A/N: This is a test posting. To be honest, I'm not sure how this story will be received, and I don't know that those who normally read my stories will like this. It's not fluff, it's angsty and at times heartbreaking (or at least that's what I'm going for). Not that there isn't fluff, it is a TG story, so fluff is unavoidable, but be warned. Sunburn is still my number one priority, so be warned that this might not get updated until the next chapter of that is up. I hope you like it. This is something completely different for me, and I'm intrigued to see if its even worth reading. Let me know!

BTW, I know the summary kind of gives away the end of the chapter, but I hope you will read anyways. Everything is not As It Seems, ha ha, you see what I did there, as it...*cough*, right...on with the story.

Special thanks to Abby for beta-ing this story, you rock!

Prologue

The water felt good, the water always felt good. The warm steam surrounded his body as the almost scalding hot water pelted the tanned skin of his sculpted torso, working out the kinks only a day of work could bring. More then just the tension from sitting at his desk, more then just the tension from chasing after criminals, and more then just the tension of the workout he had subjected his body to. It was the mental anguish he endured from the both good and bad things his job caused: the lives ruined, families torn apart, whether or not they were good or bad guys, someone always paid for the mistakes that didn't deserve it, and it haunted Troy Bolton more then he would ever admit.

Still, it was about honor, it was about duty to your country, stopping one person to save a thousand, and protecting the innocent. That's what it was about. Sometimes sacrifices had to be made, and if that meant that Troy became the brooding and suffering type, at least his wife thought it was sexy.

Twenty five year old Troy Bolton was an FBI agent for the federal government and had been since he graduated from Berkeley three years earlier. He wasn't really sure when his passions changed from basketball and theater to criminology in college. It all started when he excelled in his criminology and psychology courses and one of his professors put him up for an internship in Washington DC. He took it, wearily and hesitantly, but he took it, thinking, if nothing else, it might help him discover that this wasn't what he wanted to do, and he could move on. But he didn't move on. He loved it, he was good at it, and upon graduation from college, he was recruited into the FBI to work at the office in LA.

The door to the bathroom opened and Troy smiled instinctively, her scent filling his nostrils, knowing exactly who it was without pausing in rinsing the shampoo out of his hair. He heard soft footsteps and the slight running of water as she began getting ready for bed, a light hum coming from her lips in an angelic voice as she was lost in her own little world, the only way Gabriella ever could.

Gabriella Montez started off the exact way everyone expected her too, and in some ways she finished the exact way everyone expected her to too. However, Troy would never call anything about Gabriella predictable, and that was one of the things he loved about her. She had attended Stanford and graduated in three years with her pre-law degree before accepting a full ride to Harvard Law School in Boston for the remaining two years. Troy and Gabriella, still together at the time, suffered through the distance, Troy stayed in California to finish his degree and then later because his job; and while it was hard, they dealt with it. It made them stronger, and upon Gabriella's graduation from law school, Troy proposed. And two years earlier, the two had gotten married and she had officially become Gabriella Bolton.

"I'm not tired."

Troy smiled at her whining voice, almost envisioning her pouting as he heard her plop down onto the bench they had in their four bedroom home they had purchased in LA.

"Well," Troy said drawing out the word as he peered at her through the foggy glass, "maybe if you hadn't taken a nap then you would be."

"It's not my fault," Gabriella defended quickly, "he just fell asleep and so did I."

"Hmm," Troy murmured, "did you get him to sleep?"

"I did," Gabriella responded, "he was out immediately, his daddy played with him too much."

Troy smiled as his thoughts immediately switched from that of his beautiful wife to the son she had given him. Alexander Jack Bolton was already three months old, yet it felt like only yesterday that Troy had found out Gabriella was pregnant. It was an accident, not that they didn't want kids, they just didn't expect them so soon. Troy remembered clearly when he had come home to Gabriella bawling her eyes out one day, terrified that he was going to leave her because she got pregnant. Troy had been exactly the opposite. He had grinned so widely that his face almost split in half and proceeded to pick Gabriella up and spin her around in excitement, followed soon after by holding her hair back as she threw up.

"Well," Troy said dragging out the word, "it's not my fault I have to work, not all of us can stay at home."

"I know," Gabriella's voice was somber, "I wish you could, he's already growing so fast. I don't know what I'm going to do when I go back to work."

"The first day's the hardest," Troy told her, "it gets easier after that, plus he gets really excited when he sees you again."

"Troy, that's gas."

Troy groaned from within the shower, "Damnit, no, I'm telling you, he smiled at me!"

Troy looked over as the door slid open to find Gabriella stepping into the shower with him, obviously intent on joining by her lack of clothing, "He didn't smile."

Troy narrowed his eyes and sent her a look, "He did, just because you didn't see it, isn't my fault, he just loves me more."

Gabriella rolled her perfectly chocolate eyes, "Sure, whatever you say, honey." Gabriella went to reach around him but he deflected her and wrapped his hand around her wrist, preventing her from reaching past him. Gabriella sent him a look, "What are you doing?"

