Chapter 7

Gabriella rushed to Troy's side, as she had done multiple times within the last two days, and wrapped her arms around him." Troy, it's never supposed to happen, it just does," she said in a soothing voice.

Troy looked down at Gabriella, sensing the sincerity in her tone and wrapped his arms around her as well. She looked up into his eyes and gave him a small smile and led him to the bed to sit next to her.

"Your family is so amazing and perfect. Cassie doesn't deserve the hand that has been dealt to her at this point," Gabriella continued. "I love you so much that all I want to do is stay by you right now, but you need to start talking." Troy looked away. She found his eyes again and proceeded. "You need to let out some of this emotion that you have been storing for the past couple days. I mean since we've left Mexico last night you haven't said fifty words. That scares me." She interlaced her fingers with his and gave them a small squeeze. Her head tilted and her lips formed a small smirk when she felt him do the same.

"She's only 14," Troy began. "She had everything going for her, a shoe in for the 2010 Olympics. And now there is a chance that she will wake up and have amnesia? How can something like that just happen?" He placed his head in his hands and ran his fingers through his hair as if it would calm him down slightly. He stood again and walked to the window. Gabriella sat on the bed and watched him, not wanting him to stop talking.

"I'm her big brother and I am just supposed to sit here and let all of this happen?! It has always been my job to make sure that Cassie was protected and now she is in the hospital. It hurts so much to have to deal with these feelings. I just don't know what to do anymore," he sighed in defeat and looked towards Gabriella.

Stunned as to what her answer would be she took at deep breath. "Troy I wish I could tell you that everything was going to be alright and that I knew exactly how you felt, but I can't," she confessed. "I'm sorry."

He smiled at her innocence. "It's okay Gabby, I like that you just want to listen." He rejoined her sitting next to her on the bed. "In my family, success has always been a really big thing. My dad was always the one who pushed me. Then there was Cassie, who is just amazing on that ice. No one can deny her talent, and both my parents push her hard." Troy chuckled at the thought of a memory. "I used to complain to Cassie about how much I hated dad pushing me, and asked her how she could take it from mom and dad at the same time. She would always say the same thing…. 'I just love skating, so instead of thinking about all the yelling and the hard stuff, I just think about how much I love it. Don't you love basketball?' And that was it. I couldn't deny how pure and simple the theory was."

"Cassie is pretty amazing," Gabriella replied. "She is going to be okay Troy, no matter what the outcome of the surgery is. She is strong and she is a fighter."

"I know," Troy agreed. There was a short silence before Troy's cell phone rang. Gabriella was closet and reached for it to look at the caller i.d.

"It's your dad." She said handing him the phone.

Troy took a deep breath before he answered. "Hello?..." He said hesitantly. "I'm fine, how's Cassie?...Ok, well we're on our way…..I know….. Bye." He hung up the phone and exhaled. Gabriella looked at him for an answer. "Well, she is out of surgery, but she is still unconscious and they are still unsure as to when she is going to wake up."

"She could just not be awake because of the anesthesia, it was about a four hour surgery," Gabriella commented.

Troy shrugged. "I don't know. We should get going though; I want to be there if she is going to wake up soon." He grabbed Gabriella's hand and led her towards the door.


The two made their way up to the ICU, Cassie was still there after her intense surgery. Gabriella continued to hum a song that was stuck in her head; Troy recognized it from one of Cassie's skating programs. His heart fell a little when he heard it. They found Mr. and Mrs. Bolton sitting in the lobby outside the ICU.

"Why are you out here? Why aren't you inside Cassie's room?" Troy questioned.

Mr. Bolton looked up. "Calm down Troy. They are just running some tests on Cassie, and they said it would be unpleasant. Your mother hates seeing Cassie in this much pain." He looked down at his wife who still looked distraught.

"What do you mean unpleasant?" Troy asked.

"They drained most of the aneurysm in her brain that was causing the bleeding. But after the surgery they think that she has done something to her spine and are trying to see if anything could lead to paralysis." Repeating the news to Troy and Gabriella was almost harder than hearing it once from the doctors.

