Troy nodded his head as he made his way further into Gabriella's immaculate and organized apartment. That had always been her thing. Since high school she had always been some what of a perfectionist, maybe even since primary school but he wouldn't know.
"Okay I won't get mad until after you're done explaining, but after you're done I'm free to blow my top?" He asked still running short on oxygen. Gabriella giggled before moving into her kitchen which was adjacent to her living room.
"Water?" Troy nodded his head "How long has it been since Basket Ball Boy has been near gym?" Gabriella handed him the water which was gone from the cup as quickly as it entered.
"Well you should warn people that a) there are no elevators and b) you live in the freakin' penthouse." Troy placed the empty glass on the marble counter top before walking over to the couch and making himself at home.
"What did you do? Run up the stairs?" Gabriella joked as she sat down next to him. She looked over at him laughing but stopped when she saw his serious face "Oh you did."
"Yes. Now, come on Gabriella I came here for some answers and I'm not leaving until I get some." Gabriella's body tensed she knew she'd have to explain at some point but how can you ever be ready.
"Where do I start?"
"How about at the beginning?" She nodded her head, taking a deep breath.
"Good idea. Uhh well she happened on your birthday."
"Which time?" Troy laughed at his own joke but by the look on Gabriella's face she was clearly not amused "Sheesh tough crowd, continue."
"Well a few weeks after that I began feeling queasy all the time and certain foods made me want to puke so mother, decided it was time to take a visit to Doctor Choo.
Flashback
"Gabriella Montez, Doctor Choo will see you now." Gabriella rose, her mother staying seated in the waiting area as she entered the extremely white, sterile room.
"Hi there Gabriella, it's been a while since I last saw you. Here for a check up?" Gabriella shyly shook her head. "Come on sweetie you used to love your visits here, why are you in my office today?" Gabriella began to chew the inside of her right cheek, the flesh becoming swollen and sore.
"I've been throwing up a lot lately and if I'm not throwing up I'm around foods that make me want to throw up." Dr. Choo nodded her head.
"Well let's order some tests then."
End Flashback
"She ran a few blood tests, took a few urine samples and ran every test she could think of. Two days later I'm sitting at home watching Top Cat on TV and the phone rings, mother answers it as always and that's when I got the news I was pregnant."
Flashback
Gabriella sat in the dark lounge of her child hood house, the flashing colors of the TV illuminating the room whenever they changed. She was enjoying this episode of Top Cat as she always did but her favorite part of the show, the theme song, was interrupted by the shrill, incessant ringing of the phone, followed by the sound of her mothers shuffling footsteps.
Seeing as Gabriella could only hear one end of the conversation she had no way of knowing who was on the other line.
"Maria Montez speaking. Yes she's here, one moment please." She heard the sound of her mother's footsteps approaching the dimly lit room. "Gabs it's for you." Maria passed her the silver hand held phone before heading back into the kitchen to start preparing dinner.
"Hello?" Gabriella spoke shyly into the phone, usually her mother says who it is and it's almost, always Troy, except when it's Taylor or any of the other girls.
"Good evening Miss Montez, Dr. Choo here." Her kind voice spoke through the receiver. "I have your test results here in my hand and I though that it was of the utter most importance that you received them as soon as possible." Uh-Oh hearing that when you've been sick is never good.
"Well, What's up doc?"
"Umm Gabriella you're pregnant. A little less than 2 months to be exact." Gabriella's jaw dropped and tears began to stream down her face. "I've scheduled you in for another appointment tomorrow at 9am. I'll see you then."
"Thank-you Doctor." Was all Gabriella could say, before she hung up the phone and burst into tears. As soon as she broke out into tears her mother came running in from the kitchen.
End flash back.
"You should've seen mother Troy, she went absolutely crazy, saying things, dreadful things."
Flash back
Maria had finally gotten her 18 year old daughter to stop crying and had managed to calm her down.
"Now Gabriella, what's the matter? What did Dr. Choo say?" Maria gripped her daughter's hand as Gabriella took a deep breath, she was scared, how do you tell your mother you're giving her, her first Grandchild whilst she's only 44?
"Uhh mother, there really is no easy way to say this but…" Gabriella sat there too scared to finish her sentence, she was picking at her nails and gnawing on her cheek freaked out to the max.
"Oh hurry up Gabriella spit it out." Maria snapped getting impatient.
"I'm Pregnant." Maria dropped Gabriella's baby soft hands and stood up, her daughter still sitting.
"You're what? How? When? Who? And for God's sakes Gabriella, why?" All feelings of sadness fled Gabriella's body and were replaced by rage when her mother snapped at her.
"Pregnant. Sex, mother you should know that, I'm here aren't I? When? A little under two months ago, who? Who else mother my boyfriend Troy Bolton and why?Well I guess I needed somebody to show me how much they cared for me since you haven't been here to know what's been going on in my life. Ever since dad left you shut me out, so now I'm doing the same." Gabriella rose to her feet ready to storm out of the room in rage, but her mother caught her arm as she passed.
"You aren't keeping it. It's a disgrace to this family, a disgrace to my reputation. Abortion is your only option, I'll make an appointment as soon as they can fit us in."
