Trying their best to be strong for Gabbi and not let their intense worry show, the group of friends sat back down, preparing for the long wait ahead. "He'll be OK Gabbi, he's in the best hands now, they'll look after him." Chad said, trying to also convince himself that Troy will be OK.

"I can't lose him Chad, I just can't" she replied, sobbing into his shoulder. "I can't lose him!"

Chapter 3 – Time doesn't fly.

Watching the second hand tick by was hard enough in Ms Darbus' class but in that circumstance at least Chad new what was going to happen next. Being stuck in a bland hospital waiting room anxious to hear whether you best friend has survived surgery is much much worse.

It had only been two hours since they had arrived at the hospital. Troy had been rushed Into ER with severe wounds and none of the staff could really say what was happening. Chad, not one to just sit around was getting very restless. "What is taking them so long" he said standing up and pacing to the other side of the room. Taylor noticing how antsy her boyfriend was walked over to him. "They've only been in there a couple of hours, give them time." she said placing her arms around his tense shoulders.

Sharpay on the other hand was sitting next to Gabriella who had been staring at the coffee table for over half an hour. "Gabbi" she said, putting her arms around the distracted teen, "do you want to go get a drink or something?" she continued hoping to pull her out of her intense thoughts. " I'm fine really" she replied, not pulling her eyes away from where she had been staring. Sharpay sighed leaning back against her chair. Her plan of getting Gabriella to relax a little hadn't worked so she continuing on thinking of things to say or do to distract Gabriella from thinking the worst.

A few more minutes went by when the automatic doors into the waiting room opened, Troy's parents Lucille and Jack Bolton hurried in. They rushed over to where Troy's friends were all congregated. "Gabriella", Lucille said, embracing her son's girlfriend in a warm hug. "Are you OK?" she continued, worrying about the young girl and watching as Gabriella nodded her head in response.

"What's happening, where's Troy?" Jack interrupted, anxious to find out the condition of his son. "We don't know" Chad replied, combing his fingers through his tightly curled hair. "They said they couldn't tell us anything, at least not until you arrived and even then it wouldn't be for a while."

Jack moved over to the couches to sit with his wife. It had been a long week at school and then to receive a phone call saying his only son had been shot was almost too much for Jack to handle. The ten of them had been sitting there quietly for fifteen minutes, pondering every bad thought that had appeared in their minds when a doctor came in.

"Family of Troy Bolton?" he began to say as he approached the group that had spread themselves out across the waiting room. "Yes, How is he doctor?" Lucille said jumping up and grabbing her husband's hand for support.

"Well we can't say too much just yet..." he replied, looking into their faces and noticing them hanging off every word he was saying, "...he's still in surgery. He took bullets to the chest, back and thigh and was bleeding a lot so it's going to take 10 to 12 hours at least before we know anything. I just thought I'd come out and let you know what was happening. I suggest you try and get some rest while you wait. We'll keep you updated and let you know when they're finished."

"Thank you doctor" Jack replied, turning back around and moving to sit back down. It was going to be a long wait before Troy came out of surgery and even then, Jack couldn't help but have that felling that he might not survive. He had to be strong.

6 hours later.

It was now midnight and Troy's surgery was only half way through. Most of the gang had already fallen asleep leaving Gabriella, Chad, Lucille and Jack to fill in the time while waiting for news on Troy.

Noticing Taylor stirring from her uncomfortable slumber, Jack spoke up. "Look it's getting late and they won't be finished for a few hours yet, plus Troy won't be up for visitors for a while after that. There's no point sleeping here when you guys could be at home. So why don't you go and get some proper sleep. We'll call you when we hear something" he said noticing how tired they all were.

"OK" Taylor said while waking up the others "We'll come back here in the morning if we haven't heard from you and see how everything is going."

After some very persistent words encouraging them to go with them, Taylor, Sharpay, and the others left Chad and Gabriella with the Boltons. They knew how stubborn their friends were and if they wanted to stay, there was practically nothing they could do to stop them. They went home to get some sleep knowing they would be informed of any news.

The hours rolled on and there still hadn't been any news on Troy. Everyone was silently praying that he would pull through. The Police had been through an hour earlier and had informed them that they had arrested the gunman. As much as knowing he was locked up in a jail cell had brought relief to their thoughts, it hadn't done much to ease the tension that was in the room.

It was nearing 5 am and everyone but Lucille had fallen asleep. Quietly checking the halls as she had been doing almost every half hour, her heart suddenly rose up into her throat as she saw a tall man dressed in blue surgical scrubs making his way down the hall towards her.

Quickly turning herself around she ran over to Jack and shook him awake. "Jack honey, wake up the doctor is coming" she said anxious for him to wake so they could talk to him. Jack jumped up knocking the blanket a nurse had given him to the floor. By this time the doctor had made his way over to the couple.

"Mr and Mrs Bolton" he said looking them directly in the eye but not yet showing any emotion on his face. The two of them nervously looked at the man's face, unable to read his expression.

"Troy is out of surgery" he continued, noticing a huge sense of relief on their faces after realising their son had gotten through the surgery. "Although he was a very hurt young man." By this time Chad and Gabriella had woken and were hurrying over to the three adults.

"Is he alright?" Gabriella said, realising they had missed the beginning of the conversation. The doctor continued on with what he was saying.

"As I was just saying, he is out of surgery, but he was very badly injured. The bullets caused quite a bit of damage. As well as some broken ribs, he received a punctured lung which required us to insert a tube until his breathing stabilises. He had quite a lot of internal bleeding due to a ruptured spleen and tissue damage, but we were able to get it under control." the doctor paused for a brief moment taking in their reactions but continuing on as they seemed to be coping quite well.

"... He has a bad concussion from where his head hit the pavement and while his leg is not broken, the bullet did tear it up pretty bad. Other than that, I'd say that he has been a very lucky boy to make it this far. He's in a critical but stable condition so they will be moving him from recovery to ICU in a few minutes. You can see him but I must tell you that although he is sedated for now, he will be in an immense amount of pain when he wakes up and for a quite a while down the track but we'll do our best to ease it as much as we can for him. If you care to follow me, I'll take you upstairs."

Everyone, gathered their things and began to follow the doctor to the ICU. At least Troy was on the road to recovery now, even if it was going to be a very long one.

OK, there is chapter 3, what do you think? Please Review, or you won't find out what happens next!