Where's my sweet daughter?
You don't have one, remember?
Oh you silly girl, of course I do.
Oh right, when it's convenient for your image.
Right, love you too sweetie. Just wanted to inform you that I've gotten married.
You what?!!
Had a beautiful wedding, all the family came.
Troy jumped as her cell phone shattered against his dashboard followed by her sudden onset of hysteria. Not seeing anywhere he could pull off, he reached for her but fell short.
"Gab, what happened?" he asked, pushing the accelerator a bit more.
She continued to sob for the next 10 miles, saying nothing to Troy. She eventually pulled her legs underneath her and fell asleep against the door as Troy pulled into their parking lot. He wanted to carry her to bed, but knew that he couldn't.
"Gabby, we're home sweetie." Troy grabbed his bag and waited for her to wake up. "Babe it's cold, come on."
She stirred gently, and rubbed her swollen eyelids so she could focus. She slid out of the truck, and left everything she had in the truck. Troy gathered up her cellphone bits, and shoved them into her purse as he ran inside after her.
By the time Troy got inside she had already gotten in bed and fallen asleep again, so he shut off the light and closed the door. He grabbed a water and checked the messages on the house phone.
Hello Gabriella. This is Doctor Niel, your lab results have come back and you will get those when I see you on Friday as well. Watch your intake, all I'm saying. Talk soon.
Troy glanced at the bedroom door, worried about what she could be worrying about and wondered when she got testing done. But before he got far, message two began to play and would forever haunt him.
My calls are going right to your voice mail, so I am trying your house phone. I just needed to let you know that I emptied out your bank account. I didn't work three jobs so you could blow all that school money on raising a family. I told you if you had that abortion I would've given you that 3,000 I got from the fund raiser but you chose to keep it. You always tell me how much Troy loves you, and now you'll really see if he does. Because now you have no money and no time for a job so we'll see how long he sticks around. By the way, when I told you I got married you didn't let me tell you to whom. Your dad called me after you moved out, and we mended our relationship. One thing led to another and before I knew it he was moved in and we were getting married. We will be moving to Hawaii in the fall next year, take care Gabriella, we all know how strong you try to be hopefully it's enough this time.
Her mothers voice rang in his ears, yet he still couldn't believe she had said what she did. Anger bubbled to the surface as he stepped outside so he didn't wake Gabriella. He always saw Gabriella as this strong, independent woman and that no problem couldn't be solved. He had no idea that her own mother advised her to have an abortion, probably as her mother had with Gabriella. More anger rose at the thought of Gabriella never existing, and the thought of missing out on his own child. He tossed a patio chair out of the way as he paced back and forth running his hands through his hair. He loved Gabriella more than life itself, she was why he was so happy. She introduced him to theater, something he secretly enjoyed and he was grateful. How could her mother think he'd leave her because she had no money? He had thousands saved for college that he wasn't using due to all the scholarships he gathered, so they weren't broke by any means.
More anger coursed through his veins as he realized her mother made it sound like with Gabriella out of the picture now, her dad was happy to come back and live like she never existed. It would kill Gabriella to hear that, but he knew if he deleted the message he would be the one dead.
He un-plugged the phone and headed upstairs to take a long hot shower. Hoping to wash away all the stress and anger he had but he knew he'd have to face it all again tomorrow when Gabriella checked the phone messages.
The next morning
13 hours of silence was deafening on the young couple as she tried to come to grips with her mother getting married again, while Troy was dumbfounded by her voice mail last night
"Troy?" Gabriellas voice sounded rough, and he knew she had checked the phone messages.
"Yeah?" He said, walking towards her.
"She took it. All of it." She said aloud.
She jumped up, and walked towards him. "Why is this happening to me!?" she sobbed, he braced himself on the wall and felt tears prick his own eyes. When things got bad for them, they got really bad and it wasn't going to go away any time soon. His home life was a mess, her parents dis-owned her, took all of her money and she was 5 months pregnant. He had no idea what to do, where to go or who to turn to.
