𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞 | 𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻

THE NINETY-NINTH PRECINCT'S IT department is almost non-existent. Well, it existed, but Kat would say that the team isn't very good at their job. And it's only because they aren't very good at their job that the current situation is occurring. Jake flicks through the stack of papers that have filed out of the printer and grins. "Oh, this is amazing," he states excitedly. "This is so amazing. Everything about this is amazing!"

Terry lifts his head from his paperwork and glances over to find Jake handing Rosa, Kat, and Amy the recently printed sheets. "What are you talking about?" he asks with furrowed brows.

"A virus got on the server and sent all of us an email with everyone's search histories," Jake explains. Boyle's eyes widen with interest and he grabs the piece of paper handed to him from Gina.

Kat's eyes scan down the page and she smiles. "Hey, check this out, Sarg searched for 'undiscovered muscle.'"

The group looks over to Terry. "I was working out and saw a muscle in my shoulder I'd never seen before," he tells them. "I thought it might've been a scientific discovery."

"Listen to this," Gina calls out. "Scully searched for 'How much fudge is in a calorie?'"

Norm Scully shrugs at everyone's eyes on him. "I never found the answer," he says as he shakes powder onto his bare foot. "But it was a good question."

Rosa grimaces at what she finds. "Boyle looked up, 'How to make desk yoghurt?'"

Kat's nose scrunches up in disgust at the thought. "Oh God, please tell me you didn't actually make it," she begs.

"Yes, I did, Kat," Charles grins. He grabs a mason jar from underneath his desk and holds it up for them to see. "And I am thrilled with the results." He winces when he touches the bottom of the glass. "Although the jar is really hot..."

Gina nods slowly as she says, "Kat searched for 'If someone faints, do you take them to the hospital?'" She tilts her head slightly as she looks to her sister. "That's actually a really good question."

"No, the better question is why were you searching it?"

Kat sighs at Jake's curious look. "The person involved wouldn't want me to say."

His brows shoot up. "Well now I really want to know."

"You don't have to," Rosa answers her. "It's normally pretty harmless, but if they don't recover quickly it's best to go to the doctor or, yeah, the hospital." She rolls her eyes at the countless stares now on her. "What? I read."

Jake hums. "Anyways. Amy searched for 'Daniel Craig hands' plus 'close up.'" He grimaces as he looks to her. "Ugh."

"He's hot!" Amy defends herself. She nods back to Jake. "And you should talk, you searched for 'cheapest date possible.'"

He nods without shame. "And I wear that search like a badge of honour," he replies.

Kat waves a hand for him to expand. "Go on then, what was the winning idea?"

"Well, I invaded a vending machine, like any sane person would do, but then I got stuck... so my date abandoned me while my arm was stuck inside."

Amy points to the blonde beside her expectantly. "That's what she said," Kat yells.

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎ ﾟ。 ⋆

Jake Peralta had received a distressing and alarming phone call. As soon as he hangs up, he yells to Kat and Charles to grab their jackets and meet him downstairs in the parking lot. One of Jake and Kat's long-time friends, Sal, had owned a pizzeria for decades. It had been a place they had sought out a moment of happiness when they were kids, and then somewhere that Jake could no longer go to when his father had left his family. But after Kat had made the pact to take Jake there herself instead, it was somewhere they had both grown to associate with happy memories once more. For the last fifteen years, Katherine and Jake had met up on a Saturday night twice a month at Sal's for a beer and pizza.

So far, they hadn't missed a meeting. And now it looks like they won't ever get to make a memory there again.

As soon as Kat steps out of the car, she feels her heart drop. "Oh, my God," she whispers in horror. She stares at the building that was once so bright with colour, now charred and black. "I can't believe this is real."

"No," Jake shouts. He slams the driver's door and runs a hand over his hair. "I can't believe Sal's is gone," he states in disbelief. He gestures to the building as he glances to Charles. "This place is an institution."

Kat sighs and comes to a stop beside them. "It's the best pizza in Brooklyn. I mean... it was." Jake shakes his head as he stares at the burnt restaurant.

"Well, eighth best," Charles corrects. He catches the stares his friends are giving him. "But yeah, a tragedy. I mean, any food related crime is a tragedy." As Jake and Kat are too busy observing their beloved restaurant, they don't hear the sirens approaching them. "Oh, no... Heads up, fire marshal."

