So this is it people the last chapter, it's a chapter of highlights, with each section having its own title.
Thank you all for reading, especially if you've been here from the start, I hope you enjoy :)
HIGHLIGHTS
White Wedding
Wearing white wasn't an odd thing for her, she wore chef white's everyday for work, but this kind of white outfit was different, this was her wedding dress.
It had taken months of blood, sweat, tears and one panic attack but the date that bad been circled on the family calendar was finally here and thanks to all of her hard work and planning, it was all going to go as planned.
She had wanted Toby to give her away, he was her son and it felt like the right thing to do, but the reality of it was it just wouldn't work out. Toby simply wasn't old enough to take the whole thing seriously and so while he and Amelia would walk down the aisle with Taylor and Sharpay and Chad and his boys would keep Troy company at the other end, it was Zeke who had the honour of giving Gabriella away.
"You ready?" Zeke asked as the music began to play and the bridal party started to make their way down the isle.
"Always." Was her simple reply.
Honeymoon Happiness
The view from their room's balcony was absolutely amazing, the golden sand, the glistening sea and the palm trees, everything that made Hawaii what it was, breathe taking.
"'Brie you have to get out here, this view is amazing."
"I'm coming man, I really did need to pee, did you text your Mum?"
"Yes I did, they're all fine so stop worrying please and just enjoy this view." Slipping in front of him to allow Troy to wrap his arms around her, Gabriella leant back against his chest and took in what would be their home for the next two weeks.
Jack and Lucille had surprised them with the honeymoon about a month after the wedding and weren't taking no for an answer. They would look after the children with a little help from Chad and Taylor, while Zeke and Sharpay would keep the businesses running smoothly.
"I can't believe we're actually here, I never thought we'd have a honeymoon and if we did it'd be us and the children in a Disney land somewhere."
"Well get believing it baby because we are here and it's just you and me for a whole two weeks." Turning round in his arms she tiptoed up to kiss him before taking his hand and leading him back into their bedroom, it was time for their honeymoon to begin.
Signed On the Dotted Line
Lucille could pinpoint the very first time Toby had called her Grandma. It was the first night that he and Amelia had been staying there while Troy and Gabi were on honeymoon and the inevitable time had come when he'd started to miss his Mummy. She'd given him a cuddle and tucked him back into bed, receiving a 'thank you Grandma' in return.
She hadn't questioned it, but from that day on her and Jack were made honorary Grandparents too little Toby Montez.
Today that honorary was about to become lawfully as they would become Grandparents to not only Amelia Bolton, but Toby Bolton too.
Today Troy and Gabriella were signing the papers that would make Amelia their daughter, Toby their son and all of them Bolton's.
It caused Gabriella a lot of stress deciding whether or not she wanted Toby to become a Bolton or stay a Montez. Him staying a Montez would mean the family name staying alive if Toby married and had children one day, but him becoming a Bolton would make them all the same family with the same name.
It had been one night, as she'd sat up watching Troy sleep, unable to do so herself, that she made the decision to change her son's name. She'd thought about how alone and abandoned her own family had made her feel and it was those thoughts that made her realise she didn't want Toby to be related to that name any longer than necessary.
"They're here." Jack told her as the front door opened and Toby and Amelia came running in.
"There are my favourite Grandchildren, how are we both today?"
"We're fine," Amelia answered, as Lucille lifted them up onto the kitchen island stools.
"Guess what." Toby spoke up, smacking his hands on the counter to get everyone's attention just as Troy and Gabriella finally made their way into the kitchen. "My last name is the same as all of yours now."
"All went well then?" Lucille asked Gabriella as Jack and Troy took the children outside to play.
"Indeed, all the I's have been dotted and the T's had been crossed."
Picture Perfect
The door opening caused Zeke to look up from his cabinet organising to greet the person he'd been expecting at some point.
"Hey Gabs, didn't expect to see you quite yet."
"Yeah well we've hit a quiet spot, as it seems you guys have, so I figured I'd nip out now, rather than do it later and be late getting to Mum and Dad's."
"I like your thinking," Zeke replied as he watched Gabriella shake her hair out of its messy bun. "He's in the office; he's really worried about getting this right you know?"
"Yeah I know, which is weird considering I'm the one who does the worrying in our marriage, thanks Zeke."
"No problem, you can go on back, you know where you're going." Smiling at Zeke, she made her way through to the back of the shop and to the small room the pair called their office.
She found Troy at his desk, scrolling through something on his computer and pulling unsatisfied faces as he did.
"You'll stay like it." She told him, causing him to look in her direction and immediately smile.
"Like what?"
