Alive at Every Hour (attn: Gwen)

It was just past seven in the morning - before he even would have expected anyone in the Hub - when Jack knocked on the door to Gwen's flat. The day had dawned bright and clear and free of clouds, but that didn't do anything for the ominous feeling Jack had about the day's activities as they were planned. He had a sneaking suspicion that, this being Torchwood, those plans would have to change, and fast.

When there was no immediate answer to his knocks, he took out his mobile, pressing the speed dial for Gwen's phone. Let it ring once, then twice, and hang up. Then he leaned against the wall of the hallway just outside her door, and waited.

Gwen groaned, that sounded like her phone going off, but jack had promised a day off.
She sighed when she saw the clock, 7.06am.
Pulling on a dressing gown she went in search of her phone, finding it under a towel on the floor.
'One missed call - Jack'.
She sighed again pressing redail, "Jack, this better be good it's my day off."

When Gwen called back, Jack picked up before the first ring was through. "Morning," he greeted, in a tone far too light and far too awake for this hour (he had been up since before five). "Fancy a drive?" He hadn't even had to look at the display to know who it was he was talking to. Of course Gwen would call him right back - as it should be.

"Fancy a drive?"
Gwen groaned down the phone. She walked over to the kettle and put it on.
"You're outside right? I've got the kettle on."
She walked to the door and opened it to see him leaning against the wall.
She disconnected the telephone and smiled.
"Make the coffee." And with that she flounced off through the bedroom to the bathroom to clean her teeth.

Jack hung up when Gwen did, and gave her a grin when the door opened. Stepping inside, he raised an eyebrow. "Putting me to work already?" he queried, nonetheless going to watch the kettle. Like he was going to disprove that a watched pot never boiled just this morning, so he could get on with the rest of his impossible life. It was an amusing thought, anyway, and kept him occupied while he rummaged through Gwen's cabinets for things to make coffee with.

Gwen leaned against the sink and started brushing haphazardly. She realised that with the mirror infront of her that she looked a mess, hair in disaray and eyeliner smudged around her eyes.
Quickly washing her face she wondered what the hell was going on. It was too early for a disaster, especially of world-ending aspirations, so why was she needed.
She dried her face and tightened her dressing gown round herself making her way to the living room.
Ugh, for once she was looking forward to not having to wear a bra all day, oh well, nevermind.

Jack did manage getting the coffee - instant, obviously, due to time constraints and the fact that he would probably never figure out where or if Gwen kept non-instant coffee in this flat, and as curious as he got, he didn't love the idea of hunting round in her cupboards too much. It wasn't very interesting, looking in cupboards. They tended to just have the usual sorts of things in them, nothing interesting or telling.

But two cups of coffee made later, he'd even shut off the heat so the kettle wouldn't keep boiling. Not bad.

Gwen grabbed her coffee and motioned for Jack to follow her to the sofa.
Coffee on the table feet under her, "what's going on then? Where we going."

Jack took his own coffee - interesting, he thought, that he'd never stuck round here long enough for coffee before - and sat down on the other side of the couch from her, so he could turn and address her. "Just outside the city. Mysterious deaths, decent amount of trouble, absolutely no uproar - you might want to pack an overnight bag." He grinned. This wasn't probably the best possible plan, but he'd never had a problem integrating himself into situations.

Jack settled himself on the sofa, looking mildly out of place. She grabbed her coffee and hugged it for warmth while letting her head loll on the side of the sofa. She shut her eye's worrying about what was to come.

"Just outside the city. Mysterious deaths, decent amount of trouble, absolutely no uproar - you might want to pack an overnight bag."

That woke her up. "Overnight bag, you're joking right, please be joking Jack."

Jack shook his head, smiling slightly. "No joke. Sorry, too much to do to go back and forth with it. Should only be a night, though." Only. Well, admittedly, Jack did have less of a pressing need to keep track of time than the others did, but this was a little time-sensitive. Sort of. He'd like to get it done and over with before anyone outside of Torchwood and the neighbors figured out what was happening.

Gwen knew it wasn't going to end well, it never did, but at least it was something to keep her busy.
She took a sip of her coffee and placed the cup on the table.
"Ok but you're buying breakfast." She stood up and made her way towards the bedroom, "anything specific I need to dress for, or just the usual when we go out of Cardiff - mud and blood?"
She turned and grinned at him, it might actually be nice to get away from her empty flat for the night, Rhys was working away again.

"Who said anything about having time for breakfast?" Jack asked, almost innocently - well, it might have sounded innocent if you didn't know him, well, at all; maybe if you'd never met him.

