Jake and Rosa finally have a chance to really talk with one another.

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Jake & Rosa

Jake has just finished telling Captain Holt that we wants to stay on desk duty, when Rosa catches his eye with a subtle nod. They haven't really talked much. Too much to say, and no way to say it. Too busy with the logistics of returning to their lives, their girlfriends and boyfriends, their jobs. Too painful to dredge up the memories and bring them alive with words.

Jake returns the nod, and wonders if she heard his conversation with Captain Holt. He doesn't think it's possible, but Rosa has a multitude of surprising skills. It's more likely, though, that Rosa just knows what Jake told the Captain.

He sits back down at his desk, and pulls out his phone. Not exactly professional, but he needs something to distract him from the shame of asking Captain Holt for more desk duty. If he doesn't distract himself, he'll just think about it all again and again. What if that guy really was innocent? Jake knows they have definitive evidence against him, but then again, so did the jury that convicted him and Rosa. How can he ever know the truth? Should he leave the force? But then another cop, a worse cop could just take his place. Captain Holt is right—it does make him a better detective. Is anyone a good detective though? Around and around and around.

So Jake takes out his phone. He needs something to stop his brain. He has a text from Rosa. Which is odd, Rosa rarely texts anyone, and never anything more than necessary.

Rosa: "Gonna go for a beer tonight. Kinda a solitary thing. You in?"

God Rosa knows just how to approach the enormity of their experiences.

Jake: "Sure."

Jake tells Amy, and he loves her so much because she knows exactly why it's so important that he go out with Rosa. She kisses him in the hallway after they finish their shift, and he pulls her into a hug. Amy takes the car home and Jake reassures her that he'll find his way home, and won't be too late.

Rosa is waiting in the parking lot.

"'Sup." She nods at Jake again.

"Heyy Rosa." They start walking, Jake notices Rosa starts out in the opposite direction from Shaw's. Good, he didn't want to go anywhere where they might run into someone they know. "How's the desk duty treating you?"

Rosa shrugs. "Paperwork's surprisingly satisfying."

"That's good to know. Cuz I just told Holt I wanted more of it. Must be crazy right?" Jake laughs, a little animatedly.

He knows he'd babbling because he feels uncomfortable. Not because he's with Rosa, but because he knows that she knows exactly how he feels. It's a sense of vulnerability both comforting and terrifying. They get to the bar and order a drink. It's a dingy little establishment, a similar vibe to Shaw's but a few blocks further away. Rosa sits, nursing her beer for a bit. Jake fiddles with the label on his bottle, rolling, and unrolling it.

"It's weird, man." Rosa starts. "Being back at the 99 is both easier and harder."

That's all she says. But it encompasses so much more, and Jake feels like he's going to tear up, hearing Rosa put into words the way he's been feeling the last few weeks.

"No doubt, no doubt." Jake says under his breath. "Sorta like a fever dream. Or an alternate universe. Or like, when Captain America wakes up after being frozen in that ice block and New York City is all modern and he's all woah. Except we weren't frozen in ice. And we're not from the 1940s."

"Ha. It's totally like that."

"Do you think we ever put away anyone innocent?"

"Honestly?" Rosa turns to look at him. "We could have. We might not have. We'll never know."

"But doesn't that drive you crazy? Like it's all I can think about. It's like I'm solving a case, but there's no answer so I just follow the same loop of thinking over and over again and can never find an answer."

"Yeah. I get that." Rosa thinks for a minute, then takes a deep breath. "Solitary is great a place to obsess over that shit. And a horrible place because it's all you can think."

"I'll fucking drink to that. God this country is so fucking broken."

"You already did your psych eval, right?" Rosa says abruptly.

"Yeah, why?"

"How'd it go?"

"Weird, honestly. But I also lied. A lot. I just wanted to get back into the field. I didn't really have the desk duty epiphany until today, ya know? But who needs therapy when you can just repress everything?" Jake motions with hands, as if he were physically pushing all his feelings off the bar.

"I had a psych eval epiphany, you wanna hear it? I might have to kill you afterwards though."

"Hit me, Detective Rosa Diaz, the scariest person I know."

"It's not all bullshit." Rosa takes her eyes off of Jake after a few seconds and looks down at her drink.

"What?"

She looks up at Jake. It's her "come on Jake you know this" face.

"Ohhhhhh therapy. Psychologists. Cool cool cool. I'm just really not a talking about my feelings person."

"Neither am I, Jake. But it helps. A thousand push ups, it's helpful.

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"Doesn't the publicity drive you crazy?" Rosa asks.

Jake shrugs. "Not really. It's kinda cool, honestly, being in the paper and on the news. Correction—" he holds his bottle out towards Rosa, "being in the paper and on the news because I'm innocent."

"I hate it. Makes me wanna punch someone."

"Probably shouldn't punch the journalist. But you know, if they're really being a dick, I might look the other way."

"Dope."

"Justice system is already fucked, sometimes you just gotta look out for your friends.

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"What's the weirdest thing about prison?"

"Instant noodles are like, mad currency. What?"

"That's a universal thing? Huh."

"Also I got high off of soap that was actually meth. That was pretty fucking weird."

"I started a food fight by accident. Sounds cool. Really wasn't. It was gross. And terrifying," she adds quietly.

"Sometimes I still think about getting high."

"Sometimes I still have dreams about that fight."

Jake reaches over and puts his arm around Rosa in a half hug. She doesn't pull away.

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"We should do this again." Jake is standing at Rosa's apartment door. (After swearing on his life that he will never, ever tell anyone where she lives.)

"Next week?"

Suddenly, there are tears in Jake's eyes. And if he's not mistaken, there are also tears in Rosa's.

They hug once more.

"No one else I'd rather have gone to prison with."

"No one."

~~fin~~

This is the end y'all. Thanks for following along! This felt so, good i guess, to write- there's something extremely cathartic about writing about characters putting themselves back together, instead of falling apart. Also I adore Jake and Rosa's friendship (and Jake and Amy's relationship, and Captain Holt, and pretty much just everyone on this show). This story fits in the same universe of a bunch of my other fics about Jake and Rosa's experiences in prison (Going to be Okay, We Don't Need a White Wedding and Field Day), now that i'm finished i might go back and officially make them a series on ao3. Tell me what you thought if you'd like-I really appreciate comments!

Or come say hi on tumblr: feeisamarshmallow