June 3rd, 2011: 4:09 AM

Troy anxiously waited at Gabriella's bedside.

A mask covered her beautiful lips and her cutesy nose. She breathed slowly. Deep, slow sleep...

Her eyes were shut. They seemed eternally shut.

Her body was limp.

Her fingers were limp.

But Troy held one of her hands, hopeful, desperate, trying to reach out to her lost mind...

But she didn't wake up.

"Come on Brie... " Troy kissed her hand and coaxed her. "Griffin's waiting for you. I'm waiting for you. The baby, she's waiting for you... "

The heart monitor beeped slowly.

"I never wanted anything to happen to you. You're my girl. The sunshine that makes my life bright... "

Her finger twitched. Reflexes were working sharply. Her senses were dull.

"Our little girl is beautiful, Gabi. She's got really light hair like Griff, and she's got your beautiful face, and the short fingers and toes like your dad, and your beautiful eyes... Don't you want to see her?"

Her eyes tensed. She sucked in a large amount of air.

"Brie?"

She coughed through the mask.

"Are you okay?" He stood up.

Her eyes shot open. She stared at the ceiling.

"Baby?" He squeezed her hand. "If you're okay, squeeze my hand back... "

He could feel her tiny and weak hand muscles slowly tighten.

"Oh my god Gabriella, you had me scared half to death!" Troy kissed her hand. "Can you say something?"

Her eyes slowly scanned Troy. "Troy?" She said weakly.

"Yeah baby, I'm Troy!" He smiled big.

She adjusted herself a little. "Troy... Troy... Troy Bolton... Troy Alexander Bolton... "

"That's me." He pushed her hair out of her face. "Griffin's waiting to see you outside."

Her eyes got wide. "Griffin, my son... Griffin Harley Bolton, my baby... Where is he... " She looked at Troy.

"He's outside with my mom and dad."

"Kay and Jack." Gabriella sighed.

"And our daughter's in the NICU."

"Daughter?" Gabriella cocked her head to the side.

"I'll explain a little later. Right now, Griffin wants to see his mom." Troy let go of her hand. "I'll go get him."

She continued to repeat the word 'daughter'.

Troy bursted out of the room, happy as can be.

"She's awake, and talking!" He said to his parents. He looked at Griffin. "You wanna go see mommy?"

Griffin yawned and nodded slowly.

Troy picked him up.

"Does she know about the baby?" Kay stood up with Jack.

"She doesn't remember." Troy looked at his mom. "But she's starting to speak fragments."

"Let us know when you're done, because we want to see her." Jack took one of Kay's hands. "Hurry."

"I will." Troy said as he entered her room and went directly over to her bed.

She slowly looked over at Griffin. "Griffin." She held her arms out.

"Mommy?" Griffin's eyes watered. "Sick again?"

Gabriella nodded slowly. "This helps me breathe baby. But I'll be okay."

Troy set Griffin carefully on the bed beside Gabriella. She embraced him wit tears running down her face.

"I love you so much Griffin." Gabriella sobbed. "So much... "

Troy heard the door open. The nurse walked directly in front of Gabriella's bed.

Troy looked weirdly at the nurse. "Is the baby okay?"

She looked up at him. "She's a month premature, but she'll be okay. Her birth weight is low, and she's a little dehydrated, but that will change with increased feedings."

Gabriella was completely confused. "What baby? I only have one baby, and he's right here. And he's a boy, not a girl."

"I told you Gabriella, I'll explain... "

"But you're welcome to go see her." The nurse smiled. "She's healthy and strong for a baby who is premature. She looks a lot like her dad, I can see." The nurse looked at Gabriella. "Since you're finally awake, I'm going to shut the Oxygen off. If you can't breathe, let us know, and we'll turn it back on."

Gabriella nodded.

Troy looked at the nurse quickly and headed for the door. "I'm going to go see her. I'll send my parents in to be with Gabriella." He said quickly as he exited the room.

He jogged down the hallway. His parents got the cue and went into the room with Gabriella.

Troy headed for the NICU.

A nurse stopped him.

"What are you here for?" She glared at him.

"My daughter is in here. Her mother is my girlfriend. I need to see her.

"Name?"

