𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲-𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 | 𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻

JAKE PERALTA IS PANICKING. AFTER a single conversation with Hitchcock, he had raced into the break room to quietly converse with the squad. They had screwed up majorly. "Guys! Guys, guys." He immediately gets their attention. "We missed Scully's birthday, and it was a big one."

"I know." Amy grimaces. "I panicked and said I had to go to the vet because my puppy-cat got sick."

"I said I had to take my mom to get birth control pills," Charles chimes in.

Terry sighs. "That's better than my excuse," he admits. "I said I had to go to my girls' bat mitzvahs."

Kat rolls her eyes. "You're all amateurs," she declares. Gina quickly nods in agreement. "The best thing to say is the death of a triplet. You can use that one twice." Rosa chuckles as the blonde points to her forehead with a proud smile.

Jake's eyes widen in surprise. "Huh..."

"Squad, we missed Scully's birthday, and it was a big one." The group look over to Holt who has walked in, making sure to close the door behind him. "I told them I was in Ecuador. I think they bought it."

"We gotta make it up to him," Jake says.

"Let's give him cash," Holt suggests. They all take their wallets out. "Everyone, put in twenty dollars each." Jake opens his mouth to protest, but the captain holds a hand up to him. "Yes, I'll cover you."

After pooling together one-hundred and sixty dollars – which in Kat's opinion is far too much to give Scully of all people – they approach the desks of the older detectives. "Hey, Scully," Jake calls out. "We're sorry that we missed your party." He offers the man an envelope with a blue ribbon attached.

"Oh, don't worry about it," Scully smiles. Kat breathes a sigh of relief, moving to take the envelope back, but stops when Holt grabs her arm. "You all had stuff to do."

"Yes, the capital of Ecuador is Quinto," Holt reveals. Scully smiles brightly, completely clueless to what he's talking about. "Anyway, happy birthday from all of us."

"Thanks, guys. You're the best."

The group all wish him a belated happy birthday before returning to their daily tasks. Katherine, however, continues staring at both Hitchcock and Scully. It wasn't long ago when they had told her she had missed Christmas and forgotten to get them a present. They had tried that in April. April. She's convinced this is just another elaborate scheme.

"I'm watching you," she warns them. Hitchcock shrugs and Scully continues to smile. "I don't believe this," she waves a hand at them, "for a second."

They watch her walk away, and the second Kat disappears back into the break room, Hitchcock leans across his desk to Scully with a triumphant smile. "I can't believe it," he whispers happily. "The fake birthday worked!" Scully hands him half the money. "You're a genius!"

"We're both geniuses," Scully exclaims proudly. They clink their mugs together as a celebratory toast, but Scully immediately spits his mouthful out. As pins rain down on the desk, Hitchcock doesn't even flinch as one sticks into his arm. "Thumbtack mug. That was my thumbtack mug..."

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎。 ⋆

The morning briefing the following day is centred around the Giggle Pig task force. After catching a few low-level dealers across the last few weeks, there still hasn't been any major action around the new drug. They haven't arrested anyone big, no one impactful enough to properly affect the supply chain.

"I'm running this task force," Rosa reminds the room. "So everything goes through me. Got it?" She waits for no response. "Good. Jackson, some ecstasy was found on the F train. Take it to the lab, find out if it's Giggle Pig. Scully, Hitchcock, work your C.I.'s. Miller, get a new K-9. That dog is an idiot."

The German shepherd whimpers.

Kat sighs. "Diaz," she says warningly.

Rosa briefly glances to the sergeant stood beside her and she groans in frustration. "I..." She grits her teeth as she looks back to the dog. "You're not an idiot." Kat smiles. "All right, move out."

As the room files out, Rosa turns to her with a questioning look. "You did great," Kat reassures her. "Super commanding. Just cool it on the K-9s."

"Copy that," Rosa nods.

"Hey! Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry I'm late." Jake rushes into the room with an apologetic smile. "I had to go back to the deli and return my everything bagel," he explains. "In what world does 'everything' not include beef jerky?"

"All of them," Rosa answers.

Kat narrows her eyes at him. "Did you just say you were late to a police briefing because you had to return your bagel?" she asks dryly.

