CHAPTER FOURTEEN | FOREVER

xiv. the one where they try to increase efficiency

          IT HAD BEEN TWO WEEKS since Kat had officially fostered Tisha. The young girl had fit into her life so easily to the point where she was almost a little shocked. It made her realise just how well they knew each other already. And because she now, technically, has a daughter, the rest of the squad at the Nine-Nine made efforts to get to know the teenager better themselves. Those efforts included Charles asking them to tag along to walk their dogs together, Gina having movie nights with them, Amy volunteering to tutor Tisha weekly, and asking her to come along with Kat to all family friendly events.

Alongside the rest of her fellow detectives, Katherine is currently dressed in casual wear from the NYPD as she huddles together with the squad for the yearly football match against the fire department.

Jake gives them all a curt nod. "We've busted murderers, we've taken down cartels." He pauses for a second and points over to the fifteen-year-old girl stood beside Amy. "Except you. But the point is, today, we face the worst New York has to offer."

Kat narrows her eyes at the team in red on the other side of the field. "The damn fire department," she grumbles, fury taking over as she finds Boone tauntingly waving at her.

With dark blue paint under her eyes, Tisha grins in excitement as she finds herself in between Terry and Kat. "This is gonna be so fun," she declares, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet.

Jake stops before his and Kat's nemesis, football in hand. "Fire Marshal Boone," he greets dryly. "We meet again."

"Detective Peralta. Your fly's down. I made you look."

"I didn't look. And I'm wearing shorts, there is no fly."

"That's not what your mom said."

"You make no sense."

"And now I'm inside your head."

Tisha rolls her eyes. "We're gonna crush your asses," she calls out. The entire fire department looks over to her in surprise. "Yeah, that's right. Eat shit!"

Kat grins and fist bumps her. "That's my girl."

Jake points to the girl in agreement. "What she said," he tells Boone. "Prepare to die." Each player gets into their positions, all of them aware of what to do once the game begins. "Blue fifty-two," Jake yells. "Hut!"

The ball is quickly fed to Terry, who swiftly dodges and throws opposing players to the side like they weigh nothing. He reaches the endzone and the Nine-Nine's supporters on the sidelines burst into cheers and applause. Bear, held by Gina, barks and wags his tail like he knows that he should be celebrating.

Terry slams the ball onto the grass as Boone slumps in defeat, and then begins to dance his celebration.

Twenty minutes later, the Nine-Nine are ahead by twenty-one points. Just like last year, and countless years before, they're going to beat the fire department by a landslide.

Each play is simple: get the ball to Terry. And every single time it works.

Tisha shrieks with glee as the sergeant grabs her up by the legs, and she holds the ball high in the air as she's rushed across the line. "Take that, suckers!"

The team in red watch gloomily as Terry breaks into another victory dance after setting the girl down onto the ground. "You don't have to dance every time," Boone points out exasperatedly.

Terry dances his way over to the man with a wide smile. "True," he admits. "But I choose to dance every time." He rushes over to Jake and the two men leap into the air as they bump shoulders. "Whoo!"

Kat grins widely as Tisha jogs over to her. "Nice move, kiddo," she praises.

"I love this game," she says breathlessly. "Terry's awesome! I wanna play on weekends!"

Kat raises her brows. "Your game would be nothing like this because there wouldn't be a six-foot-three man running around with you," she says. Tisha grimaces as she realises that she's completely right.

Boone storms over to the team in blue. "You have one play," he argues irritably. He jabs a finger over to the sergeant as he says, "You give the ball to Jeffords, and he runs it in!"

"Well, he's only able to do that because you all suck," Katherine points out logically. Jake grins widely, sharing a blind high-five with her. "Seriously, you all suck."

Boone scoffs. "I'd like to see you score one," he tells her demandingly.

Kat hums. "Sure," she says. "'cause you're about to see it." Her eyes narrow to slits. "You're about to see it straight to hell."

Jake whoops excitedly as they all crouch down into their starting positions again. "Hut, hut!"

Whilst her team races over to their respective opponents, Kat spins around to the man waiting behind her. "Now, Terry!" she calls out.

Terry effortlessly picks her up like how he had done with Tisha and runs across the field, deftly pushing off anyone that tries to drag them down. It's then that the fire department quickly realise that the game is well and truly over.

