Troy paced around the Albuquerque Sunport. He had turned his phone off last night and had not planned on turning it on. Not until after Gabriella was there. They were supposed to be staying at his parents house, and they were supposed to be spending the whole five days there, his parents were planning on it, but he couldn't think about taking a vacation with Gabriella when all he wanted her to do was take him to meet their daughter.
He heard her call out to him from behind him and turned to see her running toward him. She jumped into his arms when she got up to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him deeply. He dropped his bags and wrapped his arms around her waist as her legs bent at the knees behind her. He wasn't going to drop her now, not in public, where anyone would be watching. They were both in the public eye enough that he knew a public humiliation wasn't good for either of them. He didn't want to do damage control.
Gabriella was happy to see him. The two weeks they had been away from each other seemed to melt away to nothing as she held him close. Troy set her down on her feet slowly, only looking down at her.
"I missed you." He wasn't sure if he meant that or not, but he had to pretend. He wasn't the actor, but he could pretend as long as he had to.
She smiled, kissing him again. "Faltééééééé, T."
Troy pulled back, turning his head slightly. "What?"
She smirked up at him. "Le falté también."
He shook his head, doing his best to hide his annoyance with her right now. Couldn't she just speak English, dammit?
"You know I don't speak Spanish. I didn't understand a lick of that."
She winked up at him, not noticing his behavior, playing with the hair on the back of his head. "That's the point. You better start learning."
He shook his head, lifting his hands in confusion. "Why? I've done pretty well not knowing any so far. Bwenas deas has served me just fine."
She giggled, spreading her hands over his shoulders. "You better start learning fast, because I'm giving you a crash course, baby. Sink or swim."
Troy let out a short puff of air, his mouth dropping slightly. "Now what fair is that?"
Gabriella smiled brightly up at him, placing her hands on his cheeks. "Correa y disfrutar del paseo, baby."
He growled, squinting his eyes down on her. "Aren't you at least going to translate?"
She giggled, shrugging her shoulders. "How are you going to learn if if I don't tell you for a while?" She hugged him to her tightly, winking up at him. "Buckle up and enjoy the ride, baby!"
"Well, alright then."
Gabriella giggled more, leaning up and pressing her lips to hers as the baggage turnstile started turning beside them.
With their suitcase packed in the trunk of the Mercedes BlueHybrid they rented, Gabriella put her carry on in the backseat. Troy tossed his carry on in the backseat beside hers and reached around her to open the passenger door for her.
"Gracias," Gabriella smiled, sliding past him and sitting down in the seat, smiling up at him, wating for an answer.
Troy sighed, trying to think for the response.
"Can I just say you're welcome?"
Gabriella shook her head. "Nope," she said shortly. "You can say de nada, and you can remember it, because it's an easy one."
Troy shook his head as well, sighing. "None of this is easy for me. I speak two languages. English and bad English, and bad English is the easier one."
Bri shook her head again, trying not to giggle. "No. You're going to get this! One day we're going to have children and I want you to be able to speak Spanish, or at least Spanglish with them." And after she said that, her smile faded, as she turned away from him, pulling off her sunglasses and tossing them up on the dashboard of the car. "Sorry. Lesson's over for now. Can we just go?"
Troy sighed, crouching down in front of the door beside her. It was exactly what they should be talking about right now, but they were still in public, and he wasn't about to do it now.
"I'll learn, ok?" he barely whispered.
She nodded, trying to smile, unable to look at him though. "Can we just … not talk about it right now, please?" She wasn't even able to talk right now, her plea only coming out in a whisper.
"Sure. Lets get going to my parents'. They're dying to see you."
He stood and shutting the door. If he'd have known he was going to have a daughter today, he would have learned. Every time he passed the a book store, he always thought he should go in and pick up Learning Spanish for Dummies. He knew it was the only way he was going to learn it on his walked around the car and slid in the driver's side an shut the door, pulling on his belt, looking over at her. She still had tears in her eyes.
