Author's Note: This is going to be a very long author's note.

Co- I cannot PM you, so I have to say something now. I understand that my story is unbelievable at points; I've never said it would end up believable. I would like to know what I could do to make it more believable for you. Please, review.

And, yes, this chapter is going to be unbelievable; just thought I should add it now. But, if this story were believable, it would be kind of boring, wouldn't it?

XxTinkyBlondeBellxx is the only person to get Denny's name right! Denny Duquette from Grey's Anatomy! Cookies for you!

I'm not a doctor, peoples, so the information in this chapter may be a little iffy. Sorry about that. But I'm only thirteen. I'm not a MD. Maybe you are… if you are, please tell me what I should do about medical information in this chapter!

I'm just going to say one more little thing and then you can read: I love Denny. Okay, go ahead.

Chapter Fourteen: Promise?

"Troy," Denny said, shoving his thumb into his mouth. "Can you come in here with me?"

"Sure thing," Troy said. He sat down on the rocking chair that was placed haphazardly in the corner of the room. Denny sucked on his thumb until it turned pink. He spoke to Troy again, terror edging his voice.

"Will Daddy be mad at me?" He asked.

"For what?" Troy asked, feeling his heart rip into two.

"For telling," Denny said, his eyes wide with apprehension. Troy walked over to Denny and sat on the edge of his bed. Denny pushed himself closer to Troy so that their sides were touching. Troy jumped at the touch but stayed where he was; he was this kid's protection. He couldn't afford to be weak. Troy wrapped on arm around Denny, causing Denny to flinch.

"You won't be in trouble," Troy said.

"Promise?"

"I promise."

They sat silently for a moment; Troy could feel Denny's fear radiating through his body. Denny spoke in a tiny voice, his body being swallowed in the enormous room. "Troy, can you stay here? Until I fall asleep?"

Troy looked at the little boy and gave a smile, one that was tortured and afraid but one that also emitted the feeling of care and happiness. He nodded and pulled himself into the bed fully. Troy leaned himself up against the wall. Denny snuggled himself into Troy's chest and closed his eyes. Within twenty minutes, the four year old had fallen fast asleep. Troy sighed and brushed some stray hairs out of Denny's tiny face. It was just so unfair that something as awful as abuse would happen to someone as innocent as Denny. Troy may deserve it, but not Denny.

The room looked threatening in the glow of the Care Bear's nightlight. The bulb sent a pale glow around that spread like flame on the wall. The walls crushed down on Troy until he wanted to scream. He began to shiver slightly, afraid of the atmosphere in the room, of what it was doing to his mind, of what he so desperately wanted- to get out of that room.

Troy's shaking subdued and he laid a lazy arm over Denny's tiny body. They were both lying on their sides; Denny's body snuggled into Troy's warm chest. Troy watched Denny's small chest move up and down with his steady breathing until Troy himself eventually drifted to sleep.

…Troy…

Troy awoke to the sound of footsteps and very drunken screaming. He didn't open his tired eyes and snuggled closer to Denny, trying to fall back asleep. He was still woozy and his brain obviously wasn't processing the events. The screaming got louder and Troy heard a woman's voice racked with tears.

"Please, Eric!" Lisa shouted up the stairs. "Leave him alone!"

"Shut up, Lisa, and mind your own God damned business!" Eric traveled up the steps and Lisa let out a cry. "Please, Eric! Don't hurt him! He hasn't done anything!"

"I said shut up, Lisa!" Eric was on the second floor, heading down the hall. Troy opened one bleary eye and saw the man approaching quickly through the open doorway. Troy pulled Denny closer to his chest and shut his eyes, acting as if he was still asleep. His senses had jumped wide-awake at this point. He heard the door slam and the click of the lock. He panicked.

He was locked in Denny's room. Denny woke up from the slam and flipped around in Troy's arms. He had tears streaming down his cheeks. "You said I wasn't going to get in trouble! You promised!"

"You aren't, you aren't!" Troy said, pulling Denny into a hug. He let the toddler cry into his chest for a minute before he said, "I have to get up." Denny clung to his shirt and Troy sighed, picking Denny up and placing him on his hip. He walked over to the shut door and tried to open it with no prevail. He was expecting it but it was worth the try. Troy banged on the door with his fist and shouted, "Hello? Mr. and Mrs. Ducay?" He kept banging on the door. "Mr. and Mrs. Ducay! It's Troy! I'm in Denny's-."

He was cut short from the door being wrenched open. Eric was standing there, his clothes lying chaotically on his body. Eric was a big man with plenty of muscle and about two inches of height on Troy. Troy was used to threatening figures and stood his ground while Denny buried his face into Troy's shoulder. "Mr. Ducay," Troy said as calmly as his angry body would allow him.

