Well, you guys just continue to amaze – Chapter 19 is officially my most reviewed chapter ever: 34 reviews!!!!! Can you say EVERYONE ROCKS?? I am starting to think maybe I can come down from my cave in the mountains now...

Hope everyone had a wonderfully rocking Christmas! I sure did!

Now to answer a few questions:

Strawberry Shortcake123 – I'm not sure of Mrs Bolton and Ms Montez's first names – Maria just fits with Montez I guess and on Wikipedia it has Mrs Bolton as Lucille even though she isn't credited with a first name in either movie so that's what I used!

Carito06 – I'm glad that the story has touched you. I'm also glad to hear your best friend is in remission. The cancer world is a roller coaster of emotions whether you are the sufferer or it is a loved one...it is always very hard. I hope you continue to enjoy my story, and that your best friend never knows the word 'relapse'.

Aunt Gladys – this one is for you because you scare me...I'm sleeping with my wicked-sweet ninja skills under my pillow just in case you try and kill me in my sleep lol. And Jessa – man we seriously need to co-ordinate MSN times!!! We haven't had one of our extremely random side-splittingly funny chats in like...a week – the shock and horror!

Without further ado...Chapter 20!

Charli xox


Chapter 20

All throughout Saturday night and the early hours of Sunday morning, Maria had not slept a wink, remaining at Gabriella's side the entire time. Medical staff had been in and out of her room right through the night – monitoring her condition throughout these critical hours.

As much as Lucille and Jack had tried to convince him, Troy had refused to go home, dozing on and off on the floor of the family room. The Wildcat's had been given the opportunity to spend five minutes each with Gabriella earlier Saturday evening. It had been very emotional for all of them - unsure whether they would ever see her again after those five precious minutes. Sharpay, Ryan, Zeke, Jason and Kelsi had gone home afterwards, however Taylor and Chad had stayed with Troy for an hour or two more. They were worried about him and figured he could use the company, even if he barely said a word the whole time.

It was now 7.30am Sunday morning, and Dr Zamitt was speaking to an exhausted Maria out in the hallway.

"Well she has managed to hold her own through the night, and that is an extremely positive sign," he stated. "We are going to start to bring her off the sedatives shortly, and see if we can get her extubated and breathing unaided by lunchtime. Our primary concern right now is this fever – it is still dangerously high. If we don't get it to come down soon, it could cause all sorts of problems."

"All sorts of problems...like what?" Maria asked fearfully.

"Her body temperature is so high right now that it could induce seizures. I'm also concerned that it will lead to Hydrocephalous – or swelling around her brain – which could cause permanent brain damage."

"How do we get her temperature down?" panicked Maria.

"We're going to try the simplest method first – an ice blanket and ice packs in her bed. This is sometimes the quickest and most effective way to break a fever."

Maria nodded. "Right, well – let's do it then."

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"Has he been here all night?"

"He can't be comfortable..."

"Should we wake him up?"

"He's going to have one heck of a sore neck if we don't!"

Troy blinked slowly and rubbed his eyes as he heard several whispered voices above him. Opening his eyes properly, seven familiar faces swam into view, all peering down at him.

"Dude, he's awake!"

"Gabriella!" Troy sat straight up, suddenly remembering where he was and why.

"It's ok, Troy," Taylor said soothingly, helping him to sit up on a chair.

Troy rubbed his face with his hands. "What's the time?"

"Almost 8am," Taylor told him.

"8am Sunday morning and you guys are all awake! That's gotta be a first, wait till I tell Gabs," Troy joked. The gang exchanged sad glances. "What?" Troy asked."Did I miss something?"

When no one answered him, he stood up. "I'm gonna go and check on her. I'll be back."

Out in the hall, Troy bumped into Maria who was just leaving Gabriella's room.

"Maria! How is she?" he asked quickly.

"Morning Troy," Maria smiled tiredly, rubbing his arm. "She's still hanging in there. They're trying to bring her temperature down still but they want to bring her out of the sedation and take out the breathing tube during the day so that's good news. How are you holding up?"

