𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 | 𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻

GINA LINETTI STRIDES OVER TO her sister's desk and slams her hands down. Kat flinches at the sudden arrival. "Jesus," she exclaims in surprise. But as she lifts her head up to look at Gina, Katherine's eyes narrow. "What do you want?"

"I want to know what you got me."

"Got you?"

"My present."

"Bold of you to assume I got you a present."

Gina stares at her in horror and blinks after a few seconds. "You psychotic bitch," she whispers.

A grin splits across Kat's face. "You totally bought it," she laughs. Gina rolls her eyes and the blonde's smile disappears. "And I'm not telling you." She grins once more as Gina groans in frustration and returns to her desk with her eyes glued back to her phone.

"Looking good," Jake praises Hitchcock and Scully sharing a string of popcorn, then he points to the uniformed officer he passes by. "Happy Hanukkah!"

"You look happy," Amy observes. She places the final decoration onto her present for Holt and smirks as she looks back up to him. "Let me guess, your egg sandwich fell on the floor and they gave it to you for free."

Kat grins when Jake freezes. "No." His eyes widen. "Can you do that? Why doesn't everyone just drop their sandwiches on the floor?"

Amy sighs. "I was trying to insult you," she responds irritably.

He places his hands on his hips and smiles at her. "And instead, you gave me an amazing life hack!" Jake sits down in his chair and sighs as he watches Amy bring out another wrapped present. "Oh, Amy, you shouldn't have. But this is embarrassing, I didn't get you a present."

"This one's actually for Kat," Amy corrects.

The blonde's eyes widen in surprise. "Is it a bottle of tequila? No. Wait. Is it a boxset of Harry Potter? No. Is it a signed Red CD-"

"Okay, this could go on forever," Jake points out impatiently.

Amy smiles. "I'm not telling you," she says to Kat who then frowns in disappointment. Amy holds up the red wrapped present she had finished before. "And this one is for Captain Holt. It's one of the six presents I got him representing the six lessons that he's taught me: determination, wisdom, posture-"

Kat snickers when Jake closes his eyes and begins to snore.

"Excuse me, everyone." The bullpen turns to Holt who has just walked out of his office. "As you may know, this is the holiday season. Detectives sometimes feel the urge to buy their captains holiday presents. Please refrain from doing so." Amy's smile slowly slips off her face. "Under no circumstances do I want a present. Peralta, my office."

"Roger that!" Jake calls out.

Amy's wide eyes turn to Kat. "Oh, my God, I have to return so many items," she says.

As Jake passes her, he grins. "I know," he whispers.

"Shut up," Amy hisses.

"It's okay," Kat tells her. "If anything, you've done yourself a favour. You know, at least you know so you don't spend a fortune again next year." Amy shrugs.

Charles hurries over to the pair with a concerned look as he stares at Holt's office. The blinds have been shut. "Why do you think he's in there?" he asks them worriedly.

"Well," Amy begins. She finishes tying the bow adorning Kat's present. "Everything he's done over the last few years is finally catching up to him."

Charles's eyes widen in horror. "You think?"

"No, he's fine," Kat says. Rosa spins her chair around to them to listen to the conversation. "It was completely professional. You could hear it in his tone of voice. He was calm, but commanding like always, and he was dead serious about whatever's happening."

Amy's brows raise. "So you don't think he's in trouble?"

Kat finally looks up from her computer and stops typing. "He'll be fine," she reiterates. "It's pretty obvious to tell when Holt's pissed off at him or not."

Gina hums and she shuts off her phone. "And what, pray tell, are the differences?" she asks her sister with a smile.

"For starters, whenever Jake does something that even remotely annoys him, his eye twitches slightly. Plus, he made direct eye contact with Peralta as he asked for him, which suggests that he was making a point that whatever he wanted to talk about was important."

Terry places his container of yoghurt down as he stares at her with wide eyes. "Damn," he says in surprise. "You are good!" Charles waves his hands over to the sergeant in agreement.

