A/N, Thank you to everyone for their reviews of the last chapter. I'm glad i managed to get this update in before i go away for the weekend, as i won't be able to update again until sometime next week. Enjoy the chapter, i tried not to go to hard on Ianto. I think Jamie is probably the harshest to him, but i couldn't make Molly stay too upset with him. After this one there will be fluffy chapters just as i promised. :)

Chapter 25.

The next morning when Ianto woke up it took him a moment to realise where he was. He had a headache, and then the memory of the previous day started to come back to him. He groaned slightly and buried his head into the pillow, trying to will these memories away. Ianto then felt warm fingers running through his hair and he turned and opened his eyes to see Jack sat on the other side of the bed.

'Morning. I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to wake up.' said Jack. 'How do feel?'

'I have a headache and I feel like I have some bruises, but that's not the worst part.'

'Do you remember what happened yesterday?'

'Yeah, I do.' said Ianto, the guilt building up inside him. 'So how much do they hate me.'

'No one hates you Yan. They all understand that it wasn't really you, it was the virus talking.'

'Yeah, but I still said and did some awful stuff, especially to Molly. She'll never trust me again.' Ianto said sitting up.

'I'm sure she wiil. You need to talk to her, but first you need to get Jamie to check you over. We need to make sure that your completely recovered.'

'I'm sure he's going to be pleased about doing that. The last thing I remember is punching him quite hard in the face,'

'Yeah you did, he has a large bruise on his jaw. Come on, the sooner you get up, the sooner you can deal with everything.'

Ianto made no effort to move right away. He had no idea what he was going to say to everyone. Jack got up and went round to the other side of the bed, taking Ianto's hand in his he pulled him up. 'Look, I know it's going to be difficult for you to go up there and see everyone, but it has to be done. I'm going to be here if you need me, and I promise tonight we will do something special.'

'Like what?' asked Ianto.

'Let me worry about that.' Jack lent forward closing the space that was between them and kissed Ianto gently, trying to reassure him.

'Ok, I'll be up soon. I need to have a shower first. By myself.' he added after seeing the look on Jack's face. 'If you get in with me, then neither of us will make an appearance anytime soon.'

'You have a point' said Jack grinning.

Jack kissed Ianto again and then climbed up the ladder that led to his office. Ianto showered and got dressed, thankfully having a spare suit in Jack's room. He took a deep breath, and then climbed the ladder, appearing in Jack's office. He went down to the kitchen and made five cups of coffee. As he walked through the Hub, he noticed that Jack was talking to Gwen, and that Jamie was in the medical bay, but Molly was nowhere in sight. Ianto went over to Gwen and Jack first, handing them their coffee. Jack took his and then went back up to his office, smiling reassuringly at Ianto as he went past.

'Thanks, Ianto.' said Gwen. 'Are you ok?'

'Not really, I feel terrible for what happened yesterday. I am sorry. How are you?'

'The muscles in my arms are still aching slightly, but nothing serious.'

'Have you seen Molly?'

'Not since she came in. Do you want me to try and locate her, she won't be far.'

'If you don't mind. I have to see Jamie first, but then I need to speak to Molly.'

Gwen nodded, and then turned back to her computer. Ianto walked towards the medical bay. As he walked down the stairs, Jamie turned to look at him. Ianto winced slightly at the purple bruise across his jaw.

'Hey, Jack said I needed to come down and get checked out.' Ianto said, 'I also need to apologise. I'm sorry for what I did yesterday.'

'I appreciate you saying that, but I'm not really the one you need to apologise too. I admit, I wasn't exactly happy about getting punched, but I'd rather you hit me than anyone else.' Ianto knew exactly what Jamie meant by this. 'I'm going to have to take a blood sample.' Jamie continued. Ianto rolled up his sleeve and let Jamie take the sample that he needed. 'It shouldn't take to long to run.'

'How is Molly?' Ianto dared to ask.

Jamie fixed him with a stare, 'I think she's far more hurt than she's letting anyone see. You know what she's like, she closes herself off. I barely got two words out of her last night after we'd finished here. I'd tried to get her to talk to me, but she just said she wanted to be alone, then this morning she said hi when she came in, and I haven't seen her since. I think she's avoiding me, as much as she's probably avoiding you.'

'This is because of what I said about Alex. I never meant to say that, it's not even like that.' Ianto said, putting his head in his hands.

'Whether you meant for it to be said or not, you said it. I hoped that one day she would tell me what happened with Alex, because I can tell it's something that haunts her still. You've forced the issue out into the open and while Molly said she would talk to me, I think she's now scared of how I'm going to react. Normally she would go to you for advice, but you're the one who caused this.' Jamie stopped and looked at Ianto. Jamie was normally easy going, and like the others he knew what had happened wasn't Ianto's fault, but he needed to tell him how he felt. 'I'm sorry that this probably sounds harsh, but it's the truth.'

