Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or places created by the High School Musical franchise or by Disney!

Just as Gabriella Montez-Bolton opened the front door to "their" house, the two-story home she and her husband of almost four years, Troy Bolton, lived in, she had to stop and savor the rich aromas coming from the kitchen. "Troy? I'm home!"

"Hey babe, I'm in the kitchen! How was work and your workout?" Troy called back. "Did you increase your reps like I told you to?"

"Yup and I am extra achy because of it. My right knee so doesn't like you right now." Gabriella slipped off her shoes, stopped to make sure the front door was properly locked, and then walked towards the kitchen. "It smells yummy."

"Good because it's almost done. Cheesy garlic bread with fresh spaghetti and homemade meat sauce. Sounds like dessert though is going to be ice packs to that knee."

Groaning, Gabriella limped towards where Troy was hovering over the stove. "Please, no ice packs Wildcat!"

"But you know it's for your own good baby," he softly returned, looking at his wife before he leaned down and kissed her inviting lips. "I love you and only want what's best for you."

Gabriella smiled, momentarily forgetting about her worries about work and her body aches as she stared up into the sparkling cerulean eyes that were overfilled with love. "I love you too Troy."

Before focusing on finishing the cooking, Troy snuck in one more kiss, unable to help himself. "You have a good day besides the gym part?"

Opening a nearby cabinet, Gabriella nodded as she pulled out two plates and walked to the table to set it down for dinner on their placemats. "It was decent. No fires or anything to report."

"That's good. Don't go anywhere. Dinner really is just a few minutes away."

"Yes sir," she teased, getting the silverware out and setting it on the napkins on their blue placemats before filling two glasses with water. "How was your day?"

Troy poured the pasta into the strainer in the sink before he answered. "It was busy. Stupid mechanics though can't read instructions for anything and almost caused a big screw up. Honestly, what's so hard about fucking reading instructions and following them? A six year old can do it!"

Seeing the clear frustrated look on his face, Gabriella gave him her best sympathetic look before walking back to him, rubbing his shoulders and neck a little while he focused on finishing the cooking. "I'm sorry sweetie. Did the project get done though?"

The buzzer to the oven went off just then, Troy beating Gabriella there to turn the timer and oven both off. Troy took the bread out of the oven and placed it on a set of potholders on the counter to let it cool. "Yeah, it gone done, thank God! Want to take a seat at the table? Dinner is now ready."

Gabriella did just that, sitting in her normal seat and shuffling through the mail that had come in that day, seeing mostly junk and a few bills. The house was filled with even stronger smells of spice and garlic, much to Gabriella's delight as she always enjoyed the smells of Troy's spaghetti. When Troy placed the last dish on the table, he turned to Gabriella and gave her a charming smile that still made Gabriella's stomach somersault even after almost ten years of being together.

"Dinner is served my love."

"Thank you," she murmured, reaching up to meet his lips. "It smells delicious."

"Not as delicious as you look," Troy smoothly replied, winking at his wife as he sat down on his own seat.

Gabriella rolled her eyes at his shameless flirting. "Clearly you need your eyes checked. I just came home from the gym, dressed in sweats and still a bit sweaty to boot."

Shaking his head at her, Troy served the spaghetti noodles and then the sauce to her on Gabriella's plate, letting her pick out her own first slice of the cheesy garlic bread. "And you just need to learn to believe me that I find you beautiful and sexy in everything, from lingerie to sweats. Anyway, eat up! I don't want it getting cold."

Without another word being spoken, Gabriella and Troy both dug in, enjoying their dinner together as they caught up on each other's day.

After they were both done, Gabriella got up and helped clear the table with full intentions of doing the dishes until Troy placed a loving but strong hand over hers that was on the faucet ready to turn it on. "I'll do the dishes if you go take a shower with the promise that you will put that knee of yours under cold water for a few minutes to help the swelling. Deal?"

"Are you sure? You cooked," she began, stopping as Troy kissed her, silencing any further words.

"I'm sure, now go!"

Gabriella didn't have to be told twice so she limped out of his way and did his bidding, despite hating the cold water treatment. After getting dressed in a fresh pair of bikini underwear, boxer shorts, and one of Troy's old college t-shirts, Gabriella went back downstairs, trying her best to hide her limp.