"How do you know all of that?" Amy questions her in disbelief.

"You forget I spent two years studying psychology," Kat smiles.

Gina grins. "Her dream was to become a profiler," she adds. "It probably still is."

"I thought you quit 'cause you didn't like it?" Charles points out with furrowed brows.

"Yeah, I didn't," Kat confirms with a nod. "But when I joined the force, I realised that it didn't have to be a career in just counselling, you know? There's so many other options, and I guess that's when I realised profiling is kind of my dream."

Rosa's brows shoot up in surprise. "Wait, you don't want to be a detective?"

Kat shrugs as she glances to her. "I do, but it's not what I want to do forever," she replies. "I'd love to finish the degree one day."

"I know someone in the FBI," Terry nods to her. "Just let me know if you ever change your mind." Katherine returns her gaze to the screen with a small smile.

A few minutes later, she finds herself needing to print out some documents, so she heads into the copier room without realising that Gina is right behind her. The second they're both in the room, Gina slams the door.

Kat jumps an inch in the air and groans when she realises it's her sister. "You have to stop doing that!" she exclaims, her voice laced with annoyance.

"Why haven't you finished the degree?" Gina asks, cutting straight to the point.

"What do you mean? I've got a job, Gina." Kat frowns when her sister folds her arms. "Just spit it out."

Gina smiles and leans against the doorframe as she watches the blonde get to work with her task. "You haven't left the NYPD because you don't want to," she says.

"Yeah," Kat agrees. "Because I have a job that I love."

"No, no." Gina's smile morphs into a smirk. "I know the real reason why," she teases playfully.

Katherine sighs. "I thought we were past this."

"No, you said you were past this. I never confirmed that myself." Gina rolls her eyes at her sister's silence. "Oh, come on. You don't want to leave because of Rosa."

Kat's eyes widen in alarm, and her head snaps over to the large window that overlooks the bullpen as if Diaz had heard the comment. "Shut up," she states. Gina opens her mouth and Kat lunges over to place her hand over her lips. "Shut up," she repeats. She shrieks when Gina licks the palm of her hand.

She giggles and pats Kat's shoulder. "Oh, honey," she mumbles. Gina places a hand on Kat's cheek. "We're all just waiting for you to realise it."

"There's nothing to realise."

"Mhm. Sure."

"There's nothing to realise!"

"Whatever you say." Gina's grin returns. "You like Rosa," she drawls out. Her eyes widen in alarm when Kat turns to her with a blank face. "Okay, you win. I'm stopping now, you're scaring me."

Charles opens the door and looks between them. "What's going on in here?" he asks with narrowed eyes. "We heard screams."

Gina waves a hand at him and moves over to help Kat with photocopying the various sheets of paper. "Nothing to worry your giant head about," she dismisses.

"Okay, so, I need some help. My flight is at eight tonight," he tells them. "It's domestic. Do you think I'll be safe if I get to the airport five hours early?"

Kat glances over her shoulder to look at him with confusion. "Five hours-"

"Five?" Gina repeats incredulously. "No way! You gotta do seven. Seven minimum." The blonde rolls her eyes.

"Seven..." Charles nods to himself in agreement with the suggestion. "I knew it. Yep."

Katherine's brows draw together as she stacks up the documents that had just printed. "So, why are you going on a singles cruise?"

"Yeah, we thought you were into Rosa," Gina adds.

"Well, I am. But I've begun to feel like there's a slight chance Rosa may not love me back." The siblings share a look as they recall the countless moments over the last few weeks where Rosa had turned Charles down. Each time, she had grown progressively more annoyed by his attempts to ask her out. "So, we both decided the healthy thing for me to do is to just move on."

"I'm impressed, Charles," Gina admits with a nod. "That's very mature."

"Thanks," he smiles. "You know what's funny? I realised I sometimes-"

"Oh, no, don't get comfy," Gina interjects. "This wasn't an invitation to keep talking." Kat rolls her eyes again and slaps the pile of papers against her forehead.

