Chapter Text
"An inch of time is an inch of gold, but you can't buy that inch of time with an inch of gold." (Chinese proverb)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The warehouse looked plain enough. It was a metal box, with several rolling loading doors, and square windows, set high above the ground, which were broken in many places; evidence of local kids and their quest to destroy anything. Hurling rocks with all their might and being rewarded by the sounds of shattering glass was simple entertainment, if a bit juvenile. It didn’t stop Owen from picking up a pebble and trying his luck. Ianto didn’t need to see where the rock had landed, as the dull, reverberating ring of metal told everyone the result of the throw.
Tosh didn’t look up from the device in her hands as she approached a metal door, "Well, that takes away the element of surprise."
"It’s not as if there’s anyone in there, Tosh. It’s obviously abandoned." A low rumble of thunder echoed across the grey sky, the only other sound being a few seagulls cawing high above.
"You still missed." Ianto said.
"Yeah, well, I’m handicapped. Remember?" Owen held up his bandaged left hand, trying to accent his point.
Gwen entered the building first, gun in hand, ready for anything that might pose a threat. "You’re right-handed, you idiot."
Owen might have grumbled a retort, but another roll of thunder echoed through the building, drowning out the words. "I don’t see why Jack got to stay behind. I could be finishing up my reports from yesterday instead of being out here with you lot, searching for God knows what."
The building was quiet, save for the occasional sound of some unseen rodent scurrying through the rafters. Tosh looked up from her device. "Let’s just find whatever it is, and get out of here. The readings are coming from this general area, but I can’t pinpoint an exact location."
"What are we looking for?" Gwen asked, tucking the Glock into the back of her jeans.
"I’m not sure. Just look for anything out of the ordinary."
"Well, that was extremely helpful," Owen muttered.
Everyone split up, each taking a portion of the open warehouse to search. Fortunately the place was fairly empty, so the search would go quickly. Or at least Ianto hoped so. He hadn't been able to savor his first cup of coffee before being recruited for this mission and the lack of caffeine was putting him on edge.
Ianto headed towards one corner, searching the ground and under heaps of trash left by some homeless person… or weevil. He really hoped that if it had been the Weevil, it wasn’t planning to come back anytime soon. He’d already seen enough of them in the past week to fill up Torchwood’s first row of cells three times over, though the team had chased them back to the sewers instead. The weevils had been unusually active lately, which puzzled him, and made him just a little exhausted. He’d had enough exercise running after them, and wasn’t looking forward to seeing any more of the creatures for a while. Besides, the chaffing from running in suits wasn’t something he wished to aggravate at the moment.
As he pulled aside another half-broken pallet, once used to support a stack of boxes, a small glint of metal caught his eye. It was different from the rusted nails he was trying to avoid cutting himself on or the spare scraps of aluminum that lay crumpled and dull. This metal shone bright, almost as if the sunlight had caught it just at the right angle to reflect into Ianto’s eye. But that was impossible, as the sky was overcast; in fact there had been no sun for several days. Another roll of thunder outside punctuated his thought.
There was something alluring about the ring, almost as if it was calling out to be found, and stared at. A hand was reaching for it before Ianto realized it was his own. The moment his fingers touched the warm metal he knew this was it: this was what Tosh’s scanners had picked up. It wasn’t anything spectacular to look at, just a circular piece of gold, as smooth on the outside as it was on the interior as if it had been worn countless times. Something felt so … right. This ring needed to be worn. It was practically begging Ianto to slide it onto his middle finger, as if it was alive, communicating with him, and knowing that it would fit perfectly. Ianto’s logic warred with this desire. He knew something was wrong, though he couldn’t say what, and he was slowly losing the battle between want and rationality.
"Over here! I found something." Gwen’s voice echoed across the empty space, cutting into Ianto’s thoughts, and breaking him free of the thrall he’d been in. He slipped the ring into his pocket, for safekeeping, with every intention of showing it to Tosh to find out what the hell it was. Owen was the first to make it to where Gwen was standing, then Ianto, and eventually Tosh, joined the group. Sticking out from under a pile of rubbish, similar to those Ianto had sorted through, was a hand. The initial shock of seeing it wore off and all four hurried to unveil the body beneath.
Owen didn’t even need to open his medical kit as the gaping hole in the victim’s throat and chest all but screamed "I’m dead!" to the others. Gwen activated her comm link to inform Jack that they had found a body, while a quick scan from Tosh revealed the body to be human. Despite the obvious, Owen performed a quick field analysis of the body, finding no sign of breath or heartbeat, and officially declared the deceased.
Back at the Hub, the team scattered to their work stations to continue monitoring the rift. Owen was performing an autopsy on the body, trying to determine the cause of death; Tosh started uploading the readings from her scanner onto her computer, frowning at something; Gwen was on the phone with Rhys, assuring him that she’d be home for dinner that night, promising she wouldn’t be late like last night. Honestly, the Torchwood team knew too much about Gwen’s personal life through unintentional eavesdropping on the phone calls she made. The thing about their base of operations was that sound echoed off the stone walls and hollow metal water tower. Nothing was ever a secret; anything that was said reverberated throughout the main area of the Hub.
Ianto replaced all the extra firearms they had brought with them in the safe. When investigating something unknown, it was better to carry more firepower than less. A dead human didn’t warrant all the weapons, but there’d been times when they had come in handy. As the lock on the safe clicked shut, the panel light changing from green to red, Ianto caught movement out of the upper corner of his vision. Jack had been watching the group go through their routine, standing at the edge of the hothouse; the sheets of glass his only separation from everyone else. Ianto wondered how big a rock would have to be to shatter that glass, knowing at least that his own weight being thrown against it was not enough. He grinned slightly at that memory. It would’ve been even better if he hadn’t been the one to clean up the mess afterwards. Sometimes Jack really did like to play rough, but that suited Ianto just fine.
Jack moved away from the glass and out of the room, heading for his office as there were reports to read and papers to fill out. Torchwood’s leader hardly ever had a break in work; there was always one report or another filling Jack’s inbox. As Ianto made his way to the coffee maker to start a fresh batch of coffees he started to wonder again about the ring. The weight and warmth of the smooth metal in his pocket was the only reminder that he still needed to inform Tosh of his discovery. But he had a few reports of his own to fill out, and he could tell her later, preferably when she wasn’t so engrossed in whatever program it was that had her staring at the monitor so intently.
After all, it’s not like he was keeping a secret. It was just a ring.