Boone falls to his knees in defeat, and the Nine-Nine mimic each other's grins as they watch Kat and Terry score a touchdown. "Take that, Boone!" she yells, voice loud like a screech. Tisha high-fives a waiting Rosa. "I did it all alone!" With the ball in hand, she raises her arms above her head as she cheers, "I'm the king of the world! Whoohoohoo!"

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎ ﾟ。 ⋆

"Cream in my coffee and rock and roll..." Katherine shakes her head in amusement as Jake proceeds to pour almost an entire cup of cream into his morning coffee. "Cream in my coffee and rock and roll—"

"Peralta," Holt calls out.

Both detectives stop what they're doing, Jake with his coffee and Kat with her casework, to look up and see what he wants. "Ah, Captain Holt!" Jake greets cheerily. "You look very... sad?" He glances to his best friend as he adds, "I can never tell."

"He's not sad," she corrects. Her smile quickly falls as she looks back to Holt. "You're not sad, are you, sir?"

Raymond crosses his arms, choosing to skip over their comments. "Don't you have a murder suspect to question?" he asks Detective Peralta.

"He is in the interrogation room as we speak, sitting and, I assume, stewing," Jake grins. "I put on a song that I think sums up his situation nicely."

Kat chuckles. She believes it's one of Jake's better decisions of the year. "It's I Got You Babe," she tells the captain.

"Because, you see—"

"You got him, babe," Holt finishes. "I understood the wordplay, yes."

Jake nods with a small smile of satisfaction. "I've been chasing this guy for three months," he says. "I've got him dead to rights. Fingerprints, witnesses, it's in the bag. So, I'm just gonna grab a healthy breakfast..."

Raymond's gaze shifts down as he watches what Jake grabs off his desk. "Are those gummy bears wrapped in a fruit roll-up?" he asks, brows creasing.

He holds up his snack. "Breakfast burrito," he corrects with a nod. "But yeah."

Holt glances to Katherine as he questions, "You don't have anything to say about this?"

"Oh, plenty, sir," she confirms. Her nose scrunches up when Jake takes a large bite out of the 'burrito.' "But I gave up on his diet years ago."

"I pity your dentist," Holt tells the detective disapprovingly as he walks away.

Jake sets his paper plate down as he calls out, "Joke's on you! I don't have a dentist!"

Kat shakes her head at him. "Good God, why am I still friends with you?" she mumbles to herself. Even though he hears her comment, he shrugs and takes another bite of his colourful breakfast.

"Kat! Jake," Amy hisses. She, Rosa, Terry, and Charles are striding across the bullpen to them, expressions grim and incredibly serious. "Guys!"

Jake's eyes widen. "Uh-oh, this can't be good," he concludes.

Kat frowns at the panic etched onto their faces. "What's going on?" she asks in confusion.

"Major Crimes Division just called," Terry says. "They're taking over your murder case." They all watch as Jake's face falls in horror. "The Vulture is on his way here now."

"No!" Jake exclaims in frustration. "Doesn't that guy get tired of stealing our cases? He took one from me and Rosa last week!"

Kat's teeth grind together as she recalls a moment of her own. "He stole one from me last month while I was arresting the guy," she says lowly. "While I was arresting the guy."

Amy places a hand on Jake's arm for a second. "Don't worry, we can stall him until you get the confession," she reassures, nodding to the rest of the squad. "We rehearsed this, you guys, this isn't a drill. Everyone know their assignments?"

They all nod. "All right, hands in," Jake says. They place their hands atop of each other's. "Commence operation: Broken Feather. And go!"

Without another word, they all rush off to get into their positions throughout the precinct to distract the Vulture. Jake would have as much as four minutes to get a confession out of his perp, and his friends have to give him as close to those four minutes as possible.

He storms into the interrogation room, closing the door, case file in hand. "Okay, Gus," Jake declares. The perp looks up at him, brows raising. "I don't have a lot of time. I need your full, signed confession. We have four minutes. We can do this."

"But I'm not guilty," Gus retorts firmly.

"Listen to me, Gus," Jake says, slamming his hands down on the metal table. "We can do this, son."

Outside, Keith Pembroke slams the door to his car and shakes his head as he observes the exterior of the precinct. "Yo, is this a police station or a toilet?" he calls out to nobody in particular. "'Cause all I see is turds!" He laughs and moves past the groups of cops watching him.

