Disclaimer: N-O.

The Moments That Count : Chapter Four

"Do we have to go to this function?" Gabriella called from her bedroom.

Troy stood in the living room, looking anxiously at his watch. "Yes! I'm a guest of the Royal College of Trauma Doctors. And we're going to be late."

"I'm not going."

"What?"

"Just go without me."

"What the hell?" He walked over to her door. "Gabriella, what's wrong?"

"Nothing. I'm not feeling well."

"Nausea?" Troy asked.

"No. Just...go without me."

He opened the door and found her standing in front of the mirror. "You look perfectly healthy to me."

Gabriella whirled around and glared at him. "Shut up! Look at me. I'm like a huge, ugly blimp."

Troy surveyed her. "You look fine."

"I look terrible." Gabriella was wearing a black dress that she'd bought pre-pregnancy. It was stretchy material and molded over her stomach.

He crossed the room until he was standing behind her. He turned her around until they were side on in the mirror. "See this?" He pointed to her stomach. "It's beautiful."

"You're just saying that."

"I'm not. You're extremely attractive. Almost more so now than before. I mean you've jumped a cup size. That's pretty impressive. And if just...do you mind?" he asked, pointing to the collar of her dress.

"Um...no."

Troy pulled it down slightly. "Much better. If you've got it you may as well flaunt it." She made to pull it back up. Troy grabbed her hands and held them still. "The irony is that you're so damn attractive right now, and you think you're ugly. You're coming to this dinner, you're showing off your cleavage, and I'm going to try very hard to keep my hands off you."

Gabriella's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Really," Troy replied, kissing the back of her neck. "Now find the sexiest pair of shoes you own, and I'll give you a foot massage when we get home."

He returned to living room. Five minutes, she emerged, with the red shoes on and her hair pinned up. Troy raised his eyebrows. "You fiddled with the dress again."

She sailed past him. "If you've got it, why not flaunt it?"


Troy decisively dumped Peter Goldwyn's chart on the front desk. "I'm going to get lunch," he announced, and before anybody could protest, he headed to the lounge, where he pulled on some fresh scrubs, free of blood, and left his stethoscope hanging in his locker.

Taking the lift to the seventh floor, Troy jiggled one leg impatiently, his change jingling, and checked his watch for the time to make sure he wasn't late. He was, and he cursed the ancient lifts, which moved at a dinosaur's pace.

The obstetrics ward was another world compared to the ER. Instead of the noise that always greeted people in the ER, the OB was an oasis of calm and quiet. Troy could hear the faint sound of a baby crying from the nursery, but apart from that, the only other thing he could hear was a phone ringing.

He was vaguely familiar with the OB, having been up there a few times; once to visit a baby he'd treated for bacterial meningitis; and a number of times to deliver mother and child from the ER and tell the doctor the stats. He headed left down the hallway, moving away from the nursery, the normal beds, and the theatre rooms where difficult deliveries and C-section's were handled. Instead, he headed towards the exam rooms, where women had their ultrasounds and check-ups throughout their pregnancy.

Gabriella and Troy were reading all the books about pregnancy, labor, and early childhood. Gabriella was already buying little clothes and toys, and reading reports on the safest prams and bassinets. Their Lamaze classes were interesting, but Troy kept interrupting the instructor to correct her medical knowledge. Sharpay had come down and stayed the weekend, amazed at the changes to Gabriella's body.

Checking the patient's board near the nurse's station, he discovered that Gabriella was in exam room two, and, without consulting anybody, he found the room and entered.

"You're late," Gabriella said, in a crabby voice. The bad temper was the latest manifestation of her pregnancy. Her hormones were going nuts, Troy reasoned, and seeing as she was volatile even when she wasn't pregnant, it was no surprise her temper snapped at the slightest provocation these days.

She got irritated at him for drinking the milk straight out of the cartoon, for putting his feet up on the couch, for leaving the bathroom mat on the floor, and a host of other things that previously, hadn't bothered her in the slightest. She'd blow some steam, come back to him ten minutes later, smile sheepishly, and all would be forgiven.

"I was busy saving a woman from dying, and you know, other boring stuff like that," he answered, before smiling confidently at the doctor. "Hello," he said. "I'm Dr. Troy Bolton."

"I'm Dr. Kristen Edwards. I take it you work down in the ER."

