A/N. I'm blaming the lateness of this chapter on my goddaughter who passed on a bug that had me in bed for two days, either that or it was karma for the cliffhanger i left you with. It wasn't all bad though as i spent the time watching my Torchwood boxsets. :) It took a little while to get this chapter right, but i'm pretty happy with the result, it's just hard when you have a lot of things going on in a scene at the same time. I don't think i was too evil with what happens. Thank you for all your reviews and enjoy. :)

Chapter 33.

Ianto and Molly were leading Jess towards the exit of the building when the noise on the other side of the room caught their attention. They could tell that Jack and Jamie were trapped by the Wallace's and their heavy, but their priority was to get Jess out first, so she didn't have to witness any more than she already had. As Ianto glanced over his shoulder he saw the Wallace's turn in their direction with their guns raised. 'Molly get down!' he yelled as the guns were fired. Molly, hearing the shots as Ianto shouted at her, threw herself down onto the ground. Ianto was nearer to Jess and he pushed her out of the line of fire, she fell down on to her knees and scrambled to hide behind the nearest pillar. This action put Ianto right in the line of fire, and as he went to down to the ground he felt a bullet hit him in the shoulder, and he landed hard on the ground. Molly looked on in shock as she saw Ianto get hit and fall down, she looked over at Jess who was behind the pillar with her hands over her ears and her eyes shut. Molly managed to sit up and she started firing in the direction of the Wallace's, hitting Greg square in the chest and he fell to the floor. Molly then crawled over to where Ianto had fallen, she could see the blood pooling on the floor from where he had been shot. Molly was relieved to see that, although Ianto was out cold, he was still breathing. She instinctively put her hand over the wound to apply some pressure to it, and try to stop the bleeding.

X

Over on the other side of the room, Jack and Jamie both yelled 'NO!' as they saw what was happening. Jamie threw himself over the table he had been behind as he watched the Wallace's fire at the others. He just about registered Ianto pushing Jess out of the way, but he was too focused on getting over there. He launched himself at the third guy who was still facing them, and knocked him to the ground, both of them losing their guns in the process. The fact that this guy was much bigger than Jamie didn't seem to matter at that point as Jamie was so angry. He punched the guy hard, causing his head to hit the floor of the barn with such as thud he was knocked unconscious. While Jamie was taking this guy out, Jack went for Toby. He grabbed Toby's arm causing him to fire in the air and away from the others. Toby went to punch Jack, but Jack moved out of his way. They both saw Greg hit the ground as Molly fired back, and this aggravated Toby even further. He went for Jack again, this time managing to hit him, knocking him off balance. Toby turned and went forwards towards Molly raising his gun at her, 'You shot my brother, you're going to pay.' Molly closed her eyes as she waited for the shot to be delivered, she was unarmed as she had dropped her gun when she went over to Ianto. Molly flinched when she heard a gun go off, but when it registered in her head that she hadn't felt any pain she opened her eyes slowly, and saw Toby lying on the ground just a few metres away from her and Jack standing a little way behind him, his gun still raised. Molly sighed with relief.

Jack and Jamie came hurrying over to where Ianto and Molly were. Molly could see the worry etched all over Jacks face as he knelt down on the other side of Ianto. Jack took hold of Ianto's hand in one of his and with his other, he stroked the side of his face. Jamie took off the back pack he was carrying and pulled out some gauze and took over from Molly, he carefully pulled back the top of Ianto's shirt to put inspect the wound as best as he could under the circumstances, and then placed the gauze over the wound. 'Thankfully, I don't think this is as bad as it looks, but I'm not going to know until we can get back to the Hub and I can look properly. The bleeding is definitely slowing. He has a strong pulse, and his breathing's fine.'

Jack heard what Jamie was saying, but as Ianto was lying there unconscious he was having trouble believing him. He wouldn't be reassured until Ianto woke up. 'Gwen,' Jack called over his shoulder. 'Can you go and get the SUV?'

'Sure.' Gwen said and she headed towards the door. She had been securing the two other men when the shooting had happened, and hadn't been able to do anything quickly enough as it would have risked one of the men getting free.

Jamie got up and went over to where Jess was hiding behind the pillar, her hands still over her eyes. He knelt down carefully in front of her. 'Jess, it's ok sweetie, it's over.' Jess peered through her fingers just to make sure she had heard right. When she realised Jamie was in front of her, she flung herself into his arms, sobbing quietly. 'It's ok,' he said. I need to know if you are hurt though.' Jess looked up at him and shook her head.

'I..I'm fine,' she managed to say, 'but what about Ianto?' She pointed over to where Ianto was lying, and Jack was knelt still holding his hand.

'He's going to be ok, nothing I can't fix.' Jamie said giving her a small smile, which she returned. 'I have to go back over there though for a minute, ok.' Jamie really didn't want to leave his daughter now, but he was sure that she was not hurt physically, and he needed to keep an eye on Ianto.

'Where's Molly?' Jess asked. Jamie looked around and spotted her leaning against a wall, giving everyone their space. He caught her eye and gestured her to come over, which she did, limping slightly.

'You ok?' Jamie asked as she came and sat down next to them.

'I think I twisted my ankle when I dived for the floor, but it's nothing serious.'

'You'll have to let me look at it later.'

Molly nodded and then Jamie went back over to Ianto. 'Jess, I think we should get out of here now, lets go outside.' Jess nodded and got to her feet following Molly towards the exit.

'Did those men do that to you?' Jess asked looking at the bruise that had formed on Molly's cheek and the cut on her head.

'Yeah, but I'm ok.' When they got outside, Molly sat down on the ground to rest her ankle and Jess sat with her.

'Molly, can I tell you something.' Jess started.

'Sure,'

'I was really scared in there.'

Molly smiled, 'That's ok, I was too.'

'You were?' Jess replied surprised. 'I couldn't tell, I thought you were brave going in there on your own. You all were.'

'Sometimes what you see on the outside isn't the same as what you feel on the inside. There was no way I was going to let those men know how scared I was.'

As they sat there Gwen pulled up in the SUV, she ran inside to let the others know. Between them Jack and Jamie carefully carried Ianto and got him into the SUV, both of them sat with him in the back. Molly and Jess got into the front and Gwen drove. Realising that Jess was going to have to be out of the car before she could go back to the Hub, she spoke to Jamie.

'Where do you want me to take Jess?'

'My place is on the way. Jess are you alright if Molly stays with you at my house until I can get home.'

'Yeah.'

'That ok with you too Molly?'

'No problem.'

'Dad, are you going to the hospital?'

'Yeah, I just have to make sure Ianto's ok before I can come back.' He knew that half of this was a lie, but he couldn't tell her the truth about where they were actually going. Jamie told Gwen his address and she dropped Molly and Jess off before heading to the Hub. Once they were out of the car Gwen said, 'I called General Andrews at UNIT on my way to get the SUV and he's sending a team to clean up and to sort out the equipment the Wallace's had. I made sure that he knows we need to have access to his reports, and that we might want some of the items in there.'

'Ok' answered Jack although he was barely concentrating on what she said. He was too focused on Ianto and what could have happened. If the bullet had gone just a few inches in a different direction the outcome would have been a lot different. Jack shook his head slightly trying to get these negatives thoughts from his head, he had lost Ianto once and he was not going to lose him a second time. Jack knew though that he was not going to feel any sort of comfort until Ianto woke up. Gwen pulled into the underground car park and Jack carefully carried Ianto into the Hub and down to the medical bay. Jamie set to work, first removing Ianto's jacket and shirt so that he could inspect the bullet wound properly. He ran a scanner over it and located the bullet that was luckily not too deep in Ianto's shoulder. Jamie removed it and stitched up the wound. He then gave Ianto a shot of a strong painkiller.

'That should help with the pain when he wakes up.' Jamie said to Jack who was sitting next to the table holding Ianto's hand.

'Shouldn't he be awake by now?' Jack asked, not successfully keeping the worry out of his voice.

'I think he'll wake up soon, and at least now he's had some painkiller he won't be in as much pain when he does. It's likely he also got a knock to the head when he went down.'

Jack sighed and waited. Jamie left them alone and went up into the main part of the Hub to phone Molly and Jess. About ten minutes later Jack felt Ianto's fingers twitch in his hand, and he looked up to see Ianto opening his eyes. 'Jack,' he said weakly.

'Yeah, I'm here.' Jack answered leaning in and placing a soft kiss onto Ianto's forehead. 'You gave me one hell of a scare.'

'Sorry, didn't mean too. Is Jess ok?'

'She's fine, thanks to you. Molly too.'

Jamie came back down the stairs on hearing the voices coming from the medical bay. 'How are you feeling' Jamie asked.

'My head feels a little fuzzy, but my shoulder doesn't feel too bad, which is surprising.'

Jamie smiled, 'That would be the industrial strength painkiller I gave you. I will leave you with some more for when that starts to wear off.'

Ianto started to sit up, Jack getting up to help him. 'Any chance of something to put on,' he asked having realised he didn't have anything on his top half.

'I'll go and get something.' said Jack. 'Won't be a minute,' and he ran up the steps two at a time, leaving Ianto and Jamie alone.

There was silence for a moment before Jamie broke it. 'I don't know how I can thank you for what you did, you saved my daughters life.'

'It was more instinct than anything, when I saw those guns pointed at us, I just reacted and pushed her out the way.'

'Well I appreciate it, and I also want to say I'm sorry for acting like an idiot ever since that stuff with the virus and Molly. I'm also sorry that it took you getting shot for me to realise I was being an idiot.'

'It's ok, really.'

'If I'm honest I think some of it was because I was jealous.'

'Jealous? Why?'

'Because of the relationship you and Molly have, the way she talks you so easily. God I feel stupid for admitting that, but I might as well get everything out in the open now I've started.'

'It's not stupid. It wasn't always like this between Molly and me, it took a while to get like this. In time it will be the same with the two of you, probably even better.'

Jamie smiled, 'Yeah I know.' He was feeling better having got this off his chest. 'You know, maybe we need to get to know each other better too.'

'Sure, i'd like that.'

Neither of them had realised Jack had come back down the steps until they heard him speak. 'If you two need to hug it out don't mind me,' he said grinning as he walked over.

'I'm good thanks.' answered Jamie as he went over to his computer.

When Jack reached Ianto he wrapped a blanket that he had fetched around him. 'I thought this would do for now.' Ianto smiled and pulled the blanket around him, being mindful of his injured shoulder.

'I could really use something to drink right about now.'

'Gwen's just gone out to pick up some coffees and breakfast. I told her she could go home after that, you can go too Jamie. I think we all need some sleep.' said Jack. 'I can keep an eye on the Rift monitors.'

'Sounds good.' Jamie answered. He was anxious to see how Molly and Jess were, but at the same time he was wondering how he was going to deal with the repercussions of the events that had just taken place.