And Then There Were Nine-Nine

Part 5: No More Time Without You

It had been two hours since the three detectives had found out that Amy was missing. Jake was laying in the bed that his wife had been sleeping in for the past few days as Holt and Charles sat on chairs next to him. They had barely spoken. Staring up at the white ceiling above him, Jake felt as though his heart was about to explode. Both Jake and Amy had been in very dangerous situations because of their jobs, but they were usually reunited pretty quickly. Almost every time that they had been separated for a long period of time, however, he was the one in danger and she was safe: When he was undercover, in prison, in the safe-house with Kevin... The only time that this was reversed, while they were together, was when Amy was undercover in prison. During that time, he was going nuts. How could he stay sane now that there was no one watching over her? He didn't think he could. 

Suddenly, Jake rose up from the bed and quickly walked out of the room. His coworkers followed him, unsure of what he might do. When they caught up with him, he was standing out on the sand, looking out at the water.

"We're going to go back to Brooklyn and find Amy!" He said, determination in his voice.

"Jake, if we could do that, we would be back already." Holt responded.

"We're... We're going to build a boat with the trees and we'll sail back! I'm sure we will be able." He replied.

"Of course we would be able to build a boat, Jacob! Don't you think we've thought of that already? The only reason why we have not done that yet is because the person on the recording told us that the squad will be killed if we do something that they don't like." Holt said, raising his voice.

"But we have to..." Jake responded weakly.

"Jake. If we don't do anything stupid, the others might be okay!" Charles said to his friend.

"MIGHT? They MIGHT be okay?!" Jake shouted at Charles. "That's not enough! I can't sit here while my wife is being held captive."

"There's nothing we can do." Charles responded, putting his hand on Jake's shoulder.

Jake took a deep breath and looked back towards the water, where he could see the place he once called home in the distance. Holt and Charles walked away as Jake sat down in the sand. Once they were back in the house, Charles looked at Jake through the kitchen window as he started making brunch.

"Do you think he will be okay?" Charles asked his captain.

"Honestly, I don't think any of us will be okay. The kidnapper can't simply let us free! Their only choice will be to kill us. The others are probably dead already." Holt responded as if it were a casual conversation.

"No, I won't believe that's true." Charles responded.

"Deny it all you want, Boyle, but death is coming. I got us into a trap, and our lives are going to be over any day because of me." Holt replied.

"If you really thought the others were dead, we would have already built a boat to go back home! You said that the only reason we didn't is so that the others wouldn't get killed." Charles responded.

"I... I guess I do still have a little bit of hope." Holt admitted, peeking through the window to look at Jake.

"Boyle... Where is Jake?!" Captain Holt asked Charles, alarmed.

"What do you mean, he's... fuck." Charles responded, seeing that Jake was no longer sitting on the sand.

The two detectives walked out of the mansion and started walking opposite ways across the island to find Jake. They were scared that his sadness was going push him to make a bad decision.

After a few minutes of walking in the sun, Charles let out a breath that he didn't realize he was holding in when he discovered Jake walking in front of him.

"Jake!" Charles called out to him.

Jake turned around, rolling his bloodshot eyes as he saw his friend walking towards him. "Charles, I really just want to be alone right now." He said, a rare seriousness in his voice.

"I get it, Jake, but you can't just leave us like that! We were so worried!" Charles responded.

"I'm sorry. I'm not gonna do something stupid though. You don't have to be so scared. I know that the best thing to do is to... wait."

After a few minutes, Holt caught up with them and insisted that they go back to the mansion to eat.

As the rest of the day continued, Charles and Holt saw a side of Jake that they had never seen before. They missed his smile, his laughter and his joy. Now, he was a very short-tempered man with a dead look on his face. They wanted to help him, but they knew that there was nothing they could do. The love of his life was missing and no one knew if she was okay. As a matter of fact, so many important people in their lives had vanished. They were colleagues, friends and even family to them.

That evening, Jake quickly went to bed. He did not want to be awake one more minute without Amy. As he got ready to go to bed, he thought of how he survived without her before he met her, and what the past few years of his life would have been like if he hadn't met her. He wondered how he got such a perfect woman. She was smart, beautiful, talented, funny and kind. She loved him for who he was. How could such a perfect person deserve this? How could anyone deserve this? They were being hunted for no apparent reason. As Jake lay down in bed, he wished that when he would wake up, he would be reunited with his wife. His eyes closed as the image of Amy laughing took over his mind.

3 AM

Jake woke up from a crackling noise. He was sweaty because of the nightmare about Amy that he had been having. Before he could reflect on the dream that he could barely remember, the crackling noise stopped and a voice started. "Hello, Jake Peralta." It started.

When Jake had heard the message that the recording had given him, he quickly left his bedroom, watching to make the least amount of noise possible. It was finally happening! He was going to be reunited with Amy! When he finally exited the house and walked onto the beach, he spotted the boat that the recording had mentioned and slowed his pace as he walked towards it...

When Holt and Charles woke up the next morning, they were devastated to discover Jake was missing. Holt, however, was also relieved, because he knew that Jake and Amy were together now, wherever that together might be. Charles, on the other hand, was having a meltdown. Even though he knew that Jake would rather be reunited with Amy in death than be separated from her alive, he couldn't picture a world without him. They had known each other for so long, and Jake was his best friend in the world. Henceforth, Charles would have to live in a world without Jake by his side. And then there were two.