Chapter Text
Jake had almost finished typing up a police report when he heard his phone buzz. He picked it up to see that it was a text from Amy, it read:
Hey babe, don’t forget you have to pick Mac up from your mom’s tonight. I’ve been tracking my dealer and tonight is the night he’s moving the drugs.
Jake took a moment to respond.
I won’t. Good luck with your bust, stay safe, love you.
Amy’s response was immediate.
Love you too, see you soon.
Jake smiled, clicked his phone off, and directed his attention back to his police report. While he was ironing out the last details of his report he felt his mind begin to wander. Amy had been tracking a dealer by the name of Oliver Smith. When Amy first told Jake about this guy she described him as “one of the most dangerous men on the streets”, so naturally Jake thought the dealer’s name was going to be Hans-something-or-other or at least a really cool and badass name. Jake had to stifle a laugh when Amy continued her description with “His name is Oliver Smith”. Amy had briefly flashed him an annoyed look, but then quickly agreed Oliver Smith was a pretty vanilla name for “one of the most dangerous men on the streets”. Jake then thought about all the other information he knew about this case. Amy had been hot on this guy’s trail roughly 3 years ago, but a junior officer had messed up an operation Amy set up to catch him, and Smith had disappeared without a trace.
Jake knew Amy had been tracking the guy since then, but it was only when she came back from her maternity leave that she had anything new to work with. Recently there had been some chatter on the streets about him resurfacing. In the past week, Amy was able to hunt down one of his associates and get him to confess information about the whereabouts and operations of Smith. This led Amy to tonight. Jake knew she was finally gonna be able to take Smith down for good. This operation gave her more than enough evidence than she needed to take him down, but more importantly, it gave her the opportunity to arrest him once-and-for-all. Jake was so preoccupied with Amy’s bust that he hadn't realized how late it had gotten.
“SHIT”, Jake said a little too loudly, earning a confused glance from Terry. He didn’t have time to explain himself to the lieutenant, though, when he looked at the clock it read 5:05. He was supposed to pick Mac up at 5.
He snatched his jacket off the chair, tucked his phone into his pocket, and dashed for the stairs-he wouldn’t have time to wait for the elevator. Usually, his mom didn’t care that Jake was a little late to pick Mac up, but she had somewhere to be, and couldn’t leave until Jake had come to pick Mac up.
Jake dashed down the stairs, through the main doors, and out across the parking lot until he had finally reached his car. He flung the door open and jammed the keys into the ignition. He knew that he was acting like a madman, but the later he was picking Mac up the madder his mom would be. Luckily his mom lived close to the precinct, once he had pulled out onto the road it was only a 5-minute drive to his mom’s.
“Alright,” he mumbled, “At this rate, I’ll only be…” he stole a glance at the car clock, “12 minutes late. Yikes, hopefully, mom isn’t too mad”.
He pulled into a space adjacent to the house at 5:12, exactly as he’d predicted. Jake grabbed the detachable portion of the car seat and dashed to his mother’s front door. As he was about to knock the door flung open.
“There you are!” his mother exclaimed. She was standing in the doorway nursing a crying Mac in one arm and holding the baby bag in the other.
“Can I come in?” Jake knew his mother had somewhere to be, but he didn’t think she was in that much of a rush.
“No need, here’s Mac”, Jake took his son and gently strapped him into the car seat, once Karen noticed he had finished she said, “Everything is in his baby bag, now I gotta run”. She gave Jake a quick peck on the cheek and shut the door in his face without another word.
“Alright, now it's just me and you bud,” Jake explained to the child softly. Mac only yawned in response. Jake started to hum which quickly turned into a Peralta-Original song.
“Jake and Mac adventuuuuuure tiiiiiiiimeeee. Mommy is away fighting the criiiiiiimeeee. Now its just Jake and Mac tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”. Jake sang this over and over until he and Mac had finally made it to the car. Jake carefully placed the pieces of the car seat together, made sure that Mac was buckled in, and took his seat in the front of the car. Jake suddenly began to smile so wide it stretched his skin so much it ached, but he couldn’t stop. He didn’t know what had come over him, but he literally could not stop smiling. He tried his best to reset his face into that signature Jake Peralta smirk, but his face would blossom back into that goofy smile immediately. Jake was just so happy lately. He thought of years ago when he would sit in his crappy apartment, eating old leftovers, and thinking he was going to die alone. He never could have imagined the life he was living now, he finally had a family, a home, a place to belong. That’s why he was smiling, he decided. He was home.