Charles quickly approaches the man with a hot cup of coffee. "Oh, Detective Pembroke." He purposely walks close enough to then slam into him. "Oh, no, I spilled coffee on you by accident!"

"Lucky for you, this wipes off quickly. This coat's made out of whale skin."

Charles grimaces and quickly dials the first number on his phone. "The Vulture still flies," he says frantically. "The Vulture still flies!"

The Vulture enters the ground level of the precinct and is immediately met with Rosa walking down the stairs. "Hey, Pembroke." He stops before her. "What do you say we go talk about a case in the break room?" Kat watches the interaction from the top with narrowed eyes.

"Oh yeah?" He leans closer to Rosa. "What case is that?"

Her lips curl up into a smirk as she whispers, "The case of how you got so damn sexy."

"God owed me a favour. Case solved."

Rosa's jaw tightens in frustration at how he had just complimented himself, and she briefly meets Kat's eyes as she turns around. "Pembroke," Katherine calls out, tongue darts out to wet her lips. "How'd you feel taking me out?"

His brows shoot up. "Seriously?" Rosa almost laughs at how surprised he sounds. She's also surprised that Kat didn't distract him by slapping his face like she has promised she would do on multiple occasions.

Rosa just isn't aware that she would be saving that for another time.

Katherine hums and leans closer to his ear. "And I won't be alone," she whispers salaciously.

Pembroke steps away from her and stares for a few seconds. Then he laughs. "A lesbian threesome," he states. "I'm tempted." His smirk falls. "Unless it's just you, I'm out."

Kat throws her hands up as he walks away. Rosa stops by her side. "How the fuck did that not work?" she exclaims in disbelief. "Seriously." She turns to her friend. "How did that not work?"

Rosa shrugs. "Dunno." As Kat stares off to watch the Vulture climb the rest of the stairs, Rosa's eyes drag down her body. "Would've worked on me."

She sighs and pats Rosa's arm. "Then it's a shame you're not the one we're trying to sabotage," Kat deadpans. Rosa rolls her eyes, the ghost of a smile on her lips.

By the time they reach the fourth floor, they're greeted with a cloud of tear gas that had been set off by Scully. Rosa and Kat are informed by a shocked Amy that the Vulture had walked straight through the fumes without being affected whatsoever.

Inside the interrogation room, Jake spins around as the door is violently kicked open, revealing Pembroke in his knee-length whale skin coat, bandana, and sunglasses. "Hey, Peralta," he smirks. Amy finally catches up, looking at Jake with wide eyes. "I got it from here."

Peralta sighs. "All right," he says. "Fine." Amy slumps in defeat. "I'll just go then..." He grabs the document on the table, grin splitting across his face. "With this fully signed confession! We did it, Gus!"

Gus whoops excitedly as he high-fives Jake. "Suck it, Vulture," he exclaims. "I killed that guy, and his neighbour, but you were too late!"

"Whoo!" Jake cheers. His face falls. "Wait, you killed his neighbour?"

Three minutes later, Keith Pembroke storms through the bullpen with a scowl. Kat, Rosa, Terry, and Charles immediately burst into cheers.

Jake runs out with the arrest report in his hand. "We got it, people," he yells. "We got it!"

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎ ﾟ。 ⋆

The briefing the following day begins at quarter to ten in the morning. As usual, Kat's exhausted. She had been shocked when she had sat next to Rosa and the woman had immediately given her a coffee she had prepared in advance.

Between being woken up to help comfort Tisha during her nightmares and dealing with her own general anxiety, she was finding that her insomnia was getting worse and worse. But a police precinct doesn't stop just because one of its detectives is tired.

All the more reason why Katherine loves Rosa Diaz in this very moment.

"All right, let's get started," Terry announces. He's joined by both Rosa and Kat at the podium. "So, we have good news, and we have bad news."

Charles's eyes widen and he points to the sergeant as he says, "My nana always said, 'Bad news first, because the good news is probably a lie.' Fun fact, she made me cry a lot."

Kat winces. "Oh, Boyle... Look, the good news is, the sting we set up to catch the deadbeats went well."

"It went great," Rosa corrects.

Rosa, dressed in a bright red tropical shirt, escorts their target into the room they had set up. The man smiles at Kat and Terry sitting behind the desk before him. "Name's Bill Voss," he says. He holds up the piece of paper. "Just got this thing in the mail, said I won a free Bahamas cruise!"