"Hey," he sighed, leaning his head against the back of the seat. He couldn't handle her tears, so he had to come up with something. "Taykeyarrow."
Gabriella turned to look at him, smiling brightly, even with the tears in her eyes. "¡Te quiero, T!"
He did catch onto things, even though she hadn't specifically taught him them yet. She leaned forward, wrapping her arms around his neck, pulling him closer to her, kissing his lips fully. "¡Te quiero! ¡Por siempre!"
Troy pulled back, taking her hands in his, just to get her to stop. "I'm going to try. Promise you." He shook his head. He was promising himself, more than her right about now. "I only took high school Spanish class that one semester and the only reason I passed was because Señora Delgado felt sorry for me and gave me a D. And the only reason I remember her name is because you told me Delgado means thin and she was anything but, but don't ask me why I remember that." He couldn't help but laugh slightly, and it made Gabriella laugh too. He wasn't doing this to make her feel better, but at least she wasn't crying anymore. "But I'm really going to try."
Gabriella rubbed his cheek softly, kissing him again softly. "Gracias, T. Muchas gracias."
He nodded and started the car, pulling out of the parking garage and heading out toward his parent's house.
"I can't wait to see your parents," Gabriella said once they were out and on the freeway. "And Abuelita. I hope they're all doing ok. Ten years is a long time without seeing some one."
Troy wished they could go without talking, but since she had no idea anything was wrong, how could they. She would talk his ear off.
"You're telling me," he said, looking over at her briefly.
She smiled softly, taking a deep breath. "Are you sure your mom isn't upset with me?"
He sighed, shaking his head. "Are you kidding? She's missed you like crazy!"
Gabriella nodded, looking out the windshield again. "Ok. Just making sure."
"Trust me. She's thrilled you're coming home!"
She smiled, looking back over at him. "I can't wait to see her, and your dad."
He gave her a short smile and kept his eyes forward on the road. It wasn't too much longer before they were pulling into the driveway at his parents house. Gabriella had fallen asleep after her long flight, and Troy was grateful for that. But he wasn't grateful for what he found, or what he didn't find, at his parents' house. Neither of their cars were in the drive, meaning they weren't home. If he'd had his phone on, he probably would have known. They were no longer around people, or in a car where he didn't want to fight with her while he was driving, knowing things wouldn't be calm between them when he told her what he knew.
He decided to let her sleep a little longer, and put off their pending fight as well, taking the suitcases inside the house. He found a note on the kitchen counter from his mom, telling him they couldn't get a hold of him on the phone and had a school board dinner and to eat the dinner she left for them on the stove. School board dinner meant that they'd be there till God knows when. Sighing heavily, he looked out the glass door to where the Mercedes was parked.
"Let's get this over with."
He walked out to the car and opened her door, causing her to wake up quickly.
"We're here?"
Nodding, he took a step back so she could get out. "Yeah. I've already took the bags in. Come on."
She looked up at him strangely, inhaling deeply. "T? Something wrong?"
"Let's just go inside." He wasn't doing this outside.
Leaving the door open for her, he turned and walked back into the house, not waiting for her to follow. She had no idea what was wrong,but she slid out of the car, shutting the door behind her and following him into the house anyway.
"Troy?"
Turning to her as she shut the door, he shook his head. "I wanna show you something."
He had kept the copy of Victoria's birth certificate in his back pocket, pulling it out and handing it to her. "I got that from an old friend yesterday. At first I didn't believe it. I didn't believe you'd lie to me.. but this isn't a forgery of a government document... of a birth certificate." He folded his arms over his chest, leaning in the doorway to the tv room. "And since I remembered you mentioning you having family that lived in San Francisco once..."
