It had been a long time since Gwen and Rex has seen, or even heard of Captain Jack Harkness. After Rex's introduction to the life of immortality, Jack just seemed to disappear. Day by day he answered less questions, choosing to spend the day brooding instead. And whilst he'd organised the rebuild of the hub, deep in the belly of Cardiff Bay, he seemed to show no amount of nostalgia or joy when the secret door in the tourist shop was opened once again. And then one day, Gwen and Rex arrived at work, finding a quickly written note in the place of their boss.
"Gone away for a bit.
Jack XX"
And that was that.
The pair worked out a sort of schedule in order to keep Torchwood running. Rex would spend half his time in America with the CIA, and half his time in Cardiff with Gwen. Simple. Gwen on the other hand, decided to try the impossible – make Torchwood into a 9-5 job. Whist it was proving (extremely) hard to restrict herself in working long nights or early mornings, Gwen remembered what Jack had always said to her about keeping her normal life outside of Torchwood. When the others were there, Gwen had seen only briefly into their "normal" lives. Non-existent. Ianto was the only one with any family members left that mourned him. Well, Gwen wasn't going to be the same! She attended every parent's evening, every dance, every play little Anwen was in. She even got to pick her up from school on the occasions that no aliens were trying to invade the planet!
It all seemed to be working out fine, despite the occasional stresses and the continuous thought at the back of both Gwen and Rex's minds, "where the hell is Jack?!"