You here, yet so far away

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Troy

Troy Bolton felt as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders as he drove up the familiar streets that had once called home and soon he would call home again. He felt the warm breeze in his hair and couldn't keep the smile off his face and he soon spotted the large familiar house.

It had been exactly hour and half since he got off the plane and started his car journey an hour and a half he had been in Albuquerque and in this hour and a half he had never felt better. He was in deep thought when he felt and familiar soft hand grab his he glanced to his right and his eyes were meet with his fiancés he smiled and turned back to the road.

He pulled up outside the large house and before he could even get out the car he was met with the high pitch sequels of 2 girls.

"You're here finally!"

"Troy you took your time Mr." Sharpay and Taylor engulfed him into a hug and carried on squealing.

"I know, I know who knew the traffic would get this bad hey" he laughed as the girls finally let go and was meet by the others in the group, he gave Chad, Zeke, Ryan a man hug and Kelsi and gently hug as she waddled down the path being 8 months pregnant and all.

He could hear the girls continue squealing behind him as they hugged his fiancé as the others went to greet her he finally took and deep breathe and looked up at the place he would call home from now on.

Troy had forgotten how much he had missed Albuquerque after leaving 7 years ago for collage he never thought he would come back but life has funny ways of telling you where you're meant to be and he knew it was here.

He turned his attention back to the group "alright guys give her some breathing space I do actually want to still have a fiancé by the end of the day" he heard his friends laugh and little and finally eases up.

"Right boys you help carry the luggage in while me, Tay and Kelsi show Anna your house and you are totally gonna love what I've done to the living room Anna its amazing…" Sharpay trailed off leaving the men with all the bags.

Troy laughed Sharpay always being the bossy one; he turned his attention back to his friends

A thought suddenly popped into Troy's " hey guys where are your kids, I swear last time I came to visit there was little ones about?"

"Grandparents" Zeke and Chad both said at the same time making the guys all laugh

"Got to be good for something right" Chad said

"God you have no idea how good it feels to be home" Troy sighed.

"Dude you have no idea how good it is to have you back Sharpay has not stopped talking about it I'll be glad now she can finally shut up" Zeke said with a smirk on his face.

"And here was me thinking you were happy I was here. I'm gutted man" Troy said placing his hand in front of his heart. The guys all laughed and silence filled in as the collected the many cases of luggage.

"Last one in has to go to the shop and get beers" Chad shouted making a leaping run towards the house with two suitcases in his hand, Troy just laughed and watch as Zeke and Chad tried to both fit into the front door at the same time, yup it was good to be home.

Gabriella

Gabriella sat at her large desk engrossed in papers she sighed as she put down the case file she was reading she stood up and stretched and turned to look at the view from her office. She saw the New York skyline beginning to come alive with lights as night was falling.

She had been in New York for a week attending business she was one of the most successfully lawyers in American anyone one who was anybody wanted her to represent them in court her success rate was through the roof.

She couldn't believe how far she had come since she got her law degree one thing lead to another and now she owned many law firms all over America. Her main law firm was in Albuquerque many people had tried to convince her there was more business in LA or New York but she wanted to stay where her life was, where her friends was and also she knew she wanted to stay in Albuquerque for another reason deep down she wouldn't admit this though. Although staying in Albuquerque meant many flights, business trips to and from New York and LA she didn't care as long as at the end of the adventure she got to head back to home.

Gabriella looked back onto her desk at the stacks of papers and sighed again she honestly couldn't be bothered anymore she was tired and she missed her friends. She picked up her cell phone and started to dial a filmier number.

It rang three times before the caller picked up.

"Hey Gabs you alright?" she heard Sharpay say loudly and then she heard her whisper something she couldn't make out.

"Hi pay… you no I'm not deaf right?" Gabriella said laughing slightly she then heard chatter and laughing in the background.

"Sorry Hun I never know what your connections going to be like" she heard her become clearer and knew she had walked out of where she was before.

"You got people over?" Gabriella asked wondering what all the noise was about before.

"Yeah… erm… just got the gang over you know having a BBQ lovely day it is here" Sharpay stuttered out mentally slapping herself for sounding like she was lying which technically she wasn't.

"Oh right, I see you having fun?" Gabi felt her heart sink she missed just hanging out and she was jealous that they were having fun without her but she knew it was a price to pay for her job.

"Erm yeah its great, but not the same without you here when you coming back?" Sharpay asked.

"Not sure this is a big case…" Gabriella heard a voice in the background then Sharpay interrupted her

"Gab's sorry Hun can I ring you back later? I've got to go Love you lots bye" Before Gabriella could even reply Sharpay had hung up.

