From the Ashes We Rise (Even Stronger than Before)
It's crazy how, if you look back at where you were only a year ago compared to where you are today, your life might be completely different from what it was back then.
Sometimes you find yourself in a worse situation. But, thankfully, sometimes your existence has changed only for the better.
The sun is barely rising through the curtains of their hotel room when Jake wakes up on the first day of his and Amy's honeymoon.
She's still asleep, her head lying on her pillow a few inches from him, so peaceful and smiling in her dreams. It makes him instantly smile too. He brings a hand to her face and softly skims her cheek with his thumb, careful not to wake her up, as if to remind himself that this is real.
This is what his life looks like now.
There was no sun to light up his room where he was one year ago. No one to share his bed with and wake up to either. Only the deafening sound of a truncheon against bars and the warden's voice pressing him to rise and shine. Only two pictures on a wall facing him and reminding him of what was waiting for him outside – hopefully, his future wife – and a cannibal cellmate.
Jake's really been through hell and back the past year. It changed him – it definitely did – and though at first he hated that thought, wished everything would go back to normal immediately, now he's come to appreciate the change. He might not be the same Jake he used to be before he got accused of a crime he didn't commit but he believes now that it helped him turn into a better version of himself.
It means you're growing. It makes you a better detective.
Jake's smile grows wider as he remembers everything that happened during the past year and led him there. Everything that happened and took him to this moment, in this hotel room, next to the love of his life on their honeymoon.
First, obviously, came his release from prison. He wouldn't be here today if it weren't for his friends/family – for his (ex-)Captain, more particularly, who didn't hesitate to risk his career to innocent him.
(To innocent Rosa too. And keep Amy clear from jeopardizing her own job and dreams.)
He wouldn't be here because if he wouldn't have been free, he wouldn't have been able to put into practice his meticulous plan he'd been working on for months on Halloween.
Amy Santiago, will you marry me?
Jake Peralta, I will marry you.
He'll never forget the overwhelming feelings that hearing Amy let out these precious, life-changing words brought to his heart.
Then followed the wedding preparations with the finding and losing of a venue, the worst/best Thanksgiving he's ever experienced alongside both his and Amy's parents, the death of his former Captain, the coming out of one of his best friends that created the new tradition of Friday Games Nights with the rest of their squad, another few months away from his fiancée and stuck with his work dad's husband, his annual meeting with his 'best enemy', Amy's promotion as a sergeant, the loss of their honeymoon savings, the finding of a half-sister, wild bachelor/ette parties, the scare of a life for Rosa and the realization that came with it that if something happens to me, it'll actually affect someone else, more wedding preparations and, finally, the wedding with its own share of twists and turns ending with the revelation that Captain Holt would now be known as Commissioner Holt.
All in all, it's been a pretty crazy year for the Nine-Nine. For Jake and Amy.
But I shouldn't be surprised, because we've had a lot of crazy days. Every single day that I get to be with someone as amazing as you is crazy to me.
It's been a crazy year, that lead to this even crazier morning – the first morning of a two-week holiday with his wife.
His dream girl.
The feeling of Amy's body moving next to him suddenly takes Jake out of his retrospection. He watches as she stirs, searching for his body to curl up against, and slowly open her eyes. She smiles, something fond and beautiful – yet still a little sleepy – when she meets his gaze. "Good morning, Mr. Santiago," she amusedly greets him; her smile turns into a grin.
A matching expression quickly spreads across his features at her choice of name. "Good morning, Mrs. Peralta."
He then breaks the barely existent distance between their two faces to kiss her hello. When they part, he stops for a second and stares at her.
"What?" Amy frowns after a while. She can feel the tip of her ears starting to burn in a blush with the deep, intense look Jake has on her – full of love, too.
"Nothing. I was just… thinking about how lucky I am to be here with you today."
Amy beams at him. She passes a hand in his hair, gently stroking his disheveled raven curls with her fingers. "Me too," she confesses before pulling herself back to him and kissing him again.
It's crazy how, if you look back at where you were only a year ago compared to where you are today, your life might be completely different from what it was back then.
Sometimes you find yourself in a worse situation. But, thankfully, sometimes your existence has changed only for the better.
It's definitely the case for Jake and Amy, as they celebrate their first day on their honeymoon by doing nothing but love each other – psychologically and physically –, the nightmare that had been prison having turned into just another distant memory locked in the back of their minds.