Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical or "How to Save a Life" by The Fray.

A/N: This idea is used quite a lot on FF, but I thought I'd try it out. I'm not very good at this type of writing, and I've never really liked this sort of genre, but I'm trying it out.

Step one you say we need to talk

He walks you say sit down it's just a talk

He smiles politely back at you

You stare politely right on through

Gabriella stood, looking on at what had just happened. Lights, sirens and so many other distractions were all around her, while she was just standing in the evening darkness. All she could see was Troy's red sports car, squashed between a truck and a van. The driver stumbled out of the van, obviously drunk, wobbling on his feet. The cops rushed to him and put him in handcuffs. Gabriella looked at the truck and saw the driver, slumped over at the wheel, no evidence of any injuries, other than his head, bleeding on the wheel. Gabriella felt sorry for the truck driver. He was innocent, he didn't do anything wrong, she thought, just like Troy. She sighed and hugged her jacket around her.

Some sort of window to your right

As he goes left and you stay right

Between the lines of fear and blame

And you begin to wonder why you came

Taylor, Chad, Jason and Kelsi ran up to her. She had phoned them a couple minutes ago. The firefighters and police had been working for over half an hour trying to free Troy.

"We came as fast as we could," Taylor panted.

"Yeah, traffic was backed up really badly so we just ran the last 5 blocks," Kelsi panted. Gabriella couldn't help but smile weakly.

"Thanks, you guys," Gabriella smiled. Chad gave her a hug from behind and began rubbing her shoulders.

"Stay in there, G," he said, using Gabriella's nickname he gave her. She smiled. Chad and Gabriella were really close; Gabriella claimed he was the brother she never had. Flashes of earlier that night began to play in Gabriella's mind.

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend

Somewhere along in the bitterness

And I would have stayed up with you all night

Had I known how to save a life

:Flashback:

Gabriella laughed as Taylor cranked up the music. Daniel (a basketball player and a good friend of Troy's) was having a party; his parents were out of town and East High Basketball had just gotten into the championship. Everyone was there, laughing and having a good time.

A guy walked in, not much older than Troy, maybe a couple years, in a trench coat. He looked around and found the food table. He walked over there, hiding in the low lights. He found a cup with 'Troy' scribbled on it and slipped a small amount of something from a silver bottle into Troy's cup. The man then slipped the silver vile back into his pocket and walked out of the party quickly, avoiding being seen. Nobody noticed him going, tainting the drink or walking out.

Troy walked in from the patio. He looked around for his cup and spotted it. He took a small drink and set it down again, not tasting any difference in the punch inside. He went out to the backyard to the dance floor and thought nothing of it.

:End Flashback 1:

Later on that evening…

Troy was getting tired. He had been dancing all night and decided to hit the hay. He found Chad, waved to him and motioned at his watch. Chad nodded and waved. Troy hopped in the car, getting a bit tired. As he pulled out her say Gabriella waving to him. He smiled at her and waved. She blew him a kiss.

"I love you!" she said.

"I love you, too!" he said from in his car. The two smiled as Troy pulled his car along the road. Gabriella began walking in the direction of her house.

As he was driving, Troy got more and more tired, but paid no attention to it. He'd be home soon anyways. He got to one of the major intersections and waited for his light to go green. His light turned green and he eased into the intersection along with another car to his left. He suddenly heard screaming and the honking of horns, a crunch, then he saw blackness and heard nothing but eerie silence.

:End Flashbacks:

Let him know that you know best

Cause after all you do know best

Try to slip past his defense

Without granting innocence

"Get this off of him!" one man yelled to another. They quickly unscrewed the steering wheel and threw it to the side of the road.

"On the count of three!" the other said.

"One, two, three!" they said, and pulled an unconscious Troy from his car. His head had a cut that was bleed, and his arm was out of shape. What caught the teens, especially Gabriella, were his legs. They both had a lot of cuts, but his right knee was bent out of shape. His left foot was completely smashed as far as they could tell.

"Hey, wait, I got a wallet!" one yelled as they pulled Troy out. He flipped the wallet open and found his driver's license and student ID.

"Troy Bolton of East High, 18, and by the looks of it, played basketball," one yelled to the other, speaking of the pictures of Troy with all the team and one with Gabriella.

Gabriella cried and hung onto Chad and Jason while Kelsi and Taylor rubbed her back. The paramedic walked over and saw the teens.

