𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐞 | 𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻

HAPPINESS. KATHERINE LINETTI NEVER FELT permanently happy. The emotion wasn't injected into her veins like how it was with some of her friends. Instead, she felt happiness in small bursts, like someone would when eating a piece of popping candy. It's a fleeting feeling, it's ephemeral. Short and sweet. Title of your sex tape, Jake would say. Happiness wasn't rare for Kat, no. But whenever she felt it, she treasured the moments with everything in her. Because when she felt happy, she felt truly alive. As she watches Amy place a tall coffee cup on the table she is sat at within the briefing room, she feels happy. "You really didn't have to," she scolds lightly, her lips tugged into a grateful smile.

Her best friend scoffs and drops into the empty chair beside her. "Of course I did. But it took ten minutes too long because the barista couldn't understand that some people end the name Amy with a Y, not an IE. Who the hell spells Amy as 'Amie'?" The dark-haired woman scrunches her nose up.

Swallowing the mouthful of hot caffeine, she chuckles and shrugs. "Obviously not your parents." Amy rolls her eyes. Kat grins. "Thank you," she adds gratefully. Amy gives in and a smile adorns her face, but it does little to mask over the heavy bags underneath her eyes. She looks the epitome of exhaustion.

Rosa Diaz draws their attention as her chair scrapes against the floor a few rows back. Her narrowed eyes are trained on the cardboard cup in her co-worker's hands. "Coffee," she states simply. If one stared into her eyes close enough, they might notice faint hearts appearing in her pupils.

"Not sharing, get your own."

Charles arches an eyebrow at Kat's snappy tone. "Someone slept on the wrong side of the bed," he comments playfully. "Let me guess, lover problems?"

She stares at him. "Is that seriously the first thing that comes to mind when you think about why I don't want to share my coffee?"

The man throws his hands up into the air with a sly smile. "You didn't deny it," he exclaims pointedly.

"Well, I am now." Charles deflates at her words. "Gina's apartment has some plumbing issue, so she stayed the night."

Rosa lets her crossed legs drape off the corner of the desk, and she raises her eyebrows knowingly. "She took your bed and made you sleep on the couch?"

"Yep," Kat responds with a click of her tongue.

Amy takes a sip of her own coffee. "But it's your apartment," she points out.

"I'd like to see you say no to my sister when she's running on two hours sleep, let alone normally." The three participants in the conversation all nod and make small noises in agreement. Kat sighs. "But since I didn't say no, I'm now the one running on two hours sleep," she grumbles wearily.

Footsteps come into earshot and Gina Linetti enters the briefing room. She saunters past her colleagues with her eyes glued to her phone. As she walks past her sister, she says, "Put some concealer on, you look like a zombie." She doesn't look up from the device once.

"'Thanks for letting me crash last night. You're the best sister ever, I love you so much!'" Katherine suggests in a deadpanned tone. Now seated, Gina hums. She doesn't speak a word.

Charles catches his friend's eyes and mouths, I bet you're regretting it now.

Kat observes her sister's chipper manner and scowls. "Yes, Boyle. Obviously I'm regretting it," she responds loudly. The man winces. She looks back over to Amy. "Oh, how did it go yesterday? Did you find the perp? You never said." Santiago's mood instantly shifts. Her frown is so prominent that Kat thinks it might become permanently stitched into her skin. "Oh," she mutters in realisation. "You didn't."

As if he had been listening to the entire conversation, Jake enters the room on cue with gusto and pride. The smug grin that is etched onto his lips is infectious enough for almost all of the room to smile themselves, safe aside from the one most effected (negatively, of course), Amy Santiago. "Top of the mornin' to ya, lads! And... laddies...?"

Amy groans and lays her forehead onto her folded arms, whispering to her best friend, "Kill me now."

Kat's expression turns into something sympathetic as she lays a hand on the woman's wrist. "Any preferred methods?" Amy groans again.

The person that enters next instantly commands the room the second he walks in. Well, almost all the room. Terry's eyes squint from his position at the podium. "Peralta," he calls out. Jake pauses his conversation with Charles and looks over to him. Terry rolls his eyes and raises his eyebrows pointedly at the detective.

Jake blinks back at him.

"Oh, my God, just get it over with," Amy complains.

