Jake and Amy on their way to their honeymoon, another crazy day to add to the list. Post-5x22.
Nugget, if you see this: thank you so much for your kind review, it really means a lot you liked what you read! Hopefully you'll enjoy the next ones as well haha. And can't wait to hear what you thought of the rest, then :p
Honey, the Moon's Shining Bright for Us Tonight
"You're kidding me?!"
Amy lets out a frustrated sigh as she stands in front of one of the departures boards in JFK's airport, her suitcase in one hand and Jake's travel bag she's keeping with her while he's out somewhere in search of some snacks hanging on her other shoulder. She's waiting for the flight she's been staring at for the past five minutes to finally show her which gate she and her new husband are supposed to go to for the boarding when suddenly, on the line of the "Santa Barbara" name of destination, a new word, written in red, shining letters appears at the far right end:
Cancelled.
Just like that, their flight has been cancelled – what a way to start their honeymoon, she thinks in anger and desperation. This was supposed to be the beginning of a relaxing week with the man she loves, celebrating their recent union and now, it looks like just another source of stress for the sergeant.
Will they ever get some rest, sometime?!
"Hey, babe!" Jake appears by her side not long after, all dressed up in his vacation clothes already, with a pair of sunglasses put on top of his head and a broad smile lighting up his face – they're not there yet but in his mind, he's already on holidays, enjoying the beach and his wife for a whole seven days of just the two of them under the sun. He hands her one of the two chocolate bars he just bought; Amy barely looks at him when she takes it, her eyes still stuck on the board, piercing through it, as if she's hoping her intense glare will scare it and make it change its fate.
Needless to say, it doesn't.
"What's up?" her partner asks her then, his smile fading slightly and concern starting to build up in his core as he studies her and notices the frown between her brows. He can tell something's wrong but doesn't know what – she should be happy right now, only a few hours away from their dream destination.
(Well, not really their dream one, but still better than what they were about to settle for after he teared up his $10.000 cheque a few weeks back and they were left with no money to spare on a honeymoon anymore.)
She eventually turns around to face him, sighing again when she lets out, "They cancelled our flight." She points to the line of their destination, where the red cancelled is still very much there, and still very much shining, as if taunting her.
"That must be a mistake," is all Jake can let out first, gasping when his own eyes fixate on the word. "I'm sure there's some kind of explanation."
He's in complete denial – there's no way this can be true.
Trying to be reassuring as he sees how nervous the news makes her, he takes his wife's hand in his, squeezing lightly and gently making her move away from the departures board. He scans the place around them for a second, until his gaze spots someone who seems to work at the airport.
"Let's ask him," he nods in direction of the man, hoping he'll be able to give more information about their supposedly cancelled flight. "Hello, good sir!" he enthusiastically greets him with a large grin once the couple reaches his side. "Could you please reassure my wife and tell us our flight's not really cancelled?"
"Where are you going?" the other simply asks in return.
"Santa Barbara."
He makes them wait for a few seconds in heavy silence as he searches for something on his tablet computer.
"Oh no, I'm sorry, but it is cancelled indeed. There's a storm coming that prevents all planes to go west. I'm afraid you won't be able to leave before tomorrow morning at the very least…"
"What?!" both Jake and Amy exclaim in shock. They don't want to believe it.
"I'm sorry, that's the procedure."
The newlyweds leave him then after thanking him, though unable to hide their disappointment. They go find a seat on a chair now that they apparently have hours left before their flight, and, as soon as she's settled, the woman puts her head in her hands, feeling completely defeated.
"Why do these things keep happening to us? Are we that unlucky?" She asks in complaint when she looks up and finds Jake's gaze next to her, who's gently rubbing her thigh, tracing small patterns with his thumb over her jeans in an attempt to calm her down a little.
First, it was their wedding that went wrong – before turning into the best night of her life, she does have to admit that – and now, their honeymoon is already starting on an off start as well. She should have known the moment the wife of one of her brothers offered to help save it when they learned about the detective's moral action that put an end to their long-awaited Parisian vacation – "My aunt owns a little motel off the coast of Santa Barbara," she said, "I can have you a room for a good price there!" – and Jake father showed useful for once, using his job and relations to make them fly almost for free, that it couldn't have been that easy.
She should have known, that it wasn't her and her husband's style, to live a breezy existence – it's never been, from the beginning of their relationship.
(We've had a lot of crazy days.)
He offers her a loving smile in return.
"Hey." He moves his hand from her thigh to her back, pulling her closer to him in an embrace. "At least we found each other," he looks at her with a knowing, amused beam. "I think that's the most luck I ever had in my whole life," he confesses, making Amy let out a small chuckle.
"Don't try to be cute about this."
