Matthew Humphries hated the night shift. The blackness of the sky and the silence of the factory made him wish that he was home with his wife—his wife who was six months pregnant—instead of plastering the walls of a derelict factory in the cold.

There was nothing interesting to do at night. Matthew was a builder, and he was working on the reconstruction of the old shipping factory. He'd offered to take a few night shifts for some extra cash—every penny was important to him, especially with a baby on the way. Fortunately he worked with a colleague and although he didn't like him very much, it was marginally better than having no company at all.

At 6am, Matthew saw the first sign of sunrise and his phone alarm vibrated in his pocket to tell him that his shift was over. Thank god, he thought while he carried out his regular routine of packing away his plaster bucket and various tools into the boot of his car. He sighed as he climbed into the car and turned on the engine, driving away and leaving the horrible factory behind him for another day.

Now it was time to go and sleep and prepare for the following evening, when he'd be doing exactly the same thing for what felt like the four-hundredth time. He was dreading it—the silence and the eeriness of the desolate, isolated factory—because he knew that it would just be a boring repeat of the same thing he'd already been doing for weeks.

Oh, how wrong he was.

Chapter One

Jack was tired. He sat on the old sofa in his office, his eyes staring at the blank floor, silently thinking. For the past two weeks nothing had been happening – nothing at all – and soon watching TV and eating Chinese food day in, day out became so boring that it seemed to wear him out so much faster than when he was working. He was Captain Jack Harkness for goodness' sake, and his life was beginning to be stuck in a rut.

He felt a bit lonely, too; not only because his immortality meant that his friends and past lovers from decades ago grew old and passed away while Jack remained a young man, but because his boyfriend—lover? Partner? He wasn't quite sure what to call him—was upset after Jack had turned down a romantic date that had taken hours to plan and arrange, and his only excuse for declining the night out was that he was "too busy". Lately, he just felt as if he wanted no contact with anyone. Sometimes, being alive forever whilst watching people close to him age depressed him so much that all he wanted to do was hide away. Now he came to think about it, he missed his coffee boy.

Somehow, today, it was as if Ianto sensed his loneliness. There was a soft knock on Jack's office door and he stepped inside. The quiet click of the door as it shut made Jack look up. He couldn't help his eyes sparkle when he saw Ianto, the man he'd missed so much, wearing one of the black pinstriped suits that Jack loved. He stood awkwardly with his hands in his trousers pockets, and he looked directly as Jack. He went to step forward, but hesitated and stayed still at the door.

"Jack," Ianto said quietly and calmly in his soothing Welsh lilt, nodding once.

"Ianto—finally decided to come and see me, then."

"I couldn't wait any longer, sir," he replied with a hint of a smile, "Plus, I bought you coffee – Starbucks, it's bloody expensive. It would be a waste if it went cold." Ianto gently put the cardboard cup on the small table in the centre of the room. As he began to move his hand away, Jack stopped him by resting a hand on his. Ianto looked across at him, their faces closer than before. Jack looked great—no, more than that—Jack looked beautiful, his eyes shining, his hair flat on his head with his lack of effort to style it. Ianto stood up straight again, Jack still looking intently at him.

"Come and sit down." Jack tapped on the seat next to him on the sofa with his free hand whilst gently pulling Ianto's hand with the other. Ianto obeyed and sat down next to Jack. They still hadn't left each other's gaze and Ianto was beginning to felt uncomfortable, so he looked down towards the floor. This movement broke Jack's eye contact and he smiled. He definitely hadn't forgotten how handsome Ianto was.

"Sorry," Jack said gently, "Are your eyes a maze? Because I just got lost in 'em," Jack joked, flirtatiously as usual. Ianto looked mock-appalled, shaking his head.

"That's rubbish," Ianto teased, as he felt Jack put a hand on his knee. He glanced at Jack's hand and back up to his face.

"You love it really."

"Of course. Anyway, Jack, I…"

"You're going to apologise for overreacting and that you want to be forgiven."

"Well, yes, you took the words out of my mouth, sir," Ianto replied as Jack slowly moved one thumb back and forth on his knee, "but please remember than it was you who turned me down for a date after I made a hell of an effort to sort it out. You've got to understand why I felt a bit… annoyed. Disappointed."

A pang of guilt shot across Jack's face. "Yeah, uh… I'm sorry about that. I just wasn't in the right mood. This is sort of a date though, huh?" he joked again, still smiling.

"A date in an office. Romantic!" Ianto laughed.