Gabriella looked at the copy of the birth certificate in her hand, the birth certificate of her daughter, of Troy's daughter, and she couldn't believe it. She hadn't seen it since she had signed it and couldn't believe her eyes. He had caught her off guard. Sharpay? She couldn't believe Sharpay would do something like this. How did she even know? No one knew. Yes, birth records were at public access, but Gabriella thought she had done the best she could to keep anyone from finding out until she was able to tell Troy. But he knew. He knew and Gabriella hadn't had a chance to tell him. She took a deep breath, tears stinging at her eyes. She couldn't believe this was happening. This wasn't how this was supposed to happen.
"I didn't want you to find out like this. I didn't want you to find out without me telling you. Believe me when I say I've tried to tell you so many times, I just couldn't ever find the words to tell you."
All he could do was stare at her, and she hated the way he was doing nothing more than that. She'd never seen so much anger in her life. But she could also see the hurt in his blue eyes. She knew Troy, better than anyone, and she knew even behind all this anger was pain. It was a pain she had brought to him and she felt horrible about it. Wrapping her arms over my breasts, she hugged herself tightly. It was late, and the drive from the sunport here on top of the flight had left her exhausted. She didn't know how exhausted she was until right now.
"You didn't want me to find out at all." Troy spat back at her. He softened only slightly when I saw the pain in her eyes, cursing himself "I can barely look at you. I can't sit on a flight for hours with you. Even to see my daughter."
"I'll take you to her, I will. Please. Let me take you now, Dante."
She'd take him now. They could head straight back to the sunport and fly to San Francisco. She didn't need sleep... not now that he knew and she knew he was hurting and angry with her.
"I'll book a flight and we'll go tomorrow." Shaking his head, he let his eyes look her over again, as if he were seeing her for the first time. "I can't believe you hid our daughter away like she was a monster... I can't... I can't even look a you! You make me sick!"
He barked at her before turning to head up to his bedroom. Once at the room they had shared when they were younger, he slammed the door open, kicking his suitcase on the floor by the closet.
It was taking everything Gabriella had not to cry. She knew he was hurting and she knew her tears would only make things worse for him. She knew he hated it when she cried. Closing her eyes, she took a breath to build up her courage, her strength to follow Troy up to the room, almost breaking into tears when she saw him sitting on the bed completely helpless. Covering her mouth, she hugged herself even tighter. Swallowing hard, she opened her eyes and walked more into the room.
"I wanted to tell you. I wanted to tell you that first night, the night of the reunion. I wanted to tell you that next morning. Several times since then." She knew that she wasn't making things better, but she had to keep trying. "Several times since then. I wanted to tell you. There were so many times I wanted to tell you, I just couldn't find the way to do it, Troy. I wish I would have told you, but I didn't know how. I'm sorry!" Her voice almost broke but she pressed on. "I'm so terribly sorry, Troy. So sorry." Her voice faded to a heavy sob, unable to keep it in any longer.
Troy stared her down, not really knowing what to say, not really wanting to say anything. He had wished that Sharpay had lied to him, a cheap trick to get him to go back to her, but it wasn't goin to work. Even if he was mad at Gabriella, he wasn't going to go straight back to Sharpay, even if she'd never lied to him the way Gabriella had. He knew the truth now. Everything. Ten years ago. The last time they had sex before she left. No condom. She left. She never came back. She had gotten pregnant and never came back. It all made sense. He knew it. He hated that she had kept that boy in there a secret from him and he was only finding out about her yesterday.
Gabriella looked down at the floor, not knowing what to say, even though she'd had ten years to think about what to say, she'd still never come up with the right words. "I didn't know, Troy... Not when I left..."
Troy just sat there, his breath hitching in his throat. "And afterward? When you did know... when you knew I was still here, then what?"
Gabriella couldn't look at him, she couldn't face him for what she had done, for what she had taken from him, so she kept her eyes to the floor. "I was afraid," she whispered, closing her eyes. "Afraid I'd lose the baby again... Afraid you wouldn't want me back... Not after the way I left... I didn't know what to do."
