Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical or any of its characters.

A/N: Finally, I've finished my midterms, thank god! And it has been a long ride, I seriously learned the history of the world in one night, it was funny, because all through dinner I was just spraying out facts about various things, it was weird, my family was like oookkk, lol. So that's why it's taken so long for me to update. Anyway…I'm sure I've just bored you so I'll get on with it. Enjoy…

Last Time…

Gabriella gasped quietly at the sight. Troy had a tube going up his nose and bandages were covering his arms, chest and some on his head. His face had scars all over it and his eyes were closed gently.

She made her way over to him very slowly. Sitting on the bed she brought her hand up to his face and caressed his cheek. Tears began welling up in her eyes. She brought his rough hand up to her cheek and enjoyed the touch of his skin against hers.

"I know you would tell me not to be here and to be back in my room resting but I needed to see you. I know you would do the same thing." She whispered. "God, I missed you"

Feeling the need to be closer to him she lay down in his bed, snuggling as close to his body as she could get.

"Mmmm, I love you" she murmured softly, before drifting to sleep.

Chapter Twenty

Right Now

Lisa walked into Gabriella's hospital room for her one o'clock blood withdrawal.

Her mouth dropped open when she realized the bed was empty. She blinked several times to make sure she wasn't seeing things, but in fact Gabriella Montez was not in her bed.

Lisa rushed out of the room frantically, unsure of what she should do. At almost the exact same time, Hilda, another nurse came rushing towards Lisa.

"Lisa, you've got to come see this!" Hilda exclaimed.

"But-" Lisa protested.

"No, buts, come with me" Hilda interrupted pulling Lisa down the hall. Hilda pulled Lisa into room 817.

"Why are we in Troy Bol-" Lisa began but stopped once she saw Gabriella and Troy in Troy's bed. She brought her hand up to her mouth, "Oh my" She whispered.

Gabriella had laced her hand in Troy's as she snuggled close to him with her hand with the IV placed gently on her collar bone. Her lips were curved slightly up forming a faint smile.

"I found them like this a few minutes ago" Hilda said.

"We should wake them" Lisa said.

"No, we can't do that. Look at them, you can't seriously want to break that up" Hilda argued.

"But, Dr. Patterson will throw a fit" Lisa protested.

"Who cares about Dr. Patterson? He can throw as many fits as he likes; we are not breaking this happiness up." Hilda said firmly. Lisa glanced at the couple laying peacefully in each other's presence, Hilda was right, she couldn't break their happiness up.

"Ok, we'll leave them for the night, but in the morning we have to get Gabriella back to her room" Lisa said.

"Deal"

The women shut off the lights in Troy's room and left the couple to continue in their peaceful slumber.

It was 6:03 when Doctor Patterson walked into the hospital. He was early, almost 2 hours early, but he felt like waking up early today, he wasn't really sure why, he just did.

He walked along the corridor humming to himself. As he passed the nurses' desk, at the beginning of corridor that led to Gabriella's room he greeted Hilda and Lisa happily,

"Good morning ladies"

"Good morning Dr. Patterson" they replied mindlessly, but as soon as they realized the name they had just uttered that looked at each other,

"Shit!" they whispered.

Scrambling to get around the desk the women rushed to get in front of Dr. Patterson.

"Dr. Patterson, hi…., um…." Lisa began clasping her hands together.

"You see…" Hilda continued.

"Ladies, would you care to explain to me, what is going on?" he asked calmly still moving towards Gabriella's room.

"Well, it's a long story actually" Hilda began.

"You see I was doing my 1 o'clock rounds and well…" Lisa paused as she got a strange, almost threatening look from Dr. Patterson "I realized that we should really get a better coffee machine. You know the coffee isn't that great." She lied.

"Lisa, what is going on, yesterday you were going on about how you loved the coffee here?" He asked.

"I don't remember saying anything like that" Lisa said.

"Hmm, if I didn't know any better I'd guess you're trying to hide something from me…" He began getting dangerously close to Gabriella's room "…like, that you've done something horribly wrong…" Dr. Patterson continued placing his hand on the door handle and turning it.

"Dr Patterson! Gabriella is…" Hilda cut in.

"Is what? Missi-" Dr. Patterson stopped mid sentence as he stared at the empty bed. Very slowly he turned around to face the women, sending them death glares.

"Where. Is. She." He asked slowly.

"Um…"

"Lisa, tell me" Dr. Patterson demanded growing impatient.

