At first, he doesn't talk about Amy.

To be fair, he doesn't talk much at all, no matter how hard his cellmate tries to make conversation. It's a rare sight, a quiet Jake Peralta.

But that's what being wrongfully accused and sentenced to prison does to him. He doesn't talk and wallows in his misery.

And when he does let out a word or two, it's not to talk about Amy. It's not that he doesn't think about her – because he does. All the time. She's with him, inside his mind, following his every step.

She's even here when he closes his eyes and haunts his dreams.

But he doesn't talk about her. It's just too painful.

"Is that your wife?" She's one of the first things Caleb asks about when Jake arrives and hangs up the two pictures he was allowed to bring with him above his new tiny bed.

The words sting hard, piercing right through his core and shattering his heart in millions of little pieces. He has to fight for the tears not to stream down his face, never stopping.

"She's my girlfriend," he corrects after taking a deep breath. He doesn't linger on the topic – doesn't let his cellmate know of the small box hidden somewhere in one of his drawers back at home.

Doesn't talk about his plans of asking her to become his wife indeed, and how they're up in the air now that he's in prison for who knows how long.

(Up to fifteen years if his colleagues don't find a way to innocent him and Rosa.)

It's best, for his own sanity, not to think about it. Not to talk about Amy.

"She looks sweet," Caleb comments and Jake simply nods with his eyes stuck on the pictures. She's the best, he lets out a desperate sigh.

(It's better he didn't know at the time his cellmate is cannibal who could have most possibly talked about how worth eating she seems. Jake would have never mentioned her name ever again otherwise.)

After a while though, he starts befriending him. Tells himself they're the same – likes to think Caleb's just another cop wrongfully accused of his doings. The guy's nice and supportive.

And Jake could use some company.

So he starts opening up to him, and talks about Amy.

Once he starts talking about her, he never stops again. He manages – most of the times not even on purpose – to bring her up in almost every conversation they have, no matter what it's about.

Amy told me that, he explains when he tells his cellmate something smart. I watched it with Amy! he recalls as they recommend each other movies. Amy would have loved this joke, he pouts when Caleb doesn't always understand his sense of humor. I'm seeing Amy in three days! He wakes up happier when visiting day draws nearer.

I miss Amy, he lets out the most, with a desperate sigh.

Not a day goes by without him bringing her up at least once, and he misses her more with each new passing day.

This is how he gets the idea, during another of his sleepless nights spent staring at the wall beside him and the pictures hanging there. She's the love of his life – that he's known for quite some time now, although it's only since the fine day of April 28th he decided he'll finally act on it. And if he was planning on doing so earlier, would have he not been found guilty for this crime he and Rosa didn't even commit, all of a sudden the Halloween heist seems like the perfect occasion. It's always a night full of surprises and events nobody can see coming.

And what's more surprising than a proposal?

He'll have to think about the specifics, but one thing is sure in his mind as soon as the thought crosses his mind: somehow, he'll have to find a way for them to be alone in the evidence locker when midnight strikes. Amy will have to believe she just won the heist yet another year – only to realize it's something else she won (hopefully, at least).

It's clear to him he's gonna propose right where their story started – right where he, as Jake Peralta and not his Johnny persona, kissed her for the very first time.

(And what a kiss it was.)

(Damn, he really misses the taste of her lips.)

It truly helps, thinking about all of this. It gives him a purpose; something to hold on to and not give up on hope.

(It also hurts every time his mind goes to darker places during some of his worst days, though. It tries to persuade him he's not gonna be out in time to put his plan into action, and that despite her promise to wait for him, if he really stays locked in there for fifteen years she'll get tired at some point and it's somebody else she's gonna marry. He's gonna rot in there and die alone.)

(But then he sees her for the first time after three weeks, and she pulls him into the tightest hug and it's all it takes to tame his inner demons. He listens to her talk, his eyes switching towards her empty hands on the table and starts picturing a ring shining right there on her left finger – the same ring that's waiting for him to take out of its box and give to her back at home.)

Caleb seems genuinely enchanted by the idea as soon as he hears it. He gets so invested even, he quickly brainstorms ideas for Jake's proposal plan too. Both of them can spend hours working on it, sitting in the library and thoroughly writing everything down in details.

Jake's not the only one to never shut up about Amy then – Caleb is too. Even though he only knows her through her boyfriend's stories.

(He's grateful his cellmate never brings up the fact he might very well still be in prison by the time Halloween 2017 comes around – and the next ones as well, up until Halloween 2032. He'd go crazy otherwise.)

It only makes sense then, when their paths cross again about two years later, that the first thing Caleb asks Jake about is Amy.

"How's Amy?"

"She's great! We're married and she's a Sergeant now."

Both these things happened more than a year ago but still, telling Caleb about them does something to Jake's heart. Talking with and about ex-inmates remind him of a time that still haunts him sometimes and he'd rather forget forever. It brings him back to when he was facing an uncertain future – when he'd wake up each morning not knowing when he'll get to do so with more than just a picture of the woman he loves by his side but her true, tangible body. It's all resolved now, though; thankfully.

Almost two years after he got released from prison, he knows what the rest of his life looks like. And it looks just like Amy.