Rated T for sexual content. (Pretty mild, but it's there.)
It had been luck. Or it would have been, had Agent Hotchner believed in luck.
He had honestly gotten tired of all the interviews. First, there was Tammy, whose OCD was painfully obvious and a detriment to her life.
Then there had been Lucy, whose incessant chattering made him instantly dislike her. Unfair? Possibly.
Then there was...
Emily. He hadn't expected her answer. He understood it, God, he understood it better than any of his team. He had felt the displacement when Emily had returned from the dead, and how it just changed the team. He knew she felt it too, and he'd watched as it had slowly torn her apart.
But he'd thought, naively perhaps, that this much time having passed, she would have wanted to return.
Two years. Surely that was enough.
"I'm sorry, Hotch, I really am. But I can't return."
That phone call had decided him. He simply wouldn't interview anyone else for the position. It was a closed matter, they didn't actually need another member.
But that very morning, a new file had landed on his desk, earmarked by the Director.
Check her out. I think she has great potential. And it'd be a pity if she's stuck in undercover work for the rest of her career here.
SSA Kate Callahan had looked almost too good to be true. With an impressive success rating—she'd closed well over half of her cases—and studies that had concentrated on behavioral analysis, her landing in undercover work had almost been a fluke.
But she'd done well there. Really well. Perps were, apparently, her forte, and she was currently closing in on one who took pictures of underage girls.
Hotch read through some remarks she'd made, and a small smile came to his face. Sarcastic, bold and unafraid.
It was worth a shot. He picked up the phone.
The knock sounded at his door a minute before nine. He didn't look up from his paperwork as he spoke.
"Come in," he called, and the door slid open. "Sit down, I'll be with you as soon as I finish this."
Still not looking up, he heard soft footsteps, and the silky slide of someone sitting down.
He remembered her picture from the file, and wondered how it compared to the real thing.
He could feel her eyes going over his office; the photos of Haley and Jack, the prominently displayed American flag, the towering piles of files.
He suddenly felt uncomfortable about them, felt the need to assure her that these were not normal, so the workload wouldn't overwhelm her.
He looked up. "The piles of files aren't usually this high. Our Section Chief is overseas, and we're down an agent."
What he saw surprised him. Even sitting down, he could tell that she was short.
Over the years, he'd gotten used to working with tall women, ones who barely had to lift their heads to talk to him and, in heels, could almost be taller.
But Kate was short, he'd guess 5'2", and that was a whole foot beneath him. Interesting.
She'd worked around it.
She was speaking. "I heard that SSA Blake transferred to Boston."
"She decided to teach full time," Hotch explained.
He could tell that his answer surprised her, though she fought to conceal it. "That's...noble. Good for her." She stopped trying, and leaned forward to confide in him. "I am not ready for that."
"No, I'm not either," Hotch replied, a smile breaking through. She wasn't disappointing him, that was for sure.
He moved some paperwork until he found her file. "You have an impressive success rating, and your supervisor speaks very highly of you." He looked up at her, as if to make one last decision but, in his heart, he knew it had already been made.
She was hired. She'd nailed the interview the second she'd walked through his door.
"I think you'll be a valuable asset to the team."
"Really? That's it? I've only been in here, like, two minutes. There's no song or dance? I mean, I had a whole thing prepared. I don't know if you know this, but there is a band outside your door."
"Your eight years with the Bureau and your undercover work convince me that you'll fit right in," he said, justifying his decision.
He saw the surprise on her face, and was surprised himself to see hesitation there.
Hesitation?
"Any questions?" He asked, hoping she wouldn't suddenly change her mind and turn him down.
She was gathering her words, she seemed reluctant. "Sometimes it takes me two or three months to...arrest one offender." She shook her head. "You catch a new one every week. How do you not take it with you?"
It is hesitation.
The interview ended there.
"I know, I'm interrupting," Garcia said, opening his door.
"Uh, Garcia, this is Kate Callahan. She'll be joining the team," Hotch said, watching the hesitant smile that spread over Kate's face as she turned to see Garcia.
"Hello! I know you," Garcia exclaimed, then noticed Hotch staring at her. "He's at it again in Bakersfield," she said hurriedly.
"I know, I'll be right there," Hotch said, turning back for one last piece of paperwork.
Kate interrupted his train of thought. "That's the third victim."
He blinked. "We've been consulting."
"But you haven't made the trip to California?"
"We're about to," Hotch said, and something occurred to him. "Do you have a go-bag?"
"I am like a Boy Scout, sir," she said, another smile twitching at her lips. "Always prepared."
"Good to hear," he said, took the file from his desk and hurried from his office.
She hurried after him, and their walk to the Round Table room only served to emphasize the height difference between them. She took two steps to his one, and he tried to stop himself from slowing to her pace.
You didn't baby agents. And he didn't think she'd appreciate it, anyway.
Before they were in sight of the door, he paused and turned to look at her. "Ready? It's a good team, but we can be a little hard to break in to."
"I'm a people person," she said.
He shrugged, and continued into the room. "Everyone, this is SSA Kate Callahan, from Andi Swann's unit. She'll be joining the team..."
He tuned out the talk of the case, instead turned back to the file in his hands. It was her latest case with the Bureau, filed late last night.
The details, again, impressed. She'd gotten close, talked the perp up, and had gone in for the kill. He'd never known what had hit him.
He returned to the conversation, intrigued by the thoughts that Kate added. The first phrased like a question, the second more sure, but still said quietly. Her third statement directly followed Rossi's, as if she was waiting to make sure of her conclusions before adding them.
She's holding back.
"All right, we need to split up," Hotch decided, not liking their progress. He didn't miss the way Kate immediately came to attention, looking straight at him. "JJ, take the back door and Kate and I will take the front. Keep your eyes open, he's going to be close" Hotch instructed, not waiting for their response before heading out.
Kate followed him carefully, and he doublechecked her placement behind him.
Stepping into moonlight, he kept his gun up and moved forward.
He noticed Kate ducking away to investigate an empty pickup, and was making another sweep of the yard when he heard a creak.
There were other noises, almost too quiet to be noticed, but years of these kinds of situations made his hair stand on his neck and he found himself running to follow his subordinate.
Not this soon. Not Kate.
He took the shot without hesitating. He didn't care about the UnSub, there was no mercy when he aimed his kill shot.
He didn't miss the look Kate shot him, how it said more than words ever could about her gratefulness and terror. He waited before lowering his gun, then when JJ came up behind him, he walked forward.
Flashlight shining, he checked Parkett, then turned away from the body and reached for Kate's hand.
He was so, so relieved when she took it.
They hadn't scared her away after all.
A/N: I intend to write more soon. I want this to be a slow build type of story.
