Heart and Soul Revelations
Chapter Eleven
With sore muscles Owen swung the axe into the back of the cupboard as Gwen and Tosh watched from the stairs well out of the way. They were all beyond any point where they were going to attempt to lift the cupboard back into is original place – it was too heavy.
The only solution was to smash open the back, empty the contents and then demolish it.
Taking another swing the axe bit into the wood and splinters flew. After several more swings the back broke up and Gwen and Tosh began to pull away the pieces. Looking in they could see a jumble of objects against what was the back of the doors now at the bottom.
Sitting on the edge Tosh leaned in and after several moments pulled out what looked like a piece of scrap metal. On closer examination it appeared to have a black sheen about it that caught in the light. Attached to it was a large label tied on with heavy brown string.
She examined the beautiful cursive script on the label. "Unidentified artefact of possible alien origin," she read out, "found in Fish Lane January 3rd 1884." She handed the object to Gwen, who after examining, passed it to Owen.
Gwen now took her turn, she reached in and pulled out what looked like metal donut. She read the label out, "Unidentified artefact of possible alien origin found by Kings Head Tavern 16th May 1884."
Owen took his turn, reaching in deep he pulled out another object. He read the label, "Unidentified artefact of possible alien origin found Pakers Lane 26th November 1884."
"My turn again," Tosh said, excited at what she might find, reaching right down to the bottom. Feeling around she pulled out the first thing she touched. "This one's heavy," she said as she lifted it out.
As it came into view she knew immediately it did not belong with the other objects. It was a large clear plastic zip bag with a Torchwood symbol on the front. She took a sharp breath inwards as she saw the name and the description written on the white label across the front.
Looking at each other in complete silence they stood examining the bag. Through the plastic it was clear this was a collection of personal items.
Owen was the first to recover his voice. "Well he always did have a dry sense of humour," he said, "he must have known no one would check down here for decades."
"I don't think he was laughing when he put this here," Gwen added very quietly.
"No, you're right," Owen corrected himself, "but why hide them down here, why not just throw them away?" he added after a few moments.
"Perhaps these were so important he couldn't," Tosh replied visibly upset, "Couldn't just throw them away."
"But he must have known someone in the future would come across them," Owen said.
"Maybe these are too important, I mean his stop watch and the wrist watch Jack gave him for his birthday...," Tosh said taking a deep breath, not able to finish.
Gwen took a few moments before she replied. "You know, maybe some part of him wanted there to be a record that he was here, someone in the future would know there was an operative who put in the hard yards at Torchwood named Ianto Jones."
"Is there someone we could give this to, like family?" Tosh asked her voice shaking.
Gwen shook her head. "Remember he had no family, he never spoke of his mother and I know his dad died some time ago."
"This is so sad," Tosh said now beginning to cry.
"The only person Ianto had was Jack," Owen commented as he watched Gwen move alongside Tosh and put her arm around her shoulders.
"We should put this back," Owen stated, "It's clear that Ianto never intended any of us to find this."
"No we should hand this to Jack," Tosh replied adamantly looking at them both.
They heard a noise behind them. Turning as one they saw Jack was standing on the bottom step.
"Hand what to Jack?" Jack asked as he joined them.
Handing the bag to Jack, he examined it. Gwen saw his eyes widen as the blood drained from his face as he realised the significance of what he held in his hands. Without a word he turned on his heel leaving the vault.
