Disclaimer: I am not affiliated nor do I own General Hospital or its characters.

Chapter 6: Departure

"Jason?!" Brenda screamed, running out of her hiding spot. Her hands shot up to her mouth, shocked. She walked towards Jason, "You're ok." She sighed, "Is he…dead?". Jason threw the gun on the floor and fell into Brenda's arms. The smoke was watering his eyes and blurring them at the same time. He was gasping for breath.

"The place might go down," Jason replied. He winced and Brenda saw a large bruise forming through Jason's ripped shirt.

"You're hurt," she commented, looking him in the eye.

"I'm fine, come on we have to go."

"JASON!!" Before Jason could move, Francis, although shot in the chest during Jason and his struggle, was able to muster a little more strength to pick up the gun. Francis pulled and the bullet flew in the air, aimed for Jason's back.

Marco, unbeknownst to Jason and Brenda had become conscious and immediately stood up and shielded the couple. Marco fell with a great thud among the smoke; the bullet had pierced the middle of his chest. Jason made sure Francis was dead before returning to a dying Marco. Brenda shuddered and held Marco's hand. Tears ran down her cheek and she mouthed a thank you to the loyal guard.

"You've done well. You should be proud," Jason smiled down at Marco with gratitude in his blue eyes. Marco just smiled, closed his eyes, and breathed his last breath. The smoke got thicker and Brenda began coughing hysterically.

"We have to get out of here," Jason ran to the elevator, but noticed it was stuck. "Damn!"

"What about – cough – the stairs?" Brenda asked, gasping for breath.

"The stairs stop two levels below us." Jason opened his apartment and dragged Marco in and began gathering materials.

"Whose stupid idea – cough – was that?" Brenda followed Jason and shut the door; fortunately there was not as much smoke than there was in the hall. She opened the windows and breathed in the fresh air. "What are you doing?" she asked as she watched Jason run frantically around the apartment.

"Get a jacket, some cash, and your cell phone."

"Why – Wait – What are we-"

"We have to leave and get out of here," Jason said sternly, "The place is gonna go down in flames soon and the police are waiting for us at the bottom." He got a small briefcase from the closet. "JC probably already warned them about your criminal activities, so if you don't want to be hauled off to jail, do what I tell you," He was going back into his robot mode and Brenda knew not to fight it. After a few seconds, Jason and Brenda were ready to leave after saying another good bye to Marco and covering him with a blanket.

The smoke began getting thicker, the door hot, signifying flames on the other side. "How do we get out?" Brenda coughed. Jason looked around; the only way was the balcony. He looked at the balcony then back to Brenda.

"Oh no, no."

Jason grabbed her shoulders and looked her straight in the eye. "The fire escape connected to this room are not that safe. We have a better chance to go down from one balcony to another; after the second one, there are safer steps on the side that will take us behind the building,"

"A fire escape not safe, great, instead of burning to death, you're telling to jump down straight into it!" Even though she liked danger, she did not enjoy the prospect of nearly committing suicide.

"This is the only way Brenda!" she wouldn't budge.

"You're hurt," that was the only argument she could think of.

Jason just shook his head. He brushed a hair away from her eyes and held her face in his hand. "Look, I won't let you get hurt, I promise," he said. She nodded and held the brave hand that was touching her face. Her tear eyes looked into his strong ones, she trusted him.

* * * * *

Carly paced back and forth on the curb behind one of those yellow CAUTION tapes. The wind started to pick up; she wrapped her brown suede jacket closer to her body. The blasts of the two gunshots resounded in her brain over and over. She had her cell phone clutched to her chest. She was able to contact Sonny, but neither could get a hold of Jason. Neither knew if Jason went out or not, Sonny told her he last saw him working in his apartment a few hours ago. Thoughts of her best friend suffering up in the penthouse went through her head.

"Sonny!" Carly ran into her husband's arms and sobbed on his shoulder. He held his wife and stroked her blonde hair. He wanted to tell her it was going to be ok, but his mind and his gut were telling him otherwise.

"Sonny? Carly?" The couple looked up at the police officer with tears beginning to form in their eyes. The officer escorted them to the side to speak in private. "We didn't find any survivors in the penthouse." The couple broke away from each other. Sonny rubbed his chin and stared on the ground. He cursed and looked up at the sky, as if asking why this was happening.

"Are you positive, Mac?" Sonny croaked.

"I'm sorry," Mac said, staring at the ground. He couldn't look at Sonny. He hated what Sonny and Jason did and always wanted them put away, but he didn't want anybody to experience such a tragic incident as this.

"What? Do you think he had time to leave before the fire could-" Carly began, but she choked as the police officer shook his head. "No…no." Carly fell on her knees, her eyes red and swollen.

"Do you know how this happened?" Mac interrogated, trying to get through his job.

Concerned, Sonny asked "Why? What did you find?"

A/N: I hope you're enjoying it so far. Please review!

Sorry if you haven't seen Robin in a while. Her stuff will come up soon. The next chapter should be kind of fun, cause it's fun to write. I'm still working out a few things with it. Should be up in a couple days. So be on the lookout on Saturday!

Thanks for everyone who has supported and given great reviews for this fic! I really, really appreciate it. It keeps me motivated to continue. J