"Ohhhhhhmigah! It's a caulrophobic's worst nightmare!"

Daniel looked at his room and back at Molly, whose mouth was still hanging slack with disbelief of what she was seeing. "Huh?"

"Caulrophobia...it's the fear of clowns," she explained while running her fingers over the large garishly colored wallpaper clown faces that covered an entire wall of his room.

"Oh. Well...I try not to think about them."

"Yeah?" she smiled over her shoulder. "Why is that?"

He wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and nuzzled her neck. "When I was seven or eight, my brother let me stay up late with him and watch Stephen King's It. I don't think I've slept a full night in here since."

She turned in his arms and wrapped her own arms around his neck casually. "So why don't you just lose the evil clowns?"

"Because Chris told me that if I took them down, they would turn into real clowns and come after me in my sleep. When I was old enough to know better, I had pretty much gotten used to them so..."

"I'm refraining from making any negative comments about your brother for your sake...so I'll just keep the bad thoughts to myself."

Daniel laughed, "It's okay. He was just being a normal big brother saying that."

"Yeah? Well, the worst Justin ever did to me was tell me that Mr. Rogers was a psycho with a puppet fetish."

"He didn't!" Daniel laughed. "Dude! I used to love Mr. Rogers! That would have totally crushed me to hear someone talkin trash about him. When did he tell you that?"

She smiled impishly and moved out of his arms. "Last week." He rolled his eyes and laughed, but she ignored him as she concentrated on the rest of the room.

A large, autographed poster of the current Pittsburgh Pirates team hung in a place of honor over his massive entertainment center. Around a large television, sat a dvd player, two different video game systems and a top of the line stereo. All of which seemed to be coated with a fine layer of dust, indicating that he rarely used any of it.

A cork board was attached to the back of his closet door and it was filled with a multitude of pictures. Him with his friends. Him with the rest of the St. James baseball team. A toddling Chris holding baby Daniel in his arms. Surprisingly there were no pictures of ex-girlfriends. Not that she would have minded, of course.

There were, however, a few new pictures of herself as well as Justin and Em, tacked over a small poster of a swimsuit model. One of her curled up in a chair, her head on her brother's shoulder, looking as though she were about to fall asleep. Another of her blowing a kiss at the camera. Then one of Emmett and Justin hugging her between them. They had been taken earlier that week at Woody's and it made her smile that he had gotten them developed and plastered on his walls within a few days.

Her smile broadened when she saw a simple black frame hung on the wall next to the bed. It was another from the Woody's set but this one had been taken by Justin. It was of the two of them, staring dreamily into the camera, her arms around his neck, his arms around her waist, and their faces pushed so closely together that you nearly could not make out the point where she began and he ended.

And then her smile faded altogether. Was that to be the first...or the last of pictures of that nature? She turned away, no longer wanting to see the smiles of their two-dimensional selves.

Several more sports posters and pictures of family adorned the walls, along with a few banners for rock groups. "I didn't know you liked Dashboard Confessional."

"Oh yeah. They're great."

"Yeah. It's like the words just flow from his soul, ya know. They don't even have to make sense. You just..."

"Get it."

She nodded and smiled. "It's like poetry."

"Hmm...so are you."

She looked at him sharply where he sat comfortably on his bed and tried to read his expression. He had meant it, no doubt about it. And it was the sweetest thing she'd heard in a while. She absolutely loved the fact that he was open enough to be a complete cheese ball. But guilt ate away at her stomach, along with the nerves that had kept her tense all week, marring the effect that the words had on her. Instead of reveling in the sentiment, she fought off a wave of nausea.

NOW? She asked herself incredulously. Suddenly you want to tell him now? It wasn't exactly the best time or place, she realized.

But...when would be the right time to tell him something like that? Where would the right place be?

The one thing she knew, was that if she kept it to herself any longer, she was definitely going to explode. Or maybe she would implode. Either way she would blow up and it wouldn't be pretty.

"Daniel..." she began, already planning escape routes. Luckily her childhood home was only four blocks away and she still knew plenty of old neighbors that would harbor her until someone came for her.

