Chapter one: Blame it on the Rain
He met her on a Tuesday. Gideon introduced her just after Boston on a chilly day, six months after he came home and Haley wasn't there. She wore a bright red pea coat and black tights under a dress, though he was hard pressed to remember the color of it. His eyes were only drawn to the red. She came into the room with the round table with a smile and joke that only Gideon and Spencer understood and he was intrigued.
"Hermione, I'd like you to meet Derek Morgan, Elle Greenway, Jennifer Jareau, Dr. Spencer Reid, and of course, Aaron Hotchner."
"Oh, everyone knows Aaron Hotchner," she said with a teasing smirk as she shook his hand.
"Do they?" He asked.
Her smirk turned into a genuine smile. "Well, I do thanks to Gideon here."
He realized he was still holding her hand and let go hastily. "Well, welcome to the BAU, I suppose."
She nodded. "Yes, well, it's certainly a better prospect than any others I had." Gideon elbowed her and she forced a smile. "I'm happy to be here."
Hotch frowned. "I'm sure."
Her smile became more genuine and she chuckled. "Really. I'm happy to be here. I mean, you're here aren't you?"
Hotch pulled his brows together at her flirting attempts. "Right," then to Gideon, "JJ has us ready to be prepped."
Gideon lead Hermione to the table with a hand on her back where she took great pleasure in stealing the seat next to Hotch.
"This is from the Phoenix office, Bradshaw College in Tempe, 6 fires in 7 months."
"Oh, come on, Dr. Reid," she teased, sitting back in her chair. "I even left you an opening."
Hotch watched Reid from behind his file as he scanned the chess pieces to find just what Hermione considered an opening. And frown. Hotch had watched Hermione interact with the team.
She passed jokes and facts back and forth with Reid. She exchanged quotes and profiling with Gideon. She laughed with Morgan and the others, teasing each other at every opportunity. But with him, she flirted. It didn't necessarily make him uncomfortable, more like he felt he should be uncomfortable. Instead they went back and forth with ease, often he didn't realize what they were doing until after.
"I literally see no way you left me anything, but lack of dignity and pride."
Hermione chuckled. "That's because you aren't looking at it right."
Gideon sighed from his book without looking. "Hermione, what have I told you about playing with your food before you eat it?"
"Oh, come on, Gideon. Just this once."
"Queen to E7, Reid." Spencer's face lit up in realization.
Hermione pouted. "Now that's just cheating."
"And she'll just take my queen."
"She's had you beat for the last half dozen moves."
Reid slouched and concentrated on the board as though it had offended him greatly. No one knew much about Hermione. Though, he supposed, no one knew all that much about each other at all. Hermione and Gideon had known each other for years, but no one knew how. Just that they met when she was eight. She apparently went to some boarding school, all in Britain, but she never mentioned why she had come here. And Gideon was very careful not to mention it.
"I'll play you," he found himself saying. Everyone looked over at him. He doesn't play. He just doesn't.
She smiled at him and reset the board. "Okay."
He moved to sit across from her, glancing out a window to the clouds and back at her. She was still smiling as she moved a pawn. "How do you know Gideon?"
He moved a knight, she moved a bishop. "I was on a vacation," she told him quietly. "In New York. I accidentally came across a body when I was separated from my parents. Gideon was the agent I talked to. I called him when I moved to the States after I finished school."
She glanced up at him. "When did your wife leave you?"
His hand knocked over the piece he was moving and he picked it back up, placing it on the new spot. "Two years ago."
"Your left hand still shows the indention from the ring."
"My job was too much."
Hermione locked eyes with him. "I'm sorry. I know what it's like. People not liking who you are."
Hotch frowned. "I said that. She told me it isn't who I am; it's what I do."
"Is there really a difference?"
He didn't have an answer for her. It was something he had thought to himself.
Hermione was arguing with Gideon. Something no one had seen in the year she had been with them. She and Gideon were scary close. She had a desk in his office. She down the road with him. She was the only one who knew half as much about him as she did. All anyone else could do was speculate. And now they were arguing.
It was obvious what kind of argument they were having. He said something to her, knowing him something probably true and upsetting, and she lashed out. Probably irrationally. That was just how it went. The blinds were open, as they usually were, and she was pacing around aggressively with her hands thrown in the air and her voice raised. They could hear her.
"You've no right!"
"You cannot reach for something if you're running away from something else. I've always told you this. I told you that when you came here. And I'm telling you that now. What are you so afraid of?"
It was the closest thing they had ever heard to him yelling. "I'm not scared of anything! I can walk through a door of fire. I can save an innocent convict from prison. I can follow a friend into a trap and stand my ground. I can ride a stolen dragon from a bank. I can do anything!"
This time Gideon was softer. "But you can't go save your parents?"
"I already did."
None of them could hear anything after that, but they watched Hermione fall into Gideon's hug and sob. Hotch wondered if it was some sort of anniversary. He also was envious of her imagination. Reid began going through the file cabinets of his mind to see if she was referencing anything, but came up blank and shook his head to the others as Gideon and Hermione came out of his office, both looking like nothing had happened.
A/N: Sigh... Another one. I know. I feel your pain, but I am trying to keep up with all of them. Tell me what you think. BTW this was sort of based on a dream I had. It was freaky. Love always, Skye.
