Happy Reading! (I own nothing related to HSM or the HSM characters)
Chapter 11
Gabriella stood at the nurse's desk in the emergency room, talking to Sharpay and Taylor. The room was busy, but nothing out of the ordinary. "I felt so bad for the little girl. Her neighbor brought her in when she stopped breathing. Apparently the father beat her on a normal basis, but this time was a lot worse. The girl had wandered over to the neighbors for help and collapsed. She was so tiny and fragile."
"That's awful! I don't see how anyone could do such a thing," Taylor said as she filled out a patient's file. "I know," Gabriella continued, "I'm sure the dad will show up soon but the cops said to call if he shows up."
"So, how does it feel? Today is your 6 month wedding anniversary!" Gabriella rolled her eyes at Sharpay playfully. "Amazing, as always," she winked. "Where is that wonderful husband of yours, anyways," Sharpay questioned.
"He is in surgery. He should be done soon." As if on cue, Chad walked up with Troy. "That was the coolest surgery every, dude! You totally replaced his knee!" Chad patted Troy on the back. Troy smiled and kissed Gabriella softly, "Hello, Dr. Bolton, you look beautiful in those scrubs." She giggled. "Back at cha, Dr. Bolton." Suddenly an intern covered in blood ran in.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Dr. Revis, what happened?" The intern looked pale and wide-eyed. "S-s-s-someone s-s-shot the nurses in t-triage," the intern muttered. Everyone's beepers went crazy saying the hospital was on code red, meaning lockdown. The intern started speaking, "Th-they wouldn't let him see his d-daughter. He wanted to find the doctor that worked on her. And t-t-they wouldn't tell him where D-Dr. Bolton was so he shot them." Gabriella gasped as she covered her mouth. Everyone stood frozen as the man walked in, holding a gun. Troy quickly ripped off Gabriella's badge and put it in his pocket as he held her behind his body, shielding her.
"WHERE IS DR. BOLTON?!" he shouted while looking around. He went to all the doctors, checking their badges. "Someone better tell me or I'm shooting everyone in here!" Troy spoke up as he felt Gabriella clench the back of his scrub top in her fists. "I'm Dr. Bolton, sir. Just put away the gun and we can talk." The man got closer and looked at his badge, while holding the gun to his stomach. "I need Dr. Gabriella Bolton. She operated on my daughter."
Troy swallowed hard. "Sir, I will take you to find her, but please just put away the gun." The guy shook his head. "Not until I see my daughter. Now take me to her." Troy nodded and started walking with the guy. When they had taken two steps, something fell out of Troy's scrub pocket. The guy reached down to pick it up. He read the badge and quickly spun around to see Gabriella standing there frozen. He pulled the trigger as Troy launched in front of her. He landed on top of her, with his eyes wide open. She felt something wet covering the front of her scrubs and moved her hands off of him to see them covered with blood. "E-Ella," he gasped, "I l-love you." He eyes fluttered shut as she rolled him over to see his scrub top covered in blood. "Troy! Open your eyes!" She used her hands to apply pressure to his chest as he yelled out in pain. She was looking into his eyes as blood pooled around them. Suddenly, someone was pulling her off of him. She felt the gun pushing something into her back. She looked at Troy, tears streaming down his face. "Show me my daughter. Now" Gabriella shook her head. "I don't know where she is. Please let me help my husband." He punched her, knocking her to the ground and pointed the gun at her. " WHERE IS SHE?!" Gabriella held her held tightly as she felt blood. "I don't know, sir." He kicked her in the ribs and yanked her off the ground.
He pulled her out of the room as Troy slipped in and out of consciousness. Chad and Taylor rushed to him. "He needs surgery! Now! We have to get him to the OR!" They heard gunshots as Troy's eyes snapped open and he shot up of the ground. "GABRIELLA!" He started running after the doors, but Chad stopped him forcefully. "The police are on their way. She will be fine. We have to get you to the OR now, Troy or you will die." Troy blinked as he saw the room start spinning and he collapsed in Chad's arms. Chad placed him on a stretcher and ran through the halls with Taylor and Sharpay, running towards the nearest OR. Sharpay gasped as she saw some security guards and hospital staff on the ground, covered in blood.
When they reached the OR, they placed him on the table. "Taylor, can you do this by yourself? I mean, I know how to do some anesthesia, but still." Chad worried out loud. Taylor nodded and started scrubbing in. "I have to try. I have to save my best friend's husband." Troy opened his eyes. The bright blue eyes that were normally there were replaced with dark blue, clouded eyes. His body was paling in color and his lips were loosing color. He grabbed Chad's hand. "Tell….Tell G-Gabriella that I love… love her." Chad smiled and shook his head. "Tell her yourself, dude. You're going to be just fine and so is she." Taylor told him to count backwards as she and Chad gave him anesthesia. The three of them started working, hoping to save their best friend.
As Gabriella used her badge to open the double doors, she couldn't think about anything but Troy. She reached down and saw her navy blue scrubs soaked with the red blood that once belonged to her husband. The little girl that had been hiding at the stairs ran to Gabriella when she saw her, but froze when she saw her father. Gabriella went the block her, but he raised his leg, kicking her in the stomach as he grabbed his daughter. Gabriella tried to grab the railing but couldn't, and fell backwards, tumbling down the stairs. He ran out and ran through the hospital. Gabriella saw the walls closing in before it all went black.
Taylor shook her head, trying to sling away the tears out of her eyes as she operated on Troy. "What if she isn't ok? What if they can't find her," she whispered to Chad. He didn't know what to say. Sharpay cried as she kept an eye on the monitor keeping Troy alive. "What if she is dead? What if-" Chad interrupted her before she could continue. "Gabi is a fighter, I'm sure she will fine."
