AN: This chapter is boring.

Title: With You
Rating: T
Author: MadiWillow
Summary: Troy is married with a small daughter. Gabriella is married and pregnant. They didn't keep in touch after school following a nasty break-up, but everyone knows that true love never dies.
Genre: Drama/Romance
Chapter: Chapter 3

Gabriella went on with her life normally for the next few days. None of her friends called, leading her to believe that Troy had yet to contact them. She felt sure that if he had, many of them, or at least Taylor, would call her to tell her about it.

Nathaniel returned home on Monday night, as planned, at 10 p.m., which Gabriella noticed was earlier than usual. The next morning he didn't have to be at work until noon, so the two of them went out to breakfast.

Gabriella loved Nathaniel, she really did. He gave her a great home. But the fact that he wasn't actually at home with her that often was a hard fact that Gabriella didn't like accepting. They usually had such a nice time together when he was home – when he wasn't making out with his cell phone and talking down to her, that is – and she wished that he could somehow manage to get more flexible hours. After all, he worked for his dad. Surely he could find a way to work less, to spend time with his wife before the birth of their first chid?

In addition, Gabriella found that she couldn't get Troy out of her head. She felt like an awful person because she still had feelings for him, and she hated herself for it. She wished she could be normal; a normal woman, normally married to her lovely, normal husband, normally pregnant with her first child, normally not still in love – no, not love, in like – with her normal, old high school sweetheart.

But she was. She couldn't deny it.

Nathaniel phoned Gabriella around three o' clock on Tuesday, telling her he had to go out of town again, for a week. He had to go to Hawaii for a big important conference. Depressed, Gabriella stayed in bed all of Tuesday while Danielle tried to cheer her up.

"Come on, Gabriella. Let's go out to dinner!" Danielle persisted, perched on the edge of Gabriella's bed where the second woman was curled up in a ball, facing the spot where Nathaniel normally lay.

"I don't want to," she mumbled.

Danielle sighed. "Well, alright. I'll let you stay in bed for today, but tomorrow, I am going to make you do something." She got up and Gabriella turned onto her other side.

"What do you mean, you're going to 'make me'?" questioned Gabriella. "I'm your boss. I could fire you, you know!"

The employee smiled sweetly at her employer. "But you won't," she said, grinning, before turning around and sauntering out of the room.

Gabriella rolled her eyes before turning over and falling into a deep sleep.

That night, she had a very interesting dream. She dreamt she was standing in the middle of a deserted hallway at Buffalo Hospital. The sight was strangely eerie to her, giving her the vibe of a bad thriller movie. She shivered. Footsteps echoed behind her, leading her to believe that a whole crowd of people were somehow inside the empty hallway.. Whipping her head around, she saw that it was only Nathaniel, standing with his hand held out. "Come on, Gabriella," he urged her, his voice echoing. "Come on, this way."

"Where are you going to take me?" she asked nervously, backing slowly away from her husband.

"Just come on," he said softly.

"No!"

She turned around and came face to face with Troy. She gasped. Troy said soothingly, "Shh, it's okay. Just come on." He, too, held out his hand to her.

Gabriella looked behind her and saw Nathaniel, slowly making his way towards her, his hand still held out. His footsteps continued to echo throughout the near-empty hospital.

For some reason, Gabriella felt scared with Nathaniel's presence. She looked back at Troy and felt protected. She felt safe with him.

"Take my hand, Gabriella," the two men said at the same time, their voices blended together as one.

She took one more glance back at Nathaniel before facing Troy again. She reached out her hand – she was going to take his –

"Gabriella. Gabriella!"

She shot up in bed, breathing deeply. She turned her head and found herself touching noses with Danielle.

Gabriella screamed and fell back on the bed, panting. "Danielle!" she gasped, one hand over her heart and the other resting on her pregnant stomach. "What do you think you're doing!? You're lucky I didn't go into an early labor!"

Danielle waved her comment aside. "You were talking in your sleep. It was weird. You were, like, moaning the names 'Troy' and 'Nathaniel'." Danielle winked.

Gabriella flushed in embarrassment. Deciding to ignore the statements, she snapped, "I didn't set my alarm for a reason!"

"Hey, it's eleven o' clock," Danielle defended herself. "It's about time you woke up. Besides," her eyes twinkled, "to speak of the devil, Troy is on the phone."

The older woman sat up straight again. "What!?" she exclaimed. "Really?"

Danielle nodded. "Yup. Should I bring you the phone, madame?"

Gabriella shook her head up and down furiously. "Yes, please!"

Danielle chuckled as she left the room, only to return a moment later with the phone held against her ear. "Sorry for the wait, Mr. Bolton. Mrs. Richards is a very deep sleeper."

