A/N: Hello everyone! Here's chapter two to my story 'Troy' Hope you're gonna like it! And for those who haven't read it yet, please check out my new one-shot 'Daddy's Little Girl' it's up in my profile!

Chapter Two

Gabriella noticed that the hallways of the recovery center were too small when Troy Bolton walked next to her. He seemed so big and manly in his sportive long trousers and his button-up shirt. And even thought he gave her all the space she needed, he seemed really close to her. A little nervous she went into her room, so he could follow.

He didn't say a word and walked almost soundlessly, but the silence was deafening. He radiated so much power and self-assurance, that he kept on confusing Gabriella. She would be happy if he'd leave. 'You didn't tell me what you wanted to see me about,' she said. If she hadn't been so surprised the day before that he called, she would've asked that before.

'I didn't?' he asked. With a fathomless glance he looked into one of the practice rooms, where three patients were working. One of them was playing video games, the second was making a puzzle and the third tried to get little pins in a plate with holes.

'Have you been doing these kind of stuff over the past year?' he informed. Gabriella nodded 'yeah,' she answered. She wasn't embarrassed about it at all. 'Video games and puzzles are good to train your memory and concentration. You get physiotherapies and occupational therapies. When I first got here I was like a kid. I had to learn lots of skills over again.

'Are you back at your old level now? Are you healed?' Troy wanted to know. Gabriella gulped. 'I don't think I will heal completely,' she confessed. It was the hard truth she had had to accept in the recovery center. 'I'm not the person I was before the accident.'

She didn't know who the new Gabriella had to be then. The fact that she lost ten years, made problem only bigger and bigger. Her past was just as clouded as her future was. She was wrestling with her new identity and had to get used to the life she had now. She was scared that it would be even harder for her after she would get out of the recovery center.

Even though Nancy and Drew Armstrong would wait for her in her room, she kept getting more nervous. She loved the couple Armstrong, that would visit her and take her out for a little trip every once in a while. Now their presence reminded her only of the fact that she would have to leave the recovery center soon. Soon she would move to their house and would have to start her new life. From that moment she would have to meddle in her son's upbringing as well.

'Hello Nancy. Hi Dean. Nice to see you again.' Gabriella hugged the couple. Nancy smiled. 'I brought you some more pictures.' Nancy pressed a little amount of photos in her hand. 'Pictures of soccer games and the school trip from last week.' Gabriella took the little album. The Armstrongs tried their very best to get her into Ricky's life as much as possible. They took pictures, told her stories and brought the boy with them as much as they could. It was not their fault that Gabriella found it hard to take on the role of a mother.

She put the thought away from her and pointed at her companion. 'Do you know Troy Bolton?' she asked. Much to her surprise Nance and Drew did seem to know Troy. When everyone had taken a place, she decided to get straight down to business.

'Mr. Bolton...'

'Call me Troy,' he said.

'Okay, then I will call you Troy, what can we help you with?' she asked.

Nancy and Drew looked at each other. The big bad wolf kept looking Gabriella straight in the eyes. 'The question is, what can I do for you,' was his obscure reaction.

The answer didn't fall good with her. 'I don't need anything,' she said.

Troy looked at Nancy and Drew for a second before he glanced at her again. 'You will get out of the recovery center soon,' he said. 'I would like to help you.'

Was he talking about offering himself as a mover? Something else than that was a puzzle for Gabriella.

'I'm moving in with Nancy and Drew for a while when I get out of here,' she said. 'I have almost nothing personal, so I don't need a mover. I have some clothes and books, that's all.'

Troy didn't say anything, which caused a uncomfortable silence. Gabriella could feel her heart beat. With trembling hands she took the pictures from the album, just to get it straight that she had no idea what to do with the situation. From the pictures a smiling Ricky was looking at her.

'I promised Daniel I would take care of you,' Troy told her. Surprised she frowned. 'What exactly have you promised him?' she wanted to know. 'That I would take care of you. That I would make your life as easy as possible,' Troy answered. He looked at the ground. 'It was really important for him to know that everything would be ok for you.'

'That's really nice, but I don't need any help,' she reacted firmly. 'I don't need anyone to make my life easier.' Of course that wasn't true, but she couldn't come into the fact that anyone would actually be able to help her. Nobody could just deliver her the mother feeling or take her fears and panic attacks away.

'I could solve a few practical problems for you,' Troy said. 'Take away a few roadblocks.'

Gabriella didn't know if she should decline his offer or not. When she looked at Nancy and Drew she saw the pressured look on Nancy's face. 'What's wrong?' she asked. 'What are you keeping from me?' Nancy sighed 'I think we're only confusing you Gabriella. That's not what we were trying to do. It's like this: we thought of a new plan to help you.'

