CHAPTER FOUR | FOREVER

iv. the one with the community outreach program

          FOR THE LAST HALF AN hour, the detective squad of the Ninety-Ninth precinct had been engaged in a passionate, emotionally fuelled argument. The longer they carry on, the more dangerous it was getting. Feelings would get hurt. Friendships could be ruined.

Amy Santiago lets out a groan of pure frustration as she looks to each of her co-workers seated around her. "For the last time," she says impatiently. "The best cop movies in order: Training Day, Lethal Weapon, and Fargo." She waves a hand. "End of discussion."

"Wrong," Jake denies immediately. Katherine arches a brow in amusement at him. "Die Hard is the best cop movie of all time. One cop heroically saving the day while everyone else stands around and watches. It's the story of my life!"

"I like Turner and Hooch," Charles pipes up with a fond smile. "Tom Hanks, reluctant friendship with a dog." He taps his fingers to his heart as he adds, "That hits me where I live."

"No." Kat swivels her chair around to look at Rosa. "Robocop," the woman states. "It's got everything I like: gratuitous violence."

However, she ends her sentence as if she was going to continue, which makes everyone stare at her expectantly. After a few moments of silence, Jake purses his lips. "Oh, I thought you were listing things," he says in confusion.

"I was," she confirms. "I'm done."

Kat studies the detective thoughtfully. "Actually, that's expected," she admits. "If I was told to describe you, I'd probably only use violent." Rosa's eyes flick over to her as she grins.

"That's a good segue," Jake says cheerfully. He points to his best friend. "Favourite cop movie."

Amy tilts her head at him. "How is that a good segue?"

"Die Hard," Katherine answers without a second thought. After having grown up watching the movie with Jake every month on the dot for five years straight, it had become something that—cheesily—makes her think of the simpler times. Although, she is shocked that she isn't sick of the film yet.

Gina walks over with a mug of coffee in her hand. "Let's talk Bad Boys," she chimes into the conversation. She takes a small sip of her steaming hot drink, perching herself on the edge of Kat's desk. "That's the perfect cop movie."

Katherine grimaces at the thought of egotistical, sweaty, sexualised men running around shooting people. "I'll respectfully disagree," she says nonchalantly.

"Mr Smith, lookin' fine." Jake nods in understanding. "A hot cup of Tea Leoni." Gina looks to her sister expectantly. Just as predicted, Kat admits defeat and nods in agreement with the last statement. "Come on."

Finally having enough of eavesdropping, Terry rolls his own chair over beside Kat's to join the conversation. "Francois Truffaut's Breathless." The entire group looks at him strangely. Offence quickly etches its way onto the sergeant's face. "What?" he exclaims defensively. "Terry likes foreign films."

"Okay..." Jake swivels back around to face his desk. "There is a correct answer to this question, though." As he types up something on his computer, the group share entertained smiles. They know what's about to be shown. "So, gather around for the greatest cop film of all time. Please refrain from texting during our presentation."

Kat grabs her phone. "Permission to record; research purposes only."

"Permission granted." The video that is plastered on the screen of the computer dates back to the first of June, Two-Thousand and Nine. Two women stand by the hood of a car and are then interrupted by someone approaching them. "All right, so there's Hitchcock." One of the women quickly turns around to Hitchcock and kicks him straight in the balls. "And there it is!"

Hitchcock grimaces as he finds them all watching the video. "Come on, guys, that happened four years ago," he complains.

Jake holds a hand up to him. "Shh, this is the best part. She comes back and takes the wallet... and here she goes!" Various exclamations are thrown into the air as they watch younger Hitchcock get kicked once more, then they all break into laughter as they watch him fall to his knees.

Kat wipes a tear from underneath her eye and sighs as she stops the recording on her phone. "I think we might need to submit that to the Oscars," she proclaims. Hitchcock scowls deeply at her as he storms off, and laughter echoes across them all once more.

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎ ﾟ。 ⋆

Katherine Linetti wanders into the briefing room with her daily cup of coffee in hand. Considering it's not even eight o'clock in the morning and she's been up since five, it's not her first of the caffeinated beverages. She brings her fist up to cover her yawn, but her eyes instantly narrow when she catches sight of Charles sitting on top of one of the desks.