They all spot the red cruiser pulling to a stop before them. "Not Boone," Kat groans in frustration.

"What's that nimrod doing here?" Jake mutters.

Fire Marshal Boone gets out of the car and strolls over to the three detectives with a smile on his face. "Hey, Peralta," he greets smugly.

Jake steps up to meet him. "Hey, Boone. What are you doing here, you nimrod?"

"Uh, there was a fire," Boone answers, the ashes from the fire still floating through the air. "Big question is, what are you doing here?" His eyes flick between the three and he grins. "What, did somebody call in a missing doughnut?"

"Oh, wow, how creative," Kat snarks back. "But if you do see a doughnut, let me know." Charles nods in agreement, suddenly finding the taste for the dessert.

Jake rolls his eyes. "Uh, actually someone reported they couldn't find your head. But we found it. It was up your butt. You're a fireman, you should know how to treat that burn." Jake holds up his hands to his best friends on either side of him and they all high-five.

Boone grits his teeth together. "Joke's on you, 'cause this is a fire," he retorts. "Which means it is fire department jurisdiction." He waves his hands as he says, "So why don't you back off and let New York's bravest handle it."

Kat suddenly lunges toward him, but Charles and Jake quickly grab onto her arms to hold her back. "I will punch your damn face off one day!"

"Sure you will, Linetti," he muses.

"You know they only call you bravest cause 'New York's best at spraying stuff with water' is too wordy," Jake remarks. Charles giggles. Kat's sudden rage of anger is replaced by chuckles as she finds amusement at Boone's struggle to provide a retort.

"Ha, well, it's too bad we all can't be as awesome as New York's finest," the man finally replies. "Which by the way, sounds like my mom describing her dishware which- and she's dead, so let's tread lightly on the response."

Jake scoffs. "That's not fair," he complains. "Well, look, we heard this might be arson," he continues, gesturing to the restaurant, "so we wanted to check it out."

"No, I'm not letting you onto my crime scene," Boone denies firmly. "Okay?"

Katherine narrows her eyes at Boone as he walks away. "Fine!" Jake's eyes widen as he looks to her. "You're not invited to our next murder!"

Their plan was to return to the precinct, after all, they had been strictly told that they weren't allowed to enter the premises. Of course, that wouldn't stop them later if needed. If Kat wanted to go in, she'd go in. Screw the consequences. Thankfully, Jake seems to have a similar opinion.

"If we're gonna figure out what happened at Sal's, we've gotta get past those firemen," he declares. Jake swings his jacket over his shoulder as Charles opens the gate to the bullpen for them. "We need access."

Kat frowns in thought. "Any ideas?"

Jake's eyes widen. "How 'bout this. We light a bunch of fires throughout Brooklyn." As they're passing the sergeant's desk, Terry looks up at them with narrowed eyes. "And then when the firemen go to 'fight the fires,' we walk right into Sal's, the crime scene's ours."

She grins. "Perfect," she proclaims.

Charles sighs at their eagerness to go ahead with the suggestion. "Why do we want to start a turf war with the fire department?" he points out.

"Because they're all dicks," Kat states bluntly. Jake waves a hand to her as he looks pointedly at Charles.

"I feel very uncomfortable saying this to you," he begins to Jake. "But it doesn't seem like it's worth it — unless you think it is?"

He and Kat share a look. "I do," Peralta confirms. "Like I said, Sal's is an institution, and it's the best pizza in the neighbourhood." Kat clears her throat. "Sorry, the best pizza in Brooklyn," he corrects himself.

"I'm sorry, guys, Sal's is only the eighth best," Charles informs them. "I put out a weekly Brooklyn pizza ranking email blast. Sal's has the fourth best texture, ninth best crust, twelfth best cheese, and honestly, they're only seventh in mouth feel."

Kat's face scrunches up as she folds her arms. "Mouth feel?" she questions.

Charles quickly nods. "Yeah. The inside of your cheeks are very sensitive," he explains. "It's like the inside of your thighs, except with a tongue."

Jake grimaces in disgust at the imagery. "Ugh, God. Look, no, Sal's has the secret sauce recipe that puts all the other pizza places to shame."