Troy quirked an eyebrow, "What are you doing?"

Gabriella raised her other hand and attempted to go over his shoulder, "I'm attempting to get my razor."

Troy easily grabbed her other wrist and moved them up and over his shoulders, his hands falling down around her waist as he pulled her closer, "Are you?"

Gabriella nodded, "I am."

Troy was studying her face and suddenly she felt like one of the criminals he interrogated, "So…funny story," he started off slowly, "my razor is being conspicuously used by someone else."

Gabriella raised her eyebrows, doing best to keep her face surprised, "Really?"

"Yes, really." Troy said, and Gabriella could see the amusement in his eyes, "And given that three people live in this house, one of them unable to take showers, and the other one being me, that only leaves one other person it could be." He narrowed his eyes, "What do you have to say for yourself?"

Gabriella shook her head, her best innocent face on, "I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about."

"Really?" Troy asked sarcastically as he turned slightly and grabbed his razor off of the shower caddy, "Because it smells rather like your shaving cream?"

Gabriella paused for a moment before letting a sweet smile stretch across her lips as she pulled down her left hand and showed him the medium sized diamond sitting on top of a diamond encrusted white gold band with a matching wedding band fused into it, "What ever happened to what's mine is yours?"

Troy sent her a smile, "I draw the line at razors."

Gabriella pouted as she tightened her arms around his neck, "But baby, yours is so much sharper then mine is."

Troy started shaking his head as soon as she called him baby, "Uh-uh, no way, over my dead body are you using my razor to shave your legs, none of this 'mine is yours' crap."

Gabriella rolled her eyes upward as a small smile played on her lips, "Fine," Gabriella sighed heavily, "are you sure I can't change your mind?" Troy shook his head, but Gabriella saw the gleam in his eye that showed he must have known where she was going with this. "Nothing?" she purposely took a step forward and pushed her naked chest up against his, her lower stomach rubbing up against his pelvis that had been hard ever since she had stepped into the shower, an almost natural thing for Troy to get around Gabriella. Especially naked Gabriella. Especially naked Gabriella who had most recently become comfortable with her post-pregnancy body that came equipped with slightly bigger hips and breasts, giving her even more dangerous curves in all the right places. "You sure?"

Troy was smirking now, "I'm sure."

Gabriella brought her hands around to his front, running down his perfect torso, her fingertips leaving a trail as they passed over his well defined pecs, rock-hard abs and moved around to his muscular back, her hands pausing at his shoulder blades, where she knew two of his three tattoos were.

It had been something that Gabriella had found unexpectedly attractive about Troy. She never was a tattoo or piercing kind of girl, she thought they were dangerous and stupid, and once upon a time swore she'd never date a guy with a tattoo. Then Troy got one the summer following their senior year. It was just a simple basketball, something he and Chad had gotten together as a sign of friendship, and Gabriella didn't know what it was, but something about it drove her crazy. His second one hadn't come long after that one, during their freshman year of college, a barb wire wrapped around the bicep of his left arm, which he still wouldn't tell her how he got, but she deduced he had been drunk and near a tattoo parlor. The third had come almost four years later, during her first year of law school; he had surprised her with a small script 'Gabi' on his left shoulder blade.

"What if I…" Gabriella moved her hands to the fronts of his shoulders and walked forward, pushing him back, out of the stream of water, until his back hit the tiled wall of the shower, "…do that?"

Troy winced as his lower back hit the handle of the shower, but he didn't let the smile fall off of his face, if this was how she wanted to play, so be it, "Then I'd do this." Troy punctuated his statement by grabbing her upper thighs and hoisting her up, her legs wrapping around his waist while he walked her across to the other wall of the shower.

It was a mere seconds after her back hit the shower that she felt Troy's mouth on hers, both sets of lips already moist from the steam in the air, and the heat between the kisses was only intensified by the heat in the shower and the time they had spent apart. Gabriella and Troy were trying, but Troy was currently in the middle of a big case at work that oftentimes had him called in in the middle of the night while Gabriella was busy being a fulltime mom to Alex and preparing to go back to her job at the District Attorney's Office. And while intimacy had occurred since Alex's birth, compared to Gabriella's pregnancy in which she had been incredibly horny, it was nothing.

His mouth was heavy and wet and Gabriella couldn't help but smile into his kisses, their tongues dueling for control, "How about now?"

"Nope." Troy replied immediately, sucking on her collarbone causing Gabriella's eyes to shut in pleasure, "But I bet I could make you give in before I do."

Gabriella reopened her eyes, which were now almost black in passion, and looked down at her husband, "I'll take that bet."

Troy smiled into her skin, running his hands along her thighs before dipping to the inside, his fingertips teasing her core as the rested on the skin just outside of it, his head venturing lower to focus on the swells of her breasts. "I'll warn you though," Troy mumbled out, "I don't plan on playing fair."