"Her mother's name is Gabriella Montez. She had the baby at her house. I'm paying my entire paycheck to keep my daughter here. I deserve to see her!"

The nurse looked at the clerk. "Cleared?"

She was typing extremely fast on a computer. Then, she looked up at him. "He's been cleared by Doctor Gregaro. He can see her.

She sighed and moved out of the way. "Turn left here, and the nurses there will escort you into a room where you'll get to see her."

Troy smiled a little. "Thank you."

"No problem."

He turned left, and was caught by another two nurses.

They took him into a room on the right of him.

"We'll bring her in. Her mother is Gabriella Montez, correct?"

The other nurse made him sit in a chair. "Yeah, that's her."

"Okay, we'll get her here in a minute."

Troy felt like his chair was a rocket and he was about to burst into outer space.

He watched at his daughter's incubator was pushed into the room. He stood.

"Is that really her?"

"She's a tiny thing, isn't she?"

"She looks like a little doll little girls play with."

"She is very lucky that her body is full developed, or else she would be here for weeks. She's completely healthy, other than being premature." The nurse uncovered her.

He watched at the nurse unraveled his tiny daughter from her swaddled blanket. She covered her with a silky pink blanket and handed her to Troy.

She looked tinier than Griffin was.

She was about 13 inches long, which was very little. On her card, it read 5 pounds, 4 ounces, and she was barely that. He could throw her in the air with no problem.

He walked around the room with her, carrying her delicate body in his strong arms, staring into her dark eyes, wondering how it had ever happened...

But he didn't care how it happened.

All that mattered was that they had a daughter, and she was here, whether they liked it or not. It wasn't too late to find someone to adopt her.

Troy didn't want adoption.

He wanted his daughter.

His life was complete. All he ever dreamed of doing was playing professional football until he decided to retire from it, settling down with the girl of his dreams, and having one boy, and one girl. The only dream that hadn't came true was his picture perfect life.

And that would probably never come true.

His main concern was now three people. Gabriella, Griffin, and his daughter.

Which he had the perfect name for.

Now, he was too attached to let her go.

"I've got such a cute name that I know your mommy is gonna like a lot. Do you like the name Sierra? Because your name is going to be Sierra Grace Bolton."

He smiled down at his daughter, who gripped his pinky in her tiny hand and stared up into his eyes. He kissed her forehead.

All he ever wanted was here now.

...

Gabriella sat alone in her room.

She had the explanation about her daughter.

She was not happy.

She wanted answers why her abortion had not went through.

She wanted answers why she had a scar across her stomach for no reason.

She wanted answers why the doctor didn't take the baby out.

She wanted answers, period.

A doctor walked into her room. "I've contacted the doctor who did your abortion on December 26th."

"And?" She crossed her arms angrily. "What the hell did he say?"

He looked at his clipboard. "He said that he did perform an abortion. He took the fetus out. He forwarded pictures of the entire procedure to our fax machine. He even recorded the entire event, like he does with every abortion just for evidence in case something like this happens."

Gabriella was fuming. "I want pictures. There is no possible way that he took that baby out, because she's sitting in the NICU with her father right now. The nurses even confirmed that I was eight months."

The doctor handed her an envelope with pictures in it.

She emptied it out and layed the pictures on the table.

There is was.

The doctor cutting her open.

The doctor pulling the monkey-looking thing out of her exposed flesh. Gabriella's face was visible in the background, fast asleep.

The doctor cutting the cord.

The fetus lying on a table, completely dead. It made Gabriella shiver and sob.

It had a note-tag on the side of the table. She read it.

Female fetus. 0 pounds, 2 ounces. Two months, three weeks pregnant.

She stared in horror.

"This isn't right... " Gabriella sobbed. "There is no way... I just gave birth to her! Kay was the one who helped me! She saw everything! That baby came out of me, and she cut the cord, and she called the ambulance- "

The doctor cut her off. "Could I suggest twins?"

"Twins? Wouldn't the doctor see once he got inside?"

"It was the doctor's error for not looking hard enough. The fetus was probably so small that he didn't find it."

"But I came to the doctor four times for a pregnancy test, and all four times, it was negative!"

He shrugged. "Things we have aren't always accurate."

