𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 | 𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻

IT'S FOUR IN THE AFTERNOON when Captain Holt calls the emergency meeting. Being Friday night, Kat had plans. She's all the more eager to get home to see her dog who is being watched by one of her neighbours. As she walks into the briefing room, she dumps her bag on the table and takes the seat beside Rosa. Like usual, it had been free. "What's up with the emergency meeting?" she calls out to Terry.

However, before he can respond, Amy walks in wearing a bright pink dress and heels. "Whoa, Detective Santiago!"

"Big date tonight," she says with a smile. She turns around to her friends. "How do I look?"

Kat tilts her head slightly. "Not usually a fan of pink, but you look hot." Amy's smile widens.

"Well, I think you look-" Jake pulls out his phone with a mischievous smile and taps a button. Kat rolls her eyes at the sound of a donkey braying coming out of the device's speakers. "Sorry, that was supposed to be a catcall." Amy scowls at him with a hand on her hip. "I don't know how this works..."

Rosa leans forward to grab Amy's attention. "Hey, is this why you were getting makeup tips from the prostitute in the holding cell?"

"I just wanted to know how she got such smoky eyes," she defends herself quietly. She grimaces. "Turns out it was STD rash."

The second Holt enters the briefing room, everyone stops their conversations. "Detective Peralta has made a collar in the jewellery store heist," he announces.

Charles grins and holds up his hand for his best friend to high-five him. "Way to go, Jakey!" he praises.

Jake clears his throat and quickly ushers Charles's hand down. "Ah, that's okay," he dismisses timidly.

Kat's eyes narrow and she turns around to look at him. "What the hell did you do?" Jake purses his lips and diverts his eyes away from her.

So, Holt answers her instead. "He didn't get sufficient evidence to make it stick, so we have the next forty-eight hours to fix his mistake." As he places his clipboard on the podium, the entire room groans in frustration.

Kat drops her head into her hands and inhales a deep breath. Forty-eight hours. That means she wouldn't be home for forty-eight hours. With cold eyes, she turns her glare onto Jake. "Let me guess, you had no evidence when you arrested him," she presumes dryly.

He scoffs. "What? You seriously think that little of me?" She continues to stare at him.

"Jake," Amy warns. "What did you have when you arrested this guy?"

He clears his throat. "Some pretty ironclad stuff, actually," he replies. Jake hesitates for a second, before adding softly, "He might've called me a name and I got pissed off..." He tentatively smiles at Amy and Kat who are glaring at him with daggers. "Case closed...?"

"If we don't find something conclusive, it jeopardizes the case and opens the department up to a lawsuit," Holt explains to them. Kat drags a hand down the side of her face. "So cancel your plans. We're here until this is over."

"Damn it, Peralta!"

Jake fails to dodge a ball of paper thrown at him. "Ow!" he yells dramatically.

Holt silences them all once more by raising his hand. "I know everyone's mad at Peralta for ruining their weekend."

But when he doesn't continue, Jake looks around the room with pursed lips. His eyes return to the captain as he adds, "But?"

"That was it," Holt retorts. "I was just demonstrating for Detective Peralta what a fact is."

While a smile does flash across Kat's face for a second, it quickly drops to be replaced by her scowl. She gathers this is going to be her expression for majority of the weekend. She grabs her bag off the desk and smacks the back of Jake's head as she walks past him. Instead of yelling at her, he sighs to himself and nods as he accepts the action.

Kat slumps back into her desk chair as reality finally sinks in. With a heavy sigh she grabs her phone and calls the one person she prays would be able to help her.

"Kat!" the young girl answers cheerfully. "Hi! Bear's doing good, we just went for a walk, and I'm gonna tell you this because you'll probably find out anyway, but I found him eating this dead bird and tried to get him away-"

She chuckles at the rambling. "Tisha, chill out. So, uh, I've got some bad news."

"Uh oh. Did Scully eat your lunch again? Or did Boyle take it?"

"Surprisingly no, but thanks for bringing back my paranoia." Kat smiles when she hears Tisha giggle. "So, the bad news," she says slowly. "It's looking like I'm gonna be stuck at work all weekend. And I feel really bad asking you, but is there any chance you could check in on Bear every so often? I'll pay you extra, of course-"

"Hey, you don't pay me normally, I don't want money. He's my fave! It's chill, don't worry. If Dad lets me, I can stay at your place instead and hang out. Is that cool?"

"Yeah, of course, kiddo. You know where the spare key is." As her eyes flick around the room, she meets Rosa's, finding that the woman was already watching her. "Call me if you need anything, okay? And thanks again, you're literally saving my life."

"No worries, I'm being paid with dog kisses." Kat grins when she hears Bear bark, then Tisha shrieks shortly after. "I gotta go, I'm being attacked by this goofball. Good luck!"

She laughs. "See you, Tish." Almost as soon as she hangs up the call, Rosa walks over to her. Kat looks up with a small smile. "Everything okay?"

