The Pantiac Bandette | Jake Peralta

4

As Jake made his way into the spare bedroom, he found Grace waiting with the burner phone in her hand.

"Here you go, side chick," She said smugly as she handed him the phone. He glared at her as he began constructing his message for the bandit.

"Back in the game, when can we meet?" he said aloud as he typed.

"Damn! You're good at this! You'd think you wouldn't been chasing the pumpkin bandit for like 8 years or something!" She say sarcastically as she lent on the door frame with her arms crossed.

He scoffed playfully at her, "call him the pumpkin bandit again and I'll put you in jail for like 8 years or something, boom." He said as he pressed send and then placed the phone in his pocket.

"Okay, okay. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, no doubt," she said quickly, having remembered Jake saying it one time, years ago. She thought he sounded dumb and incompetent, then it became a habit of hers too.

jakes eyes widen and he stared at her momentarily as she stared back, unbothered. He could've proposed right then and there. in fact, if she were to bring up Die Hard any time soon, he wouldn't hesitate to elope with her to Australia. Prying his way out of his daze, he tried to clear his mind.

"So how long does he usually take to get back to you?"

"Like 10 mins? I don't know. Chill, Jakey," He glared at her for the pet name, but nothing could break him from the joy he was getting from being so close to catching his nemesis.

"Chill?! I've never been this close before!"

"You know, I've got to admit. Your enthusiasm makes me want you to catch him," She said. And it was true, however he isn't trying to catch a 'him'.

"Thank you," Jake said gratefully, "hey are these laser disks?"

"Yeah, I robbed a record shop back in '95, kept my favs," Grace explains as she watches Peralta flip through her collection like a kid in a candy store.

"Grace Judy," He said proudly, he was beginning to realise just how similar they really were. Too bad she's a criminal. But for a moment, he thought well once we catch the bandit, she technically won't be a criminal anymore, right? Until he realised just how stupid he sounded and pushed that thought to the back of his mind and continued to flip through the disks, "Blade runner, Tron... OH! Fievel Goes West!" He says pulling one of his favourite movies from his childhood out of the box.

"Yes sir! I love that little mouse!" She says playfully, "He's journey is the story of America."

"I could not agree more!" Jake's previous thought begin to rise again. Grace, on the other hand, had nearly forgotten her plan. She had noted the similarities between them and tried her hardest to not get carried away. So she too pushed the thought of creating even a friendship with Peralta to the back of her mind. Because she wasn't an idiot, like Jake, and her plan was full proof. Throwing it all away would make her a dumb dumb.

But there's no harm in having fun while it lasts?

"Fievel!" She imitated, hoping her new not-friend friend Jake would catch on. Which, of course, he did.

"Papa!" he cried.

"Fievel!"

"Papa!"

Fiiiiiiieveee-" But alas, their 'moment', or whatever you want to call it, must end. For a livid Rosa stormed into the room.

"Having fun," she spat at them. Grace and Jake exchanged scared looks, afraid of what the scary latino dressed in all black would do to them.

"Heeeeey," Jake whimpered awkwardly.

"'cause I'm not, her mom put this stupid braid in my hair," Rosa disgustedly picked up her braid with two fingers as if she were picking up a dead cockroach, or worse, a live one.

"Oh it's beautiful"

"Yes it's lovely," Judy and Peralta replied quicker in an attempt to calm Diaz down. But their plan failed, for she was already half way through cutting her freshly branded hair with a knife she must've had hidden on her somewhere.

"hmm..." Grace said with her eyebrows furrowed as she watched Rosa drop the forcefully removed lock of hair to the ground, "looks like you've got a bad case of split ends," Jake chuckled in amusement, " I have a good conditioner you can use, you can thank me later..."

But before Rosa could reply to Grace's witty comment with something snide to shut her up, the burner phone received a text.

"It's him!" Jake said as he tried his best to conceal his excitement, "parking lot on Flatbush and Vanderbilt in 15 minutes, let's go!" and he makes for door, eager to meet his arch nemesis of 8 years for the first time.

"Wait, wait, wait," Grace says as she shakes her hand at him, signally for him to stop. He pouts questioning, wondering why she is stalling, "Diaz looks like a dirty criminal, but you? You look like a cop. You have to change."

"But this is all I have on me, what do you have in mind?" Grace doesn't reply, but offers a cheeky grin to him before backing out of the room and heading to her fathers room.

Her dead father, that is.