"Oh man, that sauce." Kat sighs. "I dream about it."

"Me too," Jake agrees. "But more importantly, Fire Marshal Boone is incapable of conducting a crime investigation. All fire marshals are doofuses, but Boone is King Doofus of Doofus Island. And he's their leader!"

His friends nod in agreement. "Imagine working underneath him," Kat points out.

Jake's eyes widen. "That's what she said!" he yells enthusiastically. "Wow, we are on fire today!"

As Jake and Charles wander into the breakroom, Kat returns to her desk to find Amy staring emptily at her computer. Her brows furrow as she wheels her chair around to her friend. "Hey, everything okay?" she asks.

Amy slowly turns to her and drops her head onto Kat's shoulder. "The world is ending," she groans.

Kat gently pats her arm. "Wanna talk about it?"

"Rosa's captain," she mutters angrily.

"What?"

"I know!" Amy exclaims frustratedly. She straightens herself and throws her hands up. "She was offered it from some place in the middle of nowhere."

"So, she took it?" Kat questions in confusion. She glances over to Rosa's desk, but the woman is nowhere to be seen.

"She turned it down," Amy replies with squinted eyes.

Kat hums. "So, what's the problem?" She clicks her tongue in realisation. "Ah, okay, you're annoyed she was even offered it in the first place."

Amy nods slightly. "I just don't understand why she was their first choice," she says quietly. "I mean, am I not good enough to be a captain?"

Kat's eyes soften and she shuffles her chair closer to Amy's. "Hey, you are beyond good enough to be a captain," she reassures her. Amy gives her a half-hearted smile, but it's clear she doesn't believe her words. "I'm serious. And just because Rosa was offered it instead of you doesn't mean that you're any less of a person, okay?"

"Okay," Amy mumbles hesitantly.

"Nuh uh, say it like you mean it," Kat states firmly.

Amy sighs. "Okay," she repeats.

"That's my girl," the blonde smiles.

Amy's lips lift once more, but this time it's not forced. "It's crazy that you and Gina are related," she says, making a point to how different the siblings' personalities are. "She hates me, and you're my best friend."

Kat winces. "I wouldn't necessarily go as far to say she hates you..."

She shrugs, then her face falls. "Oh, wait... Unless I'm not your best friend..."

"Seriously?" Kat rolls her eyes and throws an arm over Amy's shoulder. "You're my best friend, Ames." They smile at each other, and Kat extends her pink finger. "Until the end of time."

Amy grins and links their fingers together. "Until the end of time."

"Just don't tell Jake that," Kat speaks lowly. "Because he's convinced that I think of him also as my best friend." Amy giggles.

"Kat!" The woman in question looks over to Jake who had yelled her name over from Charles's desk. With her brows creased in confusion, she wanders over to them to get an answer, but then they both point to the elevator. Kat groans at the two firemen walking out of it. "What are you two doing here?" Jake calls out, his voice laced with annoyance.

"You're a detective, you detect it out," the man replies.

"Good one, bro!" his colleague praises.

"I know, bro."

"Yeah, bro."

Jake folds his arms and shares a glance with his friends. "Wow, it's like watching Meet the Press," he says.

"Good God, what do you idiots want?" Kat snaps.

"Boone reconsidered," the firefighter tells them. Charles and Kat lock eyes, each just as suspicious as the other. He holds out the blue file in his hand to Jake. "He wants you to take a look at the files."

Jake hesitantly takes it. "Well, that's unexpected, but... All right, fine, I'll-" He inhales a deep breath when he opens it and finds a squashed donut inside. Kat grits her teeth together as she refrains from launching herself at them. Again.

"It's not a file, bro! It's a doughnut, because you're cops."

"Oh, you're sure?" she retorts sarcastically. "It looks like a cupcake to me." The firemen laugh and give the three detectives smug smiles before walking away. "That's it!" she declares impatiently.

Jake nods in agreement. "Yep. I don't care if it's not our jurisdiction. We're solving this."

Scully stands up from his desk, his eyes glued onto the file still in Jake's hand. "Would you like me to, uh, file that for you, Jake?" he asks innocently.

"Just ask for the doughnut, Scully."

"Can I have the doughnut, please?"

"Yes."

"Thanks!"