Troy wasn't fooled from where he was now sitting on the couch though. "Babe, come sit down here. You look like you're in serious pain."

Complying, Gabriella sat down on the couch but soon found herself lying down on the couch on her back, her head on a pillow after Troy got back up. Shortly after, he returned with a glass of water and two Tylenol.

Before Gabriella opened her mouth to argue, Troy shot down whatever argument she was prepared to say. "This is for your own good. I know you hate taking meds but this will help with the pain and swelling. Please, take them."

Unable to resist his genuine care for her, Gabriella sat up and took the offered pills and water, satisfying Troy in the process. When she was done, Troy took the glass back and put it on the coffee table, standing up again. Gabriella laid back down and tried ignoring the throbbing in her right knee, trying to focus on whatever was on the screen in front of her. She may have successfully, eventually, ignored the pain for a time but she couldn't ignore the ice cold pressure when it appeared moments later causing her to jolt up right. "Troy!"

He had the decency to give her a sheepish grin as he kept his hand on the ice pack on her right knee so she couldn't escape it. "Sorry but this will make you feel better later, promise."

"It's cold!" Gabriella whined, glaring at her husband.

"That is the point sweetheart." After leaving the ice pack there for a few more minutes and seeing that Gabriella was coming to accept it being there, Troy walked around the couch and sat down again, lifting her head and pillow both to slide under them, letting her settle on his lap as he began to brush out some of her long dark locks to try to comfort her.

Gabriella latched onto the soothing feeling and was out a few minutes later only to wake up after about an hour passed.

"Have a good snooze?"

Looking up, she saw Troy looking back down at her, his eyes twinkling even in the darkness. Gabriella nodded, feeling a bit better. "Thank you for taking such loving care of me. You really are amazing."

"I vowed to do just that when we got married plus lots more. Thing is, I practiced that even before we got hitched and I will always be here for you like that."

Gabriella was yet again swept off her feet by her husband, still not immune to him and his true heartfelt words and ways. "I love you Troy."

Troy smiled, never tiring of hearing those words from her. "I love you too Gabriella."

She turned her head to watch the Discovery channel show Troy was watching for the next few moments, stopping when she spotted what time it was. "Crap, it's past ten. I better go check on work email."

"You work too hard," Troy stated before letting his wife get up anyway.

"Says the man with how much comp time? Over one hundred hours?" she teased, standing up and stretching before placing the ice pack back in the freezer.

After kissing Troy on the top of his head, Gabriella went back upstairs, smiling as she felt her knee actually hurting less. "He was right yet again…"

"I heard that and I'm always right!"

Gabriella rolled her eyes as she heard his words, sitting down at her computer to focus on the task at hand. Once she was done with her work email, Gabriella opened a new window and signed into her personal mail, seeing a new email from Jeff Dumell, the first guy who had ever really shown real serious interest in her in high school. A lot had happened since then, including their friendship that continued to be maintained despite the distance and time that had passed.

Glad to see that Jeff was still alive and able to communicate, Gabriella clicked on the email to read it, her hand freezing on the mouse as she got to the middle of the email. Her eyes had to scan the second half of the email four times before Gabriella could do anything else, reaching for her nearby cell phone.

Realizing the late hour, Gabriella swore as she realized it was too late to call Kelsi Nielson, her best friend from high school who also knew the history with Jeff that Gabriella had the best. Instead, Gabriella texted the next closest person to who was currently in her life, Taylor McKessie.

Unfortunately, the most sense Gabriella was able to make was, "OMG! Crap! AAAA!"

Shortly after, she got a text back form Taylor. "What? What's wrong?"

"Jeff, remember him? Emailed saying I have the most beautiful eyes he has ever seen."

A moment later, Taylor replied, "That was nice. What's the deal?"

"What's the deal? He freaking said he still loves me!" Gabriella muttered to herself under her breath, freezing as she heard Troy coming up the stairs. Her eyes guiltily strayed to the email from Jeff, making a quick decision to minimize the browser, her heart beating faster than a hummingbird's wing beat.

"Hey baby. Everything okay at work? You look flushed," Troy commented, sitting down in his own desk chair and looking at her. "You in pain again?"