"No, 'cause I'm gonna be stuck here all weekend," Rosa snaps a little heatedly. She groans. "Sorry, I'm pissed at Peralta."

"Join the club," she deadpans.

Rosa smiles slightly. "So, uh, who were you talking to?" she asks, nodding to the phone on Kat's desk.

"Oh! One of my neighbours helps look after Bear when I'm away for too long so I just asked if she could cover this weekend, you know, courtesy of Peralta." Kat's brows furrow ever so slightly as she watches Rosa stare at her. She reaches up and waves a hand in front of her face. "Hey, everything okay?"

Of course, Gina had heard the entire conversation. She saunters over and grins salaciously at her sister, managing to say something before Rosa can answer Kat. "Is this the girl you were gonna go on a date with?"

Kat grimaces. "Ew, no, she's fifteen," she replies. Gina raises her eyebrows in confusion. "It's Tisha, the kid that moved in door next to me, remember?"

"Right, yeah, the little bitch who called me a bitch."

The younger Linetti rolls her eyes. "Please, you slammed the door in her face a second after answering it," she retorts exasperatedly. "It was well deserved."

Rosa folds her arms over her leather jacket. "So, you've got a date with someone?"

Kat sighs. "Nope. Well, I asked this girl, but she said no."

"Now this is the appropriate time to call someone a bitch!" Gina chimes in.

Rosa nods in agreement with her. "Yeah, she's a loser."

"Thanks," Kat says with a small smile. "It's okay, her loss."

Gina places her hands on her sister's shoulders and plants a kiss to the top of her head. "Exactly," she confirms. "Her loss. Anyone would be lucky to have you." She turns to look at Rosa pointedly, who rolls her eyes and walks off without a word.

Because Gina wants to actively procrastinate all form of work, she convinces Kat to start a game of Monopoly in the break room, which eventually gains the attention of Charles and Terry. They watch the siblings yell at each other throughout the hour-long game, their competitiveness getting to the point where the board is swiped cleanly off the table. It's nothing new, though. The entire precinct was used to the Linettis getting into arguments with each other daily. To most, it was like their own personal reality show.

After having her curiosity peaked by the yelling, Rosa walks into the room. "Hey, Gina," she calls out.

With a groan, Gina throws her pile of money onto the ground. "Stupid, stupid game," she mutters. Kat grins triumphantly. "Wassup?"

"Can you order food for us at the Flatbush Diner?" Rosa smiles just at the thought. "They make the best pies in New York City."

Gina presses her fingertips together and she clicks her tongue. "Oopsie! You said something super dumb." Kat makes a show of rolling her eyes when Rosa looks to her in confusion. "The best pie in the city's at Crust."

"Wrong," Rosa denies as she walks closer to the table. "Ignorant and wrong."

Gina abruptly stands up, causing the chair to screech on the ground. "Uh, you think you can just bully people, but you can't. It's not okay." Kat stifles her laughter at her sister's words. "I'm the bully around here, ask anyone!"

Deciding they need a third opinion, Rosa turns to the blonde. "Hey, Crust or Flatbush?"

Kat takes a moment to think over the question. "Neither," she answers. Both women stare at her in disbelief. "I prefer cheesecake over pie."

Rosa sighs and nods her head over to Charles pouring himself a cup of coffee. "Boyle, you're always blogging on that foodie website." He glances over his shoulder to her. "Which pie's better?"

Gina moves to stand next to him and folds her arms as if a tactic to intimidate him into agreeing with her. "Yeah, whose do you like better, mine or Rosa's?"

Terry perks up from his place on the couch, interested to see where this is going. With wide eyes, Charles looks to Kat for help, but she only shrugs at him. "Oh, uh, you know, I-I haven't been to either place yet." As he stutters out his answer, his eye begins to twitch every few seconds.

Kat frowns at him. "Hey, why's your eye twitching?"

He scoffs defensively. "Wouldn't you like to know." He then dramatically winks at her. She rolls her eyes. She guesses she's going to be doing that a lot this weekend.

"Could I see you for a second in the evidence lockup?" Gina doesn't wait for him to respond before grabbing onto his blazer and dragging him out of the room.

Terry takes Gina's former seat and looks over the Monopoly board. "So, who won?"

Kat sifts through her rather large pile of fake money and holds it up with a grin. "Two thousand dollars," she exclaims proudly.

"When we played last month, she somehow got ten thousand," Rosa tells the sergeant. Terry's eyes widen dramatically. "She's rigged it somehow."

Kat continues to wave her stack of bills around in the air. "You don't need to rig the game if you've got skill!"

Five minutes later, Gina and Charles still haven't returned, so Kat gathers that her sister is accusing him of possibly telling Rosa what she wants to hear because he still has a crush on her. During those five minutes, she gets more and more curious about the man Jake had arrested who sits in the interrogation room. She wanders into the observation room to find her best friend pulling faces at the one-way glass, and purposely slams the door behind her. Loudly.

Jake jumps a few inches into the air and places a hand over his heart as he spins around to her. "Jesus Christ," he exclaims.

