Amy remembered the very moment she fell for Jake.
It was the same night he fell for her—on the stakeout, while they were adorably throwing nuts in the air and catching them in their mouths. It's a lot less dirty than it sounds. She remembered him taking the phone call with Holt, and while he was distracted, she stole admiring glances at him while taking handfuls of peanuts and tossing them into the air. Everybody has always thought that Jake had unrequited feelings that night, but they were wrong. Amy swore she would never admit it, but that night was her "Oh shit, I have feelings" moment.
Then it all got messed up—she started dating Teddy, he went undercover, and so much happened. When she started dating Teddy, it was because she had assumed Jake would never feel the same way. Plus, a jokester and a pushover would not be a great duo. So she pushed down her feelings until the night Jake was fired.
"I don't know what's gonna happen on this assignment, and if something bad goes down, I'd be pissed at myself if I don't say this: I kinda wish something...could happen...between us...romantic-stylez. And I know it can't, 'cause you're with Teddy, and I'm going undercover, and that's just how it is. Anyway, we're not supposed to have any contact, so I should go," he said to her in one final goodbye. And then he just left. With no explanation or a chance for Amy to admit her feelings.
What he said struck a chord with Amy. If he did get hurt, what would happen? Would she ever be able to tell him the truth? These questions plagued her thoughts for an entire week, and eventually, when Teddy noticed something was wrong, she spilled everything. How Teddy was boring, she hated pilsners, and even that there was someone else. Surprisingly, Teddy was understanding.
"Well, Amy, I'm kind of surprised by all of that, but I can't say that I didn't know something was up. Listen, I'm not going to stand in your way of what you want," he had said. Then he blocked her on Facebook and iMessage, but hey, what can you do?
It's been nearly six months since Jake went undercover. There was never any news given to them at the office, and no one besides the inner circle even knew that Jake Peralta was undercover in the mafia. It was making Amy worried sick—did undercover ops even last this long? Was Jake dead and no one was telling her?
The young detective turned back to the coffee machine in the dirty and disgusting break room while sighing heavily. After so many months, it hadn't gotten any better. The anxiety she felt whenever Jake haunted her mind was crippling, and there was no way she could do her work in that condition. There was no way to tell what it was about the other officer that made her heart pound, but either way, Amy had to keep her feelings under wraps around her colleagues. Looking at her watch, Amy groaned heavily, seeing it was almost time to leave. Even though it was difficult at work with Peralta gone, it was abysmal when she was alone with her thoughts in her homely apartment. Usually, Santiago would stay late to do work and get her mind off of her problems, but Holt and the other squad members have become a little suspicious.
The coffee was scalding hot and disgusting, but at least her mouth burns turned her attention to the pain. At her desk, Amy shuffled around some papers and took out her favorite highlighters to break down her plan to infiltrate a drug-trafficking ring in Brooklyn. Somehow, not even her multicolored labeling cheered her up on this particularly depressing day. Still, the officer took another sip of the atrocious coffee and continued sorting the different sections of her detailed strategy proposal.
A creaking noise interrupted Amy's thought process and she turned around to see Captain Holt leaving his office.
"Santiago. Boyle. Diaz. Jeffords. In my office," he commanded. Immediately, Detective Santiago rushed out of her chair and into the small room that was decorated with medals and boring objects.
"What's this about, sir?" Rosa questioned as she closed the door behind her. Holt looked at each one of them for a moment before continuing.
"Detective Peralta's stint with the mafia is coming to an end. Tomorrow, a wedding is taking place in a private venue in northern Brooklyn, another precinct over. The FBI has decided to extract Peralta at the wedding and arrest the Iannucis at the ceremony. You all need to be there." Amy gasped at the words he spoke.
"So Jake—I mean, Detective Peralta—isn't hurt or dead or anything?" she wondered.
