Meghan woke up to the familiar sound of her alarm clock beeping next to her head. She groaned and rolled over to stop the alarm then rolled on her back to look at the ceiling. She began to think about the day ahead, she was starting a new job at her father's police precinct. Just thinking about it made her heart beat faster so she snapped herself out of her thoughts and had a long warm shower.
She got out and brushed her brown hair, letting it fall just past the middle of her back. She changed into black jeans with a blue long sleeve shirt. She sprayed on her trusty vanilla perfume and began to apply some eyeliner and mascara. Once she was satisfied with her appearance she walked downstairs and met her dads and their dog, Cheddar, for breakfast.
She sat herself down at the end of the table and began to make some small talk which she hated. "so Meghan, are you excited about today?" Her father, Raymond asked her as he took a bite out of his plain toast. "I guess" she replied pushing some bacon around the plate with her fork. "Are you not happy about working with me?" He asked her, "no it's not that, I'm just nervous I guess" she replied with a forceful smile.
After a very awkward breakfast she made her way back to her bedroom and grabbed her things. She quickly re touched some of her makeup and perfume before grabbing a leather jacket and throwing it over her shoulder. She walked downstairs and lingered around the living room while she waited for her father to get ready. Once he was finally ready they hopped into the car and began the drive to work.
Meghan put her head against the cold window and watched as some raindrops raced down the window. Before she knew it, they were out the front of the precinct. It was a lot different than she imagined, she smiled at the aesthetic of such an old building before stepping out of the car and following her father inside.
She walked behind her father, dodging the seemingly thousands of police officers as they headed toward an elevator. Luckily for them, no one else came to the elevator so it was just the two of them. The elevator ride up was silent, Meghan would have been glad to just hang out in there all day but she knew she couldn't.
The doors eventually opened to reveal a relatively busy precinct. She tried her best not to listen to the conversation two officers were happening but she couldn't draw her attention away once she realised they were talking about her.
A male with his back turned to her was saying how he wonders if the new assistant will be hot. The female he was talking to desperately tried to warn him to stop talking but he didn't get the hint and began to ramble on about what he thinks the new assistant will be like. She noticed her father smirk slightly before walking up to them and clearing his throat.
As soon as the guy turned around, she noticed how brown his eyes were. She noticed he was wearing a flannel, a hoodie and a leather jacket which she found confusing but extremely attractive. She had to remind herself she had a Fiancé back in Cambridge and scold herself for forgetting about him. She had to stifle a laugh as the guy almost fell of his chair. "hey cap, I was just talking to Santiago about die hard" he stuttered as he tried his best to cover up. Her father shook his head and made his way to his office. Meghan smiled at them both before following her father.
Jake sat there in awe as he watched the brunette walk away, leaving a cloud of vanilla perfume floating around his desk. He watched from his desk as the captain walked back out with the brunette following behind him. "squad, briefing room five minutes" he announced before walking off to the briefing room with the brunette following closely behind him. "eyes off, Peralta" Amy said snapping him out of his trance. "shes engaged" she replied which made Jakes heart drop a little. "how do you know?" he asked her, still clinging onto a little hope. "because he told us" she replied with a roll of the eyes.
Meghan stood awkwardly behind the podium with her father waiting for the others to come. After what seemed like the shortest time ever some detectives started to stroll in. Meghan found herself almost hiding behind her father as the room became more and more crowded.
Once everybody was seated her father began to speak. "squad, this is my daughter Meghan, she will be helping Gina while she is on maternity leave" He moved out of the way leaving Meghan standing awkwardly behind the podium with around 10 pairs of eyes on her. She smiled at the others before her father spoke up again. "Peralta, could you fill everyone in?".
She and her father moved to the side as the curly headed man from earlier, Jake, walked up to the screen. "meet Fred Gorman, Prominent citizen, lawyer, corpse. Now meet his wife, Anne hoert" He began, "she did not take his last name but I believe she did, take his life" he said with a little too much pride. She chuckled as she watched her father's face, never in her life has she seen anyone make him so annoyed.
She looked over to the others and noticed a rather short man giving him a thumbs up with an almost crazy smile. She shook her head slightly and returned her attention back to the screen. "now Hoert has means, motive and opportunity, I just need to find the murder weapon" He informed, "For some reason the D.A. won't move forward with the arrest until he find the knife she used" He said in a rather slow tone.
"well find it, the Family's close to the Mayor and I'm catching some heat from the higher-ups, I'm going to ask you again. Do you need any recourses or personal?" Her father asked him he shook his head and said "no sir, I've got it". Something tells Meghan he does not have this.
The detectives eventually began to go back to their desks. The Captian showed Meghan her desk before entering his office. She sat down and began playing with her jewellery as she had nothing else to do. Not even 10 minutes later a women stood in front of her desk. "hey, I'm Gina" she said as she leaned on her desk. "Meghan" Meghan replied, she really wasn't prepared for conversation and had no idea what to say.
After chatting for a couple of minutes of talking Gina was called into the Captian's office. She came back out and dropped a stack of folders of Meghan's desk. "here you go" she said in a sarcastic voice before walking off. Meghan sighed and decided it was probably best to begin some of her paperwork, she knew if she didn't she would get behind.
She began her paperwork, filling in the necessary boxes and lines and trying her best not to fall asleep. Halfway through her first file she felt a pair of eyes burning through her skull. She tried her best to ignore it and convinced herself she was being paranoid but eventually she glanced up. She locked eyes with Jake from across the room and chuckled when he panicked and pretended to drop his pencil
Jake glanced over his computer to look at the Brunet- Meghan. He found himself staring at her for longer than he should. He was admiring her long dark hair falling off her shoulder when she suddenly looked up. Jake panicked and pretended to drop his pencil, as he went under his desk to retrieve it he scolded himself for being so awkward then returned to his paperwork like nothing happened.
After Meghan had made a generous dent in the first file she felt another person walk up to her. She looked up to meet a younger woman with her hair slicked back into a bun wearing a grey blazar. "hello, I'm Amy Santiago" she introduced herself excitedly while extending her hand for Meghan to shake. She introduced herself and began to have a conversation with Amy.
"oh look, Amy Santiago sucking up to the Captains daughter" Gina interrupted as she came out of nowhere and leant against the desk. "Gina!" she scolded her. "you see, Amy here likes to imagine herself as Holt's daughter" Gina said with a slight chuckle at Amy's reaction. "that's not true, I just greatly admire him!" she says with a sigh as she tries her best to explain herself.
Meghan smiled and spoke. "well if it means anything, he talks about you a lot". "he does?" Amy replied in an excited tone which she soon turned into a relaxed expression. "I mean, that's cool.. cool" she said awkwardly. Gina rolled her eyes and strolled off again, Amy soon followed her lead and went back to her own desk.
The rest of the morning was quiet and uneventful. That was until a taller man with messy hair and sunglasses rudely and very loudly made his appearance known in the precinct. She watched as a lot of the other detectives slouched back in their chairs and groaned. She sat at her desk and watched as the mad made his way over to Jake's desk and began to shine his boots with his leg up on his desk.
She decided she needed to know what was happening so she walked over to Rosa's desk. She is utterly terrified of Rosa but she needs some insight. "who's that?" Meghan said walking over to Rosa who was watching him with a very angry face. "The vulture" she replies quickly. Meghan looks at her with a i-need-more-information face. Rosa sighed and turned her attention to Meghan. "we call him the vulture because he swoops in and solves all our cases that are practically solved" She informed the assistant who still seemed to be very confused at the situation but nodded In response.
She began to walk back to her desk when she noticed 'the vulture' had spotted her. He stomped his boot off Jakes desk and made his way over to her. "whoa, we got a new one huh?" he said with a whistle which made Meghan basically cringe. "what's your name sweetheart?" he said swinging an arm around her shoulder.
Jake watched in disgust as the vulture swung his arm around Meghan's shoulder. He wanted to kill him, yet he found himself frozen. "get your arm off me" Meghan said in the politest tone she could possible muster. He laughed and began to talk to her again. "please" she asked again, when he didn't move his arm she smirked and grabbed his hand pulling it behind his back. He winced as she pressed harder against his fingers, threatening to break them. Jake watched in amazement as she pinned his arm behind his back. He found her extremely attractive at that moment and couldn't help but smile at her.
"okay damn, let me go" he said in defence. At this moment Holt had came out of his office and called the vulture and Jake in with him. Meghan sat back at her desk, everyone else went back with their work.
Jake followed the vulture into the Captains office. After not even a minute he walked out and practically slammed the door behind him which made Meghan jump slightly. "he took the case didn't he?" Rosa asked as the very angry Jake walked back to his desk. He nodded before folding his arms on the desk and resting his head on his arms like a child.
After the whole Vulture incident, the day began to take a turn for the worst. The others were more grumpy and barely spoke to each other. Meghan was still firing through her paperwork, having finished 2 files already.
The day came to an end and she was about to pack up when Amy walked over to her again. "hey, the others and I were about to head to this bar we always go to, would you be interested?" she asked, her voice was sceptical which surprised Meghan as she was so confident in their earlier conversation. "sure, I'll need a ride though I came here with dad" She replied with a smile, she grabbed her things and informed her father of her plans before heading walking with the others to the elevator.
The six of them piled into the elevator and stood in silence as it went down to the ground floor. Everyone parted ways and Amy and Meghan walked to Amy's car. The ride to the bar wasn't as awkward as Meghan thought, she learnt a lot about Amy in the short space of the drive.
The two Women made their way inside the bar. It was nearly as crowded as she had originally thought, it was simply a bar with a couple of people drinking and playing darts. They made their way through the line of people waiting for their drinks and sat down with the rest of the squad who were all huddled in the corner.
Everyone ordered cheap drinks and drunk in silence until it was interrupted by Jakes voice. "god!" he shouts randomly, making Meghan flinch again. "I hate the vulture so much.
"me too" Agreed Rosa bringing the bottle to her lips. "but he's kind of hot" she said before taking a sip. Everyone looked up at her with confusion, "what, you can hate people and still think their hot" Rosa defended. "case in point Manuel Noriega"
"you know what" Jake said drawing the attention from Rosa to himself. "I agree with you on this one, Tanya harding". Rosa smiled and said "yeah she's thick" with a chuckle as she took another sip from her beer. "you guys are weird" Meghan said with a chuckle as she shook her head. Jake looked at her and scoffed while he put his hand over his heart to pretend he was hurt by her comment.
"sorry you got Vultured Jake, it happens to the best of us" Rosa said in a sympathetic tone. Jake slumped in his chair in response and sighed for the thousandth time today.
"wait, how often does this happen?" Meghan asked leaning towards the table to catch everyone's attention. "literally all of the time" Jake replied playing with the label on his beer bottle.
"I wish I could throw his phone in the toilet or slash his tires, I don't know" he shouted slightly as the annoyance got to his voice. "that's your plan?" Meghan scoffed with a chuckle.
Jake looked at her with a confused look on his face before continuing. "think of something better, something that he will never forget". "like what?" Jake asked in an exhausted tone. "let a snake loose in his apartment and let it kill him" she said with a chuckle as the others laughed along at her comment.
"That's it, I'm buying everyone drinks and we are coming up with a plan!" Jake said as he got up to order more drinks. Before Meghan knew it, they were crowded over Jake who was writing ideas on a napkin.
"what if you called from a hospital and said his whole family Is dead?" Charles suggested with confidence "like they died of cancer" He added with a smile. The rest of us look over at him with our brows furrowed until Jake continues. "Charles that is so dark" He says, then picks up a pen. "I'm writing it down" he says as he begins to write.
"what if we wrap his motorcycle with plastic wrap and melt it with a hairdryer?" Suggests Charles once again. "little trick I learnt in gift basket making class!" he said in a chill tone as he spun in his chair.
"okay, here's what we have so far" He said putting the pen on the table. "steal his kidney, burn down his house, replace his aloe tissues with regular tissues- thank you Charles" he says pointing to Charles who is sitting in his chair with a smug smile.
"leave a dead cat in his cedar closet, note, he would have to own a cedar closet" Jake adds, as he continued reading what he wrote on the napkin. "he seems like he would" Rosa replies with a smirk that leaves everyone confused.
"sneak into his apartment and burn popcorn in the microwave, thank you again Charles" Jake said. "um, skully asked for mashed potatoes so I wrote that down" He said with a sigh as he crossed that off his list,
He scans over it again before dropping it on the table. "well, I hate to say it but I think by default charles's motorcycle idea is the winner" he says with an excited tone.
"alright, lets go get the vulture back" Jake said taking one last sip of his beer before slamming cash on the table and walking out with the rest of the group following behind us.
The walk to the vultures place wasn't too far which was lucky for Meghan because her heels were about to be the death of her. The squad walked in silence until they arrived at the motor bike. Jake and Charles began to wrap the vultures motorcycle with plastic wrap while Rosa, Amy, terry and Meghan stood back and watched. "If we get caught, I say you and I run for it" Meghan says to Amy as they both lean against the dirty brick wall.
"alright, now one of you hand me a hair dryer" Jake said to Amy and Meghan who looked at him as if he was crazy. "excuse me?" Meghan said in a very confused tone, at first, she wasn't sure if she heard him right but Amy seemed to be as confused as her. "don't you carry one in your purse?" He asked pointing to the both of them. Meghan and Amy both shook their heads and laughed. "have you ever met a human woman?" Amy asked Jake who laughed awkwardly before skully chimed in.
"there's a drug store four blocks away, I'm on it" He said and began to walk down to the end of the alley way. "oh great" Jake began with a sigh, "Skully traveling four blocks? That could take weeks!". Meghan turned her attention back to Skully who was at the end of the alley way with his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath.
Jake sighs and pulls out his phone from his jeans pocket and began dialling a number. He put it on speaker and stood around the others so they could hear. After about three rings Gina answered the phone.
"Gina's authentic stolen police badge, how can I help?" she said which made Meghan smile. "Hey do you carry a hairdryer in your purse?" He asked her, Meghan and Amy were still utterly shocked he still had hopes for a hairdryer. "of course, I'm not an animal" She replied which made Jake look at the girls with a look of triumph. "okay great, I need you to bring it to the vultures place" he instructed. "there's someone named the vulture? Tell Rosa she'd be into that" Gina said which made Rosa chuckle.
Their plan had seemingly finally come together, that was until Meghan heard a voice she certainly hadn't expected. "peralta? Why are you asking Gina about detective Pembrooke?" her father asked on the phone. Meghan stood up straight like her father could see her and tried to be as silent as possible.
Jake stuttered before answering. "Captain, hello. Uh we were just preparing a gift basket of sorts" He said scratching the back of his head. Meghan shook her head and tried to tell Jake to hang up, unfortunately for her, her father could hear her.
"peralta, is that my daughter?" he asked which made everyone look at her. She pinched the bridge of her nose and whimpered as she knew the trouble she was about to get in. At this moment, Meghan wanted nothing more than to throw herself into traffic.
"peralta" her father yelled snapping Meghan out of her thoughts. "please hand Meghan the phone" he instructed. Meghan's eyes widened as Jake handed her the phone with an "I'm sorry" look on his face. Meghan took the phone and took it off speaker so no one would hear her father scold her like a child. She braced herself for the yelling but to her surprise her father was relatively calm.
Jake watched in horror as Meghan spoke to her father, he felt horrible for dragging her into this mess and was prepared to take full responsibility. Meghan took the phone off speaker no one could hear, the only bits of the conversation they could hear were Meghan's occasional "yeah" or "I'm sorry". After an agonising minute and a half Meghan hung up and sighed and gave the phone back to Jake. "so, are we fired?" Rosa asked in a chill tone, much too chill for this situation.
