Disclaimer: Nope

The Moments That Count : Chapter Two

"You haven't told him," Troy said to Gabriella, three days later. They were sitting in the park, having met for lunch in between their insanely busy schedules.

She stared at him. "How do you know?"

"He hasn't said anything about it. The last conversation we had revolved around the new Matt Damon movie. The second he finds out, he'll storm into my room and start ranting."

"Yeah." Gabriella sighed. "I haven't got up the courage yet."

"What about sending him a singing telegram? Or a text? You know - a don't shoot the messenger thing."

"Troy!"

"You gotta tell him."

"I know." She reached over and stole a handful of Troy's fries. "I just...I keep getting the words lined up, and he starts talking about practice, or one of his meetings. He's so excited about his life right now. And I can't bear to ruin that."

"You still have to tell him, ruination or not."

"I hate you."

"Yes, but apparently, you like my fries."

"Sorry."

Troy grinned. "No you're not."

"No, I'm not."

He held out his fries for her. "Eat away. How are you feeling?"

"Normal. The same as ever. Is that...good?"

Troy nodded. "You've got nine months. It doesn't happen overnight. Right now, you wouldn't even be able to see your baby without the aid of a microscope."

"That's just freaky."

"Yeah," he agreed. "In eight months you'll be a whale and you'll wish it was that small."

"Shut up."

"Hey, you know what?"

"What?"

"Tell Chad!"

"Okay, okay." Gabriella rested her hand over his. "Thanks."

"No problem. Tell Chad."


"She's pregnant," Chad announced, unceremoniously throwing open Troy's bedroom door. "Gabriella…she's pregnant."

"I know," Troy said calmly. He'd deliberately sequestered himself in his bedroom since arriving home that evening. He wanted to give Chad and Gabriella some privacy, knowing that Gabriella was planning to tell Chad. And that, if she didn't, Troy was going to. He couldn't creep around the apartment any longer.

"She told you?"

"Yes," Troy answered. "I came home just after she'd found out. She needed somebody to talk to, and you were out with that guy from Tri-Star."

"Columbia," Chad corrected immediately. "And the meeting went really well. I think I might have a chance. They seemed to like me…they're calling me by the end of the week."

"It's good to see you've got your priorities straight, C."

Chad sighed. "But Troy…she's…I mean she's…pregnant!" he repeated for the third time.

"Yes, I do know what that is. I know more about that than you and Gabriella combined. I'm a doctor, Chad, remember. You saw me graduate."

"But pregnant! With a baby!"

"Well you never know…it might turn out to be an elephant," Troy joked. Chad didn't crack a smile.

"I can't be a father," Chad continued. "I absolutely cannot be a father at this point in time. I mean, I'm trying to build a career here. A film career, not a fast track to a management position at McDonald's. And a baby really isn't part of the plan."

Troy's carefully put his book down ad kept his voice as even as possible. Getting angry would not be constructive for anybody right now, least of all Gabriella. "You can adapt, Chad. You can be a father and still star movies and plays or play basketball. Plenty of people do it. Shaq has thousands of children, right?" Troy frowned. "Okay, that's not a good example."

"But I don't want to be a father! I'd…it's so life-changing. I'm not ready for that yet. Maybe one day, but not now. I don't think it's selfish for me to say that I want my life to only be about me, right now."

"Well, it is selfish!"

"How?"

"How is it not? Your life is never just about you, Chad. You make commitments to people. You made a commitment to Gabriella!"

Chad ignored him. "And Gabriella says that abortion isn't even an option. She won't even put it on the table! Since when has she been a morally upstanding Catholic?"

"It's got nothing to do with being Catholic," Troy replied. "And I'm not surprised she doesn't want an abortion. Gabriella really wants this baby. Besides, if you think about it, she has to sacrifice more than you do. She has to take maternity leave, interrupt her career indefinitely, and be the primary caregiver."

Chad started pacing. "I just can't believe this! How could she be so selfish? A baby, for Christ's sake…I mean, of all the monumentally stupid things to go and do."

"I have a funny feeling you might have helped her a little, Chad," Troy said, still trying to keep a lid on his temper.

Chad ignored Troy. "Does she ever think about my needs, or my desires? What I want?"

Troy couldn't help it; he began to see red. "No, Chad, how could you be so selfish? This is her body we're talking about. This is Gabriella we're talking about. Remember, love of your life, your soul mate, the only person you want to be with for the rest of your life? Ring any bells? This is her choice, and if you love her, you'll support her, instead of only considering your career, your needs and your desires.