"No! You don't get to decide this! Troy and I will decide… together. If you'd been here you'd know we're in love, he's promised to marry me when we've both graduated college, he promised to stick by me no matter what, and I think me and him, we could do this." Maria laughed at her daughter, whose face was all wet and shiny from the tears that shimmered down her face.
"Gabriella, men say stuff that they don't mean, you're father promised to love and cherish me until we both grew old out and he walked out." Maria dropped her daughters arm, a red mark where her hand had been in contact with her soft skin.
"Troy's different! He loves me." Maria laughed once again at her daughter
"You are both too naïve to know what love is. Love at your age never lasts." Gabriella shook her head and covered her ears refusing to listen, tears streaming down her face, the saliva thickening in her mouth making it harder to form words. "You will get an abortion and that's final." With that, Maria left the room, the room that held her teenage daughter whose life she had just ruined by telling her that love doesn't exists, telling her the one thing that Gabriella had hope in, faith in, was not real.
End flash back
"She wanted to kill it Troy." Gabriella whispered as if not fully aware of where she was or what she was 's voice was cracking and getting weaker with every word spoken. Troy moved closer to her and rubbed his big warm up and down her convulsing back.
"Go on Ella. Keep going." She nodded and moved away from Troy knowing soon he wouldn't be feeling so affectionate towards her.
"A few days later when you called to take me to dinner, that's when I planned to tell you."
Flash back
Gabriella and Troy sat in a corner booth of a fancy French restaurant entitled 'Vrai aime boire le trou'. Tonight Gabriella planned to tell Troy about their baby even though her mother had told her not to tell anybody especially Troy.
Gabriella lifted her chilled champagne flute filled with water to her lips, draining the rest of her glasses contents into her mouth.
"Hey Ella, the reason I took you out tonight was to tell you some pretty big news." Gabriella's eyes rose from drawing pictures on the frost that settled on the flutes surface. Gabriella let a nervous chuckle slip from between her lips.
"News? What might that be?" Troy looked at her and pulled something out of his pocket.
"Ella, baby, I got accepted into their basketball scholarship program! I leave for LA in two weeks for a holiday then we settle somewhere close by the college. How great is that!" Gabriella's throat went dry as Troy slid the pamphlet over, she reached over for Troy's champagne flute full of water draining what ever he left in there, in an attempt to moisten her throat.
"I'm so happy for you." Gabriella didn't sound very convincing. This was big news, the college only accepts a hand full of students into their scholarship program.
"What's up with you? You're going to Stanford in California aren't you? We'll be close." Gabriella shook her head. Now that she was pregnant she didn't know where she was going, what her future would hold, if she even would be going to college.
"I got accepted to Dartmouth too, maybe I'll be going there. Let's just not talk about this at the moment and appreciate what little time we have left together." Troy nodded his head as the waiter came over to take their orders.
End flash back
"That's why you weren't excited!." Realization suddenly dawned on Troy as to why her behavior that night was so odd. "Go on with the story, please."
"Well after I got home from that dinner date I began to pack my bags."
Flash back
Gabriella walked in the door after just saying goodbye to Troy for the night. She walked into the kitchen to find her mother staring at the door.
"I booked you an appointment, they can deal with that…thing of yours tomorrow." She stated in a monotonous voice.
"I told you mother I am not getting my baby aborted." Maria put down her glass of wine and stood up wobbling a bit as she did. She steadied her self before she waked over to Gabriella.
"You will abort your baby or suffer the consequences, young lady." Maria slurred on the last two words in her sentence, she had obviously been drinking due to two empty wine bottles and another half empty on the table.
"No, mother we've been through this. It's not up to you." Maria raised her hand and moved it swiftly causing it to collide with Gabriella's soft skinned cheek, making the perfect thwack sound. Gabriella clutched her stinging cheek before running up to her room and slamming the door.
She slammed the door before pulling out a suitcase and began jamming as much of her belongings as she could in there.
That night as her mother slept, Gabriella escaped. She took all of the money in her mother's wallet and the cash in her mothers 'secret' spot before calling a taxi and heading to the airport.
End flash back
"Where did you go?" Troy asked Gabriella who had given in and now had her head in Troy's lap as he brushed away her tears and made sure her hair wasn't in her face. She didn't want to have Troy comforting her like this, she was sure he was bound to get angry, for her just leaving, no note informing him of the pregnancy or where she was going to be.
"To stay with my father, step mother and step sister. Helen was a lot more understanding than mother."
Flash Back
Gabriella's hand rose and knocked on the big, hard wooden door. A girl about 22 opened swung the door open to greet her.
"Hi. What's with the case?" She asked as she pulled her iPod out of here ears.
"Umm I need a place to stay." She responded quietly, whilst the older girl burst out laughing.
"We don't take strangers off of the street darlin'." Gabriela slowly began to pick away at her already far too short nails.
"Umm I'm not a stranger."
"I've never seen you before, so yeah, you're a stranger." Gabriella rolled her eyes as she continued to look at her nails. This girl was being extremely rude but Gabriella was too nice to say anything about it, even if she was pregnant with hormones flying about.
