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1. The Boyle-Linetti Wedding.
The first time Jake and Amy agree to go to a wedding together, they do so more because it’s convenient rather than to go together. Jake’s place and the jewelry store are on her way to the venue, so it’s only a matter of logic and ecological awareness that she offers him to share a ride. It doesn’t need to mean anything else — Amy is well aware that the moment they arrive and he lays his eyes on Jenny Gildenhorn, Jake will give the other woman his full attention and leave her alone.
(Well, not exactly alone — she’ll still have the whole squad to spend the day and night with.)
And Amy is fine with that. She meant it, when she said they’re just friends and whatever that might have happened between them before — both their (very) poorly timed declarations of feelings — is a thing that belongs to the past. Still, she can’t retain herself from catching how Jake’s gaze lingers for just a second too long on her when he makes his way into the car and she’s all dressed up for the occasion.
(She doesn’t have to wait too long for him outside his building; he is, surprisingly, on time.)
She can’t stop herself from blushing either, when he tells her, with a genuine and meaningful beam, that you look great and she shyly thanks him.
We’re just friends, she reminds herself while she sneaks a quick glance towards him at a red stop. He’s singing along a Taylor Swift tune blaring at high volume inside the vehicle (he insisted the person on the passenger’s seat is the one in charge of the playlist) and although she rolls her eyes at his antics, she finds herself smiling as well, a warm feeling growing in her chest.
“What?” he asks when he catches her eyes on him. “I’m getting us in the mood for the wedding! Loosen up, Santiago, and sing along with me!”
Amy shakes her head in mock-annoyance, but somehow finds herself following his lead and doing as he asks until they eventually reach the store and she has to stop the car and the music.
In the end, they do end up staying together throughout the majority of the event. From catching bad guys to sitting together for the ceremony and pranking Jake into a dance with Gina’s great aunt Susan later during the party (without Amy ever thinking of how she wished she had had the guts to ask him to dance with her, no, not at all), they barely ever leave each other’s company.
They drink and laugh and joke and share secret looks, and they overall have a great time. It’s been a while since the two of them had such fun together; Amy’s glad to see their bond is still intact.
No matter what, they’re still best friends.
“Thanks for the ride,” Jake says through a big, goofy grin when she brings him home at the end of the night. His dark eyes are piercing right through her core, and it’s clear from the way they shine under the moonlight that he is drunk. He undoes his safety belt and goes to open the door, but stops right in his tracks with a finger pointed in her direction. “Don’t forget: you owe me one.”
Amy frowns, letting out a surprised chuckle. What the hell is he talking about?!
“What?”
“You owe me a slow dance,” he further explains. Amy can feel her heart skip a beat at the mention of what happened earlier. She can feel his gaze again, so soft and hypnotizing, burning right through her core while he swayed with the old woman. “Aunt Susan was nice — well, maybe a bit too handsy —,” the sound of his voice brings her back to the reality of the moment. He’s got that same look in his eyes again as he talks. “But…”
But he never finishes his sentence and Amy doesn’t dare to ask for more.
Jake is drunk, she reminds herself. He needs to get some sleep.
“Next time, maybe,” she answers through a shy smile. It seems to make his eyes lit up completely. “Goodnight, Jake.”
“‘Night, Ames.” And then he gets out of the car.
Amy watches until she can see some light coming from his studio, proof that he managed to make his way home, before she leaves. Her heart is pounding her chest, her mind taking her to places she’d rather not think about right now, with Jake’s body pressed against her own as they quietly swirl around the dancefloor and he gently mocks her for even being bad at the simplest dances of all.
She’s quick to dismiss it all, though — this is nothing but a trick of her imagination, fueled by the romantic atmosphere of a wedding day. She doesn’t actually have feelings for Jake again.
2. The Pimento-Diaz (Non) Wedding.
Amy can’t believe the first wedding she gets to attend with Jake as her boyfriend, when she has so many relatives tying the knot almost once a year, happens so long after they started dating. Actually, there’s an explanation to it — when you have to spend six whole months of your relationship apart, you’re bound to miss some important milestones and family gatherings along the way.