"What are you doing in there?" Mr. Ducay asked drunkenly. He swung the door open wide and Troy stepped out, holding onto Denny tightly. Denny buried his face- if possible- further into Troy's shoulder. Troy whispered in his ear, "It's fine."

"What were you doing in Denny's room?" Eric asked again.

"I fell asleep in there," Troy said. He glanced at the clock behind Mr. Ducay's head. "It is two in the morning."

"Well," Mr. Ducay grunted, rubbing his neck awkwardly. "Okay. You can go now."

All three walked down the staircase, Denny still clinging tightly to Troy. When they hit the bottom, Eric fished some money out of his wallet and slammed it in Troy's fist. Lisa was standing in the kitchen's doorway, wiping tears from her face. "Denny sure does like you, doesn't he, Troy?" Troy smiled and nodded. He set Denny on the ground and Denny scrambled back to him, reaching for Troy to pick him up again.

Denny began to cry. "Don't go!"

"Denny, I'll come back. I promise," Troy said, picking him up and placing him on his hip once more. He pat Denny's nose playfully. "Now be a good boy for Mommy and Daddy!" Please.

Eric snorted. Troy shifted Denny a bit and threw Eric a look. "What?"

"Denny is just a troublemaker. He's never good for us," Eric said.

"You know, for some reason I have a hard time believing that," Troy said. "Denny is a great kid and why you think it's okay to beat him is beyond me." Troy watched Eric's face twist into a look of pure fury. He looked Troy dead in the eye, trying to size Troy up.

"What did you just say?" He asked.

Troy gave a wry smile.

"You heard me."

Troy ran out of the house as quickly as he could, still holding Denny. He got footing on the log pile next to the fence and jumped it quickly, heading to his doorway. Troy considered it a blessing that he had made it over or there would have been a delay of time. Troy couldn't take any delays. He heard Eric's screams emit from the bowels of the house.

Troy skidded into the house, Denny sobbing in his arms. He set Denny on the couch, kissed the top of his head, and squatted to Denny's eyelevel. "No one's going to hurt you. You're safe here, okay?" When Denny nodded, Troy stood up and looked in the kitchen where his father was sitting at the kitchen table, a newspaper unfolded in front of his eyes; why he was up at two in the morning was beyond Troy.

"Dad!" Troy shouted, for once happy to see him.

"Oh, hey, Troy," Jack said, tiredly. "Cassidy woke me up. She's throwing up again."

"Dad, I need your help," Troy said. Just as he paused to explain, a loud screech emitted from next door and Troy heard Denny's tiny voice from the living room. "Mommy?"

Jack looked at Troy. "What'd you do?"

"Look, I can't really explain, but you need to help me," Troy said, looking anxiously to the window. "Are you coming or not?"

Jack looked hesitant but threw his paper on the table. The two ran to the doorway. Troy turned to Denny. "We're going to be right back. Don't leave the couch, you understand?" Denny nodded and Troy led the way to the Ducay's house. He burst through the front door, happy that someone forgot to lock it. They turned into the living room where there was a huge commotion.

"Eric, stop!" Lisa screamed. Eric had her by the shoulders and was shaking her as hard as he could. "Please! The baby!" Eric stopped for a moment and looked down at Lisa's stomach. Troy looked too, stuck in awe. Lisa was –not very noticeably, but indeed was- pregnant.

"You told, didn't you?" Eric shouted, shaking her again. "Didn't you?"

"No!" Lisa cried, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I swear! I didn't!"

Jack bounded into the room and punched Eric square into the back of the head. Eric staggered and dropped Lisa to the floor. Troy ran over, avoiding the huge brawl that had broken out between his father and Mr. Ducay, and knelt next to Lisa. "Lisa, come with me." He said. "I'll bring you to my house; you'll be safe."

Lisa nodded and gave Troy a watery smile. "You're an angel."

Troy just nodded his thanks for the compliment and helped Lisa off the ground. She clenched tightly to Troy's hand as they snuck around the fighting pair of men and got out the backdoor. Lisa stopped dead in her tracks in the yard. "Where's Denny?" She asked worriedly.

"He's at my house, don't worr-." Troy was cut off by the sounds of a child's screams. "Mommy!"

Denny was running as fast as his little legs would carry him towards his mom and Troy. Lisa let go of Troy's hand and stooped down to scoop him off the ground. Denny and she hugged, spinning slightly on the spot. Lisa wiped tears off her face and off of Denny's. "Hey, baby," She whispered.

"Do you have any boo boos?" Denny asked, extremely concerned.

