Jake was nervous, strike that, he was very nervous, he tried to calm himself down, he'd done these many times before, but recent personal history didn't ease his concerns. He was about to go undercover, it made sense, it was necessary, but none of this was making it any easier.

2 Days Earlier

"Jake, Charles and Rosa have a suspect for our jewelry store robbery case, in Crown Heights."

Jake was coming their home office after helping his mom out with Carmen, who had started screaming when she was upset, Amy was worried about it, but Karen said Jake had done this for two years, and he finally just stopped.

"Noice, how'd they do that? The surveillance tapes had nothing and the witnesses were wishy washy, Charlie Brown wishy washy."

"Nice reference, Rosa, while looking at the surveillance, for which she said was like the twentieth time, when she decided to go twenty minutes earlier than we had been looking, and a street vendor set up across the street, but she was never asked about the heist. It was a long shop, but they took photos into some of the shops and found out who she was, and Charles actually knew her, she sells mushrooms. The street vendor said she saw four men hanging around, they looked nervous, but weren't doing anything illegal. She had no idea it was the four men who did the heist, she saw them before their masks were on. Our suspect with a limp, had green eyes, she remembered because he stared at him, and he also had red hair. This opened things up, I did a search in our database of all his information, and one name came up, Dennis Showalter."

"Dennis Showalter, doesn't sound like the name of jewel thief with a limp and green eyes, but okay."

"It turns out he is the suspect in two other jewel heists, one in Queens, one in the Bronx. His known accomplices are also in the system, Eddie Jackson, Larry Chan, and Mitch Edwards. We struck gold, one of them is in the Sullivan Max Pen in Fallsburg."

"Nice, Charles has been wanting to try out some new undercover personas, he even has one he thinks would be perfect for prison, Corbin Klein, counterfeiter."

"Charles arrested him once, him being Eddie Jackson, he arrested him for robbing a few hot dog stands, he got off because they made his witness look like a fool."

"Oh, I get it, you want me to do it." Jake sat down and looked nervous.

"Jake," Amy said as sympathetic as she possibly could, "I am your captain, but I'm also your wife, and I wouldn't be very good at either role if I didn't talk to you about this. I want your input, if it is too much, I understand, but I also want you to hear the plan."

Jake nodded, "cool, cool, cool, cool, why not, why not, why not."

"You would be undercover, in prison, which I know is scary, but you would be working with the warden and the guards, and the warden has very good reputation, he has fired several guards for mistreatment in his first two years there. You would be observed, by Rosa, Charles, and I. There is minimal danger, not nonexistent, but minimal. I normally wouldn't push this, babe, sorry, Jake, I'm in captain mode, but I think you need this. You are the best detective I know, your undercover work has resulted in nearly thirty arrests and convictions, and you have a credibility in prison situations with your unfortunate past."

Jake numbly nodded, "Ames, sorry, captain, I understand, I kind of agree, I'm nervous, but I think I need to get past it, even with our awesome little squad, stuff gets real and I might have to help out like this again, and this sounds like a relatively safe operation, as far as undercover and prison go. I'll do it, I may need a lot of help, but I'll do it. Jake is back, terrified, sweaty, and reluctant, but back."

two days later

Amy was struggling to watch Jake be so nervous, she had never seen him sweat so much without actually moving. She wouldn't let him do this if she didn't truly believe he could do it, and that would it help him. Jake was always helpful to the squad, but only depending on Charles for undercover work wasn't ideal.

Jake was biting his nails, something he only did when he was on the edge, she walked up to him to try and calm him down. "Jake, relax, I want you to remember a few things. One, you once went undercover for six months, with the mob, while being in love with a fabulous woman who was impressed with it, six months later she slept with you."

Jake was now smiling, but still visibly nervous. "Second, another time, you went undercover as a music producer for three weeks to bring down a Polka band that smuggled drugs. You had to listen to Polka for three long weeks, and while you pretend to hate it, it makes you think of your nana, so you had to fight back tears for three weeks."

"I did it by making my undercover persona, Vince Neiman, have tear duct problems, so he always wore sunglasses." Jake actually sighed now, he wasn't shaking, he wasn't biting his nails, he looked nervous, but not out of control nervous.

"Thanks, captain, and thanks, Ames, I said it to both, because you are an amazing captain and a kick-ass wife. I think I've got this, I'm still nervous, but I've focused so much on the bad things that have happened, that I didn't think about the good ones, I have to do this, I'm still a detective."

Charles and Gina came into the room they were using for their surveillance, Charles had obviously been crying. "Jake, Rosa said she will break my thumb if I cry again but be careful buddy."

"Charles, too much, too much, I'll be fine. I'm nervous, but I can do this, I've done this for years, it used to be my favorite part of being a detective."

Jake entered the prison, it was hard to be in a prison jumpsuit, but things were different. He was in control, he had even talked to the guard and told him his experience with prison, the guard told him they would be fired for anything close to what the guards did at Jericho, and that they were trained in de-escalation techniques.

Jake saw Eddie Jackson, he was about five foot ten, two hundred pounds, but was very built. Jake tried to get into his persona, he Mark Weiss, a convicted jewel thief who was being transferred from a different cell block. The guards had spread the word, telling the inmates that he was being transferred because he had nearly killed a snitch. Jake had grown his sparse prison beard, to give him the feel of being a prisoner. He was eating alone when he was approached by a short black man, he looked at him, and realized it was Caleb.

Caleb looked at him and smiled, he sat down and eyed Jake carefully, "So, Weiss, I hear you're a snitch basher."

Jake simply nodded and kept eating, he couldn't believe the prisoner he knew best was staring at him and sitting across from him. "Quiet type, I get it, I've only been here for six months, it's not a bad place, I was at one of those super prisons before, but I agreed to help those jerks out in order to get a transfer. Worth it."

"There's a place worse than here?" Jake said it quietly, trying to maintain a loner persona.

"Hell yeah, Jericho was a nightmare, my old cellmate got forced into some crazy stuff. He nearly got killed, but then I got stabbed. I think he died later."

Jake tried not to smile, since he was Caleb's old cellmate and was not dead. "Can anybody hear us?"

"No, man. it's all good, who are you after, unless you are back in jail for real again?"

"No, we need info from Jackson."

"What do you need?"

"He was a jewel thief, he was involved in a case we can't close, I need info on his old box."

"Did you try cutting a deal?"

"No, apparently he's turned down deals in the past for a different case."

"I would try it again, I think he's tired of this place, he got the crap beat out of him last month, this psycho named Gibson, he would have done well at Jericho."

Jake talked to his chest now, "anyone else hear that, meet with the man and make a deal."

Within an hour, Jackson gave up all they needed on his accomplice in exchange for no additional prison time and his own cell for the rest of his incarceration. Jake stayed talking to Caleb for a while, and when lunch was over, the two went to Caleb's cell, which he had to himself, his warden thought it would be best if a cannibal didn't have a roommate.

Jake realized he had been talking to him for nearly two hours, "Caleb, I hate to do this, but I have to get going soon."

"I understand Peralta, thanks for talking to me. I don't make a lot of friends, they're actually all scared of me, the warden's a decent guy, the guards even talk to me, this place is like a motel six compared to Jericho."

"I have another daughter now, Reina, she's a handful."

"Oh man, two girls, you sure you can handle that? I had three sisters and my mom fought with all of them. They used to give her hell, I was the good one, until my crimes caught up with me."

"Cannibalism has that effect on people."

"I told you, I'm a woodworker."

Jake laughed at that. "Hey man, would you be okay if I visited you sometime. It was good to see you, and even though we made very different career choices, you've always been a good friend, you proved that again today. I want to be your family. No one else will visit you, and I can't imagine what that would be like."

"I'd like that man, if you never make it, I get that too, but you don't owe me anything, Peralta, you are the only friend I've had in prison."

Later that day, Rosa, Charles, Jake and Amy were at the restaurant at their hotel in Fallsburg.

"Jake, are you okay?" Amy and Charles both had shocked looks on their faces as Rosa had asked the question.

"Yeah, I'm good, Rosa, just always hard to see Caleb. Dude's a cannibal, killed kids, but he's still the reason I survived prison and then he helped me today, he could have blown my cover, he could have demanded something to no blow my cover, but he helped me."

"I get it, Jake, I didn't have anyone in prison like that."

Amy stroked Jake's back with her hand, "Babe, we can visit him, I remember you were like this when you saw him in Texas, and he seemed so human when he got to meet Carmen and I. You also made it through your undercover operation."

Jake slowly nodded, "yeah, I guess I did. I was focused on the work, and then on Caleb. When I was nervous, I was focused on the dangers, not the good stuff. I don't know if I'm old Jake again, but that could be a good thing, when I was undercover with the Polka band I once went with them and shot at seagulls on a beach."

Amy nodded, "New and improved Jake it is."