"I think of myself more as God but suit yourself." Kat folds her arms as she moves to stand next to him. "I'm still livid at you but explain this to me."

Jake clears his throat and quickly nods. "Well... you know the story of the robbery." He sighs as he stares at Dustin Whitman on the other side of the glass. "I know I don't have anything against him yet, but I swear he did it."

Kat's brows draw together as she studies Whitman. She narrows her eyes as she tries to place his familiar face. "Hold on, didn't you arrest him a few years ago?" she queries.

"Sure did."

"And you think he did it because..."

"He called me Joke Peralta."

Kat shakes her head. "Good God, this is going to be a long few days." She glances to him to find that he's returned to pulling faces at the glass. "And you still think he did it."

"Swear on my life," he confirms seriously.

"Good," she nods. Jake hesitantly looks over to her. "Because at the end of this, if we find out he didn't do it, I'll kill you myself."

"You can be super scary sometimes," he mutters. She smiles.

A few moments later, Holt walks in. He nods to Katherine, then turns his eyes to Jake. "Planning your strategy?" he questions the detective.

"No, I'm just making funny faces at him," Jake replies. Kat forces herself to keep a straight face when he bares his teeth at the glass, then pokes his tongue out as he crosses his eyes. She can't laugh because she's still mad at him. "This mirrored glass is awesome. It straight-up works!"

"An effective use of your limited time," Holt says.

Kat hums. "Welcome to the mind of Jake Peralta."

"It actually is effective," Jake agrees. He turns to look at the two next to him. "That's how I got him last time. Let him stew for a little bit, got in his head, and he confessed."

"You better be right."

"Oh, he's bet his life on it," Kat states with a smile.

Jake grins. "I am," he reassures Holt confidently. He grabs the case file off the desk behind him. "Hey, can you guys make some funny faces while I'm in there? I wanna see if I can tell."

Kat sighs once he leaves the room. "Sorry, sir, but I don't have the mental capacity to watch this," she declares.

The captain nods in understanding. "Fair enough."

She's only back in the bullpen for less than ten minutes before Jake returns. By the look on his face, she immediately jumps to the conclusion that interrogating Whitman had not gone as well as Jake had expected it to. "Confessed already?" Kat calls out.

Jake sends a saccharine smile her way. He spreads his hands as the squad looks to him expectantly. "So, looks like we're gonna be here for a while," he informs them. "Should someone do a coffee run?" Everyone, including Charles who is rarely ever annoyed by Jake, glares at him. A nervous laugh slips past his lips. "You know what? Coffee's on me. Oh, but no froofy frappuccinos or anything, I've only got, like, ten bucks."

Amy struts past him and snatches the bill out of his hand.

Jake nods. "Okay..."

"She'll be getting the most expensive frappuccino on the menu, by the way."

"Thank you for your input, Katherine. I am very well aware."

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎ ﾟ。 ⋆

Due to the amount of work that needed to be conducted, majority of the squad had been up well into the night, and just as expected, they had all stayed at the precinct. Kat had, unfortunately, been up since four in the morning, meaning she had gotten a whopping two hours of sleep in total. Her idea had been to stay up as late as she possibly could, which would hopefully gift her some leads or clues that Whitman might have actually done the crime. Of course, neither of those things had happened. Katherine had nothing. She was pissed off, extraordinarily tired, and had nothing.

Holt walks out of his office at approximately seven-thirty. "Rise and shine, detectives, rise and shine!" he yells. Amy lurches off the pillow on her desk that she had been sleeping on, and Kat reaches over to brush hair out of her eyes. "Peralta, I want you to bring everyone up to speed."

Jake squints his eyes as he studies the captain's appearance. "You slept in your office, and you look exactly the same," he observes. "How?"

"What are you talking about? My hair is a mess," Holt counters monotonously.

Kat hums. "Want to borrow my brush, sir?"

Holt waves a hand at her to dismiss the suggestion. "Maybe later. Briefing room, five minutes," he calls out to the bullpen.

Charles slowly straightens himself from his slumped position in his chair. The basketball he had been using as a pillow drops to the ground. "How long were we asleep?"

"Just long enough for me to squeeze in a quick workout," Terry says. He continues lifting the printers he had strapped with crime scene tape to use as weights. "So, like, three hours."

"Morning," Rosa greets them all after taking a sip of her coffee. She looks the exact opposite as everyone on the squad, dressed in fresh clothes and no doubt had a shower.

Jake groans in frustration. "Ugh. I can't believe you live nearby and won't let anyone crash at your place," he complains.

Rosa drops her bag onto her desk and turns back around to him. "You people already know too much about me," she points out.

"I know exactly three facts about you, and one of them is that you won't let any of us crash at your place."

Kat points to Jake. "That's three too many things."

Rosa nods as she removes her sunglasses. "Exactly," she states. Her eyes catch Amy's figure as the woman stands up. "Is that a nightgown?" she asks in amusement.

