OK, the loss of laptop put me behind, so this was written along with the latest MIR chapter (which may or may not already be up- lets go with not, although it is almost done) and the re-write of the IP epilogue, which I completely lost due to the external hardrive that I had everything on crashing (good thing that the epilogue was the only unfinished chapter and therefore the only one not already up). It was also a very good thing that the most amazing reviewer on the planet, as given by previous chapters (seriously, this title has been earned), had a preview of the epilogue, so I didn't lose all of it, just most of it.

This chapter changes where I was originally going, I was going to go with the whole 'keeping their private life private for as long as possible' but then I considered his status and her recent abduction and realised that her every move would be being watched, so it didn't really make sense for them to try and hide everything – they're smart people, they'd know how much they can get away with.

This story is almost over, due to lack of reviews I've decided to shorten it, so instead of having 60 chapters and then adding the parts of the epilogue, the epilogue will be chapters 59 and 60, maybe sooner, depending on how few chapters I can squeeze what's left in to.

Getting this up was a bit of a mission, because fanfiction won't let me upload documents (i've tried with this, the incomplete MIR, and the oneshot i posted a few weeks ago), i keep getting some error message, so i copied and pasted the whole thing into a document that was already up here (the oneshot), don't know what i'll do if it isn't fixed when that document goes, but, because of this issue, i'm going to try and speed up finishing the latest MIR chapter so it's possible to do the same with that.


Gabriella tugged at the hem of her shirt nervously, glancing over at Kirra, sitting calmly next to her in a pale purple dress, her white tights still unspoilt.

"Mommy." Tamsin shouted excitedly, running into the room. "Those men have cameras!"

"I know." Gabriella smiled, trying to match the four year old's excitement. "Come sit with your sister, okay? Mommy will be back very soon."

Tamsin nodded, jumping up on the other side of her sister. "Do I look pretty, mommy?"

Gabriella surveyed her elder daughter as she stood up, smiling at the outfit she'd allowed her daughter to choose for herself, the pale pink gypsy skirt, a gift from Sharpay, successfully matched with a plain white t-shirt. "You look perfect, baby."

She quickly left the room, grateful that her mother-in-law was just entering it as she did, the last thing she wanted was the girls alone while the house was full of strangers.

She found her husband in their bedroom, rehearsing the responses his publicist had told him to give. There was only so much they were willing to make public, and he needed, in his short answers, to make everyone certain that he wouldn't be addressing these particular aspects of his life in such detail ever again.

"Does it usually take this long?" She interrupted, giving a weak smile at the look of pride that crossed his face every time he saw her.

"Setting up?" He queried, continuing as she nodded. "Yeah, that's pretty normal, don't worry, okay?" He approached her, placing his hands comfortingly on her shoulders. "You're going to do great. You always do. Think of it as another court hearing. Just another court hearing."

He pressed his lips to her forehead as she sighed and responded. "But it's not just another court hearing, Troy. That I would be able to handle. This is an interview, something that you do all the time, and I barely ever do, have never done in this context. Why do your bosses want us to talk so bad? Why can't we just keep quiet? About the baby, about Kieran, why do we have to tell anyone any of it?"

He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly to him. "I'm gonna be there the whole time. I'm not going anywhere. You'll be okay. We can't keep quiet, angel. Especially about the baby, you'll be showing soon, and then there'd be rumours and that would stress you out even more than this. You have no idea how much I wish you didn't have to do this. How much I wish we could still keep the girls away from the media, but we have to. I don't want to make you do this, I don't want the girls involved, but my bosses said that if the public don't see all three of you soon, then all sorts of crazy stuff will come out, and there will always be someone who believes it."

"What if I mess up?" She was frowning, clearly worried. "What if the kids get upset or hungry or bored?"

"You are not going to mess up." He stated firmly. "If the kids get upset, I'll stop the whole thing. If they get hungry we can take a break. If they're bored my mom would be more than happy to take them out and bring them back in time for the shoot."

"What if the camera flashes scare them?"

"Gabs, angel, it'll be fine. We'll be fine. If you want to stop, just squeeze my hand. If the girls want to stop they'll make sure we know about it." He reassured her, eventually feeling her settle down. "You ready?"

- - - -

"MOMMY, MOMMY, MOMMY."Tamsin shouted through the house, speeding up the stairs and bursting through the door to her parents room. "MOMMY."

Gabriella yawned, sitting up in bed, aware of her husband's arm remaining protectively draped over her even as he slept.

"What is it, baby?" She asked curiously as her daughter jumped onto the bed, waving something in her face. "What's that?"

