Chapter 10 - Keep Holding On

Keep holding on

Cause you know we'll make it through

We'll make it through

Just stay strong

Cause you know I'm here for you

I'm here for you

Gabriella's POV: 4:30 PM…

She looked so lifeless and helpless…my baby looked so different. There were so many cords and tubes running into her pale skin just to help her survive, I could hardly look at her. And for that, I felt like a terrible mother.

"Hey." The soft whisper made me jump as hands traveled up along my arms, finally resting on my shoulders. I didn't say anything and continued to stare at my little girl.

4:15 PM…

"I'm sorry…" The doctor, who was about 40-ish, stood before everyone with his clipboard resting in his hands. I couldn't help but wonder that his outfit probably didn't match, but it was covered by the plain white lab coat that he had on.

"What do you mean by 'I'm sorry'?" Troy asked, tightening his grip on my shoulders. The doctor looked at us wretchedly, smiling only a half grin.

"I'm sorry I have to tell you this, but…"

"But what?" I interrupted, tensing up with every second that went by.

"Gosh! Would you let him finish his sentences?!" Sharpay scolded, somewhat in a nice way, at her friends. "You won't know anything unless he actually gets through what he wants to tell you…gees!"

"Relax…" Zeke pulled her closer to him, kissing her blonde hair softly.

"I'm sorry I have to tell you this, but your daughter has to have surgery. We found that a piece of her rib has started to puncture her lung, explaining the sudden loss of air." I gasped while Troy kind of laughed it off.

"That's it? Surgery? That's all?" The doctor nodded, confused at Troy's reaction while Troy let out a major sigh.

"'That's it?'" I mocked, smacking him as well. "Troy, our daughter is only four weeks old and she's having surgery! I don't think that's just an 'that's it?' type of thing to comment on!"

"Hey, look at me." Troy turned me around, lifting my chin up with his hand. "She'll be okay. I promise." I nodded, knowing that it wasn't enough to satisfy him. "C'mon, talk to me."

"Right, like you would actually care." I snapped back. See, that's what I did whenever my life was spinning out of control…I blamed other people for something that didn't even matter at the time.

"What are you talking about?"

"You know," I glared at him coldly, his face turning red. "you all of a sudden care about her. Obviously when it's convenient for you, you come running to her side." His eyes dropped from mine and stared either at my toes visible from my flip-flops or the plain floor. "What about the four weeks that just passed? Did it ever occur to you that I needed you?"

"Gabriella, I'm sorry…"

"See someone once told me that sorry wasn't going to cut it for me, so it's not going to cut it for you." I turned back around, closing my eyes as a wish for him to magically disappear, and stared at my little girl again.

"Gabi, I know you're mad at me and you have every reason to be, but I'm here now. Shouldn't that count for something somewhere?" Well that wish didn't come true…he had somehow managed to pull me into a hug at the end of his statement.

"Excuse me," Those two words were the words I had dreaded hearing ever since I stepped into the room after the doctor had told us what was going on. A short, blonde woman creaked open the door, dressed in green scrubs as Troy and I jumped apart. "We need to get Adriana ready." I nodded, I could feel Troy nod behind me as well.

"Right." he whispered. "Hey, princess…" He bent down over the railing of Adriana's crib, taking his hand to run his finger across her cheek. "…you'll be okay, I promise." He sweetly pressed his lips gently on her cheek as small tears graced my eyelids. "Daddy loves you." Another soft kiss on her forehead and then he left the room, not even bothering to look at me. He was so good with her, why wasn't I letting him near her?

"Oh, Adriana…my baby girl." I forced my finger into her tiny right hand. "Your daddy's right, you'll be okay. I won't let anything happen to you." I wanted to hold her, rock her in my arms, but a sweet little peck on the cheek would have to suffice. "I love you precious…I love you so much." Another nurse had entered, checking Adriana's monitors as I had finished my temporary goodbye to my daughter with tears stinging my cheeks. "Please take care of my baby." The blonde nurse smiled at me, nodding and then wheeled my baby's crib, with her in it, out of the room. Please don't let anything happen to her…

"Gabriella…" Taylor rushed into the room, pushing me into her arms. "She'll be okay, you have to believe that." I nodded into her chest, I seemed to be nodding a lot that day, sobbing.