"Those horrible faces you keep pulling, the wind will change and then you'll stay like it." He chuckled as she walked over to him and pulled him up into a hug.
"As long as you still loved me I wouldn't care." Troy told her as he dipped down to steal a kiss, before plopping back into his chair and pulling her with him onto his lap.
"You need to stop worrying about this Troy, they all look great."
"I know," He agreed, as he scrolled through more photos and smiled at the happy faces of their children smiling back at him.
The previous weekend, Troy had pulled in a favour Zeke owed him and had asked him if he'd do a photo shoot for him, Gabriella and the children. And so with Sharpay there as stylist and music chooser, the young Bolton family had done what they did best, be themselves, while Zeke simply captured it all on camera.
They quickly decided on a frame, one which had a big picture in the centre and was then surrounded by other smaller pictures, the problem Troy was having was choosing the picture to go in the middle.
"I like that one," Gabriella said as she stole the mouse from under Troy's hand and clicked on the picture to enlarge it. It was of course of the four of them, all lying on their fronts, their arms linked together as they smiled happily into the camera, Gabriella, Toby, Amelia and then Troy.
"Why that one?" Troy asked as he twirled her hair around his fingers.
"Because we're all smiling and actually looking at the camera and I dunno, everything just looks right." Troy rested his head on her shoulder and so she leant her head against his.
"Alright, so we'll have that one for the centre, what about the ones to go around the edges?" Gabriella clicked on the button to bring all the pictures up onto the screen and smiled at what she saw in front of her.
"How about you print them all off, bring them home with you and we can pick out the ones we want together, all four of us, tonight after dinner?" Troy nodded in agreement and so Gabriella turned to kiss him, before pushing herself up and out of his lap.
"I have got to get back to work, I'll see you at the car later?"
"Sounds good," Troy agreed, as he stood up to hug her goodbye. "It's a good idea us coming to work in the same car you know?"
"Yeah, why's that?"
"Because I get to see you more." Troy answered, making Gabriella laugh at his cheesiness, before giving him one last kiss and heading back up the road to the bakery.
Barney
"Grandpa?"
"Amelia?" Jack replied, causing both Amelia and Toby to laugh at him.
"Why are Mummy and Daddy putting boxes on the basketball court?"
"I don't know honey, why don't you guys go and find out." The pair looked at Lucille for permission to get down from the table and receiving it ran down the decking steps and over to their parents.
"Alright so here's the deal," Troy began as the children reached them and joined them next to the boxes on the basketball court. "First you need to open this smaller box because that gives you a clue as to what's in the big box." Toby stepped forward first and opened the box, revealing a dog lead, some toys, a food and water bowl and a collar.
"Mummy, why have we got all this stuff? We don't have a dog."
"Daddy told you it's a clue as to what's in the big box, so how about you open the big box now, both of you do it together, but be gentle." Gently they lifted the lid off of the box and the smiles that lit up their faces confirmed to Troy and Gabriella that they'd done the right thing.
Sat impatiently in the box, staring back at Toby and Amelia was a brown coloured buddle of curly fur, a chocolate labradoodle puppy to be precise.
"A puppy, is he ours Mummy?"
"He sure is buddy, you guys okay with that?" The children both nodded eagerly and so Troy reached down to take the puppy out of the box, laughing as it immediately made its way over to the children for attention.
"Is it a boy Mummy?"
"Sure is 'Lia."
"What's his name?"
"His name is Barney, is that okay?" Amelia nodded and laughed as Toby failed at convincing the puppy to fetch a stick.
"Is he supposed to be wearing this collar?" Amelia asked as she reached into the box and pulled out the red collar which already had a name tag on it.
"He is sweetheart, how about we catch him for long enough to put it on him and then we can all play with him and some of his new toys."
"Okay, I don't think he's old enough to play with sticks yet, like Ben does." Gabriella laughed in agreement as she watched Troy try to explain this fact to Toby.
"I think you're right honey, but we'll help him learn things, all of us together, sound good." Amelia nodded and so she and Gabriella ran over to Troy, Toby and Barney with the collar and toys in their arms, ready to have some fun with their new family pet.
His Arms
"I'm home," Troy shouted as he walked into his home one afternoon at the beginning of the Christmas holidays. He wasn't surprised when he didn't receive a reply and so after taking off his shoes and hanging up his coat and made his way further into the house.
"Hey guys," He greeted as he made his way into the lounge to find the children and Barney sat on the floor watching telly.
"Hi Daddy," Toby and Amelia replied at the same time making him chuckle as he knelt down to give Barney some attention.
"Where's Mummy?"
"In the study," Toby answered.