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎ ﾟ。 ⋆

Everyone had made note that Jake had never come out of Holt's office, and the blinds are still drawn so Amy can't attempt to lip-read their conversations. So Santiago had gathered the remaining detectives into the briefing room to plan a Christmas card. Like the rest of the precinct, the room had been decorated with tinsel and coloured fairy lights to remind Christmas haters that the holiday is well and truly here.

"Peralta's busy, so let's just get started," Amy announces. She stands beside the whiteboard that has 'Captain Holt's Secret Christmas Card' written in a red marker.

Kat smiles at what is drawn beside it. "Nice snowman."

Of course, Charles then breaks into song. "Do you wanna build a snowman? Come on, let's go and play-" Gina leans across her desk to smack him on the back of the head to shut him up. "Ow!"

Amy sighs. "Okay, so the captain won't allow us to give him all the presents we bought him," she reminds them all what had been spoken earlier.

Rosa squints her eyes slightly as she folds her arms atop of the desk. "You are the only one that did that," she states.

"But we can make him the greatest Christmas card of all time." Amy's eyes light up as she explains her vision to them. "We're gonna wear Santa hats and big sweaters and take a picture of us all in a line-up."

"That's kind of cute," Kat confesses with a smile. Personally, she'd love to see Rosa with a Santa hat and an oversized sweater.

"I'm sorry, Santiago, but I don't have the time for that," Terry informs them. "My psych evaluation is today. They're gonna decide if I'm ready to make it back on the streets."

Kat gives him an encouraging smile. "You got this, Sarge."

Terry grimaces. "We'll find out..."

Gina turns to him with furrowed brows. "Why do you care what they think? Psychologists are just people who weren't smart enough to be psychics," she scoffs. She waves a hand to Kat when she notices the bewildered look her sister is giving her. "You're the one exception." Gina leans closer to Terry as she whispers, "She's not, I'm just tryna make her feel better."

"Don't worry, Sergeant," Amy reassures him. "We'll add you in later." Terry nervously smiles at them before he hurries out the room.

Charles frowns as he watches the man leave. "Sorry, I gotta go too," he says. "My flight is in..." He glances down to his watch. "Ah, eight hours. I can make it," he tells himself determinedly. "I'll buy a sandwich on the plane."

"Eight hours?" Rosa mutters to Kat. The blonde points to Gina. "That makes sense."

Amy stares after him. "Boyle!"

"So if Peralta, Boyle, and the Sarge are out-"

"Fine," Amy sighs. "Everyone just go."

"Yeah." Rosa grins in satisfaction as she, Hitchcock, and Scully all walk out.

Gina and Kat share a look before making their way over to the whiteboard and Amy. "I could take a pic of myself dressed up as an elf," Gina smiles slightly. "Elfie-selfie."

"Not that," Amy declines. Her eyes flick between the siblings. "But I think there is something you guys could help me with."

"Whatever it is, we're in."

"Katherine, why would you agree to that? You have no idea what you've just signed us up for! We could be running toward death!"

The task had been to help Amy find photos of each member of the squad so they could create a graphic for the card. So far, they had a Christmas tree, and each of the baubles were photographs of the detectives. Now all they needed to do was find the perfect layout.

Amy tilts her head as she studies the screen. "Maybe put Hitchcock's head on top like an angel," she proposes to Gina.

Kat frowns just at the thought. "That's going to look horrific."

Gina moves Hitchcock's photo to replace the head of the angel on top of the tree, and Amy quickly agrees with her best friend. "Yeah, put it behind the tree," she nods. She smiles at the women on either side of her. "Thanks for helping me make the card. Gina, you're so good at this stuff."

"I know," she laughs. "I'm good at everything."

"That's a lie," Kat retorts. "Remember that time you tried ice-skating and landed flat on your face?"

Gina smiles and turns to face her sister. "Shut up." As she watches Katherine go to argue, she holds her hand up. "Moving on. All right, so here's all the pictures of Rosa that we have."

