Chapter Text
You grimace as you weakly grip the armrests on either side of the chair that you’re tied to. You feel the energy leaching out of your body as you struggle to keep your eyes open.
A gentle throb resonates at the back of your head where you had been struck by a blow just hours before. As you turn your head towards your captor you cringe at the stiffness of the skin around your neck, a track of dried blood trails down your head that stops between your shoulders. You hit the man with an icy glare as you spit your words out at him.
“When the members of my squad find you and see what you’ve done, you’ll be lucky to see the light of day again. It’s a pretty boneheaded move capturing and torturing a detective in the NYPD. You’ll be sorry.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it.” He huffs out as he finds your threats humorous. “Now how about we leave a message for your friends on that pretty face of yours.”
You see a flash in the corner of your eye as he twirls what you assume to be a knife by his threat. Before you can react, you feel the cold sting of the tip of the blade as he lightly presses it into your fleshy cheek and starts to drag it downwards. A cry of pain leaves your lips before you think to hold it back, the man lets out a deep chuckle as he pulls the blade away satisfied with your reaction.
“Fuck you buddy.” You huff out not being able to hold in your anger.
Your face burns as he brings the back of his hand across your cheek. Your mouth fills with the coppery taste of blood as your teeth come down on the inside of your cheek.
“You should think before you speak pig! What kind of preservation skills do they teach you at the academy?”
The man sneers at you as you wince hanging your head down, hair covering your face. He quickly turns away now bored of your interaction; you mutter quietly as his back faces you. Still on edge he whips his head around.
“What was that bitch?” He struts toward you head held high chest protruding like a chicken. You mumble again hoping for him to come closer. The man digs his nails into your chin as he wrenches your head up forcing you to make eye contact with him. Exactly as you planned.
Before he can say anything else you use all the reserves of energy you have left to spit blood directly in his face. He sputters and falls back on his backside as he jumps back disgusted by your actions. He rakes his hands haphazardly across his face trying to remove the residue.
You erupt into thunderous laughter as you turn your crimson grin towards the man covered in your blood. The man sees red as he jumps to his feet, he arcs his fist downwards, putting his full force into the swing descending onto your face.
As his hand connects a burst of fiery hot pain starts in your jaw and travels up the side of your face. The sheer willpower behind this punch sends you and the chair you are restrained to sailing backward, for the second time that day you see stars as your head is met with an unforgiving force. You barely comprehend the pain as you descend into the murky blackness of unconsciousness.
~~~~~
24 hours earlier
The day started like any other day at the 99th precinct. With not many open cases, it was an all-around slow day. All detectives, but one, were completing paperwork quietly at their desks.
All detectives except of course, the rambunctious Detective Jake Peralta, also known as your adorable yet extremely annoying boyfriend. It was 11:30 and Jake had been annoying you to take your lunch break together (as you always do) for the last 20 minutes.
“Y/N!” he whined, rolling his chair next to your desk. He spun in circles as he pouted at you with his big brown eyes, desperately trying to get your attention. You sighed and tensed your shoulders as you turned to face him.
“Jay, I can’t handle your endless nagging! I had to rewrite the same sentence about 30 times, I can’t hear myself think!” You threw your hands up in the air and he pouted even more, which you were surprised was even physically possible. You turned back to your work as he continued to whine.
“But n/n I’m hungry and bored, I didn’t even have a chance to grab breakfast before you took me back to my place this morning.”
The hair on the back of your neck stood up as his piercing voice hit your ears.
“Someone’s in a whiny mood.” You said with a chuckle not removing your eyes from the unfinished case report in front of you. Jake could be so needy sometimes. You mostly loved it, but you had no time for his attention issues when you became hyper fixated on your work. You were in the zone today trying to quickly close a case you had been on with Rosa.
“Tell me about it.” Your body jerked slightly and your heart rate increased as the small man, Charles Boyle, spoke out of nowhere, as is his fashion.
You looked up to Charles’ smiling face staring adoringly at the two of you. “He’s been whining to me about you all morning, don’t worry Y/N I told him not to complain, you two are perfect for each other. Actually, what I did suggest was for him to buy a bottle of that lavender shampoo you like. I keep saying that cleaning your partner's hair can solve any problem, and it’s the most sensual experience two people...”