Troy wasn't really sure how he missed where her hands were, but he miscalculated her devious efforts and gasped against her skin when he felt her tiny hand enclose around his ever hardening member. Troy's eyes had fallen shut at the surge of pleasure that had run through his body, but he struggled against his heavy lids and managed to open them enough to see Gabriella grinning wickedly, "Neither do I." she said in a low voice, and Troy saw her eyebrow quirk when she felt him harden even further at the sultriness in her voice. "My, my, Mr. Bolton, I'd say that's a problem."

He wasn't going down (no pun intended) without a fight, "We'll see whose problem it will be, Mrs. Bolton." Gabriella barely had time to register anything and released a squeal as she was pulled from the shower wall, and it's lucky they were inside their private bathroom within their bedroom otherwise the giggles and moans that followed would have woken their slumbering three month old.

Gabriella Bolton woke up smiling.

She didn't do that as often as she'd like.

Not because of personal issues, it wasn't like Troy and she didn't get along, in fact, while most couples have it hardest the first couple of years of marriage, they were almost annoyingly happy during it. At first Gabriella had just been settling into her job, and she was worried how hard it would be to be both a wife and lawyer, but she did it with ease, and the two of them were very much into their honeymoon phase for the first year.

Then, of course, Alex came, but even during her pregnancy, neither were unhappy, Gabriella was crazily hormonal, annoyingly demanding, and wonderfully horny, and Troy made more then his fair share of ice cream runs at three in the morning, but they were happy. Troy was so excited for the baby to come and they had been in an almost daze for the past three months.

It had less to do with the situation and more to do with Troy's job, or more the part of Troy's job that frequently consisted of Troy getting called into work in the middle of the night. She'd think that there would be other parts of his job that bothered her. Such as the frequent late night raids, interrogations with hardened criminals, and getting shot at. And they used to, especially his first year when she was still away at Harvard, and it continued to bother her a good six months into their marriage.

Then she got shot at.

Flashback:

Gabriella was sitting in the ambulance in front of the courtroom, her matching jacket to her gray pantsuit having been shed and balled up on the floor, the arm torn and covered with her blood, to reveal the pink camisole she had on underneath with her gray pants. Her feet that were clad in a pair of pink high heels were dangling out of the ambulance as she glanced down at her bandaged shoulder. It wasn't bad, it looked worse then it was, but it had hurt like nothing else and right now all Gabriella wanted to do was go home and sleep.

But that wasn't possible. There were press conferences being made, claims by both sides, and investigations into how this had happened. Gabriella didn't blame anyone, the guy had murdered his wife, clearly he had issues with women. And while she wasn't planning on dropping the charges, not that her office would let her, she wasn't planning on making him pay tonight.

"Get out of my fucking way!" Her head snapped over at the voice, recognizing it anywhere, and she saw an angry and freaked out Troy Bolton being held back by police, "That's my wife, let me through!"

"Troy!" her plea wasn't very loud, but it seemed to be loud enough to reach Troy and the officer's ears, the officer turned to face her and Troy seized the opportunity to run past him, sprinting over to the ambulance she was sitting in.

He didn't hesitate in gathering her into his arms, being mindful of her arm, hugging her tightly. "Oh my god, baby," Troy said soothingly, "I was so fucking scared." He let her go and pulled back observing her, "What happened?" he looked down at her shoulder, his eyes doubling in size, "You were shot?"

Gabriella shook her head, "The bullet just grazed me."

Troy looked at her incredulously, "The…bullet…what?"

As if to answer his question a yell was let out and Gabriella and Troy looked over to see two cops leading away a handcuffed criminal who was struggling against the cops, lunging at Gabriella when he saw her. The cops held on tighter to him and Troy instinctively stepped in front of Gabriella, "You bitch!" he yelled, "This is all your fault!"

Troy felt a surge of anger and lunged at the guy, "You bastard," the second cop intercepted Troy and held him back as the other cop held firmly to the criminal, "I'll fucking kill you!"

"Troy!" Gabriella begged as the cop pushed Troy back while the other one pulled away the criminal to the cop car.

"I want him charged with attempted murder," Troy told the cop, "I want him to never ever see anything outside of the walls of prison."

"Troy," Gabriella grabbed onto his arm and pulled him back, sending the cop an appreciative look, "Troy, I'm pressing charges, calm down."

Troy turned to her, "Calm down? How can you tell me to calm down, that man shot you!"

"Yes, but you killing him and going to jail for the rest of your life isn't going to make anything better." She told him logically.

Troy sent her a look, not angry with her, but angry at not being able to do anything to the person that had hurt her, "Damnit Gabriella, my job's the dangerous one," Troy told her gesturing to himself, "I get shot at, I fight the criminals, you just sit behind a desk and put them in jail for the rest of their lives."

"It was a freak accident," Gabriella told him, "it almost never happens." Gabriella rested her hands on either side of his torso, pulling him closer to her, "I'm fine, it was three stitches, no big deal."

