Chapter 24

What makes us stronger

It felt an all to familiar situation for Troy, as he entered the hospital room, to see Gabriella Montez sleeping in the bed. Her soft curls once again spread across the pillow. The only thing that was remotely different was the room, which was in the gynaecologist department.

He found himself thanking his lucky stars she was not unconscious, but merely sleeping. But, underneath it all, Troy knew when Gabriella woke, she would be more mentally scarred than ever before. Gazing down at her, the series of events that had led to the moment, flashed through his mind.

"Babe...what happened?" he asked her, as her arms clutched feebly around his neck. He began to slowly help her to her feet.

"We...we were on our way to the li..library for free period, me...me Chad and Taylor, when I...1 went to the toilet. And...and I looked down...and...I was ...b...b...bleeding." she wailed, as Troy lifted her into his arms.

"Ok Brie, I'm going to take you to the hospital..."

"NO!!!" she screamed, pounding on his chest so he would put her down "They will take my baby away. They'll take it away. DON'T LET THEM TAKE AWAY MY BABY!" she exclaimed hysterically, as Troy began to jog down the corridor. The people who had been standing watching all began to murmur.

"She was pregnant?"

"Well obviously not anymore."

"I can't believe she didn't tell me."

"Woah! Troy kept this a secret! They were gonna be parents."

Jack Bolton stepped in front of everybody "Okay people return to your classes, I'm sure you all have somewhere better to be."

Taylor ran over to Jack, dragging Chad behind her. "Is it true...is she pregnant?"

Jack coughed nervously "It's really not my place to say..."

"I'm her best friend damn it!"

"TAYLOR!" shouted Chad, dragging her away from Coach Bolton "Jesus Christ Tay, its none of your business."

"But Gabriella and me are best friends!"

"And so are me and Troy...but it is their life not ours, and if they chose to tell us their secrets its their choice. Now we will visit the hospital after school to see if she's all right!"

Taylor nodded before her boyfriend pulled her into a short hug.

Troy smiled to himself, as he thought about his best friends words. His dad had filled him in earlier about what had happened when he'd left, and he was glad his father and Chad had been there to smooth everything over.

He could recall clearly what had happened once he and Gabriella has left the crowd, rushing through the corridors of East High into the parking lot.

"Troy...please Troy!" she pleaded with the blue eyed boy, her fist balling against his t-shirt "They'll take my baby away."

He tried making soothing noises with his tongue, as he bundled out the school doors, but tears still ran down her cheeks. "Brie..." he cooed "We have to get to the hospital. They can make it all better. They might be able to save it."

She buried her head into his chest, sobbing into his t-shirt. Troy somehow managed to balance her in one arm, as he fiddled in his pockets for the car keys. Clicking the button, the trucks lights flashed, as he made his way across the front of the school towards it. "Hang on..." he whispered to the sobbing girl in his arms.

He pulled on the car door handle, opening it just enough to place her on the seat. Closing the door behind her, he ran around the other side, hopping in and starting the engine. With the slam of the door, Gabriella turned her head to look at him.

"Troy..." she croaked, as the blue eyed boy pulled out of his parking space., His eyes flickered to her and he gave a small smile.

"What's happening?" she asked, her mocha eyes once more filling with tears.

"I'm taking you to hospital." he tore his gaze away from her, not bearing to see the sadness written across her features.

"Okay..." her voice trailed off, and Troy could feel her shifting slightly "T-troy...I'm leaking." she suddenly said, as his face flicked to her. A dark stain was spreading at the join in her jeans, it was small, and barely noticeable, but it came to Troy that this was serious. Very serious.

His fingers tapped lightly across the arm of the hospital chair as the memories of the dark red covered his vision, swamping his conciousness. The sound of her whimpers still filled his ears. He could remember so clearly her clinging onto his chest as he'd carried her into ER.

The stain was growing steadily, but slowly across the blue denim, and Troy had to convince Gabriella, as his fingers curved round her leg to support her, that looking down would be a bad option as he zipped across a car park for the second time that day.

Her hands ran around his neck as she stared up into his blue eyes, her brown ones masqueraded with salty tears. She peered up at him, watching his face contort in concentration.

