Here's the next chapter for you, enjoy!

Couple Time?

It wasn't often, that on a Saturday morning you'd find both Alex and Katie Montez up and dressed before ten, but today was an exception.

They both knew how much their sister had been suffering since the car accident, and although she and Anna had made great recoveries, and Gabriella's physio was coming on well, the truth was they both knew Gabriella still had a lot running through her mind.

Those reasons alone were enough for them to both be up and dressed at nine o'clock, and when the doorbell rang at half ten, they prepared themselves for a day of endless fun, because as much as they'd rather be in bed right now, being with their nieces and nephew was something they'd do at the drop of a hat.

"About Time, what took you so long?"

"Sorry Anna, didn't realise taking ten seconds to get to the door was a long time, how are you today?"

"I'm good Uncle Alex, is Bella here yet?"

"No not yet, why don't you go and find Auntie Katie, while I help Cam bring in the twins, okay?"

Anna nodded her head vigorously, before running off into the house to find Katie.

"Alex dude, don't just stand there, come and help, I can carry two car seats with the little ones in, but I can't do that and carry all their stuff as well, how do Mr and Mrs B do this all of the time?"

Alex chuckled at Cam, as he made his way over to Cam's car and grabbed the twins' bags out of it. "That is a question I ask myself all the time, and I still don't have an answer for it, all I know is that they're incredibly good at it."

"Good enough for all of us to baby sit for them so they can have some much needed time together?"

"Exactly Cam, exactly."

TGTGTGTG

Troy had managed not to wake up Gabriella when he got out of bed at nine that morning. He woke, dressed and then fed all three of his children, before packing all the necessary things they'd need for their day with the rest of their family.

As agreed Cam arrived at ten to pick up Anna and the twins, and Troy had told him how to take their car seats in and out of his car. After being told not to worry and to enjoy his day with Gabriella, Troy had stood at the bottom of the driveway to wave them off, before making his way inside, to hopefully give his wife one of the best starts to a day, she'd had in a very long time.

He walked through to the kitchen and immediately made a bee line for the coffee, he needed to wake up properly first, before he started on his plan.

TGTGTGTG

"So was your Mummy still in bed when I picked you up this morning Anna?"

Anna took the offered piece of jigsaw from Cam and slotted it into place before answering. "Yeah, she was still asleep, Daddy didn't even let us say goodbye, he said Mummy was really tired from Grandpa's party, so we would have to wait 'til tonight to see her."

"Coach is really worried about her isn't he?" Cam asked his two friends, as Jack and Lucille came through from the kitchen.

"I wouldn't she he's worried about her." Lucille began, as she sat down on the end of the couch to help Oscar play with his small light up piano.

"I'd just say he knows how she gets when she's been injured. He knows from when they were in high school that Gabriella doesn't like being injured, especially when she has to rely on others, I know she's getting better now, but there're still all those thoughts running through her head on how much trouble she's caused us all these last few weeks."

"She doesn't show it though." Katie said, as she moved to sit on the floor in between Cam's legs, after he'd gestured for her to do so.

"That's exactly it; she doesn't show it for the children's sake. She tries to make out that everything is normal, for them. Obviously they know she can't play with them like normal, she's still got one crutch and she still has to go to physio, but as far as they're concerned everything's pretty normal."

"Yeah but the twins are only eight months old, they have no idea what's going on, Anna was in the crash, surely she knows what's happening?"

"Think about it though sis, she's six, what six year old lets things get to them, it happened, she got a pink cast and us waiting on her hand and foot for four weeks, then she got the cast off and forgot about it because the reminder was gone. Gabi was in hospital over night, after they cut up the car, while she was still in it, she had the same injuries as her high school attack, which only brought back memories from that, she felt bad 'cause Jack had to go back to work, while Troy stayed at home to look after her, Luce was round there pretty much everyday to help with the twins and we were picking up Anna more than normal, plus she's always gonna have a reminder of the accident 'cause her knee is never gonna fully recover. She's still suffering mentally, right Luce?"

"Pretty much Alex yeah, everything you just said, and probably more that we aren't aware of, is constantly running through her mind and it's wearing her out. She needs to open up and talk about it, and Troy knows that, which is why he's doing this today, with the little ones here he hasn't got to worry about being interrupted and can look after her, let her talk to him, get everything she's been feeling recently out in the open, and then they can just spend some together, without baby Boltons around." Lucille concluded, as she pulled a funny face at Oscar making him laugh with delight, delight that someone was paying attention to him and not the conversation around him.

"Finished!" Anna suddenly exclaimed happily, as she slotted the last piece of the puzzle into place. "Thanks Cam."

