Chapter Text
Detective Jake Peralta is 99.99% sure (no, scratch that, he’s positive) that his good friend and coworker Detective Rosa Diaz secretly has powers that she’s not sharing with the rest of the squad.
Now, this suspicion didn’t come out of nowhere. No, this is something he’s been cooking up for a few years now. He even had a binder on it (damn it, Amy). But, yeah, he’s that sure of his suspicions.
It all started back in the academy. He remembers watching Rosa fight with another future officer, in awe at her kicking this guy’s, um, butt. But this guy wasn’t one of your usual scrawny aspiring officers like himself. No, this man was twice- maybe even thrice- Rosa’s size. But she destroyed him and his dignity, even going so far as to throw him to the ground and wind the poor guy for good measure.
Back then, Jake hadn’t known Rosa that well and so, other than his general amazement, he simply made it a rule never to get into a physical fight with Rosa and forgot about it.
But then- then- more and more unusual occurrences began happening. Sometimes when he wanted to talk to her, she would just disappear. And sometimes- when he could get to her- she already knew what he was going to say or ask. Not the usual ‘finish each other’s sentences’ kind of way, but in the ‘he hadn’t even started talking yet but she knew’ kind of way.
In all honesty, it was kinda creepy. But he always filed it away for later and dared not bring it up (yet).
The final instance happened to be more concrete solid evidence. And it happened today.
Jake walks into the bullpen earlier then usual (i.e. 8.50am instead of 9.10am) and settles at his desk to try and get an early start on a case that’s been bothering him for a couple weeks.
As he pulls out his paperwork, he takes a bite of his croissant which he bought from a bakery Charles recommended. Usually he wouldn’t dare try anything Charles recommended, but Gina had also mentioned it so he deemed it safe enough (and the croissant was surprisingly nice).
It’s barely been two minutes since he arrived when Rosa arrives too, striding out of the elevator into the bullpen with her usual impassive expression that means Jake can’t tell if she’s in a good or bad mood. But the fact that she didn’t slam the gate open means he leans more towards the former.
“Morning, Rosa,” he greets her with a smile.
“Hey,” Rosa replies as she sits down at her desk and puts a to-go coffee down. “What’re you doing here so early? It’s not like you.”
“Just trying to solve this case, it’s been bothering me,” Jake sighs, tapping his file with the cap of his pen.
“You’re still on that?”
“Yeah. But I’m sure it’ll start making sense eventually. Maybe. Hopefully…”
Rosa raises an eyebrow before turning to her computer, effectively ending the conversation so she can start her work. Jake gives a silent nod, seeing this, and starts to turn back to his desk.
But, as he does that, he sees Rosa move her arm and knock her drink off the desk. Before it can hit the floor, however, it stops mid air as Rosa reaches to catch it.
Jake’s eyes widen marginally, though before he can say anything or draw attention to it, the moment ends and Rosa grabs the drink to put it back on her desk in one swift movement.
Knowing she’ll look over at him to see if he saw, Jake hurriedly turns back to his paperwork and pretends to be writing something down.
His heart races madly in his chest, but he has to fight back an excited smile at his suspicions finally being proven correct. Rosa does have powers.
For years he’s believed his friend has powers, but still he doubted himself for not having concrete evidence, but now he has it. He saw it with his own two eyes in broad daylight.
But now what? He asks himself, slowing in his pretend writing. He taps his pen on his file as he contemplates the question.
Yes, he now knows that Rosa has powers, but what is he supposed to do with this knowledge? He wouldn’t ever want to exploit it or use it to his advantage because Rosa’s his friend, but now that he has this knowledge, he realises he didn’t think this far. Truthfully, he didn’t think he would ever be able to confirm his suspicions.
For a while, he sits there and thinks. He finds himself distracted from his case more than ever, and even when Amy and Charles arrive, he can do little more than nod a greeting at them (which only serves to confuse and concern them).
It’s when he decides to take his lunch break and Amy and Charles follow him that he realises what he must do.
Seeing Amy and Charles follow him into the breakroom along with Terry who is definitely just taking his break at the same time as them by coincidence, Jake stands up, rushes over to the door, and shuts it behind them.