Terry grins brightly at him. "Congratulations, Bill!" He holds up his badge.

Kat mimics his smile. "You have six outstanding warrants for credit fraud!" she states.

Bill's face falls as Rosa cuffs his hands. "Oh, man," he mutters. "Can't it wait till I get back from the Bahamas?" he asks them pleadingly. "I won a cruise!"

Rosa's eyes narrow a fraction. "You're not very bright, are you, Bill?"

As Holt takes Terry's place at the podium, he speaks up. "Now, I know you'd all prefer to go to a bar, drink beer, and eat chips of various textures." He clasps his hands behind his back. "But our CompStat numbers are due tomorrow morning, so I need these arrests on the books today."

Boyle sighs. "Darn it!" he says in disappointment. "I had a belly dancing class. Tonight was Egyptian undulation."

Gina turns around to look at him. "Oh, show us some moves," she encourages.

"Sure!"

"Dismissed," Holt calls out before Charles can break into his dance routine.

The squad spend the next hour filling out as many documents as they possibly can, but the holding cell looks the exact same as it had before they had started.

The Linetti sisters walk over to Terry with a few files each in their hands and dump them onto his desk at the same time. "First batch of arrest files is done-zo Washington," Gina declares.

Terry glances down to their contribution. "There's only seven files here," he points out, eyes squinting. "It's been an hour!"

Kat hums. "Yeah, we know," she says with a nod. "But it has not been a productive morning."

"Exactly," Gina confirms. "For example, somebody used the toaster in front of Boyle. And then Boyle spent thirty minutes lecturing him on how to make a sandwich. I think I'd describe the workflow today as dismal with a tiny, little splash of pathetic."

"We're trying, Sarge," Kat defends herself and her colleagues. "But there's so many distractions, I can't even focus with noise cancelling headphones on."

It's not long after that Holt calls the sergeant into his office. "I'm worried," Raymond begins. He holds his glasses as he stares out the window to the bullpen. "The CompStat numbers are due tomorrow at nine AM, but at this rate, we won't be finished until your daughters are grown and married."

"I may have a solution," Terry tells him confidently. Holt's eyes flick up to him. "We need to CompStat the office. What is CompStat? It's just using data to identity problem spots in the neighbourhood." He brings out a piece of cardboard that has the layout of the floor drawn with various coloured markers and sticky notes. "Now, I've been taking notes on points of friction in this office for years. The red areas are places where no work gets done."

Holt places his glasses back on as Terry sets the board on his desk, and he leans closer to properly examine it.

"If we can fix these problems without anyone knowing what we're doing, we will finish on time!"

"Are you saying you want to secretly perform scientific experiments on your friends and co-workers to increase efficiency?" the captain asks.

Terry nods. "Yes."

"Sounds fun," he admits. "Let's do it."

A few hours later, Terry returns to the captain's office to fill him on the progress that had been made. "All right, so I've already taken care of a few obvious problems," he says. "I moved the toaster to the break room, far away from Boyle."

Raymond glances back to the floor plan. "Good," he says. He points to a triangle marked in red. "What's this red area here, the Diaz triangle?"

"Right, so you know about Rosa's anger incidents," Terry begins. Holt nods in understanding. "Any time Mount Diaz erupts, everyone on the squad avoids her. Everyone but Kat."

The captain slowly nods his head. "Interesting."

"Yeah, very interesting," Terry agrees. "Okay, tell me, what room is just down the hall from her desk?"

Realisation dawns upon him. "The bathroom," he answers.

The sergeant smiles as they both stand back up. "If people are afraid to walk by Diaz, bathroom breaks would be to a minimum," he surmises. Both men look out the open door.

Kat glances up from her computer as Terry walks out of Holt's office. He had been inside numerous times over the last two hours. They're planning something, or, they're already setting said plan into motion. She just needs to figure out what.

"Hey, Diaz," Terry calls out. Katherine's eyes squint. "I just need to make sure I've got the details right in this file."

Rosa walks over to check the papers. "Yeah, guy was passing bad checks," she confirms.

Kat leans back in her chair and clasps her hands together as she watches Captain Holt quickly swap Rosa's computer monitor for another.

"But is this the same guy?" Terry asks. He's clearly trying to distract Rosa.

"Yeah, the name here is the same name on the checks," she points out with furrowed brows.

