There's a saying old, says that love is blind

Still we're often told, "seek and ye shall find"

So I'm going to seek a certain lad I've had in mind

Present Day

"I can't believe you're going to go to work and leave me here to die." Troy was lying in bed with a wet rag over his forehead, blankets up to his chin and a thermometer in his mouth.

Gabriella laughed, "You're not going to die. You just have the flu." Sitting on the edge of the bed, she began adjusting the buckle on a high heel shoe. She was dressed in a nice red suit, her hair was up in a loose bun and her make up was flawless. "I have to go to work Troy."

"Why?" He whined. "You need to stay here and take care of me." She leaned across the bed and pulled the thermometer out of his mouth. For a few seconds, she read it carefully before looking down at him gloomily.

"Sorry babe, fevers still there." Taking the rag away from his forehead, she climbed off the bed and walked into the bathroom. "You're acting like a baby. You can manage without me," she said over the running water in the sink.

"I can't. Please stay home with me today." When Gabriella returned, Troy had his bottom lip stuck out like a child.

After kissing him delicately on the forehead, she put the cold towel back down. "I'll call you at lunch. I love you."

Shivering from the rag touching his face, he moaned, "I love you too." Before closing his eyes, he watched her walk out into the hallway and down the stairs.

When Troy woke up hours later, light was pouring in their bedroom through the glass doors of the balcony. Groaning, he rolled over on his side, pulled the towel off his head and slowly stood up from the bed. Every step he took going down the stairs he huffed from the pain shooting through his muscles. When he walked into the living room, the sunlight coming in through the blinds caused him to squint and cover his eyes. Once he made it to the couch, he collapsed and let his body sink into the cushions.

"Okay, I can stay right here until Gabriella gets home," he said aloud to himself.

"Do you always talk to yourself when I'm not around?" Appearing in the doorway of the kitchen, Gabriella was carrying a tray full of food in his direction. Instead of the nice work clothes she had on earlier, now she was wearing a pair of yoga pants and a sweatshirt, make up washed away and her hair fell to her shoulders. To him, she looked like a guardian angel here to rescue him.

Troy sat there stunned, watching her set the tray on his lap and begin fixing his food for him. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I figured you'd need taking care of." She smiled at him gently before sitting down next to him on the couch. "How do you feel?"

"Better now that you're here." Really, the way she put her hand on his forehead to check his temperature and her delicate atmosphere made Troy feel at ease. "You made me lunch?"

"What, like you would be able to make your own lunch?" Her comment caused him to chuckle lightly, before carefully picking up the glass of ginger ale and taking a sip.

He turned his pale face towards her and asked, "will you stay here with me all day?" When she nodded, he looked back down at his lunch and began slowly sipping on the bowl of chicken noodle soup.

"If you're lucky, maybe I'll give you a sponge bath later on." Kissing his cheek, Gabriella reached forward to pick up the remote off of the coffee table and began flipping channels to find anything related to sports.

Between slurps, Troy smiled, "man I get a bath from my woman and a marathon of old basketball games. Today is my day." Gabriella just rolled his eyes knowing how rough of a day was in store for them both.

There's a someone I'm longin' to see

I hope that he, turns out to be

Someone who'll watch over me

Senior Year

Outside of the drama room, Gabriella was standing at her locker creating a small pile of books in her arms that she needed for her next class. Taylor and Chad walked up to her, hand in hand, taking little notice to their surroundings. Chad had a basketball tucked under his elbow, while Taylor had her usual satchel of books sung across her shoulder.

"Morning Gabs," Taylor greeted her, still holding onto Chad's hand.

Gabriella smiled at the pair, "good morning to you guys. What did you do this weekend?"

"Don't you wish you knew Montez," Chad's comment caused Taylor's face to turn a dark shade of red. They trio spent several minutes in the hallway discussing their weekend exertions, which ranged from basketball practice to mall hopping. When they sat down in their usual seats in the drama room, Gabriella's eyes fell onto one particularly empty desk.

"Where's Troy, Chad?"

Chad looked at her surprised, "I thought you would know. He has a nasty stomach virus. Puking everywhere." He turned back at Jason and continued their conversation about some important basketball game that had gone on that weekend.

"Hey Tay," Gabriella began shuffling her books into her backpack and cleaning up the area around her desk. "Get my notes for me and I'll come by after school to pick them up, okay?" Before Taylor could argue, Gabriella was racing out the door of the classroom into the hallway.

Not longer after she had left school, Gabriella stepped out of her car onto the driveway of the Bolton's house. Apprehensively, she grabbed her bag out of the front seat and slowly walked towards the front door. Taking a deep breath, she rang the doorbell and waited patiently for someone to let her inside.

"Gabby? What are you doing here?" Troy's appearance took her by surprise, seeing as he was shirtless and wearing just his boxer shorts. From his messy hair to his pale face, in Gabriella's opinion, he looked worse than sick.

She gulped before answering him, "well, I heard you were sick, so I decided to take care of you."

"You skipped school?"

Looking down at her shoes, she nodded guiltily. "Yeah well, don't tell anyone."

"Gabriella Montez skipped school to take care of me. I better let you inside before you change your mind." Troy reached out and grabbed her hand and led her gently through the door way and into the Bolton's home. She felt a little embarrassed being there without his parents, or worse, without their permission.

"So I heard you had a virus…" As she was turning around, she saw him run up the stairs, hand over mouth, gagging. "Troy?" Worried, she ran up the stairs after him only to find him leaning over a pile of throw up on that now resided on the floor of the hallway. They were both incredibly embarrassed, neither one knowing how to handle the situation. Gabriella had never had to take care of a sick person before, and Troy had never let a girl see him sick before.