Jake hesitates. "... Yes?"

"I give up," she laughs. "I actually give up."

Rosa sighs, throwing her friend a sympathetic look upon seeing just how annoyed she is. "Okay, here's what's up." Jake sits down on the closest desk and Charles moves closer with a curious expression. "Task force brought in a Giggle Pig dealer this morning."

The two detectives nod, impressed by the new information. "Noice!"

"Second guy we've brought in that's had one of these keys." Rosa holds out an old, brass key with elaborate details engraved into the metal.

"Huh..." Jake squints his eyes slightly as he looks over it. "My best guess, this opens a creepy, old wardrobe slash portal to an enchanted land full of talking toads and fairy folk."

Kat gasps. "Oh, are we talking a Narnia level creepy, old wardrobe?" With a grin on his face, Jake nods.

"This is everything," Charles squeals in excitement.

Rosa rolls her eyes at them. "It has something to do with the post office," she continues, trying to get all three of her friends back on track. "It's got 'USPIS' engraved on it."

Kat clears her throat. "Right, yes. We need you to take it to the Postal Inspection Service," she instructs Charles and Jake. "See what you can find out about it."

"You got it."

As they walk off, Rosa straightens herself and calls out, "Hey, work this thing hard. We're under a lot of pressure with the task force, so we could really use a win."

"What she means to say is, leave all the melodramatic, childish behaviour here," Kat says seriously.

"Do not muck around, Peralta."

"You got it," Jake confirms. "You're my friends and I won't let you down, specifically you, because you're the leader of this thing..." Rosa narrows her eyes at him. "I'm gonna push you up, just like a bra."

"What?"

Whilst Charles grimaces, Jake tries to find a way out of the hole he's dug himself into. "I meant like a brassiere, which is totally different," he chuckles. He frowns at Kat and Rosa's unamused expressions. "Everyone around here is so serious," he complains. "What will it take for someone to laugh?"

"Get out of here!" Katherine exclaims exasperatedly.

"Yep!"

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎。 ⋆

With Jake and Charles gone and Rosa continuing her work on the task force, the rest of the Nine-Nine return to their normal routine of paperwork. Something Katherine Linetti had known about for the last two years was that Amy had a habit of occasionally smoking a cigarette when things got too overwhelming. It could be because she has an almost completed degree in psychology, or it could just be the fact she's always been an attentive friend, but Kat had noticed that Amy had been under constant stress throughout the last few months. And she knew why, too.

It was the anxiety of having to suppress her growing feelings for Jake – no matter how hard she tried to push them away – and trying to distract herself by adding extra work during the week. Both women were in a similar predicament (as much as Kat would continue to deny that she no longer felt anything for Rosa), and they coped with their emotions in various ways.

When they weren't together to distract themselves, Amy succumbed to an unhealthier strategy. So, Kat had bought her best friend her first packet of nicotine chewing gum. However, as time passed, Amy's body got used to the effects of the gum, eventually meaning it no longer worked. The pair had gone through a list of ways to try and get Amy off smoking, but each time Kat would realise that it wouldn't end up working.

Of course, the pressure and stress of trying her hardest to overcome an addiction was finally getting under Amy's skin. "Santiago, I may need you to come in for a bit on Saturday," Holt informs the woman.

Amy closes her eyes and sighs. "Again?" she retorts. "Are you kidding me, man?" The people closest to her stare at her in surprise. Amy gasps when she realises what she's just said, quickly standing up to try and smooth things over with the captain. "I'm sorry, let's start fresh. Hi!"

"Oh, my God," Terry says in disbelief.

"What just happened?" Holt asks.

Gina looks up to him. "Her mind finally snapped, like a stale breadstick," she replies.

Kat rolls her eyes. "Okay, let it go, people," she calls out. Amy meets her gaze for a second, throwing her a small, appreciative smile. "We all make mistakes."

"Captain, please forgive me," Amy says. "I'm just a little on edge because I'm trying to quit smoking... I can't take the stress of hiding it from Teddy anymore."