Daniel looked up at her with soft eyes and patted the bed beside him. She approached him, but didn't dare sit. And then she saw it. "The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath?" she whispered.

"Yeah. I knew it was the only book on her that you didn't own, so..." He shrugged and held it out to her. "I was gonna save it for your birthday, but, why wait right?"

Before she knew it, tears were streaming down her face and Daniel was looking on, panicked. She sniffled and held the book to her chest. "Thank you."

His face relaxed then, figuring that the gift had simply moved her to tears and he smiled easily. "No problem."

"Daniel...I have to tell you something."

"You can tell me anything," he picked up her hand and held it in his own, his thumb massaging her knuckles soothingly.

"Yeah. But...this is...this is different. This is big. This is...life altering."

"You aren't getting a sex change are you? I mean...I guess I could deal, just don't change your name to Marvin or anything." The joke fell flat and the air between them became thicker with tension.

She looked into his eyes and unblinkingly stated, "I'm pregnant."

***

He couldn't breathe. Couldn't blink. Couldn't speak. Couldn't think. The only think he could do was repeat in his mind, what she had said, over and over and over again.

"Pregnant?" She nodded. "Like...pregnant...as in...PREGNANT?" She nodded again, biting her lip anxiously. "Like...nine months and blam - there's a baby? A screaming...pooping..." Molly looked away then, tears threatening to fall. "Shit!"

"I'm sorry. But I didn't plan for this to happen either, ya know!"

"But...I mean, we used a condom! Every TIME!"

"Well tell THAT to the little sperm that's firmly embedded inside of me!"

"But...NO! I mean...just NO! It's not... This can't be happening! I can't be a father."

"And I can't be a mother, but shit happens."

"SHIT HAPPENS? No...Mol, this is sooooo far beyond �shit happens'. This is more like...atomic bombs happen." He stood and began pacing. "When did you find out?"

"Monday. When I went to the doctor."

"So...how far along are you?"

"Not sure. Can't be more than a few weeks."

He smirked, but there was no humor in his eyes. Only bitterness and a touch of animosity. "Well that's sort of obvious, isn't it."

Face suddenly flushed, she nodded sadly and turned to leave. And he let her. He watched her as she walked out of his room and then he swore silently to himself. Yet he made no move to follow her. He was still paralyzed by the shock.

A few minutes later a knock came at his door. "Yeah?" he called out weakly.

"Who was the hottie that just bolted outta here?"

Daniel turned to Chris and scowled. "Apparently, the woman that's going to be the mother of my child!"

Chris began to sputter and choke on the beer that he had been sipping. "What?!"

"Nothing," he said, picking up the book that Molly had tossed back onto the bed. He closed his eyes and zoned out, hoping to remove himself from what his reality had just become. There was no more normal. Normal no longer existed.

After a few moments, he heard Chris leave his room and opened his eyes, looking, searching for something to bear the brunt of his anger and alleviate his frustration. In a fit of rage that would prove to be the first of many that day, he threw the book across the room so forcefully that it shattered the glass on the portrait of his family.

***

"Wakey wakey!" A sing-song voice called out.

"Fuck off!"

"Come on, Sunshine. You have a class in exactly one hour."

"Fuck class, Brian. I'm too tired. I'll make up the work later. Promise."

Brian laughed, "I don't think so, princess."

"Five more minutes. Randolph never starts lectures...on time anyway." With that said, his head disappeared beneath his pillow.

"Randolph?" Brian asked, rolling his eyes as he placed the name to one of Justin's old art history professors. "I think you just woke up five years ago." He tried to pull the pillow away, but Justin had a death grip on the case and it refused to budge. "Justin, you have to TEACH a class in half an hour. Remember? Professor Taylor?"

Justin bolted up in bed, dislodging Brian's arm from his chest. "Shit!" He looked at Brian and frowned. "Ugh! I hate when that happens."

"What?"

"Rude awakenings."

"You're lucky I woke you at all. I could have let you miss your class," he taunted, watching Justin try to blink his way into full awareness. "But I just couldn't do that to you."

"How magnanimous of you," Justin sneered. "What has you up so damn early? Figured you'd be asleep all day."

