Chapter 7: The Fifth Degree

Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with Disney, HSM, or Rascal Flatts.


"If it's cold outside, show the world the warmth of your smile,
But more than anything, more than anything,
My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,
Your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small,
You never need to carry more than you can hold,
And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,
I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,
Yeah, this, is my wish.
I hope you never look back, but ya never forget,
All the ones who love you, in the place you left,
I hope you always forgive, and you never regret,
And you help somebody every chance you get,
Oh, you find God's grace, in every mistake,
And you always give more than you take."

My Wish by Rascal Flatts


2013

How long had it been since he'd seen her face? It seemed like he should have been back to her by now. He heard her everyday. He felt her, when she'd touch him. But she never responded to him. She would never answer his questions and he had so many questions.

Why did she sound so sad? Why was his mother always screaming at him? How was the baby doing, had she said it was a boy? When did he get back to Virginia or had they come to him? Wait, why would they come to him, that made no sense...Who were the other voices that he heard? There were three other women and a man. A man who Gabriella apparently didn't like, judging by what she said after the man spoke.

But his biggest question: What the hell was that bright, circular light? Why was it so warm? Why did he have the urge to go towards it? But, the why did it feel like he should do everything in his power to stay away from it?

And then his answer came, whether she knew she'd answered him or not; it was all he needed. "Stay with me, Troy. Please don't leave." Her voice said. He could feel her hand wrap around his, as something wet fell onto the space between his thumb and pointer finger. She was crying. She needed him. Her forehead was against their hands, as she kept repeating the request like it was the only thing she had. Her last resort. "Please don't leave me..."

He couldn't leave her, even if he didn't know where he was or where he was going. He searched for her voice, going where it lead him.


May 27, 2012

"I wish you could come with me! My family is just going to hound me about you." Gabriella grumbled. She and Troy were having their usual Skype date. She was currently sitting on the floor, packing her bags as she was going home tomorrow for a few days. Tomorrow was Memorial Day, meaning the whole Montez and Peragine clan was coming together. Her family get-togethers could only be described as loud. Between the Italian speakers, the Spanish speakers and all of the offspring, it was easy to become overwhelmed.

"You know I'd come if I could. Although, I don't think your parents would approve of what I would be doing to their daughter after not seeing her for so long." Troy said, with a smirk watching as Gabriella sent him a look as she put her toiletries into a bag.

"Control yourself, Bolton!" She told him, smiling into the computer screen. Every time the two had a conversation, Troy always went from zero to sixty. Being away from Gabriella wasn't doing anything beneficial for him.

"Sorry." He started, sheepishly, his face turning red. "Tell me about your family. I really wish I was meeting them. I want to thank the people who made you possible." He winked.

Gabriella started to answer, pausing first to roll her eyes at his inability to keep their conversations rated G. "Well, there's Mom and Papa, Nicoletta and Santiago. Then there's Dominic, Elias, and Lucieno- my older brothers. Chiara, my older sister and Mateo, the baby of the family. Dominic, Lucieno and Chiara are married and between the three of them, they have five kids. Mat is a junior in high school and Eli is the free spirit. He's on an archaeological dig somewhere in South America, now." Gabriella giggled, thinking about her massive family. "We're not exactly what you're used to." She told him, referring to the southern ideals by which she was raised.

"We're just a big, loud Catholic family."

The look on Troy's face mimicked that of a constipated child as he went over something in his head. "Will they even like me? I mean your Dad and brothers could be a starting lineup for a basketball team."

"Is there some reason they shouldn't? Ex-wife, kids, something I don't know about?" She joked, despite Troy not finding it funny. " Of course, they'll like you. Why wouldn't they? My dad and Dominic might try to intimidate you, but they're all bark."

"I just picture them being a bunch of Marlon Brando, godfather-type guys."

She looked at him, dumbfounded. "My dad's an accountant, what could he possibly do?"

"He could have this double life you don't know about." Troy reasoned, not realising how crazy he sounded.

"You're not even going to meet my family! Why are you freaking out?"

Troy looked away from the webcam, shrugging. "I'll have to meet them sometime..."

"And when the time comes, I'll protect you from my dad and his big bad calculator."

"Haha," He said facetiously, sending her an unamused look. "shouldn't you be going to bed anyway? You have an eight hour door ahead of you tomorrow."

Gabriella glanced at the clock, seeing it was already a quarter past eleven. She reluctantly zipped up her bag, making a mental note to add her deodorant to the top pouch after using it in the morning and turned to Troy.

"I'm going after I take a shower. ." She told him, yawning and realizing how sleepy she actually was. "Good night."

" Night, Brie. Text me when you get there?"

She nodded, blowing him a kiss and signing off. As she drifted off to sleep that night, thoughts of her family interacting with a certain blue eyed boy filled her dreams. The idea brought a smile to her face, even if it wouldn't take place for months to come. It was the idea, it was him; he was special, he was the one.


Gabriella had barely put her car in park when a swarm of Montez's appeared. Her mother and father lead the pack, while her siblings and cousins were hot on their tails. Before she could even finish her text to Troy, her mother had the door to her car open. She pulled Gabriella out, enveloping her in a hug. "Gabi, my baby." The hug was suffocating, but Gabriella didn't dare interrupt her mother.

When she was finally released from the hug, Nicoletta still held her daughter's face in between her palms. "I missed you." She placed a kiss on each of her cheeks, before she let her go completely.

"It's only been a few months, Ma." A male voice stated, from behind Nicoletta. "Let the rest of us see her."

"Dom!" Gabriella stepped around her mother and into the arms of her oldest brother. He lifted her off the ground, his 6'3 frame overpowering Gabriella's much smaller body. Dominic was the biggest, age-wise and in size. He had always been protective over his two sisters, but he and Gabriella were the closest. Their relationship was the strongest, despite the normal brother-sister spats.

