The Arab Letter
By Sara Nublas
Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to the tv series Criminal Minds
Chapter 1:
The BAU had been quiet for a while, which was not a good sign. The calm before the storm. The team members were walking around the office in an atmosphere of suspended tension, waiting for something terrible to come, one of those cases not easy to forget once back. The endless piles of paperwork they were filling in day by day looked like the omen of an imminent catastrophe… but at the moment it was just an infinite pile of boredom. Since JJ was gone the task of filtering potential cases for the team of profilers had been taken by the whole group, weekly they had meetings in which each one of them would present a case of possible interest for the BAU and, after discussing them, they would decide which one was requiring their attention.
That morning as usual they gathered in the conference room, the inactivity of the past weeks had weakened the mood of the team, it was like observing some kind of zombies lazily dragging themselves around in a grotesque Halloween rehearsal. Reid was even more talkative than usual, for every insignificant detail he would propose stories, anecdotes, lectures to which the group was reacting more and more annoyed every time; Rossi in particular had established a special visual code for these situations, escalating from a simple and sharp glance, to eloquent gestures, to a storm of curses in Italian which made the situation exotically hilarious for the rest of the team. Garcia initially happy with all the team around and the periodical girls nights with Emily, was starting to get bored by the daily office routine. Hotch though displaying his usual serious and impassive expression, was truly appreciating the chance to spend some time with his son, his mood was more cheerful and in some occasions he would display a smile and even play along with Garcia's jokes. This pause from the frantic routine of the job was becoming a source of troubles also for Morgan and Prentiss. A couple of months before they had worked on a case that forced Emily to come to terms with her past and Morgan had been at her side all the way, finally they realized that something between them had changed, that they couldn't deny a deep connection way stronger than friendship had grown. In the beginning everything seemed perfect and meant to be, but soon their relationship started unraveling in an endless series of set-backs and question marks. First problem was how to handle the situation with the team, hide and wait or lay the cards on the table? Then all the complications given by being partners in the private life and on the job. On one side they could really understand each other, aware of how draining the things they observed on a daily basis could be and how this could affect them even after the case was over; on the other side they knew the risks of the job, none of them would ever step back in front of a dangerous situation in order to catch an unsub, but watching your partner being involved in a risky situation was unbearably hard. The last time they faced the subject they ended up having a rough discussion and after that the fear of loosing their relationship and their friendship and the uncertainty on how to deal with it prevented them from approaching the problem again. Now what they wanted most was a case to work on to keep them away from their personal issues. Still the situation was definitely awkward, and that morning sitting close to each other at the round table they were both thinking where they would end up and if taking that step hadn't been a huge mistake.
While the whole team was trying to gather some concentration and to find a valuable case to work on, Strauss came in. Her expression serious as usual, in her gestures a slight uneasiness "Agent Hotchner, I need agent Prentiss, I assume you can complete your meeting without her.."
The profilers exchanged reciprocal interrogative glares.
"Ma'am can I ask you what is agent Prentiss is needed for?" asked Hotchner.
"That is a classified information agent Hotchner, superior orders I cannot and don't want to discuss with you now." Strauss answered dryly, then to Prentiss "agent Prentiss, in my office". For some reason every words coming out of that woman's mouth always sounded mean and aimed at making them feel uncomfortable.
In five minutes the mood of the team shifted from boredom, to curiosity, to concern. JJ had been taken away the exact same way, superior orders dictated her transfer at the Pentagon, and now another member was suddenly summoned for a secret reason.
On her way to Strauss' office Emily mentally revised her last months: nothing out of normal, no report or complaints on her, no calls from other agencies, no reasons to think that Strauss was suspecting something about her and Morgan, they had been really careful... This train of thoughts was crowding her mind when she entered Strauss's office and found there the last person she would have ever expected to see again.