Gabriella shook her head, unsure if she trusted herself to say anything. Even though she had only read those words from another man, Gabriella felt terribly guilty, especially as she saw more concern in his eyes.

Troy was about to prod further when Gabriella's cell rang, causing for her to jump. He curiously looked at her as she answered, getting up from her desk to talk on the phone with one of her girlfriends Troy assumed. Shrugging, Troy checked his email one last time before shutting his laptop down for the night and heading to bed to watch some late night TV, unaware of how very freaked out his wife was as she stood in the guest room talking on her cell.

"Taylor, what am I going to do? What do I say? How do I respond? Do I respond?"

Taylor drew in a deep breath, wishing she could calm Gabriella down that way too, using her own breath as a time stall. "First, tell me what he said exactly."

Since the words were burned into her memory, Gabriella had no trouble reciting them to Taylor. "Our memory lane isn't a two lane road but it is a four lane expanse of paved highway made of twelve plus years of knowing each other. It has taken me twelve years to tell you this too. I mean no disrespect to our families but I wanted to kiss you senseless the last time we saw each other. More importantly," Gabriella paused, needing to breathe as she rambled, "I love you, then and now. I love you Gabriella and have never stopped. Take care, Jeff. P.S. You have the most beautiful brown eyes I've ever seen."

There was immediate silence between the two women, Taylor trying to process everything while Gabriella thought back to the last time she saw Jeff and how they had gotten started.

Normally when women got such declarations from a former flame, it could be handled in a dismissive way, at least that's what Gabriella thought. If this declaration had come from anyone else, she would have replied in a heartbeat that she was happily married and she and the ex were long over. Thing was, with Jeff, it was a bit different and not so cut and dry.

With Jeff, there was this "What could have been?" feeling between them. Gabriella had been a freshman in high school when she met Jeff while she volunteered at a convent where Jeff worked at. There were sparks between them from the very start, Gabriella becoming even more flattered as he continued flirting with her, sticking around even after his shift to help her clean up after the event she was volunteering at. She learned that night that he was almost four years older than her, speechless for a time as she realized a nineteen-year-old guy was seemingly interested in her, a fifteen-year-old.

At the end of the night, Jeff asked her for her number and she gave it to him readily.

For weeks, they talked on the phone, her mother growing suspicious as the once a week call soon turned into a daily call. Since Gabriella couldn't drive, Jeff and she had opted to get to know each other over the phone better. Two months after they met for the first time, Gabriella went back to the convent to volunteer again, surprising Jeff, who was more than happy to see her. By the end of the fair that Gabriella worked, Jeff had worked up the courage to ask Gabriella out, which she eagerly accepted, wondering though if she was dreaming it all up.

Jeff suggested seeing a movie together so it was easy for Gabriella to meet him without raising her mother's suspicions even more since Gabriella's mother had put a rule out that Gabriella couldn't date until she was sixteen. Having no other ride, Gabriella ended up asking her mom to take her but under the story that she was meeting a friend at the theater. It was sitting in that movie theater at the strip mall before the movie started that Jeff dropped the "bomb" on her.

Gabriella's stomach twisted as Jeff's arm brushed hers on the armrest, her heart going into overdrive when Jeff grabbed her hand and held it in his. When she finally found the courage to look back at him, her breath got caught in her throat as Jeff openly stared at her.

"Gabriella, I have to tell you something I should have told you before but didn't because I couldn't risk everything with you ending before it even started," Jeff stated, watching Gabriella to ensure that she was listening to him. "Before I met you, I thought I figured out what I wanted to do with my life but now I'm regretting the decision I made."

Swallowing the bundle of nerves in her throat, Gabriella forced herself to ask, "What did you decide Jeff? Are you engaged? Married?"

"No," Jeff replied, letting out a dry chuckle. "Nothing like that, promise. The last relationship I was in was about eight months ago. I actually have to tell you that I am, well, this is harder to say with you looking at me. I'm getting lost in your gorgeous eyes."

"Please, what is it?" Gabriella wasn't the pushy type but this had her literally falling to pieces inside.

"I joined the Army the week before I met you, to serve this country and now to keep you safe. I'm being sent to boot camp on Tuesday."