Realisation lights up his face. The beaming smile from a minute ago returns. Peralta turns his head over to the woman clearly suffering in immense pain. "Santiago, would you do the honours?"

Kat pats Amy's back encouragingly as the woman reluctantly pushes back her chair with a scowl so large that she resembles a toddler being told they can't have dessert after dinner. She stomps up to the front of the room and snatches the marker in Terry's outstretched hand, then makes her way over to the whiteboard. In the top right hand is a small table with both Peralta and Santiago's names written in their separate rows. Below are two numbers: twenty-three and twenty-two. Amy erases the twenty-three on Jake's side. "I hate this," she mutters. "I hate this."

"Oh, yeah. And you're just gonna wanna add one," Jake calls out patronisingly. "I'm winning." Somehow, the grin has widened.

Kat quietly snickers above her coffee cup. As much as she doesn't like seeing Amy suffer (or Jake when it does happen), the petty rivalry between the two is more than amusing to her. It's safe to say that she thoroughly enjoys watching both her best friends go through a rollercoaster of emotions as they try to one-up the other. Scattered applause spreads throughout the now full briefing room as they wait for the daily pre-meeting occurrence to come to a conclusion. Amy rolls her eyes she returns to her seat. "Good on ya, Ames," Kat calls out.

"It's a good feeling!" Jake looks around and makes sure each of his friends are clapping before he nods in satisfaction. His smile still hasn't left his face. "It's a good feeling. Yeah."

Amy's own smile turns sickly sweet. "Enjoy it while it lasts," she sneers at him.

"I will!"

"Still want me to kill you?" Kat whispers.

The woman rolls her eyes in amusement. When she notices how her friend hasn't turned away, she shakes her head. "No, 'cause I have to be alive to kick his ass," she mutters back.

Terry clears his throat. "All right, morning briefing. JP, update on the Morgenthau murder?"

With a clap on the back from Charles, Jake jumps up and makes his way to the podium. "Yeah! Good news for all you murder fans," he begins, excitement lacing his every word.

"Whoo!"

He points to Katherine with a grin. She mirrors his facial expression. "There's one! Earlier this morning, someone decided to shoot and kill luxury food importer, Henry Morgenthau." The TV screen flicks from the crime scene to a photo of the aforementioned victim. The screen moves to a photo of the dead body. "Body was found by the cleaning lady, during her interview, I deduced, using expert detective work, that she had something super gross on her chin."

"Oh, God," Kat murmurs. She closes her eyes in disgust, not wanting to witness whatever is about to be shown. "Tell me when it's over..."

The photograph of the cleaning lady on the screen zooms in closer to her chin. The entire room groans.

"I think it was flan," Charles concludes.

"Charles thinks it was flan. I think it was butterscotch pudding." Jake opens his arms for suggestions.

"Maybe it was just old person gunk," Rosa proposes. "You know how old people always have that gunk on them?"

With her hands still covering her eyes, Kat points backward in the direction of Diaz. "Can't see it, but I agree with her."

Jake nods. "Oldie gunk. Could be, yeah. Anyone else?"

Before the anymore suggestions can be voiced aloud, Terry cuts in to redirect the conversation. "How about we focus on the murder and not the old person gunk?"

Kat removes a hand and opens a single eye. "Are you telling us to take a murder case seriously?" The sergeant stares at her in exasperation. "Crime techs are at the scene now."

"Yeah, we're heading back when they're done," Amy adds.

"Okay, I want you on this. It's gonna be priority one for the new C.O."

Right as everyone begins to stand up and file out of the room, Rosa calls out, "Wait, tell us about the new captain."

"Captain Holt will be here soon," Terry informs them. "He'll wanna introduce himself. Dismissed."

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎ ﾟ。 ⋆

Kat's eyes squint as she watches her sister fill out forms, occasionally glancing over to her phone that vibrates with a message. Her desk is positioned almost directly in front of Gina's, giving her the perfect view to study her sibling's facial expressions. Which means that she can figure out when is a good time to talk about subjects, and when isn't. She strides across the room and softly clears her throat. "Hey, Gines?"

Gina looks up from her paperwork. "Hm? What can I do for you today, Kitty Kat?"

"Don't call me that."

"You got it, Kitty Kat."

