Author's Note:

I'm going to try to get into a rhythm of updating this on a Monday and my Class/Torchwood crossover 'A Feet Finding Mission' on a Friday. Please do check out AFFM and Class, because it's basically the Torchwood high school AU we always wanted and it hits the US in April, and needs all the love it can get. If you're in the UK, the whole series is available on iPlayer.

16.01.09

Ianto downed the dregs of his coffee and shuddered when he realised it had gone cold. The pot was empty too, and he didn't need more coffee more than he needed to stay still for a while longer. Jack chuckled and Ianto glared at him. "You were supposed to be stopping me drinking."

"You're an adult and responsible for your own decisions. Besides, you seemed to be enjoying yourself."

"I was, but there's a reason I asked you not to let me drink." He rubbed at his eyes again. "If you think you're going on that spa weekend with me, you have another thing coming."

Jack got up and came to stand behind him, squeezing his shoulders and bending to kiss his temple. "If I make the coffee and do you a bacon sandwich with cheese and barbecue sauce, will you change your mind about that?" When Ianto nodded, he straightened up to do that. "And get your eyes tested."

"I've got an appointment on Monday," he growled.

"Someone's tetchy," Ally commented around a yawn as she emerged from the spare bedroom, wrapped up in her fluffy dressing down and with bunny slippers that shuffled across the floor. "Did you have a good night last night?"

"Someone is seriously hungover, again, because someone else didn't stop him drinking like he said he would." He pushed a chair out for her with his foot. "It was nice, though. A bit stuck up and pretentious, and I spent way too much on the auction. You should see the painting I bought for Gordon, though. It was a hundred quid, and it's hideous. He's going to love it."

"You're cute. Yes please, Jack, if there's bacon going. And I picked up stuff for tonight's dinner, so I'll cook too." She rested her head on her arms and looked out at the snow. "Will it ever stop?"

"Eventually." Ianto smiled at the back of her head. "What about you and Tosh? Good night?"

"Yeah, it was nice. There's this Thai place, really good food. And cocktails. They happened. Tosh wants to come to Norway with me." She looked over at Jack. "If her boss can spare her?"

"I can't spare both of you, unfortunately," he apologised. "I'm down to a skeleton staff as it is, and there's no way I can get replacements before you go off. It's, what, three weeks away?"

"Thought so." She sighed and sat up. "Next time."

"How's recruitment going?" Ianto asked. "Have you started looking?"

"Yep. Del's transfer is going through, and she joins us at the start of February. Owen's looking at candidates from the veterinary courses, and following up on a couple of contacts he's made over the last couple of years, to try and get someone to work with him, and I'm sounding out Cathy. If you hadn't guessed." Jack put a plate full of sandwiches down on the table and went back for the mugs of coffee. "And I have my eye on a site for a new Hub. I'd like you to come and see it tomorrow, in your professional capacity, if you have time."

Ianto sat up at that. "You have? What it is?"

"It's an MOD site, on the edge of the docklands. Second World War munitions factory, then a warehouse, and it's been derelict for a few years. It's too close to town for them to use these days, so they've stripped out the asbestos, got utilities to the site, and now they're looking for a buyer. There's an office building that's ready to move into," he added. "Although it's currently being used for site management."

"I'll clear my schedule. It sounds perfect." He picked up his phone. "And I'll see if UNIT have an architect or project manager available. It might be a bit short notice, but whatever site we present them with they'll be able to work with it."

Ally nodded. "Did they do Canary Wharf?"

"No." Jack licked ketchup off his finger and watched Ianto typing. "UNIT didn't know Torchwood existed at that point. Late 80s, UNIT were still very new, and the Doctor still worked with them occasionally, so I kept them separate. They just got a civilian architect in and then made adjustments as they needed them. We must have made a profit on that place by now…"

"Oh, definitely." Ianto put his phone down again and picked up his drink. "It cost nearly seven hundred million pounds to build, and that was in the nineteen eighties. The refurbishment cost a lot, too, but the rent on the offices there should cover the staffing costs for the whole organisation in future. It was a bad idea practically, but as an investment you can't beat it."

"What is the Torchwood portfolio worth now? How many properties do we have?"

"Over a billion pounds, even without Canary Wharf." He swallowed hard and stared into his mug. "You know how… actually, you might not. If a Torchwood agent dies without beneficiaries, which is quite common, Torchwood inherits their estate. Life insurance policies on every agent that pay off the mortgage in the event of their death meant that Torchwood acquired over 400 London properties in a single day. Everything from grotty bedsits to Georgian town houses, and a lot of apartments." He raised his eyes for a moment but returned to staring at his coffee. "They had to take on new staff to handle it. Those of us who survived got very rich. I got my mortgage paid off as part of my severance, plus I inherited Lisa's apartment that we'd been renting out, and my severance pay plus her life insurance payout, and damages and…"

"And no job or support."

