Disclaimer: I do not own HSM.
A/N: So, like I said before, I'm really not big on this whole 'replying to reviews' thing, so just be sure to check back in if you sent me one. This would be greatly adored, of course. Whatever. I can't get the page breaks to work. So I just put 'break'.
CO.ZE.TY.OMI2- I'm glad you like it. I'm planning on about 20 chapters at most, but I don't know how it's going to play out.
Katiedabest- Yes, I couldn't bare to see Mr. Jock stuck in a wheelchair all the time. Wait till you read the next chapter!
Zac's my boyfriend- Yes, poor Troy…
Smallvillegirl92- Again, glad you like it. Like I said above, I have no idea to do with his parents. I might put a note at the end or something.
ANGELMEGAN- It's wonderful that people like it! I thought it would be an overused script, but apparently it isn't. Hmm.
4 months after Troy's first visit with Dr. Reid
Troy was progressing well now. He was around and about with a wheelchair, and since he was a basketball player, he had good arm muscles. They offered him a mechanical one, but he declined, saying he'd need the upper body strength. They agreed and encouraged him.
Troy was, however, getting a bit tired of having people hold doors for him. He was tired of people trying to help him across the street. He was tired of people calling him 'sweetie' and giving him little free things. He was tired of his life. Now, Troy was a reasonable young man, he didn't want his life to endHe wasn't thinking suicidal, but he just wished it would all go away. Little did he know, it soon would. Troy gave up trying to move his legs unless he was with Dr. Reid at physical therapy. He had become quite good friends with the nurses and doctors at the hospital. Since he was missing so much school with his frequent doctor's appointments, the school let him do the work at home. Since Gabriella refused to leave his side, the school let her tutor him and she would go to school when she could. Today was yet another physical therapy session, and Gabriella wheeled him in at 10 am sharp, on a Saturday.
"Troy Bolton, Dr. Reid?" Gabriella asked Emily, the nurse. Emily smiled at the two.
"Right on time, I see. He's waiting for you in room 22," Emily said. The teens smiled at the nurse and Gabriella pushed Troy into the room.
"Hey Troy!" Dr. Reid said cheerily. Does that man ever run out of energy? Gabriella thought. He's like the Energizer Bunny!
"Hey, Reid man," Troy said. The two slapped hands and Gabriella and Dr. Reid lifted Troy onto the examination bed. Troy answered the questions before Dr. Reid could even ask.
"No, I haven't moved my legs this week. I haven't felt anything either. And no, I haven't tried to move them since 2 weeks ago, when I was last here," Troy said in one breath. Dr. Reid chuckled.
"Well, that's that taken care of," Dr. Reid said. Gabriella laughed.
"So, let's take a look at you, shall we?" Dr. Reid said, getting down to business. He and Gabriella helped Troy so they could see his legs.
"Okay, we'll take this slowly. So, try and bring your foot around in a big circle, like you would if your ankle was stuck," Dr. Reid said. Gabriella's eyes were fixated on Troy's legs, as they always were. Troy grunted and then, suddenly, his foot moved, slowly going around. Gabriella shrieked.
"What?" Troy asked. Gabriella stared at him in disbelieve.
"You just moved your foot!" she said excitedly. Dr. Reid was writing things on his chart a mile a minute.
"Troy, could you maybe try again?" Dr. Reid asked.
"Sure," Troy said. His face didn't go as strained as his foot went around this time. His eyes nearly popped out of his head.
"I saw it! I see it! It moved! I felt it!" he gushed, excitedly. Gabriella just hugged him tight. Dr. Reid fled the room and came back with another doctor, Dr. Jacobs, who treated Troy in the first place.
"Troy, sorry to ask you again, could you move your foot around again?" Dr. Jacobs asked. Troy nodded. His face went red and then, all of a sudden, his knee moved up a couple inches. Both doctors grinned and Gabriella kissed him. Troy felt extremely proud of himself.
"Hey, Gabriella, could you-," Troy began. Gabriella laughed.