"Mommy, I'm on it." Tamsin exclaimed. "Me and Kirra and you and daddy and grandma."

Gabriella sighed, taking what she now clearly saw as a magazine out of her daughters hands, glancing nervously at the cover, reading the words At Home With The Bolton's accompanied by a family portrait that had been taken soon after the interview.

She had to admit it was a good picture, one that she'd already been given a copy of, along with the rest of the photo's that had been taken that day. Tamsin was sitting on her right, a huge grin on her face, ignoring Gabriella's protective arm around her, her husband was to her left, Kirra sitting on his lap, seemingly oblivious to the camera, his arm was around her shoulders, her free hand on her stomach, something that she hadn't been aware of before seeing the picture. Lucille had been standing behind them, following directions as given, she too, had been out of her element.

Frowning, she opened the magazine, turning to the pages of the article and reading the introduction, sighing at the general background on her husband's career that she already knew, before moving down to the interview itself, anxious to see which questions had been included.

"What does it say, mommy?" Tamsin quizzed eagerly. "Does it say that I tell you off when you fight?"

Gabriella scanned the page, recalling some of the printed words as her own.

Flashback

Watching her husband answer questions with such charm almost enchanted Gabriella, she was amazed by how smoothly he pulled it off, only answering what he wanted to, edging around tougher topics, but his performance made her nervous for her own.

"So, Gabriella." The interviewer finally called her. "What's it like being married to someone as big as Troy?"

She managed to hold back her laughter at the question. "I don't really see him as a big star." She admitted. "To me he's just my husband, the man I fell in love with in high school, the father of my children. My soul mate."

"Sweet." The woman commented genuinely. "It must bother you though, having all these camera's following you when you go out, when you're not the one in the spotlight."

"I don't complain about it. I knew what I was letting myself in for when we got together, I knew he wanted to do this, I guess I kind of prepared myself for it."

"You don't worry about how your children cope with the pressure of the public eye?"

"I always worry." She responded. "But we try and protect the kids from the media as much as we can."

"Worry isn't exactly rare in this family. "Troy cut in, shooting a smile at the interviewer, then chuckling at the cheer that erupted from the playroom. "I think Tamsin's winning."

Both of them had noticed the woman's disappointment when Lucille took the girls out of the room for the duration of the interview, but they had decided when they had agreed to do the interview that they'd let them use a few pictures of the girls, but there was no way they were going to be talking to them.

Troy continued when the woman failed to ask another question quick enough. "After everything that's happened since I met this one, you can't blame me for worrying."

"She gives you a lot of reasons to worry?"

"More like the people around her do." He sighed. "She hates it, but it's why I try and restrict who goes near her and the kids. I like to judge people before I let them near her. She doesn't say that I worry too much as much as she did before though."

End Flashback

Gabriella pondered her daughter's words, recalling the question she'd been asked about if they ever fought, she'd simply replied that Tamsin would tell them off if they did, so they avoid it if they can.

It moved naturally onto the topic of the baby, and the interviewer had been nice enough to not linger on questions about Kieran and the abduction, something that she was eternally grateful for.

Finishing the article, she put the magazine down on the bed, feeling the tears prick in her eyes and quickly gesturing to Tamsin, telling her to leave the room. She didn't need her daughter seeing her cry.

She tried to sob quietly, but it didn't take long for her husband to wake up as a result, his concern pulling him immediately out of a groggy state.

He sat up, wrapping his arms properly around her. " What's wrong? Why are you crying?"

"I don't know." Gabriella sobbed in defeat, burying her head into his shoulder. "I just am."

"Okay." He spied the magazine as he rubbed her back comfortingly. "Was it the article? Did the article upset you?"

"No."She cried. "It was nice."

"So you're crying because you liked the article?" He questioned. "These are happy tears?"

"I think so." She choked. "I'm okay."

He smiled. "I love this."

"What?" She asked, attempting to dry her eyes. "You love me crying?"

"No." He was still grinning. " I love the hormones, the cravings, the mood swings, all the chaos that we're in for over the next year or so. I love the idea of seeing you with our baby in your arms again, the sleepless nights..."

"You may like the idea of the sleepless nights now." She sighed, managing to halt her tears. "But you're gonna hate it when this baby is here."

"I'm gonna love most stuff then though." He pointed out. "You have got to admit that I'm a pro at changing diapers."

She laughed, "I'll let you have that. You are kind of a pro at."

"So, want to talk names?" He suggested, grinning at her.

