Chapter Forty-Three: Sabotage

Monday

"Morning" Jake whispered to Rosa as he got up

"You're up early" She said, as she started her yoga. Watching Jake dress.

"I know, I know. I have a case at home, but I think I left a file at my place so I need to go and get it before work" He said, pulling on his shoes

"Alright. See you later" She said as he walked up to her and gave her a kiss, before driving away.

Rosa waited but by 8am he hadn't shown up at work. She decided to ring him

"Hello?" He answered

"Hey. Where are you?" She asked

"The powers out in my apartment" He said

"What?" She asked

"My power's out. Nothings working. My refrigerator is warm, my lights don't work" He complained

"Did you pay your bill?" She asked

"Of course I did, remember, how we were talking about how little it was as I barely live there anymore?" He asked

"Oh yeah" Rosa remembered.

"Anyway. I'm just sorting out the food. I'll be there soon" He said

"Alright" She replied hanging up.

She sat in the briefing as Jake walked in late, apologising and making some excuse about his alarm not going off.

Tuesday

"Up early, again?" She asked

"Well the electrician came out last night after work, I want to go and see if it's any better or whether there's a fault" Jake said

"Let me know" She said. He smiled and leant in

"Of course" He promised.

Again, Rosa arrived at work, and found no sign of Jake. Until her phone started ringing

"You'll never believe it" He said

"Your powers off again" She commented

"What? No. I have no hot water" He said

"Did you pay your gas bill?" She asked

"Yeah" Jake said.

In the meeting, Jake walked in again

"Sorry I'm late Sarge, no hot water this morning" Jake said "But I'm here, ready to go, and will cause no further distractions" Jake promised

After work, Jake went to the Laundrette to clean some of his clothes, and he met Rosa outside

"What is happening to you?" She asked

"Bad luck I guess" He said

"Well. Did you call the gas people?" She asked

"Yeah. They said that they'll send an engineer out tomorrow" He said

"That's good. Hey you want to shower at mine?" She asked "We can shower together" She whispered seductively to him

"Yes please" Jake said and they ran back to hers.

Jake and Rosa lost track of time, and completely forgot about the laundry.

Wednesday

Jake awoke with a start

"What?" Rosa asked, waving up just as quickly, and pulling a knife from under her pillow

"I never got my laundry" Jake said. Rosa fell back into the bed. Sighing

"Jake, its 4am. The place doesn't open until 7am" She said

"Alright" Jake said as he curled up in bed again. They both got up at 7am.

"I can't believe I'm asking this, but I can't fathom to put on those clothes again. Have you got something I can borrow, just until I get my clothes back?" He asked. She offered a pair of loose-fitting pants and a stripy top.

"Thanks" Jake said dressing and walking down to the laundrette. At 7:40 he still had not come back so Rosa went off to work. As expected, at their morning briefing, Jake walked in, apologising to Sarge, still wearing her clothes.

"Seriously? What is your excuse today?!" Sarge shouted

"More bad luck. My car ran out of gas and then my clothes disappeared from the Laundromat. I had to beg one of my neighbours to loan me some of his" Jake said

"You never told us Sinbad lives in your building" Rosa said with a smirk

"If Sinbad lived in my building, I would have a tattoo on my forehead that says. Sinbad lives in my building" Jake said sitting down and continuing with the briefing.

That evening, Jake went back to the Laundromat, with Rosa with intentions of asking for CCTV footage, to see what happened with his clothes. Until they found all of his clothes in the machines

"Are you sure you looked here?" Rosa asked

"100%, they were not here yesterday" He said

"Ok" She said as they took the clothes back to hers.

Thursday

Jake arrived at work, with Rosa at 7:30. Amazed to see Holt already there.

"I'm here, I'm here, I'm here. And I'm a half an hour early. That's right. My string of bad luck has finally come to an end" Jake said as he walked in to the briefing room.

"Peralta, you failed your drugs test. They found traces of cocaine and methamphetamines in your urine" Holt said

"WHAT!" Jake called. As he walked back into the bullpen. Holt followed out a second later and walked straight into his office. He hung up his jacket then walked out.

"Captain, this is insane. I don't do drugs" Jake said before going to blame his loose teeth on dental neglect, not drugs, before Charles and Amy chimed in with their own argument on tests.

"Sir, Listen. The missing laundry, the hot water, the power, the gas. Now this? This is not bad luck, it's a pattern. I think someone's trying to sabotage me" He said

"And who would want to do that?" Holt asked

"Probably someone I put away, it's the only explanation" Jake said

"Or you didn't pay your bills and you only put a quarter gallon of gas in your tank, because you wanted to spend the rest on mini-mart Beef Jerky" Rosa said. Jake looked at her, He was confused. He thought of all people she would be on his side, supporting him. But Rosa had a different motive. She knew that Holt would assign someone on his case. She knew that Holt would like that person to be objective. She knew that his bill paying would be up for show, and she knew that as he hadn't lived in his apartment for... Months! That it would be questioned. If she gave the objective view, Holt would assign her, and she could deal with the financial side, without anyone else finding out.

"Wrong. I buy my Jerky online, from the world's top jerk masters, so it looks like you need to update your Jerk rolodex which is not as dirty as it sounds" He said staring at her as he spoke "Anyway, I can prove that I filed up my tank alright?" Jake said "I even have a receipt, because, I keep all my receipts like a mature adult" he said, filing through the ones for laser tag which was for him and Rosa. The wheelie shoes and the monster truck were for him.

"AHA!" He said victoriously as he pulled out the receipt. "Gas station. Someone drained my tank" Jake declared

"Ok. I know that you don't do drugs, so maybe there is something to what you're saying. I'll talk to One Police Plaza and arrange an appear. I'll also put someone on this sabotage theory and get someone on it" Charles jumped on the case instantly, much to Rosa's enjoyment, Holt quickly put her and Santiago on the case.

