's enough for you and Gabi and Izzy if she wants some, she didn't want any earlier, she's been doing her homework in her room since she got in, I tried to get her to eat, but she said she had too much work to do."

"Alright well I'll go up and talk to her, can one of you plate all three of us some food up, I know Gabi's hungry and Izzy is gonna eat some whether she says she wants it or not, alright?" The boys all nodded and stood to do as Troy had asked; apparently it took all three of them to do one simple task.

TGTGTGTG

As Troy walked into his sister's bedroom he found school work all over the place but no Isabelle, something wasn't right. As he started to pick up the strewn school work and put it into its rightful folder's, the en suite door opened and Isabelle walked out, dressed in sweats with her hair wet from a shower.

"Oh, hey Troy, I didn't realise you were back, is Gabi's Mum okay?"

"No, she passed away earlier today, so Gabi's gonna stay with us for a bit, she's having a shower right now, to freshen herself up. Are you okay though? You've got your work all over the place which is strange for you and Shane said you didn't have dinner because you had a lot of work to do, did you get it all done?"

"Almost," Izzy answered, as she finished towel drying her hair and pulled it up into a messy pony tail. "There's some maths that's got me really stumped, that's what I've been working on the most, it's really stressing me out, maths is supposed to be my thing Troy, why can't I do it?" Troy looked to his sister to see her trying to hide her tears from him.

"Oh Iz, don't get upset darling please, just because maths is your thing doesn't mean you always have to understand it," Troy answered, as he stood up from his tidying to pull his sister into hug. "How about you come with me and we'll collect Gabi from my room and then while the three of us have some dinner, we'll get Andy to look at your maths work, see if he can help you out, okay? He's probably the next best maths wiz to ask, after you of course." Izzy nodded and walked away from Troy to pick up her work and phone, before walking down the hallway with Troy, where they found Gabriella already in the hallway.

"Hey babe, how you doing?" Troy asked his girlfriend, as he gave her a hug, noticing that she was now dressed very similarly to his sister, only she'd left her curly hair loose down her back to help it dry.

"I'm okay, I needed that shower though, I felt a bit more awake now…hey Izzy."

"Hi," Izzy greeted quietly, as she accepted the hug Gabriella was offering. "I'm sorry about your Mum Gabi."

"Me too sweetie, but at least she's not suffering anymore, I can accept that. Are you okay? You're crying," Isabelle let Gabriella wipe her tears away, but then stepped back and curled into Troy, he was her comfort zone, always had been, no matter what the situation.

"She's just having some trouble with her maths homework and she's a little upset over it Brie, but we're gonna ask Andy to check it out for her while we all eat some dinner, you good with that?" Gabriella nodded and took Troy's offered hand while he kept the other one, with Izzy's homework in, firmly wrapped round his sister. His sister and girlfriend are the two most important women in Troy's life, protecting and looking after them has become as natural as breathing.

TGTGTGTG

Gabriella smiled softly to herself as she watched the Bolton brothers shout and swear at each other as they tried to be the last man standing in their video game.

"Are you guys always this loud?" She asked once the game was over and Anthony was the last one standing leaving him the winner.

"Sorry babe, we'll stop playing now," Troy told Gabi, as he moved from his spot on the floor to cuddle with her on the sofa.

"I don't mind you being loud, but it might explain why Izzy hides away upstairs so much."

"What do you mean Gabi?" Anthony asked, as Shane and Andy were going through the rest of their games, trying to find one they could play better than Anthony.

"I mean you guys were getting really loud just then, especially when you were shouting and swearing. I mean, I don't usually mind noises like that, but even that was getting a bit much for me then. Izzy's a quiet girl, the only girl in this house, have you ever thought that she feels threatened by you all when you're playing video games and being loud. Think about it guys, who was the one person who made you be quiet when you got too loud?"

"Mum," Troy answered quietly, realising Gabi's point.

"Exactly, when Izzy knew your Mum was around to quieten you all down, she'd be down here, but your Mum's not here to do that anymore and despite the fact you try to be in charge Troy, when you join in the games, you get just as loud as these guys."