Kat frowns at her words. She had known Amy struggled to keep her addiction a secret from her boyfriend, but in her opinion, she shouldn't have to feel like she needs to keep it a secret in the first place. She had realised a few months ago that Teddy was one of the reasons Amy was smoking, and she had tried to convince her to leave him. Finally, it seemed like she was getting through. Amy was currently in the process of crafting a breakup speech.

"Kat's been helping me, but I'm going cold turkey and it makes me... irritable."

The same time as she speaks, Terry does as well. "Terrifying."

Amy glares at him. "It's been really hard trying to stop." She glances back to Kat with a small smile. "But it would be great if you guys could maybe keep an eye on me?"

"Of course," Holt nods. "We'll do everything we can to help."

"Or, plan B," Gina begins. "I could arrange for you to go to a safe place where you can just relax and watch pretty boats go by." She turns her computer monitor around to show she had been looking up mental health centres. "Look, this one's on an island!"

"Regina," Kat scolds disapprovingly. She throws a paper ball at her sister's head and successfully hits her target.

Whilst the nicotine gum no longer worked, Kat suggested trying regular flavoured gum instead. She had given Amy a pack of strawberry, however, she didn't realise that she was going to use all of it in one mouthful. So while Terry introduced Santiago to one of his techniques he had used for his overeating, Kat and Rosa meet up with Jake and Charles who have returned from USPIS.

A map has been spread out on Rosa's desk as they debrief on what they had learnt from Agent Jack Danger. "We think the drug dealers have been using these out of service mailboxes as drops for Giggle Pig and money," Jake explains.

Rosa smiles, impressed by what they had discovered. "Good job," she says. "I'm glad Danger was useful."

"Actually, it's 'Dong-er,'" Jake corrects.

Kat's eyebrows raise in surprise. "Really?"

"Oh yeah."

"Huh."

"Although, it should be 'Dong-est.'" Jake glances to Charles who nods in agreement. "Can't imagine anyone being more dong than this guy."

"Sounds like he was a good resource," Rosa counters. "He showed you where the mailboxes were, right?"

Charles grimaces. "Yeah, but he also told us how he brought down a snail-smuggling ring. For an hour."

"Yeah, he showed us all these pictures of the snails, and he called them 'the littlest victims.'"

"Okay, firstly, snails are cool," Kat states. Rosa points to her in agreement. "Secondly, you only need to work with this guy until this is done. So, hopefully he'll be less annoying for you."

Jake's brows furrow as he repeats her words in his head. "Wait, why did you say 'until this is done?'" he questions. Rosa and Kat share a look. His face falls in realisation. "No."

"Yeah."

"No, no, no, no."

"Yup."

Jake's eyes have widened as he tries his best to plead himself out of working with the USPIS agent. "Please tell me I don't have to keep working with that-"

"Detective Peralta!" They turn around to see a man in a suit, sporting a badge on his breast pocket. He walks over to them with a smile. "Love your precinct, very primitive. At USPIS, everyone gets his own office, but that's because we're this proud nation's first defence in the war on terror." He notices their strange looks. "Every envelope is a potential target for Al-Qaeda."

Jake hums. "Oh!"

Kat studies Jack Danger with her eyes narrowed in thought. "Do I know you from somewhere?" she asks him curiously.

He turns to her with a smile. "Unless you've seen me around doing the best job in the world, I don't think so."

"Really?" She leans forward slightly toward him. "Has anyone told you that you look strikingly similar to Andy from The Office?"

"That's why you look so familiar," Rosa concludes in realisation.

"Actually, I have been told that more than once," Danger admits. "Love The Office, though. It's always great to see paper so well respected in TV."

Jake glances between the agent and his friends. "Sergeant Katherine Linetti and Detective Rosa Diaz, meet my new partner, Jack Danger."

They each shake his hand. "Please, I go by Jackie," he says with a smile. "Jackie Danger."

"Of course you do," Jake laughs. Kat and Rosa share another look. They might possibly understand now why they had called the man annoying earlier.

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎。 ⋆

Even though Holt had invited Kat to join him and Amy on a run, she had politely declined. She wanted to be around so she could yell at Peralta when he and Boyle came back. Even though they had been warned that they needed to cooperate with Danger, Kat has a strong feeling that something has gone wrong. It's almost inevitable. Jake couldn't be mature if his life depended on it. Well, maybe he could, but she just hadn't seen it yet.