"Out of everything she said I want you to know I'm not going to leave you, okay." He said into her long hair, knowing that reassurance was all he could do right now.
"Oh my god Troy. Oh my god. Oh my god." She cried, pulling on his shirt. She couldn't find the comfort she was after and he slid down the wall feeling worthless.
"I can't fail you Gabriella." He said, rubbing his hands over his face. She fell down beside him and he pulled her in close to his chest. "Nothing, and I mean nothing your mother said is okay. I do love you, and that's why I wouldn't leave you. I need you to stay focused on the positive, even though so much negative is around us right now okay." He said, soothing the worry out of her body as he felt her relax under his hand.
"I'm trying." She sighed, wiping at her face. "So I'm guessing you heard the doctors message too and I don't want you to worry. I had a blood test done because I was worried about my sugar, apparently something came back positive. The baby is fine though."
"I'm g lad it's nothing serious. Speaking of 'the baby', we need to go find out if it's a boy or a girl because I don't feel too fatherly referring to to it as 'it'." He said, squeezing her shoulders.
"Oh gosh I totally forgot about the appointment, I'm such a mess." She got up and slid her flats. "Let's go."
----------------------------In the office----------------------------------------'
"Hey Guys, come on in!" the Doctor smiled, "Gabriella you look a little ill, did you get my message kiddo?" He said gesturing towards the table.
Gabriella climbed up onto the table, as she had so many times before and sighed, "Yeah I did. Just have a lot going on right now, I'm assuming the blood work was positive?"
"Lay down honey, actually your blood work came back negative. But I wanted to be sure you weren't thrown over the line by anything. Monitoring your sugar intake is very important anyways." He turned on the ultrasound machine and got out the jelly.
"So I'm not diabetic, or anything?" She asked, pulling her shirt up to expose her perfectly smooth, tan stomach.
"Perfectly healthy my dear. Troy, what do you want me to put in there for ya? Boy or a girl." he joked, getting a laugh from the couple.
"Just make it healthy." He shot back, rubbing Gabriellas thumb between his fingers.
"Alright then, let's see what we have here. I love turning 'it's into 'he's' and 'she's'." He smiled, rubbing her stomach a few moments before pausing the screen. "That right there is a man, look at the way he's all relaxed legs wide open." He laughed, pointing at the clear shot of his genitals.
The couple laughed, as they watched their unborn son on the screen. It was so beautiful, that in the middle of all this turmoil and stress they could find peace. Gabriellas heart swelled up as she saw the proud look on Troys face as he held her hand. She knew Troy had his son, she had a healthy baby boy and no matter what they would go through they would always have each other.
"Congratulations guys, I'm sure he'll be one hell of baller like his dad huh?" He asked, wiping her stomach off with a towel.
"Whatever he wants to do is fine with me." Troy said honestly.
"Ahh, that's great to hear. So I'll print off the photos and bring them back in to you before you leave Everything looks good Gabriella you are doing a great job. Any questions?"The doctor asked, tossing the trash.
"How much stress is harmful for him? We've uhm, got a lot going on and I'm worried about the both of them." Troy spoke up, pulling Gabriella into a sitting position.
"Life stress is un-controllable I'm afraid. What you can control is an appropriate diet, excersize and attempts to avoid stress. Be it phone calls, certain people or places."
"He'll be okay though, right? I'm in law school and have a crazy mother. Stress isn't going to go away." She laughed.
The guys laughed along with her, "Gabriella, school stress is nothing and hey my mom is crazy too! The old bat called my wife when we had out first child and told her I was cheating on her while out on business. My wife made it through, and I have faith you will too." He smiled, rubbing her arm.
"Thank you." She said, glad that she had one less thing to worry about this week.
"One more thing. Uh, I was reading stuff at school one day and I read something that kind of freaked me out." Troy scratched his neck nervously, avoiding eye contact with Gabriella.
"Go ahead." The doctor said, leaning against the counter.
"I read that you should avoid high body temperatures." Troy spat out, rubbing his mouth.
"Yes, that is true. Excessive body heat could be harmful such as excersizing, fevers or being outdoors on a hot day." He added.
"Well, does that include uhm...you know..." Troy blushed, feeling Gabriellas eyes on him.
"I believe 'sex' is the term you are looking for Troy, and no sex is perfectly healthy for all of you. If you are going at it in a hot room, naturally you would have a fan on or something. But generally speaking your body heat goes up as if you were excersizing but more for the male." He smiled at the young boys concern for something so common in a woman.
"Okay, thanks. That's all I've got this time." he smiled, shook the doctors hand and glanced at Gabriella. "What?"
"I'm kind of shocked that you are doing all of this research on medical issues. Are you worried about me?" she asked, sliding down the table.
"Of course I do, I don't want to lose you." He said to the floor.
Gabriella leaned against him and bumped their hips together, "I'm not going anywhere Wildcat." She smiled, kissing him lightly on the cheek as he smiled down on her.
(later that night)
"Dad said to name him Jack." Troy laughed, closing his cell phone.
Gabriella giggled and pulled her shirt up, "What do you think about Jack little guy?"
Nothing.
"We'll have to see about that one Troy." She giggled again, rubbing circles around her belly button. "Have you thought of names at all, I mean you've wanted a boy you've had to at least thought about it."
"You haven't?" He asked, stretching his feet out onto the coffee table.
She shook her head, "I haven't thought of much to be honest, I'm taking each day as it comes."
He smiled knowing she was being really strong considering everything that has happened recently.
"Noah." He said quietly, "I don't know why, but I have always loved the name Noah."
She turned her head towards him and pulled her shirt down, "Noah...I kind of like that. Ow!" Gabriella jerked her body up and winced as the baby kicked her in the ribs. "Apparently he does too." She giggled.
"Did he just kick? Can I...feel him?" Troy asked shyly.
Gabriella giggled and reached for his hand, placing it softly where she had just been kicked. Moments later another strong kick came from inside her, kicking Troys hand. A full range of emotions got the better of him, and he didn't bother to fight off the tears. He had just felt his son kick for the first time, and he wasn't ashamed to be crying like he was.
Gabriella squeezed his hand, that rested on her stomach and with her free one she wiped away his tears. "I love you." She said simply, feeling exactly how he did at that moment.
"I love you too." he said, squeezing her hand back and smiling. "So, would you want to wait until you come up with a name?"
"I like Noah, and your dad wanted us to name him Jack. But how about an alternative?" She said.
"What do you mean?" He asked, pulling his shoes back on in a huff. He was due at work in 25 minutes and hated leaving Gabriella.
"What about Jackson as middle name?" She smiled, knowing that it would mean the world to Jack as well as Troy. The Boltons had always been there for her, and she couldn't see a better way of saying thanks.
Troys eyes lit up and glimmered with tears, "Gab, he would be so touched. But don't you want to name him because you've carried him."
"I chose Jackson, you chose Noah. I think your family deserves this, they've been there for me since I've met them. Well, not so much your dad but he came around recently right?" She giggled, tucking his hair behind his ear.
"Noah Jackson?" Troy repeated, smiling at the simpleness of this conversation with her. It normally takes months to agree on names, and here they did it on the same day they found out they were having a son.
"Noah Jackson." She said, smiling at the look on his face.
"It's that simple?" He asked, still not being able to wrap his mind around the reality.
"It's that simple." She giggled, slapping his thigh. "But you need to get to work babe, I need to finish my paper and make some dinner. I'll put it in the microwave before I go to bed, just re-heat it." She leaned over and kissed him slowly before he stood up and rubbed her stomach.
"I love you" He smiled, really looking forward to spending the rest of his life with her and their son.
"I love you too daddy."