"I know you love it when I'm cute about things." His grin turns even bigger, teasing her more, making his wife roll her eyes and shake her head despite the laugh that escapes her throat no matter how hard she tries to keep it in.
In the end, she doesn't even try to argue with him.
"Yeah, you're right," she agrees to his words with a smile of her own, her bad mood completely forgotten now, thanks to him. "I do like it. And I'm the luckiest for having found you too," she adds, not bothering that she might sound corny – she does feel like the luckiest woman on earth, being married to him.
She leans over then, to meet her husband's lips in a quick, loving kiss.
"See? Everything's gonna be just fine," he tells her when they part, though still remain at a close distance from one another, staring into each other's eyes.
He takes a short pause before he goes on, amusement back on his eyes when he speaks again. "All that matters is that we're with the right people in such unpredictable moments, remember?" he quotes her words from a week prior she said during her wedding vows – words that have resonated in him ever since.
"And you, Jake Peralta, are the right person for me." Her heart warms up inside while she finishes his sentence and lets her hand rest on his chest.
He's right – together, they can handle anything.
"I can't believe we're spending the first night of our honeymoon at the airport."
It's been a few hours since Jake and Amy learned about their flight's cancellation and the night has just begun still. The woman's head is resting in the crook of her husband's neck, the couple trying (and failing at) finding a comfortable spot to sleep, and make the time go faster this way. There are water bottles and candy bars scattered all around them, courtesy of their flight's company to help calm all of the nervous, upset minds.
Suddenly, Amy draws herself away from her husband's body, giving up on getting some rest. Instead, she takes something out of the little suitcase she kept with her and puts it on her lap. By her side, the detective watches her do in silence, curious about what she's doing.
"We've missed on so much of our plans already." She sighs, pointing towards their honeymoon binder, opened at the 'Arrival Activities' page.
"Hey, that's okay." Jake tries to reassure her, offering a small, sleepy smile. "We'll still be able to do those tomorrow when we're finally there."
"And miss out on the 'Day 2' activities?! Better throw the whole binder away already then!"
She looks up at him with big, shocked eyes, and Jake knows he said something wrong – the exact opposite of the effect he expected with his words, obviously. He simply opens his arms then, silently inviting her to come into his embrace, and she gladly obliges. They remain like this, quiet and wrapped up in each other for a little while, the man gently stroking his wife's back and kissing her temple, feeling her ease against his side with each new second passing by in his warm arms, comforting him too in the meantime.
"Remember when the same thing happened to us on our flight back from L.A. and you single-handedly took care of bringing Holt home so that he could attend his meeting?" He eventually draws away slightly, so that he can see Amy's eyes, the memory of another cancelled flight a few months back suddenly hitting him. She watches him, and he can see her face soften at the thought, a smile brightening her features again.
"Yeah. That was pretty dope," she proudly answers with a nod as she remembers that day she saved by simply being herself after spending the past hours trying to be someone she clearly wasn't – and understood she didn't have to be; the people the closer to her loved her for who she was, high-strung personality and all.
"So dope," Jake agrees with a grin. She truly astonished him, that day (though she does that every day, to be honest). "And now he's the new commissioner."
"Now he is."
There's a pause after that, during which both cops remain silent, lost in their own thoughts, until Jake speaks again. "So much change is coming at work." He reaches for the woman's left hand in front of him, curling their fingers together while absentmindedly playing with them, his gaze stuck on her shining wedding ring that perfectly matches his own.
"First you left our squad, now Holt won't be our Captain anymore…"
"… And you're married to the Nine-Nine's uniformed officers' Sergeant." She gently squeezes his hand, reminding him of the best change of them all. Her words make him look up at her; she's staring at him with a huge beam.
He smiles back, as broadly as she is. "Hell yeah, I am. And I attempt on reminding them of this all the time when we're back at work. That the best manager they'll ever have is my wife. All. The. Time," he jokes, which makes her chuckle.
"Shut up." She shakes her head.
It only makes her husband laugh more, until he suddenly stops, a thought suddenly occurring to his mind when his eyes lay on the still open binder on Amy's lap.
"You know what, I think I know how we can make up for our lost first night," he says, and this time he sounds really serious, taking the huge binger in his own hands. "Let me see what we're missing. Wow, you really went big on the sex tab for the first night." He comments as he reads what's written there before he watches her with an amused, knowing look.
There's a woman sitting next to them, who they thought had been dozing off for a long time now, who gives them a side-glare when she hears that. Amy warns him, then. "Forget it. I'm not having sex anywhere in this airport."
In return, Jake only shrugs.
"Your loss. Let's see the rest, then."
