Author's Note: I'm sorry for not updating. I will not sit here and write an excuse, for I don't have one. But here is Chapter 6 and I hope you enjoy it

Broken Paradise
written by missefron15

Previously...

"You love her, I get it now." Chad replied and smiled.

"I do love her….I really do." Troy spoke.

Gabriella smiled at the loud voice of Troy saying he loved her. It meant a whole lot too her and all she wanted to do was, "I love you too," she whispered and sleep engulfed her.

Chapter Six

She woke up in pain. She felt like her body was on fire. The fire was everywhere and the ache in her muscles weren't going away and it scared her. Emotionally and physically. She didn't know if she could move. Her face felt like it was burning and her stomach felt like there were a bunch of bricks sitting on top her it. She opened her eyes and looked at the time.

6:02 AM

Usually at this time she would be doing her rounds at the hospital but she was here in Troy's bed…hurting more than ever. Usually she would get hit or kicked at 4:30 AM in the morning because she would take too long in the bathroom or she didn't make the coffee fast enough.

She began to think of those painful memories and slowly but surely sat up as best as she could. She now saw it was 6:09 AM. She stood up and winced as her muscles rolled as she took one step. "Ouch…" she whispered. She wrapped her arms around her body and opened Troy's bedroom door.

She walked quietly towards the kitchen and made a pot of coffee. She was so used to doing this back in New Mexico that she felt like she needed to do this for Troy here in L.A. She looked into his fridge and pulled out some eggs, sausage and some hash brown potato mix. She saw he had tortillas and cheese as well. She was going to make breakfast burritos.

He felt the ache in his lower back as he stretched his muscles. Sleeping on a hard couch made him protest in agony but he'd sleep on this piece of furniture for a thousand years if it meant that Gabriella was okay and safe.

He smelled something familiar. Something that he hadn't had to eat in almost seven years. He knew that smell. It was her famous burritos.

He stood up and stretched his aching muscles, causing his white shirt to rise. He popped his back and his neck a couple times to get all the kinks out and walked towards the kitchen. When he stood by the entrance, he smiled at the sight of her cooking and softly moving around like she was afraid she might wake him.

"It's smells good in here," he whispered so he wouldn't startle her.

She didn't jump, but he did see her freeze up. She slowly turned her head towards him and gave him a small smile. "I wanted to make your favorite," she whispered back.

The bags under her eyes made him want to send her back to bed and get some more rest, but knowing her, she probably would put up a big fight. The dark bruise on her face was slowly but surely fading and it also made him want to hunt the son of a bitch down and kill him for hitting his Ella.

His Ella.

There he goes again. He shouldn't be saying that. She wasn't his anymore. He sighed and ran his right hand through his brown hair and messed it up a bit. "You keep doing that and you're going to pull your hair out," he heard her say to him. He looked up and noticed she wasn't even looking at him but at the food she was making.

"How'd you know I was doing that if you were cooking?" He asked with a sly smile on his face.

She gave soft smile and then turned towards him. "I know you. You always do that." She whispered and turned the stove burners off. "Breakfast is done," she told him and he nodded.

"It smells really good, Gabi." He told her as they sat down to eat his kitchen table. She smiled and then picked at her burrito. Troy noticed her not eating, while he was on his second burrito. "Eat, Gabi." He told her softly.

She looked into his blue eyes and sighed. Even when she lived with Henry, he never liked her eating. So she always ate at the hospital with her friends when he wasn't around. But when they ate together at the hospital she would just buy some food and push it around on her eating tray and make it look like she was eating.

"I can't eat that good," she told her ex-boyfriend.

He stopped eating and looked at her. "Why not?"

"Henry never liked me to eat. He thought I was getting too fat." She told him softly, still picking at her food slowly.

This made Troy's stomach curl. How could someone do this to her? She was the sweetest person in the world, hell she still is. She's been through so much shit in her life and some guy comes barging into her life and tells her if she eats, she's going to get fatter? That just wasn't right and Troy wanted to kill the motherfucker. He sighed. "Gabriella…eat. You are so gorgeous. You are not fat, trust me." He told her, his blue eyes shining like the ocean.

She took that one look from his eyes and gave a hearty smiled and picked her burrito up with a little more confidence and started to eat it. She'd gotten so used to eating so little that if she ate way too much she might get sick. But she started to eat her burrito and found herself wanting one more.

She looked to Troy and saw that he was going on his third and when he looked at her, he gave her a smile, reassuring her that it was going to be okay. Everything was going to be okay.

So she grabbed another.

And she ate it.

The police were all over her house. One officer was questioning Jo and another was questioning Drew and Keith. No one was speaking to her. They just left her alone to collect her thoughts. Her granddaughter's body was missing. What was she to do? Go on a mad hunt for her body? No she didn't think she could do that, even if she was old as the sky.