"So um… I've been throwing up a lot." He smiled weakly at her, before sliding down the wall and crumbling on the floor.

Careful to avoid the pile of slime, she walked over and sat down beside him. "Well you're in luck, because I know how to clean up throw-up and I make really good chicken noodle soup."

"You're sure you want to stay here with me? School would be a lot more fun, I'm sure." Looking up from the floor, he smiled a weak smile and looked at Gabriella with his sad blue eyes.

"Nah, nothing's more fun than hanging out with you. Even if you are sick." Standing up, she grabbed his hand and helped pull him off the floor. "Now, let's go down stairs and get you settled in and then I'll come and clean this up later."

"I think I need to go to the bathroom first," clutching his stomach, Troy dashed into the bathroom down the hall. All Gabriella knew to do was sit there with him, rub his back and wipe his forehead with a damp cloth.

By two o'clock in the afternoon, Troy was finally able to hold down a bowl of Gabriella's 'miracle' chicken soup, as he called it. She had cleaned up the stain on the carpet, changed his bed sheets and sterilized most of the living room while he took a long, hot bath.

"So where did you learn to be such a good nurse?" Buried underneath the covers in his bed, Troy had a thermometer sticking out of one corner of his mouth while trying to talk with the other.

"I guess it comes naturally." She grinned, "your fevers gone."

"I still feel like crap though." Sitting in a computer chair next to the bed, she began fixing the pillows behind his head and taking care of the ice pack on his forehead. "Thank you for skipping school today to take care of me. Don't tell my mom, but you're a better nurse than she is."

Unintentionally, Gabriella blushed and giggled at the same time. "Don't worry, I won't, but don't count on me to skip every time you get a cold or something." Troy closed his eyes and took several deep breaths.

"Will you sing to me?" His eyes were still closed but he knew she was surprised from his question. "Please?"

"Troy, you're not two. You can fall asleep without a bedtime story."

"I didn't ask for a story, I want to hear you sing."

Sighing, she relented. "What would you like to hear?"

"I don't care, anything." Before she could part her lips though, he interrupted, "anything but Twinkle Towne."

"Okay." Pushing the wheeled chair away from his bed, she stood up and walked over to the collection of pictures and keepsakes that resided on top of his bookcase. Taking a deep breath, Gabriella let her overwhelmingly beautiful voice fill his small bedroom.

I'm a little lamb who's lost in the wood

I know I could, always be good

To one who'll watch over me

"So don't laugh…" when she finished, she turned around and found him sound asleep on his bed, faced buried in the pillows. Quietly, she crept out of his bedroom and went downstairs to finish de-germing the rest of the house.


"Gabriella, what are you doing here?" Anne Bolton was surprised to see her sons girlfriend sitting in their living room reading a book at four o'clock in the afternoon. "When I left this morning Troy was sick. He didn't go to ball practice did he?"

Gabriella jumped up off the couch in surprise, "no ma'am. I um… knew he was sick and came over to visit him for a while." She felt nauseous for having to lie to Mrs. Bolton.

"Well that was sweet of you. Where is Troy?" The woman walked into the kitchen, dropped the briefcase she was carrying and began digging through cupboards in search of food.

"Last time I checked he was asleep."

"Not anymore," Troy appeared in front of his mom and girlfriend, smiling. Now wearing a fresh polo tshirt and blue jeans, his blue eyes sparkled brighter than ever and the color had returned to his cheeks. "Hey mom, how was your day?" Without thinking twice, he walked over and kissed Gabriella on the cheek.

"It was fine, dear. How was yours?"

Troy grinned from ear to ear, "fantastic. Gabriella did a great job nursing me back to health. You can hook her up with an excuse note for tomorrow, right?"

"Of course, and thanks Gabriella. Troy can be a real baby when he's sick." Before the stranger could protest, Mrs. Bolton was already jotting down on a pad of paper a perfect sounding excuse as to why she was absent from school.

"Well thanks Mrs. Bolton. I guess I should get going. I'll see you tomorrow Troy."

Troy jumped right out in front of her, "not so fast. I'm going to take you out for dinner."

"Troy Bolton," his mother interrupted the conversation between the two, "as far as I'm concerned, you're still home sick. So that's a NO to going out tonight. But I was thinking about ordering a pizza and Gabriella is welcome to stay."

"Thanks Mrs. Bolton, but I…" Suddenly, the room felt it was spinning and Gabriella's stomach was churning. " I…" Knowing what was coming, she ran to the closest bathroom as fast as she could.

"What happened?" Troy's mother asked, confused.

"Mom, I think you're going to have to write another excuse note for school."

"Why?" Troy was already heading towards the bathroom when she stopped him. He just turned around, smiling.

"Because Gabriella's sick, and I need to stay home and take care of her."

Won't you tell him please to put on some speed

Follow my lead, oh, how I need

Someone to watch over me


Okay.. everyone wanted some Troyella stuff.. so here it is. I tried to make it as sweet and cutsie as possible!

Thanks for all of the fantastic reviews! I'd actually love to hear what yah'll think of the flashbacks. I have a lot planned and want to know how much you like them before I continue using them.

Also, I just want to give you a heads up. Don't think this story is just going to be nice and perfect, rainbows and butterflies. Just to warn you- the next chapter is going to the last fluffy chapter for a while.. I hate to do it, but some things just have to be done. So, with that said, please don't give up on me! I promise.. I won't let you down!

Have a great Easter-- I'm sure there will be two or three more chapters up before then.

I'd ask the Easter Bunny for a box of tissues. Hint, hint.