Disclaimer: I do not own HSM.
A/N- So, I got more than a couple reviews and 3 of them said they wanted to continue with the story. I'm not very big on replying to reviews (they take to long to load the reply screen) but I appreciate them very much!
Bostonsk8ter9- Yes, I want to know what happened to his legs as well.
Smallvillegirl92- Thank you, I worked quite hard on it. I'm hoping to get some more chapters up soon.
Zac's my boyfriend- Updating in progress!
XxTinkyBlondieBellxX- Thanks! After your review I decided to make this with way more chapters. Maybe it'll get more hits than my CBTD one…
Troy woke with a light breeze across his face and sun gleaming down on his head. He blinked twice and rubbed his eyes, being careful of the IV intake. As he opened his eyes he saw a flash of red and white. He blinked again and then looked towards the end of his bed. He saw the basketball team, the drama club, and all his other friends from school.
"Taylor…" he said. Taylor grinned. As soon as Troy said a word, the questions were pounded on him.
"Are you okay?"
"What's wrong?"
"Are you gonna make it to the basketball game?"
"Is it going to take a while to heal?"
"ENOUGH!" Gabriella yelled. They were all surprised that such a small girl could be so loud.
"He's in a stable condition. Broken bones and all that, but they stopped the internal bleeding. A lot of things are wrong. We'll tell you more later. No, he's not going to make the game. And yes, it's going to take a long time to heal, and a lot of physical therapy after that," Gabriella said, answering all the questions. The group seemed to let out and audible sigh. Sharpay knocked on the door.
"Can I come in?" she asked, Ryan following her closely.
"'Pay! Of course you can!" Gabriella said, running to hug Sharpay. Sharpay smiled and hugged her tightly. She let go and ran over to Troy's side.
"What's up?" she asked him.
"Well, I was in a car crash last night, I was in surgery for about an hour and I was woken up by Miss Let's-have-a-pep-rally-for-Troy over here," he said, pointing his thumb over to Taylor, who just laughed. Zeke climbed out of the small crowd.
"I baked you some cookies. Gabriella told me that they were your favorite. I know you might not be hungry now, but maybe later," Zeke explained excitedly. Troy laughed.
"Wonderful, Zeke. Actually, I'm starving," Troy said, popping the top of the tin of cookies. Gabriella put her hand on it.
"Dr. Jacobs said you couldn't eat until she took some tests to see how you're doing. I called her a minute ago," Gabriella began, as Dr. Jacobs walked in.
"Ah, I see that you have all your friends here," she said. Troy smiled at her as she grabbed his chart.
"Okay, so it says here that you were on low grade painkillers all night?" Dr. Jacobs asked. Troy nodded.
"And did you feel any pain or anything uncomfortable anywhere?" she questions. He shook his head. She smiled at the chart.
"Well that's good. Now it says you stayed conscious all of last night, correct?" Dr. Jacobs asked. Gabriella and Troy both nodded.
"Well then, I'm just going to check your breathing and a couple other things and then I'll be out of here and you can have some breakfast!" she said cheerily. She pushed the button to make him sitting up in his bed. She took off her stethoscope and put it to her ears. She lifted his shirt and stuck the end to his chest.
"Take a deep breath in," she instructed him. She heard nothing wrong and moved it to the other side of his chest.
"Again," she said. He breathed in and it was fine. She smiled and took the stethoscope out from her ear and from under his shirt. He pulled his shirt back down and smiled.
"Okay and you've had no bad reactions to any of the drugs we've given you? We gave you a small blast of morphine after the procedure last night, but we figured you'd just sleep it off," she said. Troy shrugged and shook his head.
"I'm okay," he said. The group let out yet another audible sigh. Ryan danced into the middle of the room from the back.
"And do you know why he's okay?" he yelled in his excited pep rally voice. He sounded like he had practiced the line all night. Dr. Jacobs quickly moved to the back of the room and hit a button.
"Yea!" all the others yelled back.
"Because--- We're all in this together, once we know, that we are, we're all stars and we see that, we're all in this together, and we know, that we stand, hand in hand, make our dreams come true…" they all sang and danced in perfect timing, Gabriella too. By the time they had finished, Troy was laughing so hard he barely even realized that Nurse Emily had brought his food in. He also hadn't realized that Taylor had set it up so that they were filming it.
"Great job, everyone!" Taylor yelled to them all. She ran over to the corner and turned off the video camera. She popped the tape out just as Troy figured out what she was doing.
"Hey, wait—what are you doing with that??!?!?" he asked her, knowing she had a devious plan up her sleeve.
"Oh nothing, I'm just going to show it at tomorrow's assembly!" she said, throwing her head back and laughing. Troy grumbled as Chad and Taylor walked out of the room, whispering plans to one another.
"So there goes my life," Troy muttered as the evil geniuses walked out the door. Gabriella laughed.
"Well, the school needed to know. I've already been bombarded by phone calls, texts and phone messages asking about you, and it's Sunday!" she laughed.
"Okay you guys, wonderful you came, time to go now," Sharpay said, ushering the group of teens out. Troy got his share of "Feel betters" and "goodbyes" from everyone as they left. The only ones left were Sharpay, Ryan, Jason, Kelsi, Gabriella, and of course, Troy. Dr. Jacobs walked in again.
"I loved your little dance. Very well organized," Dr. Jacobs grinned.
"Well that's because I did it," Sharpay said arrogantly. She laughed as she mocked her old self. The teens laughed and Dr. Jacobs chuckled.
"Okay, now down to business. I didn't want to ask while your other friends were here, but this is pretty serious. We don't know if you were maybe delusional or something last night, but I need to know about your legs," Dr. Jacobs said, getting serious again. She pulled the covers off him and put her chart down.
"Can you feel this?" the doctor asked, poking Troy's side. He grinned.
"Yes," he said.
"This?" she asked, poking his hip.
"Yup," he replied.
"Here?" she said, poking his upper thigh.
"Poke it," he said.
"Troy, I am," she said.
Dr. Jacobs looked at Troy worriedly. Troy looked up at the doctor and then to Gabriella, who looked equally worried.
"Troy, can you feel this?" Dr. Jacobs said, poking Troy's left foot, the one that was shattered.
"No," he said. Dr. Jacobs sighed.
"Can you try and maybe pull your knees up or move your foot?" the doctor said. Troy nodded. He stayed in the same position.
"Did they move?" he asked.
"Oh boy," Dr. Jacobs said.
Dr. Jacobs and Gabriella were outside Troy's hospital room talking.
"Are you sure it's permanent?" Gabriella asked.
"Well, no. There is such thing as temporary paralysis. In this case, it would be until his nerves and muscles grew back. We can speed the process up, but there is no immediate recovery," Dr. Jacobs explained.
"How long will it take?" Gabriella asked, worriedly.
"Well, on it's own it could never grow back to the state it was before. With help from some drugs and therapy, I would say about 6 months," Dr. Jacobs finished.
"Amazing what they can do with medicine nowadays," Gabriella muttered. Dr. Jacobs laughed.
"So, any news on his parents?" the doctor asked.
"Nope. Chad tried last night, but no one answered. They weren't at Troy's house, and then we tried their hotel. Reception said they checked out 2 days ago," Gabriella said sadly. Dr. Jacobs sighed.
"Well, keep trying if you have time. Right not we have to go tell Troy," Dr. Jacobs sighed. The two ladies walked back into Troy's room.
"So, Troy, I had some tests run and looked at some x-rays we took last night. A couple other doctors had some leads on what it could be, and that helped me a lot with figuring it out," Dr. Jacobs said. Troy nodded.
"So what is it?" Troy asked, smiling. Gabriella's faced clouded over with worry.
"Troy…" Gabriella said. Troy gave her an annoyed glare.
"I just wanna know why I can't feel my legs!!!" he yelled, crossing his arms.
"Troy, we think you have temporary paralysis," Dr. Jacobs said. Troy face turned stony. Gabriella grabbed his hand.
"W—www-what?" Troy stuttered. Dr. Jacobs sighed.
"You have temporary paralysis," she repeated, "A disease that, in its name, is only temporary. Or so we hope. What's happened is that when the car hit your side, your whole body shifted. When the car hit you in front, your body shifted backwards. But, since this was a car wreck, it was quite fast, meaning it knocked some things out of line. Basically what happened is that when you slammed forward into the wheel, your lower back, where the pressure was, shut down. So, the nerve system to your legs from the hips down is basically like a computer site, only crashed. We can only hope that with the right amount of therapy and the right medicines we can get you back on track," Dr. Jacobs concluded. Troy's face hadn't changed.
"B-bb-bas-kettball," he said shakily.
"Sorry?" Dr. Jacobs asked.
"He said basketball," Gabriella said, "He plays basketball. Captain and star player,"
"I'm so sorry," said Dr. Jacobs. Troy finally stopped stuttering and cleared his mind. He took a deep breath.
"Is there any chance of me playing again?" Troy asked bluntly.
"Actually, there is. Over 85 percent of people who had temporary paralysis lead normal lives after their recoveries," Dr. Jacobs pointed out.
"And the other 15 percent?" Troy asked.
"Troy!" Gabriella shrieked.
"It's alright; he has a right to know. Anyways, the other 15 percent had a bit of trouble doing big things like sports, but other than that, they were fine," his doctor said. Troy sighed.
"Well, you'll just have to stay positive then!" Gabriella said.
"So what's the first thing we're going to do?" Troy asked.
"Well, I'll send the physical therapist down and we can talk details," Dr. Jacobs said. She smiled and nodded at the two and left.
"It'll be alright, Troy," Gabriella said. Troy said nothing.
"Troy?" she asked him. He sighed.
"I really don't want to comment on that right now. I don't want to say something rude or mean. I really need you right now, but I don't need this," he said, motioning to the charts and IV lines. Gabriella smiled and kissed his forehead.
"You'll be fine. And you can say all the rude things you want to me, it doesn't matter," she said.
"Hi, I'm Dr. Reid (not like in Scrubs, Reid is my mother's maiden name)!" said a voice walking into the room. Troy looked up from his magazine and Gabriella turned her wandering attention to the man in a white coat that just entered the room.
"I'm going to be your physical therapist," Dr. Reid said. He picked up Troy's chart and looked over it.
"Oh, this is gonna be fun!" he said, obviously very hyper.
"Yeah, what could be more fun than growing back nerves and muscles?" Troy asked sarcastically.
"Hey, dude, with that kinda look on the world, you'll get nowhere fast," Dr. Reid said seriously. His face turned back to cheery and he looked at Gabriella.
"Ah, I see you are the lucky lady who I've been told has been sitting here all night!" he said. Gabriella nodded and grinned at his happy personality. Troy finally gave in and smiled as well.
"So, this will take a while. What I'm first going to ask you is to move your foot," Dr. Reid asked. Troy nodded and his face turned strained.
"Anything?" Troy asked him. Gabriella and Dr. Reid both shook their heads sadly.
"This will take a while," Dr. Reid said, sighing. Troy ran his hands through his hair.
"We'll get through this, babe," Gabriella said.