"Now Mr and Mrs Bolton..." Doctor Anderson began from behind his desk.

"It's Gabriella." The dark haired beauty cut in causing the chestnut
haired male sat beside her to glare in her direction.

The counsellor smiled wryly and continued. "What seems to be the
problem between the two of you?"

"It's all his fault." Gabriella informed, spitting out the word 'his'.

"My fault? It's all your fault! You're the one who has these girly
mood swings!"

"Well I'm sorry for being a girl! Maybe you should come out of the
closet if you can't cope with me being a girl."

"Are you calling me gay? That's just childish, Gabriella. You know I'm
definitely not gay, I'm attracted to girls." Troy defended.

"All girls apart from me! Is that it? Are you cheating on me with some
tall leggy blonde?" Gabriella challenged. The pair had now turned
towards each other as their argument escalated.

"What? No? Why would you think that? Do you really think that low of
me? You're so paranoid, geez."

"Well maybe I wouldn't be so paranoid if you treated me like your wife!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Troy asked.

"When was the last time you showed affection towards me? When was the
last time you hugged me, kissed me or held my hand, actually when was
the last time you physically touched any single part of me?"

"You won't let me come near you! What am I supposed to do?" Troy
quizzed, his wife now starting to get on his last nerve.

"Okay, I've heard all I need to hear. Arguing is going to get you no
where." Dr. Anderson said, getting fed of the pair's bickering.

"Try telling her that."

"Oh shut up, Troy."

"It's obvious that you two can't get along but according to your notes
you have a five year old daughter. Am I correct?"

Troy and Gabriella nodded. "Layla." Troy informed.

"She's the only good thing I got out of this marriage." Gabriella
responded.

"Well how do you think this is affecting Layla?" Dr Anderson asked

"Its not, she hasn't noticed anything." Troy answered.

"Why do you think that?"

"She's never mentioned anything."Troy said.

"Just because she hasn't mentioned it doesn't mean it's not affecting
her. She's old enough to sense that something isn't right."

This made Troy and Gabriella stop and think about how their arguing
could possibly be affecting their beloved daughter. Did it upset her?
They hoped not.

"If there's one reason that you should fix this marriage it's because
of your daughter. And that's why I'm arranging for the two of you to
go away somewhere together and learn to get along."

"I'm not going anywhere with her. It'll be torture." Troy retorted
folding his arms over his chest.

"Right back at you." Gabriella spat back.

"I can't force you to go but I would advise you to for your daughters
well being." Dr Anderson informed.

"Fine I'll go."Troy decided,sighing.

"Gabriella?" Dr Anderson questioned, his gaze turning to Gabriella.

"Fine."Gabriella answered.

"Great so I will arrange for you to go to the British countryside for
two weeks starting next week. I hear the scenery is beautiful."

"But it's Christmas during those two weeks, I'm not spending Christmas
away from our daughter." Gabriella said, there was no way that she was
leaving Layla back home on Christmas day, Layla loved spending
Christmas with her parents.

"Well I'll arrange for Layla to go too along with someone to look
after her while you two are spending time alone together, maybe your
parents." The pair nodded. "Okay then that's it for today, I'll send
you the details and itinerary soon and I hope your marriage can be fixed
in time for Christmas." The counsellor concluded while standing up.
Troy and Gabriella stood up simultaneously and shook the counsellors
hand thanking him for his help and left the building. The space
between the couple could have been filled with an ocean as they walked
to their car. They both grumpily clambered into Troy's Audi before he
started the engine and started driving towards their house.

"Can we stop by the grocery store? I need to pick up a few things." Gabriella asked as they approached Wall-mart.

Troy responded by turning on his left indicator as they halted at the traffic lights just before the entrance to the store. "Thanks." Gabriella said quietly.

"You're welcome." Troy returned politely. When the traffic light changed to green, Troy drove the car into the Wall-mart parking lot and parked in the first space he saw.

Gabriella climbed out of the car, placing her purse over her shoulder before walking towards the entrance, grabbing a basket on the way in. Troy followed behind with his hands shoved in his Jean pockets. He sped his pace up and took the basket from his wife's hand. "What are you doing?" She asked coming to a halt.

"Carrying the basket for you. You complained that I don't act like a husband, well now I am."

"But I don't need you to carry it. I'm fine with carrying it by my self." Gabriella said taking the basket back into her own hand.