She continues watching him as she slides into the chair beside Rosa, and she leans over to the woman to quietly say, "You know he's wearing the same sweater as that serial killer?"

Rosa glances to her with a straight face, but after looking at one of the wanted posters plastered on the back wall, she snorts a laugh. "Oh, wow," she remarks in amusement.

As Jake enters the room, he also immediately notices Boyle in his brown, patterned sweater. "Hey, love the sweater," he calls out. Charles spreads his hands with a smile. "Who you slayin' tonight, lady killer?"

"Well, we shall see what we shall see," Boyle replies slyly.

Kat swallows her sip of coffee. "No, Boyle, you're dressed exactly the same as the lady killer," she points out.

As she gestures to the poster, Charles spins around, face falling in disappointment. "Damn it!" He turns back to them, visibly deflated. "This is Jeffrey Dahmer's corduroys all over again."

"All right, let's get started," Terry calls out. He places his hands on the podium, and the room quickly falls silent under his command. "Scully. Where are you on digitising the old case files?"

The detective seated at the back of the room removes his glasses, and a proud smile graces his face. "As of yesterday, I'm officially one percent done!"

Terry's eyes narrow as Scully gives him a thumbs up. "Why are you smiling?" he retorts sharply. "That's nothin'."

"Well, there's thousands of cases," Scully explains with a shrug. "And for each one, I have to fill out two-hundred little box thingies on fifty different screens."

Rosa glances back to him to say, "At least you get to sit on your butt all day."

"That's actually the worst part. My doctor said I have an anal canyon."

The entire room groans in protest. Kat rubs her eyes as her lips curl into a grimace of disgust. "Holy hell," she mutters to herself.

"God, Scully, why are you always telling us about your disgusting body?" Jake exclaims. His expression quickly morphs into one of curiosity. "How are you married?"

Before they can get any further distracted from the briefing, Holt interrupts. "Peralta, where are we on the Adams Street burglary?"

"We are very close, Captain," Jake answers with a nod. "Aside from a complete absence of evidence, suspects, or leads... So, in conclusion, not at all close..."

Holt points to the whiteboard. "And the Vickers Street aggravated assault?" he questions, raising a brow.

"Stalled out. And the Calloway robbery also remains unsolved, due to a lack of solving it by me."

Whilst Amy smiles smugly to herself, Katherine turns around to her best friend with a hint of concern. "You're in a slump, dude," she tells him.

Gina pinches her fingers together as she adds, "Just a tad."

Jake's eyes widen a fraction in alarm from their observations. "I'm not in a slump," he denies quickly.

"You're not?" Amy's brows raise and she nods her head over to the whiteboard. "Scoreboard." The tally of the bet now shows that she is beating Jake by nine arrests.

"I don't slump, people," Jake calls out, tone firm, demanding no protests. "I opposite slump. I p-muls. That's 'slump' backwards, and it's what I do." He grins. "I p-muls all over this bitch."

Terry sighs tiredly. "Dismissed," he concludes the briefing.

As Jake gathers his bag, Amy gives him a patronising smile. "Slump," she repeats.

"P-muls!"

Everyone disperses out of the room, returning to their desks to begin the day. It's not long before Kat finds herself buried up to her nose in paperwork, filling out what seems like endless forms from an arrest she had made earlier in the week.

She peers over her computer to Jake's desk and finds him flipping through files of documents with complete concentration. But it's hard to actually see him due to the sheer number of folders piled on his desk that are gradually making their way over to her and Amy's. "How you going?" she calls out to him.

Jake groans and drops the file on the desk. "I'm tired," he complains. He opens one of his desk drawers and grabs a bagel—that to her looks incredibly stale—and takes a large bite out of it.

"So am I, but I meant how's," she gestures a hand in the direction of his mess, "this going?"

"Oh," he says simply. "Well, it's barely moving, Kitty Kat. You're watching the pile grow." She offers a sympathetic smile, but he waves a hand her way in dismissal. "But I am about to close a case."

Her eyes light up. "Dude, that's great—" However, her proud smile fades away as she notices Holt approaching them. This definitely can't be good.