'A new plan? A plan that involves him?' Gabriella asked, pointing at Troy. 'Now I'm really confused.'

Dean cleared his throat. 'Nancy and I were actually really happy when Troy called and told us what he had promised Daniel,' he said. 'with Troy's help you will be able to get on your own feet much faster than when you will move in into our house. As you know the therapists aren't really enthusiastic about it either.'

Gabriella swallowed with effort. She knew really well that her therapists didn't think it was a good idea that she was moving in with the Armstrongs. The couple had a housekeeper and a cook. With all that help there was the danger that all the things she had learned, she wouldn't use any of it.

'Do you want me to move somewhere else?' she asked whispering. Would she be able to get on if the Armstrongs let her go? 'No, Gabriella, you're getting the wrong idea,' Nancy said quickly. 'We don't want you lose you at all. We wanted to offer that you moved into the guest abode by the pool. It has three bedrooms, a bathroom and a complete kitchen. In the guest abode you will be able to take care of yourself completely. Troy could stay in one of the bedrooms and help you with everything for the first weeks.

Gabriella rubbed her forehead pondering. She already felt a headache come up. Changes in the daily routine would completely get her off battle. Learning to deal with new ideas and situations – she had to work on it for the coming time.

She looked back at the pictures in her lap. It took a few seconds before it clicked that she was looking at her own baby. Ricky on the soccer field. Ricky with his arms around to other boys. Ricky in the museum. Ricky, her son.

Dean followed her look. 'Ricky could stay in his room at our house for a little while,' he said. 'During the day he could just walk over to you. It would be for the best for both of you.'

The best for both of you. The sentence pounded around in her head. The best for both of you. The attracting part of the offer was that she wouldn't be in the way of the Armstrong family and would stay with them longer. More time to not take all the responsibility to take care of Ricky. For that reason she was even ready to put the big bad wolf between herself and her son.

As soon as Gabriella woke up, she put her hand out to her note book.

It's Friday May 8th. You've moved. You live in the guest abode of Nancy and Dean Armstrong now. The bathroom is on the other side of the hallway. If it's morning now, you have to get up, take a shower and get dressed.

The familiar rules made it less scary to wake up in a strange room. She lay back into the pillows on the bed and looked at the sunlight that shone through the windows. Yesterday she had put her stuff in the most cozy room. After that she had been so tired of all the efforts that she had put on her pajama's and had fallen asleep right away. She did thought about writing down these rules.

Her groaning stomach reminded her about the fact that she had skipped dinner last night. The breakfast had to wait for a little longer though. If it's morning now, you have to get up, take a shower and get dressed.

She found it pleasant to hold onto her own instructions. If she tried to improvise, she would get so confused sometimes, just like that one time when she had forgotten to put on her clothes. She went to the appointment with Daniel Thomson's lawyers in her pajama's. Lucky for her the conversation had taken place in the recovery center. She didn't want to think of what would have happened if she had appeared like that in the lawyers office in San Antonio.

At the moment she got out of bed, she saw she was wearing the same night gown she had worn on the day of the appointment. Nancy had picked it out of her, just like she had put most of her wardrobe together. The gown was made from thin, peach colored cotton and was very feminine.

In the mirror that was on the wall, she saw herself. She made a face against the image. She was still way too skinny, and in the thin gown she looked rather 12 than up in the thirties. Her stomach started rumbling again. Take a shower and get dressed, she thought. The bathroom was on the other side of the hallway. At that same moment that she opened the door of her bedroom, the door to the bathroom opened as well. In the door post was a man.

Her mouth fell open, but no sound was coming out. There was a tall, almost naked, broad shouldered man with a light green towel around his hips. Behind him circled trails of steam out of the bathroom. It was as if he was an erotic ghost from a wonder lamp. Too late she thought about covering her breasts with her arms. The man didn't seem to be looking at her breasts thought. He seemed cautious about her face, like she was some kind of wild animal that he didn't want to scare.

'Morning,' he said friendly. 'I thought you were still asleep.' She set a step backwards. 'I'm Troy Bolton, remember?' he asked. Gabriella looked at him 'Of course I remember,' she said, while she set another step back. She walked back to her room fast and slammed the door close. She remember who he was clearly, but in the chaos of the moving she had forgotten a few things. She grabbed her note book again and sat down on the edge of her bed to improve her last note.

You've moved. You live in the guest abode of Nancy and Dean Armstrong now with Troy Bolton. The bathroom is on the other side of the hallway. Pay attention that he might be in the bathroom. If it's morning now, you have to get up, take a shower and get dressed. PUT ON A ROBE!

A few minutes later she walked back to the bathroom. In the shower she had time to think about the fact that she had a roommate now. In the shower cabin hang a nice manly odor. Till her relieve he hadn't moved her bath stuff.

