AN: LMAO. I love how I go from getting 9 reviews in chapter 3 and 31 for chapter 4. ;-) Thanks to much everyone. I hope you like this chapter, I know I do.

Let's try and reach the 100 mark, eh?

Oh and I was feeling extra, super-duper generous today, so I decided to post this now instead of waiting till tonight to post it (it's three o' clock here).

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 5

"Oh, my God, Troy!" exclaimed Gabriella, starting to panic as Danielle ran into the bedroom to pack a suitcase. "Troy! I'm in labor!"

"Okay, Gabriella, just calm down," said Troy. "Devon went into labor at home too – you just need to breathe in slowly, and breathe out-"

"Troy!" screeched Gabriella. "I'm not due for another 5-and-a-half weeks! I can't be in labor!" Gabriella started to cry again. "Troy, make it stop!"

"I can't Gabriella," said Troy, his voice cracking. He sounded like he was starting to panic himself. "Don't worry. Premature babies have lived before-"

Gabriella started to sob. "My baby is premature! My baby might die!"

"Should Lauren and I meet you at the hospital?" asked Troy weakly, trying carefully to not say the wrong thing. "For support?"

"Yes, Troy, please," cried Gabriella.

At that moment Danielle entered, dragging a suitcase behind her. She ripped the phone from Gabriella and said, "Sorry, Troy, we have to go." As she hung up, a contraction hit Gabriella.

She gasped in pain and doubled over as what felt like a cramp magnified ten times hit her in the abdomen. She held her hands over her stomach until it passed a moment later. "Oh, my God, the baby's coming!" moaned Gabriella.

"Come on, let's go." Danielle helped her up. Just as they were getting into the car, another contraction hit Gabriella. She gritted her teeth with the pain until it passed.

"Baby's coming now!" she said again, breathing in deeply as Danielle climbed into the driver's seat and started the car.

"Here, call your husband," said Danielle, handing Gabriella her phone as she sped down their street. Gabriella didn't even say anything about her speeding, she was too out of it.

She speed-dialed Nathaniel's cell phone number and listened to it ring and ring with no answer. Finally she reached the voice mail and left a shaky message. "Nathaniel, it's Gabriella. I know you have to leave soon for a conference or whatever, but... I'm in labor. The baby is coming, and fast." As if on cue, she was hit by a third contraction. After a moment of groaning in pain, she came out of it and realized the phone was still recording. "Please, just come to the hospital," she said shakily before hanging up.

It took them five minutes to reach the hospital in what should have been a ten minute drive. Danielle helped Gabriella slowly walk into the reception area, leaving the suitcase in the car for the time being. Gabriella was rushed into the closest available room the hospital had and, after a nurse helped her into a gown, they checked her dilation.

"She's already at four," the nurse explained, marking something on a sheet of paper. "Mrs. Richards, if you'd like an epidural, you need one now."

Gabriella furiously nodded. She was already starting to sweat, and if this was only four centimeters, she could barely begin to dream what ten would feel like.

"We'll call in the anaesthesiologist," the nurse said before she left the room. Danielle pulled Gabriella's hair back into a bun to try and keep her cool while a nurse got a cold washcloth for Gabriella to dab onto her forehead. Gabriella was groaning from the after-effects of her contractions.

"Danielle... where is he?" she moaned.

"I don't know, Gabriella, he won't answer his phone!" cried Danielle, her voice an octave higher than normal.

"No, not him... Troy... where's Troy..." said Gabriella, feeling woozy.

Danielle pursed her lips but didn't answer.

"I'm sorry, Miss, er.." faltered the nurse, glancing at Danielle.

"Jenkins," supplied Danielle.

"Miss Jenkins, I'm sorry but you'll have to leave us alone for a moment," said the nurse. Danielle looked apologetically at Gabriella before kissing her comfortingly on the forehead and exiting.

"Okay, Mrs. Richards, when is your due date?"

Instead of answering, Gabriella asked, through gritted teeth, "Where's my doctor? Dr. Sebold?"

"She's on vacation," said the nurse, filling out a form on her clipboard. "I'm guessing you aren't due for a while?"

