"Wow, Ames, your face is literally gray," Jake greeted her when she opened the door.

He barged in her apartment and unloaded all of the stuff he bought on the kitchen counter one by one when all he was supposed to do was buy her a single box of over-the-counter medication from the pharmacy. All she asked him to do was pick up the pills and drop them off, and she explicitly told him it was just a get in and get out mission when she texted him because she was miserable and probably beyond contagious.

Of course she found he planned to disregard her warning from the start when he pulled out an 8 pack of Gatorade and all of his favorite snacks that she hated even if she could taste anything with how stuffed up she was. Besides the DVDs she'd been telling him she meant to see for ages, it was the snacks for him alone that made it clear his intention was to stay with the pills and her all day.

"Jake, you need to go home. I'm gonna get you all gross and sick too. Besides, taking care of your girlfriend when she's sick isn't an expectation until at least a month of dating. We're still on week 3."

"I can take care of my girlfriend of 3 weeks if I want to. I can also take care of my partner of 7 years on a sick day if I want to. I don't need your sickie permission. You're probably running on half brain power anyway, so I don't think you're mentally stable enough to refuse a movie day with me."

"I'm gonna get you siiiiiiiiiiicccckkkk," she pestered and pawed at him when he made himself at home in her home that was severely in need of a disinfecting. She picked up the tissues she had left on the floor when she was just miserable and blowing her nose while staring at the ceiling for hours that Saturday morning before she texted Jake, but just being around before she could clean everything her hands touched was too risky. After that she went completely overboard scrubbing her hands with soap and water (not just relying on hand santizer like usual if it was just herself) when he still refused to leave and set up the first movie in the marathon line up and slumped on her couch like a rag doll that just wouldn't leave her apartment.

It didn't even take 15 minutes after she took the pills when the movie started and sat down for her to suddenly realize that her body had moved so she was lying with her head on a pillow in his lap without her permission.

"Jake, I'm all snotty and stuffy everywhere. You're gonna get so sick and you can't blame me at all because you just won't leave. You're gonna regret this when every part of you hurts and you're all snuffed up tomorrow because you caught it from me. You getting sick won't be my fault."

"Oh yeah, your grossness is all over. I can tell how bad you feel just by looking at you. I can't just let you be miserable and gross all alone though. You'd be wishing for death by now in the complete darkness if I wasn't here, wouldn't you?" Jake taunted and he was so right.

It was beyond obvious, even if she wasn't curled up against him on the couch under a blanket not even paying attention to the movie on the screen.

She really was wide awake the whole time, but she closed her eyes because she couldn't concentrate on the movie even if she wanted to when her head was such a cloudy mess.

But Jake's hand running through her hair was what kept her from wishing for death. She honestly didn't think she was that sick to begin with, but it got worse as the day drew on. She went from runny nose to snotty and was at the stuffy stage and even breathing through her mouth her breath sounded so gunky. Her headache was getting better and worse in waves and sometimes it burned to even close her eyelids.

She really was grateful that he was there, because curled up into him was the one thing that was good about that day. Really it was all awful, but Jake being there made it a little less awful. Way less awful than if she was alone or if it was anyone other than him. She felt horrible and achey all over, but she wasn't going to crumble into herself because Jake was there with her.

All that she was concerned about now was him catching the same thing and being just as sick too. But she wasn't all too worried because her head was too hazy to be worried and even though it was selfish she was glad he was there and wanted him to be there even if it increased his chances of getting sick.

"Thanks," she whispered, and he hummed an acknowledgment with his fingers still brushing through her hair over and over again.

"Jake, you've been here all day. I'm tired and on top of that I just took NyQuil, so I'm gonna be sleeping for the next 12 hours at least. Go home and I'll call you when I wake up so you aren't surrounded by all my germs for no reason when I'm not even conscious."

She had stopped bugging him about how she wouldn't feel guilty when he was infected during the first hour. But it was 9 PM then and despite her words she was going to feel guilty when he started showing symptoms of whatever she had because he didn't leave when he had the chance.