"Yes, I'm off to call Chad now. I'm sure he'll bring the rest of them along," she said, with laughter in her voice. She went outside Troy's room and called Chad. She heard the phone ring three times before someone picked up.
"'Ullo?" Chad said groggily.
"Chad, it's Gabriella," Gabriella said brightly. Chad groaned.
"What?" he asked obviously tired.
"Well if you don't want to come and see Troy moving his legs then I'll leave you to your sleeping…" Gabriella started.
"Good! I'm tired, and I need my slee--- Troy's legs are moving???" Chad said, perking up immediately.
"Yup. Get everyone over here. I'll call Sharpay, Ryan and Kelsi. You call the basketball team," Gabriella said.
"I'm on my way," Chad said. He hung up the phone and quickly redialed Taylor's number.
"Taylor? It's Chad. I've got some great news…" he started.
BREAKBREAKRBREAKBREAK
Within 45 minutes of Gabriella calling Chad to tell him, the whole drama club and basketball team were waiting impatiently outside his room. Finally, Dr. Reid came out of the room and smiled at them.
"Troy says that if I don't let you in he'll tear my head off," Dr. Reid said, "And he's got some arm strength, so I'm not gonna mess with him,"
The teens stormed into
the small hospital room. Troy's eyes gleamed as he saw all the
people that had supported him throughout the long period. Chad fought
his way to the front of the room. Troy sat up in his bed. Chad
couldn't take it anymore and gave him a 'man hug'.
"You
did it, man," Chad said with tears in his eyes. By now, Troy was
close to tears as well. Gabriella and all the other girls in the room
had silent tears falling down their cheeks. Jason was the one to
break the silence.
"Move your foot!" he blurted, and then quickly covered his mouth, "Sorry, I had, like, 12 cups of coffee this morning,"
Troy laughed, as did everyone else. Jason tried to hide his face in shame. Slowly, Troy moved his foot, up and down.
Everyone was looking at him. He had tears in his eyes, which, if they weren't taken care of soon, would be dripping down his face. All the doctors and nurses and arrived at the door. Dr. Reid grabbed a Polaroid camera of the nurse's desk and quickly took a picture of Troy and his friends. Troy looked up and saw that Dr. Reid and Dr. Jacobs both had tears in their eyes, blurring their vision.
"This is extremely unheard of," Dr. Jacobs began, walking over to Troy's bed.
"Last week you couldn't move your legs, now you can," Dr. Reid said dumbly, still confused at what was happening.
"And now, we have to move on to the next level of treatment. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to tell you to leave now, people," Dr. Jacobs said, shooing the teens out. As per usually, Gabriella, Sharpay, Ryan, Jason and Kelsi all stayed. The two doctors looked at them and nodded.
"Okay, so Troy, we're going to set you up with your chair. Now here's the deal. You have to try once every morning at least to lift or move any part on your leg. If you don't, it's really not worth doing any of this," Dr. Reid reasoned. Troy nodded.
"And what to I get in return?" Troy joked.
"Walking," Dr. Reid joked back. Everyone laughed.
"Okay, so I think we're done here. I think it would be best if you came in next Saturday as well, just so we can check up on you. See you then!" Dr. Reid said. The doctors and teens said their goodbyes as they helped Troy into his chair. Gabriella pushed him out to her car and helped him in. She folded the chair and put it in the back.
Soon enough, they got to Troy's house only to find his parents there. Gabriella quickly got Troy in his chair and wheeled him inside.
"Mom! What are you doing here?" Troy asked happily as he wheeled over to his mother to give her a hug.
"Well, we came home earlier than we though to the basketball champs!" Kelly, Troy's mom, said.
"We?" Troy asked, his face falling.
"Troy!" they heard. Coach Bolton, also known as Jack Bolton, walked into the sitting room. Jack tried to come up to hug Troy, but he wheeled away.
"Father," Troy said. Jack's face turned from happy to hurt within seconds.
