Wrote this story for the Writing Challenge that A Court Of Stydia made. Since there was only one prompt for writer and I wrote two, I decided to put this one here. Hope you all like it!
Summary: Paperwork doesn't seem necessary for some people. For the responsible people, paperwork is not only important as it is necessary.
I don't Brooklyn Nine-Nine or the characters.
'You know how this relationship works. I'm over–responsible. You're under–responsible.'
Amy Santiago was a responsible human being. And she knew it. She knew people didn't want to work with her because she was always making sure everyone was safe and made their paper work on time and was actually well written.
People didn't want to work with her because of her responsible attitude. It's always good to be responsible, but not as responsible as Amy Santiago.
That all changed when she got to the Nine – Nine.
There was Terry Jeffords, the sergeant that loved to write correctly and to do paperwork, but also loved the action, which made him not do the paperwork.
There was Rosa Diaz who just did her work properly without drawing a lot of attention. However, Amy once peaked on one of Rosa's reports, which caused Amy to improve – somehow – her writing.
She met Norman Hitchcock and Michael Scully. Two detectives that hated to move and spent their entire days eating. They didn't have much paper work, so they were pretty much useless in Amy's task.
She met Charles Boyle, that was someone that actually liked to write correctly, but hated to do the paper work, mostly because of his best friend – Jake Peralta.
Jake was someone that enjoyed one part of the job – solving the case.
He hated paper work, and when he actually did it, it seemed like a fifth grader wrote it – and that was a disrespect for the fifth graders.
Amy's job was simple – make sure everyone in that precinct did their jobs correctly. And that meant not only catching the bad guys, but also write the reports behind said catch.
Jacob Peralta didn't care about paper work.
But he once said something to Amy that she promised to never forget.
"Paper work is not important."
Amy stormed off of her desk and went outside when she heard those words. Paper work was – in her thoughts – her best quality as a police officer, even though no one has not even once said that to her.
Jake just stares as she goes to the roof. He always knew how important paper work was to her, and how much time she took every day to improve her writing skills – especially after seeing Rosa's work.
Charles waits a moment to see if Jake actually goes to talk to her. When he sees him go back to work Charles gets up from his chair and goes to talk to his best friend.
"What happened with Amy?" He asks, sitting on the chair next to Jake's desk.
Jake looks up from the file he was reading, from an old case that he had just got a lead from.
"I told her paper work wasn't important. She freaked out and left."
"You told her what?" Terry asks, almost as a yell.
"That paper…" Jake tries to start
"You said what to Detective Santiago?" Captain Raymond Holt asks.
"That…" Jake tries again. And fails.
"Peralta! You don't things like that. Paper work is one of the most useful things a police officer can use. I'm disappointed." Captain Holt finally says, before going to his office and closing the door behind him.
Jake hated when someone told him they were disappointed with something he did. Especially Captain Holt. He sighs.
"I still don't understand why this is so important." Jake quietly says, pointing to the paperwork in his desk.
"Jacob, if you didn't have that case file, how would you find out about that case?" Charles asks.
"I would ask who worked the case."
"Not all cops remember every case they have worked on."
"But… You are right." Jake finally says, for once having admitted defeat.
Charles gets up and smiles at Jake.
"You know what you have to do."
Jake thinks for a moment and then nods. He gets up from his desk and walks to the door that leads to the roof where Amy was at. The entire precinct looks at him go, not knowing what to expect from that conversation.
When Jake gets to the roof, he half expects to find her to be leaning on the berm of the building with a cigarette in her mouth – like she always did in moments like this.
But he doesn't find her there.
Instead, she's sitting in the corner of the terrace, with her head between her knees.
He sighs. Santiago wasn't a woman like the others. She was special, at least to him. He didn't understand woman, but he knew her. She was special, but she didn't know that.
He gets closer to her, and knells next to her.
"Hey, Ames." He says, almost as a whisper.
She looks up, startled. She wasn't expecting anyone to be there.
"I'm sorry." He starts. "I didn't know that would make you like that. It's just that…" he stops talking, just for a second, while he sits next to her. "…I don't like paperwork. I hate that part of the job. I like to be outside catching the bad guys, not writing things all day."
"But paperwork…"
"I know. Paperwork is important. I was wrong."
Amy stares at Jake.
"Did I just hear Jake Peralta say he was wrong?" Amy says, surprised. She then notices Jake blushing. "And blushing? I'll always remember this day!"
Amy smiles at him and looks at him.
"Want to say something else?" Amy asks.
Jake looks at her. He knows he can trust her, unlike many people that crossed his life. For many years he only had his mom – and Gina. He only trusted them. And then he went to the academy where he met Rosa. When he finally became a cop and went to the Nine – Nine, he met Charles, Terry and eventually Captain Holt. He trusted them, but not as much he trusted Amy Santiago.
"Yeah." He was going to confess. "I hate paperwork." But he decided not to. He was going to wait a little longer.
"I know you do, Jake. Let's do this. You write your reports, and before you hand them in, I check them. I'll help you out."
"What do you get in return?"
'Time with you.' Amy thought.
"Nothing. I'll just help out a friend." She actually says. "I'm over–responsible. You're under–responsible. At least when it comes to writing. But when it comes to getting the criminals, you are one of the best detectives in this precinct."
Jake looks at Amy, a small smile forming in his lips.
"Did you just say I'm the best detective in this precinct?"
"No, I said…"
"You're saying that I'm better than you?"
"No!"
Jake runs inside, telling the news to everyone.
"You will not believe what Santiago just said." Everyone stops what they're doing. And looks at Jake. "She said I'm the best detective in the precinct!" Jake cheers while Amy is behind him
"No, I didn't." But no hears Amy say anything since Jake got to his desk and got the confetti bombs.
Everyone cheered – who doesn't love a distraction from work – until they see Captain Holt. They all go back to their seats, while Holt goes to Jake's desk.
Holt yells at Peralta and makes him do his paperwork – without any break – and until he's done, he can't go outside.
Jake thinks it's unfair, Amy loves the idea.
"Take that smirk off, Amy!" Jake tells her.
"No. I'm better than you."
"I won the bet!"
They go back to discuss. Holt sighs and enters his office, hoping the walls weren't so thin, so that he didn't hear them.
Hope you all like it!
I had a lot of fun writing this story, especially in the end. Instead of writing that, I initially wrote 'Holt sighs and enters his office, hoping they would just get together already'. I laughed a lot when I wrote this. Decided to write the other sentence but you get to choose! :)