𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐎𝐂𝐊𝐒 | Jake Peralta

four.

F O U R

"ugly emotion part two"

—

Jake's POV

HE WAS ABSENT. Perhaps his body was sat at his desk, doing paperwork, but his mind was still swinging around the way that Sarah had been acting that day. Her eyes stuck to the ceiling, she... she was beautiful. "I think we're both a wreck," she'd said. Sarah couldn't be more right. Jake did feel like that, like a mess, like a lost child with no path. He had nowhere to go inside his thoughts, they all played with him.

And everything because of what he'd realized. Was he actually in love with Sarah Moore? It was pretty confusing. Was it only because he was hurt about Sophia and needed someone to shelter with? That wasn't a shade he liked. It didn't sound good, it sounded, once again, selfish, and it was terrible in his opinion that Sarah thought he was trying to make her feel better after what she confessed. And he was, but he still felt dirty.

To top it off, though, Sarah was not the same that morning. She had suddenly ran to the records room, leaving there a confused Jake and a perplexed Amy. Jake had only wanted to talk to Sarah... was something wrong with the way he looked? He knew that he'd gotten drunk and didn't shower that morning, but Amy had perfectly been around him. 

"Peralta, Moore," Holt called, stepping out of his office in that inanimated pose of him. Jake and Sarah lifted their heads, both had a distraught gaze. "My office, please."

Jake gulped. What had he done now? He and Sarah stood up and obeyed Holt's order. The captain closed the door behind him, and stood in front of there, silent, as if waiting for one of them to break it.

"So..." said Sarah. Jake knew that it would be her who'd talk first, and smiled to himself.

"I have a case for you two," said the Captain, and closed the blinds. "It is about the murder of a lawyer, a detective from another precinct asked for help in the case and I think that you would be great for the task."

"Thank you," they muttered. 

"Who is the detective?" asked Sarah. 

"I don't believe you know him, Moore, but his name is Daniel James. He is really nice, but he's stuck in the case, so, do you agree?"

Jake nodded firmly, and Sarah hesitated a little when she noticed that he'd accepted. That flooded Jake's head with a thousand more thoughts. She seemed... upset? Or uncomfortable. Whatever it was, what had Jake done to make Sarah not want to be with him? Perhaps he should beg her forgiveness about how selfish he had been, although she wasn't upset before, it must be something he had done earlier that day.

"Yeah, I'm in," she finally said, and Holt placed his hands behind his back.

"Perfect, you're dismissed."

They left Holt's office, and Sarah was about to sit at her desk when Jake took her hand and dragged her to the break room. She complained but he ignored it, they had to talk. He closed the door so no one would listen, he was aware that Charles liked to eavesdrop in Jake's conversations. 

"Why are we here?" Sarah asked, scowling.

"To talk about why you're acting like you're mad at me," said Jake. He said 'like you're mad at me', as if he didn't know that there was something clearly bothering her. "What did I do?"

Sarah scoffed. "Nothing. I'm not mad."

Jake narrowed his eyes. "Then why are you acting like you don't wanna be near me? I saw your face in Captain's Holt office. You were gonna say yes but then you doubted it, didn't you, just because I agreed."