The understanding that there would have been a time skip for Alex to work things out came from two sources. The first was that due to the length of time that he had been away on his side trip with Tori (IC time, not OOC time, It was hardly a weekend jaunt), he would need to take stock of the city and actually locate something to go heist like the supply shipment that had been the initial target as we discussed. 

The other source was the mere fact that even if he had had a target in mind on returning to the Capital, he hadn't had the time to plan anything because Zealot showed up almost immediately upon him getting back, So he'd need a bit to come up with an initial plan for how the heist would work, even if it fell apart later. After that, potentially collect some supplies, though that probably could have been cut out without any real problems. 

Otherwise I guess there could have just been one big cut to the heist with all that offscreen, but it wouldn't exactly help the time issues involved.