"No big deal?" Troy asked as his arms curled around her back, "Gabriella, if that bullet had been two inches over…"

"But it wasn't," Gabriella told him, "and don't you think you're being a bit hypocritical here? You get shot at every day."

"It's different." Troy mumbled, seeing the truth in her statement, "I'd rather I die than you."

Gabriella tilted her head, "I'd rather neither of us did."

Troy sighed, staring at her, "Couldn't you have just been a divorce lawyer? They don't get shot at either?"

Gabriella raised her eyebrows, "Couldn't you have just played professional basketball? They don't get shot at either."

Troy sent her a look, but the corners of his mouth were tugging into a smile, "You've gotta be more careful, though," he told her, "I wouldn't know what to do if something happened to you."

Gabriella nodded, as Troy gathered her into a hug, her head resting against his chest while his hand ran up and down her back, "Me neither."

End Flashback

After that she wasn't so neurotic about it. Mainly because she saw how he acted around her job and realized what it felt like, and once the 'getting shot at' part was eliminated, she realized how much the 'just not having him here' part sucked. So getting an entire night of him, whether it was sex or simply falling asleep with his arms around her was amazing, and even though he wasn't in bed when she woke up, she could still sense he was in the house, and that was enough to make her smile.

Gabriella pushed up out of bed and stretched her arms above her head. Her thighs were slightly sore from the previous night, even though the two had been 'back in the sack' per se, for almost two months now, it wasn't as often as it had been, which meant when they had fun nights like the previous one, she was a little more sore afterwards. Bending down she scooped the discarded clothing off of the floor and tossed it into the hamper save for one of Troy's shirts that she slipped on after she retrieved a clear pair of underwear and Troy's boxers from the drawers. Gabriella was absentmindedly running her hand through her hair as she walked out of their bedroom and instinctively went towards Alex's room, stopping when she heard a voice coming from down the stairs. Her smile reappeared on her face when she recognized the voice as her husband's and immediately switched course, heading down the stairs, finding the two people she loved more then anything in the living room.

Troy was sprawled on the carpet of their living room, flat on his back, shirtless in just his pajama pants with the top of his boxers peeking out of the top. Alex was lying on his stomach across Troy's chest, still in the footsie pajamas she had dressed him in the previous night, reaching for the remote as Troy dangled it in front of his face. Alex had just recently perfected holding his head up and the doctor had suggested he lie on his stomach to strengthen his neck muscles and Troy was obviously taking advantage of that suggestion.

Troy let Alex grab the remote and Gabriella saw him pull it towards his mouth, just like he did with everything, as Troy pointed over at the TV, and it was then that Gabriella heard the low sound in the background, "Look…basketball." Gabriella smiled at his antics as Alex's curious blue eyes turned to where his father was pointing, his similar shaggy brown hair sticking every which way from his night of sleep, "That's gonna be you favorite sport." Alex seemed more concerned with slobbering all over the remote he had successfully stuck into his mouth and turned his head away. "Only if you want it to be, of course." Troy added quickly, "But you will." He said with a smile.

Gabriella watched him pull the remote away and set it on the carpet, Alex confused for a moment before Troy seized his sides and lifted him up and over his head, mock gasping and drawing Alex's attention as he smiled up at him, "Hi, buddy." Troy brought him down and made an exaggerated noise as he kissed his cheek, Alex giggling at his father's antics. Troy lifted him back up and smiled brightly, "See, you mom's wrong, you are smiling."

"I didn't say he doesn't smile," Gabriella said from her position leaning against the doorframe of the living room, drawing Troy's attention over to her, "I just said that particular time you are talking about was gas."

Troy smiled over at her before looking up at Alex, "Food's here." Gabriella sent him a playful glare as Troy sat up, turning Alex around and resting his feet on the carpet, pushing up as Troy held firmly to his sides, "We've been waiting all morning for sleepy mommy to wake up."

Gabriella walked into the room and sank to her knees, lowering her head to Alex's level, "Are you hungry?"

Troy was lightly bouncing him, "He hasn't started crying yet but I fed him a bottle almost three hours ago."

Gabriella nodded as she took Alex, "Well, why don't we feed him now, after all, he is his father's son."

Gabriella sat down and crossed her legs, cradling Alex in her arms as she pulled up Troy's t-shirt, "So you tell me." Troy said teasingly, "I have my doubts."

Gabriella ran her finger along Alex's cheek, the little boy turning his head and beginning to feed, "You're right, he's Brad Pitt's, Brad just can't leave Angelina yet for me."

Troy smiled, "Of course." He watched as she grimaced slightly and he pursed his lips, "Does it still hurt?"

Gabriella shook her head, but her face looked pained, "It's more just odd then painful, like, at first it was painful, but the doctor said that was normal for the first few weeks, now it's just kind of tugging." Gabriella shrugged slightly, "Breastfeeding's supposed to help his immune system, after pushing him out of my vagina, I can take a little tugging."

