in which amy imagines her life without jake (just for a second)

Its a few days after her interview, and Amy is sitting at her desk in the precinct catching up on some paperwork. It had been a busy week, and she'd fallen slightly behind - so, she couldn't leave for her well earned weekend off until she had it all finished. Obviously.

(Obviously to her, at least.)

With the final few sentences written, and her files written off on, Amy had taken a second to lean back in her chair and think over the events of the week. On those rare times when the precinct was quiet, it was a good place to think. It had been an interesting week, to say the least. Jake continued to just surprise her, regardless of how long they'd been working together. She had never put him down as the kind of person who could apologise, or be honest with his feelings, ever, but he had done just that this week.

Amy couldn't deny that it was an attractive quality. She imagined it had taken a few stern words from the Captain, or Terry, but it was still an admirable quality. It wasn't like she was particularly good at it herself - she wasn't good with feelings, or talking about them out loud, to other people.

She should probably work on that.

Tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear, Amy cast her thoughts to Jake's little speech.

"... our job isn't always great, sometimes it sucks - but it sucks a little less when I get to do it with you.

She wasn't normally one for daydreaming, but Amy couldn't help but think for a second what her life would be without Jake Peralta in it. Sure, he was a pain in her ass sometimes, and he could just absolutely wreck her head when he wanted to, but he wasn't a bad guy. She'd laugh a lot less at work, thats for sure. Amy had lost count of the amount of times they'd been out working a case, and she'd have to use every ounce of self control she had to try not to burst out laugh at a wildly inappropriate moment.

He was there for her too, in his own weird way. He'd brought her home from stupid dates more than enough times (usually ones he had ruined, but...) and she'd texted him more than once to get him to get her out of a crappy date with the latest weirdo her friends had set her up with. And she had to admit, she always had a lot of fun on stake outs with him.

Sure, he was an idiot. A massive, annoying idiot, but most of the time he wasn't so bad. He wasn't a bad guy. Jake was probably one of the best guys she'd ever met if she was going to be honest (and it was easier to be honest with yourself when there was no one else around to question it..)

He was her idiot.

Shit.

Had she really just thought that?

Amy shook her head wildly, trying to force the thought away. A crumpled piece of white paper caught her attention, and she picked it up, reading the 'to who it concerns' scribbled across it in Jake's horrendous handwriting. Aside from the obvious grammatical error that stressed her out beyond belief, she was curious.

What kind of recommendation could he give her?

Turning the paper between her hands, Amy found herself trying to find reason not to open it.

What the hell was she even afraid of anyway? It was a professional reference, not a marriage proposal.

Taking a breath, Amy began to unfold the paper, scanning the first few lines.

"Amy Santiago has been my partner for three years, and working with her has been a privalige..."

He needed to take spell check more seriously.

"...She would-"

"Amy!"

Amy looked around to see Jake standing in the doorway, grinning far too widely for someone who had just finished a fourteen hour night shift. "Yeah?"

"Breakfast?" Jake inquired. "Pancakes are the best way to start a weekend off."

"Sounds good." Amy nodded. "I'm all done here anyway."

Jake responded with a smile. "Good, I'm starving."

Amy grabbed her handbag, shoving the unread letter inside carelessly. Maybe she'd try and hear this one from the horses mouth this time.

And if all fails? She's got the letter, right.

And pancakes, because god, she was so hungry.

author's note; a post 1x15 little fic, because eeeepp, that episode just fuelled my amy/jake fire even more. thanks for the reviews & alerts etc., and feedback is always more than welcome! apologies for taking a little longer to update, university work is piling up.