When the truth is too much
Disclaimer: I don't own anything!
Final part in the trilogy you are my rock and I miss you. This one is not a songfic.
This is set ten years after Troy's 20th birthday so most of the characters are now 30. Troy's secret still hasn't got out but obviously everyone found out Gabriella was pregnant. Her and Troy's daughter, Heidi, is now nine.
It was the anniversary of Troy's 30th birthday and as usual Gabriella and Heidi were going down to Troy's grave to plant flowers. It was a warm summer's day and as the girls walked to the cemetery they stopped off at the news stand.
"Mom, can I get a magazine please?"
"Yes sure hunny, but only one mind!"
"Thank you"
Gabriella picked up her weekly magazine and paid for it along with Heidi's. Next they went to a florist to get some flowers or Troy. Around a quarter of an hour later they were at the cemetery. As they approached Troy's grave they saw the usual basketballs, East high flags and Sharpay's feather bower, but on this day there was a fresh bunch of flowers. Heidi rushed forward and placed her flowers in her father's grave but Gabriella held back.
'I'm the only one who puts flowers on Troy's grave' she thought to herself 'everyone gives a certain thing, our thing is flowers'.
"Mommy, are you alright?" Heidi asked anxiously.
"What hunny, oh yeah um…I'm fine, sorry" Gabriella replied.
Gabriella laid her flowers down next to her daughters, she saw the tag on the mystery flowers, it read
Dear Troy,
Happy 30th Birthday
Your girls our doing great, you should be proud
R.I.P
Reverend Tucker
Gabriella gasped, once again making Heidi question her mother's state of mind.
'He's the only one who knows our secret, he's never laid flowers for Troy before, why start now?' Gabriella wondered.
Heidi broke into her mother's thoughts saying "Mommy, you don't look so good, I think we should go hoe!"
"Good idea, I could use a lie down" Gabriella replied rubbing her forehead.
At Gabriella's house, Gabriella was reading her magazine whilst lying on her bed. She couldn't sleep; all she could think of was Reverend Tucker's flowers. She turned to the horoscopes page and without thinking she read hers.
Sagittarius
A blast form the past turns up with some unexpected news.
Gabriella immediately thought of Troy. Everything on this day was odd, she never read her horoscope and she was the only one that ever laid flowers on Troy's grave. Something was wrong and she didn't like it one bit.
At the local church, Chad was sitting in one of the pews talking to Troy.
"Heidi's so big now mate, you would've loved her and she's great at basketball too!"
Taylor walked in with her and Chad's son, Kevin, who is five.
"Hey" Taylor said breaking into Chad's thoughts.
"Hey" Chad replied, tears were welling up in his eyes.
Just then Reverend Tucker walked in.
"Hello Mr and Mrs Danforth, what a nice surprise to see you here!"
"We were just paying our respects to Troy" Taylor replied.
"Oh yes, it would've been his thirtieth today, wouldn't it?"
"Yes…how do you know that?" Chad replied, a little taken aback.
"Ten years ago today, on his twentieth birthday, he was due to get christened…"
"WHAT!" Chad cut in "Troy hadn't been christened?"
"No he hadn't"
"How come he chose then?" Taylor asked remembering back to Troy's twentieth and the secret.
"He wanted to do the right thing an marry Gabriella before she had the baby!" the Reverend said, shocked that the couple hadn't known their best friends plans.
"Aww, how sweet!" Taylor said.
"I can't believe he didn't tell us" Chad exclaimed "I mean, we were supposed to be best mates!"
"Chad, hun, he probably didn't want anyone to know"
"That would explain Gabriella's speech at the basketball match!" Chad said starting to worry.
Later that day at Gabriella's house.
Taylor, Chad and Kevin were over; Kevin and Heidi were playing whilst the adults talked.
"Gabi, you know Troy's secret…"
"Taylor, No!" Gabriella cut in before Taylor had a chance to finish her sentence "I'm not telling you"
"What if we guessed it right, would you tell us then?" Chad asked.
"You'd never guess it in a million years!" Gabriella replied happy in the knowledge Troy's secret was safe.
"So is that a yes?" Chad asked but without waiting for an answer he said "Troy wanted to marry you, but he couldn't until he was christened, he died before he got the chance to do either"
Throughout this last sentence Gabriella's jaw had been dropping further and further until she burst into tears. Taylor put her arm around Gabriella but she shrugged it off.
"You disrespected Troy's wishes, I knew this would happen, I think it's time you left now" Gabriella said wiping away her tears.
Taylor, Chad and Kevin left the house as quickly as they could; as much as it pained them to see Gabriella in this state they couldn't do anything to help her.