Troy smiled, "Are you kidding me, miss 'I'm doing everything naturally' and then five minutes of contractions and you're screaming for medication."

Gabriella sent him a look, "Do you know what it's like to push a child out from between your legs?" she asked sarcastically as Troy rolled his eyes, "Then I don't want to hear it." She looked back down at Alex, "Plus, I didn't take any drugs because they could've hurt him."

"You didn't take drugs because Alex came too quickly." Troy pointed out and Gabriella sent him a glare, "I mean because you didn't want to hurt him."

Gabriella nodded, "Exactly." She looked down and Troy pushed over, sitting next to her, leaning back against his arms and allowing Gabriella to lean against him, his eyes going over to the game on television, "You don't work today, right?"

Troy shook his head, "Saturday, nope."

Gabriella nodded, "After I finish feeding him, I'll pump a few bottle of milk and we should go to the park, it's really nice out."

Troy turned his head towards her, "I'm not supposed to work today, that doesn't mean I won't get called in, and I probably will."

Gabriella shrugged, "That's why you have a cell phone."

Troy quirked an eyebrow, "A cell phone you always manage to hide whenever we go out."

Gabriella smiled innocently, "I don't know what you're talking about." She blinked twice, "But if I did, it's not my fault that I want my husband to hang out with his son."

Troy looked down for a moment, "Baby, I want to be here…"

"I know." Gabriella said quickly, "I was just teasing, and I promise to tell you if you have any incoming phone calls if you promise not to check your phone every five minutes."

Troy smiled, "I promise." Gabriella turned her head back down and watched as Alex fed, Troy smiling at the small smile that came on her face, "So I talked to my dad yesterday," Troy started, drawing Gabriella's attention back to him, "apparently our mothers are already starting the fight for who gets what."

Gabriella rolled her eyes, "I told my mom we'd probably stay at your house when we came in for Thanksgiving and Christmas because your bedroom's big enough for the crib but we'd have dinner and celebrate at my house because we have a bigger family room."

Troy shrugged, "I don't care, I get to be Santa either way, so I'm cool with it."

Gabriella groaned at the childish look on his face, "You look forward to deceiving our son?"

Troy sent her a look, "I look forward to making him believe in magic." He elaborated, "Nowadays kids don't have that fairytale element in their lives, and we got that fairytale element…we got that fairytale ending," Gabriella felt a smile creep onto her face, "he should get a shot at it."

Gabriella sent him a look before turning her eyes away and sighing, "You better not teach him to be cheesy like you are," the corners of her mouth were tugging into a smile, "otherwise girls won't stand a chance."

Troy smiled as he brought his arm up and wrapped it around her shoulder, "The way I remember it, you didn't much mind my cheesiness."

"Of course I didn't," Gabriella said turning her head down to look at Alex as he pulled away, "you were the boy I met on a skiing vacation in Colorado who happened to live in the same city I was moving too and went to the same high school I did, you don't get any cheesier then that."

Gabriella lifted Alex into a sitting position and began patting his back softly before looking up at Troy, "That's not cheese," Troy told her as she let her head drop onto his shoulder and he rested his on top of hers, "that's fate."

"He cannot move."

"It's November!"

"It's California."

"It's still chilly," Gabriella pointed out, "and babies don't hold heat well."

Troy rolled his eyes as he looked over at Alex who was lying on his stomach, propped up on a U-shaped pillow, on top of the blanket they had spread out over the grass for him to play on, bundled up in a wither coat and hat in forty degree weather. Alex didn't seem to mind one way or another, he was just glad to be out of the car seat Gabriella had had him strapped in earlier, free to play with his toys that had been spread over the blanket. Both Gabriella and Troy were dressed down, Troy in jeans and a white v-neck short sleeved shirt with a high collared ribbed navy blue sweater that was zipped up halfway, while Gabriella wore jeans and a white v-neck sweater that stretched over the waistband of her jeans and ended at the tops of her thighs, Troy lying on his stomach and occasionally interacting with Alex while Gabriella alternated between watching Alex and reading the book she had brought, still cross legged next to Troy.

"Whatever," Troy said, "when he's crying in a few minutes about how hot he is, you can calm him down because he's crabby when he doesn't get his way." Troy rolled his eyes, "Just like his mother."

Gabriella scoffed at Troy, "Stubborn, just like his father."

Troy mock groaned, "God, I hate you, why did I marry you again?"

"Mmm," Gabriella shrugged, "must have been the sex."

"Speaking of," Troy said breaking out of their game and turning his head towards her, "what was that last night?"

Gabriella's eyes widened as she looked at Troy, fear entering her thoughts, "Why…was it bad?"

"No, no, no," Troy said quickly, followed by a quick laugh, "no, trust me, it was really good, I just don't remember you being that…flexible."

