Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

1. 2013

This October was windier than the year before, and with it came the cold. Amy was determined not to let herself shiver, especially not with the new captain at the precinct. If she was to be his favorite detective, she had to let him know she was tough.

However, this proved difficult. The heating in the building had always been screwy, and after a week of running on high it cut out completely. "You should all be wearing one jacket at maximum," Holt announced to the precinct one chilly morning. "Any more will inhibit your ability to do your work and make maneuvering difficult. Have some coffee if you are cold."

It was ten am, and Amy was freezing. She had her most professional cardigan on, but it was meant for looking sharp, not withstanding almost-freezing weather. She clutched a cup of coffee in her hands, shaking partially from the cold and partially from the caffeine. It was her third cup today.

"God, Santiago, can you keep it down? Your teeth are chattering so loud that it sounds like the block's being jackhammered."

Amy shot a glare at Jake, who was sitting at the desk across from her folding a case file into a paper airplane. "Oh, like I'm interrupting your important work?"

“Oh, I already cracked a case today. I’m just waiting on Charles to finish up so we can go nab them.” He spun in his chair and pointed at Charles, who flashed him a thumbs-up.

“Almost done, Jakey!”

“Take your time, bud!” Jake spun back to Amy with a malicious smile. “And I’ve got all the time in the world to wait. We’re busting a crime ring out of a pizza place. Estimated thirteen arrests. Might be what earns me that win!" He pointed to the ARRESTS board with their bet numbers on it. Amy's tally was hovering at one more than Jake's.

Amy glared at him. "Screw off, Peralta. That's not going to throw me--" She interrupted herself as a huge shiver ran through her, and pulled her cardigan tighter around her.

Jake rolled his eyes. Amy watched him as he pulled off his hoodie and handed it in her direction. “Oh, take it.”

“No! I’m not taking your stupid—“

“Just take the darn jacket, Santiago!”

She reluctantly took it and wrapped it around herself. As much as she hated to admit it, it was very warm, and it smelled like coffee and shampoo. It was nice. “…Thanks.”

Charles appeared at Jake’s shoulder. “Ready to go?” He shot a pointed look at Amy. “Very domestic. I like it.”

“Gross, and you know it!” Jake replied before Amy could get in a retort. He rose from the chair and began to head towards the elevator. “See you later, Santiago.”

“Wait! Don’t you need your hoodie back?” She hoped not; it was keeping her warm, and as much as she hated to admit it to herself, it was nice having something of Jake’s wrapped around her.

“No need, I’ve got another two in the car!”

Amy rolled her eyes as the elevator dinged shut, and returned to her work.

Chapter Text

2. 2014

It was three days before Halloween, and Amy was sitting in the passenger seat next to Jake as they sat in Brooklyn traffic. There was a chill in the air, and Amy was wearing her thickest socks stuffed into her work shoes.

“Can’t we just turn the emergency lights on and get by all these cars?” Jake asked.

“No,” Amy said, frowning. “It’s not an emergency. We could be written up.”

“Killjoy,” Jake said. He drummed his fingers on the wheel. “So. How are things between you and Teddy?”

“Fine.” She shot a glance at him. He wasn’t looking at her. “What’s it to you?”

“Just curious. I mean, we are stuck in traffic. What else do you want to talk about?”

“I don’t know.”

Somewhere behind them, a car beeped.

“You want to go over the case again?” Amy asked.

“For the hundredth time? Sure, why not.”

“Take-out Chinese place, front for drug running from New Jersey, run by--”

“Rudolf Bernardino, yes, such a cool name--”

“On the intersection of--”

“5th and 11th, yes, Amy, we’ve been over this! We’ve got this. It’s a simple job. All we gotta do is go in, arrest a couple guys, and call in a team to clean out the place. I’m sure you’ll kick ass.”

“Just checking.” Amy looked out the window. “God, why aren’t we moving? I told you we should have taken the subway! Or walked, for goodness sakes.”

“It’s like 20 blocks.”

“Despite your abysmal habits, Jake, it wouldn’t kill you to get out and exercise once in a while.”

“Chasing bad guys, which I do all the time, for your information, is exercise enough for me. I don’t need a stupid gym membership. I’d rather spend the money on something useful, like burritos or those fun little keychains where their eyes pop out.”

“God, you’re hopeless.”

“Yeah, I know.”

They sat in silence for another few minutes, during which the car only moved another block.

“He brewed me Pilsners for my birthday,” Amy admitted.

“What?” Jake turned to look at her.

