I heard them drive off a couple of hours ago.

Here, second use came quickly, a matter of hours rather than days or months.

I want you under way in a couple of hours.

Your body goes through a big change in a period of hours.

You won't be gone from your computer for more than a couple of hours.

A couple of hours later I called back to see what they wanted me to do.

Certainly he would be fine, probably within a matter of hours.

I will leave her to talk things over with you for the next couple of hours.

After a couple of hours with her, he could again face his work.

After a couple of hours I was getting used to the job.