Chapter Text
They find out about the audit at a Wednesday morning meeting. The Captain’s at this one, and when he walks in, Amy sits up a little straighter. He stands to the side until Sarge is finished briefing their cases, and Amy watches him from the corner of her eye the entire time. Jake will probably tease her about it later, but some things about her will never change: she is eager to please. When Terry finishes his briefing, Holt takes the podium and speaks.
“Before you all go, I have some news regarding the future of this precinct. As you know, other precincts have been audited and sometimes, downsized, recently, and the Nine-Nine will be next.”
A murmur grows across the room.
“Please be advised that nothing is set in stone. I only ask you not to panic, and to continue your work as usual. Dismissed.”
Terry speaks up again as the squad makes to leave. “Actually, before you go, you should probably know who the auditor’s gonna be,” Everyone slinks back down to their chairs. “It’s Teddy Wells, formerly of the Eight-Six.” Amy freezes slightly in her seat in front of Jake. Charles gasps softly.
“You don’t think he’ll shut down the precinct because of his history with Amy, do you?”
Gina looks aghast. “And I thought that if anyone’s sex life would be the downfall of this precinct, it would be mine.” Rosa nods.
Amy looks scandalized and turns in her seat to face them. “He’s not going to do that. He’s a reasonable guy. Plus, we’re been broken up for two years.”
“It was a messy breakup though.” Charles gives her a pitying look.
“How would you know? You weren’t even there.”
“No, but Jake was.”
“Jake!”
At the front, the Captain’s eyes are trained to the ceiling. Amy wants to sink into the floor.
Beside her, Jake is defensive. “I was name-dropped in a breakup. I had to talk to someone about it.”
“Yeah, Amy.” Charles says.
Amy sighs and raises her hand, ready to retort. Terry stops her.
“Settle down. We’re all professionals here, and we’ll all act as such. Got it?” Amy nods primly. Charles leans over to whisper to Jake the moment Terry and Holt leave.
“I’m still on your side here, Jake.”
Jake, having known and worked with Amy for nearly a decade, knows her pretty well. He knows that her nostrils always flare when someone talks to her when she’s hungry, that a lack of appetite means she’s been under intense stress for days, that bitten nails mean she’s been under stress for more, and that nervous leg shaking means she’s ready to slip up and start smoking again. Therefore, he can read from her that morning cues that she does not want to see her ex again.
“I don’t want to see my ex again,” she says.
(He’s a pretty good detective.)
“I thought you said it’d be civil?”
Amy leans forward towards the centre of their desks. “I’m sure it will be, but it’s still weird, you know?”
Terry walks by their desks holding a folder. He’s been patrolling the bullpen all morning, trying to keep the officers calm as they waited for the auditor to arrive. “Relax, Amy. This’ll probably be good for you two. It’s healthy to have a talk after a breakup. Maybe you’ll learn something.”
Jake scoffs at him. “God, who does that?”
“ I’ve done that.” Terry says.
“If I ever see any of my exes,” Jake says. “I will go running the other way.” Amy nods. Terry sighs.
“Well, don’t worry anyways. You’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, especially since you’ve basically won this breakup.” He gestures to himself. Amy eyes his jam-stained shirt and takes a controlled breath.
“Does that even matter two years after the fact?” she asks.
“Oh, Ames, it always matters. And trust me, no part of his life can be better than yours right now.”
“Stop complimenting yourself, damn .” Gina calls from her desk.
When Teddy finally does arrive, shortly before lunch, Amy is conveniently out on a case with Charles. She wasn’t assigned to it to begin with, but after spending a full half hour seeing her nibbling on a pencil, Charles dragged her out with him. She doesn’t fight him and he is glad. His face still hurts from wincing at her.
Jake watches Teddy exit the elevator with another smartly dressed man, cross the room, and be welcomed into Holt’s office from the window in the copy room. The door to Holt’s office is closed but the blinds aren’t, and Jake watches the backs of their heads through the slots in the window until Rosa comes in.
“So, are you gonna get all jealous because Teddy’s around?” she asks.
Jake scoffs. “Jealous because the guy my girlfriend of two years broke up with years ago is here? Uh, no.” He isn’t lying. Teddy’s being there is making him uneasy, but his past with Amy has nothing to do with it.
(Little to do with it, anyway. The last he saw of Teddy, the other man was blaming his failed relationship on him. It was a stressful moment for all involved.)
“Good. That macho man stuff is overrated.”
Jake hums. “It’s kinda weird. I told Amy it was gonna be fine but I was lying. Like, should I ignore him? I should at least say hello, right?”
