The plane touched down at LaGuardia just as Ivy was finishing the first book of her brother's series. She was right, it was a quick read, as it was composed mostly of pictures. She was a bit embarrassed to be reading it in business class, in her pantsuit as she drank a cup of bad, instant airplane coffee. But, she found that she enjoyed it, in an ironic sort of way, if she dissociated enough from the fact that her brother obviously knew nothing about how to properly investigate a crime.

She grabbed her briefcase and backpack, then exited the plane and followed the signs to the baggage collected area, where she grabbed her suitcase. According to Agent Murray, she was to be meeting a person who would take her first to her new apartment to drop off her things, and then on to the precinct to meet the rest of the team.

After securing her bag, she headed towards the receiving area, where many drivers held signs with the names of their guests. She scanned the signs, finally locating "Ivy Auden" scribbled hastily on a piece of ... was that a napkin taped to a pen? She believed it was. She looked down, seeing that the man holding it was wearing a clip-on tie and a flannel, which was haphazardly tucked into a pair of jeans. Over it was a zip up hoodie, and he was wearing sneakers.

She thought back to her morning concern of her pantsuit wrinkling. Clearly, the NYPD was not strict on dress codes.

Was that really her ride? She thought for a moment that the man might have just been a taxi driver sent to collect her, but sure enough, an NYPD badge was slung around his neck. She gripped her briefcase and walked over to him, smiling politely.

"Hello, I'm Agent Auden," she said, holding out a hand to him.

He shook it, a wide smile filling his face. "Agent Auden! Nice to meet you. I'm Jake Peralta. Captain Holt just went to —"

"Peralta, I told you to throw that away. We are not welcoming Agent Auden to the city with your used donut napkin and a —" A man dressed in a captain's uniform appeared, a neat sign with Ivy's name on it between his hands. "Oh. Agent Auden, I presume?"

"Yes sir," Ivy replied, shaking his hand.

"Raymond Holt, Captain of the ninety-ninth precinct. Welcome to New York. I see you've met Detective Peralta?"

"Thank you, Captain Holt. It's a pleasure to meet both you and Detective Peralta," she said, offering them both a polite smile.

"Can Detective Peralta help you with your bags?" Captain Holt asked.

"Thank you, but I've got it," Ivy replied.

Captain Holt nodded. "Fine. Peralta and I will drive you to your apartment in Brooklyn, and then immediately to the precinct. I've got some pressing matters to attend to. Does that work for you?"

"Yes sir," Ivy replied. "Anything works, really. We can always head straight to the precinct if that's better."

Captain Holt turned to Detective Peralta, who nodded. "Agent Auden, I'd be happy to swing you by your apartment after work to drop off your things, if that's okay?"

Ivy nodded. "Thank you. That will be fine. I'm eager to get to work on the case, so unpacking can certainly wait."

They left the building, heading for the car the two officers had driven to the airport.

"When Captain Holt said we would be having an agent from the FBI join us, I was expecting a crusty old man who smelled like ... I don't know, moth balls and prunes," Detective Peralta rattled on as Captain Holt drove them to Brooklyn.

A smirk filled Ivy's lips. "Don't judge me too quickly, Detective Peralta. I might have mothballs in my suitcase."

He let out a laugh and turned to his captain. "Captain, can we keep her?"

"Please, Peralta," Captain Holt said, scoffing. "Why not use this time to fill Agent Auden in on the case?"

"Right, smort," Peralta said, turning around. "The year was 1995," he began, spreading his hands out as if he were re-enacting a play to a group of kindergarteners. "Billy Madison, Clueless, and Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie, my personal favorite of that list, were released."

"Peralta, Agent Auden was alive in 1995. She is aware of what films were popular at the time. Please get on with it," Captain Holt interrupted.

"Right, sorry," Peralta said, his face flushing. "December 12, 1995. Gloria Houston, aged 38, was found dead in her apartment by her neighbor, who was concerned and hadn't seen her for a few days. Houston's door was unlocked. She was shot twice, once in the abdomen, once in the temple, and —"

Ivy froze. "Did you say in the temple?"

Peralta nodded. "Yes. There is no clear motive, and ..." he trailed off as he turned around, his eyes settled on Ivy. "Agent Auden, are you okay?"

Ivy's eyes widened and she swallowed the lump that was in her throat. "Yes, sorry. Continue."

Peralta began to rattle off more facts about the case, but there wasn't much more beyond how the victim had been killed, and how she'd been found. There weren't any suspects, and there was no clear motive as to why she was killed.

"The only item stolen was a pearl necklace, which according to the victim's sister, she kept in a jewelry box on her dresser," Peralta said.

"Nothing else was stolen?" Ivy asked.

Peralta shook his head. "No, so robbery-gone-wrong is out of the question."

"It was a souvenir, then," Ivy inferred. "Are there any other similar cases?"

"None in the nine-nine," Peralta replied.

"None in the city at all, that we know of," Captain Holt added.

It was perplexing, Ivy had to admit. Plus, she couldn't help but draw similarities from Gloria Houston's death to that of another case, one a bit more personal.

"The fact that the murderer took the necklace is interesting," Ivy stated. "Typically, taking a souvenir is a clear sign of a repeat offender: a serial killer. But if there aren't any other cases like it in the city, well then..." she trailed off, shrugging her shoulders. "I guess it could have been a one-time thing. Were any of your current detectives around the precinct in the nineties?"

"Two, but ... they're no help," Peralta said.

"Surely it would be worthwhile for me to talk to them," Ivy replied.

"Trust me, Agent Auden, it's not worth it. It's rarely worth talking to Scully and Hitchcock. You'll see that, when you meet them," Peralta said.