There are nine photos of Rosa Diaz saved in the computer. All nine of them are her staring at the camera, glaring at the camera, or what looks like her swearing at the camera. None of them are of her smiling.

"Well, this is a problem," Kat realises with a sigh. "Okay, which one are we going to use?"

"She never smiles," Amy points out. "Is her mouth broken?"

Kat props her chin up on her hand. "No, she smiles. Unfortunately for us, we don't have any proof that is at all true."

Gina squints her eyes slightly in concentration. "Okay, well, what about if we... flip those lips!" All of their eyes widen in horror once Gina rotates Rosa's lips upside down. "Oof!"

"Oh, God."

"That's just horrifying."

"We have to get a picture of Rosa smiling," Amy tells them urgently. "Holt's card has to be perfect."

Hitchcock happens to be passing by just in time to hear the end of their discussion. He nods with a sly smile. "Guys... I got this." Kat's eyes widen a fraction. "I can make Rosa smile," he says confidently. "Just keep your cameras ready."

"This is not going to go well," Katherine declares as he walks away. But they all position themselves so their phones can record his interaction with Rosa in the kitchen.

"Making coffee?" Hitchcock calls out. Rosa stands with her back to him as he slowly approaches her. "Can you make another cup for Senor Tickle and his nueve amigos?" He wiggles his fingers before he starts tickling her. "Tickle, tickle, tickle!"

"What the hell, Hitchcock?" Rosa yells. With her cup of coffee in one hand, she grabs onto his wrist and twists it behind his back. Kat swears she hears bones cracking as he's forced to drop onto his knees.

"Ow, ah! Ow, ow, ow! I think you sprained Senor Tickle!"

"Next time, I break it off," Rosa threatens lowly. She takes a sip of her coffee and lets him go.

Kat nods. Just as expected. "Told you." Amy closes her eyes in frustration.

The next phase of their plan does not include Hitchcock. Obviously. Gina had been the one to suggest that they construct an elaborate, yet fairly simple, lie to try and trick Rosa into smiling for one of their cameras to capture. The only trouble is that Amy didn't tell Gina she was going to talk to Rosa, and Gina didn't tell Amy that she was also going to talk to Rosa. Naturally, Kat had been the only person they had each told they were going ahead with the plan. She sits at her desk with her hands clasped together as she watches Amy hurry across the bullpen with a stack of letters.

"Oh, my God, Rosa!" Amy gushes. Rosa dumps a file on her desk and narrows her eyes at the woman. "I accidentally opened your mail, but look what it says, 'Dear Miss Diaz, you just won-'"

Gina rushes over carrying a similar pile of papers. A smile slowly spreads onto Kat's face as she watches the scene unfold. "Rosa, guess what." Amy glances to Gina awkwardly. "I accidentally opened your mail, and here's what it says. 'Dear Miss Diaz, you just won-'"

"No, I'm reading the letter," Amy whispers through gritted teeth. "And you're taking the picture."

"What?" Gina's eyebrows draw together. "I thought Kat was taking the picture."

Rosa meets Kat's eyes and the blonde waves to her. "Ha! You were trying to get me to smile for your dumb picture, but you messed up." A beatific smile appears on Rosa's face.

"Ah, she smiled!" Amy exclaims. "She's smiling!" As Rosa passes Kat, her smile widens. "And no one has a camera..."

Scully stops before the detective with his phone raised up at her face. He takes a photo of her. "Got it, Amy. Got a picture of you frowning! That's what you wanted, right?" The two women stare at him.

Gina spins around to her sister. "Kat, what the hell?" She throws her arms up.

"Yeah, Kat, what the hell?" Amy agrees in frustration. "You knew she was gonna do this?"

She hums. "I knew both of you were going to do this."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because it was clearly going to fail," she explains. Kat shrugs, her smile still plastered on her face."And, by the way, it was hilarious."