"Not yet, but we need to make this invasion go as smoothly as possible or there is a chance Peralta will be injured," Holt replied stoically. Charles squealed happily and ran out of the office before even being dismissed. Shaking his head, Holt muttered something about finishing his sentence and dismissed the group before sitting down in his comfortable chair and putting on his reading glasses. As Amy walked out grinning, Rosa caught up to her with the closest to a smirk she could manage.
"So you're happy Jake's coming back, I can tell," she murmured. Diaz had always been one to tease Amy, especially when the latter revealed that Jake said he liked her. In response, Amy simply rolled her eyes and sat down once again. After 10 minutes, it was clear that there was no way she was getting any work done at all. Instead of staying at work and finishing up paperwork, she decided to grab her beige bag and head home.
The subway was surprisingly crowded that night. During the trip to her street, the girl sat stiffly, making sure most of her gray and salmon suit wasn't touching the disgusting seats. After a short journey on the M train, Santiago hurried to her apartment building and pressed the golden button next to the shining elevator doors. She paid little attention to the people who had also gotten into the contraption with her—a man with blonde hair who looked surprisingly like Anthony Rapp, and a girl holding a lizard and stroking it. Amy looked away subtly and practically sprinted off of the elevator when the voice announced that they were at the 6th floor.
Her apartment was a mess—there was a crumpled up paper on the floor, and she had forgotten to put back her spoon from breakfast. Okay, so maybe not a mess to most people, but it definitely qualified for Amy Santiago. As soon as she cleaned up a bit more, she stripped in her bedroom and changed into her comfortable pajamas. Trying to clear her head wasn't working, no matter how much Property Brothers she watched on TV.
Jake liked Property Brothers.
Everything reminded her of him, no matter where she was. Even though the both of them were terribly annoyed by each other most of the time, she knew so much about him. From his addiction to HGTV to his Minnie Mouse ears from Disney World, there were so many things she could use to tease him daily. And now that she couldn't make fun of him, everything was just that much more apparent. Amy had to admit, though, she was excited to be getting him back tomorrow. She desperately needed to explain and talk with him about their last goodbye.
It's not like he meant it, right? How could any guy ever possibly have feelings for her that didn't include the words "buzzkill" and "boring"? Amy had to admit, she had some insecurities when it came to relationships. She wasn't confident like Gina or Rosa, and she wasn't overly emotional like Charles. So when someone did show any signs of, god forbid, emotion towards her that were, as Jake put it so delicately, "romantic stylez", she ran away. Which is why when Jake left immediately after his long winded speech about his feelings, she dwelled on it for so long. He could have just been caught up in the moment, Amy thought. It was as if nothing anyone said could convince her that she was desirable.
She knew Jake had problems in relationships, too. It didn't take great detective work to deduce that he had deep seated abandonment issues that stemmed from his dad leaving him at a young age. In a way, it made her feel better about her issues. The thought of other people having problems with romantic stuff was comforting and soothing to Amy. At least she knew that she wasn't alone.
As her television was still on and the Property Brothers were still blabbing on about paint colors, Amy tried her hardest to finally fall asleep. After trying literally everything to release her thoughts from her mind, she finally decided to go the old fashioned way—counting sheep. Although she felt childish and immature while doing it, she couldn't deny that within 5 minutes, her head was against her pillow and there were no longer any thoughts about Jake coursing through her head.
The next morning was nervewracking. As she got dressed in another "boring" pantsuit, concerns about Peralta's stint coming to an end tugged on her brain, causing her anxiety to act up. Jake was finally coming back to her.
It was happening.
Subconsciously, Amy Santiago put on more makeup than she usually would—no doubt because she was seeing Jake for the first time since the speech he gave her. Never had she been more excited and nervous to go into work before in her life. Not even when she transferred to the Nine-Nine. After brushing through her hair and throwing it in a ponytail, Amy grabbed her beige work bag and bolted out of the apartment.
