The alarm rang, making Jake tempted to throw it in the toilet again, but he decided against it. Captain Holt would kill him, unless Amy did it first after they showed up late for work would never be late, if she could avoid it. But now she had to drag him to work with her as well, unfortunately.
His arm cracked as he reached for his phone, and turned off the 6.45 alarm. Jake groaned as he turned around, facing Amy, who was already awake and ready to get out of bed.
"Morning Pineapples," she whispered, and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Jake couldn't do anything but mumble something incoherent back, as he almost fell back asleep. He was startled when something soft hit him right in the face, making him literally fall out of bed. "Get out of bed you idiot!" his girlfriend yelled from the bathroom she'd just entered. He threw the pillow back at her, but knew it was a useless move. She would carry him into the precinct in his PJ's if she needed to, he knew that. There was no way in hell the rest of the precinct would be allowed to see his dinosaur PJ's. Not even Charles!
Half an hour later they were both eating breakfast, talking about the day they were about to have. Or, at least Amy was. Jake just sat there. He was watching her, thinking about how lucky he was that she was in his life. She was the happiness he'd never gotten as a kid. She was the light in the dark, and if anything ever happened to her, he wouldn't know what to do. To think; they started out as frenemies. Arguing constantly about who was the best detective, when they had always worked the best together.
"Jake, are you listening?", Jake snapped back to reality. How long had he been lost in thought? "We have to go!" Amy said, grabbing her keys, and throwing his jacket at him. The same leather jacket he'd been wearing since he had started at the nine-nine. He glanced at the clock; 7.30 AM. He had just been staring at her for 15 minutes, and that made him almost feel like a creep. Jake put his jacket on, and walked down to his car hand in hand with Amy. He would never really get over the fact that they had become one of those sappy couples who did almost everything together, but he was surprisingly okay with it.
They drove to work in Jakes rundown car. Amy was wondering how it was still running, with the thousands of problems it had had. She saw it as a safety hazard, and had it even been washed since Captain Holt had paid someone to do it? Despite it all, it got her to work every day, so she wouldn't do anything about it yet. She had thought about taking her own car sometimes, but what would be the fun in that? Some of Jake's way of thinking had somewhat rubbed over on her, she had to admit. One cannot worry about everything in life.
The second the elevator doors to the nine-nine opened and they saw the bullpen, they heard Charles, excited that Jake had arrived. Amy found it adorable. Sometimes she wished she had a friendship like theirs. And she also wished Charles would stop being a little too interested in Jake and hers relationship. The times he had said something inappropriate about them while they were having a moment were too many.
She let Jake and Charles catch up, as she sat down at her desk. Amy smiled a little bit as she noticed a misplaced file on her desk. One she had forgotten to put it back in place the day before. Jake's habits were still rubbing off on her, one by one. She considered the one misplaced file on her desk a mess, just like on Jake's desk. She put the file in its place, and started flipping through its pages. She heard Jake sit down by the desk opposite of her. They had a criminal to catch.
The entire week, both of them had worked together to catch the leader of a local drug ring, Mike Colton. He proved hard to find, as he moved around a lot, and had crazy loyal followers. However, they had captured one of Colton's men a few days earlier, who naturally had refused to say anything. The two detectives had tried for days, with bribes and empty threats, but to no avail. The man had barely lifted an eyebrow.
Amy and Jake sat in a comfortable silence, both working on finding some kind of trace leading to Colton. It wasn't as if they hadn't done it before, but it was all they could do for now. They thought about taking a trip around the district after lunch, which was still a few hours away. That idea was washed away however, as their work was interrupted.
"Peralta, Santiago, he's ready to talk," Terry exclaimed as he sat down by his own desk. He'd been as invested in this case as the couple had, even though it wasn't his case at all. He'd been just as annoyed as them when Colton's man had refused to talk. Amy nodded, giving Terry an appreciative smile and dragged Jake with her to the interrogation room. Ten minutes later they were both sitting opposite the perp, waiting for any information about his boss.
"So, why the change of heart? Was it my inspiring speech about Die Hard?" Jake asked, while the man only gave him a weird look, before he replied. "Got word from the outside, don't ask me how, that he threatened my family. I need them safe, so I'll tell you where I last saw him,". The couple just sighed and motioned for him to continue. It was the best lead they had.
The man had sent them to a warehouse in downtown Brooklyn, although he was certain that Colton wouldn't be there, as it was the last location their intel had known before Jake and Amy had caught him.
They sat together in Jakes car outside the warehouse for hours. No one had gone in since they got there. They had seen no movement, nothing at all.
"Are we sure this is a good idea?" Amy asked nervously. She was positive their intel had told them everything he knew, but she felt like they were walking in there blind. It was against every fiber of her being. They didn't know what the building looked like inside, or how long it had been since Colton was there last. They just didn't know enough, for Amy's liking.