"Alright, well I'm gonna go and see what she's up to, you guys okay here for a while longer?" The children nodded and so Troy left them to it and made his way through to the study.
He found her curled up in his big comfy office chair, dressed in sweats and one of his hoodies it only confirmed to him that she wasn't feeling at her best.
"Get up," He told her softly, as he offered her his hands to help her stand. He hugged her to him once she was standing but soon turned them so he was sat in the chair with her curled up in his lap.
"Talk to me beautiful, what's got you not feeling so great?"
"How do you know I'm not feeling great?"
"Because you're wearing one of my hoodies and you only ever do that without asking when you're not feeling well, so what's up?"
"It's just my period Troy; you know it makes me feel like crap."
"I know, I just don't like seeing you look so miserable, it's not fair you have to go through this every month." Gabriella shrugged in response and so he cuddled her closer, only holding her even tighter when he felt her begin to cry against him.
"I'm sorry you feel so bad beautiful, how did you cope with feeling this way when you were at school?"
"It was never this bad at school," She answered with a sniff. "It would go away with a painkiller; nowadays painkillers don't even make a dent in it." Troy sighed and cuddled her closer as he felt her tense in pain as yet another cramp shot it's way across her abdomen.
"Why don't you go and curl up on the couch and I'll try and find some strong painkillers for you, I know we've got some somewhere." He didn't get a response though because somehow his wife had managed to fall asleep in his arms and he was not about to wake her up.
New Addition
The cry from across the room caused them both to wake from their sleep, but it was him who was up and out of the bed first, wanting her to stay there for as long as possible.
"Hey little man, what's with the tears?" Reaching into the bassinette Troy carefully lifted the baby boy into his arms and cradled him against his chest, causing the crying to stop and turn into whimpers.
"What does he want?" Gabriella asked as she forced herself to sit up and lean against the headboard.
"You." Troy answered as he sat down on the edge of the bed next to his wife and carefully transferred their son across to her.
"Just like your Daddy, aren't you baby?" Gabriella asked the little boy as she started to feed him. "Always hungry."
"I resent that," Troy said as he got back under the covers. "I'm not always hungry, just most of the time." Gabriella laughed at him and moved to lean against him as their baby boy continued to eat.
Isaac Jack Bolton was born two and half weeks ago and had been dubbed the missing piece to the Bolton family puzzle. He was almost a double of Troy with his sandy blonde hair and striking blue eyes, but his skin was that slight bit more tanned, something he'd inherited from Gabriella.
"I thought I told you I'd do that," Troy said as he came back in from checking on Toby and Amelia to find Gabriella putting Isaac back in his bassinette after burping and changing him after his feed.
"I gotta pee anyway," Gabriella replied as she walked past him and into the en-suite.
The pregnancy hadn't been easy on Gabriella, morning sickness turned into all day sickness and her entire body just seemed to constantly ache. The labour itself was only six hours long and everything went as it should, something Troy was thankful for, he wasn't sure Gabriella would've had the strength to cope with anything else.
Although she'd pretty much recovered from the birth, Gabriella still wasn't herself. She was still suffering from bouts of sickness and she would often get dizzy and lose her balance, something which concerned the doctors enough to keep her and Isaac in the hospital for four days while they made sure there weren't any underlying problems. They told Troy they thought it was just Gabriella's hormones still going crazy, but if things hadn't levelled out in a couple of months it'd be best to come back and see them.
"So tired," Gabriella mumbled as she crawled back into the bed and settled back against her pillows, but not before letting Troy wrap her up in his arms.
"I know you are beautiful, but you just need to try and rest now. There's a bottle in the fridge for the next time Isaac wakes up so I won't need you for that and Mum and Dad are coming to take double trouble to school so I haven't got to go anywhere apart from make sure they're up and ready to go and then after they've gone I'll bring you breakfast in bed."
"You're tired too Troy; you need to sleep as well."
"I know and I will after you do, so come on sleep." He watched as her eyelids started to get heavy once sleep was pulling her into its grasp.
"I love you," she mumbled as she tightened her hold on his arm that was draped across her waist.
"I love you too beautiful, all four of you, so so much."
Adjustments
It was fair to say that in the three and a half months since Isaac had been born the Bolton household had been a little bit crazy.
With Troy as busy as ever at work, he was doing his best to juggle that and help to keep things running at home, while Gabriella was doing her best to look after Isaac, do as many chores as she could without over doing it and of course running around after Toby and Amelia.
It had come to Troy's attention, that while she was doing all of these things, Gabriella was rarely leaving the house on her own and apart from picking up Toby and Amelia and doing the weekly grocery shop, his wife was spending most of her time at home with only their baby son for company.