Work for the first hour was boring. There was a lot of tedious paperwork to do, and although Amy loved paperwork, she was more focused on the mission that night. At around 10 AM, Holt called them into his office and gave them instructions on where to meet. They were ordered to put on full tactical gear after their meeting in the briefing room, where Holt led the charge in explaining their strategy and what was going to go down. Officers from all over Brooklyn showed up at the Nine-Nine, gear in hand and ready to fight. Peralta knew everybody, so it was no surprise that other precincts were joining in on the bust.
"Remember, I want Santiago to retrieve Peralta from the room and bring him into the truck immediately after. We cannot have any chance of him getting hurt while he has no gear on. In addition, I would like to remind all of you that when Detective Peralta mentions dry meatballs, we are charging and arresting as many people as we can. Understood?" Holt stood stoically at the front of the room. The room was packed with Detectives and officers from all over Brooklyn, and it was hard to move. Everyone nodded and Holt dismissed them to put their tactical gear on and get ready.
Amy was ready in minutes and instantly found the truck outside that would take them to the private venue. Already, she could feel her pulse racing and her heart was ready to burst from her chest. Usually, she wasn't like this on duty, but for some reason she was anxious about this one. Soon, the technical truck that she, Holt, Boyle, and Diaz were going to be in was equipped and prepared, and they drove off to the site they were going to be waiting for the signal in.
Prior to them getting there, she had been told that Peralta was going to be wearing a wire underneath his suit so they could hear the cue. They just had to wait for him to mention dry meatballs and they would be on their way in. Luckily, their microphones were surprisingly good quality, so Amy would be able to hear exactly when she needed to retrieve Jake. Even with all of the other trained officers around her, she couldn't help but feel worried. If something went wrong, she would be to blame and she would never forgive herself. Before she could finish her worrying, Amy heard a voice coming through the speaker in the trailer.
"So thrilled to be here today," announced the voice. She recognized that voice. It was Jake Peralta's—with a slight accent to fit in with his good ol' mafia buddies. Swiftly, a wave of relief came crashing down on her, and a weight was practically lifted off of her shoulders. It was as if, all of a sudden, there was a moment where she could breathe, where she could put her thoughts at the back of her mind and stand there without a doubt. The sound of his toast carried throughout the Nine-Nine's trailer, like music to their ears. Amy could swear she saw Rosa smile and Charles wipe a tear from his eye. Laughter rang in their ears as Jake made a joke about being a dirty cop, and even though his toast was at a mafia wedding, Amy couldn't help but agree with what he said about life sentences. Surprisingly, his speech was heartfelt and emotional—he was a great actor. Although, it did make some sense that he would be a bit close to them after being in close proximity with the mobsters for six months.
Amy was so wrapped up in her joy and ecstasy for Jake's wellbeing that she almost didn't catch him saying the signal through his microphone. Instinctively, she grabbed her gun and ran out of the vehicle first, determined to get into the room first to capture Jake in all of his glory. Weighing down on her, the heavy tactical gear clung to her body as she kicked open the door with another agent and shouted, "NYPD, put your hands in the air!"
As the other FBI agents and NYPD officers sprinted past her at full speed with handcuffs out and guns drawn, Jake turned around in what seemed to be the most cliché slow-motion turn ever in history, and let loose one of his famous Peralta grins. Her insides were practically goo looking at his goofy face that she had been missing for too long. Dashing towards Jake, she completely forgot about orders and hugged him for the first time in a while. Jake engulfed her with one hand in her hair and one around her shoulders. However, they remembered where they were and abruptly separated, albeit not entirely. Their faces were practically a millimeter apart for a moment as they gazed into each other's eyes and took in everything about the other in at a million miles a minute. It seemed as if had been hours since they first noticed each other when it had in fact been seconds. Criminals were still running amok and they didn't even realize.
"Hey," Peralta started and stepped back.
"As much as I'd love to continue this, we've got to get you out of here. Come on," Amy commanded. She tugged on his hand that was still in hers and tried to rush him out of the venue as quickly as possible.
She almost didn't notice the bullet penetrate his abdomen from his right side.