Jake Peralta sits at his desk in the cold precinct bullpen. He spins his silver wedding band around his finger and listens to the irritatingly broken vent above his desk. Today was a milestone day.
Today, he gets a new partner.
Maybe his partner would be decent and wouldn't put a damper on the one place he could get away from his wife. He finds himself always questioning why he married her. They'd dated since they were in middle school and they got married the year after high school. They barely knew anything about each other. Now he finds himself working early and working late just to avoid arguments and to avoid the inevitable divorce.
"You okay, Jakey-poo?" Gina chimes, snapping him out of his trance.
"Peachy."
Charles shoots him a sympathetic look, but it does nothing to soothe his nerves. He knows he was stuck in this situation, and it is all his own doing.
The elevator chimes, and in walks Terry with an attentive brunette trailing closely behind him.
"And this is where you'll be spending most of your time at the nine-nine, Detective Santiago," he says with a broad motion to the empty desk across from Jake's. "This is your new partner, Detective Peralta."
"Nice to meet you, Santiago," Jake says as he sticks his hand out for her to shake. Her hand is soft in his and her handshake is impressively strong.
Terry smiles and wheels her towards the Captain's office, telling Santiago about McGinley's family.
Jake sighed deeply. Had Terry told the rookie about Jake's marital issues? He was sure the unit had noticed his late nights and early mornings. If they hadn't noticed how he never brought Jenny up, or ever asked for days off anymore then they'd surely be terrible detectives, wouldn't they?
He shook off his disapproval for the situation he had most likely made up in his head and returned to his work. There had been a series of legs found all over Brooklyn. In dumpsters, behind buildings, on rooftops. He'd been working on this case for a few months ever since the first was found just a few yards from the precinct.
The legs themselves were quite gruesome; drained of all blood and cut off cleanly under the knee. The perpetrator had taken the toenails, so it was taking some time to identify the shins. However, the legs weren't all strictly left legs or right legs. This means the perp was killing half as many as initially suspected – which was a good thing. Three victims were better than six victims.
Jake had brainstormed for about half an hour when Santiago sat down across from him, smiling sweetly at him.
"What're you working on?" She asked, like an excited child. He groaned inwardly.
"The legs that have popped up," he explained condescendingly.
"Oh, I've heard about that," she exclaimed, completely unbothered, as she walked over to his desk. "Do you wanna hear my theories?"
"Sure, why not?" Peralta said sarcastically, but it did not faze the younger detective. She perched herself on his desk, and looked at him.
"Okay, so if you look at the map, they show up within a mile of each other. Also, what's in the middle of that mile? An empty warehouse." She smiled brightly down at him. He considered it for a second, then quickly pulled up a map of the crimes.
"Where's this warehouse?"
"There," she motioned with her finger to a copper blur on his computer screen.
"Santiago you genius," he joked as he stood up. "Are you cleared to go into the field?"
"Yep. Just got to tell McGinley first."
It took fifteen minutes for Amy and Jake to get to the warehouse. They had laughed the entire way there.
"I'm just saying, the zebras probably hate the Circle of Life song. Like, they're at the bottom, dead freaking last," Santiago said, before laughing at herself and taking another bite of her sandwich.
"Well, how do you know that they aren't just accepting of it now? Like, you know how in ancient times people would just sacrifice themselves for the gods and it'd be this great honor? What if the zebras think it's an honor to be eaten by the lions or whatever?" Jake grinned when this gained him another fit of laughter from Amy. He'd come to like the sound of her laughing more than anything he'd heard in a while.
"Maybe, but I still think the lions are jerks for constantly singing about how they're gonna consume the zebras and everyone the zebras love. They're probably aware of that fact, but the jerk lions don't need to rub it in." Jake laughed at this and looked at her.
"What? Is there something on my face?" she asked self-consciously when she noticed his lingering gaze.
"No, it's nothing. Wait, Santiago. There's movement." He pointed to a light that had just turned on in one of the lower story windows. They looked at each other and nodded, grabbing their guns and preparing for Santiago's very first bust.
They entered the building silently and Jake could sense Amy's nerves. He stopped in front of her.
"Are you going to be okay?" he asked under his breath. She nodded with a look of determination in her eyes and he knew not to stop her.
The pair ended up 'busting' a janitor who worked for the city to keep the warehouse manageable. Santiago was visibly disappointed, but Jake loved the determination that stirred in her eyes.
"I swear I thought I had a good theory. Next time, we'll get him, right? You'll let me come with you on your next lead?" she begged him as he drove the pair back to the precinct.
"Of course, Santiago. Jeez, clingy much?" he joked.
"I'm sorry," she said with a laugh. "I'm just excited. That was so thrilling. It's so unlike training; to actually think you're about to catch a real-life bad guy."
Jake laughed at her, but he secretly knew what she meant.