"no, I managed to get my father to believe we were still at the Bar" She replied, her voice still shaky from her Fathers phone call. She looked at Jake who was smiling like an idiot. "why is he- why is Jake smiling?" Amy asked looking at Jake for a clue as to why he could be smiling. "because, were gonna solve the case" He said with a smile as he ran off towards a bus. The others shook their heads and ran after him, completely forgetting about Skully who was still traveling those four blocks for the hair dryer.
The group drunkenly piled into the bus and sat down at the back. Meghan sat on a seat alone gazing out the window trapped in her thoughts until Jake sat next to her. "so" he said scooting himself as close to Meghan as he could without it being weird. "the waitress heard the couple arguing over dinner. Apparently, he was having an affair and it was not the first time" He yelled explaining the case. "two years ago she caught him with their dog walker, she was 'walking his dog' if you know what I mean" He said and burst out laughing at his own joke. "i do" Meghan replied with a smile. "sexy times" He replied just making it clear for everyone.
The bus eventually came to a stop outside the apartment of the crime scene. Meghan threw an arm around Jakes waist to stop him from falling over. Jake swung his free arm around her shoulder which he certainly didn't mind, he liked being up close with her and feeling the warmth of her body against him.
The group walked inside and took an elevator to the apartment of the murder. Once inside Meghan carefully sat Jake down on a chair and they began to go over the case again. " okay, here's how it all went down. Wife goes down to the doorman, says a guy murdered her husband than ran off". "do we know she's lying?" Meghan asked as she leant up against the kitchen counter. "oh yea, we just have to find the murder weapon" Jake replied in a confident tone.
Meghan began to look around the apartment. There were paintings everywhere, some photographs of the couple and some family and friends. The apartment was immaculate, very organised and very clean. "I say we role play" Suggests Jake, "to see if anyone comes up". No one agreed with the idea at first which made Jake lose all confidence in the idea. "it's actually not a bad plan" Meghan chimed in giving Jake a reassuring look. Jake smiled at her, he was grateful at least someone like his plan. Even if she didn't really like it, he was grateful she would pretend to just to lift his spirits.
The group began to role play how they think the murder went down. Terry, Hitchcock and Meghan stood back and watched the groups terrible acting. Of course, Charles took the acting way too seriously which made Jake uncomfortable and he was sent to act as the door. Meghan noticed they were all beginning to think too much like the murderer and not the victim, she learnt in law school that most murderers were men which meant women didn't have a lot of experience.
Meghan took her glance over to the refrigerator and began looking at the photos that were on the door. There were wedding pictures, holiday pictures, some pictures of the couple and a dog on the beach. Meghan froze when she looked down and saw a magnetic corkscrew on the refrigerator. She began to think to herself, could the murder weapon be a corkscrew? Nothing in the report said it was defiantly a knife, everyone just assumed.
"what if' Meghan spoke up causing the group to stop their acting and look at her. "what if the murder weapon was something spiral, like a corkscrew" she suggested pointing to the corkscrew on the door. Jake looked at her with wide eyes and smiled. "the corkscrew wasn't on the counter or in a drawer, it was a magnetic one on the fridge" Amy chimed in with a sigh of relief. "if the corkscrew was magnetic-" Meghan began to say but was interrupted by Jake once again. "Its stuck halfway down the trash chute" He snapped his fingers and began running to the chute outside the door. "I figured it out first, HA" He yelled as he went outside the apartment, Meghan shook her head and followed the others outside.
The group all circled around the trash chute. Meghan was surprised to see Amy pull a huge flashlight out of her purse. :you have a ten pound flashlight in your purse but not a hairdryer?" Jake asked as she shone it down the chute. "I can't see far enough down" She said angrily as she leaned back up. "Someone's going to have to go down there" Jake said "someone with narrow shoulders" he said. The whole group turned to look at Meghan, she shook her head and laughed. "ohh no, theres no way in hell I'm going down there, I don't do tight spaces, ill have a panic attack or something" She said, the panic attack part wasn't exactly true but they didn't need to know that.