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎ ﾟ。 ⋆

Jake and Holt hadn't been seen for majority of the day because the captain had been receiving death threats. Upon returning from their abrupt disappearance, Jake, Holt, and Charles explained the situation that had suddenly become much more dire than what was first believed. Everyone had been given various jobs to try and locate the culprit: Colin Haimes, a murderer that Holt had arrested back in nineteen-eight-two. Over an hour had passed, and the light outside had well and truly disappeared.

Kat's disappointed they had to give up their task to try and catch Rosa smiling, but of course, the safety of their captain is tenfold of importance.

"All right, let's go!" Jake calls out as he makes his way to the podium. He stuffs his hands in the pockets of his hoodie. "Updates. Santiago."

Amy glances to the whiteboard beside her that is now covered with photographs and various pieces of information about Haimes. "Looking into Haimes' associates," she responds. "Nothing yet."

"Boyle?"

"Uh, some intel coming in from Ossining," Charles says as waits for his laptop to load. "... Haimes was released two weeks ago."

Jake nods. "Good. Hitchcock and Scully, update on your secret project?"

The two detectives send him thumbs up. Hitchcock's fingers have been taped together from the injury Rosa had given him. "Hazelnut coffee'll be up in five minutes," Scully reveals.

"Sumatran's ready to go," Hitchcock adds.

"Keep me updated."

Kat's eyes widen as she watches the screen of her laptop suddenly change. "Warrant for the phone just came through," she announces. "And the last coordinates from its GPS."

Rosa leans closer to the computer, and looks back as she says, "The rail yards."

Kat shares the screen onto the TV at the front of the room and Jake nods curtly. "All right, we got him. Everyone suit up!" he orders. The room quickly empties as everyone heads to go grab their respective tactical gear.

As Katherine grabs her phone off her desk, Rosa catches her arm as she turns around. "Hey, when we make it back, I'll give you a photo," she promises her quietly.

Kat's eyes widen. "Huh. I did not see this coming."

By the time they arrive at the rail yards, it's almost nine o'clock. Kat moves quickly beside Amy, Rosa, and Charles, all of them holding up their firearms with their bulletproof vests secured tightly on their bodies.

"Sorry you missed your flight," Rosa says to Charles.

He shrugs as he spares a glance to her. "It's okay, I have a backup flight in four hours." Rosa shares a look of amusement with Kat as they continue wandering through the area.

It's almost pitch black, the only light being that of the moon and a few streetlamps scattered throughout the yards. Their footsteps against the pebbles appear exceptionally loud compared to the silence hanging in the air. Suddenly, a ringtone cuts through the quietness, startling Charles to the point where he grabs onto Kat's arm.

A few seconds later, their radios crackle to life. "That is Haimes' phone," Jake speaks up. "I repeat, everyone converge on that ringtone."

Kat's eyes widen at the sudden flash of movement up ahead. They watch Haimes dart in between two trains, the glint of the metal pistol in his hand catching their attention. "He's heading North on track seventeen," she informs Jake and Holt.

Amy silently motions for Charles to come with her, and for Rosa and Kat to continue straight ahead. They all nod, and the two women share a brief look with one another before racing toward to where they had seen Haimes disappear. Kat pulls Rosa to a stop once she hears a rattle coming from inside one of the train's cars, and they position themselves on either side of the door.

"NYPD!" Rosa yells. "We've got you, Haimes."

"Come out with your hands on your head," Kat demands firmly.

Silence. The detectives lock eyes, and Rosa holds up her hand as she counts down from three.

However, before she can get to two, the door to the car suddenly swings open and Haimes jumps out, roughly tackling Kat to the ground in the process. With a groan, she forcefully kicks him off her body and twists out of the way before he can land a punch on her.

Rosa's eyes dart around in alarm as she tries to intervene to help her partner, but then she watches Katherine lunge forward and send her fist straight into the centre of Haimes' face.

As Haimes flies back onto the ground, they notice he still has a tight hold on his pistol. Before either detective can even begin to process it, he's raised the gun and aimed it straight at Rosa. Sheer panic floods Katherine's body. She knows exactly why. And she would rather die herself than have Rosa take her last breath instead of her.