"She's in Troy Bolton's room" Lisa said quietly.

"WHAT? How did she get there?"

"I'm not sure exactly, I was doing my one o'clock rounds and she wasn't in her room. I went back into the hallway and Hilda led me into Troy's room. And there she was sleeping peacefully with him in his bed. We didn't have the heart to wake them up, they looked so cute together." Lisa explained.

"This isn't about whether they looked 'cute' or not. This is about their health!" Dr. Patterson exclaimed.

Meanwhile as Christine, Jack and Lucille entered the hospital, they ran into Chad and Taylor.

"Good morning guys" Mrs. Bolton greeted.

"Good morning, how are you guys?" The pair answered.

"We're well thank you. So, no Chris today?" Lucille answered.

"Yeah, he's staying with Kelsi, Jason, Sharpay and Zeke. We're coming in shifts, so 2 couples watch the kids and then one comes to visit." Taylor explained.

"And lucky us, we got the first 4 hour shift at 6. 6 o'clock!" Chad said. The adults laughed.

"Oh grow up, Chad these are our best friends"

"I know I was kidding" Chad explained. "So, how are they? They tell you guys more than they tell us."

"Well, Troy is still unconscious, but they say so far he is accepting the lung, so that's good." Jack explained.

"And Gabriella is still recovering. She's mostly resting. The nurses say she should be able to come home in a few days. So it will be good to be getting her home." Christine said.

"Yeah, I think she'll like that. I don't think she likes being in the hospital very much." Taylor answered.

"Yeah, she hates it" Christine confirmed as the group made their way down the hallway to Troy and Gabriella's rooms, just as Dr. Patterson, Lisa and Hilda was moving from Gabriella's room to Troy's. The group watched as Dr. Patterson appeared to be yelling at the two nurses.

"And their families, what about them? Do you think they would want this?"

"Excuse me" Lucille piped up, getting Dr. Patterson's attention. "I don't mean to be nosey, but, whose families?"

"Mrs. Bolton, Mr. Bolton, Mrs. Montez, I am so terribly sorry, I didn't mean for this to happen." Dr. Patterson began. Their eyes filled with worry as Mr. Bolton spoke,

"What did you do?" he asked sternly.

"Well, it seems something has happened during the night, you'd best look yourselves" Dr. Patterson said motioning to Troy's room. The five adults made their way into Troy's room, with Dr. Patterson closely following.

"I really am terribly sorry. I promise it will never happen again." He apologized.

"Are you kidding me?" Lucille said as she saw what was so 'terrible'

"I afraid I'm not, we'll move Ms. Montez back into her room immediately."

"No, no that's not what I meant. Are you kidding me that you think that this is a bad thing?" Lucille clarified.

"Huh?"

"Look at them. Look how happy Gabriella looks." Christine said. "It's just like they were in high school."

"Yeah, just like the times they fell asleep watching movies together" Jack agreed.

"Let them stay like this" Lucille said softly.

"Mrs. Bolton, we have to check them both over again, draw blood, replenish their IVs, I believe the nurses here held out all night on doing that. It's important that it get done." Dr. Patterson

"Just give them a little while longer" Christine pleaded.

"Ok, 10 minutes" Dr. Patterson sighed as he exited the room along with the rest of the group.

Exactly 10 minutes later Dr. Patterson walked past Christine, Jack, Lucille, Taylor and Chad towards Troy's room. The adults immediately got up and followed him into Troy's room.

Dr. Patterson walked over to Gabriella and was about to wake her until Taylor said,

"Wake her up gently, she's not going to want to leave."

"She has to" he replied firmly as he began to shake Gabriella gently, repeating her name, "Gabriella, it's time to wake up"

Gabriella moaned and her eyes began opening slowly.

"Come on Gabriella it's time to go back to your room." Dr. Patterson said. Gabriella's eyes shot open and she began shaking her head.

"Not until Troy wakes up." Gabriella said.

"Gabriella, he's unconscious and you need to go back to your room." Dr. Patterson explained.

"No, I'm not moving."

"Gabriella, then I'm afraid I'm going to have to move you" Dr. Patterson said firmly, quickly moving the covers off of her.

Flashback

"MARIE! Where are you?" Jeff's voice called.

"I'm in bed" she replied weakly.

"Why the hell aren't you up?" Jeff demanded.

"I think I'm sick" she answered softly.

"YOU ARE NOT FUCKING SICK! GET THE YOU'RE LAZY ASS OUT OF THAT BED!" Jeff hollered ripping the covers off of her.