Gabriella's eyes widened even further as she turned her head away from him, a blush creeping onto her cheeks, "Yeah…you remember how I told you I was taking those Pilate classes with Taylor three times a week, well, she showed me some stuff…"

"Stop right there," Troy interrupted her, "anything you're about to say will allude to Taylor and Chad's sex life and I am not going there." He said definitely, "I just wanted to point out that I noticed because you don't think I notice anything, and I liked it," he smirked, "a lot."

Gabriella laughed as she leaned into him, "I thought you might, and I liked it too," she smiled down at him, "especially the part where I got to shave my legs with your razor."

Troy sent her a look and reached over, covering both of Alex's ears with his hands, "Not around the child, Gabriella." She laughed as she looked over at Alex who was looking at both of them with his wide blue eyes, "I'll teach him to be stronger around his wife then I am with you." Troy shook his head, "It's something in our DNA, though, because my dad is putty in my mom's hands too."

Gabriella brought her hand up and ruffled Troy's hair, "I love my putty Troy."

Troy smiled and turned his head back towards Alex before looking up, absentmindedly watching the other people around the park, "So my mom told me something else when I talked to her," Troy said conversationally, his voice even as he turned his head towards her and rested it on his fist, "she said your mom is talking to your dad again." Gabriella's eyes widened slightly and he saw her turn them down, suddenly finding the blanket they were sitting on very interesting, "I didn't know you were back in contact with your dad."

"I'm not." She said quickly, her eyes darting back up to Troy, "My mom is talking to my dad again, I'm not. The only person I think of as a father is your dad, no one else."

"Okay," Troy said quickly, "I didn't know, I just assumed because your mom was that you were."

"I'm not," she repeated, "he doesn't get to walk out on me and my mom and come back whenever its convenient for him, it doesn't work that way."

Troy nodded, "Okay, I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just surprised your mom is talking to him."

"Mom loves him." Gabriella said, and Troy most definitely heard the undertone of bitterness in her voice.

"And you don't?"

Gabriella looked down again and shook her head, "Troy, I'm not stupid, I know you know about my father, I know you did as much research as you could when you had the resources too, and I know you know what happened." Gabriella looked over at him and Troy could see the anger on her face but the sadness was swimming in her eyes, "Little eleven year old Gabriella who was in the hospital with a concussion and dislocated shoulder because her father got a little too physical during one of his drunken rages."

Gabriella dropped her arm from where she had been resting it at the base of his neck and went to scoot away a bit, but Troy reached over and grabbed her hand, twining their fingers and pulling her back, not letting her get away, "I found out for the wedding," Troy told her softly as he stared at her intently, "I wanted you to tell me, but with the craziness surrounding the wedding and you hyperventilating about every detail, I figured I should do this alone."

Gabriella looked over at him, "Troy, I have two lives, life before my dad and life after him. Life before him wasn't so great, life after has been really good, I didn't want to mix them. It's not that I didn't want to tell you, I just didn't want to make a bigger deal out of something that happened a long time ago, he's out of my life, he's not a factor, let's just leave it at that."

Troy stared at her for a moment longer before nodding, "Fine, I just thought you were back in contact with him, and if you had been, I would've preferred you tell me, not keep it a secret."

Gabriella nodded, "I promise, if I ever get back into contact with him, I'll let you know, but I wouldn't hold your breath."

Troy nodded curtly, "Breath not held." He looked over when he felt a squishy ball hit the side of his face and found a squirming Alex lying on his back, fist shoved in his mouth as he looked up at his father, "Did you just throw that at me?" Alex let out a muffled laugh and Troy reached over and let his fingers dance up Alex's sides, the little boy wiggling with delight, "I knew you'd be an athlete." Troy glanced over at his U-shaped pillow they always propped him up on and his brow furrowed, "Wait a second, wasn't he…"

"He rolled over!" Gabriella said loudly and excitedly, moving up from her position and over next to Alex who immediately looked up at the sound of his mother's voice, "Oh my god, Troy," Gabriella seized his arm and started shaking him with every word, her excited eyes on her son, "he rolled over!"

Troy smiled at Gabriella's antics, "Yeah, I know, no need to get violent about it."

Gabriella was already ignoring him as she lifted Alex up off of his back and set him back on his stomach, "Come on baby, do it again, do it for momma." Alex placed his palms on the blanket like he always did and lifted his head, but all he did was blink he large blue eyes at his mother, "Roll over, just once." She coaxed.

Troy laughed, "Way to make him sound like a dog."

"Oh, come on." Gabriella whined, her face almost turning into a pout.

Troy rolled his eyes and picked up the ball Alex had thrown at him, squeezing it once to release a squeaky noise into the air that Alex immediately turned towards, "You want the ball?" Troy set it on the blanket, squeezing it again for good measure, Alex following it with his eyes. He reached out his hand, the ball falling just out of reach. He kept reaching but made no movement to turn, "Hmm, maybe it was easier up on the pillow," Troy looked up at Gabriella, "he's only fourteen weeks, when can they roll from front to back?"