Amy glances down to the large, white t-shirt she's wearing. "That's mine," Terry pipes up. "It's a t-shirt from my fat phase."

Santiago nods and as she turns around, they see the print on the back. Kat's eyes squint as she reads it aloud, wondering if she's so tired that she had made a mistake in the spelling. "'If at first you don't secede, try try again.'"

"When you're that big, you buy anything that fits," Terry explains. "A lot of fat guy clothes have racist overtones."

Kat doesn't bother hiding her yawn as she leans back in her chair. She doesn't even want to see her reflection in a mirror. There's no doubt there are large, purple bags underneath her eyes. As she stands up to head into the briefing room, Rosa stops in front of her. "Here," she says, handing the blonde a coffee.

"Aw, is this for me?" Kat asks with a smile.

Rosa frowns. "I just said it was."

"Sorry, I am so tired." She gratefully takes the takeaway coffee cup, and as she takes a sip of the bitter liquid, she realises that Rosa had willingly bought her one on her way here. Rosa Diaz had willingly paid money on a coffee for her.

Rosa Diaz had bought her a coffee.

Once everyone is inside the briefing room, each with their own mandatory mug filled with caffeine, Jake places his hands on the podium and clears his throat. "Okay, a couple of quick announcements. First, I met our night janitor, Ronald. If any of you are missing hand sanitizer, he drank it. Second, our warrants finally went through." He ignores how all of them are staring at him tiredly and with just a sliver of frustration. "We gotta place Whitman at the scene and prove that he either possessed or sold those diamonds."

Holt steps up next to Jake. "I know you're all tired," he addresses them. "But don't forget why we're here."

"Because we're dedicated detectives," Jake responds. He flinches when he notices how Kat is staring at him with no emotion, which is almost worse than yesterday's fuming glares.

"Because Peralta jumped the gun," the captain corrects.

"Yep."

"Get to work."

Jake grins as Holt walks out. "So we both had good answers."

"This isn't a joke," Amy says. "You're ruining our weekend."

"Okay, I'm sorry you had to cancel dinner with your dad."

"Date," she hisses. "I had a date."

Rosa decides to back him up. "Hey, if Jake says the guy did it, that usually means the guy did it."

Kat groans, but nods nevertheless. "I hate it, but she's right."

Jake gestures to them. "Thank you! Everyone listen to Rosa and Kat."

"No, we are still furious at you," the blonde-haired woman reminds him. When Jake turns to Rosa, she merely raises her brows, silently agreeing with Kat.

"Okay, no one listen to Rosa or Kat. They are clearly working together on this crime." They both roll their eyes. Jake sighs. "I'm gonna go take another crack at Whitman."

Amy smiles slightly. "You've been in there, like, five times," she says. "What are you gonna do? Annoy him into talking?"

He stops to turn around and look her in the eyes. "Ha, ha." A few minutes later, Jake returns to the briefing room where everyone is still inside and passes Terry the guitar in his hand. "Didn't work. Thank you. Did not work."

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎ ﾟ。 ⋆

Kat is up to her sixth coffee of the day. The caffeine isn't even working anymore; drinking it is purely a habit. She stares at the file of documents Jake had given her to look through and she unintentionally goes cross-eyed. "God, I am so fucking tired," she mutters, rubbing her hands over her eyes.

"Me too," Jake agrees. He looks between Kat and Amy as he asks, "Can one of you slap me? I can barely keep my eyes op-" Before he can finish, Kat quickly wheels her chair over to his desk and slaps him harshly across his cheek. "Son of a bitch! Why would you do that?" he yells incredulously.

She squints her eyes at him. "One, you asked us to." Amy nods pointedly, a smile etched onto her face after watching the altercation. "Two, I really wanted to."

Jake rubs his cheek and sighs. "Yeah, that sounds about right..." He rolls his eyes at the satisfied smile Kat sends his way. "Okay, do either of you have the bank records?"

Amy nods and hands him the manilla file next to her. "Good thing I didn't reschedule my date for tonight," she says. "We're never leaving here."

Jake flips through the stapled pile of papers. "Well, maybe that's a good thing, you know?"

Kat tilts her head slightly as she looks at him. "In what world is this a good thing?" she retorts.

"For starters," he begins. He turns back to Amy. "I've saved you from another lame internet date with some lame guy named Dirk, or Mar-garine." He scrunches up his nose.

"He's not lame, okay?" Amy folds her arms. "He works with a friend of mine. He has a human name, and I'm not telling you what it is, because you'll look him up and make fun of him."

"Does Kat know his name?" Jake questions, his eyes now glued to his computer screen.

Amy hums. "She does."

Jake drops the file onto his desk. "I can't believe you think so little of me-" His eyes briefly flick over to the blonde. "I can't believe either of you think so little of me," he corrects himself as he quickly types something up, "that would just automatically assume- Is it Luke Meuller?"

The women share a look of disbelief and hurry around to see the screen. "How did you do that?" Amy scoffs.