“Teddy. He made me a custom Pilsner for my birthday. It was supposed to...I guess...be reminiscent of my perfume or something like that. It was disgusting.”

“Huh. I’m heavily judging your taste in boyfriends right now.”

Amy was pretty sure they were both being painfully reminded of Jake’s two separate confessions at that very moment.

“I’m cold,” Amy offered, trying to change the subject.

“Well, this car doesn’t get heating, because it was used in a bust and someone shot through the hood.”

Amy fully swiveled in her car seat. “What? You couldn’t have picked a better car?”

“It was that or the one that still has a mysterious stain in the driver’s seat from the 90s. And aren’t you wearing, like, really thick socks? You only mentioned it twice this morning.”

“Yes, because heat rises in the precinct, and my feet were cold while the rest of my body was warm! And now, my entire self is cold.”

Jake rolled his eyes. “Ugh, fine. To spare myself the agony of listening to you complain for the next however long we are stuck in this car, you can have my sweater.” He let go of the steering wheel and unbuckled his seatbelt as he began to shimmy his sweater off.

“Jake! Do you know how unsafe that is?”

“Relax! Look, there’s a red light.” He leaned over slightly to deposit the sweater on Amy’s lap. “Aaaand done. See?”

Amy frowned, but unbuckled her own seatbelt to put on the sweater without complaint. There was a slight nervous sensation in her belly as she slipped it on, but she ignored it. “I look stupid.”

“I’m sure when we get there you can take it off and get your blood moving with some good old-fashioned justice.”

Amy smiled slightly, settled back into the seat, and turned on the radio.

Chapter Text

They were on a date. It was in a diner, yes, and Amy had a binder in front of her, and Jake was doing nothing but nursing a chocolate milkshake and making various “mhm” sounds every time Amy drew a conclusion, but it was still a date.

“...and so it was the assistant who murdered him, with the help of the niece, with whom she was romantically involved...it all makes sense!” Amy said gleefully, still staring into the depths of the binder.

“Yep, you’re doing great, Ames. At this rate, there may not even be any crime left by the time Halloween rolls around."

“Shut up.” Amy threw a napkin at him.

“No, I was being serious! You’re actually doing great. And I did throw in some sarcasm at the end, but it’s all good now. Do you want some milkshake as a reward for solving the case?”

“..Sure,” Amy said, “except you drank all of it.”

Jake grinned. “I’ll just get you another one.” He waved a waitress over and ordered another shake, vanilla this time, just how Amy liked it. She watched him as she ordered. They’d only really been dating for a few weeks, but it surprised her how much she liked him.

“So,” he said as he turned back to her.

“What?” she asked, suddenly feeling self conscious.

“Nothing.” Jake shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m glad this--” he gestured to the table “--is happening.”

“Working on a case file at a diner?”

“No! Us...you know.. borking.”

“Ew. Don’t call it that.”

He grinned in response. It was around that moment that Amy’s milkshake arrived. So that she wouldn’t have to say anything, she grabbed in and drank it in one continuous slurp through the colorful straw.

“Amy--”

“OW!” Amy threw a hand to her head. “Brain freeze! Brain freeze!”

“You ok?”

“That milkshake is really cold,” she said in response with a grimace. She shivered. “And now my head hurts. I should not have drunk that so fast -- ow.”

Jake scooted around to sit on her side of the booth. “Here.” He draped his leather jacket, which he had taken off when they got to the diner. around her shoulders. It wasn’t exactly warm, since he hadn’t been wearing it, but for a while, but it had that feeling of being distinctly his. He sat next to her as she pulled the jacket around herself, trying to absorb the chill of the giant milkshake she’d just chugged.

“So we know who did it, right?” Jake asked.

“Yeah, I already told you: the assistant and the niece.”

“Cool, cool, cool, no doubt, no doubt. I mayyy have forgotten about the fact that the niece just took a business trip to Canada.”

“You jerk!” She punched his shoulder. “When were you going to tell me about that?”

“I told you!” Jake groaned. “I forgot! But the assistant’s still being held for questioning. We can probably get it out of her -- title of our sex tape.”

Amy rolled her eyes and snapped the binder shut. “All right.”

“Great!” Jake kissed her cheek as he pulled her out of the chair. “Let’s go catch a perp! And you can keep the jacket for now, Ames, it looks good on you.”

Chapter Text

God, how Amy hated the night shift. She hated the way it threw her body clock off, and she hated the way she never got to catch real perps, and most of all, she hated the cold.

