Molly looked at the white paper bag in her hand and let out of a heavy sigh.

She could do this now or wait till they got into the city. There would be plenty of opportunities when TJ was out with the other medical students touring the convention.

After spending another minute debating, it she was about to open the bag when her phone went off.

It was a text from TJ. He was already at Kelly's with Curtis and was wondering where she was.

She let out a curse and shot him a quick text message back letting him know she was on her way now.

Grabbing her suitcase and purse she made her way to the living room. As she was picking up her jacket there was a knock on the door.

With a huff she opened it. She was completely surprised to see Brando standing in front of her.

"Brando…what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to talk to you about the things that went down with your sister."

"I-it's…it's not a good time."

"I brought coffee." He said hopefully as he lifted the two cups up.

Molly sighed and stepped to the side. "Okay but just for a minute."

He walked in and over to the couch. She shut the door and while his back was to hers, she shoved the white bag into her purse and then turned to look at him.

"I wanted to apologize for what happened with Sam and I the other day. I know she's your sister and is only looking out for you. It's just…I didn't like the things she said. But still that was no excuse to react the way I did." He admitted as he held out the coffee to her.

She graciously took it. "Even so Sam had no right to show up at your garage making threats and accusations. She doesn't know you like I do."

"So, you don't think I was just using you for sex?"

She shook her head. "You said it was more then that for you and I believe you."

He smiled. "Oh yeah? And why would you believe me?"

She smiled back. "I just would."

Brando had the urge to move closer to her and kiss her but stopped himself when he saw her yellow suitcase beside her. His smile faded.

"Going somewhere?"

She nodded. "TJ's class is going to this medical convention in the city and Curtis said he'd drive us to the train station. I was actually on my way to meet them when you showed up."

"How long will you be gone for?"

"Just the weekend."

He nodded. "Well then I should probably let you go."

Molly watched him as he started to leave, and she could sense this sadness radiating off him. If she was being honest, she felt a little sad too.

Without realizing it her free hand found its way to his and firmly grasped it.

"Brando…"

He turned his head back towards hers. "Yes?"

"Don't go."

There eyes both locked on to each other. He slowly stepped closer to her fully prepared to kiss her.

They were barely a few inches apart when the sound of shattering glass could be heard.

Brando quickly looked up to see a barrage of bullets flying through the window.

On instinct Brando pushed Molly to the floor and jumped on top of her.

The coffee's they were both holding went crashing to floor, there contents spilling everywhere.

"Shit what's happening?" Molly yelled in a panicked tone.

"Stay there don't move."

He lifted himself off her and started to crawl to the arm of the couch.

"Brando no! What are you doing?"

She was about to move when he yelled in her direction.

"I said don't move!"

The bullets stopped.

He looked out the window and squinted his eyes.

In the building across from there's was a man standing up against the window holding what appeared to be a gun. Before he could try and make out anymore the gun fire continued.

He ducked his head a bit and looked to the window and then to Molly.

"When I tell you to, I want you to quickly crawl to me okay?"

"Okay." She nodded.

He watched the window and when he saw their chance, he yelled to her.

"Now!"

Molly quickly moved to him and once she was close enough, he grabbed onto her arm and pulled her against his chest.

"What do we do now?"

"Do you trust me to get us out of here?"

She nodded. "Yes."

When the fire momentarily stopped again. Brando grabbed her and dragged her to the front door.

Once they made it out into the hall, he pulled them to their feet and toward the stairwell.

"Come on my car is out front. If we hurry, we can get out of here before they notice."

Once they made it outside, he grabbed his keys and unlocked his black truck.

Molly followed him to his car and rushed to get in its safe confines.

"We need to get us somewhere safe. I'd say we go to Sonny's, but I don't want to put the family at risk."

She nodded in agreement. She would hate herself if something happened to Carly or one of the kids.

But he was right. They had to get somewhere safe.

