Work Text:
Amy had a Three Date Rule.
She wasn’t a prude, despite what anyone (Gina) thought - she liked sex, but she also liked to feel comfortable with the person she was having sex with, and her rule ensured she got to know them before taking that step.
It wasn’t like she was the only person in the world to have this rule - it was a pretty standard dating rule. And it had served Amy well.
First there’d been Gerry in college- she’d really liked him, but they’d been interrupted halfway through their third date by his girlfriend who had come back early from studying abroad; that had been a definite point in favour of the rule. She’d started seeing Frank during her academy days, and she’d almost broken the rule at the end of the second date but had held out; good thing too, because when she’d suggested China Town for their third date Frank had shown himself to be an unbelievably huge racist.
Amy had followed the rule to the letter with Teddy - technically they’d had two dates already by the time they reconnected at the tactical village, but she’d reset the counter before sleeping with him, and it had made their first time really comfortable and nice (with hindsight, she should probably have read something into the fact that their first time was comfortable).
Anyway, the point is Amy had a rule and it was a rule that worked and she’d not been tempted to break it for years.
But that was before she’d kissed Jake in the lock-up.
Kissing Jake was like a damn drug, and she’d become hooked in record time - that fairly chaste kiss had led to another in the observation room less than an hour later that had been far less chaste, had led back to the lock-up just before clocking off, had led to the alley next to the bar where the squad had gone after the shift ended. And that kiss was about as far from chaste as it was possible for a kiss to get.
Amy was pinned against the brick wall of the bar, one of Jake’s hands was cradling the back of her head but the other had found its way under her shirt and his warm palm was sliding over the skin of her lower back and up and down her side, making Amy shiver as the cool air of the night followed the path of his hand. Her own hands were constantly moving - running up and down his back, over his shoulders, up to grasp at his hair, moving down to tug down the zipper of his hoodie and get her hands under the bottom of his plaid shirt.
Their kiss was like a battle, battling for dominance before breaking apart for air and diving right back in with barely a break. Amy gasped as Jake crowded her even closer to the wall, his thigh pressing between her legs as his whole body seemed to come into contact with hers. Heat swooped through Amy’s stomach and her hips rolled forward, making both her and Jake groan at the feel of the friction. She could feel him half hard and pressing into her hip, and god she wanted him so badly.
She rolled her hips again; Jake broke their kiss with an almost obscene groan, and the sound alone was enough to make Amy whimper. Then Jake started to kiss his way down her throat and it was Amy’s turn to groan.
Jake’s hand under her shirt slid higher than ever, coming to rest on her side with his thumb rubbing back and forth just under the curve of her breast, dipping in and out under the wire of her bra cup.
Amy’s hand tightened in Jake’s hair, but the sensation was enough to bring her back to herself somewhat. She and Jake were making out in an alleyway where anyone could find them, and things were escalating way too fast. Even without her rule, they were skirting dangerously close to violating some public decency laws.
She swallowed and cupped his head in both her hands, gently pushing back until he got the hint and lifted his head until he was pressing his forehead against hers.
He didn’t move his hand.
Amy took a deep breath. “We need to…”
“Get out of here?” Jake suggested, his voice low and gravelly and wrecked, and enough to make Amy’s knees feel even weaker than they did already.
She swallowed again. “…Slow down.”
Jakes demeanour changed immediately. His hand moved down to her hip before she could blink, and he took a step back to put some space between their bodies. “Right,” he said, nodding. “Okay.”
Amy grabbed hold of the front of Jake’s hoodie and yanked him back to her. It was kind of counterproductive to the whole slowing down thing, but there was something so sexy about the way he immediately respected her boundaries that she couldn’t help but haul him back in for another kiss… and yes she was well aware that there was something wrong with that logic.
This kiss didn’t pack quite the same heat as the previous one - Jake kept his hands flat on the wall either side of her head, holding his body away from hers, and Amy’s hands stayed balled into fists against his chest, twisting the fabric of his hoodie - but it still made Amy’s toes curl with desire. She’d never been more tempted to throw her three date rule out of the window… but she couldn’t. She and Jake hadn’t even been on one date - they’d just gone from zero to sixty in a few short hours, and they needed to work out what was going on between them before jumping into the physical side of things.
And anyway, Amy didn’t break rules. Despite what some people might say about spaghetti and pinatas, some things really aren’t made to be broken, and rules are one of them.
Jake pulled away from the kiss, and Amy was stupidly grateful because she’d totally lost herself again. But then he leaned in, his forehead against hers again and their noses brushing, and he whispered against her lips: “I want you so badly.”