The doors automatically slid open as troy jogged swiftly into the clear white hospital. Pausing momentarily, his eyes darted around, calculating his next move, before he skidded towards the front desk.

"Help, please," he begged the blonde who turned away from the computer she was typing on to face him, "She's pregnant and I think she's having a miscarriage!"

Gabriella starting crying louder at the 'M' word, burying her head into Troy's chest.

"Okay sir, a nurse will be down with a wheelchair, if you can just fill in this form with her details asap and give it back to me," the blonde flipped her hair smiling saucily as a nurse helped Gabriella into an auspicious looking wheelchair.

Grabbing a pen Troy began to fill in some of his girlfriends details, before the brunette started crying hysterically from the other side of the busy reception.

"Troy...I need Troy, please let Troy come with me," the curly haired girl was twisting in her seat trying to escape as a pair of nurses proceeded to calm her.

Troy was over in a flash, ignoring the shouts of "Hey you stole my pen," coming from the front desk as he grabbed Gabriella's hand, his thumb rubbing gently across the knuckles.

"Shh Ella...I'm here."

Rubbing his face softly, Troy stood from the seat, making his way over to the bed.

He could still remember the doctors words floating around in his head when he'd been called to one side and told what was wrong.

"Miss Montez has suffered an incomplete miscarriage. This is where a miscarriage has definitely started, but there is still some pregnancy tissue left in the uterus. The cervix is indeed open. Usually there are two options. Either let the miscarriage continue as normal, which can sometime lead to severe mental scarring on behalf of the

patient, or surgery to remove the rest of the foetus. With Gabriella however there is still a large remainder of the tissue left in the uterus, so we feel it is advisable to operate.."

It had been the word operate which has really made the whole ordeal hit home for Troy. She had lost the baby. It was gone. A living thing had been ripped away from its mother so cruelly. And he was so unsure whether she would ever recover from it. Her life had been torn down too many times. This could be the straw which broke the camels back.

She'd cried for an hour when he'd told her. An hour of her wailing, and cussing and hitting him. She couldn't accept it, and at first she had refused to have surgery, refused to acknowledge that her child couldn't be saved. But he'd held her, kissed her head and stroked her hair. Calmed her down just like he had done countless times before.

The doctors had promised that it was nothing to do with Gabriella. That she was perfectly healthy. That in the future babies were a big possibility, but it had taken the love of her life to convince her of that. He had to tell her it wasn't meant to be, that her little baby was in heaven, and that one day in the future they would have kids together.

She been wheeled off to theatre, under local anaesthetic, but still with tear stained cheeks. They had been told the surgery was long and complex, but left no scars. Except the mental ones of course.

He had kissed her goodbye. A gentle peck on the cheek. And she had just stared at him glossy eyed, before a mask was placed over her face, and the gentle sound of a female nurse cooing "Count backwards from ten..."

And, hours later, he had been told he could see her, still asleep, resting from a gruesome day.

He knew this was going to be the hardest scar to heal from. Loosing a baby was the worst thing that would of happened to her.

Even if she had hated it.

Gabbing her hand, Troy stared into the peaceful face of the girl who had taken his heart. How he wished he could take some of the pain for her. It seemed so unfair that everything bad had happened to her. She didn't deserve it. Karma couldn't exist because the good people always got hurt.

"Its what makes us stronger Troy," Jack Bolton's clear voice called from the doorway, as he stood next to a teary eyed Lucille. "Tragedy makes us stronger."

"She's already strong enough. She doesn't need this." muttered Troy, brushing Gabriella's dark bangs out of her sleeping eyes. "Its not fair dad. She doesn't deserve this. What has she ever done to anybody?"

"Nothing dear," hummed Lucille, stroking Troy's arm gently "Absolutely nothing. Its not fair. Life's not fair."

Silence consumed the room as the three inhabitants became lost in their thoughts, before Lucille spoke again. "Me and your father are going to get a drink, do you want anything."

Troy shook his head, staring out of the window momentarily, listening to his parents leaving. Before the door closed he spoke again.

"Your wrong dad. Tragedy doesn't make me stronger. She does." he nodded towards the sleeping beauty, before the door gave a gentle click.

Merry Christmas x