Gabriella shrugged, "I think four months, but he's been rolling from his back to his front for a while." Gabriella pouted, "We missed it…he rolled over and we missed it!"

"He'll do it again," Troy told her, "soon he'll be crawling, then he'll be standing, then he'll be walking, then he'll be talking, and before you know it, he'll be dating."

Gabriella was looking at her husband horrified and a smile stretched across Troy's face, her eyes widened and she reached over, punching him in the arm, "Jerk!"

Troy laughed, "You know it's true."

Gabriella reached down and picked up Alex, bringing him up to rest on her hip and kissing the top of his head, "Your daddy's mean, you would never date and leave mommy alone."

Troy moved up onto his knees and crawled over next to her, "He will," Troy dropped a kiss on Alex's head before moving to Gabriella and pecking her on her lips, "and he'll find the perfect girl, just like I did."

Gabriella felt her pocket vibrate and she immediately started shifting Alex over towards Troy, Troy accepting him and moving him to his hip, "Yeah, that's right, keep sucking up." She pulled her Blackberry out of her pocket and squinted at the screen, seeing 'work' flashing on there, but the number beneath it not being the number to her work, but the number to Troy's work. Her brow furrowed and her eyes went to the bottom corner of the phone. She and Troy had the same phones and Gabriella had stuck a sticker picture of her and Alex on the bottom corner of his. And there sitting on the corner, was her and Alex.

"Who is it?" Troy asked curiously, noticing her confused face.

Gabriella looked up at Troy, they were having a nice family day, she could just say she didn't realize she had his phone until the end of the day, she could keep him here, he wouldn't be mad, he wanted to spend more time with her and Alex. But on the other hand, she had promised him, and she had, many other times, prevented him from going to work when he was needed, maybe it was just paperwork.

Gabriella flipped the phone over and shoved it at him, "Your phone."

Troy's eyes focused on the screen and saw the number calling him. He took the phone and hit the accept button, flashing her an apologetic look as he lifted it to his ear, "Bolton."

Gabriella reached out and took Alex again, pressing a kiss to his temple as Troy mumbled into the phone, "Daddy's gonna have to leave us." She whispered quietly, watching Troy look up and sigh into his phone.

"You're sure?" Troy asked into the phone, "And there's no way you two can just handle this?" his jaw clenched and his other hand balled into a fist, "Hey don't get short with me, we all do our time, it's not my turn to work this weekend, you two should be able to handle this, so back the fuck off and have everything ready by the time me and Danforth get there." Troy didn't wait for a response as he hung up the phone and gripped it tightly in his hand while shifting his gaze over at Gabriella, who had already placed Alex back in his stroller, and was in the process of strapping him in, "I'm sorry."

Gabriella shrugged as she stood up, bending over and gathering up Alex's toys, "You warned me, I knew, it's your job, Troy, I understand."

There was sincerity in her words, but she wouldn't look up at him. Troy grabbed the rest of the toys and tossed them into the bag they brought before standing up, picking up the blanket and beginning to fold it, "When I get home, we'll work on making him roll over," Troy told her, "its just a routine arrest that they want backup for, they think they know where Salinas' number two man is."

Gabriella shook her head, "You don't have to tell me this, Troy, I know you aren't supposed to."

"I know it bothers you," Troy said quickly, "but I swear, when this case is done, I'll be home a lot more. We're so close, and once we have his number two, he'll have no one left to run to."

Gabriella stepped forward and rested one of her hands on his chest, "Troy, I swear I'm not mad at you, you don't have to tell me all this stuff." Troy didn't seem convinced, "Plus, the less I know, the better, if they find out you're telling me, they'll just kill me."

Troy sent her a look, "That's not funny, Gabriella, I can stomach the risks your job seems to have, but I can't even think about the ones mine puts on you."

Gabriella leaned in and pecked him quickly on the lips, "Trust me, I can handle myself." She turned away from him and manned the stroller, beginning to push it over to the concrete path, "Come on, we have to drop off daddy." Troy sighed and bent down, scooping up the bag and following Gabriella, the family of three heading towards their car.

"Chad's gonna be there, right?" Gabriella asked as she pulled the car to a stop in front of Troy's office building, looking over at Troy as he opened the glove compartment and pulled out his badge, handcuffs, and gun.

Chad Danforth and Troy Bolton had been friends seemingly forever, and while they hadn't gone to the same college, it wasn't all that surprising that their lives had turned out so similar. She knew that Troy had confided in Chad first about his love of criminology, and she supposed Chad's love of it came from always doing what Troy did, and while Chad really did seem to love it, that seemed more of a coincidence then actual planning on his part.

Troy nodded, "Yeah, but he said he was running late, he and Taylor were at her parent's house."

Gabriella nodded. Chad and Taylor Danforth had been married for almost three years, the two having gotten married out of college before Taylor started medical school at UCLA. "Good, I don't want you going alone."