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎ ﾟ。 ⋆

After a few calls, they finally manage to get Sal down to the precinct for some questioning. Kat and Jake sit side by side as they listen to their friend explain to them exactly what happened. Hearing him so emotional makes them on the verge of tears themselves. "I can't believe it's gone," Sal says in disbelief. "All of it. The pizza oven. The first dollar bill I ever made. The Seven-Up fridge."

"I'm so sorry, Sal," Kat speaks softly.

"It's gonna be all right," Jake reassures him, briefly placing his hand on top of Sal's. "You'll rebuild."

"The fire department's been asking a lot of questions."

Jake sighs. "Oh, fire department questions. Let me guess. 'Uh, what part of my face do I put food it?' 'How do you count to one?' 'What's air?'" Even as he laughs at his own words, he fails to bring Sal a short moment of happiness.

"They think I torched my own place."

Kat blinks slowly. "I'm sorry, what?" She shakes her head with incredulity as she repeats Sal's words in her head. "They think you torched it?"

Sal leans forward slightly closer to them. "You know I wouldn't do something like that, right?" he asks them. His voice breaks at the end.

"Yeah, of course," Jake confirms without hesitation. "But can you think of anybody who might've done it?"

The older man nods. "I could think of ten pizzerias that want me out of the game," he responds. "That jerk Mario comes to mind. We share a delivery radius."

"Never liked him," Kat agrees.

Even though Charles is at his desk, he had been listening to most of the conversation. "Mario is number ten overall in Brooklyn," he says as he joins them. "And rising fast. He might've wanted to move up the ladder."

"Of one foodie weirdo's personal pizza email blast?" Jake retorts.

After a moment of hesitation, Charles nods. "Yeah."

Kat smiles. "Okay, we'll start with him," she tells Sal. "Then we'll go to the rest of your competition, try and see if anything suspicious turns up."

"It'll be the perfect opportunity to update my rankings," Charles decides excitedly. "Can we stop at home for a pizza bib?"

Jake and Kat glance to one another. "No," the latter declines. "Sorry, bud, but we have to move fast."

They all grab their jackets and Charles hurries back over to his desk. "Right, okay, I'll just use my work bib," he concludes.

"No," Jake calls out. "No bib!"

Kat spins around on her heels and offers a smile to Sal. "We're gonna solve this, Sal, I promise."

"Sit tight!"

The first stop on the list is to visit Mario on Bergen Street. There aren't many customers as they enter the store, and, naturally, the first thing Charles does is to order a pizza for himself. Whilst they wait for the food, they grab Mario and begin talking to him about the ongoing arson case.

Charles bites into a slice of pizza and thoroughly chews it. "Mario, this pie needs work," he declares. "Good consistency on the crust, but the cheese-to-sauce ratio is a travesty."

Both Kat and Jake grimace when Charles spits into the small, red bucket beside him. "Do you have to spit?" Jake asks.

Charles pauses writing in his notepad. "In a word, yes. Amateurs go tasting, they fill up, and they lose their palate by the third slice. I take this very seriously."

Kat nods. "That actually makes a lot of sense," she concurs. As Charles returns to his pizza, both she and Jake turn back to the chef. "So, Mario, I think now's the time for us to walk you through what we think happened."

Jake smiles at Mario, who stares back at them blankly. "Your credit card transactions are down by a third in the last six months," he begins. "Meanwhile, over at Sal's, it was a bunch of smiling faces and happy stomachs."

"Until one night, you snapped," Kat continues. Her eyes narrow when Mario turns his head away from them. "A teensy bit of gasoline... a little match... the flicker of a flame..."

"And poof!" Jake exclaims, adding a hand gesture to emphasise his point. "No more Sal's. How right are we on a scale of one to ten?"

"Oh, surely a ten," Kat tells him.

"The night of the fire, I was at my father's funeral."

The two detectives suddenly still. Jake's smile slides off his face. "Oh..."

Kat awkwardly shifts her weight onto her other leg. "Well... our condolences," she offers. They glance back to Charles just in time to see him spitting into the bucket once more. "That is so disgusting."

The next stop is Gino's Pizza. Whilst Charles had been tasking with driving, Jake and Kat had used the short few minutes to touch up on their research on Gino. The second they enter the restaurant, another pizza is ordered.