She sighs. "Whatever. I just wanted to ask if you knew when your apartment would be back to normal?" Gina's eyes squint. "Not that I don't love you staying with me! Nothing about that, I was just, you know..."

The older woman hums. "The guy called me an hour ago, he's hot I might add, said it should be done by this afternoon," she says.

"Oh, thank God-" Kat's small smile drops. Her sister arches a brow. "I mean, thank God your apartment is okay!" She begins to walk backward. "Wouldn't want it flooding and all that stuff..." Gina slowly nods. "Thanks, Gines!"

Plopping back down at her three-way desk placement with Amy and Jake, Katherine is barely given a second before Charles bounds over. "Kat! Hi, can I talk to you about something?" She raises her eyebrows when he takes Amy's currently unoccupied chair and slides over to her.

She chuckles. "What's up?"

"Rosa."

"What about her?"

Charles begins drumming his fingers on the desk. "Does she like Rihanna?"

Kat gives him a look. "Why the hell would I know that? No one knows anything about her. Literally nothing. The only thing I do know is that she somehow always has an axe on her." She tilts her head to the side in thought, and her eyes find Rosa rifling through a filing cabinet. "How does she hide it?"

"No, you're right." He pauses. "Well, you're wrong, not nothing. I just gotta ask someone more informed."

She scoffs as she watches him quickly walk over to Gina's desk. "Are you kidding me?"

Amy drops a stack of papers and wheels her chair back to its rightful place. "Huh?"

"Oh, nothing," Kat quickly reassures. "Just Charles being... Charles."

"Ah."

Before Santiago can question anything further, Charles hurries back over and plants his hands on Kat's desk. "I need you to look up where to get tickets for old movies," he rushes out. He hurries away.

Both women look to one another in confusion. "Charles!" Kat calls out. He's already out of sight. "Why the f-"

"He's trying to take Rosa on a date," Gina answers for her. Her sister's head snaps over to the desk stationed near the captain's office. "Yeah, I already told him he isn't her type. No, I didn't tell him that you fantasise about her on the daily."

Katherine's mouth falls open. "I-I do not!" she protests.

Gina grimaces. "Oh, honey. Denial is not a good look on you."

Amy snorts. Kat looks to her with wide eyes of betrayal. "Ames!"

The second hand slowly ticks by on the clock overlooking the bullpen. Eventually, ten minutes passes by. Which means that Kat had finished writing her arrest report from yesterday but was no less tired than when she had begun. She yawns and takes another sip of the refill coffee she retrieved an hour earlier.

"Hey," Amy greets. She sits atop the junction where both her and Jake's desks meet. "Have either of you heard anything about the new captain?"

The blonde shakes her head. "Nope, nothing."

"Uh, no, and I don't care," Jake replies nonchalantly. Santiago raises her eyebrows. "I just wish Captain McGintley never left; he was the best."

Kat rests her chin in her palm and sighs. "Man, he was the best, wasn't he?"

Jake nods. "Yeah, he really was..."

Amy looks between the two in disbelief. They both have gone into some dazed, dream-like state. "He was terrible!" she exclaims. "You just liked him 'cause he let you do anything you wanted."

"On your marks..." Positioned next to each other in their chairs, Jake, Rosa, and Kat all hold fire extinguishers in their hands whilst the entirety of the bullpen watches on in curiosity and excitement. "Get set...."

Jake's countdown is interrupted as the door to the captain's office opens. Everyone falls silent. McGintley surveys his precinct with narrowed eyes. "What the hell's going on around here?"

Kat grips her extinguisher a little tighter. "Fire extinguisher roller chair derby?" She sheepishly smiles.

Their commanding officer nods. "Okay," he answers, completely unbothered by whatever is about to occur. When he turns around and shuts the door, the bullpen erupts back into applause and encouraging cheers.

"And go!" Rosa yells.

The three competitors immediately burst out laughing as the extinguishers spray, and the chairs are flown back across the open floor, much like a rocket launcher would. Once they hit the crime-scene tape being used as a finish line, they all loudly whoop.

Jake looks to his best friend who shrugs, then turns back to Amy. "What's your point?"

She sighs. "If I'm ever gonna make captain, I need a good mentor," she explains. "I need my rabbi."