But when they do return to the Nine-Nine, Kat and Rosa discover that it's not Jake they're going to be mad at.

"I'm sorry, let me get this straight." Rosa eyes flick between the three men stood before her. "You had a Giggle Pig supplier twenty yards from you, and he got away?"

"How the hell did he get away?" Kat presses. "What happened?"

"Your man here failed to follow proper law-enforcement procedure is what happened," Danger tells them. Katherine's eyes narrow.

"What?" Jake exclaims in disbelief.

Danger glances to him. "Always check for ground-level obstructions before initiating a foot pursuit," he says pointedly.

"The ground-level obstruction was your hand clutching my leg!" Jake gestures to his lower leg. "I have claw marks all over my calf." He takes a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Rosa, Sarge, can I talk to you in private for a second?"

"Yeah," Diaz nods.

"Boyle, why don't you show Danger what a fax machine is." Jake leads them down the hallway, out of sight so they can't be overheard. "Look, it's not just that Danger's annoying. He ruined the whole operation. The perp got away because he's the world's biggest tool. No, tools can be useful... He's the world's smallest tool! I'm the world's biggest tool. God! Do you see what he's doing to me?"

Kat can't help but smile at his revelation. "Look, Jake," she sighs. "These dealers didn't just randomly start using the mailbox keys."

Rosa nods. "There's clearly a postal connection. Sorry, dude, you gotta keep working with him."

"Okay, wait, wait. Let's just put this in perspective for a second. Is this whole war on drugs really worth the human cost of me spending another minute with this behonkus?"

Kat stares at him blankly.

"I don't know what 'Behonkus' means, but yes," Rosa says.

"'Behonkus' means butt," he answers. "And I think you could have guessed that from context."

His best friend sighs again. "Okay, does it help if I say to just picture him as Andy from The Office?" Kat suggests.

He groans in frustration. "You know I hate Andy from The Office," he exclaims.

"Seriously, Jake, I'm asking you to see this through," Rosa tells him.

Jake looks between their serious expressions, and he nods after a few seconds of hesitation. "All right, fine," he concedes. "I will do it for you as a favour because you're my friends."

Kat's eye twitches. "How about you do it because I'm your boss, Diaz is the leader of this task force, and it's a direct order?" Rosa's lips curl into a smirk.

"Fine! But if he tells me one more time about how USPIS 'mailed down' the Berlin Wall, I'm gonna give him your home addresses, and you will receive holiday cards from him forever."

While Kat grimaces at the mere thought of that happening, Rosa's eyes narrow as she takes a threatening step closer to him. "My own relatives don't have that address," she says lowly.

"Oh, I know," Jake smiles. "I know."

When Amy and Holt had returned from the run, the former had disappointedly rambled to Kat that she wasn't strong enough to quit smoking. Nothing was helping her. They had tried physical exercise, dunking heads in ice water, chewing gum, and, to the entire precinct's delight, blasting heavy metal music. Gina had the final suggestion for the day: meditation.

Throughout college, Kat had found that meditation changed her life when she needed to calm herself in those heightened moments of stress. But despite it working for her and Gina, it doesn't mean it would work for Amy. At this point, though, Santiago is desperate to try anything.

Holt leads her into his office that has been transformed into a tranquil retreat. Candles have been lit and furniture has been pushed aside to create a more open space. Gina has her eyes closed as she sits across from Terry and Kat. Two other cushions have been saved for Holt and Amy.

"What's going on?" Amy questions, confused as to why she's been brought inside. Holt closes the door behind him. "Is this a dream?" She glances down to her hands. "No, I'm not holding a label marker." Kat can't help but smile.

"Silence before the shaman," Gina says in a calm and soothing voice. "Amy, I'm taking charge of your journey away from addiction."

"Gina is leading you on a guided meditation," Holt informs the detective. "Terry, Katherine, and I agreed to participate as a show of support." Amy smiles at her best friend, and they take their seats on the cushions.