She took the red cupule off of the shampoo, the blue off of the conditioner and the yellow one off the shower gel. As soon as she had used one she put the cupule back onto it. It had happened that she had walked out of the shower with her head full of foam.

While she was soaping in she thought about Troy. It was the intention for him to stay with her for four weeks. If she mate a mistake and 'fell', he would catch her. Gabriella had agreed that he would talk to her therapists if she was going forward. It was kind of embarrassing that they were talking about her behind her back, but she had learned to put her feelings about that aside. In the recovery center there wasn't really any space for privacy either.

She had decided to see Troy as a machine instead of a man. He was an instrument that she needed for her healing. He just had a function in her life, just like a blow dryer, a toaster and the coffee machine. Okay, Troy Bolton was an incredibly sexy machine, but she did well staying in distance looking at him.

The fact that he wasn't interested in her, made it easier to see him as a machine. It made it easier to walk into the kitchen after her shower in just a simple jeans, a T-shirt and sport shoes. 'Hey. Do you want some coffee?' he informed with the kettle in his hand. See, he was just a domestic machine, she thought smiling. Thanking him, she took the cup out of his hand. They sat down at the table in front of each other. Troy took the paper and shove a bowl with fruit her way. Gabriella took a banana and took the skin off. Yes, he was a domestic machine, that took care of coffee and fruit. It was a luxury that she liked.

At the same time she knew that she had gotten used to this kind of service over the past year. In a while she would have to take care of herself. That's why she got up herself a while later to get a refill on her coffee. She walked to Troy with the kettle, looking at him with a questioning look. 'No, thanks,' he said. He looked at her for a bit.

Not one domestic machine had that kind of beautiful blue eyes or gorgeous eye lashes, who had the same tint as his dark hair. Before she got into what she did, she stroked his hair. Troy stiffened. Startled she pulled her hand back 'I'm sorry,' she muttered. 'I'm really sorry.' The green eyes disappeared under those long, dark eyelashes. 'It's okay,' he said.

He turned the page of the paper and seemed to be really into an ad about the craft shop. 'I just wanted to feel your hair,' she started explaining. 'I mean...' Troy looked up at her 'It's okay,' he repeated calmly.

In the recovery center they had probably told him that patients like Gabriella did impulsive things. Gabriella knew that too, but she never had to deal with it. She looked down and sat back in her seat fast. I don't have to be embarrassed about a thing, she thought. I don't have to embarrassed in front of him. He's only here to help me.

He was still looking at the ad of the craft shop. From under her eyelashes she looked at him. She could smell his incredible, manly aroma. A domestic machine? Nice try, but this was definitely an attractive man of flesh and blood. A man that would give four weeks of his life by taking care of her.

Why would he do that? For the first time it came to her. She sat up straight in her seat and put her lower arms on the table. She knew that patients like her were really turned to themselves for most of the time. That was most likely why the question had never occurred to her before. People with brain damage were really busy with learning new stuff that they didn't hold any interest for other things. When he had offered to move in with her, she didn't stand still by the fact what if would mean to him.

She saw it as a sign of movement that she was asking herself what was wrong with him for doing this. 'Troy?' she asked. He looked up questioned. Oh my god, he had beautiful eyes. She got so caught in them, that she almost forgot what she wanted to ask. 'Why are you here?' she asked eventually. His eyebrows raised. 'Did you forget that?'

Gabriella shook her head. 'I know what you are doing here, but you didn't tell me why you want to do this,' she explained. 'I only know that you promised Daniel something.'

He took his coffee cup and took a huge sip. 'Daniel was my family,' he told. 'During the last months of his life we had a good connection When he asked me to take care of you, I just couldn't say no.' Gabriella frowned. She was convinced that there was more to the story. 'Are you from around here?' she asked.

He shook his head. 'I haven't been living in Texas for a long, long time. My last official address was in Sacramento, California. That's where I worked for the FBI. I'm special leave for the past few months.

In her past life, Gabriella had worked for the government as well. She didn't know much about it anymore, but she knew that it wasn't normal for someone to be on leave for a few months. She couldn't be hold back to ask a few questions about it either. 'Why did Daniel ask you to take care of me?' she wanted to know. 'And why was it hard to say no?'

He stared at his coffee for a little while before he looked her straight in the eyes. 'I don't know why he chose me, and I said because my brother has put Daniel through hell for the past months of his life. The criminal who is known as Chris Wilkes, the man who at least killed four people and has abducted Lily Thomson, is my brother.'

The look in his eyes and his hoarse voice impressed her. Much more impression than she would want to. She could no longer see this man as a man. This man was a sensitive man. A man with a heart.