"Oh, come on, Troy, you aren't still mad at us, are you?" Jack asked cheerfully, as if it was no big deal.
"Dad, I was in a car accident! I was paralyzed from the waist down! And all you said was that you hoped I felt better and that you had to get back to your vacation in Hawaii! Of course I'm still fucking mad!" Troy said. Gabriella rubbed his shoulders.
"Don't you raise your voice with me!" Jack warned, now yelling. The two women just stood in the corner, looking at each other and then the father/son fight going on in front of them.
"Why not? Dad, face it, I'm a disappointment to you now that I can't play basketball. Admit it; you know it's what you're thinking. You know that given the chance, you'd probably disown me because you hate me so much. I mean, now all I do is eat all your food and sit around watching TV! Oh, wait, why is that? Because I was in a car accident! While you were vacationing!" Troy yelled. Jack's face crumbled.
"I don't hate you," Jack said weakly. Troy shook his head.
"Prove it. Prove that you don't. Proving it would mean being here when I needed you. Oh wait, I don't need you anymore. Seriously, dad, Gabriella has acted more like a parent to me than you! She's taken me to the doctor's appointments, she's made me food, and she's helped me do almost everything! While you… You haven't done anything! You just wished I got better, like I had a cold! No dad, if you didn't know, I had temporary paralysis! Yeah, that means I couldn't move my legs for a long time. I'm sure that after a while you would've been done with me. If I wasn't getting better, I mean. But hey, guess what! I am! I moved my knee today. I haven't been able to do that since the crash," Troy said. He quickly rolled himself out the door and began wheeling himself down the street. Gabriella gave Jack and evil eye and ran out to find him.
"Troy!" she yelled, running down the street. She saw his retreating wheelchair turn left on the street. Troy wheeled himself to the park on his block. He stopped when he came to the playground.
"Troy…" Gabriella said softly, after running towards him.
"Gabriella," troy said, looking up at her. She looked down at his soft blue eyes.
"Why can't I make him proud of me? I thought he would be after today's doctors' appointment," Troy said, tears filling his eyes. I broke Gabriella's heart to see Troy in this way.
"Troy, he's just getting used to it," Gabriella said shakily. Troy shook his head yet said nothing. Gabriella sighed and began wheeling around the park. Troy laughed as he saw 2 little kids bouncing a rubber ball on the basketball court, trying to make it in the hoop. Gabriella smiled as she saw the spark in his eyes. She hadn't seen it for a long time.
BREAKBREAKRBREAKBREAK
Troy, his mother (Kellie from now on—did you know that she is just credited as 'Mrs. Bolton' in HSM?? No name!) and Jack sat at the table and ate silently. It was the first meal Troy had shared with his parents since the accident, and it was a bit awkward. First off, they had to raise to table a couple inches, putting books underneath the legs, to make it so Troy's chair could fit. Then, Kellie, as usual, expected Troy to set the table. And then, Troy forgot to set the locks on his chair so throughout dinner he was slowly going backwards the whole time.
"Can't you just get rid of the chair?" Jack asked coldly.
"Yeah dad, I'll just walk right out of it," Troy shot back. Kellie looked at her husband in shame.
"Jack, you have no right to say that. You don't know what he's going through. I know it hurts him to not be able to play basketball just as much as it hurts you. Probably more. All I want you to know is that you should respect him and not put him down. For the record, this is not the man I married," Kellie said calmly. She picked up some plates and carried them into the kitchen. Troy took a drink and then put some plates on his lap and wheeled into the kitchen.
"Troy, your father's just getting used to it…" Kellie began.
"My father bullshit! He's not getting used to it! He's ready to find a new team captain and star player!" Troy said. He wheeled himself to his room and called Gabriella.
"Gabriella? It's Troy…" he began.
A/N- Okay, so it's a bit shorter. I like it. Will Troy's dad realize his mistakes? Will Troy ever get out of his wheelchair? Will we meet the person who hit Troy? Why am I asking you think if I know?