"And Amy, you don't know this 'cause I don't necessarily enjoy talking to you, but in my early twenties, I too battled an addiction," Gina reveals. "I was a compulsive shopper." Amy's eyes widen in surprise. Kat sighs softly at the memories of stepping inside their previous shared apartment to fifty bags full of Gina's purchases. "Anyways, meditation helped me past that addiction," she continues. "And it's gonna do the same for you. Close your eyes and repeat. I am in a vast hallway."

"I am in a vast hallway," the group of four echo.

"I walk into the light of self-actualisation."

"I walk into the light of self-actualisation."

"For I am a powerful woman."

This time, however, only Amy and Kat repeat the words. "For I am a powerful woman."

Gina waves her hands. "I'm not hearing everyone," she says pointedly. Terry and Holt share a glance, then quickly say the words aloud. "You feel the cool breeze of enlightenment gently caressing your face."

Kat's eyebrows raise in surprise as she feels the breeze hit her face. "Woah," she whispers in awe. She knew Gina was good, but she didn't think she was this good."

"I feel it," Terry says with a smile. "I feel the breeze!"

"Amy!"

They all open their eyes at Holt's yell to see Amy sat on the wind sill with a cigarette. She's holding a candle to try and disguise the scent of the smoke. "I'm not the one with my eyes open," she protests defensively. "Cheater! Captain Holt is cheating!"

"Santiago, we're trying to help you," Terry exclaims.

"I can't do it," Amy confesses. A piece of Kat's heart fractures when she hears her voice break. "I quit quitting."

As she hurries out the room, Kat shares a look with Holt before rushing after Amy. She follows the woman out onto the roof. "Ames," she calls out. Amy's head snaps over to her. "Hey."

A tear runs down her cheek. "I'm a failure," she says quietly.

Kat's eyes widen and she gently grabs onto her shoulders. "You are not a failure," she replies, her tone firm, leaving no room for debate. "Amy Santiago, you are the strongest person I know."

She cracks a small, weak smile. "Stronger than Rosa?"

She immediately nods. "Stronger than Rosa," she confirms. "Admitting that you need help is the strongest thing you can do, okay? This is not going to be easy. None of it will. But relapsing or giving into the urges doesn't mean you've failed. You're going cold-turkey, babe. You gotta give yourself some credit."

Another tear drops. "But I can't do this," Amy whispers. "Nothing's working!"

Kat sighs and pulls her into a much-needed hug. "You might think you can't, and that's okay, but I know you can. It'll take a lot of time and a lot of effort, but you can do this. Everything that you've tried today, they're all specific ways that help them cope. You just have to find your thing, what works for you. Giving in to the cravings isn't a failure, Amy, it just means that there's a little blip or two in your journey."

Amy exhales a deep breath. She looks up to Kat with a soft, appreciative smile. "I don't know what I'd do without you," she admits.

"Probably a lot of things, actually."

She laughs. "Thank you," she says. "Really, thank you. I needed to hear all of that."

"I know," Kat replies with a small smile. "I got you, Ames. I'm not leaving, and none of those idiots inside are either. Now, I'm gonna go force Hitchcock and Scully to give up their secret stash of ice-cream and we are taking a lunch break to watch Harry Potter."

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎。 ⋆

Jake and Charles had arrested a Giggle Pig supplier. However, to do so, they had gone behind Danger's back and stolen a list of the potential suspects. Rosa Diaz is mad. Katherine Linetti? Livid. With her eyes narrowed, Rosa storms over to the two detectives who have just handed the suspect over to be processed. "What the hell," she exclaims. "Danger just called and said you abandoned him, took information from a classified computer, and licked a roll of antique stamps."

Charles sheepishly raises his hand. "The stamps were on me," he confesses. "I was curious about how old glue tasted. Answer, like a horse lollipop." He winces at Rosa's stony glare and walks away.

Jake sighs. "Look, it's not a big deal," he dismisses. "Danger wanted us to waste a week staring at mailboxes. If I'd listened to him, I never would have caught Delroy." He holds up the two notebooks he had found in the suspect's apartment. "Or found his books, which tell us there's a huge Giggle Pig shipment coming in tonight."

Rosa closes her eyes. "I told you to work with USPIS."

