A/N
1. Don't own Torchwood... (drat!)
2. This full story could take a while to upload, especially since I've only just thought of a solid plotline. This poor prologue has been sitting waiting for about 2 weeks because I haven't wanted to post it without having anything to follow it up with. Anyway, ENJOY and please R&R lovely people :D

The warm morning Sun reached Gwen through a thin gap in the curtains. She groaned, covering her face with both hands to shield her eyes and in denial at the beginning of a new day: to Gwen it felt like yesterday had only just finished. And then, as if mocking Gwen, came the irritating beeping of an alarm clock.

"Urrrgh …." Gwen rubbed her eyes with one hand and rolled over to smack the other on the clock, but instead found herself falling face first onto her living room floor.

'What the …?' and then she remembered. It was no wonder that yesterday didn't feel long enough ago; Gwen had traipsed home at 4am after a long night hunting down a very elusive alien, or rather a pair of aliens, as they had discovered after capturing the first, only to notice a second had travelled through the Rift also and was lurking around Cardiff train station.

Fortunately, Ianto had persuaded Jack that since it was thanks to Gwen they had one of these aliens locked up in the Vaults, she should go home and get some rest: she had been so exhausted and the sofa had looked so appealing. Despite spending most of the time being driven around the city in the SUV, Gwen felt unnaturally tired – very unlike her.

The monotonous beeping of the alarm persisted until Gwen dragged herself off the floor into the empty bedroom to switch it off. The red-digits flashed showing the time to be 8:00: that gave Gwen half an hour before returning to work. Shit.

Rhys was nowhere to be seen. Gwen assumed he'd gone out with the lads the night before. This was becoming the norm for the couple; neither of them expected the other to be home so tended to do their own thing. However, this afternoon they had planned to view a house: with Gwen's increased salary from Torchwood they could afford it and Rhys was hopeful that buying a bigger house would persuade Gwen that now was the right time to start a family.

Having slumped against the bed, Gwen mustered the strength to stand up and shower, knowing that in an hour's time she'd be sat at her desk dealing with the paperwork of the new alien species they'd encountered that night.

'There's something to look forward to,' she thought to herself.

Showered and with a slice of toast in hand, the ex-police woman swung her leather jacket on, grabbed her shoulder bag and set off to Cardiff Bay.

Despite her lack of sleep, Gwen's brain was still mulling over Torchwood's latest captives. The pair of aliens had proved very troublesome to catch. They weren't the average alien (or "flotsam and jetsam" as Jack would refer to them); their arrival was very deliberate, very organised. If Gwen didn't know better she'd say they were after something.

What worried her most was that they were apparently capable of interfering with their technology, almost working themselves into it and affecting the performance. Still, that was something Gwen could investigate when she reached the Hub.

And at least, she thought to herself, she had the house viewing with Rhys to look forward: that would break the day up nicely.

Now in a considerably brighter mood and the day ahead not seeming so bad after all, Gwen quickened her walk before pausing at an ATM so she could check her bank balance.

"Come on Tyler," demanded a woman's voice down the street from Gwen, who turned, naturally curious.

"Tyler now stop it! I haven't got time to muck around."

***INSERT CHILDREN OF EARTH STORYLINE***

DUN DUN DURRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

haha ;)