Author's Note: Yes, I am dipping my hand into Brooklyn Nine-Nine fanfiction! And as always, no I do not own any of these characters!

"And he's back!" Jake crowed as he left Captain Holt's office and approached the desks of his former, and now that the paperwork was complete, current coworkers. "Going undercover is a bitch."

His coworkers who had known about the FBI assignment all flocked to him to welcome him back. Then Gina pushed her way through the crowd surrounding him with a look on her face like she couldn't decide whether to hug him or slap.

"I'm not surprised that these urchins lied to me," she indicated the detectives around her, "but I am surprised you did puddin' pop." And then her eyes filled with tears and she pulled him into a hug.

Everyone quieted down enough that they could suddenly hear the conversation between Scully and Hitchcock, neither of whom had bothered to get up out of their desk chairs.

"Jake was undercover?" Hitchcock asked.

Scully just shrugged. "I thought he went on a coffee run."

Terry shook his head and couldn't help but comment. "Peralta's been gone for six months! Get it together!"

"Well did you at least get us some coffee?" Scully asked.

Everyone else groaned and that's when Jake realized that someone was missing.

"Where's Santiago?" he asked, unable to mask the hurt in his voice. The news of Ianucci's arrest that weekend would have reached her and she had to have known he'd be returning that week. "Is she out trying to catch a few more bad guys and pretend like she's as awesome as I am?"

"I suggest you not insult your partner on your first day back after a hundred and eighty six day absence," Holt said as he emerged from his office. "But to answer your question, no, Santiago is not out working a case. She called in sick this morning."

"Oh okay." Jake's face fell. "I suppose I'll just have to solve all the cases myself then."

Holt just stared at him. "Desk work Peralta. All week. I insist."

"But I'm fine," Jake groaned. "That was part of the reason it took a few days from the capture to me finally returning. Hours of paperwork and psychological evaluations that will continue for weeks if not months."

"Just accept it man," Terry advised as everyone returned to their seats. "If the boss says you need it you probably need it. Believe me, I know."

"You may have gone to your therapy sessions but you never listened to your therapists. Remember when she wasn't sure you should go back into the field and then you got back into the field anyways?" Jake pointed out. "Or does no one else remember that?"

Scully raised his hand. "I don't."

Jake just shook his head and flopped back into his chair.

A mere three hours and fourteen minutes after his return to the nine-nine Jake slipped into Captain Holt's office. The captain did not seem surprised and didn't even bother to look up from his computer screen.

"What is it now Peralta?"

"This whole going from undercover to not being undercover thing is kind of blowing my mind. So I was thinking maybe I should take off a little early, like around nowish , go home and relax and then come back bright and early tomorrow, hopefully all refreshed."

Captain Holt finally looked up and stared at Jake for a few beats before finally responding. "Perhaps that would be for the best. I don't want you making mistakes."

Jake grinned and pumped his fist in the air. "Fantastic! Thanks Captain!" But then, when his hand hit the door handle, the captain cleared his throat. Jake didn't turn to look at the older man but he did pause. "What did I do now?"

"Nothing that I know of. I just wanted to remind you that people who are sick often feel better after a healthy dose of chicken noodle soup. I myself prefer the soup from the diner near that pizza place you and Detective Boyle seem to love so much."

Jake spun around in shock but the captain wasn't looking at him and his facial expression, like always, gave nothing away. "Uh thanks Captain but I'm not sick," he finally said. "However I will keep that in mind for if I do ever do come down with something."

Then Jake rushed out to his car, not bothering to respond when his coworkers hollered after him. The captain already knew what he was up to, he didn't need everyone else knowing it too.

Jake couldn't stop smiling as he psyched himself up to finally knock on the door to Amy Santiago's apartment. He could only assume that their first meeting in six months would go smoothly since everything else had so far. Holt had let him out of the precinct early, the diner the captain suggested had been reasonably priced and he'd been able to slip into Santiago's apartment complex behind an unobservant elderly couple so his arrival would be even more of a surprise. It was all going perfectly.

"So why can't I just knock on the damn door?" he muttered to himself. "Come on Peralta, you can do this!"

And finally, with a big sigh, he rang the bell and waited for what felt like hours (but was really only a few minutes) for her to answer the door.

Amy looked around her apartment, making certain that everything was just right before she answered the door.

And she couldn't contain her smile when she found Jake on the other side, proudly holding up a brown bag. "Chicken noodle soup! I need you back on your feet at the precinct Santiago or I won't be able to get through a full day. Take today for example."

