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

A/N: I think I might cry. There is only one more chapter after this one. I was originally going to make the next chapter the epilogue, but as I was sitting in physics, just after I had finished my final, I realized that it would be better as the next chapter instead. Also I don't know if you guys have heard but Zac is up from male fashion icon and Zac and Vanessa are both up for choice hotties for the TCAs!! So make sure to cast your vote!! Enjoy…

Last Time…

"What was the last thing your mom said to you?" Troy asked.

"She told me I'd be ok" Gabriella whispered.

"And you will be, because you are strong and you're surrounded by people who love you" Troy said. Gabriella nodded.

"What if one day I have to choose between you and myself?" She admitted.

"I promise you that you will never ever have to make that choice, because I am going to always be here for you. Forever." Troy spoke genuinely.

"I love you" Gabriella whispered.

"I love you too, so so much"

Chapter Thirty Five

Surprise

It had been a month since the trial and Gabriella was fully recovered from the traumatic event. She was currently going to college to earn her teaching degree. She worked extremely hard, sometimes long hours into the night in order to finish a paper. It was like high school all over again.

Currently, it was 4:30 in the afternoon and Troy was talking – well more like arguing with their adoption case worker, Helen Davis.

"Mr. Bolton, you've got to understand that I have Julia's best interest in mind." Helen said.

"But we do have Julia's best interest in mind. We can provide her with a loving home. An orphanage can't do that." Troy argued.

"There is no doubt in my mind that you will do that. I just worried about her safety"

"I can ensure you that she will be perfectly safe"

"What about everything that has happened?" Helen questioned. Troy sighed, here was just another reason to hate Brian.

"None of that is Gabriella's fault. You can't penalize Julia for something we have no control over"

"I'm just concerned that someone will try to hurt Julia in order to provoke you or Ms. Montez. I have a testimonial here that states, someone hurt a little boy while playing basketball with Ms. Montez in order to taunt her."

Who the hell had told her about that? Surely Chad and Taylor wouldn't have told Helen about what happened to Chris.

"Who told you that? Because Chris and Gabriella were both perfectly fine." Troy pointed out

"I interviewed her ex-fiancé and he explained the situation to me." Helen said.

"You do know that Jeff was the one who abused her?" Troy heard the doorbell ring and made his way over to the door while continuing his argument. "He's not going to tell you anything good about Gabriella and he'll take everything to the extreme" Troy disputed, opening the door for his guests and walked to the bedroom, while they went into the kitchen.

"It's important that I get the opinion of everyone that you guys know in order to make a full evaluation." Helen said.

"I understand but please consider that we are good people and wouldn't let anyone harm Julia."

"I will, but I've got some other business to attend to right now. I'll be in touch with you soon."

"Ok, thank you Ms. Davis" Troy said.

"Goodbye"

Troy pressed the end button forcefully and let out a long frustrated groan. He took a deep breath and walked out into the kitchen. Taylor, Chad and Chris were sitting at the island, making themselves comfortable.

"Hey guys, Gabi should be home in about 15 minutes." Troy said. Taylor nodded as Chris came running up to Troy,

"Hi uncle Troy!" Chris said happily, hugging him tightly.

"Hey little buddy" Troy greeted ruffling his hair, before he ran off to somewhere in the apartment.

"So who were you talking to on the phone? You sounded pretty stressed" Taylor asked.

"Helen" Troy said.

"Oh! We talked to her too" Chad said.

"What did she want from you?" Troy asked.

"She was asking us about your relationship" Chad answered.

"And you said…?"

"We told her the truth, that you couldn't keep your hands off of each other during high school." Chad smirked.

"Don't listen to Chad Troy. We told her only good things. And if it makes you feel any better I did most of talking." Taylor said.

"But why would she want to know about our relationship?" Troy asked.

"Most likely to make sure that Julia will be in a stable family environment. She doesn't want Julia's adoptive parents to be arguing all the time." Taylor explained.

"That makes sense" Troy nodded. "You guys want something to drink?"

"Yeah, water would be great" Taylor said.

"A beer" Chad said.

"Well there's a shock" Troy said sarcastically, grabbing the water jug and two beers from the fridge. Just as he was pouring Taylor's water, Chris came running into the kitchen.

"Mommy! Mommy! Look! I found treasure!" He exclaimed holding out a little velvet box. Troy glanced behind him to see what Chris had brought into the room. He almost dropped the jug as his eyes bulged at what Chris was holding.