“CHARLES!” you and Jake both shouted at the man. Jake spoke before you could add anything else to the conversation.
“First, we don’t have any problems, especially none that can be solved with shampoo,” he chuckled lightly, used to his friend’s dramatic flair, “Second, I was not whining about Y/N, I just gots to eat.” He looked at you with a sweet smile that made your heart flutter in your chest.
You momentarily abandoned your paperwork, the ghost of a smile on your lips as you looked at your adorable boyfriend. He always got like this when he felt restless.
“It’s fine babe, why don’t you and Charles get lunch without me today? I’m a little swamped with the paperwork for that B and E that Rosa and I just closed. I know how you get when you’re hangry.” You chuckled thinking about how jittery, unproductive, and annoying Jake got when he forgot his snacks at home. You really should start keeping some in your purse for him.
“It’s fine, I can wait.” He stated as he rolled back to his desk across from you, trying to play the serious detective.
“Seriously babe.” You looked at him, “No pressure to wait for me. I can hear your stomach practically screaming from here. I’ll just grab something later. And when you get back, we can set up our plan for the Jacobson case.” A huge grin split Jake’s face in half. He grabbed his wallet and skipped over to you.
“You’re the best babe!” He said in a sing-song voice as he ruffled your hair and kissed you on the cheek. “Come on Charles, lunch!” Jake shouted across the room to his doting friend throwing a fist up dramatically as he exclaims.
“You ready to go to town on some moist meat Jakey?” You could just make out Jake scream “Charles!” as they exited the bullpen.
Once they’re both gone you hit the grind determined to finish the report before 12:00 so you can get your own lunch.
~~~~
You jumped as your phone rang, knocking you out of your daze. You didn’t know how long it had been since Jake and Charles left for lunch. You quickly answered the phone without looking at the caller ID. “Detective Y/N L/N.” You said without removing your eyes from your paperwork.
“Is that any way to greet the best detective at the 9-9, AKA your ridiculously good-looking date mate?”
“Best detective at the 9-9, I didn’t realize I was dating myself.” You quipped back.
“Y/N!” he said with a gasp. “It’s always the ones you love the most who can hurt you the deepest.”
“Jake.” You whined. “I’m busy, come on, what’s up?”
“Ok, ok back to business. There was another sighting of our perp last night. I know we said we’d talk about it when I got back but I just got the call. Apparently, he was skulking around looking supes suspicious. The uniformed officer caught a glimpse of his face before he went running off.”
“Alright Jake, how do you wanna go about this?” Your tone of voice changed as you abandoned your almost finished report. You and Jake had been on this case for 3 weeks, you had been so close to solving it and were now eager to wrap it up. You had your man in custody just 48 hours ago with enough evidence to certainly convict him.
The perp in question, Miles Jacobson was arrested under suspicion of being a hitman associated with a local crime family. You and Jake had been looking into the deaths of several known rivals of this family when you linked the same man to all murders.
Jacobson had been arrested four times for homicide but was never convicted due to the supposed technicalities and mistakes in the evidence pointed out by the defense. This time though you knew you had him, Peralta and you were working exactly by the book from the start (which was your idea, not to brag). That’s why as a last-ditch attempt of saving their guy the crime family allegedly orchestrated a plan for the truck transporting him to have an accident which led to his escape. Now their homicide case had turned into a manhunt.
“Where did the beat cop see that son of a bitch?” The annoyance in your voice was clear, this man had tread on your last nerve. You wouldn’t deny that a part of you was worried, before he escaped, he had made his distaste for cops and women very clear. You were both, making your dealings with him very uncomfortable. He blamed you for his arrest and was very aggressive towards you specifically because of it.
Captain Holt had entertained taking you off the case, but you refused to let that asshole get to you. After some in-depth discussions with the Captain, you both agreed that you would stay on the case if you took extra precautions and removed yourself if you felt uncomfortable.