Plus, they’ve been taking things slow before (and they still are, as they can’t figure out which apartment they’re gonna live in together), so it makes sense he hasn’t met with all of the Santiagos yet.
This time, though, Jake doesn’t have to miss anything. He’s here — in all flesh and bones and one full piece — when Rosa and Pimento announce to the squad they’re getting married, and he’s here on the wedding day as well (which is supposed to happen less than twenty-four hours later), even having a huge part to play in it. Amy, too, has been chosen to turn this special day into something magical, so neither of them can see each other much. And when they do, it’s only to realize one thing: the future bride and groom don’t actually want to get married.
For just a split second, as she looks around Shaw’s and the beautiful venue she managed to put together in such record time with a sad pout on her face, Amy gets the crazy (and very unexpected, coming from her) idea that maybe, just maybe, she and Jake could take their place. Get married instead of them.
After all, it’d be a shame to throw all of her efforts to waste; and the officiant is already here. Plus she knows, after these six months spent apart, what a life without her boyfriend looks like.
And it doesn’t look good at all. She’s not so sure she wants to go through another separation with him ever again, whatever its form.
Her mind is quick to go back to some reason, though, filling with tons of different arguments and lists of things why getting married now would be a terrible idea. Jake is back home and he’s not going anywhere — they have all the time in the world to think about the future and actually plan it together, then.
Surprisingly, he is the one who brings up the topic once they’re back in the comfort and quietness of their apartment after what has been an amazing night. (In the end, her efforts didn’t go to waste at all; the wedding just turned into one big fancy party.) They’re curled up in bed together, his hand absentmindedly stroking her arm as they’re slowly drifting to slumber when he breaks the silence.
“What do you think about weddings? You want to get married someday, right?” he asks in a sleepy voice.
Amy saw how he stopped and stared at the life calendar hanging over her bed when he entered the room earlier and paused for a minute before he joined her under the covers.
She smiles. Inside her chest, her heart misses a beat. “I do, yeah.” Then she adds after a second of hesitation, remembering the thought that crossed her mind earlier today, “When the time’s right.”
“When the time’s right,” Jake repeats. She can’t see him but she can tell he’s smiling from the tone of his voice. “Cool. That’s good to know.” Another beat missed as he presses a soft kiss to her head. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
3. A Santiago Wedding.
Attending a wedding when you’re yourself engaged to the love of your life, with said love of your life sitting next to you, can turn into quite the emotional event. And that’s a lot to say, coming from Amy, who’s already a very emotional person who’s known to cry a lot. Especially when it comes to weddings.
She can’t help but steal a few glances every now and then towards Jake as her cousin and her almost-wife exchange some beautiful vows. She can easily picture herself, a few months from now, at a time when it will be her turn to stand on the altar with her fiancé, looking him in the eye and telling him all about how much he means to her. She already wrote a first draft on her laptop, that will most likely change and evolve a lot until the D-Day. Amy loves to be prepared, but she also happens to have a lot to say about her favorite person in the whole wide world.
As she tears her gaze away from the couple for a short moment and looks around the huge and highly decorated venue, she remembers that one time when she almost suggested to Jake they should get married instead of Rosa and Pimento. She’s glad she kept her thoughts to herself that night. Everything from his proposal to the planning of their union has been perfect so far, and she wouldn’t trade it for anything else. She told Jake later that she wanted to wait for the right time, and now definitely is.
The pressure of his hand curling a little harder around hers bring her back to the reality of the moment, and Amy meets his (teary) eyes as they exchange a knowing look and beam. She’s pretty sure they’re thinking about the exact same thing, right now — soon it will be us up there, officially sealing our love to one another in front of our friends and families.
Amy can’t wait for that day to come. To spend the rest of her life with her partner, her best friend, the love of her life.