Jake's head snaps over to their commanding officer and he quickly holds a hand up to the man as he stops at their desks. "Wait... Before you say anything, I want to guess what happened based on your face." Jake pauses for a split-second, eyes squinting. "Someone died. No! You won a prize!"

Katherine sighs. "You're not getting any better at this," she tells him.

After sending a glance her way, Holt nods. "I agree." Jake scrunches his nose up. "I'm concerned that the open cases mound of garbage on your desk has become so much higher than the closed cases mound of garbage."

"All right, sir. Let me hit you with a little analogy. Are you familiar with race cars?"

"Formula One or stock?" Holt counters.

"That's already way more than I know about it," Jake confesses. "The point is, I'm a super-awesome race car who's hit a couple of unlucky speed bumps."

Kat leans to the side of her computer to look at him again. "There are speed bumps on your racetrack?" she asks in disbelief.

Peralta looks between herself and Holt, confusion etched onto his face. "Is that not part of car racing...? It should be. All I'm saying is, it's open road again. I'm about to close a case." He hands a manilla file to Holt. "Missing grandma Helen Sterrino. Last Sunday, her grandson Judd reported she went out for bagels and never came back. This morning, we picked up an old lady matching her description exactly. I showed her pictures of Judd, and she said, and I quote," Jake's face contorts as he imitates the woman, "'That's my grandson.'"

"What did I say about doing voices?"

"I'm a storyteller, sir. It's my craft."

Kat nods in approval. "One of your bests," she praises her best friend. She thinks that she sees Holt roll his eyes.

Jake smiles at her, greatly appreciating her positive reinforcement. "Well thank you, Kat. Anyway, the grandson's coming in. They reunite, and I throw another case on the old 'solved it' pile." He blindly places the file on the pile, which is so unbalanced that it topples over the edge of the desk. He looks over and grins at what he finds at the bottom. "Hey, my croissant!"

She grimaces as she watches him tap the croissant against the desk which creates heavy thudding sounds, and then he happily takes a bite out of it. "You're disgusting," she says flatly.

An hour later, Amy had practically skipped over to Kat, bursting with pure joy, because Holt had asked her to run the community outreach program scheduled for later that day. Of course, she had been asked, Kat's immediate answer had been yes. However, two people wasn't going to be enough. With Charles, Terry, and Jake off the table (Hitchcock and Scully weren't even in the dining room), they were left with Rosa.

Said detective is at her desk, and Amy and Kat beeline over to her. "Hi, Rosa!" Amy greets brightly. "Ooh, I like your shoes—"

Kat gently places a hand on her arm to interrupt her as respectfully as possible. "We need your help," she states, cutting straight to the chase.

Rosa's eyes flick up from the document she's reading, lingering on Katherine's face for a second. After a second, she nods. "What do you need?" she asks.

Amy clears her throat. "You know how every year the precinct does that Junior Police Program seminar?"

"That thing where we try to get a bunch of loser kids to become student snitches?"

Kat tilts her head to the side slightly at the blunt interpretation. "Well, I wouldn't have put it exactly like that... but yeah."

Amy sighs. "No, the thing where we try to get at-risk kids—"

"Losers," Rosa corrects.

"—to sign up to become junior police officers."

"Snitches." Rosa's eyes flit between them. "What about it?"

"Captain specifically asked me to run it this year," Amy boasts with a proud smile. "And... I already signed you up to do it with me."

"Here," Kat holds out the briefing booklet for the seminar. "Sorry, I know you hate it."

Rosa huffs a sigh of annoyance as she reluctantly takes the folder off her. "Great, now I gotta read something," she mutters. She tilts her head up to look at the blonde as she asks, "You doing this crap, too?"

Kat nods. "Yeah," she responds. "Why?"

She clears her throat, turning her attention back down to the booklet in her hand. "No reason," she says dismissively.

"Greetings!" Having heard the entire conversation, Gina joins the group of detectives and sighs to herself. "Fine," she concedes dramatically. "I guess I can help you with those at-risk kids."

Rosa scoffs, and Amy gives the woman a small, apologetic smile. "We don't need your help." Gina's eyebrows raise. "It's nothing personal, it's just... you're not a cop, so I'm not really sure you could help."