He starts turning the pages again, scanning the binder and what's written inside in search of something they could do here as well – or at least replicate something similar to it –, until he finally finds it. "Oh, this one's cute," he points towards what caught his attention. "And actually a great idea: I already received fifteen messages from Charles asking me how the honeymoon is going."
Amy looks at the words, curious, reading over the part he's talking about –
Take a picture with a nice view to immortalise the first night of our honeymoon.
There's a side note accompanying it, which makes her understand Jake's mention of Charles and his intrusion into their lives.
(Send it to our parents – and Charles – to let them know we arrived in one piece and now is the time to leave us alone for the rest of the week.)
"Let's find a nice view where to take the pic." Jake suddenly closes the binder before putting it away and standing up, making her (and several of their seat neighbours who were trying to sleep) startle with the unexpected noise. He offers her his hand to follow him and, when she's come back to her senses, she takes it in hers. They walk around the airport for a few minutes, until the detective spots something, gasping when his eyes lay on the perfect place.
"Look, there's a photo booth!" He points towards the engine, then urges Amy to come closer to look at the green-screen options. "Where would you like to go on this first night? Paris, San Francisco, Ibiza… Mars?!" His eyes grow bigger as he turns back to look at her, visibly excited by that last option.
"Ames, how nice a view Mars is for your binder, huh?" He raises his eyebrows in amusement.
"Very nice," she chuckles, playing along with him, her heart warming up in her chest at what the man's willing to do to make her happy. She might be his dream girl, but he's definitely her dream man as well…
"After you, ma'am." He pushes the curtains in a dramatic move to let her enter the booth first before he comes inside too and they sit on the stool, managing to both fit there, with Amy sitting on her husband's lap, in charge of the settings. They try to remain serious as they look at the small screen in front of them but soon end up laughing and goofing around, unable to stop taking pictures of themselves everywhere they can around the globe, making silly faces at the camera, or simply shamelessly making out, unseen from the outside world thanks to the curtains keeping them hidden inside the booth anyway.
"I love you so much," Amy whispers between two clichés, her hands framing the man's face, looking at him with literal hearts in her eyes – a sight matching his own – before she's suddenly startled by the flash of the camera, not expecting it.
She turns away towards it.
"I think we took enough of them?" She says with a smile when she regains some composure and Jake agrees, following her when she heads outside of the booth. They take some time to look at the pictures once they're all printed, mocking each other, then falling silent in front of the cutest ones – especially the one that caught them by surprise when they were gazing at each other –, until they eventually remember one of the main reasons why they took those pictures in the first place.
"Which one should we send?" Jake asks, and it doesn't take long for Amy to think and show him one.
"This one."
It's not her favourite, but it's basic enough that their parents and Charles won't tell it wasn't really taken at the place they're in – in this case, the beach under a sunset. It's still cute, though; they're both smiling broadly, showing off their matching wedding rings. She's not sure she wants to share her favourite one with the rest of the world anyway; would rather keep it for themselves.
"Looks perfect," Jake seems to agree with her, watching the cliché with a dreamy smile. He takes out his phone then, letting out a sigh when he sees the three new unread messages from Charles, but doesn't even read them when he simply starts writing him, as well as his and Amy's parents, back, taking a picture of the picture to add to the text –
Everything's fine here. See you in a week.
After it's done, he puts his phone back in his pocket and gives his partner his whole attention again. "So, what's next?"
He takes the binder out again and starts reading through it, in search of a new activity they could do.
For most of the night, the newlyweds try to come up with funny, inventive ways of making up for the lost plans of their binder, checking them all when they manage to do it. It really helps time go faster, and before they know it, while they're almost done with everything they were supposed to do on the first day of their honeymoon, the sun is rising up again over New York.
Amy is standing in front of one of the numerous huge windows that give her a true, beautiful view of the scene, with planes taking off or, on the contrary, coming back in the distance, smiling as she watches them do, when Jake suddenly comes next to her. Sensing his presence, she turns around and smiles at him before she frowns when she sees his hands full with two glasses.
"You wanted sunset and Piña Colada? What about sunrise and orange soda instead?" He offers her the drink with a beam, and her smile only grows bigger when she takes it – it was one of the rare plans they couldn't come up with an alternative to since they started their little game after the sun had already set but, as always, Jake's here to surprise her. They remain silent as they enjoy their beverage (something Amy would have never guessed she'd end up liking so much before she started dating Jake and he rubbed off on her with his habits) and the view, their free hand soon finding each other's while their gaze is fixed in front of them.
When finally, they're startled by a voice telling them that they'll soon be able to board on new a plane that will take them to their destination and they leave their spot in front of the window to wait with the other passengers in the forming queue, all Amy can think about is that this first night wasn't too bad after all.
On the contrary – it'd been the absolute best way of starting their honeymoon; by having fun together.