"I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then."
― Lewis Carroll
Each installment may or may not include all characters, past and present. It will just depend on the plot and what works best for it. I have a list of several different AUs in mind for this and for the first few chapters I'll be pulling from those, but after that I might start fulfilling prompt requests from readers if I get some that I think I can work with (I'll try my best to fulfill whatever ones I get, within reason) so feel free to start sending me any you'd be interested in seeing. Like I said, it can be all characters or some characters, whether they're still on the show or not. I'm not big on shipping – I stick primarily to canon in this fandom – but if I feel like I can write a pairing requested in a prompt well enough, then I'll try my hand at it. If not, I might modify the prompt if possible so that I can still give you at least some of what you want. You can send requests via reviews and PMs or you can send them to me in my ask box on tumblr (link in my bio) – I have anon turned on, so you don't need to have a tumblr account to send them to me there if you want to do that. Anyway, that's about it for now. Thank you for your interest in this endeavor of mine and I hope you enjoy it!
The One Where They're Doctors
"Doctor! I need a doctor!" a middle-aged woman wailed from her ER bed, disturbing the patients around her. Hotch sighed and hurried over.
"My name is Dr. Aaron Hotchner. What seems to be the problem, ma'am?"
The woman flashed him a look he would have easily classified as a pout had it come from his eight-year-old son.
"My arm hurts." She clutched the offending limb, providing no further explanation.
"Has a nurse been by to help you since you were brought here?" Hotch asked.
"I need a doctor," she stated indignantly, ignoring his question.
He pressed his lips into a tight line, biting back another sigh. Hers was clearly a non-emergent case, and he really didn't have time for it at the moment. The nurses knew what they were doing and she would be taken care of in due time.
He was almost relieved when he heard his name being called from the ambulance bay.
"Hotch!" Derek Morgan called, already wheeling a gurney toward the elevator. "Freeway pileup comin' in. I could use a little help here."
Hotch lifted a hand in acknowledgment and turned to a passing nurse, waving her over.
He spoke to her in a low voice. "Seaver, could you help this woman, please? I don't think it's as bad as she's suggesting, but I'd like you to keep an eye on her."
Ashley smiled and nodded. "Of course."
"Thanks." Hotch patted her shoulder and jogged off towards the ambulance bay to meet the paramedics coming in with another accident victim.
The patient, a woman in her early twenties, had suffered abdominal trauma in the crash and was in need of emergency reparative surgery. Hotch instructed the nurses helping him to take her up to the OR and prep her. He got another doctor to take care of the other incoming patients and then headed to the elevator.
His secretary, Jordan Todd, flagged him down on his way. "Chief Hotchner, you have a call from HR. They need to talk to you."
Hotch nodded, hitting the up button to summon the elevator. "Tell them I'll call back as soon as I'm done with this surgery," he told her as the doors in front of him opened with a ding. He stepped inside and thanked his secretary as the steel doors slid shut between them.
A few hours later, he stepped back into his office and took a moment to rest in his desk chair before picking up the phone. The woman from HR was already waiting on the other end.
"Erin?" he said in lieu of greeting. "What is it? The ER is pretty busy right now and I don't have a lot of time."
"Dr. Hotchner, have you forgotten?" Erin Strauss asked. "Your new surgeon is arriving in, well…" there was a pause. "About fifteen minutes, actually."
Hotch sighed. "Right. Of course." He flicked through the files on his desk, looking for the new doctor's personnel file to no avail. He sighed again. "Sorry, um… Thank you, Erin. I'll let you know how the first meeting goes." He hung up without waiting for a reply and leaned back in his chair.
Quantico Medical Center had recently lost one of its surgeons, Dr. Gideon, to retirement and he'd had to hire someone else to fill his place. Gideon had been a good friend and a good doctor and they would miss him, but Hotch had to admit it would be good to have some new blood around the hospital that wasn't in the form of wet-behind-the ears interns.
A knock at his office door five minutes later made him sit forward in surprise. Jordan stood in the doorway, an apologetic smile on her face. "The new doctor is here," she told him.
"Thanks, Jordan. Send her in."
A moment later, the new plastic surgeon stepped tentatively into his office, her short brunette curls bouncing as she moved. She offered him a smile and her hand as he rose to greet her.
