▲ ▼ ▲ ▼ ▲ ▼

Jake Peralta and Rosa Diaz were going to prison. Well, only if they got wrongfully convicted because they didn't commit any crime. Melanie Hawkins had. And then she framed them for the slew of bank robberies she'd committed and was now being praised as a hero for catching the 'dirty cops'.

But the 99 weren't worried because they had the Meat Fork, their two-pronged defense.

"Hey," Natasha smiled warmly at her boyfriend, "Big day. How you feeling?"

"Good. Good. I was just working on my innocent face. Check it out," He scrunched his face up, his eyes watering slightly and his lips pursed weirdly, "I'm a nice boy," He drawled awkwardly.

Natasha grimaced and shook her head. "Never do that again," She demanded with a frown.

"Well, it doesn't matter, because my normal face is my innocent face, because I'm innocent," He smiled but Natasha could easily see how nervous and anxious he was.

He kept wringing out his palms and his breaths were shaky, he was scared.

She sighed and quickly pulled him in for a tight hug, one which he was more than grateful for. His arms wrapped around her tightly and he nestled his head into her shoulder as he tried to force his eyes to stop watering. He squeeze his eyes shut and tried to imagine that they weren't standing in a courthouse waiting for his upcoming trial.

He kept telling himself over and over again that this wouldn't be the last time he hugged Natasha but for some reason, he couldn't really believe it.

The rest of the 99 frowned sadly when they walked into the courthouse and saw the two. It wasn't easy for them to see two of their own facing a very real possibility of getting wrongfully convicted. And seeing the way Jake and Natasha clutched onto each other only made it that much harder. They wished there was more they could do to help.

When Jake reluctantly opened his eyes and saw the sad faces of the 99, he slowly pulled away from his girlfriend. He casually wiped a hand across his eyes and cleared his throat before he forced a smile. He'd always been the one to break tense situations like these but for the first time ever, he didn't know how to.

So instead Raymond stepped up for him. "Let's go over the meat fork," He suggested, knowing they needed to discuss something that could bring hope.

"Again, 'meat fork' is fun, but under no circumstances should anyone say that in court," Sam, their lawyer, reminded everyone pointedly.

Jake shrugged and gave Raymond a thankful smile. "We have it if we need it."

"We have airtight alibis for the other three bank robberies you all are accused of," Sam explained.

"Amy and I pulled timesheets, witness statements, and security footage," Rich proudly held up the documents, happy he had been able to help, "We can show that both of you weren't present at any of the other robberies."

"And prosecution claims you stole $26 million, but they can't trace that money to you in any way," Sam continued with a confident smile.

"Yeah, I have negative $73 in my bank account," Jake smirked, "Ba-boom!"

"I'm somehow embarrassed and proud of you at the same time," Natasha chuckled.

"Yeah, that's my sweet spot," Jake admitted, his voice strained and husky.

"You guys are innocent," Terry reminded them warmly, deciding to brush off Jake's comment as everyone usually did.

"I know," Jake nodded and let out a deep sigh, "I just hope the jury knows too."

At that, everyone broke off into side conversations as they tried to pass time until the hearing started. Natasha pulled Jake off to the side and sat him down on a nearby bench.

"Should we talk about what happens if they somehow find you guilty?" She spoke slowly after a beat of silence as Jake played with her hands.

"That's not happening," He said as if it was a matter of fact, "But what we should talk about is how we're gonna celebrate when I win. I'm thinking we take a trip to Paris or London, Rome, anywhere Jason Bourne has driven a car down some stairs."

That got a smile out of her and Jake felt some of his nerves wash away. Natasha was always good at calming him down even if she didn't know it.

"You think you're negative $73 can take us to Paris?" She teased him.

"Oh, we can afford it. Don't forget I robbed a bank. I'm sitting on $26 million, baby!"

Just as he said that the judge in charge of their case passed by them. "Excuse me?"

"He's just kidding," Natasha immediately defended with a tight smile.