"Well, you only have one friend, Kylie. And she has seven male co-workers: goatee, goatee, jaunty fedora, profile pic is a sunset, Tasmanian devil tattoo, goatee." Jake clicks on the last profile and brings up Luke's page. "Leaving Luke as the only viable option."

"Huh." Kat smiles as he tilts his head to look up at her. "If only you could be this good of a detective on the actual case we're all stuck here working on."

Amy snorts. "Well, he's nice," she defends her date. "And he uses proper punctuation in texts."

"Dreamboat."

"And I wanted to go out with him," she adds. Kat smiles at her. Amy deserves to have this for herself.

"All right," Jake declares. "You know what? Reschedule for tonight." Kat's brows raise. "I promise I will get us out of here in time."

"If only you could keep your promises..."

Jake's eyes widen in offence at the moment in time she recalls. "Okay, that was one time, Kat, one time!"

Amy grabs her phone as she rolls her eyes at their impending bickering. "No, I'm gonna hold you to that," she tells Jake seriously.

"Where's he taking you?" Rosa calls out, having heard the end of their conversation.

"Terrific! Let's get everyone involved," Amy says sarcastically. Charles spins his chair around to participate. "Dinner and a movie." Rosa blows a raspberry into the palms of her hands. "Dinner and movie is the perfect first date," Amy argues.

"It's not bad," Kat agrees. "It's just gotta be a good movie and good food." Rosa glances over her shoulder to look at the woman for a second.

Charles spreads his hands. "I think the perfect first date doesn't feel like a first date at all, because you've known each other for a few years, maybe even work together..." Kat's brows raise in amusement, knowing that he's still hung up on Rosa. "And one night you're laughing, and then all of a sudden, it's just like blammo! Kissing."

"For me: cheap dinner, watch basketball, bone down."

"So pretty much the same as what I said," Boyle smiles.

"That's seriously what you'd do?" Kat asks her.

Rosa shrugs. "I could be open to other ideas," she says simply.

Amy's eyes widen as she suddenly remembers what to ask her best friend. She spins around to Kat. "Hey, how did it go with Lucy?"

Kat sighs at how everyone is still listening. "Thanks," she mutters. Amy grimaces apologetically.

"Who's Lucy?" Rosa questions curiously.

"The girl I told you and Gina about earlier, the one that said no to the date," Kat explains. Rosa nods slightly.

Amy sighs and rests her chin on Kat's shoulder. "I'm sorry," she whispers. "You deserve so much better."

Kat pats her hand gently. "It's okay," she replies softly. She forces a smile onto her face.

"The next person who tells you no, I'll track them down and punch them in the face," Rosa says lowly. Kat's eyes sparkle with amusement as she glances to her, but her small smile drops when she notices just how serious Rosa really is. "I mean it. She won't be able to walk for a week. Maybe ever."

"I thought you were aiming for the face," Amy points out in confusion.

"Changed my mind."

"You are so consistent," Jake remarks with a laugh.

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎ ﾟ。 ⋆

The task that had been presented to Kat, Charles, and Rosa was to search the DNA database to find if anything recorded at the crime scene yesterday matched Whitman's fingerprints. "None of the partials match Whitman," Rosa groans in frustration. "If he did it, he didn't leave any prints."

Charles stares at the screen for another few seconds before suggesting, "Maybe he doesn't have any." Kat turns her head to look at him. "Interesting fact about me, I once burnt my fingerprints off on a wok."

The blonde-haired woman points to him. "Maybe Whitman burnt his fingerprints off on a wok," she tells Rosa. Diaz rolls her eyes.

"Hi, hello!" Gina makes her way across the bullpen carrying two bags.

"What are you doing?" Boyle asks slowly. "Holt said you didn't have to come in today."

Kat narrows her eyes suspiciously at her sister. "You don't even come in on days you're supposed to work." Charles gestures to her in agreement. "Did someone bribe you?"

"No, because I'm so nice, I brought two pies!" Gina sets the bags down on Charles's desk. "Also, Katie, I brought you dinner 'cause I know you haven't eaten all day."

She grins and stands up to peck her sister's cheek. "You're the best."

Rosa's brows raise as she glances over to Kat. "You haven't eaten today?"

Kat shakes her head as she takes out the noodle box from the bag. "Between working and Jake's shenanigans, I haven't gotten the chance to," she replies. Rosa's lips dip down into a frown for a short moment.

Gina takes out the two boxes from inside as she says, "One of the pies is from Crust, and one's also from... Flatbush Diner." Kat watches Charles immediately tense up, knowing that Gina is going to force him into choosing his favourite. "Hey, you know what might be fun? Kat and Charles could try them and tell us which one is better!"

Kat leans closer to one of the pie boxes and inhales deeply. "Okay," she agrees. Gina squeals. "But only because I'm starving."

Gina grins. "How much fun is this?"

"So fun," Charles says apathetically.

"Yay!" Gina exclaims. She taps her fingers on either box. "Yum, yum, yum. Yummy."