While it was annoying that he was so stubborn, him taking care of her all day was beyond sweet. Of course he was still Jake with jokes and teasing, but they were also on the couch all day and he was rubbing her back or stroking her hair the whole time and he wasn't complaining about any of it. And it wasn't like he was trying to hide how much he hated it and not complaining for her sake, he was actually... content the whole time. Like he was taking care of her because he was doting and not because he felt obligated- and that made her heart all fluttery and happy when every other part of her body was just blegh.

"How do I know you're telling the truth? Are you actually going to call me or are you going to just stay holed up in here because I wouldn't leave today and you'll pretend to be asleep all day tomorrow? If I'm gonna get sick I'm gonna get sick. I've been around patient 0 all day, so if I end up sick it won't make a difference if I quarantine myself alone for the next week or if I stay and quarantine myself with you. Are you actually going to let me in tomorrow and drop the whole martyr thing?" Jake narrowed his eyes in suspicion and looked her up and down like he was a human lie detector. But Amy was so exhausted that she couldn't have come close to lying convincingly even if she did try.

"I promise I'll call you and let you in. But if you stay here and try to sleep on the couch I'm going to feel way more guilty when you end up sick than if you slept in your own bed and just came back over tomorrow morning and ended up still getting sick. And I would have been miserable without you today, and I don't want to be miserable tomorrow so I want you to come back, but I also want to minimize your exposure time just in case, okay?"

"Shake on it," he challenged with his hand held out, but she wrapped her pinkie around his instead.

"Pinkie promise. You know those are more meaningful, and there's less skin surface contact than a hand shake."

"If I don't hear from you in 24 hours this door is getting battering rammed in case you fell in a coma," he warned her as she was pushing him out of her apartment.

"It won't come to that because I know I won't sleep that long, so I'll call you before 24 hours are up and you can come be all adorable and overprotective right here. So goodnight, Jake."

"Night," he said before he was completely out the door, and she shut it behind him and locked it before heading off for sleep herself.

She still wasn't feeling the greatest when she went to bed, but she had her phone plugged in on her nightstand and a sheet and a blanket in a pile on her bed for easy mobility to whip on and off if she got too hot or cold in the middle of the night. She was reasonably certain she'd make it through the night with no major incidences, but that turned out to be wrong.

"Amy, wake up, wake up. You're okay Amy. It's okay, you're okay," Jake shook her out of the fitful sleep she was stuck in. She was in the middle of a scream when her eyes snapped open and she looked around wild in the near pitch black until she realized it was Jake's hand on her cheek despite how cold it felt. Honestly everything felt cold against her skin, but Jake had only ever had warm hands to her. Normally if there was a cold hand touching her it automatically ruled out Jake. But she calmed when she realized it was Jake's hand on her that felt cold to her fever sweat skin.

After she realized it was Jake's hand she realized it was Jake's everything. He was sitting on her bed and rubbing her back as she leaned into him and caught her breath while her lungs were still full of junk and gunk.

"Hey, Ames, you're okay, you're okay," he soothed her with his voice and patted her back and she nodded into his shoulder. She was still a little disoriented from the sudden and gasping wake up, but she vaguely remembered that for some reason it was weird that he was there at that moment. Still, she didn't care- and was just glad he was there and holding onto her. If he wasn't then she would have woken up eventually on her own still just as terrified with no one to calm her, or she would have been trapped thrashing in the dream she couldn't even remember.

With Jake calming her she was back to normal gunky breathing instead of gunky gasping within 10 minutes, a new record for her. Even when she went from tense gripping him to just exhausted hugging him he didn't speak and just held her for the longest time.

"Nightmare? You're feeling pretty hot too," he said as he swept the hair that was stuck to her sweaty forehead back and behind her neck so it was all pooling over one shoulder, freeing up the heat trap her hair was at the moment and kept his cool hand on the back of her neck. If anything his hand feeling just as good as a cold compress was a natural, though rudimentary, temperature gauge. "I think you might be getting past the point of a sleep it off over-the-counter sickness and actually go see a doctor sickness."

"No, I'm okay. I used to get night terrors every time I got a fever as a kid, and it still happens sometimes. This wasn't even a full fledged night terror, so I know I'm not that bad off. I'll just take some more over-the-counter medicine and go to the doctor tomorrow if I'm still not any better. I'm not middle of the night emergency sick."

"What are you doing here? You were supposed to go home awhile ago. You were supposed to go home hours ago," she chided once her eyes landed on her alarm clock that read 2:12 AM. "You did go home hours ago."

