When Tomorrow Comes (We'll Start Our New Life)

The bed is huge. Bigger than the one they have at home, Amy notices, and not only because she doesn't have to share it with anyone tonight.

More than one time did she have to sleep in her own bed alone, during the past years, so she can tell the difference. And tonight is quite different indeed – tonight, she's sleeping alone in that hotel room in deep Staten Island for a good reason. Because tonight is her last night before Jake and her wedding.

Because tomorrow, when she'll go back to bed, she'll actually be married to her soulmate, the love of her life.

The very-soon-to-be Jake Peralta-Santiago.

Still though, right now Amy wishes those stupid traditions wouldn't exist, and that she'd be allowed to keep him by her side. They might have parted ways only a couple hours ago, she still misses him already, and the room's too quiet for her to properly fall asleep – she's become accustomed to his breathing next to her at night.

So much so that complete silence doesn't feel right anymore.

She sighs, about to give up on getting enough rest before the long day awaiting her, when her phone buzzes for a second on the bedside table. She frowns, a bit startled at first – she didn't expect anyone texting her this late. But soon, her frown turns into a smile when she reads the name that appeared on her screen.

Jake Peralta:

You asleep?

Amy straightens a bit against her pillow, making herself at ease before answering her fiancé.

Nope.

Can't sleep.

Her phone buzzes again just a few seconds later, lighting up the dark room with her screen switching on and showing her wallpaper – some silly selfie Jake and she took after they closed their last case together to immortalize it. She takes a moment to look at it, heart warming in her chest and her smile only growing wider.

(Boy, does she love that man.)

Me neither, the message writes. Nervous?

Excited, she corrects.

Me too.

Wanna come over? Amy starts texting back – after all, he's only staying one floor behind her – but she doesn't send it right away. She takes a pause, contemplating in hesitation what she just wrote, with her thumb hovering over the phone, ready to press the 'send' button.

She wants to be with him for sure but doesn't know if making him come over would be such a good idea. Not that she believes in said stupid traditions – she doesn't – but she knows how things will end up if they find themselves in the same bed tonight, and that's definitely not how she'll manage to get some rest before their big day either.

In the end, she chooses to send it anyway – because then again, she's not sleeping without him either.

Not only a second later does she receive his answer. I'm already here… And, just as she reads it, she hears a knock on her door that makes her look up from her phone. She's only startled for a second before she quickly gets up and opens her door, coming face-to-face with her grinning fiancé, whose features light up when their gaze finally meet.

A true beam spreads across her face too. "You were there the whole time?" she suspiciously asks, and he gives her a mysterious look.

"Maybe…"

Amy rolls her eyes, if only for the form, as her heart warms up in her chest. She takes a step closer to him and, when she's close enough, presses a soft kiss on his lips, that soon turns into something more passionate. Jake is the one to end it by reluctantly pulling away, an apologetic look in his eyes as he explains, "I can't stay long. Charles's going to kill me if he wakes up and I'm not in the room. He insisted we shared one so that this wouldn't happen."

He points to the both of them.

"Oh well," the woman chuckles before kissing him again, talking between two pecks on his lips. "We wouldn't want something to happen to you then… I wouldn't want to go down the aisle and have no one waiting for me there…" He laughs along with her, but despite her words, none of them actually stop and let go of the other.

On the contrary, even – with his hands wrapped around his fiancée's waist, Jake gently pushes her back into the room while holding her, leading her towards the bed, quickly giving up on the promise he made to himself when he left his own room earlier: that he would just kiss her goodnight and leave right away.

(He's a fool for thinking that would even have been a possibility.)

"Well, he doesn't have to know… He was snoring hard when I left him. I can sneak back in before he wakes up."

"That sounds like a great idea," Amy hums her agreement, taking him with her as she falls onto the huge mattress with a mischievous grin.

(Needless to say that later, once they're all curled up in bed and Amy's deep asleep against his side, holding onto him as if she's holding onto life itself, Jake doesn't have the heart to move and go away from her, and simply falls asleep with her too.)

(It's only in the morning that they open their eyes again, woken up by Charles shooting through the door. "Jake! I know you're in there!"

But, when the couple comes and opens to him hand-in-hand and glowing from happiness by just being together, his anger leaves his body immediately, and instead of yelling at his best friend again, he simply takes the two lovers into a tight embrace, a single tear running down his cheek.

"Guys, this is it. It's your wedding day," he sniffs between their arms, and they simply smile in return.

This is it indeed.)