Author's note: Hey everyone! This is my first time posting a B99 story. Although I have written a few of them, I think this is my favorite, and I figured, hey, if people like it, maybe I'll put some of my other ones up. Anyway, all this to say, I really hope you like this, and if you do, let me know, please! Have a good day!
"Jake, do you have any more hot chocolate?"
"Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell you, I got a new kind. I figured we'd shake things up." Jake grabbed a shopping bag off the couch and took out a canister of white hot chocolate, proudly handing it to Amy in the kitchen.
"Very intriguing. You wanna get out the snacks while I make some?"
"Sure. Although, you should know, I sprung for the fancy kind you have to make over the stove."
Amy smiled. "Wow, I'm impressed."
"Yeah, I know. I'm the best boyfriend ever. Oh, and I almost forgot…" Jake again reached into the shopping bag he'd put back on the counter, pulling out a pair of fuzzy socks. "I got these for you. 'Cause your feet are always cold. And they have penguins on them, 'cause I know you like penguins. Best boyfriend ever," he reiterated, putting up his hand for a high five.
"Best boyfriend ever," Amy agreed with a smile, high fiving him, taking the socks, and giving him a quick kiss before getting to work making hot chocolate. Meanwhile, Jake began pulling numerous bags of snacks out of his very small kitchen cabinets and taking them to the living room. Finally, he got tonight's DVD ready and then went to his bedroom to get a blanket for Amy, since she was always cold always, especially on cold, snowy January days like today.
"Do you have any marshmallows?" She asked him from the kitchen.
"Um…yes. Who do you think I am, the captain?"
Amy glared at him. He'd come to decode some of her glares since he'd known her, and this one was of the very familiar "don't insult the captain" variety. He watched as she found an almost empty bag of marshmallows in a cabinet and then placed a few in one of the empty mugs she'd set out.
"Ames, what are you doing?"
"I'm putting marshmallows in the mugs so I can pour the cocoa over them."
"Okay, that's insane. You put the marshmallows in AFTER the cocoa, that way, you can watch them luxuriously melt on top."
She furrowed her brow. "But won't they melt faster if I put them in first?"
"Deliciousness can't be rushed."
"Okay, how about we do both?"
Jake paused for effect. "I like how you think."
Amy grinned and continued placing the marshmallows at the bottom of the mugs. She then poured the steaming pot of cocoa into the two cups and put the remaining marshmallows on the top.
After a few minutes, she joined him on the couch, covering up with the blanket and putting on her new socks. "Ready?" Jake asked her.
"Yes. What are we watching today?"
"The X-Files."
"Hmm," said Amy. "Is that that show with the aliens and stuff?"
"Well, yeah, but it's also so much more. I mean, it's got cops—FBI agents, actually—and hot people, and guys with talking tattoos…"
"Jake…"
"Just try it, okay? You were on board with the new hot chocolate. Besides, it's my day to pick, and we were just gonna watch Die Hard again."
"Are you serious? We've already watched Die Hard two times this month!"
"Hey, you love that movie!"
"Yes, but not that much! Jake, you're the only person in the world who loves that movie that much."
"Fine, I guess just be glad we're watching X-Files, then."
She gave him an uneasy look. "It's not scary, is it?"
"You do get the fact that you take down criminals for a living, right? And that you carry a gun? Also, I feel like I bring this up all the time, but you, Amy Santiago, arrested a man on the subway who stole a bunch of human ears from a morgue. What could you possibly see on TV that's scarier than that? I mean, I know you can't watch horror movies, but— "
"You can't kill ghosts with guns, Jake! They're undead and can't be stopped."
He smiled at her, her shoulders tensed, her arms crossed over her chest. "It's not that bad. And besides, there aren't any ghosts in the episode we're gonna watch today."
Amy took a deep breath. "Fine. But if it gets too intense, I'm leaving the room."
"Deal."
"So, what's this show about, anyways? Besides aliens and FBI agents and hot people and guys with talking tattoos."
Jake gave her a quick rundown of the series and then turned on the TV, revealing the title of the episode they were to watch.
"'Pusher'," read Amy. "Does the guy just push people off buildings or something?"
Jake laughed dramatically. "Ah, if only he were quite so innocent. No, the man does something FAR more horrifying…"
Amy's face cringed up into a worried look. "You're not making things any better," she remarked.
"You're right. Let's just start it."