Jake got her a glass of water to take some more pills that thankfully didn't take long to kick in and she didn't feel quite so hot and cold all at the same time. She felt awake enough for the time being, so she was just sitting across from him on her bed and talking until the sleepy part of the pills kicked in too. Jake was currently in plaid pajama pants and a plain T shirt so she knew she didn't just dream kicking him out since he definitely did not have spare clothes when he came by the first time.

"I came back."

"How'd you get in?"

"I pocketed the spare set of keys you keep in the cookie jar before I left. No one has cookie jars anymore, Ames. That's the first place a robber would look for valuables since it's so suspicious. I found your horrible hiding place ages ago when I was looking for actual cookies. You shouldn't try to hide things where cookies are kept if you don't want someone stumbling on them. And I never would have found them if you at least put some decoy stale cookies on top. Real and delicious cookies I probably would have found the keys after I ate all the way to the bottom, but stale cookies guarantees no one will take more than a bite. But all you have in there is just keys and air."

"I just put them in there so I always know where they'll be and not in a junk drawer like you cram important stuff in. It's not like a robber is gonna break in here and then steal my keys. I'm not hiding them from anyone I willingly let in. Hey... that means you were planning on coming back the whole time! You only left so easy because you were going to sneak back in! You told me you'd wait till tomorrow."

Amy tried to be indignant because she was sure that he was overreacting when he deliberately disobeyed her orders, but she had to admit she had been going from better to worse throughout the day and Jake probably thought there was a good chance she was going to get worse after she kicked him out. From experience with how her body reacted to fighting off an illness she knew she wasn't that bad off, but she knew she looked a little more worse for wear than the average person would if it wasn't a big deal.

"I lied," he grinned, utterly remorseless.

"You broke the pinkie promise, Jake. I can't believe you'd do that. Hand shakes I'll believe, and you probably wouldn't think too hard about breaking a legally binding contract either. But I never thought I'd see the day that Jake Peralta broke an agreement that he swore on with his little finger," she teased knowing how serious and weighty he considered pinkie promises compared to everyone else who wasn't under the age of 10.

"Did not. That pinkie promise was over you letting me take care of you tomorrow. Which is still gonna happen. Promise kept and integrity remains intact."

"The terms of that promise were that I was going to call you and unlock my door for you in the morning. You broke the terms of the pinkie promise, Jake. That's sacred."

"Eh, spirit of the law and letter of the law," he waved off betrayal of the most sacred vow he could ever make with no trouble at all. Probably because what she defined as the terms meant less to him than fine print in the case of contracts and promises, so by his morals he was still in the right. "And I don't think the location of where me and my phone would be when you called was specified in the terms of that promise, and you promised you weren't going to keep me locked out, and you can't lock me out if I'm already in, so I didn't break the terms either. You weren't specific enough. I've got the spirit and the letter of the law on my side. I've got the law on my side, period."

"I'm okay now. Thanks," it wasn't like she was inviting him to leave, but he seemed to take it that way. She should be inviting him to leave, but she didn't want him to leave- invitation or not.

"It's pretty clear by now that I can hear you shouting from the couch, so..." Jake reluctantly shifted himself to get up and she should have just been satisfied he was going back to the couch because he obviously wasn't going to leave her apartment and he had a smaller chance of contagion in the other room. Instead of being satisfied she held on tight to his shirt when he tried to stand up and gave a weak tug back down to her.

"Stay."

It took his pause of surprise and then his smile for her to realize what exactly she was asking from him.

"No, that's stupid. Don't do that. I'll get you sick," she said quickly in hopes of him ignoring it, but she should have known better. If anything was stupid Jake was sure to do it.

Just like how flopping down beside her and getting cozy on her bed while she was all kinds of sick was stupid, but she knew it wasn't any use protesting anymore.

"I'll gladly get sick for you."

"Don't expect me to return the cuddling favor when this hits you in a few days," Amy warned him because she was still sure that him laying down right next to her was a stupid idea. It was a nice idea, but she was pretty sure it was her duty to protect him from his own stupidity more than ever since he was her stupid sweet boyfriend now and not just her stupid sweet partner. Of course he was doing it all for her sake but she hoped his sweetness would be overpowered if she said it was a stupid sacrifice enough times because it wasn't worth him getting this sick too.