"No, not until June 22nd," answered Gabriella. "Is my baby going to be okay?"

"We can't know that until it's born," said the nurse sympathetically. "I'll be right back, I'm going to find your file."

Gabriella was sweating profusely. She felt like she was already drained of energy. Her arms were limp at her side and she was panting, as if she'd just ran a marathon. She hated being in this gloomy hospital room alone; she felt very uncomfortable.

Just as another contraction started, Troy ran in the room. "Gabriella, I got here as soon as I-" he started before noticing her red face and clenched teeth. He rushed over and grabbed her hand, trying to soothe her. "Breathe in, breathe out," he said quietly, demonstrating for her. She tried his strategy, but it barely lessened her pain. After a moment it passed.

Her head fell back against her pillow. "I'm already so exhausted," she said, breathing deeply. "I don't know how I'm going to do this..."

"You can do it," Troy assured her. "Are you getting medications? Because according to Devon, they helped a lot."

Gabriella nodded weakly. "The nurse said an anaesthesiologist was coming..."

The nurse returned for a third time, holding a file. She glanced at Troy and then said, "Who are you, sir?"

"Oh, I'm a friend,"

"I'm sorry, but only family can be in here at this time," the nurse explained.

"Oh, but-" pleaded Gabriella. "I don't know where my husband is and I don't have any other family. Please, let him stay! I can't do this alone!"

The nurse eyed them for a moment before relenting. "Well, I guess it's alright." She opened up Gabriella's file and read through it. "Hmm... okay, yes... the sex is unknown to you... due June 22nd... the baby looks healthy..." She looked up. "Mrs. Richards, do you have any idea of what could've caused this premature labor?"

"I-I think it's because my husband and I got into a fight," she explained. "We've been having problems for a while and I was really stressed..."

"Hm, yes, stress can cause premature labor," said the nurse thoughtfully.

"Is that a bad thing?" asked Gabriella nervously.

"It can be, but lots of babies are born this early. We don't encourage it, of course, but it usually isn't life-threatening."

A doctor walked into the room, holding a shot with a long needle in her hands. "Hello, I'm Dr. Picoult, I'm here to administer to epidural."

Gabriella breathed a sigh of relief. Troy turned his head as the doctor injected the needle into Gabriella's spine, but he continued to grip her hand. Compared to the pain of the contractions, she thought the shot felt like a mere poke. It took a couple minutes for the drugs to kick in, but when her next contraction hit, she could feel it only enough to know it was there.

"Aah," she sighed contentedly. "This is better." She started looking around, as if just noticing something. "Where's Lauren?"

"Danielle's watching her," Troy explained. "She was in the waiting room when I came in."

"Are you guys gonna stay all night?" asked Gabriella skeptically. "I mean, if I'm in labor for that long."

Troy nodded. "Probably."

"What about Lauren, though?"

"This is gonna make me sound like a neglectful father, but Lauren will be fine sleeping in her stroller. She sleeps wherever."

Gabriella giggled.

Danielle entered just then, wheeling Lauren with her, who was, in fact, sleeping. She handed Gabriella her cell phone and said, "I got this from the car – just thought you might want it, to, you know, call Nathaniel." She left a moment later.

Gabriella stared at her phone for a minute before slowly dialing Nathaniel's number. She waited for a moment until the voice mail sounded again. "He still won't answer!" she cried, exasperated. "Why won't he answer, Troy?" she asked tearfully. "I want him to be here. He's my husband. He's the father of my child. Shouldn't he want to be here?" She sniffed.

Troy took his own phone out of his pocket. "Let's see if he answers for me... what's his number?"

Gabriella recited Nathaniel's number by heart and Troy pressed 'send', expecting to reach the voice mail. However, Nathaniel answered on the second ring.

"Hey, Troy! How's it goin', man?"

Troy raised his eyebrows as he answered, "Um, it's good..." Gabriella's eyes start to tear up, as was per usual for that night. "Listen-"

"Troy, I'm takin' off for a week-long trip tomorrow morning, so do you wanna go hit up a bar or something?"