"Okay," Ivy said, her brows furrowed together in confusion as she settled back into her seat. Surely the oldest detectives on the force would be worth talking to, especially if they were the only ones in the nine-nine at the time of the murder.  "Well, my supervisor said you recently had some new information come to light. What is that, exactly?"

"An anonymous tip," Captain Holt began. "Submitted to the FBI's cold case hotline."

"The pearl necklace," Peralta said, practically squealing. "It's been ... uncovered!"

Just as Ivy was about to ask a follow-up question, they arrived at the precinct, and Captain Holt parked the car. "Agent Auden, Detective Peralta will have plenty of time to catch you up on the case later. I have assigned him and Detective Boyle to work the case with you. In the meantime, let us introduce you to the ninety-ninth precinct."

They headed inside, bypassing the first floor offices that held the uniformed officers, vice division, and cyber crimes unit. They took the elevator up to the fourth floor, which housed Captain Holt's office and the investigations unit.

"Welcome to the bullpen, Agent Auden," Peralta said, beaming as he led her inside.

"Attention, everyone," Captain Holt said, his voice booming over the air without need of any technological amplification. "Agent Ivy Auden from the FBI has arrived," he said, gesturing to Ivy. "She is the FBI liaison assigned to us to work on the Houston case from 1995 that I have assigned to Peralta and Boyle. That is it. Continue your work." With that, Holt retreated into his office, shutting the door behind him.

Ivy smiled. She liked Holt's no-nonsense attitude. It would make her work in New York much easier.

"Agent Auden! It's so nice to meet you. I'm so excited to work with you. In fact, I've come up with a nickname for us while we work the case: the Cold Case Crew, or C-Cubed. Here, I made these hats for us to wear."

"That's Charles Boyle," Peralta said. "He'll be working the case with us."

"I'm also Jake's best friend," Boyle quipped, returning from his desk with three identical blue hats, which had C3 embroidered on them in yellow thread. "I had our names embroidered on the back. I didn't know if you wanted me to put Agent Auden or Ivy, but I put Ivy because I used first names on mine and Jake's hats. I hope you don't mind. I can always have Sergio restitch them if you'd rather —"

"Ivy is fine, Detective Boyle. Thank you," she said, taking the hat from him as Detective Peralta reluctantly did the same with his hat. She wouldn't be wearing it anytime soon, but she was grateful for the warm welcome the nine-nine had given her so far.

"It's nice to meet you, Agent Auden. I'm Sergeant Jeffords, but you can call me Terry." Ivy turned around to see the largest man she'd ever seen smiling down at her as he held a cup of yogurt in his large hands.

"It's nice to meet you as well, Terry."

Sergeant Jeffords introduced her to the rest of his detectives. The crew was composed of Boyle and Peralta, along with Detectives Santiago, Diaz, and the aforementioned Hitchcock and Scully, who greeted Ivy with sticky hands and faces covered in an unidentified red sauce.

He also introduced her to Captain Holt's assistant, Gina Linetti, who was an eccentric woman that seemed the least bit interested in Ivy's arrival.

As Ivy was settling in at her new desk, Detective Santiago approached her with a large, blue binder. "Hi, Agent Auden. I'm Amy Santiago."

"Ivy Auden. Nice to meet you, Detective."

"Oh, Amy's fine," Amy said, smiling. She set the binder down in front of Ivy. "Now, I know you're new to the city, so I took the liberty of putting together a welcome guide for you. Good places to order food from around your apartment, the best museums, a Broadway show schedule, and some other stuff."

"Amy, leave Agent Auden alone," Gina said, groaning from her desk where she sat with her feet propped up as she read a magazine. "She doesn't care about your scrapbooking."

"It's not a scrapbook, Gina, it's a —"

"Zzzpt," Gina made a zipping gesture with her finger over her mouth. "I don't care."

Amy's face fell and she tentatively reached for the binder again, but Ivy grabbed it before she could.

"Thank you, Amy. I appreciate it. I don't cook much, so I'm extremely grateful for the takeout suggestions," she said, offering the woman a polite smile.

Amy grinned and she stood up straight. "Good. I'm glad you like it," she said before returning to her seat.

"Agent Auden, when you're all settled in, Charles and I thought we could brief you on the rest of the case in the break room," Peralta said. Ivy's desk was positioned next to his, between him and Detective Boyle, so that they could work on the case together.

It seemed that beyond Captain Holt, the nine-nine abandoned any sort of propriety when it came to addressing each other. They even called their sergeant by his nickname, Terry. Ivy supposed she could go by her given name, if everyone else was. The last thing she wanted was for them to think she was above them by enforcing the "Agent Auden" nicety.

"You can call me Ivy, Jake," she said, testing out his first name. It was weird to call everyone by their first names aloud. She did it in her head, with Geoff and Anna, but whenever she addressed them at work, it was always "Murray" or "da Silva." The nine-nine was far more lax, of course.

"Okay," he said, grinning. "Ivy it is. Although personally, if I could go around being called 'agent' all the time, I would."

She smiled. "It gets old."

"Doubt it," he said, still smiling as he turned around. "Agent Peralta. Yes, I am Agent Jake Peral—  Agent Jacob Peralta, at your service," he said, his back turned to her.

Ivy laughed in disbelief, shaking her head slightly as she opened up her laptop, ready to send her first briefing email to Geoff.

The ninety-ninth precinct appeared to be nothing like she was expecting.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ author's note ✫・゜・。.

ivy has finally arrived at the nine-nine!

i haven't had much time for writing lately, but this chapter was in my drafts. hope you enjoyed it!

as always, thank you SO MUCH for reading, and please vote and comment!

xx,

madi