Troy knew that he had be careful with Gabriella, but he had scared her two times already. She had been startled when he walked out of the bathroom and now she was startled because of his story about Chris.

Later that morning they were driving to the supermarket. 'I'm sorry that I scared you with the story about me brother,' he said. Gabriella made a waving move and wrote something more down on the grocery list. 'No problem, I heard about Chris Wilkes, but I didn't know he was your brother.'

'I'm sorry,' he said again. 'You don't have to be! I'm not some tender flower that you have to protect against sun and wind,' she said. 'It's the intention that I got used to the normal world.' Troy knew that a human life was a tender flower. The story of Jessica Chandler was the living proof.

Gabriella appeared to be tougher than he thought. In the supermarket she got a cart. 'Let me do the shopping on my own,' she said. 'But do me a pleasure and stay behind me.' Troy did as he was asked and walked behind her about ten meters. He did take care of the fact that he didn't lose her jeans and dark hair from his eye.

She was skinny, but with a few pounds more she would look incredible. Even though she was slightly under weight she had beautiful feminine contours. He had seen that when she had appeared in that thin night gown this morning. He felt guilty noticing it immediately.

A young employer of the store by the cereals didn't seem to have any guilt feelings at all. His look scanned Gabriella's body without embarrassment. At the height of her breasts his eyes stopped. Troy had forgotten about what he promised Gabriella immediately. He walked over to her and put an arm around her shoulder 'You ok, sweetheart?' he asked with a warning look in the direction of the employer. Gabriella was startled 'what?' He softly stroke his hand over her shoulder 'You ok?' he repeated. 'Yeah, of course. What...' she blushed.

Troy smiled contently when the employer got the hint and went back to work. 'I tried to protect you against the Don Juan with zits, who was looking at you,' he explained. Under his hand her skin felt soft and warm.

She looked from the boy to Troy with a surprised look on her face. 'Don't be so silly,' she said. 'I'm old enough to be his mother.' Troy laughed 'Only in age, maybe,' he said.

With her long dark hair and her tight jeans she looked everything but motherly. Troy found her extremely attractive, but he pulled his hands back fast after all. He had to protect her. He couldn't be the next looking at her like that.

Gabriella pushed the cart along and stayed in the next row with the cans with soup. After a few minutes, Troy discovered that their was nothing in her cart. She hadn't taken out a single article from the stands. After she had stared at the soup for a few minutes she pushed the cart to the exit. At the parking lot she let go of the grocery list, which fell onto the ground. Troy picked it up and run after her. 'Gabriella?'

She turned around, facing him. In her big brown eyes, tears were evident. 'Are you ok?' he asked. Stupid question. It was clear she was scared and upset. Troy had no idea what he had to do now. A little clumsy he reached her the grocery list. 'You dropped this.'

With trembling fingers she took the list from him. 'There's so much choice,' she whispered. 'I had cereal on my list, but there are at least ten different kinds. I don't know what to choose. And bread... there's wholemeal bread, white bread, tiger bread, rye bread...' her voice fainted away and a tear rolled over her cheek.

Troy found it terrible to see her cry. 'Shh, shh. We'll try it again in another way.' Maybe they should've gone to a smaller sop. A neighborhood shop where they didn't have so much to choose from. 'Come on let's go home, we'll think of a solution there.'

'No.' She straightened her back and put her chin up in the air. Her cheek was still wet from that one tear. 'No, I want to do it now. I can do it.' Much to Troy's surprise his tender flower turned around and walked back into the supermarket. Full admiration he saw her pick a cart again and walk through the rows.

This time he did stay close to her and did he help her make choices. A half an hour later they got back to the car exhausted. When they had put the groceries in the trunk, Gabriella walked back to the front to get in.

Troy saw her tired, but happy smile. 'You're proud of yourself, aren't you?' he asked. Even he couldn't suppress a smile. Her smile broadened 'Yeah, I'm super proud of myself,' she said. 'In your eyes it might be nothing, but -'

He put a finger to her mouth. 'I think you've done great,' he said. Her lips felt really warm beneath his finger. Without him wanting it, he felt an electricity shock going through his body. He thought back to her nightgown and had to turn his look away from her.

'Sorry, were you trying to say something?' he asked. 'I was thanking you,' Gabriella answered. As if it was the most normal thing in the world, she set a step forward and snuggled up to him. Surprised, Troy wrapped his arms around her. She's just thankful, went through him. And you're embracing her because you want to protect her. But he couldn't prevent his heart from beating faster when he took in the fresh scent of her her hair.

She aroused him, and from experience he knew that that only complicated everything.

A/N: And what you think? Their feelings are starting to play up :) hehe please review and thanks for everyone that did review! I'm loving the reviews :) xx Daph, next chapter will be up as soon as possible!