"Actually," Kat interjects. She and her sister have a piece of information that no one else knows about. "She might be more useful than you think." Rosa and Amy turn to look at her, and Gina gives her a grateful glance.

But the majority of the trio still aren't keen, so Amy tries to let her down in the nicest possible way. "Sorry," she tells Gina hesitantly. "But I just don't want to waste your time."

"Okay! No hard feelings." Gina gives them all a very fake smile. "But I hate you." Her smile drops. "Not joking. Bye!"

As she watches her sister saunter away, Kat turns around to her friends. "Really?" she asks dryly. "Not at all willing?"

Not long after, everyone is called into the break room by the request of Jake. While Amy takes the time to start working on preparing for the outreach program, Kat, Rosa, Charles, and Terry all stare expectantly at Peralta.

"Oh, cool," Jake comments nonchalantly. "You're all here in the break room."

"You asked us to come in here," Rosa points out.

"What?" he scoffs. "Here's a hypothetical question." With his hands on his hips, Jake tries to ask for their advice in the most subtle way possible. "Let's say I knew someone that, for the first time in their career, was experiencing, like, a minor slump." He smiles. "What do you think you would suggest to that person if they were going through that?"

Charles stops eating his snack to answer. "Well, I haven't really been in a slump since my divorce. So, I'd tell this person, 'Maybe get divorced.'" After a pause, he adds, "He'd have to get married first."

Jake nods. "Okay, so the suggestion to beat is get married and then divorced." He points to the next detective. "Rosa?"

"Fly to Montreal, hit a classy hotel bar, bone a stranger. Slump over."

"Wow, that sounds amazing," he agrees.

Rosa smiles. "Yeah."

"That's a good one. Kat, what would you do?"

She takes a second to think over her answer. "Get drunk," she declares. She shrugs when Amy glances to her with a questioning look. "What can I say, a lot of epiphanies come when you're wasted."

Jake's eyebrows draw together in thought. "That's actually not a bad idea," he admits. He then points a finger to Terry. "Sarge?"

With a protein shake in hand, the man replies, "Ten-thousand sit-ups."

"Okay... Do you have a backup plan in case my hypothetical person can only do ninety-five hundred, or three?"

It's at this point that Holt enters the room. "What's going on in here?" he asks the group.

Charles gestures to his best friend. "We're helping Jake's friend get out of his slump!" He misses how Jake frantically motions for him to stop talking.

Kat rolls her eyes in amusement. "We realised the friend was you immediately, by the way," she says.

"Or try working a case until it's solved, Peralta," the captain suggests. "I always find that closing cases is the best way to end a slump."

As he walks away, Jake forces another smile to his face. "Thank you, Captain," he calls after the man.

"He's right," Terry agrees, setting his empty shake down on the table. "You just need a win. Pick your easiest, no-brainer case, and work it 'til it's done."

"Fine!" Jake points between both Kat and Rosa. "Right after I do their things. It sounds fun." They both grin as he struts out the room.

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎ ﾟ。 ⋆

"Okay, this is the Junior Police Program! AKA 'Mission Impossible.'" Amy clicks a button on the remote and the theme tune of the aforementioned film begins blaring out of the TV. "Your mission, should you choose to accept it," she points to the kids as she walks back and forth, "is to get your life back on track."

As Gina walks into the room, she coughs into her fist, then calls out, "Narc!"

Laughter spreads across the room, and Kat sighs to herself. This is going to be a long afternoon. However, she is glad that Gina's here, because she knows that her sister would eventually do something to win the group of teens over. She wouldn't mind proving Rosa and Amy wrong.

Amy forces a smile on her face. "Hey, Gina," she says, inhaling a sharp breath. "What are you doing?"

"Oh hi, Amy!" Gina smiles as she cradles the coffee cup in her hands. "Since I have nothing to offer, and since I'm not a cop, I thought I'd just show up and learn."

When Amy turns to look at her for help, Katherine shrugs. "She just wants to learn," she repeats innocently. None of them see the wide grin that appears on Gina's face.

Detective Santiago inhales a deep breath to try and keep herself composed. "Do you want to help me out here?" she hisses to Rosa.