As the trigger is pulled, Kat races forward and tackles Rosa to the ground, similarly how she had been a minute prior. They both grunt as they hit the sand covered surface, and Haimes uses the time to scramble up and sprint away from the scene. He would then be caught by Terry a few minutes later.

Kat rolls her body off Rosa's and her wide, panicked eyes flick across her face. "Are you okay?" she asks quickly. "Did he hit you?"

Another two gunshots are fired in the distance, but neither of them hear it.

"No, you got me out in time," Rosa replies with a small, grateful smile.

As Rosa grabs onto Kat's hand to help her stand up, this time, she's the one to freeze in fear as she hears Kat cry out in pain and fall back onto the ground. It's then she notices the deep scarlet beginning to stain the collar of Katherine's shirt.

"Fuck," Rosa whispers in horror. She drops to her knees beside her, her hands hovering above Kat's body in shock. "No, no, no."

Katherine screws her eyes closed as the white-hot agony spreads across her shoulder. "Well, now we know what happened to the bullet," she mumbles.

Rosa quickly tears a hole in Kat's jacket with her pocketknife. Once she spots the wound that is only inches outside of the bulletproof vest, her eyes meet the pair of green and she exhales a shaky breath. "This is gonna hurt like a bitch," she warns.

Kat sucks a sharp breath and nods. "Just do it." She bites onto her tongue hard enough to draw blood when she feels Rosa's hands press firmly onto the bleeding wound. "Oh, fuck this son of a bitch," she groans.

"God, you're such a fucking idiot," Rosa breathes out.

Kat's eyes lock with hers in disbelief. "I just took a bullet for you!" She gasps as another ripple of pain appears, but this time is moves through her entire body.

"Exactly!" With one hand still pressed onto Kat's shoulder, Rosa grabs onto her radio. "I need an ambulance," she orders. "Kat's down." When she doesn't receive an answer fast enough, she grips the device until her knuckles turn white. "Someone get me a fucking ambulance!"

"On its way," Jake replies, trying to come off as collected and calm. But even through the radio they can hear his terror.

"Is he safe?" Kat asks. "Is Holt safe?"

"I don't care." Rosa's jaw clenches as she notices that the blood is darkening and that the wound is bleeding considerably faster. She also takes note that Kat's breathing is becoming slightly laboured. She's losing too much blood.

As she shifts her body to press her knee firmly onto Kat's shoulder to try and slow the bleeding, Rosa allows her to grip onto her hand as another cry leaves her lips. "Holy fuck, this is horrible!" Kat hisses. She subconsciously tightens her hold on Rosa's hand, and even though it's now a vice-like grip, Rosa doesn't flinch. "I was wrong when I once said I wanted this to be on my bucket list."

"Just hang on," Rosa tells her quickly. "Okay, keep your eyes on me."

Katherine weakly smiles. "That's what she said."

Rosa shakes her head, her lips quirked into a small smile. "You're such an idiot."

"You can't call me an idiot when I'm lying here with a bullet inside me."

"Watch me."

⋆。 ﾟ✩。 ⋆。 ﾟ☀︎ ﾟ。 ⋆

Rosa hadn't left the hospital since Katherine had been taken into surgery. She had sat beside an incredibly anxious Gina, trying to distract the woman from the fact that her sister had just been shot. The arrest of the freestyle killer had given them two victims: Kat and Charles. Boyle had received two bullets upon trying to push Amy out of the firing line, something similar to what had happened with Katherine and Rosa. Colin Haimes was not a fan of cops. Thankfully, neither of their injuries are fatal and something that the doctors had told them would be fairly simple to heal from.

Gina nervously taps her foot against the ground and glances to Rosa sat beside her with her arms tightly folded over her chest and eyes closed. "Do you think she's out yet?"

"I don't know, Gina."

"Okay, but what if something went wrong," she suggests. Her voice wavers slightly.

"They would've told us," Rosa reassures her. She still hasn't opened her eyes.