"No problem cutie, you got any more in that toy bag of yours?"

"Nope, Grandpa have you got any?"

"Yes I think there are some upstairs from when your Aunt and Uncle were little, you wanna come and look?"

"Okay." Anna got up and took Jack's offered hand, as he led her upstairs to find some more puzzles to keep her occupied.

"Dude, still no Bella, I was expecting her to be here by now, no forget that, I was expecting her to be here before I arrived with the little ones." Cam said, as he stood up and stretched, both Anna and Katie had been leaning on his legs while doing the puzzle, and now he wasn't sure that he could feel his feet.

"Yeah me to, I'm starting to worry now, she never over sleeps and she hasn't phoned or texted me either, Luce is it okay if I quickly pop round there? Find out what's going on."

"I think you should sweetie, this isn't like Bella at all, something isn't right."

Alex got up and made his way over to the stairs, where he grabbed his keys and wallet from the table on the large bottom step, before opening the front door.

"If you haven't heard from me in an hour, call me, if she's upset, or something is really wrong I'll forget, so please phone me."

"Alex, dude, just go! Bella needs you man, please just go."

Alex shot his friend a small smile, before heading out of the door, getting into his car, and making his way over to Bella's.

TGTGTGTG

"Listen."

"To what Troy? I can't hear anything."

"Exactly, there's no on else here, just you and me, when was the last time that happened?"

"Yeah, fair enough, I get your point. Thanks for breakfast by the way, it was amazing, when was the last time we got to do that?"

"I have no idea, but it's not gonna happen to often, I already miss the little ones and I got to see them this morning, I didn't let them come in and say goodbye, I wanted to let you sleep."

"As much as I'm missing them right now, I'm glad you let me sleep, I kinda haven't been sleeping that well recently."

Troy gently moved, so that Gabriella was no longer resting her head on his chest, but so they were both lying on their sides, facing each other. This conversation was about to get serious.

"Today isn't just about doing things we haven't done in a while Gabs, we need to talk, or you need to talk and I need to listen. It's been over six weeks since the crash and I'm so proud of how you and Anna coped and recovered, and I'm even prouder of how well you're doing at physio, but I'm worried about how you're healing mentally. We've been here before Brie, I hate seeing you like this as much as you hate being like it, I hate even more that there's nothing I can do about it, but the one thing I can do is listen when you talk, and that's what we're gonna do now, 'cause I can't go round knowing you keep re-running things through your head, 'what ifs' and stuff like that. I just wanna know what's going through that pretty little head of yours, so that I can at least try and make that go away, please Brie, talk to me."

Gabriella took a deep breath, she knew she needed to do this; she just wasn't sure how she would approach Troy about it. But now that he'd brought the subject up, she knew she had to tell him exactly what she was feeling.

TGTGTGTG

"She's upstairs, you can have her, if she can't accept that it's time to move on and that I'm happy, then I want nothing to do with her."

That sentence wasn't what Alex expected to hear from Mark when he pulled up in front of his house, to find Mark putting an overnight bag into his car.

"What do you mean I can have her, what are you talking about Mark?"

"I'm kicking her out; I can't have her living with me if she can't accept that it's time to get over her Mum leaving and let me date again then I'll have nothing else to do with her."

"Sorry Mark, but I still have no idea what you're talking about."

"I'm going to spend the next few days with Amanda, my girlfriend, I'm coming back on Tuesday, when I get back I want her and all of her rubbish out of my house, anything left will get burnt, it was nice knowing you Alex, oh, make sure she leaves her keys behind when she's done, I don't want her in my house when I'm not here, thanks." With that said Mark got in his car, backed out of the driveway and left a very bewildered Alex standing in his driveway.

It took Alex a few minutes to regain his senses and realise what Mark had just said to him, and if what Mark had just said to him was true, it meant that his girlfriend was in that house packing her bags, with no where definite to go.

He quickly made his way into the house and could immediately hear Bella's cries coming from somewhere in the top part of the house.

"Bella." He called, as he started his way up the stairs, taking them two at a time. "Bella, it's me, babe where are you?"

As he reached the top of the stairs, Alex's first instinct was to go to Bella's room, but the door was shut and locked. Whatever had happened between Bella and Mark had seriously upset her if she prepared to shut herself away from him.

"Bella babe, please open up, your Dad told me everything, but he's gone now, it's just you and me. Bella you can stay at mine, but first I need to know that you're okay, babe open the door, please?"