She wanted to yell at him (he couldn't take one day without her at the nine-nine but she'd had to spend months without him? How was that fair?) But she also didn't want to say anything that would make his goofy smile disappear. "Just get in here," she finally sighed in mock exasperation, stepping aside so he could enter.

Before he slipped passed her he frowned and gave her an appraising look. "You're in a bathrobe but you don't look sick."

Amy blushed and looked the other way. "Just get in here," she repeated.

He finally complied and was halfway to her kitchen table when he stopped dead in his tracks and his eyes went wide. He spun in a circle until his eyes landed on Amy who was still standing next to her front door. "It smells like you've been cooking." Then he sniffed the air. "Pasta marinara. How ambitious. You know for a sick woman who has no cooking skills."

Amy crossed her arms over her chest, pulling her robe tight and then she shrugged. "I didn't cook it," she admitted. "I had it delivered earlier and it's warming in the oven until I'm ready for it."

"Oh god. Am I interrupting something? I am, aren't I?" Jake groaned. "Don't tell me, Teddy is in your bedroom and you're naked under that robe?" he guessed.

She was half tempted to coyly ask him to remove her robe and see for himself but she didn't for two reasons. One: she's actually not naked or wearing lingerie so she can only assume a reveal would be a disappointment and two: only drunk Amy would say something so naughty and potentially embarrassing and she hasn't drank since…well some things she was glad she couldn't remember.

"Uh, Santiago? Are you daydreaming while I'm standing here? Because that is beyond rude."

Amy shook her head, clearing it of the hazy memories of the night Jake had left and she'd gotten so drunk that Gina (Gina of all people!) had helped her home and Terry had finally been the one to tell her, three days later, what she'd drunkenly babbled about all that night. "I'm not daydreaming Jake, just remembering."

"I hope you're not remembering sex. Unless it was with me. Which it can't be because we've never done that anywhere except for my dreams." Jake's eyes went wide. "If I just said any of that out loud can you just shoot me, please?"

"I asked Rosa to shoot me once," Amy blurted.

Jake looked at her in astonishment. "Okay Santiago, what's wrong with you?" he asked as he finally sat the bag of soup containers onto the table and took a seat.

"We all went out drinking on the night you left for the FBI and I drank way too much. So much that I told everyone about what you said before you left and how I felt about it. Not that I remembered that I'd shared all that until Terry refreshed my memories a few days after." Amy refused to look Jake in the eyes as she sat across from him. "Once Terry told me I immediately broke up with Teddy and then I asked Rosa to shoot me."

She looked up from under her lashes and saw him frown as he played with her salt and pepper shakers. Then finally he questioned her about what she'd said. "You asked her to shoot you because you'd broken up with Teddy? And if teddy's not all tied up in your bedroom then what's going on with the whole 'dinner in the oven and you looking gorgeous when you're supposedly sick' thing?"

Amy took a deep breath and stood up, her hand poised to untie her robe. "You're partially right because this is a date of sorts, I hope." Then she slipped out of her robe to reveal the red wrap dress that she'd worn to the captain's party earlier in the year, a choice she'd made because she'd seen the look in Jake's eyes that night and he'd clearly liked it.

And he clearly still did, she could see by the way his pupils dilated as he looked her up and down. But he wasn't just checking her out, he was putting the clues together.

"You broke up with your boyfriend just days after I told you I was interested in a romantic relationship with you," Jake mused. "And you got drunk and said something that made you want Rosa to shoot you."

Amy nodded as she continued to stand before him.

"You called in sick even though you knew I was returning to the precinct today and yet you don't look sick," he added and let the beginning of a smirk appear on his face.

Amy nodded again and she could feel the matching smile threatening to blossom across her own face. Jake was a good detective though she had left him more than enough clues to figure it out.

Jake stood up and stood close enough to touch her but he didn't, not yet. "And when I showed up at your door you didn't seem surprised and you're wearing a dress you know I love."

"That's right," Amy whispered, her heat pounding.

He looked at her in wide eyed wonder. "You called off sick knowing I'd come see you and you ordered in food and you're wearing that dress because this is a date. Me and you."

She took a step forward so they'd be standing chest to chest. "What do you say Peralta. Is this romantic-stylz enough for you?"

Jake Peralta didn't respond, not with his words. Instead he slipped his arm around Amy's waist and pulled her into a kiss.