"I'm never alone." Troy told her quickly as he pushed open the door and got out, shutting the door and opening the one to the backseat, pressing a kiss to Alex's forehead like he always did before work, "Take care of mom while I'm gone." Alex just watched him close the door before going back to the toy he had in his hand.

Gabriella rolled down her window and Troy leaned against it, staring at her for a moment, "Not mad?" he questioned.

She shook her head, "Not mad, go get those bad guys off of the streets."

Troy gave her a slight smile, "Tomorrow I won't get called in," he told her, "and even if I do, I'll turn off my phone."

Gabriella raised her eyebrows, "Promise?"

Troy nodded, "Promise." He leaned in and pressed a chaste kiss to her lips, but Gabriella wasn't letting him go with that, at least if he was going to work, she was going make him count the seconds till he got home. She reached up and snaked her fingers through his hair, opening her mouth and probing his open with her tongue, her kisses hot and demanding. He smiled but kissed back, only briefly, though, before pulling back, resting his forehead against hers and rubbing her nose with his, "I love you."

Gabriella smiled, "I love you too," she pulled back, "now go so you can get home."

Troy stood up straight and smiled crookedly at her, "So we can finish that kiss."

Gabriella smirked at him, "If you're lucky."

"Of course I'm lucky," Troy told her as he walked backwards, "I have you for a wife." She sent him a look as she rolled up her window and put the car in drive, accelerating out of the parking lot.

It wasn't that Troy minded getting called into his job on the weekends. Sure, he had done his time and he no longer was supposed to work weekends, but being a FBI agent, he can be called in anytime they deem it necessary. Again, that wasn't the problem, Troy had made a lot of good busts on the weekends, just not recently, and most certainly not when the tips had been found by Kevin McDaniels and Justin Campbell. It wasn't that they were idiots, they were just cocky, and while there wasn't necessarily anything wrong with cocky, there was if you were wrong all the time, and they were.

Troy was sitting in the backseat, watching as the two sat in the front, one directing, the other driving. Chad was running late, and was coming with a couple of other agents a few minutes behind them and Troy wished they would've waited, not exactly trusting Kevin and Justin. Troy didn't like to speak ill of his coworkers, they were integral parts of the bureau, but they didn't listen to reason, and sometimes it's not that big of a deal, other times it gets you killed.

"Who'd you get the tip from?" Troy asked, interrupting the silence.

Justin, who was sitting in the passenger seat, turned slightly, "One of our inside sources."

Troy looked sideways, duh, "Yeah, which one?" he questioned, "Because I had it narrowed down to where I think Salinas was hiding, but I'm pretty sure this isn't it, if we go back to the office, give me an hour, I could probably figure it out." That wasn't entirely true, Chad had figured it out, but they didn't need to know that.

Justin shook his head, "No, this tipper told us that we only had a small window, and hour and they'll be gone."

Troy nodded, "Alright, if you say so, but let's make this quick."

"We got it Bolton," Kevin said from the driver's seat, "your wife is hot and you want to get back to fuck her, we get it, but some of us have jobs to do."

Troy narrowed his eyes at the back of Kevin's head, they never got along, "Obviously not without someone holding your hand."

The car pulled to a stop and Kevin went to turn around but Justin stopped him, "Alright, we're here." He announced, "Bolton's right, let's just get this over with."

Kevin pursed his lips, "Yes, let's."

Troy rolled his eyes as Kevin and Justin got out of the car, Troy following suit, his bulletproof vest in place and his gun already at the ready as he looked up at the abandoned warehouse. It was always abandoned warehouses, would criminals ever get inventive?

"Where's Danforth?" Troy asked, his eyes examining the building. The windows were dark and dusty, there were fresh tracks in the dirt, it'd make sense that this could be where he was hiding out.

"They said they were about five minutes behind us." Justin told him.

Troy nodded, removing the safety from his gun, "Alright, let's head in." Troy crouched down and began heading towards the building, his eyes scanning the premises, Justin was behind him and Kevin darted across to the other side of the door as Troy peered inside, not seeing any movement. He looked between Kevin and Justin and gave them both nods before he darted in, heading down a hallway with various rooms branching off of it.

Troy turned to his immediate left, aiming the gun into the room and gazing around the well lit room. Empty. He backed out and headed down to the next one. Still empty. Troy made his way to the one at the end of the hallway and gazed in. Nothing. He lowered his gun, another fake tip, "Where the hell is his number two?" Troy asked but froze when he felt the unmistakable feeling of a gun pressed into his back.

"Right here."

Chad Danforth kicked shut the door of his car and looked over towards the three other agents he came with, "Alright…" he was cut off as two gunshots rang out and immediately everyone ducked, turning towards the building in which they had rung from. Chad stood back up straight, "What was…" his statement was interrupted by a loud rumble that erupted from deep within the warehouse, seconds before the entire building exploded.