What Can Happen In a Moment

Hello beautiful readers! If you're here right now, reading this, then it means you found my first successful Peraltiago fanfic. I am super excited about this one, so please review and tell me what you think. I'm also open to any ideas so don't hold back!

Also quick disclaimer: I don't own the show or any of the characters

I hope ya'll enjoy :)

-Leah xx

Jake and Amy stood side by side, clutching tightly to each other's hand as they stared at the small device on the marble counter. The one that would determine their future. Tears streamed down Amy's pale cheeks as she held her stomach with her free hand, imagining the tell tale bump of an emerging human life that may appear in a few months. She so wanted it to appear.

"Do you think it'll come up positive?" Jake asked suddenly, a slight quiver in his usually confident voice. It was very rare for Jake to be nervous, and either way, he was usually exceptional at hiding it. Amy hadn't seen him in this state since he proposed to her, and she was confident that he didn't let his guard down like that in front of many other people. She was so grateful that he could trust her like that, and that he was here to share this moment with her.
"I don't know" Amy answered, her voice shaking even more than his as she attempted to swallow her fear. She didn't know what had come over her in the last hour, but she all of a sudden felt sick and unsteady, like making the slightest movement would collapse her. She somehow felt both hot and cold at the same time, just sitting there with her husband, staring intently at a plastic stick. Nerves overcame her and she shook with a rush of nauseating emotions, watching the second hand on her watch tick slowly around the face of the device. They were down to the seconds, she could practically see the tiny symbol forming on the face of the test, slowly determining her future. She felt Jake's hand, sticky with sweat, wrap even tighter around her own. She was sure that her nails were digging painfully into his skin. She wriggled around uncomfortably in a desperate attempt to keep her eyes off the watch around her wrist, which now seemed to be broken, as each second that ticked by felt like a lifetime. She eventually decided on pressing her pink sweaty face into her husbands chest, momentarily hiding the dreaded test from sight. Jake's strong arms tightened around her protectively as she clung to the fabric of his shirt. He rubbed gentle circles on her back with his thumb, silently reassuring his wife that everything was going to work out. When those last few seconds ticked by, the couple simultaneously raised their heads to stare once again at the upturned pregnancy test on the counter.

"You ready?" Amy whispered, her tiny voice barely audible above the heavy beating of two, possibly three, hearts.
"Ready as I'll ever be" Jake answered with a nervous smile. The two of them reached forward with shaking hands to read the screen of the test. Amy silently recited the possibilities in her head, an attempt to calm her nerves. Two lines for yes, one line for no. Two lines for yes, one line for no.
"Two lines for yes, one line for no" she whispered into her husbands ear, and Jake nodded in understanding as his fingers wrapped around the small device and slowly flipped it over, staring at the tiny display and the almost invisible symbols.

ll

"Two lines for yes, one line for no" Amy mumbled absentmindedly as Jake's face quickly spread into a huge grin, lighting up all his features.
"Ames!" He screamed, his voice cracking with the effort of pronouncing one audible word.
"Ames! It has two lines! Two lines for yes!"
It took Amy a moment to process her husbands words as her body still shook with terror.
"What does it say?" She asked calmly, hiding her sweaty face in her hoodie.
"Amy, it says yes! We're going to have a baby!"
This time, Jake's words broke through, crystal clear, and Amy's head snapped up so quickly she could have sworn she tore it from her neck.
"We're having a baby" she whispered as Jake's arms wrapped around her and pulled her off the ground.
"A baby" he reassured, planting a kiss on her sticky forehead.
"A life, Ames! We're bringing a life into this world!" He announced, almost absentmindedly. Then, as if on second thought; "I'm going to be a dad"

Jake let his wife drop back to the ground gently as the reality of their beautiful moment and what it would bring, truly sunk in. All the lights in the room, which had felt blinding only seconds ago, now dimmed and darkened as his vision faultered and the world seemed to spin violently in front of his eyes. It was Amy's turn to speak rationally, as her soothing voice murmured reassuring words into his ear, and her soft and gentle hands clutched his shoulders, gently guiding him out of the bathroom, and onto the couch. Then she was gone, and the world seemed to spin again, her momentary absence sending her husband back into a panic spiral, before she returned to his side with a glass of water.
"I know what you're thinking" Amy whispered, a tear sliding down her cheek as she pushed the glass of water into her husbands hand.
"I know that you're thinking about your dad, and what an awful father he was. But I know for a fact, that you will be so much better"
Her hands rested on Jake's shoulders as he continued to stare blankly at nothing, only just grasping the words that were being spoken.
"But how? How can you know that Amy?"
Jake's voice was getting shakier with every syllable spoken, and his forehead was starting to sweat. He gulped down the glass of water all at once and clenched his teeth together nervously. It had been a long time since Amy had seen him like this.