Gabriella slumped back into her office chair and looked at her phone, something was going on Sharpay was acting very weird, and come to think of it the whole gang had been acting weird for the last couple of months like they had been keeping secrets… Gabriella shook her head oh her silly thoughts they wouldn't do that no one lie's to anyone in our group but the uneasy feeling in her stomach wouldn't go away.

Troy

Troy sat in his garden with all his friends they had been chilling in the garden for the last couple of hours, Chad had fired up the BBQ and now they was all sitting by the garden fire pit reminiscing about the old days. He looked over to his fiancé Anna he saw her eyes were growing tired and smiled as he reached over to her.

"Hey babe why don't you go on off to bed, the gang won't mind you've had a long day" He slowly stroked her hand. She smiled up at him a nodded slowly.

"Are you sure you don't mind, I know you want to stay up and talk for a bit longer" Anna said while getting up out of the chair.

"No it's fine I won't be out much longer anyway couple of hours at the most okay?" Anna once again nodded and kissed him gently on the lips.

"Night everyone it was so nice meeting you all again, I'll no doubt see you in the morning." She called as she made her into their house.

"Oh yes your coming to my house In the morning Zeke is cooking you a welcome to Albuquerque breakfast its gonna be amazing" Sharpay smiled sweetly.

"Oh lovely I sure I will see you all there then Goodnight and thank you for tonight it's been amazing I'm glad we moved here" Anna then disappeared into the house.

Normal chatter filled the group when Sharpay's phone stared ringing she picked it up without reading the caller Id she suddenly spoke loudly

"Hey Gabriella you alright" she stared at the gang and Troy and pushed her fingers to her lips, the whole gang then went silent. Sharpay then walked off.

Troy suddenly felt a guilty feeling sink onto his shoulders after all the events that happened today he had pushed to the back of his mind that Gabriella still lived here and was still very much part of the group. He then remembered he had begged the gang not to let Gabriella know he was moving here, he begged them not to tell Anna about Gabriella and he hated now that he had made them all lie to her face a thing everyone of them hated doing. He always planned his visits to the gang and to his family whenever Gabriella was away on business he always found out form Zeke.

Troy walked over to where Sharpay was thinking she was off the phone he began to speak.

"Sharpay…" Sharpay whipped round and shoved her hand over Troy's mouth and then made an excuse to get off the phone to Gabriella, once she had finished she removed her hand.

"Troy god she could have heard you,now I know she defiantly knows something is going on" Sharpay stormed back to the group troy following at her heels.

"I hate lying to her I absolutely hate it, she doesn't deserve this she deserves the truth and God when she comes back and sees you and then she will find out that we all knew…" Sharpay rambled on.

"Guys I'm sorry I made you lie it's just I haven't thought about what I'm going to say yet, it's just I don't know if I can face her after… you know…" Troy went silent suddenly regretting moving here after all he had left and he had done what he had done.

"After what Troy?" Taylor trailed on.

Troy looked up and saw all the gangs eyes on him " After you know, come on she must have told you girls?"

"Troy all we know is that Gabriella went to see you at collage in spring break and then when it ended she went back to college and we didn't see her for about 2 years she said she was very busy with Stanford but she called occasionally and visted rarely all she said about you was that when she went and saw you that you to had grown apart and decided together that it wasn't working out?" Taylor said now knowing that what she had suspected at the time was more likely to be right.

Troy sat there and the guiltiness he felt suddenly got 10 times heavier, he could never forgive himself for what he had done and although he had buried it was starting to make itself know again. As he meet his eyes to the gang he decided that if Gabriella hadn't wanted them to know then he wasn't going to tell them either.

"Yeah that's it" Troy said in a quiet voice knowing for well the gang didn't believe him.

"When is she back do you know?" Troy asked trying to figure out what he was going to do, for some reason he didn't think about what it would be like seeing Gabriella after all these years his mind was suddenly full of questions, how would she act? Would she hit him? Ignore him, smile and act as nothing had happened.

"she doesn't know yet, but I'm telling you Troy this is not fair I mean what all of us have done, would we like it if it was us that all are friends were lying to? No didn't think so and Troy you need to fix whatever happened between you two because you are both apart of this group and you can't keep hiding from her, she's not in New York or La or where ever esle she is all the time and believe it or not you can't avoid her forever" Taylor said softly.

Troy knew she was right and he knew that sooner than he liked the moment where he would have to face Gabriella again was coming soon.