"My sleep is all backwards now." Brian stretched out on the bed and sighed contentedly. "So, I'm just gonna stay riiiiiiiiight here for the rest of the day and relax."

"Uh-huh...Bitch," Justin muttered under his breath as he shuffled into the bathroom. Brian chuckled as he heard him step into a cold shower and yelp. One day the boy would learn to check the water BEFORE getting in.

He lazily watched Justin dress, enjoying the show that his lover unwittingly put on for him during the everyday act of pulling on his pants. Brian grinned thinking that he would still be there, in the big comfy bed, when Justin got in just after noon and they could pick up where they had left off the night before. Right before the jet lag had really caught up with him.

Catching the sly grin, Justin smiled and leaned over to peck him on the lips. "About last night..." he began.

Brian rolled his eyes dramatically. "Not on my day off, Justin!" He placed one hand on the back of Justin's neck and pulled him down and into a deep, mind-erasing kiss.

Justin smiled, resting his forehead against Brian's. "Just...don't NOT think about it."

"Justin! Go to work!" Satisfied that it wasn't a no, he kissed the older man again quickly and fled the room. With his distraction now gone, Brian rolled over and promptly fell asleep.

Around noon, Brian finally roused himself and made his way downstairs for lunch. Desperately, he foraged through the near empty refrigerator that made his own sparse kitchen look like a fully stocked grocery store. "Pasta salad...from the Clinton administration!" He cried, smelling the foul substance. "Hmm...no eggs, nothing to make a salad with, no little tv dinners! What do they do? Suck crumbs off the floor?"

"Sorry."

"SHIT!" Brian cried, jumping back against the counter. "Dammit, Mol! Don't sneak up on a guy like that!" He clutched his heart and leaned his weight against the side of the refrigerator as he struggled to regain normal breathing patterns.

"Hey."

"HI!"

"Thank you for the bracelet. It's beautiful." She fingered the silver chain on her wrist distractedly.

Brian grinned. "Thought you might like it. Although, I have no clue what the symbols mean."

"It's a prayer for peace."

"You would know that," Brian rolled his eyes at her playfully. "So where's the food? Usually your brother stockpiles."

She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes, which looked suspiciously pink and swollen. "Sorry. It was my turn to do the shopping this week. That's why we don't have anything to eat. I've been...distracted."

"Yeah?" He reached out and turned her chin up so that she had no choice but to look directly at him. "I heard you were sick last weekend. Feeling better?" She nodded, as much as she could with his palm still cradling her chin. "So...what's this distraction?"

For a moment, it looked like she wasn't going to answer him. Then she surprised them both by throwing herself into his arms and clinging to him tightly. No tears came, but her body trembled violently and Brian rubbed her back soothingly, whispering words of comfort. Something completely foreign to him, as he had never seen Molly let something get to her in such a way. "I...I can't do it, Brian," she whispered, having recovered a bit.

"Can't do what, Mol?"

"I can't do it alone! And Daniel..."

Brian was slowly jumping from one conclusion to the other, all the while praying that he was completely waaaaaaay off base in any and all of his assumptions. "Can't do what, Molly?" he asked again, more forcefully.

She pulled away from him and gave herself a little space to breathe. To think. "Um...When I...Justin made me go to the doctor Monday. Precautionary measures, he said." She rolled her eyes heavenward and he smiled, knowing how picky Justin was about health issues. "I was poked, prodded...peed in the cup...the whole nine. So...he says, its just a virus, right? Nothing serious. Probably just a twenty four hour bug and it would work its way out of my system. Plenty of fluids...all that. So, he tells me he has something else to discuss with me. Asked if I was sexually active. I am."

His mind was churning out a million thoughts at once. Before she could even tell him the problem, he was already formulating a game plan. A list of things to be done. On the top of that list was a warning for him not to freak out. Not to make her even more upset. He had to be strong for her. She was coming to him about this and he had to assume that it was because she needed someone on her side.

Brian nodded, encouraging her, but he said nothing. Allowing her to tell it in her own time. "They found traces of hCG hormones in the tests. So...they ran it twice and...well it turns out that I'm pregnant."

He stared at her levelly. "They're sure?"