When Gabriella didn't say anything, Jeff continued. "I guess this is the only date we'll get because, as much as I like you, I can't ask you to wait for me. I'm sorry Gabriella, I really do like you."

Absently, Gabriella nodded, gently pulling her hand out of his just as the lights dimmed. She spent the next two hours staring blankly at the movie screen, forcing herself to laugh at the funny parts when all Gabriella wanted to do was cry as she felt what heartbreak was first hand for the first time ever.

After that date, Gabriella had continued to talk to Jeff whenever he could call, exchanging letters in between. She had seen him for a few hours when he came home to see his family for a couple of days before Jeff was shipped overseas for active duty. The last time had been when Jeff drove to an airport a few years later, making a three hour drive through tornados from the fort he was stationed at, where Gabriella happened to have a layover at. He made that drive to spend only an hour with Gabriella at the airport, greeting her with a single red rose and saying goodbye with a hug.

"Gabriella? You still there?" Taylor asked, worry in her voice. "Gabriella?"

Gabriella snapped out of it, shaking free of the memories. "I'm here. Just going down that four lane paved highway."

Taylor recognized the quote from Jeff's email and understood then how deeply this one email affected her close friend. "Gabriella, what was your first reaction to the email? Talk it out with me."

Needing no further encouragement, Gabriella said, "Shock. Swearing. Disbelief. Guilt."

"Okay, I can understand all that except the guilt. What do you want to do though? How far did you ever go with Jeff anyway?"

"Not even kissing Tay, just holding hands. He told me a few years back that he wished he had kissed me at the airport but didn't want to because he didn't think it would work, with all the long distance. And yes, guilty because I feel like I'm cheating on Troy right now."

"Cheating on Troy? Girl, are you crazy? You haven't done anything wrong!"

"Maybe not but I feel like I have. Just by reading Jeff's words. Taking this long to tell him to go to hell. I just, it's not that easy with Jeff. Any other guy I dated, sure, straight to the crapper with them but it's different with Jeff."

More than before, Taylor got a clear idea as to why this troubled Gabriella. "Reading what another man wrote doesn't qualify as cheating, especially if you don't plan on acting on them. You also didn't realize until now that his feelings have continued to deepen for you over the years while yours slowly vanished, disappearing completely when you started dating Troy in your senior year of high school."

"Exactly," Gabriella whispered. "If he hadn't joined the Army, would we still be together? Would I love him now instead of crush on him back then?"

"So how do you feel now?" Taylor knew to be careful with her emotional prodding but felt this needed to be done. "What are you going to do about Troy?"

"Do about Troy? Taylor, I'm not leaving my husband over this, even if I feel this guilty for no reason as you point out," Gabriella adamantly stated. "He, Troy is my entire world. I am in love with him with every cell in my body and this doesn't change anything."

Taylor let out a deep sigh of relief. "Good, that's what I wanted to hear."

"Shit, I need to tell Troy all about this Tay."

"Does Troy even know about Jeff?"

"Yup, all of it. We've always been completely transparent about everything, including our histories. I'll have to figure out what to tell Jeff later. I need to catch Troy before he goes to bed, he knows something is off about me."

"All right," Taylor agreed. "Before you go though. Gabriella? I think in your heart, you already know what you need to do and who really is in your heart despite who came first."

"Thanks Taylor, for everything."

Gabriella hung up the phone with the acknowledgement that as much as she was shocked by Jeff's email and had gotten caught by the wave of memories which brought on the guilt, Gabriella did know what to do and it all started with talking to her husband.

Dragging in air through her lungs to help settle her nerves, Gabriella walked to their master bedroom. "Wildcat? You still up?"

"Yeah, what is it babe?" Troy asked, using the remote to mute the television.

"I have to tell you something…"

When Gabriella's sentence faded away as she sat down on the edge of the bed on Troy's side, Troy reached over and took her hand in his. "Gabriella, what's wrong?"

As Gabriella forced herself to gaze into his orbs that were darkening with concern, she was reminded of how very blessed she was that things had happened exactly as they did with Jeff, knowing one thing done differently could have meant she never would have met this man sitting in front of her, staring at her with concern but also unconditional love in his eyes.

"Baby?"