"Wait!"
"What?"
"Where are the Oreos?"
"Right here," said Jake, holding them up. He'd put them on the side of the couch opposite Amy, and for a very good reason. "There's…actually only one left."
"Jake! How…wasn't that box almost full whenever I came over?"
"I got snacky. If you say the magic word, I'll let you have the last one."
Amy gave him another frustrated glare out of the corner of her eye. Jokes on her, he loved it when she did that. "That's not the magic word," he said with a smirk. "You want me to tell you what it is?"
Without warning, Amy reached across him and grabbed the box from his hand, taking the last cookie out and shoving it into her mouth before he got a chance to snatch it away. "Ha!" She said with her mouth full.
"You're disgusting, Amy," he joked. "I can't believe I bought you penguin socks."
"But you did," she said, her eyes narrowed. "And you can never take them back."
"Challenge accepted," he said slowly.
"Well, we'll see," Amy replied, pulling her socked feet under her. After a quiet moment, she whispered, "Just to be clear, you are going to give them back, right? If you do get them. But you won't."
"That's for me to know and you to find out." He paused. "But yes," Jake whispered.
"Good. They're SUPER soft."
"Ready for the most amazing forty-two minutes of your life?"
Amy pressed her lips together. "As ready as I'll ever be, I guess."
"Great." He started the episode and squeezed under the blanket with her.
As it played, they drank their white cocoa and gorged themselves on cookies and various kinds of chips. Amy seemed hooked right away, and Jake loved watching her expressions change as things grew more and more suspenseful.
When the episode had gotten toward the end and the climax ensued, he watched as Amy swallowed hard, her eyes glued to the screen. She looked completely enthralled and completely adorable, her jaw slowly dropping. He smiled at her.
Soon, she was reaching over and putting her hand in his, no doubt out of fear. Watching her, he realized that now would be the perfect time to tackle her and steal the socks from her feet, but he couldn't let her miss how the episode ended.
When it finally did, Amy took a deep breath and smiled at him. "That was pretty awesome," she admitted. "But scary."
"Did it get too intense for you? I guess not, 'cause you didn't leave the room."
"Not too intense." She leaned her head against his shoulder. "Well, maybe a little, but I just really wanted to see what happened."
Jake smiled at her again. "You're a wuss," he told her.
"I know," she said sadly. "Imagine me trying to fight off a mind controller."
"Well, that's kind of the point of the episode. Nobody can fend him off because he can control minds."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." She paused. "You think the captain could do it?"
"Oh, totally. I mean, I think Holt's mind is like a massive…radioactive…steel vault."
"A radioactive steel vault?"
"Yeah. Completely secure."
"Um, not if it's radioactive. Then he'd get radiation poisoning."
"From his steel mind vault?" Jake caught another window of opportunity to steal her socks, but looked over at her and realized that he liked this too much and didn't want to disturb it. This blanket was really warm, and her head felt nice on his shoulder. How did she get her hair to smell like that? And how was it always so shiny? "Your hair smells good," he blurted out without thinking.
"Oh, thanks. It's supposed to smell like kiwi, but I think it smells more like a green apple. I suppose they're both green, and sour, but they don't really look anything alike, or smell anything alike, really, now that I think about it."
"I never eat fruit, so I have no idea what you're talking about." But he liked hearing her talk about it.
"You should eat fruit, Jake. Lots of it. Have you been eating more vegetables lately like I told you?"
"I'll have you know I had tomatoes yesterday. And green peppers."
"On pizza?" She asked chidingly.
"How do you do that?"
"Jake, don't even try to convince me that pizza is a health food again. It isn't."
"What about pizza is unhealthy? Name me one thing on pizza that's not good for you."
"The crust is full of carbs and it's greasy and fattening and— "
"All right, all right…" Now was the time to take her socks. Before she could respond, he threw the blanket over her head and grabbed her feet, beginning to pull off a sock before she kicked him in the face. "OW!" He screamed, and she got up and ran into the kitchen. He followed her.
He was going to catch her, he had to, it was his apartment and it wasn't very big. She was just very fast and slippery, and just as he was about to catch her she managed to get away. Eventually, Amy ran out the door into the hallway of his apartment building, her green appley dark hair flying around her wildly as she sped down the carpeted hall to the staircase. Jake followed her from closely behind. "How are you this fast?" He yelled as they flew down the stairs.