End Flashback

Tears immediately filled Gabriella's eyes as memories of her previous life consumed her thoughts,

"Please don't hurt me" she pleaded softly. The entire room became silent as the adults watched in shock as tears began rolling down Gabriella's face. Christine moved towards her daughter,

"Gabriella honey, no one is going to hurt you, but you have to go back to your room now. You'll be able to see Troy soon." She said softly, Gabriella just nodded. Chad stepped forward,

"I'll carry her." He offered.

"Ok and I'll wheel her IV" Mrs. Montez said. Chad carefully lifted Gabriella up and carried her bridal style to her room, with Taylor and Mrs. Montez in tow.

He placed her in her bed and slowly backed away to let Christine and Taylor consol her. Chad went back into Troy's room to sit with him, while Taylor and Christine stayed with Gabriella.

"I don't know what happened, I thought all my memories of Marie were gone, but they're not. They still come back" Gabriella said softly.

"Gabriella, I don't think they'll ever go away honey, but you have a lot of people who love you and will help you." Christine explained.

"I really am lucky, I have the best friends and family in the world" Gabriella replied.

"We're lucky too, we're lucky to have you" Taylor said.

Later that day, Sharpay and Zeke entered Troy's room.

"Hello" they greeted Mr. and Mrs. Bolton.

"How are you guys?" Mrs. Bolton asked.

"We're ok thanks, we've just been to see Gabriella" Sharpay answered.

"And how is she?" Mr. Bolton asked.

"She's seemed ok. She's still resting and recovering. After she went to sleep a little while ago Christine was explaining that the doctors think she might suffer from panic attacks frequently, but only the future will tell us more. The police keep wanting to ask her questions but Dr. Patterson is resistant, he wants to wait until he knows more." Zeke explained.

"I think they should wait a while too before they begin questioning her again. From what Troy told me it was a pretty traumatic experience." Lucille said.

"She keeps asking about him, every time a new nurse comes in, she wants new information." Sharpay added.

"Well I'm sure if Troy were awake he'd be doing the same thing." Jack said.

"True" Sharpay agreed.

"Are they going to keep a closer watch on her tonight after last night's events?" Lucille asked.

"Probably, at least that's what Christine said." Zeke answered. "Although, I think it helps Gabriella when she's with him"

"I agree" Lucille said.

"I knew she was going to do that. That's why when she was fighting to go see him I used the time she was sick and Troy had a game, because she ended up going to that basketball game." Sharpay said smiling.

"Hmm, I remember that game, she showed up during the break before the last quarter (A/N: whether or not they actually have these is beyond me, but for the sake of the story they do) he went up into the stands" Jack recalled. "I remember him sighing and just shaking his head as he walked back from the stands. He wasn't able to convince her to go home."

"Yeah, I was sitting next to her. She told him very simply…" Sharpay began but was cut off by an unexpected voice,

"You would do the same thing for me, you know you would" the voice croaked weakly. All four heads whipped around towards Troy, who was grinning weakly.

"Troy!" Lucille exclaimed tearfully hugging her son tightly.

"Hi mom" Troy whispered from lack of air.

"Lucille I think its best you don't strangle our son" Jack pointed out. Lucille released Troy who let out a breath.

"Thanks dad" he said as Jack hugged Troy. Zeke gave Troy a hug and said,

"Good to have you back dude"

Sharpay hugged Troy tightly last, and then proceeded to hit his arm.

"Ouch! What was that for?" Troy asked

"Troy Bolton! Don't you dare do that to us again, you had us all scared and Gabriella, don't even get me started." Sharpay screeched. Troy's eyes lit up at the mention of Gabriella's name.

"Gabriella, where is she? Is she alright?" he asked quickly.

"She's about three doors down. She's ok, don't worry" Jack assured him.

"How much did you hear?" Lucille asked.

"Starting at Sharpay when was saying I knew she would do that. Do what by the way?" Troy asked.

"Last night, Gabriella snuck in here to see you" Lucille explained as Troy smiled,

"Well that sounds like something she would do" Troy said. "Wait, Gabriella, so she remembers!"

They all nodded.

"Can I see her?"

Gabriella was sleeping peacefully in her bed, when she was suddenly awoken by Sharpay's screeching voice,

"Troy Bolton! Don't you dare do that to us again, you had us all scared and Gabriella, don't even get me started."

"Mom! Did you hear that?" Gabriella asked quickly. Mrs. Montez nodded.