"Dr. Callahan? Hi, I'm Dr. Aaron Hotchner, Chief of Surgery. It's nice to finally meet you in person," he said, shaking her hand.
"Likewise," Kate replied.
"Have a seat." Hotch gestured to the chair in front of his desk as he settled back into his own.
"Thanks."
After exchanging perfunctory pleasantries, they spent several minutes discussing the practical aspects of her new position, taking care of some final paperwork, and waiting for her freshly printed ID badge and embroidered lab coat to be delivered from Human Resources.
Finally, Hotch locked his fingers together on the surface of his desk and said, "QMC is a great hospital and I think you'll fit in well here, Dr. Callahan."
"Please, call me Kate," she said, slipping into her white coat and pinning her badge to the left breast pocket.
"A lot of the other doctors here – my friends – call me Hotch. You're welcome to, as well," he offered. He stepped out from behind his desk and walked to the doorway. "Your official first day isn't until tomorrow, but I'd like to show you around, if you have the time. Introduce you to some of the other doctors you'll be working with here."
Kate followed after him with a smile. "Of course. That would be great."
He began by leading her down the open staircase near his office and across the lobby to the ER. The first person they ran into was brunette woman in her late forties hunched over a clipboard at the nurse's station. Hotch motioned Kate over and waved to get the other woman's attention.
He gestured between the two of them as he made introductions. "Kate, this is Dr. Alex Blake, an ENT specialist who works a few floors up but sometimes acts as my saving grace and helps with consults in the ER. Dr. Blake, this is our new plastic surgeon, Dr. Kate Callahan."
Blake smiled warmly and proffered her hand. "It's nice to meet you, Dr. Callahan."
"Nice to meet you, too, Dr. Blake," Kate responded, taking her hand.
Blake swiped the clipboard off the counter and held it against her chest. "I'd love to talk longer, but I really have to be going. I have another consult in five minutes. Our paths will probably end up crossing more than once, though, so I'm sure I'll see you around soon enough. Really nice meeting you, Dr. Callahan," she said, already turning to leave. "See you later, Hotch," she called over shoulder, then disappeared around a corner.
Hotch spent the following minutes showing her the ins and outs of the ER, introducing her to a couple of nurses – Ashley Seaver and Grant Anderson, if Kate remembered correctly – before guiding her back over to the ER nurse's station, where a blonde woman who wasn't there earlier now sat typing away at the computer.
"Dr. Callahan, I'd like you to meet our Chief Nurse, Penelope Garcia."
Another male voice cut in from behind them. "Extraordinary woman. We'd all be lost without her." Derek Morgan tapped the counter as he sidled up to it, grinning at Penelope as he did so.
"And this is Dr. Derek Morgan, trauma surgeon," Hotch added, trying and failing to suppress a smile at their usual antics. "Guys, this is Dr. Kate Callahan, the new plastic surgeon I mentioned at the meeting the other day."
Kate shook both their hands. "Hi. It's nice to meet the two of you," she said. "You can call me Kate."
"Pleasure's all ours, Kate," Derek replied. "Welcome to Quantico Medical."
"You'll love it here," Penelope insisted. "It's a great place to work. Not to mention the great people you get to work with." She winked at Morgan, who chuckled quietly in response before using his hands to push away from the counter between them.
"Well, I should probably get back to work," he said on a sigh. "We had a multicar pileup come in this morning and I've got a couple of patients to check up on. How's yours doing, Hotch?"
"She lost her spleen but she'll be okay," replied Hotch.
Morgan shoved his hands into the pockets of his scrub pants and nodded. "Good." He turned to Kate and tipped his head. "I'll see you around, Callahan. Later, Penelope." And then he left, sneakers squeaking on the linoleum as he took off down a side hallway.
"Goodbye, my sweet!" Penelope called after him. Her tone made Kate chuckle.
When Morgan was gone, Hotch turned to Penelope and asked, "Garcia, I've been meaning to ask – how is the new patient admission program working?"
Penelope grinned, stroking the edge of her computer monitor reverently. "Beautifully. I love it when you authorize system upgrades. It makes me all tingly inside."
Hotch rolled his eyes, but the corner of his mouth quirked upward, softening his expression a little. "Glad to hear it. Let me know if you run into any problems. This is supposed to increase our efficiency. I don't want it doing the opposite."
Garcia bobbed her head. "Will do, sir."