"Don't you trust Captain Holt?" Jake replied with a playful smirk. Amy couldn't do anything but to nod. She did. The Captain would never send them in anywhere where they could be at risk. They just had to go in there, search for clues, and get out before anything could happen, right? "Alright, let's go in".
It was a dark building; the only source of light came from the cracks between the planks that barricaded the windows. They had their guns and flashlights out, and Amy was expecting something to pop out from a corner at any minute. They decided not to split up, because as Jake said "things always go wrong when people split up in movies," and Amy had to agree, trying not to sneeze from the dust in the air. Things were going well. They hadn't found anything yet, but nothing bad had happened either, although she was feeling uneasy.
"Hey look!" Jake whispered. He pointed to something. There was a table in the middle of the room. Walking closer, they saw that it was a file. "Why did they leave it behind?" Amy asked. Jake just shrugged. How would he know? Amy opened it, briefly scanning the page, but there was nothing written there that they didn't already know.
"Anything?" he asked, as he picked it up. But, before Amy could answer, the room was filled with smoke. Yelling and gunshots were heard, but she couldn't sense where everything was coming from. This didn't make sense! An ambush? On two detectives looking for clues? Amy was just fumbling around on her knees, trying to find some cover. Everything was happening too fast. The table they had seen had been knocked over, and she figured it was a better spot than anywhere to seek cover.
"Jake?!", she couldn't see him, and it was making her panic. She just kept low and called for backup; anything that could help them out of this. She shot at anything that she could see, that didn't have Jake's silhouette of course. It got easier when the smoke started lifting, and she finally got her eyes on Colton, from her hiding place.
Amy stood up and tried to aim for his legs, but then everything that happened was a blur. She heard Jake calling her name, and felt herself being pushed sideways and fell to the ground. She heard a door slam, and then it went quiet. Coughing a little from the dust, she stood up and took in her surroundings. Two of Colton's men were down, but no Colton. She checked herself for injuries. None, even though her knees were sore and her elbows had some scratches. There were even some holes in her suit! Great. Her entire body was shaking, adrenaline rushing through her as she realized that they had just been in a gunfight without any bulletproof vests, and it was only the two of them.
She heard a groan behind her, making her turn around at the speed of light. The sight before her made her want to scream. Jake was lying on his stomach, in a pool of his own blood. It was him, she realized. He was the one who had pushed her out of the way.
"Oh my god, Jake!" she screamed. She ran over, stumbling a little as she went, all thoughts of Colton out the window. She slightly as she sat down on her knees. She fished out her phone and called for an ambulance while she clumsily turned him around with one hand. His eyes were closed, and he had labored breathing. She tried to locate the bullet wound, but it proved to be hard. There was just so. Much. Blood. Her hands were shaking as they were fumbling over his chest, shoulders, EVERYWHERE. She located 2 bullet wounds, one in the stomach and one in the chest. Now all she had to do was to keep her head cool and keep the pressure on Jake's injuries, even though it was already freaking her out that she could feel his blood seeping through her fingers.
'Where is that damn ambulance?!' she thought. It had been too long for her taste since she had urged them to be there, ASAP! She needed them to be there now, as she didn't know how long she could keep herself together. Jake needed help right now. Amy didn't know how long he would last. She hated not to know things, especially when they were important to her.
Amy tried with all her power to not think about the worst outcome of this. But she lasted about ten minutes before she was sobbing with Jake in her arms. It baffled her that she reacted this way. She always thought that as a cop, she would always act professional in all situations. She was Amy Santiago! When she started at the nine-nine and met Jake, she made it her mission to never get distracted by someone as childish and unprofessional as him. Look at her now. She was bawling her eyes out at a crime scene with her boyfriend/partner dying in her arms.
Amy heard sirens in the distance, and let out the breath she never even realized she was holding. Looking down at Jake, she wished that the ambulance would have showed up way earlier. He was pale as a sheet and his pulse was way faster than it should've been. And then, as if they'd heard her thoughts, she heard a door slam open and multiple footsteps, making her scream "Over here!".
The paramedics came over and pulled her away. Suddenly, Amy was embraced by Terry, who'd showed up at the same time as the ambulance. She was still shaking. Terrified of the agonizing consequence this could have. Terry was whispering that it was going to be okay in her ear. If only she could believe it. She wanted to with all her heart.