A minute passes. "Do you think she's out now?"

"Gina, I don't know."

The two women straighten themselves when they spot the doctor approaching them. They both subconsciously let out their held breaths when he smiles at them. "She's going to be fine," the doctor says. "She's just gotten out of surgery, but she's on some morphine for the pain. I'd give it ten minutes or so before she starts waking up."

Gina nods and pockets her phone. "Thanks." She spins around to Rosa when he walks away. "She's okay," she whispers in relief.

Rosa nods. "Told you." She doesn't voice that she had been just as nervous.

They stand up at the sight of the squad rushing toward them, all as concerned as the other. "Is she okay?" Jake presses worriedly. "Did they save her? Is she awake? Oh, my God, did she die?"

Amy's eyes widen in dread. "Did she die?" she repeats quietly.

Rosa rolls her eyes. "She's fine," she tells them. Everyone almost immediately relaxes. "Stop catastrophising everything," she scolds Jake.

One of the nurses smiles at them. "Both of them are okay," she informs the group. "They're in the same room, so you can see them in a minute."

Gina's eyes are wide as she whispers in horror, "Good God, she's gonna be stuck in a room with Boyle for a week."

"Sarge, I'm so glad that shrink cleared you," Amy smiles to him.

"More or less," Terry says sheepishly. He's pointedly left out the fact that Gina had barged into the session and informed him of the threats to Holt, where Terry had then stamped the form himself to go and save the captain. He pats Gina's shoulder as she grins at him. "I owe you one."

"Boyle and Linetti got shot because of me," Holt says with a sigh. "This is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to avoid."

"Captain, this is our job," Jake retorts. "Any one of us would've taken those bullets." The rest of the squad quickly nod their heads in agreement with his assuring words.

Rosa's lips lift slightly as she recalls the very moment where Katherine Linetti had saved her life. Gina nudges her shoulder with a knowing smile, and she rolls her eyes in annoyance.

"I'm sorry I've been so difficult," Holt apologises to Peralta. "You were right. We couldn't have caught him without the team."

"Well, well, well." Jake smirks. "It appears the student has become the teacher. And the teacher hath become-"

"That's enough."

"Okay."

Holt holds his hand out to Jake who clasps it and shakes. "Thank you."

Jake smiles. "You're welcome." With their hands still connected, he does the wave. "Team pop and lock. Here we go! Whoosh!" He looks pointedly at Holt when the captain doesn't return the movement. "Come on, still? We saved your life!"

Holt's eyes flick over to see the rest of the detectives looking at him expectantly, and he sighs.

Jake's eyes widen when Holt finally gives in to the peer pressure. "Oh, my God. Oh, my God! It's happening!"

"Woah, woah!"

"Yes! We did it!"

They all break into applause and loud cheers. The same nurse from a few minutes prior cuts them all off with a scowl. "Excuse me!" They fall silent. "This is a hospital."

Jake purses his lips and dips his head in acknowledgement. "Right, sorry. People are dying..."

They're then led into the shared room of Charles and Kat. Gina immediately beelines over to her sister's bed, and Kat blinks open her eyes and weakly smiles at her. "I am so high on drugs right now," she states. "And the doctors said that if the bullet was one inch to the left, I could have died!"

Gina drags one of the armchairs over and gently smacks her arm. "You stupid idiot," she scolds. Kat's eyes widen. "You don't have the right to do something like that ever again."

Katherine rolls her eyes at her overprotectiveness. "It's literally my job, Nina." She meets Rosa's eyes and smiles slightly. "Plus, it was worth it."

"It was worth getting shot?" Jake retorts in disbelief. She hums, and he shakes his head. "You're psychotic."

"No, she saved my life," Rosa defends. A soft smile graces her face as she looks back to Kat propped up in her bed with a sling on her right arm.

Kat reaches out to pat Gina's head as her sister adjusts the blankets covering her body. "I could get used to this," she proclaims.