Troy shrugged. "As long as she keeps fighting I'm good. Can I see her?"

Maria nodded. "Of course you can. I was just coming to see if you were awake, actually."

"Yeah, the rest of the gang are here too – they're in the family room."

"Well I might go and say hi...give you some time alone with Gabi."

"Ok...thanks..." Troy replied.

Maria just patted his arm and headed towards the family room. Suddenly she turned on her heel and called out to Troy.

"Oh, and Troy?"

"Yeah?" he turned around.

"I noticed your ring on Gabi's finger," she said softly. Troy looked down at his feet shyly. "She's going to love that."

Troy looked up, his cheeks slightly pink. He gave a small nod. "She means so much to me."

Maria nodded. "I know she does."

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"Everyone is here, Bella. Everyone is out there sending all their love your way. So you need to pull through this and get better for us. Christmas is coming up – our first Christmas together, Gabs – and I don't plan on celebrating without you. I..." Troy turned his attention away from Gabriella as the door opened with a soft 'click'.

"Hey...you ok?" Taylor asked gently, standing behind him and placing her hands on his shoulders in a gesture of comfort.

Troy nodded and wiped at his eyes, sniffing a little. "Yeah...I just...I really miss her smile, y'know. Her beautiful smile, her laugh – that cheeky little giggle she does...I miss her voice, her eyes..."

Taylor nodded tearfully, giving Troy's shoulder's a soft squeeze before moving closer to Gabriella's bedside.

"Hey Gabsi," she said, using a nickname that she knew always got a smile and an eye-roll out of her best friend. "Hope Mr Lunkhead here hasn't been boring you too much. You had better get well soon, because I don't know how much longer we can put up with his moping," she joked. "Besides, I need my best friend to help me with my Christmas shopping – remember we made a pact to do all our shopping together? I'm holding you to that..." Taylor trailed off and sighed, her cheerful front fading rapidly as her true emotions began to show. "Oh Gabi, I hate seeing you like this – it's so unfair that you have to suffer so much. You don't deserve it."

It was Troy's turn to comfort Taylor now. "Hey...Don't cry Tay – this is Gabriella Montez we're talking about – she's the strongest person we know – a real battler. She's overcome so much in her life already and this is just another obstacle along the way. It's not the end of the road," he said adamantly.

Taylor looked up at him, wiping her eyes and nodding. "Everything is ok in the end and if it's not ok, it's not the end...right?" she recited, quoting one of her best friend's favourite sayings.

"Exactly," Troy grinned. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and together they watched the gentle rise and fall of Gabriella's chest as her body worked to free itself from the grips of infection.

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"It looks like things are starting to swing our way," Dr Zamitt explained to Maria. "Her temperature is slowly trending downwards – probably a combination of the ice blankets and the antibiotics kicking in. We stopped the sedative right after I spoke to you this morning, so she should start to come out of it anytime soon. As you know, Dr Gregson – the ICU attending – and his nurse Angela are extubating her as we speak so when we go back in there she will be off the ventilator."

"So then we just...wait?" Maria asked and Dr Zamitt nodded.

"We wait and see how her body responds. It's all up to her now."

After Dr Zamitt left, Maria went and relayed the new information to Troy and the gang, before returning to Gabriella's room with Troy in tow. The rest of the gang remained in the family room, the four walls of which they hadn't left all day, apart from toilet breaks, trips to the cafeteria, and brief visits to Gabriella's room.

Now they sat in silence, each lost in their own thoughts – excited at the thought of Gabriella fighting back but too scared to say it aloud, fearful that they might jinx things by speaking too soon.

The silence was broken by a sudden chuckle from Chad.

"Remember the time Taylor dared Gabriella to steal all Troy's clothes from the bathroom while he was in the shower?" he asked, and everyone looked at each other with huge smiles.

"Yes!" laughed Kelsi. "I'll never forget the sound of the yell or the look on her face when she ran out of the bathroom and told us he'd stepped out of the shower just as she was about to grab his stuff!"