Oh, I actually am home, Jake thought as he pulled into his assigned parking spot. Jake prepared for the cold blast of air that would hit him when he opened his door. It was only 5:30, but somehow already dark and freezing. That’s winter for yah I guess, Jake thought dismissively. He stepped out of the car and immediately had to wrap his jacket tightly around himself. He gently shut his car door and made his way over to Mac’s. Jake opened the door and once again disconnected part of the baby seat. Jake stood with his body partway in the door hovering over the child.
“Okay bud here's the game plan: It's pretty cold out there so imma grab you and we’re gonna full sprint to the apartment. Sound good?”. Jake flashed his goofy smile at the child and returned a smile that resembled his own. As he promised, Jake took Mac’s carrier out of the car and made a break for the apartment, making sure not to go too fast in fear of upsetting Mac. In no time at all Jake was hearing the familiar click of the lock and greeted with the Pine smell of their tree. He and Amy had agreed to get a fake tree that year, but that didn’t stop Jake from arming the tree with pine car fresheners. It had been a surprise for Amy. She was disappointed that the tree wouldn’t smell real, so Jake had to fix that. He vividly remembered the look on her face when she first smelled the apartment. Her eyes had a confused sparkle to them, but Jake could tell that she loved it from her smile. It wasn’t a super large one or anything, it barely even counted as a smile, but Jake watched the corners of her mouth twitch up and it counted. It soooooo counted.
Jake set Mac’s baby carrier down on the floor, so he could untangle Mac from the mess of seatbelts. Once Jake finally had Mac freed he placed Mac in his high chair so he could feed him dinner. They had just started Mac on a chicken noodle baby food that he seemed to love. Suddenly Jake thought of the conversation he and Amy had in the supermarket trying to figure out what flavor to get.
“Chicken and rice is the obvious choice,” Amy said, triumphantly holding up a can of chicken and rice baby food.
Jake only snickered, “Oh Ames” and held up his chicken noodle soup baby food for her to see.
“C’mon Jake, chicken and rice is the obvious choice”, Jake flashed his goofy smile, and despite Amy’s mouth being turned to a frown, he saw an unmistakable twinkle in her eyes. “I have an idea,” Jake paused for a moment to watch the anticipation build on Amy’s face.
“Let's have a bet, we'll get both, Mac will choose his favorite between the two and the loser has to make the winner a gourmet Saturday morning meal. What do you say, Santiago, shall we have ourselves a bet?”.
Jake knew from the moment he said “bet” Amy was on board. He saw that familiar intensity in her eyes when anyone mentioned competition and knew he was in for it.
Jake now smiled proudly down at the spoonful of chicken noodle baby food, remembering the meal Amy had cooked for him when Mac chose the chicken noodle. God, she was absolutely fuming, Jake thought. But he had a feeling she felt better about losing when Jack received a slap of whip cream in his face along with his pancakes. They had a good laugh about it and now Mac solely ate the chicken noodle baby food.
Jake fed Mac his spoonfuls of chicken noodle baby food, and before long Mac had scarfed down the entire jar of food and made a mess of himself.
“Hmm, let’s get you cleaned up, yeah?” Jake cooed to Mac while wiping the remaining baby food off his face. Jake carefully picked Mac up and carried him over to the playpen set up for him in the living room. Jake watched happily as Mac played with his favorite stuffed lion. He turned the TV on and began to watch whatever cartoons happened to be on at this moment. Jake began to let his mind wander only being snapped back into reality by the sound of his phone buzzing. He reached for his phone and stole a glance at the time before answering, it read 8:06. Who would be calling this late? Jake wondered as he answered the unfamiliar number.
“Hello, is this Jacob Peralta?” the unfamiliar number asked.
“Yes, may I ask who this is?” Jake returned.
“Sir, this is the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center. We regret to inform you that your wife, Amy Santiago, has been shot”.