Disclaimer: I do not own anything.

Chapter 17 – 24 Hours

When Troy awoke, he looked around, confused by his surroundings. Then he looked down and saw Gabriella, still lying unconscious in the hospital bed.

"Oh, Brie. You have to wake up. I need you so much. And our daughter and son both need you. You have to wake up so we can name our son. He needs a name other than Baby Bolton." Troy sat there and stared at Gabriella. He began to cry again. He had never cried so much before in his life. But Brie was his life now and he couldn't stand the thought that his life might get taken away from him. "Brie, please wake up. I can't live without you."

Gabriella still didn't respond. Troy decided that he would get up and go for a walk. He walked to the nursery to see his son. As he sat there rocking the little boy, he kept thinking about how much different life would be if Gabriella didn't wake up. He shook his head. I shouldn't be thinking like this. Brie will wake up. She has to. I can't be a single parent. I can't raise two kids on my own. I don't even know how she did it with Annabelle for the time that she took care of her on her own.

After putting the little boy back in his bed, Troy walked back upstairs. When he began walking down the hall that Gabriella's room was on, he saw doctors rushing into her room. He started running down the hall. When he reached her room, he ran in, but a doctor stopped him right inside the door.

"Sorry son, you can't come in here."

"But that's my wife. What's going on?"

"Let's step out in the hall."

When they stepped out in the hall the doctor closed the door behind them so Troy wasn't able to see what was going on.

"Gabriella is having some more complications. I'm afraid that we have reached our limits and are not going to be able to do much more. These next 24 hours are going to be crucial. If she wakes up, that's great and she could pull through with little or no more complications. But if she doesn't the chances of her waking up again are very small. I'm so sorry Mr. Bolton."

Troy stood there in shock. How could this be happening? Brie had so much life to live. She couldn't give up now.

"When can I go back in and see her?"

"As soon as the doctors get her stabilized again and leave the room."

Troy waited for a few more minutes before the doctors finally came out and smiled sadly at him. He walked back into Gabriella's room and looked at her pale form. He went over and sat in the chair beside her bed and spoke softly to her.

"You know, Brie, I was just thinking about how much different life would be if you weren't here, and I don't even want to begin imagining what life would be like if I lost you. That's why you have to fight this thing. I know you can do it. I've seen you fight other obstacles in your life, so I know you have it in you to fight this." Troy sat back and just watched Gabriella. He stayed the whole day at the hospital, praying for some kind of miracle as the 24 hour period quickly slipped by. Periodically he got up to go see their son to make sure he was still ok.

When he got back to Gabriella's room for the fifth visit of the day, he went and sat back down in the chair that he had been occupying for most of the day. He leaned over and laid his head in his hands. The day had been exhausting for him, not only physically, but emotionally as well. He let out a loud, long sigh. He was sitting there thinking and hoping for a miracle when he started feeling fingers run through his hair. He looked up and blue met brown for the first time in over 24 hours. He sat there shocked at first, but then smiled at his wife.

"You look horrible, Troy," Gabriella said in a hoarse voice.

Troy laughed a heartfelt laugh. "Thanks, sweetheart. I do feel horrible, though. I was so worried about you."

"I'm here now, though. I'm not leaving you. What happened?"

"You had some complications during the delivery of our son. They told me this morning that the next 24 hours would be crucial. As the hours ticked by I was so worried that you weren't going to wake up."

"Where is our son? Did you name him?"

"He's in the nursery. No, I didn't name him. I wanted to do that with you. We really hadn't decided on a name so I wanted to know what you thought."

"Can you go get him and we can talk about a name when you get back?"

"Sure. I'll be right back. I'm going to go tell the doctor that you're awake too."

Troy went and talked to the doctor before going to get their son from the nursery. When he got back to Gabriella's room, the doctors were just finishing up checking on Gabriella.

One doctor stopped Troy before he went into Gabriella's room. "Mr. Bolton, your wife is doing surprisingly well. She's very lucky, as are you. We want to monitor her for a couple more days and run some more tests, but if everything goings smoothly, she'll be able to go home in a couple of days.

"Thanks, doctor, for everything,"

Troy walked into Gabriella's room. "Hey, Mommy, meet your son."

As soon as Gabriella saw him, she gasped. She reached out to take him from Troy and cuddled him in her arms close to her body. He was a beautiful baby boy with those blue eyes that she could stare into forever.

"He's so beautiful, Troy."

"He looks just like you."

"But with your eyes. What should we name him?"

"I like the name Caleb."

"I do, too. I like Alexander, too, just like your middle name."

"Caleb Alexander," Troy said, as he stared at his son.

"Caleb Alexander," Gabriella repeated. "It's perfect."

Troy leaned over and kissed Gabriella for the first time since she had awoken, then kissed Caleb's head. Caleb stirred in his mother's arms, but settled right back into her quickly.

"I love you, Troy, and our kids so much."

"I love you, too. I was so worried about you. I didn't know the first thing about being a single parent and couldn't imagine trying to raise our two kids without you by my side."

"Well you don't have to worry about that anymore because I'm not going anywhere."