Her eyes looked over the room and she noticed that The Bolton's were talking to the police as well. She even caught onto what the police were asking Jack Bolton. "…If you could just contact the FBI in Los Angeles, they can get my son and he can help find her." He demanded, his right hand running through his hair.

The officer, who was a woman, looked at Jack. "Mr. Bolton, they are in LA, I can't do nothing with the FBI in LA. Now if it was in New Mexico, I can do something but right now with what we have, we can't go to them."

"And what exactly do you have?" Jack asked tiredly.

The woman whose hair was pulled back tight into a bun sighed, "I can't discuss that with you, Mr. Bolton. This is for the family to hear." She told him, her green eyes searching into Jack's blue ones.

This was enough. Rose walked up the woman officer and looked at her badge.

Officer Riley

"Officer Riley, The Bolton's are a part of this family. They may know as much as possible." She spoke and glared at the woman.

Jo looked from where she was talking to Officer Carson and glared at her mother. She did not want The Bolton's into this investigation. She stopped. Why was she thinking these things? Why did all this hatred come forward? Was it because of her jealousy of Lucille? Was it because they had a life with her daughter when she chose not too? She couldn't be this way. She had to left her mother handle things. She was not Gabriella's mother. Not anymore.

"Mrs. Tyler?" Jo turned her head back to the officer.

"Yes?" she spoke softly turning her full attention to him now.

The officer looked at her, his hazel eyes boring into her. "When was the last time you talked to Gabriella?"

Jo stopped breathing.

She couldn't remember….well the last time she spoke to her was the day she left….left Gabriella behind with her mother and went to start a new life.

Jo looked at the officer. "Thirteen years."

The officer looked at her astonished but wrote down what she said anyway.

Rose looked at Officer Riley and the woman nodded at her. "Yes ma'am." The officer nodded.

Jack smiled at Rose, "Thanks Rosie." He told her and Rose nodded. When the officer finished talking to Jack with a promise to try and get in touch with the FBI in LA, Jack turned to Rose. "Have you heard from Troy?" he asked with worried sketched onto his face.

Rose sighed. "No, I haven't. I called and left a voicemail. Lucy called Chad and he said that he would try to get in touch with Troy as much as possible but we haven't heard anything since."

"Cade talked to Troy." The voice of Caroline Bolton spoke up.

Rose and Jack turned their heads to the young woman and looked at her. "When?" Jack asked.

Caroline sighed. "Cade was just texting him how he couldn't believe Gabi was dead and then Troy said he couldn't either and that he'd call mom and that something came up. Cade got mad and asked what was so important that he couldn't come back to his ex-girlfriend's funeral and then Troy told Cade that they have to find her body. That's when we found out that her body was missing. I texted him back and told him off sort of."

Rose sighed. "What is so important that he couldn't be here?" she asked.

Lucille came up to the three at that time. "Chad called. Said Troy was fine. He had his phone turned off because of the news. Troy knows her body is missing, he heard the voicemails we all left," Lucille spoke out of breath.

Jack looked at his wife. "Why don't you sit down? You've been running around like a chicken with his head cut off." He told her with a laugh.

Lucille smiled and nodded, sitting down next to Caroline. "Any news on what's going on, Rose?"

Rose sighed. Ever since she found out that Gabriella's body was missing, she immediately called the police and they were also up at the hospital questioning all the staff. "Not really…although….I need to mention Henry to them."

This was a sore subject for all of them to process. Lucille looked at Rose with a sadden expression. When she first met Henry, she knew there was something off about the guy even if he was the top Cardio Surgeon in all of New Mexico. "Have you told the police about him?"

"Told us what?" Rose turned her attention and smiled.

"Hello, Rocketman." The man laughed.

"It's Jimmy now, Mrs. Darbus." He told her, his brown shaggy hair getting in his eyes. He looked at his old drama teacher. "What have you not told us?" he asked, being serious.

Rose sighed. "Gabriella was dating a man named Henry Marshall."

Jimmy sighed and nodded. "Yes, we know. We have back-up at the hospital searching for him. He has disappeared as well."

Keith heard this and walked over to the group. "Wait what? Who is Henry?" he asked, and felt Drew behind him rubbing his back softly.

Rose looked at her ex-son-in-law. "Henry was Gabriella's boyfriend."

"I thought she was still dating Troy?" Keith asked.

"Honey, they haven't been dating since she was 18 years old." Rose told him.

His eyes widened. "What? How come I didn't know about that?"

Lucille looked confused. "Gabriella and Troy never told you they broke up?"

