AN: The quotes written solely in italics and between single quotation marks represent mouthing words like you would to a friend across the classroom. No sound, just lip reading. In case it isn't clear from context clues.
"Santiago and Peralta, you'll be watching from 5th street," Captain Holt told them. They had been surveilling a run down strip mall all week due to an informant's info, but so far nothing even remotely important happened. The CI said that whatever was going down was going down tonight at midnight, so it was pretty much all or nothing this time. Amy and Jake were bristling, getting ready to play up their fight so they wouldn't have to go together.
"Diaz, Boyle, go with them," the captain addressed the other two detectives. Rosa groaned but made no argument as she walked out the door, with Charles following behind. Jake and Amy headed out too, seeing no problem now that they knew it would be the 4 of them.
"Why can't criminals ever do shady things in not shady areas? Like a well populated public square in broad daylight?" Jake complained when they pulled into position. The strip mall was the shadiest thing he had ever seen, and he'd seen a lot of shady, shady things. There were 3 storefronts on the property, all of which had gone out of business- but left the broken formerly neon signs hanging up. There wasn't even a birds nest in the cracked O. You know something's messed up when even a bird won't touch it. There was only one store with any of it's windows left in tact, and the one beside it had broken glass around the edge even though there were bars to deter theft. Didn't seem like they worked out too well. Jake turned his head to see Amy looking at him like he was an idiot.
"Obviously I know why they can't, but a man can dream, can't he?" He shook his head wistfully.
He had tried to start a conversation before, but no one seemed to feel like talking. Rosa was in a bad mood, and she was bringing the whole car way down deep into bummersville USA. She was always in at least a little bit of a bad mood as far as anyone could tell, but something tonight made it much worse. Every time Charles reached to turn on the radio she hit his hand and snarled. Honest to god snarled. And if anyone tried to speak more than 2 sentences she would remind everyone of how silent they needed to be with a thinly veiled threat. Even though it was dark and Jake couldn't see her through the rear view mirror, he somehow always knew when she was glaring directly at him. All in all, it had been the worst 30 minutes of the year, and it was only 11:40. He didn't know how much longer he could stand it.
"Did you see that?" Rosa asked in a hushed tone, and every one paid attention. She was pointing to an alley way that led right behind the buildings that had almost no lighting. No one could see a thing.
"I think I saw someone walk in there. Peralta, Santiago: go check it out. And don't even think about arguing. Get over yourselves." She ordered in the most menacing tone she could manage.
"But it's all spooky!" Jake whined.
"Go."
Sensing that their friend was at the end of her rope, Jake and Amy wordlessly got out of the car to check out the alley.
The alley was empty, thankfully, and looked pretty much like how you'd expect an abandoned alley to look like. There were dumpsters on one end that looked like they hadn't been emptied in years, and all sorts of junk strewn about on the concrete. There were some wooden crates piled by a back door to one of the stores that still had (probably expired) bottles of soda in them, and cinder blocks stacked on top of each other right beside them.
"There's no one here," Jake radioed back in over the walkie talkie. "Can we come back now? I think I might get tetanus just from looking at this place another minute longer."
"Stay there," Rosa growled. "It's almost midnight, and whoever is coming might be late. We're not going to screw this up just cause you're scared of the dark."
Jake held the radio directly to his mouth and groaned in the most childish manner possible to show his discontent. When his annoyance wasn't deemed worthy of a response, he looked over at Amy and smirked.
"So, how are things going with you?" He asked, taking the time to walk over the the pile of cinder blocks and lay out his jacket on top of them. He took a seat and patted the space next to him.
"Oh, you know, just trying to come to terms with the fact that my boyfriend is a petulant child," Amy remarked as she sat beside him.
"Your tone says insult, but since I have no clue what petulant means, I'm gonna assume it's a compliment," Jake grinned.
They sat in relative silence for what felt like forever, but every time one of them checked there phone, only a couple of minutes had passed. Jake was tracing the contours of her hand in a way that Amy couldn't stop herself shivering from. Eventually he leaned down to kiss along the lengths of her collarbone.
"Jake!" She protested. "We're in an alley."
"A boring, secluded alley, Amy." He amended. "Besides, it's 12:15, if anything was gonna happen, it would have happened already. And you know Rosa will make us wait out here for another hour at least."
She had to admit he was probably right about the time line. They definitely wouldn't be allowed to go back until 1 AM, especially with Rosa's grumpy state that night. And it was so tempting to give in to the feel of his lips on her skin, his fingers still mapping out the valleys and hills on her palm, between her fingers, the back of her hand. He really was impossible to resist, rules and proper procedures be damned.
She tilted his face up so she could really, truly, properly kiss him. One hand moved to his hair while the other clutched to the back of his shirt like he was the only thing keeping her grounded. Every time they broke for a breath, he whispered her name, over and over until she had lost track after the fifth repeat. She loved how it flowed off his lips like a prayer.
He pulled back for a moment, chancing a look elsewhere only to see something that made him freeze.
"Oh shiiiiiiiiiiit."
"What?" Amy asked, looking around the alley for some unseen danger as she reached for her gun. She stopped when she saw nothing. Absolutely nothing. No stranger lurking or even a particularly yappy chihuahua. Everything was exactly the same as when they first came in, so she had no clue what he was upset about. "What?" She repeated.
Then she noticed that Jake was pointing at the spot between them. She was about ready to jump up because there was a rat or a cockroach or some other awful creature, but that wasn't the case.
It was just the radio.
And then she saw it.
The red light was on. The little red light in the corner was on. The little red light that meant that it was broadcasting. She figured it was safe to assume that Jake hadn't just turned it on at that moment. He was right. Oh shit.
They both looked up at each other with very wide eyes.
'How long?' she mouthed, and he just shrugged. She felt like freaking out, and screaming, but she could only do one of those things silently.
'You are such an idiot!' She told him, not letting a sound escape her lips.
'I didn't mean to!'
'But you did! I never should have trusted you with the radio! This is all your fault! What are we gonna do?!' This time she had her hands in a frenzy so he could tell exactly how mad she was since he wouldn't have her tone for a clue. He held up his hands in a 'don't shoot' gesture, but she was very tempted to shoot him at that moment. Or at least punch him.
"So that's where the walkie talkie is..." Jake exclaimed in an awkward high pitch. "Hey guys. What's up with you?" He radioed in with that shrill voice of his that he only ever used when he was lying. The voice that let everyone know he was lying.
It was a heavy 10 seconds before Diaz radioed back.
"We know it was you. You said Amy's name like a dozen times."
"13 times. Baker's dozen. I counted," Charles chimed in.
So that was it. They were caught.
"Oh my god, please don't tell captain Holt," Amy begged, ready to offer to do their paperwork for months or whatever it took to buy their silence.
"Whatever. This whole things a bust. If you don't get your asses back her in the next 60 seconds I'm leaving without you." Rosa threatened. And they didn't doubt her for a moment.
They climbed into the backseat in silence and Rosa wouldn't even look at them. Charles, on the other hand was turned around in his seat looking positively overjoyed. If he was standing, Amy was sure he would be bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet.
"Can you kiss her?" Boyle asked.
"What? Charles! No!" Jake shouted as if it was the most preposterous thing he had ever heard. He shook his head as he tried to fathom what possible reason Charles could have for asking that.
"What?" Boyle defended. "I need a reason to believe in true love."
"No!" He repeated, and Charles was forced sit down regularly since the car had started.
Jake slumped down in his seat with the most sullen look Amy had ever seen cross his face. He looked surprisingly similar to a kid who was going to pout for hours because he got in trouble for putting his hand in the cookie jar. It was weirdly fascinating, slightly amusing, and actually kinda cute. Amy would have loved to watch him brood for the whole ride, but she knew she should do something to make him feel better.
She did the only thing she could think of, and reached out and grabbed his hand. He began to turn to look at her, but his head only tilted a few inches before he decided that it might not be the best move for him to look at her. She still saw the corners of his lips turn into the slightest smile.
She trailed her finger along the back of her hand like he did to her earlier and thoroughly enjoyed the shudder that went through him.