"What? No. I'm married, Nathaniel, and so are you," said Troy angrily. "Speaking of which-"

Nathaniel interrupted him again. "Oh, come on, Troy." He laughed. "Just because I'm married doesn't mean I can't have some fun!"

Troy sent Gabriella a look before leaving the room. He spied Danielle and motioned for her to go inside and see Gabriella, who did so as he sat with his sleeping daughter. "What do you mean by 'fun'?"

"Well, you know." Nathaniel let out another laugh. "Okay, well, between you and me, my business trips are usually only a couple days long. I never have week-long trips; God help us all! I like to extend them, you know – so I can spend some time with my lady friends."

"Your lady friends?" Troy repeated, trying to keep calm as anger boiled up inside of him.

"Yeah. Come on, like you don't go to bars and get with women?"

"Not anymore," said Troy truthfully.

"And why the hell not?"

"Well because, Nathaniel, I'm married and a father."

"I'm married too."

"Yes, but that's our only similarity, oddly enough. I'm not a fucking scumbag." Troy closed his phone with a snap and wheeled Lauren's stroller into Gabriella's room, seething.

"What was that all about?" asked Danielle and Gabriella at the same time. Gabriella's eyes were red.

Troy softened up as he caught sight Gabriella's face. "I don't think Nathaniel's coming. But I'm not so sure if that's a bad thing anymore."

"Why?" asked Gabriella, her voice shaking.

"I'll tell you later." Troy nodded at Danielle, who took Lauren back to the waiting room while Troy soaked a cloth and started to dab at Gabriella's forehead.

She sniffed. "Troy... what happened?" she asked softly.

Troy looked into her face and felt his heart break; she didn't deserve to be married to that sorry excuse of a man, but at the same time, he didn't want to upset her any more than she already was on what should be one of the happiest days of her life. "I promise I'll tell you later," he said quietly. "Don't worry about it now. You're having a baby. Enjoy your last hours of freedom," he joked, causing her to crack a smile.

The next couple of hours were spent with Troy keeping Gabriella company while nurses came in and out of the room, checking her dilation. Despite her fast start to labor, the rest was a very slow process. After about an hour and a half at the hospital, Troy gave Danielle the key to his house so she could put Lauren to bed and stay with her until Devon returned from work, who had called Troy and wished Gabriella a good birth.

At around two in the morning, with Troy on his fourth cup of coffee and Gabriella starting to grow bored, a nurse came in to check Gabriella's dilation. Neither of them acknowledged her presence, as she'd been in there about seven times before, but after a moment she declared, "You've dilated at ten, Mrs. Richards. I'll go get a doctor and we'll get this baby out." She left and Gabriella, now wide awake, started to panic again.

"Oh, my gosh, Troy, I'm gonna push!" she cried, starting to sweat again. Troy, also more awake now, put down his coffee and went over to her side, dabbing her forehead with the wet cloth again.

"It's okay, Gabriella, just breathe, it's nothing to worry about," he tried to soothe her. "Women give birth all the time, and you're one of the strongest people I know. You can do this, I know you can."

"But what if the baby is too sick?" she moaned, growing worried again. "It's too early, I'm not even eight months, the baby shouldn't be coming!"

Troy gripped her hand tightly. "But the baby is coming," he told her. "It wants to come out, and you can't do anything about it."

The doctor entered the room, accompanied by two nurses. "Oh, no, Troy, no-" Gabriella started to groan.

"Shh, Gabriella, it's okay." Troy started to worry himself; what if Gabriella refused to push?

The doctor and nurses spent about five minutes setting up everything for the labor. They spread apart Gabriella's legs. "Okay, Mrs. Richards, I want you to give us a quick push."

"Troy, no I don't want to!" Gabriella started to cry. "Please, Troy, don't make me, I'm not ready!"

"Gabriella, look at me." Troy turned her sweaty, tear-stained face to his own. "I'm right here. Just look at me. Look right at me." She hiccuped but didn't keep her eyes off of him. "I won't let anything happen to you or your baby, you hear me? You're both gonna be fine, I promise."