"Could you please just get Joseph at the door please." Gabriella's tone was rather impatient, must be the hormones.
"Sure, whatever. Joe! Someone at the door for you." Gabriella could hear two sets of feet coming her way and not before long a woman with red hair come into view next to the man she had called daddy for all those years. Joe stepped forward and Gabriella dropped her suite case and fell into his arms.
"Daddy" She wrapped her arms around him and began to sob, which she had been doing a lot lately. The 22 year olds mouth fell open and the red headed woman smiled as Joe began to stroke his daughter's hair.
"Shush baby, daddy's got you. What's the matter?" He picked her up as she cried into his shoulder and carried her into the lounge room. Eventually, after a nice cup of tea the sobs had stopped and she was ready to tell her story. The 22 year old whose name was Georgia, sat in the arm chair opposite to the one her mother was perched in, whilst Joe and Gabriella occupied the lounge, father soothing daughter.
"What's the matter Ella-Bella?" Gabriella smiled through her tears at the use of her old nickname.
"Everything." She said as she wiped her eyes, Georgia scoffed.
"It's can't be that bad." Helen looked over at Georgia ordering her to be silent with a look of warning.
"Well, it is. I'm pregnant." Joseph gasped, Helen looked shocked and Georgia was laughing.
Gabriella spent the next few minutes explaining the situation with her mother and trying to remind her father which one Troy was. It turned out in the end that Helen had, had some experience with teen pregnancy, she had, had Georgia at the age of eighteen.
End Flash back.
"I felt that Helen was easier to talk to, but in the end I decided to giver up for adoption."
Flash Back
Gabriella lay there panting, her hair drenched in sweat. She felt all sticky; a 15 hour labor will do that to you though. Helen stood to her right and Joe stood up by her head stroking her hair, he refused to move until everything down that end was settled.
"Here you go Gabby, your little baby girl." The nurse walked over with a little lump wrapped in a pink cotton blanket which she handed over to Gabriella. As soon as the baby was placed in her arm's she let out a laugh mixed with a sob.
"She's beautiful, looks just like Troy." She lent down and placed a soft kiss on her baby's smooth soft forehead.
"Gabby, we just need to take her and get you into recovery." Said the same nurse as before. She took the baby from Gabriella just before she was wheeled off into recovery. A few hours later Gabriella woke up from her sleep to find Joe, Helen and Georgia sitting there all looking extremely tired but nothing compared to how Gabriella looked. Gabriella used her arms to pull herself into a sitting position which wasn't the best idea because down there still hurt. Joe, seeing his daughter awake, rushed to her side.
"You did great honey." He kissed the top of her head and Gabriella smiled at him. Just as Helen went to say something the nurse walked through the door with the baby.
"Look who's up and hungry." She handed the baby over to Gabriella and took her through how to nurse. During this time Joe decided that the yellow wall paper was of far more interest than the scene going on behind him. The nurse left after Gabriella had finished nursing leaving the family alone to talk.
"She has Troy's eyes." Gabriella smiled. Joe went to say something but stopped himself until Helen gave him a stern look.
'Ella-Bella, may I hold her?" Gabriella nodded her head and handed the baby carefully over to her baby's grandfather. For the first time Gabriella saw a tear escape her father's eyes.
"She looks just like you did." He whispered as he handed her to Helen and went over to his baby girl and gave her a hug.
"She's a pretty baby Gabby." Helen said as she passed the baby to Georgia "Don't drop her Georgia." She rolled her eyes
"'Course I won't ma!. Gab she's really little." Georgia laughed before handing her back to Gabriella.
"Umm…Daddy, Helen I think I want to put her up for adoption." She said as tears welled in her eyes. "It's not that I don't love her, she's perfect all I could've ever asked for. I just want to give her a shot in life and I don't think that if she stays here she'll have a very good shot, plus I still want to go to college." Joe wrapped an arm around Gabriella as they both looked down at the sleeping infant.
"You're her mother, and they always know best, so if that's what you really want?" Gabriella nodded.
"Yeah, I think it is."
End flash back
Gabriella sat up and walked into her bedroom; Troy rose and followed her in.
"Here are the only two photos' I have of her." She handed them over to Troy. The first one was of a very exhausted looking Gabriella beaming down on their daughter and the second one was in Gabriella's hospital room, this picture held an extra person. Joseph Montez was gazing down on his daughter and grand-daughter a look of complete awe on his face. "Hey Troy, you remember that time we were mucking around and picking out our children's names that one day?" He nodded his head "What was the name we both loved for a girl?"
"Grace." He smiled and walked over to her, his eyes locked on hers he pushed a stray curl behind her ear before leaning in and kissing her. Gabriella's hands snaked around his neck whilst his went round her waist, slowly moving up under her shirt. He caressed the smooth baby skin that lay beneath the thin layer of material before continuing his journey north.
Soon clothes were shed and they became too Caught up in the Moment
A/N- Well here it is! i hope there aren't too many mistakes i wrote this at like the am's of the morning! Oh and everybody! When i was proof reading this time there were no now's intead of knows!! Mmm Hmm I'm growing as a person! Anywho! Review and i'll give you all a piece of candy