"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" The Welshman asked nervously, backing away ever so slightly as he held his arm. "Maybe you should call Owen in to do this."
"I can do this myself, I'm not incompetent."
"I know, I just thought-" Ianto stopped to find his words.. "He's a doctor, this is a doctor type thing and-"
"Owen is most likely drunk by now and I don't think that you really want Owen performing this procedure with half a bottle of Jack Daniels inside of him, do you?"
Ianto backed away again and Jack let out an exasperated sigh.
"Well what about the hospital?" Ianto suggested. "They do this kind of thing all the time."
"Oh, yes, and explain just how you got the imprints of a Weevil's molars indented into your skin?"
"Well we don't have to say that exactly." Ianto shifted along the cold autopsy table, edging away from Jack."
"I'm starting to think that you don't trust me."
"I trust you with my life," he said. "Just not with a needle."
Jack moved the overhead lamp nearer to the younger man and moved closer, placing the needle down on a piece of blue roll. He put his hands on the table, one either side of Ianto. "Trust me."
"Do I have to?"
"Yes."
"Okay." Ianto relaxed a little and looked at the needle that rested beside him. "Just be careful."
"I wouldn't be anything else."
Jack picked the needle up a little more confidently this time, and slowly started to stitch the wound. It had been a long time since he had seen the sight of a needle through flesh bringing the skin together in this way; he had forgotten just how much it turned his stomach to see the torn flesh slide down the wire. Jack tied off the first stitch and started another, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. He tied one stitch of and started on another, smiling just a little.
"What?" Ianto gave Jack a suspicious look.
"Nothing." He tied off the second stitch. "It's just that I'm not so used to seeing you all-" Jack paused for a moment to search for the right word then smiled. "-Bare."
Ianto looked down at himself. He sat on the cold autopsy table in nothing but a pair of trousers, socks and shoes. His white shirt had been shoved in the yellow medical bin along with the ruined Jacket after they had both been ripped apart by Janet. Ianto suddenly felt self-conscious and as Jack tied off the fourth stitch and started the fifth, he felt more bare than he ever had before. It was the fault of those eyes, those deep piercing eyes that burned into his flesh; they made him feel naked even when he wasn't.
"Now is no time to be lecherous sir." Ianto emphasised the last word heavily, looking away from the older man who was trying to hide his satisfied grin by biting heavily on his lip.
"I'm not being lecherous."
"You're looking."
"Well, who wouldn't look?" Jack asked. "There's a half naked man in front of me and I'm only human." Jack tied off the fifth stitch and admired his work, snipping the thin wire with a pair of scissors. "Not bad."
"Not bad at all." Ianto looked at his arm and inspected the neat stitches.
"And the stitches aren't bad either." Jack said, leaning towards him again.
"As i said, lecherous." Ianto smiled a little, but his tone was accusing.
"You like it." He moved a little nearer and pushed Ianto's legs apart, moving between them to get closer.
"Do i?"
"Yes, you do." He ran his hands over the scratches and shallow wounds on his shoulders, caressing the skin underneath. "Denial isn't attractive."
"This isn't doing anything to disprove my theory."
"What's the fun in that?"
"You're insatiable."
"Thank you." Jack smiled and ran his hand across the grazes on Ianto's jaw. "You'll be bruised tomorrow."
"I'll survive." Ianto winced and moved Jack's hand away, holding it against the table. "I don't suppose I could borrow a shirt or something. I don't really fancy going home topless."
"What's wrong with that?"
"It's cold out there!"
"You don't have to go home if you don't want to." Jack said. "You can stay."
"And you don't have to sexually harass me every hour of every day but you do it anyway." He hopped off the table and ducked under Jack's arms, making his way up the stairs. "I'll just pop my coat on and hope I don't freeze on the way home."
"Anyone would think you didn't like the attention."
Ianto reached the top of the stairs and leaned over the railings. "And anyone would think that you might have taken a hint by now."
"And what hint is that?"
Ianto rolled his eyes and picked his coat up from the back of Toshiko's chair and put it on, fastening it up over his bare chest.
"Goodnight Jack."