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Troy's POV: 4:30 PM…

The cafeteria was where everyone who had been waiting had gotten tired of waiting and looking at the same expressions on everybody waiting with them. It was busy, let's just say that.

"You're awfully quiet today." Chad and Jason had accompanied me on my journey to the cafeteria after Taylor had made sure I had someone with me.

"Chad, shut up." Jason told him while I just stayed quiet, taking a sip of my disgusting coffee. All I could think about was how I hadn't spent one minute with my daughter. And the minute I had spent with her in that room just before she got wheeled off didn't count…not in my book.

"I haven't even seen her awake, guys." Chad and Jason both looked at me, neither one had any clue of what to tell me. "She was sleeping in the nursery, I didn't really pay attention to her when Gabi and I were resolving the whole 'she's you daughter' issue, and she was just sleeping, barely breathing on her own." I sighed. "I haven't seen her awake."

"But you will. She's going to come out of this, Troy. Believe in that." Chad advised, plopping a grape into his mouth while Jason just nodded his head.

"So, you and Gabi…are you two okay?" Jason finally asked after what seemed like an hour of silence passed.

"No." I huffed. "We're not even close to being okay. We fought in Adriana's room about how I didn't do anything with the baby for the past four weeks. I can't blame her, though…I deserve it and that little girl deserves better than me for a father."

"No she doesn't." A soft, weak, shaky voice jumped in behind me. I knew it was Gabriella, for some reason she was right there beside me, her hand resting on my shoulder. "Guys, could you um…"

"Sure." The noises of chairs sliding across tiled floor rang through the already noisy mess hall thing and Gabriella took her seat across from me.

"What are you doing here?"

"I felt bad for what I said up in Adriana's room…"

"No, I mean why aren't you up there waiting just in case someone comes out?" I interrupted, again taking a sip from my coffee cup.

"Well why aren't you?" she snapped unwillingly…I could tell because she drew back immediately. "I'm sorry. I don't want to argue again."

"Well, neither do I." She smiled that same smile that weakened me in the knees. "But, Gabs, we can't ignore all the problems that we have right now. They're not just going to go away."

"I know that." She pried my hand off of the coffee cup and laced in in with hers. They were cold, her hands, ice cold and they shook every second. "But, for right now, I think we can let it go."

"Yeah." I wanted to kiss her right there, but the fact that we weren't together kind of stood in the way of that wish. "That would be nice."

"I mean, we can't let it go forever. There's a lot we need to talk about and sort out, but our daughter's in surgery, fighting for her life. I think we can make an exception for right now." She was right…she was always right, that was something I loved about her.

"Guys!!" Ryan came running into the cafeteria and almost ran into the table in which Gabi and I were sitting at.

"What?" I had jumped up at the sight of him running in, which was a funny one by the way.

"The doctor came out…he wants to talk to you." I looked at Gabriella, who already had her eyes on me, both of us wondering what he was going to say and worried that something had gone wrong. I held out my hand for her to take and she did, her fingers weaving in between mine as we rushed out of that place and into an elevator.

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Gabriella's POV: 5:30 PM…

An hour had passed and already the doctor had wanted to talk to Troy and I. I had thought that the surgery would've at least lasted an hour and a half. Troy and I were still holding hands, tighter now, and were out of breath from running everywhere.

"Good, you're here." The doctor looked happy, that had to have been a good thing. "Everything went great."

"Oh my gosh. Did you hear that?" I turned behind me to face Troy, who was smiling the biggest smile ever, and he nodded. "She's going to be okay." I jumped into his arms and he swung me around. We were acting as though we had went back two years.

"That's great. So when will we be able to take her home?" my mom jumped in before I or Troy could say the exact same thing.

"Well, just hold on just a minute. We were able to fix the hole in her lung, the rib was puncturing it." he explained rather quickly. "As to taking her home…" He stuttered for a minute and then completely went silent. "Who's her father?"

"I am." Troy piped up, looking down at me for some reason. "Why?"

"Yeah, why?" I asked again. Something about the look on the doctor's face said that some bad news was about to surface.

"Could I, if you wouldn't mind, get a DNA sample from you?" He pointed to Troy, directly looking him in the eyes, as Troy nodded with no hesitation.

"Wait, why do you want his DNA?" Zeke asked for a third time, but the doctor didn't say anything and he led Troy down some hallway.

"What's going on?" I shouted after them, but again, there was no response.