"No, I'm fine. What about you?" Lisa asked, hoisting Denny to her hip.

"I'm fine," Denny shrugged. "How's Nicole?"

Lisa put a hand on her stomach. "She's good."

Troy paused when he heard his dad's scream from inside the house. He took off running for the front door, shouting over his shoulder to Lisa and Denny, "Get inside my house and lock the door! Don't come out unless you know it's me!"

Troy ran into the next house and stood still in the foyer. There was no noise; the house was absolutely silent. He turned into the living room, praying that things would be okay for his dad- something that he never thought he would wish for. His dad was standing over Eric's unconscious body, panting and heaving and sporting a bloody lip and a slowly swelling left eye.

"Dad, you're okay!" Troy said. He ran over to his dad and thought for a fleeting moment to hug him and then he stopped. He was happy that his dad had saved Lisa but there was no way that he was going to touch his dad in any way, shape, or form. "He heard you scream last night, did you know that?" Jack asked Troy angrily. "He heard you!"

Troy gulped. Okay, happy moment over.

"Dad, I'm sorry," Troy said. "I didn't know that I-…" He paused. "Can we just drop it for a minute? You can beat me later, but we have a pregnant woman- who isn't your wife- and a four-year-old sitting terrified in our house."

"You aren't getting away with this, Troy," Jack said as Troy turned to leave the house. He picked up a picture frame that sat on the tiny credenza on his left side and threw it, smashing Troy square in the back of the head. Troy felt himself get woozy and eventually collapse to the ground.

…Troy…

An hour later found Troy in a police station, talking animatedly to the police. "Okay, so, earlier that night, Denny had told me that his dad hurt him. So I had to find out if it was true. So, I looked at his back and sure enough there were bruises. And he kept on flinching and he was afraid of his dad coming home and being in trouble. I knew what was going on."

"Weird thing to presume immediately," The officer said with an annoyed voice like it was Troy's fault that he had to do his job. Especially at three forty-five in the morning. Troy gave him an angry look. "Well, when the four year old tells me that his dad is hurting him, what am I supposed to presume? That he likes corn?"

"All right, son," The officer said. "Calm down. So… you got Denny to your house and…"

"I got my dad," Troy said. "I knew that he could take Mr. Ducay easily"

"How did you know that?" the officer asked skeptically. Troy gave him another look. "This is not about me. It's about Denny."

"Right, keep going."

So Troy explained everything that happened after he had put Denny in his house. The officer then questioned him some more and Troy was allowed to leave. Just before Troy walked out of the room, the officer asked, "When we got there, you were unconscious. What happened there?"

"I'm sorry," Troy said with a mocking smile. "The interview's over."

…Troy…

Troy remained balled on the ground. Jack's foot pummeled into Troy's stomach until Troy thought he would scream, but he bit his lip and bared it, considering that this was all because he had screamed. Troy felt sick, as if he was going to throw up. His head spun, the room twisted around his, the shadows playing with his eyes.

Jack had a malevolent gleam sparkle in his dark depths of eyes. To him, this was an addiction- the abuse. When anger came through him, no matter what it may be about, Troy was his escape route for pain. The more pain he caused Troy, the less his pain was on himself.

Troy gulped back tears as Jack's foot hit his stomach with a sickening thump. His body racked his sobs and shook uncontrollably until Troy felt it all stop. Troy felt his back relax and his entire body slackened; Troy stumbled face first to the ground. Jack chuckled and stooped next to Troy.

"I told you that you weren't going to get away with it," He whispered. Jack disappeared out the front door but Troy remained frozen on the ground, every move he made straining his muscles and twisting his throbbing head. Troy moaned and rolled onto his back, waiting for numbness to settle over his body so that he could make his way into his bedroom once more.

…Gabriella…

Gabriella drove quickly, her eyes set dead in front of her. Troy hadn't answered his cell phone in the past two hours and she was getting worried. She promised to call him and he promised to pick up. Troy Bolton never went back on a promise.

Her car sped down the road, zipping past trees and houses as if they were nothing more than air wrapping around her car. Gabriella was so lost in thought that once she reached the front of Troy's house, she almost passed it up. Her car squealed to a halt and she jumped out, locking the door with the automatic button. Gabriella slid open the door, her stomach churning, afraid of what she was about to see.

The door creaked open and at first, the house was silent. The only noise she heard was her light footsteps, the jingling of her keys as she stored them in her pocket, and the door as it swung shut with a creak. Suddenly, the house seemed to roar to life as she heard coughs come from the floor behind the couch. Gabriella mustered up the courage to walk around the piece of furniture and gasped.