Troy sat down, not knowing what else to do. Gabriella sat in the chair next to him. Everyone sat in silence for what felt like hours before the doctors came.

"Mr. and Mrs. Bolton," Dr. Weitzman said walking over to the family. "Cassie has just woken up." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. "We don't believe that she actually slipped in to a comma, but more of a state of unconsciousness. She is still groggy from the surgery and will complain about her head. There is a pea sized hole that we drilled and have left open to drain any extra build up. She will receive constant watch by our nursing staff and will need constant medicating. However, she is awake, and earlier today we didn't know if that was a possibility."

"But what about the tests that you just ran, the spinal tap? What about that?" Mrs. Bolton asked still not satisfied.

"We are taking the fluid to the lab as we speak. Cassie was complaining about some tingling in her legs when she was waking up, and that is a good sign. Her MRI from before the surgery was normal, but something may have happened between then and now. We will take her to get another in the next couple of hours."

"So will Cassie be able to walk or not?" Mr. Bolton asked almost cutting the doctor off. "She uses her legs, she needs her legs, she is a skater, a beautiful skater and she needs her legs." He said sternly and clearly frustrated.

"Mr. Bolton," Dr. Weitzman replied calmly. "We are doing everything within our power to insure that your daughter will be able to skate again." He knew it wasn't enough, but it was all he could say.

"Thank you Doctor." Troy said trying to end the conversation so they could see Cassie.

"I will keep you informed as new information arises," he said walking away.

Mrs. Bolton whipped a tear from her cheek and looked at her husband. "I want to see my baby." They all followed each other down the hall to room 329. As you approached the door you could hear the sounds of the multiple machines that were hooked up to Cassie. Mrs. Bolton tried to compose herself as she turned the corner into her room, the rest followed.

The room seemed darker than it did earlier that day, Troy thought. It was hard to watch Cassie lie there with a blood stained bandage on her head trying so hard to keep her eyes open. Her breathing machine was gone, it was replaced by a small tube of oxygen that ran under her nose.

"Mom," Cassie barley whispered. "My head hurts."

Mrs. Bolton sniffled. "I know sweetheart, I know." She said as she stroked her hand.

"Hey, Pooh Bear," Mr. Bolton said addressing Cassie. "I am sure that they have some pretty good movies down in the library. How 'bout I go and get one of your favorites?"

Cassie nodded. Mr. Bolton kissed her forehead and headed out of the room.

"Do you want anything else, Sweetie?" asked Mrs. Bolton. "How about some ice chips? Or water?" Cassie nodded. Mrs. Bolton went off to find the two after giving Cassie's hand a good squeeze.

That left Troy and Gabriella in the room with Cassie. He had his arm around Gabriella as they stood at the foot of her bed. Troy took a deep breath trying to compose himself and let go of Gabriella. He sat in the chair his mom was earlier occupying on Cassie's right side.

Cassie turned to look at him as he took her hand. "I am so sorry that I wasn't here for you." He said looking down, almost ashamed.

"It's okay," Cassie replied. "I still love you." She smiled with her eyes closed. Cassie took a deep breath and tried to say something else, but was stopped by a loud beeping. She never exhaled, but Troy felt her grip on his hand loosen. He looked up to see that she had flat lined, her heart had stopped.

"CODE BLUE, CODE BLUE ROOM ICU 329!" The intercom shouted.

Gabriella rushed to Troy and buried her face in his chest. A stream of doctor's and nurses hurried in and ushered a still in shock Troy and devastated Gabriella outside. Mrs. Bolton came back with ice chips and water in both hands to see more doctors filing in and out if the room as alarms still sounded.

"Cassie! My Baby! What is going on?!" she screamed dropping the cups.

'That's not supposed to happen.' Thought Troy thought, still shocked as put his arms around Gabriella.


I know what an AMAZING cliff hanger. And I know, I updated after a year. So in turn I want LOTS of raving reviews because…….reviews are like your favorite story finally being updated……the joy is unexplainable.