Licking her dry lips, Gabriella forced herself to talk. "Jeff emailed me tonight. His troop is stuck in Kuwait for another week as they wait for another available plane to take them back."

Troy's tense body instantly relaxed. "Is that all? I'm sure he'll get home to his wife and daughter soon enough. I'm glad that he and the rest of his troop get to come back safely. Is that all though? God, you had me really worried!"

"He said more than that." Gabriella nibbled on the corner of her lip as she looked back at Troy. "Jeff, well, he wrote me that he still loved me, did back twelve years ago and still does now. He also thinks I have beautiful eyes, the most beautiful he's ever seen."

There was a tense silence for a few moments before Troy burst into laughter, surprising Gabriella. "Oh… my… God… That guy, Jeff is so weird and messed up! I appreciate him serving our country but he's still messed up in the head for that! He really wrote you that?"

Gabriella merely nodded, still trying to understand her husband's laughter when she had expected some type of jealous reaction instead. "Why are you laughing? You aren't mad at me or him?"

"Hell no! I'm laughing because it's ridiculous that he told you that way, now, when you aren't married to him and he has his own wife and daughter waiting for him to come home from serving our country so dutifully. For God's sake, he has a family but he just signed up to serve the rest of his life in the Army! I can't be mad at you at all and I can't be mad at him because he's right. You do have the most gorgeous eyes that I've ever seen and will ever see. Just remember, I said that first before him!"

Gabriella watched as Troy continued chuckling, her own mood getting lighter by the second. "Oh, you think it's funny? You've never told me that about my eyes!"

"Yes I have!"

"No, you really haven't! You've talked about other physical attributes but not that, that being my eyes."

"Well I thought it many times at least!" Troy defended. "What are you going to tell the poor bastard?"

Gabriella thought about it and smirked. "Let's run away together?"

Troy laughed again, sobering for a few moments as he said, "That's funny! Like you would really leave me to run off with him, knowing you'd be in his current wife's shoes, with him gone most of the time. I'd like to think you think you have a better life with me now. You better not run off with him!"

"I dunno, someone has a mighty big head to think he'd never lose me," Gabriella replied, getting off the bed, doing her best to hold in her laughter.

She squealed when she felt Troy's hand wrap around her right wrist, pulling her down so that Gabriella was now sprawled on top of Troy in their bed. "I just know you love me as much as I love you," Troy murmured, raising his head to capture her lips with his.

As Gabriella shifted so she was now lying on her side, curled over his left side with her left leg lying on top of his, Gabriella replied, "If nothing else, this makes me grateful that everything that happened and didn't happen did occur, otherwise I probably wouldn't have you in my life. That's what would break my heart, knowing I could have missed out on a man who truly accepts me for me and deals with my good and bad as if I only had good. You're amazing Wildcat."

"You aren't so horrible yourself," Troy huskily teased, kissing his wife senseless before showing her exactly how much he loved her.

After Troy fell asleep a while later, Gabriella within his embrace, Gabriella stealthily snuck out of their bed and sat down again at her computer, knowing she had to reply somehow to Jeff. She hovered over the reply link in the internet browser and clicked, holding her breath as she tried to think of what she was going to write, deciding on the wording as she went:

Dear Jeff,

I hope you do in fact make it on that next flight out of Kuwait. I'm sure your wife and daughter are anxious to see you. Thank you for the compliment you gave me and I'm truly flattered by what you said. When I think back twelve years ago, I remember how much I thought the world of you back then and will always cherish our history together. Things happen as they are meant to though, and our lives have certainly changed and grown since we were teenagers. I am grateful that we can still share our lives together as friends now. Travel safely home to your family dear friend!

~Gabriella

Without reading it over again, Gabriella clicked send, sagging with relief that it was no longer in her hands.

Maybe her response could have been worded better, maybe in an alternate plane of existence they could have worked out great but they may have also crashed and burned. In the end though, she would never trade a day with Troy for a million years with a "could have been" Jeff, not when she knew Troy was the man who fully owned her heart and was her reason for breathing. Not a million years or for a million dollars would Gabriella give up even a second with Troy.

One thing Gabriella was sure of was that everything happened in her life for all the right reasons and she wouldn't change a thing.