Soon after that the gang left, as he lay in bed that night he watched Anna sleep but couldn't understand why suddenly he wished it wasn't Anna and that In her place was a certain Brunette beauty. Not a day had gone by where he had not thought about what she was doing, or where she was at or if she ever thought of him.

Gabriella

Gabriella sat at the airport waiting for her flight to be called sitting next to her was he very annoying but excellent assistant Mia.

"Gabriella I don't understand you've still got work here to do, you needed here not in Albuquerque or whatever it's called" Mia said in a huff.

"You know I love you but please just shut up" Gabriella said laughing

"I don't understand your friends will be there in a week or so you need to read this case through and through it's a big client" Mia carried on showing that she was unhappy on going back to Albuquerque so soon.

"Weather I read the case here or in Timbuktu its still going to say the exactly same thing, just like if I read it the office or in a shopping market the words aren't going to change, and plus I need to sort out some stuff and then before you know it will be back in New York and then maybe you might shut up" Gabriella said in one long breath.

Mia didn't say anything else and simply went back to her laptop, Gabriella smiled happily and finally their flight was called.

Troy

Troy sat in Sharpay's large kitchen talking and watching Zeke cook, it was like the conversation last night never happened and everything was back to normal. The gang was happy and smiley again, Chad, Sharpay and Taylor was outside with Ben and Brandon Chad and Taylors two year olds twins and Harry, Sharpay's and Zeke's 5 year old, were playing in the pool while Kelsi sat with Anna happily talking and waiting for the food.

"Ah you no man I can't wait to have this life" Troy said while watching as Zeke laid out some pancakes.

"What life" Zeke said half paying attention to Troy and half to his food.

"You know kids, families, and friends, makes me wonder why I ever moved away from all of you guys" Troy said while stating at the kids in the pool

Zeke smiled "like I said dude it's good to have you and properly back this time, and I hope to God you and Gabs work it out" Troy flinched slightly when he mentioned her name and grew quite.

"Don't Worry you'll sort it out you guys always did, you two never let a fight carry and i think 7 years is stupid" Zeke said matter of factly. Troy still remained silent then got up and walked over and stood beside Zeke.

"How is she Zeke honestly?" Troy not knowing what suddenly brought this feeling of wanting to know how she had been, he wanted to know everything that had happened to her since her last saw her. He Suddenly felt very protective over her.

'Honestly Troy she is good, you know very busy she is always jetting off places and spends most of her time doing work, and to be honest we don't see her as much as we would like but I don't know, I know you don't want to talk about it but when whatever happened between you, Gabriella sort of changed she went full speed ahead and shoved herself deep into work, but I'll let you know Troy everybody changes that's life but she changed so quickly and sometimes we see this look in her eyes and she seems so unhappy sort of" Zeke said while thinking himself about everything.

Troy wished he had never asked ,their conversation was broken by Harry running in.

"Daddy come on mummy's says she is getting hungry well we all are come on hurry up" Harry said very quickly and then run back to the pool.

Zeke and Troy laughed " Help me take all this out" Zeke said pointing to the food and with that once again the conversation and hard feeling lighted up as they went to join the others in the garden.

Gabriella

Gabriella waited for the 6th time this morning she had called Sharpay's cell and home and still got no answer she had tried Chad and Taylor and Ryan and Kelsi none of them were answering her. She was starting to get pissed off now. Were then intently ignoring her?

She huffed as she threw her phone onto the seat next to her and just decided to drive round to her friends houses until she found them. The closes house form where she was , was Tay's and Chad's so she started their.

After about half hour she finally pulled up in front of Sharpay's house and started walking to the front door she didn't bother knocking as she usually just let herself in she walked into the large hallway and was meet with silence

"Sharpay… Zeke… Harry" again she was met with silence, she then heard laughter in the back garden and knew that is where everyone was, she felt silly for getting all worked up and thinking they were ignoring her. She smiled as she entered the kitchen and smelt the aroma of food.

As she walked into the garden and started speaking

"So this is why you're not answering any of my phone calls your all out…" Gabriella stopped talking and felt a lump form in her throat as her eyes landed on a familiar blue pair, she suddenly couldn't speak.

"Gabs what are you doing here" she heard Sharpay and Taylor say getting quickly up out of their seat

Though Gabriella only heard one voice.

"Brie" Troy said under his breath as his eyes meet hers and right there at that moment Troy sat there and couldn't understand why he ever let her go.

A/N: Hey guys I know I haven't wrote anything in ages I've been very busy studying for my GCSE's and have hardly anytime. Now I don't know much about law and how long it takes to get a degree or even start up your own business but for the story let's just say Gabriella managed it all. So please review and tell me what you think x x x