A/N. Happy New Year everybody. I just want to say a big Thank You for all your support and all the wonderful reviews i have had in the last year, both on this story and my first one. It means a lot. :) Enjoy the next chapter and i hope you will all stick with me in 2010 as i have plans for this story and for some new ones. :)
Chapter 38.
In the days after Christmas changes within the teams personal lives had started to take place. Molly had moved in with Jamie, so that they could get used to living together and Jack had moved in with Ianto. Gwen had spent the first day back at work gushing over what a great Christmas she had had with Rhys and Mary, and had enjoyed telling them all about the presents Mary had received and how she had more fun playing with the wrapping paper than any of the actual presents. Things changed though when she discovered Jamie had proposed to Molly and that Molly had accepted, Gwen had literally squealed with delight and now she couldn't help but keep bringing up the subject of weddings every time she was with Molly. It was now New Years Eve and Molly was getting slightly fed up with all the questions, so eventually she made an excuse about having to leave her desk to go and get something, and fled down into the Archives. When she got down there Ianto was sat at his desk working through a pile of paperwork. He turned and looked as she came through the door, and he smiled at her. It had been a while since she had been down in the archives, so Gwen must be getting to her, he thought.
'Hey, everything alright?' Ianto asked as Molly slid down the wall and sat on the floor. He got up and went over to her. 'Can I join you?'
'Sure,' said Molly, and Ianto sat down next to her. 'I'm fine, except Gwen's badgering me with questions again and I have no idea what to say anymore. She keeps going on about seating arrangements and flowers.'
'You should have been here when she was planning her wedding.'
'I'm glad I wasn't. I appreciate she's trying to help, but it's just what she's coming out with is not what I want.'
'Do you have any ideas yet?'
'Well, we know it's going to be fairly small, particularly on my side. Apart from my uncle, who I don't think will even come, I have no family. There's my mum's friend Ruth, who I lived with when I first came here, and then a few friends, plus you, Jack, Gwen and Rhys, but that's it.'
'What about Jamie's side.'
'He's keeping it to just close family and friends, but his side will still be more full than mine.' Molly gave a sad smile. 'Doesn't matter though, it's the quality of your friends not the quantity right?'
'And you do have some of the best friends.' Ianto replied smiling.
'There is one thing I want to ask you though.'
'Ok.'
'You can say no, I won't be offended, it's just you're the only person I would want to ask.' Molly took a breath. 'Would you walk me down the aisle?'
'Me?' said Ianto, a little taken aback, but flattered all the same.
'Yeah, you're my best friend, I couldn't think of anyone better.' said Molly.
'I'd be honoured.' replied Ianto, leaning over to Molly and pulling her into a hug. The moment was interrupted by the sound of the Rift alarm. They both jumped to their feet and sped up to the main area of the Hub, where Gwen was already trying to locate the source of the alarm.
'So much for a quiet New Years Eve,' she grumbled.
'Be thankful we had a quiet Christmas,' said Jack coming over to join them. 'We were lucky to get that.' As soon as the words were out of his mouth the alarm went off again.
'Got a second alert coming in,' said Molly.
'Fantastic' said Ianto sarcastically. 'Where?'
'Mine's down on docks,' answered Gwen.
'Bute Park.' said Molly. 'Looks like Weevils.'
'Maybe they want to celebrate New Year.' said Ianto.
'Ok, Ianto, you and Jamie take the docks, the girls and I will take the park. Hopefully we can get this resolved fairly quickly.'
They all hurried to grab their gear and raced down to the SUV. Jack climbed into the drivers side, Ianto the passengers and the others got into the back.
'We'll get out at the park and you can come back and get us when the dock's have been dealt with.' said Jack. They reached the park quickly, Ianto silently making note of the red lights Jack seemed not to notice, so he could take care of any fines later. When they reached the park, Jack, Gwen and Molly got out and Ianto took over the driving. 'Be careful.' said Jack just before the SUV pulled away.
'You too' called Ianto.
It was starting to get late, so darkness had descended on the park. It was lit up by lights surrounding the paths, and there was some light coming from where people were setting up seats to watch the fireworks display that had been organised for midnight. It sounded like some sort of music was being put on to keep the people entertained. Jack, Gwen and Molly made their way to the edge of the woods where the signal was coming from. As they approached they could see four weevils heading towards a couple who were sat on a bench, oblivious to what was behind them.
'Right, Molly I want you to get that couple out of there, while me and Gwen distract the weevils. Then come back and help us. Try to take them down without the use of guns first, I don't want to start a panic in the park, ok?'
Gwen and Molly nodded and they silently followed Jack over to the edge of the woods. The weevils sensed their presence and ran at them, teeth bared in a full on attack. Molly managed to side step one that ran for her, to reach the couple on the bench, who had now realised something was happening and they were frozen with fright. 'RUN!' shouted Molly at them and this seemed to shake them out of their stunned state and they took off in the other direction. Molly turned to check on what was happening and was struck on the side of the face as one of the weevils was right behind her, and struck out at her as she turned. Molly felt it's claws scratch across the side of her face, followed by the sensation of blood running down her cheek. She caught a glimpse of what was happening to the others and it was not good. Jack had managed to disorientate one of the weevils, but was having trouble with a second. It grabbed him by the shoulder and he yelled out in pain as it dug it's claws into him. As it went to sink it's teeth into him though, Jack bought up his other arm that contained the weevil spray and sprayed it in it's face, causing it to let go, but not enough to knock it out and it went staggering in the other direction. The one that was after Molly went to attack her again, but she was too quick and sprayed it before it could touch her. The problem was the spray was proving to be more ineffective than usual, it was disorientating the weevils, but not knocking them out completely. Gwen had been knocked to the floor by the weevil she was fighting, but she had also now disorientated it with the spray. As she got up and straightened herself up, there was a low whistling sound coming from the woods, and three of the weevils started to head towards it, shaking off the effects of the spray as they went. The fourth one however, went for Gwen, and she suddenly found herself being thrown against a tree, hitting her shoulder hard, she fell to the floor with a sickening thud.