Carrying her noodles and chopsticks, Kat moves her chair over to give room for their pie testing. "I'm not eating pie 'til I finish this," she announces in between bites.

Gina gives her a thumbs up and opens the box containing her dessert. "No worries, all the more focus on Charles!" Boyle blanches a shade lighter at her words. She cuts a slice out and places it onto a plate for him. "Here."

Everyone watches with anticipation as Charles takes a bite of the pie. After chewing for a few seconds in thought, he nods. "It's all right," he admits. "Six out of twelve."

"Out of twelve?" Gina repeats in confusion. "Why?"

"For the twelve components of food satisfaction," Charles explains, frowning at them as if it was obvious. "Salty, sweet, sour, bitter, umami, odour, sound-"

Kat places her lunch down and scrunches her nose up. "Sound? Charles, come on."

Gina points over to the plate with a slice of Flatbush Diner's pie. "Try her nasty pie," she instructs.

Charles slides the plate over and digs his fork into the dessert. Rosa and Gina both lean forward closer to him. Kat's eyes narrow as she watches him try not to gag at the taste of it, and then Charles looks up to Rosa with wide eyes. "Oh, wow." Kat shoves another mouthful of noodles into her mouth and rolls her eyes. "That's the best pie I ever had."

Rosa laughs and gets up in Gina's face to make fun of her. "No," Gina protests, her arms firmly folded across her chest. "No. No, no, no."

Kat leans closer to Charles, the two women too busy distracted with one another to hear what she's about to say. "Stop lying," she whispers to him. Charles's head snaps over to her, and he sighs when he notices the pointed look on her face.

Terry wanders over to the desk with narrowed eyes. "What's this?"

"We were running calls to pawn shops and then waiting for them to call back," Charles tells the sergeant.

"I didn't ask what you were doing," Terry interjects firmly. His eyes flick down to the pies. "I asked what you are doing."

"Pie taste test," Rosa answers. She glances to Kat. "It's almost over, I'm winning." Gina quickly shakes her head.

Terry straightens himself. "That's unacceptable." Boyle hesitantly looks up to him. "If you wanna know which restaurant has better pies, you can't just have one guy try one pie from each place."

"But Kat was gonna-"

"You can't even have two people try a piece from each place," Terry interrupts. "Everybody needs to try all the pies from both places."

Kat nods in agreement and points a chopstick to him. "Smart, change the sample size to get a more accurate average."

"Sure, whatever you said. Now... let's eat some pie."

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎ ﾟ。 ⋆

After washing her mouth of the taste of Asian cuisine, Kat tries to ignore the judgemental eyes on her from both Gina and Rosa as she studies the two plates of pie before her. She looks up to the whiteboard Terry had created for the judging, and so far, Crust is winning. Her eyes move to her sister, then to Rosa, then she slowly places the forkful of Flatbush Diner pie into her mouth.

Before she can even begin to chew, Rosa sits down in the chair beside her. "Well?" she presses impatiently.

Gina nods. "Yeah, well?"

Kat swallows and purses her lips as she locks eyes with Rosa. "It's interesting," she begins. Gina grins, immediately assuming that her opinion isn't going to be great. "As far as pie goes..."

"It's the best," Rosa smiles.

"Actually, it's awful," Kat corrects bluntly. Gina laughs when Rosa freezes as still as a statue. "Sorry, but I can't even lie to you, it's that bad."

Gina snickers as she slaps Rosa's shoulder in a playful manner. "I told you," she exclaims. "I told you!"

Kat grimaces at the curly-haired woman's blank expression. "Sorry, Rosa."

"Diaz," she corrects bluntly. Rosa's eyes meet Kat's for a second. "It's Diaz."

"I've known you for almost five years," she responds with furrowed brows. "You don't call me Linetti, so-"

"It's Diaz, Linetti." Rosa stands up from the chair and walks off into the kitchen. "Later."

Kat groans and shoves another forkful of the awful pie into her mouth. "Damn it," she mutters in annoyance.

Gina takes the chair Rosa had just recently occupied, and she takes a scoop of the Crust pie that has yet to be eaten. "Oh, dang," she comments, her voice muffled slightly. "Still no first name basis? That's cold, girl."

"Don't call me 'girl.'"

"You got it, girl."

"Stop it."

"No worries, girl."

Kat throws her hands up and takes the plate off her sister to put an end to the testing. After chewing for a few seconds, she drops the fork and clasps her hands together. Terry raises his brows as he looks to her for an answer. "It's almost just as bad," she announces. Gina's smile slowly falls. "Neither get a win for me."

Even though she's slightly annoyed, within the kitchen, a small smile adorns Rosa's face as she pours herself another cup of coffee.

Jake on the other hand, has easily made up his mind. "Crust!" he yells, his voice slightly inaudible by the food in his mouth.

Gina quickly gets over her sister's betrayal and pumps a fist into the air. "Yes!"

"Another one for Crust," Terry announces as he makes a marking next to Jake's name. "It's not looking good for Flatbush Diner."