"Yeah, I'm innocent. You'll see when we get in there. Nice talking to you, Judge," Jake sang nervously as the judge walked away from them.

Natasha pinched the bridge of her nose at their luck before she noticed the doors to the courtroom opened. She grabbed Jake's hand. "You ready?"

It took him a moment and he tightened his grip on her hand before he nodded. "Yeah."

"If you tell people we held hands I have two people on my speed dial that will kill you. Literally," She whispered and tried to bite back the smile that was forcing its way onto her face.

Jake chuckled, knowing she was just teasing him much like she did when they first met. She was trying to lighten the mood and it was working. They slowly walked into the courtroom where the rest of the 99 were waiting in a line to speak to Jake before the hearing officially started.

"I love you," Natasha said, not even whispering.

Jake's eyes snapped to her in shock as he took in her words. Sure, they'd said it before but this was the first time she'd ever said it so publicly. Everyone knew she wasn't one for public displays of emotion. So, usually, when they were in public she whispered the words so only he would hear. Or, arguable his favorite way, she would show him instead. Like all the times she 'secretly' threatened his father for his sake or when she got back at Eddie Fung for him.

"I know. Han Solo," He explained before he smiled, "Love you too."

▲ ▼ ▲ ▼ ▲ ▼

"Okay, I know it looks bad. But it also looked bad for Liam Neeson in The Grey," Jake said frantically, desperately trying to find the silver lining in all of this mess.

Melanie Hawkins had managed to destroy the Meat Fork in less than two minutes on the stand. She said that Jake and Rosa weren't at the first three robberies so that they could have airtight alibis. That made prong one useless. And then she had coincidentally uncovered accounts from the Cayman Islands controlled by Diaz and Peralta containing $26 million between them just this morning. Prong two, the last remaining defense they had, was also useless now.

Terry's brows furrowed and he frowned. "He got torn up by wolves in that movie."

"That's how it ends?" Jake asked in disbelief, "Oh, man. That is depressing. Why would someone make a movie about that?"

"Some good news," Sam managed a small smile as he rejoined the 99 outside the courtroom, "I spoke to the judge, and he's giving us an extra day to review the new evidence."

"What are they gonna find in one day?" Rosa scoffed, "Face it, man, we are going to jail. We might as well start hiding razor blades under our tongues. Here. You can have one of mine."

"Keep it. You're going to need them," Natasha demanded before she pulled a razor blade from her own mouth, "He can have one of mine."

Jake frowned as he tried to comprehend what he's just seen. "How long has that been in there?"

"Since grade school," Rosa answered casually.

"Middle school," Natasha shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal.

The 99 quickly got over their shock because well this was something they should have been expecting really.

"Yeah, that checks out," Jake sighed.

"Okay, we don't have a lot of time so I'm going to have to give you a crash course-"

Jake's brows furrowed in confusion. "A crash course on what? I'm going to prison not school. I would rather go to prison than go to school again actually."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "We have just enough time for me to teach you how to make a shiv out of anything you would find in a prison-"

"Anything?" Terry repeated fearfully, not wanting to know how she knew all of that.

"Anything," She nodded, "And then we start working on how you-"

"No one's going to jail," Raymond cut her off sternly, "We're gonna work this case, and we're gonna find something. You're not gonna sit back and resign yourselves to your fates. You're gonna take action. Now, Hawkins can destroy your alibis and put money in your accounts-"

This time Jake cut him off. "Wait, sir. I think Hawkins just made her first mistake. The money that she put into our accounts didn't just appear out of thin air, right?" He smiled, finally feeling hopeful since their mess of a trial hearing.

"Right. It was transferred in from somewhere. We just have to trace it back to its source," Adam finished for him, perking up.

"Which would be Lieutenant Hawkins," Terry's smile quickly dropped once he started thinking of the logistics of everything, "But those are offshore accounts. We can't subpoena them."