Alex didn't think he'd succeeded when Bella's cries only got stronger and louder, but then it all went quiet, Bella wasn't crying anymore, not that he could hear, and she wasn't moving around either, everything had gone quiet and Alex wasn't sure if this was a good or bad thing.

He was about to try and get her to open up again, when the door opened and Bella threw herself into his arms, the tears and cries immediately becoming louder and stronger again, but this time Alex didn't mind. He wanted her to cry, to let everything out, and this time he was with her, and he was determined to make everything alright.

TGTGTGTG

They had no idea why, on a day when they didn't have their children to look after, they were standing outside the house where their children were, because they'd both just realised that, after a rather emotional talk, they needed to be with their children and family, now more than ever.

They'd talked about everything and anything that was running through Gabriella's mind and Troy had constantly reassured her that she wasn't stupid for losing control of the car, and she wasn't a rubbish Mum because she was injured and couldn't do all the things with them that she used to, and she definitely was not a horrible wife for making him stay at home to look after her, or for waking him up in the middle of the night with nightmares because she's a beautiful, amazing, talented mother and wife and he wouldn't ever change a thing a bout her 'cause he loves her, always has done, always would do.

Troy placed his key in the lock, opened the door and waited for the twenty questions to come their way.

"Mummy, Daddy, you're here!" Anna immediately dropped her next piece of puzzle and ran over to Gabriella, who picked her up and held her tight, her emotions very clear to the adults in the room.

"I get up at some ridiculous time in the morning to look after your children so that you two can spend the day together and you just end up here anyway, what was the point?" Katie asked with a pout.

"The point was that we got to talk without being interrupted for once, and we have because the outcome of that talk was that we needed to be here with our children and our family, that okay with you?"

Katie lost her pout when she heard the sincerity in Troy's voice. "That's more than okay with me, but Alex isn't here yet so you'll have to wait awhile for the family part of that plan."

"Why, where is he?" Gabriella asked, as she sat down on the couch with Anna on her lap.

"Bella didn't turn up, so he went to find her, he hasn't come back yet, do you think we should phone him Luce?"

"No, he's back."

TGTGTGTG

It had taken Alex half an hour to stop Bella crying and talk to him about what had happened, she wouldn't tell him much, only that her Dad had met this Amanda woman, and when she found out she was shocked that it was so soon after her Mum. Her Dad had told her she was selfish for not wanting him to date again and for not moving on from her Mum, and that if she felt that way he didn't want her here when he came back on Tuesday.

After they'd talked he'd told her she was coming to his, there was no argument over that because he knew Lucille and Jack would agree. He'd helped her to finish packing her things, most of which she'd already done, he told her they'd come back tomorrow for the rest of her things, and that now she just needed her overnight essentials and anything else she wanted to bring.

He was surprised to see Troy's car in the drive, but didn't stop to think about it as he wrapped his arm around Bella, and led her up the front path.

Lucille had opened the door before they made it to the front porch. "Alex sweetie, we were about to phone you, what happened?"

"It's complicated Luce; all we need to know now is if it's alright for Bella to stay here, permanently?"

"Of course it's alright, you know that, but why? What happened?" Luce was now worried, as she shut the door after the young couple had made their way inside.

"Mark's kicked her out, he says he doesn't want to know her if she can't move on from her Mum leaving and because she was shocked when he told her he'd met someone new."

"Bella honey, I'm sorry to hear that, but you know you can stay here, you'll always be welcomed, do you wanna talk about what happened with your Dad?"

Bella shock her head. "Not really Lucille, I'm sorry but I've got so much running through my head I just wanna be with Alex right now, is that okay?"

"Yeah that's okay, you wanna head upstairs?"

"No I think we'll stay down here, Bella needs cheering up and seeing as we're all here, look like things could get funny. I thought you two were having couple time Gabs, what happened?"

"We talked Al, and realised we needed to be with everyone, so here we are."

"Fair enough, Anna I bet you that Cam and Katie will find the next piece of the puzzle before you can fit in your bit."

"Nu uh, I don't think so." Anna said, as she slipped off Gabriella's lap and went straight to work on fitting in her puzzle piece.

Jack laughed as he stood back and watched his 'family' enjoy being together, they weren't all his family, but it definitely felt like it. Things weren't always easy, as they had just learnt, but at time like this they all pulled together and worked to forget what was happening, and just enjoy what they had right then and now, each other.

TGTGTGTG

There it is guys chapter ten, hope you liked it.

Today is Halloween, so to those of you who celebrate it, Happy Halloween! Tomorrow is my birthday, 18, I'm not sure if I'm ready to be an adult yet, I definitely don't feel like one :)

Anyway:

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW! THANK YOU!