"Is he your friend?" the paramedic who found the wallet yelled at them over the rope. He checked the pictures. Gabriella nodded.

"I'm Dave. You were in some pictures here. Do you mind coming with him?" he asked Gabriella. She nodded silently. Dave motioned for her to come under the rope and he helped her climb into the ambulance. The other paramedic began talking to the rest of the gang.

"I'm Bill. Now, I'm assuming you don't have a car with you?" he asked them. The teens nodded. The paramedic thought for a while and called into his radio.

"Er, hi, this is Bill. I'm wondering if Officer Danielson could take a couple kids up to the hospital?" he said into the speaker. Someone on the other end said yes. Bill led them over to two cop cars.

"Okay, your friend…" he said, letting them tell him Gabriella's name.

"Gabriella," Taylor supplied.

"Gabriella, will get there a little before us. Now, before you ask, I have no idea about your friend Troy. We'll just hope for the best, okay?" Bill said, shedding some light on the situation.

Lay down a list of what is wrong

The things you've told him all along

And pray to God he hears you

And pray to God he hears you

Gabriella tried to stay strong, for Troy's sake, even though he couldn't see or hear her. The paramedic riding in the back with Troy gave her a blanket to wrap around herself. She nodded at him in appreciation. He turned back to Troy, trying to find out the worst of the situation.

Gabriella looked out the small window above her head. She sighed as she saw a bunch of teenagers on the front steps of a park, laughing. They turned the corner and sped up towards the hospital. Five other men, who seemed an arrangement of doctors and paramedics, helped the gurney with the unconscious Troy on it out of the back doors of the ambulance. A couple nurses rushed up to Gabriella as soon as the doctor's had rushed off with Troy. Gabriella tightened her grip on the blanket and looked at them fearfully.

"Oh, no, it's okay sweetie," said one nurse. Gabriella looked at her name tag and saw her name was Emily.

"It's gonna be alright," the other soothed. Gabriella looked at her name tag and saw her name was Natasha. Both nurses had white coats on and blue scrubs underneath.

"Yeah, you just gotta get out of here now," Emily said, smiling. She lifted up her hand for Gabriella to grab. Gabriella gave in and grabbed the nurse's hand and was escorted to the lobby.

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend

Somewhere along in the bitterness

And I would have stayed up with you all night

Had I known how to save a life

Taylor, Chad, Kelsi and Jason all ran into the hospital from the police cars. They stumbled in and found Gabriella, huddled on a chair with two nurses around her. The nurses looked up at the teens.

"Here, maybe you can get her to talk," they said, motioning for them to try. Taylor, Chad, Kelsi and Jason all sat beside and below her chair.

"Gabriella, you can hear me, right?" Chad joked. Gabriella couldn't help but smile with the tiniest corner of her mouth.

"I saw that! I made her smile. Yes, it was I, the great Chadini!" Chad said proudly. Gabriella giggled, realized what she had done and went back into her stone face mood. The teens sighed.

"You know, this is a touchy subject, but I don't think Troy would want you sad," Kelsi pointed out. Jason and the rest of the gang nodded. Slowly, Gabriella began to nod as well.

"You're right. He'll be alright, of course he will. He's Troy," Gabriella said. The rest of them gave her hugs. They sat for about an hour and a half, reading magazines, getting coffee or just staring into space. A doctor came out.

"You said his parents were away?" the doctor asked. Gabriella nodded.

"If this isn't too much to ask, could you figure out how to contact them? I know I shouldn't dump this on patients' friends or family, but right now I need all the help I can get," the doctor pleaded. Chad nodded.

"I've got their information. I'll phone them in a while," he said. The doctor nodded gratefully.

"Oh, and I'm Dr. Jacobs, but you can call me Sarah. If you need anything, Emily and Natasha can help," she said, motioning to the nurses at the reception desk. She waved at them and pointed towards the room she came from.

"Well, I've got to be off, but I'll let you know about Troy in a couple minutes," Sarah said, sliding into the room.

As he begins to raise his voice

You lower yours and grant him one last choice

Drive until you lose the road

Or break with the ones you've followed

Gabriella mind was running. She was thinking of all her good times with Troy. Her head was like a movie, playing over and over again. For some reason, it kept stopping on that fateful day when Troy and she sang 'Breaking Free'. Visions of her and Troy dancing along the stage haunted her mind. Her thoughts were quickly shaken when Dr. Jacobs came out.