"You make too much sense Gabi," Andy admitted quietly, as Shane continued to search through the games.

"I'm not trying to upset you, or make you feel bad guys, you're just always saying how Izzy's always upstairs and as a girl and a person who Izzy has spoken to, I now realise why she spends as much time up there as she does."

"Has she mentioned to you about us being loud babe?"

"Not really, she's said you can be loud, which I knew, but being here while you were all playing, I understand what she means and even why she may feel slightly threatened."

"I should've realised how loud we were being, I'm supposed to be in charge, she should be able to tell me if something's bothering her or if we're doing something she doesn't like." Gabi squeezed Troy reassuringly as he began to realise how isolated they'd been making their little sister feel.

"Listen, how about you guys find a game that we can all play, a racing game maybe, that we can take turns at and that isn't violent and I'll go and see if I can persuade Izzy to come and play, how's that?" The boys all gave their agreement and Gabriella gave Troy a quick peck on the cheek before leaving the room to find Isabelle.

TGTGTGTG

She found Izzy at the top of the stairs, her arms self consciously wrapped round herself and silent tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Oh Izzy, could you hear them shouting from your room? Its okay sweetheart," Gabriella pulled Izzy into a hug and let her cry against her.

"I'm sorry Gabi," Isabelle pulled back from the hug and wiped away her tears. "I'm just being stupid, you shouldn't have to be looking after me after what you've been through today, it's just that they're so loud and it scares me."

"Its okay honey, but the guys are gonna change their game now to one that everyone can play, so will you come down and join in? I'm feeling slightly out numbered down there."

"Okay, but only 'cause you're here," Gabriella smiled as she took Izzy's hand and led her down the stairs, back into the lounge, where the boys were all sat round waiting for them, with the main menu for a racing game on the television screen.

"Alright guys, Izzy agreed to come and play, but you need to keep the noise down, okay?" Izzy didn't meet the eyes of her brothers as Gabriella led her across the room to where Troy was sat on the sofa and the girls both took a seat either side of him, as the others started up the game.

"Iz, I want you to promise me that you'll tell me next time we're too loud or we're doing something you don't like 'cause let's face it, I'm a guy, I don't think of the things that might be upsetting you like Mum would or Gabi did tonight."

"I miss her so much Troy, I miss them both and when you guys are being loud it reminds me of when Mum would tell you all to be quiet and then cuddle with me because she knew I didn't like it. When no one tells you all to be quiet it just reminds me that she's not here anymore."

"I know honey, I miss them both too, we all do, which is why you have to tell me things because then I can be all 'Mum Like' and sort them out for you like she would, the only difference is you need to tell me what's up for me to sort it out, I'm not like Mum when I just know what's up, it's a guy thing, sorry."

"It's okay Troy, you do your best, we all know that," Isabelle hugged Troy tight and cuddled tightly against him until Anthony called her over to race against him; he'd already beaten both Shane and Andy.

Troy chuckled, as the twins sulked like a couple of five year olds, but was soon pulled out of his bubble when he heard Gabriella yawning from next to him.

"You tired babe?" He asked, as he wrapped his arms around her and let her snuggle into him.

"Yeah."

"Want me to take you up to bed? This lot will understand." Gabriella had been looking after Izzy, but Troy knew she was just pushing everything to the back of her mind and now that Izzy was joining in with the others, her day was once again catching up with her.

"No, I wanna stay down here; you can carry me up right?"

"Well yeah, I just thought you'd be more comfy in a bed."

"I don't want to be by myself Troy, please, I don't think I can face it, please don't let me be alone."

"Alright sweetheart, it's okay, you can stay down here, don't get worked up babe please," Troy cuddled Gabriella closer to him and planted soft kisses on her head to calm her.

"Promise me Troy, promise you won't leave me alone."

"I promise Brie, I promise."

TGTGTGTG

So, what do you think? Of the chapter and story concept as a whole, I'll happily answer any questions you have :)

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW! THANK YOU!