Jack, who had been after the weevil that had just attacked Gwen, threw himself at it to stop it finishing what it had started. It clawed at him viciously as it fell to the floor taking Jack with it. Molly, had got over to where this was happening, and pulled out her gun, knowing this was now the time for something more than weevil spray. She aimed at the weevil and shot it in the head. It stopped it's attack immediately and slumped on to the floor next to Jack. Molly rushed over to Gwen.
'Gwen, are you ok?' Molly said.
'It could have been worse, I think I've dislocated my shoulder, but apart from that I'm fine. You?
I can feel a cut on my face, but I got off lightly.'
'What about Jack?'
'I couldn't bring myself to look,' said Molly sheepishly, 'but he's not moving so I don't think it's good.' Molly helped Gwen up and they went over to Jack, who was covered in blood from where the weevil had bit him in the neck, obviously severing an artery.
'He saved my life,' said Gwen, 'that could have been me.' She shuddered inadvertently. 'Right we need to cover up that dead weevil, and keep anyone who might wander over here away. With any luck Ianto and Jamie won't be long, although I hope Jack comes back before then.'
'Is it just me or was it strange how those weevils gave up like that.' asked Molly.
'Yeah, and what was that sound. There's definitely something strange going on.' said Gwen.
X
Ianto and Jamie reached the docks, and immediately spotted two weevils heading towards some dock workers. Ianto stopped the SUV as close by as he dared and he and Jamie both got out.
'Ok, so disable rather than shoot?' asked Jamie. Ianto nodded. They approached the weevils as carefully as they could, but the weevils sensed they were under threat and ran at them. Ianto and Jamie split apart taking on a weevil each. The first weevil went after Ianto lashing out as it reached him, but Ianto was too quick and moved out of it's way, he raised his weevil spray and hit it with enough to disorientate it and then sprayed it again, eventually knocking it out. Jamie had his spray knocked out of his hand by the one that followed him, as it lashed out just as Jamie raised his arm and the can went flying. Jamie went to make a grab for it, but the weevil was quick and lashed out again. Before it could reach Jamie, it was hit from behind by Ianto, causing the weevil to go off balance. This gave Jamie the time he needed to reach his spray. It wasn't needed though as the weevil ran off and disappeared down the sewer grate that it had obviously come out of. Jamie got back up and said, 'Should we go after it?'
Ianto shook his head, 'No, we don't know how many might be down there. We got this one, we should check on the others. You ok?'
'Fine, scratch on my hand, but that's it.'
'Ok let's get this one into the SUV and I'll speak to the others.' Between the two of them they restrained the weevil and got it into the boot of the SUV.
X
Gwen and Molly were sat either side of Jack, waiting for some sign of life when their comms activated. 'Jack, Gwen, Molly, are any of you there?' It was Ianto.
'We're here,' said Gwen. 'Are you on your way back?'
'Yes, we have one unconscious weevil in the boot, the other got away.'
'We have a dead one, a couple got away from us too. Weird thing was though, it was more like they were called off rather than them running away. We heard this really low sound just before they ran.'
'Well, that's something we'll have to look into when we get back. Is everyone ok?' Ianto asked, getting worried now that Gwen was answering and not Jack.
'Molly has a nasty cut to her face and I think I've dislocated my shoulder.' said Gwen.
'And Jack?' Ianto asked, his stomach sinking. There was a pause as neither of the women knew what to say, or rather didn't want to say it, and this was all Ianto needed. 'He's dead isn't he.'
'Yeah, sorry, he saved Gwen's life though.' answered Molly.
'We'll be right there.' said Ianto as he floored the accelerator on the SUV, picking up some speeding tickets of his own.
Ianto and Jamie reached the park in record time and raced over to where the others were. Jamie made sure to take his medical kit with him, and went about fixing up the women as best as he could in the field, while Ianto went and sat with Jack. Jamie handed Molly some gauze to hold to her wound, as he needed to fix Gwen's shoulder first. He gave her a large dose of painkiller before he said, 'This is still going to hurt.' Molly held out her hand for Gwen so that she could squeeze it while Jamie popped her shoulder back in. Gwen let out a small cry of pain, but it wasn't as bad as she had expected. He then turned his attention to Molly, cleaning up her cut.
Ianto sat with Jack, holding his hand in both of his as he waited for him to come back. Jack took in a large gasp of air as he woke up and sat straight up. It took a minute for him to gather his senses together and realise where he was and that Ianto was with him. When he did, he pulled Ianto into a hug. 'Are the others ok?' he asked.
'Yeah, you saved Gwen's life.'
'The weevils?'
'One's dead, the others ran away. Gwen seems to think they were called away.'
'Called away?' queried Jack.
'Something to look into, as I don't know what would do that. Come on, we need to get back to the Hub.'
Ianto and Jamie loaded the dead weevil into the SUV, and then they all climbed in and headed back to the Hub. As they drove fireworks started to light up the sky heralding the New Year. They couldn't help but think that, even though it was a different year, it would still carry the dangers and unknowns of the last year, and this cast a sober mood on the occupants of the SUV.