She keeps thinking about it as they slow dance together with the other couples during the party and her engagement ring shines bright under the beautiful fairy light, a contrast to Jake’s dark suit as her arms are wrapped around his neck and his are on her waist. She can’t wait to share their very first dance as wife and husband. It’s going to be magical.
“I can’t wait to marry you.” Jake’s voice, barely above a whisper against her ear, comes sending goosebumps through her spine as his words echo her own reverie.
Amy only smiles, holding onto him a little tighter. “Me too.”
4. The Peralta-Santiago Wedding.
In the end, their own wedding doesn’t go as they spent months planning it. It’s still magical, though — Amy’s new favorite day.
Sure, a bomb threat and not having most of their guests present for the ceremony could be seen as some big clouds in the otherwise clear blue sky, but still. All that matters is that Jake is here, and she is here and most of all, love is here, from start to finish. They exchange their vows right where he told her he liked her for the very first time and somehow, it all comes full circle.
They will appreciate with time the symbolic meaning of it all; getting married at the precinct, the place that saw them slowly but surely fall in love.
They get to exchange their vows under a bright moon and fairy lights beautifully put together by Charles. It’s not the words Amy spent months to craft, draft after draft after draft, but they’re just as true and come straight from her heart. Plus she manages to make Jake cry by stealing his joke and really, the look of pure awe and love he shoots at her in that moment will forever be imprinted in her mind.
You’re my dream girl — and he’s definitely her own dream come true too.
They don’t get to share a first dance in front of their friends and families (don’t get to celebrate for too long at Shaw’s once the ceremony is over either, after those depressing news their captain gets about not being the next commissioner) but they still celebrate together in the intimacy of their home, just the two of them, and it’s just as great.
If not even better.
They fall asleep entangled together after a night of love, and Amy can feel the new cold touch of Jake’s wedding band on her bare skin as she drifts off to the land of dreams, perfectly aware that for once, nothing will ever come close to beat the reality of what she just lived for the past hours.
5. Hitchcock’s Wedding.
Hitchcock’s wedding is all but just a blur in Amy’s mind. She can’t remember much about the ceremony, doesn’t even recall the trouble she caused with her toast (what toast?!) before heading away. Some things are still vivid inside her head, though. Jake and her having too many drinks, the feeling of his lips against hers and hands on her body as they were making out and trying to have sex in gross (and inappropriate) places. A creepy guy and a horde of guinea pig. Drunken sex on their couch back at home.
The stinging feeling that no matter what or how hard they try, she and her husband are still not pregnant while everyone else is.
Choosing to stop trying for a baby is a hard decision to make — Amy is usually not one to accept defeat, especially in regards to something that’s one of her biggest wishes in life, something she’s been wanting for so long — but it’s one that she makes nonetheless. She’s exhausted. She and Jake did everything right. But apparently it’s still not enough and the universe doesn’t want her to be a mom.
It doesn’t want them to be parents.
So, when the alcohol-induced bliss of the previous night has worn off and only remains the hangover and that terrible, terrible feeling pressing inside her chest, she lets the words out of her mouth.
“I’m done.”
“Like, done for this month?”
“Done. Just… done.”
It leaves an extremely bitter taste on her mouth, and Amy feels like she’s gonna throw up, but unfortunately it has nothing to do with pregnancy-related morning sickness. She’s just tired and sad.
6. The Holt-Cozner Vows Renewal.
The next wedding they attend isn’t truly a wedding — more like a vows renewal ceremony between their beloved captain and his husband. And, unlike all the previous weddings Jake and Amy attended together over the years, this time they’re not just the two of them anymore. This time, they have a third member of the Santiago-Peralta family to bring along with them.
It’s like a miracle, after the decision they took following the last wedding they went to, but it’s true. Little Ana is comfortably sitting on her father’s lap, with small raven curls similar to his growing at the top of her head and big brown eyes glued to Jake’s jacket instead of paying attention to the men standing at the altar.