Rosa finally makes her return to check the scoreboard and she frowns at the current results. "Aw, come on!"

Kat returns to her desk and rolls her chair over to Amy's side, then reaching over to straighten her friend's glasses. Jake squints his eyes at Rosa as he takes in her appearance. "You went home and showered?" he observes exasperatedly. "That's so unfair!"

"I'm just glad I keep a toothbrush here," Charles says with a smile.

"Oh, cool," Jake nods. "Hey, can I borrow it?"

Kat and Amy share a grimace, and Charles looks back over to his best friend reluctantly. "Uh... why do you wanna borrow the toothbrush?" he asks, not particularly wanting to hear the answer.

"What possible answer could he give that would make you say yes?" Amy points out.

"I wanna brush my teeth," Jake says nonchalantly.

Kat pulls a face. "Dude!"

"Jake, it's been in my mouth," Charles adds in disgust.

"That's the grossest thing I've ever heard," Amy proclaims as she holds up her hands.

Jake swivels his chair around to her. "That's the grossest thing you've ever heard?" Amy nods with a grimace. "You caught a guy on the subway with a bag of human ears."

Kat shudders at the imagery that flashes through her mind of when she had caught a glimpse of the bloodied ears. Amy waves a hand over to him as she says, "Your thing's grosser."

"Bring out the meringues," Terry calls out.

Gina hurries over from the kitchen with white boxes stacked up in her hands. "I brought a few more!"

"That's so many!"

Kat sighs and makes the decision to approach Rosa. She takes the spare seat at the round table in the kitchen and Rosa instantly looks up from her plate of pie. "So... you're pissed."

"I'm not pissed," Rosa shrugs. Kat arches a brow at her. "Maybe a little pissed. But it's whatever, I'm... kinda glad you didn't lie. I hate when people lie."

"Me too," Kat admits with a nod. "So, we're cool?"

Rosa gives her a brief smile. "We're cool, Linetti."

The blonde rolls her eyes and throws her hands up into the air as she walks away. "I can't win with you people," she yells. As she turns her back, Rosa stifles her laughter.

A few hours passes before Whitman's lawyer finally arrives at the precinct. There's just over ten hours before he's legally allowed to be set free from holding. The squad stands in the bullpen behind Jake and Holt as they watch the suited man enter. "Are you the idiot that made the Friday night arrest?" he asks irritably. Jake winces and dips his head. "I was in the Poconos with my wife. You ruined my entire weekend."

"Get in line," Jake points to the squad behind him, all glaring at him with various levels of intensity, "because that's their attitude. Get your own attitude."

"He has an alibi, geniuses. He was at Torque. It's a nightclub in Cape May, New Jersey, all night."

"Nice try," Jake claps back. "You think I'm gonna waste six hours driving to Jersey Shore and back on some fake alibi?"

Kat huffs a sigh. "Someone should," she mutters. Amy pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose and nods in agreement.

"It's up to you," the lawyer replies with a smile. "But in ten hours, he walks."

"More like in ten hours, he walks... into prison!"

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎ ﾟ。 ⋆

Katherine Linetti is more than fed up of hearing anything about Dustin Whitman or with a jewellery store robbery. For the last ten minutes, she had been at her desk with her head dropped on the table. She wants a shower, she wants to see her dog, and she wants to sleep. But there's less than an hour left before this finally ends. She almost can't find the strength or energy to care about the repercussions for the precinct if Whitman sues them for unlawful arrest.

Taking a deep breath, she forces herself to sit up, just in time to see Jake wheeling a cart full of boxes containing files. "Okay," she announces, her voice slightly rough from not drinking enough water in the last few hours. "What can we do?"

Amy nods and rubs her friend's shoulder. "Yeah, put us to work," she agrees.

Jake glances to them. "Oh, neither of your services will be necessary," he nods to Amy, "because you need to go home and change for your date." Then he looks to Kat. "And you need to go and sleep. Or get some concealer for under your eyes, either one is fine."

With a scowl, Kat throws the mouse for her keyboard at his head. Amy grins, although Jake manages to dodge it just in time. "Damn it," the blonde mutters.

"Kat," Rosa calls out. Once they lock eyes, she throws the detective a bottle of water.

A soft smile adorns her face. "Thanks," she says appreciatively. How had Rosa noticed?

After giving Kat a sickly sweet smile and his middle finger, his eyes flick back to Amy. "I called handsome Luke and explained the weekend was entirely my fault, partially. And he wants to go out with you tonight!"

Kat's sudden rage toward Jake disappears and she grins. "Okay, that's sweet," she admits.

Jake nods, his own smile etched onto his face. "I know, I'm the best."

"Do you want me to remind you that this weekend is entirely your fault?"

"Nope, I'm good, no need." He points to Amy as he quickly remembers something. "Oh, and promise me you won't use the condoms in the secret pocket of your purse, okay? They're expired."