"Isn't it a little early for that?" She responded.

"It's never too early to throw a few names around." He concluded. "Although I do think that, seeing as we're very well known now, this baby has to have an extremely outrageous name, so I'm thinking, if it's a boy, we should go with something like Sailor Tailor Bolton..."

He cut off as she lightly slapped him. "We are not giving our child an outrageous name." She insisted. "This baby will have a normal name and the media are just going to have to deal with it."

"So i'm guessing Moonbeam and starlight are out too?"

"They were never in." She glared playfully at him. "I am not going to give our child an extreme, crazy and possibly cruel name. I don't want any of our kids to be bullied."

"Kirra isn't exactly run of the mill." He pointed out. "Not the way we spell it anyway."

"The other kids aren't going to know that she doesn't spell it K-E-I-R-A." She answered. "Not in elementary school anyway. After that they'll probably be too old to care."

"Speaking of schools..." Troy began. "You remember we have that meeting at the Forest Academy this afternoon?"

"Yeah." She sighed. "I'm still not convinced with this whole private school thing."

"If she goes to public school she'll get used because we have money, I just want her to know who her real friends are." He tried reasoning once again.

"They're four years old." Gabriella answered. "I highly doubt any of them will be using anyone."

"The parents will get them too." He continued. "Besides, how cute would Tammy look in a uniform?"

Gabriella ignored him. "We're not snobs, we're not going to fit in with the other parents, and how do you know that the parents of private school kids won't get to them, if you're that worried about it, maybe I should just home school her."

"You have a degree to get." He shot back. "You do not have time to home school her. I promised myself years ago that I would not let anything hold you back, you are going to law school, and you are eventually going to get your doctorate."

"I can get my doctorate later." Gabriella decided. "It can wait. Tamsin can't."

"No." He demanded. "You have put your life on hold for me and the kids for years already, you're not doing it any more. My parents are set on moving up here, mom told me last night, so six months after this baby is born, you're going back to college, internet courses if you want but you are getting your doctorate. Tamsin will be at school and my parents will be here to look after Kirra and the baby, so no excuses."

"I love it when you take control." She grinned slyly, quickly pressing her lips to his.

He pulled away. "Stop trying to distract me, angel. It won't work. We're going to take Tamsin to look around Forest Academy this afternoon like we planned, and if we decide that it isn't the school for her, we'll look at others, both public and private schools."

"How far is this school?" She queried, reaching over and taking the information booklet off of his bedside table.

"Close enough for you to walk her every morning." He informed her. "I know how important that is to you."

She smiled, settling herself in his arms as she opened the booklet and read it once again.

- - -

"Some people call it lack of discipline but we call it free expression." The woman, Mrs. Leyton, explain to them. "Here at Forest Academy we believe in giving the children the freedom to explore the world."

Gabriella glanced around at the various young children running riot around the room, free expression was one thing, this was just dangerous. Children were climbing up on tables, hitting windows with drumsticks, literally painting the walls.

"Should they be doing that?" She questioned, gesturing to two girls whom were drawing on each others faces in felt tip pen."

"Oh, it's perfectly fine." Mrs. Leyton insisted. "The pens are washable."

Gabriella glanced up at her husband, noticing that he had picked up their daughter and was clutching her to his side protectively.

"This is just the kindergarten class." Mrs. Leyton continued. "As they're so young we usually hold them back a little bit. When they get into first grade we kind of loosen the reigns a bit."

"How loose do they want it?" Gabriella heard Troy whisper in her ear. "It's chaos."

Gabriella jumped as she saw a child come hurtling towards her, felt her husband pull her out of the way just in time.

He placed Tamsin on the floor in order to wrap his arms around her, already concerned. "Are you okay? You're not hurt are you?"

"I'm fine."

"The baby. Is the baby okay?"

"The baby's good. The kid didn't hit me."

"Maybe we should get you checked out too today." He continued. "Just in case, you know."

"I'm fine." She assured him. "We're okay."

"Daddy, did that horrible boy hurt my brother?" They both smiled at Tamsin's question. She'd been referring to the baby as her brother ever since they'd told her, even though they had explained that it could be another girl.

"No, Tammy." Gabriella answered. "Baby's okay."

Tamsin nodded, allowing her father to lift her up into his arms again as he turned to the teacher. "We should probably go, we have a doctors appointment this afternoon. We have some other schools we're going to look at. We'll be in touch."

Quickly, still carrying his daughter. Troy led his wife through the chaos and back towards the front entrance of the school, not waiting for the teacher's response.