She seems hypnotized by the white flower that’s been pinned there for the occasion, touching and tugging at it with her tiny fingers. She started crying the first time her father tried to take her hand away from it so he just decided to let her play with it not to disturb the ceremony. It’s not doing any harm, after all — neither to her or anyone else.
Plus she’s only a baby. You can’t ask her to stay still for too long.
Amy herself can’t bring herself to focus entirely on what’s going on in front of her. She has to steal some glances at her daughter from time to time and check on her, a wide smile forming on her lips every time her eyes land on her and her heart filling with unadulterated love. Six months in and she still can’t believe she’s here with them. Their own little baby.
The third member of Jake and her family.
For so long they’ve been waiting for her to come into their lives.
While she stares at her, Amy rests a hand on Ana’s head, stroking gently and smoothing down her curls. Holt’s voice is resonating through the thick walls, talking about the ups and downs of marriage and how important it is to stick together during the hardest times in order to get through them. Amy couldn’t agree more — having Jake by her side made all those trying and failing at having a baby a lot more bearable than if she didn’t have him next to her, with his wonderful speeches and his shoulder to cry on.
(It made the discovery of her pregnancy all the more beautiful too as they shared that blissful, miraculous moment together.)
Her eyes switch from their daughter to Jake, only to find him already gazing in her direction, a knowing smile spread across his face. She smiles back at him before they both settle their attention on Ana once again. She’s too young to understand everything they’ve been through before they welcomed her into their world. All the downs and then all the ups. The hard then magical times.
So many negatives finally replaced by the one positive. The lowest lows followed by the highest high. Amy is so grateful for this small ray of sunshine.
She’s so tiny, and yet the amount of happiness she brought along with her is incommensurable. Amy only has to look at her to feel her heart full again and forget about the obstacles of the past.
She looks around at the venue, all the people sitting together and listening to Holt and Kevin and their vows, and she can’t believe how far they’ve come since the last time she and Jake sat together for a similar event. They were two of them then, holding onto one last thread of hope. There’s three of them now — has been for half a year already.
“You really like that flower, huh?” Jake’s voice, barely above a whisper, suddenly takes her out of her emotional reverie. She finds him talking to Ana, with his full attention now put on her while she tugs a little harder at the decoration on his jacket. He’s smiling of this brand new, bright smile that Amy discovered as soon as their little girl was born.
She quickly decided it would now be her favorite smile of his.
“Here, take it,” he talks again, laughing when he takes Ana’s hand away from the flower and she pouts. He softly kisses her knuckles while they’re wrapped in his own big hand and takes the small flower away with his free one. He then carefully attaches it to her dress, perfectly fitting there. She looks adorable with it.
He seems to take a moment to appreciate his work and, as she watches the scene, Amy can feel her heart pounding in her chest with unmitigated joy. Their baby also seems happy as she bounces her legs on Jake’s lap and starts babbling. “Yeah, you’re right, it definitely looks much better on you than me,” Jake gushes in return.
Although Ana doesn’t really pay attention to him — her face is now looking down at the flower and she’s tugging at it with both her hands.
Jake then bends over to press a kiss at the top of their daughter’s head. “Love you, Ananas,” he whispers softly. Amy can feel some tears prickling inside her eyes, and she’s glad to see that she’s not the only one overwhelmed with emotions right now. Indeed, as he looks up to meet her gaze and exchange a knowing, loving smile with her, she can see Jake’s own watery eyes too.
One of his hands is keeping Ana close to his chest, but the other soon finds Amy’s and he entangles their fingers together. “I love you.” He squeezes gently, the words this time directed towards her.
“I love you,” she repeats. “So much,” she adds while looking at their daughter and stroking her cheek with her thumb, then lets her head fall in the crook of Jake’s neck as she watches the rest of the ceremony with her perfect little family by her side.
When it eventually ends and the party starts, they have to go home far earlier than their past selves would have ever dared to, but they’re also far happier than they’ve ever been as they tuck Ana to sleep in her nursery and kiss her goodnight, and it’s truly all that matters to them.