When Taylor placed the last stitch in Troy's chest, nearly an hour later, she let out a deep breath. "How are his stats?" "Good," Sharpay assured her, "really good." Suddenly, the police came into the OR. "The hospital has been evacuated and everyone has been accounted for," the police told them. They sighed in relief. "What about Gabriella Bolton?" The police looked around confused. "We thought she was in here." Chad shook his head and walked towards them. "She was being held hostage. She was with him when we last saw her."
"We have the shooter in custody, but we have not seen Dr. Bolton." Chad rushed past them and started yelling Gabriella's name loudly. He knew the elevators had been cut off. He took off to the stairs and started climbing them. He gasped when he saw Gabriella lying on the ground face down. He immediately started doing a head to toe assessment. He wanted to see if there was in spinal or head injury before he moved her. He checked her pulse and realized it was starting to weaken. He rolled her over and carefully picked her up before making his way back to the OR.
"Oh my gosh," Taylor gasped, "how is she?!" Chad shrugged and laid her on an extra hospital bed. They hooked up monitors too her. "She needs some CT scans and an MRI. You can do those, right?" she asked Chad. He nodded and wheeled her away quickly. Hours later, the hospital had somewhat returned to normal. Troy was in a recovery room, as well as Gabriella. Troy groaned as he woke up and squinted as his eyes got accustomed to the light. He cried out in pain when he moved. "Take it easy, baby." He smiled when he heard her sweet voice and relief swept over him. He opened his eyes and connected with her. His forehead immediately creased with worry lines as his eyes brows bunched together.
Gabriella reached out and placed her hand on his cheek. She recognized the look on his face and smiled softly. "I'm okay, baby. Just some bumps and bruises. Don't worry." She leaned down and kissed his forehead softly. When she stood back up, she realized that he was crying. Troy was one of the strongest people she knew and she could count on one hand how many times she has seen him cry. He cried when they were alone that first night when they had woken up from their comas and grieved the loss of their future child, he cried their sophomore year of college when his grandfather died, and now he was crying. She knew that she was one of the few people who have ever seen him cry and she was glad that he trusted her enough all those times to show his feelings in front of her.
She wiped his tears and held his face in her small, soft hands. He reached his right hand up and rested it on her wrist, leaning into her touch. "I was so scared that I was going to lose you. I can't lose you. You are my world." She smiled as a tear escaped her eyes. "You're not getting rid of me that easy, Bolton," she winked. He smiled and puckered his lips, inviting her in for a kiss. She easily accepted and kissed him lovingly. She pulled back and checked on his IVs. She pushed the button on his IV to administer him more pain medication. Although he wouldn't admit it, she could tell he was in pain. She sat on the edge of his bed.
"What's going on in that pretty little head of yours," he asked as he smiled that mega watt smiled that always made butterflies appear in her stomach. She shook her softly and looked down in her lap. "Nothing." Ignoring the pain, he sat up in the bed and pulled her to snuggle into his side, wrapping his arm around her. "Ella, I know you better than you know yourself and I know that you are thinking about something." She looked up and he saw the tears in her eyes. "When you landed on me, I thought I had been shot. But for some reason, I wasn't scared. But when I realized it was you," she took a deep breath as her voice cracked, "I was terrified. It was the scariest moment of my entire life. The look in your eyes and the way you told me that you loved me. At that moment, I wished it were me that had gotten shot. I looked down at my hands trying to keep the blood in your chest and I wished more than anything that the roles were reversed. " She broke down in sobs as his tears returned too. He kissed the top of her head repeatedly and lifted her chin to look at him.
"Gabriella Bolton, I promised you that I would be your protector and I have no regrets of jumping in front of that bullet. If the opportunity presented itself again, I would do the exact same thing. I will protect you until the die I die. I couldn't live with myself if I let something happen to you without trying to do something to prevent it. Ella, I can't live without you. I can't go without hearing your sweet voice or feeling those soft and sexy kisses. I can't live without this sexy little body of yours." She giggled even though she knew he was dead serious. His smile faded as he leaned in and kissed her passionately. She smiled and laid her head gently on his shoulder as she dozed off. Chad walked in and smiled when he saw Troy awake. "Oh good, Gabster is finally asleep. Taylor told her she had a concussion and should sleep, but she wouldn't rest until you woke up." Troy's eyes went wide with worry. "Concussion?! She said 'bumps and bruises.' Chad what happened?" He took a deep breath and sat beside Troy.
"He hit kicked her in the stomach, pushing her backwards down a flight of stairs. She was unconscious when I found her, but she doesn't have any brain swelling or bleeding, just a mild concussion. She has some fractured ribs, but thankfully no internal bleeding, and she sprained her ankle pretty bad." Troy sighed and ran his hands through his hair. "And what about me?" Chad chuckled and hit his leg softly. "Let's just say I could definitely beat you in basketball right now. But seriously, umm…well when we got you to surgery, Tay found the bullet and it was next to your aorta. It was touch and go for a while. We didn't tell Gabs, but we lost you twice. Thankfully Taylor was able to stop the bleeding and wall-ah, here you are." Troy chuckled softly. "Thanks, bro. For everything."
Chad shook his head. "No need to thank me. You would have done the same. I'm going to go home and get some sleep. You need to, too. I'll see you in the morning." Troy nodded and pulled Gabriella close as Chad left. Before he knew it, he was slipping back into dreamland.