"Thanks, Garcia. We should get going." He turned to Kate. "There are still a few more areas of the hospital and some other doctors I'd like to introduce you to before you go."
"Ooh, the grand tour. Who else have you met so far?" Penelope asked her eagerly.
"Just Dr. Blake," Kate replied.
"Oh, then you should definitely keep moving. Lots to see." Penelope waved her hands in a shooing gesture. "Have fun! It was nice to meet you, Dr. Callahan."
Kate smiled and gave a little wave as she followed Hotch out of the ER. He led her down the hallway Morgan had exited through earlier and stopped them at the elevator on the far end of it, hitting the button to take them upstairs.
"I want to show you around the OR floor and the ICU," Hotch said. They waited for a pair of orderlies to clear out of the elevator before stepping on. "We'll probably run into a few of the other doctors while we're up there, too."
"This is a great hospital," Kate commented as they strolled off the elevator and over to the hallway containing the operating rooms. "It's a lot more up to date than the last place I worked. My boss was too stuck in the past. Didn't want us to become dependent on the 'ridiculous newfangled technology,'" she said, her voice taking on a deeper and slightly mocking tone at the end. "There were several reasons why I was ready for a change, but that was one of the big ones. Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with old-fashioned methods when the situation calls for them, but there's a reason new ones are being developed, y'know?"
Hotch nodded, tucking his hands into the pockets of his slacks. "I know what you mean. I always run into one or two doctors like that whenever I attend conferences. They can be frustrating to deal with."
"Hey, Hotch!" a voice behind them called out, interrupting. Kate and Hotch turned to see an older man exiting one of the ORs, pulling a red scrub cap away from his salt and pepper hair. "I'm glad I ran into you. Got a minute?"
"Sure, Dave, no problem." He gestured to Kate. "First, let me introduce you to Dr. Kate Callahan, our new plastic surgeon. Kate, this is Dr. David Rossi, our head of cardio."
Rossi held out a hand and gave Kate's a firm shake. "Great to meet you Dr. Callahan. Welcome."
Kate smiled. "Likewise, Dr. Rossi." She folded her hands behind her back and nodded toward Hotch. "You sounded like you were in a hurry. Please, don't delay yourself on my account."
"Right, thank you." He turned to Hotch and the pair began conversing about funding and a grant that they had clearly been discussing before this moment.
While they spoke, Kate wandered around the hall, peering into a few different rooms, trying to get a feel for her new place of employment. About ten minutes later, Hotch rejoined her just as she was stepping away from a scrub room and she turned to watch as Dr. Rossi took off down the hallway in the opposite direction, seeming noticeably pleased with whatever Hotch had told him.
"Sorry about that," Hotch apologized. He started leading her down the OR hallway again and around the corner into what appeared to be a back corridor leading to the ICU.
"It's no problem, really. I'm in no rush," Kate said.
They pushed through a set of heavy double doors marked Staff Only and came out near one of the ICU nurse's stations. One male and one female nurse sat behind it, both sorting through large stacks of patient files. A doctor in a sweater vest and corduroys stood back there as well, frowning down at the clipboard in his hand. The other hand fiddled with a pen down by his waist. Kate thought he looked a little young to be an attending surgeon, but maybe he just had boyish features.
Hotch stopped them just past the counter and got the young doctor's attention. To Kate's surprise – though she hid it well – he introduced the man as Dr. Spencer Reid, their top neurosurgeon. She'd heard of him before, through medical journals and shoptalk, and knew he was supposed to be some kind of genius or prodigy, a veritable Doogie Howser. She had forgotten that Dr. Reid worked at QMC.
He didn't shake her hand like all the others had, but she wasn't too put off by it. In her profession, she'd come across a lot of people who preferred not to shake hands.
They only had a few minutes to chat before Reid needed to leave for the surgery he had been preparing for with the clipboard when they'd walked in. He mentioned wanting to meet another day for lunch in the cafeteria so they could talk more and then he was rushing off to the nearest elevator.
"Everyone's in a hurry today," Hotch said, his voice sounding apologetic again. "You'll get to know everyone better after a while."
"I totally understand," Kate assured. "Honestly, this is more of an introduction than I expected to get. It's great. Really."
Hotch didn't normally put this much effort into showing new doctors around – most came in the form of interns anyway and it wasn't really his job to show them around, it was the residents' – but he had happened to be having a slow day today and he figured an hour spent away from his paperwork would also do his brain some good.