Troy wasn't going to deny any of that. It was bad the last few weeks before she had left. Really bad. "I can admit we fought... and it was ugly. Yes... I can... admit how ugly we got... how bad it was but we were hurting we... were hurting over losing our daughter. And you went and took the one thing that could have healed us away! Another baby! She could have healed us. We could have spent the last nine years loving each other... our daughter! You took that away from us... from me!"
Gabriella finally looked up at him, shaking her head wiping away a rebel tear. "I am sorry! I was scared! I didn't know how to be a mom! I was scared I was going to fuck up! I already lost one baby that we made together. And then we made this one together... I didn't want to hurt it the way my mom hurt me. I didn't want to hurt you again. And did end up hurting you again. And I'm sorry. But yes. He's our son, and I'm sorry I kept you from him. But I don't know him either. I haven't seen him once since the day he was born. I haven't been his mother. And I'm sorry!" She hated admitting how much of a failure she had been to their daughter. She did what she thought she had to do, but how fair was it for her to raise their daughter if he wasn't in his life?
"You took my choice from me... do you know that? You do not get to be upset about this!"
She was crying, and even though he wanted to pull her into his arms and console her, he wasn't going to do it, not this time. She was the one who had taken his right to be a parent from him this time. The first time hadn't been her fault. They had both been robbed the right to be parents, but this time she had taken it from him, he didn't get a choice. This time, just like that day at Taylor's house, he was consumed by how he felt. He felt betrayed, and he wasn't going to let go of it so easily. She had taken his right to be a father away this time by choice. For nine years he had a daughter he hadn't known about, and now he did. He had every right to feel this way.
"You should have let me choose! Let me make my own choice on whether to be a father or not! You took that choice from me! You tore it away from me you do not get to be upset because of the choices you made! You, Gabriella!"
She was about to agree with him, but when he called her Gabriella, something he had never called her, even when they were children, he'd never called her by her name. Before calling her Lily it had been Gabi and Bri mostly, but never Gabriella.
She flinched, swallowing hard. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't do it to hurt you! I love you, Troy and I want a family with you. I've been trying to find a way to tell you since the night of the reunion, but I didn't know how to do it. I've been trying. But every time I've tried, something has stopped me. My tears..."
– Something she didn't like to do. She hated to cry, but it was something she did a lot of with Troy and about Troy. She was a strong and an independent woman, especially before she had lost their first baby. She kicked ass and she didn't bother to take names, and superstar Ella Leigh certainly didn't bother with that shit either. She was a kickass bitch and she didn't let anyone make her cry, but Troy didn't make her cry, but she cried because of him and she didn't know why. –
"...my insecurities... both of us not wanting to talk about the past... but I have wanted to tell you, Troy. I know I should have told you ten years ago when I found out, but I was scared. I was, and that's no excuse, I just was."
Troy shook his head, not wanting to hear anymore of this. Rubbing his hand over his face coarsely, he dropped his hands, staring at her intensely.
"I can't sit here and talk about this.. because.. I don't even know you.. Lily would have never kept this from me. Never. Ella Leigh the famous Hollywood actress... I guess she has no problem keeping a child from me... Lily never would have." He stood, walking toward her. "Mom left dinner for us on the fridge. If you're hungry, you can eat. I'm going to sleep in the guest room. I'll call the airport and we'll leave for San Francisco tomorrow."
Gabriella swallowed hard, gripping at the back of the door frame, feeling her knees buckle beneath her. She knew if she took one step away from the door, she'd be dropping. He stopped, turning back to face her. "You even named her after me... Victoria Bolton... but didn't think I deserved the right to know her?"
He leaned down, picking up his bag and slid past her, walking across the hall to the guest room. He wasn't in the mood to eat tonight. He was sure he wouldn't even sleep
Gabriella took a step forward to go after him, but... just as she expected, as she took the step, she fell to her ass, the tears falling heavily as she buried her face in her knees, sobbing silently as she had the night she found out she was pregnant the second time with Troy's baby. That night she had been alone, and this night, she felt the same way.