"Y-you swear?" she choked out.

"I swear," he affirmed. "But in order for that to happen, you need to get your baby out. Your baby wants to come out."

Gabriella nodded.

"Mrs. Richards, we need you to push," the doctor explained kindly. "Your baby is more than ready to come out."

Troy held tightly onto Gabriella's hand. "Gabriella, you need to push."

Gabriella turned back to the doctor and, after taking a deep breath, she nodded. She squeezed her eyes tight shut and pushed, her face starting to turn red from the effort. After a moment she stopped, her head falling back on her pillow, panting.

"Great job, Gabriella, I'm so proud of you," said Troy encouragingly.

"Now we need a long one, Mrs. Richards," said the doctor.

Gabriella repeated the process, with the nurses egging her on. One of them had taken up a position on Gabriella's other side, and whispered encouragement into her ears. "Come on, I know it's hard, but you can do it, I know you can, three more seconds-"

"Alright, you can stop now." Gabriella was breathing deeply now and sweating profusely. Her face was flushed and her eyes red from holding them tight shut. "I can see some dark hair – a couple more pushes and the head should be out!"

Fifteen minutes later, Gabriella had succeeded in pushing the head out. She started to cry with happiness and Troy kissed the top of her head. "Great job, Gabriella, you're doing amazing," he told her softly. "You can do this, just a couple more-"

Another ten minutes later, Gabriella was exhausted.

"Troy – I can't," she said quietly.

"Gabriella, your child is almost out, I know you can do it!"

"No, I can't," she cried softly. "Troy, I'm too tired, I can't do this."

"You made it this far, don't quit on us now Gabriella!" pleaded Troy as they locked eyes. "Your baby wants to come out, so let it! I know you can do it. You've been doing this for half an hour, and in a minute you could be done. Just look at me. I know you can."

Gabriella nodded slowly and pushed one final time, narrowing her eyes but not closing them completely as she kept her eyes on Troy.

True to Troy's word, a moment later a cry rang through the hospital room. "It's a boy!" a nurse exclaimed, picking up the baby so he came into view. He was covered in blood, among other fluids, and was screaming his lungs out. "Would you like to cut the cord?" the nurse asked Troy. Gabriella nodded, her eyes closed, and Troy took the scissors and cut the baby's umbilical cord. Gabriella burst into happy tears once more as the nurses wrapped up her child and brought him over to a table to weigh him and clean him up.

"Troy, it's my son," she sobbed, lifting her head up slightly to watch him. Her face was drenched in sweat and strands of hair was sticking to her neck. "I did it, Troy."

"I knew you could," Troy hugged her around the neck and kissed her cheek as she cried.

"Here's your son, Mrs. Richards," a nurse said, smiling, as she handed her the baby, swaddled in a blue blanket. "Five pounds, one ounce, fourteen inches long."

"Oh, Troy, he's so beautiful," whispered Gabriella softly. "Look, that's my nose."

"What are you gonna name him?" asked Troy, also marveling at how handsome Gabriella's son was.

"Jackson," she said. "Jackson Troy Montez."

Troy felt his breath catch in his throat. "Gabriella-" he croaked. "You don't have to-"

"I know." She turned to face him. "But I want to."

Even though Troy felt like he didn't even need to ask this question, he said, "What about Nathaniel? I mean, can you have his last name be Montez?"

Gabriella narrowed her eyes darkly, staring at a spot on the wall. "Nathaniel deliberately didn't come and I know he said something terrible to you. I never want to see him again. And I don't want him involved in Jackson's life If his last name has to be Richards for now, so be it. When we get divorced I'll change it."

Troy tucked a stray piece of hair behind Gabriella's ear. "I'm so proud of you," he said quietly. Gabriella turned to him, and before either of them could stop themselves, he captured her lips in a kiss. They stayed like that for a moment before breaking apart slowly.

"You shouldn't have done that," said Gabriella slowly.

Not breaking eye contact, Troy answered, "I know."

Gabriella looked back at her son and kissed his cheek. "But I'm glad you did."