They toured the ICU for a bit after that, with Hotch giving her a basic rundown of the goings on and SOPs of the hospital. They ran into a number of nurses and orderlies along the way, some of whom Hotch introduced, but most were too busy and he didn't want to interrupt. Using the stairs this time, they went higher up in the hospital to visit some of the other wards.
The first one they came to was the pediatric floor. The bright colors and cheerful paintings and cute plush toys everywhere Kate looked were a stark contrast to the white sterility of the last two floors she'd visited and it instantly made her smile. The mental and emotional wellbeing of the kids here was obviously just as highly valued as the physical wellbeing. She could imagine the doctors and nurses there doing to everything in their power to brighten the young patients' spirits when necessary.
It wasn't long before they ran into two more doctors. The two women sat in chairs situated in a small alcove beside shelves of spare medical supplies, seemingly taking a break. They were each gripping a paper cup filled with coffee, taking sips of it in between innocuous chatter. When they noticed Hotch and Kate approaching, they stood up.
"Hotch," the brunette greeted brightly. The blonde next to her just smiled.
Hotch nodded at them. The man wasn't much of a smiler, Kate mused.
"JJ, Emily. This is our new head of plastics, Dr. Kate Callahan," he said.
Kate reached out a hand to shake both of theirs as they introduced themselves.
"Hi, I'm Dr. Emily Prentiss, head of ortho," the brunette smiled. She grasped Kate's hand in a strong grip and pumped it twice before letting go.
The blonde, whose white coat was adorned with colorful little butterfly patches stitched to the lapels, switched her coffee to her left hand and held out her right to shake. Her introduction was cut off by a voice over the intercom calling for a Dr. Greenaway to please hurry to a room up in labor and delivery. Once it was done, the blonde doctor chuckled and tried again.
"Dr. Jennifer Jareau, head peds surgeon," she stated. Her smile was warm and friendly and oddly comforting, and Kate could tell without even seeing her work that this woman was great at her job. "Call me JJ," she offered. "Everyone does."
Unlike the other doctors, Emily and JJ didn't have any pressing matters to attend to at the moment, so Kate spent several minutes talking and getting to know them while Hotch disappeared briefly to deal with a crisis on another floor. While they waited for him to return, JJ led them around the pediatric floor, introducing Kate to a few more nurses and recruiting her and Emily to help cheer up some of the ward's regulars.
Emily was paged to the ER just as Hotch returned, so they all said their goodbyes and parted ways. After another ten minutes touring the hospital, Hotch finally showed Kate to her new office.
"I'll leave you to settle in some," he told her, heading back toward the door. "See you tomorrow, Dr. Callahan."
"Bye. And thanks for the tour!" she called as he walked away. His only response was a wave of his hand as his white coat billowed in his wake.
Once she could no longer see him, Kate settled down into the surprisingly comfortable ergonomic chair behind her new desk and propped her feet up. Her box of office supplies was still sitting by her front door at home, waiting to be brought in tomorrow, so she didn't have so much as a pen to 'settle in' with, but she wanted to take a moment to relax and get acquainted with the small space before she left.
Five minutes later, she was locking the door with the keys Hotch had given her and trekking back down the hallway to the elevator. I think I'm going to like it here, she thought to herself.
And she did.
Quantico Medical Center turned out to be a great fit for her, and she made fast friends with many of the people she'd met that day. Hotch, their chief and general surgeon who cared more than he liked to let on. Morgan, the trauma surgeon who never broke despite all he had seen and experienced. Emily, the orthopedic surgeon who was the strongest of all of them. Rossi, the cardiothoracic surgeon with the not so secretly large heart. Reid, the neurosurgeon with the incredible brain. JJ, the pediatric surgeon whose sensitive and caring nature supported more than just her young patients. Penelope, who cheered them on through thick and thin and made sure to remind them why they did what they did.
In her years there, she somehow learned to value life even more greatly when she and so many of her colleagues managed to find themselves in almost as many life-threatening situations as their patients. How a group of medical professionals so often found themselves in peril, Kate was sure she would never know. She witnessed friends and families grow and change. She watched the hospital transform and adapt to countless changes. They lost a lot of lives and they saved a lot more.
And they did it all together. Just like a family.