She made it through the rest of her family, Hugging her father, sister, and brothers; each making their own comments. It felt good to be home, granted, it would be better if Troy had been able to come. Lucieno and her father went to get her bags from the trunk, while Chiara let Fitz out of the passenger seat. Gabriella stood watching, until Dominic stepped into her view. "When are we going to talk about the boy?" He asked, smirking.

"Luego, Dom." She said, alerting him that they would talk later when her whole family wasn't around. They were quickly interrupted by their mother and ushered through the house to the backyard, where the rest of their family was waiting. After greeting the extended family, the food was served. She finally got the chance to send her text to Troy once she'd sat down with her plate of food. Troy's response of "Glad u made it in 1 piece. Don't wanna lose any part of u.(; love u, have fun." made her smile, which didn't go unnoticed by Dominic from his place manning the grill. He definitely needed to know more about the boy who was making his baby sister smile like that.


Gabriella hugged her aunt goodbye, as the last of her family shuffled out of the front door. She turned around to go out back and clean up the remnants of the party. She carried the last bit of her mother's famous pasta salad into the kitchen and placed it in the fridge, all the while avoiding the gaze Dominic was sending her way. She smirked at him as she started loading dishes into the dishwasher.

"Yes, Dom?"

"Finish up and we'll watch a movie."

"Like when we were younger, when we'd spill our guts over a popcorn?" She asked, hopefully.

"I'll even let you pick what we watch, sorellina." He told her, placing a kiss on her forehead and leaving the kitchen as Chiara walked in.

"Are you gonna spill, sis?" She questioned just as Gabriella closed to the dishwasher and started it up.

"You guys are so nosy!" She giggled. "We're doing a movie night, get ready if you want to talk."

A grin spread across Chiara's face. "Yes! Texts and calls just don't cut it when a cute boy is involved. Let me go change into my pajamas and I'll be right down."

Nothing had changed, it was just like it had been when Dominic would come home on breaks from college. Just him and his little sisters. Gabriella, clad in hot pink pajamas, snuggled herself into the recliner under her zebra print blanket. Dominic lay sprawled across the couch in basketball shorts and a t-shirt. Chiara, wearing her favorite Hello Kitty linen shorts, situated herself onto the floor on a mountain of throw pillows and blankets. The bowl of popcorn sat next to a tub of ice cream. What had originally been soda in their cups, was now wine coolers for the girls and a beer for Dominic. The movie for the night was "Casablanca", with Carmen Miranda, but the attention was more focused on the girl who'd chosen the movie.

According to the clock on the Blu Ray player, the movie had been playing twenty minutes and fifty-three seconds; this was also approximately how long Gabriella's brother and sister had been staring at her. She finally, turned her head and gave in. "You'd like him." She directed at Dominic.

He raised an eyebrow waiting for her to elaborate. "He's really sweet and has that country boy thing going for him. The way he treats me is the total opposite of guys in Jersey, he's like an actual gentlemen."

"He's not like those guys on Duck Dynasty, is he?" Dominic asked. "Those accents lower my IQ."

"He does have an accent, not a thick one. It's actually really cute." She told him. Chiara was shoveling popcorn down her throat, and hanging onto Gabriella's every word. She'd married her high school sweetheart and had always lived vicariously through Gabriella's lovelife, although she'd never admit it to her husband.

Dominic rolled his eyes at his little sister; he'd never encountered a southern accent that he would classify as "cute".

"Dom, he's a mama's boy. They way he treats her, you'd think he was Italian." She hoped that would soften him up to the idea of Troy a little.

Chiara looked between the two of them, as she moved on to the ice cream. "He's in the military, Nicky." She chimed in, trying to help Gabriella out with a mouth full of cookie dough ice cream and using their childhood nickname for him.

Dominic shot her a look, before looking back to Gabriella. "Do you really like him, Elle?"

Gabriella nodded, smiling. "I really do. Do you want to see a picture of him- he's pretty cute..." She pulled up a picture of them in the airport, the day he left for training and tossed her phone to Dominic. Being the big brother he was, Dominic couldn't help but realize the smile his little sister had on her face as the boy looked down at her instead of at the camera.

"Well, I'm not approving of some kid I've never met but you let him know that he better take good care of you." He said. Gabriella jumped up from the chair and ran over to her brother, enveloping him a hug. "And you better make sure he's at the next get together. You only get one pass." He finished, Gabriella's grip getting tighter with each word.

"If it makes you feel any better, you'll still be my favorite guy." Gabriella told him as she sat up, their movie having long been abandoned.

"Bullsh-" Dominic called out, eliciting laughter from both of his sisters.

"My favorite brother?"

Dominic shrugged, sitting up on the couch. "I guess I'll take it." He turned and sent a smile in her direction and ruffled her hair. They'd always switch back into sibling mode, where they'd fight playfully. But, in the end he'd always want what was best for her and what made her happy. From the way she talked about Troy and the way he looked at her in the picture she'd showed him, his opinion on Troy really didn't matter. He just wanted her to find the love he found in his wife; and it looked like she had.

He was giving them his blessing, in his own Dominic sort of way. But she was accepting it. It was all that was missing from her relationship with Troy and now she had it.
An approval.


A/N:
Yeah, I clearly just suck at updating. I don't even know what to say. And I'm really sorry if this chapter sucks, because I didn't really like it too much but I wanted you guys to get a glimpse into Gabriella's family. I didn't update, so sorry for any mistakes. But yeah, thanks for all of you guys for sticking with me. I am literally FLOORED with how many alerts/favorites I get per week. You're all so sweet. Stick with me, there's going to be some action next chapter, if you know what I mean. haha.

love as always,
dev.(: