Godparents

Rosa was the scariest person her friends knew and she liked that. She like to be tough and scary. But even she had a soft spot for her friends, especially Jake and Amy. Jake and Amy now had a six-month old son, Mac and she cared about him. But right now, at this moment, she was scared of nothing more than the baby sleeping on her couch.

Flashback:

'We really appreciate you looking after Mac, Rosa,' Jake said.

'Uh…no problem?' was all Rosa could say.

'Look, there is a binder in this bag but if you have your own ways of taking care of babies, we have no problem. We want Mac to know all the different ways his aunts and uncles,' said Amy.

Rosa had never taken care of a baby before. She wanted to help her friends but she knew she was going to be uncomfortable with a baby around. She knew she had to say something. 'Amy, I don't know,' she blurted out.

'Oh, that's okay,' Amy reassured her friend, 'You can just follow the binder.'

'No,' said Rosa as she sighed, 'I mean I don't know if I can do this – take care of the baby.'

'Oh,' said Amy, disappointment in her eyes, 'You know what? Not a problem. We can plan this for another day. Right, Jake?'

'Yeah, sure,' reaffirmed Jake. 'Sorry to bother you. We'll see you at work tomorrow. Bye,' he told Rosa as the family of three started leaving Rosa's apartment.

Rosa knew she had disrupted her plans and she felt guilty about that. She wanted to make it right. 'Wait!' she called out, 'I'll look after Mac.' But she knew she couldn't handle this baby by herself, she needed help.

Present Time:

Charles was driving back home, listening to ABBA's greatest hits and singing along. He got a call, which he saw was Rosa.

'Hey, Rosa! What's up?' answered Charles in his usually cheery mood.

'Charles, I need your help,' mumbled Rosa.

'What's the matter? Are you in danger?' asked Charles, his voice indicating his concern.

'What? No, man. Look, Jake and Amy are out and I need to - '

Rosa paused abruptly. She just realized that Charles also had a family and she couldn't just ask him to come over and help her. 'You know what? Never mind,' she said.

'Rosa, whatever it is, I'm coming over.'

'What? No, dude, I –'

But it was too late. Charles had already hung up. The next thing Rosa knew was Charles being in her apartment, fawning over the sleeping baby.

'Oh, my God, Rosa! He's so cute when sleeping!' he whispered excitedly.

'Hey! Stop that!' she demanded of him. 'I just need your help until Jake and Amy come back. You think you can handle not being a fan girl of Mac till then?'

'Umm… I'll try. Just one question though.'

'Shoot.'

'Why'd you offer to look after Mac if you're so nervous?'

'Because,' she said slowly, 'they're my friends and I need to help them.'

After about ten minutes, Mac woke up and, just like most babies, started crying.

'Oh, my God! Charles, what do we do?' Rosa panicked and asked her friend.

'Hey, don't worry,' he told her. 'I'll bounce him around and calm him down, you open the applesauce,' Charles said as he picked up Mac and took him to the other room.

Rosa composed herself as she took out the applesauce from the bag Jake and Amy had handed to her. She tried opening it nut but, for some reason, she was having trouble with the tab. Ultimately, she applied too much force and the applesauce splattered all over her couch. She groaned to herself.

Charles brought Mac back and sat him on his lap as Rosa fed the boy froma new bowl of applesauce. Rosa kept on trying to understand why Charles was there and not with his family. She knew how much he loved Jake and Amy's relationship but surely he couldn't abandon his family. 'Hey, Boyle?' asked Rosa.

'Yeah?' he said looking up at her.

'Why are you here?'

'You asked me to come.'

'No, I mean, you've got Nikolaj and Genevieve at home. Shouldn't you be with them?'

'Normally, yeah. But Niko and Genevieve are out of town,' he answered. Rosa thought he would've talked about him third-wheeling with Jake and Amy or something like that. 'Also, I want to be this guy's godfather so bad,' he said after sometime and Rosa couldn't help but think how predictable he was.