Holt stands back up with Rosa's old monitor. "Ca-caw!" Charles's head snaps up at the noise, his eyebrows drawing together slightly. "Ca-caw!"

Terry smiles at Rosa as he closes the file. "Okay, all right, thank you, thank you. Got it." She glances back to him suspiciously as she notices Holt leaving the vicinity of her desk, then she returns to her chair.

Katherine's eyes widen as what she had expected then happens. After a few seconds, Rosa impatiently bangs her keyboard with her fist. "Come on!" she exclaims angrily. The screen turns black. "I'm so sick of these sucky computers!"

Rosa yells as she rips the monitor off the desk and throws it onto the ground, shattering it into multiple pieces. She then stomps on it a few times, and Kat smiles once she grabs the nearby fire extinguisher to spray it onto the broken computer.

She raises the hose when Hitchcock walks past her. He freezes. "One more step and you're next," she threatens lowly.

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎ ﾟ。 ⋆

Terry enters Holt's office with a proud smile etched onto his face. "It's going really well, sir," he reveals. "We've gone from ten cases per hour to almost twenty."

"It's good," Raymond acknowledges. "But we can do better." He glances down to the board in his hands. "Tell me about the Boyle-Linetti reaction."

"Boyle gets cold a lot because of what he calls his 'medically diagnosed thin skin.' So, he goes to the lost and found, and he grabs something that's usually unflattering... That's when Gina gets involved. Gina is completely useless when Boyle is wearing lost-and-found clothes."

Holt tilts his head as he looks up to Jeffords. "Well, I really can't blame her on this one," he confesses. "Maybe we should just, uh, empty lost and found."

Terry smiles. "Already done, sir," he says. But as they look back out to the bullpen, their eyes widen at Boyle standing right outside wearing a beige, fringed jacket. "Good lord," Terry exclaims. "Where did he get that?"

"Oh, my God, we're doomed," Raymond states with wide eyes, removing his glasses. "Boyle looks like a lesbian."

Terry shakes his head. "No, Kat would never wear something like that," he points out. The captain nods in agreement. "He must have gotten it from the evidence locker or something. Don't worry, I had a backup plan."

He points to Gina's desk that is right in front of the office. She's wearing glasses and observing herself in the small mirror.

"I distracted her with a mirror. She's like a cockatiel, sir, fascinated by her own reflection."

Gina puckers her lips as she stares at herself. "Mm, hello, sexy, how are you?"

Charles points over to her from his desk. "Right back at ya," he calls out.

Kat quietly laughs at their interaction. She's found it immensely difficult to return to work. With different theories circling around in her head on what Holt and Terry are doing and the multiple distractions that have occurred this morning, she can't concentrate.

And it's then that she notices something that only happens around once a month.

Terry's eyes widen in horror as he watches Katherine stare at Rosa. "Oh God," he whispers in alarm. "It's happening again!"

Holt's brows crease in confusion. "What's happening 'again'?" He glances down to the board and his eyes lock onto a particular bright red square: Kat's desk. A dotted line is then drawn from hers over to Rosa's. "Ah. I see."

"Once a month, Rosa brings out all her knives to sharpen them," Terry enlightens the captain. They fall quiet as they observe Kat watching Diaz with something that could resemble awe, but they're not certain enough to settle on the word. "I call it the Linetti-Diaz vortex."

Holt dips his head in understanding. "Yes, I've discovered that this happens at least once a week," he confesses. "She's quite fond of her."

Terry's brows raise. "I think 'fond' is putting it too lightly, sir," he admits.

"Look at us, gossiping about employees. How unprofessional."

"It's not unprofessional if we're going to do something productive about the gossip," Jeffords counters. He nods curtly before hurrying out. He sighs to himself as even when he places himself directly in Kat's line of sight, she tilts her body to look past him. "Kat."

Silence.

"Kat," Terry repeats tiredly. "Linetti!"

Katherine blinks quickly as she suddenly notices the sergeant standing in front of her. "Woah, sorry. I didn't see you." Terry rolls his eyes. "What's up, Sarge?"

"If I was paid every time you stare at Diaz sharpening her knives, I'd have enough money for a lifetime supply of French vanilla." He shrugs when she looks back up to him with a scowl. "Just telling it how it is. I need you to go downstairs to the M.E. and grab a report for me."

She frowns. "I thought we were meant to work on arrest files," she reminds him, brows furrowing slightly in confusion.

