Author's Note: Please review!
Disclaimer: I only own the plot and stuff you don't recognize.
Flying With a Broken Wing
Chapter 3: Matchmaker Montez
By musiclover94
Last Chapter…
She gave a whinny of pure fear and reared again. This time, Gabriella was totally unprepared. The mare toppled from the skies and landed on her rider. A sharp pain, and then a dull numbing all along her spine followed. Then, the stadium, the medics rushing toward her, the frantic cries of her white dancer disappeared and were replaced by total blackness.
--
Gabriella's chocolate brown eyes fluttered open and she stared at the white ceiling tiles above her with a confused expression on her bruised face. Why was she there? The last thing she remembered was falling off Anastasia…As she thought about this, a joyful weep sounded from somewhere to the right of her. She turned her head with great difficulty and saw Gina Montez looking at her only child through teary eyes.
"Oh, thank you, thanks you thank you!" she said, directing the words skyward. "I was so worried, Gabriella. I thought we had lost you."
Gabriella still looked confused. "What do you mean?"
"Sweetie," Gina said gently, looking at a doctor that was standing nearby. He nodded her on gravely. "You're paralyzed from the waist down and partially paralyzed on your upper half."
Gabriella stared at her teary mother for a few moments, digesting this news.
"What do you mean, 'partially paralyzed'? How did this happen?"
"Being partially paralyzed," the doctor said, moving into Gabriella's line of vision, talking in the deep, calm voice doctors always have, "means that, at least in your case, you can move your upper half, but with extreme and painful difficulty. It happened when your horse…Anastasia, I believe, reared too far back and fell on top of you. You're very lucky to be alive at all, Ms. Montez."
Mrs. Montez let out another strangled cry. Gabriella however, sounded panicky and asked frantically, "Is she okay? Is Anastasia okay? Can I see her?"
"Anastasia is in stable condition, but classified as a Highly Dangerous Creature, so you may not see her," the doctor said, trying to sound gentle, but failing. "And, if you would excuse me, I have to go enter your medical records into our database. He put his clipboard under his arm and walked out of the room.
"But Ana isn't dangerous, a squirrel jumped into the arena and spooked her!" Gabriella argued.
The fiery brunette felt a hand being laid sadly on her own. Her mother said, trying to sound as sympathetic as possible, "They may have to put her down, she's being awfully rowdy…"
Gabriella felt tears spring to her eyes. "But they can't put her down, they just can't! If I could only see her, she would calm down. She isn't the best around strangers!"
"I know, honey, but they won't let you see her…"
"Why isn't anybody listening to me?" Gabriella pleaded, tears quickly falling from her eyes, "Anastasia didn't hurt me because she was rowdy on her own! The squirrel riled her up! Why can't they see that the only thing that can cure her is me!?"
When her mother didn't reply, Gabriella turned sideways in the hospital bed, aiming to get out. But her legs felt like dead weights. She tried to get them to move, but the signals from her frazzled brain seemed to deflect off her leg nerves like a million tennis balls against a wall. Her mother held her back, helping Gabriella back to the uncomfortable hospital bed.
"They can't put her down, Mom…" she said weakly.
Gina just patted her daughter's hair, nodded, and said, "I know, hija, I know…"
The door clicked open and the doctor walked in, now clipboard free.
He bent down and whispered something into Gina's ear. Then she addressed her estranged daughter, handing her a piece of paper with almost unintelligible doctor handwriting scrawled on it. She could make out that it said she would be going to physical therapy sessions twice a week with someone named Troy Bolton, to try to learn how to use her upper half again.
Gabriella gave it back to her mother tiredly, noticing her mother's hopeful glint in her watery eyes. How could her mother be thinking of pairing Gabriella together with this Troy Bolton at a time like this? She looked again at the ceiling, trying to forget about it.
Author's Note: A bad filler chapter, I know. But please review and ideas are always appreciated, I will credit you! Please review!