"So we need to break into the bank's computers," Adam realized as everyone slowly turned to glance at Rich, "We need a hacker."

"And lucky for you guys, you have the world's best and most handsome hacker right here," Rich smirked.

▲ ▼ ▲ ▼ ▲ ▼

It was the day of the trial and the 99 still didn't have anything. Well not from the offshore bank accounts at least, The bank's encryption turned out to be more secure than Rich thought so it was taking him longer than they'd expected.

But on the bright side, Jake and Natasha chased a lead in Pennsylvania and managed to convince Matthew Langdon to testify against Melanie Hawkins. So, thankfully, their trip to Flaxton Hill Farms wasn't a bust.

"I'm getting worried. We're running out of time," Terry sighed anxiously as he checked his watch, "Did you find anything yet?"

"Yes. Terry made a sizable purchase at an Etsy store that sells anklets for men," Rich called loudly, his eyes never leaving his computer screen as he typed away.

Terry, as a result of his nerves, kept snapping at Rich for not getting into the bank accounts. So, in retaliation Rich continually dug up dirt from Terry's past in between hacking into the accounts.

"Sharon thinks they're sexy," Terry defended himself earnestly, "Oh, come on! Focus on the case, man."

"Okay, okay, okay!" Rich's face lit up, "I'm in! The money that was deposited was routed through five banks. Now, I can't link it to Hawkins, but the original transfer came from this shell corp."

Terry's brows furrowed, the shell corp being unfamiliar to him. "Huh. Doesn't ring a bell. I'll text the squad, see if anyone recognizes it."

Meanwhile, court was back in session.

"Mr. Langdon, do you know Melanie Hawkins?" Sam asked the new witness.

"Yes. I worked for her for three months in 2010."

"And you are a retired NYPD detective, correct?"

"Yes, I served for 14 years."

"Gotcha!" Jake jumped up excitedly as he glared at Melanie triumphantly. He was obviously too happy to remember this was a serious matter. He smiled sheepishly and sat down, "Sorry. Proceed."

Natasha frowned at the test she'd received from Terry. "Flaxton Hill Holdings. Flaxton Hill?" Her eyes widened in horror, "Oh, no. Flaxton Hill Farms," She leaned forwards frantically, "Jake! Jake! Jake! This was a mistake. We have to get Langdon off the stand now."

Jake's brows furrowed in confusion and he whispered. "What? Why?"

But it was too late.

"And how would you describe the Lieutenant?" Sam asked confidently.  

"He works for Hawkins," Natasha explained hurriedly, "He put the money in the accounts."

Jake's eyes widened as he slowly turned to face the stand. "Oh, no."

"Melanie Hawkins was the most honorable cop I ever worked with," Matthew's lie could have been the truth with how easily he sold it, "And the only reason that I'm here is because of that man, Jake Peralta. He offered me $300,000 to lie and say that she set 'em up."

"Okay, okay, this is bad. This is really bad. But just remember, we are not going to jail. We didn't do it. We're innocent," Jake reassured Rosa but maybe he was trying to convince himself too.

They stood and waited anxiously for the Jury's decision.

"Guilty. On all charges."

Rosa fell back down into her seat in shock as she struggled to process everything.

Meanwhile, Jake was frozen in his place. "Oh. Guilty. Very cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool."

Natasha, on the other hand, bolted from her seat and rushed out of the courtroom. She didn't know where she was going but eventually, she found herself gasping for breath outside the courthouse. She slowly slid down the wall as tears rolled down her cheeks. 

▲ ▼ ▲ ▼ ▲ ▼

〚𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄〛

So... it's been a while. I'm so sorry for the unexpected hiatus I took, I promise I tried updating but I could never find any inspiration. Well, until now. I am planning on finishing this book and updating regularly from now on!

I know this chapter was short but I just wanted to get the ball rolling. Are you guys excited for season 5?

Please don't forget to vote and comment!

Have a great day and stay safe ♥♥