"Gino," Charles begins. "This pizza is much better than last time. You've always ranked dead last in structural integrity and sauce."

Kat shakes her head. "Structural integrity?" she whispers.

"But way more importantly..." Jake spins the conversation back onto the more important topic at hand. He gestures to the blonde beside him as he says, "We did a little research, and it turns out you did six months in prison for a B&E."

"I did," Gino confirms without a beat passing by. "The night of the fire, I was at the prison giving a motivational speech on how parolees can turn their lives around."

Kat slowly nods. "Huh. It's good to know that the system works," she says.

"You're welcome," Jake adds as he leans closer to Gino. The chef eyes them one last time before walking away. "Have a good one!" Both of them sigh as they return their attention to Charles. "This is a dead end."

Kat bites onto her lip as she stares out the window. "We're going to the crime scene," she announces.

"Can't," Charles tells them grimly. "Firemen locked it down."

"Grab your spit bucket, Boyle," Jake says. "Those hose monkeys can't stop us."

The short drive to Sal's is spent by trying to figure out their plan to break into the crime scene. They park on the street, leaving just enough space in between them and the building so not to draw attention from the firemen on guard. They spend a few minutes staking out the charred restaurant, figuring out just how many people they would need to get past.

"They're not moving," Kat observes with a groan of frustration. "We gotta find a way to distract them."

Jake's eyes light up with an idea. "Tell 'em your little boy's cat got stuck up in a tree," he suggests to Charles.

Boyle grins. "Ooh, undercover work. I love it! Okay, I need more backstory." He taps his foot on the floor as he thinks. "First off, can it be my daughter's cat?"

Kat shrugs. "Don't see why not," she agrees.

"But if you get made because of that, it's on you," Jake says.

"Fine," Charles concedes. "Let's talk about the cat. Short-hair, long-hair? Tabby?"

Jake purses his lips. "Short-hair, calico," he decides.

"The son is adopted," Kat chimes in. "And you have to make your wife be in a coma."

"Oh, that's brutal," Charles responds. A smile beams onto his face as he looks between them. "I like it."

The trio share another smile before jumping out the car and splitting up for their own respective duties. Whilst Charles heads straight over to distract the firemen, Kat and Jake walk right by with their heads lowered. As soon as they're out of eyesight, the pair sprint down the street and hurry through the scaffolding boxing them in on the pathway.

Jake wildly gestures her over to the side. "Here," he hisses.

"Why are you whispering?" Kat whispers back. "There's no one around."

He shoves the plastic tarp to the side to reveal the back entrance door to Sal's. "If we aren't whispering, why are you whispering?" he whisper-yells. They both stare at each other, then Jake throws up his hands.

"Okay, here," she says, handing him her pocketknife. "One chance, and if you don't get it unlocked, I'm kicking it down."

Jake rolls his eyes as he inserts the knife into the lock. "Yeah, because that's so discrete," he retorts. A few moments pass and then the door finally opens. "Suck it!" he exclaims to her.

Kat snorts and takes back her knife as they cautiously slip inside the building. They're immediately engulfed into a pit of darkness. "I can't see anything," she murmurs.

Jake flicks his flashlight on, which somehow only makes the room spookier. "Okay, stay close, look out for anything-"

"Hello, detectives." The flashlight lands on Boone as he connects two chords together, suddenly turning on the floor lights. Kat clenches her fists together in frustration, and Jake yells in anger as he chucks the flashlight onto the ground. "You guys looking for something?" Boone asks tauntingly. He walks over to them as he adds, "What is the deal with you both and this second-rate pizza joint?"

"This place is a Brooklyn institution!" Jake exclaims for what must be the fifth time today.

Kat folds her arms as she directs her stone-cold glare onto the fire marshal. "We're here because you idiots think Sal did it and you couldn't be more wrong."

"He did do it!" Boone argues. "Sal was in financial trouble, he has no alibi, and in cases of arson, the owner always did it."

Kat and Jake look to one another, both finding it incredibly hard to restrain themselves. Light suddenly floods into the space as the back doors open to reveal Charles stood in front of the two firemen he was trying to distract. "What's going on, sir?" one of the inspectors calls out.