"Yeah, but this is one of my cases," he says seriously. "Priority."

Kat slowly nods. "Okay," she replies. "Will do."

The second that the elevator doors close behind her, Terry makes swift work of going over to Rosa. "Diaz, how many times have we talked about this?" he states exasperatedly. She pauses her work. "No exposure of weapons."

She narrows her eyes as she stares him down, but surprisingly, Terry doesn't flinch. From within his office, Holt's brows raise in amusement as he watches them stare at each other for a solid minute.

Rosa groans in frustration and slams her daggers down on her desk. "You've ruined all of April for me," she snaps.

"Fine with me."

"I hate you."

"Also fine with me."

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎ ﾟ。 ⋆

It's mid-afternoon and the precinct has been limited to almost zero distractions. Rosa hasn't had any more violent outbursts, Kat has returned to actually working, Gina isn't distracted by Charles, and vice-versa, and the capacity of the holding cell has decreased significantly.

Terry smiles as Holt walks over to his desk. "We've done it, sir," he whispers. "If we stay on this pace, I think we'll finish on time."

"I think we should keep going. Make the office even more efficient."

"Sir, are you familiar with the story of Icarus? He didn't know when to quit. He flew too close to the sun, and his wax wings melted, and he died."

"Are you familiar with the story of Moneyball?" Holt retorts, completely unphased by the information that had just been shared with him. "A man uses statistics and logic to win several baseball games. It's my favourite film. This office is becoming a powerhouse of paperwork processing. I'm flying high, Sergeant. And I'm never coming down."

With music playing through her headphones, Kat quietly hums along to the song as she fills out her twentieth arrest file for the afternoon. She's temporarily forgotten about trying to figure out what Holt and Terry had been doing.

Jake walks into the bullpen, confusion etched onto his face as he looks around and takes in of all the changes; most importantly, who is sitting at his desk. "Scully, what are you doing at my desk? And working?" he adds in disbelief. He then notices that Kat is still at hers but entirely unbothered by Scully's presence. "What is going on?"

Scully spins around in his chair. "The captain put me here," he says with a shrug. "Says I waste time when I sit next to Hitchcock."

"Okay, well, go work in the break room," Jake instructs with a frown. Scully grabs his belongings and hurries out.

"Hello, Peralta," Holt says.

Jake drops down into his chair and smiles slightly at the captain. "Ah, a human greeting, nicely done!" he praises.

Kat looks up and finally notices that her best friend has returned. "Oh, hey Jake," she greets, taking off her headphones.

He sends a brief smile her way. "Hey, girl."

"Updates on the case?"

Jake sighs at the captain's request. "Well, you're gonna love this one." He points over to the blonde-haired detective. "You especially. We busted the guy for grand larceny."

Kat squints her eyes at him. "How am I loving this?" she asks.

"Oh, just wait," he laughs. "To celebrate, Santiago is taking a job interview at Major Crimes. Can you believe that?" Jake's lips purse when he receives no reaction from her. "Okay, say something."

"I know, Jake," she says, gently. His eyes widen to the point where it's almost comical. "She told me last week."

"I also know," Raymond states. If it's possible, Jake's eyes widen even further. "She told me yesterday."

"What?" Detective Peralta looks between them both in disbelief. "Why didn't you try and talk her out of it? Because she would literally shave her head if you asked her to," he tells Holt. "Which, by the way, is a great idea for a prank, if you're looking to prank her."

"Santiago wants to make captain one day," Raymond begins. "I know, because I've frequently caught her wearing my hat and looking into a mirror."

Once Jake looks to her, Kat nods. Not only has she gotten countless photos of Amy in said hat to hype her up, she's also been on the receiving end of many conversations about the matter.

"I support her decision," Holt says. "That's what good detectives do. They have each other's back, no matter what."

Jake turns to Kat, and she points to Holt in agreement. "What he said," she states. Once the captain walks away, she leans forward on her desk with furrowed brows. "Okay, what's going on? Is there a reason you don't want her to go?"

He clears his throat and rubs the back of his neck, almost nervously. "No! I mean, yes, but—She'd be going to work with the Vulture!" he exclaims. "He's the worst!"

Kat smiles. She'd noticed multiple things over the last few months in particular that had led her to a rather surprising conclusion: Jake Peralta has feelings for Amy Santiago. And he would continue to deny it for as long as possible.