It was only to yourself that you would admit the man did in fact make you uncomfortable. And having him out on the loose had been making you paranoid.
Of course, you hadn’t been sharing these feelings with Jake, you knew you should, you just couldn’t seem to worry him. And you really didn’t want off the case, you were less scared with Jacobson out there when you were in control of his capture.
“That’s actually the most concerning part,” Jake started pulling you out of your thoughts, “he was really close to your apartment building when he was spotted last night.” Jake interrupted your worrying.
“Well that’s not creepy at all. What time was he spotted? Hopefully not when we were doing the deed.” You said with a forced chuckle, using humor as a thinly veiled attempt to cover up your obvious unease. You heard Jake’s deep chuckle resonate in your ear.
“You just read my mind babe! I love it when we’re vibing.” You huff out a laugh at Jake’s antics.
Regretting your divergence from the topic you try to be the adult. “Ok Jake let's be serious for 10 minutes.” You knew you had to get control now or you’ll lose him.
“Okay. It was late last night so no point in organizing a hunt for him now.” He said the strain in his voice was evident.
“Okay, we’ll have some uniforms patrolling the surrounding area of where he was spotted.” You had a lot of resources at your disposal for this. The mayor and the Chief Commissioner were breathing down your necks on getting this guy off the street. “How about a 4-block radius? 2 patrolmen every other road, pairs alternating roads every half-hour, he could have a hideout, or he may come back. Just to be safe. I’ll talk to the Captain and brief him on the matter, and get patrol schedules set up?”
“Sounds good to me. Hey… I was thinking…” He sputtered as he tried to get his thoughts out. “Maybe you could stay at my place tonight. I don’t like the idea of you being home alone when a hitman with mob connections that has a grudge on you is out there, he specifically said he hated you.”
You chuckled at the bluntness of your boyfriend, but your heart swelled at the concern for you in his voice. He may be a goofy man-child, but Jake really was the sweetest guy. You started to twirl your hair absentmindedly as you talked to your adoring boyfriend, a slight dusting of pink adorned your face.
“Aw Peralta, are you worried about me? You don’t think I can handle myself?” You questioned with a flirty lilt to your voice.
“Only when hitmen are involved do I question your badassery Y/L/N, only then.” Jake returned your sass full force. “It’s not just that, I need a partner to binge Netflix with. So, Y/N L/N will you help me get my binge on?” You let out a chuckle as he tried to make light of a serious situation, something he was very good at.
“Okay, okay. I could never let you binge without me. Not after Criminal minds.”
“How many times do I have to apologize for that n/n!!” He whined.
“Jake, how can I trust you now, you watched ahead without me!”
“I’ll never do it again, I swear.” You giggled as you imagined Jake’s face as his voice reached a new octave struggling to defend himself.
“Fine, I’ll give you one more chance. But you better not do it again, I can only give my T.V. trust to so many people. I’ll head over to my apartment for my lunch and grab a few things I’ll need. That way we can head straight to yours after work.” You had a few things at Jake’s apartment but not everything you wanted was there.
“Y/N!” Jake gasped. “Go get your lunch it's almost 1!”
“Jake don’t get your panties twisted, I’ll head out after we hang up, and I’ll talk to the Captain.” You hadn’t noticed how hungry you were until Jake said something.
“Alright... well, be careful. Text me when you’re done at your apartment. Charles and I are after a lead for another case but we’ll come pick you up so you can leave your car at your place tonight.”
He talked about you staying over at his apartment so nervously. You’ve stayed at his apartment many times before for lesser reasons, yet he always acted nervously, unsure if you would say yes. He stayed at your apartment more often than not, but he still got nervous about asking you to stay at his. You think it’s cute, you love the vulnerability that he shared with only you. Honestly, if it were up to you, you and Jake would have moved in together months ago, into your apartment of course, his left much to be desired. You pretty much lived together already; you couldn’t remember the last night you spent the night alone at your place.
You smiled thinking about how happy he made you. You never wanted to be apart from him, you would be incomplete without his crazy personality by your side.
“Alright, I’ll head out now, love you Jay.” You stopped and immediately regretted your choice of words.