"I won't," he replied easy with no hint of a joke in his tone, but his voice was soft and content.

"I'm glad you're here," she said when she accepted that he was staying regardless of if she said she wanted him to or not. She had avoided thanking him until then so she wasn't encouraging him, but she was giving that up now. "And you're stupid for cuddling when I'm this sick, but I'm really glad for your stupidity right now. And when you inevitably do get sick it'll be the same strain so me returning the cuddling favor won't be trouble. But the next time you have something that I haven't caught yet you're not getting anymore than hand holding."

"I should really be wearing a surgical mask. Or you should. When our faces are this close. You need to stop breathing my air," she mumbled into his chest. Her head was tucked in under his chin by her doing because she didn't want to breathe all over his face at the very least because he refused to let go of her. She was beyond glad he was still holding onto her, even though she kept pestering him about it.

"Amy, I've been breathing your air for hours. I'm sure it's in my system now and if I end up getting sick I'll be sick regardless of if I leave right now or if I stay here. So I'll stay here. Besides, you know I have a wicked high white blood cell count compared to the rest of the human race, so I'll probably fight it off without so much as a sniffle."

With that she finally decided to stop fighting him on it and just let him get infected if it was that important to him. If she was that important to him.

Because he was important to her too, and even though she was glad he was there with her she would rather be alone and miserable than have him there and being nice and sweet and taking care of her only to have him end up being just as miserable tomorrow or the day after.

But viruses always did hit her hard, so even if he did get whatever she had (probably some strain of the flu) he probably wouldn't be as bad off as she was then, so she decided it was okay to stop feeling guilty about it and let him stay.

He said he would've let go of her if cuddling was too hot, or cold, or stifling for her- but he dragged out the admission that it was really comforting to have his arms around her so of course he refused to stay on the opposite side of the bed for his own well being. Eventually she decided that her being little spoon was probably the safest with the whole air thing and so she wouldn't be breathing on him at all and he agreed to that change of position without a struggle.

She did her best to lower herself so his lips were above the top of her head and not on level with the back of her neck and breathing in all of her sweat molecules if her fever went up later in the night, and rather than wrapped around her (that word implied a certain amount of pressure) Jake's arm was laying over her side and bent to her without any sort of pressure at all so she wouldn't feel trapped or constricted. Really more of draped over her than wrapped around her.

But she was holding onto his forearm tight to keep him there even if she shifted somewhat frequently, because she wanted his arm to stay, and she wanted Jake to stay too.

"What were you going to say when I found you sleeping on the couch in the morning?" She asked idly as she trailed her fingertips along the back of his hand that was placed on her stomach. Every so often his thumb would twist to meet her fingers, but otherwise it was just brushing the slightest strokes on her abdomen over her shirt, and she was so thankful for the repetitive and reassuring motion.

"I thought that you'd sleep through the NyQuil and I'd be able to go home in the morning before you woke up so you'd only be alone until you called me and not alone the whole night too. I was gonna come back over with more goodies and pretend that I wasn't just here an hour or so ago. Or at least that was what I was planning on."

"You're a horrible liar. I would have found out within the first 5 minutes I saw you."

"I don't doubt it. But you would've only been able to be mad at me after the fact. And in case it slipped by you my worry was justified, because if I didn't come back I wouldn't have been here to wake you up. You're welcome," she could hear the smirk in his voice and Amy could only smile.

"Were you really that worried?" She asked softly. Even though they had been dating for 3 weeks and they'd dropped the whole bitter rivals and pretending they only cared about each other as coworkers/friends, he still didn't say sugary sweet stuff all that often.

It hadn't even been a month, and she didn't expect lots of sweet talk with him, especially not so soon.

Before they were together he did nice things on occasion because it embarrassed him if he was too overt with nice actions, and it was obvious he cared about her even though he had a funny way of showing it with his whole uncomfortable with emotions deal. Like it was obvious she cared about him before they got together too, even though they both showed their appreciation for each other with teasing over the years rather than genuine heart to heart conversations.

But in their 3 weeks together he actually said some really sweet words that always filled her lungs with warmth when he did.

