Hey! Can I request a Jake Peralta fic when he’s coming home from Florida or prison and he finally gets to see his s/o (reader) again? Just like super fluffy and cute
that's just the way things go
; yes you can!! requests are my fav ; fem reader ; pure fluff but oopsie that iconic angst as well I just cant help myself ; author doing research for a request? unheard of ; 2.2k is crazy ; 16+ ;
the squad had been nothing but worried for you these past six months. when jake was first sent to prison, you had fallen into a fit of depression, taking weeks on end away from work and letting all your cases go to waste. eventually, you made your way back into work and started on cases again - holt understood completely and did his best to not get you fired over those weeks.
soon enough you managed to come into work regularly, but it was always obvious how the loss of jake had changed you.
together, they had decided it was best to leave you out of the investigation to get him out of prison - just in case it didn't go well and you were crushed again.
so without your knowledge, the squad had been going between precincts, all over new york, to both prisons and back again several times in one day, all to prove jake and rosa innocent. and they had gone and done just that - but you had no idea.
the team had made up a fake case the sergeant was supposed to be working on. somewhere along the way, he had to go pick up information about a higher up in a drug gang from someone down in south carolina. you knew that's where jake's prison was, but why would you ever make that connection? visit day wasn't for another two weeks.
terry had convinced you to go with him, it was on the journey to the prison, where you started to connect the dots.
"hey, sarge?" you questions, terry humming in response as he drove past a sign titled 'jericho supermax prison', "why are we in south carolina again?"
he shrugged. "my informant lives around here."
coughing into your fist, you started to recognize the motorway's surroundings, it hadn't been the first time you had made this drive. a couple months ago; visiting day. "you couldn't just give him a call?"
terry shook his head, signaling to turn into the next lane. "insists on meeting in person..."
you caught his eyes as he looked over at you when he spoke. he knew immediately from the dull look from your eyes that you knew he was lying. you hated people lying to you, the whole squad knew that. terry sighed.
"so you know how boyle and holt have been disappearing every now and again for that murder case?" he asked, and when you nodded he continued. "there was no murder case. they were down here."
furrowing your eyebrows, you spotted yet another sign directed for the prison. "what were they doing?"
"trying to prove jake and rosa innocent."
you swallowed, stomach tightening at his speech, turning your head to look out the window. "and?" part of you didn't want to know the outcome, but then... if there was a chance, you wanted- needed to know.
terry let the smile creep into the corners of his lips. "why do you think we're on the way to the prison?"
"sarge?" you really didn't want to get your hopes up, but all the signs were pointing in the best direction. "don't play around-"
"charles and gina are currently on their way to get rosa, and we wouldn't be on our way to the prison if jake wasn't getting released today."
"he's free?" terry hadn't seen your eyes go to bright in all the six months jake had been gone, but there they were.
he nodded, grinning now and turning into the prison pick up. "yes!"
happiness, hope. for the first time in six months, your boyfriend would be a free man and everything would go back to normal. the two of you would go back to new york and finally be together again.
when terry was finished parking, the two of you swiftly left the car and entered the main part of the prison. there were a couple others standing around, also waiting to pick people up but you stood out in the open, making sure you were visible easily to anyone that walked through the corridor.
the place was a shit hole, to say the least. even this waiting area was drab. yellow, bordering on beige walls, the stone and brick still visible in a lot of places. down the corridor, you could take a peak at where ex-convicts stood to finish the paperwork and pick up their belongings. a tired officer in a beige uniform sat behind a glass screen with a speak on each side, stamping each piece of paper that was slid underneath the glass. he probably hated his job just as much as the convicts hated being in the prison.
it was as you noticed a mother to the left of you hugging her 20-odd year old son who was just released, when you saw him.
he had the largest smile possible on his face, still in the beige prison uniform, donning a beard that had only been a work in progress since you last saw him. you didn't hate it, you realized, as you watched him pick up his stuff, a bit of cash, keys and the clothes he first arrived in all those six months ago. oh, it felt like a lifetime ago, now.
when he turned, his eyes were at his feet. the officer accompanying him undid his handcuffs, letting him go. you saw him thank the officer before moving forward. he was truly a sweetheart, even in the worst possible circumstances.
then he saw you, and his smile only grew larger.
you caught his eyes, dropping your bag at your feet, knowing terry would take care of it while you were away. you ran to him.
"jake!" you shouted, as you did so, jumping into his arms as he also dropped what he was carrying. he caught you perfectly as he mumbled your name, burying his face into your neck as your legs wrapped around his waist. "oh my god."
"i missed you so much." he sighed into your skin, breathing you in and simultaneously breathing in the reality: he was a free man now.
dropping your legs from around his waist, you resting a hand on his cheek, pulling him down to your level. his hands fell to your hips, one moving to the small of your back as he kissed you like a starved man finally given a meal. okay, the beard was definitely growing on you, you had to admit.
pulling away, you grinned up at him. "what's it feel like finally being a free man?"