"No, exactly. They threw money at the problem and hoped we'd go away. The others are… most of them are doing okay." He shrugged it off. "Two work in the property office, actually. They just transferred, so they got the support we could offer. Torchwood is one of the biggest landlords in London, and with fewer complaints against us than any comparable agency, which is good."

Jack reached over and squeezed his hand and Ianto smiled tiredly. "There's everything on the books, all over the Commonwealth. Anywhere that was part of the British Empire during Torchwood's existence has at least one office and a lot of property. I used to describe Torchwood London as an estate agent with a sideline in aliens."

"It is. That was my first job, you know? I was at uni and had a part time job in the office of one of the letting agencies. Every single property on the books was owned by Torchwood." He squeezed Jack's fingers and smiled. "I used to wish they'd not told me the truth. Sometimes I still do."

"You could leave. Become an estate agent again."

"Maybe. Who knows?" His phone beeped and he picked it up with his free hand. "We have an architect. I'm picking him up from the airport tomorrow morning. Let's see what the MOD have for us."

# # #

17.01.09

Ianto didn't need a sign for their guest to find him. It was still dark outside when the plane landed, and the sun was just peeking through the cloud cover by the time the first few arrivals trooped through, coats over their arms ready to be pulled on before they braved the outside, so there were only a handful of taxis waiting, the drivers clustered together and sharing warnings on the best routes to deal with the weather. He leaned against a pillar with a Thermos of coffee, and contemplated taking his own coat off until he got back out to the car. Before he'd made a decision, though, a sharply dressed man in his forties, carrying a battered leather satchel that contrasted with his pristine suit, strode through the barriers, pushing through the crowd and, after a glance, made straight for Ianto.

"Mr Jones? Bruno Garona, thank you for meeting me. How is the weather?"

"Cold, I'm afraid." He picked his keys out of his pocket. "You don't have luggage?"

"No, I will return tonight. My flight is at seven, assuming the weather permits." His accent was as clipped and precise as his outfit and his manner. "Shall we?"

Ianto nodded and led the way out to the SUV. "It's not the best weather to visit the site, I realise, but we need to get moving as soon as we can. It's overdue, in fact."

"So I understand. There's new management at Torchwood, isn't there? Lots of exciting developments happening. We can but hope the new director makes a better job of it than the last one." He looked over at Ianto. "What do you think of the new director? Does he ever come over from London?"

He raised an eyebrow. "I am the new director."

"Ah. That answers both questions." To his credit, he didn't seem perturbed. "I apologise. I was under the impression that you are based solely from the capital. You wouldn't see our upper management coming to Cardiff in the snow."

"No. Well, I was here for a fundraising event for the local emergency services and stayed over the weekend." He smiled across at him. "And my fiancé lives here, so I spend as much time here as I can. Captain Harkness, of course."

"Ah. Him I know." He pulled his notebook out and flicked through it. "You are young, no?"

He sighed. "Yes, I know. I have been for a while. You are… candid."

"Yes. It gets the job done." Bruno flipped the notebook shut and turned to watch him. "So, what are your requirements for the site?"

"We'll discuss that with Jack. He's in charge in Cardiff and knows his requirements, but it's a large site and we will want accommodation, research labs, training facilities, containment facilities, and a lot of storage." He glanced over at him as they skimmed down the main road, most of his attention on the road. "We will give you a specification, a property, and total freedom."

"Music to my ears. I have a talented team, and we will dazzle for you, I promise."

"Good." He turned off towards the city. "We should be there in about half an hour, and Jack will join us there. After we've finished at the new site, we'll show you around our current site and you'll see why we need to change, and then we'll go back to our office to discuss matters over lunch."

"How civilised."

The snow had picked up by the time they reached the site, and they hurried across to the warm light pouring out of the gatehouse office. Jack, Tosh, Ally and Gwen were studying plans of the site, and Jack straightened up to greet them when they arrived. "You're here," he said, grinning widely.

"Sorry we're late. You know what the roads are like today. This is Bruno Garona, our architect. Jack…"

"Captain Jack Harkness," he introduced, offering his hand. "How do you do? I'm the director of the Cardiff office, this is Toshiko Sato, who is in charge of all our IT. Analyn Craig is currently in charge of our admin, and Gwen Cooper runs our public relations and logistics. Greg Jones is the site manager."