Rosa meets Kat's eyes for a short moment, then they return to Amy. "Nah, I think I'm good," she says.

Amy closes her eyes for a second before turning back to the kids. "I know you think getting into trouble is cool," she begins. "But let me show you what can happen if you continue down this path." Her voice drops to mimic one more masculine. "Hey, yo! I'm an at-risk kid, and I think it's cool to sell drugs."

Kat lifts her head to look up at the ceiling and sighs. "Oh, good God," she murmurs under her breath.

"Hold up," one of the teens interrupts. With a beanie on his head, he slumps down in his chair, eyes narrowing at the detective leading the program. "Why does this kid selling drugs sound like he's black?"

"He's not," Amy responds, quick to defuse a brewing argument.

Gina's brows raise. "Well, why not?" she retorts, incredulous. "Are you saying that black people can't sell drugs?"

"No, I'm not saying that."

The same boy from earlier speaks up again. "We have a black president," he states. "Why can't black people sell drugs?"

Kat leans a fraction closer to Rosa to murmur, "This is a trainwreck." Out of the corner of her eye, she spots her grin broadly.

"I'm so confused," Amy murmurs helplessly.

"Black people can sell drugs!" Gina exclaims. It takes no time at all before all the kids are chanting along with her. "Black people can sell drugs!"

Of course, this is the moment that Raymond Holt decides to check in on them. He stands in the doorway as he surveys the room, eyes narrowing as he takes in the loud protests led by Gina and the kids. Amy gives him a thumbs up, and he hesitates for another moment before finally deciding to walk away.

She gestures for Kat and Rosa to follow her outside the room as they then observe the group of teens through the blinds. "I did not think getting these kids to sign up would be this hard," she confesses with a tired sigh.

Rosa scoffs. "These kids don't wanna listen to you," she says.

Without removing her eyes from the window, Kat says, "Actually, I don't think they want to listen to anyone."

But Rosa is still confident that she would be able to get through to them—a stark contrast from a few hours earlier where she was adamant that she wouldn't be doing anything. "They don't identify with you because you're not from the streets," she tells Amy. "I am." Her eyes move between the two women. "Follow, watch, learn."

As she struts off, Kat's gaze follows after her, lips parted in awe. Amy rolls her eyes and gently smacks her friend's arm. "Hey," she says exasperatedly. "Kat, she's gone."

As Katherine shakes her head to rid herself of her dazed-like state, Amy drags her back into the room just as Rosa starts to address the group. "All right, listen up." Whilst walking past, she rips earbuds out of two girls' ears. "I know you think you're badasses. But deep down, you're scared."

Katherine takes the empty spot beside Gina as the sisters lean against the wall, watching the scene unfold before them. "This is going to fail epically," the latter mutters. Kat hums in agreement as Gina takes the moment to loudly slurp her coffee.

"How do I know? Because I've been that same scared kid. And if you don't get your crap together, I'm gonna end up busting you and throwing you in jail." Rosa's expression remains stony cold and serious as she looks out to the group. "Got it?"

Unbeknownst to any of them, the boy in the beanie who had interrupted earlier had been recording her speaking on his phone. Remix, yo!" he calls out. An autotuned version of Rosa's last few words echoes out of the speakers, replaying repeatedly.

"Throwing you in jail, throwing you in jail, throwing you in jail... Got it? Throwing you in jail..."

As the group of kids, including Gina start to laugh and dance along, Kat watches Rosa's face fall as they're all forced to listen to the sound. She can't hear what Rosa says to Amy nor what is replied, but for some reason—or for a reason she does know but doesn't want to admit—Katherine Linetti doesn't like seeing Rosa Diaz upset.

With a clenched jaw, she pushes off the wall and strides over to the boy before ripping the phone out of his hand. His eyes widen. "Hey!" he exclaims in surprise.

Gina's brows shoot up as she watches her sister storm out of the room and drop the phone onto the ground outside, then slam her boot down onto the glass screen. She slowly turns her head back to see Rosa's reaction to see the woman staring after Kat in what looks like awe, but it could just be shock.