"Hey you," Jack said, tapping the tip of Ianto's noise with one finger, "some of the best things happen in an office." Ianto wasn't sure whether that was supposed to be an innuendo... but knowing Jack, is probably was.

Jack winked and moved his face closer to Ianto's. Ianto shot back a half smile and put his hands on Jack's arms as Jack kissed his forehead, and then moved to his lips. He'd been waiting to do that for almost a week. Ianto moved his hands from Jack's arms and placed them gently either side of his face. He returned his kiss, still smiling at the same time. Getting intimate with Jack was something that he'd only just realised how much he'd missed. He wanted to moment to last forever.

Suddenly, as Jack moved his hands towards Ianto's shirt collar to pull off his tie, the door swung open with a jolt and Tosh rushed in with a beaming smile. She was reading from a sheet of paper that she held in her hands.

"We have rift activity, something we've been waiting for. First big reading in two weeks, and it really does seem important; it covers a one-mile radius, that's much bigger than usual readings," Tosh babbled. She looked up from her paper and blushed. "Oh, sorry… am I interrupting something?" she said apologetically, turning to leave the office to leave them alone.

"We, uh…" Ianto stuttered as he fumbled to sit upright and refasten the top button of his shirt. He and Jack pulled away from each other, and Ianto pushed his tie back into place.

"Looks like we got a bit carried away," Jack said, winking at Ianto again, "It's 11:30pm, I didn't think you'd still be here."

"I've got nothing else to do, figured I might as well stay here. Good job we did, eh? Anyway, doesn't matter. I see you two made up. Ianto's been planning on it for two days but couldn't think of what to say. But I can see he did just fine," Tosh babbled again. Tosh didn't usually speak this much; either she was excited about the new rift discovery, embarrassed about walking in on Jack and Ianto, or she'd had too much coffee. Any of them were likely.

"Yeah, he did great," Jack replied with a smile, before quickly kissing Ianto's forehead again, jumping up off the sofa and dashing over to Tosh. He put his hands on each of her shoulders and shot a beaming smile at her. It was as if Ianto's arrival ten minutes ago brought a spark of life back into him again—something that had been missing for the past couple of weeks.

"Thanks Toshiko, you're a star. We've actually got something to do!" He kissed Tosh's forehead, removed his hands from her shoulders and jumped to the side of her. He dashed out of the door, bounding down the steps towards the rift-tracking device, where Owen was waiting.

Ianto remained on the sofa with a look of bewilderment on his face. He looked at the untouched cup of coffee on the table and sighed. He was used to Jack darting off at any random moment. He was like a puppy—when he was happy he couldn't stay still for more than a few seconds, but when he was unhappy, he would cower away in a corner until someone gave him some fuss and attention. One part of him liked his enthusiasm and excitement, but another part of him disliked him ruining their first moment of intimacy in almost a week. But it was his job, what he had to do, and more importantly, what he loved to do. Most people's hobbies consisted of simple things such as horse riding or reading books or stamp collecting. Jack's however, consisted of saving the lives of people from extra-terrestrial creatures or people from thousands of years ago, who happened to escaped through a rift through the centre of Cardiff.

Gwen loved Monday mornings. She was aware that Monday mornings weren't generally seen as the best day of the week for most people, but for Gwen, it was her only day off from the insane, non-stop world of Torchwood. This was a plus for Rhys, her husband, too—although he usually had to leave for work at 9am, he could still wake up next to his wife and cook her breakfast, instead of waking up to discover that she has already left for work two hours earlier.

She awoke around 10:30am. She could vaguely remember being woken up by Rhys at 8:30 to tell her that his boss and co-worker had phoned in sick so it was pointless him going into work on his own, but she must have fallen asleep again straight after. She was glad; she needed as much sleep that she could get with her job.

The sunlight streamed though the partly open blinds when she awoke, warming her insides. The duvet had been rested gently over the top of her, and she could smell the gorgeous aroma of pancakes coming from the kitchen downstairs. She was surprised not to be woken up by Rhys shouting and swearing as he attempted to flip the pancakes in the pan – something that he didn't usually manage to do successfully.

Gwen stretched and sat up slowly. She got dressed into what she considered her 'slouching around the house' clothes—black jeans, red t-shirt and bunny slippers that she had from Rhys for her Birthday last year—and made her way into the kitchen. Rhys looked in her direction and gave her a big smile.

"Morning love, I left you asleep as long as possible, what with that job keeping you up till all hours," Rhys said as he tipped a pancake out onto a plate. He handed the plate to Gwen along with the bottle of syrup, but Gwen put it back down onto the kitchen counter. She smiled back at Rhys and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into a tight hug.

