A/N. Thank you for all your reviews and get well wishes. The cold is finally getting better. :) Enjoy the next chapter.
Chapter 11.
Ianto let himself into the flat and headed into in the living room, thinking that Molly would be sat on the couch, either watching the television or working on her laptop. When he entered the room, he could see she wasn't there, so he went across to the kitchen and that was empty too. This meant she was probably in her bedroom, so he walked back towards her room and paused outside the door. It was then that he suddenly realised he could hear crying. Ianto gently knocked on the door. 'Molly, can I come in?'
'Ianto?' came a surprised sounding voice from the other side of the door.
Ianto pushed open the door and saw that Molly was sat cross-legged at the top of her bed, hugging a pillow to her chest. As he entered the room he saw her wiping away the tears from her face, but she couldn't disguise the fact her eyes were red. It was obvious she had been crying for a while.
'What are you doing here, I didn't expect to see you.' Molly said.
'I was worried about you.' Ianto said as he walked up the other side of the bed.
'I'm fine.' Molly said.
'Yeah, you look it. He replied sarcastically.
'I'm just really tired and I got a bit emotional.' Molly knew that she wasn't convincing when she said this.
'Look,' Ianto said as he sat down on the other side of the bed so that he was sat next to her. 'I have only ever seen you cry once before the whole time I've known you, and that was when you had to have your cat put to sleep. It has too be pretty bad for you to be this upset.'
Molly turned to look at him for a moment, then looked away again. Molly really wanted to be able to tell him everything, but she was scared. Tears began to form in her eyes again.
'I remember that it was you not so long ago trying to get me to talk to Jack, and it wasn't easy, but it helped. You have done so much for me, let me help you.'
That did it, Molly knew she was being hypocritical, she gave out advice on how talking helped, but she wasn't willing to do it herself. The tears started falling freely. Ianto put his arm around her and she turned burying her head into his shoulder and sobbing, he then wrapped his other arm around her so that he was hugging her. He wanted to make her feel safe, because then that way she might open up. He owed her that much, he never would have got his life back without her help, never been reunited with Jack. He decided to just go for it. 'Is it Alex?'
Molly took a deep breath and then pulled away from him. 'That obvious huh?'
'Well ever since you heard he was coming you haven't been yourself.' Ianto paused for a minute, he knew that Molly had been hurt badly in the past, but had never mentioned any names. 'He's the one that hurt you right?'
'It was so long ago, I'm different to how I was back then, but seeing him just brings it all back to me.'
'Why don't you start at the beginning. How did you meet him?'
'I was eighteen, he was twenty and working in the research lab at UNIT as a junior researcher. I still had friends there that I kept in touch with even after my parents died, and we met at a party. At the time I couldn't believe he was interested in me, but he paid me so much attention and brought me the nicest presents and I totally fell for him.' Molly shook her head in disgust at the memory. 'It was the first time since my parents died that I truly felt someone loved me. I'd been living at my uncle's place, but he was never there as he worked for UNIT too and was always off on missions. My friends were great, but it wasn't the same and I felt so lonely. Easy target I suppose.'
'You shouldn't beat yourself up over the fact you were lonely.'
'The thing is, and I find it hard to believe now, but he was so charming to start with. The first four months we were together were great, but then he started to change. He would make comments about my friends, and stop me going out with them, we would go out shopping and I'd end up buying stuff that wasn't really me. He started changing me, controlling my life. I lost so many of my friends because of him, I was blind to what he was doing. I relied on him. Then I found out he was cheating on me, but I still didn't walk away because he had me convinced it was my fault. I thought I must have been doing something wrong and so I tried even harder to be what he wanted.' Molly pulled her knees up to her chest and put her head against them. 'I must sound so stupid, how could I let someone control my life like that?'
Ianto wasn't sure what to say straight away. He was wondering though how he was going to resist the urge to punch Alex in the face the next time he saw him. It was no wonder Molly had been so freaked out by his presence. He put his arm back around her and said. 'It's surprising how manipulative some people can be. They are clever, they do it without you realising. They separate you from everyone, then you have no choice but to rely on them. You did leave though.'