Amy just stared at her hands, covered in blood. His blood. She was still shaking, and she seemed to be unable to stop. She wanted to wash her hands, but that meant leaving the room, and that meant possibly missing on news of Jake. This damn waiting room she had been sitting in for the last hour, thinking about how there was a chance that Jake could die. About all the people who would lose someone as amazing as Jake, because she hadn't seen that damn perp pointing a gun at her. She kept picturing Jake lying in her arms, dying. The way his limp body just seemed to get heavier and heavier by each moment. The way she felt a new kind of hopelessness. One she had never felt before.
Charles had been pacing from one end of the room to the other since he had arrived. Amy was starting to wonder if he could walk a hole in the floor at some point, and it was making her nauseous. Under normal circumstances, she would probably demand that he'd stop, but these circumstances were far from normal. She felt bad for Charles as well. He barely got to talk to Jake before they left for that goddamn warehouse. What would happen to Charles if his best friend never came back?
Terry was sitting with his head in his hands, Hitchcock and Scully were on his left side, while Captain Holt was sitting on his right side. He was sitting there with no expression on his face, like usual, with one leg crossed over the other the way he usually did. It was like the whole situation hadn't fazed him at all. It was making Amy a little angry. One of his detectives were down, and he couldn't even bring himself to look sad about it. She was contemplating if she should talk to him, but figured that it was Holt… He never had any expression. Amy also realized that Gina wasn't there, which surprised her. Gina and Jake were childhood friends, weren't they? The others had arrived an hour ago.
Rosa sat down beside Amy, giving her a rare compassionate smile, before grabbing her hand. Amy was too upset to really care about Rosa showing any hints of emotion, but a small part of her was freaking out.
"Hey, I think we should get you cleaned up. Charles and Terry will come get us if anything happens," Rosa said softly. Amy thought the whole situation was surreal. However, she gave it a small thought, before nodding and let herself be dragged to the bathrooms by the usually emotionless Latina.
She gasped when she saw herself in the mirror. Her hair was a mess, her shirt, which used to be pink was now dark red in some places. She had hints of bags under her eyes, as if she had been awake for days, but Amy guessed it was from stress. She started to scrub the blood off her hands, while Rosa tried to calm her hair down. "Why are doing you this? It's so… unlike you," Amy couldn't help but ask. "I needed a distraction. We're all worried sick, and you looked like shit," Rosa answered with the same monotone voice she usually used.
Amy was almost done with her hands, struggling to get under her nails, when Gina suddenly barged in. Amy almost thought her heart was going to jump out of her chest, thinking Gina had some news. Her hopes were crushed when Gina went "sorry Hun. He's still in surgery," and then she threw a bag at Rosa, "I got the clothes, hope they fit". Gina didn't look so great either. Her eyes were red from crying, and she hadn't said a single rude thing to Amy since earlier that day, which was a new record.
Five minutes later, Amy emerged from the bathroom stall, wearing Gina's clothes. She thought it felt weird, but her clothes were comfortable, so she wouldn't complain. She felt a little bit better that Gina cared enough to let her borrow them. "I'm going to have to burn those clothes when I get them back," Gina muttered with a slight smile on her face. Amy still thought it was a sweet gesture.
When they got back to the waiting room, nothing had changed. Charles was still pacing. Terry was quietly talking to Captain Holt, and Hitchcock and Scully were sleeping. Those guys could sleep anywhere. Were they even aware of why they were there? At least they had shown up. Amy's thoughts were interrupted when she saw a doctor coming towards them, which made Terry nudge Hitchcock and Scully, to wake them up.
"Jake Peralta?" he asked, as they all stood up, except for Amy. She didn't know if she was ready to hear it. He's dead, a voice in her head said, but she refused to listen. She was too scared to hear what the doctor had to say. She just couldn't focus on his voice. Her hands were still shaking. All she wanted to do was to lie in Jake's arms while watching a movie, just like they did the day before. Without the feeling of dread. She could see the doctors' lips moving, but her brain was unable to register a single word that was said. Even her lipreading skills were useless, but perhaps that was intentional. She wasn't sure about anything at that moment.
Amy was pulled out of her thoughts as she registered Captain Holts voice saying her name. "What?" she muttered. Captain Holt was sitting right in front of her, looking her straight in the eyes. "I noticed that you weren't paying attention to the doctor. He is going to be fine. They don't know when he's going to wake up, but they are positive. You can go see him if you'd like," Holt said softly, not even lifting an eyebrow. Amy could do nothing but nod, as she stood up. She asked them what room it was, and before she knew it she was standing outside room 305. Charles was to her left. Apparently, she had dragged him along for emotional support, without even thinking. She was unsure of how much support she would find in that nerve wreck of a man. None of them had the guts to open the door. They were both scared.