Amy’s whole body shivered in response to his words, and her hands tightened on his hoodie. But she’d made her choice, and she needed to stick to it.
“Jake I…” she started, flattening her hands on his chest and leaning her head back to look at him properly. Jake lifted his head.
“I have a rule,” Amy said quietly. “A - a three date rule.”
Jake stared at her for a moment, and then nodded. “Right,” he said. He looked away for a moment, and Amy bit her lip, hoping that things weren’t suddenly going to get weird between them. She could already feel a different kind of tension than before - a sudden barrier between them where before there hadn’t been anything.
But then Jake looked back at her with shining eyes and a smile on his lips, and he nodded again. “Okay sure,” he said. “Not a problem.”
Amy smiled back, relieved. “Really?”
Jake’s smile turned into a grin, and he pushed back from the wall to stand up straight, and settled his hands on her hips instead. “Of course,” he said, before his grin twisted into a smirk. “We’ve already been on three dates.”
Amy’s smile turned into a puzzled frown. “What?”
“Well there was our date last year,” Jake said casually. His thumb was rubbing circles on her hip bone over her shirt, which was very distracting, but Amy forced herself to ignore it.
“Oh come on that doesn’t count,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“Of course it does!” Jake exclaimed, tightening his grip on her hips. “It went on our good date lists and everything.”
Amy had to smile at that, even as she shook her head. “You’re grasping at straws,” she said. Then she cocked her head to the side. “What about the other two?”
Jake grinned, obviously happy at her curiosity. “Well there was our double date with Teddy and Sophia,” he said.
Amy let out a groan. “Oh my god,” she said, her head falling forward to rest against his chest for a moment. She couldn’t help a smile though - of courseJake was diffusing the tension with a joke. Of course he was.
Jake bent his own head to chuckle in her ear. “And of course we had our third date last night,” he said. Amy brought her head back up to give him an incredulous look, which he countered with a serious look of his own. “I had to eat oysters so it definitely counts.”
Amy laughed and shook her head again, and slid her hands around the back of Jake’s neck. “So you want to count the most uncomfortable double date in history, at which we were dating other people, and a fake date we weren’t even using our own names for, as well as half a date that we went on because I lost a bet?” She summed up.
Jake grinned. “Hey you just said three dates - you didn’t specify any conditions,” he stated.
Amy just raised an eyebrow at him, and he cocked his head to the side. “No?”
Amy smirked. “No.”
He heaved a completely over-the-top sigh. “Okay fine,” he said. Then he slid his hands around the small of her back and pulled her up against him - Amy thought for a moment that he was going to throw all restraint to the wind and try and get her to agree by some other method, but of course that wasn’t the case. He just rested his forehead against hers again and smiled.
“Amy Santiago,” he said, “will you go out with me on a proper date tomorrow night? You have to say yes.”
Amy grinned. “Yes.”
He did kiss her then - but it wasn’t like kissing was forbidden under the rule, and she went up on her tiptoes to meet him halfway, smiling against his lips. This kiss was back to chaste, and Jake was smiling too as they pulled apart.
“We’d better go back in,” he whispered. “You, er, want to go first?”
Amy nodded, rose up for one last peck, and then disentangled herself from Jake to head back into the bar on shaky legs. She didn’t look back at him in case all her resolve disappeared, and she headed straight for the restroom once she was inside to throw some cold water on her face and try to hide the physical evidence that she’d spent the last fifteen minutes making out in an alleyway.
By the time she got back to the proper bar area, Jake was sitting in a corner with Charles and Rosa, his slightly rumpled hoodie the only indication of what they’d been doing. Amy got herself a drink, joined Terry, Hitchcock and Scully on another table, and tried to pay attention to their conversation.
It was easier said than done, though; her thoughts kept wandering back to the alley, or forward to imagining their first date. Jake had a flair for the dramatic so she could only expect something out of the ordinary - but luckily he only had a day to plan it, which was great because as far as Amy was concerned a perfect date with Jake would be take-out and lots of making out on her couch.
Though making out on her couch was probably a dangerous thing to do before their third date. Urgh, that damn rule.
No, she told herself sternly, this was a good thing.
Honestly, it was a little alarming how tempted Amy was to break the rule. Okay, sure, she’d been tempted before, but only in a fleeting way - not in a hauling the guy back in for another kiss and then being unable to stop second guessing herself kind of way. And this was before going on a single date. All the other times she’d been tempted had been around the second date mark… this was crazy.
The difference was, of course, that she already trusted Jake as much as she did pretty much anyone in her life. She didn’t need the three date rule to protect her from secret girlfriends or closet racism… so it was all about getting comfortable with their new dynamic, and feeling at ease with the shift in their relationship. And that was important - she didn’t want to rush things and ruin everything. Jake was too important to her for that.
