Amber Alert

wednesday

(TW - Suicide, at the end)

When Charles entered the bullpen, he's met with a sight he's seen only two other times in his working at the nine-nine. He remains at the doors of the elevator as he stares in the direction of his friend's desk.

Jake was sat in the chair, spinning from side to side as he looked between the monitor and the desk beside it with the mountain of paper stood on top of it. He would flick through some of the paper and find what he was looking for, and then look something up on the computer. Charles also noted that, when the detective's face came into his view, he looked quite sleep deprived from the previous night.

Another name had been put on the list of missing children last night. Jake had told them not long after the press arrived for their interview, and they all stood in shocked silence as he explained everything that he had been told by the principal. As the younger detective had stood in front of the camera to explain it, he suddenly broke down and asked if Terry could do it instead. The lieutenant had agreed instantly, stepping in the place where not moments ago Jake was stood, and announced it to New York.

Jake sat off to the side, allowing Charles's tight hugs from beside him as he watched Terry do the briefing to the press and the cameras, tears threatening to burn up in his eyes as the lieutenant went over the appearances of the children again, this time adding his own son in to it as well.

Rosa had gone off into the break room, where Amy had been the entire time. She had told Jake that she wanted to stay in there as he was leaving the room to inform the squad of the fourth missing child. As soon as Rosa heard, she had rushed in there to be with the sergeant, and she hadn't come back out since.

By the start of the night shift, they all stayed into overtime, but one by one they all got knocked down as people started to go home. At around ten-to-one, Terry folded and insisted on going home, Charles following the superior's lead at 1:35. Holt was next to go at 3:20 and lastly Rosa eventually left at four-thirty, making both Jake and Amy promise they would go home before five am to at least get some sleep.

But by the looks of it, it seemed as though only Amy had followed her friend's orders and had gone home, but Jake had seemed to have stayed at the precinct all night and also had ignored the Holt's orders too of falling asleep for a little while, because it looked like the detective hadn't slept a wink.

As Jake looks through the pile of paper for what was the fifth time since Charles had arrived alone, the older detective enters the bullpen quickly, sitting on the chair beside his friend and taking his hands away from the keyboard.

"Buddy, have you been here all night?" Charles queries.

Jake pauses, thinking of his response as if telling the truth would get him into trouble. But nonetheless, it looks as though his tired state doesn't think too much about what might happen as the detective nods to his friend's question. "Yeah, but I've been working the case." He says, taking his gaze away and putting it back on the computer monitor.

Charles brings his hand up to the younger man's chin, turning it toward him. "Jake, did you even sleep last night?" He asks when there is a pair of eyes looking back at his own gaze.

The detective quickly shakes his head. "Not once," he replies faster than his normal way of speaking, "Actually there might have been a very brief moment where I fell asleep at my desk but I woke up very soon after that, I wouldn't even call it sleep it was so short." He says, trying to turn his head back to the monitor to no avail.

The older man stands up from the chair and grabs hold of his friend's arm, pulling him up at leading him over to the side far enough away from his desk so Jake wouldn't get distracted. Charles manages to gain Jake's attention again quite quickly now that he wasn't sat in front of a bunch of distractions.