Boone waves a hand to the detectives beside him. "What's going on is that Peralta and Linetti have screwed with me for the last time, and now they're gonna pay!"

Jake laughs. "Oh, you know what, Boone? Any time you wanna-" His words are cut off as he grunts when Boone lands a fist to his gut. "Well, that escalated fast! Kat, help me!"

As Boone shoves Jake to the ground, Kat grabs onto their nemesis's collar and forcefully drags him off. In the process, Boone grabs her into a headlock and pulls her down onto the floor with him.

Charles is in a similar predicament, fighting against numerous firemen trying to pin him down. "They're getting nervous!" he yells to his friends. "They're getting nervous!"

A yell leaves Kat's mouth as she kicks Boone's shoulder, only for one of the other firemen to grab onto her leg, sending them tumbling onto the walkway outside.

Charles's eyes widen as he watches both of his friends be attacked. "Get off him, Boone! You big marshmallow!" he shrieks, racing over to help Jake. He briefly glances to Kat to find her, surprisingly, handling herself quite well.

Because they're arguments and physical fights are creating quite a bit of noise, they gain the attention of nearby uniformed officers patrolling the area. "Hey, break it up!" one of them yells, rushing over to help pull the firemen off Charles. "Now!"

"Hey, hey, hey!" the fireman yells, stopping in front of the cop. "Don't tell my guys what to do!"

"Don't tell me what to tell people what to do!"

"Well, make me not do it, tough guy!"

Jake's eyes widen as he looks up at the impending altercation above him. "Uh oh..."

Kat throws her elbow back into one of her assailant's stomachs. "Get them!" she shrieks.

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎ ﾟ。 ⋆

Twenty minutes later, they're at the fire station. With Holt. It's safe to say that things did not end up in the way they thought it would. Kat, Jake, and Charles stand beside their captain as they listen to Holt speak on behalf of them to Boone. "I apologise, Marshal Boone, for Detective Peralta's actions, something I find myself doing quite frequently." Holt glances to the blonde. "Detective Linetti, however, this is quite out of character."

Boone scoffs as he sets his eyes on her. "Oh, you'd be surprised how many 'out of character' moments she has," he argues passionately, recalling many moments where she had bested him. Kat grins smugly.

"Okay, in my defence, I was the only one saying we should stop hitting," Jake states.

Kat nods in agreement as Holt looks between them. "That's true, sir," she backs him up. She thoroughly recalls hearing Jake yell, Stop hitting them! Kicking them will hurt more! He was not wrong.

"Okay, I'm a reasonable man," Boone begins. He ignores the eyerolls all three detectives give him. "So I'm just gonna say this." He gestures to two of the three. "Fire Peralta and Linetti immediately." The childhood friends share a look, equally as pissed off as the other. "They started a fight! They overstepped their jurisdiction, and they're obsessed with this pizza place!"

Jake clenches his jaw. "What I'm obsessed with is how you're bungling this investigation! They should write a song about it called Welcome To The Bungle." Without any instruction needed, he, Kat, and Charles all high-five.

Kat's expression falls back to one of seriousness. "Why are you dragging Sal's Pizza through the mud?" she questions the marshal. "That place is special."

Holt turns his curious gaze onto her and Jake. "Why's it special?"

"Because it's the best pizza in Brooklyn!" Jake defends.

Charles kisses his teeth. "Well..."

"According to Charles's email blast, it's actually number eight," Captain Holt explains.

"Captain reads my blast," Charles mutters proudly.

"Of course," Holt assures. "It's the only one that measures mouth feel." His eyes flick back to Jake and Kat. "This isn't about pizza. What's it actually about?"

Jake glances to her, and after a moment of hesitant, he heaves a sigh. "When I was a kid, I was shortstop on my little league team," he says.

Boone places a hand on his forehead. "Oh, my God."

"It's the truth, it's not a brag," Jake retorts. Boone waves a hand for him to continue. "My dad was the coach, and after every game, he would take the team to Sal's. Kat was there to watch them, so she came too. Then halfway throughout the last season, he left me and my mom. The worst part about it was that I couldn't go with him to Sal's anymore." He smiles slightly as he looks to Kat. "And then she made me a promise that from then on, we'd go to Sal's together instead."

Katherine smiles softly. "After a while, we both forgot about the reasons we were there in the beginning. I guess the new memories we made overshadowed the bad ones about our deadbeat dads."