"Me too," Charles calls out from the bed beside her. Kat supresses her want to laugh when she glances over to him for the third time since she had woken. It's going to be a long week trying to avoid looking at him. Boyle is lying on his stomach (since he was shot in the butt) and tries his best to look at the squad surrounding him and Kat. "You know, everyone should just go home and enjoy their Christmas."

Kat nods in agreement. "Yeah, you guys don't need to hang around for us." She smiles at Charles. "We'll have some fun on our own."

"Shut up," Rosa argues. She narrows her eyes at the surprise that flashes across Kat's face. "We're not going anywhere."

"I second that," Gina states. She's now tasked herself with trying to set up chargers for herself and Kat's phones. Obviously she's staying the night. And tomorrow. And the day after. And the day after that.

Jake nods. "Yeah, what you guys did was amazing." He looks between his two best friends proudly.

"You both did the Nine-Nine proud," Holt tells them with a nod.

A grin quickly appears on Jake's face as he glances briefly to Boyle. "No ifs, ands, or butts. Sorry, it's just right there. Literally. It's just right in front of me. His butt is right in my face." He turns to Kat. "You're gonna have the week of your life," he adds in amusement.

"I have to tell you guys something," Charles begins. "Even though I got shot-"

"In the butt!" Jake's grin has widened. "Sorry." He isn't sorry.

"I'd rather be here, spending Christmas with all of you, than on some stupid singles cruise," Charles finishes. "And I mean that, from the bottom of my-"

"Butt!" Jake interrupts. "Again, sorry." He looks back to Kat once more. "Seriously, you're gonna have so many opportunities." She grins.

Rosa roughly punches his arm and he yelps in pain. "Shut up. Boyle's a hero." She smiles brightly. "And so is his butt."

"I got it!" Amy suddenly declares, overjoyed that she had finally managed to capture the photo she had been trying to get all day. "She smiled! Christmas card complete."

"Okay, let's go get them some food," Jake announces. Everyone files out the room to go and order takeaway from down the street to then bring back to the two detectives.

Gina's eyes flick up to see Rosa lingering behind and she kisses Kat's cheek. "I'll be back."

With headphones now in Charles ears so he can listen to one of his foodie podcasts, Rosa takes the chair Gina had previously been sitting in. "So..." After avoiding any contact for a few moments, she finally locks eyes with Kat. "I just need to say thank you."

"You don't need to say thank you," Kat replies with a frown.

"Yeah, yeah, I do. You saved my life," Rosa says softly.

"And I'd do it again." They stare at each other for what feels like forever, until Kat vigorously shakes her head to try and unblur her vision. "Sorry, I started seeing two of you. Do you have a secret twin?"

Rosa huffs a laugh. "You're so high."

"I am so high."

They share a smile. "Okay, I'll go back to your place and let Tisha know what's happened..." Rosa hesitates for a few seconds before adding, "I can take care of Bear if you want, you know," she nods to the sling, "'cause you won't really be able to."

"You don't have to do that," Kat whispers.

Rosa nods. "Yeah, I know, but I want to. And I'll visit here every day, just because you're gonna get sick of staring at Boyle's butt."

Katherine arches a brow in amusement. "Just because?" she repeats.

Rosa rolls her eyes. "Just take my gratitude and shut up."

Gina skips back into the room with her arms full of junk food she had gotten from one of the nearby vending machines. "Okay, I have chocolate, candy, and chips," she announces.

Boyle quickly takes his headphones out with wide eyes. "You have crisps?"

She throws her head back with a groan. "I was hoping you'd be quiet for another ten hours," Gina protests. Kat snorts.

"Let's hide all of this before Jake comes back and gets just as high as me but on sugar." They all nod in agreement at Katherine's suggestion. She looks down to her shoulder and winces at the blood starting to faintly seep through the gauze. "I can't believe this actually happened."

"Title of your sex tape," Rosa says quickly.

The lingering sensation of pain disappears for a short moment as Kat grins. "Oh, we've taught you so well."

𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘱𝘪𝘴𝘰𝘥𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵....... 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥, 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