The Hidden | Jake Peralta

Chapter 11

It was Christmas Eve. Christmas were the twins' favourite holiday because Celine would always make a big deal, just like her mother did. It was her way of being close to her. But right now, she was at the precinct with Jake because Holt refused to let her have the entire day off... but luckily he gave her a half day, so she could leave early and get everything prepared. She was talking to Jake about one of their cases when Amy called them over.

"Come here! Come here! Come here!" They walked to her and sat beside her desk. "You got to see this. I'm about to give Captain Holt his gift."

"Oh, did he lift his 'no gift' policy?" Jake asked.

"No, he didn't. But I figured out a way to buy him something and trick him into accepting it." Amy smiled, thinking she had truly tricked him.

"You are bad." Celine teased her.

"I know, right?" Amy giggled, but then realised what she actually meant. "Oh, wait. You're making fun of me." She said.

"Mm-hmm." Jake nodded.

"Well, I don't care." Amy shrugged. "He would never open a gift, right? But what if his gift didn't look like a gift?" She asked.

"He would open it?" Jake questioned.

"Exactly! I left it in a cardboard box on his desk. There's no card, just the words 'Open now,' which I wrote with my wrong hand so he wouldn't recognize my handwriting." Amy smiled. That was when Holt walked past them.

"Captain." Jake greeted.

"Peralta." Holt greeted and when straight to his office.

"Sir. So just to recap, you left an unmarked package on a police captain's desk on a random Monday, with a suspicious message written on it that looked like it was scrawled by a crazy person." Jake summed up.

"Mm-hmm." Amy agreed. She hadn't realised what Jake was talking about... until Holt marched out of his office, yelling.

"Bomb! There's a bomb! Everyone out! Let's go, let's go!" Holt yelled, setting off the alarm. "This is not a drill! Let's go!"

"Great gift, Ames." Celine said, giving Amy a thumbs up.

***

Once it was determined that it was a gift and not a bomb like Holt initially thought, they returned to work. Boyle walked up to Jake, with a gift in hand.

"Ho, ho, ho, Jake. Special delivery from Santa's elf. Merry Christmas." Boyle smiled.

"Ah." Jake grabbed the bag and gasped when he saw what was inside.

"Heart attack soda." Boyle cheered.

"Holy crap! I love this stuff! You know, technically, it's just carbonated fudge." Jake said.

"I know."

"I thought they banned it."

"Not in Syria. They use it to induce labour in goats..."

"Lovely thing to put in your body..." Celine commented, but they didn't hear her... or the did, but just ignored her.

"...Your real present arrives tomorrow." Boyle finished.

"There's more? Charles, this is too much." Jake shook his head.

"Nonsense! It was just a lot of time and a lot of money." Boyle said, nonchalantly.

"Oh." Jake said as Charles walked away. Gina was walking past them and Jake called her. "Gina! I screwed up. I forgot to get Charles anything."

"Oh, well, I always knew he would die of sadness." Gina told him.