Keith sighed. "I rarely spoke to Troy on the phone and I don't know why Gabriella never told me."

Rose sighed and looked at everyone and saw that Jo was still talking to the police officer. "She was heart broken; she probably didn't want to tell anyone."

No one said anything for a few minutes until they heard Jimmy's radio.

"Jim, we found Marshall. He confessed to killing Montez."

Troy looked at the woman before him as she sat on his couch flipping through his cable channels. Ever since she had cooked this morning and finally ate something, she seemed to be a little more at ease with him. That was some progress. He looked down at his iPhone and saw he had a text from Chad.

Called your mom and covered for your ass. You owe me. BIG TIME!

Troy stiffed a laughed and messaged him back.

Thanks buddy. I certainly do owe you. Free beer on me for a month?

Within seconds of sending that out, Troy immediately got a reply.

Make it two plus cheese fries at Paty's and you've got yourself a deal.

Troy smiled and texted him back.

Deal.

Troy also saw texts from his siblings and parents but ignored them because they only wanted to know what was going on with him and why he wasn't home right now.

He sighed, placing his phone in his jean pocket and looked at the clock on his wall. It was five pm meaning it was about seven pm in Albuquerque. He walked towards his living room and sat down on the couch with Gabriella and watched as she kept channel surfing.

"Is that show good?" he asked.

Gabriella rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah. It's so much fun." She spoke sarcastically with a small smile on her lips.

Troy smiled. He loved her sarcasm. It felt like her again…when they were together seven years ago.

"I'm sorry." He told her.

Her brown orbs met his blue eyes and she gave him a confused look. What was he talking about? Why would he be sorry for her? She led this life after they broke up. She didn't get out of the relationship with Henry sooner, she was too late.

"For what?" she asked, turning the television off and turned her body slowly towards Troy.

Troy ran a hand through his unruly brown hair and trailed his hand down his face, rubbing his eyes in the process. He looked at her after he did that and sighed. "For breaking up with you."

That's what he meant. She thought to herself. This time she sighed and ran a hand along the hem of the couch. "You don't need to be sorry, Troy." She told him with a sorrow look on her face. "We both decided that breaking up would be the best for us." She spoke.

He shook his head. "No, I shouldn't have broken up with you. I thought that you wanted to break up because I hadn't been talking to you and we didn't get to visit each other that much." He told her truthfully.

She looked at him. "I thought the same thing…" she muttered trailing off.

He sighed. Now what? They were stuck. They broke up because each other thought that was what the other wanted and in reality it was never the truth. He needed to change the topic. "So how was medical school?" he asked horribly.

She laughed. "Thanks for easing away from the subject mister…" she spoke and sighed. "Medical school sucked. After we broke up, I took summer classes so I could graduate faster so I could get onto doing my internship at the hospital."

"How'd that work out?"

She sighed again. "It didn't. Nana got sick my senior year…well it was supposed to be my junior year of college and I had to stay and take care of her for a while. So I fell behind but it just meant I would graduate a few months later than what I wanted. In the end, I started to intern at the hospital and I met Henry…" she trailed off not liking this conversation anymore.

Troy shifted where he was sitting, seeing as though it was uncomfortable hearing her talk about Henry or just bringing up his name. "Can you tell me how that started? You and Henry?" he asked.

She thought about that. She didn't think she could. It was too painful even if it was not too long ago. "Troy…I can't." she whispered and grabbed the afghan from the couch and carefully wrapped herself up in the blanket.

He nodded. "It's okay. Maybe some other time?" he asked, rubbing her arm softly.

His touch…it made her feel alive…safe…most of all loved. She loved him so much, but she couldn't let him know even if he did admit he still loved her last night to his friend Chad. She couldn't tell him. She just got out of that dangerous relationship and she didn't think she could get back into another one even if she was with Troy seven years ago.

"Thank you Troy." She whispered softly.

He looked at her confused. "For what?" he whispered back.

She looked into his gorgeous blue eyes, "For being there for me when I needed to run away from my demons." She told him sincerely.

He smiled and scooted a little closer to her and touched her other arm with his free hand. "I'm glad you came to me…but I don't like the method you used. You really hurt your grandmother, Ella." He whispered.

She nodded. "I know…what should I do, Troy? I don't want Henry to come after me." She whispered, as she scooted even closer to him and laid her head on his chest.

He ran a hand through her soft brown locks and kissed her head. "He won't ever come after you. I can promise you that, Ella. And right now…just stay here and lay low. No one needs to know where you are until I find out what's going on and that motherfucker is caught." He told her and held her a little closer.

She nodded and sighed. "Thank you for everything….like I said last night…you're always saving me."

He smiled. "And you're always saving me."