"You sure that's the only reason why?" she asks, raising a brow. He scoffs and stammers over his own words. "No further comment needed."

A few seconds later, she hears Scully yell out, "Fire!" Kat's eyes widen as she spins around to see Boyle in his fringed jacket burst into the break room to assist with the flames.

A short, predictable, moment later:

"My fringe!" Charles shrieks. He runs out the room with flames licking up the sleeves of his jacket. "My beautiful fringe!"

"Boyle's on fire!"

The fire alarm quickly sets off, and chaos erupts in the bullpen. Whilst Gina grabs her phone to record the moment with an entertained grin, Rosa hurries over to get the extinguisher to help put out the flames.

Terry's eyes widen in horror from inside Holt's office. "Icarus," he whispers.

"Extinguisher's empty, morons," Diaz yells out.

After having quiet conversations with each other throughout the day, Gina and Kat realise exactly what's going on at the same time. Gina has finally stopped recording Charles, sharing a look with her sister before hurrying into the, now empty, captain's office together.

The sergeant rushes over and covers Charles with a fire blanket, almost instantly putting out the flames. Charles tries to catch his breath as Terry continues to pat him down.

Holt nods to himself as he surveys the situation. "Back to the drawing board," he concludes, talking to himself more than anything.

Terry's eyes widen at his words, and he quickly follows the captain into his office. "Sir, I'm begging you," he pleads desperately. "We have to stop. Boyle is still smouldering!"

"The problem is, we didn't take Peralta into account," Raymond says with a sigh. "In our next trial—"

A throat is cleared and they both freeze. They watch Holt's chair spin around, revealing Kat sat in it with Gina perched on the arm. Both women have their hands clasped together. "Hello, gentlemen," Katherine greets with a smile. "Welcome to your own office!"

Terry and Holt stare at them in surprise. "We hear you're trying to make the precinct more efficient," Gina concludes.

"Linettis, what are you doing in the captain's chair?" Terry asks them with disapproval.

Holt holds a hand up to him. "Please, I'm open to any ideas about efficiency."

"Well, after spending all day watching you concoct a plan, we've narrowed the problem down to one particular location," Kat says.

Gina nods. "We call it the Holt-Jeffords vortex." She points to the office on the floor plan highlighted in blue.

"Things would go a lot faster if you two did a little less experimenting and a little more working," Katherine adds, her smile never faltering. "And it turns out that we're not the only ones that think so."

Gina dramatically claps her hands, and the door to the office opens. Charles walks in first, staring directly at Holt as he says, "You melted my fringe." He makes sure the tassels on his jacket hit the captain as he suddenly spins around to the couch.

Rosa is next. "You think I have an anger problem? I don't," she answers for them. "You are both dead to me." Kat's smile widens.

Holt hesitantly turns toward Terry. "Well, I suppose it's possible we may have been a tad enthusiastic in our pursuit of efficiency..."

"Really?" Terry retorts incredulously. "A tad, Icarus?"

"Fine," the captain declares. He glances back over to the sisters. "Message received. Jeffords and I will get right to work."

Gina smiles at them both and waves a hand over to the door. "Great, that will be all," she dismisses. "Thank you."

As the group exits the office, Holt looks at them blankly. "Get the hell out of my chair," he orders.

Kat grimaces. "Yeah, we pushed that a little bit too far," she mutters. She grabs Gina's hand to help her up and they share a smile as they walk out. "Okay, bye!"

Gina pats the blonde's shoulder. "We did good work today," she says proudly. "I reckon my promotion to sergeant was well deserved."

Katherine looks at her amusedly. "You're not even a cop," she points out with a chuckle. "Whoever promoted you lied."

"Well, I do have your badge number," Gina points out with an innocent smile. "And since we have the same last name, I took a sergeant's exam as you." Kat's eyes widen at her sister's revelation. "Don't look so surprised. You passed, by the way. You're welcome."

"You took an exam for me?" she yells angrily.

The entire bullpen stops moving to look at them.

Gina rolls her eyes. "Christ, I thought you'd be thrilled to get a raise. Next thing you'll say is I can't impersonate you to interrogate someone on your behalf." She scoffs to herself in disbelief.

One of Kat's eyes twitches. "You've been impersonating me?"

"Whoopsie daisy, this took a turn."

easily one of my fave chapters 😁