It was back when they were only partners on the force, trying to solve a particularly difficult case. They had finally cornered the perp when he pulled two kids out of his van and held them both at gun point, right in front of her eyes. Jake had been especially traumatised by this, as Amy watched him suffer for weeks afterward, sitting at his desk, sweating profusely and grinding his teeth. It was the worst kind of panic spiral. But she knew how to fix it.

Mustering up every single sliver of reassurance she could possibly find, Amy made her way around the couch and flopped down next to her husband, as close as she could get without sitting on top of him. She could already see the corners of his mouth turning up into a shy grin.
"You know how this is going to end" She grumbled, mock glaring at Jake out of the corner of her eye. Still trying desperately not to show his amusement, Jake just shook his head slowly, seemingly distracted and deep in thought.
"Well you've gotta get there first"
Taking a deep breath and pulling together all of her confidence, Amy lifted her mocha eyes to meet her husbands, and whispered into his ear.
"Welcome to the party pal!" at which point, she burst into a silent fit of giggles, jumped off the couch and darted quickly around the corner and out of sight. Jake was so amused by her childish behaviour, that he momentarily forgot all about his father, and instead joined his wife in her hysterical laughter.
"Not cool Santiago! That's not how it's supposed to go. You broke the rules!"
His words were met with a rather loud snort of laughter and a second of radio silence. Before Amy couldn't hold her tongue any longer and spat out a retort.
"Rules are made to be broken, Peralta. Your words, not mine!"
By this point, Amy had stopped laughing and her words were becoming slowly more serious. Jake knew that she was still worried about him, but the truth was, he wasn't. It was moments like these that truly helped him through his fears. Moments when Amy didn't even realise what she was doing for him, how just her presence and her infectious personality were enough to make him smile. And he could fall in love with her all over again. But instead of dwelling on the perfection of his wife and this precious moment, Jake decided to stoop to her level.
"You want to know how to play right?" He shouted around the corner, slowly rising from his place on the couch and approaching the wall.
"You're supposed to tell me how great I am. And then we watch Die Hard. It really is a great cure"
Jake could hear his wife's desperate and abissmal attempt to stifle her laughter, and it made him want to laugh with her. Everything about her was infectious, and made him want to stop everything just to lose himself in the moment with her. Everything about her, and every moment spent with her was perfect. Especially this one. In just under nine months, they would bring a life into the world. A beautiful little boy or girl, who they could care for and protect, and love with everything they had. A small part of each of them. Jake knew deep down that he was going to be a much better father than his dad ever was, but the tiniest part of him still felt as though he couldn't do it.
A sharp voice in front of him pulled Jake out of his thoughts.
"You okay babe?"
Amy was back in her concerned state, which somehow made Jake want to cry.
"Better now that you're here" he smiled mischievously.
His wife looked abashed as she watched her husband slowly make his way toward her, one steady footstep after one steady footstep, until she realised what he was about to do. She screamed, only a second too late as Jake tackled her to the ground, wrapping his right arm around her waist and putting out his left to break her fall.
"Don't break the baby" she mumbled from under a curtain of messy dark hair, as the couple simultaneously looked down at her flat stomach.
Jake sighed blissfully and shifted himself so that he was sitting cross legged on their fluffy shag rug, Amy sitting partially in his lap.
"That's the last thing I want" he whispered, placing a rough hand over his wife's stomach.
Amy placed her hand over her husbands, silent tears beginning to slide down her cheeks again. As she tilted her head up to stare at Jake, he smiled down at her, using his fingers to wipe her tears away. In that utterly perfect moment, she realised just how lucky she really was. She realised how amazing her husband was. And she realised just how much the two of them were going to love this baby.

"Jake?" Amy asked quietly, looking back down at both of their hands pressed against her stomach.
"Hmmm?" He mumbled, absentmindedly placing a gentle kiss on her forehead.
She smiled inwardly at herself before posing her final question.
"Do you know what the last thing I want is?"
Jake looked at his wife calculatingly, as she mustered up all her self control. The genuine concern on her husbands face was about to make her lose it, but this was the perfect moment to take this jab at him. It was the perfect payback.
"What?" He asked eventually, his nervous energy plain to see as he rubbed circles on her stomach with his thumb.
He stared deeply and nervously into her gorgeous pools of mocha brown as he tried unsuccessfully to interpret her expression and figure out exactly what she was about to say. Was Amy about to tell him that she really didn't want a baby? After how excited he got about it, how excited they both got about it, he was almost completely sure that she would never do that to him. He was reading too much into this.
"What?" Jake prompted lightly, tilting his wife's chin towards him.
She lifted her eyes to meet his and he noticed a small smile playing at the corners of her mouth. So small, anyone other than himself probably would have missed it, but he didn't miss a thing when it came to Amy. Which was why, as soon as her tell tale eyes met his, he knew what she was going to say. He shot her a warning look, but she continued anyway.
"The last thing I want is for this baby to like Die Hard"