Holt's brows raise. "Well, that's certainly not what I expected this to be about..."

A sob cuts through the air as Boone covers a hand over his mouth. "Sorr- I'm sorry. I'm sorry that happened to you," he says. Jake and Kat share a look, just as surprised by the amount of emotion being on display. "I mean, what kind of dad just-" He sucks in a breath. "Just leaves his son like that?"

Kat's eyes widen when Boone steps forward and places a hand on Jake's shoulder. "What is happening?" she whispers to herself.

"Look." Boone's eyes move between him and Kat. "You-You're cops and-and I'm a firefighter." He sobs again. "But underneath all of it, we're just three kids whose dads abandoned them. And us and me- you guys and me, we're gonna solve this thing, together. Okay?"

Jake nods. "Okay."

Kat smiles ever so slightly. "Yeah."

"But first, let's hug like men," Boone sobs.

Kat purses her lips at the statement but doesn't comment on it as Boone grabs herself and Jake into a hug. "Oh, wow, this is really happening," she remarks in disbelief.

Boone continues to loudly cry as he embraces them, then he outstretches an arm to Holt. "Captain, get in here."

Raymond Holt looks incredibly uncomfortable as he is forced into the group hug. "There, there..." He awkwardly pats Boone's back. "There, there. There."

Charles watches the four from a distance, itching to join in. "I'm coming in," he finally decides.

Jake groans as Charles wraps his arms around him. "Oh, Boyle."

Once they all agree to let bygones be bygones, Holt departs back to the precinct to allow his detectives talk civilly with the fire marshal. And they do. Boone gives them all the information he has on the case so far, happily handing over any documents or files they might need to help assist.

"Well, it's hard to believe I'm gonna say this, because I've spent most of my adult life hating you and everything you stand for, but..." Jake gives the man a small smile. "Thanks."

Boone nods. "I'm not gonna lie, my therapist is gonna be very proud of me," he admits from behind his desk.

Jake's eyebrows furrow as he scans the papers. "That's weird." He hands Boone one of the crime scene photographs. "Any reason you can think of one of your guys would've forced this cabinet open while they were putting the fire out?"

He shakes his head in confusion. "No, no," he replies. "I can't."

"Looks like it was jimmied open with a crowbar," Jake adds.

As Kat studies the photo, her eyes widen. "Holy shit." The three men turn to her. "I got it," she announces. "I know who did it! Come on, I'll explain on the way down."

Boone stands up and grimaces as he tries to decide whether to suggest something. "Wait, wait, wait... I can't believe I'm offering this to a cop, but... Do you want to take the pole down?"

Jake's eyes light up. "Oh, my God, yes." Both he and Kat push past each other to try and get to the pole first, whilst Charles and Boone head down the stairs to meet them at the bottom.

"I got it," Kat yells with a grin. She can't wipe the smile off her face as she jumps on the pole and slides down. It's incredibly satisfying.

She joins Charles who is beaming, and they then watch Jake make his way down. He squeals the entire time. "Whee!" As soon as his feet hit the ground, his smile disappears, and he points to Charles's camera. "Let justice be served." The beatific smile returns. "Did you get it?"

Charles stops the recording and nods. "Uh huh. My turn?"

"Nope. No time!"

As Jake and Boone rush off, Kat sighs and takes the phone from Charles as she gestures to the pole. "Hurry up, then." Charles giggles and races over, to then jump up so it looks like he's gone down the entire pole. "I got it."

"Whoo!"

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎ ﾟ。 ⋆

"We know you burned down Sal's, Gino," Kat states. She folds her arms as she stares down the chef. The pizzeria is empty, leaving just the detectives and Boone to question him.

"You hated him because his pizza was better than yours," Boone adds.

Gino places his hands on his hips defiantly. "That's not true," he argues. "Gino's Pizza's always been the tastiest."

Kat rolls her eyes. "You are so wrong."

"Correct," Jake points to her. "According to Boyle's email blast, it was downright lousy before. That's what made it so suspicious when he suddenly loved it."

Charles nods as he looks between them all. "The crust was charred, the cheese was stringy and flavourless, but the sauce." He pinches his fingers together and closes his eyes. "Oh, marone, the sauce. Continue."

