A/N. Thank you for all the reviews for the last chapter, i'm glad you all enjoyed the fluffiness. Enjoy the next chapter. :)
Chapter 28.
The next morning five very relaxed, well rested people entered the Hub to start work. Jack and Ianto had made it back first. Ianto feeling a lot better about the incident with the virus, although he knew he still had some making up to do with Jamie, he was in a much better frame of mind. He had woken up in a five star hotel room, curled up against Jack and he couldn't think of a better way to start the day. Jack was feeling exactly the same. Gwen entered next saying a cheery hello at them as she walked over to her computer. She had got to spend quality time with Rhys and her daughter, and she too was feeling happy. Jamie and Molly entered not too far behind. Jamie, happy in the knowledge that Molly trusted him completely, and Molly, happy that she had told the truth and Jamie hadn't run a mile. Jack came out of his office once they were all in and said 'Boardroom, ten minutes.'
Molly went into the kitchen, where Ianto was busy preparing drinks for the meeting. 'Morning, good night last night.'
'Yeah, one of the best.'
'Do I get details?' asked Molly.
'You want all the details? Asked Ianto with a slightly mischievous smile on his face.
'Well, maybe not all of them.' Molly laughed.
'I'll fill you in later, how about you? I take it everything went ok.'
'Better than I expected. Jamie's introducing me to Jess later, which I'm a little nervous about.'
'Sure, it's a big step, shows he's serious about you. You have met Jess before.'
'Well I'm not sure that stuff with the shifter counts, but yeah, at least I won't be a complete stranger. Here, let me help you.' Molly said picking up two of the cups.
Ianto and Molly then headed up to the boardroom. Molly handed Gwen's coffee to her, keeping the other cup for herself, while Ianto handed the others out. They then took their seats.
'I do like a happy team, and everyone seems happy at the moment so lets try and keep that going ok?' said Jack looking around the table. It had been a long time since he had seen every team member looking happy at the same time. 'Molly, is the Rift still quiet?'
'As far as I can tell, nothing's predicted for a while, but obviously I can't rule out the random occurrences.'
'That's good. You have some artefacts you were trying to decipher didn't you?' Molly nodded. 'Good, keep working on them, Ianto I need you to keep going with the new items that need cataloguing, Gwen and Jamie I need to make sure you are properly briefed for your UNIT meeting next week. Hopefully there will be no problems and you will all get your Saturday's off tomorrow.'
They headed off after that to get on with their work. It was a slow day, not even a weevil sighting. Jamie came up to Molly just before he left to go and collect Jess.
'Are you still up for meeting Jess?' Jamie asked.
'Sure, when and where do you want me to meet you?'
'Meet us at the café across the road in an hour.'
Gwen came over after he left. 'I think this must rate as one of the quietest days I've ever had since I started working here.'
'Strange isn't it.' said Molly. 'I keep expecting something to happen.'
'Make the most of it, because all too soon something probably will.'
An hour later and Gwen and Molly both got ready to go. Ianto came up from the archives just as they were about to leave. 'Molly, just try and enjoy tonight, be yourself.'
Molly smiled as she left with Gwen and headed over to the café on the Plass. Ianto watched as they left, but his attention was soon turned to Jack's office when he heard him raising his voice. Ianto climbed the stairs up to the office, and entered just in time to see Jack slam the phone down. Looking very frustrated. 'Bloody UNIT..
'What have they done now?' inquired Ianto.
'They've moved the co operation meeting forward to tomorrow. I'm going to have to call Gwen and Jamie and tell them.'
'Can you hold off on calling Jamie for just a short while.'
'Why?'
'Because he's currently over the road introducing Molly to Jess. Let them at least have half an hour in peace before interrupting them and telling him his day off's been cancelled.'
'Fine, I'll call Gwen first, then Jamie later.'
They both knew that neither Gwen nor Jamie were going to be happy about this.
X
Molly entered the café and saw that Jamie and Jess were sat in a booth, about half way in. She went over to them, 'Hi,' she said as she sat down.
Jamie smiled, 'Glad you could make it. Jess, this is Molly.'
'I know that dad, we have met before.' said Jess. 'You helped us get away from those dogs at the cinema. You were really brave.'
'Thank you, I was just doing my job.'
'It was still brave, those dogs were kinda scary.' Jess paused to take a drink from her milkshake.
'So,' said Molly relaxing slightly, 'Your dad told me you were spending the day together tomorrow, what are you planning to do?'
'We're going shopping for my birthday present.' answered Jess, getting visibly excited by the prospect. 'He said I could have whatever I wanted.'