Taking a moment to calm herself down, she looks up from the coffee pot in the kitchen when she senses someone join her side. Kat sighs at Gina's look. "Shut up," she says pointedly.

"Oh, I didn't say anything."

"But your face does."

"My face always says something."

Kat rolls her eyes, the ghost of a smile on her lips. "What do you want?" she asks.

Gina places her own mug down to refill with the bitter caffeinated liquid as her younger sister takes a seat at the small table behind her. "I'm just slightly curious as to what..." She glances over her shoulder and circles a finger where the smashed phone lays. "... all that was."

"It was nothing," she says dismissively.

Gina hums. "Sure it was." She slides onto the chair beside her. "Because smashing a seventeen-year old's phone 'cause you were pissed about a song is nothing." She raises the mug to her lips and takes a long, dramatic slurp of her coffee.

Kat huffs a sigh. "Shut up," she says impatiently.

"Well, I did say something that time, so fair enough." Silence passes over them. Gina leans her chin into the palm of her hand. "I'll just point out that your girlfriend looked super happy, by the way. She does love violence. Maybe she's turned on."

"Gina," Katherine scolds, tone sharp and a little heated. Her sister raises her hands up innocently. "Seriously, if you don't shut up, I'll smash your phone instead."

Gina Linetti's eyes widen in pure horror as she stares at her sister in shock.

The blonde-haired detective winces. "Okay, too far," she admits. "Very sorry."

As Gina gets up, muttering various words of disappointment, she's replaced by Amy and Rosa. Kat holds Rosa's eyes for a few moments, and she swears that the woman smiles at her.

"I don't know how to connect with these kids," Amy begins, clearly stressed. "Kat, please—"

"No."

Amy's eyes widen. "I'm desperate—"

"Still no," she denies. She takes a long sip of her coffee. "I hate teenagers. I hate kids. I hate all those little know-it-alls in that room." The smallest of smiles adorns her face as she pictures something rather violent. She clears her throat. "Anyways, I'm not talking to them."

Rosa studies Kat curiously. "What was that?" she asks.

Katherine glances to her for a brief moment. "What was what?"

"You went silent for a second—what were you thinking about?"

"Oh, I was picturing dangling that kid with the beanie off the side of the roof."

Amy Santiago's eyes widen comically. "Jesus Christ," she says flatly.

The corners of Rosa's lips curl. "I should take you to throw axes something," she says suddenly. Kat's eyebrows raise in interest. "Really helps if you just picture all the people you w..." She trails off with a distant look on her face. "Anyways, think about it."

"I might just take you up on that."

Amy shakes her head as she looks between them, and her eyes fall back onto the door of the briefing room. "They're just all mean and shallow and respect nothing." Both women nod along in agreement. "I mean, what kind of person would they even listen to?"

Kat immediately points to her sister, and Amy and Rosa quickly turn to look at Gina. "Hitchcock, stop bringing your food in little Tupperware containers!" she yells in annoyance. "It hurts my fingers when I'm trying to open it."

"Sorry!"

Katherine rolls her eyes as both detectives jump up and hurry over to the civilian administrator. "If only they listened to us hours ago," she mutters to herself.

"Hey, Gina!" Amy greets with a smile. "That's a super cute—"

Gina's eyes narrow sceptically. "What do you want?" she interrupts.

"... sweater. Okay. We think it would be great if you talked to the kids!"

The Linetti sisters lock eyes with one another over Rosa's shoulder. "Mm... I thought only cops could help," Gina points out dryly.

"In this case, not being a cop might actually be better," Rosa admits.

"That's true," she agrees. "In ninety-nine percent of cases, cops are the worst."

Amy's brows furrow in confusion. "Why ninety-nine?" she asks. Gina smiles as Kat joins her side, and she wraps an arm around her sister's shoulders. "Oh..."

A few minutes later, Gina has the attention of the group of teenagers. And this time, Kat knows that they would listen. Hopefully.

"Children! Your problem is not that you're troubled, or at risk, or bad dressers." She points to one of the kids at the back. "Is that a trucker hat? Still?" Kat grins as the boy shamefully removes it. "Come on. Your problem is that you don't have passion for anything. My life turned around when I found my passion. And today, well, I hope to inspire you with it."