"Anything specific I need to dress for, or just the usual when we go out of Cardiff - mud and blood?"

"Not sure about the mud," he replied with a quick grin, watching her go over the back of the couch, "Blood, maybe. Tell you what, just leave the heels at home, in case."

Gwen was pulling on a clean t-shirt and some black jeans, while trying to stuff some more clothes in a bag.
"Blood, maybe. Tell you what, just leave the heels at home, in case."
Gwen laughed and went to grab her toothbrush and hairbrush.
"What's the job then?" She grabbed her backpack and shoulder bag and made her way to the front door, "you can tell me on the way."

Jack stood when Gwen came back through the living room, abandoning his half-finished coffee on the coffee table (people were so inventive when they named things, weren't they? Coffee on the coffee table, who would've thought). "Like I said, mysterious deaths.. development area, you know, with the houses that all look the same. No idea why anyone would ever want to live in a place like that, but apparently they do.." he told her as he followed her out, down the stairs and to where he'd parked the SUV, slightly off-center in a spot near the building. "People keep disappearing and the development keeps not caring."

Jack took the stairs, of course he took the stairs, because at half 7 in the morning that was the appropriate thing to do to half-asleep people.
The SUV was a bit wonky, but well it was early.
"The police been notified? Or did something show up on the computers?"
She climbed into the passenger side, assuming that Jack was driving.
"How many deaths so far?"

"The police been notified? Or did something show up on the computers?"

Getting into the SUV on the driver's side - of course - Jack shrugged, putting the key in the ignition and turning. "One police report, inconclusive, a missing person's bid. Nothing came of it, like whoever it was had just up and vanished. There was a spot on the radar there about a month ago, though," he pulled out of the narrow parking spot while he talked, "A little Rift activity that disappeared so fast we figured it was probably nothing. Never looked into it. So I got curious." Of course, Jack getting curious was usually along the same lines as someone getting into deep trouble, so...

"How many deaths so far?"

"Seven disappearances that we know of. Probably a couple that nobody wants to admit aren't coming back yet.." He kept his eyes on the road, though he glanced at Gwen just once. "I'm guessing nine or ten in total, but we'll find out for certain when we get there."

"OK, so we've got numerous deaths in a new area, authorities don't seem bothered and neither do the people there. What's your plan? Gun's blazing, or are we going a bit more discreet on this one."

She smiled and hoped Jack would be willing to stop for food somewhere, some people needed sustinence on a morning, or at least a 'Ianto' coffee.
Because she really couldn't deal with aliens on an empty stomach.

"OK, so we've got numerous deaths in a new area, authorities don't seem bothered and neither do the people there. What's your plan? Gun's blazing, or are we going a bit more discreet on this one."

"Pretty much." He grinned at the question, though, replying vaguely, "A little more discreet, this time. No guns blazing. At least not yet." Of course, if things got bad, there would have to be guns blazing. It was an unfortunate eventuality that he had come to expect of every Torchwood case. They never did get very far without something happening that necessitated violence; but it was normal, expected, and he didn't mind it even if he didn't like it.

"We'll be staying there. Overnight, at least," he told her after a moment, eyes on the road, though he couldn't help sneaking a glance at Gwen to see her reaction, "In one of the homes."

"We'll be staying there. Overnight, at least. In one of the homes."

Gwen pulled her phone out of her pocket and started up the text option.
"I'm just going to let Rhys know if he needs me to get me on his mobile, he's working away again."

She put the phone away after it confirmed the message had been sent and stretched a critch out of her neck.
Hopefully this was going to be a quiet one, at least they were going to be working a quiet case for once.

"So we staying in one of the deceased homes? What's the story?"

"Go ahead." He waited for her to finish texting Rhys, concentrating for the moment on the road, which was probably a mild improvement from the usual. So, he got distracted sometimes; it happened.

"So we staying in one of the deceased homes? What's the story?"

"One of the other homes, but same development," he clarified, "Nothing too morbid." With a grin, Jack added, "Our cover is just the perfectly normal one you'd expect. New couple moving in. Shouldn't be too hard, should it?" Well, Jack was a pretty good actor, and with Gwen-- too easy, wasn't it?

"Our cover is just the perfectly normal one you'd expect. New couple moving in. Shouldn't be too hard, should it?"

Gwen shifted slightly uncomfortably in her seat, this was going to be awkward, she at least hoped Jack had brought some more normal clothes than his militay-esque coat.

"Well no, I suppose not. We have names? A back story? I mean what are our job's why we moving to the area?"