Troy was on his hands and knees on the floor, coughing out a lung. He put one hand to his stomach as the other kept him above the floor. He coughed loudly and groaned, clutching tightly at his side. Gabriella ran over and crouched next to Troy, putting a hand on his back. She gasped louder than before when she looked onto the floor.

Crimson blood splattered the hardwood flooring and covered the back of Troy's hands. He coughed again, a new wave of blood splattering the floor. Gabriella felt herself panic and she breathed deeply, hoping it would calm her.

It didn't.

"Troy, I don't care what you say," Gabriella said quickly. "We need to get you to the hospital now."

Instead of arguing, Troy coughed loudly and once again, crimson hit the floor. He clutched at his stomach tightly. Troy tried to straighten up but moaned and collapsed back down to the floor. "Gabriella…" Blood dotted his lips and he let tears dot his face. Gabriella was a doctor, but she knew this wasn't good.

…Chad…

Chad Danforth had always thought out his decisions. He was only unsure of himself twice in his life- once when he was eight and he decided to chase his basketball into the middle of the street and now, as he sped down Highway I 89, towards the hospital.

Chad knew why he wasn't going to tell:

He was in shock. It's hard to believe that, after seventeen years of friendship, Jack would turn so bad. He had known the family since he was born and Mr. Bolton didn't seem the type. He believed Troy, yeah, but Jack was different than that. Was.

He was scared. He knew it was pathetic; he wasn't the one in Troy's position. But telling on someone always got him hyped up. And sending someone to jail is a bit bigger than saying, "He stole my crayon!"

Troy asked him not to. This was Troy's business and it was Troy's wish. No matter how dumb it was. No matter what happened in life, you were always supposed to bear with your friend's wishes. No matter how much it hurt him.

He only had one reason why he should tell.

Troy was his friend.

So why did the one thing out rule every other reason not to?

Chad turned into the hospital parking lot, wheels squealing from h is sharp driving. He parked haphazardly in a parking spot. He ran as fast as his legs would carry him through the dim lot and up the white staircases, through the white halls, into the white lobby. The white overwhelmed Chad, bleeding into his brain and making sure that as he moved, he was blind. As he walked, he was numb. As he listened, he didn't hear. Until eventually, Chad leaned onto the wall, sobbing until his body hurt from the shaking.

No one moved in the hall because no one was there- not to Chad. He felt frozen of his surroundings as his entire wall of protectiveness crumbled in his mind. His protection- his best friend was lying, half-dead in a hospital bed somewhere in this God forsaken hospital. Chad punched the wall behind him in frustration.

Chad felt a tiny hand polish his back and felt a warm body stand behind him. He whipped around, tears leaking down his face. A grave smile, one that Chad could tell wasn't genuine, was smiling at him from Sharpay's face. She grabbed Chad's hand reassuringly.

"Come on, Chad." The words barely graced his ears as Sharpay tugged him down the hall a ways until they stood in front of a door. Sharpay looked at Chad, her grip tightening on his hand. "You ready?"

Chad felt himself nod and watched as Sharpay's hand made its way, slow motion, to the doorknob. The door clicked open and they stepped inside the room where the rest of the gang, minus Taylor and Jason, were sitting, scared and tired. They all stared at the two entering teenagers with red eyes and gave tiny smiles that were far from encouraging.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

They were gathered as if in a flock around Troy's bed. The boy was asleep, his chest barely moving with his ragged breath. It was minutes before Chad found his voice again. "What's the matter?"

"Internal bleeding," Kelsi whispered, and then broke down in tears. Ryan wrapped his arms around her tightly as she sobbed into his chest. Ryan let a few tears slip down his face as he kissed the top of her head gently.

"What happened?" Chad asked, staring at Troy unblinkingly.

"We don't know," Zeke said sadly, shaking his head. But the answer was blaring in his eyes, the same pair of eyes that stared so gently at everyone and everything. The same pair of eyes that had a raging fire burning behind them, ready to attack and kill, to get rid of what they could.

To get rid of Jack Bolton.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The room fell into silence, all eyes plastered on the lifeless form in the bed. Chad noticed that Troy wasn't even under the covers, not even in a hospital gown yet. They were in a hurry and when hospital workers were in a hurry, Chad knew it wasn't good. Chad looked at Gabriella's shaking hand that clamped Troy's as well as it could. She had tears welled in her eyes, and she was biting her lip as if by biting her mouth was biting back tears.

Beep. Beep. Beeeeeeeeeeeep.

Author's Note: Like my cliffy? Sorry all! Well, please review! And I always thought this wasn't necessary because it's so obvious but: no flames please! They aren't needed.