Cleary someone was after either her or him. There were no accidents in Port Charles. Someone wanted her or Brando dead. And if they didn't, they were sending a message. A very dangerous one.

So, going anywhere where there was family right now was not a good idea. But that didn't leave many places.

Plus, if these people knew where she lived, they probably knew where Uncle Sonny, her mother, or her sister lived.

They could hide out on Spoon Island but for some reason that didn't seem like a viable option either.

As she further wracked her brain, she remembered something Sonny had once said to her.

She quickly rifled through her purse that was still hanging from her arm. When she found her keys, she said a silent prayer that she had put them in there instead of her usual spot by the door.

"I have somewhere we can go. Just keep driving and I'll tell you how to get there."

###

"So, you don't think we were followed?"

He shook his head. "No. I can spot a tail a mile away. We should be safe for now."

Molly took out her keys and found the gold square one she was looking for. She first put it in the dead bolt and unlocked it and then proceeded to unlock the remaining lock.

Before she opened the door, Brando put his hand in front of her to stop her.

He pulled out his gun that he had taken from the glove compartment of his truck and unclicked the safety.

"Stay behind me."

"Wait where did you get a gun?"

"I'm ex-military." He stated mater-o-factly.

"How come you never told me that?"

"You never asked."

He placed his hand on the door and slowly opened it.

"You don't think someone could be, here do you?" She questioned.

"Probably not but I'm not taking any chances."

Once they made there way into the house Brando did a sweep of the first floor.

When he deemed it safe, he started to walk towards the stairs.

"This is Uncle Sonny's safe house. Only Sonny, Jason and I know about it."

"Just the same I'm not taking any chances. Stay there. I'll call down to you when I know it's safe."

Molly nodded as he made his way up the stairs.

Once he was gone from her view, she was quick to sit down as she started to suddenly feel lightheaded.

This wasn't how it was supposed to be. She was supposed to be on a train right now with TJ to the city.

She cursed when she remembered her boyfriend. He must be worried sick about her sense she didn't show up at Kelly's.

Digging though her purse, she found her phone and pulled it out. Of course, as luck would have it there was no service. Meaning she couldn't alert TJ to where she was.

As Brando was coming down the stairs, he was tucking his gun into the back of his pants. When Molly noticed him, she looked up.

"All clear?"

"All clear."

"You know on the way up here I had been wondering who it could have been that shot up my apartment and the only thing that made sense was…"

"Was it being Cyrus?" He finished.

"Yeah but why would he target me?"

"Well your Sonny's niece. They could have done it to send a message to him. Then there's TJ's mother. She is the commissioner, right?" She nodded. "They could have been trying to use TJ to get to her. Or he could have been targeting me."

"You? Why you? Because your related to Sonny too?"

"That and I may have messed up his plans."

"Plans? Plans for what?"

Brando sat down next to her and sighed. "When I came into town looking for my mom, I found myself smack dab in the middle of gun fire. I saw Carly who was basically a sitting duck and my military training kicked in and I jumped out and started shooting. If I hadn't shown up who knows what would have happened. But I did and that prevented Cyrus from sending the message to Sonny that he wanted to. Then not too long after Jason torched his warehouse. So, he could easily be pissed at me for ruining his plans."

She rubbed her face. "So, what do we do now?" She picked up her phone and checked again for cell service. "There's no service. If Cyrus is targeting one of us there's no way to alert Sonny. And what if TJ goes back to apartment looking for me?"

"I think for now we need to lay low. Then tomorrow maybe I can go into town and get a burner phone and reach out to Sonny."

"Great."

There was some awkward silence before Brando looked over to Molly. She looked a little green around the gills.

"You don't look so good. Do you want me to see if there's any crackers or ginger ale around?"

She shook her head as she remembered the white bag she had in her purse. "No thanks. I actually uh… have to go to the bathroom. So, I'll be right back."

"Okay."

With her bag still on her arm she quickly made her way up to the second floor. When she made it to the bedroom, she shut the door behind her and then slowly walked over to the bathroom.