Once she was in reaching distance, Gabriella snatched away the phone from her maid, glaring at her. Danielle flashed her trademark innocent smile before bustling out of the room.

"H-hey, Troy," stuttered Gabriella into the phone. You're acting like a love-struck teenager! She scolded herself. Stop it! You're a married, grown woman. Act like one.

"Hi, Gabriella," Troy's deep voice floated through the earpiece. "Did I wake you?"

She shrugged. "Well, yeah. But that's okay. I guess it's about time I woke up." She stole a glance at her bedside clock, which read 11:09.

He laughed. "I remember, back in high school, your mom enlisted my help in waking you up every morning on weekends and vacations. She made me call you at eight so you wouldn't over sleep."

Gabriella smiled slightly at the memory. "Yeah..."

"Hey, how is your mom?" Troy inquired. "Does she still live in Albuquerque?"

"Um, no," answered Gabriella uncomfortably. She fingered the beads on her comforter distractedly. "Uh... she died a couple years ago. Car accident."

Troy gasped on the other end. "Oh, my gosh, I am so sorry, Gabriella!" he apologized quickly.

"No, no, it's okay," she assured him. "You had no way of knowing."

"Well, I guess that's my fault too," he muttered sheepishly.

Cracking a smile, Gabriella remembered something. "How come you haven't called anyone yet?"

"Well... how do you know I haven't?" Troy challenged.

Gabriella laughed. "Because Taylor would've called me, screaming."

"Oh, yes, of course," Troy laughed too. "Well, I'm not sure why I haven't yet. I guess it just feels weird. I know that some of them – namely Chad – aren't going to be too happy with me."

"Well, the longer you wait, the worse it gets," Gabriella reminded him.

"Yeah, you're probably right,"

There was a moment's silence before Gabriella said, "So, um, not to be rude or anything, Troy, but why are you calling?"

Gabriella could imagine him shrugging as he said, "Oh, no reason. I just wanted to hear your voice I guess."

She felt her face heat up and forgot for a minute how old she was. Her body felt light and she felt like she was floating; the same way she felt when Troy had said stuff like that to her back in high school.

And then Gabriella remembered.

"Troy... you're married,"

She heard Troy sigh on the other end. "I know," he said quietly.

Gabriella suddenly felt very uncomfortable. She didn't want to talk to him anymore. "I gotta go Troy," she said quickly and hung up before he could respond. The phone slipped from her hand and bounced on the bed as she let her head fall back onto her pillows.

There was a knock on her bedroom door. "Gabriella, breakfast."

Gabriella sat back up and crossed her legs under the covers. Danielle entered and set down a tray of pancakes and milk next to her. She was about to leave when Gabriella stopped her. "Danielle, sit down," she said, gesturing to a spot in front of her.

"What's up?" asked Danielle as she sat down near Gabriella's feet..

Gabriella took a sip of her milk before exclaiming, "I'm a horrible, awful person!" and bursting into tears.

"What!?" cried Danielle. She leaned over, moving closer to her employer. "Shh, don't cry," she said soothingly as she hugged her, rocking back and forth as Gabriella continued to cry. "You're not a horrible person."

Gabriella nodded, tears splashing down her front. "Yes, I am."

"And what exactly makes you such a terrible human being?" Danielle inquired, tucking a piece of hair behind Gabriella's ears."

"I-," she stammered. "I think I still have feelings for Troy."

There was a moment's pause before Danielle burst out laughing. Shocked, Gabriella stopped crying, and stared at her maid, who was doubled over in a fit of laughter.

"I fail to see the humor in this situation," stated Gabriella, hiccuping slightly.

After a moment, Danielle regained control of herself. "It's just that-," she let out another small laugh. "-it doesn't make you a horrible person if you still have a little crush on your ex-boyfriend, Gabriella." She shook her head, grinning. "You're too innocent, it's just funny."

Ignoring the last comment, Gabriella said quietly, "Whoever said it was a 'little crush'?"

Danielle blinked. "No one, but surely-?"

Gabriella shook her head, her eyes focused on a spot of carpet somewhere to the left of the blonde sitting in front of her.

Said blonde gasped. "No!"

Gabriella sniffled, finally looking at her friend, and nodded ever so slightly. "I think I might still love him."

Danielle's hands were covering her open mouth. "Oh, my God."

"I don't think I ever stopped loving him," explained Gabriella quietly, as much to herself as to Danielle. "I mean, we left off so strangely. We never got to talk about where we stood or how we felt about each other. I think I just learned to keep his love to a minimal, you know? I learned to deal with it and allowed myself to love again. And then when I saw him again, that small portion of love I had for him just burst out of me." She sniffled again. "And now he says things to me that make me feel like he might love me still too."