Back at the precinct everyone shared stories of their first bust with Santiago and told her not to be discouraged. Diaz had ruined hers and let the perp get away, Boyle had fired his gun just due to pure nerves and scared civilians and Scully somehow ended up at the wrong place.
McGinley called Peralta into his office while everyone was listening to Santiago talk, and had closed the door behind him.
"Son, after you left, I checked your previous field reports on this case," McGinley began. "This was your second trip to this warehouse. Could you explain that to me?"
"Yes sir, Santiago thought she had discovered a lead that happened to be at a place I already cleared. Since I know detective's first experiences in the field are usually less than successful, I figured it'd be a good chance for her to get rid of some nerves," Jake explained confidently.
McGinley looked over the younger detective's shoulder to the gossiping circle of employees in the bullpen. He considered how excited Santiago was after her first official time in the field and he considered how detectives are usually disappointed after being in the field for the first time.
"Okay. This stays between us then, and I won't write you up for wasting departmental time. Dismissed."
Jake nodded and went back to join the excited group of coworkers.
It was roughly fifteen minutes until midnight and there were only four people in the precinct. Two night-shift detectives and Jake and Amy.
The married detective checked the time and groaned, rubbing his hands over his face. "I'm gonna head out," he told the rookie. "Do you want a ride or something."
"Uh, actually," Amy looked over to the windows as if just noticing the sun had already disappeared over the horizon. "If you don't mind. I usually walk – I don't live far." The two gathered the things and signed out.
"Wait, this is your car?" she asked, once they approached the beaten up mustang in the parking lot.
"Hey now. If you want a ride, you can't pick on her," Jake teased. Amy swallowed her pride, and climbed in.
"So, Santiago. Tell me about yourself," he said after setting the GPS.
"Uh, not much to tell. I'm a bit of a teacher's pet. I have seven brothers. Hmm. I don't know, I'm not really that interesting," she said, as she picked at a hangnail. Jake looked at her with a hint of sadness. "What about you?"
"Okay, well. I love Die Hard, I married the first girl I ever dated," he said as he held up his ring finger. "No kids – they are little germ sacs. I'm a Gemini, the best detective you'll ever meet, and I'm deathly allergic to bees."
He looked at Amy with a twinkle in his eyes, and her heart skipped a beat. Why was she a little disappointed that this man she had met only today was married?
"Okay, okay. Now I get it. So, I'm allergic to dogs which sucks because they're so cute. Not married or anything. I think I've kissed like maybe two guys or something," she said, which earned her a laugh from Jake. "What, isn't that one more person than you've kissed?"
"How do you know I'm not secretly a freak who has lots of orgies?"
"Mm. Definitely did not need to know that, Peralta. Anyways, you are probably the best detective I'll meet because I can't figure out a way to meet myself yet."
"Ooh. That stings, Santiago."
"Just the truth Peralta, wouldn't want to lie to you on my first day," she teases. "How long have you worked for the nine-nine?"
"About eight years," he says, smiling. "I got Gina her job there, and Rosa and I knew each other back in academy."
"Oof. I really am the baby of the precinct then. I didn't realize you guys already had life ties to each other."
"Oh yeah, Gina and I grew up together. Everyone used to think we'd get married," he confessed with an awkward laugh.
"So why didn't you guys?" Amy probed as she leaned against the window, just now realizing the car was stationary. How long had they been outside her apartment?
"I just never liked her like that. I don't know, I've never been good with feelings."
"So tell me about your actual wife."
"Santiago, you're a little too excited to know about my personal life.
"What? No!" she exclaimed defensively. "What if you get shot? I'm your partner I should know how to find her!"
"Chill out rookie, I'm just teasing you. Her name is Jenny. Maiden name Gildenhorn if that means anything to you and she's got a big, beautiful Jewish nose," he laughed. "She was my date to my bar mitzvah and the two of us never really fought after that so we never had a reason to break up. So, we never did."
His eyes didn't twinkle when he talked about her. He seemed bored and bothered by his choices, but Amy misread the setting, or maybe it was the jealousy bubbling in her chest.
"Are you happy with her now?"
"Can I be frank at the risk of being too honest too fast?" Jake asked, looking directly into her eyes. She nodded slowly. "Lately, I'm wondering if never fighting is a good thing."
"What do you mean?"
"Like, there's nothing there to fight for," he said. Then he shut down. "Anyways. It's late. You should probably head to bed. Thanks for talking to me, Santiago."
"Oh, anytime Peralta," she said with a firm nod. As she got out, she couldn't help but notice all the empty liquor bottles that littered the floor of his backseat. She made a note to bring that up another time.
She headed upstairs and Jake headed home. His wife was thankfully asleep when he got home. He quietly showered and got ready for the next day. What the hell had he gotten himself into?
I don't own anything except the plot line. Also - the title is French for 'She lies to me.'