As Amy, Rosa, and Kat all share confused glances, it's then does the latter realise what's about to happen. And it's then that she realises that what is about to happen isn't going to help the kids sign up. It might do the opposite. Gina turns on the small, red stereo positioned on one of the tables, and Christina Aguilera's Beautiful starts streaming out of the speakers.

The next four minutes consist of watching her perform a freestyle dance routine to the song.

With a satisfied smile plastered on her face, Gina swiftly turns the radio off and leans back on the desk. "What are we thinking?" One of the girls in the front row raises her hand. "Yes! In the denim."

"I think I speak for everyone when I say that your weird dancing was just weird."

Kat runs a hand down the side of her face and sighs as she walks across the room to join her sister's side. Gina looks just as done as she is. "All right, you delinquents," she calls out. "Cops make fifty-two-thousand dollars a year."

"You never have to stop at a red light," Gina continues.

"You get to carry a gun."

"And every so often you get to see a dead body."

"Who wants in?" Hands begin to raise, and Kat smiles as she points to each kid who does so. "Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!"

Amy stares at the sisters in disbelief. "Oh, my God," she whispers in awe. "You got eight kids to sign up. How'd you know that would work?"

Kat shrugs. "That's what made Gina sign up," she responds nonchalantly.

Rosa's eyes widen slightly. "You did this program?" she questions in surprise.

"Mm-hmm, yeah," Gina nods. "It does not work."

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎ ﾟ。 ⋆

Captain Holt walks out of his office as he reads through the pile of sign-up sheets from the outreach program. "Detectives," he calls out. Both Rosa and Amy turn around, whilst Gina and Kat look up to him from their desks. "I see we got eight recruits for the Junior Police Program. Outstanding."

Amy beams. "Thank you, sir." Her smile quickly disappears. "But, as important as your praise is to me, it should actually go to Kat and Gina. They're the ones that got through to the kids."

Gina tilts her head. "Yes, I am amazing," she confirms. She spins around in her chair to Holt. "And I only ask for one thing in repayment." The captain's eyebrows raise. "A six-hundred percent raise."

Katherine snorts, then covers her impending laughter up with a cough. Holt turns to her expectantly. "Oh no, sir, I'm good," she says quickly.

He returns to Gina. "Or I can give you a zero percent raise and make you my personal assistant, which is what I'm doing." Kat fails to supress her smile at how the horror slowly etches its way onto Gina's face. "I think you have hidden talents, which will make you surprisingly good at the job."

"No, I have no talents!" Gina argues frantically.

"You start Monday."

As the captain returns to his office, she lets out a loud groan of frustration. "Ugh," she complains. "Constantly getting Holt's approval is the worst."

Amy nods, a wistful look shining in her eyes. "Yes... I can only imagine."

Kat stands up from her desk with a heavy sigh. She heaves her bag onto her shoulder and wanders over to Gina's desk. "Hey, you ready to go?" she asks. Every Friday night, they have permanent plans for a movie marathon that always turns into a sleepover.

Gina looks up from her phone and nods. "Yeah, I'll meet you downstairs," she says.

After bidding goodbyes to the rest of her friends, Kat makes her way toward the gate of the bullpen. However, she stops when someone calls out her name.

"Hey, Kat, wait up!"

She turns around to find Rosa jogging toward her. "Hey, what's up?"

"I, uh..." Rosa purses her lips and looks down to her shoes. "Thanks for earlier," she says quietly.

A small smile adorns Kat's face as she realises how uncomfortable the woman is by just coming to thank her. "It was nothing," she says. "Don't worry about it."

Rosa meets her eyes, and they stare at each other for a few seconds before one of them breaks the silence. "It wasn't nothing," she retorts. She offers a smile. "But thanks."

Kat can't help how her own smile widens. "No worries." She keeps her gaze on the detective as she walks backward. "I'll see you on Monday, yeah?"

"Yeah, see you," Rosa calls out. As they both turn their backs on each other, a wide smile briefly adorns her face once more.

Of course, Gina Linetti has witnessed the entire interaction. Her eyes squint in thought as she pockets her phone. "Interesting..." she murmurs to herself.