"so good, babe." he cooed, soft 'baby browns', as charles called them, staring back down at you, reaching down to take your hand in his in order to start walking back to terry. "there's so much i've missed, i wanna do everything."
"ti-"
"title of my sex tape, i know." he chuckled under his breath, looking at you with purely a look of love. full of hope, full of a future. just a couple days ago, the world looked bleak; he had years left rotting away in prison, but now everything was looking up. life would go back to normal. "come on, let's get home, i need to get back to normality as soon as possible."
you hummed at him, making your way back over to terry.
"it was so difficult keeping it from you!" boyle admitted, taking a sip from his beer as he was sat at the booth's table at shaw's a day later.
jake slid into the booth, sat next to you, the next round gathered between his hands. "they didn't tell you?"
when the three of you had landed back in brooklyn, nobody wanted to do anything. you texted rosa, making sure she was okay and everything went well with her release but soon enough, you and jake had caught an uber back to your shared apartment and collapsed into bed, too tired to do anything but sleep.
the next morning, the captain arranged a set of drinks at shaw's for everyone to meet to celebrate jake and rosa's return. everyone that was important turned up. after so long without jake, you were practically glued to his hip. rosa and gina were catching up with holt up by the bar, terry and sharon had to leave early to get back to the girls, which left you, amy, jake, charles and genevieve in one of the booths.
you laughed at jake as he rested a hand on your thigh, drinking from his glass as he looked to you for an answer.
"no, i had no clue." chuckling, you turned to charles. "they were so worried i'd fall into yet another pit of depression if it didn't work, they just didn't involve me, then suddenly terry had got me onto a flight to jericho, and well, you know the rest."
everyone but jake laughed, with eyebrows furrowed he set his beer down onto the nearest coaster, looking directly at you. you noticed, but didn't get to say anything before charles continued the conversation further.
he shook his head, laughing. "i tried to get the sarge to let me take you down to jericho instead, but of course, there was no way i would have been able to keep the secret for even five minutes so terry insisted he take you."
"you were so bummed." amy chimed in.
picking up your own drink that jake had bought over just a couple seconds ago, you took a sip, trying to distract yourself from jake's gaze.
it wasn't that you didn't want him to know about your state when he was away, you just didn't want to have that conversation. him being gone had knocked you down an insane amount, and that was embarrassing to admit. you had personally decided it would just be better for him to never find out about it. to save yourself and him having that conversation.
but jake peralta was an insistent man. he wasn't going to let it go unnoticed, that was for sure.
as charles, amy and genevieve fell into conversation, jake turned to you, lowering his voice in order to not let the others pick up on what he was saying. you gulped as he started speaking. "babe, what did you mean by a pit of depression?"
"don't... uh, don't worry about it." you brushed it off, trying to weave yourself back into the groups conversation, but jake simply did not let that happen.
"please talk to me about this."
you looked him dead in the eyes, seeing love and worry mixed in with the brown and knowing that you would have to speak about it. you nodded, gesturing to the door and watching as jake slipped out of the booth, taking your hand.
"jake and i will be right back." you spoke, letting the others wave you off as jake let you outside.
it wasn't cold outside, still early september, but a shiver ran down your spine as you leant against the brick wall of the alley that ran down the side of shaw's bar.
swallowing, you crossed your arms over your chest and watched as he looked over your figure. "jake, i think you might possibly be the best thing that's ever happened to me. so, naturally, having to live in our apartment without you, having to wake up without you, go into our place of work knowing you wouldn't be there, having to work on cases without your input, it got to a point that i couldn't handle."
his eyes softened at you, your gaze falling to your shoes against the ground. "oh, honey."
"it got better eventually, but for a couple weeks, i let cases go, i stayed home a lot, you get the idea." you admitted, laughing a bit about it now, knowing that jake was standing right in front of you and everything was okay again.
"it makes sense why the squad didn't tell you that they were investigating my innocence," he nodded as he spoke, understanding the situation better. "because i don't even want to think about what would have happened if you had known and they hadn't been able to get me out."
smiling softly at him, you nodded.
"c'mere." he mumbled, palm against your cheek as he lend down and softly, softer than ever, pressed his lips against yours. you let yourself fall into him, fingers grasping at his shirt as he hands slid around your waist, pulling you flush against his body.
you sighed through your nose, eyes fluttering open as he relaxed backward. "i love you."
smiling, he lifted your chin with his index finger. "i love you more, always. i'll do anything to make sure i never leave like that again."
hand in hand, the two of you made your way back into the bar. you knew you wouldn't stay for much longer, just wanting to spend time with each other. as you slid into the booth again, jake leant into your ear for one last comment.
"i think you're the best thing to ever happen to me, too, by the way."
you smiled as he pulled back, inserting himself into a conversation with charles again, watching as he spoke. everything was okay again, after six dim months: everything was okay, and it would stay that way for as long as the two of you were able to make sure it did.