"And that was your fatal mistake," Kat says. "You didn't just burn Sal's down, but you stole the recipe for his secret sauce. Here's a picture- sorry just wait for my colleague to get it out." Jake holds it up for Gino to see. "Right, here's a picture of the cabinet in which the recipe was held. Busted open with a crowbar."

Jake grins. "Look familiar?"

"Also!" Kat smiles sweetly. "This is the best part, by the way. Your so-called motivational speech at the prison ended at five PM, which left you heaps of time to get back to Sal's and burn it right to the ground. So... I guess there's only one thing left to say."

Three voices simultaneously echo the same sentence. "Gino Bianucci, you're under arrest-"

Kat whips around to Boone. "What the hell?"

"Do you mind?" Jake raises his voice irritably.

"Excuse me, no!" Boone argues. "This is my collar-"

"I think we can handle this!"

"- if I'm not wrong!"

Kat places her hands on her hips as she glares at him. "But we did all the damn work!" Jake vigorously nods in agreement with her.

Charles and Gino watch on as they bicker with each other.

"See, I knew you would- You know what? Fine." Boone shrugs at them. "Go ahead, I don't care!" Before either detective can say anything, he quickly rushes out, "Gino Bianucci, you're under arrest for arson. Yes! Said it first."

Jake fakes a smile. "Oh, very mature."

"Rot in hell," Kat scowls at him.

Charles pins Gino's wrists behind his back as he attaches the cuffs, and they all walk out the building with varied levels of anger. "Off we go, then!"

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎ ﾟ。 ⋆

It's four in the afternoon when they return to the precinct. Not only have Terry and Gina hired a new head of the IT department, but based on the multiple threats Kat has overheard Terry make, it's clear that he does not like Savant.

She's recounting to Gina the entire story of how they had made peace with Fire Marshal Boone, then once again, completely destroyed it all because of an ego when Holt walks out of his office. "Peralta!" he calls out.

Kat lifts her head. "Uh oh." Jake rolls his eyes at her.

"Fire Marshal Boone just called. He told me you should check your drawer?"

Jake frowns and turns around in his chair to open the top drawer of the cabinet. He hums at how it's filled to the brim with shaving cream. Placed on top is a red post-it note. "Oh, would you look at that!" Jake plucks the note off and holds it up for Holt and Kat to see. "I've been Booned!"

"This is so typical of him," she grumbles.

"Well, the joke's on him," Jake says, "because I was out of shaving cream."

"I see we are once again at war with the fire department," Holt concludes with a nod. He looks pointedly between Jake and Kat as he firmly states, "You are not to retaliate."

The blonde nods. "Oh, of course, sir. We wouldn't even dream of it."

"What she said," Jake echoes. "In fact, I think we should send over a little peace offering." He glances to Kat. "How do you feel about some of Sal's famous sauce?"

She grins. "I feel fantastic about that."

It didn't take them long to acquire litres of the pizza sauce. After all, Sal had said he would offer them just about anything because they had managed to solve the case of who had burned down his restaurant. So, after driving across Brooklyn with buckets of sauce in the back of Jake's car, Kat, Charles, and Jake sneak inside the fire station to dump it all into an inflatable pool.

Jake nods to Charles. "Now, Boyle!" he hisses.

Boyle quickly presses the alarm and sirens suddenly ring through the area. "Fire!" he yells through the megaphone. "Fire! Fire!"

Right on cue, Boone slides down the pole and lands in the pool of pizza sauce. Kat bursts into laughter that is so contagious that both Jake and Charles double over with their own giggles. "It's been an honour working with you, Boone!" she calls out happily.

"Run!" Jake yells at them.

As soon as they spin around and leg it to the exit, Boone attempts to follow them, but he slips in the sauce and lands on his back in the sauce. Kat makes the mistake of glancing over her shoulder, feeling a stitch in her stomach from her endless stream of laughter leaving her lips.

As the trio take a second to admire the sight of Boone covered tomato sauce, their eyes widen in horror as they spot the group of pissed off firemen sprinting toward them.

"Crap!"

"Get them!"

𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘯𝘰 𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘢 𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘰𝘬 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘶𝘱 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘪 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘸𝘭𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵

𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘬𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘧𝘦 🥰