"This isn't Candy Land, Chad," Troy continued, growing angrier, his voice filled with rage. "This isn't a fantasy, where you can create the perfect ending, and cue the music, and make people's decisions for them. It's reality. And reality is changeable and perverse and imperfect and it isn't fair, and the timing is never right, but you don't get to run away from it into some safe little movie. The way I see it, Chad you've got seven months to get used to the idea of being a father. You don't get to pretend it's not happening."

Chad's face was going red, and his eyes flashed. "Don't you dare preach to me," he said, self-righteously. "You aren't the one having a baby."

Troy shook his head. "That isn't the issue, but for the record, neither are you. Gabriella is going to have your baby, and if you can't support her in that, if you can't be happy for her, if you can't put aside your own fears, and recognize that she's more frightened then you, and she needs you to be strong for her, then I would question how much you love her."

"She should have thought about it!" Chad exclaimed, still ignoring Troy. "She should have consulted me."

"It's hardly her fault!" Troy exclaimed. "She didn't get pregnant on purpose. And she didn't consult you straight away because she knew you'd react this way. She knew you'd freak your shit about this. And she was right! What does that say about you, Chad? Gabriella's probably in her bedroom right now, frightened to death, alone, and worst of all, she thinks that you don't care enough to put aside your petty, self-obsessed dreams and support her."

"I don't want a baby," Chad repeated.

Troy went silent, and asked the question they'd been avoiding. "Do you want Gabriella?" he asked in a low, intense voice.

"Of course," Chad answered, but the slight hesitation before he replied made Troy close his eyes, his heart aching for Gabriella.

Troy stood. "If you love her, you'll accept her, and her decisions."

"You don't know what's it like," Chad answered viscously. "You don't understand."

"All I know," Troy said, "Is that, if Gabriella was having my baby, no matter how scared I was, no matter how much it was going to affect my life, I would want it more anything else in the entire world. Because it would be a piece of her…and me."

Chad stared at him for a long moment, before pivoting and heading for his own bedroom.

And, in the hallway, Gabriella stared at Troy with wide, shiny brown eyes, before she turned around, went back to the kitchen, and started cooking dinner.


The rest of the weekend was horribly tense. Gabriella and Chad weren't really talking to each other, except when absolutely necessary. Chad spent most of the weekend holed up in his room reading a script or at the gym. Gabriella was preparing witnesses statements for an upcoming trial, so she spread most of the file across the dinning table and worked on that.

Troy hovered uncertainly in the kitchen, the living area, his bedroom, and, on Sunday afternoon, when the tension was palpable, the bathroom. When he emerged, at seven o'clock, Gabriella was standing in the hallway.

"Sorry, did you want to use the bathroom?" he asked, hurriedly vacating the room.

She shook her head. "No. I made dinner. A roast."

"Oh."

"It's ready. Chad's at the table."

Relief flooded over him. "You two are talking again?"

"No."

"Oh."

Gabriella grinned. "Sorry. It probably hasn't been easy for you the last few days."

"No. It's been great," Troy deadpanned. "He still won't talk to you about it?"

She shrugged. "He's not talking to me at all, but he's made it pretty clear that having a baby isn't on his agenda."

"Life is not an agenda."

"It is for Chad Danforth. Children don't hit the list for at least another ten years."

Troy reached out and rubbed her arm. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault. But I'm not giving up this baby. And it'll break us up. He'll leave me. By the end of the week, he'll leave me."

"You don't know that."

"I do. And I'll regret it, and I'll be sad. But at least I know for sure."

His brow furrowed. "Know what?"

Gabriella half-smiled. "Chad loves the packaging. Not the small print."

"He's not ready for the small print."

She nodded. "I know. I can't blame him for that, and I can't make Chad ready. He either is or is isn't. He's being honest. He's also being selfish and fucked-up, but he's being honest about what he wants from me."

"You're amazing."

"I try."

"You succeed."

Gabriella shrugged again. "Anyway, he's going to leave, so this will probably be our last meal together. All three of us."

"Then let's go eat and make merry."

It wasn't a happy dinner, but they all knew it was the last one for a long time, so they made an effort. They stuck to safe topics; mutual friends, their jobs, goings-on in Albuquerque; sports; the Mayor's latest indiscretions. The lulls in the conversation were awkward; Chad refused to look at Gabriella, and Troy had to keep swallowing his anger and changing the topic, but they made it through.

And Troy realized that night, as he lay in bed listening cabs honk and New Yorkers live, that he wasn't sad. Just nostalgic for the time when he and Gabriella would play baseball on the lawn while Chad divided their Halloween haul.

Gabriella realized that she was relieved, and guilty for the things she wouldn't be able to give her child as a single mother.

Chad slept soundly.


On Wednesday, Troy swapped afternoon shifts with another resident at the hospital, and got home just before lunch. He found Chad in the kitchen, most of his possessions packed up in suitcases. He was holding for the cab company.