It was for this reason that Troy had come home early from work and was sending Gabriella to pick the children up from school, instead of going himself. She hadn't been reluctant, only unsure of how she looked, she was still trying to lose the last of her baby weight and was feeling a little bit insecure, but after some reassurance from Troy she kissed him and Isaac goodbye and headed out the door.
She wasn't waiting in the playground long before the bell rang and the children came charging out, only the two she was waiting for weren't among them and so she ventured closer to the building. She was about to walk up the ramp and into the building when the door opened revealing Taylor with Toby and Amelia on either side of her. Taylor was the first to see her and knowing the children had been expecting Troy to be waiting for them today, she took their bags off of them and then pointed towards Gabriella, watching as they immediately charged in her direction and smiling as she happily crouched down to pull them both into a hug.
"Well Mrs Bolton, we weren't expecting to see you here today." The two friends laughed and hugged before Gabriella helped the children to put their backpacks back on so she had both hands free for them to hold.
"Yeah well Troy was supposed to be coming, but apparently I'm starting to become a bit of a recluse so he's stayed at home and I've come on my own instead."
"Well it's good to see you, have a good weekend guys, I'll see you Monday." Goodbyes were exchanged and Taylor went back into the building, while Gabriella knelt down to be eye level with Toby and Amelia.
"So I know things have been a bit crazy since Isaac came along guys and I'm sorry if Daddy and I haven't been paying you much attention, but that's what happens when a baby comes you have to make lots of adjustments, but I've been thinking why don't we stop off at the grocery store on the way home and buy some goodies."
"What kind of goodies?" Toby asked.
"Well I was thinking maybe we could buy all the things we need to make pizzas for dinner," she stopped to gauge their reactions and so far the response was good. "And then we could pick out some ice cream."
"What flavour?"
"Well 'Lia I was thinking we could get those little tubs so we could all have our own flavours, sound like a plan?" They both nodded though Amelia had a question.
"Isaac can't eat ice cream though Mummy, won't he feel left out?"
"No sweetheart, he's not old enough to understand any of that yet, but when he's old enough you two can help him choose his favourite flavour, okay?" Again they both nodded and so Gabriella stood up and led them both to the car, listening intently as they both started chatting about their day.
Summer Fun
It was a hot and sunny July and after relentless pestering from Toby and Amelia, Troy and Gabriella had given in and gotten them an inflatable swimming pool for the back garden.
It was small enough for the children to splash about in without causing too much trouble, but also big enough for Troy and Gabriella to get into without getting cold.
"Are you sure this is a good idea Troy? I mean we don't all have to get in do we?"
"Yes Gabriella we do because it'll be fun and it's really hot so the pool seems like the best option right now, come on." Sighing Gabriella grabbed the pile of towels while Troy carried Isaac and they headed outside to join their very excitable nine year olds.
"Alright guys you can get in now." Cheering with happiness Toby and Amelia charged over to the pool while Gabriella chucked the towels onto a chair and Troy pulled faces at Isaac.
"He's six months old 'Brie, he's going to love it, please don't worry so much."
"I know and I'm trying not to. You get in and then I'll pass him to you." Troy nodded in agreement and passed Isaac over to Gabriella while he joined double trouble in the pool.
"Alright little guy, let's prove Mummy wrong." Taking the six month old from Gabriella, Troy gently lowered him into the water and they both waited for his reaction.
Isaac's first reaction was to scrunch up his face in fear, but once he realised how much fun it was to splash around he soon relaxed and giggled as Troy started his funny faces again.
"If I say I was wrong will you promise not to mention it again?" Gabriella asked her husband as she finally joined them all in the pool.
"No, but thanks for admitting you were wrong." Gabriella scowled at Troy before getting the children to help her splash him; making his promise in no way would he mention any of this again.
Meant To Be
"This was all meant to be you know? You and me meeting in the shop and then all the crazy things that happened after that, it was all supposed to happen."
"If you say so Troy…"
"I do 'Brie, have not ever heard someone say 'some things in life are just meant to be.'"
"Well yeah but…"
"No there are no buts here babe; we are one of those meant to be situations and that is simply that."
Gabriella simply shook her head at Troy's defiance before cuddling herself closer to him and letting sleep pull them both into it's grasp.
It would be fair to say that they'd both been through a lot to get them to where they are today and whether or not Gabriella will admit it to Troy or not, they really were and always will be, Meant To Be.
TGTGTGTG
I know it's taken me way longer than it should've done but this story is finally complete and I hope you like it.
I know the sections don't necessarily follow on properly but you'll just have to use your imaginations and deal with it.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW! THANK YOU!