'Eventually, but I should have left sooner, then…' Molly stopped not wanting to explain the rest of it.
'What?' Ianto asked. 'Whatever it is you can tell me. It seems that you have been holding onto whatever it is for years.'
Molly looked at him. 'Ok. I still had one friend within the lab, Ellie Mills, she came to me one day concerned at what was happening. She was the only one to still care. The thing is she had also found out that Alex was up to no good at work, and she needed my help to get into some deleted files. I think you could call this my wake up call.'
'What was he doing?'
'Blackmail, corruption. You name it, he probably did it. He was even selling secrets. Ellie wanted to expose him.'
'That didn't happen though did it, because he's still there.'
'No it didn't. Ellie died before she could hand over what we found.'
'What.' said Ianto, shocked by what she had just said. 'How?'
'She died in a car accident.'
'Do you think Alex had something to do with it?'
'I don't know. He knew we were on to him. He has a lot of friends and someone had got wind of what Ellie was planning and told him. When I found out she had died I got scared, and that's when I ran. I literally just took what money I had and got away from there. I came here and eventually rebuilt my life.'
'You never told anyone about what you and Ellie found out?'
'No. I know that I should have, once I'd got away. It took a long time before I felt safe, and confident that he wouldn't find me, but I had no proof. Ellie had it all, and without that no one would believe me. I feel so bad about it all.'
'I believe you. Look we can figure this out, you are not alone in this anymore. I think Alex is long overdue getting what's coming to him.'
'Thank you.' Molly said quietly. 'I never thought anyone would understand, I always thought everything was my fault.'
'It wasn't, and we will come up with something. Now though, you need to get some sleep.'
'Ok.. Erm.. Are you staying here tonight or going back to the Hub?'
'I'm staying here.'
Molly smiled. 'Thanks.' She turned and hugged Ianto. He then got up and left the room walking back into the kitchen. He had hated seeing Molly so upset, but was glad she had finally confided in him because now they could do something about it.
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The next morning Ianto and Molly walked into the Hub together. Ianto gave Molly a reassuring smile before she walked over to her workstation to try and fix the device they had been working with, and Ianto went up to Jack's office.
'Is everything ok?' asked Jack, although he could tell by the look on Iantos face that it wasn't.
'No.' said Ianto. 'You are going to have to keep me away from Alex, because at the moment I'm not sure what I would do if I saw him.'
Jack walked over to him. 'I take it this is something to do with Molly?'
'Yeah, I got her to talk to me last night.'
'And?' asked Jack.
Ianto then told Jack some of what Molly told him last night, holding some things back because he was sure there was some stuff she wouldn't want him to repeat. 'We can do something to help right?'
'I'm sure we can do something.' Jack said thinking. He was not happy that somebody was messing with one of his team. 'Right, when Gwen comes in, I'll see if she can use any of her police contacts to find out anything about Ellies accident, I'm going to contact Martha and see if she can get me anything on Alex. I'm going to need you and Jamie to keep Alex busy and away from Molly. Which means resisting the urge to punch him.'
Ianto rolled his eyes. 'Maybe I could accidentally trip him up?' He said innocently.
Jack laughed. 'Try not to be obvious.'
'What do we tell Gwen and Jamie?'
'As little as possible for now, if he gets wind that Molly has said something and that we're investigating him, who knows what he'll do.'
At that moment the alarm sounded as the door opened. Jack and Ianto both walked out of the office to see Jamie and Gwen coming in, with Alex following behind them. Jamie walked straight over to Molly to see how she was, while Gwen stood talking to Alex.
'Gwen, can you come up here for a minute.' Jack called down to her.
'Sure.' She walked up the stairs to Jacks office, passing Ianto who was on the way down.
'What is it?' Gwen asked when she got there.
'I need you to get some information for me, and I need you to keep it quiet, no one can know what you are doing.'
Jack told her what he needed her to find, and although she was slightly puzzled as to why he wanted this, she went back to her desk and started making phone calls. Jack then picked up his own phone, hoping that he would be able to find out he could use.