It’s just… urgh, he was such a good kisser.
Damn it.
Terry left the bar first as usual, followed by Scully and later Rosa. Then Hitchcock left, leaving only Jake, Amy and Charles, the three of them crowded round a tiny table designed for two. Amy was still lost in her thoughts, so Jake and Charles carried the brunt of the conversation.
Amy was staring down at her drink and repeating to herself that just because a guy was a good kisser that didn’t mean he got to bypass the rule, and didn’t realise that she’d been silent for almost ten minutes until Jake slid his hand under the table and rested his palm just above her knee. Amy blinked and looked across at him - he gave her a small smile and raised his eyebrows at her, silently asking if she was okay. Amy smiled back and gave him a tiny nod.
Jake smiled again and started to withdraw his hand, but Amy darted her own hand beneath the table and grabbed hold of it, lacing their fingers together and keeping them pressed against her leg. She watched Jake’s face as he tried (unsuccessfully) to hide his grin, and then as he looked down at the table with an expression that could only be described as bashful.
Bashful. Jake.
And it was such a cliche, but honestly right then it was like Amy had this sudden moment of clarity; because that expression on his face told her more than three dates ever would.
Jake liked her - he liked her so much that he’d stared at her in wonder after they’d had their first real kiss, and got bashful just because she’d taken his hand. He was the kind of guy who completely respected her boundaries and then made her laugh to diffuse any possible tension, and would silently check to see if she was okay because she was a bit quieter than usual.
And even though he’d been kidding, those three non-dates had taught her a lot about him too. The first date, after he’d dispensed with the humiliation portion of the evening, had been easy and fun and… and he’d turned down the replacement surveillance team (which she didn’t think he knew she knew), proving he enjoyed spending time with her. The double date of doom, as Amy liked to refer to it, had been awful, yes, but she’d been genuinely impressed that Jake had dealt with it the way he had. He’d stayed with Sophia and gently teased Amy about it and basically shown a level of maturity in dealing with relationships that Amy had really thought he’d been lacking until then. And last night’s date was just another testament to how well they worked together, as if she’d needed more proof.
She knew Jake, really knew him, and honestly that was kind of terrifying for her - but Amy Santiago wasn’t one to back down from something that scared her.
Screw three dates. She was done waiting.
Charles had been talking animatedly all through the hands-under-the-table moment and clearly hadn’t noticed a thing, but Amy waited until he got up to use the restroom a few minutes later before turning to Jake.
“I think you’re right,” she said decisively, before he could even finish turning to face her.
“Told you so,” Jake said promptly. Then he frowned. “Right about what?”
Amy took a deep breath. “My three date rule,” she said. Jake’s eyes widened, and Amy ploughed on. “I didn’t specify any conditions.”
Jake’s hand tightened around hers, and a small smile started to play around his lips. “No, you didn’t.”
Amy smirked. “And it would be disingenuous to dismiss the dates we’ve already been on,” she said.
Jake laughed, before shooting her a fond look. “Did you seriously just use the word disingenuous while trying to seduce me?”
Amy rolled her eyes. “Jake…”
Jake grinned, obviously struggling not to laugh again. “Don’t get me wrong it’s totally working for me…”
Amy leant forward and grabbed his hoodie with her free hand. “Do you want to get out of here or not?” She said, her face mere inches from his. Jake’s grin disappeared and Amy wavered, eyes darting away - she didn’t really do sexually aggressive; not very well anyway. She cleared her throat and flattened her palm against his chest before looking up at him again.
“You don’t have to say yes,” she said.
Jake leant forward and kissed her - soft and sweet and way too short, but the look he gave her when he sat back made up for that.
“God yes,” he said. He stood up and tugged on her hand to get her to do the same. “Come on, let’s get out of here before Charles gets back.”
“We shouldn’t just leave him -”
“I’ll send him a text - he’ll be ecstatic,” Jake said, leading Amy through the crowd in the bar towards the door. She groaned at the thought of work the next day with Charles (and by extension the entire squad) knowing what had happened between them, but it wasn’t nearly enough to stop her.
Jake suddenly stopped when they got to the door, and turned to face Amy. “We’re still on for tomorrow though, right?” He asked. “Because I have put plans in motion.”
Amy grinned - of course he had. She darted forward and gave him another quick kiss, giggling at the content look on his face when she pulled back.
“We’re still on,” she confirmed.
Jake grinned and started walking again. “Good, ‘cause it’s gonna be the best fourth date you’ve ever had.”