Rosa studies him. “Does he even know you’re with Amy?”
“I have no clue actually.”
“Huh.”
They’re both quiet for a minute. Jake opens up the copier he was using, and grabs his sheets. They’re cold by now, and he considers making one more copy to feel the warmth of the paper.
(Just a little quirk of Amy’s that rubbed off on him, but he wasn’t about to go around advertising it.)
“You don’t think they’ll downsize us, do you?” Jake asks Rosa. Rosa’s face is neutral, but there’s a bit of a strain in her shoulders and back.
“I hope not.”
“I’d make a terrible auditor. You know that, right?”
“They’re not going to make you an auditor, Jake.”
“Right. That would be stupid.”
“Incredibly.” Rosa walks away. Jake waits a moment and listens to her heels on the tile floor get quieter, then presses a copier button for one more copy. The machine whirls to life.
Jake finally makes contact with Teddy in the break room later that day. Jake’s sitting in there, nursing a hot chocolate from a mix he found at the back of a cupboard in the kitchen. It only tasted sort of stale.
“Hey.” Teddy’s standing in the doorway, tall as ever and dressed in civilian clothes.
“Hey.” Jake doesn’t hold his gaze and instead toys with the stir stick in his mug. Teddy clears his throat.
“Do you mind-” he motions at the table.
“Go ahead.” Teddy nods. The chair shrieks as it’s pulled against the floor. Jake counts to three before making his excuses to leave. One, two-
“So- how’ve you been?”
Jake stays seated and runs his fingers along the handle of his mug. “Oh, you know, same old, same old.” Teddy’s mouth quirks. Jake imagines being absorbed by the tiled floor. “Sorry to hear about the Eight-Six. That sucks.”
That sucks. Jake wants to kick himself.
Teddy doesn’t seem to mind. “Thanks, it was hard, but it was for the best, in the end. I hope I don’t have to see it happen to this place, though. You guys have a good team here.”
Despite his nerves, the corners of Jake’s mouth turn up. “Thanks.” There is a moment and a half where neither of them speaks. Jake can hear his own breathing, and hope it’s only loud to his ears. “What do you mean, it was for the best?” he asks.
Teddy clears his throat. “Well, maybe not for the best, exactly, but it turned out well for me.” He smiles. “You see, my, uh, girlfriend and I had a baby three months ago. Here she is,” he shows Jake a photo of the baby on his phone background. Jake aww ’s softly. “And, well, getting out of the field is giving me more time with my daughter.”
“That’s why you didn’t request a transfer to a new squad?”
“Yeah. Auditing’s boring as hell, but it’s not forever, and it’s worth it for now, you know?”
Jake nods, even though, no, he doesn’t fully understand, not yet.
“Are you and Amy planning for one soon?”
“I- uh-”
“Relax, Jake, me and Amy were done a long time ago. I’m not mad or anything anymore.”
“Yeah. Right. I just- didn’t know that you knew about us.”
“Yeah, well, word got around. Can’t say I was surprised.”
Teddy’s voice isn’t full of venom this time, not like when they were at the Maple Drip Inn and the worst breakup of his life was being witnessed by another couple. He looks unsure, and awkward, but his smile his genuine and his eyes are kind. Jake tells Amy all about it on the drive home.
“His eyes were kind?” she asks, wincing.
“Well, I-uh, you know what I mean. He was civil after all.”
“I told you so.”
“I know.”
Teddy and his partner had gone to another floor by the time Amy and Charles had returned to the precinct. He would be back again every day for the rest of the week, but Amy was calmed for the moment. Back in the car, she drums her fingers on the steering wheel. “Wow, so Teddy has a baby, huh?”
“Yeah. He showed me a picture, she’s super cute.”
“God, I can’t even imagine having a baby right now.”
“I know. We could both be unemployed by next week.” Jake looks out the window and bites his thumbnail. Amy’s voice is softer when she speaks next.
“We’ll be fine, Jake. Even if we’re downsized, other departments are hiring all the time. We’ll make our way back eventually.”
“Like Holt.”
“Like Holt.” Amy looks over at Jake at a red light and smiles.
“Plus, we can do all the things we wanted to do but don’t have time for if we get desk jobs,” Jake says. “Like get a cat and teach it tricks.”
“We’re not teaching a cat to poop in a toilet, Jake.”
Jake smiles and the corners of his eyes crinkle. The hot ball of stress over losing his dream job is still there at the bottom of his stomach, but the gentle hum of the engine and Amy’s laughter as they list off things they’d do if they had the time slowly settles his nerves. The uncertainty of the audit is still there, but there is something exhilarating about facing it with Amy.