Greg Jones just inclined his head in greeting. "We'd better get on with it, whilst we've got the light and the weather's not too heavy. It's not the best weather for it, but we'll work with what we've got."

The blanket of snow between the office and the building itself was undisturbed, a pristine coat of white nearly a foot deep after the week or more of snow without a thaw. It crunched under their boots and caught at the end of long coats. They had hard hats jammed on and steel toe capped boots, which weren't as good at keeping out the cold as the ones they'd replaced but would satisfy health and safety that all precautions had been taken if the building collapsed and killed them all. Ally had her scarf wrapped so far up her face that Ianto was surprised she could see, and he thought she was giving him a baleful glare. Inside it was unheated, but with glass in the windows it was at least sheltered and dry. Ianto looked around the cavernous space and, although he couldn't imagine how they could transform it, he could see that Bruno's mind was already busy planning.

"So there's five floors to this building, and then the warehouse beyond?" He checked. "That's a lot of potential."

"Yeah, we've had some expressions of interest from all sorts of sources, but it's in a bit of an odd location. Once this side of the Bay development is finished it'll be a prime spot, but, to be honest, we weren't expecting it to move before then. What are you wanting to do with it?"

"You've got to move before anyone else does," he explained. "And we're thinking of a mixed use site. Some small scale industrial units, accommodation, a fitness centre and a supermarket, that sort of thing. Landscaped grounds. We want to spearhead a new way of looking at land use in cities. Or, perhaps, an old way. No sense in people commuting miles if they can work on their doorstep."

He nodded and led them deeper into the building. "We've put the main electrical wiring in, but of course you'll have to take it from there. Depends what you need it for, and where. You'll need a lot of plug sockets if you're wanting apartments. I don't know about yours. but mine has extension leads everywhere. Never enough plugs." He sniffed and gestured across to the window. "And it's connected to the sewers and water, gas and that sort of thing. Even got cable laid in, so we've got the fastest internet in Cardiff. It'll take up to about one thousand users comfortably, even streaming live TV and that."

"That's impressive." Ianto smiled at him. "And what about the sites nearby? I know there's the dock…"

"Yeah, that needs some cleaning out. You could use it, but it's got that blue green algae," he explained. "Dunno what you do with that, cos you can't just open the gates. Needs a professional. And if you're wanting to expand, there's empty sites on either side. That one were levelled, it was an asbestos factory, would you believe? In the middle of this lot. Mind you, this was munitions, so it'd get you one way or another."

# # #

Rather than take Bruno back to the apartment, Ianto booked them a table at a restaurant in the Bay, and by some unspoken agreement they put discussions of work away whilst they ate. Instead they had a quiet hour or so discussing everything from European football to contemporary architecture and the state of the world economy. Bruno was intelligent and knowledgeable, conservative in his architectural preferences and open-minded in everything else. Ianto found that they got on well.

Once the plates were cleared away and they were settled with coffees, the real work began again. Bruno had his notebook out, and took notes and sketches as he talked. "I can send you some initial ideas for the use of the space," he said, glancing from Ianto to Jack and back again. "You will need to send me your requirements, but I can base my work on the current office and build it from there. Obviously the warehouse building behind allows us to keep the main work separate from the accommodation and more leisurely activities, for increased safety. Miss Sato, we will need to discuss your technological requirements for security systems. But it is a good site. A far more efficient use of space should be possible, no?"

"I agree." Jack sat back with his arm on the back of his chair. "The current site is so out of date it's laughable. At the time, I think it was only supposed to be temporary, and it's been added to and adapted, but nothing's ever actually been finished. We recently added the accommodation, but you saw it, it's very much a temporary measure."

"Yes, I saw." He tutted at something. "What is the budget and time frame?"

Ianto sat back and considered it. "Two hundred and fifty million pounds, sterling, and six months. The time constraints are more important than the cost." Jack was staring at him and he raised an eyebrow at him. "It's not a listed site, but we will still need planning consent. I'll find out whether we can get government authority to bypass that, at least as far as the internal development is concerned. I don't know what the military does, but I assume they don't need to apply for planning consent, or at least not publically. I'll look it up."

"That's a lot of money, though," Gwen commented.

"No it isn't. We won't come in anywhere near budget, but it will be worth it."

Bruno nodded, smirking, and turned a fresh page. "Perhaps, then, we should get down to details of your requirements, so I can get started sooner. You will need to bypass planning regulations if you have a deadline so soon."

Jack spread his hands. "I'll call Owen and open it to the floor."