Over the years when they were nothing more than partners it was obvious he worried about her and didn't want her to get hurt, but he'd always brush off when he'd show genuine concern with a flippant comment. She didn't say much about worrying about him either. It was almost an unspoken agreement that they wouldn't point it out to each other- more of exchanging knowing looks when they were checking if the other was alright and then being slightly awkward around each other for a few days until they got back into the swing of things and pretending that they totally didn't feel that way about each other at all.

So the sweet words filled her chest with warmth. And Jake saying that he was worried about her aloud rather then pushing through and past concerning moments with jokes or silence made her so incredibly happy.

"Duh I was. If you just had a little cough or a cold I probably would've stayed home. But you were awful all day. You could've woken up with your eyes all gunked up and slipped on something in the dark and hit your head and fall into a coma and I wouldn't even know until hours had gone by. And you're so damn stubborn and proud that even if you could barely move tomorrow I didn't trust you not to lock me out after I overstayed my welcome today. When your screaming woke me up I genuinely thought you were being murdered. So yes, I was that worried about you."

"Thank you for being here. Thank you for staying."

"Ames, it's nothing."

"It's not nothing. It's really, really something. I love that you're here. I love that you stayed," she wasn't sure that he was ready to hear her say she flat out loved him yet, but she knew he got the message. Like with the concerned and knowing looks, they both knew the significance of her using the word love instead of saying she was grateful that he stayed.

"I'm glad I stayed too. And I'm really happy that I get to stay and help you feel better, and I get to stay and kiss you when you're not quite so snotty," she rolled her eyes and grinned at his word choice. "And I've been so happy these past few weeks because I love being with you, and it wasn't nearly as much fun being in love with you and never getting to kiss you. And while I wouldn't describe you being miserable as exactly fun for me, I'd rather be here and taking care of you and telling you I love you any and everyday than not have to deal with your snotty mess and not getting to say I love you at all."

The rest of her body felt like it was at the right, everyday temperature at the moment- not too hot or too cold, but her chest and heart and lungs were very warm from his words. A great warm- not fever hot. A happy warm.

And maybe Jake's sweet talk was a little more unique than the usual lovey-dovey cliché phrases, but it was the best she had ever heard. Even when he was using words like 'snotty mess' in the process it was a thousand times better than the ones that were printed on conversation hearts every valentines day.

She didn't know what to tell him in response- but that was one of the great things about him. He didn't say sweet or not sweet things to get some words back, and he never expected a response. It was great with him because she didn't have to try to think of the right way to tell him how much he meant to her on the spot, because he wasn't expecting anything back and she could talk just as easy with him as ever and tell him the sweet words later. So instead of wracking her brain to put everything she felt into words she squeezed his hand and let their bodies talk easy. He squeezed back just as tight and it was good to have no words and have that be okay. It was great.

"No fair. You're not supposed to tell me you love me for the first time when I can't in good conscience kiss you right after you say it," she said with a smile after a lovely silence filled with warmth and happy cuddling.

"My bad," he chuckled.

"I'm saving mine for when we're both feeling super and I can at least kiss you right after I say it for the first time, okay?"

"Fine by me."

~-I-~

Jake never ended up getting sick, but he was a carrier without a doubt. Amy did see a doctor on Sunday and was told she was most likely over the contagious stage by then, but she took that Monday off just in case when Jake went to work like usual. 3 people called in sick with the flu Tuesday morning.

She said "I love you" for the first time 2 weeks after he did when they were well enough enjoy going beyond kissing when she said it.

It was a lot more fun being in love with him now too.

AN:

I really hope I don't need to tell anyone that it's a bad idea to get your medical advice from any fanfiction, regardless if it's Brooklyn Nine Nine and written by the ever amazing me.

The deal with the ~-I-~ thing is that I just wanted to show that the horizontal line was a different signifier of time skip than I had been using earlier in the fic. If there was a way to bold a single horizontal line, or just double up I would have gone with that, but alas there isn't.

Still finishing up my emotional reboot and wanted to get my mind on something new, so that's why a one shot is coming out instead of updating all of my multichapter B99 fics before I even started working on something new.

Thank you guys for reviews and favorites and follows and all that lovely stuff that you readers do that puts a smile on my face. I really appreciate it :)