"Okay, I know I didn't do it exactly the way you asked me to-"

"The way I ordered you to as leader of the task force," she snaps. "And the way your boss ordered you as your boss." Jake sighs as he's reminded that Rosa isn't the only person he has to deal with. "Do you think just because we're friends you can do whatever you want? Danger's furious. He's on his way over here now because they're taking over the case."

Jake's eyes widen in alarm. "What?" he protests. "He can't do that."

"Yeah, he can. They're a federal agency. From now on, any bust that comes from this, including Delroy, goes to USPIS. My task force gets nothing. So thanks, friend."

He sighs as she walks away. "I'm totally gonna regret asking this, but where's Sarge?" he calls after her.

Rosa stops and turns back around with a smile. Jake's face falls. "Oh, she lost her shit after Danger hung up," she says calmly. "So I locked her in a room to lure you into a false sense of security. It'll take her around two minutes to break out." She glances to the clock on the wall. "Those two minutes are up, friend."

The entire bullpen stops what they're doing as the sound of glass shattering down the hallway catches their attention. Katherine Linetti storms into the space with a face of thunder. "Peralta!" she yells.

Jake swallows. "Crap." Rosa watches happily as the sergeant strides over.

"What the hell did you do?" Kat snaps heatedly. "Do you realise how many hours we've put into this task force? That Diaz has put into it? That the captain's literal career is depending on how it's going to go? You know that that vampire Wunch will tear him apart, right?"

Holt heads over to the door of his office to watch the interaction. To Jake's disappointment, no one, including Terry, stops Kat from lecturing him. He probably deserves it. No, he knows he deserves it.

"You've handed over hundreds of hours of work to USPIS! The damn postal service!" Jake winces. Kat swears that if they weren't at work, she would have slapped him by now. "I know you can be immature, but I thought maybe just once you could be professional so we wouldn't have to be dealt with the consequences for your actions!"

Gina grins widely, glad that her sister is finally standing up for not only herself, but for Rosa as well. Aside from Holt and Terry, not many people can reprimand Jake Peralta and actually have their words get into his head.

Kat inhales a deep breath and tries to calm herself down. Terry sighs. "Linetti-"

"I know, okay? I'll go fill out all the paperwork for the door now." She jabs a finger back over to Jake. "You and I are not done here. You owe Diaz weekly cartons of beer for life, and I'll write a list of what you can do for me. Oh, unless I kill you first."

As she walks off with a scowl, people quickly get out of her way with nervous faces. Jake finds himself partially scared for his life.

With a mountain of paperwork to fill out for the glass window Kat had shattered in a storage room door, she finds herself at her desk for the next hour. Even though she's getting consequences for it, at least they're consequences for something she had done. She doesn't mind it, anyways, it had been well worth it. And she thought she had imagined it, but she swore she had seen Holt nod to her in respect from his office.

With the task force now off the horizon for the foreseeable future, all Kat needs to worry about is finishing her shift and taking Amy home with her for a movie marathon with Tisha. It's something they had planned in every week, no matter what happened.

However, even after Kat's encouraging words earlier, Amy is still incredibly stressed. She's resorted to gnawing on her pencil. Gina is thoroughly annoyed. "Could you please knock it off?" she calls out. "It's like working inside a beaver dam."

"Suck it up," Kat calls out without looking up from her papers. "Unless you want me to start on you for your inappropriate remarks against Amy? There's been multiple today, by the way. I'm happy to take it to HR and get you suspended without pay." Terry breaks into a smile at how Gina almost immediately quietens and returns to her phone.

Amy sends Katherine a grateful glance, but is quickly reminded that without the pencil, she's out of distractions. When Holt sits down in the chair beside her, her eyes widen. "Oh no, a next to desk sit down..."

"Santiago, you're putting yourself under too much pressure. And that stress is making it even harder for you to quit," Holt says. "Some things might come easier to you if you stop being such a perfectionist. A concept you should become familiar with."

Amy turns to him in surprise. "'Familiar with?'" she repeats. He nods. "A dangling preposition?"

"I'm setting an example. I made an error and I'm not going to correct it. I'm just gonna let it dangle... dangle... dangle..."

Amy bites back a smile as she turns her chair around to watch him return to his office. "Thank you, Captain," she calls to him. She locks eyes with Kat and they share a smile.