"Can't I do anything right, I'm trying to do something nice for you!" Troy said getting annoyed.

"But you'll take the basket and then you'll get bored and wonder off to the entertainment section with the basket leaving me stood with a pile of food in my arms looking like an idiot!" Gabriella exclaimed making the other customers look at them oddly.

"No I won't!" Troy defended. "When have I ever done that?"

"You do it every time I bring you here!"

"Fine, I won't carry your basket. When it gets too heavy, don't ask me to carry it for you!" Troy huffed as he began to walk down the aisle. Gabriella paused, calming her self before trailing behind him filling the basket as she walked.

Forty minuted later the pair arrived home, relieved to be able to see their daughter who would probably lighten their mood. Troy opened the door with his free hand, his other hand was filled with grocery bags, walking through it with Gabriella walking behind carrying a few bags herself. As they were dropping the bags onto the counters in the kitchen the sound of footsteps running was heard and a small figure with long dark curls and bright blue eyes entered the room.

"Mommy! Daddy! You're home!"

"Hey Layla. " Troy cooed pulling his daughter into a hug before Gabriella gave the little girl a hug too.

"Where have you been?" Layla asked curiously.

"Erm.."Troy said stuck for ideas.

"We went to Aunt Taylor's and Uncle Chad's and then we went to Wall-mart. We bought you some pink doughnuts!" Gabriella filled in, lying about going to Chad's and Taylor's.

"Really!? I love doughnuts, especially pink ones!" Layla squealed, her aqua coloured eyes glittering and her wide crooked smile causing her high cheek bones to be even more defined. Layla had inherited her dad's eyes and smile and her Mom's hair, nose and cheekbones.

At that moment Jack and Lucille Bolton walked into the kitchen. "Oh we thought we heard you come in." Lucille said.

"Hey Mom, Hey Dad." Troy said, moving forward to hug his parents.

"Hey." Gabriella replied, beginning to unpack the groceries.

"Hey son. Hey Gabriella. How did it go?"Jack asked, referring to their counselling. Troy and Gabriella's parents were the ones who arranged for the counselling as they too were fed up of the son's and daughters bickering.

Gabriella looked down at their daughter who was arranging the magnetic letters on the refrigerator to spell her name. "We'll talk about it later."

Jack and Lucille nodded.

"Why don't we have some strawberry milkshake and a doughnut while we snuggle up on the couch to watch a movie before I tuck you into bed?" Troy offered, reaching his hand down and brushing some curls away from Layla's pretty face.

She looked away from the magnets and up at her Daddy."Finding Nemo?" Layla asked hopefully.

Troy nodded causing his daughter to squeal and run into the living room, plucking the DVD from the cabinet under the TV. Troy followed and put the DVD into the player before carrying Layla over to the large L-shaped couch and placing her on his lap as he sat down. As the movie began to play, Layla snuggled up to her dad as he placed her favourite blanket over her small form. Whenever Layla watched a film with her parents it was always separately, her parents never both sat down with her together. At one time they had done, when Layla was younger the three of them would sit down to watch a movie every Friday night. But all that has changed now, if three of them ever did sit down together, Troy and Gabriella would either not talk to each other or if they did speak to each other they would end up arguing. Layla wished that everything would go back to normal. She wanted her parents to be in love again and most of all be happy.

Back in the kitchen Troy's parents were helping Gabriella to unpack the groceries.

"So how did it go?" Lucille asked as she placed the carton of orange juice into the refrigerator.

"Dr Anderson is sending us to England for two weeks to learn to get along." Gabriella sighed.

"Are you going to go?"Jack asked.

"Yeah, he said we should do for Layla's benefit. We were wondering if you two and my Mom would come too? We're taking Layla because we don't want to be away from her over Christmas but we need someone to look after her while we have to 'bond' alone." Gabriella said mimicking quotation marks on the word bond.

"Sure. We were planning on spending Christmas with you anyway. And I've always wanted to try a British roast dinner." Lucille replied, smiling.

Gabriella smiled and thanked them before ringing her Mom and asking her the same thing. She agreed too so now all they needed was for Dr Anderson to send them the details and then they were good to go. Gabriella stood at the doorway to the living room and watched as Troy soothingly stroked Layla's hair as they laughed at the fishes on screen. She only hoped that by the end of this trip, Troy would be that affectionate with her too.