It was two a.m. in mid-October. She’d stepped onto the balcony for a smoke break; since it was dark and late she didn’t expect anyone to notice her. Because she was wearing a pantsuit, and the temperature had dipped below freezing, she was pacing back and forth to keep herself from focusing on how cold she was.

“Hey babe?”

Amy let out a soft shriek and spun around to face Jake, cigarette still clutched in her fingers. She hurriedly dropped it to the concrete and ground it with the toe of her shoe. Jake raised his eyebrows. “Whatcha doing out here?”

“Nothing!” She checked herself: frantic, definitely, chill, not at all. “...I mean...nothing. Just getting some air. How about yeouu?” And there it was. The stupid pronunciation of a very simple word.

“...Looking for you, actually. I’ve got a new lead on the missing Chevy case.” He made a face. “God, is that what we’ve been reduced to? It’s not even Doug Judy this time, just some random pizza guy. Oh, and Charles made a donut tower. You should come check it out.”

“Oh. Cool.”

She made sure to stand on top of the cigarette as he came over. “You ok?” he asked. He looked genuinely concerned.

“Just thinking. You should go back to the donut tower.” Amy was itching for another one, but she kept herself from reaching into the inside pocket of her blazer for the pack she kept in there.

“Babe, it’s freakin’ freezing out here. Come on.”

She shook her head. “You can grab me a donut, though.”

“Ok!” A grin lit up Jake’s face and he ran back inside from the balcony. Amy chuckled. Sometimes he was the literal definition of a golden retriever. She still hadn’t gotten used to him being back in the precinct -- his time in Coral Palms had changed him, even if for the better.

He came back in less than thirty seconds with a glazed raised donut (her second favorite, after crullers) and a crumpled mass of fabric. “I got you a sweater, too.”

Amy looked suspiciously at Jake, whose face was covered in a shit-eating grin. She slowly took the sweater from him and unfolded it. It was covered in little dancing skeletons with the phrase “LET’S BONE” woven into the front. “Why in the ever-loving fuck do you have this?”

“Legally, I’m not allowed to answer that. But it is really, really cold, so I’m gonna need you to either come outside or put that monstrosity on.”

She gave him her best try me look. Without breaking eye contact, she pulled the sweater over her head. It almost suffocated her near the top, and putting her arms through it was like putting on Christmas stockings made of burlap, but she managed to get herself into it and stick her chin out at Jake. “Challenge accepted. Oh, this is actually really warm.” Despite its god-awful design, it was like wearing a blanket. She unconsciously pulled the folds in on herself. “Now give me that donut.”

Jake stepped closer, and, still holding the donut, wrapped his arms around Amy. She let herself relax into him, not just because he was like a toaster oven in the chilly night air.

“I missed you,” she mumbled into his shoulder.

“I missed you too,” he said softly back. Amy smiled. “And babe, this sweater is truly awful.”

“I know.” She pulled back and kissed him. “Now give me that,” she snapped jokingly, snatching the donut from his hand.

“Gonna come back inside anytime soon?” Jake asked with raised eyebrows.

“Yeah, just give me a few more minutes. Thanks for the sweater.”

“You might want to burn it before you come back inside,” Jake said before pressing his lips to hers again, turning, and striding back into the precinct.

Chapter Text

They were sitting on their tiny New York apartment balcony, carving pumpkins. Amy hadn’t done it since she was a teenager, but Jake had done it almost every year. It was annoying as hell that he could do something better than she could, but she let him walk her through the basics of not sawing her fingers off.

She was, at least, feeling pretty comfortable about her artistic skills. She was carving the traditional smiley face with triangle eyes and a few random teeth, although she made sure that everything was perfectly symmetrical. About an hour in, the autumn chill got to her, and she left Jake to go make coffee and change into warmer clothes. As she was pulling on her favorite blue cable-knit sweater, she decided to grab one of Jake’s sweaters, too.

Amy instantly regretted switching her sneakers out for thick wool socks when she came onto the balcony and immediately stepped in pumpkin guts that had not been there before. “Ugh!”

Jake looked up. There was pumpkin goop on his cheek. “Oh, yeah, don’t step in that. That’s what you get for not wearing shoes!”

Amy glared at him. “I’ve worn these socks on the balcony before,” she said. “And I have backups.” She pulled out a second pair of socks so thick they may as well have been shoes and chucked the old socks back into the apartment. “Oh, and here.”

“Thank you so much, babe,” Jake said as she handed him coffee and his sweater. “I’m literally turning into Frosty the Snowman out here.”

She plopped down in her spot on the balcony, sitting with her back against the railing so she and Jake wouldn’t see each other’s pumpkins. A gust of wind made her draw her knees up to her chest.