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎。 ⋆

It was just after six when Jake and Charles had returned to the station with Agent Danger. Not only had they profusely apologised to him, but Danger had accepted it. It seems like both Kat and Rosa had gotten into Jake's head. Mostly, it had been Charles who had explained to him on the ride over to USPIS that what they had done was reflecting really badly on their friends.

Kat knew she had overreacted before. Majorly. However, it had taken her years to learn that it took quite a bit for Jake Peralta to accept he was in the wrong. One of the better examples she could think of was last year when he had been melodramatic and immature about Gina offering to lease his apartment to him. It had taken him five hours, but he had eventually apologised.

She stands beside Rosa and Jake in front of a warehouse on the corner of Sterling Place and Washington Avenue. It had been with Danger's cooperation that they had figured out where the suspects was working from. "Okay, get ready, it's going down," Rosa speaks into her radio.

"Wait," Jake says quickly. "Before we go in there-"

"Apology accepted."

A scowl is etched onto Kat's face. "No, no," she interjects. "Apology not accepted because he hasn't given us an apology!" Her gaze settles on Jake.

"Yeah," he agrees. "Plus, I actually want to do it." Rosa huffs a sigh in defeat. "I'll make it quick. I didn't follow your orders, I took advantage of both our friendships, I was a jerk, I'm sorry." Kat arches a brow. "I'm really sorry."

Rosa grimaces. "So that's what eternity feels like," she declares.

"I could not have made that any shorter."

Kat rolls her eyes in amusement. "Apology accepted," she says. "It's nice to see you own up to your mistakes." Jake smiles. "But you still owe us both a lifetime supply of beer. That's what I decided I want from you. Alcohol is not cheap."

Jake nods. "True that. And done."

"All right, what's the plan?" Jake Danger joins the trio from the Nine-Nine. "This dong is ready to ding!"

Rosa looks to the sergeant and Katherine gives her a nod to go ahead. This is her moment. "Tac Team One will take the north entrance, Tac Team Two will take the east door," she explains. She glances back to the other detective. "Jake, you stay out here and man the radio."

He quickly nods, pushing aside his surprise. "Oh, sure, whatever you need. On it."

Kat grins. "Nah, she's just kidding. You're coming with us."

He sighs in relief. "Jerks," he mutters.

"Ready? On my count. Three, two, one." One of the uniformed officers swings open the heavy metal door, and Rosa cocks her shotgun before leading them inside the warehouse. "Freeze, police!"

"Also USPIS," Danger adds. "And USPIS!"

The second they step inside, chaos erupts. Kat's eyes narrow as she hurries over to the group of men crowded around a table with drugs scattered across it. "NYPD," she yells, moving her gun onto a suspect who tries to make a run for it. "Hands behind your head and interlace your fingers!"

"Sarge, look out," Rosa warns.

The second she feels a hand land on her shoulder, Katherine spins around and kicks the man's legs from under him, sending him toppling to the ground with a groan. "Do not move," she orders. "On your stomach and hands behind your back. Hands behind your back!" She grabs her radio as she looks back to the unconscious Danger. "We need medics sent to our location for an injured officer."

A few minutes later, they have the entire group of suspects in cuffs and officers are walking them out. Rosa, Kat, and Jake found Danger flat on his back by the entrance they had come in from. He blinks his eyes open and winces slightly. "What happened?" he asks groggily.

"You hit your head on the doorway coming in," Rosa informs him. "Got knocked out cold."

"Do I have a bruise?"

Charles nods. "A little one," he smiles.

"Yes," Danger whispers. "I'm going on the wall of heroes."

Kat's eyebrows raise in amusement. "Really?"

"Absolutely! Did we catch all the bad guys?"

"Yup, we got 'em," Jake confirms.

Danger nods and leans back down. "All right, another win for USPIS."

"You're lying in rat turds."

"It's all part of the job, little brother. It's all part of the job."

𝘸𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘳𝘺 𝘬𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘧𝘵 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘺 𝘬𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 🥰 𝘪 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩

𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘢𝘵 𝘫𝘢𝘬𝘦: 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘰 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭!