Disclaimer: I wish I may, I wish I might, one day own HSM

A/N: so here it is, Taking Over Me chapter 23. Two more chapters. Well actually one. The last one is a kind of 'Ten years later' chapter, even though it's not going to be ten years later. More like a 'Five years later' I don't know one of them.

Taking Over Me

by: LunarEclipse360

Dreiundzwanzig

My alarm clock blared next to me, waking me from the greatest dream in the world. I rolled over, feeling an empty space where I swore there was once a body. I jolted upward and my eyes immediately fell on the figure standing on my balcony. I smiled and got out of bed. I walked out onto my balcony and wrapped my arms around his torso.

"Morning Gabi." he said, intertwining his fingers with mine.

"Morning Troy." I buried my cheek in his back, happy that I got him back.

"Are you coming with me today?" he asked and I looked up.

"Where?"

"To get the truth from my parents."

"Sure." I moved in front of him and put my left hand on his chest. "But are you sure you want to face them so soon?" he nodded, looking into my eyes.

"Yeah. I do. I wanna know why they kept this from me. Why they kept me away from you." I smiled and my eyes finally took notice of the giant gash on his chest.

"What happened?"

"Supposedly a huge piece of glass rammed into me along with a piece of the car door." I slowly ran my fingertips over it and he took a sharp intake of breath.

"I didn't hurt you, did I?" he shook his head and interlocked his hand with my right hand.

"You just don't know what you do to me." he said and leaned in, placing his lips on mine in a soft and tantalizing kiss. My left hand traveled up his chest and wrapped around his neck. He brought my right hand up, placing it where my left hand laid and wrapped his arms around me. We broke apart and stared into each other's eyes. "God I've missed you."

"You were with me for the past few weeks."

"Yeah but it's not the same when you can't remember what it's like to truly feel for the one you love." I stroked his cheek and pecked his lips.

"It was hard not to forget about you but I did it. I couldn't forget you, I just couldn't." he smiled rubbed my sides.

"I love you Gabriella."

"I love you too, Troy."

"I should get dressed before your mom comes through that door." I gasped as I remembered my mom. I totally forgot about her.

"I need to tell my mom. I need to tell her that I wasn't delusional. That you've been alive all this time." he nodded and I reluctantly took myself out of his arms. I went downstairs, finding my mom sitting in front of the tv. "Mom." she turned around and smiled.

"Morning sweetheart. How did you and Alex sleep?"

"Mom there's something you need to know."

"Don't tell me you're pregnant."

"W-What? No." I stuttered flabbergasted that my mom would say that.

"Oh then what is it?"

"It's about Alex." she nodded, signaling me to continue. "He died in an accident."

"That's impossible. I saw him come home with you last night. I saw him sleeping beside you this morning."

"That wasn't Alex."

"Then who else could it be?" I ringed my finger, bitting my bottom lip in nervousness.

"T-Troy." her eyes widened and then she started laughing. "Mom I'm serious."

"That can't be Troy. He died remember."

"No he didn't. His twin did. Alex did."

"But how?...why?"

"We don't know. We're going to ask his parents now." I said just as Troy walked down the stairs. My mom looked at him, finally getting a look at his eyes in the light. She gasped and that's how I knew she believed me.

"Morning Ms. Montez." he said awkwardly.

"Morning T-Troy." he smiled and looked at me.

"You should change." I nodded and went back upstairs to change. Minutes later I ran back downstairs, changed and ready to go. I took Troy's hand and we left. We got to his house a few minutes later and he parked in the driveway.

"Ready?" I asked taking his hand.

"Ready." he answered and I squeezed his hand in reassurance. We walked into his house and was greeted by the smell of breakfast being cooked. "Mom. Dad. You here?"

"We're in the kitchen Alex." his mother responded and we walked into the kitchen. Both of his parents looked up and smiled at us. "Good morning Gabriella." his mother said to me.

"Morning Mrs. Miller." I said and looked up at Troy.

"So how was your night Alex? Did you have fun?" his father asked and Troy sighed.

"Cut the crap dad I remember everything." his father looked at him in surprise then looked to me. I nodded and he sighed.

"I should have seen this coming. Sit down son." Troy took a seat and sat me on his lap.

"Just tell me why, dad."

"When you awoke from the accident, you couldn't remember a thing. Not your name, not me, not your mom, not your friends, not even Gabriella. I was considering letting you stay here but then I found out that it was your brother, Alex, that was the other driver. That he was the one who died. I immediately searched out your real mother while trying to keep your survival a secret." he sighed and looked at me. "That's why I told your mother that Troy had died in the crash. I didn't want you to know that he couldn't remember you at all." he turned his eyes back on Troy and continued his explanation.

"When I found your biological mother, I told her what happened with you and with Alex. She was so devastated and I couldn't bare to hear her like that. Even though we had ended things on a bad note, I still had feelings for her. Around that time I also found out that your other mother, the one you grew up around, had breast cancer and only had a few months to live. So I did what I had to do. I changed your hair color, made you wear contacts resembling those of your birth mother and moved all of us to New Jersey but not before giving your brother a proper burial."

"One that I never got to see." his mother said, interrupting.

"I'm sorry dear." she shook her head and motioned for him to continue. "Well anyway. We made everyone believe that the person we were burying was you when in reality it was your brother. We hid you for those two weeks before just packing up and leaving. Months later, your mother passed and I remarried your birth mother, allowing us to raise you how you should have been raised with both of your true parents."

"But what made you move back to Albuquerque?" I asked.

"I guess it was because he really didn't fit there. You were always asking about your childhood but I couldn't tell you much since everything you knew was here. So we finally agreed and relocated you back to your real hometown. I'm sorry for keeping you away from the memories you deserved to get back but I thought if you stayed then you would only hurt the ones around you since you couldn't remember them." Troy took my hand and locked our fingers together.

"It's okay dad. I'm just glad you did the right thing in the end. But tell me why did you keep up the whole 'Alex' act?"

"I didn't want everyone to get all excited and then see that you don't actually remember them. But I knew that you would remember one day since Ms. Montez here wasn't believing that you were dead." Troy smiled lightly and squeezed my hand.

"I'm kind of glad that you kept it a secret." I said, looking at Troy's dad. "It was harder knowing that he didn't remember me than it was thinking he was dead."

"How am I supposed to go to school on Monday? Everyone knows me as Alex."

"We'll deal with that later. In the mean time, it's a Saturday and you deserve some time with your girlfriend." Troy smiled and nodded. I stood up and he stood up behind me.

"Let me go change and we'll do something." I nodded and he went upstairs, leaving me alone with his parents.

"Would you like something to eat?" his mother asked and I nodded.

"Yes please." she handed me a plate of food and I smiled. "Thank you." she nodded and went back to eating her own breakfast. Ten minutes later Troy came running down the stairs.

"Ready?" I nodded and took my plate over to the sink.

"Let me honey." his mother said, taking the plate from me. "Troy aren't you gonna eat something?"

"I'll grab something on the way. Bye."

"Bye Mrs. Miller. Bye Coach." I said and Coach Bolton smiled at me. Troy took my hand and pulled me out the door.