There was silence in the room for a minute as they both took in what was said. It was broken by one of the machines beeping. Jamie went over and looked at the read out. 'The sample came back clear, no trace of the virus.'

'That's one thing.' said Ianto. He got up and started up the stairs to go back into the main Hub. Gwen called him over. 'I found Molly, she's in the car park, fixing the SUV equipment. I spoke to her and told her that you were on your way.'

'Thanks Gwen.'

Ianto made Molly a fresh cup of coffee, as the other one had gone cold while he was with Jamie, and then headed out of the Hub and to the car park. He had no idea what he was going to say to Molly. Jamie had been right, he was always the one Molly went too when she needed to talk to someone. She was his best friend and he had been the one to hurt her. When he reached the car park he could see that Molly was sat in the drivers side of the SUV. He went around to the passenger side door, thinking that keeping some distance between them might be a good idea. 'Hey, I bought you a drink.'

Molly looked up at him. 'Thank you.' she said and smiled. The smile didn't quite reach her eyes though, Ianto could see the hurt and the wariness in them.

'I wanted to talk to you, if that's ok.'

'Sure, just give me a sec.' Molly said as she leant down and retrieved something from under the seat. She then got out of the SUV and walked around to the other side. She took the cup from Ianto and then moved over to the low wall at the edge of the car park and sat down. She looked over at Ianto who was still stood up and looking nervous. 'You can sit down, in fact I'd prefer it if you would, you're making me nervous standing there.'

Ianto walked over and joined Molly on the wall, keeping a small distance between them, making her nervous had not been what he was intending. He had noticed when Molly had leant down in the SUV that she had come back up with a phone in her hand and it struck him what that meant. 'You put your phone in the car when you took the tracker out? That's how you followed me.'

'Yeah, had to do something.'

'Clever.' said Ianto. There was then silence between them, an awkward silence. Ianto sighed quietly, it had never been like this between them before and he wasn't sure what he was going to say. ''Molly, I'm sorry, although I know that's not good enough. I said and did stuff yesterday I'm not proud of.' He trailed off.

'It wasn't really your fault and I'm fine.' said Molly. Ianto could tell that she wasn't though, he knew her too well and could tell when she was covering up how she really felt.

'This is me you're talking too, and I can tell that you're not.'

Molly sighed. 'What do you want me to say?'

'The truth. I know you're probably angry and upset with me, but unless you tell me, we'll never get past it.'

Molly stared straight ahead for a minute, then sighed. 'You're right I am upset. It's not so much what you did, although I could have lived without you pointing a gun at me, as what you said. The rational part of me knows it wasn't your fault, but even so you still managed to pick the one subject that you knew would hurt me. Bringing Alex up like that in front of everyone…' Molly trailed off. 'You have no idea how that felt, seeing the look on Jamie's face. I couldn't bring myself to look at him properly, and now we have to have a conversation I wasn't ready to have yet.'

'Again, I'm sorry. I know I'm the last person you want to listen to at the moment, but I don't think Jamie's going to react badly to what you have to tell him. He was upset at me when I went to see him, mainly because of how I upset you. He really cares and wants to know everything. He wants to help you deal with it. He said that you'd hardly spoken since yesterday, don't push him away just because of something I did.'

'I know, but I can't help but fall back into bad habits. My immediate reaction is to shut myself off.'

'You've never been afraid to talk to me, give Jamie the same chance.' said Ianto.

'You've always been there for me, we've been through a lot together. You're right though, I need to let go of my hang ups and trust Jamie completely. If he breaks my heart though, I'm coming after you.' said Molly smiling.

'If he does that I'm going after him.' said Ianto. 'I don't think he will though.'

There was a pause, and then Molly said, 'How do you do it?'

'Do what?' Ianto asked.

'Know exactly how to get me to open up. Before you came down here I was upset, and wondering how I as ever going to talk to you and now I'm doing exactly that.'

'I have to admit I kind of thought you'd tell me to get lost.'

'Like I said, I was hurt at what you said, I still am a bit, but I don't want things to be awkward between us. Although, don't expect to see me in the archives any time soon.'

'Fine. We should go back in, the others will be wondering what's going on, and I don't really want to give them any cause for worry.'

'I don't think you have to worry about that,' said Molly, and when Ianto looked at her puzzled, she pointed at the CCTV camera in the car park. 'That camera turned in this direction just after you came up here. If they were waiting for a fight then they will be sorely disappointed.' Molly said laughing.

'Come on,' Molly said getting up from her seat. 'I need to go and talk to Jamie.'

Ianto stood up as well and together the two of them walked back into the Hub.