A hand gripped he handle, and it wasn't hers. Terry was to her right. He opened the door, and pushed both her and Charles inside before following. Amy was surprised. She had been picturing Jake lying on his deathbed, all pale and barely breathing. But there he was. Breathing steadily, all patched up and no longer bleeding. He was a little pale, but nowhere near what she had imagined. His eyes were closed, and his hands were placed to his sides. Charles was murmuring something about how cool Jake looked. Amy wasted no time to sit down and grab his hand. She felt like crying again, but she didn't know if she could at this point. Amy wished that Jake would open his beautiful eyes and tell her a stupid joke, and then maybe she could feel like it would be okay. But his eyes were closed. The joke never came. The three of them just sat around Jakes bed in silence.
It didn't take long before they were all in there. It surprised Amy that the hospital staff allowed so many people to be in there at once, while Jake was still unconscious. Captain Holt must've pulled some strings, she figured. It was weird, Amy thought, to be in a small room with the entire team, without anyone arguing or discussing something completely random. They were all waiting for something to happen. The movement of a finger, the twitch of an eyelid, a sign that he was waking up.
Hours later - Amy didn't know how many - they were still sitting there. "Do you guys think he's dreaming?" Charles quietly asked, eyes never leaving Jake. He sounded like he was ten instead of in his thirties. Terry started to chuckle a little, "if he is, it's him being John McLane saving his family at the Nakatomi Plaza, no doubt,". He made the entire room laugh a little, even Holt and Rosa. The real surprising sound, however, was the small snort coming from the bed.
Amy turned her head so fast she thought she was getting a whiplash. Jake's eyes were still closed and he hadn't moved at all, but she could've sworn he had made a sound. None of the others seemed tohave heard it, however. When she turned back to the others, they were all giving her worried looks. She must've imagined it.
Night came, and the rest of the team went home. Some people had to work the next day. The Captain had given Amy and Charles the next day off, for obvious reasons. Amy had gotten the permission to spend the night in Jake's room. Charles had gone home to Nikolaj and Genevieve, but he swore he would come back the next morning after bringing his son to school.
Charles left at around 1 AM, and Amy was once again left alone with her thoughts. Even though the doctor had been positive that he'd wake up, she couldn't help but she couldn't help but listen to the voice in her head telling her that he wouldn't. Amy sat in the uncomfortable chair, wrapped in a blanket a nurse had given her earlier, and held his hand as if it was all she'd been doing her entire life. She was just staring at his face, while tracing every line in his palm. She sat like that for hours, trying to keep her mind away from the horrible thoughts. Eventually figuring that sleep would probably be her best option. She laid her head down on Jakes bed. While still holding his hand, she was lulled to sleep by listening to his breathing.
Charles was there when she woke up. It was about 8 AM, so he couldn't have been there for long. Looking over at Jake, she sighed. He hadn't moved at all. Amy knew she was impatient, but she needed to see his smile. Hear him say "noice," or "smort".
As Charles noticed that she was awake, he fired her questions about her night, where Amy could do nothing but shake her head. Nothing had happened as far as she knew. She initiated a conversation about binders, just to keep her mind off Jake for a second. And it worked, until she felt his hand twitch.
Once again, she turned her head too fast, and stood up to get closer to Jake. "Jake? Can you hear me?" she asked softly. He groaned as he turned his head slowly. Charles went ballistic, getting the attention of every doctor and nurse in the hallway. Jakes opened his eyes slightly, but shut them again. Amy guessed he got blinded by the light. "Hey, Pineapples," she said softly, as he opened them again. She made sure she was in his line of vision. She just knew that he needed to see that she was alright. He wouldn't be in this position if it wasn't for her after all. His brown eyes scanned her face, before smiling. "Morning," he whispered. Amy laughed. Out of all the things he could've said, he chose something as ordinary as 'morning'.
His doctor barged in, and stepped up by the other side of the bed. "I just have to check his vitals," he said with a small smile. Amy let him do his job, as she went over to Charles, who stood a couple of meters away, and hugged him. It felt unnatural for her to hug him, but she was too relieved to care. She felt like a huge burden had been lifted off her shoulders. Charles was just standing there with a huge smile on his face, barely unable to wait to talk to Jake.
Amy decided to send a message to Captain Holt. She was thinking about calling him, but decided that she didn't want to disturb him either. While she wrote the message, she heard Charles going "Hey Jake, I guess we could we match now!", with Jake replying with something about buttholes.
The doctor came over to her with a smile. "He's fine, just tired and sore. I predict that he's going to fall asleep again soon, but you should just talk to him until then, I think it's good for him,". Amy just nodded, and went to Jake, as he was laughing about something Charles had said. Amy just watched them from her chair, while holding his hand. They would talk about what happened soon enough. But right now, Amy decided to just hold on to the feeling that everything would be okay.
Hey! Thanks for reading, and please give me a review and tell me what you think! It would make my day!