"Then wouldn't the doctor have seen something in my uterus when he did an ultrasound?"

"Miss Montez, I have no explanation why this happened or why the equipment failed to tell you that you were pregnant. There were no visible ways to tell, no physical signs to tell, the only sign you had was sickness. You even said that you had your period throughout the entire time you were pregnant, which lead you to believe that you weren't pregnant. Honestly, I think this was a very bad medical mistake that is the doctors' faults. I truely apoligize on their behalves- "

"That doesn't make up for the daughter I have now!" Gabriella sobbed. "This is bullshit!"

The doctor sighed. "I am truely sorry, miss Montez."

"I'm getting a fucking lawyer and I'm sueing that doctor that did the abortion, and all the nurses and doctors who told me I wasn't pregnant." She sniffled. "I swear to god, this is ridiculous... "

"That's on your own terms." The doctor held his hand out. "I need the pictures for evidence."

Gabriella scooped the pictures up and put them back into the envelope. She handed them to the doctor.

"Give me the names of the clinics you've visited since last October, when you got pregnant."

"Hillside Midwife Organization, Southeastern Hospital... Pomereno Hospital... "

"That's it?"

She nodded.

"I'll get in contact with them and the doctors. What's the place you went to get your abortion?"

"Doctor Janson's Clinic for Pregnant Women, in Boston."

"Okay, thank you."

As he walked out of the room, Gabriella immediatly got on the phone.

She called her parents.

"Hello, this is Vincente` Montez. May I ask why the hospital is calling?"

Gabriella figured that Troy's parents hadn't called them yet. "This is your daughter."

"Gabriella?" Vincente` yelled through the phone. "Sweetheart, what are you doing in the hospital?"

"I just gave birth." She said blandly.

"Gave birth?" He almost dropped the phone. "Are you serious?"

"I'm dead serious, dad. I have no clue how or why this happened. My doctor is suggesting that when I had that abortion, the doctor only pulled out one baby, and that there were twins."

Vincente` sighed. "Gabriella, another child?"

"Don't be blaming me! Blame the doctor who did my abortion!"

"But you can't care for another child- "

"I have to... " Gabriella sighed. "I promised myself to never give one of my children up for adoption. And plus, I can't just give my baby to someone else... "

Vincente` sat on his bed. "I just can't believe it... "

"Either can I. I didn't even look pregnant, I didn't gain any weight, all the tests came negative... " She watched Troy come into the room. "I'll call you back later with more details."

"Be strong, okay? Remember that your mother and I are waiting to hear from you."

"I will dad, bye." She set the phone on the receiver and looked up at Troy.

"Are you okay?" He pulled the incubator behind him. "Well enough to meet our daughter?"

Gabriella shook her head. "I don't know if I can, Troy. I'm still in shock... "

He sighed and walked over to her. "You can't ignore this forever."

"I won't." She looked at the blankets. "But I just don't know how I'm going to do this again."

"We'll make it through it." He grabbed one of her hands. "I'm here this time, and I'm here to stay."

"That's what you said last time." She sobbed.

"But I'm not going anywhere baby... " He kissed her hand as he took it and sat down in the seat beside her. "I'll do anything you ask me to do."

Gabriella stared at the incubator blankly. "Physically, mentally, emotionally... I don't know if I can do it again... What about adoption, Troy... "

"No Gabriella." He stood up. "No adoption... "

"You don't know how hard it is to take care of a six month old baby, or a year old baby, or even a year and six month old baby!"

Troy looked over at his daughter. "I can't give her up, Gabi. She's ours. We created her. We can't just throw her away like trash- "

"But Troy!" Gabriella's eyes watered. "We have Griffin and ourselves to take care of!"

"NO!" Troy screamed in her face. "I LOST ONE KID FOR THE FIRST TWO YEARS OF HIS LIFE! I'M NOT LOSING ANOTHER!"

Gabriella put her face in her hands and sobbed.

"I'm not giving up another kid... " Tears ran down Troy's face. "I need this chance, Gabriella. I need it so, so bad... "

Gabriella looked up at him, fuming. "FINE! BUT DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE ME AGAIN!" She screamed.

It made him realize that life wouldn't be so easy.