"So marry him," Danielle spoke up. Gabriella sent her a look, and she added, "Come on, Gabriella! He loves you, you love him. What's stopping you?"

"What's stopping us?" scoffed Gabriella incredulously. "How about the fact that we're both married? The fact that he has a child and I'm bearing one? Maybe that's what's stopping us?!"

"Ah, but you see, that's where the amazing process called 'divorce' comes into play," said Danielle, winking.

"Danielle! How can you be taking this so lightly!?" asked Gabriella. "I can't just divorce Nathaniel!"

"Why not?" challenged Danielle. "Come on, tell me why."

Gabriella skirted around answering. "You can't just throw the word divorce around like it's nothing. It's a huge process. It's not just something you decide to do one morning when you think you might still be in love with someone else."

"But you just explained to me that you are still in love with him," Danielle pointed out.

"That doesn't mean he still loves me!"

"You just said he does!"

"Well-" Gabriella searched her mind for an excuse. "-maybe he loves his wife more!"

Danielle raised an eyebrow. "If he has eyes and a brain, I don't see how that's possible."

The dark-haired woman sighed.

"Gabriella." Danielle leaned in closer to her boss. "I hate saying this, but you don't love Nathaniel. I've known for a while now, but I didn't want to say anything because I didn't know how you'd react. But you don't. It's pretty obvious. You shouldn't divorce Nathaniel for Troy, but for yourself."

The expectant-mother didn't answer right away. "But I'm pregnant... maybe things will get better when the baby is born?"

Danielle mimicked Gabriella's sigh and stood up. "I think you know as well as I do that bringing children into a bad marriage is never good." With that she left, leaving Gabriella to ponder her messed up life.

Gabriella ate a little bit of the breakfast that Danielle has made for her but the pancakes tasted like rubber, so she only ended up eating half of one. She stumbled out of bed and into the shower, loving the feeling of the hot water on her aching body. She allowed the water to wash her current troubles down the drain as she washed her hair. She let the water cascade over her body for forty-five minutes before finally getting out. Not feeling like getting dressed, she just put on a fluffy pink bathrobe over her naked body and a pair of matching slippers, her soaked hair dripping onto the carpet. Gabriella noticed that her tray of abandoned breakfast hadn't been cleared by Danielle yet, so she did the honor of bringing it into the kitchen.

Danielle wasn't in the kitchen, so Gabriella decided to wash the dishes for her. As she was finishing, Danielle walked in, her hair damp from just having taken a shower as well. "Hey, I was gonna do-" she started, but Gabriella held up a hand.

"It was nothing." She smiled slightly, and Danielle returned the gesture.

The phone rang, making both of them jump. Danielle answered it with a "Richards residence" and listening patiently for a moment. Her eyes widened with excitement as she said, "Just a moment, Mr. Bolton." She lowered the phone from her ear and covered the mouthpiece with her hand, hiding the phone behind her back. She whispered loudly, "It's Troy!"unnecessarily.

Gabriella stared at Danielle and bit her lower lip. She was about to tell Danielle to inform Troy that she was unavailable, but thought better of it. I can't avoid him. She slowly reached out her hand, beckoning for the phone.

Danielle brought the phone back to her hear and said, smiling widely, "Here she is, Mr. Bolton," before handing the phone to her employer.

Said employer took the phone and brought it up to her hear, saying with forced-casualty, "H-Hey, Troy."

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for what I said before," said Troy quickly, as if afraid she might hang up on him. "You're right, I shouldn't be acting that way."

"It's okay, Troy," said Gabriella. "Really, it's fine."

"You're sure?" asked Troy cautiously.

Gabriella giggled, "Of course!"

Troy sighed with relief. "That's good. I forgot this earlier, but I called you before because I told Devon that I met up with you again and she really wants to meet you."

"Oh?" Gabriella felt jealousy stir inside of her, but ignored it. "Well, do guys wanna come over tonight? I'm sure we could whip something up." She winked at Danielle, who grinned back.

"Yeah, 'we'," she joked.

"Well, the thing is, Devon has to work this whole week. But maybe I can call you later and we could set something up?"

"Sure, that'd be great," said Gabriella enthusiastically. "And when Nathaniel has a night off, I'll call you."

"Sounds good," said Troy. "Talk to you later?"

"Of course. Bye."

Gabriella hung up the phone and said casually to Danielle, "We're gonna try and plan a few get-together's so I can meet Devon and Troy can meet Nathaniel."

"So I heard!" grinned Danielle devilishly.

The pregnant woman just rolled her eyes, smiling.