Though he gives him a weird look, Terry shrugs his shoulders and takes a seat on the couch to begin eating.
“Guys!” Jake hisses with barely concealed excitement. “Guys, guys, guys!”
“What is it, Jake?” Charles asks whilst pulling out the strangest looking food Jake has ever seen.
He doesn’t comment on it, instead choosing to just take a seat at the table with Amy and Charles.
“I have discovered the biggest secret in the Nine Nine!” Jake exclaimed.
“Oh no. You found Beatrice,” Charles sighs.
“What? No. Who’s Beatrice?” Jake asks. Then he shakes his head, already regretting the question as Charles opens his mouth to explain. “You know what? Never mind. I don’t wanna know. Look, I just found out the craziest thing ever!”
“What is it, man? Spit it out,” Terry urges him. “Terry’s stressed out to the max, and I need my yoghurt. I’m not playing no guessing games, Jake.”
“Alright, alright, jeeze,” Jake leans back a little then leans in again and meets his friends’ eyes. “Okay, what I’m about to say might sound a little out there, but I swear it’s true. I saw it with my own eyes.”
“Oh, my God. Someone’s having an affair,” Amy gasps. “Oh, no. Is it our dad- I mean, is it Captain Holt? Please tell me it’s not Holt.”
Ignoring the accidental calling of Holt “dad”, Jake frowns and shakes it head.
“No! Oh, my God, you guys, stop guessing. You’re all terrible at this!” Jake tells them. “Just let me tell you.”
“What? I didn’t even guess!” Terry protests.
“Anyway!” Jake cuts in loudly. “Look, you have to promise not to think I’m crazy or-“ he looks pointedly at Terry- “schedule me for another psyche eval.”
“I’m not making any promises,” Terry raises an eyebrow.
“Good enough. Okay, here goes…” Jake takes a deep breath. “Rosa has powers.”
For a moment, everything is silent and Jake winces as he looks at the other three. Then, suddenly, Amy and Terry burst out laughing, glancing at each other like they’re in on some secret joke.
Jake throws his hands up and leans back in his seat. He watches them and shakes his head.
“That’s right. Laugh it up,” he rolls his eyes, drumming his fingers on the desk.
Eventually, they both stop laughing and Terry breathes heavily, nursing his torso as if it hurts from laughing.
“Rosa? Rosa Diaz? Rosa Diaz has powers?” Terry chuckles then eats a spoonful of Greek yoghurt.
“I’m serious,” Jake whines. “I saw it this morning. I mean, I had my suspicions anyway, but now I’ve actually seen it!”
“I believe you, Jakey,” Charles states.
“See?! Charles believes me!”
“Charles will believe anything you say,” Amy points out.
“It’s true,” Charles nods proudly.
“Alright, fine. But I promise you it’s true,” Jake says passionately. “This morning, I got here early to get a head start on this case I’m working, and Rosa arrived after me. We had a conversation- it was brief, nothing interesting- but when I was about to turn away and get back to work, I saw her knock her drink off of her desk.”
“And?” Amy asks.
“It just stopped. Mid-air. And then she caught it and put it back on the desk like nothing’d happened, and I didn’t want her to know I’d seen so I quickly looked away,” Jake finishes.
“Woah,” Charles breaths with awe.
“Oh come on! Don’t tell me you actually believe that!” Terry snaps.
“It’s true, I swear!” Jake claims as he rises to his feet and plants his palms on the table.
“Uhuh,” Amy hums.
“Alright fine. You want proof?” Jake decides. “I’ll get proof and then you’ll see. You’ll all see!”
Terry rolls his eyes.
“Just out of curiosity, what would you like me to say at your funeral?” Amy questions.
“Ha, ha, very funny. I’ll show you. Charles? I’ll need your help.”
“Anything you need, Jake!” Charles declares.
With that, Jake turns on his heel and stalks to the door to the break room and flings it open. Then, before he can exit, he remembers that he has another half an hour left of his break and he still hasn’t eaten.
So, he stops, turns back around and returns to the table.
“Just gonna eat this first,” he tells the others at their questioning looks, and digs into his sub.