"She was mortified! She couldn't look Troy in the eye for weeks," Taylor remembered. "Oh, and what about the time she convinced Troy to let her test some fake tan on him before Sharpay's pool party?"

"He turned Oompa-Loompa ORANGE!" Jason exclaimed.

"Gabriella felt so bad...but I think we managed to convince her to find it as hilarious as the rest of us," Sharpay smiled. "Hmmm, sometimes I worry about the influence we've had on that girl," she joked and the gang laughed.

"Naaah, we still see that innocent Gabi we all know and love all the time," said Chad. "Remember her reaction to the surprise party we helped Troy organise for her birthday?"

"Yeah," Zeke replied. "She genuinely had no idea and was so excited! She must have said 'oh my gosh, are you serious?' about seven hundred times!"

"And thanked us about seven hundred more! Oh, and then she wrote us all those sweet little thankyou notes – we all got individual letters she had put so much thought into, telling us how much we mean to her," said Taylor.

"She's the kindest, most thoughtful and caring person I've ever met," said Ryan. "We really are blessed that she came into our lives. We've made so many wonderful memories with her," the gang nodded in agreement. "And WHEN she beats this thing, we're going to make many, many more..."

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"It's so good to see her without that horrible tube sticking out of her mouth," Troy commented as he and Maria continued their vigil at Gabriella's bedside. "She would have hated that."

Maria nodded. "She looks so much more comfortable now. She seems more peaceful, somehow."

"She's beautiful," Troy murmured, reaching his hand out to stroke her cheek and finding himself lost in his thoughts.

Maria watched him as he ran his thumb up and down her daughter's cheek, her heart bursting with pride at how much he so obviously adored her. Troy and Gabriella reminded her so much of herself and Gabriella's father, Carlos, at that age. They too had been high school sweethearts, married by the age of twenty two, and with child by the age of twenty four. Tragically, Carlos had died suddenly and unexpectedly when Gabriella was just nine years old. He had been feeling off colour for a couple of days, and just collapsed one April morning. He died on the way to hospital, and Maria was later informed that the cause of death was a Pulmonary Embolism - a blood clot had found its way to his heart, blocking the blood flow before rupturing and killing him almost instantly.

The grief Maria had felt at the loss of her beloved husband was something that she hoped and prayed her daughter would never know, and during the dark days since Gabriella's diagnosis she had prayed and prayed that Troy would not have to experience that same unbelievable sense of loss at such a tender age.

Maria was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of Troy's voice repeating her name.

"Maria...Maria?"

"Mmm?"

"Look – she moved a little!"

Troy knew he had her attention now. They knew that once the sedation had worn off it should only be a matter of time before Gabriella woke. Both were so eager for the moment they could see her eyes open again, and now that moment seemed to be nearing, neither could contain their excitement.

A soft moan from the frail girl lying in the bed had them on their feet, each grasping one of her hands. Gabriella's forehead creased as she moaned again, shifting slightly beneath the crisp hospital sheets, signs of life slowly beginning to return to the body that had seemed almost lifeless just moments ago.

Maria reached down and rested her hand on her forehead. She was still warm, but nowhere near burning up like she had been. "Hey my baby girl. It's ok...relax...it's alright."

Gabriella's face relaxed almost immediately and her breathing regulated once more. Troy and Maria watched with tears in their eyes as Gabriella's eyelids twitched, fluttering softly, before they opened. Slowly, Gabriella's brown eyes moved around – taking in her surroundings and lingering on her mother's face and then Troy's, absorbing their expressions which were a mixture of concern, tiredness and joy.

Slowly and painfully, Gabriella licked her dry, chapped lips before opening her mouth and managing to croak out a short sentence, despite her desperately dry throat.

"Geez, you both look like somebody died..."


Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all hehe. You didn't seriously think I'd kill her off just yet did you? This story has a LOT more mileage left in it yet, if you're all up for the ride!

Next up, Gabriella's awake but is she out of the woods yet? And a certain sweet someone does a certain sweet something for his certain sweet girlfriend.

Charli xox