3
"So? Self-inflicted?" Gwen was in her 'cop' mode as she stood with her hands on her hips.
"No, well. I don't know. Maybe" Owen sighed.
"Well, they didn't get there by themselves!" Gwen snorted, "I think it's a cry for attention. "
"What?" Tosh boggled, "explain!"
"Well, after the bloody 'Lisa' debacle he withdrew, just like this and we fussed on him a bit" she pointed at the screen where Ianto was seen sitting on the autopsy table with a look of confusion, "He didn't even get called in for the fairies, was allowed to beg off. Then came the bloody barrens. He was given attention, again."
"We fussed on him a bit?" Tosh scoffed, "Gwen, you wouldn't even look at him!"
"Well, you made up for it" Gwen said as Jack frowned.
"Enough." Jack cut into the argument brewing, "We don't have time for this. Owen?"
"If I didn't know better …. Fuck, it sounds so weird." Owen frowned back, "They don't look like cuts, and they're jagged, not clean."
"So? If a body came in with those wounds?" Jack prompted.
"Well, I would say a weevil but they're too close together, a weevil's claws are spaced further apart" Owen explained.
"So, a young weevil?" Gwen surmised.
"Yeah. A young weevil that somehow snuck into the hub without setting off the sensors and hiding in the gun range for an as yet undetermined length of time because it really wanted to hold hands with the tea boy!" Owen answered dryly.
"Well, I was just surmising!" Gwen said sulkily.
"Well, aren't you bloody Sherlock!" Owen hissed. I go, he tried to make it look like it but didn't know the spacings were off."
"Stop it!" Jack roared, "This isn't helping."
They all looked bashful and moved back to their seats, then jumped as Ianto entered with a tray of mugs.
"Coffee, while you all decide how loopy I am" Ianto said as he slammed the tray down and glared at them.
"Ianto, what did you see?" Jack asked softly and Ianto stepped away from him with a shake of his head.
"To speak of it, gives it power." He replied, turning to leave.
"A Namahage?" Tosh asked with wide eyes, "Ianto? You think a Namahage was in the dark?"
"A what?" Gwen asked.
"Bogeyman" Jack clarified, "Tosh means a bogeyman."
Ianto looked at Owen as he waited for the blowback in three …. Two …. One ….
"Bullshit!" Owen exploded.
Ianto turned and began to leave, no point staying to hear all the things he had already said to himself about his failing sanity.
"Ianto?" Jack called him back.
"The Namahageare demons that warn children not to be lazy or cry" Tosh informed them, "Like a troll or small Ogre with an orange face."
"Every culture has a version" Jack agreed, "Ianto? There is something in the dark?"
Ianto sighed and looked at his feet as he considered and then he spoke.
"When me Mam died I was sent to me Grandys because my father didn't want me. My sister was already off at college and I was just an added burden to a blooming alcoholic. While at the farmhouse, I experienced … I mean. Something in the dark tried to hurt me"
Everyone sat, transfixed.
"A bwgan me Nan called it" Ianto said as he looked at Jack, "like a pixie or … Mara."
Jack had gone still as he stared at Ianto and then his eyes grew wide, "So when we had the case with the Mara, you knew? Is that why you wouldn't help? Why you withdrew? Not because you were still mad about Lisa?"
"They always win, Jack" Ianto said calmly, 'I know that. So do you. I also know it wasn't one of them this time. It …. Smelt."
"Smelt?" Gwen frowned.
"Bullshit!" Owen repeated with his arms folded. "Try another way to get attention but know this, if you self-harm again I ain't stitching you up!"
As the others agreed and Jack turned away with a look of disappointment in him, Ianto deflated with dejection.
Tosh sidled up and touched his arm. "I believe you."
Jack watched the exchange and wondered again about the brush against his coat.