"Maybe because I eat fruit and vegetables once and awhile!" She called back. Amy is not winning, Jake thought. No way.
But she was so far ahead of him that by the time he reached the bottom floor, he didn't even see where she had gone. Huffing and puffing, he approached a woman sitting on a couch in the lobby. "Hey…hi. Sorry…have you see a woman running through here with penguin socks on?"
"I did," she said. "She went…"
"Yeah? She went? She went where?"
"She went down that way," the woman finally answered, pointing down towards another long hallway. Jake took off without another thought, down the long corridor with no sign of Amy.
Exhausted, he leaned against the wall to rest for just a minute. Amy would not win. She would not. No one bashes pizza and gets away with it.
Before he could compose himself, in a flash, Amy ran past him in the opposite direction he had come from, flying by in a blur. He followed after her quicker than he was expecting, until he was right behind her, ready to rip those stupid socks from her feet. "YOU WILL NOT WIN THIS!" Jake screeched.
"Watch!" She replied, and for a split second Jake expected her to head back up the stairs, but suddenly she was heading for the front doors.
"What are you doing?" He yelled as she flew through the doors, outside, into the snow in nothing but socks.
"WINNING!" She yelled. Her expression immediately changed as she looked down and remembered the snow on the ground. "COLD! COLD COLD COLD COLD— " Her feet were so freezing that she had no choice but to fall back onto a pillow of soft snow next to the sidewalk to keep them off of the frigid pavement.
Even though now was the perfect opportunity to finally achieve the best kind of victory there was—victory against Amy—he couldn't. Not when she was just lying there, cold and pathetic. Why did she have to screw everything up with her…face? "Amy," he huffed. "You're insane."
"I know I know I know, just help me up, please!" So he did. "I can't walk. I can't feel my feet. Jake, I think my feet froze off…"
"They're still there. Come on." He helped her very quickly walk to the door, and once they had gotten inside, they realized that a small crowd had gathered to watch them through the glass doors. Jake pulled Amy quickly around them and to the elevator as quickly as possible. "Nothing to see," he told them. "Just…you know. Stuff. Cop stuff. We're both cops. We can arrest all of you!"
Once they were safely in the elevator with the doors shut, Amy leaned against the wall, hugging herself for warmth. "You won, by the way. I guess that's pretty clear by now."
"What are you talking about? I didn't get the socks."
"Jake, I fell in the snow like an idiot. I think it's safe to say you won."
"Well. You know…that just proves how much you deserve to win. You survived the ultimate…subzero…challenge. And people stared at you. Heh heh," he finished.
When they had arrived back at the apartment, Amy took off the wet, cold penguin socks, and Jake gave her a pair of his socks to wear, that is, after she had interrogated him as to whether or not they were clean She wrapped herself in the blanket again and sat down on the couch, and he did his best to make her another cup of cocoa over the stove. "I think maybe I did it right," he told her when he handed her the mug. "Cooking over the stove is so weird. It's like I'm living in the olden days," he commented, sitting down next to her.
"Thank you," she said, taking a sip. "Mm. It tastes really good. Better than when I made it. Jake, you win at making cocoa."
"I win at making cocoa! Yes!"
Amy smiled and leaned against his shoulder again. "Hey, you want to watch more X-Files?" He asked.
"Yes! I do!"
"Good. Isn't it amazing?"
"It's amazing!"
Jake started another episode and ate even more cookies, waiting for his very cold girlfriend to stop shivering. Eventually, she did, and she continued grabbing his hand through the scary parts and trying to steal cookies from him when he wasn't paying attention.
He realized that days like these were becoming his very favorite. Before they were together, some of his favorite cases had been the ones he'd gotten to work with Amy, and now, here she was. He got to hang out with her and make fun of her and watch his favorite shows with her and make her hot chocolate and chase her down the hallway and at the end of the day, he got to just sit around and hold her hand. It was awesome.
"I think we should start marathoning this show," Amy said softly, between episodes. "Watch it from the beginning. We can watch a whole bunch of episodes every weekend."
"THAT is a super great idea," Jake said. "The first season's really cool. SUPER cool. Well, all the seasons are cool, but especially that one."
"Great. Let's start tomorrow, from the beginning."
"Okay." He played the next episode on the disk and squeezed the hand folded inside of Amy's. She'd decided just to leave it there now, and he liked that.