As soon as they left, Gabriella picked up the phone and called Sharpay. Fifteen minutes later Sharpay was at Gabriella's babysitting Heidi, she assumed Gabriella had gone shopping or for a walk, she was expecting her back a couple of hours later at the most. It was now ten o'clock; Sharpay had put Heidi to bed and was now staring at the door whilst tapping a pen to the sound of the clock. Just then Heidi came down the stairs.
"Aunty Shar, where's mommy?" Heidi asked walking over and sitting on Sharpay's lap.
"Sorry sweetie, I don't know!" Sharpay replied, hoping that any minute Gabriella would walk in the front door.
"Okay, night" Heidi said sadly.
"Night, hun" Sharpay said.
As soon as Heidi had dragged herself up the stairs and back to bed Sharpay picked up her mobile and called Taylor.
Taylor was reading whilst Chad put Kevin to bed, she was so engrossed in her book that she barely noticed the phone ringing. Chad shouted to Taylor "Tay, hun, are you gonna get that?"
Taylor looked up from her book "Huh"
"The phone, its ringing" Chad shouted back.
"Oh" Taylor leant over to the table and answered the phone.
"Hello"
"Oh my gosh Taylor, what took you so long?" Sharpay shouted down the phone line.
"I was reading, sorry!"
"Your best mates missing, and your reading!" Sharpay shouted equally as loud.
"I'm sorry Shar!" Taylor apologised "Wait a minute…what did you just say?"
"Gabriella's missing" Sharpay said bursting into tears.
"What!" Taylor and Chad, who had picked up the other line, said in unison.
Sharpay spent the next five minutes explaining everything that had happened. Within half an hour Chad, Taylor and Kevin were at Gabriella's house. They had rung round everyone Gabriella knew but no one had seen her.
By now it was midnight and they hadn't had any luck finding Gabriella. Chad had decided to go out on a drive to see if he could spot her. The first place he went was Troy's grave. When he got there he spotted a letter on the ground. He recognised the beautiful, flowing handwriting on the envelope, it was Gabriella's. he knelt down and opened it, even though it was addressed to Troy.
Dear Troy,
I'm so sorry; I can't believe our secret is out. I wanted to keep it secret but I guess someone out there wanted to ruin it. I don't know how I can go on knowing I broke my promise. Heidi's better off without me anyway. The others will look after her, I need to be with you Troy, it's harder than I thought, everything reminds me of you. I feel like my heart is being torn out. See you soon
All my love
Gabriella
xxx
"Oh no" Chad said aloud.
He ran back to his car taking the letter with him.
"It's too late" he said to himself, assuming Gabriella had already killed herself. As he was driving back to the house he noticed someone standing in the middle of the road. They were only visible because of the light from the car. Chad slammed on the brakes and made eye contact with the woman in the road. She looked familiar but it was hard to tell in the light, whoever it was they'd been crying a lot.
Suddenly Gabriella realised who it was in the car she started walking away but Chad grabbed her arm.
"Gabi lets get you home" Chad picked her up and placed her in the back seats, she fell asleep instantly. Chad drove her home then carried her into her house.
Taylor heard the door open.
"Gabi, is that you?"
Chad walked through the lounge door and replied to Taylor's question.
"I found her in the middle of the road, we are going to have to keep an eye on her" he said, laying her down on the sofa.
"You don't think it was…" Taylor started but Chad butted in.
"I found this letter on Troy's grave"
He passed the letter to Taylor and she read it through tears.
"The Reverend has pushed her to this; we can't leave her, who knows what she'll do!"
"You're right, lets get her to bed, we can tell Sharpay the good news, I'm sure she's exhausted!" Chad said, picking Gabriella up off the sofa and carrying her up the stairs.
Sharpay was in Heidi's room fast asleep on the floor, she was supposed to be keeping an eye on Heidi and Kevin who were jumping on the bed. The door opened.
"Mommy!" Heidi shouted, causing both Gabriella and Sharpay to wake up.
"No your mommy's not back yet" Sharpay said, still half asleep.
"Hey Shar" Gabriella said in a small voice.
Suddenly Sharpay jumped up and lunged at Gabriella.
"Gabi!" She hugged her friend "Don't you ever do that again!"
"What did I do?" Gabriella asked.
"You ran away mommy, I was scared!" Heidi replied starting to cry.
Gabriella hugged her daughter "I'm sorry hunny, I promise I will never do it again, I love you dearly, you know it's not your fault don't you"
"I know everything; daddy must have really loved you!"
A smile crept onto Gabriella's face, her friends were all smiling at her "He did and he would have loved you too!"