She put her purse on top of a basket full of towels and pulled out the paper bag.

When her hands finally wrapped themselves around the pregnancy test box they started to shake.

This was not how she wanted to do this. On the run with Brando. But she had no other choice.

She opened the pink box and took out its contents. The idea of having to pee in a small cup repulsed her but it had to be done.

Once she finally collected enough urine, she flushed the toilet and put the cup on the counter.

The instructions said to immerse the end of the stick in the cup. Then once two minutes had passed the test would give her the results.

She followed the instructions to the letter and set a timer on her phone.

There was no denying that now was not a good time to end up pregnant. A mob war was brewing in Port Charles and she and Brando seemed to be caught in the middle of it.

Plus, there was the fact that she was dating TJ. She had already told him she didn't want to get married to him. How would he feel if she were to be pregnant?" Would he pressure her again about the subject of matrimony? Or would he dump her on the spot?

And what about Brando? He had said he had cared about her, but he didn't sign up for this type of drama. He'd probably run for the hills when he found out. Or maybe he'd surprise her and want to stay.

After all he agreed to lie and say he was Dev's father when he didn't have to.

Before she could let her thoughts wonder further into the dark abyss the timer on her phone went off.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before walking up to the sink. With shaky hands she picked up the test.

She blinked a few times but there it was in back text. Pregnant.

Molly stared at it for a few moments before she felt the need to sit down. She took a few steps back over to the tub and sat down in front of it. She blinked a few more times again before the test fell from her hand and she started to sob.

She was pregnant. She was pregnant with Brando's baby.

###

How long she had been sitting on the bathroom floor she didn't know. She knew it must have been awhile when there was a knock on the bedroom door.

"Molly are you okay in there?"

She quickly wiped her tears and cleared her throat.

"Yeah I'm fine. I'll be out in a minute."

She picked herself up off the floor and cursed when she saw all the evidence of her pregnancy still out in the open.

Taking the white bag, she dumped the box and papers into it. She then emptied out the cup and tossed that in as well. All that was left was the pregnancy test. When she picked it up, she couldn't help but stare at it for a moment.

She knew she'd have to tell Brando, but she didn't know how yet. There'd be plenty of time though to figure it out.

She threw the test into the bag and then dropped the whole thing in the trash.

When she made it out to the bedroom Brando was standing there with a worried look on his face.

"Are you sure your okay? You looked a little green earlier and you were in the bathroom for a really long time."

"I'm fine."

"Because if you're not I coul-."

"Brando stop it! I'm fine."

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to push."

Molly lowered her head and sighed. "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you. It' just been…"

"A really rough day?"

"You don't know the half of it." She said as her eyes started to brim with tears.

Brando noticed and slowly walked over to her. He opened his arms and before she could talk herself out of it, she let herself melt into his warmth. His arms then wrapped tightly around her holding her in place. That's when he couldn't help but get a whiff of the strawberry scented shampoo she used. It smelled like heaven.

"Hey, don't worry were going to get through this."

"You say that now but just wait till it gets worse."

Brando pulled away and grabbed her face, so she was looking at him.

"No matter how bad things get I'm not going anywhere. We will get through this together. You have my word okay?"

A single tear slipped down her cheek and he gently brushed it away with his thumb.

"Okay."

"I found some cards downstairs you up for a game of poker?"

"I don't know how to play."

He smiled. "Don't worry I'll teach you."

###

"Poker!" Molly said as she laid her cards down on the table.

"Poker?"

"Yeah. Isn't that what you say when you win the game?"

He laughed at her mix up. "No that's when you're playing Gin Rummy. When you win you call out Gin."

"Oh…" She looked down at her cards and then put her palm to her face and laughed. "So, what do you call out when you win at poker?"

"Usually nothing. But I guess you could call out I win."

"Okay then I win!"

