AMY and JAKE

The detective's bullpen of the Nine-Nine was filling with strange aromas and there were considerably more flies in the room, but Amy couldn't help but smile as she and detective Peralta worked together to clean his abysmal desk. She nearly gagged several times, but Jake would be there quickly, apologizing to her for the disgustingness and would bag whatever it was that had caused her gag reflex to kick in and quickly escort it out of the room.

An hour had passed by, and Amy had been introduced to several detectives and officers, a few were cold or almost rude to her, but most were friendly and a few were even congenial, Detective Diaz was quiet but told her she was glad to have another intelligent woman with her on the squad, Detective Boyle kept staring from her to Jake and smiling, but was outgoing and seemed genuinely nice, if not creepy. When she met the sergeant, he was intimidating at first, over six feet tall, huge muscles and a sort of Kojak on steroids vibe, but he told her how glad he was the Jake let her help him with his desk and that there might be hope for him yet, he also smiled at her and seemed to genuinely care about his detectives, herself included. Detectives Scully and Hitchcock didn't know there was a new detective until Jake pointed out that the woman they were talking to wasn't Rosa.

The garbage was cleared and Amy was spraying disinfectant and scrubbing down some mold spots when Jake was called into the captain's office, he smiled sadly and sighed before walking into the McGinley's office.

JAKE

McGinley was sitting at his desk, a big grin spread across his pudgy, ruddy face, "that's the way to break her in Peralta, cleaning that cesspool of a desk of yours."

Jake inhaled slowly and counted to three, "yeah, right?"

McGinley leaned to his left to stare out the window in his office at the rookie detective diligently cleaning Jake's desk, "she's not bad looking either."

Jake had to physically stop his eyes from rolling and his hands felt a twitch as the desire to slap his captain crept into his body. "I guess not, she does seem nice though, intelligent, are we sure crapping on a female for standing up for herself is the way to go?"

McGinley froze, then slowly raised his head until he was looking directly at Jake, "c'mon Peralta, don't tell me the cop who follows a Bruce Willis movie instead of department rules and common sense is going soft on me."

Jake shrugged, "captain, you would never try and kiss Rosa, or Gina, right? The guy was a dick."

McGinley pointed a fat finger at Jake, "look Peralta, sit down." Jake sat and slumped in his seat, this was it, he had toed the line and finally crossed it, but not doing something idiotic like before, he had crossed the line standing up for someone who was being shit on by the good ol' boy code of conduct. "I know Groves may have acted stupidly, but we all know cops who rat out other cops aren't wanted."

Jake spoke without thinking, "what about when you turned in Sanders and Lang for hiring prostitutes, I mean, yes, that was vile and disgusting, and while they were on duty, but the same thing."

McGinley rubbed his chin while staring at Jake, "hmmm, Peralta, you need to be careful, this isn't like you, to argue with me, think about things kid. I have to crack down sometimes, but reporting a captain for a kiss, it wasn't rape, he didn't physically harm her, why report it?"

Jake stood up, his rage would soon get the best of him, "yeah, sorry, you're right, I better get her on a case and show her how things work."

McGinley was oblivious enough to miss the obvious lack of sincerity in Jake's words, "that's the first sensible thing you've said in this conversation, good kid."

AMY and JAKE

As he approached his desk, Amy looked up and smiled at him, Jake blinked a few times, his confusion and frustration levels were sky high, he felt his cheeks going red, "alright Santiago, good job on the desk, let's get out of here and do a case, see if you you're any good."

His tone and sudden change in demeanor caught Amy a little off guard, but the day had already been better than she could have hoped for yesterday, so some grumpiness or hazing would not be unexpected. She grabbed her purse and made sure she had everything else she needed.

The first few minutes of the car ride were driven in silence, Jake didn't even play the radio, which was his normal routine to get on people's nerves and to pump himself up. Amy felt more confused than sad or angry at the current mood, the morning had started off well, but he had gone in to see the captain, so she could only imagine what the captain told him and how her new partner may have taken it.

She finally resorted to just staring out the window, this beat trying to look engaged or trying to think of small talk, finally Jake blinked a few times, took a deep breath and broke the silence.

"Look, Santiago, Captain McGinley, he told me what you did…"

Amy sighed sadly, "yeah, of course, I get it, I didn't do it to win points, I know, no one trusts a cop who reports other cops, today has been better than I thought, but I knew it'd be rough, I get it…the code."

Jake turned to consider her, at his side was who he considered to be a stunningly gorgeous woman, she was smart, she was obviously kind, but her bravery astounded him, he finally shook his head slightly and stopped himself from gawking at her, "I was told to make your life hell…"

"Okay, I thought as much." She returned to looking out the window.

Jake smiled, "the thing is, you did what was right, the dipshit of a captain was way out of line, I mean, that should be a no brainer your ass is fired type of action, but instead you, the victim I might add, are put through hell, I was also told my normal behavior and routine would push you to quit or report me…" Jake sighed as Amy turned to look at this man next to her who was opening up and praising her decision, "it made me take a hard look at myself, quickly, I mean fuck, sorry, that was just first thing this morning, the only morning I've ever been early."

"Don't worry about swearing, I grew up around cops, so I'm used to it. Thank you for being honest, and kind. I fully expected to be working terrible cases and with someone who hated my very existence, I'm sorry he has a low opinion of you, and I'm normally early, another reason people don't like me."

Jake smiled, every time she spoke and the more he got to know even a little about her, the more he noticed how pretty she was, the more he noticed her smile, he'd worked with attractive women on the job, but he was good at ignoring it, this was different. He coughed to disrupt his train of thought, "don't feel bad for me, I guess I deserved it. You know how all cops have their favorite cop movies?"

Amy smiled back at him, "oh yeah, Training Day, Lethal Weapon, and Fargo."

Jake shook his head, "you like Training Day and Lethal Weapon? They seem a little extreme for you, now Fargo I see, strong and smart female cop in a world of incompetence…that's pretty on the nose."

Amy felt herself blushing now, "thanks, but I love the grittiness of training Day, and Lethal Weapon, while farfetched, has the partner dynamic, the good and the bad."

Jake nodded now, impressed by his new partner even more, "okay, okay, I can see that. Well, for me, I've always been about one movie and one movie only, Die Hard, I've always imagined being a John McClain, me against the world."

"I can see that, it is exciting…"

Jake smiled, "It's okay if you don't like it, not everyone does, I love it, but today I realized a few things, first, he worked alone because he was off duty, I'm not, I have a partner, I have a squad, my sergeant is not an idiot and I'm not saving hostages at Nakatomi Plaza." He sighed again, "the thing is, I didn't come from a big family, my dad left my mom and I, which was good, he's a nightmare, but it was always me. My mom worked a lot, she's the reason I feel so strongly about what you did, I've always respected strong women, never dated any, the slobby thing and the bad attitude I'm just now realizing I have chase them off, but she was hit on, a lot, lost some jobs for calling them on their bullshit, I just never thought it would be a choice between pleasing my superior and standing up for the most basic of rights and let's face it, human decency."

Amy could only stare for a moment, this man instructed to make her life impossible was opening up and sharing things on a level she had never experienced as a cop, she finally shook her head every so slightly to release her from her own intense train of thought, "yeah…that's what I thought, but I knew that if I reported him, everything about me would be questioned, it definitely made me question whether I was good enough."

Jake pulled over suddenly, "Santiago, Amy, don't let them get in your head, they've already objectified you and let you know your feelings don't matter, but don't let them in your head, that's the one place where you have to know what you did was right, that will get you through this, this will pass. You met Terry, he's a strong man, but he loves women, in the good way, his wife is a very strong woman. Rosa is a kick ass terror and hates this shit too, and Charles likes most people, but he also likes strong women, in a respectful way."

Amy laughed, "don't worry, I don't think you're telling me these guys will hit on me because I'm outspoken and bold."

Jake laughed softly, "well, Hitchcock might, but he's beyond creepy. You are here because the cases you solved were done well, and you passed the detectives' exam, I'm guessing the first time?"

Amy blushed but she smiled proudly, "yeah…one hundred percent."

Jake blinked in awe, "see, I thought I did well, I got a ninety-two percent, but the point is that a lot of these detectives had to take it several times, Simons, the guy who was pretty rude to you, he had to take it three times, and he is terrible. I don't know how Scully or Hitchcock passed it, my guess is that they bribed someone."

Amy took a chance and placed her hand on his arm, hoping he wouldn't take it sexually, "thanks Peralta, this is more than I could have hoped for, this morning I was wondering whether I would need to quit."

Jake shook his head, "don't think like that, we're in this together now," he had to concentrate as the scent of her perfume and her soft touch distracted him and he realized he liked it way too much, but him hitting on her was the absolute last thing she needed, "my guess is because of what you did and my refusal to chase you off, the captain will leave us together, as partners, but either move us to nights or to the worst cases, which will be crappy, but Terry will fight it, Rosa will complain, and Charles will send off many angry and anonymous emails about it."

Amy smiled, "thanks, but what's our case about? Solving it might get us a little more in the good graces of even the entrenched macho good old boy system fanatics."

"Oh shit, yeah, we have a case…" Jake sighed, he was beginning to doubt himself on this, but his gut usually served him well, and it was telling him it was a murder. "So…Martin Alberts, sixty-three, retired subway technician, was found dead. The medical examiner said the cause was a really ripe blue cheese, because he had a severe allergy to penicillin, so the mold acted the same way and killed him. His wife said he never ate that cheese, or much cheese at all, so she had no idea why he would eat it. His last meal as far as we know was with his son at the Mile End Delicatessen. They of course serve hundreds of sandwiches and don't remember anyone getting cheese with the sandwich, the cheese they have there is not the same cheese that killed him."

"You think someone loaded his sandwich with it because he wouldn't notice it, the son?"

Jake nodded, "yeah, but everyone else thinks I'm crazy, they just think the cheese aged weird in his system, but I googled the hell out of that subject, doesn't work that way. The son he ate with is Donald Alberts, age thirty-two, he's the youngest of three children, the other two live out of state. It could have been for insurance money, but his policy wasn't great."

Amy nodded, she loved this part of the chase, and the fact that Peralta was willing to look at this from all angles and ignore the lazy path, she began to think that this situation could be interesting if not fun. "Did you look into Donald's financials?"

"Yeah…he has had like four jobs in the past three years, he gets fired for his temper, his finances are worse than mine, which is saying something, but nothing else shows he had a bad relationship with his dad, the wife said they argued from time to time, but nothing major."

"Is it possible that the vic could have leant his son money? I mean obviously the son wouldn't confess that, and the wife may not have known."

"Yeah, I looked into that, but there was nothing in the vic's financials to indicate that, at all, no large withdrawals, everything looked nearly identical month to month. The oldest son, he lives in Ohio, he told me on the phone that Donald didn't borrow money from people, he thinks he is thief, but nothing has gone missing from the Albers' home."

"Where are we headed today?"

"Back to the Alberts' home, to triple check if I missed anything, I know, wasting time, but my gut tells me it was murder."

The detectives spent the next hour scouring the house and engaging in friendly conversation with Mrs. Alberts, but the only thing they found out was that Donald would have inherited his dad's baseball card collection, or shared it with his brother, but the victim sold it. Peralta and Santiago returned to the precinct, Terry called them into the briefing room to talk to them, "Peralta, Santiago, I hate to be the hatchet man, but the truth is captain McGinley is being a dick, sorry, don't tell him I said that, I already argued with him, but he said if the two of you can't solve this case, since you insist it's murder Jake, in the next week, then he'd move you to the night rotation. Rosa kicked a hole in her desk in response, it's been tense, but people have your backs."

"Thanks Terry, Santiago and I will do our best, it's just lame that she's in trouble for reporting something that should absolutely be reported and I'm in trouble for not making her life a living hell."

"I think he thought you'd just bug her naturally, he now thinks your going out of your way to be nice to her."

Jake frowned, "Thanks sarge, but c'mon, I can be nice, I mean…okay, this was a little shocking, but it's made me look at some shit."

Terry grinned at him, "geez Peralta, if I'd only known it took a pr…" Terry froze and had an awkward look on his face.

Jake was pretty sure where he was headed, he felt himself go red, Amy just smiled, doing her best to keep it small, "took what Terry?" Jake decided to play dumb.

"Never mind, but I'm glad you're looking at things about yourself, some self-reflection is good for everyone."

Gina busted in the room, "hey sarge, boring new girl, Jake, there's a guy on the phone for you Jakers, something about his brother is a suspect in his dad's death and cheese."

Jake and Amy stood up, "c'mon, we'll do conference call at our desks." Amy followed after Jake, Terry smiled to himself, he was proud of Peralta for making some changes, but prouder yet that he was not buying into the macho code so many cops bought into and lived, and he couldn't help but wonder if there was some little spark between the two of them, but then he reproached himself since Amy was coming out of a situation where she was hit on.

Jake hit the button on his desk phone, "Garrett, this is Detective Peralta and my partner detective Santiago, how can we help you today?"

"Hey detectives, thanks for taking my call, my mom called and said you'd been by, which is great, I think my dad was murdered, he would not eat that cheese, he hated moldy things, wouldn't even touch yogurt, but my mom said she mentioned his baseball cards?"

Jake was about to talk, but then thought better of being old Jake who did everything and dared his partner to keep up, he motioned for her to take this, "Hey Garrett, detective Santiago here, she did mention it, she told us that you and Donald would split them in the inheritance but that it was sold."

"Hmmm, I don't know, my dad loved those cards, when your partner asked if there was anything valuable, I didn't think of those, I hate sports mostly, it was the one thing my dad and Donnie had in common, there could have been some valuable cards there, I just never followed or cared about baseball, he loved the Mets, he bragged that he had every Met player's card for every year from the first season they were formed until the year they lost to the Yankees in the subway series."

Jake jumped in this time, this was one of his favorite subject, "Peralta here, that would be nineteen sixty-two to two-thousand, that's a lot of cards."

"Yeah, that was just part of the collection, it was the part he was the proudest of, he loved the Mets. I just don't think he'd sell that, I'm an investment broker here in Cleveland, one of my colleagues heard me talk about or I guess complain about my dad's cards, he used to spend way too much time admiring them, but that was few years ago, I took some pictures and sent them to the guy, he said he made an offer but my dad refused, I didn't think much about it, again, not a sports guy."

Amy was quick to respond, "Garrett, any chance you have those pictures on your phone still or in the cloud?"

Jack snapped his fingers and gave her a thumbs up before Garret could respond, "Uh, yeah, actually, in the cloud, do want them?"

Amy smiled at Jake and motioned for him to jump in, "oh yeah, that would be great, that could help us determine the worth and also maybe lead to tracking them down and seeing what happened."

"Okay, I have your email, I'll send them to you as soon as I dig them out the cloud, my wife takes a lot of pictures of our kids, a lot."

"Thanks Garrett." Jake hung up the phone, both he and Amy were smiling.

"Let's hope we can do this Peralta, not that I have a social life, but the night shift is not something I want to do."

"Same here, with social life and wanting to work nights." Jake really wanted to ask her out, even if only for a drink, but thought better of it after all she had gone through, so he made work talk the rest of the day as they planned their moves for the next day. The pictures of the cards came in just before they were about to leave for the day.

Jake whistled as he saw the pictures, "damn, I know for a fact that this rookie stars card with Koosman and the Nolan Ryan is worth like a couple of hundred thousand dollars, by itself. It looks to be in good condition."

"I have a contact in the world of sports memorabilia, from an old case, he might know where the best places to look would be, I'll shoot him a text and we can start there tomorrow…" she stopped and turned around, feeling stupid, "if that's okay? You are lead detective."

Jake smiled and nodded, "that sounds great, we can't turn down any leads, even one from a woman with the nerve to turn down her creepy captain's unwanted advances."

Amy laughed, she thought she would never be able to laugh at that, but her first partner as a detective and the man assigned to drive her out of the force not only made her feel relevant and comfortable, but at ease enough to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation.

"Did I mention he had a lot of hairy moles?"

Jake spit out the drink of water he had just taken, "no, but that creates a vivid picture, thank you, I won't sleep for nights."