Troy leant against the doorway. "You're leaving," he said without preamble. Chad didn't say anything. "You're just going to abandon Gabriella and the baby without a second thought."

"You're here for her, aren't you?" Chad finally said, cuttingly.

"I can't be your second thought."

"But you can be her hero."

Troy made a noise of disgust. "You're a coward, Chad Danforth. And you're a liar. All this time, all these years, and you never really loved her. Not when it counted, not when it mattered. Not when she was sick with glandular fever, and had to be carried around and spoon-fed. Not when Taylor got meningitis and I had to go home to Albuquerque with her, because you were in training, and couldn't disrupt the moment. Not on your anniversaries, on any old occasion, because you just wanted to be with the wonder that is Gabriella Montez. And not now, when she's pregnant, and she needs you more than ever."

Chad told the cab company the address in a terse voice, before hanging up the phone. "She doesn't need me. And she hasn't needed me for a long time. She hasn't loved me for a long time."

"She needs you," Troy lied, because he knew that really, Gabriella didn't need Chad, and that he was right; Gabriella hadn't needed Chad for a long time.

"She doesn't need me. She has her knight-protector," Chad answered. "She's got you."

"She doesn't want me," Troy fired back. "She wants you. She wants the father of her baby, not the father's best friend."

"You're her best friend," Chad pointed out. "You have been for years. Who did she tell first, Troy? Me, or you? You. What does that tell you?"

"I can't believe you," Troy answered, his voice full of scorn.

Chad shook his head. "I don't have to answer to you."

"No, I suppose you don't." Troy knew there was nothing he could do. Just like he had always done, Chad was going to run from responsibility, from reality. He was going to chase his dreams, and serve his own needs.

And, just like he had always done, because that was his self-elected role, Troy was going to pick up the pieces and hold onto Gabriella when she needed somebody.

"Are you at least going to leave her a note?" he asked Chad.

"I…I thought that…well…" Chad hesitated. "I thought, that maybe you could tell her for me."

Troy and exhaled contemptuously, with disgust, before nodding slowly. "Sure, Chad. I'll tell her."

"Thanks."

Awkward silence descended.

"Are you going to come back?" Troy asked Chad softly, after five minutes went by.

"I don't know," Chad answered honestly. "I…I thought I loved her, you know." His face was one of anguish. "And I know you think I'm being selfish, but isn't it worse, to lie to her, to have a baby with her, when…I don't…love her? When she doesn't love me."

"She loves you," Troy protested.

"She doesn't," Chad continued. "She and I have been together so long that we've ended up thinking we're in love. We spent so much time together as children, that when were teenagers, being a couple seemed the next logical step. And everybody else expected it so, we just ended up together."

"I…" Troy trailed off, having nothing to say. "I'll tell your parents, when the baby's born. They'll know where you are. They can tell you."

"Yeah, thanks."

The cab honked from downstairs. "I'll help you with your things," Troy said, and they made it to the cab in one trip.

When the trunk was packed and the driver was waiting impatiently, Chad grabbed Troy in a fierce bear hug.

"Take care man," Troy said, in a sad voice; as much as he hated what Chad was doing, he couldn't throw away twenty-four years of friendship without sorrow.

"I'm sorry to put you in this position," Chad said. Troy shrugged. Chad hesitated, then said, "Hey, take care of her for me."

"Sure." He opened the car door for Chad, and closed it behind him. "Haven't I always?"

The driver pulled into traffic, as Chad told him he wanted to go out to Kennedy. Chad waved, and Troy waved in return, watching until he couldn't see the cab anymore.


When Gabriella got home that evening, she took one look at Troy and sighed with resignation.

"Chad's gone," she stated evenly.

"Yes," Troy confirmed softly. "Lunchtime today. He didn't tell me where he was going…"

"And he didn't know if he was coming back," Gabriella finished.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," Troy said.

Gabriella put her briefcase down. "Chad and I have been getting ready to leave each other since we started going out. And it's better this way."

Troy looked her in the eyes. "You really believe that?"

"Sure. I would rather be without him than be with a man who didn't want to be with me, and didn't want to have a baby with me. He didn't abandon me Troy and you know it. Besides, the relationship was over a long time ago."

Troy watched her. "You okay?"

"Yeah." A single tear slipped from her eye. "I'm still going to miss him. I just...I know that this is my path. This is what I have to do. That sounds terribly sappy, but it's what I feel."

"Then you have to go with it."

Gabriella held out her hand. "Come with me?"

He wrapped his fingers through hers. "You don't have to ask."


AN: Thank you so much for the reviews...keep it up :)