As they made it through the doors he sighed with relief. "Okay, apparently uniform can hide terror."

"I don't have to go there, do I daddy?" Tamsin asked curiously. "I don't like it there."

"No, princess." He answered. "There is absolutely no way you are going to that school."

"Tammy, you want to spend the rest of afternoon with Grandma while mommy and daddy take Kirra to the doctors?" Gabriella asked her eldest child, watching her nod.

"I don't need a shot." Tamsin pointed out, well aware of the reason that her sister was being taken to a doctor. "Shots are bad."

"Shots stop you from getting poorly, princess." Troy tried explaining, smiling at the sceptical look that graced her face in response. "Mommy and Daddy are going to stop Kirra getting poorly."

"But Kirra doesn't get poorly." Tamsin responded, confused. "Sophie got poorly."

"Mommy and Daddy would rather that it carried on like that." Gabriella smiled. "With Kirra not getting poorly. Like we like it better when you don't get poorly."

"But what if I go to school and get poorly?" Tamsin questioned, a look of fear in her eyes. They'd explained school to her the best they could. "I don't want to be poorly at school."

"You don't go to school if you're feeling poorly, princess." Troy told her. "If you're not feeling well mommy or daddy will stay home with you, and if you start feeling bad at school, one of us, or even grandma, will come and get you."

"So I won't be all sicky at school?"

"No, baby, you won't." Gabriella assured her.

- - -

"Kirra, please don't cry." Gabriella cooed over her daughter as she attempted to put the child's coat back on. "It's all over now sweetie, please don't cry, mommy doesn't like it when you cry." She jumped back as Kirra kicked out from the bed she was sitting on, instinctively wrapping her arms around her abdomen protectively. "Kirra, you don't kick mommy. You don't kick anyone."

She glanced around at her husband, whom had missed everything as he stood by the doorway having a hushed conversation with the doctor. Kirra's cries grew louder, her kicking became more furious, and she knew that she couldn't approach her while she was in this state.

"Troy." She called. "Your daughter is being impossible."

She watched her husband turn and sigh before making his way towards them.

"She didn't hit you, did she?" He questioned, looking over her body for any marks. He turned to their daughter. "Kirra, you didn't hurt mommy, did you?"

Kirra kicked out again, prompting him to approach her and finish putting her coat on through her tantrum.

"MOMMY." The two year old screamed, reaching for her mother while attempting to kick her father away.

"No, mommy is not going to cuddle you." Troy insisted, picking her up. "You're being a bad girl and while you're trying to kick people mommy's not going to come near you."

He glanced over at his wife, seeing the tears pricking in her eyes as she stayed back, chewing on her lip, her arms still crossed over her body. He knew she hated this, but he also knew that she wouldn't come near, she wouldn't risk the life of one of her children merely to soothe one of the others.

He smiled as their family doctor approached his wife, getting her to focus on him. "Gabriella, I have some time before my next patient, Troy told me about an incident this morning, would you mind if I checked the baby?"

"There wasn't an incident." She denied. "It was an almost incident, nothing happened. Me and the baby, we're good."

"I'd feel better if you checked." Troy spoke up, adjusting Kirra in his arms. "Just to be on the safe side."

Gabriella frowned at him. "But there's nothing wrong."

"Angel." He spoke softly. "Please. For me."

"But we have an appointment next week." She continued excusing. "And we told your mom we wouldn't be long."

"Gabriella." He used her full name to let her know he was serious. "Please."

She sighed. "Fine." She made sure he knew she wasn't happy about it before turning to the doctor. "If it makes Troy feel better, fine. We'll check on the baby."

- - -

"I told you he was fine." Gabriella responded triumphantly as her husband got in the car. "I told you."

"He?" Troy asked, raising an eyebrow. "Since when was this baby a boy."

"We can't keep calling it the baby." She reasoned. "It's so impersonal. This is our child. Not one of Tamsin's dolls."

"Although she will think it is." He joked, smiling as she giggled. "I think we have a little helper on our hands with her."

"She's excited." She smiled. "She was too young to understand when we had Kirra, now she knows."

"We're going to have to watch her." He pointed out. "Being outnumbered isn't going to be easy."

"It'll be tiring." She pointed out, even more tiring than the two we have now. "Babies are hard work."

"I remember." He smirked, hearing Kirra whine slightly as she slept in her car seat behind his wife. "the hardest part for me though, was when you were attempting to break my hand and swearing to me that you'd never let me touch you again. You're lucky I didn't hold you to that."