“Aw, Ames, you look so cute. Like a sheep. But less fluffy. Like a malnutritioned sheep.”

“...Thank you.” Amy rolled her eyes at him. She dug her knife back into the pumpkin’s face, but a gust of sudden wind went right through her sweater and made her shiver so hard she sliced off one of the pumpkin’s teeth. “Fuck,” she muttered, but not so quietly that Jake didn’t hear it. It was a small balcony, after all.

“Why are you so darn cold all the time?” Jake asked with a grin. “Like, is it genetic? Is your mom secretly Elsa from Frozen?”

“Ha,” Amy said. “No. And I’m not c-cold. My hand j-just slipped.”

“Your teeth were chattering as you said that,” Jake said. “Here.” He pulled his sweater off his head, despite Amy’s protests, and handed it to her. “Put it on or I’m going to look at your jack-o-lantern design!”

Amy groaned and pulled the sweater over her head. He was larger than her, so his giant sweater fit neatly over hers. It was kind of uncomfortable, yes, and she had to push up the sleeves to hold the knife, but she couldn’t deny that it was so warm. Like, in-bed-under-five-blankets-on-a-cold-winter-day warm.

“Better, right?” he asked.

She frowned at him. “Are you done with your pumpkin yet?”

“...Yes, but it’s not great. In fact, it’s perfect for Halloween because it’s so utterly hideous.”

“Let me see -- augh! What is that?”

“Um. Well, I was going to draw John McClane, but it kiiinda turned into Shrek. This thing might give me nightmares for a couple weeks. C’mon, show me what you have.”

Amy sighed. “Okay, fine, but it’s not 100 percent done, so don’t judge me.” She swiveled the pumpkin to face him.

“Uh, Ames--”

“I know it’s bad.”

“No, look.”

“Oh my god.” The area between the pumpkin’s eyes and mouth had collapsed. The face was now one a misshapen hole. “This is awful. We can’t put this outside the door.”

“Actually,” Jake mused, “yours might be perfect for Halloween too. Got that whole gaping-void-eats-your-children look.”

She glared at him, but she knew that even if she tried to protest he’d put it outside the door anyway. Instead, she sank further into the sweaters and scooted over a few inches. “Come here.”

He awkwardly extricated himself from the pile of pumpkin guts and carving tools and came to sit beside her, leaning to rest his head on her shoulder. “Ready for Halloween?”

“I’m going to kick your ass.”

“Not if I kick yours first.”

They sat together, like that, for a minute, with the breeze on their faces and the leaves rustling creating a gentle backdrop of sound, until the peace was ruined by a loud BANG.

“Uh, Ames, I think our neighbors are about to have sex on the balcony.”

“Yeah, we should go inside.”

“Yep.”

Chapter Text

It was very dark. That was the first thing Amy registered when she opened her eyes.

The clock on the bedside table, in its neon-green lettering, read 3:14 a.m. Pi, she thought blearily. It was very quiet, and although Amy was mostly warm, her face and ears were freezing. She realized that she had the entire comforter wrapped around her.

Turning over, she saw that during the night she had pulled the comforter off of Jake to wrap around herself, leaving him shivering in his flannel pants and old T-shirt on one side of the bed. She swung her legs off to the side (this was why she wore socks to bed) and got out of bed to gently lay the comforter on top of Jake. He stayed dead asleep as she tucked the edges around him, effectively cocooning him in a downy shell.

The reason it was so cold was because one of the windows had been left open. The resulting breeze had blown the curtains out of the way of the moonlight, which had shone directly into Amy’s face and woken her up. She plodded over to the window, rubbing her arms to warm herself up, and s-l-o-w-l-y eased the window shut.

She wasn’t ready to close the curtains just yet. New York may still have been busy at three a.m, but the street outside their apartment was still, and the moon shone big and full over the streetlights. Spooky.

Amy eased herself around to the closet, slowly pulling out sweater after sweater and trying her best not to make a sound to wake Jake. Her efforts were futile -- he probably wouldn’t have woken up if Scully had shown up yodeling at their door -- and yet she still tried. She pulled on three or four sweaters, both hers and Jake’s, wrapping herself up in her own comforter to protect herself from the chill left lingering in the air.

When she got back in bed, she spent a minute just looking at the moon outside and twisting the ring on her finger.

Then she scooted her sweater-wrapped body over to Jake’s comforter-encased one, threw her arm over his side, pressed her face into the crevice between his shoulder and the mattress, and let herself drift to sleep in a haze of warmth.