Everyone turned their Gaze to Charles. "No!" Charles protested. "I have broad shoulders, narrow hips, but broad shoulders" He tried to convince us. Meghan looked him up and down and shook her head. "Sorry Charles, I don't see it". Charles sighed and walked over to the chute where Amy and Jake lowered him down by his ankles. "see anything?" Jake yells to Charles who shed first in a trash chute. "a little lower" he yells back up, his voice echoing through the trash chute.
"FREEZE!" A voice was heard from behind them. Everyone turned around to see a couple of police pointing their guns at them. Jake and Amy's first instinct was to put their hands up which unfortunately for Charles, sent him dropping down the chute. "were cops!" Jake said pulling his badge out from his pocket. The police lowered their guns and looked at eachother, It was in this moment, Meghan feared for her life more than she ever has.
Meghan and the others watched as the vulture yells at her father through his office window. Her dad remained calm, too calm for Meghan's liking. She was fully prepared to be murdered in her sleep later on.
Luckily, no one was arrested. The police officers drove everyone back to the precinct where Major Crimes had been called in, of course, the Vulture was sent. "what now?" Amy asked Meghan with a terrified look on her face. "holt is going to kill you!", Meghan sighed and nodded as she couldn't argue with the facts. "I don't think he will" Charles says with a smile on his face, "because Viola".
Charles whips out the corkscrew from behind his back. Meghan, along with the others stare in complete shock at the evidence bag, tightly sealed with the evidence inside. "you found it?, how?" Amy asked reaching for the bag. "you guys, we out vulture the vulture!" Amy yells before handing the bag back to Charles and suddenly begins flapping her arms around and screeching like a crazy person. Meghan too a step away as Amy almost hit her in the face, she was ready to call the white truck or something. "what on earth are you doing?" Jake asked Amy who stopped dancing and stood in the room silently. "what? , it's a vulture" she states with a sad look on her face, Meghan gave her a sympathy pat on the back before walking back to her desk and plopping herself down.
Jake took the bag of evidence inside the Captains office leaving the others standing around miserably waiting for their punishment. About 5 minutes later the Vulture walks out of the office with a cocky smile on his face. "stay foxy ladies" he says with a wink as he passed the girls.
"well, case close. Good work everyone!" Jake says clapping his hands together, emerging from the captains office. "let's, uh call it a night without any further discussion" He said while trying to scramble his way out of the precinct as fast as he could. "no" Says her father, quickly stopping Jake from trying to flee the scene. "all of you broke into a crime scene, under the influence of Alcohol, overstepped your jurisdiction and disobeyed my direct orders!" "everyone involved tonight will be written up" He says.
Meghan sighs and sits back down at her desk. "okay fine" Jake says with a sigh. "here's everyone who was there. Jake Peralta, J Peralta, Dr Jacob Peralta, who has a PHD in slow-jam from Funktown State University, also involved was the right honourable J-"
"okay enough!" The captain interrupts. "my point is it was a Peralta special sir, no one else was there" he said with confidence, Meghan looked at him with complete shock and smiled as he had just attempted to save their asses. "well detective, I'm happy to see you're learning how to be a part of a team" Her dad said, A proud grin on his face. "everybody go home, sleep it off".
The rest of the team nodded and headed for their desks where they grabbed their things. They all said goodbye to Meghan and made their way to the elevator. "hey" Meghan said running over to Jake, "that was really cool, what you did" she said awkwardly playing with her jewellery once again. Jake smiled and went to argue but he was interrupted by Meghan embracing him in a friendly hug. At this moment, he found himself loving her touch. He slightly sniffed her hair and let the smell of Vanilla take over his body. She pulled away and smiled before walking back to her desk. Jake walked to the elevator and watched her until the very moment the elevator doors closed. He sniffed the collar of his shirt and realised it smelt like Vanilla, he sighed and drove home.
After waiting around for her father, the two drove home in complete silence, neither daring to talk about the day. Once Meghan was home she greeted her father and their dog before walking up to her room and falling onto her bed. She stared at the ceiling and smiled at the adventure the squad had taken her on, the first day of her working there. Something in her heart knew they would be the best people she had ever met