"Woah! Where did you find that?" Troy asked moving in front of the island.

"It was on the coffee table in the living room. What is it?" Chris said innocently, handing Taylor the box.

"Shit, shit, shit. I should have put that back in its hiding spot" Troy thought.

"Oh. My. God. Is this?" Taylor opened the small box to reveal a diamond ring. "IT IS!" she screeched. "Troy! How long have you been planning this?" Taylor asked excitedly handing Troy the box back after examining the diamonds.

"About a month and a half" Troy said sheepishly.

"Well dude, there's no use in having a ring if you're not going to ask her" Chad said, patting Troy roughly on the back. Troy rubbed the back of his neck as he looked towards the floor.

"Well, I don't know. With all that's going on with Julia and then the trial, I just-" Troy rambled fingering the ring. "What if she says no?" Troy sighed.

"I take it back that was the stupidest question I've ever heard" Taylor said. "Troy, unless the Gods have replaced Gabriella with some sort of anti-Gabriella, I can pretty much guarantee you that she will say yes. That girl loves you just as much as you love her."

"But I don't know how to do it" Troy admitted.

"Oh it's easy man, you just tell her how much you love her and then get down on one knee and ask her to marry you" Chad said. Taylor rolled her eyes.

"I think he means he doesn't know when to do it. You just have to do it when the time feels right. Gabriella likes simple things, it doesn't have to extravagant." Taylor advised.

"I guess that makes sense" Troy said.

"Good, now we have to call everyone and tell them what's going to happen soon. They're going to be so excited!" Taylor exclaimed, digging through her bag to try to find her cell phone.

"No! This has to be a surprise. I may not know how I'm going to do this, but I do know that I want Gabi to be completely blown away." Troy said. Taylor smiled at Troy,

"Ok, I promise. Chad?"

Chad pretended to zip his lips and throw away the key.

"Chris, do you promise you won't tell anyone about this?" Troy asked.

"Pinky swear" Chris said seriously holding out his little finger. Troy grinned as he pinky swore with Chris. Detaching his pinky, Troy stood up. Just as he was about to say something, he heard Gabriella call out,

"I'm home!" Quickly slipping the small box into his pocket Troy called back,

"We're in the kitchen!"

She came walking into the room in jeans and a summery shirt with her hair in a ponytail and books in her arms. Setting her books down she was greeted by Chris.

"Auntie Gabi!" Chris hugged her happily.

"Hey little man" Gabriella greeted, picking him up off the floor. After putting him back down she hugged Taylor and Chad. Then she walked over to Troy and greeted him with a quick peck on the lips.

"How was school?" Troy asked.

"It was good, very good. How about you guys? What did you do today?"

"Well, Chad, Chris and I went furniture shopping today." Taylor said as Chad rolled her eyes.

"Oooo, that sounds fun" Gabriella smiled. "I bet Chad enjoyed that" she said sarcastically getting a laugh from everyone. "What about you Troy? How was your day?"

"School was great, but that's no surprise, it always is. After that it was…" Troy shrugged his shoulders, "ok"

"OK? What does that mean?" Gabriella asked.

"Helen called" he said simply.

"Anything good?" Gabriella asked hopefully. As Troy shook his head, he watched disappointment fill her eyes. She was taking this hard. Every time Helen called or they met with her, she always brought up Gabriella's past. Gabriella wanted to adopt Julia so badly that it killed her every time the possibility of it happening seemed to drift further away from her.

"But we'll get through this" Troy tried to reassure her. Even though she nodded her head Troy knew he had just dropped her moral.

"Do you remember when we had that sub, Mr. Gladstone?" Troy said.

"Yeah, he was so old and deaf that when we said 'ring – ring' he would get up and answer the phone" Chad laughed. "And the other one, Ms. Kim, you pretended you couldn't speak English"

Troy and Chad burst into fits of laughter. Taylor and Gabriella just shook their heads. Troy and Chad had always had a lot of fun tormenting substitutes. Taylor glanced over at her son, who she noticed had fallen asleep.

"I think we should probably head out. Look Chris is already asleep." She said.

Troy and Chad stifled their laughter as they nodded their heads and got up from the chairs to help bring in the coffee mugs. Taylor gathered up all their things and Chad picked Chris up, resting Chris' head on his shoulder.

Gabriella hugged Taylor and whispered, "We're still on for Saturday right?"