"Well, even if they're wrong, I took five different home tests just to confirm." She shook her head, regaining her normal cool calm exterior. "All positive."

"Fuck."

"You can say that again."

"Mol...you DID use a condom...right?"

Molly sighed and nodded slowly. "Every single time. No exceptions. I know they aren't one hundred percent, but I just figured..."

"Figured you couldn't possibly be in that small percentage of people that still get pregnant?"

"Yeah." She looked down and kicked at a spot on the floor. "So now...just another statistic, huh?"

"Don't say that." Slowly, Brian wrapped his arms around her, holding her as they swayed slightly from side to side. "I assume you've told...Daniel." He congratulated himself on not calling him �the asshole that knocked you up' and definitely for not threatening to make him die a slow painful death. He'd let Justin have the honor of that one.

"Why do you think I stayed home today? I couldn't face him today after the way he acted last night. He totally freaked. And he has every right to."

"So do you, ya know. If you wanna...cry er whatever..." He lifted a shoulder in a partial shrug.

She smiled up at him lovingly. "Thanks Brian." And as quickly as it appeared, her smile melted. "My mom's gonna kill me. And...oh man! What the hell am I gonna tell Justin?"

"Tell Justin what?" Justin asked, strolling happily into the kitchen. Two pairs of wide eyes stared back at him and he shrugged. "What?"

***

"WHAT?"

"Christopher Hobbs! I certainly hope that isn't how you answer the phone on a regular basis!"

Chris shot a bird at the phone and stretched out on the lounge chair that he had been quietly dozing in for the last hour. "No mom," he said contritely. "I was just taking a nap. The phone startled me."

"Oh, well I'm sorry I woke you darling. Is Daniel at home or is he still staying with his friend?"

Chris watched as his brother completed what had to be his two-hundredth lap across the pool and sighed. "He's here."

"Good. Put him on."

"Yeah sure." He covered the phone and screamed at Daniel for a full minute before he ever heard Chris.

"What?" He snapped, pulling his goggles up off of his eyes. Chris held out the phone, indicating that he had a call. "Is it Molly?" His expression held an odd mixture of hope and resentment. Chris shook his head. "I don't want to talk to anybody."

"It's mom. So either you take it, or I'm telling her just how badly you trashed your room."

Daniel glared at his brother and hoisted himself up and out of the pool. "Hey mom."

"Thought that might work." Daniel smacked Chris in the side of his head and walked towards the house before his brother could retaliate.

"Daniel, darling. How is school?"

"Fine," he said quietly. As if his day wasn't bad enough, he had to deal with his mom's laughable attempt at caring.

"That's nice. Oh, sweetheart, the reason I called..."

"Yes?"

"Well, how would you like to get rid of the Jaguar and try something new?"

Did she really think he cared about cars at that moment? Sure, in the past but...not now! But...how could she know that his life had just made some drastic turn? "Fine. Whatever."

"Wonderful! Because we just had the papers drawn up for a nice new little Audi. I saw one on Rodeo Drive today and I just HAD to get you one!" He bit his lip, trying to actually pay attention as she went on and on about his new car.

"That's great mom!" He tried to sound as enthusiastic as possible. "Thanks!"

When he finally gave the phone back to his brother, Chris was on his stomach working on the other half of his tan. "Mom?"

"Hello again dear. How was work today?"

Chris made a face, "Dad's not here. I can't exactly work if my boss isn't here to give me something to do, now can I?"

"That's true enough. We should be back within the next few days though, so make sure you're all rested up for when your father gets back."

Now to get the focus off of him and the fact that he technically was getting paid to sit by the pool. Chris looked over his shoulder and made sure that Daniel was fully absorbed once again in his swimming. "Did he tell you?"

"Tell me what Chris?"

"He totally trashed his room."

"What? Daniel? But why would he do something like that?"

"I dunno, mom. I saw some girl running out of his room last night. When I tried to talk to him, he said something about a baby or something and when I leave, I start hearing all of these loud noises, like he's throwing things."

She was silent for a moment and then, "What do you think is the matter with him, Chris?"

"Well...as far as I can figure out..."

To Be Continued...