He laughed again as he looked at her cards. Her pair of queens did beat his pair of fours.

"Not bad for your first hand. You want to deal this one?"

She gave him a nod and collected the cards that were on the table. She had remembered this trick she saw in a movie once and split the deck in half. She then brought them up to each other and bent them, so the ends were facing each other. When she let go of the cards some started to overlap while the others slipped out of her hand and landed in a big mess on the table.

"So…that didn't go as planned."

He chuckled. "Here let me."

He took the cards from her and the ones from the table and stacked them together. With ease the red cards fell from his hands in a cascading waterfall like effect. Molly watched in amazement and stared as he did it a second time. But unlike the first she found herself watching his hands instead of the cards.

She never noticed how long and slender his hands were.

It brought her back to their first kiss when they cupped her face. And then when they cupped her breasts as soon as they fell from her bra.

Thinking back to when they had sex sent a jolt all the way to her core and she crossed her legs as a reflex.

She knew she might regret what she was about to say but she didn't care.

"Do you ever think about that night we shared together?"

He dealt her, her last card. "All the time. You?"

"Wait really?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I was pretty bummed when I found out you had a boyfriend."

"To be fair I thought TJ had broken up with me at the time."

"So, I take it you two are back together now? Considering you were going to go away with him for the weekend."

"Yeah I guess we are." She said as she picked up her cards.

"You guess?"

"Yeah. Everything is kind of complicated right now."

Brando arched his eyebrow. "Does he know about us?"

"No but he's going to find out eventually."

"How many cards?"

"Two."

He picked up two cards and slid them over to her.

"And when he does?"

"I don't know. With how complicated things are he'll probably want to dump me."

"Would that be such a bad thing though? I mean I've seen you two out together. You both don't seem like two people in love."

"Oh yeah and how do we seem?" She wondered aloud.

"Like two friends hanging out."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. And when you looked at him…you…"

"I what?"

"You didn't look at him the way you look at me."

"And how do I look at you exactly?" She swallowed nervously.

"Like you can finally see clearly for the first time."

She sat back a bit. Had she really looked at him like that? Sure, Brando was attractive and dare she say the best she's ever had in bed but there's no possible way that caused her to look at him like that.

"Brando I…"

"Four of a kind." He said as he laid his cards out in front of her.

###

After an hour of playing cards Molly was famished. Her and Brando raided the fridge and found some frozen pizza.

They ate that for dinner and then like the gentleman he was, Brando let Molly take a shower first while he cleaned up.

When she was done, he took his own shower and she went down to the kitchen to make herself some hot tea.

"I hope I left you enough hot water."

She asked as she heard Brando bounding down the stairs.

"Yeah there was plenty."

Molly gave him a nod as she put her empty cup in the sink.

"So how do we want to do the sleeping arrangements?" She asked as she walked over to him.

"Well I was thinking we should share the bedroom. I can sleep on the floor or something, but I think for safety reasons it'd be better that way."

"Well there's no reason to sleep on the floor. I mean we are adults."

"That is true." He remarked as he stood in front of her.

"And I'm sure we'll be able to keep our hands off each other."

"Unlike that night we shared in your apartment."

"If I remember correctly you were one who couldn't keep your hands off me."

He smiled. "Says the woman who all but tore my flannel trying to get it off me."

"So, I was in a hurry."

He stepped closer to her and took in her appearance. She had on a black cotton robe that fell several inches below her knees.

Her hair was damp and up in a messy bun. She looked beautiful.

"I'd say you were more eager than anything else."

If she had been at all eager it was because she hadn't had sex in two months. But there was no way she would tell him that.

And there was no way he'd tell her it had been even longer for him.

As they stood there in silence, she realized that Brando wasn't wearing anything but a pair of gray sweatpants.

When he saw her staring at him, he smirked.

"See something you like?"

Molly tried to hide her blush. Something that wasn't normal for her. "I'm sorry."

His hands lazily made there way to the sash of her robe and started to play with it.