"You bet" Gabriella grinned.

She hugged Chad next, careful not to wake Chris up, while Troy hugged Taylor. The four adults walked towards the door and Troy held it open as Chad and Taylor walked out.

"Thanks for coming guys" Troy said.

"We'll come anytime" Taylor smiled as she waved goodbye to Troy and Gabriella.

Troy shut the door and Gabriella leaned up against him, resting her head against his chest.

"Did you have fun tonight?" Troy whispered. She nodded,

"Mmmhmm. I was great, especially playing with Chris" she said. Troy watched as sadness filled her.

"Do you think I'm dangerous to be around?" she asked softly looking up at him with glossy eyes.

"Hey" Troy whispered. "Is this about all that's going on with Julia?"

Gabriella nodded.

"I don't ever want you to think that any of what's happening or what happened in the past is your fault." Troy said.

"What if they come back and hurt someone else I care about?" she murmured.

"Jeff and Brian are not going to get anywhere near anyone anymore, they are locked up forever. And I promise that I won't let anyone take some else away from you" Troy spoke firmly. Gabriella nodded her head as a few tears leak out of her eyes. "And that means no more tears about this" Troy whispered wiping some of Gabriella's tears away with his thumbs.

"I really need to start buying water-proof mascara" Gabriella said, laughing slightly as she wiped the mascara stains off her face.

"I don't think you need to buy any make-up what so ever, you look just as beautiful without it" Troy whispered, planting a kiss on her forehead. "Let's go for a walk" he said suddenly.

"Now?"

"It's a beautiful night, why not?" Troy countered.

"Ok" she agreed.

5 minutes later the pair was sitting on the grass by a pond, gazing up at the stars. Gabriella was positioned in between Troy's legs, her head resting against his chest.

"So do you want to tell me more about your day today?" Troy asked.

"Well, besides taking all the basic school subjects, you know, math, science, reading, writing, history and geography, I'm also this class called psychology of learning. That class is really great, because I think it helps me understand what goes through kids' minds." Gabriella explained. "What about you? Care to elaborate on your day?"

"I actually found out some good news and bad new today. Which do you want to hear first?"

"The bad news" She answered.

"The bad is news is that Mrs. Wright called me today." Troy said slowly. "Julia has to leave in 2 weeks"

"That's not enough time" Gabriella said breathlessly.

"I know, but we can keep fighting even after she's in the orphanage." Troy said. Gabriella nodded, she knew Troy was right, but she also knew, in doing her own research that once children went to the orphanage it was harder and took longer to get them back.

"There is good news, remember?" Troy reminded her.

"The good news doesn't have anything to do with the bad news but, it's still good news. This morning I was taking to one of the third grade teachers, Mrs. Michelson. She wants you to be her student teacher. She heard such amazing things about you while you were teaching my class." Troy explained.

"Really?"

"Yes really" Gabriella grinned widely.

"Did you say yes?" she asked excitedly.

"Of course I did" Troy grinned. Gabriella turned her head around and pressed a firm kiss against Troy's lips.

"Thank you" she whispered.

"It was all you" He whispered back. Gabriella smiled contently, leaning back against Troy as she gazed back up to the sky.

"I love the stars" she whispered. "They're so beautiful"

Sitting in the park with Gabriella under the stars, felt so perfect. He had to ask her now. "Marry me?" Troy murmured.

"What?" Gabriella asked, not sure if she had heard correctly. Troy stood up, pulling Gabriella up with him. He took her hands in his.

"I love you so much Gabriella Montez. I know what it feels like to be apart from you and I don't want it to ever happen again. I want to go to sleep every night with you in my arms, I want to wake up with you every morning, I want to spend the rest of my life with you." Troy spoke sincerely. He knelt down and opened a small velvet box. "Will you marry me?"

Gabriella felt tears fall from her eyes – happy tears of course. He had rendered her completely speechless, taking her completely by surprise. Realized that she had been silent for quite a while, she began nodding her head vigorously,

"Yes" she whispered breathless, finding her voice. Troy's face lit up and he rose to his feet, slipping the breathtaking diamond ring on her finger.

Looking up his eyes were met with Gabriella's joyous eyes. The kiss that came afterwards was one filled with passion and love.

A/N: A pretty fluffy chapter, if I do say so myself :) I hope you all enjoyed it! A picture of the engagement ring is posted in my profile if you want to check it out!