"Thanks, really appreciate it," she beamed, pulling away and kissing him for a second or two. Rhys snaked his arms around Gwen's waist and kissed her back.

"No problem at all. You looked so shattered yesterday, thought I would cook for you. You'll probably choke and die as soon as you bite into it, but it's the thought that counts."

"Shut up, it's probably fine. You've made pancakes before and we're both still alive, aren't we?"

"Yeah, I suppose we are!" Rhys laughed, "I love you."

"Love you too. Come on, they'll be cold."

Gwen and Rhys picked up their plates and the syrup bottle and sauntered to the kitchen table together. Gwen noticed that the cutlery, lemon juice and a bowl of sugar were already laid out on the table, and she smiled a beaming smile again.

"So. What'd you want to do today? We've got the whole day," Rhys asked, taking a bite of a pancake.

"Don't know, really… we could go to the bay, just have wander?"

"Mm… too close to home. I fancy going somewhere different for a change."

"We could go to Barry or Porthcawl, sit on the beach, If you fancy a beach day? I heard the weather's meant to be alright down Barry way."

"Yeah, could do…" Gwen half-heartedly agreed.

"You don't sound too convinced."

"You know, I was just thinking that we could spend a day at home. Watch a film or something, have an early night." Gwen looked Rhys in the eyes and shot him a half smile.

"Oh, yeah, could do, if that's what you fancy doing. Sounds nice."

Their small-talk conversation went on for the duration of their breakfast, and when they finished, they held hands over the table and talked some more. They hadn't had chance to just sit and talk for a while and they both enjoyed it. It was a shame they both had to go back to work in the morning.

The next few hours were spent sitting in the lounge with popcorn and a box of chocolates, watching endless rom-coms on the TV. Gwen made Rhys promise not to moan, and promised that he could choose the next film. She sent Rhys out to the nearest shop after the first film finished to buy some alcohol and he came back with as much cheap wine and beer as he could get with £20. Money was a bit tight recently so they couldn't afford to be extravagant, but they made the most of it.

After the second movie of the day, Rhys said "What do you want to do tonight?"

"Don't know, what are you thinking?" Gwen replied. She had her head resting on Rhys's chest, and she lifted herself up to look at him while she spoke.

"Well, seeing as you're usually working late, I thought I'd take you out somewhere for a meal. Anywhere you want, and I'll pay."

"Sounds good to me," Gwen said quietly as she kissed Rhys. He gently ran his fingers through her hair as he returned it, and softly traced patterns on her back. Gwen laid her head back down onto his chest. It was only 4pm, and Gwen was falling asleep already.

The next thing she heard was Rhys saying her name quietly and running his hands through her hair again. She slowly opened her eyes and blinked a few times, adjusting to the light of the room.

"What happened?" Gwen mumbled as she looked around the room and then back at Rhys.

"You fell asleep, love. You must be tired." Rhys told her. He reached across to the coffee table and picked up a mug. "I made you a cuppa."

"Oh, thanks love. Why didn't you wake me up?"

"I didn't want to. You looked so shattered; I thought I'd leave you where you were."

"What's the time? How long was I asleep?" Gwen asked. She yawned, sat up with her feet up on the sofa, stretched, and pulled a brown fluffy blanket over her legs. Rhys must have put it there when she fell asleep. She shivered, and Rhys put his arm around her waist.

"About an hour or so? It's five o'clock," Rhys replied, kissing Gwen's forehead. Gwen wrapped herself Rhys and tightly hugged him. "Are we still going out tonight? I quite fancy a steak, myself, and I'm too lazy to cook," he asked.

"Yep, definitely! What time shall we go?"

"Soon? If we go and get ready, we could be out by six, then we could aim to be back by about nine and have an early night." Gwen nodded in approval and smiled.

An hour or so later, Gwen and Rhys were ready to go. They decided to go to a place called Giovanni's in Cardiff City Centre. Rhys had been sitting in the lounge waiting for Gwen for about fifteen minutes. This usually happened when they went out somewhere—why did females take twice as long as males to get ready?

Rhys took back his thoughts, however, when Gwen came back into the lounge. She wore a black dress that came just below her knees, and her hair was styled perfectly into tight curls. She finished off the outfit with four-inch stiletto heels, and she made walking in them look easy.

"You're perfect," Rhys said with a dazed grin. "How can an ugly mug like me manage to marry someone as beautiful as you, Miss Cooper?"

"Shut up. You're gorgeous," she said as Rhys pulled a face. "Let's get going, muppet."