"Jake, get out! I need to take a shower too!" Amy pounded on the door with no reply. "Seriously, you're going to make me late!"

It had been a major miscalculation on her part to let him use the shower first. He always took forever, which had never been a problem before since him showing up late to work just kept up appearances, and certainly continued the illusion that they had not in fact rolled out of the same bed nearly every morning. She usually got to the bathroom first, so it had never been a problem before. But this morning was different. She actually hit the snooze alarm, and somehow Jake managed to get up without the alarm blaring for a good half hour. Leading to this moment.

She was getting ready to bang again when she heard the shower door creak open. She heard his wet footsteps crossing the floor, and she made a mental note to be wary of the puddles he undoubtedly left. She was planning on pushing past him once he unlocked an opened the door, but he had the upper hand of surprise.

He opened the door as he was wet, dripping, and spectacularly naked. She had at least expected a towel, but she realized that was a pretty unrealistic expectation when it came to her boyfriend.

"Why don't you join me?" Jake asked, promptly picking Amy up and slinging her over his shoulder and walking back to the still running shower.

"Jake! Put me down! You're gonna slip and drop me!" She only stopped hitting him on the back when she considered that it probably wasn't doing any good on his balance, making him even more likely to slip. Miraculously, he made it back to the shower without incident.

"I've got you," he told her as he set her down under the flow of hot water. She was far from mad at him, but felt she needed to say something to let him know he was in trouble.

"I'm still in my pajamas, you know," she said, motioning to her now soaked through oversized T shirt and shorts combo.

"I think we can fix that," he responded, helping her slip out of the aforementioned clothes which fell to the floor with a flop. She rolled her eyes in response.

Amy turned from him to let the water fall on her face and to hopefully get a little relaxation in before work. She heard him uncap the shampoo bottle and thought about sidestepping so he could finish his routine before she felt his hands in her hair. It took her a moment to realize that he got the shampoo to lather her up. It was a nice, if odd feeling. Really the only time any one else had washed her hair since she was a child was if she went to a salon to get it cut. So it happening in the shower at the hands of her boyfriend was a new experience.

"You make a habit of washing other people's hair?" she teased.

"It's the least I could do. I did get you all wet."

She couldn't argue with that.


"Rebound, huh?" Charles asked Jake as he was taking a snack break. He and Amy decided that enough time had passed for him to tell his coworkers about his meeting the amazing and illustrious 'Carmen'. He was positive that's what Boyle was referring to, but he thought it best to just play dumb.

"Rebound from what?" he asked, trying to decide if he wanted the Oreos in B6 today, or the powdered doughnuts in A4. It really was a tough decision, so he didn't bother trying to hide his lengthy deliberation. Charles motioned with his head towards Amy who was standing at the copier back in the main room.

"I don't think it counts as rebound if we were never dating. And I'm fine, you don't need to keep bothering me about this. Amy's dating someone, and so am I. There's no need to worry." Jake made a split decision and pressed D2, waiting for the Goldfish pack to fall off the rung. It was almost there when it got stuck. Jake hit the machine trying to knock it off the last bit of the coil, but with no luck.

"You don't need to pretend with me, Jakey. I know you're hurting. But don't fear, I know you two will get there some day," Charles said in and effort to comfort him.

"Seriously Charles, I'm fine. No need to be concerned. I'm doing better than you think. And I'm... Pretty happy. I'm okay, nothing's wrong, everything's alright. I honestly don't know how many more times I can say it. You've gotta stop asking me because there are only so many ways I can say I'm doing good." Jake was more than a little miffed that he wasted his last dollar, but he knew he shouldn't take it out on Boyle.

He patted him on the back. "Really buddy. Open a dictionary and look up fantastic. In the fine print at the bottom of the entry there will be a little footnote that reads 'see: Jake Paralta'. You might have to flip through a couple hundred pages to find me, but I'll be there, with another footnote that leads back to fantastic. There'll be a lot of other footnotes under my name too. Like best, and amazing, and awesome." He spread his hand out like a banner above his head moving further with each word. "Just to name a few." He led his friend out of the break room and back to his desk, not even noticing the person who passed by them to enter it. Jake was positive he'd have to assure Boyle about a billion more times of how okay he was actually doing, but he knew his friend meant well.

"Yes!" Gina shouted from the break room. "Free Goldfish!"

Jake groaned.


Amy and Jake decided that the one thing they wouldn't do was go on stakeouts together anymore. It was fine the first few times when they asked to switch things up with Rosa and Charles, but it was starting to draw attention after a while. After 3 stakeouts pairing Jake with Charles and Rosa with Amy, they were running out of remotely plausible excuses. Really they hadn't had any good excuses to begin with, but they were hoping no one would question it. They really hadn't thought ahead how strange it would seem after a couple of times switching it up. The couple was beginning to realize that it really didn't work as a long term plan.

"What's with you two?" Rosa confronted them after their 5th request to split up. Amy and Jake were in the middle of a completely unrelated conversation and were caught off guard with no response prepared. The were both silent. "Are you guys in a fight?"

"No," Amy said, at the exact same moment that Jake said "Yes." They both looked at each other, but Jake was a little more quick thinking.

"And I'm not going on anymore stakeouts with 'little miss perfect' here until she apologizes," Jake mocked her. Amy followed his lead, realizing it was the smart move. It at least gave them a reasonable explanation with why they weren't cooperating with each other anymore.

"Sure!" Amy exclaimed. "I'm the one who needs to apologize! I can't believe you. I'm not going anywhere with you until you admit that you're wrong."

"Well that's never gonna happen, so-"

Rosa interrupted them with an exclamation that certainly wasn't any human language, but let them know exactly how tired of their argument she was.

"You guys are such children! I hate children. Both of you need to grow up. I'm only going to tolerate this for so much longer," she told them, then dragged Amy off by her arm.

Amy stuck her tongue out at Jake over her shoulder, and he returned the favor.


AN: Okay so what I had planned for chapter 8 turned out a little long, so I split it up, so I've got something else other than the sweetness that I promised for chapter 9. Said fluff will be in chapter 10, I swear. To make up for it I'm releasing chapter 8 and 9 at the same time (since I had to finish both to figure out how to split it all up). I'd like to say the next chapter is funny (ch 9) but we'll see what you guys think. Hopefully that'll make up for the confusion.