'Within reason,' Jamie said, 'I'm not made of money.'
Molly smiled, 'When's your birthday?'
'On Wednesday, but I'm not having my party until next week'
'And you'll be twelve right?'
Jess grinned, 'Yep, one year till I'm a teenager.'
Molly laughed slightly at the look on Jamie's face, 'I still remember when I turned thirteen, I was so happy to be able to say I was a teenager. It sounded so grown up.'
The three of them sat there for a while, happily drinking and chatting, Jess doing most of the talking. Jess turned to Molly and asked, 'Are you coming shopping with us tomorrow?'
'Well that depends, I'd like to, but only if it's ok with you.'
'It's ok.'
'Then I'd love to.' Molly said.
Jamie's phone then started to ring, he looked at it and grimaced when he saw the name Jack flash up on it. 'I have to take this, I'll be back in a minute.' Jamie walked out of the café and stood outside while he took Jack's call.
'Hey Molly.'
Yes, Jess.'
'You see that man over there,' she said pointing in the direction of the service counter. 'He works with you too, doesn't he? He stayed with me outside the cinema.'
Molly looked over and saw Ianto collecting some food. When he saw her he walked over. 'Hi.'
'Hi Ianto, you remember Jess?' Molly said.
'Yeah, course I do, from the cinema right. How are you Jess?'
'I'm ok, thank you.' said Jess quietly.
'Picking up a food order?' said Molly looking at the bag in Ianto's hand.
'Yes, going to be working late. Jack had a call about that meeting scheduled for next week, it's been moved forward.'
'That's what the call's about isn't it.' Molly didn't want to say anything else, but she had a feeling that it had been called forward to tomorrow. She looked up to see Jamie coming back in. Ianto noticed too.
'Well, I'd better be off, nice to see you again Jess.'
'Bye,' she said waving shyly.
Jamie came back over and sat down, not looking at all happy. 'That was work,' he said. 'Jess, I'm really sorry, but I'm not going to be able to take you shopping tomorrow. Something has come up at work, and I tried really hard to get out of it, but my boss won't let me.'
Jess's face fell a little, but she tried to keep a brave face. 'It's ok.'
Molly looked at her, then said. 'We could still go shopping. We could have a girl's day, it could still be fun.' Jess's face lit up again.
'Really?.'
'Sure, if it's ok with your dad.'
Jamie smiled warmly at Molly, 'It's fine. Look, It's getting late, we are going to have to make a move, if you're going out tomorrow.' They all got up out of their seats, Jess leading the way to the door. When she was out of earshot, Jamie said, 'Are you sure you don't mind?'
'No, I don't mind. It will give us a chance to get to know each other.'
'Thank you.' said Jamie and he gave her a kiss on the cheek. They said their goodbyes and then headed home.
X
Jamie dropped off Jess at Molly's the next day, and they walked into town.
'So, any ideas what you want to get.' Molly asked Jess.
'I need something for my party, I want a dress.'
'Ok, let's see what we can find then.'
'I bet you have better taste than my dad.' said Jess. 'He has no idea.'
Molly laughed, 'My dad wasn't good at that sort of thing either, not that we went shopping much together, but when we did, he waited outside the shop.'
They spent a few hours going round as many shops as they could before finally taking a break for lunch. Jess still trying to decide which of all the dresses she had tried on, she wanted to go back and get. Molly was having a good day, but she couldn't get over this nagging feeling in the back of her mind that they were being watched. She wasn't sure whether this was the case or if her imagination was being overactive. She looked around, but couldn't see anything overly suspicious. After they finished lunch, they headed back to New Look, where Jess bought one of the first dresses she had tried on, and new shoes to go with it.
'Come on, let's go back to mine, we can wait for your dad there.'
'Ok, thanks Molly, I had a really good day.'
'Anytime.'
Molly and Jess started to walk back towards Molly's flat, when Molly heard the sound of tyres speeding towards the street they were in. Molly turned in time to see a van speed around the corner and pull quickly to a halt next to them. She instinctively stood behind Jess, and started to walk quicker, but then the side of the van opened and three men jumped out. One made a grab for Molly, who shouted at Jess, 'RUN.' Jess took off running, but one of the men went after her, and grabbed her, lifting her up and carrying her back towards the van, hand over her mouth to stop her screaming. Molly managed to use her free arm to punch the man holding on to her making him stumble. He lunged at her again and she hit him once more, this time knocking him down. Molly went to go after the man holding onto Jess, but she didn't notice the third man behind her. The last thing she felt was a blow to the back of her head, before everything around her went black.