"Ok, I've got some news for you. Before I tell you, I have to warn you that it's not pretty. If for some reason you wouldn't like to hear it, please leave now and I can brief you later," Sarah warned. The teens looked at each other and nodded. They were ready for anything. They braced themselves for the news.

"Ok, I guess you're fine with it. Anyways, Troy is still unconscious, which is a bit worrying. We figured after he'd wake up within a half hour or so after the surgery, but he hasn't," she began. The teens looked alarmed as she said 'surgery'. Sarah grimaced. This was not going to be fun.

"And now for the really bad news… the crash sent him flying forward onto his steering wheel. Now, the airbag caught him before he could injure his head, but his lower abdomen, we're not so sure. We x-rayed and saw a couple broken ribs. His lung was poked in one place at some time, but it's only a little bruised. He's got a bit of a short breath, but he should be fine in that area. His wrist is slightly sprained, but in a very painful way. And moving onwards, I'll cut straight to the chase. His legs aren't looking so good. His left foot has several fractures and broken bones. His right knee was cut above it, and he sprained it quite badly. He had many, many cuts on his legs we had to deal with before we could actually figure out any of the fractures. He woke up for a very short period of time while we were prepping him for surgery. We asked him what felt sore or hurt. He talked about his chest and his wrist. We asked him about his legs and he said his legs didn't hurt at all," Sarah finished worriedly.

He will do one of two things

He will admit to everything

Or he'll say he's just not the same

And you'll begin to wonder why you came

Gabriella looked at where Sarah had been standing. She was still in shock. The rest of the gang sat her down in a chair and tried to get her to talk.

"His legs…" she whispered. Visions of Troy playing basketball flashed through her head. She whimpered as she thought back on the day of the championship, the day East High claimed their trophy. Flashes of him dancing with her on stage, him riding his bike, him shooting hoops in his front yard and him joking with his friends were all images floating around Gabriella's empty head. Chad grabbed her and held her close.

"He's not gone. He's with you. And anyways, I won't let him go. We'll lose and I'll be lonely," Chad said, the last part dramatically. Taylor whacked him for being so self centered and Gabriella chuckled and shook her head sadly. They all sat, staring at a certain spot in the carpet when Dr. Jacobs walked in again.

"Troy has come back to visit us! He is in stable condition and says he might wring my neck if I don't let you guys come in. And from him, it's a big threat, seeing as it's very hard for him to talk…" Sarah laughed. The teens laughed and thanked her. Gabriella laughed and walked past Dr. Jacobs. She stopped and backed up.

"Did you ever know that you're a wonderful person?" Gabriella asked the older woman.

"I've never actually heard that before," Sarah said, very flattered, yet confused.

"Well, you are. Thank you!" Gabriella said loudly, and hugged the doctor tightly. She let go of her and ran into Troy's room.

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend

Somewhere along in the bitterness

And I would have stayed up with you all night

Had I known how to save a life

Gabriella walked into Troy's room. She saw him, a small, fragile, and weak Troy, but a Troy nonetheless. She smiled and walked quickly to his bedside. She took his hand.

"You'll make it through this," she promised him. He gripped her hand tighter.

"Only if you're with me," he said. For the next half hour, the teens talked, told stories of the party, and jabbered on like the usually would. Every once in a while it would get awkward, seeing as Troy had nothing to say. Finally, Taylor and Chad decided to head home, but they promised they'd be in next morning before Troy got up. Sadly, Troy knew this was true and just couldn't wait until tomorrow morning when Taylor found a way to wake him up. Jason soon followed suit, saying that he was getting tired too. Kelsi called her mom and arranged for her to pick them all up. They all said their final goodbyes and left Troy. Gabriella was still sitting with him, while he was sitting quietly, just staring at her. His eyelids began to get heavier and heavier, and Troy was falling asleep before Gabriella's eyes. She rubbed his hair and smiled at him.

"Soaring, flying, there's not a star in heaven that we can't reach, if we're trying, yeah, we're breaking free…" she sang to him.

A/N- So, I liked it. It's not usually my type of story, and this plot is so over used, but I decided I'd give it a shot. I'm thinking of more chapters. Let me know.

Credits that are creditable- I do not own 'Breaking Free', a song from the classic Disney original 'High School Musical'.