"I'm not."

They stared into each other's eyes as they both felt this magnetizing pull come over them.

For the second time that day there, lips were so close to touching

Brando brought his hand to her face and gently caressed her cheek.

He closed his eyes and just as he was about to lean into her lips, he heard the sound of a gun cocking.

"Put your hands up and turn around!"

Brando noticed his gun sitting on the coffee table next to them and without thinking he reached for it and spun around.

Molly's hand landed on Brando's shoulder and when she finally got a look at the man with the gun pointed at them, she raised her eyebrow.

"Max?"

"Molly?"

"What are you doing here?" The younger man asked.

He shook his head. "I come here regularly to check the place out and restock things. But I could ask you the same thing Brando. What are you two doing here?" Max asked.

"You know you can put your gun down now. " Brando hesitated for a second but complied. "You too Max."

Max put his gun away.

"So, again Brando…Molly what are you doing here?"

Before she could respond he did it for her. "Her apartment was shot up earlier today."

Max shook his head. "What?"

"I had stopped by her place to see her and next thing I know shots are being fired thought the window."

"Brando managed to get us out of there, but we needed somewhere safe to go. Sonny always said if I needed to, I could come here."

"Does anyone beside me know your here?"

"No. And we can't get any cell service to tell anyone were okay."

The bodyguard nodded at her. "Yeah service here is terrible. Were either of you able to get a look at the gunman?"

Brando shook his head. "I saw him but couldn't make out his face. But Molly and I have a pretty good idea as to who it was."

"Let me guess. Cyrus Renault?"

###

"I can't believe she knew who had TJ and didn't say anything to me!"

"Well from the sounds of it she was just trying to protect you both."

"I'm a strong independent woman. I didn't need her to protect me."

"Clearly."

Molly quickly put the tank top on and huffed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all."

"Well obiviously it didn't work. I almost got killed this morning. If you hadn't been there…"

"Let's not think about that." Brando said as he pulled out a packaged toothbrush from one of the drawers.

She sighed. "How long do you think we'll have to stay here for?"

"What sick of me already?"

She stuck her tongue out at him even though he couldn't see it. "No, it's just TJ and my family must be worried."

He squirted some toothpaste on the blue toothbrush and paused.

"Well Max is going to get in touch with Sonny and then get back to us tomorrow. Hopefully this is only temporary."

As Brando started to brush his teeth Molly paced the length of the bedroom in hopes of expelling some of her nervous energy.

When she didn't know where TJ was, she was beyond concerned. So, she could only imagine how he was feeling now.

He probably saw the apartment and was thinking the worst.

"Do you think Sonny will at least let everyone know we're okay?"

Through minty toothpaste he spoke. "Yes."

"My mothers been a little preoccupied lately but I'm sure she's worried I mean Jordan probably alerted her once she found out about the apartment."

He spit out the remaining toothpaste in his mouth and sighed.

"Relax Molly there's no need to worry. We are safe here and everything is going to be okay."

"Me worried? I don't worry. I'm the cool headed one in my family. Sam, Kristina and Mom they worry. But me? I don't worry."

"Really because it sounds like your worried to me."

"Well I'm not."

He took his toothbrush and ran it under the water. Once he was done cleaning it, he put it in the holder that was attached to wall.

He then went to reach for the hand towel that was next to him and managed to knock it in the trash can.

Brando knelt down to pick up the small black cloth and that's when he noticed a white stick sticking out of the trash. He gingerly picked it up and got to a standing position.

He blinked his eyes a couple of times when he realized what he was holding. It was a pregnancy test. A positive pregnancy test.

Molly and he had been the only people who knew about the house and the only ones who had been there recently for that matter.

Which could only mean one thing.

"Did you hear what I said?"

Brando turned around and their Molly was leaning up against the doorframe of the bathroom. When she saw what he was holding she instantly got sick to her stomach.

"Do you want to tell me what this is about?"