After feeding Mac, the three of them played together. Rosa looked at how much the baby looked like both her parents. She kept thinking how Jake and Amy also had a child now. She realized that everyone at the Nine-Nine had a child. Holt had Cheddar, Terry had Cagney, Lacey and Ava, Charles had Nikolaj, and Jake and Amy now had Mac. She was the only one yet to have a child. Heck, she didn't even have a partner. Screw that, even her relationship with her parents hadn't been the same ever since she came out. Every time the baby in the room laughed, she couldn't help but think how wonderful babies were and how she (maybe) wanted one. Just then, Jake and Amy entered the apartment.

'Hey, we're back,' Jake said.

'Oh, hey, guys,' Rosa said as she and Charles got up while carrying Mac.

'How was your night?' Charles asked.

'Oh, it was wonderful,' replied Amy. 'But I did miss this guy. Hi, baby!' she said as she took Mac from Rosa.

'Geez! How was your night?' asked Jake after seeing the applesauce all over her couch.

'Oh, it was fine,' replied Rosa.

'Are you sure? How much applesauce did you get on your couch?' he asked as he lifted the cushions to see even more applesauce.

'That was the only difficult part, really,' she answered. 'Besides,' she said as she turned to Charles, 'Charles was there to guide me.' Charles smiled at her.

After Jake, Amy and Mac left, it was just Rosa and Charles. 'Hey, look,' Rosa said, 'I know you're tired and all but do you think you can help me clean up?'

'Oh, sure,' he replied. 'You do the dishes and I'll clean your couch,' he suggested.

'Deal,' said Rosa.

As Rosa was just finishing up doing the dishes, Charles entered the kitchen. 'Hey, Rosa?' he called her.

'Hey, man, if you've done with the couch, thanks, you can go home,' she said without turning back.

'Yeah, I've pretty much cleaned it but why was there an envelope under the cushions?'

'What?' she asked as she turned around, 'I don't get any letters or mail.'

'I don't know, I found this when cleaning the couch,' Charles said as he waved a white envelope in front of her.

Rosa snatched the envelope. It was blank. She opened it to see a folded sheet of paper. She took the letter out and read what was written outside. 'From Jake and Amy,' she read out aloud. The two detectives shared a look. Rosa tried to think how the envelope ended up in her couch as she unfolded the letter and gave the envelope back to Charles. She recalled Jake lifting up the cushions off the couch. Surely he must have put the letter there at the time.

'Dear Rosa,' she read out, 'we hope you enjoyed having Mac over today. We know that you've not really had experience with handling children but we appreciate you looking after Mac to give us some time to ourselves. You're such an important person in our lives. You're definitely one of our favorite people because you look after us, help us, and care about us. You're one of our best friends and we know that you'll definitely be Mac's favorite aunt when he grows up. However, we want you to be more than just his favorite aunt – we want you to be godmother as well and not just to Mac but also to any possible future children we have. If you look inside the envelope there is a document. If you choose to sign it, you will officially be our child(ren)'s godmother. We would be so happy to know that you'd be our child(ren)'s godmother but it is really your decision.'

'Rosa,' Charles said as he looked inside the envelope, 'there are two sheets of documents.'

'P.S.,' Rosa continued to read, 'We knew you'd call Charles to help you out with Mac. The other sheet is for him.'

No sooner had she finished reading the sentence, Charles hugged her tightly. This was typical of him. 'Oh, my God, Rosa!' he exclaimed, 'We're gonna be godparents to Mac and his possible siblings!'

Rosa couldn't help but smile. She didn't have kids of her own, or a partner, or even a smooth relationship with her family. She didn't even know if she'd have all that one day. But at that moment, she realized that the squad was her true family. She was going to be the godmother of the child (and possibly children) of two her favorite people in the world, two of her best friends, and it couldn't be any sweeter.