"Sorry, dude... But this new guy's gonna be another washed-up pencil pusher who's only concerned with-" Jake puts on a robotic tone of voice. "- following every rule in the patrol guide." Katherine's smile falls within the speed of light and she frantically tries to grab her friend's attention, all the while staying out of sight of the newcomer. Peralta fails to see. "Meep morp zeep. Robot captain engage."

Kat purses her lips together whilst an amused smirk appears on Amy's face. The surrounding detectives stop what they were doing and watch the situation unfold. "Oh, God," the Linetti whispers to herself.

"Is that what you think?"

The deep voice causes Jake's spine to straighten rigidly, but he turns around with a smile on his face. "He-Hey!" He stands up to greet the man. "New captain alert!" He laughs. "You must be the new C.O. I'm Detective Jake Peralta. Great to meet you."

"No, don't let me interrupt. You were describing what kind of person I'm going to be. I'd like you to finish."

"This is a train wreck," Kat mutters. She plasters on a smile when the captain's eyes flick over to her. "Nice to meet you, sir."

Jake shifts when the attention returns to him. "Uh- That's not necessary..." The captain stares at him. "... Or I could recap very quickly, sure." He briefly looks around the room to see his colleagues all observing with various expressions showing their enjoyment, and Amy standing beside him who looks far too proud to see him embarrass himself again. "Um, let's see. I think I said some joke about being a washed-up pencil pusher."

"Now do the robot voice."

"Which-"

"The robot voice you were doing when you implied I'm a rule-following robot. I wanna hear it again."

Jake looks around the room again as he hesitates. With little to no enthusiasm, he repeats his words from before. "Meep morp... zarp." Just to sell it, he mimics a robot with his arms. "Robot..."

"That's a terrible robot voice."

Peralta agrees with a dip of his head. "Yep..."

"The next time I see you, I'd like you to be wearing a necktie."

As the captain walks off toward his office, Jake jumps in. "Oh, actually, the last captain didn't care if we wore ties." Kat's eyes widen and she hurriedly grabs a scrap of paper, scrunches it into a tight ball, and throws it harshly at his head. He winces. "Ow," he hisses.

Spinning back around, the man stares Peralta down. "Well, your new captain does."

"Dude, I tried to help you," Kat murmurs, now standing beside him. Amy refrains her smile from growing.

"And more importantly, he cares that you follow his direct orders. Everyone, I'm your new commanding officer, Captain Ray Holt."

"Speech!" Amy cheers with a weak smile.

Holt looks to her. "That was my speech," he says in the same monotone voice.

"Short and sweet," she praises with a nod.

Kat braces for Jake to make a comment, however, when he doesn't, her eyebrows shoot up in surprise. Perhaps he's just waiting so he doesn't make a further bad impression on their new boss. Yeah, that's definitely the case.

"Sergeant Jeffords," Holt calls out. "A word."

Terry nods and walks past his subordinates toward the office. "Yes, sir."

Counting down from five with her fingers, Kat locks eyes with Jake on one. "Title of your sex tape," he comments with a grin.

"There it is."

Rolling her eyes once more, Amy is still in a daze. "I love that guy," she says in awe.

"He's so suave," Gina agrees. The door to the office closes. "Does anyone get a little bit of a gay vibe?"

Her sister claps her hands together. "Yes! I thought I was the only one!" The rest of the squad looks off in thought.

Jake throws an arm around Kat's shoulders. "Aw, you guys are like our real life gaydars!"

The siblings share a look. Gina turns back around to her desk. Kat shrugs off his arm.

"Absolutely not."

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎ ﾟ。 ⋆

Placing the plaque with his name onto the desk inside his office, Captain Holt looks up to the man standing before him. "Sergeant, you were in the One-Eight with me." He sits down in his leather chair. "Though you were significantly..."

"Fatter, sir," Terry finishes off for him. "They called me 'Terry Titties.' Because I had large, uh-"

"Titties, yes. I remember. I never liked that nickname." Holt pauses. "Though to be fair, it was accurate." Terry frowns. "What's this I heard about you being on administrative leave?"

Jeffords takes a deep breath. "A year ago, my wife and I had twin baby girls." He pulls out his wallet to show his new boss a photograph of his kids. "Cagney and Lacey," he adds with a smile.

"They have adorable chubby cheeks."

The wallet is shut. "Ever since, I kinda got scared of getting hurt. Lost my edge. There was... an incident in a department store." Terry stares into the space behind Holt, reminiscing of the moment. "And I'm still not right."

Understanding that the subject doesn't need to be touched on any further, Captain Holt spins his chair slightly. "Tell me about your detective squad," he says, both men moving over to the window.

Jeffords clears his throat. "Um..." He gestures to three detectives clustered together and drinking coffee. "Well, Scully, Hitchcock, and Daniels. They're pretty much worthless, but they make good coffee."

Holt nods. "Copy that."

"Now the good ones," Terry states. He points to the woman with curly, black hair typing at her computer. "Rosa Diaz. Tough, smart, hard to read, and really scary." She taps the side of the monitor once. Her lips purse, then she begins to whack it violently to get it to speed up.

Storming into the copier room, Rosa stares daggers at Hitchcock. He turns around at her arrival. "Tell me who has me for Secret Santa," she demands.

He smiles. "No! That takes all the fun out of it." Rosa's eyes narrow a fraction. Her jaw clenches. Hitchcock dryly swallows. "It's Scully," he rushes out. "He got you a scarf. I'll make him return it.

"Yes, you will."

"Charles Boyle." Terry motions over to detective at his desk, multiple files in his hands and his phone resting between his ear and shoulder. "He's a grinder. Not the most brilliant detective, but he works harder than anyone else." Charles drops a file. "He's not physically... gifted."

In the kitchen, Boyle takes out a muffin from a container then immediately drops it onto the floor. He sighs. "Aw, man! My muffin..." He bends down to pick it up, but fails as he smacks his forehead harshly on the countertop. "Ah!" Charles places a hand on the injury. "Oh, my head!" He looks down to see that in the process he's stepped on his muffin. "My muffin, my head! And I stepped on the- on my muffin! And my head and my muffin..."

"Katherine Linetti." The two men look out to see her taking a sip of something out of a ceramic coffee cup, then immediately grimacing at the taste and subtly spitting it back out. "She's smart, possibly one of the smartest people I've ever met, but only when she wants to be."

With her eyes closed, Kat mindlessly taps her ballpoint pen against her desk as she recites endless numbers. "Three-point-one-four-one-five-nine-two-six-five-three..." She continues to recite pi for another minute until her phone rings. "Hello? This is to confirm the shipment of shaving cream and the- yeah, fake hair." Her gaze falls onto Jake, and she grins. Mischief twinkles in her eyes when he turns around upon feeling someone staring, and he waves awkwardly. "Oh, yes, definitely confirmed."

"Amy Santiago." Terry points to the female playing with a ball of rubber bands, her lips pursed in thought as she stares at a document. "She's got seven brothers, so she's always trying to prove she's tough."

In the break room seated at the table with Scully, Amy pours hot sauce onto her sandwich. "Careful," Scully warns. "That stuff's pretty hot."

She slowly turns her head to look at him and opens the cap of the bottle again. "Oh, is it? Hm?" Even though Scully is completely focused on something else, Amy dumps the sauce onto her lunch. As she takes a bite it drips down her hands, and after a second she winces in pain. A few moments later, she begins to cough.

"She and Peralta have some big bet over who gets more arrests this year." Terry glances over to Holt. "Ever since the bet, their numbers have gone way up."

The captain jerks his head to the window. "Tell me about Peralta."

"Jacob Peralta is my best detective," he begins. Jake holds an action figure in his hands. "He likes putting away bad guys and he loves solving puzzles. The only puzzle he hasn't solved is how to grow up."

"That was very well put," Holt praises.

"I've talked a lot about Jake in my departmentally mandated therapy sessions," Terry admits hesitantly.

"Look, you know my history. You know how important this is to me. This precinct is doing fine, but I wanna make it the best one in Brooklyn." Jeffords nods in understanding. "And I need your help."

"Absolutely, sir." Terry holds out his hand for Holt to shake. They do. "Where do we start?"

Holt looks back out the window to see Jake now up and out of his seat, dancing around and clicking his fingers in front of Kat and Amy. "What is happening?" Peralta sings. Kat stifles her laugh at the look on Santiago's face.

"We start with him."

𝘏𝘪 𝘮𝘺 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴!!

𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳! 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘧𝘶𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦, 𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 🥰

𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦!

𝘓𝘪𝘷 𝘹𝘹