Troy grinned. "Have that look about me, do I?"

"I'm afraid so," Kristen answered, pulling the ultrasound machine over to the bed. "Plus, Dr. Montgomery told me about you."

"Oh, dear." Troy winced. "You probably wouldn't have got a very good account from her."

"No," Kristen replied.

Gabriella rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't listen to Nicole Montgomery. She had a superiority complex, which she wasn't smart enough to have anyway, and she didn't like it when she discovered that Troy was a much better doctor then she was. Plus, she always drank the last of the milk in the mornings without any consideration for anybody else in the apartment."

Troy smiled at Kirsten. "If you can't tell, Gabriella was thrilled when I finally got rid of Nicole."

Kristen smiled. "I didn't believe her anyway. Now, Gabriella, the gel I'm about to put on will probably be a little cold..."

"I'm a big tough girl," Gabriella answered, though she did make a face when Kristen applied the gel, and spread it out with the radar over the bump that Gabriella still complained about, and Troy secretly liked.

"Now..." Kristen, turned the screen on, as she gently moved the radar across Gabriella's stomach. "We should be able to see your baby." Kirsten adjusted the screen. "Dr. Montgomery didn't tell me that you'd married, Dr. Bolton."

"I..." Troy looked at her blankly. "And exactly who I am supposed to be married to?"

The obstetrician blanched. "I'm sorry, I just assumed that you two would be married, but we have lots of couples having children who aren't married."

"I still don't get it."

Gabriella rolled her eyes. "For some bizarre reason she thinks you and I are married and you're the father."

Troy shook his head. "No. No, you've got it wrong. I'm just the best friend, the Lamaze coach, and the punching bag."

Gabriella shifted slightly on the bed. "He's particularly good at the punching bag part."

Kirsten smiled. "I'm sorry."

"That's okay," Troy reassured her. "Gabriella probably wouldn't marry me if she was paid."

"You don't know that Troy," the brunette challenged. Troy tilted his head and stared at her. "Well, you don't! I'd marry you for...for...maybe, sixty billion dollars."

"I wouldn't marry you if you came with a Ferrari, Brie."

"I love you too," was the snappy answer.

"Poor Ella," Troy replied sarcastically. "I'm sure that's been keeping your therapist busy."

Gabriella was struggling to hide her smile.

"Here we are," Kirsten interrupted, recalling their errant attention. Gabriella and Troy concentrated on the screen, and Kristen moved the radar down a little. "There," the doctor said. "That's your baby."

Gabriella leaned forward, trying to discern the features, but Troy knew what he was looking for and distinguished the features immediately.

"That's the spine," he informed Gabriella, running his finger along the string of bright white dots that looked like a string of pearls. "And that flashing grey thing that palpitates like a light...that's the heart."

As Troy told her that, the radar picked up the fetal heartbeat, and the sound entered the room, beating fast and loud.

Gabriella's eyes grew wide as she made out the arms, and the leg and head of her baby. "I..." she exhaled.

"I know, it's a little overwhelming," Kristen reassured her, turning to smile kindly at Gabriella and the strange expression on her face.

Troy suddenly froze, and blinked a few times. "Ah..." he moved closer to the screen and squinted. "Dr. Edwards, I know I'm not a specialist, but I think you should probably take a look at that." He indicated an area on the upper left side of the screen.

Gabriella went a pale color and her voice became faint. "What's wrong? Troy...what's wrong?"

Kristen tilted her head until it was at the same angle as Troy's, the two of them looking at the screen as if it held the answer to the meaning of life. "I..." the doctor began. "Let me just move the..." she shifted the radar over to the right a little bit, and both she and Troy made small exclamations.

"What?" Gabriella demanded, her voice tinged with hysteria, and she grabbed the back of Troy's shirt, trying to gain his attention.

"Sorry, Brie," Troy turned back to Gabriella, taking her hand in his, and kissing her palm gently. "There's nothing wrong...exactly. You're just going to have to buy two of everything."

Gabriella stared at him. "I'm...there are...two...twins?"

Troy nodded. "Twins."


AN: First off, let me say thank you so, so, so, so much for the reviews, I love each and every one of them and they make me want to write faster and faster. Also, I know the twin thing is overdone, but I promise I'll try my hardest to make it my own. So if you read and review, I'll write and write, sound like a deal?