"Troy's awake! He's awake! We have to go see him!" Gabriella exclaimed.

"It might just be Sharpay screeching for no reason." Christine pointed out. "Why don't we wait a while, before we go find out"

"No! I have to see him!" Gabriella said firmly.

"Fine, I'll go see. You stay here." Christine gave in. She exited the room and walked down the hall to Troy's room, just as Hilda was entering also.

"Can I see her?" Troy asked.

"It's funny Gabriella asked the same question" Christine said upon entering.

"Christine, how is she?" Troy asked.

"She's fine Troy, don't worry. She was actually asleep until she heard Sharpay screech. She almost got up and came here herself." Mrs. Montez said.

"Well, can I go see her?" Troy asked again.

"Troy, you need to be checked over, you've just woken up for the first time since surgery. We need to make sure you're ok and remove that tube" Hilda explained.

"After that can I go see her?" he repeated.

"No, you need bed rest for at least a week" Hilda said.

"Can Gabriella come see me?" Troy asked hopefully.

"If she's feeling up to it, she can come in 10 minutes" Hilda said.

"Oh she'll be feeling up to it, trust me" Mrs. Montez said. "Sharpay and Zeke can you come and help me keep her occupied for 10 minutes?"

"Yeah, we'll come, and then we can call everyone, they'll be very excited." Sharpay said.

No more than 10 minutes later Gabriella was walking down the hallway to Troy's room. This time she had Lisa helping her to make sure she didn't fall.

Lisa knocked on the door gently before opening it. Mr. and Mrs. Bolton kissed their son goodbye and exited the room. Lisa cleared the doorway to let Gabriella enter,

"I trust you can take it from here" she whispered before she exited giving the couple privacy. Gabriella's eyes locked with Troy's and for a moment she felt as if she couldn't breathe. If she has been well enough to run into his arms, she would have, but she made do with walking as quickly as possible towards him.

She wrapped her arms tightly around him as he did the same and buried her head in his chest, breathing in his scent. It hadn't changed since high school and she still fit perfectly in his arms she realized, now that she could remember.

Troy stroked her hair gently, beyond thankful that she was safe in his arms again. Words could not describe the happiness he felt, to know that after 5 long years, he was holding her again and she remember all they'd been through.

Gabriella was so overcome with so many contradicting emotions as she hugged Troy. Tears that she couldn't control came pouring out of her eyes as she began to tremble.

"I'm sorry" she whispered over and over into his chest. Troy gently pulled away caressed her cheek softly,

"You have nothing to be sorry about" he said looking her straight in the eyes.

"Look what happened to you!" Gabriella said hoarsely, fighting back fresh tears.

"You weren't driving the car that hit us" Troy said simply.

"But if it wasn't for me you wouldn't have had to take me to the hospital" Gabriella explained.

"It wasn't your fault you got hurt" Troy replied.

"Why Troy? Why?" Gabriella asked quietly as new tears slipped down her face. "Why did you turn the car, after all the pain I've put you through?"

"Gabriella, I love you more than anyone is this entire world. You are and will always be my everything." Troy began wiping Gabriella's tears off her face. "The 5 years I had to live without you were the worst years of my life. I couldn't smile knowing I wouldn't see you at school. For weeks I couldn't sleep because I just wanted to know you were safe, I wanted you to be in my arms. I kept looking into the stands wanting to see you cheering me on. I waited for you at my locker in hopes that just maybe you would come walking around the hall and take my hand in yours. I started teaching in hopes it would bring me closer to you, in some way or other. But when I saw you for that first time in the diner my pain went away. Those nights we shared a bed I had the best night's sleep. And now, this moment right now, takes away all the pain and more than makes up for it. All that matters is right now. Right now you're safe, right now you're in my arms and right now I couldn't be happier because all I need is you"

Gabriella captured Troy's lips in a passionate kiss filled with lust and love. She ran her hands through his hair as Troy ran his hands down Gabriella's body. She ran her tongue along Troy's lower lip, asking for entrance which Troy quickly accepted, his tongue battling with hers as the kiss deepened.

When air became necessary, Gabriella pulled away, but kept her forehead in contact with Troy's.

"I love you" she said softly.

"I love you too Gabi" Troy replied smiling, it felt so amazing to say those words to her.

A/N: Phew, there you go the Troyella reunion!! So…what did you think, was it good? I kinda forgot how hard it is to write them, that's another reason this update is late! Anyway please review!