"You'd never have held me to that." She retorted. "You can't keep your hands off of me."

"True." He admitted. "But look at you, a guy can only resist so much. You're gorgeous, even though you are starting to show."

"You noticed?" She quizzed. "I thought I was just imagining it. You can see it?"

"It's not obvious." He smiled at her excitement. "But it's definitely there."

"I'm not sure how I feel about that." She admitted. "Please don't go off with Jen while i'm fat."

"Gabriella." He answered seriously. "There is nothing and no one that I would ever leave you for. And you're not going to get fat. You're having a baby, our baby, the most natural thing in the world. It doesn't get better than that for me."

"Flatterer." She accused, before nodding her head in the direction of the steering wheel, prompting him to start driving, amusing him with one last comment. "I'm going to need new clothes."

- - -

"Gabs, i'm just saying." Evan complained, following her around the kitchen. "You're home like, all day, you should at least call home and get mom and dad to stop bugging me about it."

"Evan, I have kids." Gabriella pointed out. "Even the one that hasn't been born yet is demanding. You expect me to cook, clean, raise kids, complete a degree and call home all at the same time?"

"Once a week?" Evan tried, sighing at his sister's reluctance. "Seriously Gabs, mom and dad have been giving me hell trying to get information on you. Do they even know you're pregnant?"

"Troy told them." She answered. "And even if he hadn't they'd know by now. The interview, remember?"

"Gabs." He exclaimed. "I have to study, how do you expect me to study with dad calling every half hour asking questions about you?"

"Did you come here to lecture me?" Gabriella quizzed. "Because I was pretty sure that Troy got you over here to babysit me because the girls wanted both him AND his mom to take them to that new inside play area."

"It's not babysitting."

"But you admit that he did call you."

"Yes, he called me, okay." Evan admitted. "But can you honestly say you blame him. Something always goes wrong when you're alone."

"What's going to happen then Ev?" She asked. "What's going to happen when i'm locked in my house because everyone's too worried to let me go out alone? What's going to happen considering my husband won't even let me come with him when he and his mother take my children to an indoor play area. There's more danger of me exploding than anything happening in this house."

Evan watched in confusion as she stormed out of the room, waiting before following her. After making it to the landing upstairs, he saw the bathroom door closed, but checked the other rooms before concluding that she had locked herself away. He knocked on the door, sighing when the only response he got was "Go away." and headed back downstairs, fishing his cell out of his pocket. He got the desired response after only speaking one sentence. "She's locked herself in the bathroom."

He heard the frustrated sigh of his brother-in-law at the other end of the line. "I'm on my way. You better not have upset her."

It took him a little longer than ten minutes to make it to the house, and Evan smiled as the older man ignored his presence, his attention solely on his wife.

"Baby?" Troy called through the bathroom door. "I'm home now, can you come out?"

"I'm not talking to you." Gabriella called in response. "The baby isn't talking to you either."

Troy chuckled at her behaviour, putting her childish behaviour down to mood swings. "Why aren't you talking to me, angel?"

"You made him come here!"

"Evan?"

"Yes, Evan."

"Did Evan upset you?" Troy turned to glare slightly at his brother-in-law. "cos I'll kick his ass if he did."

"He listened to you." Gabriella replied, before slowly opening the bathroom door, coming face to face with her husband. "You made him come a babysit me, and he was trying to bully me into calling my parents. I'm not a child, I don't need babysitting, and I don't need to constantly be on the phone to my parents."

Troy sighed, turning to Evan. "Go back to your dorm, study, make out with a random girl, whatever." He paused as his wife hit him on the chest, smiled at her then continued. "I promise I will get her to call your parents tonight."

Gabriella watched as Evan merely nodded and quickly ran downstairs, clearly worried that Troy was angry that she had locked herself in the bathroom. "Where are the kids?"

He placed a hand on her stomach. "One's here." He smirked. "And the other two are downstairs with my mom."

"You didn't have to come." Gabriella frowned, clearly feeling guilty. "You didn't have to bring them home early."

"They were tired anyway." He insisted. "And I was worried."

"You're always worried." She smirked. "Can't I even sit in the bathroom without being pestered by my husband?"

"Not when you're upset." He insisted. "I don't take the space route, remember, I take the fussing route."

"How could I forget?" She laughed, walking past him towards the stairs. "I'm going to go and pick Kirra up."

"No you're not." He refused, smiling as she sped up, going after her. "Don't you dare pick her up."


Just wondering, I don't think I actually ever said it before, how many of you figured out that Kirra is pronounced the same is Keira?

Review!!