Jake then made a big scene about having to turn in his badge and gun. Rosa and Amy went to the interrogation room, whilst Jake went home, returning that afternoon in a different hoodie, and walking in to the interrogation room where they were working.

"You changed" Rosa said

"I had a hot dog for lunch and spilt mustard down myself" He said, as he started emptying out the boxes, of files

"This is everyone I could think of who would want to mess with my life. Perps, people I've testified against. The old guy who lived underneath me when I was learning the Gangam style dance"

"Wow you've pissed off a lot of people" Rosa said

"Well. That's what happens when you live out loud, Rosa" He said

"We need to look into the power outage and hot water. Do you have prof you pay your bills?" Amy asked. It must not have reasoned with Jake before now, but somehow it clicked as he realised that they would be up for scrutiny, and his deal with Rosa may be up for public display. That was when he got defensive.

"Are you serious? Guys this is not my fault" He said before going on to be non sexist about his views on who the monster could be

"Super progressive attitude, Jake" Rosa said in a calming tone, which made Jake realise that she had a plan.

"Look, we are on your side, but you're not the most responsible person we have to do our jobs" She said. Giving Jake that look that screamed 'Trust me'

"Alright. Fine. You can see my bank records" he said confirming that he always paid his power bill. Before trying to distract them with the urine sample.

"Jake, your suspended" Rosa reminded him "Just go home, have a beer and smash something. That's what I'd do" She said.

Jake eventually left, and Rosa turned to Amy.

"I'll check out the bills, do you want to start looking into perps, and see if any recently got out?" Rosa asked Amy

"Sure" She said. They got on. Rosa checked out his bills and could confirm that he had paid. "I can't believe I'm saying it, but he has paid his balls. And after some emails with the suppliers, they can confirm that Jake did not have his power cut off. Or at least not by them" Rosa said

"Alright, well I can't see any perps recently released" Amy said

"Guess it's to the blood and urine lab" Rosa said

They were surprised to see Jake waiting outside for them, getting angry with him for not leaving. Jake was so interested in staying because he knew he would have to think of some excuse once they found his bills.

After an uneventful trip to the blood and urine lab, they confirmed that the sample provided by Jake was laced with drugs, however they didn't have the CCTV footage on hand. They gave a contact number, and got back into the car. Rosa fought it off for as long as she could, but eventually had to make a comment about Amy's driving, Rosa then suggested talking to Jake's super to see if there was a power outage.

"WHAT?" Came a cry from behind her, and she turned round, punching whoever she saw, before she realised it was Jake.

"Oh! Why would you do that? I just broke into your car and popped up without warning" Jake said "Not cool" He said, once more about the waste of time investigating him. Rosa was worried that it was starting to show like he had something to hide.

"We just have to rule out other possibilities first. You know, there is a real chance that no one is after you" Rosa said. Jake could take the hint and left, making a big scene of leaving.

Rosa and Amy had been looking for a few hours

"Wow, I didn't think he actually meant that he would leave us alone" Amy said

Rosa, who had been increasingly worried about Jake, flicked through the selfies that he had sent her.

"Amy, look at this" She said

"What?" Amy asked

"In the back ground of this picture, this one and this one, is an ice cream truck. Same plates, which means" Rosa said

"It was following one of us" She finished

"Jake!" Rosa said concerned.

"I'm putting out an APB on the plates" Amy said Rosa, decided to take drastic measures. She opened up her laptop and logged in to the Portal, and tracked his phone. She found him not 5 feet from where they left him.

"Look at that" She said showing Amy

"On it!" She said, and they drove back, blue lights and sirens. They turned off sirens and light in a silent approach and stopped 10 foot from the truck.

"Ready?" Rosa asked. They both drew their guns. Rosa walked to the window, and in her cheery voice, she called "You open?"

Hoytsman panicked, and gaged Jake again, who was filled with relief. He knew Rosa's voice anywhere, no matter how much she masked it.

"Hello" He greeted as Rosa pulled him from the window, pinned him to the floor and handcuffed him

"Geoffrey Hoytsman, you're under arrest" Amy said as she later read him his rights. Rosa went to the back of the truck, and released Jake, as Hoytsman tried to fight off Amy. They quickly stopped as Rosa was much more able to restrain him.

"Oh, I am so relieved you guys found me. Wait, how did you guys find me?" He asked

"You hadn't done anything super annoying to us for like five hours, so we knew something was wrong" She said

"Oh. That's very insulting, but dead on" Jake agreed. Before Amy went on to explain the selfies

"I'm sorry we doubted anybody was sabotaging you" She said

"No. I'm the one who should apologise. For some reason I have trouble believing people actually have my back, and I don't know why" Jake said before going on to talk about his dad.

"I'm sorry I was acting like a jackass" He said. They all joked about him being on drugs.

All three went back to the Precinct. Rosa went to show their findings to Holt, whilst Amy took Jake's statement, and soon after they all managed to go home.

"Why did you get so inset in the whole not investigating you case?" She asked

"What would I have said if Amy questioned my bills for example?" Jake said

"I don't know. Could always tell her the truth" Rosa said. Jake laughed lightly.

"Thank you for sorting it" He said leaning in and giving her cheek a kiss.

"Anytime" she replied

"Want to do something tonight?" He asked

"Like what?" She asked

"Laser tag?" He asked. She laughed and got up, as they walked out to play,

-The Next Day-

Holt allowed Jake to make a big thing about being un-suspended, and Jake was welcomed back from suspension for the third in a year.