Amy's eyes widen slightly, feeling vulnerable from the invasion of privacy. "How do you know what's in my purse?"

"I needed concealer for a zit," he defends himself. Amy glances to Kat in disbelief. "Plus, you know, we spend so much time together here, I know everything about everyone. Kat secretly loves Taylor Swift-"

She clicks her tongue. "Not a secret!"

"I know Hitchcock went bald at fifteen," Jake continues. "Scully used to date Hitchcock's wife, Charles has a bike with a little basket on the front-"

"How else would you carry baguettes?" Charles retorts with a scoff.

"And Rosa has a shower in her apartment... I think." Jake shakes his head. "I got nothing on her."

Still holding a box of pie, Rosa glances over to them. "Good."

Amy stuffs her hands into the pockets of her pants. "Well, I guess we did just spend forty-eight hours locked in here together," she reasons.

Jake goes to nod, however, he suddenly freezes. Kat's eyes widen as she recognises the tell-tale moment of when he has an epiphany. "Oh, my God, did you just solve this?" she asks in disbelief.

"Holy crap," he murmurs to himself, not having heard her question. He races past them and into Holt's office.

Amy's eyes flick around in confusion. "What just happened?" she questions her best friend.

Kat grins. "Amy Santiago, you just witnessed the brilliant, yet albeit, idiotic and childish mind of Jake Peralta."

Half an hour later, Dustin Whitman is walked out of the precinct in handcuffs. Jake had nailed him as an accomplice to the heist, where Whitman had taught one of his cellmates back in prison how to pull the robbery off. It had been a long forty-eight hours, but Jake had been right after all.

Kat and Gina are in the middle of yet another Monopoly game when Charles returns to the bullpen with a plastic bag in hand. The siblings pause their game once they notice he's walking over to Rosa who is in the middle of paperwork. They both share a look with each other and turn their attention onto the conversation.

"Hey, Rosa." Charles places the bag onto her desk as she looks up to him. "The Flatbush Diner's pie is terrible."

Kat grins. "There he is."

"It's inedible," he adds honestly. "Food is supposed to be edible."

"So you were lying?" Rosa concludes with a scowl. "What the hell, Boyle?"

Of course, Gina can't resist the opportunity to go and throw the loss in Rosa's face. Again. She giggles as she skips over to them, leaving her sister to roll her eyes and trail behind. "Put it in the suck-it bucket!" she says happily.

But then Charles turns his brutal honesty onto her. "Crust isn't any better," he states.

Kat gestures to him. "Thank you!" she exclaims.

"It's fancier, but it's all bells and whistles." Gina folds her arms and scoffs. "Desserts don't need to be clever. They just need to be good." Charles takes out the bright pink box from inside the bag. "This, is the best pie in New York City."

Katherine's eyes widen as she instantly gets a whiff off the strong vanilla and spiced apple as soon as the box is opened. "Oh dang," she murmurs. "This smells like heaven."

"Apple from Argos Bakery, founded in nineteen-ten. Recipe unchanged." Charles says. He sticks three forks into the pie and holds his hands out. "Taste it."

The three women all move closer and dig forkfuls out of the pie. As soon as it hits her tongue, Kat closes her eyes and sighs. "Oh fuck, this is good."

Rosa's eyes are wide in awe. "Damn, it is amazing."

"This pie is so good, I hate it," Gina adds as she shakes her head. She quickly dives in for another bite.

Charles crouches down slightly as he exclaims, "You just graduated pie-school bitches!" Almost instantly after, he apologises. "Sorry I said 'bitches,' I'm just really worked up."

"Don't take it back," Kat critiques him in between her bites of the delicacy. "It's very fitting."

Charles nods and grins as he walks away, more than happy with himself. "Yow!"

Once the apple pie is demolished, everyone gathers their personal belongings together and finally head out for the day. "Sorry for screwing up everyone's weekend," Jake apologises. They all gather by the elevator, and he stops at the gate. "Hey, uh, drinks on me. Who's in?"

"I will be sleeping until the end of time," Kat deadpans. "Over my dead body am I going for drinks with you right now."

"But you can pay for them tomorrow," Rosa adds. Kat smiles at the thought of purposefully charging Jake an obscene amount for alcohol.

"Yeah, I got the date," Amy tells them, holding up her high heels and dress. "I gotta change."

"Everyone's tired, Peralta," Holt calls out. "They just wanna go home."

"Yeah, but I have to prove I'm not selfish," Jake counters as he turns back to the group. "So I don't care what they want!" Kat stares blankly at him and he nods. "Yeah, I heard it, that sounded bad." He glances back to Holt and sighs. "And to make up for what I did, I'll cover one shift each for all of you!" They all grin and laugh as they file into the elevator, and Kat throws him a smile. "Except Santiago," Jake adds quickly.

"What?"

"I got you your date back. One nice thing from me is all you get."

𝘪 𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘪 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘺 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘧𝘢𝘷𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦. 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘪 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘓𝘖𝘕𝘎 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘪 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘥𝘦 😭